I’ve been playing PC games since a very young age. I used to play Commander Keen and Prince of Persia on a 286 computer and eventually moved on up to the likes of Monkey Island, Heroes of Might & Magic and later Dark Forces and Doom 95. Back then I simply played a game occasionally and received them as gifts from family, or simply played over at a friend’s house.

That changed in 1998 when I actually bought a game myself: Settlers 3. This was soon followed by games like Outcast and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. In 1999 we received broadband internet and I took gaming online with Settlers 3, also forming my first clan. Unreal Tournament, along with it’s multitude of mods, eventually replaced that game as my favorite online gaming activity and from then on I was hooked. PC gaming has remained my main hobby ever since.

I’ve always had an inclination to form my own clans and guilds. It started back with Settlers 3 and my poorly named ‘com01 fun clan’, but I’ve since lead teams in many games including: Guild Wars, Infantry, Jedi Knight 2 / Academy, Lineage 1, Lord of the Rings Online, Mech Wars, Tactical Ops, Unreal Tournament 99 / 2003 / 2004, WarCraft 3, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and World of WarCraft. However, in recent year I’ve taken to joining clans, which I actually hadn’t ever done until I joined a team started by a neighbour for Soldier of Fortune 1.

Genre Preference

Truth be told, I can’t really point out any genre as my absolute favorite. My favorite games are strewn across many different genres – and I can be enjoying a nice calm turn-based strategy game one moment, only to be blasting players to pieces in a fast-paced Quake deathmatch session an hour later. As a gaming blogger that’s obviously a bonus, because it means I can cover a wide variety of games and can reflect on many differing past experiences with games from entirely different genres.

I do have a distinct preference for science fiction games, which tend to score higher in my book, if only for their setting. There are also certain genres that I do not care for. I do not like racing and sports games for example. Similarly, I’m not a big fan of flight simulation games (unless they’re of the outer space kind) and hyperrealistic games.

Favorite Games

Dragon Age: Origins
It’s a brilliant fantasy role-playing game that combines modern 3D graphics with solid cRPG gameplay that harkens back to genre classics like Baldur’s Gate. It also offers up an engaging story, interesting cast of characters and beautifully realized fantasy world to explore. It may take second seat to The Witcher in my book, but not by any great margin.

Guild Wars
It came out of nowhere and soon ranked as my number one MMORPG of all time. Guild Wars not only offers a truly unique and wondrous fantasy world to explore, but has that backed with an art and music direction that is second to none and a complete lack of a monthly fee. It also introduces the most well balanced and fully realized competitive PvP modes to date, removes (most of) the grind factor from ordinary MMORPGs, actively prevents griefing and has an actual storyline on offer – complete with cutscenes and highly varied cooperative missions. The community did go a little downhill after the beta ended, but is still preferable to most pay-to-play fantasy MMORPGs.

Neverwinter Nights
This shouldn’t really rank amongst my favorite RPGs of all-time, let alone games of all-time, because its singleplayer campaign isn’t really anything special. Despite that fact it remains the game I’ve played through the most to date, which is entirely down to its immense modding community. There are tens of thousands of custom modules available for this game, many of them far superior to the official campaign. And it has great multiplayer support that’s been built upon by legions of modders to even feature limited MMORPGs. It’s too bad then that the basic gameplay comes closer to being a generic hack & slash action RPG than a true cRPG.

Outcast
Outcast is a true classic in every sense of the word. It’s a futuristic third person shooter with a lively and believable free-roaming world in a parallel universe. It comes complete with fully realized alien languages and societies, a captivating story with intriguing and deep characters, and top-notch, innovative gameplay. This is one game any gamer ought to have played and it’s fortunate that Good Old Games snatched it up so that it’s now possible to play this game once more.

Quake Live
Quake Live is the last bastion of competition and skill in a world filled with mediocre first person shooters. It also effectively separates newbies from pro players so that anyone can have a fair match in this excellent free to play game. This is one shooter that no modern gamer can go without.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein
This brilliant first person shooter introduced us to the concept of team based multiplayer with objectives and classes. It’s also the number one, unsurpassed, team based multiplayer game to date. Even its direct – and free – successor Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory proved to be nothing more than a poor imitation as it went too far into making player skill a non-factor. This has resulted in the competitive Enemy Territory community collectively playing RtCW-lite in the form of the ETPro mod.

StarCraft 2
This has now replaced the original StarCraft as my favorite real-time strategy game. It has an excellent singleplayer campaign with a lot of variety, but merely so-so storytelling. The real reason this is listed is for its incredible multiplayer component, however, which is proving to be not only a pleasure to play but also great to watch.

