Warhawk Loses Solo Play

Sony's flyer will be tightly tied to the PS3's online plan.

When it was first revealed, Warhawk for the PlayStation 3 was the bellwether for the Sixaxis control - even though the developers didn't know exactly what Sony had in mind for the controller when work began. Now the makers of the futuristic flyer (and more) are looking to give PS3 online play a big push.

Any semblance of singleplayer has been ripped from Warhawk because it didn't match up to what the developer was doing with the online multiplayer bits, Incognito's Dylan Jobe told IGN.

"We've received great feedback about how the game plays online, and singleplayer just really wasn't up to par," Jobe told IGN.

"We owe it to the players to not force them buy something that's not good enough. They deserve better. So having multiplayer really strong and polished, that's what we're going for."

That multiplayer will allow up to 32 people to battle online at the same time. The game will support dedicated servers, which means that people who just want to play with their friends will be able to do that while those wanting to touch the community will be able to do it more efficiently via Incognito's hosted servers.

But don't think this way of approaching online play will be the norm for PS3 games going forward.

"Our dedicated server model is primarily driven by the needs of Warhawk and it's not the greater picture," Jobe said.

Dropping the singleplayer mode does have some advantages, including, as technical art director David Wright told IGN, the possibility of downloadable content.

"One interesting and good side-effect of making the decision to go multiplayer is that we have a pool of assets, of other vehicles, of other towns, of other things we can pull from and actually use to offer as, if Sony wants, if it's successful, an expansion pack."

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo