Kat Abughazaleh, influencer, politician.

My guest today is a writer and narrative designer for independent and blockbuster video games. Born in London she studied English Literature at Kingston University, then completed her postgrad in journalism. She worked as a freelance writer, contributing to the Guardian and the BBC, often covering in games and the lack of representation of people of colour within the industry.In 2014 she took a course titled ‘Writing For Games’, which resulted in ‘Before I Forget’, an affecting indie game in which you play as a dementia sufferer. In 2020 she joined Massive Entertainment, the Swedish developer of The Division series, to work as a senior narrative designer on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, an open world action-adventure game based on the James Cameron-directed Avatar films.She is also writing Windrush Tales, a narrative video game about the triumphs and tribulations of two Caribbean immigrants to post-war Britain, in the world’s first Windrush-themed video game. Play the console:Beneath a Steel SkyTony Hawk's Pro Skateboarding City of HeroesVirginiaWhat Remains of Edith Finch Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleBecome a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleTake the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

17 Juli 20231h 6min

My guest today is an English programmer, game-maker and President of the Kyoto-based video game studio Q-Games. Born in London, he dropped out of school at the age of 17 to join Argonaut Games where, among other titles, he worked on the Game Boy space combat title, X.The project so impressed Nintendo, that the company invited my guest to Japan, where he contributed to StarFox, a now legendary Super Nintendo dogfighting game featuring an anthropomorphic fox. After a stint working for Sony in America, my guest returned to Japan to join the development team behind the PlayStation 2 console, creating the famous ‘ducks in a bath’ tech demo.In 2001 he left Sony to found his own company, creating the brilliant PixelJunk series of games, most recently the dystopian world building game The Tomorrow Children. Welcome, Dylan Cuthbert. Play the console:Carrier CommandSuper Mario Bros. 3Ridge RacerSmuggler's RunDark SoulsThank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleBecome a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleTake the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

10 Juli 20231h 14min

My guest today is an English comedian, actor and one of the most prolific joke writers in the UK. He first made a room laugh as a young child at his aunt’s wedding, when, during the ceremonial speeches, the other guests overheard him speaking to his mother.While a student at the University of Sheffield he again became an accidental stand-up when, at the last minute, he filled in for the compere at a comedy event. Since then he has delighted audiences with his rapid fire joke-telling, both at the Edinburgh Festival, where he has been nominated for the 'Best Show' Comedy Award, and on television as a regular panellist on BBC's Mock The Week, ITV's The Stand Up Sketch Show, and most recently, the new US series The Great American Joke-Off.My guest is also a presenter on BBC's videogames TV show and podcast ‘Press X To Continue’ – for which he has completed more than a hundred games every year since 2020.Play the console:Dark Souls IIThe Witcher 3: Wild HuntDarkwoodDisco ElysiumThe Last Of Us Part IIThank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleBecome a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleTake the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

3 Juli 20231h 18min

My guest today is a French Moroccan political journalist and author based in London. She grew up in Nantes on the west coast of France, then moved to the UK in 2009 to study journalism at the University of Westminster.After graduating, she freelanced for several broadsheets, then joined the Evening Standard as a political diarist. In 2016 she became the media and politics correspondent for BuzzFeed News where she broke stories including the UKIP leader Nigel Farage’s meeting with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.Since leaving BuzzFeed she has become a prolific freelancer, and the author of three books, 2019’s ‘Haven’t You Heard? A Guide To Westminster Gossip And Why Mischief Gets Things Done’, 2021’s ‘ Honourable Misfits: A Brief History of Britain’s Weirdest, Unluckiest, and most Dangerous MPs’ and, most recently, ‘Escape: How a Generation Shaped, Destroyed and Survived the Internet.’She is also an eager player of video games – and has completed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild without dying once. Welcome, Marie le Conte.Play the console:Soulcalibur IIRayman LegendsThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the WildHadesSlay the SpireThank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleBecome a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleTake the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

