EuroGamer: As to how the GDF advances, we're given a pretty good runthrough of what's available. Players earn the right to bring deployables to an area by moving their command vehicle there, and then field-ops can deploy artillery, airstrike capability and powerful missiles (SSMs) in different ways. For example, SSMs need someone to lace the target with a highly visible laser for several seconds first. Some vehicles can have their wheels blown off, so engineers need to conjure up replacements. Medics resuscitate fallen comrades and heal wounded soldiers. Rangers lead the way into battle, and others cover field-ops busy with laser-designation, engineers busy with wrenches and medics busy with stitches. Vehicles obviously play a big role and the maps are designed to allow certain applications and not others. A quad bike can race through trenches and jump off ramps to cross rivers; Titan tanks can rumble over debris that other vehicles can't traverse; amphibious APCs can take a dip and mount beach landings.

GameSpot: For the first time ever, we were actually able to see a few Strogg characters in action. While the characters in the game will have their counterparts on the opposing sides (both the EDF and the Strogg will have medics, for example), id's Kevin Cloud explains that on balance, EDF characters will have more-traditional roles that befit their Earth technology, while Strogg characters will be more oriented toward offense. While EDF medics will use stimpacks to heal their buddies, strogg medics must instead get up close and personal with special melee medical tools that extract ATP (that's adenosine triphosphate, the basic chemical building block of energy in most life forms) from human corpses, then use those harvested chemicals to treat their alien teammates. Likewise, the Strogg infiltrator class will be able to use subterfuge to infiltrate an enemy base, similar to the spy character from Wolfenstein, except that the Strogg infiltrator will actually take possession of its victim, which will then, by all appearances, run, move, and shoot like a normal Earth soldier. You can expect to see the Strogg wielding alien weapons and the EDF wielding slightly more advanced versions of today's military armament--and if you look carefully, you might find prototype versions of Quake II weapons (such as the infamous railgun) on either side.

What influence has Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory had on Quake Wars, both in terms of the experience you gained from that and the gameplay itself?

Paul Wedgwood: We learned a lot of lessons developing Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. Obviously, because Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory was based on Return to Castle Wolfenstein, we started with a really big catalogue of assets and a pre-existing game to build upon. With Quake Wars it's a brand new title so it doesn't share any assets or technology with Quake 4 for example, we really just started with the basic Doom 3 engine and then started developing the additional technology in tandem with id. But the real advancement has been in gameplay. Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory was a really strong teamplay-focused game - we wanted to evolve that into larger, open areas. So in a sense it's not really a direct sequel but it is a spiritual successor to that kind of game design philosophy of a focus on teamplay and pure multiplayer combat.