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Far Cry: New Dawn takes the open-world FPS series into a near-future nuclear post-apocalypse that finds you roaming around a new kind of Hope County. Many of Far Cry 5‘s locations and characters are back, but they’re ravaged by a society gone awry. As we discovered in the game’s reveal, New Dawn introduces new enemies dubbed the Highwaymen, a Mad Max-like faction led by twin sisters who survive by stealing resources from self-sustaining societies.

You can find out more about how the game plays in our preview, which looks at New Dawn’s RPG elements and base-building system. But we also had a chance had a chance to speak to narrative director James Nadiger about the game’s inception, the ideas behind its concepts, and the design of its new villains.

GameSpot: The first question that came to my mind when New Dawn was revealed was: How long has this been in the works? It follows on from Far Cry 5’s ending, so you must have this iteration planned for quite a while?

James Nadiger: It’s officially been in development for only about a year and a half (Editor’s note: Far Cry 5 was released 10 months ago at the time of writing). When we were coming up with the ending of Far Cry 5, which was centered around Joseph and his doomsday cult, we made the decision to end that game on an actual doomsday. We all got super excited about it because it also gave us an opportunity to bring Far Cry into the post-apocalypse space, which is something that we’ve wanted to do for a long time. I think it’s a very Far Cry environment.

The reveal of Far Cry 5 gave us the impression that it was going to be dealing with a lot of political overtones because of the setting, the nature of the cult, and the timing with the US political climate–though that wasn’t really fully explored in the actual game. Each Far Cry game is different, of course, but was there an active decision to really distance New Dawn from anything like that?

No, absolutely not, because we were in development before 5 was released. We really were just focused on making the game that we wanted to make, take it to an apocalypse space.

One of the things I enjoyed about Far Cry 5 was that it encouraged this new mode of exploring the world at your own pace and gradually uncovering narrative beats piece by piece. Do you have any insight into that decision to move away from Ubisoft’s traditional method of creating open worlds?

I think Far Cry, at its best, is always about player choice, and so early on the decision was made to just put the player in control of that choice from the get-go and give them the map all at once. If you just wanna find stuff on your own, you go and it’s there, we have signs on the road to point you to animals, we have people you can talk to for little hints. We just felt that was the best, most organic way to create our Far Cry worlds.

You’re using an altered Hope County as the primary map again, but I was surprised by the new Expedition missions that take you to all these different spaces across the US. It seems like both a narrative tool to sort of explore the wider effects of the apocalypse, as well as creating some interesting spaces that wouldn’t otherwise work in the main game. But what was the primary design motivation?

To be honest, they probably happened simultaneously, because we’re really excited that for the first time in Far Cry the story and the fantasy wasn’t confined to just one country or just one time and place. The collapse happened everywhere, and at the same time, we wanted these sort of big gameplay-focussed maps, almost like the fortresses from Far Cry 4, or about the size of a Far Cry Arcade map. So we realized we could take little trips around the country with some solid gameplay, which have repeatable things, like Outposts. Every time you play it, it gets harder, and the challenges remix. And if you explore the notes, or if you’re stealthing and you’re hearing the Highwaymen in those parts of the world talk, you get little glimpses of what happened in these spaces.

Tell me about the villains in Far Cry New Dawn, about their inception. How did you come to create the twins?

Sure. It came from, well, at Ubisoft we tend to go world first, so as we were building sort of what our apocalypse would look like, we found overwhelmingly there were two ways to get by in this world. If you were on a piece of land that you could turn into farms again and hunt again, then you would be able to rebuild. But if you came from a place where that wasn’t possible, you became sort of a bandit. If you couldn’t grow things or build things, you have to take things, and so the twins come from that background. They were just kids when the bombs dropped, they were in the ruins of a city, and so their dad created the Highwaymen, and they became sort of modern day pirates. They were taught from a young age that the ends justify the means, and that’s how they grew up, that anything is justified as long as you just stay alive for one more day. Then they’ve just gone across the country just hoovering up things.

So it’s kind of a city versus country thing? Being a product of the environment you grew up in, basically?

No, it’s just the idea of makeshift, as well, cities don’t exist, stores don’t exist, and so after a certain amount of time in the years between the collapse and now, there’s just nothing there. You have to keep on the road, and some people fled these desolate areas, and then put down roots, because they had the knowledge, they were able to rebuild a life, and some people, again, just take things and move on. We’re in the most lawless frontier we’ve ever done, because sort of the rules of society that we take for granted, they no longer apply.

Okay, so tell me more about the actual characterization of the sisters. Why twins? Why women? Why African-American? What were the decisions behind that?

We’ve wanted to have a woman as a Far Cry villain for some time, that was one thing. Then our creative director, J.S. [Jean-Sebastien Decant], was really keen on the idea of having a duo, so that became the twins, because it allowed us to sort of shake up the usual Far Cry dynamic of a one-on-one conversation. So not only are they dealing with you, you get to get brought into their world a little bit, and you see how they have each other’s backs, but you also see the different ways that they’ll react to you as you start to become more and more of a thorn in their side.

