I'm convinced that Emily Rogers over at Not Enough Shaders is one of the few actual investigative journalists left in game coverage. While sites that will not be named squeak by on "OMG 10 biggest fails in gaming!!" lists and endless coverage of Black Ops 2, Rogers is pounding the digital pavement, quietly ferreting out juicy pieces of evidence for her in-depth editorials.
Case in point, she has
an interview with Steve Ellis, Martin Wakeley and Lee Musgrave. If you're a fan of Rare you probably recognize all three of those names, as these guys were some of the biggest talent at that studio and Ellis went on to co-found Free Radical. They recently formed a new studio called
Crash Lab, and are using what they've learned in their extensive careers to build a new team and avoid some of the pitfalls Rare and Free Radical encountered.
It's a very interesting article, and Lee Musgrave in particular confirms what I've suspected for a while: Rare just hasn't been the same studio in a very long time. Musgrave stuck it out for 17 years but finally had to leave during the creativity-stifling environment of Kinect Sports. It's definitely sad to see a once-great studio known for their singular British wit and colorful, industry-driving games reduced to making Wii Sports knockoffs. That said, it's clear that Rare's sense of humor and creative spark lives on in Ellis, Wakeley and Musgrave. I'm looking forward to what they have in store.
