FRD Website Archive/FAQ & IAQ

## Frequently Asked Questions

Life is full of questions. For instance, 'Which Is The Gayest Fruit?' The answer to that is the Mango, but that's not important. What's really important are the frequently asked questions - and you'll find them below.

### General

#### Who are Free Radical Design?

Hi! We're an independent games developer, based in Nottingham, England. If you want the full rundown, click to our Corporate section.

#### What games have Free Radical Design developed?

* TimeSplitters (published by Eidos)
* TimeSplitters 2 (published by Eidos)
* TimeSplitters Future Perfect (published by Electronic Arts)
* Second Sight (published by CodeMasters)

#### Why don't you answer my emails?

We love you, really we do - every single one of you, as if you were our own flesh and blood. However, we're only a wee small company, and as such we haven't got the time to reply to the many hundreds of emails we get every week. Remember, we're trying to spend our time developing the games that (hopefully) you love. By the way, if you really need help with *TimeSplitters* or *TimeSplitters 2*, you should contact the publisher, Eidos Interactive. For *Second Sight*, please contact Codemasters, and for *TimeSplitters Future Perfect*, get in touch with Electronic Arts.

#### Can I buy shares in Free Radical Design?

No, sorry. Free Radical is wholly owned by its founders and currently has no plans to become a Plc.

#### Can I get a job at Free Radical Design?

Absolutely - providing you fit the requirements for an available position on our recruitment page.

#### What's the monkey obsession about?

Actually the 'monkey' that appeared in previous games was a 3D scanned model of Karl Hilton. This was supposed to be another means to publicise his sexy playboy lifestyle, but it backfired horribly, causing him to hide in one of his red Ferraris for eleven weeks.

#### Did you all work on GoldenEye?

Yes, absolutely all of us. Particularly those of us who were still at school when it was released. However, only Dave Doak, Steve Ellis, Karl Hilton and Graeme Norgate publicly admit it.

#### Is 'Doctor Doak' really a doctor?

Yes. He regularly performs surgery when not eating Snickers bars.

#### Why do none of your games have cheats?

Would you believe, they actually do - it's just that no one's found them yet...

#### Why hasn't Free Radical worked on any licensed titles?

It's mainly because they wouldn't let us do a game of *Animal Farm*. And no, I don't mean the Orson Welles one. Also, we've had plenty of success doing our own thing so far. That said, there are a few licenses we'd like to have a crack at. One of them, some of us have had some experience of, you might remember it from the N64. The second one, well... We really shouldn't say.

### Haze

#### Are the screenshots on your website ingame?

Are you saying we lied? Well, get this: All of the screenshots of HAZE are definitely ingame, running in realtime on Free Radical's own next-gen graphics engine. Absolutely no pants on fire in this building, guaranteed.

#### What engine is the game running on?

Haze is powered by Free Radical's own next-generation engine, developed completely in-house. After all, our engine coders need something to do besides smell of fried chicken and pizza.

#### Is there going to be a Wii version?

There are currently no plans for a Wii version of Haze. Sadly, the cutting-edge technology we're using requires more power than the Wii has available. If we could, we would.

#### Why does Haze not use the same cartoony graphical style as your previous games?

It's because we wanted to tell a different kind of story - something more filmic, more serious. Furthermore, the visual style is supportive of the kind gameplay we're introducing using our awesome next-gen engine. Trust us - it really will be worth it.

#### Will there be a mapmaker?

Probably not. It's a bit of a double-edged sword, because on the one hand next-gen allows us to make incredibly intricate and organic environments. But the flip side, is that having environments that are so complex means that creating a mapmaker is a hell of a lot harder than it was before - so now it's double hard.

#### What's going on at the end of the E3 trailer?

You nosey little wretch.

Fine. Here's the deal, we're not making a standard, predictable war-shooter. We wanted an edge - and the end of the E3 trailer is the glimmering point of the blade, the tip of the iceberg if you will. Just you wait.

#### Can you jump?

In keeping with our new hard-nosed gritty realism, you will be able to jump. In fact, you might want to celebrate this fact by doing a small jump yourself.

### TimeSplitters

#### What happened to the latest TimeSplitters trailer (featuring "Sir Chimpalot")?

Some people with a sense of humour deficiency bizarrely thought that it infringed their copyright. We've got better things to do than argue about that kind of thing, so we took it down instead. Rest assured, though, that Sir Chimpalot will still feature in the next TimeSplitters game.

#### In The TimeSplitters Series, is there a reward for getting all of the Arcade mode awards?

No. Nothing but the respect and admiration of other people in the welfare queue.

#### In The TimeSplitters Series, are there any controller-activated cheats?

Yes. But we've never released them. We like to keep things as impossible as possible.

#### Where can I find out more about TimeSplitters?

If you're really interested, there's a very good FAQ available at www.gamefaqs.com.

#### Why doesn't it say 'TimeSplitters Will Return' at the end of TimeSplitters Future Perfect, like it does at the end of the other TimeSplitters games?

Because we forgot.

## Infrequently Asked Questions

Get with the wickedness! This is the 'Infrequently Asked Questions' (IAQs) section. Hopefully, through a combination of this and our FAQs, we can completely negate your need to email us - thereby freeing up our caramel doughnut time.

### Are there any ideas that have been dropped over the years?

Loads. We had a bunch of vehicle sections in the Siberian levels on *Second Sight*, plus there were about twice as many psychic abilities in the first outline - stuff like mind reading. For *TimeSplitters*, there was meant to be an American Civil War level somewhere, but we never got round to it. Hell, there have been whole ideas for games that were dropped for one reason or another. We're still waiting for someone to show an interest in our rhythm-action-zombie-horror-FPS-RPG.

### Did your games ever go through title changes?

They sure did. *Second Sight* was going to be called 'Redemption'. And in Japan, in fact, *TimeSplitters 2* had the good fortune to end up being called '*Time Splitters: Invaders of the History*'.

### What's the story with that TimeSplitters handheld game?

*TimeSplitters Advance* was a cracking little game actually. There was an awesome Aztec level with loads of monkeys dive-bombing Captain Ash's biplane. We were going to include it in *TimeSplitters Future Perfect*, but at the last minute it turned out we couldn't be bothered.

### What is the most memorable experience you've had at Free Radical?

We finished *TimeSplitters 2* at about 4am. Everything was closed, so we celebrated with a massive deathmatch - Monkeys versus Lions. We were half-mad with fatigue, and someone (who shall remain nameless) laughed so much he wet himself a little bit. No one sits in that seat any more.

### What did you guys do before you started making games?

At the risk of boring you with a long list of boring programmer jobs, we should point out that our Creative Lead on *HAZE* previously worked as the 'Bakery Assistant' in Sainsbury's. That gave him all the skills he needed to be a games designer: an unrelenting love of cakes.

### What do you do when you're not making games?

Most of us try and cobble together some kind of home life. Some of us have even managed to get real women pregnant and marry them. With the exception of Karl 'Playboy' Hilton - who spends his days by the pool, topping up his ex-pat tan; and his nights sipping fine Champagne from the bellybuttons of Japanese prostitutes.