This week, I volunteered Tom_Lord to do the interview. So, say hello, it’s only polite.
[drop2]I have absolutely no idea what your answers will be to this. Who are you, how old are you, and where do you come from?
Thomas Harrison-Lord, or Tom_Lord, or THL, or Tomhlord, or Tom, THLNetwork… I could go on. I’m 22-ish and am from Leeds, Yorkshire!
How about you?
This isn’t speed dating, you know, I don’t have to tell you a thing!
Dreams shattered…
Yet another successful preservation of my aura of mystery. Now, you’ve got a rather surprising set of user names, that you use online. Where did you possibly get the inspiration for them?
Well, unlike most people, it’s not after a footballer, or film, or game character. Rather it’s all variations on my name/initials that happen to be available. Simple and also quite dull. Sorry.
I have a lot of initials to play with, though.
Not just double barrelled, but also with multiple middle names too? You must be rich.
Ha, if I was rich then I wouldn’t be in Leeds!
Do you get many Harrison Ford jokes made?
Lots. A man came to check the boiler, opened the cupboard and asked if there were many snakes in there.
Oh, I thought for a moment, that this was going to be one of the jokes. It read like the start of one.
Oh dear, no, he just meant Indiana Jones.
What I want to know is why you were in the cupboard to start with?
Haha, because that’s where the boiler is!
Were you hugging it for warmth? I hear it’s cold in The North.
Something like that. It is freezing up here, though, and heating costs money.
Must do wonders for the longevity of original 60GB PS3s…
Sadly not. I went through 2 myself, but my slim seems to be holding up well.
It helped to heat the room, though? How did you first get into gaming, then?
Ha, yes, those 60GB’s working like central heating! I had to literally play with the windows open at times!
My parents bought me an old-skool black & white Gameboy with Tetris when I was 7 or 8. Which I loved, but more importantly, I also had a terrible F1 racing game. I could never get past the first race, but I played it all the time.
From that point on I wanted to play racing games and got a PSOne with Colin McRae Rally & TOCA 2 when I was 10.
[drop]I saw you bragging to Tony (not that this is his real name) on Twitter about your collection.
Yeah, the less said about that the better really. This is going on a website and people can see it!
But I do enjoy all of the Codemasters racing games.
They also know your real name. Tony’s is still a complete mystery.
You mean Chris Eden-Pratt…?!
Who? Whoever that is, he must be rich too. All these swanky people on TSA these days, with their double barrelled names. You’d think we were all up market or something!
Far, far from the truth! Not that this is a bad thing. Us double-barrellers have good taste, though.
I have to work overtime to lower the tone.
At which you do a good job.
I’ll take that compliment. So you started off on a Game Boy, and then a PS1. Did you then stick with PlayStations? Or perhaps the Xbox’s graphical might wooed you?
Well, being 10 and all, I had no money for games myself so had to rely on Birthdays and Christmas for my parents to buy me some. So I stuck with the PS1 for many years.
Imagine that though, as a tangent, only getting 2/3 games a year. I get that a month now.
I knew you were rich.
Ha, no! But that’s where all of my wage goes!
One fateful Christmas, my Auntie bought me Gran Turismo…
I like cars, away from games that is, and that was like car heaven right there! So, of course, when GT3 (and Colin McRae Rally 3) came out, I had to get a PS2. That was always my main gaming machine but I also has a GBA, with that god awful screen, that had Advance Wars and then an Advance SP, which has to be one of the best console designs ever.
Then to make up lost time, I bought a friends N64 for £30, including Perfect Dark, Mario Kart, Goldeneye. After playing through them, I sold it all on for something like £80.
I did that too, but I didn’t sell it. I’ve still got a totally mint condition Majora’s Mask.
Woah, impressive.
Gold cartridge!
Sooo… cool. I still have an F1 N64 game somewhere that is so terrible no trade store will accept it.
Fact. So you’ve managed to get plenty gaming under your belt, then. This is going to be tough, but what’s your favourite game of all time?
Well, it’s all relative really. I’m going to say Colin McRae Rally 2, but context is key. In reality games are always improving as a general rule, so by todays standards, it is terrible. All old games are, really, if you are being brutally honest. It is the memories that are associated with that game that make it special.
Certainly. I knew it would be a racing game, though. Women’s intuition. You already mentioned one fairly bad game, by your reckoning, but what’s the most embarrassing game that you’ve ever played?
