Stuart Campbell needs no introduction. So, er, oh.

What games are tickling your fancy at the moment?
Lode Runner 3D on the N64. It's absolutely lovely, easily the deftest and cleverest modern updating of an old classic since 3D Lemmings. I had very low expectations of Lode 3D, but it restored my faith in the original as well as the new version. And Ridge Racer 4 is just beautiful.

What was the first computer game you ever played?
When I was about 11, I won a home Pong console in a competition I didn't enter, held in a place I hadn't been. Clearly there was a destiny thing going on, so I didn't fight it.

Any particular favourites from yesteryear?
How long have you got? To pick out a couple of less obvious names, there was a brilliant Spectrum game called All or Nothing which no one remembers but which was very much the spiritual predecessor of Goldeneye, and Sensible Software's Wizkid is one of the great lost classics, a riot of invention that was just too weird to catch on.

What's been the biggest videogaming letdown for you in the last year?
Not sure if they were in the last year, but Gran Turismo and Final Fantasy VII were both big disappointments to me; GT because - for all the stunning technical achievement - it's just no actual fun at all to play, and FFVII because it forces you through hours and hours of agonising snail-paced tedium to get to the good bits. Also, FFVII's random-battle system is an absolute embarrassment to supposedly modern gameplay standards. More recently, I thought it was disgraceful to see Tomb Raider 3 come out STILL with that grotesquely clumsy control system. Control of your character is the single most important thing in any game, and TR's sucks huge-style.

Any titles you're really looking forward to in the near future?
The games business appears to be taking a creative year off in 1999 in preparation for the next generation of consoles, so apart from Rare's line-up, I'm struggling to think of anything very much. Shenmue might be interesting.

When all's said and done, what's your favourite game ever?
I'd absolutely hate to have to choose between Mario 64 and Goldeneye. For all the usual reasons, but also for showing how amazing and complete a gameworld you can create in a relatively tiny space (just 8MB and 12MB respectively) if you've got discipline and creative skill. There's a big lesson for lazy, flabby PS and PC developers there, if they could only be bothered to see it.