Part Two of our Raven Interview, commemorating the occasion of Soldier of Fortune having gone gold, this time with Project Administrator Kenn Hoekstra. Soldier-of-Fortune: Given the chance, what would you change about Soldier of Fortune? Kenn Hoekstra (Project Administrator): I wish we had time to add weapon mods to the weapon functionality and outfit menu. Taking a stock weapon and adding a silencer, laser site, flashlight, larger clip or different rounds would have been very cool. User controlled vehicles would have been cool, too. You can never seem to do everything you want to do in a game, it seems. If you could, why would any game have a sequel? =) S-o-F: What new horizons do you think making Soldier of Fortune has opened up for Raven? Kenn: I think that developing Soldier of Fortune has really helped Raven branch out in new directions. The game was, I believe, an integral part of us taking on Voyager - Elite Force and our upcoming PSX2 title as well. Soldier of Fortune was a positive first step in broadening Raven's horizons within the company as well as with the press and the gaming public at large. S-o-F: Who is the wackiest character on the Soldier of Fortune design team, out of all the crazy cast of unique folks who work at Raven, and why ? Kenn: I'd have to surrender that honor to Eric Biessman. That guy is always full of energy and he has a great sense of humor. Paging the whole company at 2am with goofy music and movie lines is something only he can seem to pull off. He was a professional clown in a past life, I swear... S-o-F: What is your favorite Soldier of Fortune multiplayer map and why-Who made it, and what makes it especially challenging and/or fun? Kenn: My favorite DM level is the Raven Office level that Mike Renner built. There are no words to describe seeing your workspace inside a game engine. I'd like to thank Mike for honoring my request to make the shotgun available on my desk. Here's what my office looks like: S-o-F: Now that the Soldier of Fortune team is down to the finish line, what are some of the ways people are celebrating the fact that the game has finally been accepted by QA and has gone gold? Kenn: People are still in shock and winding down is a slow process. The designers are learning Quake III editing and putting together map stuff for Elite Force. Rick [Johnson, Programming Lead on Soldier of Fortune, Ed.] is celebrating by putting the SDK together for the mod community and I'm celebrating by working on the manual for Elite Force. *Laughs* A lot of the team is taking some vacation days and trying to get their lives back in some semblance of order before the end of Elite Force starts looming on the horizon. We had champagne and a nice team lunch, but now it's back to business as usual. No rest for the wicked, I'm afraid... [Back to Pt. 1]