I started work on this blog and podcast to talk about the games that I play, to work on my communication skills and to generally improve the way I formulate an opinion on games and media I consume. I will mostly focus on games, but will from time to time discuss movies and TV shows as well.
A little about me. I started gaming around 1985 when I was just 5 years old and my father brought home our first PC: an “IBM-compatible” Tandy 1000a. I don't remember what the first game that I played was but the earliest games that I remember playing on my own were the Bard’s Tale series (99 berserkers; Attack, Attack, Attack, Defend, Defend, Defend) and the earlier SSI Dungeon & Dragons RPGs like Pool of Radiance. My brother got an NES and we played it together, I also had a Sega Master System with the Light Gun and a few early games.
A little about me. I started gaming around 1985 when I was just 5 years old and my father brought home our first PC: an “IBM-compatible” Tandy 1000a. I don't remember what the first game that I played was but the earliest games that I remember playing on my own were the Bard’s Tale series (99 berserkers; Attack, Attack, Attack, Defend, Defend, Defend) and the earlier SSI Dungeon & Dragons RPGs like Pool of Radiance. My brother got an NES and we played it together, I also had a Sega Master System with the Light Gun and a few early games.
It was when I first laid my hands on the Sega Genesis, though, when I really fell for gaming. I played a ton of John Madden Football ‘92, still my favorite Madden game, and many others like Eternal Champions (still my favorite fighting game), Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Mortal Kombat, Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker, Brutal: Paws of Fury, Altered Beast, Golden Axe, Starflight, Sega 32X with Doom and the Sega CD. Unfortunately my system and all my games were stolen when I was in college, so I’m sure I’m forgetting some.
The single game that I played the most was Phantasy Star II, which was just a perfect game of that era. That was my game, I don’t know how many hours I played but I was in love. My continuing love for RPGs came from that and the early pen and paper 1st Edition AD&D I played with my brother and grandmother.
As much as I loved the early consoles I was really a PC gamer during that era. My dad was a gamer back to Pong and Space Invaders (on the Atari 2600) and jumped in the IBM-PC market as soon as he could afford one. As I mentioned I was into the early RPGs and of course the Sierra adventures: King’s Quest, Space Quest and Police Quest. I think that we played all of those up to the mid 90s. I would have to say that my favorite gaming franchise of all time is the Wing Commander series. From the release of the first game in 1990 to Wing Commander: Prophecy, I just couldn’t play anything else until I had completed the newest game or expansion pack. Once I completed WC: Prophecy I didn’t game that much until 1999 with the release of Everquest. This game changed my gaming life. My father, brother and I played hours of this game. It was the first MMORPG that we encountered and we were hooked. This was all I played seriously until the release of Everquest 2. We dabbled in Dark Age of Camelot and other MMOs along the way but never stayed with them for very long. Once Everquest 2 was released my father and I tried it out, but heard of World of Warcraft from my brother because a group of his friends were getting into it and forming a guild. Before long we joined up and the rest, as they say, is history. I played WoW almost exclusively until 2009, with a break here and there.
In 2010 I started to get back into the wider world of gaming and jumped into the Xbox 360 and PS3 with any game that I could get my hands on. I was never a game finisher because I couldn’t commit the time with my new family (I had my first son in 2008) but in 2012 I decided that I was going to beat more games. So I made a spreadsheet of the games that I wanted to play and finish. This was a motivator for me to focus on one game and see it through. Sometimes that is hard as so many games come out and with two sons (ages 5 and 2) my game time is limited. I am very lucky to have a wife that supports my gaming and understands that it is a way for me to relax, even though it doesn't sound like it sometimes...
I fell down the Dark Souls rabbit hole when my brother got into it. I had purchased it several months earlier after hearing about on numerous gaming podcasts but had never gotten deep into the game. We decided that we would play as many of the boss fights co-op as we could. We both got through the final boss and moved into New Game+. This is the first game that wasn’t an MMO where I started multiple characters and also the first where I started playing through again with the same character. This also got me started recording my gameplay and uploading them to Youtube so that my brother and dad could see boss fights from my perspective and hear our chats about the game and invaders we would have to fight off.
