Crave Online: What thought did you give to the old Goldeneye game, which sort of remains the high watermark for Bond games?

Jeremy Luyties: This is a really good question. We're very fortunate that with this franchise, a lot of people have made a lot of Bond games. So we've gotten to see a lot of different ideas executed on. Obviously there was one particular game that people remember more than most and it's probably safe to say that it's had a very heavy influence on us, just because of what it did for the fan base, what it brought to multiplayer. It was definitely a heavy influence on our game and you can see that influence just from the perspective of it's first person. So if you notice, many Bond games of the last few years have all been third person. We thought it was really important to get back to this first person grass roots as well as include a touch of third person. So it definitely had a very heavy influence and we're very thankful that a game like that existed for us to look at, play and learn from.

Crave Online: They've tried original stories or basing games off of the movies. What are the pros and cons of each method?

Jeremy Luyties: Well, we didn't necessarily look and think negatively towards anybody.

Crave Online: Of course.

Jeremy Luyties: It was more of just like seeing what people tried. What it did was it gave us the confidence in making certain decisions so we would see certain techniques or story elements or game design techniques. We'd go, "Okay, that was cool, that was a good try but mm, that may not be what we want to do now." So it just gave us a lot of exposure to things without having to actually try them. We got to see a lot of different things being tried.

Crave Online: And you don’t include poker playing in the game?

Jeremy Luyties: When we looked at what would be the most unique and cool experiences to play for, there was a question about driving. Are there going to be things like driving in the game and the answer is no. But there are going to be different experiences in the game. For experience, the chase sequence from the construction site. That gives us our variety, but getting to the question, is there going to be a poker game? Well, there's two things that happen in that Casino Royale sequence. We tried to decide what would be best to do: play a poker minigame of which there are bazillions of poker games being played every night that people play for money? Or maybe we take a crack at creating a sequence where Bond drinks that martini glass and gets a little sick. Then what does Bond do? What would be a more enjoyable game play experience? We thought that it would be stronger to have the player deal with the drink and getting poisoned than necessarily doing the poker game. That's what we wanted to put our money in.

Crave Online: The torture scene is integral to the plot. Do you address it at least in a cut scene?

Jeremy Luyties: It is taken care of in the story but it's not a part of gameplay. That's another one of those instances where what would be the most fun to play? That's cool and it's novelty but there's another sequence we're doing and I can't get too much into it but it's pretty cool.

Crave Online: Well, being tied to a chair isn't really a playable level.

Jeremy Luyties: Yeah, it's actually a 45 minute level where you have to press the button for stamina. No, whenever you have quirky stuff like that, there's always little jokes about, "Hey, could we do that?" And it's like no.

Crave Online: That's what you talk about at 1 in the morning on your fifth Red Bull.

Jeremy Luyties: Exactly. No, there's no minigame for that but little moments that are throughout the whole game, just like the construction site and even with him getting sick. So if we can extrapolate something from that, imagine all the different things in the story that we can do to get that variety into the game so that you're not dealing with the same thing.

Crave Online: Can we expect any easter eggs from other Bond movies?

Jeremy Luyties: I don't know if I'm allowed to.

Crave Online: Well, don't give them away but are they there?

Jeremy Luyties: We have a couple of really cool things. A lot of stuff will be tied into achievements. So achievements will have really cool names and cool things you do in the levels that may have relatedness. As well as we've taken liberty with it could be anything from, there are hidden things such as if you were to research the acronym of the name of something, it might represent something. So we've definitely taken time to satisfy the hardcore fans with little tidbits if you look for it.

Crave Online: Is that gun iris that comes on screen the health meter?

Jeremy Luyties: Yeah, that's actually the bullet barrel from the movie. That is our health warning. We don't have a health meter. Essentially, as you take more damage, it comes more into screen and becomes more solid so we're still playing with some of the transparency of it but we want to make sure you can see it just enough, but we really wanted to capture that iconic moment of when you die, it comes in and you get the 3D blood. The barrel is actually 3D as well and it reflects all the lights and everything in the environment so depending where you're at when you die, it'll always feel a little bit different.

Crave Online: Can you pick up health along the way?

Jeremy Luyties: No, no health. It's regen health.

Crave Online: Are there different mission objectives for harder skill levels?

Jeremy Luyties: That's something I don't want to divulge too early on but the achievements will be, you'll definitely see something with achievements and difficulty settings for sure.

Crave Online: And it's safe to assume Quantum of Solace has action comparable to Casino Royale?

