Interviews

Newsweek's Level Up journalist and blogger N'Gai Croal speaks at length with GameCritics.com regarding Roger Ebert's statements about videogames as art, the Manhunt 2 banning and the purpose of game criticism.

Certain to be one of the year's biggest games, Halo 3 is on everyone's radar. In anticipation of this upcoming blockbuster, GameCritics.com was fortunate enough to interview one of the extremely talented minds creating this eagerly anticipated title, artist extraordinaire Shi Kai Wang.

For almost every person who plays games, there inevitably comes a time when that person will think to themselves, "If I had made this game, it'd be so much better!" However, very few of us ever take that thought any further.

Just as he was with the original Xbox, Dean Takahashi was there during the creation and build up of the Xbox 360. He returns with another book, this one called The Xbox 360 Uncloaked: The Real Story Behind Microsoft's Next-Generation Video Game Console. GameCritics.com is pleased be able to talk to Mr. Takahashi about his new book.

Recent music release Family Music by Japanese artists YMCK arrived at GameCritics headquarters in a jewel case decked out in an eye-melting 8-bit color explosion. What came inside the case was just as vibrant to the ear. Difficult to categorize, the YMCK sound approximates upbeat jazz fused with light vocals and an array of NES soundtracks.

Filing into the auditorium for the Game Developers Conference 2005 Game Design Challenge (theme: make a game based on Emily Dickinson), most people could have been forgiven for wondering who the third member of the panel was. Will Wright and Peter Molyneaux are two of the more high-profile Western game designers, each with a history that deserves recognition as industry leaders and visionaries. In comparison, Clint Hocking was an unknown.

After a successful debut, Fight Night is back for another… round in the aptly titled Fight Night Round 2. We first met Kudo Tsunoda at a recent EA press event in New York and were impressed by his passion for both his game (as executive producer) and the sport of boxing. We decided to pick his brain about his new game, the boxing game genre and boxing in general.

Making platform adventure games seems to be no great challenge, but making good platform adventure games is another matter entirely. With three outstanding titles under its belt (Rocket: Robot on Wheels, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, and Sly 2: Band of Thieves), Sucker Punch Studios definitely falls into the latter category.

Harmonix Music Systems is breaking new ground by putting a uniquely North American spin on the music game genre. Creators of Frequency, Amplitude and Karaoke Revolution—which won Time Magazine's Game of the Year in 2003—you'll no doubt be hearing more from them soon. Alex Rigopulos is co-founder and CEO of Harmonix, and recently sat down with GameCritics.com to discuss the past, present, and future.

Harmonix Music Systems is breaking new ground by putting a uniquely North American spin on the music game genre. Creators of Frequency, Amplitude and Karaoke Revolution—which won Time Magazine's Game of the Year in 2003—you'll no doubt be hearing more from them soon. Alex Rigopulos is co-founder and CEO of Harmonix, and recently sat down with GameCritics.com to discuss the past, present, and future.