Meet the Reader: Burgess_101

Are you lot still reading this? Beats me why. This week I had a thoroughly dull chat with Burgess about such things as whether we prefer aubergines or courgettes, the best number of Vs to have in a car engine and our favourite cloud formation. I kid you not… (This may all be nonsense)

Ah! Hiya.  Sorry for any wait, I’d wandered off for a bit.

No worries I needed time to calm down after play Sniper Elite for a while. Those darn Nazis.

Just seeing your email now, and I’ll never forgive you. Haha, yeah. They’re rather pesky, aren’t they? How was Sniper Elite?

I’m enjoying it! The x-ray kills are quite something! Just a shame the AI seems to have ridiculous eyesight, they can see me from ages away, and I haven’t even shot yet.

Mussolini made the trains run on time, Hitler gave everyone free laser eye surgery.

Ahahaha! Hitler had his priorities straight, didn’t he?

If there was one man that knew what he wanted, it was probably Hitler. If internet memes are anything to go by, though, he lost his temper over lots of things.

Well if you pay for laser eye surgery for all your troops you expect things to be done correctly right?

So, anyway, I’m sure everyone’s absolutely lost by now, thinking they’ve tuned in to a documentary on Yesterday. So, how about you introduce yourself? Who are you, how old are you and where do you come from?

I am Ryan Burgess, 16 and I’m originally from London but moved to a boring little town called Thrapston. It’s in the East Midlands and really very terrible.

Thrapston does sound like an STI or some form of infection.

We used to call it Crapston when we first moved up here…

I can picture the adverts with lots of exceedingly happy women who have discovered some soothing cream. How come you moved, then?

Where I used to live was very crime ridden. Both our neighbours had been robbed, so my parents thought it was time to up sticks and move nearer to my grandparents.

See, now sod’s law says that you’d then be robbed within two weeks of moving in. I assume, though, that this didn’t happen?

In Thrapston the worst thing that can happen (and has happened!) is a cow from the cattle market escapes and someone doesn’t get their dinner! Most surprising walk to school I have ever had… So no, it didn’t.

It’s like you’re living the plots from Last of The Summer Wine! They should make a game of that. And with that udder-ly seamless segue, how did you first get into gaming? (I’m on fire today)

You most certainly are. Well I got into gaming via my Dads PS1 and my Aunties Mega Drive, Sega Saturn and N64. My Dad used to let my brothers and I watch him play MGS. Not to mention he taught me the ropes on Command & Conquer.

I recently got him back into Red Alert though.

The original Red Alert?

Of course! We bought him the massive deluxe pack with all the expansions. That day he saw fit to make me his apprentice.

Hehe. So, it sounds like you’ve got quite a heavy gaming family!

Most definitely! Everyone in my family games. In every home video we have someone is playing a game!

Hehe, that’s pretty cool. It also sounds like there’s a pretty broad variety of consoles in there too. Do you have the full set from this generation?

I did. We currently have two PS3s and a Wii. We used to have an Xbox 360 but my brother moved out a year ago and took his 360 with him. I only really played Fable 2 and 3 on it with my little brother, though. The real gaming machine in our house though is my PC, which I built myself.

PC gaming is a curious beast. Have you always had a powerful PC, or is this a more recent development for you?

Well as I mention earlier, I kind of started gaming on the PC with C&C, but then I went the way of the consoles for ages until around 4 years ago now. I have always wanted to be a fully fledged PC gamer just parts used to be really expensive. Now that I’m older I understand how PC’s work a lot better, (I have always been good with them though) so I asked my parents if for my birthday (16th) if they would fund half of the costs for my PC, and thankfully they said yes.

It’s more than just a game machine though, my blood sweat and tears went into that thing! Not to mention when I decided to try water-cooling…

That explains the need for tears, then. So, what did you end up with? How much did it cost, etc. etc.

I like to describe it as low-high end. It’s an i5 @ 4.7 ghz, ATI Radeon 6850 and 16Gb RAM. Best £700-£800 I ever spent!

I think “low-high end” makes sense with that. You’ve got a fairly hefty CPU, over-clocked rather heavily, shed loads of RAM, and then a GPU that’s presumably only held at that level because if you’d gone any higher the computer would have ended up twice as expensive!

I really want an Nvidia GPU but as you probably know they cost a lot! I’m holding out for the new GTX 670 or 680. Thats the thing though with PC enthusiasts a build is never truly finished!

I’ve always had a soft spot for AMD/ATI, personally. Not sure why.

I really like them as well. They definitely give the best bang for buck. My first GPU though was Nvidia (7800GT) and it makes me really nostalgic. So I fancy coming back home really.

Personally, I’m looking forward to a few years from now, when AMD will come out with a Radeon 9800 again, or something. That GPU just dominated Nvidia for a good 3 year slot.

Yeah I remember reading up on it a while back. Nvidia will always be king, though. That was rather Fanboyish. I apologise!

BANNED.

Its not like me to side with a more expensive product, I’m a cheapskate!

Who isn’t?

Good point. In times like these and all that jazz.

Indeed. Anyway, I think it’s time to scamper onwards to your likes and dislikes in gaming. Starting off with the rather tricky question: What is your favourite game of all time?

You don’t mess about do you?

They call me “to the point teflon” for a reason! (They don’t really)

Maybe they should actually call you that.

A rather controversial choice but… Afro Samurai. That was the game my little brother proved he was ready to be game with me. He had watched me for the whole game and I got to a boss towards the end that I just couldn’t defeat. He said pass me the pad, I did so and he destroyed the boss. That was his first time playing it! Needless to say he was my favourite person that day.

Impressive! Are you sure he’s not an android?

I have thought about the possibility. He doesn’t like to bathe so I guess it’s possible!

I think they key is whether or not he sweats. Then again, Skynet is always improving its infiltration robots.

Well when I see Arnold Schwarzenegger knocking about outside my house, I know I’ve got a problem.

Nah, he’ll protect you… Probably. Depends on the film you’re in.

Yeah, hopefully its the second or third one. If it’s the first, well, its been nice knowing you guys!

Well, except it would then turn out that your dad was sent back from the future to protect your mum… Probably.

Hollywood is known for its variety…