In terms of their casting, once we sort of came up with the idea of the Highwaymen, and that these fearsome twin sisters that would lead them, we sent out an open casting just to see what kind of performances we could get back. We really needed two people who could share those scenes, and there were a lot of talented people, but it was Leslie Miller, who plays Lou. She auditioned with a lot of other women, but she was always sort of the anchor that kept everything together. Then separately we had Cara Ricketts, who plays Mickey. We’d worked with her before on Primal. It was another performer that you can just throw anything at her and she just nails it, and when we put them together, their chemistry was instant. We had Lou that was violent and unpredictable, and we had Mickey who had this extreme confidence in just owning a situation. We’re just very happy.

I’m disappointed to hear they’re not actually cool twins who exist.

No, sadly. We looked, but it just wasn’t right. It’s hard to describe, but you just know when you’ve got something.

The reception to Mickey and Lou after the reveal was pretty positive, and a lot of people were a little upset when they actually found out that you weren’t playing as them. Is that something that surprised you?

A little bit. Far Cry, I think, is always interesting in the way that the players and the fans have relationships with the villains. Even though they’re violent, or they do super questionable things, there’s a lot of people that are very fond of them, and even though it’s ultimately your destiny to go up against them, there’s this affection for them. But no, I’m very happy with the reception that the twins got.

So playing as them or teaming up with them was never a consideration.

No. They were always meant to be the villains.

Why do you think Far Cry needs the “crazy” villain?

I think it’s just part of our DNA. The goal is to never create “crazy” for crazy’s sake. I think we want every villain to stand alone, and to be like a real person, or real persons in the case of the twins. But I think what unites all the villains, whether a little more out there or sort of grounded like Joseph, is that they are convinced that what they do is the only sane response to the world around them, and they’ll have a chance to convince you the player that what they’re doing is right. But yeah.

Can you ever see a Far Cry without the larger-than-life villain? Can a Far Cry game work without that aspect?

I can’t talk about the future of Far Cry beyond New Dawn, but every time we start a new game everything’s on the table, and we sort of see what we have to work with.

Far Cry: New Dawn releases February 15 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

Episode 3 of Humans Who Make Games features Christine Love, the writer and developer behind popular indie games such as Digital: A Love Story, Analogue: A Hate Story, and Ladykiller in a Bind.

Adam Conover, the host of Humans Who Make Games chatted with Love about everything from how she dropped out of college to pursue Analogue: A Hate Story to incorporating queer relationships into games.

Listen to Humans Who Make Games Episode 3.

Love’s only formal programming training was at a two-week long summer camp with five other kids in a basement, as she felt more connected to writing before combining the two later on.

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Up until now exposures to Rage 2 have been fairly linear affairs; the barren open world expanse of Avalanche Studios and id’s post-apocalyptic shooter sequel has remained strictly off limits in favour of highlighting the game’s overhauled and overcharged combat system. For my latest hands-on with the game I wasn’t quite given the keys to the kingdom, but I was handed the keys to a rusted out bucket of bolts generously referred to as a ‘car’ and allowed to tour a small section of Rage 2’s map.

My first stop was a return to the city of Wellspring. The ramshackle sprawl of neon and rust from the original game was begging to be reexamined, but since my time with the game was limited I decided to hustle past the bulletin boards covered in job contracts, and various other NPC quest-givers, and instead trigger the main story mission. Wellspring mayor, Loosum Hagar, was locked in a power struggle with an entitled twerp named Klegg Clayton (the wealthy offspring of Mayor Clayton from the original), and I was charged with sneaking into Clayton’s high-rise office in order to plant a bug on his computer. In order to gain access to his domain, I had to first build up my celebrity status by becoming a reality TV star in a manner so ruthless it would make a Kardashian wince.

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We played a few hours of Rage 2 and came back conflicted. The combat is great, but there wasn’t enough of it.

A follow-up to 2010’s Rage is one of the last titles I expected to be announced at E3 2018. Rage isn’t a bad game per se–it was just an experience that didn’t quite hit the same highs of Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein. Regardless, Rage 2 arrives later this year as a joint development between id Software and Just Cause 3‘s Avalanche Studios. It’s still too soon to come to any definitive conclusions about Rage 2 as a whole, as the game was in pre-beta when I played it. That said, of the two hours I spent in the game, the combat was a highlight while the title’s open world left me with a few misgivings.

The demo did start on a fairly high note. Almost as if taking a queue from Borderlands‘ transition to Borderlands 2, Rage 2 seems to have a bigger focus on developing its characters in comparison to its predecessor. You get to pick the gender of your character, Walker, for one, and they actually do speak to the people you encounter. “You as Walker is a very classic story, but the bulk of the story really does come from [other characters],” id Software Studio Director Tim Willits said. The town I started in did feel somewhat alive, as the bustle of crowds provided a backdrop to the snippets of conversations I’d overhear as Walker strolled by. I was able to glean bits and pieces of world building as I found my way to the mayor’s office; most of which was trivial, but much more preferable to getting a long-winded info dump via cutscene.

