Hideo Kojima Will Talk About the Inspirations Behind Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding in “The Creative Gene”

The ideas that have sprung from Hideo Kojima’s head throughout his career are often baffling… just look at the mindbending plot twists found in Death Stranding and the entire Metal Gear Solid franchise… but you have to admit that his games are always interesting.

The developer gave fans a peek inside his creative process in The Gifted Gene and My Lovable Memes, a book of essays he published in Japan in 2019. And now, this collection will be translated into English by Viz Media as The Creative Gene this Fall:

Ever since he was a child, Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima was a voracious consumer of movies, music, and books. They ignited his passion for stories and storytelling, and the results can be seen in his groundbreaking, iconic video games.

Now the head of independent studio Kojima Productions, Kojima’s enthusiasm for entertainment media has never waned. This collection of essays explores some of the inspirations behind one of the titans of the video game industry, and offers an exclusive insight into one of the brightest minds in pop culture.

Viz Media will publish Hideo Kojima’s The Creative Gene on October 12.

Former IGN Editor Jared Petty Launches “The Top 100 Games Podcast”

As a former video producer for IGN and Kinda Funny, Jared Petty has been around video games for a long time. In addition to his editorial work, he’s also dabbled on the development side as a social content editor at Electronic Arts.

But Petty is also an avid podcaster, and now he’s breaking into “Best Games” analysis with a new series. The Top 100 Games Podcast launched earlier this week with episodes devoted to Resident Evil 2 Remake (#100), Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (#99), and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (#98). But please take those numbers with a grain of salt. Petty stressed that The Top 100 Games Podcast would probably end up being a “horrible list” as the topic of each episode will be chosen by a wide-raning series of guests. Sound like fun though:

Counting down the top 100 video games of all time! Host Jared Petty and a series of guests travel through the history of classic gaming and take a close look at the most important contributions to electronic entertainment over the last 50+ years.

More episodes of The Top 100 Games Podcast will be produced in the coming days and weeks, and you can subscribe to it on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and other podcast services.

Bite-Sized Game History: The Origin of Shmup, the First Article About Spacewar, and the Last Gasp of Game Videos

Before GameTrailers made its debut in 2002, it was fairly difficult for publishers to make trailers for upcoming games available over the Internet. Large file sizes and slow download speeds made the entire thing rather impractical (not that we didn’t try).

We’ll be talking about how publishers made game trailers available in the days before widespread broadband adoption in this edition of Bite-Sized Game History, as well as uncovering a pair of firsts.

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