About Us

Ryan Fernance (Dimorphic):

What can I say about me? Well, I am 19 years old and live in Australia. I am currently attending Griffith University on the Gold Coast studying Journalism and Public Relations, one day hoping to become either a sports or video game journalist, failing that going into PR and opening (eventually) my own firm.

I am the founder of the blog, I am going to use this not only to keep you guys informed about the Xbox 360 but also as something I can attach to my resume when I go for a job in Journalism. This will show off my interaction with the community as well as my writing ability (through the features, reviews and previews that I write). But as there is so much news going on in the world of 360 and so many games etcetera to choose from I’ve employed help from a few mates who are contributers to the blog. We will sometimes write reviews about the same game as well to give you guys a diverse range of opinions.

My gaming life started with the Sega Megadrive, and I first fell in love with Battletoads, that game was the highlight of many days when I was a kid. I also had a Game Boy and eventually a Game Boy Colour and Game Boy Advance. I can remember spending countless hours on Pokemon Yellow (man that game was addictive) and then moving onto the GBA and burning time on Mario Kart, Metroid and many others.

I moved on from those to the Nintendo 64 and probably my favorite game of all time; The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The 64 had many other great games like Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and Diddy Kong Racing to name a few. I moved from the 64 to the Xbox which was the console that had the most games on it that I loved. KOTOR, Halo 1/2, Mercanaries, Morrowind and more. The Xbox had everything. And now we are in the ‘next-generation’, the HD era, enjoying games such as Gears, Halo 3, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and more. Where we will go from here I can’t say but I can tell you it will be one hell of a ride.

My loves in life are sport, film, music and hanging out with my mates. I love league though, it is my favrouite sport in the world. I support the Sydney Roosters and am a New South Welshman. In the NFL I support the Philadelphia Eagles and in the NBA the Detroit Pistons. I’m also a huge Star Wars nerd, The Emprie Strikes Back is my all time favrioute movie. I also love DragonBall Z, Dexter and many other great TV shows. Music wise I listen to rock, bands such as The Living End, The Offspring and Nickelback are my forte.

Xbox 360 Games Collection:

Currently Own Retail:

Halo 3 (Limited Edition)
Gears of War (Limited Edition)
Grand Theft Auto IV (Limited Edition)
Battlefield: Bad Company (Gold Edition)
Mass Effect (plus bonus pre-order content)
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Assassin’s Creed
The Orange Box
Guitar Hero 2
Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock
Madden NFL 2008
NBA 2K8
Turok
Project Gotham Racing 4
Devil May Cry 4
DiRT
Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit
Soulcalibur IV

Currently Own XBLA:

Penny Arade Adventures: On a Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode 1
Carcassonne
TMNT 1989 Arcade Classic
Undertow
Gemoetry Wars Evolved
Geometry Wars 2
Sonic the Hedgehog 1
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Bankshot Billiards 2
Worms
Marathon: Durandul
Uno

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Shane Bailey (Hyperion Ecta):

I am currently in my 19th winter and call the upper reaches of New South Wales home. I am studying the craft of Journalism at Griffith University on the Gold Coast and also spend some of my time working at a Coles supermarket (loads of fun). I am contributing my opinion and knowledge to this blog at the request of Ryan, a good friend of mine, with the primary objective of informing fellow gamers on things that I’ve always wanted to talk about as well as give a solid (I hope) opinion on games and the industry that it creates. I hope to contribute on this site as long as possible in the hope that it helps my fellow gaming brethren.

My gaming knowledge comes from a varied history of playing games since a very young age as well as a spending most of my spare time on them. The amazing journey started with the Sega Megadrive and it’s black cartridges of gaming goodness. My gaming library included Street Fighter 2, Sonic the Hedgehog, Captain Planet, Urban Strike, Eternal Champions, Brian Lara Cricket among many others. I then upgraded to the Nintendo 64 and played classics such as Goldeneye, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Banjo Kazooie, WCW vs NWO Revenge, Donkey Kong, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron etc, etc. I then moved on to the black behemoth that was the Xbox and slaked my gaming lust on Halo and Halo 2, Morrowind, Various Madden’s and many other timeless legends that are would take up too much space in my limited word count. Now I continue onward with the Xbox 360 and as you can see, have a strong library of games that will be remembered as some of the greats of the generation (well some of them anyway).

My other interests include: History, which is my preferred discipline when it comes to study but shit happens; Music, to which I am a avid Metal Fan, and for those who want to see some of my other work head on over here for some metal reviews that I write; Sport, Huge Wests Tigers and Detroit Lions fan (NRL & NFL, respectively) and follow other sports apart from that as well ala cricket and soccer; Tv and film also takes up much of my time as well as reading.

