Judges

The following is a list of the 36 judges for the Game Critics Awards: Best of E3 2007.

1UP.com
Sam Kennedy, Editor in Chief
Sam Kennedy brings over eight years of experience in online and print gaming coverage to his position as Editor-in-Chief on 1UP.com.  Sam created a name for himself years ago within the online gaming community as the 16-year-old founder of Gaming-Age.com - one of the longest running fan-based video game web sites.  He then went on to work at such publications as GameFan, GameSpot, Electronic Gaming Monthly, and the Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine.  Most recently, he played a key role in launching Ziff Davis Media Game Group's onlien content and social networking community portal for gamers, 1UP.com

Business 2.0
Geoff Keighley, Contributing Writer
Geoff Keighley has been writing about videogames for more than a decade.  He currently covers the industry for Entertainment Weekly and Business 2.0 magazines (both published by TIME Inc.). On television he is the host of SpikeTV's "Game Head," the #1 rated videogame show on television. Keighley is a magna cum laude graduate in philosophy and business from the University of Southern California.

Comcast Game Invasion
Derek Collins, Producer
Derek began to fulfill his life in interactive entertainment after he bought a mint-condition Neo Geo home console from an optimistic gamer who was convinced that his new Panasonic 3DO would be all he would ever need. Soon after, he answered a call for a cheats editor at Happy Puppy and was hired in 1999. A few years and a few title changes later, Derek resigned from Happy Puppy in March 2005 and now runs Comcast's consumer games channel, gameinvasion.net.

Computer Gaming World
Jeff Green, Editor-in-Chief
Publication Description: Around for over 20 years, Computer Gaming World is the oldest and one of the most respected gaming books today. After all this time, it continues to be a premier gaming publication covering the PC market.

Electric Playground
Victor Lucas, Host & Executive Producer
Creator, executive producer and co-host of "The Electric Playground," and “Reviews on the Run,” Victor Lucas is a videogame television pioneer. His first original TV series, "The Electric Playground," hit the airwaves in 1997. Victor is also the creator and executive producer of one of the world’s first High Definition videogame TV series, “The Art of Play” for Gameplay HD and the creator, executive producer and host of the Emmy-nominated, “GameTap News,” for Turner’s GameTap network. Additionally, Victor, through his Vancouver-based company, Greedy Productions Ltd., is the executive producer of two technology-based programs produced for G4TechTV Canada: “The Lab with Leo Laporte” and “Torrent.”

Electronic Gaming Monthly
Dan "Shoe" Hsu, Editor in Chief
Shoe started his video game journalist career at Electronic Gaming Monthly as an Associate Editor back in 1996. He gradually became the magazine's Previews Editor, where he took care of everything from calling and bugging game companies for screenshots to messing up (a.k.a. "editing") what other people wrote. In 2000, he followed the dotcom gold rush out to California where he helped launch Gamers.com, first as Executive Editor then as Video Games Editor-in-Chief. The gold rush quickly became a bust, and luckily for Shoe, EGM asked him back to take the helm as Editor-in-Chief of the magazine.

Publication Description : Electronic Gaming Monthly, with a circulation of over half a million issues a month, is one of the oldest, most respected multiplatform gaming magazines around. From giving gamers their first look at Nintendo's 16-Bit SNES (1989) to the world's first screenshots of Street Fighter III (1996) to the first images anywhere of Microsoft's Xbox (2001), EGM has continually set new standards in video game journalism. The magazine and its staff still, to this day, offer first-rate and unbiased news, features, previews and reviews from around the world.

GameDaily
Libe Goad, Managing Editor

Game Informer
Andy McNamara, Editor in Chief
With over 9 years experience as the Editor in Chief of Game Informer Magazine, and over 13 years of professional gaming, Mr. McNamara is one of the longest-standing video game journalists in the industry.

