Command & Conquer 4's Joe Kucan

Exactly. When I was behind the camera in Hollywood and directing film, and the video work that I've done, because it's Hollywood... I don't know if you know anything about the film industry, but it was always incumbent on me to come in in full clown make-up. So I'd wear white-face and a big smiley-face and big floppy shoes, just to sort of pay my respects to the history of Hollywood and the quality they demand.

And me for them. It's very hard, important work that they do in Hollywood.

There were a couple of times I did put my foot down. The original design of this latest game was that is was to be a musical. It's true. All the FMV was going to be done in arias, straight into the camera, and I said no. I don't really sing. I was OK to do the dance numbers, that was no problem, I could do the tap-dancing - and in fact in the second half of Command & Conquer 4, Kane delivers all his mission briefings to the player in interpretative dance. Not a word is spoken. And mime.

I don't have a lot of input any more other than, when the scripts come to me, I have a certain amount of leeway in terms of saying: I don't really think that sounds like Kane, let's change some of these words a little bit. I think that's just a nod to the fact I've been doing it such a long time.

Well, there is no Westwood any more. EA is EA. That's a loaded question, isn't it? The production values have grown... well, you can't say that, even, the production values were pretty high back in the Westwood days. The production values continue to be huge. I think it's to EA's credit that they have understood the value of the video and kept that in the game. I really do think it brings a certain cachet, and I think it's of interest that we're the only ones doing it.

What was really nice about the whole process, since the revival of Command & Conquer with C&C3, it's been really nice to be part of a project... You know, I step into meeting and I'm surrounded by 25, 26-year-old kids who grew up on the game, and come with a certain perspective and are great fans of what that game meant to them back in '95, '96. That was really something.

It really says something about the industry that those kids who came in as gamers are now the ones taking the helm, setting the direction the game should go. That gives me a lot of confidence in the evolution of the product.