If games development was an RPG, Bill Roper would be a man with a stunning Reputation statistic. Having started at Blizzard as a musician and a voice actor for the original Warcraft game, Orcs and Humans, Roper eventually found himself at the top of the tree.

Along the way he created the Diablo series and worked on both the Starcraft and World of Warcraft series. And then, in 2003, he left.

Amidst turmoil at Blizzard as Vivendi Universal took over, Roper formed his own team - Flagship Studios. The new development team's first game is Hellgate: London, an action-oriented PC RPG that owes as much to Counter-Strike and Jedi Knight as it does to Diablo.

Based in a post-apocalyptic London, Hellgate casts you as one of the few remaining Knights Templars as you try to beat back the waves of demonic beasts spewing forth from the depths of the cities. The combat is fast and furious, the RPG-style development is deep, and Flagship has put a great deal of emphasis on randomisation and customisation to ensure the experience is fresh every time you play.

So it was a real pleasure to be able to sit with Bill himself at last month's E3, have the game demoed to us, and talk about why London really is hell, though we kind of knew that already...