Someone on PSN caught me playing DanceStar the other day…
When the first of my friends got PS3s they used to laugh whenever they could see me playing on SingStar, but then they played it and we all have a good laugh about it.
Bit of a karaoke king, are we?
No, not at all, I can’t sing to save my life, but I’ve become known as “the guy that has that SingStar machine” by friends.
Got to love the brand illiteracy out there. Here’s another goodie. Since this release window is 99.9% done, how about your Game of The Year?
Uncharted 3.
I know that would seem like an obvious choice, but the game has come under some (unwarranted) critique from some certain reviewers which I think is completely uncalled for. After playing and enjoying Batman a fair bit, I would still take Uncharted 3 because there is no other game series that catches my attention so much, or makes me just want to play through it in one gocb. It does that wonderful thing of making you think it’s a cut scene when actually you are in control, no other game comes close to that, I think.
Do you use it to show your friends what else t’SingStar machine can do?
I show them VidZone, iPlayer or a Blu-ray, but to friends that play games, I’ve managed to persuade all of them to play Uncharted 3. Mainly because I forced them to play Uncharted 2 too.
Good man! How and when did you first stumble across TSA?
It was 2009 I think. I had always read magazines about games, but never ventured on the net to read about it. I also had a shiny PS3 and plenty of time to kill at uni!
There was an easter egg hunt competition throughout the site and because of that I got to read most of the site. Then a couple of weeks later, there was a post advertising vacancies to write for it, so i thought what the hell, and somehow I got it!
I had to focus on my degree though come the 3rd year of uni so then stopped writing on good terms. I’ve still been an avid reader and commentator since then.
So you used to write for TSA? What desk were you on?
For two years I wrote a mixture of things, mainly news stories and reviews. I didnt have a desk though, and nofi never gave me any biscuits. Back then it was only PlayStation too.
Origami Killer
haha very funny. In group C on F1 it’s always you and Jambo stealing the show in 1st and 2nd :P Worst film I saw this year was Buried.
Origami Killer
forgot to say, have you received your res3 t-shirt? I haven’t.
Tomhlord
I do believe that they haven’t been dispatched from the original source yet.
bacon_nuts
I thought buried was really interesting, pretty horrible, but in the way it should have been.
Origami Killer
it tried to be realistic but in fact it was not at all. So boring as well.
tonyyeb
Great MTR! Tom’s a top guy to play online against, I think once he gets a wheel Jambo might have turn up the engine! ;)
gazzagb
EuroTrip is a brilliant film!
Manorhowze
Good read. Loving the pic of the old TOCA games, they were awesome back in the day. (Although I think I forgot to mention them in the PS1 games thread. *damn*)
And Jambo’s fake accent is getting annoying, we all know he’s Jamaican as his username is short for Jamaican Bob. ;)
Jambo
Ya man.
teflon
Does this mean you’re going to stop with the Irish one now?
Jambo
Its Northern Irish :-P
tonyyeb
You should use your twitter account then Manor! A great chat about the TOCA games has passed you by!
freezebug2
Yup, good taste in nostalgic games there Tom, I still have two of those Toca’s in their original cases….be great to have a PS3 version released other than Grid, although Grid 2 would be welcome ;)
Tomhlord
I wish Grid 2 would be released, I have my fingers crossed that it is out this time next year!
maneorix
I’ve got to agree CMR 2.0 is one of my favourite if not my favourite PSX game of all time. I spent waaaay too much time playing that!
Tomhlord
All day, every day!
spooferbarnabas
You had/have an N64 and didn’t mention Diddy Kong Racing?! You’re dead to me. Good meet the reader though dude, even if you did get my name slightly wrong ;)
Tomhlord
I got you’re name wrong, really? ;)
shields_t
Great stuff, I’ve been caught out by the singstar play notification before now too, I used to say it was my wife playing but these dys I just embrace the karaoke!
Tomhlord
It’s the way forward!
shields_t
Aye ;-)
cam the man
Good to meet you Tom.
I would say my fav games of all time would come from the TOCA and CMR series. Much preferred the earlier games format than the latest ones.
Tomhlord
I do enjoy all of them, but those early ones (for their time) were epic!
MadJunkBoy
nice to meet u mr ford…
great read again teflon… and a funny one=)
Go-Kart FTW! =)
lenn117
I think they should interview CB or Blair next….be very interesting and funny imo
mynameisblair
We’ve both done Meet the Staff articles, hunt them down and you shall be rewarded :D