Xbox 360 Game Collection:

Halo 3 (Legendary Edition)
Mass Effect
Smackdown vs. Raw 2008
Madden NFL 2008
Guitar Hero II
Guitar Hero III
Football Manager 2006
LEGO Star Wars: Complete Saga
Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Gears Of War (Limited Edition)
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Limited Edition) - (Favourite)
The Orange Box
Bioshock
Condemned
Prey
Far Cry
Timeshift
Burnout Paradise
Project Gotham Racing 4
Viking
Condemned 2
The Bourne Conspiracy
SEGA Rally
Civilization Revolution

XBLA Game Collection:

Carcassonne
Penny Arcade Episode 1
Puzzle Quest
Sonic The Hedgehog 2
Blankshot Billiards
Gripshift
Chessmaster

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Gareth Blayney (Peaking Legoman):

I find its always hard to paint a picture of ones self using only words as most will get a different image in their head, and quite frankly its highly unlikely that what you come up with will be anywhere near as good as the real thing. I have often been referred to as a triple threat: Good looking; Great body; and Super intelligent. whether or not this is true I cant really say, but who am I to argue?

I was born in London and lived most of my life so far in Port Macquarie on the NSW Mid North Coast. As well as being a jazz musician (tenor sax). I’m currently studying a Bachelor of IT at ECU University in Perth. What to do with that when Im finished I have no idea but it seems like a fairly broad degree in an area that I’m interested in so that will have to do for now. It would be super great to work in games journalism but unfortunately it seems like unless you live in San Francisco there really isn’t much chance of that happening.

The increase in popularity of smaller blogs over the past few years however is opening up the industry a little more for amateur unthusiasts such as myself and the other writers on this blog a chance to get a little finger in the door.So writing for a gming blog I must obviously have a pretty keen interest in games. Ever since playing mini-golf on the Amiga and then Mario on the NES Ive pretty much been hooked. Going from the NES to the Mega Drive to the Multi-Mega(a Mega Drive/Mega CD hybrid from Singapore) to the Playstation to the Xbox to the Xbox 360 my interest in video games has generally stayed pretty high and is only getting higher.

My current games list (Ive had quite a few more - just look at my e-penis, errr, gamerscore - but I generally only keep the games that hold a special place in my heart, and trade the rest):

Crackdown*
Mass Effect
Halo 3
Earth Defence Force*
Bioshock
Orange Box
PGR4*
Ace Combat 6*
Burnout Paradise
Call of Duty 4
Devil May Cry 4*
Tomb Raider Anniversary*

* = potential trades.

I can’t remember all the Arcade games I own (quite a few) but lately a few stand out favourites are:

Lumines Live
E4
Puzzle Quest
Rez
Castlevania: Symphony of The Night
Worms
Uno
Marble Blast Ultra
Alien Homonid
Boom Boom Rocket
Marathon

I recently bought Psychonauts and Farenheit on the Xbox Originals service and am loving them both.

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Camilo Cayazaya (Iamthemonkeyhead):

Hey guys, this is Camilo Cayazaya (not a joke), recently signed up the Dimorphic blog. I’m doing journalism and film at Murdoch in Western Australia but I’ve very recently started DJ’ing as a hobby and that will hopefully evolve into a career as well. What I wanted to do with journalism was write for a gaming mag and this is pretty damn close so it’s all good.

Gaming started for me when I was a kid. We used to have an Atari. I think it was a 2600? Anyway we used to play boxing and frogger and some weird hot air balloon game on there. It was radical. My parents then got me a Sega Master System and I played Alex The Kidd and Sonic on there all the time even though I’m lousy at platformers. I played a lot of SNES and N64 at my friend’s houses until I eventually saved up to buy my own N64 by the time the system was dying out. The 3D Zeldas have been some of my favourite games ever since and I can still go back and play Ocarina and Majora’s Mask and enjoy them as much as I ever did. After Microsoft-hating as a Nintendo fanboy I was slowly converted by playing Halo at my girlfriend’s until I eventually borrowed an Xbox off my friend and got hooked on games like Full Spectrum Warrior, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and KOTOR. I finally saved up for a 360 once I heard about Halo3 (and the shit Sony was doing with pricing, shutting down websites and all-round killing the gaming industry) and have never looked back.

I love Hip Hop, clubbing, fitness and writing… and obviously Xbox360. DJ’ing is a dream of mine and I have yet to see if it will pan out, because hearing a song is entirely different to performing it. Hip Hop to me is a lot of things and I love turntablism/scratching, lyrics and the message. There is a lot of bs in the industry but there is also a lot of intelligent movements. Mind you, there is a place for all the “bling” talk in clubs and I frequently use “blackisms” jokingly. Also be sure to check out my personal blog @: http://iamthemonkeyhead.wordpress.com/

My 360 games to date are:

Skate.
Call of Duty 4
Halo 3
Grand Theft Auto IV
Project Gotham Racing 4
Gears of War
The Orange Box
Mass Effect
Burnout Paradise
Rainbow Six Vegas
Condemned
Stranglehold
Bully Scholarship Edition
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
DOA Xtreme 2 (was given to me. THE SHAME!)

My arcade games to date are:

Robotron
Joust
Hexic