Hollywood Welcomes Stuntman: Ignition

Everyone knows that Hollywood is home to movie stars, but it's also where the brave stuntmen and stuntwomen who put their life on the line on a daily basis in the name of entertainment call home. THQ and Paradigm turned to some of these Hollywood stuntman before the gala annual Taurus World Stunt Awards show in Hollywood to give them a first look at Stuntman: Ignition, the new driving action game for PLAYSTATION®3 and PlayStation®2. systems

Paradigm has spent the past two years developing this game with an actual Hollywood stuntman on board to bring authenticity to the title. James Cheek, whose work can be seen on the big screen in movies like Into the Blue and The Transporter, visited with the developer on a regular basis to provide input into the game.

"I explained the whole idea of how the car should react and what it should do," said Cheek. "When I got to Texas the game was just basically blocks it was so early on. When I first tried it, the car went off the screen and into the air. I asked what happened and they said your car just ran off the screen. 'It's not finished yet. That's why you're here.' I laughed and said, 'Fine.' So I tried to explain what the car should and shouldn't do and Shawn (Wright, lead game designer) wasn't getting it."

So Cheek took Wright outside to the parking lot and asked if he could drive his car, which happened to be a brand new Audi A4 which was only a month old. Cheek tested out the tires to make sure everything was good and he and Shawn belted themselves in.

"We took it around the corner and did a 180 with it and a cop pulled up, so I drove it back off the street and all the guys from Paradigm came out and they filmed us with a camcorder to get the sound of the car and the feel of doing things like 180s. Then he had an idea of what to do with the game."

That idea spawned a game that blends fun arcade action with challenging real-world stunts. Players can take part in six action-packed movies, each with six levels of challenges. Movies include the military action flick Strike Force Omega, the '70s cop movie Overdrive and the natural disaster flick Aftershock.

"James (Cheek) enlightened us about the stunt coordinator, who�s kind of his boss and sets up the stunts on a real movie set," said Wright, who then incorporated that role into the game. "He told us about the different personalities of directors, so we started going after the different director stereotypes. There are six altogether. We weren�t trying to model after one guy in particular."

What gamers will contend with are different directors for each film that approach these stunts differently. There's the arrogant European who�s pretentious and really comes down on you. The Broken Lizard type of guys who are close buds and party and you can�t do anything wrong with them. There's the ex-stuntman turned director who's very particular about his stunts and he comes down on you a little bit harder. There's the French director who�s all into the philosophy of filmmaking and the art and design and he wants films to be done in a certain way. And then there's the New York-style director who knows a lot of people and has big plans and wants over-the-top action.

"On the real movie set, it depends on the director, but you have to be on your mark," said Cheek. "If you do a car slide you have to be on your mark. If you don't hit that mark you could cost them money or kill somebody, including a big movie star. Time is money on a film set, but it's also important to make sure everybody's safe. Depending on the director, they don't have time for the BS. They look at stuntmen as professionals and we're there to do our jobs."

At the THQ and Paradigm event at The Lot in Hollywood, the stunt drivers were there to play the videogame that showcases their talents. THQ had single-player and eight-player online maps through interactive Hollywood back lots up and running for everyone to try.

"I've been playing the online game with six players racing through back lots and buildings and stuff," said Samuel Hubinette, who performed drifting for Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. "It was a freestyle game. The graphics are spectacular and watching the cars as they got more and more destroyed was fun. It was like a racing version of demolition derby where everyone's hitting each other, which is what you dream about doing sometimes with cars. Getting together with friends and just crashing into each other. I was having a great time with this."

Huninette, who can be unlocked along with his championship-winning Viper in THQ's Juiced™ 2 game on PlayStation®2 is a big PlayStation® fan. He has his PS2 system set up at home with a force feedback steering wheel.

"I've been running Gran Turismo™ 4," said Hubinette. "I compete a lot with my wife. We play on the German track and Laguna Seca. There's definitely an advantage for me when driving in videogames today, especially with the games being so realistic. That's when I can use my skills from real life. Before, the games were so unrealistic there was no advantage to me. But now cars handle just like the real cars. I know how the Viper is going to react because I drive that car. And then there are games that are more fun and about doing jumps and things you could never do in real life like Stuntman: Ignition. It's fun to be in another world."

Also at the THQ event was the 2007 Taurus Award-winning Stuntwoman of the Year Debbie Evans. She said it's cool that a videogame is honoring the people who often go unrecognized by Hollywood. There are films that she's driven in, including Superman Returns, where she wasn't even listed in the credits. When it comes to Stuntman: Ignition, she said her 13 year-old son can't wait to get his hands on the game.

According to Wright, fans will be able to explore Hollywood stunt driving in ways never before possible thanks to PS3™ and its processing power.

"Next gen opened up multiplayer for us and increased the quantity we can put into the details of each level," said Wright. "We made some robust level designs. There�s a lot happening in every one of these levels. Every five seconds, something hits. PLAYSTATION®3 allowed us to put all of these elements in and still run at a decent frame rate. When we were designing PS2, we had to have a different approach. We couldn�t squeeze out as much as we could on PS3™, but it still came out pretty good."

The PS3™ game has more set-ups per level. For PlayStation®2 system, the team had to pull back on the number of unique ones. That translates to a PS3 level having a fissure, a lava rock, a building collapsing and a giant explosion at the end of a level. The corresponding level on PS2 could only handle two of these elements, so the team rearranged them and changed the stunts around.

"We feel like we satisfied that aspect," said Wright. "The PS2 game doesn�t have as much as the PS3 version, but it�s still just as fun and challenging. We don't have online multiplayer like the PS3, but we do offer two-player, split-screen head-to-head action."

Both games will incorporate another aspect of the Hollywood stuntman's life--the Taurus World Stunt Awards. This annual gathering of 1,500 stuntmen and women and Hollywood stars gives recognition to the most amazing stunts of the year. In the game, players will be able to collect 36 Taurus Awards for performing special feats.

"It's cool that there's a game now about our jobs and what we do," said Hubinette. "This is all fun and there's not a whole lot of stress or pressure of doing this in real life that you get doing a movie or a commercial, but it does highlight our jobs. Maybe people will appreciate what we do more. The game will also bring more attention to the Taurus Awards we have every year in Hollywood."

Cheek hopes Stuntman: Ignition makes gamers appreciate the perfection that goes on in making movies and the stunt actors that bring these spectacles to life. Along the way, they'll also have a thrilling ride.