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

Welcome to the site!

     Hello, and welcome to Aegis Reviews. My name's Ashton Adams and for the time being, I'll be the sole contributor to the site. Before I let you know about me, let's talk about the site's ambitious goals.

     As gamers, we're really tired of the news butchering our favored hobby. When Grand Theft Auto 4 was released, not only was there LOTS of excitement among the gaming community, there were even more groans as we all watched every news network talking about how it trains your children to be killers and encourages irresponsible or violent behavior.

     I tend to also think that most of us are having trouble with reviews now-a-days. There are a couple of fears or problems that seem common; Game reviews don't really help parents find out what kind of content is really in the game. They also don't tell you if it's worth all the cash you'd be shelling out for it. And then there's the fear that's been growing in gamers as of late that is if our favorite review companies are being paid off for better review scores on games.

Here's why Aegis Reviews exists:

Parents

• There are plenty of ways now to advise what games your children are playing and also how long. I have a job at a gaming retail outlet and I'm shocked at how many parents don't take the time to know about what they're getting their kids and how to control it. Games are really moving in as an entertainment staple, it's likely they'll never go away. Now, I know that there isn't enough time in the day to supervise EVERYTHING your kids are doing but that's part of what this site is for. We're going to take all of your problems and make them easier to deal with helping you be the best parent you can be when it comes to your kid's gaming hobby.

• Do you want to know what "Suggestive Themes" or "Partial Nudity" means on the ESRB ratings? Did you know they don't mean the same thing for every game? Sometimes words aren't enough or words can't describe as well as pictures and videos. We'll have those here for you. You don't have to search, you don't have to think about the stress of looking around the vast internet. Just come here, it'll be there just for you. And if you don't find what you're looking for, all it takes is an email - "I heard there was a lot of violence, blood, skimpy outfits, etc. in this game but I don't see anything about it on your site." - Since this is important to you, we'll do our best to research it and put it on the site. Right now, since I'm the only one contributing to the site, I'll get to the ones that are more in demand. Otherwise, it's first come, first served.

• We'll also have guides on how to set your parental controls on systems that you own. These controls include how long your child is allowed to play, what game ratings they're allowed to play, how they can access online gameplay and more.

My Fellow Gamers

• We want you to have good reviews to look at. When I go to gaming sites, there are a lot of reviews I tend to disagree with. We're also tired of the numerical scores, aren't you? Don't you just want to know if the game is fun, or an experience to remember and if you should buy it? That's what we want to do. We want to play the game, tell you how everything came together within that game,what overlasting experience we walked away with, and if it's worth your money because, let's face it, this is an expensive hobby.

• When I look at reviews, I want to know if I'd like it, not if the person reviewing it liked it. For me, nothing sucks more when I want to know how great Ninja Gaiden is only to find out that the person playing it hates that kind of genre and thus gave it a lower score or they just didn't understand the content so it didn't score as high as it could. The goal right now is to get a good number of gamers with different gaming backgrounds with a biography for you to read on each gamer. We want you to look at the bios, find someone who games like you and read THEIR reviews. And if they haven't reviewed that game, you can email for an opinion from your favorite reviewer guaranteeing you always get an opinion from the one gamer you trust.
  

• Something else that's been going on is gaming companies are giving money and the right to post an early review to reviewers who give it a higher score so it scores better. How do you know who you can trust? Trust US! We're doing this for YOU! For FREE! Use it! Be a part of it! Start spending money on games you know you'll love and enjoy for a long time instead of spending money on a game you'll play once and put away.

•  Now, let's get this straight, we might end up adding this somewhere down the road but we have no current plans to make guides or walkthroughs. But hey, we all get stuck. I'm sure we can add parts at the end of reviews for tips on how to get past general difficult parts of games. We'll see...

  Alright, now that you know about the site, the next few posts will be a message to parents, directions on how to get through your system's interface (for parents), and a bio on myself. Which one comes first, we'll wait and see. Thanks for taking time to read our goals and we hope that you'll use Aegis Reviews as your hub to see what's worth your money and what's best for your kids. See you soon.

Ashton