Hey. My name is Dim.



That's me there, on the left. I've been gaming as long as I can remember, since I was 3 years old, have been following the industry in some way shape or form since I was 9 and have been seriously collecting/following/playing for a couple of years. I've been lurking on Destructoid for a lot of my news for about a year, so I finally decided to join so I could start blogging.

I'm 14 years old, male, 5'11", have blue eyes, wear glasses and have long blue hair which is usually hidden under a hat which has a little Bulbasaur badge on it. I own a NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, Wii, GBA, GBA SP, DS Lite, PlayStation, PS2, PS3, PSP, Xbox 360 and around 200 games including a version of every Final Fantasy released under the brand in the UK. My favourite franchises are Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda and Pokemon, although I love a ton of others too. My favourite genres are RPG and Action Adventure, although I try to play games from every genre.



That is my room, where I do pretty much all of my gaming. Sorry for the low quality of the photos, I took them with my camera phone.

[img]http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs175.snc1rawn and coloured recently, which isn't saying much. /6569_1033958825507_1721545455_70284_4904487_n.jpg[/img]

That is my desktop - I have both a PC and a laptop. I'm not much of a PC gamer and have only ever used it to play Final Fantasy XI and the first three Fallout games. I'll probably use it to play Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine at some point or other. My laptop is usually sitting on my chair next to my bed. Because I'm lazy.



That is my 14" wide screen TV which is connected to my PS3, N64, SNES, Wii, GameCube and Xbox 360. I wish it was bigger. I wish something else was bigger too...



There is my PS3, sitting under the TV. I still find it hard to believe I own one. I used to be such an anti-Sony Nintendo fanboy. After completing the first three Metal Gear Solid games, I realized that I had to play Metal Gear Solid 4 so I ended up buying one. I ACTUALLY realized I needed to buy one the night I completed MGS3 - it was 2am in the morning, my eyes were stinging from having played it all day and I remember thinking to myself "Damn it, I'm going to have to buy a PS3!" Now, it is the console I have the highest hopes for and I am looking forward to the games coming to the PS3 the most. Hopefully a better build of Final Fantasy XIII, Versus XIII, Final Fantasy XIV, hopefully Persona 5...



Under that I have a load of my other consoles.



On a little slide-out shelf, I have all of my handhelds. I got the GBA on March 6th, 2003 as a birthday present. It was second hand and now the back which holds in the batteries has snapped off - I hate children. I'm self hating, you see? I did the same thing with my old GameBoy Color. The GBA SP was bought a long Pokémon FireRed in late 2004. I sold a load of old games to get it, such as Donkey Kong 64, which I now regret. But I had so much fun with my SP...

I've had my DS Lite since launch. I bought the original DS on launch date and was set on not buying the DS Lite, but I was in Argos the day it launched and I had enough money, so I just thought "God damn it, it looks so much prettier" so I ended up buying it. So glad I did! Ended up selling my DS to a friend and using the money to buy Buffy Season 7 on DVD and Star Fox Adventures. The white PSP (urgh, I hate the colour) was acquired last year so that I could play Crisis Core, which I bought before it was launched in the UK from a shop near me that sells import games. I really want to sell it soon and buy a black PSP Slim & Lite or a PSP 3000, but I don't have enough money.



Under that I have another slide-out shelf where my N64 and SNES sit. Well, while I say MY N64, it is technically my brother's. It's the console I grew up with when I was very young and I have tons of memories of playing it. Next to it is a SNES, which is a recent addition to my family of consoles. In it is Starwing (Star Fox for those without stupid legal issues preventing them releasing it under the proper name). I think the entire Star Fox franchise is really underrated.



My GameCube, Xbox 360, PS2 Slim and Wii. I got the GameCube in April 2004 - this is around the time I started to follow the industry and was for many years a Nintendo fanboy. I bought it with birthday money because I REALLY wanted Pokemon Colosseum, because of course I am a huge Pokemon fan. Because I bought a GameCube, I bought an issue of NOM (Nintendo Official Magazine) which was amazing. Very funny, witty and still great to read. Then my interest just snowballed from there.

The Wii was bought for me for Christmas 2006. This was still back when I was a huge Nintendo fanboy and Nintendo could do no wrong. I was so anticipated for it. While a lot of people who were in support of the Wii now bitch about it, I am personally still pretty happy with what it has. It has my favourite instalments in the Zelda, Mario, Metroid, Resident Evil and Smash Bros. series on it. It has some really cool exclusives such as No More Heroes, a type of game ALL of the consoles are lacking. And the Virtual Console is AMAZING. And WiiWare has some really cool titles on it too - no matter what anyone says, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King is a KICK-ASS title. If the Wii had some more traditional titles and a good library of RPGs and better online features, it would be amazing. If it was pretty much a PS2 with Xbox 360-like online play, it would be amazing. Persona 4 is the best game released thus far in 2009 (in the UK) and that is on a last generation system. So there.

