From The Bunker: The Bethesda/id Podcast

They've missed a trick not calling this Galaxy News Radio and lobbing in Three Dog soundbytes, frankly. This 22 minute chat, hopefully the first of many, features Bethesda's king Todd Howard and id's creative boss Tim Willits chatting about game design, QuakeCon and regrettable moustaches. It's... well, it's not exactly ripe with zingers and can be a bit of a tough listen, but I'm very glad it exists.

Unfortunately, it's more than a little awkward - a sense that these guys aren't yet comfortable casting their pods in public, and perhaps also that their hands (i.e. tongues) are a bit too tied for there to be a chance of anything honestly revelatory to be said. It's not peppy enough, basically - but I want to encourage it anyway, because it's rare that we ever get to hear quite this much directly from a videogame Big Boss outside of interviews.

In the internet age, it's only right that the traditional barriers between gamers and gamemakers erode a little, and that the previously insurmountable walls of id are crumbling is especially pleasing. I'm only too keen to see where this podcast can go once they've relaxed into it fully. Oh, and here's me interviewing Tim Willits at GamesCom.