Tag Archives: Interview

Just as a game of Civilization constantly shifts through the ages, evolves, and occasionally pits horse-riding cavalrymen against 1,500-horsepower tanks, so too does the videogame industry grow and change. A mere five years have passed since the launch of Civilization IV, but already, the industry’s a different beast entirely.

How, for instance, does one of gaming’s most legendary franchises deal with pirates’ overrunning of the PC, the issue of restrictive DRM, the waning influence of the strategy genre, and new input devices like Kinect and Move?

We got a chance to sit down and quiz producer Dennis Shirk over those questions and more. See it all after the break.

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In Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, you battered Darth Vader and The Emperor, yanked a Star Destroyer clean out of the sky, and pretty much made every other Jedi ever look like a baby swinging a glowstick. So, of course, the question arises: how the hell do you top that?

We got a chance to quiz senior product manager Gavin Leung about what the TFU team’s doing to ensure that its force-fueled sequel is the next Empire Strikes Back and not the next Star Wars Christmas Special. Click past the break to hear Leung’s thoughts on why bringing back Starkiller’s the right thing to do, how to design a compelling story when we already know how it ends, stormtrooper-disintegrating force fury powers, and more.

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We were honestly a bit surprised when Ubisoft offered us an interview involving its newly announced Michael Jackson game. After all, our experience with the game – like everyone else’s – was limited to a surprise dance-off at the end of Ubisoft’s E3 conference. Flashy? Sure. But about as revealing as women’s fashion in the 1800′s.

And so, having literally seen neither hide nor iconic white suit of the game, we decided to start from the top. What is the Michael Jackson game? What do you do in it? Is it Moonwalker 2, and if so, why would you do that to the world, you monster? We asked all those questions and more, and international brand manager Felicia Williams was kind enough to answer.

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With the exception of a certain single most popular subscription-based fantasy MMO in the entire world, radical genre reinventions and videogames have something of a checkered past. In the eyes of many, it’s like tracking mud all over holy ground, lighting a national flag on fire, or saying Firefly was overrated. In other words, a criminal offense of the highest order.

That, however, did nothing to dissuade 2K from taking the reigns to XCOM and steering it in an entirely new direction. Bye bye, turn-based strategy game. Hello, first-person shooter. 2K just painted a big red target on its back, angered a bull, then allowed itself to be chased into a minefield full of hornets’ nests. But was it worth it?

Creative director Jonathan Pelling sure seems to think so. We had a chance to sit down with him during E3, and – while we’re not entirely convinced just yet – he spoke with the kind of conviction that only plenty of thought and a determined, consistent direction can produce. From the sound of things, XCOM is in good hands. But enough from us. Pelling’s words speak for themselves. Click past the break to hear his thoughts on why XCOM may be truer to the franchise than the original X-Com, what the deal is with those blob aliens, what 2K’s doing to create a strategic first-person shooter, and tons more.

[Interview by Nathan Grayson]

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Platinum Games doesn’t make normal things. It just doesn’t. Hair-clad butterfly witches, a game show about wanton murder, and all kinds of other kooky ideas are just another day at the office for Platinum’s intrepid crew of oddballs.

And in a world full of gray, stoic, gray shooters, the kind of zaniness that Platinum peddles is a welcome injection of color. Tired of trudging from cover-to-cover, taking a couple potshots, and then repeating the process until the act of blasting a person in the face automatically triggers your yawn reflex? Then Vanquish is for you. We’re talking about a game where your primary means of transportation is a rocket-powered knee-slide here. Also, you’re fighting space Russians. Platinum Games doesn’t make normal things. And thank God for that.

After resisting the urge to tackle producer Atsushi Inaba and wrestle the controller from his hands, we got the chance to ask him a few post-demo session questions at E3. Click past the break for Inaba’s thoughts on a pre-release Vanquish demo, the Japanese shooter market, how developing Vanquish on the PS3 has affected the Xbox 360 version, and more.

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We weren’t sure what to think when Ubisoft announced yet another entry in its Ghost Recon shooter franchise, but after seeing the game in action at E3, we reckon Ghost Recon’s well worth getting excited about.

After all, in what other game can you turn invisible, knife a guard until he can legally be classified as a pin cushion, and then prop his lifeless form up while another guard walks right on by, completely unaware that his buddy’s nothing but a body?

Certainly, the game’s brimming with potential, but one demo’s hardly enough to sell everyone on a game not called “Crackdown.” We wanted to know more. So we engaged our active camo, took associate producer Justin Drust captive, and did a little interrogating. Which is our sleep-deprived way of saying we asked him a few questions during E3. Click past the break for Drust’s thoughts on Future Soldier’s PC version, the recent delay into 2011, the upcoming multiplayer beta, and tons more.

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Assassin’s Creed 1 and 2 felt ages apart in more ways than one. Most obviously, they took place in wildly different time periods – AC 1 during the Third Crusade and AC2 in Renaissance Italy. The gap between the two games’ releases, however – especially for an industry that has reduced the yearly sequel down to a science – was also quite wide.

Not so for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. The latest sequel, which crept up and pressed a blade against our throats long before we expected it, is slated for release in November 2010. It once again stars gaming’s suavest acrobat, Ezio. But this time around, top billing doesn’t go to Ezio alone. In Brotherhood, he’ll be fighting alongside a highly coordinated team of assassins like himself, which – after the largely solo outings of previous Assassin’s Creed titles – raises all kinds of questions.

So we decided to ask them. Click past the break for technical director Mathieu Gagnon’s thoughts on why Brotherhood isn’t just a spin-off, Assassin’s Creed III, multiplayer, Assassin’s Creed II’s slow start, and tons more.

[Interview by Nathan Grayson]

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The Star Wars films have always had a nasty habit of making you wait years between sequels. What’s up with that? Us though, we’re not like mean old George Lucas. Waiting’s not our style. Yesterday: part one. Today: part two.

Jump past the break to hear Star Wars: The Old Republic writing director Daniel Erickson’s thoughts on MMORPG endgames, why you shouldn’t just play as a Jedi, how TOR’s MMO nature will mesh with its single-player heritage, the game’s art style, commitment (or lack thereof) to a release date, and tons more.

[Interview by Nathan Grayson]

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Star Wars: The Old Republic is perhaps one of the most massive videogame projects ever undertaken. When BioWare said the MMO set an even longer time ago in a galaxy far away was KOTORs 3-8, it wasn’t kidding. Every character class skywalks its own completely unique path through the game – each with a narrative arc larger than that of any single game BioWare’s ever created. Yeah. It’s absolutely mind-boggling.

So it’s only fitting that our chat with writing director Daniel Erickson quickly morphed from a tiny R2 unit into a Rancor-sized behemoth of a conversation. Check out part one for Erickson’s thoughts on beating World of Warcraft, why this year’s CG trailer was a better choice than demonstrating gameplay, how BioWare’s managed to fit story’s square peg into an MMO’s circular hole, unfinished storylines from KOTOR 1 and 2, and tons more.

[Interview by Nathan Grayson]

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In an exclusive interview with videogaming247, Chris Easton, community development manager for Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia has refused to confirm that the game will ship simultaneously on both 360 and PS3.

When quizzed as to whether half of the gaming public would have to wait for the game he replied:

“We are planning to release Holidays 2008.”

Your guess is as good as ours.

By Mike Bowden