Who Are You?

This is the gamer bio for, your host of Aegis Reviews, Ashton Adams:
XBL - Aegis Ornus
PSN - AegisEverto

Favorite Games - Devil May Cry series, Okami, Psychonauts, WET, Fallout 3, Street Fighter series, Final Fantasy 8 and 12, Vectorman, Prince of Persia and the Prince of Persia Trilogy, Metal Gear series, Sonic 2, Braid, ALL of the Oddworld series, Mischief Makers, Bionic Commando (Rearmed and the next-gen reboot), Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Bioshock, No More Heroes... This list could go on for a bit....

Favorite TV shows - Dexter, Rurouni Kenshin, Lost, Gungrave (I like those games too...), Outlaw Star, The Legend of the Seeker, Buffy, Angel, Castle, Firefly, Gankutsuou, Clannad, Soul Eater, Dollhouse, Jericho, Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, I think now's a good place to stop...

Favorite Movies - Mr. Foe, Cashback, White Noise, Shoot'em Up, Sin City, The Dark Knight, The Prestige, Children of Men, 300, Letters from Iwo Jima, No Country for Old Men, Unforgiven, Seven Pounds, The Air I Breathe, Baraka, Crows: Episode Zero.

Favorite Books - Illusion's: Messages From A Reluctant Messiah, The Dream Weaver, Interworlds, The Phantom Toll Booth, Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

Favorite Bands - Foo Fighters, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Gomez, Modest Mouse, The Pillows, Hypnophonics, Cave In, Queens Of The Stone Age, School Food Punishment, Them Crooked Vultures, Yoko Kanno.

Life Background - I've been in CA my whole life. I'm an only child to a single mother. I've been gaming a long time and I'm damn proud of it. I've always been a really sick kid and I actually never made it to school all that much. I ended up taking the California High School Proficiency Exam in the middle of the 10th grade so that I could move on to college and stop dealing with the public school system. Whenever I wasn't playing videogames, I was normally watching anime and listening deeply to my music collection. My games, anime, and music actually cultivated me into a pacifist. I always look for verbal solutions before physical ones. That is, unless I'm playing games, then you bet I'm gonna give you a beating.
     I am, however, not a stereotypical guy's guy. I'm pretty shy, quirky, physically weak, I always seek out a more personal relationship with people. I believe I can talk out my problems rather than scream and storm off, and I'm not very fond of people that feel they need to brag about every little detail. Most of those people I tend to run into in racing and fighting games. I'll always be real quiet, making me the target of harassment, and they'll tell me how good they are and how I'll never surpass their achievements. Then I beat them over and over and before you know it, they're praising me and warning everyone else that I'm the real deal. I know that would make me the braggart in this situation but come on, at least I'm not a scrub and I don't rub my "skills" in your face 24/7.
     Growing up, I've always tried to help other people. I was the one helping all sorts of kids with their problems. Lots of girls came to me with relationship problems, guys came to me with depression. Somehow I became this go-to guy when it came to personal problems. It did open up a lot of doors for me though and I essentially fit into every social circle in high school because of what I did for others. I figured since I was helping people so much, I would want to go into Psychology. Then I remembered how much I suck at science and math. I have a very interesting sense of logic that works and makes sense for me and no one else which leads to confusion when I try to understand the logic of numbers. I like writing a lot so I'm going for my English major. I want to be a gaming journalist, a novelist or an English teacher. I figure I can still be lots of help to people in any of those areas and utilize my knowledge and experience with games at the same time.
     I'm not a good out-of-the-box thinker. I work better with known limits. Tell me what I got to work with and I'll use it in an efficient manner.

Gaming Background - I've been gaming almost since birth. My cousin, who was living with me around the age of 2, had purchased a SNES and was in love with it. I remember sitting and watching her play it and being in awe of all the colors and fun music (I'd be referring to Super Mario World, of course). She finally got me involved by sitting me in her lap and putting my hands around the controller. Not much later, I was playing on my own and my experiences with gaming have been growing ever since.
     I still own the majority of all the systems I've bought which range from the days of the NES to the entire line-up of the current generation. My favorite console so far has been the Sega Dreamcast. Sega was always really ahead of it's time when it came to consoles but unfortunately their marketing and timing was never the best... Sadly, now they're only a shadow of their former self... Unless they want to maybe revive Shenmue 3, make a next-gen Vectorman, Online Powerstone, and then sweeten the deal with another Jet Set Radio.... Please?
     Growing up, I played a lot of games. I normally played every game available at whatever Blockbuster or Hollywood Video was around. The games that I was always addicted to though were the ones that kicked my butt i.e. Abe's Oddysee, Megaman, Street Fighter 2, Starfox64. I played those games until I was the only one I knew that could do it better than anyone else.

So What Games "Float Your Boat"? - I tend to like all types of genres but let's try to boil it down.
     Games with difficult mechanics. I think I first realized it when I played Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening. This was before Special Edition, when it was kickin' butt and taking names. I learned how to mash buttons so fast from that game that my arm was constantly popping from the tension and speed. And, no, I don't mash with my thumb, I don't have that kind of coordination. I have a method that uses my whole arm. What's the difference? I'm building muscle and making myself susceptible to arthritis and you're not... But I digress. I love games that kick my butt, but let's be more specific - I like games that lead me to blame myself for sucking at the game rather than the game being so difficult, the enemies cheat just to be harder. So games that I enjoy for their difficulty and mechanics: Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, Bionic Commando, God Hand, Viewtiful Joe.... Okay, let's just sum it up and say mostly Capcom titles.
     Games that have GREAT story and characters. Bioshock was exploding with twists and immersion making me always want to play just to see what happens next. Silent Hill 2 had such a deep, psychological story, I discuss it with people who don't even play videogames. Prince of Persia made me weep and it really offered a great story between two strangers with ongoing dialogue that never ceased to entertain. I'm normally very empathetic so I really get into games with deep characters that can offer something outside of gameplay. When a game makes me think outside the box with it's story is another thing I love. One example would be Metal Gear Solid 2. It was so philosophical with really large twists. I played it many times over just to hear the dialogue and plot, picking up new parts of the story and even ideals and morals I could place into the real world. So sometimes I can almost completely overlook the gameplay if the game's got a great story to tell. I think you'll get a better idea of what I mean when you read my reviews.

     I do encourage people to request what they want to see reviewed. I'm running off of gamefly currently so I can get a few of the newer games but I'll be putting in some reviews on older titles relating to what's coming out i.e. Yakuza since Yakuza 3 is almost here and Yakuza 4 is on it's way over in japan. And I'm sure I'll just put out reviews of whatever I got and I do have a lot. But we'll keep the site rolling, we'll see what keeps, what doesn't. Let's hope for the best!

Ashton