Publication Description: Game Informer Magazine is the fastest growing and largest video game magazine in the world with well over 1 million subscribers. With a reputation for candor, humor, and insight; Game Informer has sky rocketed to the forefront of video game publications and continues to set new benchmarks each and every day. Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Game Informer Magazine covers console and PC gaming.

GameInformer Online
Billy Berghammer, Managing Editor
After writing for a number of Nintendo-specific Web sites, Billy Berghammer created the world's largest Nintendo fansite – Planet GameCube.com. Game Informer Magazine poached the Milwaukee native from his own company to start Game Informer Online in 2003. As a separate entity from the magazine, Game Informer Online provides breaking game-industry news, interviews, screenshots and movies – effectively shattering the physical constraints of a monthly print magazine. Game Informer Online editors travel the globe and report live from the industry’s biggest gaming events, interviewing the who’s who of gaming and giving hands-on reports on the biggest games

GameSpot
Ricardo Torres, Co-Editorial Director
Ricardo's love for games and all things geeky helped him through his formative years attending UC Davis, a stint testing titles at Rocket Science, and into his tenure spent scribbling about everything from Dreamcast to PlayStation at CNET Gamecenter. But now, as an Editorial Director at Gamespot, he's just getting started. And if you Google him on the internet –– please don't get him confused with the Colombian-born boxer of the same name. That Ricardo Torres sucks at Radiant Silvergun.

Publication Description: GameSpot (www.gamespot.com) is a leading online source for gaming information, visited by 1.5 million gamers every day. The GameSpot family includes GameSpot, GameFAQs, Game Rankings, and GameSpot Trax, the industry's premier real-time market-intelligence tool. Since 1996, GameSpot's expert editorial team has provided gaming enthusiasts with comprehensive, engaging, and independent game information including previews and reviews on the hottest titles, breaking news, live Web casts, online tournaments, game downloads, videos, guides, hints, and more. GameSpot also has an active online gaming community, making it fun and easy for gamers to meet and interact with others who share similar interests.

GameSpy
John "Warrior" Keefer, Managing Editor
A journalist long berfore entering the computer games industry, Warrior has been in journalism for more than 20 years, working at the Sun-Sentinel newspaper in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for 13 years as a designer and writer before coming to GameSpy. He has been writing about games for about four years, and enjoys previews, interviews and doing the schmooze the most.

Publication Description : GameSpy.com is the ultimate site for gaming news and humor. The site has been around for only three years, but boasts an audience that provides more than 14 million unique users a month worldwide. The GameSpy Network is home to more than 60 "Planet" sites. It is also home to FilePlanet, the largest download site devoted to computer games.

G4TV
Tom Russo, E3 Consultant
Tom Russo is responsible for maintaining G4’s relationships with the game publishing and development community, as well as assisting G4’s producers in shaping programming content for the network. Russo has been covering the videogame industry for more than seven years, and prior to his position at G4, he served as editor-in-chief of the video game enthusiast publication Next Generation. He is responsible for breaking the story on Microsoft’s Xbox console to the world, months before Microsoft’s official announcement.

Publication Description: G4 is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week television network dedicated to creating a lifestyle brand that is the source of entertainment, news and information about the interactive entertainment industry, including video, computer, online and wireless games, for young adults (18-34) and teens (12-17).

Gamepro
Wes Nihei, Editor
A fan of both video and PC games for over 30 years, Wes Nihei is one of the original members of GamePro magazine, the world's largest multiplatform gaming magazine in publication since 1989 . Wes is responsible for the editorial focus and direction of the magazine and GamePro.com. In addition to helping to shape GamePro's editorial team, Wes was one of the original editors of PC Games magazine, as well as an editor at PC World magazine for six years.

Publication Description: With an audited circulation of 515,000 readers, GamePro is the world's multiplatform games magazine. The publication is dedicated to providing the best consumer-oriented information about video games and personal computer games.  Through news, sneak previews, game reviews, and hands-on strategy guides GamePro seeks to keep gamers on top of the latest video game info and to help them improve their gameplaying skills.

