Really, the trend from the last year, which is the same as the trend of the year before that, is the move towards 3D games. But now the major developers - like Blizzard, BioWare, Westwood and Ensemble - have made the switch, and so it’s only the little, no-name developers who toil in 2D. And that’s too bad because I tend to like 2D games better than 3D games, especially when the 3D game is 3D just to be 3D.

What still needs to be improved?
I’m sure I echo the thoughts of most game players out there when I say, without hesitation, Quality Assurance. It sure would be nice if patches weren’t required within a week of a game being released.

What was the best "sleeper" game of the past year and what made it stand out?
I keep track of games, and I read previews and industry news, so I probably have a skewed sense of what a sleeper is. So for a game I enjoyed but people might not have heard of, Europa 1400: The Guild is what comes to mind. It was nice because it was so different from anything I’d played before, being both a life and business simulation.

Who, in your opinion, are consistently the best game developers and what makes them so?
The best developer is easy: Blizzard Entertainment, which hasn’t missed with a game yet. (I’d still like to see the adventure they developed, even though they didn’t think it was good enough to release.) Creative thinking, friendly interfaces, extended beta testing, and the resources to spend years developing games all help them out.

In second place is BioWare. I think role-playing game engines are the most difficult to create (which is why you see them get re-used so often), and BioWare is the best in the business at developing them. I probably wasn’t as enthusiastic about Neverwinter Nights as some people out there (I thought it was a better toolkit than game), but I’m looking forward to Shadows of Undrentide whenever a review copy finds its way to me.

Other good developers include Ensemble Studios, Pyro Studios, and Westwood Studios. It’s a studio trifecta!

If you could give game developers 3 tips that might help their games receive more critical-acclaim, what would they be?
A lot of problems would be solved if game developers paid more attention to the details. You might be surprised how much little things, like mistakes in spelling and grammar, tick me off. (It’s appalling how many games have shipped where the developer didn’t know the difference between "its" and "it’s" or "lose" and "loose.")

But for three tips:
1) Remember that some people only like to play games in single player mode, while others only like multiplayer. So try to make both modes interesting. (For example, don’t be afraid to hire somebody to write dialogue or the background story, rather than using the programming crew for it. Ditto with voice acting.)

2) It’s boring, but please create a friendly save/load game interface. I’ve lost count of the number of developers who have totally botched this part of their games. (For example, you shouldn’t limit the number of saves a player can have, and you should sort the saves so the most recent is on the top and least recent is on the bottom. Life for the player is much more convenient that way.)

3) Balance, balance, balance. Don’t just test for bugs; make sure all the game components work together well. (For example, I’m finally playing Divine Divinity, which is a nice enough game, but the freeze spell lets me kill anything. Don’t let that happen in your games.)