Jeremy Luyties: Completely. Obviously, we've had access to the stuff earlier on and I can only say that it's fantastic, great contact. They're getting us the content as much as possible as we're making it, so we'll definitely have all the locations and the coolest moments from the movie happening. Just like Casino Royale was awesome with the construction site stuff, there's very juicy, really cool sequences like that that we're looking at. In fact, we're going to the studio tomorrow to look at clippings of the latest, raddest, awesome action sequence and what can we pull from that to get into the game to make it feel like it's directly from the movie.

Crave Online: What other voices besides Daniel Craig will be in it?

Jeremy Luyties: All we're allowed to talk about is Daniel.

Crave Online: How many hours of game play do you guess there is between both storylines?

Jeremy Luyties: We don't want to go into that right now. What we can guarantee is that what you play will be of the highest quality. If there's something in there that we feel is long or drawn out or takes the game longer than it needs to be, we won't push that. We will definitely keep it nice and tight into the best quality experience for you guys and the fans.

Crave Online: What's the balance between stealth and aggressive shooting in the game?

Jeremy Luyties: You guys are going to get a lot of different experiences within the one level and a lot of variety from each level you play. So you'll run into a lot of situations where it'll be a whole level completely dedicated to stealth, or a whole level completely dedicated to action. What we're doing is trying to mix and combine both. Bond is cool doing something as implicit as taking on 50 guys in a large ball room. Everybody's coming at him and the odds are against him and there's nothing he can do. Or, he's just as awesome crossing a ledge and we throw in a little picture in picture and put a little style and presentation on it, so when the smallest moment of Bond sneaking through the casino and standing on a ledge to having a large explosive battle, we touch upon all those and take the player on a roller coaster ride through all those different experiences which is his choice. Some areas you saw, like the spa, the ballroom, those would be a space completely dedicated to battle. But then you saw going through the hallways, sneaking through the atrium, on the ledge again, those area where the players get that choice again, we stop the tone, we kick up conversations. That way just playing through one level, you can go through small game play to large game play through action and stealth, through picture in picture moments and even through little mini-games. So we've done a lot of work to create a seamless cinematic experience through Daniel Craig.

Crave Online: How different are the dynamics of all the locations, from the construction site to the hotel to the collapsing house?

Jeremy Luyties: Bond is all about locations. Basically that means that every single map you go to is almost completely different. With a lot of video games you'll go and play through seven desert levels, seven water levels and six jungle levels. Even if people are clever, they might put those in between each other so it's two desert levels and a jungle level and water, but then you're back to two desert levels, a water level and a jungle. What we've done is we've basically killed Manny in our art department by requesting of him to create completely different locations for almost every single level in the game. So every single level you play through, you notice that everything's different from the construction site which is from the Casino Royale movie – it's the big action sequence where he's chasing the bomber through all the cranes and through the environment, breaking through the walls - versus going into the casino where we add a level before you get to the poker game, versus to the Venice house. You'll notice that when you play through the game, the enemies always change and there'll always be a lot of international variety to the game. That was each game play space the player plays through is always very visually interesting.

Crave Online: I noticed when you're in cover mode, you can dash to the next cover. Is that an auto stealth or do you have to worry about getting seen in between hiding spots?

Jeremy Luyties: We're doing some different things with cover and one of the reasons we're doing with cover is allowing Bond the ability to go from cover to cover almost in a very aggressive leapfrog fashion. That includes stealth so there will be elements where you can do that and it'll help you out definitely in stealth and it will help you out in combat as well. We felt it was worth it, dedicating to third person as well so you can see Bond, you can see how cool he is, you can see him get into position and also understand that it's a fully dedicated movement. James Bond is cool. He's cunning. This dude is badass, right? He's one of the coolest video game characters out there. So, it's important that we played through Venice, he shot a couple people. You start looking at Casino Royale, he shoots a couple people but James Bond should have other options, right? There should be other options besides just blowing through the world and blowing everybody up.

Crave Online: The construction site and the Venice house look just like Casino Royale. Where do you expand on the movie for game play?

Jeremy Luyties: There's the whole sequence where James Bond is funding Le Chiffre and Le Chiffre's got the bloody eye and he goes to the poker game and he goes back and forth. He's in the casino and there's also this other named Obanno who wants to get his money back from Le Chiffre. Essentially, Bond is following Le Chiffre through the hotel and trying to make sure that Obanno doesn't hurt Le Chiffre and kill him and take his money back before the actual poker game takes place.

Crave Online: Well, it looks really cool.

Jeremy Luyties: Oh, thanks, dude, thanks, man. The number one thing is the fans. All we've tried to do with this opportunity is be fair to the fans and to give them the Bond game that they've been waiting for. Obviously the proof will be in the pudding when you guys play but that is the dream we're working for as a team.