Game-Revolution.com
Duke Ferris, Editor in Chief

GamesRadar
Eric Bratcher, Executive Editor
Having grown up with his hands surgically attached to an Atari 2600/Commodore 64 joystick, Eric was thrilled to find himself on staff at industry-beloved video games mag Next Generation. After Next Gen's dear departure, he moved on to PSM: 100% Independent PlayStation Magazine, which he helped dominate its market for several years. However, the chance to help launch a new, worldwide, cross-platform video games website was too exciting to pass up, and he moved over to become one of the heads of the GamesRadar family.

Publication Description: One of the most-viewed video gaming websites in the world, GamesRadar is innovative and bold and explosive and challenging and loads of other marketing words. GamesRadar is all about gaming. It's all about playing games and shouting about games and reviewing games and saying they're brilliant or trash and everything in between. GamesRadar is also a truly global site, with the US and UK sites set to be joined by partner sites in additional exotic, passport-required destinations over the next year. GamesRadar is the future, and it will only get better from here.

Game Trailers
Shane Satterfield, Editor in Chief

Gannett News Service
Marc Saltzman, Columnist
Marc Saltzman is a prolific freelance journalist, author, radio and TV host, and consultant. Along with his weekly syndicated columns with Gannett News Service, USAToday.com, CNN.com and CanWest Media, Marc currently contributes to more than 50 publications, including USA Today, Playboy/Playboy.com, AARP -- The Magazine, Sympatico MSN, Yahoo! Video Games, Gamezebo and PC Gamer. Marc's latest books are “Game Creation & Careers: Insider Secrets from Industry Experts” (New Riders) and “The White Collar Slacker’s Handbook: Tech Tricks to Fool Your Boss” (QUE). Marc also hosts two radio shows (Plugged In and Tech Talk) and makes appearances as a consumer technology expert for CNN, CNN Headline News, G4 TechTV and Global TV.

Geek Monthly
Paul Semel, Contributing Writer
Besides his involvement in Geek Monthly, Paul also writes about games for such publications as Complex, Electronic Gaming Monthly, Rides, Gamespy.com, GamePro, Movies.com, Penthouse, Big Shot, and riottt.com. He has also served as the Entertainment Editor for both Incite Video Gaming and Incite PC Gaming, and the Games Editor for Bikini, FHM, Stick, Sweater, and Mixer, while also contributing game coverage to Premiere, Vibe, Wired, Ray Gun, Maxim, Total Movie, Teen People, marykateandashley.com, and The American Bar Association, to name a few. In addition, he also writes about movies, music, television, comic books, and celebrities for such publications as TV Guide, Emmy, Inked, MSN.com, and Blender.

Hollywood Reporter
John Gaudiosi, Columnist
John Gaudiosi has been covering the videogame industry for over a decade for The Washington Post. He is a leading expert on the world of interactive entertainment, specializing in the convergence of Hollywood and videogames. He’s a columnist and videogame reporter for The Hollywood Reporter and managing editor for SportsGamer.com. John has a weekly Hollywood convergence column for Yahoo! Games and a weekly sports gaming column for ESPN.com. He also currently is a contributor to Playboy Magazine, Wired Magazine, Home Media Magazine, AOL Games, Wired.com, PlayStation.com and Xbox.com. John is also a producer on several new videogame TV series in development with Foglight Entertainment, which works with networks like MTV, Spike TV and The History Channel. In addition, John serves as a videogame expert for NBC and CBS. Over his career, he has contributed to outlets like MTV Games, USA Today Weekend, Daily Variety, Video Business, CNet GameCenter, WWE Magazine, Stuff Magazine, Giant Magazine, Hooters Magazine, American Way Magazine, incite Videogames, MCV USA, EGM, OPM, Gamer.tv, and PC Gamer.

