The Face of Gamers

What is the face of a gamer these days?.Well probably like it's always been pasty white and spotty.Games and gaming have long struggled to shake off their nerdy image and although the cool gamer is a long way off headway has been made. I recieved my first console at the age of eight and what a machine it was.Like many I started out on an Atari 2600 complete with it's wood effect cabinet.The games by todays standards were rubbish.The bundled title then was 'Combat' which involved shooting a pile of boxes that looked nothing like a tank with a similar non-tank object.That didn't matter though,I was in control and if I tried really hard I could ...  Read the complete review

When I first got into computers, it was for purely educational reasons (or so I told my Dad at the time) and I wouldn’t be playing games on it. Obviously, two hours after unwrapping my state-of-the-art Commodore VIC20, I was happily playing games, and not, as my father would have liked, learning stuff. This was 1983, at a time when home computers like the Sinclair ZX81, Sinclair Spectrum and Commodore VIC20 were bringing computing to the masses and I was only 12 years old. In fact, my dad was dead set against me playing games. I have no idea why this is, because this was years before any of that rubbish from America about games turning kids into homicidal maniacs, ...  Read the complete review

I’m short, wear glasses, I don’t have many friends and I have never really fitted in at School. I live with my parents and I have a PC in my room. I’ve got Half-Life, Age of Empires and many more. I also have time for my Dungeons and Dragons collection and of course I always find time to go to the occasional computer fair. YEAH RIGHT!!!!!! My story is this: I’m Paul, 26 and I have been pretty much obsessed with computer games since I was aged 8 when my mum bought me a Commodore Vic 20. For those of you who have just said ‘Vic what?’ I apologise. It’s like an old PC but without any of the power. Anyway, ...  Read the complete review

When I started gaming it wasn't cool. Now it is. I have no problem with admitting to my girlfriend I play PC games or even buying games in front of my friends. I admit that in the old days I was a little embarrassed to tell people about it. Back in the day of the Commodore-64 gaming was certainly not cool. It was still the obsession of the geeks, spotty teenagers who never left their bedrooms. There was no definite turning point when gaming became cool, it happened over the course of a few years. In my opinion the whole thing was started by the Mega Drive towards the end of its life, but was mostly carried out by Sony and their Playstation. It may ...  Read the complete review

Read any review of an RPG game for any format, be it PC, Dreamcast, PS(2) or whatever, and invariably you will encounter such phrases as 'if you are one of the pointy hatted brigade' or 'plenty of orcs and goblins to keep the closet wizard happy' I enjoy Role Playing Games. Simple fact. It does not change who I am or how I behave. I do not wear a cloak and sit in a candlelit room whilst playing. I do not get off on any of the in game pseudo-sexual references. I am however an adult games player. I am not as fast as I used to be. I like my brain to be challenged a little. Do not get me wrong - I grew up in the arcades, and was ...  Read the complete review