Specifically with Denis Dyack, their President. Lots of interesting bits of info in there - he talks about working with Miyamoto and Kojima and believes the Xbox 360 and PS3 will be fairly even performance-wise. Not too much info on Too Human yet though, sadly. Also, any company with a full suit of plate armour in the building has to be alright in my books.

They just keep finding new game development niches to make conferences for. I’d love to go to this one but it’s in Austin - bit of a trek.

Topics under discussion will include gaming narratives, the new language of games, working with developers and designers, managing team dynamics and writing for massively-multiplayer online games.

Well it can’t be worse than Troy. Now that it’s finally arrived on UK shores I’m loving the game, incidentally. It’s just so epic and brutal, truly an instant classic. Great to see a game based on Greek mythology too, it’s a rich seam that’s rarely been exploited by games. (via The Shack)

He’s damn good at it too. As in, usually destroying most sighted competitors at Soul Caliber 2. Incredible stuff, you’ve really got to respect that kind of perseverance and skill.

On a related note, Soul Caliber 3 is of course coming. Custom character designing, new characters, more modes… yada yada, BLADED HULA HOOP! Alright, now I’m sold.

Oh the memories. I never actually owned an Amiga though I spent many hours round the friend who did as a kid. Xenon 2, Ruff ‘n’ Tumble, GODS, Heimdall… truly some great games. Some lovely cover artwork on some of them too, definitely a style of box art we won’t see again any more than we will the fantastic pixel art from that era. (via Cathode Tan)

All this week, the BBC News website is looking at the future of video games
as seen by some of the prominent figures in the business.

Mostly publisher types rather than developers so far, but then I guess the people with the purse strings are just as entitled to predict the future as those making the games.

Must’ve taken a fair amount of work to put this together. Slight spoilers of course though mostly for SNES RPGs. Glad to see Panzer Dragoon Saga at #4, one of my all time favourite games. I’m listening to it now and getting damn tingles.

As the page says, "the songs that end up becoming my truly timeless favourites are those that draw an emotional attachment between the music and the events of the game" and I can’t think of a single game that has moved me as much as Panzer Dragoon Saga. Such a shame it goes for a fortune on eBay now, every RPG fan needs to play it, truly a unique masterpiece. (via Waxy)

The quote really speaks for itself here and he’s even got charts to back it all up. Gosh:

“Recently, the offending rates for 14-17 year-olds reached the lowest levels
ever recorded.” The lowest levels ever recorded. In other words,
the Playstation era has, in fact, produced the most
non-violent kids ever. But I thought video games were
training children to kill?

Games an agression outlet? Who’d have thought it. He’s no proffesor, and I’ve no idea how accurate the charts are, but I thought it might be nice to post this following all the recent ridiculous claims from the other side of the table. (via digg)

Ah boy, it’s been far too long since I last watched some Weebl and Bob. Their latest is a great takeoff of the iPod commercials. I should explain something before you proceed - they like pie. Mmm, pie.

I’m surprised how people are generally overlooking the most impressive aspect of PGR3 - fully modelled interiors on all the cars. They’re blowing as many polygons on the inside of your car as they are on the outside. For me it’s been a glaring ommision in every racing game to date, it’s great to see the power of a next gen console being put to such good use rather than just making stuff shiner. IGN also has in-game footage (top left) and video developer commentary - watching them has quite literally left my jaw a little slack, excuse me for a moment here…

Or rather phones him. It’s really interesting how Warren Spector credits Doug Church for much of what makes his games great. Doug is just another one of those developers who deserves plenty of credit but is in no rush to claim it - no soap boxing, few interviews.

Amy Henning is another such developer who comes to mind. She’s headed up the fantastic Legacy of Kain series since Soul Reaver and yet have you heard of her? Probably not. Not that there’s anything wrong with either approach really, it’s just interesting to see when games designers shun fame they could easily claim.

No, not burgers, the Apple Mac mini. In a big case. With big fans. And more storage. Even so, the question is WHY? And, for once, "because we can" is not a good enough answer here, surely on Textmode Quake beats it in the League of Pointless Endeavours.