IGN.com
Talmadge Blevins, Editorial Manager
Talmadge Blevins is the editorial lead on IGN.com's games network, overseeing all content creation and publishing of the IGN console, handheld, and PC game sites. A Masters graduate of the University of Georgia, Tal joined IGN.com in October 1998 as an associate editor on the PC channel. He is a founding member of Snowball.com -- which later changed its name to IGN Entertainment -- and has worked in the computer entertainment industry for more than 12 years. Tal has had articles published in Next Generation magazine, Games Business magazine, and TV Guide, among other publications. He has also appeared as an expert in the field of videogames on several national and international television and radio networks, including G4TV, the BBC and NPR.

Publication Description: IGN.com was born from the philosophy that content is the stickiest tool on the Internet today. We differ from other content-oriented games sites by mixing personality and our passion for interactive entertainment with credible, newsworthy editorial from the industry's best journalists. Our goal is to deliver the very best games and entertainment information possible. Through great content IGN.com has built a community of die-hard fans and advocates that are loyal to the network.

Kotaku
Brian Crecente, Editor
Brian Crecente was hired to run Kotaku in November 2002. He has written about video games and technology since 1998. His work has appeared in The Palm Beach Post and The Rocky Mountain News and he currently freelances for Wired Magazine, Playboy Magazine, Variety, MSNBC and British gaming magazine 360. Before becoming a fulltime gaming writing Crecente was a police and public safety reporter for more than 12 years at a number of newspapers including the Rocky Mountain News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He is married and has a 6-year-old son.

Publication Description: Founded by Gawker Media Inc, Kotaku was launched on March 4, 2002 with a single editor. The site now has eight writers including Crecente and publishes stories around the clock from around the world. Names one of Cnet’s top 100 blogs, Kotaku has worldwide page views of more than 17 million a month

Los Angeles Times
Pete Metzger, Game Reviewer
Pete Metzger has been reviewing video games for the Got Game? column in the Los Angeles Times for the past few years, but he has been playing console games since back in the Atari 2600 days. He works from his home in Glendale.

Publication Description: The Los Angeles Times is a daily metropolitan newspaper with a daily national circulation of 1.1 million paying subscribers. It's Sunday circulation is 1.4 million. The Los Angeles Times is owned by The Tribune Co., the second largest newspaper company in America in terms of revenue.

MTV
Stephen Totilo, Reporter, MTV News
Stephen Totilo has worked as MTV News’ first full-time gaming reporter since May 2005. He files videogame stories for the news division’s online and on-air. His last year of MTV News coverage included articles about a Brooklyn gaming referee and the experiences of gamers in Baghdad to televised interviews with Satoru Iwata, Phil Harrison and – in one roundtable – Cliffy B, David Jaffe, Harvey Smith and Will Wright. He earned a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. His work can be seen at www.mtvnews.com and multiplayer.mtv.com

Publication Description: Launched on August 1, 1981, MTV: Music Television is the world's largest television network and the leading multimedia brand for youth. From music to fashion, lifestyle and games to sports, politics and trends, MTV offers programming across a variety of linear and on-demand platforms such as wireless and the broadband video channel, Overdrive.

Newsweek
N'Gai Croal, General Editor, Technology
N'Gai Croal was promoted to general editor in December 1999. He has written about technology since he came to Newsweek in February 1995 as an associate editor. He has written extensively about video games, the MP3 phenomenon and the growing popularity of handheld computers. His work has also appeared in The Washington Post, Details, The Source, Momentum and Theater Week. Before coming to Newsweek, Croal was a producer at Digital Ink, The Washington Post's first online service, from June 1994 to February 1995. In his spare time, Croal also directs and produces Off-Off-Broadway theater.

Publication Description: Founded by Thomas J.C. Martyn, a former foreign editor at Time magazine, Newsweek was first published on Feb. 17, 1933. That issue, called “News-Week,” featured seven photographs from the week’s news on the cover. It cost 10 cents a copy, $4 for a year, and had a circulation of 50,000. Newsweek was bought by The Washington Post Company in 1961. Today, Newsweek has a worldwide circulation of more than 4 million and a total readership of more than 21 million. Newsweek holds more prestigious National Magazine Awards, given by the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME), than any other newsweekly.

