When I talked recently with David Votypka, the general manager of Kaos studios, he began to speak about how screenwriter John Milius influenced the story scenarios in Homefront. Milius is a fine writer, the screenwriter for Coppola’s epic Apocalypse Now, one of the greatest movies of the 20th century. So when THQ and Kaos brought…
There’s no doubt about it. Games can and do inspire other art forms. I write excitedly about it in my upcoming videogame book, All Your Base Are Belong to Us. And here’s more vivid proof: the dozen, little one-act Wii Plays currently showing at New York’s Ars Nova theater. These young playwrights who have done…
Back in the late 1990s, I interviewed Danny Bilson for a pre-E3 story about movies and games in The Hollywood Reporter. Bilson told a story about sitting on a plane and meeting a videogame executive. As the story unfolded, Bilson talked animatedly about his love for games. And he got a good gig – not…
In this final part of the Critics Circle’s week-long series, Mac Walters espouses his views on the Illusive Man. Who is he? How did he come to be? Was his creation really inspired by The Smoking Man on The X-Files? Read on! HG: What is the overarching role of the Illusive Man in the comics?…
In this portion of our week-long Q/A, Mac Walters waxes on about the Mass Effect comic. How does it distinguish itself from the videogame? And how is it like the videogame. Mac tells you, right here. HG: When you look at Mass Effect as a comic in particular, do you always look at what readers…
Today, Mass Effect’s Mac Walters continues to speak about the craft of writing, giving you a look at the complete writing process for the series which takes place at BioWare’s lair in Vancouver HG: You’re writing up to 30,000 lines of script per game. How do you manage that? MW: It’s up to me as…
A while back, Mass Effect genius Mac Walters and I had a talk about the art of writing in the science fiction videogame series, the latest iteration of which tops many year end lists this year. About one-sixth of this five-part series was published in EGM. But, as writing in games begins to get the…
Next week, I’ll begin a week long series on the writing within one of the decades great series, Mass Effect. It’s a five-part interview with Mac Walters on the writing in the game series and in the comic book series. Mac really waxes profound throughout. Right now, it’s time for some holiday levity. Here’s Vikings…
On Wednesday, December 8, at AOL Ventures, The New York Videogame Critics Circle is partnering with the excellent New York Gaming Meetup for our first panel discussion. Evan Narcisse, Tracey John, Andrew Yoon, Russ Frushtick and I will talk about the state of videogames. Then we’ll dissect the current indie games scene. It should be…
If you travel to 44th Street’s St. James Theatre to see American Idiot, you’ll witness a play that changes what you’ve thought about Green Day’s epic rock opera concept CD. When you attend, you’ll enjoy a sometimes funny, often Hubert Selby-dark interpretation of Billie Joe Armstrong’s vision of St. Jimmy and Johnny. There’s a lot…