What 411 Staffers Are Playing - February

Posted by Sam Pow on 02.05.2010

From Mass Effect 2 to NBA Jam and Guitar Hero 5, the 411 staff shares the games they are playing, the games they are looking forward to and what they recently have achieved in the world of gaming!

If you're reading this right now, it means one of two things. Either you're bored or clicked the wrong link, or you actually care about what the 411 Staff does month to month. I'm afraid I don't have much to say to the first category of people, but for everyone else, get ready for some fun readin'. When our all powerful and loved editor Chris Lansdell suggested that someone do a feature about what 411 games writers are up to, I was on board immediately. You see, not only do I love writing for the site, but I also love making sarcastic comments about my fellow staff members. I hope you're ready for this. My first victim will be myself.

Sam Pow

Currently Playing: Lots of NHL 10, Soul Calibur IV (I found it long after forgetting I actually bought it), Graal Online Classic, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Borderlands

Looking Forward To: Mass Effect 2 (yes, I know it's already out, but I'm waiting for the review copy), Tropico 3, Splinter Cell Conviction, Alan Wake, and dare I say it…Dynasty Warriors something or other. I actually enjoy the series.

Gaming Achievements: Beating Arkham Asylum, creating the most awesome team possible in NHL 10 (though going $80,000 over the salary cap), breaking the 200 hour mark in Graal Classic.

Well then, I thought I might have something snappy to say, but that's a pretty good one. Oh well. Next up, 411's resident Target Terror referencer, Mark Salmela. Oh boy.

Mark Salmela

- Your Local Director of Fun


Currently Playing: NBA Jam (Arcade), Mortal Kombat Trilogy (PS1), God of War Collection (PS3), Johnny Platform Saves Christmas (Xbox Indie Games), PixelJunk Monsters *again* (PSN), Tetris (Cell Phone), Target Terror (Wii), Mushroom Wars (PSN), Resident Evil 2 (PSN), China Warrior (Turbo Grafx 16), Snatcher *again* (Sega CD)

Looking Forward To: Heavy Rain, God of War 3, Gran Turismo 5, The Last Guardian, Splintercell: Conviction, Target Terror 2, Alan Wake, Super Mario Galaxy 2

Gaming Achievements: Beat God of War 2, played Target Terror, revealed to my daughter I was a dead sleaze bag in Silent Hill, made kids cry in Call of Duty, gave girls in Uncharted 2 multiplayer my phone number, saved Christmas as Johnny Platform, beat Shaqy in Dr. Mario, beat Peggle while touring with Lady Gaga *she always brings along her lead Dance Choreographer*, proclaimed myself a Tetris god!

Hopefully we'll never have to see that Target Terror sequel. To recover from the thought of that, let's take a look at what Adam Larck has been up to.

Adam Larck

Currently Playing: Borderlands (360), Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time (PS3), Modern Warfare 2 (360), Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (XBLA)

Looking Forward To: BioShock 2, Final Fantasy XIII, Dante's Inferno, God of War 3, Heavy Rain

Gaming Achievements: Beat all three smaller Mad Moxxi arenas, working on larger ones now, Got a triple stick kill in MW2, Remembered how much I enjoy Castlevania from reviewing Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth.

Thanks for the info, Adam, as well as making me feel horrible at Borderlands in comparison. And now our very own Games Zone editor, Chris Lansdell.

Chris Lansdell

Currently Playing: Wet (it was on sale and has a hot chick in a jumpsuit) for Game Improvements, Bayonetta, Modern Warfare 2, Dragon Age Origins and Guitar Hero 5 on 360. Scribblenauts on DS, which is proving to be an excellent mindbender. I'm playing New Super Mario Bros with the family on occasion too.

Looking Forward To: Battlefield: Bad Company 2, hopefully it will break up my MW 2 deaths.

Gaming Achievements: Well, there was the 5-person kill in Domination in MW2 which involved a C4 charge on a flag. Then there was the sweet knife kill where I jumped off a railing and landed in mid-stab. Not much else really.

