The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20120330224701/http://www.pcgamer.com:80/category/interviews/

Interview: Ubisoft on reinventing Assassin’s Creed, punching bears

at 07:55pm March 29 2012
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Yesterday we learned more about the main character and world of our Assassin’s Creed III in part one of our interview with creative director Alex Hutchinson, senior producer Francois Pelland, and associate producer Jean-Francois Boivin. Story and lore are great, but now we’re ready for the really good stuff in part 2: Weapons, mechanics, and the possibility of choking out a bear.

We ask every CCP man we can find whether DUST 514 is coming to PC

at 02:18pm March 28 2012
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DUST 514 is a free-to-play first-person shooter from CCP, creators of EVE Online. PC players will get to set up contracts for PS3 players to complete. You’ll even get to lay down orbital strikes on the console kids. Watch footage of the awe-inspiring first hit here.

But CCP haven’t confirmed that Dust 514 is coming to PC… yet. This confuses me. Our rigs are meaty enough to pull off their target footage in real-time, and we already know how free-to-play mechanics work. Is it coincidence that PS3 Dust 514 has mouse and keyboard support, possibly making any future ports easier to manage? Or that it’s uses the PC-compatible Unreal Engine? Also: what do the two mystery pillars that popped up during CCP’s keynote represent?

Interview: Ubisoft on Reinventing Assassin’s Creed, High-Fiving George Washington

at 01:02am March 28 2012
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With the release of last year’s Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, it seemed like Ubisoft’s annual release policy was finally catching up to its favorite fleet-footed franchise. It was hard not to see Ezio’s wispy gray hair and tired, age-darkened eyes as indicators of the state of the entire Assassin’s Creed franchise. Feature bloat had taken its toll on a series that once thrived on elegant simplicity. Desmond’s first-person sections, random tower-defense-esque minigames, and bombs, bombs, and more bombs portrayed a series fumbling around in the darkness, vainly attempting to re-bottle the magic that had once made it so special.

Enter Assassin’s Creed III.

What do game writers and designers think about BioWare changing the Mass Effect 3 ending?

at 07:43pm March 23 2012
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To address some fans’ feedback about the game’s ending, BioWare has said it’s working on “a number of game content initiatives” for Mass Effect 3 in addition to existing DLC plans. The possibility of BioWare modifying the game’s ending has stirred a conversation on Twitter, message boards, development blogs, and elsewhere: would changing a game’s final moments based on feedback set a bad precedent for video games’ creative integrity? Or is it actually a way of taking advantage of the unique ease with which games can be edited?

One voice I wanted to include in this dialogue was that of BioWare’s fellow writers and designers throughout the industry. To find out what they thought, I talked to Chris Avellone, Gary Whitta, Greg Kasavin, Jesse Schell, Chuck Jordan, Paul Taylor, Steve Gaynor, Susan O’Connor, and Bobby Stein. They’ve worked on Fallout: New Vegas, Bastion, Far Cry 2, Frozen Synapse, BioShock, BioShock 2, and other games. I’ve presented their opinions here, which are only edited for clarity.

Civilization V: Gods & Kings interview with lead designer Ed Beach

at 12:30am March 9 2012
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Yesterday at GDC, we had the chance for a brief interview with lead designer Ed Beach about the upcoming Civilization V: Gods & Kings expansion. The add-on will include new religion and espionage systems, nine new civilizations, over 27 new units, new buildings, new wonders, new natural wonders, new scenarios, and new resources. That’s a lot of new, but our biggest take-away from the interview is that the expansion isn’t just about adding, but also improving the existing AI, multiplayer, and balance. That’s great to hear.

Rift Executive Producer Scott Hartsman explains how dynamic content drives the world of Telara

at 07:00pm March 6 2012
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As extra-planar invasion-themed MMO Rift passes the one year mark, I caught up with Executive Producer Scott Hartsman to dive deep on one of Rift’s more unique aspects: its dynamic world.

In our chat, Hartsman explains how Rift was initially conceived as a completely dynamic, unpredictable MMO, and why Trion had to step back from that ambition in the face of underwhelming playtests. What’s happening underneath the hood when a rift opens, spilling forth a planar invasion force? How has Trion turned Rift into an “entertainment on demand” experience with its instant action feature, without detracting from the unpredictability and sense of discovery that Rift’s dynamic content makes possible?

Even if you’re not a Rift player, Hartsman gives provides a great perspective on the process behind building a different kind of MMO, and how that leads to unforeseen consequences like a cataclysmic battle in the least exciting place in Telara.

The anatomy of a PlanetSide 2 battle in 2,000 words

at 06:04pm February 23 2012
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It’s a big deal when we put a game on our cover: it’s a massive undertaking of asset-wrangling, hours of interviewing, page storyboarding, cutting, transcribing, and other tasks that make us perfect models for clichéd stock photos of “people at work.” For our PlanetSide 2 issue, I came home with buckets of good words—more stuff than we could fit in a magazine.

