A little about me: Jake

I suppose I should introduce myself as well. Apparently I'm a follower not a leader since Scott managed to post his first but I digress. My names Jake I'm 26 and I've been playing games for as long as I have a memory of doing anything. I enjoy all types of games from RPGs to shooters to sim and strategy games. I got involved in this project because I got tired of reading reviews from press authorities that talked me into playing a game that was suppose to be fantastic and were a complete let down, and playing games they hated that I found incredibly enjoyable. It boils down to finding a reviewer that I actually agree with and I just can't seem to do it. So bottom line here is, I chose to put up since I refuse to shut up. Hopefully I can be as objective as I think I am and keep any personal feeling out of my reviews. But I'll let you be the judge.

As far as my gaming ability goes I played games for years without ever utilizing the difficulty option default was just fine for me.  After a while I realized I was beating games far to fast.  They were good games but they didn't have the play time I wanted and I kept complaining that they were to easy.  Scott pointed out to me that there is a difficulty setting in most games.  This was something I never really played with so I cranked up the challenge and now they're fun again.

I've played game from my earliest childhood memories until the present.  I recall Super Mario Bros. and a game called Rad Racer on the original Nintendo that came very close to ruining racing games for me.  Luckily I was forced to play what was available and sometimes the only thing available were games I didn't like.  The rule growing up was I couldn't get a new game till I beat the one I had.  That's turned me into a bit of a completionist when it comes to gaming.  I use my gamer score to gauge how much of a game I've experienced.  But to be clear this isn't about gamer score this is about the games.

My history in gaming involves some basic Atari games Super Mario Bros. as I mentioned before Super Mario Bros. 3 and I've tracked any system I could afford since then.  I remember the first Tekken and how great it was to get out there and fight.  There was a time when I played Mortal Kombat enough to memorize all the moves.  I even found a great system called X-band that was available for the Super Nintendo that went between the cartridge and the system much like a Game Genie and allowed you to dial up and play the games online.  Only 4 games were supported at the time but Mario Kart and Mortal Kombat were two of them so it was worth it to me at the time.  Now with Xbox live it's a dream come true for me.

I spent hours of my life playing Goldeneye 007 as I think we all did if we had it available back in the N64 days and I'm sure I spent more then my fare share of time chasing the little golden rings as Sonic the Hedgehog but there's been some great revelations in my gaming life.  Gran Tourismo blew me away and claimed more time then any racing game I've ever played.  On the 360 I found my favorite collection of games from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2 to Prototype, Grand Theft Auto 4,  and even a great stint into Sid Miers Civilization Revolution with my current favorite being Red Dead Redemption.   I can't say I've only found good games but I've found more good then bad and been surprised by a few I was expecting to be bad. I am thrilled that  this project gave me that excuse I've been waiting for to try them all.


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