My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin

A special episode announcing the winner of the My Perfect Console of the Year (2023) Tournament.

It's time. Fifty-two consoles have now been whittled down to two final machines. It's an all-North American final, as the U.S.A.'s Heather Anne-Campbell takes on Canada's Phil Fish. Both machines are spectacular, potential best-sellers:

Heather Anne-Campbell's "The Only Play".

• Tetris.
• Street Fighter III.
• The Last of Us.
• Fortnite.
• Disco Elysium.

Phil Fish's "Fez II".

• Ridge Racer Type IV.
• Rez.
• Dishonored.
• Hitman: World of Assassination.
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Listen to the result of the final face-off, as voted by you the listeners.

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My guest today is Senior Vice-President of Blizzard Entertainment and General Manager of the Diablo video game series. After attending the University of Ottawa for Computer Science, my guest joined Microsoft as a Microsoft Consultant, before he moved to the company’s games division to work titles including Microsoft Train Simulator, then the Xbox version of Counter-Strike.

In 2005 he joined Epic Games where, as a producer, he helped steer the delayed Gears of War back on track. After working on the second and third games in that series, Bulletstorm and Infinity Blade, he soon gained a reputation as a “closer”, someone able to get a blockbuster out of the door.

My guest then moved to Irrational Games to help finish the troubled BioShock Infinite. In 2020, he joined Blizzard to oversee development of the Diablo series, the fourth entry to which launched to widespread acclaim in 2023.

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My guest today is the American novelist and short story writer, Veronica Roth. Born in New York and raised in Illinois, she studied creative writing at Northwestern University. While a student, she wrote Divergent, a dystopian science fiction novel set in a post-apocalyptic version of Chicago.

The book sold to a publisher even before she graduated, and the film rights a few months later. Two sequels followed, creating a trilogy that has now sold more than 35 million copies worldwide. More books followed including, in 2020, her first adult novel, Chosen Ones.

Now, in her forthcoming book, When Among Crows, my guest returns to Chicago, in a story that combines Slavic folklore and the city’s underworld.

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My guest today is the American co-creator of one of the longest-running and most popular independent games yet made. In high school he and his older brother Zach designed adventure games based on fantasy and science fiction stories they invented together. He taught himself computer programming and received fifteen offers to enrol in PhD math programs.

At Stanford University, he and his brother continued work on a procedural adventure game called Dwarf Fortress, in which players guide successive generations of dwarves to build and maintain a settlement.

He quit university to work on the game full-time; in 2011 the New York Times described an early version as “perhaps the most complex video game ever made”. Dwarf Fortress became his life’s work, with a vast and committed cult following, but it remained a work in progress until December 2022, when a commercial version finally released, and promptly sold half a million copies.

Play the console:

• Cosmic Ark
• Beast
• Ragnarok
• Transport Tycoon
• Caves of Qud

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My guest today is the English stand-up comedian Sarah Keyworth. Born in Nottingham in 1993 they studied drama at De Montfort University, where they became an active member of the university's comedy club. After graduating, my guest then worked for the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, while performing on the circuit.

Their first show, Dark Horse, was nominated for best newcomer at the 2018 Edinburgh Comedy Awards, and included on the second season of Soho Theatre Live on Amazon Prime.

They soon became a fixture on television and radio, appearing on Mock the Week, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Richard Osman's House of Games and, in 2021, Live at the Apollo. Now, my guest is returning to the stage with a new tour titled, My Eyes Are Up Here, described by the Guardian as “engaging and touching”.

https://www.sarahkeyworth.co.uk/

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