For fear of losing my position, I think I'll stick with "great work" on this one. Thanks Chris. On a lighter note, our next piece is from Mathew Sforcina, who recently started back up Ask 411 Games. Here goes.

Mathew Sforcina

There's no way I was cropping this

Currently Playing: WWF No Mercy on my new N64. Well, I say new, it is new in the sense that I bought it recently, at the same time as the copy of No Mercy since both of my old versions died at the same time. And the occasional moment of Peggle Nights and DragonAge: Origins on my 360.

Looking Forward To: Bioshock 2 and God Of War 3 Pandora's Edition, so I can finally see what all the fuss about GOW is about. And finally, maybe, unlocking Ho in No Mercy, something I've never managed to do.

Gaming Achievements: Unlocking Cactus, Shawn Michaels, Ken Shamrock, Shane and Vince McMahon and Mae Young via Survival.

New N64? I didn't even know you could buy those off anywhere anymore. Keep in mind that I can never consider you a true 64 fan until you've played Gauntlet. Speaking of which…ok, this has nothing to do with that, but here's Trace Aber.

Trace Aber

Currently Playing: Final Fantasy VII (first time ever playing it), Matt Hazard: Blood, Bath and Beyond, Smackdown Vs Raw 2010, UFC Undisputed 2009, Uncharted 2

Looking Forward To: Heavy Rain, God of War 3

Gaming Achievements: My biggest achievement is finding time to play any of these games with my current workload. My friend and I had an epic 5 round draw in UFC Undisputed that led to a rather quick rematch (I won with a 45 second KO in the first round). I consider playing FFVII for the first time after all of these years an achievement, though I'm still not even done with the first disk. Oh, and not giving up on the lunar landing level in Matt Hazard. Because, damn, that's just frustratingly hard. Also finished Uncharted 2.

Thanks Trace, you'll have to let me know how it goes with those interstellar surfacing issues. And without further ado, we have our next writer, Lee Price.

Lee Price

Currently Playing: Gears of War, Tekken 6, Metal Gear Solid 4, Rocket Knight Adventures, Bayonetta and Pro Evo 2010 (WHY!!!??)

Looking Forward To: BioShock 2, No More Heroes 2, Heavy Rain

Gaming Achievements: I did manage to pull off an absolutely immaculate lob with Aguero on Pro Evo the other day. Other than that, actually beating Azazel in Tekken 6 a few times and managing to not set of an Alert Phase every 20 seconds in MGS are achievements for me.

And of course, I couldn't allow anything from Lee to be shown in the column without the opportunity to slip in one of the greatest (in my opinion) 411 Games quotes of all time, from a recent Top 5 of greatest video game weapons.

"4.Sniper Rifle (Goldeneye 007) - This could probably go for most Sniper Rifles in terms of enjoyment, but Goldeneye was my first real hands on with the weapon in a game. The scope was perfect and taking down unsuspecting enemies with a crotch shot never got old. The fact that Goldeneye had a specific crotch shot death animation is probably what made me fall in love with this thing in the first place. Unsuspecting testicular based death from afar has never been so good." -Lee Price

Thank you for that Lee. My forum sig thanks you. And next in line, Stephen Randle, the most positive columnist on 411mania.

Stephen Randle

Currently Playing: Uncharted 2 multiplayer, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Assassin's Creed

Looking Forward to: Heavy Rain, God of War 3, Final Fantasy XIII

Gaming Achievements: beat Uncharted and Uncharted 2

Uncharted 1 & 2 both beaten in a month? Impressive. And while we're on the subject of impressive, here's Todd Vote.

You can call me Daddy

Currently Playing: Darksiders, and loving it!! Madden 10, Cod MW2, Dragon Ball Raging Blast (review purposes)

Looking Forward To: God of War III, Heavy Rain, Project Natal

Gaming Achievements: Successfully get the Vikings to the 2010 Super Bowl in Madden 10. Traded Brett Favre in Madden 10. In process of creating Brett Favre in UFC 09 with intentions on kicking Brett Favre in and about the face repeatedly.