I have wanted to write and comment on games for years but never had the inspiration to start. I never thought I could put the words together to express the thoughts I have about games and never played them in a way that was very analytical. I think I just have to dive in and see how it goes. I think the only way that I can get better at something like this is to try and do it and see if I can get feedback from friends and family that may read the drivel that I write. This may be a long and rambling account of my gaming history but I thought that it would be a good way to introduce myself and some of my gaming background. Obviously I have not discussed every game that I have played and what I think about them but I chose to highlight the seminal points in my gaming career that have influenced the way that I play.
My plans for this blog are to write opinion/reviews of games with a simple thumbs up or thumbs down rating for games. I will try to detail the reasoning behind my opinions, positive or negative.
The single game that I played the most was Phantasy Star II, which was just a perfect game of that era. That was my game, I don’t know how many hours I played but I was in love. My continuing love for RPGs came from that and the early pen and paper 1st Edition AD&D I played with my brother and grandmother.
As much as I loved the early consoles I was really a PC gamer during that era. My dad was a gamer back to Pong and Space Invaders (on the Atari 2600) and jumped in the IBM-PC market as soon as he could afford one. As I mentioned I was into the early RPGs and of course the Sierra adventures: King’s Quest, Space Quest and Police Quest. I think that we played all of those up to the mid 90s. I would have to say that my favorite gaming franchise of all time is the Wing Commander series. From the release of the first game in 1990 to Wing Commander: Prophecy, I just couldn’t play anything else until I had completed the newest game or expansion pack. Once I completed WC: Prophecy I didn’t game that much until 1999 with the release of Everquest. This game changed my gaming life. My father, brother and I played hours of this game. It was the first MMORPG that we encountered and we were hooked. This was all I played seriously until the release of Everquest 2. We dabbled in Dark Age of Camelot and other MMOs along the way but never stayed with them for very long. Once Everquest 2 was released my father and I tried it out, but heard of World of Warcraft from my brother because a group of his friends were getting into it and forming a guild. Before long we joined up and the rest, as they say, is history. I played WoW almost exclusively until 2009, with a break here and there.
In 2010 I started to get back into the wider world of gaming and jumped into the Xbox 360 and PS3 with any game that I could get my hands on. I was never a game finisher because I couldn’t commit the time with my new family (I had my first son in 2008) but in 2012 I decided that I was going to beat more games. So I made a spreadsheet of the games that I wanted to play and finish. This was a motivator for me to focus on one game and see it through. Sometimes that is hard as so many games come out and with two sons (ages 5 and 2) my game time is limited. I am very lucky to have a wife that supports my gaming and understands that it is a way for me to relax, even though it doesn't sound like it sometimes...
I fell down the Dark Souls rabbit hole when my brother got into it. I had purchased it several months earlier after hearing about on numerous gaming podcasts but had never gotten deep into the game. We decided that we would play as many of the boss fights co-op as we could. We both got through the final boss and moved into New Game+. This is the first game that wasn’t an MMO where I started multiple characters and also the first where I started playing through again with the same character. This also got me started recording my gameplay and uploading them to Youtube so that my brother and dad could see boss fights from my perspective and hear our chats about the game and invaders we would have to fight off.
I have wanted to write and comment on games for years but never had the inspiration to start. I never thought I could put the words together to express the thoughts I have about games and never played them in a way that was very analytical. I think I just have to dive in and see how it goes. I think the only way that I can get better at something like this is to try and do it and see if I can get feedback from friends and family that may read the drivel that I write. This may be a long and rambling account of my gaming history but I thought that it would be a good way to introduce myself and some of my gaming background. Obviously I have not discussed every game that I have played and what I think about them but I chose to highlight the seminal points in my gaming career that have influenced the way that I play.
My plans for this blog are to write opinion/reviews of games with a simple thumbs up or thumbs down rating for games. I will try to detail the reasoning behind my opinions, positive or negative.
