SOF Center has an interview with Jim Hughes of Raven. The interview focuses on level design, and of course the possibilities for Soldier of Fortune 2 are discussed.

There's a post on the Raven Soldier of Fortune 2 forums, which has Ben Geisler and Christopher Reed answering a question about the AI we'll be seeing in SoF2. Thanks VE.

Raven's Jake Simpson updated his .plan clarifying something he mentioned in the VE interview yesterday. SoF2 is NOT based on Quake3 1.17.

Voodoo Extreme has posted an interview with Raven's Jake Simpson talking about the recently announced Soldier of Fortune2. Billy asks Jake about the Quake3 engine enhancements, how long they've been working on SoF2, if they're gonna use the same save system as in the previous game, how many people are working on the project and more.

Voodoo Extreme - Is the Quake3 engine going to be used for Soldier of Fortune 2? If so, how is Raven going to be enhancing it? Futhermore, will you be creating a new GHOUL system for SoF2?

Jake Simpson - We are definitely using the Quake III Team Arena engine. Id is still unchallenged in creating the fastest, prettiest engines out there, and it would be silly not build on our experience with their technology. I think we started out with a clean 1.17 build and we’re working from that. Of course there is lots we are adding to it to make it suitable for a single player experience.
We didn’t actually take much code from SOF1 into SOF2; we wanted to start fresh. We knew where our flaws were in SOF1 and rather than trying to massage the code into shape we thought we’d just start out from scratch. So lets see - what have we got that’s new? ...

Raven's Jake Simpson updated his .plan saying what he's been working on for Soldier of Fortune2, and also explaining that their ROAM terrain system will have a name change to not confuse it with the Real-time Optimally Adapting Meshes approach.

Well it's just Soldier of Fortune 2 day huh? After the announcement and screenshots comes the online preview, courtesy of Gamespot. The preview of the game (sub-titled Double Helix) features quotes from Raven designer Jon Zuk and also comes with even more screenshots from this Quake3-engine powered game. Thanks Stomped.

So what about the realism? Raven is definitely striving to make Soldier of Fortune 2 significantly more realistic than the first game. While the sequel is an action game first and foremost, it will play more like an interactive movie than an all-out shooter. The first step in ensuring realism is the actual weapons that will be featured in the sequel--no more microwave guns or obscenely large rocket launchers. "We're including 14 melee, pistol, and rifle weapons, as well as a total of 10 different types of grenades,"

To go along with the announcement of the game, Raven's Kenn Hoekstra sends along the first screenshots from Soldier of Fortune 2. Three of the shots are ingame, the other 2 show a weapon and a character model. Exclusive as seen on other sites!

[ more SOF2 images ]

aCtivision has just finally announced Soldier of Fortune2 which was first mentioned back in April (Thanks Choolz & Stomped) which will be developed by Raven Software using Quake3 engine technology licensed from id Software. The game will be a straight sequel offering up more missions based on the real life of John Mullins. Considering 2015 is managing to make their WW2 game blood free I wonder if Raven and Activision will be caving in a bit on SoF2 as the original was pretty much over the top in violence.

In Soldier of Fortune 2 players once again assume the role of John Mullins, a military consultant working for the top-secret anti-terrorist group known as The Shop. In the game, players must tackle a wide-range of missions from hostage rescue and intelligence gathering, to search-and-destroy. Level design in Soldier of Fortune 2 is flexible enough to allow for multiple styles of play. Gamers can "hit 'em hard" with a frontal assault or use stealth weapons for a subtle approach.

The PCGamer that was talked about revealing Soldier of Fortune2 is available just about everywhere now and to celebrate here's a bunch more details on the upcoming Quake3 engine game from Raven courtesy of SOFCenter: and a detail that we kind of glossed over last time. No multiplayer? DOH!

Your mission this time will be to eliminate Russian scientists that are working on a biochemical that they want to release. His new sidekick, Taylor, will be helping him out similarly to Hawk who didn't make it through the end of the first game. I hear that Taylor is quite a woman too. [... ] Now for the bad news. I almost cried when I read this. SOF2 will not be shipping with multiplayer.
Comparison SoF2 vs SoF1:
- 1024x1024 textures vs 64x64
- Characters of 3000 polygons vs 400 polygons
- Weapons of 5000 polygons vs 500 polygons
- Facial expressions on the characters

This thread on the Raven forums contains info about Soldier of Fortune2 that is in the May 2001 issue of PC Gamer. Thanks Stomped. According to the article in PCG, the game is using the Quake3 engine, will feature about 13 different weapon types and will have more stealth missions, and will feature Taylor as a sidekick. Also apparently it's mentioned that SOF2 won't have any multiplayer, but Raven's Brian Raffel is saying "It's the Quake III engine, you think there would be no multiplayer?" in the same thread.

According to a recent investor conference call with aCtivision, The COO of aCtivision mentioned that there will be a Soldier of Fortune2 title published by aCtivision in fiscal 2002 (Which ends in April of 2002?). There was also talk of several other titles of course that have all been identified including Return to Wolfenstein. Thanks Stomped & VE.

If one were to speculate, knowing Raven's very tight relationship with id Software I really wouldnt be surprised if SoF2 is going to be using the new DOOM technology that The Carmack has been working on for some time. Actually I'll go out on a limb and bet on it. If I'm wrong and Raven isnt doing SoF2 based on the DOOM technology I'll post a picture of my naked butt. Deal? Scared yet? Ok it might not be but I've always wanted an excuse to post naked butt pictures.