Gamer for ten years and counting.

My first console was a Gameboy Pocket, and first game was Pokemon Blue. Back then, I was so small that I didn't even know about 'true' consoles until a few years later.

Got a Nintendo 64, first games were Cruisin' World, my introduction to driving games; Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, first puzzle game I ever had; Super Smash Bros., first fighting game; and Super Mario 64, first platformer. Those games shaped my current taste in games.

A few years later, got a Nintendo Gamecube. Favorite games from then are Super Mario Sunshine and Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Both made me really good friends with a lot of people.

I got an Xbox several years later. The first shooting game that I ever owned was Halo 2, and now I consider it to be my favorite video game ever. The PG-13 violence, amazing (at the time) graphics and compelling story kept me addicted for years to come. I didn't have Xbox Live yet.

My other favorite game for the console was Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. While not the perfect game, it still gave me the feeling that there were unlimited ways to complete contracts; the music was also pretty sick, with a fantastic theme song. I like to think of Mercenaries as the video game equivalent of 'The Matrix'.

Two years ago, I purchased a Nintendo Wii. You haven't played Resident Evil 4 until you've played it on the Wii. The immersive nunchuck controls will keep you hooked and scared crapless. But the Wii loses its luster after a while... or maybe its just me.

One year ago, I got an Xbox 360. This marked the beginning of my becoming a hardcore gamer. I finally connected to Xbox Live, regrettably a few days too late to play the Halo 3 Beta. Crackdown remains to be one of my favorite games, reminding me of Mercenaries in quite a few ways. I did get to play the Call of Duty 4 beta, which blew me away.

I purchased Halo 3 on September 25, 2007. It was the first game that I ever preordered. I've been through the search for Recon, impressing Bungie for Recon, waiting for the announcement of Halo 3: ODST, all of it. It was around this time that I was a Microsoft fanboy.

Recently, though, I have considered tossing the fanboy nonsense out the window by purchasing a PlayStation 3. Halo 3 has lost its fun, Gears of War is too similar to Halo 3 (and just about all of the other 'Team Slayer'-type games out there), I am sick of paying for Xbox Live; Windows Vista was shockingly bad and a slap in the face from Microsoft...