The Xbox 360 was bought around May last year. While I have more Xbox 360 games than any other current generation system, it is probably my least favourite current generation system. Not to say that it is bad, because there is no bad system, as they all have their own positives and negatives. Maybe I dislike it most because of how popular it is with hardcore gamers. Maybe it is because of the kind of gamer it attracts. Maybe it is because I have to pay to play online. Maybe it is because it lacks the entire "Japanese"-ness of the PlayStation that I adore. Maybe it is a mixture of all of them combined.

The PS2 Slim is also a new console for me. My damn brother has taken away his PS2 from my room out of spite because he is an idiot. He doesn't even play video games. It is LITERALLY sitting in his wardrobe gather dust, not doing anything. Anyway, I decided I needed to get my own one. So I bought this. It takes up less room and also plays my old PlayStation games which the other PS2 did not. Thank goodness, because I really wanted to play through Final Fantasy VIII and my PS3 refuses to play it.



There is my second TV which I recently wheeled in from the spare room where we store everything that is unloved. Which begs the question "why am I not in there right now?" It was the TV that used to be in my room when I lived in my old house, but since I moved house I have been using the smaller one. Since I bought a NES and a Dreamcast, though, I decided to wheel it back into my room so that I could hook them up to it.



So under the second TV, I have my PlayStation, which is actually as friend's but I hope he never asks for it back, my NES and my Dreamcast. I bought both the NES and Dreamcast last week. The NES came fully boxed with two controllers and Super Mario Bros. - for £20! Which is AMAZING! I bought the Dreamcast along with Soulcalibur and a VMU for £23, which is also a great deal. I need to play them both more when I get some time.



There I have my Wii and my GameCube games. Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes and Super Mario Sunshine are both recent additions. On top of that you can see a little wooden box which has all my controllers in, which you shall see later.



There I have the rest of my GameCube games, my Xbox 360 games, my PC games and my two Final Fantasy DVDs (need to get Resident Evil: Degeneration and Advent Children on Blu-Ray too). I bought the new Prince of Persia back in February and I STILL haven't played it! I also bought Phantasy Star Universe because I love the old Phantasy Star games (well, I'm playing through the first one on the Ultimate Mega Drive Collection and I love it) and because it is an easy 1000 Gamerscore. Although I really don't care about it. Above you can see my straighteners, because I straighten my hair, because normally it is afro-curly.



There I have my PlayStation, PS2, PS3, PSP, NES (see the little black box? That is what Super Mario Bros. came in), Dreamcast games and Final Fantasy III (which I imported) on the DS. Of course, Super Mario Bros. and Soulcalibur are both recent additions. I've had Silent Hill Origins, Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call and both the DDS games for AGES and haven't played any of them. LittleBigPlanet and Uncharted are currently on holiday at a friend's house while I borrow Killzone 2 and Need For Speed: Undercover. Both of which I've had about a month and have not played. I've been too busy recently...



Here I have my GameBoy and DS games. I've been playing a LOT of my DS recently and I love it. I need to buy Pokemon Pearl and Platinum so I can have all the games in the main series. But I play too many other kinds of game these days.



Here I have my N64 and Xbox games. Having had the N64 since I was very small, a lot of the cardboard boxes have been squashed or lost. Even the ones I have look kind of a mess on the shelf. So I ordered a lot of VHS boxes off the internet and made covers for them, featuring the artwork on the box for each game and added the name of the game, usually using the logo, to the spine. It looks very nice, I think. The Rugby games and Need For Speed game on the Xbox though? They're my brother's. Urgh.



There we have my small collection on manga, Pikachu, Jigglypuff, a Final Fantasy VIII strategy guide and the NES box. While I've been interested in manga and anime for years, I never really watched that much. I watched all of Groove Adventure Rave (Rave Master) subbed and watched Death Note while it was being released subbed and then later dubbed (seen it all 4 times through now). However, I started watching Naruto in May and got hooked. I went to an anime expo with my friend later that month (had two weeks notice and went as a half-assed Squall cosplay, but people noticed I was him), mainly because of the video game stuff, but the entire J-culture just blew me away and I felt "I LOVE THESE PEOPLE! I WANT TO BE THEM!"

