Asia Carrera Interview

Who is Asia Carrera?

If this question has to be asked, you are either profoundly out of the loop, or married. Asia Carrera has for the last several years been a household name in the adult entertainment industry.

Asia on top

Asia's l33t machine

But that’s not all

If Asia were just a porn star, you’d probably be reading this interview with a flashing pop-up showing you an eyeful, but that’s not all Asia is. Ms. Carrera is also an avid UT fan, and has been for a number of years. Asia has released skins, maps, been to every E3 in the last few years, and for the most part is as passionate a dork about UT as most gamers are about their pastime of choice. Asia’s computer interests extend far beyond UT. She created and runs her site all by herself and has been spotted at various E3 shows.

We got the chance to bug her for a bit and talk about the UT of the past, and the 2k3 of the future.

The interview

FiringSquad: What or who got your started in gaming?

Asia Carrera: I actually stumbled on Unreal by accident - I've never really liked playing games on my computer (the 'games' folder is always one of the first things I delete right after installing windows) My boyfriend Clarke bought Unreal for himself and a newbie pal to play, and as usual, he handed it over to me to install and configure for them. I'd get the proggie up and running, figure out the gist of what to do, and then give them a quick overview, so they could start playing right away, without wasting any time with manuals or helpfiles! We'd gone through this routine many times before, and I'd never had any interest in continuing the gameplay after handing the reins over to them... until now. This was the first time any of us had ever played a LAN game, and we all got a huge kick out of seeing and hearing each other's reactions as we fragged our asses off.


FS: What are your opinions on UT2k3? How does it compare to UT?

Asia: Well I'm still loyal to UT, which I play nightly. The new UT2k3 is growing on me, but two things that keep intimidating me enough to run back to the comforting familiarity of UT are:

(a) trying to identify the new weapons when scrolling through them in the heat of battle gets extremely frustrating - the first person perspective of the weapons is hard to match up with the side view shown in the weapons menu, and I always seem to end up with a pea shooter or rubber-band thrower, which don't seem to be listed on the menu at all...

(b) the new map levels, while graphically rich and diverse, are a bit visually overwhelming. The players, weapons, and even pathways are harder to spot peripherally with the busy textures of all the landscaping in every direction. I suppose it will get easier as I become more familiar with all the maps, but when you've only got split seconds to take in unfamiliar surroundings, well, there's a lot to take in.

However the gameplay is excellent, the weapons are certainly effective, and the Bombing Run game is a challenging new variation for all the CTF junkies out there. And the player models have improved dramatically, with much more realistic motion in gameplay. The 'ragdoll physics' make deaths look so realistic I almost feel bad when watching my opponent stumble to his death... hey, I said almost!!