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Ken Levine lists favorite games again, changes mind on a few
Ken Levine plays video games. Shocking, we know! Speaking with IndustryGamers, Levine, who is currently working on a super-secret project, listed his ten favorite games. Occupying the top five spots in descending order are: World of Warcraft, Civilization, Beyond Good & Evil, Ultima Underworld and Company of Heroes.Back in 2007, Levine produced a similar list for MSNBC. His top five have apparently shifted in the last two years, though, as Heroes of Might and Magic 2 and Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past have fallen even beyond the BioShock developer's top ten. How hast these games forsaken thee, Ken? What hast they done for thou to banish them from thy heart likest so?
2K Boston's next big thing is a shooter
"Yeah, that and 90 percent of the other games released every year," you retort. Okay, we hear you, and trust us, we get it. It's not exactly earth-shattering that a 2K Boston job listing indicates that the follow-up to the studio's big-hit shooter BioShock would be another shooter. But do you remember the part where 2K Boston made BioShock? Yeah, you better believe we're going to tell you everything we learn about it until we have it in our trembling, grateful hands. (Speaking of which, it's also hiring a multiplayer level designer, for your info.) Besides, we weren't positive it was going to be another shooter. It could have been another Freedom Force game, for all we knew. Actually, 2K Boston ... could you go ahead and make that too, while you're at it? [Via Gamespot]
Coo over Sander Cohen's BioShock statuette
GamePro has a photo set of the statuette based on BioShock's homicidal artist, Sander Cohen, given to 2K Boston employees by the studio's Creative Director Ken Levine. The sculpture was created by "Irrational" artist Robb Waters, produced by Patch Together and infused with mental instability by Fontaine Futuristics.2K Boston is currently working on a secret project while 2K Marin (and a half-dozen other studios) try to get BioShock 2 out the airlock.
MIT BiG: Levine talks life before BioShock
We're here at the MIT Business in Gaming conference this afternoon to watch Ken Levine – who holds the title trifecta of "co-founder, "president" and "Creative Director" at 2K Boston (née Irrational) – take the hotseat in a Q&A format (that, for some reason, is being billed as a "keynote"). No bother – given an opportunity to hear the BioShock developer discuss the current state of the industry (not to mention regaling us backstage with amusing yarns about Strauss Zelnick's protein-centric diet), we took our spot in the front row, laptops at the ready. After an introduction by one of the show's sponsors (get off the stage, bub!) the Q&A was handed over to MIT graduate student Dennis Fu, who peppered Levine with a series of questions inspired by the day's panel topics: digital distribution; in-game advertising; MMO business models; and serious games. Fu stepped right into the deep end, asking Levine "What can you tell us about BioShock 2?" As he's said before, he's keeping himself intentionally in the dark so that he can play it "as a fan." "We're sort of keeping ourselves at a distance," he explained.
