Meet the Reader: Manorhowze

Welcome back to the third instalment of the Meet the Reader feature. Sadly, the intended surprise interview fell through, but the next on the list is just as cool a customer. Say hello to Manorhowze!

Lets start in the usual way: What is your name, your age and from whence do you hail?

Well my name is Nick, I’m 31, my shoe size is 11 and I hail from Southend on Sea in Essex.

Now you inside leg, please? Um… I mean to ask, what is and how did you come up with your screen name?

My screen name is Manorhowze and it is just a misspelling of my nickname Manor House. I wanted to use Manor House for my email account but didn’t want a load of numbers after it. I got the nickname because of my sizeable frame and a question on MTV’s Singled Out, where the question was “Manor House or Wendy House?” Since then I have been known as Manor to most of my friends.

I was hoping it was because you lived in a house, a very big house in the country. You’re obviously here because of gaming, so how did you first get into gaming?

My first memories of gaming are from playing on my Auntie’s Commodore 64. which at the time was amazing. I would always just sit on that when we went to visit. I then had my own ZX Spectrum bought for me not long after, and I played games like 720, Skate or Die and 3D Deathchase. At least I think thats what they were called, it was a long time ago!

My first console wasn’t actually mine but I “borrowed” my cousin’s Atari 2600 as she didn’t ever use it, and kept that for about a year. From there I moved on to NES, Mega Drive, and then to the PS1, PS2 and now PS3.

A nice long lineage of consoling history there, but which console do you think holds the fondest memories and is your favourite?

Hmm, its a tough question because they were all great in their day. I think I have the most memories from the PlayStation 3, as up until that point it was mostly me on my own or occasionally split screen. Once I got involved in the online side of gaming, it was made it a lot more fun by having someone else to enjoy games with. Well, after I found TSA that is, my friends list was pretty bare before then.

I also have very fond memories of the PS2 and using it to make music with MTV Music Generator 2. I would often have people round and we would just geek off and make terrible songs, but it was great fun. Overall though I am most fond of my PS3.

You’re a pretty well known as being a racing and racing game fan on TSA, but before we get to that, what would you say is your favourite non-racing game?

Theres been a few over the years but I do love a good local multiplayer game of footy and the PES series has always been my favourite, so I think it would be PES 6 on PS2. Its one of the most fun games for playing with a group of mates, and it’s always good to gloat at them when you score that killer goal in injury time or bring down their striker when he’s through on goal.

There’s obviously plenty to choose from, but what do you count as your favourite racing game?

Now that is a toughie. It’s hard to choose as I like many of them for different reasons.

The Gran Turismo series is one of my favourites as it was the first serious (that I played at least) racing game, and I would spend hours time trialling, trying to shave tenths off of my time. The online side of Gran Turismo 5 provides great racing, but its takes a lot of concentration to be quick and sometimes I just want to hoon about.

So for that I have games like the DiRT series, which provide some good sideways action. On the PS2, V-Rally 2 also had an excellent track editor. GRID and also the earlier TOCA games were also awesome and I have fond memories of that from the many GRID tournaments we used to run. Burnout is also great fun and a key reason for me getting more involved with the community.

F1 2010 is obviously a game I have great memories of from the TSA F1 tourney, and it’s probably the most fun I have ever had from a game, so I would have to pick that one.