Games are Art, suck it Roger Ebert

Appropriate? I think it is. Video and computer games successfully wrap everything about art into a delicious and savory burrito I just can't seem to stop thinking about. The way the music hits during a boss battle, or ambiance of a travel sequence or safe zone, an explosion of color and sound in a space shooter, or the way an entire city or empire comes together after spending days and days plotting, planning and building. They aren't just a sense of accomplishment or immersion...as far as I'm concerned, it's a beautiful melting pot of everything we commonly and uncommonly consider, art.

My name is Andrew, and I'm a serious gamer. I have been my entire life and as long as I have a breath in my body, I still will be. One of my uncles exposed me intellivision at an early age, while my other uncle still actively games and calls me for advice from time to time. My older brother would hide games from my mother so she couldn't practice when he was at school and get better than him, and my younger brother is going into game development as we speak. Needless to say, it's in my blood. I love all types of games (Disregarding shovel-ware....do I have to comment on that?) ranging from sports to RPG's, and shooters to simulations, I appreciate all of them for what they are, and what they've accomplished. Good games are good games as far as I'm concerned, regardless of the genre, console or time period (I've recently purchased a bunch of first gen PSX RPG's for example...timeless). Actually, I have a serious backlog of games I've been meaning to play for years...but more on that later. I've been here for a while actually, just have been a bit preoccupied to introduce myself and learn how to work this website, so I've just given Sean some advice and proofread some of his posts considering that two sets of eyes are better than one. Speaking of Sean, we've been gaming together for years now so we know each other pretty well. An online partnership with him to manage and promote a blog about video games and the like? If I had to sign on the dotted line I wouldn't have read the fine print.

Now, this is supposed to be an introduction post so I guess I'll continue with that before I rant more about how much I hate Roger Ebert. As I said games are a large part of my life, but I also enjoy exercise and fitness even though I'm on a bit of a hiatus. I had the privilege to train on and off for the past 5 years as a professional wrestler and I absolutely love it, though injuries, money, and a number of other things came into play so that also is on a hiatus at the moment. I had a blast, and have some serious desire to finish my training and start working on shows though it needs to wait at the time being. I went to school for exercise science with the goal of being a personal trainer, though I'm second guessing that now. I have a great girlfriend that not only games along next to me, but also helps devour as many of a given city's restaurants we can find...I'm looking at you Chicago! I also have dreadlocks along with a fantastic beard to complement them. I love me some adult swim, though aside from wrestling, I don't really follow television as much anymore with all of the fantastic games I have to enjoy. Also, the Ramble On part of my username/gamertag is a reference to the trippy and cracked out adult swim show Xavier: Renegade Angel as well as the fantastic Zeppelin tune "Ramble On." The word ramble means, "To walk about aimlessly" and also means, "To speak or write at length with many digressions." Welcome to my life.

My ideas of how I would like to contribute to this already stellar blog are to basically try to keep up with Sean. I follow a few different consoles, games and genres that he doesn't have direct access to, so I'll also try to keep updated on those. I am a PC gamer, though most of my time resides in lower cpu requirement Indie titles (Minecraft FTW! Global Agenda and Super Meat Boy get some nods too!) since I don't have the best gaming desktop/laptop around, nor will I have the money for one for a while now. I also own a DS, probably play my PS2 more than my 360 and friends PS3 I've borrowed indefinitely (with his permission...of course). I'll also try to throw up some second opinions on some titles we both play, preview and follow if I have a drastically different opinion that he does or if there's something big that he somehow doesn't touch on, I'll try to get to it.

I've decided that in writing this, I have no desire to keep ranting about how much I dislike Roger Ebert for his opinion and comments, and how much we know that games are art, and there is no way a movie critic or anyone else will be able to convince us otherwise. I love video games, they've made me feel the same emotions as my favorite movie or favorite songs with just as much depth if not more than the latter. I look forward to having the chance to write about my time with these games, experiments, masterpieces and even the less than stellar titles that I happen to get my mitts on. But there's nothing like the chase as well, right? Following development is a huge part of the gaming industry, so chances are I'll have more time devoted to those future releases after my back log begins to dwindle. I guess we'll see what comes up. I'm currently working on Final Fantasy X-2, God of War 2, Dark Cloud and still obsessed with Fire Pro Returns on the PS2. Black Ops and FIFA 11 primarily on the 360. Recently finished Enslaved and Demon's Souls on the PS3, with Yakuza 3 next on my plate. And on the DS I'm working on SMT: Strange Journey, The Unemployed Ninja: Izuna 2, Hotel Dusk 215 and a bunch more. Finally, for the PSX I recently got my hands on Parasite EVE, Vagrant Story, Crono Cross, FF8, and looming is SMT: Persona 2 Eternal Punishment amongst others

We love games. Regardless of console differences or time period gaps, we love this industry. Thanks for loving it, because regardless of what Ebert thinks, all the love we give to this industry just helps it grow.

Thanks for reading the blog too, I look forward to sharing as much as possible. And thanks to Sean for the voice. Lets grab those stars buddy!