Hi everybody! It's the beginning of the new year, so it's time to get all nostalgic about the last one. 2015 was a pretty solid one at Game Informer. Bringing Wade on has been a gigantic plus for the team, and he tackled four of the cover story trips this year. For this blog, I wanted to run down my favorite videos that I produced in 2015. I'm not including podcasts, Test Chambers, or Replays, since I see this list as a nice way to keep tabs and evaluate the unique content we've created outside of that. If you're interested in checking out my previous round-ups, here are links to my top tens from 2014, 2013, 2012, and 2011.
10. The History of Quantum Break
Travelling to Finland was a fun adventure, and I'm glad our video on the development of Remedy's new game is an honest assessment on what a pain in the ass it can be to make a game sometimes.
It's a real honor to introduce new game studios to the world, and the team behind Mafia III needed to explain their weird logo.
8. Assassin's Creed Creator Meets NHL's Producer
I love shooting the developer one-on-one discussions at E3. This year a ton of potential videos fell through at the last minute but thanks to the flexibility of Patrice and EA, we were able to grab some beers and shoot an eye-opening chat on what it's like to create a freaking sports game every year.
7. Hidetaka Miyazaki Watches Twitch Play Dark Souls
The Dark Souls III cover story visit was the strangest I've ever been on, least of all because the creator of the series refuses to be recorded. This bizarre video is the best I could do to capture the genuine fun of showing Miyazaki Twitch attempting to play Dark Souls for the first time.
6. Take A Video Tour Of E3 2015
5. Comparing Uncharted 4 To The Last Of Us
Sometimes with smart game developers you need to just sit down for a good, ol' fashioned, long-as-heck chat. I really enjoyed speaking to the two leads behind The Last of Us on their creative transition back into the world of Uncharted.
4. Ken Burns' Geometry Wars
We've been talking about it forever, but this was the first year that we made a video accompaniment to our annual "Game Infarcer" joke section in the April issue of the magazine. Sitting down to write out a comedy script is something I haven't really done since high school.
3. The Best Games Of E3 2015
Man, we really shoot a lot at E3. We sent out our very own street comedian Ben Reeves to find out what random people on the show floor thought about E3 and what stood out to them. It was a fun excuse to have a boat-load of game industry cameos. Also, this video is really weird. I like weird.
2. 104 Questions And Answers About Destiny: The Taken King
These rapid-fire interviews began with No Man's Sky last year and I'm really glad we have kept them going with Destiny here and also Quantum Break. Sitting around a hotel room late at night brainstorming possible questions is draining, but I'm always happy with how these turn out. Also, they're weird as hell and people seem to like them.
1. Designing The Star Wars Toys Of Disney Infinity 3.0
It's always nice when visiting a studio to have a reason to walk with the camera and shake things up from a standard sit-down interview. Having the Avalanche team walk us through the entire process of designing the Star Wars figures was really interesting to me, it was a nice opportunity to really stop and think for a while about the contours of Harrison Ford's face.
I've had a lot of fun this year, from rebooting The Game Informer Show podcast in a way I'm really proud of to starting a silly side-podcast all about the band AFI with Jeff Cork. We'll try damn hard to improve our content for next year and keep y'all interested in what we're cooking up in our small Minnesotan office here. Thank you so much for sticking with Game Informer! Happy New Year!