a quick hello...

CapnMikeM

Shared on Wed, 05/15/2013 - 17:38

I don't run 5Ks or boast about the next tough mudder competition.

I don't go fishing or play golf (the hot sun and my skin don't play nice).

And I don't sit around talking about politics, pork bellies or 401Ks (maybe I should?)

The reason I am none of these things is because I have other passions in my life. I'm a father/husband, somewhat of a musician, a dog enthusiast, and as you might expect a gamer.

I'll give you a quick rundown of my gaming background and try not to bore you along the way.
 
I've been gaming off and on since the early 80s, Like most people, I got my start on the Atari 2600 and PCs. Is anyone familiar with the Johnny Cash song, "One Piece at a Time"? Well, that's how I got my start into gaming. My uncle had a job working with computers and as machines got discarded at work, my brother and I got the hand-me-down parts. My earliest memories on the PC were games like Dig Dug and Bird vs Dr. J. I spent countless hours trying to break the back board in that game.

As I got older, I moved on to the NES and have many fond memories of playing such titles as: Russian Attack, Contra, Kung Fu, PunchOut, RBI Baseball, Zelda and of course Super Mario Bros. Did anyone else obsess over jumping on that turtle to get a butt load of extra lives?
 
Currently, much to my wife and wallet's chagrin, I'm gaming on most devices. I own Xbox 360s, PS3s, a Wii, Wii U, 3DS, PS Vita, iPad, iPhone and just recently built my first gaming PC! My shame pile is out of control, and embarrassing.
 
On consoles, I predominately play Action/Adventure or Shooters. I just finished playing games such as Bioshock Infinite, Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel, Gears of War Judgement, and Dead Space 3. And I'm constantly playing franchises like Borderlands and Call of Duty. On the handhelds, I tend to gravitate more to the platformers such as Guacamelee, Rayman Origins and of course Mario. My kids run the Wii/Wii U side of the house so I've been watching them play Skylanders, Super Mario Brothers U and Lego City. The latter title has become such a hit in my house that my son is having a Lego City themed birthday party.

Its my hope with my new PC to dive into more games that are out my norm/comfort zone. I just downloaded games like Skyrim, Torchlight 2, Forge, etc...and have started dabbling in some of the closed betas for games like Marvel Heroes and Infinite Crisis. But in all honesty, I'm also buying games I already own because I want to play them again in their High Res glory.
 

I hope this wasn't too long but I wanted to provide a brief introduction. I'm looking forward to working with you all and contributing to this community. Thanks for the opportunity.

Game on!
CapnMikeM

Comments

H2Daddy's picture
Submitted by H2Daddy on Wed, 05/15/2013 - 18:08

Welcome to the site. Nice introduction. Look around and find yourself a group(s) to play with.

CrypticCat's picture
Submitted by CrypticCat on Thu, 05/16/2013 - 03:31

Hey man, welcome.

First of all, don't get too excited over glorious grafix, for most games you won't be getting them since there isn't much that can be improved on 360-ports without dropping your framerate into the negatives. That's why Ati and Nvidia are going into those extra features like Physx and so on.

Also, if you going with a good HDMI-monitor low res games like pretty good and you can get a pretty good experience with little adjustments on the recommended settings for most games.

In the case of Skyrim that's most evident. Try to run it without the official hi-res DLC, with just a little improvement over the settings the auto-detector for Skyrim comes up with. Make a mental picture of that and then enable the hi-res DLC and try again.

Difference=minimal. Loadtimes=unacceptable. Check the Skyrim screenies in my blog, I run without the hi-res DLC. It doesn't detract from the experience in the least and man, does the game run smooth! Generally, going with less (a little over 360-quality) will leave you a happy camper.

GUL74's picture
Submitted by GUL74 on Thu, 05/16/2013 - 19:36

Welcome to the board,where ya from?

CapnMikeM's picture
Submitted by CapnMikeM on Thu, 05/16/2013 - 19:57

Thanks everyone.

Will take a look at your blog CrypticCat for those Skyrim screenshots. I'll also try those settings.

Gul, I'm from the Boston area.

 

 

 

GUL74's picture
Submitted by GUL74 on Fri, 05/17/2013 - 00:02

Yeah ? I'm from the Boston area Medford was my home town

CapnMikeM's picture
Submitted by CapnMikeM on Fri, 05/17/2013 - 11:19

Medford was my hometown as well...small world!

GUL74's picture
Submitted by GUL74 on Fri, 05/17/2013 - 15:34

you wouldn't be from west Medford and played in B4B? I'm gonna send you a FR on xbox live 

CapnMikeM's picture
Submitted by CapnMikeM on Fri, 05/17/2013 - 15:41

Originally from South (gotta keep up my street cred, ya know)...but yes, later West and yes to BFB...

GUL74's picture
Submitted by GUL74 on Mon, 05/20/2013 - 13:59

The south Meffa street cred I know what you mean I'd love to go to Bob's or Jim's Market in the heights ..You've dropped me off at my house more then once coming back from show seeing (sbc,tree,olw) or whatever was playing that night ..Let me know if you want to co-op some Boarderlands 2 sometime 

CapnMikeM's picture
Submitted by CapnMikeM on Mon, 05/20/2013 - 14:04

Who are you Gul?

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