These are those words. I got SOE’s Matt Higby to walk me through—hour by hour—how a play for a single base in PlanetSide 2′s multi-continent map might go down. His description animates the many moving parts of PS2′s combat ecosystem, and gives a glimmer into the tough design decisions SOE has to make to produce a PvP-only massive FPS. (War) story time!

Ken Levine interview

at 07:00pm January 28 2012
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This interview first appeared in PC Gamer UK issue 233.

BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter like its predecessors, but a less lonely one. You play Booker DeWitt, who is trying to escape the flying city of Columbia with a girl named Elizabeth before a terrifying steampunk robot called Songbird catches her. The city is a spectacular airborne flotilla of districts suspended by vast balloons – a testament to America’s cultural might, and its fondness for things that are big but not terribly useful. Our last good look at the game was a spectacular 15-minute demonstration at E3.

I spoke to creative director Ken Levine about why Elizabeth is the centrepiece not just of the story, but of the technology that drives it.

PC Gamer Podcast #299.5: Interview with Bioware’s Lead Writer Daniel Erickson

at 01:40am December 23 2011
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Christmas is canceled: there will be no podcast this week as we’re busy decking the halls of our magazine to get the latest issue to Santa’s printers in time. Daniel Erickson, Lead Writer for Star Wars: the Old Republic, swung by the office to cheer us on and chat about TOR on its launch day. We chat about his favorite light and dark side moments, which classes are just plain evil, and why faction changes just don’t make sense in the Star Wars universe.

We hope you’ll have a fantastic holiday season full of wonder-frags and epic loots. Look for podcast #300 in the new year. It’ll be the cat’s meow.

PC Gamer Interview with Daniel Erickson

Behind-the-scenes with Songhammer, the epic band that rocked BlizzCon’s music contest

at 08:20pm November 23 2011
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You might not have noticed, but there was another band (on top of the Foo Fighters and Blizzard’s own Level 90 Elite Tauren Chieftain) worthy of your praise at BlizzCon last month: the almighty Songhammer. We sat down with the two gamers that formed the army of epic rock, wicked guitars, and WoW-centric lyrics that won third place in the Original Song Contest at this year’s BlizzCon. Between bursts of guitar riffs and giant dragons breathing fire, they told us their tale and talked about some their top songs, like “We are the Horde” and “Armies of the Light.”

Read on to learn more about this rocktastic duo and grab free MP3s of their premier songs at the end of the interview.

Heroes of Newerth director talks about mentoring

at 08:54pm November 22 2011
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As action-RTS Heroes of Newerth prepares to introduce new features and a few surprises at Dreamhack, Director of Operations Brad Bower talked to us about how S2 is developing the game by providing more effective teaching tools for new players.

He explained how HoN’s mentoring system mimics the way we tend to learn games from friends in real-life, and how HoN’s updates will make the client itself a learning resource for new players.

GOG director explains the distributor’s new direction, how “good old” principles still apply

at 08:49pm November 21 2011
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Last week, Good Old Games announced a shift toward games that are not quite so old. I asked Good Old Games’ Managing Director, Guillaume Rambourg, what this means for the core of the business, classic PC games, and exactly how GOG.com is going to balance its ideals and identity with the business of newer games.

He laid some fears to rest, and explained how “newer” games should not be confused with “brand new.”

Bring back the gank: How Mists of Pandaria will return old-school PvP to World of Warcraft

at 09:39pm November 4 2011
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We had a chance to sit down with World of Warcraft’s Senior Game Producer, John Lagrave, at this year’s BlizzCon to talk about what Blizzard wants to do with PvP in Mists of Pandaria. And they’ve got some big plans to bring back the memorable chaos of huge open-world fights and group ganking alongside the ultra-serene Pandaren race.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Todd Howard Interview

at 02:30pm October 30 2011
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This interview originally appeared in PC Gamer UK issue 232. Alongside our Skyrim preview.

Playing Skyrim made me realise just how huge, fresh and exciting it really is. I asked game director Todd Howard how far it’s come from Oblivion, and what some of his favourite discoveries have been.

Gabe Newell on his Dota 2 obsession, Half-Life protests and EA’s Origin

at 10:00am October 29 2011
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This interview originally appeared in PC Gamer UK issue 232. Alternatively you can watch the video interview.

Valve are constantly surprising. One month they’re making one of their most popular games, Team Fortress 2, free to play, and the next they’re running a $1 million tournament for the upcoming Dota 2.

That makes any chance to speak to company co-founder Gabe Newell a pleasure, because you never know what you’re going to get. I sat down with him during the Dota 2 tournament to talk about his obsession with his company’s new game, his thoughts on EA’s Steam-rival Origin, and what motivates him to come into work each day.

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