What has been the biggest videogaming let-down for you last year?
Probably Wild 9, and Starcraft stand out as the biggest damp squibs. In Wild 9’s case, a lot of PR hype and hoohar, massive posters on London buses, and for what? I’m still not actually sure just what the hell the damn game’s actually all about! And Starcraft, because I thought the very capable Warcraft 2 engine was worthy of so much more. The expression “little pot boiler” immediately springs to mind.

Any titles you’re really looking forward to in the near future?
Oh, ahh, um. No. I’m pretty much Tomb-Raider’d out, and I’ve had enough of Half-Life to last me half my life. Maybe something NEW! Y’know - the kind of thing no marketing department on the planet would ever see the scope in, and which could only come out of a little company taking a serious winger. A product born out of love, not love of bucks. If Maxis or Bullfrog were still alive (in the independent sense), I’d probably be looking to them for some new gameplay experiences, but frankly, I think even they are locked into the corporate conservatism which is slowing strangling all creativity in this biz. Oops, you’ve got me started again...

When all’s said and done, what’s your favourite game ever?
Impossible to answer – 'cos I haven’t got a single fave, instead I have a favourite for each genre. Like GoldenEye is undisputedly the best first-person shooter ever (with Half-Life running a close second). Starfox is still the greatest 3D space shoot 'em up, and has a special place in my heart because I was working at Argonaut when it was launched (though, I’m sad to say, I had little to do with Starfox directly, as Nintendo did it all in Japan). Destruction Derby has to be my most fun racing game, because it caters for my need for speed AND my need to smash the crap out of inanimate objects from time to time. And Caesar 3 (in fact the whole Caesar series) because, after many long years of me slagging of Impressions’ early strategy & simulation games, they finally cracked, and came up with something sublimely brilliant, and a work of art to look at. As well as being a series I come back to again and again, they represent the kind of achievement, progression and craftsmanship that only a little company stuffed full of caring, die-hard gamers can make happen, and “megabuck industries” will only stifle and murder. But my name’s not Ben Elton, so goodnight...