The Witcher
The Witcher 2 undoubtedly ranks as my favorite RPG of all-time. It has great characters, a different and interesting dark fantasy setting and brilliant story exposition throuh a very variable singleplayer campaign. What truly sets it apart, however, are the important and grey choices you need to make along the way. This isn’t the black & white, good & evil of games like Dragon Age or Neverwinter Nights. I actually purchased a second copy – the enhanced edition – to support CD Projekt. The Witcher is that good and I absolutely cannot wait for the sequel.

Unreal Tournament
I may have completed the Neverwinter Nights campaign more than that of any other game, but this outstanding first person shooter is the game I’ve truly played the most. Nothing truly compares to raking in monster kills in those awesome Capture the Flag matches and that is surely why this game is still played quite heavily more than 11 years after release. You can’t rightfully call yourself a gamer until you’ve played Unreal Tournament.

Computer Specifications

This is my prime gaming and entertainment system with brand new hardware. My previous – 4 year old – system started getting some blue screen errors due to a dieing motherboard, so I decided to just overhaul the entire system. The result is a PC that can run all the latest games in maximum detail and record them while it’s at it. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise then that this is where GameDrone gets made.

• Processor: Intel Core i5 760
• Motherboard: ASUS P7P55 LX
• Video card: ASUS Radeon 6870
• Sound card: Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer
• Memory: 4GB Kingston PC10600 DDR3
• Hard Disk 1: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB
• Hard Disk 2: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB
• Hard Disk 3: Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 750GB
• Power Supply: Antec TruePower Trio 550W
• Case: Antec P182
• Monitor: HP W2207h TFT (1680×1050 gaming resolution)
• Headset: Sennheiser HD 595
• Speakerset: Philips amBX Premium Kit
• Keyboard: Logitech G15 v2
• Mouse: Razer Deathadder
• Mousepad: “FiringSquad“ fUnc 1030
• Gamepad: Logitech Chillstream
• Joystick: Logitech Force 3D Pro

Notebook Specifications

My backup notebook is actually a more than capable gaming system in its own right. This XXODD XNi-980nu is mostly relegated to LAN party and occasional writing duty, but still ranks amongst the most powerful gaming notebooks to date. With its high performance hardware and 1080p screen it’s an ideal setup for attending small LAN parties with friends.

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 (2.8 GHz)
• Video card: Geforce GTX280M
• Memory: 4GB Kingston DDR3 (1066 MHz)
• Hard Disk: 3x 320GB S-ATA 7200RPM
• Screen Size: 18.4″
• Screen Resolution: 1920×1080
• Mouse: Logitech G5
• Extras: Blu-Ray Drive, HDMI, 8 Game Keys

Competitive Gaming

It all started in 1999 when I took my gaming online with Settlers 3 and discovered a world of clans and competitive matches. Since then I’ve competed in dozens of games across several genres, which has resulted in a great many victories both online and at LAN parties. I’ve listed some of my more notable achievements below.

• Infantry – top-down shooter – 2000
  1st place worldwide with the squad I lead in the Gravball and The Journey Out game modes.
  3rd place worldwide individually in the The Journey Out game mode.
• Jedi Knight 2 – first person shooter – 2001
  4th place finish in ClanBase OpenCup for the Jedi Knight 2 duel game mode.
• Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy – first person shooter – 2003
  Reigned unbeaten in Europe in the Siege game mode with the clan I was leading at the time. This lasted for our entire 3 month and 70+ match lifespan immediately after launch.
• Ground Control 2 (demo) – real-time strategy – 2004
  1st place worldwide on the drop-in ladder for three weeks straight after the release of the multiplayer demo.
• Guild Wars – competitive online role playing game – 2004
  13th place worldwide with my guild during the beta weekend events. Highest end-of-weekend ranking was 21st. We lost only 2 matches and defeated both those guilds in subsequent matches.
• CodeMasters CampZone – LAN party with 1600+ gamers – 2004
  During this 11 day LAN party I participated in numerous competitions and finished highly in all of them. My results are listed below.
  2nd place – Enemy Territory 5 vs 5
  2nd place – Unreal Tournament 2004 Assault
  2nd place – Unreal Tournament 2004 Onslaught
  3rd place – Battlefield: Vietnam 8 vs 8
  3rd place – Unreal Tournament 2004 Team DeathMatch
  8th place – Unreal Tournament 2004 1 vs 1 Normal Weapons
  8th place – Unreal Tournament 2004 1 vs 1 InstaGib
  8th place – WarCraft 3 1 vs 1
• Unreal Tournament 3 – first person shooter – 2008
  1st place on ClanBase Capture the Flag ladders with two different clans as their primary defender.
• FiringSquad Editor’s Challenge - writing competition – 2007
  4th place in the final tally as the only remaining non-native speaker in the top 10.