Interviews

Das Gamer Interview: Ben Mattes, Producer Of Prince Of Persia

The Prince of Persia franchise re-erupted on the last generation of hardware, and Ubisoft recently took the wraps off their first next-gen Prince of Persia with some surprising results. First off, this is a completely new prince that actually starts out as a nobody. This game has nothing to do with the Sands of Time storyline, or the upcoming 2009 movie. With a phenomenal fresh take on cel-shaded art, to a new A.I. controlled counterpart, we’re dying to get our hands on it. But so far, all we have to go on is a trailer and a few screenshots.

Even though Ubisoft is keeping most of the game under wraps, we demanded more. For this game, former Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones producer Ben Mattes is back at the helm and he gives us a good idea in what to expect in Ubisoft’s first foray into a next-gen Prince of Persia. Read the full interview after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Ben Mattes, interview, Prince of Persia, Ubisoft | No Comments »

Interviews

An Interview With Alex Seropian, The Man Behind The Chimp

Hail to the Chimp, the world’s first and only politically-themed, animal-based party brawler has hit shelves. The game allows players to choose between 11 animal candidates vying to become president. While the strong reviews have already begun to flow in, the very fact that the game has made it to market deserves a fair amount of respect. Not that the game’s creator, Alex Seropian or his company Wideload had to overcome massive odds or raise themselves up by the bootstraps. Seropian already did that nearly 20 years ago when he founded Bungie in a Chicago garage. Back then Bungie put out games like Gnop!, Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete, and then along came Halo, the game that literally created the Xbox market.

After shipping Halo, Seropian walked away from Bungie/Microsoft halfway through the development of the sequel. “When I came back to Chicago I wasn’t doing anything except starting a family, for about six months,” says Seropian. “I wasn’t sure I wanted to get back into this business because my passion is doing new original stuff and being independent.” But in 2003 Seropian founded Wideload, releasing Stubbs the Zombie two years later. Hail to the Chimp, the second title from Wideload, is the latest product of Seropian’s drive to create the games he wants to make while the industry moves onto the next sequel. Check out what Seropian had to say about the future of independent games, lucking out on the current election and his concept for the most expensive game of all time. Hit the jump for the full interview. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Alex Seropian, Gamecock, Hail to the Chimp, Wideload | No Comments »

Interviews

Guerilla Games’ Steven Ter Heide Talks Killzone 2

Killzone 2 won’t ship till early 2009 but that’s no reason not to shed some light on the upcoming PS3 exclusive. The new game follows up on the storyline of the previous Killzone. Only this time you play as Sev, a special ops soldier in the Interplanetary Strategic Alliance battling against your mutated human cousins, the Helghast. This time around the humans are taking the fight to the planet Helghan where hilarity is sure to ensue. We caught up with Steven Ter Heide, senior producer of the game, to talk about riddling aliens wearing gasmasks with lead. Click the jump for the full interview. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Guerilla Games, Killzone 2, Steven Ter Heide | No Comments »

Interviews

Randy Pitchford Walks Us Down Hell’s Highway

The video game industry has profited mightily off of real life conflicts, none more than World War II. In the process games like Call of Duty and Medal of Honor have raised the bar when it comes to first person shooters. Besides getting gameplay, graphics and story locked down the developers face the added burden of treating the source material with the proper respect. Gearbox achieved all three in their previous entry in the genre, Brothers in Arms. We get a chance to see if they can pull it off again this summer when gamers get a chance to once again assume the role of Sergeant Matt Baker in their sequel, Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway. The new game focuses on one of the biggest clusterfucks of the war–Operation Market Garden. It was a battle the Allies ultimately lost when they tried to push through German lines, getting stonewalled on the banks of the Rhine. We got a chance to talk to Randy Pitchford, president and founder of Gearbox Software, about his studio’s debut game on next-gen consoles and got a history lesson in the process. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway, Gearbox, Randy Pitchford, Ubisoft | No Comments »

Interviews

Jens Pulver Talks Games And His Title Fight Against Urijah Faber

This Sunday Jens “Lil Evil” Pulver will challenge Urijah “The California Kid” Faber for the WEC featherweight championship belt, that’s 145-pounds if you don’t follow the fight game. Which also means that you probably don’t know Pulver is a big time gamer. We caught up with Pulver, the former UFC lightweight champ, over the phone in between training sessions in Sacramento, California to talk about his shot at the belt and a few of his favorite titles. Read the full interview after the jump. If you’re up for a bloody Sunday catch the fight live on the Versus network at 9 pm eastern. Read the rest of this entry »

No Comments »

Interviews

Dead Space Producer Glen Schofield Wants “To Scare The Piss Out Of You”

By now you’ve heard of EA’s play into the horror-survival genre–the one that doesn’t involve a hostile takeover bid of Take-Two. We’re talking about their upcoming title, Dead Space. Players will assume the role of Isaac Clarke, a space mechanic sent to a distant solar system to find a mining ship, the USG Ishimura, that’s gone missing. As we have already noted, space travel generally ends very poorly unless you’re William Shatner.

The guys at EA Los Angles, executive producer Glen Schofield in particular, have made effort to scare the shit out of you. We caught up with Schofield to talk about putting the fear into gamers, “strategic dismemberment” and his own neuroses. Hit the jump for the interview.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Dead Space, EA, Glen Schofield, sci-fi horror | No Comments »

Interviews

Interview: Cliff Bleszinski, Epic Design Director, Talks Some Gears 2

Cliff Bleszinski is under a little pressure at the moment, actually a “fuck load” in his own words. Not only is he keeping an eye on porting Unreal Tournament 3 over to the Xbox 360, he’s also spearheading Gears of War 2 for a November release. In our last interview with Cliff, ensconced between a pair of Penthouse Pets at GDC, he admitted that the last sequel in any series is the one that fails to make money. If the demo of the second level of Gears 2 is any indication, Epic should start mapping out the third installment.

We sat down with the Bleszinski to talk redneck survivalists, chainsaws and using another living being as cover from incoming gunfire – you know, the hairy, nasty heart beating in the chest cavity of the Gears sequel. Check the full interview after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Cliff Bleszinski, Cliffy B, Gears of War 2 | No Comments »

Interviews

An Exclusive Interview With Bourne Producer, Emmanuel Valdez

A fourth Bourne film is in the works for a release in 2010 but PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 gamers will be able to step into the assassin’s shoes in the first game spinoff, The Bourne Conspiracy later this month. Matt Damon’s voice or likeness won’t appear in the Teen-rated title. But that won’t affect the pleasure you derive from beating another human being to death with a book. At least it… shouldn’t. We sat down with Emmanuel Valdez, chief creative officer behind the game and co-founder of High Moon Studios, to delve a little deeper into the Conspiracy. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Emmanuel Valdez, High Moon Studios, Sierra, The Bourne Conspiracy | No Comments »