Recently I have been on an interview kick. It feels like every week I suddenly line up another interview with somebody. This isn’t really my usual thing, but there is something joyous about talking to passionate people and sharing their stories. This post includes two of my recent interviews. Of course, I also had to throw in one classic Willa article in which I gush about a game that most people didn’t play but that I actually think is a modern classic. Here are this (and last) week’s highlights.
The hottest summer games event is… Tribeca?
E3 is dead, but in its place it feels like dozens of summer showcases have popped up to fill the void. Obviously, the largest is Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest. One of the most surprising E3 successors is Tribeca Games, the video game-centric branch of the Tribeca Film Festival which gave out its inaugural Tribeca Games Award in 2021.
I talked with the VP of Tribeca Games about this year’s official selection and Tribeca’s unique approach to their programming which focuses on forwarding games as an art form and putting spotlights on the creators. [Article]
Zelda speedrunners are fans first
Tears of the Kingdom is out, and while somebody has already beaten it in under two hours most speedrunners won’t be taking this approach. I talked to three Zelda speedrunners, including the fastest player in the world, about how they are approaching the release of Tears of the Kingdom. Unanimously, they all said they want to play the game as a fan first and probably won’t dive into speedrunning for a week or two. [Article]
Put some respect on The Last Guardian
Team Ico was a development subsidiary of Japan Studio responsible for making Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. These are some of the most influential games of the modern era, directly inspiring Dark Souls and The Last of Us. Team Ico’s final game was The Last Guardian, which iterates on the companion gameplay from Ico that so many modern games have attempted to recreate and mention with such reverence.
But The Last Guardian showed up basically to prove that nobody else held a candle to Team Ico. It is a modern masterpiece, despite its polarizing response upon release. Sadly, Studio Japan — and Team Ico with it — were closed by Sony. RIP. [Article]
See you next time.