STACK #242 December 2024

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What’s your earliest video gaming memory?

Playing Duck Hunt on the NES with my family and trying to shoot the dog every time. It laughed at us for missing the ducks as they flew away. Needless to say the game never let you shoot the dog...

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What’s your all-time favourite game or game series?

’ s ROVING REPORTER

The Mass Effect Trilogy . The journey and the bonds you create along with the little conversations your crew has during missions (depending on who

1 CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 6

you take with you), will always be fond memories, and give me laughs to this day.

2 EA SPORTS FC 25

3 SUPER MARIO PARTY JAMBOREE

What have you been playing most lately?

4 NBA 2K25

JUSTIN JEFFERY @ JB Blacktown, NSW

Helldivers 2 and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown .

5 MARIO KART 8 DELUXE

6 MARIO & LUIGI: BROTHERSHIP

You can only have one games console from any era – what would it be and why?

What’s the best thing about working in games at JB?

7 MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN 2

PS2 - the sheer catalogue of games that existed in its generation was just overwhelming. Plus, with the fact that it played PS1 games also, it would be years before I would have to play the same game twice, let alone do a second playthrough!

It’s an exciting environment that’s ever changing and evolving, and meeting likeminded gamers to have a quick chat about games they’re playing and their loadouts and tricks.

8 GRAN TURISMO 7

9 THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: ECHOES OF WISDOM

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10 DRAGON AGE: THE VEILGUARD

What’s gone on to become a stalwart of the fighting game genre, Tekken , first hit – and kicked, and punched – Japanese arcades. It introduced us to the King of Iron Fist Tournament and the wild soap opera-like goings-on that surround it, and continues to this day, also spawning movie and print adaptations along the way.

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1 What’s the first game that you remember playing? TRON: Deadly Discs on the Intellivision is probably the first game I actually ever played. I was maybe five or six. We also had an Apple IIGS and I remember playing Choplifter and having absolutely no idea what was going on. 2 What was the last game that you finished? Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree . Technically it’s an expansion, but I think it counts. I’ve always found it difficult to really get into anything too deeply in the last year of development, but there’s always an ‘Unless it’s a FromSoftware game’ clause in there. 3 What’s your favourite video game/series of all time? I’m going to cheat here and do both game and series. Favourite game of all time – Bloodborne , I think it’s From at their best. Everything from the atmosphere to the storytelling to the gameplay. For series, S.T.A.L.K.E.R . - the atmosphere in those games is unbeatable. The rare moments of safety as you shelter in Skadovsk, and then it’s out to the closest thing to hell on Earth. 4 What do you think is the most underrated video game of all time? Time for my most controversial answer: Dark Souls II . The game absolutely has flaws, don’t get me wrong, but mechanically I think it’s the most interesting of the three main Souls games. 5 What’s the game that you most wish you’d worked on? DayZ. It’s the one game from the big survival game explosion of the early 2010s that I still regularly play, and a large part of it is that I find it such a fascinating game mechanically. I’d love to have been involved in those design discussions - or even just a fly on the wall! Bloodborne

Creative director on Dragon Age: The Veilguard at BioWare. JOHN EPLER

46 DECEMBER 2024

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