I've wanted to interview Irrational Games' Ken Levine for quite some time. The brief "BioShock" demo he rushed through for me and another reporter at the end of the E3 2006 Day One got me curious. Then people who know him told me he's a great talker and that I should get to him for an actual interview.

Ken and I exchanged the occasional note, trying to schedule something. Finally we spoke last week and I wrote about it for my MTV GameFile column today.

People were right. He can give a good quote. A sampling:

-On why he couldn't -- wouldn't -- be able to make a surefire crowd-pleaser like Cliff Bleszinski and Epic's "Gears of War": "Cliffy has got a sensibility and understanding -- and I mean this in the best possible way, because 'Gears of War' is a 3 million [unit] selling game -- he has an ability to punch the audience in the nose and say, 'This is what you want, damn it, and it's awesome.' That is something I could never do. I just make what I think is cool. Sometimes I do get lucky. Sometimes, like with 'BioShock' I think you do get lucky."

-On why Irrational opted to make "BioShock" instead of another "SWAT" game: "We wanted to come up with a cool utopia, not model an AK-47."

-On the limited influences and aspirations of too many video game designers:  "Most video game people have read one book and seen one movie in their life, which is 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Aliens' or variations of that. There's great things in that, but you need some variety."

Read the rest at the link above. The "BioShock" hype train rolls on...