[Over at our sister IndieGames.com weblog, Tim W. has been rolling out some smart interviews recently — and here’s another neat one, from super-nice IGF award-winner and GAMMA indie game competition co-organizer Phil Fish. Hurray!]
It’s been close to a year since the last published interview with Phil Fish was posted on the web, so we decided to do a bit of catching up with the designer of Fez and new face of IGF by asking him a couple of questions to find out what he’s been working on.
Hi Phil, can you tell us something about yourself and what it is exactly that you do?
I’m Phil Fish, and I co-founded two things: Kokoromi and Polytron. One is an experimental game/art collective, and the other is a company. I do art and design on all my projects. And I guess I’m mostly known for Fez.
Any plans to put out something before the […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Simon Carless) and software by Elliott Back

Aha, now we’re picking out the best posts of the rest of the week from big sister site Gamasutra and elsewhere on our Think Services sites/blogs - with a couple of standout interviews leading things out.
In particular, our chats with Tomb Raider Underworld’s Eric Lindstrom and Fallout 3’s Emil Pagliarulo showcase the thoughtful interview style that we try to engender in all of our writers. And there’s also XBLA game design documentation, some neat GCG competitions, Sins Of A Solar Empire’s impressive sales number, and lots more:
Gamasutra Features
Lara Croft’s Legacy: Moving Tomb Raider Forward
“Crystal Dynamics creative director Eric Lindstrom talks the challenges and joys of designing Lara’s next steps forward in Tomb Raider: Underworld — part renewal, part return to form?”
Revitalizing a Heritage: The Writing of Fallout 3
“As lead designer and writer of Fallout 3, Bethesda’s Emil Pagliarulo is in a unique position to craft the game’s style — […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Simon Carless) and software by Elliott Back

[’Game Mag Weaseling’ is a weekly column by Kevin Gifford which documents the history of video game magazines, from their birth in the early ’80s to the current day.]

Instead of the traditional round-up or magazine focus for Game Mag Weaseling, there is just one page I’d like to share with you: the review of Genesis classic Gunstar Heroes, printed in the very first issue of UK magazine Edge, way back in October 1993.
Modern Edge is written a lot better, I promise!
[Kevin Gifford breeds ferrets and runs Magweasel, a site for collectors and fans of old video-game and computer magazines. In his spare time he does writing and translation for lots and lots of publishers and game companies.]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Kevin Gifford) and software by Elliott Back

[On occasion, I may be reading my Gamasutra colleague Chris Remo’s excellent weblog, and ask nicely to yoink one of his posts for GameSetWatch. This post — dealing with his chat to the Crytek folks about their custom-branded Crysis-related PC — is one of those.]
About a month ago, I reported that EA was planning to market a Crysis Warhead-ready PC. I have now learned that the machine—which, at least among the Crytek staff that specced it out, is called the “Warhead PC”—will be officially announced next week.
In my original post, I pegged the price to be between $600 and $800; as it turns out, it’s almost exactly in between, at $699, and it will apparently be coming in a single SKU. It will be sold by UltraPC, and unveiled by EA. Crytek, Nvidia, EA, and UltraPC were all involved.
I spoke with Crysis franchise producer Bernd Diemer, who explained […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Simon Carless) and software by Elliott Back

Hope all of your GSW fiends are having a pleasant weekend - as am I, thanks to a relaxing holiday atmosphere and a bountiful set of interesting GameSetLinks.
In here somewhere - a new mini-competition for the new N+ XBLA pack, custom Bangai-O DS levels from pro designers, new official Amiga emulation packs, Jeff Green’s game journalism departure (aw!), geeked-out collector things, and much more.
Things to do:
N+ Level Pack Contesque: Part the Second | metablog
Another gigantic N+ XBLA level update coming, yay. I'm boycotting this competition because there's no level in this pack named after me this time, of course.
IGN: Bangai-O Spirits Elite Design Contest
'D3Publisher tapped select videogame industry luminaries and invited them to craft exclusive game levels using the level editing tools in D3Publisher's latest Nintendo DS system game, Bangai-O Spirits.' Neat idea.
…on pampers, programming & pitching manure: The OTHER consoles.
'I'm not suggesting that everyone run out and write […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Simon Carless) and software by Elliott Back

