My Introduction

Well, I've lurked around here for quite a while, posted comments and such, but never got around to giving you a blog. So let's start with a lengthy Bio and go from there.

I am a 25 year old male, living in Dublin, Georgia (USA). I like to stay up late, watch cartoons, listen to obscure music, and spend time with my wife and our friends. Some would consider me a goth, but eh, think what you want. My hair is long, and I like it that way.. well it used to be much longer, until I had to drastically shorten it for a previous job.. *sigh* the problems with growing up eh? My favorite color is black, but I'm far from some emo depressed person. I do tend to look at the dark side of life more than most things, but it's just a different perspective. You could even call me a pessimist. Also, when I say dark I don't mean evil, or even bad. More like the more aesthetic/artsy/obscure side. But for the sake of my fingers I just call it dark. Because for most that tends to be dark. I enjoy all kinds of music. But normally the more obscure it is the more I enjoy it.

I enjoy quirky folk bands like The Danielson Famile, and over-the-top cheesy Power metal bands like Rhapsody of Fire, but then I also still enjoy the brooding sounds of black metal and doom/thrash/death metal. I'm a very political person, I follow things closely and would consider myself well-informed. Honestly, if you want to get to know me, I suggest you talk to me, because no amount of words I could type to you could ever efficiently convey who I am. Not that I am this immensely incredible person, but no person can be described like that. We are all more than we know now.

I got into gaming at a young age. I mean really young. Before I was even celebrating my first year out of the womb, my aunt used to pop quarters into a Donkey Kong machine & let me pound away at the jump button and move the joystick. Not like I was good at it mind you, not like that game is easy for a baby, or even full grown adults. However it left a lasting imprint on my life.

Later in life, that same aunt bought me an Atari 7800, only had one game for it and that was Pac Man. I played Pac Man on a small black & white TV in my parents' guest room. Later, in 1987 (I was three) my parents bought me an NES. We played Super Mario Brothers and duck hunt constantly. Later I recieved Castlevania II: Simon's Quest and fell in love with it. My childhood years I receieved at least 2-3 NES games a year, sometimes more thanks to that same aunt who always took me to arcades. I wound up with a few crap games (Joe and Mac I'm looking at you) and a few great ones like the Ninja Turtles beat-em-up games.

I remember when the Game Boy came out. I literally saved up dimes and pennies to buy it, but I had my Game Boy within months of release. I remember going to Toys R Us and picking it out, and even getting to get one extra game for it. I grabbed Super Mario Land, it always felt so good to pull that ticket at Toys R Us and then be able to personally hand the stub to the lady in the cage where the Video Games were kept. Sadly I didn't get to keep up to date in the video game times(console wars) then. I remember the SNES coming out and my friends getting them. I never got one until long after the N64 was going downhill, I traded some Magic: The Gathering cards with a friend for his SNES collection.

I remember buying a Sega Game Gear late in it's lifespan. I had quite a few games for it, but not long after that sega dropped support for it. Bloody Mortal Kombat on a handheld? Sign me up!

Later PC gaming filled my console wars void. I just stepped out of the loop. I began to enjoy titles like Doom, Duke Nukem 3d, Quake, Blood, and Shadow warrior! I had become a FPS nut before that idea really existed! Later I was pulled into real time strategy, Warcraft, Command and Conquer, and Total Annihilation. Found the joys of Diablo in the hack n' slash RPGs, discovered gold with point-and-click adventure gaming, introduced myself to Guybrush Threepwood in the Monkey Island series, had madcap adventures with Sam & Max, explored a forbidden world in The Dig. I fell madly in love with turn based strategy(TBS) gaming, Heroes of Might and Magic 1-3, and the RPG + TBS gameplay of the wonderous Fallout universe. PC gaming ignited my love for the D&D universe with games like Icewind Dale, and PlaneScape: Torment. So much gaming goodness that I didn't miss the console wars so much anymore. I watched the SNES and the Genesis fall to the Playstation and Saturn. I watched the N64 come and act as if it might do the same and then fail miserably. I watched the Saturn get killed by sega themselves as the Dreamcast came along. I then watched the Dreamcast crash and burn with the coming of the PS2. I loved the N64 when it was around, I just never owned one til later in life. I remember playing it over at friends' houses. So many hours of Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Mario Party and Smash Bros.

In the meantime I bought a GameBoy Advance and enjoyed many great RPGs. I realized that it had become my favorite genre, right next to point & click adventure games. I wished that I had a PS2 and could play the awesome RPGS. Meanwhile friends who got their PS2s let me use their old PS1s so I was able to experience other great rpgs like FF7 and Lunar. I even was introduced to Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil 1&2.

When the previous generation came around (PS2, GCN, XBOX) I finally got back into the up to date game. I bought a Gamecube the day after Super Smash Bros Melee came out. However, I couldn't help feeling like I made the wrong choice later in the race though. Don't get me wrong, the GCN had great games. Just so few overall.

When I later met my wife-to-be, she for one christmas bought me an Nintendo 64 and a couple controllers & games (Ocarina of Time, yay). I later bought her a Gamecube as well so she could play the games of mine that she enjoyed. Later, after we were married, my wife snagged a cheap PS1 at Goodwill, so we started enjoying the PS1 games that I had enjoyed from my friends.

A few years pass and the GCN, XBOX, and PS2 generation phases out to the current day war. I figured I'd stay out of it as nothing had piqued my interest. All of my friends who were PS2 fans last gen had started to go the way of the Xbox for Halo and other fps games near the end of that generation. So when the 360 hit the scene early, they were all over it. I was never impressed.

One day my wife's brother comes to visit from Germany, and he buys us a Wii as a gift. I was grateful to say the least, and the games were incredibly fun. Surprisingly, I was back in the console war again. Nintendo blows their load early and most all of their good games are out in less than 2 years. I grab Smash Brothers and Mario Galaxy, even get Super Paper Mario and Guitar Hero III, however, there is little else to choose from. Eventually, a void forms with very few good Wii games coming out.

Well, I had recently purchased a 62 inch DLP HDTV, so I started wishing for a high definition experience. The 480p in my dvds and Wii were just not cutting the mustard. So I longed for a PS3 for it's Blu-Ray player and built in HDMI, was not interested in having to get a 360 elite for it's HDMI, and then having to stick to HD-DVD. At this point as far as I knew the 360 Elites were the only 360s with HDMI, and Microsoft hadn't done anything with it's HD-DVD Drive.

Not long after I made the decision to want a PS3, Blu-Ray wins the HD media war. So I decide I'll make up for missing the previous Sony generation and get a backwards compatible one. So I buy a PS3 and start enjoying my Blu-Ray movies. Later I grab Metal Gear Solid 4 and Soul Calibur 4. I also start really getting into the Playstation Network, so many great downloadable titles. I had won a PAIN code in a contest, so PAIN got me started, it's a fun enough game. Then as Bionic Commando: Rearmed came out, and I rediscover old favorites like Super Puzzle Fighter II, I start buying up digital goodness. I get sucked into PixelJunk Monsters, reliving the glory days in 1942: Joint Strike, battling MegaMan 9's robot masters, and now even racing online in Wipeout HD. I still have all of my old systems and my Wii, but they never see much use. I emulate my old point-and-click adventures on my Wii thanks to the homebrew channel, but other than that, my Wii is silent. It's also a decent Youtube browser on the HDTV for guests to see funny clips.

Well that's a quick bio on me, I'm glad to be here, and I'm sorry it's taken so long to throw out a blog, hopefully in the future I'll have something insightful to bring :)