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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

3DS friend code:
Steam:
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PSN: balth
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Following (31)

MGS 4, surprisingly with 100% less fail than I had expected. balth | 3:39 PM on 06.13.2008 8 comments

Not Fail. You know, much like the guys over at Penny Arcade, I have a love/hate relationship with MGS. I beat 2, picked up 3. 3 was immediately teh bane of my existence, and after having a problem with the controls, I made it to the first bridge (that's right the very first bridge) and resorted to running five feet, chomping on the death pill, reviving, running five feet, etc. I only made it halfway across the bridge. I took the disc out, chucked it at a passing car, and vowed to be done with MGS4. Earlier this year, however, I had gotten excited about it again. I prereserved it via MoneyStop. This is what I preordered: I figured with the bonus blu rayp in there, maybe I'd get some kind of recap to help me understand what the fuck had been going on in the previous 2 games I'd played (also since I skipped the third, which I understand was Big Boss, not the lovable Solid Snake). Anyways, flow-chart-necessary-back-story-aside, I played so much: Call of Duty 4: A game you can RUN WHENEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT lately, that I had adopted a new hybrid aggressive sniper mentality. I run around like a chicken with my head cut off to where I want to camp, and then I play dead. So I've been aggressively dreading the release of MGS4. I forgot I had even prepaid for the LE version. I had been contemplating shunting of the monies from it to something else. I longingly looked at the Dragonball Z game that just came out. That's how low I was. Friends don't let friends play DBZ games. Except Shipero, for he is beyond mortal help. So, I TRIED to find something else to buy, but alas; non. So I resigned myself during the drive home that I would give it a fair shake. I popped the disc in, and watched Snake smoke for eight minutes while I devoured smoked sausage and sauerkraut. Surprisingly, eating food from the German mötherland put me in the right frame of mind for warfare. Go figure. German food + Snake = War. I think I'm onto something here. Anyways, to make a long post even longer, I found myself playing for more than 6 hours without realizing it. Oh I still have complaints (weapons you pick up don't automatically go into the weapon field, you have to go 'equip' them; no running; it takes a while before the militia realizes you aren't shooting at them so they stop shooting at you... crapping of pants. Seriously? Isn't Innuendo enough? I think it is... and what the FUCK is with those eggs?), but overall I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised. The story has already drawn me in. It's nice to see old faces, and the character development is done well, so far. Anyways, I give it </arbitrary score here>. It's not the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it isn't the worst thing since Don King, either. I'd call it great, but not wonderbread. The new 11/10 that is all.