[Over at Gamasutra, Christian Nutt has been talking to EA Games’ Frank Gibeau about the continuing — if you believe it, which I believe I do, somewhat — reinvention of Electronic Arts as a more creative, progressive game company. And that’s worth a crosspost here on GSW, I think.]
Since its unveiling during Game Developers Conference 2005, Will Wright’s evolution sim Spore has become a huge investment for EA, one which the company hopes might eventually expand into an entire division of the company, as has Wright’s mega-hit franchise The Sims.
Until that happens, however, Spore falls under the EA Games umbrella managed by label president Frank Gibeau. Beyond that game, Gibeau is working to encourage a label-wide focus on quality, one which he admits had “slipped” in the years prior to CEO John Riccitiello’s wide-reaching reorganization of the company.
Gamasutra sat down with Gibeau to discuss the high expectations for Spore, what […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Simon Carless) and software by Elliott Back

[Back after a few months’ hiatus, The Aberrant Gamer is happy to return as a biweekly, sometimes NSFW column by Leigh Alexander, dedicated to the kinks and quirks we gamers tend to keep under our hats – those predilections and peccadilloes less commonly discussed in conventional media.]
“Why don’t women like the big console games?” Someone asked me recently.
As a female game journalist, I’m one of the few and the proud, although as a female gamer I’m not nearly as unique as the population of internet forums would probably suggest. Still, I’m often asked questions like these, about “what women like” and what they don’t.
And I usually get a little bit miffed, to tell you the truth. I tend to reject assertions that there must exist a uniquely female palate for video games. I feel that my preferences and aversions as far as video games have more to do with my […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Leigh Alexander) and software by Elliott Back

[Every week, IndieGames.com: The Weblog editor Tim W. will be summing up some of the top free-to-download and commercial indie games from the last seven days, as well as any notable features on his sister ’state of indie’ weblog.]
This week on ‘Best Of Indie Games’, we take a look at some of the top independent PC Flash/downloadable titles released over this last week.
The delights in this latest version include a Game Maker production which has been in development for more than three years, a new Flash game by the co-creator of Gish, two remakes of classic shooters, and a puzzler by the people who brought you Jets’n’Guns.
Game Pick: ‘Aether‘ (Edmund McMillen, browser)
“A new collaborative effort by the co-creator of Gish and Tyler Glaiel, where players get to see the a small part of the universe through the eyes of a young dreamer as he ventures into space on the back […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (timw) and software by Elliott Back

[Feast your eyes on this! Regular GSW columnist Mister Raroo continues his specially funded examination of non-games with a look at Flash Focus for the Nintendo DS. As it turns out, Mister Raroo’s prescription called for eye strain, dizziness, and an eventual secession from the exhausting demands that Nintendo places upon its loyal fans.]
Of Side Eyes and Chalazions
When my niece Autumn was in fifth grade, I was introduced to the term “side eye.” A boy in her class had a lazy eye, and in the type of merciless mockery typical of elementary school children, the other kids started calling it his side eye. However, despite the heartlessness of such a mean term, it became a part of our family’s vernacular and we’ve been referring to lazy eyes as side eyes ever since.
Missus Raroo’s family is not at all unfamiliar with the curse of the side eye. Though somehow she […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Bill Sannwald) and software by Elliott Back

The three readers of this blog who are no doubt sick of my bitching about my personal XBox 360 problems, fear not. I’m only bringing them up because now that the Xbox 360 is has an official price cut on the horizon, then the sky just got a little more clear for me. I’m assuming that this news is good for those who didn’t get an Xbox 360, but still want one. I don’t really care though, I only care about my myself.

Anyway… if you’re like me waiting for the three rings to be confirmed or are just plain out of warrenty, the cheapest Xbox is going to only cost a hundred dollars more than it would cost to fix your old crappy one. Sweet deal, huh?
Here are the prices:
* Xbox 360 Arcade - $199
* Xbox 360 - $299
* Xbox 360 Elite - $399
Now remember if you are […]

Original post by Paul and software by Elliott Back