create an account   |   login

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:
Battle:
PSN: balth
Mii:
Gamertag:

Following (31)

Prince of Persia (POP), not to be confused with Milk of Magnesia (MOM), a similar acronym that goes well together. balth | 10:37 AM on 12.23.2008 8 comments

No, we aren't talking about mating. If you came in for the mating pictures, you'll have to move on. We're talking about: I played the original, ORIGINAL PoP on the PC way back in the day before most of the loyal dtoid readers were in short pants. It was definitely patterned after its generation, which I lovingly refer to as 8-bit batshit hard. You didn't just die, you died every seven seconds. Thought about sex because you were male? Yep, that's a distraction, and you're dead. Hmm, I might be on to something with that... but I digress. Anyways, Throw-Your-Swords-On-The-Ground-They're-Attacking-Us and We-Got-Outbid-For-One-Of-The-Best-MMORPG-Companies-By-Broke-Ass-Atari Developers Ubisoft have brought us a new romp through the Prince of Persia world involving a ... Prince? Ok, not so much. How about a thief with a donkey, and a Princeess. So technically, I think they honestly should have called it Princess of Persia. Honestly, she's the one *doing* stuff half the time. Let's break it down. First: Art. The new style is pretty nice. I thought I'd hate it at first. And I didn't. Until I saw a shadow. So they have this beautiful artwork, and shadows that look like blocks. It makes no sense. Gameplay: The running and jumping and climbing mechanics and animation are all fine. No problem there. The problem with gameplay comes from the fact you cannot die. Literally. Ever. There is no risk, ever. And that means.... No reward. For our word impaired frends, let me break it down with teh picture: The princess saves your horrible-timing ass every time. What's worse, is I don't LIKE the main character. I'd rather play as the princess, to be quite frank. She's far more developed as a character, and far more interesting. I am not really sure why they decided to use the two person mechanic, when it's really only a one-person effect. Most of the time, she simply follows silently behind you, like a good woman does. And then, when you go to climb something, she's all over your backs, strangling your thiefs as you climb. She sort of magically super-speeds there, onto your back. It looks pretty poor and makes you wonder why they didn't just have her climb behind. So I'll tell you right now, I didn't even beat the game for this review. I got so fricking bored, doing the same thing over and over... Eventually you unlock more magic spells for the princess to use. I thought that might vary the gameplay up. It does not. So if you've played for about three hours of the game, really you've experienced the whole thing. The only difference is your eyes aren't bleeding from having finished the journey. I really did give it a fair shake; I was bored after the first full level (not a good sign), and persevered another two and a half because I thought they would really vary things up more. But the truth is, that yes, it looks nice; but a good looking does not a fun game, make. Sound: The sound is great, the music is ok, but nothing that will sodomize itself into your brain. Take that how you will ;) Summary: So after everything is said and done, the creators of POP wanted to change up the game, make it more appealing to 'the masses.' However, in doing so, they have alienated the fun out of the series, leaving a series of pretty pictures, yet falling short of truly achieving anything worth a $60.00 price point. (also why it has been already discounted as new to $39.99 at most GameStops.) Play enough POP, and you'll probably need the