So since I got back, I've watched A TON of anime. SO much. And I've started buying manga too. I also have some Zelda manga - I need to get the second volume of the Ocarina of Time manga. I have quite a few strategy guides, but as I am currently playing Final Fantasy VIII, that is the one I have there. Just to clarify: Final Fantasy VIII is NOT my favourite entry in the series. It is my 4th, preceded by XII (3rd), VI (2nd) and VII (1st). I just totally love the characters of Squall and Rinoa. I love Cloud from VII, but I think as kick-ass as he was in Advent Children, they made him too bitchy and whiny and not as sarcastic and witty as he was in VII. Of course he is a lot more timid in Crisis Core, but that makes sense. So there is the NES box I mentioned earlier behind all of that stuff. I can't believe it is in as good condition as it is! I feel so retro owning it.



And the controllers. All cramped together in harmony.



To the left of my computer monitor, I have a fair few little cow and Pokémon plushies, some Pokémon figures and a Metaknight, which I received from ONM (Official Nintendo Magazine, after it went under new management and started sucking). I love my Meowth, because I love cats. I have the cows because I also love cows - as I mentioned in my profile, I used to make amateur films (and plan to continue soon) and the company name was "The Mad Cow", but for any future projects I'm changing it to "Helium Cow Films" because it is far less generic.



To the right of my computer I have my Yoshi Kart, Tifa Lockhart figure, my Naked Snake figure (who needs Tifa for support), a Cortana figure and my pen for my graphics tablet. Very nice.



To the right of that there is my PS2 Slime controller, based on the Slime from Dragon Quest. I ordered it a couple of months ago from Amazon for £15. I love it so much!



On my bed sits my Chocobo, Vincent (named after Vincent Valentine) which I ordered a couple of years ago around the time I was playing Final Fantasy X and just before I started playing Final Fantasy VI. He's one of my most prized possessions.



Look at all those posters on my wall! Needs more Final Fantasy, to be honest. The Twilight Princess poster came with the strategy guide, the Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions art card came with the game and the NES poster I have there was IN THE BOX with the NES when I bought it. I couldn't believe it!



I had a Zelda keychain a couple of years ago, but all of them broke off. So recently I decided to stick them to my wall with blue-tac.



I ordered some Final Fantasy VIII stuff to go with my Squall cosplay for next time I go to an anime expo (in October) and that is what the little gunblade and ring are. Although they're not part of the actual cosplay, I'll show you that bit later. I have a Naruto headband (Village Hidden in the Leaves, rogue-Nin, like Itachi Uchiha's) which I bought from a friend stuck to the wall and those little keyrings (Sasuke Uchiha and Rock Lee) were given to me by a friend. Much love.



That is a wooden replica of Squall's Gunblade from Final Fantasy VIII which I bought for £30 at the anime expo in May. Another one of my most prized possessions that I totally adore!



That is Squall's Griever Pendant from Final Fantasy VIII, which was what I ordered from eBay (the ring and miniature gunblade came with it). I wear it ALL the time.



And finally one more thing I wear all the time - my hat. To help keep my hair flat, but also inspired by Sid Jenkins from Skins - a look and attitude I have down so well that half of my friends now call me Sid. On it is a little Bulbasaur badge which I received from the ill-fated Pokemon Official Magazine, an off-shoot on NOM, that only ran two issues. Sad face.

So what else about me? I love manga, anime, television series (things like Buffy, Doctor Who, Lost etc.) and film. I'm a big fan of Joss Whedon and Kevin Smith - Kevin Smith being one of my biggest inspirations in life. Clerks is my favourite film of all time. As I mentioned earlier, I used to make little films and I plan to start that again as soon as I can, as I am sitting on a almost 30-page script which is definitely the best thing I have ever written, being both moving and funny, or so I think. I also enjoy drawing a lot and draw a lot of fan art, mainly for games. I'm not that good though and have no idea how to use Photoshop. But I guess I'm okay. I don't know.

My deviantART account, if you want to have a quick look...
My current YouTube account

The only thing I have on YouTube is the last thing I made, "Dirge of the Dead", a tribute to classic George A. Romero zombie films with some influence from 28 Days Later. It's very much meant to be a tribute with classic slow zombies, a cliché plot etc. etc. It isn't very good, as I DID make it a year ago and it was hindered very much by the people I tried to make it with (just see me bitch in the making of videos!). Anyway, I hope you enjoyed (who am I kidding?) reading my little introduction and set up. I hope to blog at least once a week in the future - I might get in a schedule of making sure I blog on a certain day each week.

Please add me as a friend if you want to. Friendship is good!

Anyway, have a good day and I leave you with probably the best thing I've done recently. It's Neku and Shiki from the World Ends With You. I love that game so much.



Dim.