Official Xbox Magazine
Francesca Reyes, Editor in Chief
Francesca Reyes was somewhat alarmed to realize that she has an entry in Wikipedia, but then suddenly relieved to find that it?s empty. She?s noted as the editor-in-chief of Official Xbox Magazine, but the site doesn?t go into more detail than that, and that?s just fine. Sooner or later she figures someone will note her past work (stretching back all the way to 1997) on videogame publications like Ultra Game Players, PSM, Next Generation, and Official Dreamcast Magazine. Or her fondness for Landstalker and Gears of War.

PC Gamer
Greg Vederman, Editor in Chief
Known to many as "TheVede," Greg Vederman has been at PC Gamer for seven years, originally as the magazine's technical editor. In that time, his outstanding writing and rapport with readers have earned him widespread recognition among PC gaming enthusiasts the world over.

Publication Description: PC Gamer is the world's biggest-selling computer games magazine.

Play Magazine
Dave Halverson, Editor in Chief
An avid gamer since the dawn of 8-bit, Dave’s career in video games began in 1990 when he introduced the import-game mail-order service Die Hard Game Club, followed by the first enthusiast video game magazine to cover both the US and Japan extensively, Die Hard GameFan magazine. Following the sale of GameFan Dave went on to help launch and shape Gamers’ Republic Magazine before launching his second publication in 2001—Play Magazine.

The driving force behind Dave’s 15 years in video game magazine publishing has always been his love for games and the industry. Dave has always been and remains among the most hands-on Editor in Chiefs in the industry, is an avid anime and manga fan and has been featured on CNN and as a regular on Access Hollywood.

PSM Magazine
Rob Smith , Editor in Chief
Rob Smith has been working in videogame magazines for 14 years. Smith held various editorial positions on PC and console game magazines in the UK before moving to the U.S. He was launch Executive Editor of the “legendary” PC Accelerator before becoming Editor-in-Chief of market-leading PC Gamer. Smith took over the reins as EiC of Official Xbox Magazine before moving up the chain as Associate Publisher of OXM, PC Gamer, and Maximum PC. Recently Smith returned to his editorial roots as Editor-in-Chief of Future’s PSM: 100% Independent PlayStation Magazine, the only PlayStation-specific print publication in the U.S.

Publication Description: PSM: 100% Independent PlayStation Magazine is America's best selling dedicated PlayStation magazine. It’s unbeatable coverage of the PlayStation scene, combined with our distinct irreverent tone and style, has made PSM one of the fastest growing U.S. magazines EVER since its launch in September 1997. The magazine preview and review the latest games, update our readers on the biggest news each month, and provide in-depth strategy guides to the top-selling PlayStation games. Our goal is to provide our readers with everything they could possibly want in a PlayStation magazine.

Popular Science
Steve Morgenstern, Technology Correspondent
Steve Morgenstern has covered the gaming scene since 1982, when he served as founding editor for Atari Age, one of the first electronic gaming pubs, focusing on the Atari 2600 and 8-bit Atari computers. He currently serves as contributing technology editor for Popular Science, Cigar Aficionado and Men's Journal, and spent ten years as Rolling Stone’s Technology Correspondent. In addition to picking on other people’s creations, Steve has worked in the development trenches, including several years writing weekly episodes of Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? for Prodigy.

San Jose Mercury News
Dean Takahashi, Staff Writer
Dean Takahashi is a  columnist writer at the San Jose Mercury News and has
written about video games for  more than 10 years. He is the author of the "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked: The Real Story Behind Microsoft's Next-Generation Video Game Console" and the 2002 book, "Opening the Xbox: Inside Microsoft's Plan To Unleash an Entertainment Revolution." He writes business and technology  columns about games and contributes reviews as well in both the newspaper and a blog at  . He lives in the San Jose, California, area and is an avid gamer.

