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About Me

Anything PS3, PS2, Old-school Mac (Dark Castle FTW).

My name is Mark, and I work in finance.

I am a nerdcore individual, and have done pretty much everything I've ever wanted to do in life. I've owned a comic shop, written for GamePro (one article w00t), traveled the world, played a couple CCGs professionally (and actually made money at it), owned 3 other businesses, romanced the most beautiful women and done it all with friends.

I have a blog over at http://www.gamersledge.com/wordpress where all the friends I pick up over the years like Katamari Damarcy hang out and we discuss nerdgasm things. Always looking for interesting people to join us.

There's a bit left on the old to-do list, but I'm pretty happy at my current job because I'm helping people.

I'd call myself a hardcore gamer; I started with el pong, although I was pretty young when it came out. From there I got a 'tennis' game (i don't think they actually had another name), my folks got me an Intellivision for Christmas and that was it; it was all over. I knew I could never get enough. (I get bonus points from all my friends because I still carry a He-Man intellivision keypad cover given to me by a great friend, in my wallet. The cover, not the friend.)

From there, my folks moved to the Ozarks, in the middle of BFE and Nowhere. I learned about the NES and eventually started stealing games from Wal Mart and Toys R Us, back before they had learned. Eventually I got caught stealing em at a video store, and I never did it again. But I bought a SNES from Wal-Mart my sophomore year in high school. Final Fantasy II made me an addict to RPGs. I returned my SNES to wal-mart in its original box and styrofoam my junior year of college. Because I had the receipt, original box and all styrofoam/equip, they gave me full price LOLz. I used that to buy a PSOne. It was that system that really drew me in and Final Fantasy VII and VIII and the original Persona destroyed any chance of me ever losing the RPG bug. I had a friend from Brazil while I was in college, and he was independently wealthy. Every week we would go and buy a SNES game or computer game and play it together and beat it. We were both great at fighters as well, so in my sophomore year I started doing the competitive circuit around KC, and always walked away with money. I've given up fighters mostly now; Tekken, VF, SC, SNK vs. Capcom2.. I play them for fun now; I don't have the time/energy to try to always win anymore... I won't forget the first time I walked into a Japanese arcade... I got 20-hit juggled with Cervantes. I cleaned up on SNK v. Capcom tho, and Virtua Fighter. I fared on tekken as I did on SC LOL.

Anyways, after college I started travelling for work, and was bringing in big bucks as I was gone all week/every week. I got a DC and every game/peripheral made for the system, in fours. I had a projector that I used for work, and when I was home 1-2 days a week, I'd throw parties like Mario Party as a drinking game, or Bushido Blade while drunk. It was great stuff. I picked up 5 ps2s on launch day, and let my friends buy them from me for cost. I got 2 ps3s on launch day, but 1 got cancelled, so the friend I had promised the other two let me get it. I was afraid I was going to be shot/mugged on the way out to the car with it. But it was awesome.

I am a Rhymes with Bony fanboi through and through, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate Xbox or Nintendo.

I did a 50-episode podcast on videogame news/reviews at my website http://www.gamersledge.com/rssfeed.xml

I think it was hellafun and good, but scheduling conflicts with my partner and I led to its ultimate demise.

I produced that podcast, and was putting like 4-5 hours a day into it. It was too much with work; I'm beginning to think that a roundtable format with no sfx is a much better idea LOL.

Anyways, my gamertag on the PS3 is balth feel free to add me if you want to play some warhawk or super puzzle fighter hd turbo remix alpha hyper king kamehameha spirit bomb genshiryoku shin reppu shao koken II.

The only thing that really sucks about having moved back to the 'Zarks is that there are not really any educated nerdcore type people here. I have no friends my age here, so online gaming is pretty important to me.

RPGs; Persona 3, Every Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest VIII, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Elder Scrolls Oblivion, R:FOM, Warhawk, White Knight Story when it comes out.

Gamer Profile

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PSN: balth
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Following (31)

ƒl0w3r - A short review. Language Warning. balth | 5:14 PM on 02.19.2009 7 comments

That Game Company (I always think of 'that 70's show'), the same company that brought us has been hard at work for the PS-Triple putting together another very unique game called: . The setup: You're not dust on the wind, much to Kansas' chagrin (RHYMING, I HAS IT). Instead, you are a petal gently blowing on the breeze. If you wanted to do nothing more than use the game as an aesthetic simulator, you could do so; warm gentle breeze playing through your surround speakers, marvel at the pretty hi-rez pictures. Oh ho, don't be fooled, tho! As Samuel L. Jackson would say, Pizza, Pizza, Motherfuckers! as he detonates the bombs strapped to his waist, killing all the terrorists. What that has to do with 'flower' is not entirely clear, other than it is a vague attempt at an analogy to show that there is much more to this game. It uses the Sixaxxis controls to steer (pretty responsively) the petal in 3D. The interesting part is that this is secretly.... ...wait for it... That's right, this game is a racing game in a flower-coated shell. It has a track, namely the unopened flowers. And the more you hit, the faster you go. The wind whips behind you and in all your horrific 600 HP (that's Horse Petal) engine bears down on the course. Of course, there's no lap timer, you can take all the time you want in the world. But there is a course, and there are checkpoints (end of levels). But don't let that fool you; it is a beautiful game that as everyone's favorite Beardtoid put it, in his nearly unintelligible Indigo Montoya accent, "Nearly a religious experience." This game pushes the envelope of games towards art. It's that good. I think there is a strong narrative; the game sucks you in, but manages to keep making you think not only about the mechanics and the confines of which you play, but also about WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED? And that's where I'll leave it. I don't want to spoil the ending, but it's part existential and part philosophy. I believe That Game Company has made a genius of a casual/short/open game that pushes towards art. I give it four out of five beardtoids. (I'd give it five if it was longer, fyi.) Also, addendum, I've been locked out of the site since the |-|@ç|<3R incident, props to Hamza for helping me get back in. that is all Attached photos: