Meet the Reader: Miffi-Lou

She’s (yes, she’s one of the few female TSA members) been lurking around on TSA for a while now, and following Ashw92’s Meet the Reader a fortnight ago, he’s managed to persuade her to do her own interview. Say hello to Miffi-Lou.

As always we start off with: Who are you, how old are you and where do you come from?

Well… my real name is Mafalda de Andrade Lourenco, but no one uses that except my mum. I’m known by everyone as Miffi. I’ve even managed to embarrass myself by introducing myself as sounding like the rabbit Miffy, and then hopping up and down… I was drunk though.

I’m 20, just, and originally from Portugal, but moved to England when I was 7.

That must have been quite an introduction! You’ve only just turned 20? It’s either that, or you’re about to turn 21.

Yeah, 20 on Friday! I don’t feel mature enough to not be a teenager anymore!

I think you only have to stop being a “teenager” at 21, not 20. Happy Birthday! I assume you had a good day and night?

Oh good. I’ve got another year then!

Thank you. I had a great time. I got homemade cookies, yum! I went for a meal as well, and to see The Artist.

Sounds lovely and relaxed. Now obviously, you’re here because you like gaming, (and Ash managed to persuade you). So how did you first start gaming?

Well, my first gaming experience was with a Game Boy Colour and Pokémon Gold I bought from Cash Converters when I was 9, but I had to buy it myself. It doesn’t get much more exciting for a while after that.

That sounds like you had to work hard for your Game Boy!

Yeah, I did.

My first proper console experience was my cousin’s N64, and then his GameCube which he wouldn’t let me play, so I used it when he was out! Many years later I bought that GameCube off him for a fiver, but he gave me no games and nowhere stocked new ones anymore, so I had to buy more second hand. I mainly played Zelda and Mario Kart over and over though.

The GameCube had some pretty good games on it, I remember. Yes, there’s always Zelda and Mario Kart, but did you pick up things like Metroid Prime or Resident Evil 4? Somewhat darker games.

No, because I couldn’t afford them! I remember borrowing the Donkey Konga bongos game once… that’s about as exciting as it got back then!

The first time I was able to actually play up to date games was when I got my Wii. I mainly played Mario games as well as Zelda and a few others. It was during my Wii days that i got hooked on Guitar Hero 3.

Haha. Are you still into the Guitar Hero, or whatever it’s called now, and Rock Band style games? They’ve sort of died out lately.

Yeah, I switched over to Rock Band when I met Ashley. The only problem was I got him all the trophys on his account, and don’t want to have to go through it all again on my own PSN account. I don’t want to do endless setlist twice! I haven’t really played it all lately, though. Too many other games.

I can imagine you wouldn’t want to do that a second time! So, was it Ashley that introduced you to the PlayStation 3 and world away from Nintendo? What kind of games do you play these days?

Yeah definitely. I love a game with a great story now and I dont just play über-friendly games anymore, violence is good! You get a lot more satisfaction shooting someone in the face than you do jumping on their head!

I am restricted by what Ash wants, as it is his PS3, but we generally enjoy the same games anyway, like Uncharted, Assassins Creed, CoD and God of War.

Yes, Ash did say you like violence…  Speaking of God of War, have you and he gone back and explored some of the PS2 games being given HD treatments?

I started with the remastered PS2 games. Ash wanted GoW3 so decided to get the other first and that was when the PS3 theft began! Got the PSP collection as well and really enjoyed all of them.

I do have my own PS Vita now. Hurrah! And guess what… it wasn’t second hand! Woo!

How have you been enjoying the Vita? There were so many big name games at launch, so what did you pick up?

I love the Vita. I got Little Deviants and Rayman with it, then got hooked on MotorStorm: RC something terrible, and began swearing a lot. I’m pretty sure I made up some new swear words in the process. However, Ash has told me that I have beaten one or two of your times so that makes me happy!

I picked up Uncharted: Golden Abyss the other day and really enjoying it. I’m already on my third playthrough. The Sixaxis aiming makes it much easier to use.

He’s beaten my times? I’ll have to sort that out later on…

No I mean that I have beaten you. He’s friends with both us so can see them. I usually suck at driving games so I’m happy with that!

Oh, that’s worthy of a facepalm. I read that completely wrong. I’ll have to add you on PSN now, so I can fix that.

Oh no! Well, it was fun while it lasted.

Sounds like you’ve got a good little selection of games. What are you looking forward to on it, and on the PS3 later this year?

Really looking forward to The Last of Us. The shots look amazing and its a really clever way of not just spouting out another zombie game. It looks like it will have some originality. Bioshock Infinite looks good too, and hopefully will be less scary than the other two.

On the Vita I’m really excited for LittleBigPlanet. I like the idea of buying a game with the potential to have thousands of other games inside it.

I’m not sure Bioshock Infinite will be less scary. It might be brighter and more open looking, but it seems just as tense and atmospheric…

Balls…

So I take it you’re not into scary stuff?

I like scary stuff but I get way too immersed into it so when there is a jumpy moment the controller takes flight!

The TV-saving wrist straps for the Wiimote and Move come in handy sometimes.

Definitely!

Now time for one of the tougher questions: what is your favourite game of all time?

Oh no. I really just don’t know. I like too many games and can’t narrow it down. My favourite series’ are Assassin’s Creed and Zelda, but I couldn’t say any one of them was my favourite game. I’m way too indecisive!

Is it quite safe to say you like this sort of open world adventure?

Yeah. I like to explore.