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 – A brilliant RPG with excellent classic cRPG gameplay, great characters and an interesting world to explore. What’s not to like?
• Guild Wars – The beta weekend events were some of the most fun I’ve had in gaming. Awesome PvP, genuinely innovative gameplay and great graphics for its time.
• Neverwinter Nights – It features mediocre gameplay mechanics and poor storytelling, but I’m including it anyway. Why? Mods. And it’s the game I played through more than any other game to date (three times).
• Outcast – This game is a true classic in every sense of the word. A game that combined innovation with beautiful graphics, an amazing soundtrack, a free-roaming world, an impressive story and excellent gameplay. You can’t call yourself a PC gamer if you’ve never played this game… unfortunately, it’s also impossible to obtain nowadays.
• Quake Live – A shooter that no modern FPS player should go without. This is the last bastion of competition and skill in a world filled with mediocre first person shooters – and it’s free!
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein – There hasn’t been a single shooter to date that can match RtCW’s incredible (and innovative) multiplayer gameplay. The world’s very first class- & objective-based FPS retains its throne as king of teambased FPS gameplay to this day.
• StarCraft – Yup, I’m not part of the Total Annihilation crowd.
• The Witcher – Undoubtedly the best RPG in the last decade – and possibly, ever. Great characters, brilliant storytelling, genuinely grey choices and sweet gameplay made it an unforgettable experience even before the free Enhanced Edition patch fixed every fault the game had. I actually purchased a second copy – the enhanced edition – to support CD Projekt. This game is that good.
• Unreal Tournament – There is a good reason why this is the game I’ve played most of all: it’s the best FPS ever made. I still play the occassional match today.

Computer Specifications

My gaming PC is a little under three years old, but still runs most any recent game beautifully. Most of my gaming is done on this PC.

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
• Motherboard: ASUS P5KC
• Memory: 3GB Kingston PC6400 DDR2
• Videocard: Sparkle Geforce 8800 GTX
• Soundcard: Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer
• Hard Disk 1: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB
• Hard Disk 2: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB
• Hard Disk 3: Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 750GB
• Case: Antec P182
• Power Supply: Antec TruePower Trio 550W
• Monitor: HP W2207h TFT (1680×1050 gaming resolution)
• Keyboard: Logitech G15 v2
• Mouse: Razer Deathadder
• Mousepad: “FiringSquad“ fUnc 1030
• Headset: Sennheiser HD 595
• Speakerset: Philips amBX Premium Kit
• Gamepad: Logitech Chillstream
• Joystick: Logitech Force 3D Pro

Notebook Specifications

My Notebook is where GameDrone gets made. It’s where I do all the writing and image editing.

However it is also my most powerful gaming platform. It’s where I play the most demanding games and those that have DirectX 10 support (notebook runs Vista, desktop runs XP). It’s a XXODD XNi-980nu.

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 (2.8 GHz)
• Memory: 4GB Kingston DDR3 (1066 MHz)
• Videocard: Geforce GTX280M
• 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

Achievements

The first game I ever played online was Settlers 3. It was also the first game I played competitively and started a clan for.

It’s been more than a decade since then, and I’ve competed in a great many games during that timespan. This has resulted in a great many victories, both online and at LANs. I’ve listed the most notable of these below.

• 2000 – Infantry – my squad was ranked 1st (worldwide) in Gravball and The Journey Out. I also ranked in on 3rd place individually in TJO.
• 2001 – Jedi Knight 2 – I finished 4th in the ClanBase duel OpenCup.
• 2003 – Jedi Academy – My old JK2 clan (Dutch Jedi Masters) was revived as a Siege-oriented JKA clan. We played for 3 months with a record of 70 wins, 0 losses and 0 draws. We never even lost a round.
• 2004 – Ground Control 2 – I ranked 1st (worldwide) on the drop-in ladder for three weeks straight in the multiplayer demo.
• 2004 – Guild Wars – My guild (Orto Sole) ranked as high as 13th during the beta weekend events. Our highest end-of-weekend ranking was 21st. We lost only 2 matches, both of which were avenged.
• 2004 – At CodeMasters CampZone – At this 11 day LAN party with more than 1600 participants, I finished 2nd three times (Enemy Territory 5 vs 5, UT2004: Assault & Onslaught). Then I finished 3rd two times (Battlefield: Vietnam 8 vs 8 and UT2004: TDM). And to top it off, I also finished 8th another three times (UT2004 1 vs 1 / insta 1 vs 1 and WarCraft 3 1 vs 1).
• 2008 – Unreal Tournament 3 – I was the primary defender of two CTF teams, which both ended up ranking 1st in Europe on ClanBase.

I’ll also throw in a writing-related achievement:

• 2007 – FiringSquad’s Editor’s Challenge – I finished in 4th place in the final tally as the only remaining non-native speaker in the top 10.