Amanda MacKay Of 'GameTrailers TV' Sits Down To Talk 'Battleship' And 'Battle For Everything'

Face facts. If as warm and lovely a lady as Amanda MacKay asked that you thumb-wrestle for the remote, let alone "battle for everything," nobody would dare say no.

The engaging Canadian "GameTrailers TV" co-host could be said to have taken the long way around to Spike TV. What started with a gig as a researcher and news tipline operator at Vancouver's Global TV gave way to time spent first with MTV, then G4 Network and at last co-hosting the evening gaming-news magazine on Spike alongside Geoff Keighley.

Hazard a guess whether she'd do a single thing differently?

"I began with the video game genre when I was with MTV. I realized I had a real passion for not only the games themselves, but also for the people who play them and make them," said MacKay, who cites among her most revered gaming tastes a gamut from venerable first-person shooters like Activision's "Call of Duty" line and the "Halo" anthology, to classic mainstays like "Super Mario Bros." and "The Legend Of Zelda".

That spectrum's evident in her anticipated-games calendar running the rest of 2012. She was intrigued by some hands-on experience Hong Kong looking into the development of the action-filled shooter "Sleeping Dogs" but said she's every ounce as excited for some anticipated sequels like "Max Payne 3" and November's "Assassin's Creed III". In the meantime, it's actually a tower-defense game doubling as a summer blockbuster's promo sweepstakes platform that's got her occupied.

She's developed a real thing lately for Coke Zero's "Battle For Everything", a free-to-play online title based at Battleforeverything.com. Rooted in the world of the May 18 board-game-to-big-screen movie "Battleship" and its aliens-versus-Navy struggle, it's got surprisingly well fleshed-out graphics and sound that's on part with some early "Command & Conquer" real-time strategy titles. Players get a few "points" to start playing missions, with others redeemable for usable items by inputting codes from Coke Zero purchases.

With an online scoreboard running between now and the May 18 premiere, top players are eligible to win swag that MacKay said ranges from commemorative movie posters and AMC Theaters passes to see the movie, to a grand-prize trip to Hawaii and plenty in between.

"It's its own entity, but we're coinciding with the movie," MacKay said. "Lots of great weapons are going to be at your disposal - tanks, turrets, battleships. Something that's going to make this game a little bit different from other tower defense games is that you're also going to have at your disposal an RHIB speedboat or helicopter that you can move throughout the grid and kill aliens with as well."

MacKay and I had an interesting chat about several things gaming recently. To hear more about "Battle For Everything", as well as her thoughts on how gaming has evolved and with it the notion of the "girl gamer," check out the video below. The clip also includes some footage from "Battle For Everything" that shows that developers and Coca-Cola didn't take making a satisfying game lightly.