Game Faces: Cosmo Wright
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is one of my favorite games ever. I feel like I should know everything about the game, since I've finished the roughly 20-hour main storyline several times over the last 16 years.
I realized how little I knew when I saw Cosmo Wright finish the game in under 20 minutes.
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Game Faces: Rami Ismail
For a small developer that's just four years old, Vlambeer has a surprising influence on the gaming industry.
The Dutch studio is made up of just two people, but it's one of the most well-known indie developers. Co-founder Rami Ismail almost feels like an unofficial spokesman for the industry.
"We are not afraid to speak up against things we find problematic in the industry, and things we find interesting in the industry," said Ismail.
Indeed, he has been a staunch supporter of Anita Sarkeesian and her series examining women in video games - a series that has sparked a wave of abuse for Sarkeesian and those who stand with her.
He also suggested Vlambeer's high profile might be because the company always seems to find itself in the middle of the industry's latest trends. FULL POST
Game Faces: Jake Kazdal
It's always special to see a product that truly reflects its creator. GALAK-Z: The Dimensional bears the fingerprints of 17-BIT's Jake Kazdal. FULL POST
Game Faces: Vince Zampella
The mark of a good multiplayer game is balance. Ideally, you want it to be fair for everyone who plays your game.
One simple way to ensure a fair fight is to give everyone the same tools. It's the easiest (and most logical) way to level the playing field. If everyone has access to the same weapons and same moves, the only major difference is a player's ability, right?
Titanfall is a multiplayer game built around a unique central concept: Giant armored mechs (Titans) battling with small and agile foot soldiers (pilots).
On paper, it is not a fair fight.
And that's what makes Titanfall so much fun. FULL POST
Game Faces: Josef Fares
Video games aren't always seen as the best medium for storytelling. But I think they should be, for one simple reason: interactivity.
As the player, you're experiencing the story first-hand. Whatever happens to the protagonist of the story is happening to you as a player. How you act and react forms part of the story.
I think interactivity should, in theory, allow people to have a greater connection with the story. But too many games use non-interactive, cinematic sequences to show their most important scenes. At a time when games could hammer home the advantage they have over movies, the player instead puts down the controller to passively watch it unfold without his input.
So it's funny that it took a Swedish filmmaker to make a game that avoids cinematic tricks to tell his story.
Game Faces: Cliff Bleszinski
Cliffy B. Dude Huge. Or just Cliff Bleszinski. Whatever you call him, he's one of the closest things there is to a celebrity video game designer.
Game Faces: Ken Levine
Like most forms of media, video games are linear. They have a beginning and an end. But the path doesn't necessarily have to be a straight line. That's what makes video games unique.
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