We talked to Daemon Hatfield in San Francisco during our press tour in the United States and showed him the game. He was very positive about it back then, and now awards Greed Corp with an 8.8! And not only that, our game also gets an IGN.com Editor’s Choice Award!

“Watching Greed Corp’s tiles crumble into dust has been one of my favorite gaming moments of the year so far.” - Daemon Hatfield, IGN.com

Read the full review here.

Because of that terrible weather, we left early so that we would be at our first appointment on time. That was not a problem on the first day, but now we would have to head south. The idea was to drive there first and get breakfast if there would be time left. Even though we spent quite some time stuck in traffic, we still managed to get coffee and a bite to eat in the building where IGN was located. They were not our first appointment though, so we went over to the building next to them for a meeting with Official Xbox Magazine and PC Gamer. Because the new way of demoing, like we did the previous day at Giant Bomb, was pretty successful, we decided to stick with it and just play against the AI while explaining what was going on. That created some interesting matches throughout the day, all resulting in very different scenarios. I actually lost most matches, much to the delight of Marco and the editor audience. In my defense though, it’s pretty hard to think about what you’re going to do and explain it at the same time. At least it demonstrated that our Expert level AI is not a pushover.

After the first appointment, we went back to the previous building to meet with IGN. They have a pretty cool office, with lots of funny posters, life-size statues of game characters and even a room just for Master Chief. We met with Daemon, who already contacted us about the game right after we first announced it, and he captured a Greed Corp match on video. That makes it even harder to play well, because you can’t really pause the game to talk. Due to the extreme weather conditions, some of the meetings we had were cancelled. It’s hard to demo a game when the power has gone out or the road to get there is flooded. So it seemed like it was going to be a short day of work, but our PR contacts managed to arrange a last minute meeting with GamePro. We drove back to downtown San Francisco, while the weather actually started to look better. That meant that our flight to Los Angeles in the evening would surely just go as planned.

Even though I’ve been to the United States a couple of times and have relatives there, I never tasted meatloaf before. So when I saw it on the menu at the place where we had lunch before the last presentation, I decided to try it. I’m glad I did, but it’s not really my thing. The meeting at GamePro was very cool and while we were sitting there, the first articles based on yesterday’s press visits were already showing up online. After some discussion about the latest games, which the GamePro editors were already able to play, we had quite some time on our hands before our flight to Los Angeles would leave. During our stay, we noticed a lot of big billboards for The Book of Eli, a new movie with Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman. Reviews seemed very positive about it, so we decided to go and watch it at the Metreon. To keep it short, it was a little disappointing, but we did get to see a couple of cool trailers from upcoming movies. We left for the airport afterwards, got something to eat and flew to Los Angeles without a hitch. More on that final day in the Greed Corp US press tour soon!

This Monday, it was Martin Luther King Day, which meant that most press offices were closed. That’s why we spent this day visiting online editors and bloggers at their own home. This felt a bit weird, but it created an informal and personal atmosphere. First up was Contra Costa, where we showed up almost completely soaked because of the increasing rain. As this was our first presentation since the UK press tour last year, we had to get back into it a bit. We relied on the trusted structure used earlier, meaning we would start with a studio introduction and then the Mistbound world trailer before we would jump into the game. Our audience of one seemed very much interested and asked some questions to get more details.

The US PR representative traveling with us also made some nice contributions to our story, based on his experience with the game. To show the press what the future of Mistbound is going to be, we ended the presentations with an early build of the next game taking place within the world we created. It’s a top-down action shooter, of which we will of course reveal more in due time. Everybody responded very well to it, as they did to Greed Corp. Marco spotted a copy of Mass Effect 2 on our host’s table, so we spent a couple of minutes talking about his opinion on the game before we left for the next appointment at Game Revolution. It took some time to find their office, but once there the paper on the door set the mood right away.

Fortunately we were not treated as solicitors and both people present at the time took place in front of the big television for our presentation. Again, both seemed to like both Greed Corp and the next project, once again confirming that we had a good game on our hands and more to come. After that, we left for Destructoid. Most of our appointments were located in Berkeley, a university area just east of downtown San Francisco, on the other side of the Bay Bridge. So it was just a short drive to the next press appointment. We met Ben at his place and upon arrival he asked us whether we wanted to show the game on the living room’s 22” screen or on his brand new 40” television. He didn’t want to share his new purchase with his roommates and put it in his own room, which is perfectly understandable.

Ben was also very much into the game and particularly liked how we were operating as a studio, with multiple downloadable games taking place within the Mistbound universe. He told us he would have the article up quickly, maybe even the same evening, so we were very much looking forward to that. Ben also gave us the name of a good place to get lunch. Whenever in Berkeley, do not be put off by the name Bongo Burger or its appearance! They actually have some of the best burgers you can get. After this quite fulfilling meal, we went over to Chris P. from GotGame. First we rang the doorbell at the wrong house, but with a quick phone call we were able to locate him and show him our games. He was really into Greed Corp and already started thinking about possible strategies within the game. I can imagine him doing quite well when he gets to play the game against others.

Last but not least: the guys from Giant Bomb. We left the student city of Berkeley for the marina town of Sausalito, where once again we had trouble finding our contacts. They were certainly not at the address we had, nor its underground parking lot, but after a quick call we found out they were just down the road. We met Brad, Ryan and Vinny in their cool basement office and sat down on the demo couch to record a quick Greed Corp match, with me explaining the game and them asking questions. Because that changed the way we presented the game and I couldn’t pause the game during recording, I started out a little nervous, but that all went away after starting a match and finding out the Giant Bomb guys liked it a lot. It was the perfect way to end the day. We were all pretty tired, but very pleased with the results and the positive response we got from everyone. More on the next day in San Francisco soon!

“Pretty exciting stuff, right?” – Brian Leahy, G4

“We can continue to look forward to variety and fun coming from W!Games.” – Anthony Cara, GamingEvolution

Both videos are now available on the GameTrailers website. Click here to check out the Strategy Mechanics Interview. The video walkthrough has been split into two parts, watch part 1 and part 2.

“Developer W!Games brought Greed Corp back to our offices this week and after some more hands-on time it has become one of our most anticipated downloadable games. Call us greedy, but we can’t wait to play more Greed Corp.” – Daemon Hatfield, IGN

Check out his Greed Corp update here.

“I’m sold, keep going! I’m already in, you got me!” – Ryan Davis, Giant Bomb

Check out the full Quick Look EX video over on their website.