Well Todd, I really want to make some comment about your lists, but I can't think of anything negative to say about that. Congratulations. Next up, new guy Josh Boykin.

Josh Boykin

Currently Playing: Fallout 3, Modern Warfare 2, Scribblenauts

Looking Forward To: Mega Man 10

Gaming Achievements: Summoned my first non-airdropped Attack Chopper (I kinda suck at MW2), turned on Dissidia and finally admitted to myself that I hate it.

Wow, a lot of MW2 this time around. Is that game really THAT popular? Haha. But in all seriousness, we now have Marcos Aranda.

Marcos Aranda

Currently Playing: - Modern Warfare 2, Mass Effect, Left 4 Dead 2

Looking Forward To: - Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2, and Starcraft II dammit!!!

Gaming Achievements: I'm awesome at MW2 on the Xbox 360...don't think so? Come get some! (Linos510)

Again with Modern Warfare. I hope that all you readers take that challenge, leave some comments so we can all see what happens. And here we have Armando.

Armando Rodriguez

Currently playing: God of War Collection, Brutal Legend, Braid, Total Extreme Wrestling 2010, Fight Night Round 4.

Looking Forward To: Battlefield Bad Company 2, Gran Turismo 5 and God of War III

Gaming Achievements: Beating Assassin's Creed II and collecting 92% of trophies and beating Mike Tyson on "Greatest of All Time" Difficulty in Fight Night Round 4. Muhammad Ali, you are next!

Total Extreme Wrestling 2010? Well that just sounds awesome. Anything with the words "total" AND "extreme" in the same title is going to kick some major ass. Sounds like a hard act to follow, but now we have Joe Roche.

Joe Roche

Currently Playing: Darksiders, Crackdown, Mass Effect 2

Looking Forward To: Spending some more time with Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2, Dante's Inferno, Alien vs Predator and that Japanese role playing game -- what's it called again?

Gaming Achievements: Completed Darksiders and was absolutely blown away by the ending -- very anxious to see what Vigil Games does with the franchise moving forward.

I've heard a lot of good things about Darksiders lately; maybe I need to go pick that up. You also get bonus points for playing Crackdown. In other news, I'm running out of transitions. Joshua Richey.

Joshua Richey

Currently Playing: Mass Effect 2, Killzone 2, Modern Warfare 2, Uncharted 2, Left 4 Dead 2 (basically if it has '2' in the title, I'm playing it)

Looking Forward To: Saying 'goodbye' to my social life so that I can spend night and day with Mass Effect 2. Hey, those aliens aren't going to have sex with themselves.

Gaming Achievements: I beat Metal Gear Solid 4 finally. From Shadow Moses on, that game was pretty epic. Now I'm trying to improve in Modern Warfare 2, or at least try to finally get more kills than I have deaths.

Good luck with all those sequels, and with the MW2 stats. And, last but not least, we have our final writer, Derek Robbins.

Derek Robbins

Currently Playing: Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. That's it. I am addicted as hell. I need to go into a rehab clinic because I cannot put the game down. It's not like I'm any good at it either. Actually, I'm pretty easily bested. I still love it though, so clearly I need some help. I don't ever want to say to anyone again: "Time to get my Tekkaman Blade on"

Looking Forward To: Final Fantasy XIII, Persona 3 PSP and Heavy Rain

Gaming Achievements: I beat a guy with 3500 BP in TvC which had me get out of my chair and run around my room like a drunken idiot. I also managed to beat Ocarina of Time for the 60 billionth time. I didn't even do a fancy schmancy 3 hearts run. I just did it straight up. I guess my desire to travel through time with an ocarina was intense.

Sounds like someone besides Mathew is spending some quality time with their N64. I also sometimes have that musical time warping urge.


And that, my friends, concludes our magical time looking into the lives of 411 Staffers. Hopefully we've all learned a thing or two, and perhaps you'll join us next month as we recap what happened in the last 30 days of our lives. Make sure to comment if you have something to say, and if you have any questions about the feature or want to see something different, email me using the links below. So long.


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