GameSpot: We've been waiting for this. Give us an overview of the multiplayer in the upcoming Freedom Force game. How many players will it support? Will there be any community-specific features, like tournaments and ladder rankings? We know there are new features that really draw upon the game's comic book roots. How so?

Ken Levine: In order to keep the team-based aspect of the single-player game, we opted for two- to four-person multiplayer in all our modes. Besides the fan-created mods, the original game was very basic in its multiplayer modes and execution. We knew we had to change that for the sequel. We did that first by conceiving eight different multiplayer modes. They include: arena, team arena, deathmatch, team deathmatch, massacre, team massacre, and tag.

The most promising mode has to be "story-based multiplayer," though. It was created to give mod makers a chance to give their characters meaning. We're essentially allowing our fans to create whatever scenarios they can imagine using whatever characters or assets they can come up with. It can be as simple or deep as you want it to be. I think this mode is going to have legs like no other aspect of the series.

There are thousands of heroes created by the fans' imaginations out there. There are also tons of fan fiction and mods. With story-based multiplayer, we're giving gamers the chance to merge all these things into a completely open-ended multiplayer extravaganza.