Publication Description: The San Jose Mercury News has a circulation in the Bay Area above 2 40 ,000 and is widely known for its technology and business coverage. The company's web site is www.mercurynews.com and Dean Takahashi and Mike Antonucci are the authors of Dean & Nooch on Gaming blog at

TIME Magazine
Lev Grossman, Staff Writer
Lev Grossman is a writer for Time. He has written articles for the New York Times, Salon, Lingua Franca, Entertainment Weekly, Time Out New York and the Village Voice. He lives in Brooklyn.

UGO.com
Eric Eckstein, Editor in Chief
In 1972, a crack commando was sent to prison by a military court for a crime he didn't commit. This man promptly escaped from a maximum-security stockade to the New York underground. Today, still wanted by the government, he survives as an editor-in-chief at UGO. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find him, maybe you can talk to Eric "Scoop" Eckstein.

Publication Description: With over 25 million unique monthly visitors, UGO (pronounced "Yu-Ji-Oh") is an online publisher committed to the entertainment of 18-34 year-old guys across the Web. With contributors spanning the globe, UGO has assembled a cast of experts for every dimension of distraction - games, movies, television, comic books, animation, music and more. From exclusive video interviews with the biggest names in Hollywood to previews of the hottest upcoming video games, UGO is your guide to tomorrow's entertainment.

USA Today
Mike Snider, Entertainment Reporter
Mike Snider, age 45, began covering digital entertainment for USA TODAY in 1992 when he attended his first Consumer Electronics Show. Two years later, he began writing about entertainment technology full-time. Since then, he has been to every Electronic Entertainment Expo and has written about games, DVDs, HDTV, movies, music and occasionally goes unplugged to write about books, golf and other sports. A native of Kansas, he was graduated from the University of Kansas in 1986 with a B.S. in journalism -- no jokes! After working as a general assignment reporter covering primarily police, courts, health care and politics at The Examiner in Independence, Mo., and Sioux Falls (S.D.) Argus Leader, Snider became a medical writer for USA TODAY's Life Section in 1990.

Publication Description: USA TODAY, celebrating its 25th year, has the nation’s largest newspaper circulation at about 2.3 million subscribers and more than 5.2 million readers daily. Its website, USATODAY.com, has a monthly audience of more than 10 million unique visitors. The Life section on USATODAY.com was named the top entertainment web site for 2007 by Editor & Publisher.  

Wired Magazine
Chris Baker, Senior Associate Editor
Chris Baker writes and edits articles about video games and other geeky topics for Wired Magazine. He has also contributed to Slate, Entertainment Weekly, Blender, Maxim, Giant Robot, Film Threat, EGM, and 1-Up (the zine, not the site).

Publication Description: Wired is a consumer magazine covering the latest developments in technology, science and culture. It won the 2005 and 2007 National Magazine Awards for General Excellence (category: 500,000 to 1,000,000 circulation). You can find it at your local newsstand or read it online at wired.com.

Yahoo! Video Games
Richard Greenhill, Editor in Chief
Born and raised in London, England, Rich Greenhill is somehow enduring the occupation of a video games editor position in the harsh climate of Santa Monica, California. Working professionally in the industry since 1996, Rich played an integral role in the recent revamp to Yahoo!'s video game channel, and is currently in charge of all the property's content programming and production. An obsessive games player for almost three decades, Rich 's deadly mouse-and-keyboard combo skills serve almost no socially redeeming purpose.

Publication Description: Yahoo! Video Games is committed to providing the best in video games information and content at the fastest speeds and at no cost to the gamer. The site combines licensed content from the industry's leaders with its own original and exclusive offerings. Robust matchmaking services are also provided through its acclaimed All-Seeing Eye application. The entire Yahoo! Games property -- comprised of casual, video, and mobile gaming -- serves over 22 million monthly unique visitors.