Meet the Reader: McProley

You join us for another interview this week, and this time with a direct link to the interviewee from last week… I guess you’ll have to keep reading to find out what that link is, as we meet McProley!

We start off with the usual trio of questions: Who are you, how old are you and where do you come from?

I’m Chris Prole, I’m 27 and I’m from Brighton.

Another one from Brighton? You lot are everywhere on the Internet!

Well, there’s either the Internet or the gay scene… Not that I mind it, it gives us a mark on the map.

Haha, the two claims to fame of Brighton!

Yup! And there is Prince Regent’s skinny dipping legacy.

Every coastal town and city with beaches has a skinny dipping legacy, I’m sure… So, this could almost go without asking, but from where did your TSA and PSN IDs originate?

Well my surname is Prole obviously, which, I’m told by my father, comes from William the Conquerer. Not sure if that’s true, but it makes me sound good. And I have a little Irish in me so I decided to add the Mc to it. It’s odd, but one of my mates claims he is a descendant of Harold the Great.

A little Irish in you? Quite the turn of phrase…

Oh, well this is Brighton. Don’t tell Tuffcub, though.

OK. I’ll make sure he doesn’t read this, or something. I would have thought that Prole would come from the Latin word ‘proletariat’, meaning the lower social classes…

Yeah, I would’ve thought that too, thanks to the great book 1984 with the Proles. I was born in 1984 so that’s quite a coincidence too.

So, how about those damned Eurasians, eh? Not a fan myself. I hear that Oceania is making some good progress of late!

Yeah, damn them!

Hope we can catch that dastardly Goldstein too. I really do hate him.

Anyway, whilst you’re sat in front of your telescreen, avoiding thinking bad thoughts that the Thought Police will drag you off to a work camp for, you presumably enjoy gaming. How did you first get into gaming?

Well, my dad is a computer programmer thingy, and he used to work quite locally. I used to go with my mum to meet him from work around the age of 3 and sometimes he’d finish late and let me play on one the old BBC computers. The ones that look like the Fallout terminals.

I then inherited a Speccy 128k from my cousin, which I absolutely adored and still have in the attic. Then it was the Master System, SNES, Mega Drive, Saturn, and various Game Boys.

Then, when I was about 12, I just quit gaming altogether. Started up again with a bit of PC gaming a few years later, before moving onto PS1, the original Xbox, PS2, and now the PS3 and Vita.

Was there a particular reason why you packed it in when you were 12? Or did you just lose interest for a while?

I blame girls… I had a lot of hormones back then and I just lost interest I suppose. Now I have games back in my life, though, I’m a happy man. Games won’t cheat on you (unless its the damn AI cars in MS:RC).

Are you equating rubber-banded racing game AI with infidelity?

Well, it gives me the same feeling sometimes. Maybe I’m just rubbish.

I think you need to load up some old games with cheat codes, to get even with the games industry again. These days you generally end up having to pay for that kind of thing… 

I’ve got a Gameshark cartridge for my SNES somewhere! I wouldn’t want to use cheat codes these days though. I’d feel like a dirty cheap tart.

It’s better to earn it, definitely. Despite that little break you took, you’ve waded through several generations of consoles, and there are always a few gems on each of them. Which game do you consider to be your favourite?

That’s a tough one. May I pick a couple?

NO! Oh, alright then.

From the early days, I’d probably have to say Balderdash on the Speccy, Fallout 2 on PC and (predictable I know) CoD 4, because that game really sparked my enthusiasm for current gen gaming.

Fallout 2 is an absolute classic title. Do you think Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas have lived up to the legacy?

Yes it is!

New Vegas not so much, but Fallout 3 came close. I sunk way too many hours into it. My main problem with it was that I missed all the awesome mods for it, because I had it on PS3. Some of the Fallout 2 mods were amazing.

RPGs often get some big mods on PC. I take it, from your favourites, that you’ve got quite a wide-ranging taste in genres. Is there one that really stands out for you?

I like to think I’m quite diverse, yes.

From a year or two ago, I’d have said FPS, but that was only current gen I suppose and maybe some of the old PC games such as Quake, but I think my heart truly lies with RPG’s. I love a good story.

Actually, I forgot one of my favourites: Final Fantasy 4.

I always like to ask people what the most embarrassing or worst game that they’ve ever played is. So what utter tripe is there in your back catalogue? Maybe you even enjoyed it?

Oh dear, I was struggling to think about this question. I could go quite predictable and say the Leisure Suit Larry games, but one definitive game has just popped into my head just this second. It was a Windows based game called Get That Girl.

I feel ashamed just writing the name. It came on some weird demo disc collection when I got my first PC. If you used the right chat up lines, the model would show you her chebs. The only saving grace (hardly) was that they were real photos rather than pixels.

Ugh, I feel bad now I’ve told you that.

Haha! That game sounds AMAZING-ly bad.

Oh yes, it was most certainly abysmal!

Was that the game that got you back into gaming? Or, more likely, the tipping point that caused you to drop it.

Hahaha! NO! Most likely the latter, but it was a distraction from homework.

Bringing it right back to the present day, you said you’ve got yourself a PS Vita. It’s crazy to think it’s coming a month since its release. How have you been enjoying it? Which games have you got?

I’ve only had mine since Friday because I had my MOT due around the same date as release. I’m loving it so far though. I’ve got MS:RC, Wipeout 2048 and Touch My Katamari for the craziness.

Keeping Sony’s 3rd or 4th week sales figures ticking over? Good man. I’ll bet you’ve spent most of that time on MS:RC.

Yup, pretty much, although I’ve also been quite enjoying a bit of Diver Dan’s Cliff Jumper. I’m really impressed with the augmented reality even if it is quite basic so far.