Meet the Reader: Burgess_101

So, then. We’ve covered your favourite game, but what genres do you generally find yourself attracted to?

Well at the moment, RTS titles are a big favourite of mine. My brother and I have played around 50 hours worth of Shogun 2.

Tactical shooters as well. I recently bought Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. Anything with co-op in it I’ll buy, pretty much.

Haha. Co-op is a great selling point for many games.

Shame about the death of split screen, though.

Well, it’s not really dead, to be fair. It was hibernating for a while, until developers had a better grasp of the console architectures, and could get more out of the systems.

I’m not sure. I honestly think its just devs being lazy sometimes or miss it out in order to meet deadlines. As gaming becomes more and more online based it very well may die out completely.

In some cases yes, but then look at how Sony started to push 3D on the PS3, and suddenly Killzone 3, Uncharted 3, etc. etc. all gain split screen. They’ve had to optimise it so much further in order to get double the frame rate for the 3D, and can then apply that back to just plain co-op.

Whilst on 360, Halo titles have always had split screen co-op, and Gears of War has too…

Naturally first party devs will probably have a better grasp of the system.

It depends on the developer, time constraints, and so on, certainly, but it does get into plenty of games.

Not enough games if you ask me! Shooters nowadays often miss out on split screen. BF3, for example. What happened to the days of old where every shooter had split screen? Some of my best gaming memories are of playing Timesplitters on the PS2 with my older brother and his mates.

Different priorities. Having said that, I don’t remember something like XIII having split screen, though I may be mistaken. It’s a checkbox that isn’t always filled. Well, I think we’ve put the industry to rights there. More split screen!

Coming back a little from our tangent, to your likes and dislikes, what is the game that you’re most embarrassed about having played? Was it something you actually enjoyed?

Oh, that’s a toughie.

I’m not going to make a “that’s what she said” joke at this point.

After I had typed that I was prepared for a “that’s what she said” joke!

It would probably have to be American Idol on the GBA. It is a terrible “rhythm” game with terrible music. I really enjoyed it though. The low point of my gaming career!

I felt it would have been far too immature of me. Just felt you’d like to know that I was resisting it, though..

Its nice to know some people never truly grow up.

I still regularly make very immature jokes. They’re the best ones.

There’s two penguins on an ice flow.

One turns to the other and says “You look like you’re wearing a tuxedo.”

The second one replies “Who says I’m not?”

Ahaha! How many times have you pulled that one out on the ladies?

Never. I only heard it yesterday for the first time! I’ve got a great chat up line for you, though. One you can test out for us all, and get back to us.

TSA Guinea Pig? Sounds good to me…

Just head up to them, and say “Do you mind if I ask you a personal question? What’s your name?” I hear it’s a killer line.

Okay let me just note that down somewhere…

Okay noted.

I can’t wait to test it out.

Hmmm. I feel that if you’re going to be our official TSA guinea pig, we should know a little more about your motivations. How do we know you’re not just in it for the monthly Mars bar in the post? How did you first come across TSA? (This is the best segue I’ve ever done…)

In response to your first question isn’t everyone just in it for the Mars bar? To your second, I came across TSA whilst searching for PS3 news in the omniscient Google, and saw it. I was a long time reader before my join date in May 2009, so I have seen the website grow into something quite wonderful.

How long is this particular long time? Were you just staking us out to see if you could con us out of Mars bars? 

I’m not saying that I don’t trust your motivations, but I’m trying to heavily imply it here.

Quite a few months I think, I’m not quite sure. It was a while ago! Yes, okay I was staking you out. It has been 4 long years in the making to get to this point and to get those Mars Bars, but I just can’t go on any longer living a lie!

Finally, some begrudged honesty. I like that. Well, I’ll consider this application a while longer and we’ll get back to you.

Is it possible that in the tagline next to my name I could get Official TSA Guinea Pig? I’m sure you have that sort of power, a big strong man like yourself…

Well… Maybe, after an initial probationary period, where we can evaluate your performance. I’ll be honest with you, this is a high risk position. You could die quite violently in a staged industrial accident.

Anything for you.

Anything?

A-n-y-t-h-i-n-g.

Well… How about telling us what your favourite TSA articles are?

Well my all time favourite of all time has to be Gastos’ Abridged Too Far stories. I miss them dearly! (Great segue by the way)

I tell you, these segues are amongst my best today.

I feel honoured to just be witnessing them today.

And so you should!