26 Juni 20231h 6min

My guest today is a writer, producer and director of plays, films and videogames. In 1997 he left Belgium to study theatre at NYU in New York. While a student my guest began freelancing as a video game journalist contributing to Next Gen, Official Dreamcast Magazine and Famitsu in Japan.He then joined Treyarch to work on the video game adaptation of Steven Spielberg's MINORITY REPORT, a project that set him on the path of cross-media storytelling. His 2014 graphic novel RICKY ROUSE HAS A GUN was named one of The Boston Globe’s books of the year. Then two years later his debut feature film, THE WHITE KING, adapted from a Hungarian novel, debuted at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.Most recently, my guest directed C-Smash VRS, a virtual reality-based follow-up to the cult classic Arcade and Dreamcast game, Cosmic Smash.Play the console:OutRunHeart of DarknessRidge Racer Type 4Portal 2C-Smash VRSThank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleBecome a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleTake the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

19 Juni 20231h 10min

My guest today is creative director and writer of some of the most memorable and influential independent games of recent years, including Bastion, Pyre, Transistor and, most recently, the smash hit Hades, which topped many of 2021’s best games of the year lists.In the nineties he co-founded Arcadia, a website dedicated to films and video games, which led to an internship at Gamespot, one of the largest websites specialising in video game coverage in the world, of which he eventually became editor-in-chief.After leaving journalism for the world of game development, he worked on the Command and Conquer series, then, in 2010, joined Supergiant Games as creative director.He once said: “Our goal is for each game we make...to be good enough and idiosyncratic enough so that it hits someone at the right place at the right time and becomes their favourite.”Play the console:Final Fantasy TacticsThe Legend of Zelda: Wind WakerPanzer Dragoon OrtaMetal Gear Solid 3: SubsistenceBloodborneThank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleBecome a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleTake the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

12 Juni 20231h 16min

My guest today is an award-winning author, journalist and writer for film, television, and video games. After graduating from Michigan State University with a degree in English literature, he travelled to Uzbekistan as a volunteer for the Peace Corps. He then returned to New York where he worked as author and editor, reporting on the Iraq war for Harper's Magazine and contributing literary criticism to The New York Times Book Review.A keen thinker on video games, in 2010 he published Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter, a book that included a dissection of his experiences playing Grand Theft Auto IV while abusing cocaine. His 2013 book, The Disaster Artist, was turned into an Oscar-nominated feature film directed by James Franco, and his short story Aral inspired Werner Herzog's 2016 film Salt and Fire.My guest has also written for video games such as The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Uncharted 4, and Gears of War 5, and in 2021 he co-developed the Apple TV series The Mosquito Coast, based on the Paul Theroux novel of the same title. Recently he wrote three episodes for the second season of Star Wars: Andor, due to air in 2024.Play the console:MetroidResident EvilFar Cry 2Demon's SoulsSea of ThievesThank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleBecome a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleTake the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

5 Juni 20231h 19min

My guest today is Sooz Kempner, an English actress, pianist, singer and award-winning stand-up comedian. Born into a showbiz dynasty – the family dog appeared in an advertisment for Nissan, and their cat, Boris, played Jonesy in Aliens – she moved to Ayia Napa to work as a Christina Aguilera tribute act.After she returned to England she began a post-graduate course at Royal College of Music, performing stand-up in her spare time. In 2010 she graduated from the RCM and promptly won Best Newcomer at the Musical Comedy Awards.Since then, she has toured extensively, performed eight solo shows at the Edinburgh Fringe and launched two hit podcasts, Mystery on the Rocks, a true crime and cocktails comedy show and the UK's official podcast for the rock group Queen. A born performer and talented mimic, her impressions of Liza Minnelli, Nadine Dorries and Liz Truss routinely go viral online. She is currently touring the UK with her latest show, titled PlayStation – a nostalgic look back at growing up through the nineties.Play the console:Sonic the Hedgehog 2Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean MachineTekken 3Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara CroftOddworld: Abe's OddyseeThank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleBecome a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleTake the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

29 Maj 20231h 2min