Then I actually got out into Rage 2’s open world, and the demo started to lose me. Much like its predecessor, Rage 2 is nice to look at. But I didn’t want to explore it. The driving mechanics weren’t all that easy to use–think the unwieldy vehicles in Borderlands 2–which made traversal over the demo’s steep peaks, wide chasms, and blocked bridges into an ordeal. Sure, I never once encountered a loading screen, but when you’re not enjoying your time going from one mission to the next, it still feels like you’re waiting for something boring to pass so you can get back to the action. Getting the chance to fly the gyrocopter certainly helped alleviate my frustrations, but I left the demo with no confirmation as to when you’ll unlock it in the main game. I did see some cliffs and canyons that might have been cool to navigate with a grapple hook or wingsuit–which are staples of the Just Cause series–but Willits said neither piece of equipment would be crossing over into Rage 2.

With how much Rage 2’s world feels like Borderlands 2, I can’t help but think the game would play better as a co-op experience as well. There’s only so much you can do in the open world, both driving and combat-wise, by yourself and having at least one other player to talk to would help fill the long stretches of silence I experienced in Rage 2 outside of the cities and hubs. However, Willits confirmed Rage 2 is an entirely single-player campaign. He did tease Rage 2 would include “a few community things” but did not say what those might be. “We wanted to focus on core combat, we wanted to focus on creating a really great world, and that’s where we ended up,” he said.

However, despite these negatives, my time with Rage 2 wasn’t all bad. I love what I got to experience of the game’s combat. In spite of Avalanche’s influences, Rage 2 plays very much like an id Software game. The shooting mechanics are fast and fluid. It takes a few minutes to master Walker’s double jump, omnidirectional dash, and slide, but the movements are easy enough to pick up. Once you do, you’re able to pull off pretty spectacularly brutal kills with your vast collection of weapons, all of which destroy in the same enjoyably gruesome manner as the firearms in 2016’s Doom.

When Rage 2’s movement and weapons are combined with its other special abilities–Shatter, Vortex, Barrier, Slam, and Overdrive–you become an unstoppable superhero. At first, the close-quarter combat scenarios give you ample opportunities to try out different combinations. You might deal with a group of enemies by using Shatter to crush them against your own Barrier, or throwing out Vortex to drag them all into one spot before leaping up and careening down into them with a crushing Slam. It’s gloriously fun, especially when you manage to chain three or more abilities at once, and maybe throw in a few slides, well-timed dashes, or perfect shots as well.

However, as my time with the demo went on, these spectacular moments were occasionally interrupted with fights that took place in larger, more open spaces where the special abilities’ short range meant they couldn’t be effective. In these instances, I’d typically start a fight in a cool, explosive way before having to fall into a more traditional FPS pattern of dashing from cover to cover while firing the assault rifle at enemies as they came into range. After smashing into an encampment like a superpowered juggernaut, it was disappointing to resort to something slower and more methodical while in open spaces. Carefully measuring a shot doesn’t feel very Rage-like. I wanted more fights like what I found at the demo’s start, where enemies were trapped in a room or maze-like structure with Walker as she murderously roared at the top of her lungs and dished out constant servings of explosive destruction. Those battles were fantastic, and I really hope the full game is built around more moments like them.

Rage 2 is scheduled to launch on May 14 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. You’ll net a few freebies for pre-ordering the game.

The huge success of the Fast & Furious series has meant that not only are there at least two more movies in the main franchise to come, we’re also getting the first spin-off this year. Hobbs and Shaw sees Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham reprise their roles, and it arrives in August. However, Johnson has now confirmed that he won’t appear in the next main Fast & Furious film.

In an interview with MTV News, Johnson explained that Fast 9 is about to start shooting ahead of its 2020 release date, and that neither he or Statham will feature in it. “The plan has always been for the Fast and Furious universe to grow and expand,” he said, via Collider. “As of now, we’re not in Fast 9 because they’re getting ready to start shooting. But who knows with Fast 10 and down the road, you never know. Because look, at the end of the day, the truth is, there’s unfinished business between Hobbs and Dom. It’s unfinished.”

Dom is the character played by star and series producer Vin Diesel. While Johnson is clearly referring to the movie’s plot, it also links to the reported feud between the two actors during the shooting of 2017’s The Fate of the Furious. Johnson accused an unnnamed male co-star of not being a “true professional,” and later revealed he had “an important face-to-face” confrontation with Diesel during production. In April, he cast doubt on whether he would act with anytime soon.

Fast 9 is set to hit theaters on April 10 2020, and will be directed by Justin Lin, who has made four of the previous movies. Last week, Diesel confirmed that production will start in London next month. Fast 10 is currently scheduled for a 2021 release.

Hobbs and Shaw releases on August 2 this year and is directed by Deadpool 2’s David Leitch. Earlier this month, a first image of Idris Elba’s villainous character Brixton was released.