Arthur Kotsopoulos’s Bio

aka GrathiusXR:

GrathiusXR, This Is your Gaming life!

“ Where to begin well I am currently 17 years old (18 on August the 18th), and I’m currently in my last year in high school so I’m doing my HSC and all the important stuff that will help me in the future. I love gaming it’s my passion, and the only real thing I can do that will release my stress, tension and make me free from the troubles of my life.

Where to being with my gaming, well it started when I was a young kid, all chirpy happy primary school no worries free of troubles. My brother owned an Amiga 3000 which is sort of a consol in a computer form; back then floppy disks were the entire craze. The Amiga 3000 had it all, from the Blues Brothers, Terminator, Aliens, Ninja Turtles, Robocop, Robocop 2, S.W.A.T and many more old favourites.

The Amiga 3000 was where it all began, it was the reason my passion for gaming grew so much, and since then I have never looked back. The countless hours of enjoyment it gave me, it became something more than just a simple electronic device, it became apart of me. It was something that I cherished with my entire life, and it was the best early childhood years of my life. Of course with all great things they must come to an end, and the Amiga 3000 saw it’s end when it wouldn’t read the floppy disks anymore.

That day was a sad day indeed, meaning I had lost apart of me that made me who I was. It was un fixable, I lost something that I held dearest to me. Luckily at that time the Game-Boy had been released which saw great titles like Double Dragon, Donkey Kong, Mortal Kombat 3, Pokemon, Killer instinct and many more great games. Yes it was a handheld device but oh did it please.

I know buying batteries again and again was tough but you can’t complain when the gaming device gives you so much joy.

After the era of the Game Boy I thrived for something that would entice me and feed my hunger for gaming and that’s when the behemoth called the Nintendo 64 bestowed itself into the gaming console market. With classic like Super Mario 64, Perfect Dark, Goldeneye 64, Legend of Zelda: OoT, that mind you hold their own in the rank of best game of all times. Even today Goldeneye is regarded not only one of the best shooters of all time but also one of the best Movies to Game adaptations ever! That’s a big call!

The Nintendo 64 gave me countless hours of fun and entertainment that nothing else could match. Spending whole weekends battling out on Perfect Dark against bots, or searching for every single coin in Super Mario 64, there was not a moment where I sat there thinking this is boring. Mario kart Mario Tennis and Mario party added to the fun by bringing in Multiplayer which just added a whole new level to the gaming experience.

The Playstation 2 then came out in 2000, touting DVD support and better graphics, which the N64 could not compete with its cartridge, and very low system specs. The N64 was slowly dieing out and there was not much that could save it. Again like all great things they must come to an end, but oh what a spectacular time the N64 gave me, countless hours of gaming, multiplayer fun, rivalry between brother to win, it was really the single gaming console that blew my passion for gaming into overload, and further reinforced that gaming was something I really wanted to pursue not only socially but professionally.

With my eldest brother buying the PS2 there was no need for me to purchase one, so I played his and continued to enjoy my N64. Around a year or so after the PS2 was released I was into computer gaming, single core CPU, 256 ram, 128 MB graphics card h they were the best. Command & Conquer: Yuri’s Revenge was the game to own on the pc. Real time strategy, there was nothing that could come close to it, PC gaming created a place in me where I would put it next to the N64 as the best gaming experiences of my life. Of course with a computer you needed to upgrade it again and again and again to be able to play the best games.

I didn’t really bother with that as the Xbox was finally released by Microsoft, and that sparked yet another few years of gaming pleasure. PGR, Halo, Dead or Alive, the Xbox had it all and more, the graphics, the games, the multiplayer, the sound, and the fun. Sure the Playstation 2 had it’s head start in the industry but the Xbox was making a name for itself, offering Live functionality, being able to play games online with people across Australia and the world, was phenomenal for a console. Sure PCs could do it but for a console, that’s class.

After playing the Xbox, with games like Halo 2, The Suffering, midtown Madness, PGR2, and other great classic, I had gotten back into computer gaming, now get ready for this because this right here is the announcement of my all time greatest gaming experience and all time favourite game.

After I had upgraded my computer I was interested in seeing what games were available for the PC. To my eyes I saw a game called S.T.A.L.K.E.R, it looked very interesting, so I bought it.

I was blown, yes blown away by the sheer amount of time and effort put into this game to make it the most authentic gaming experience a gamer could have. Sure there were glitches, and graphical errors but seriously, a game that was a huge as that, the dark, gritty, sad, gloomy atmosphere it presented, the Russian accents that added to the game and made you feel that you were actually there living through the hardship. It was the best absolute best gaming experience I had ever had, I still play the game till today, on my old computer yes it lagged, but I still played through it 3 times, and now with my new computer which is an E6750, Gigabyte 8800GTS, 2GB Ram, the graphics are extremely better, but the game itself still amazes me, in total I have played through it 6 times and it never gets old, never gets boring, it’s just a game you need to play.

My gaming now resided on the Xbox 360, which had a huge number of great games, Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, Gears of War, Bioshock, to name a few. The feature of Xbox live and the level of interactivity it has made gaming something completely better and different. You can’t say a game of CoD4 online with people across Australia is nothing special, and being able to talk to them as well and here there frustration it just makes the experience all the but sweeter. My brother owns the Playstation 3 so I actually get the best of both console, which is great as I not only get to play the same games from the 360 on the PS3 but I get to see what the PS3 offers itself.

I have cut down on gaming on the computer because the games these days aren’t as good and fun as a console game, where I do all my gaming basically.

Wow that’s a lot of writing, and that’s just a basic look into my gaming history really there is just so much more I could write about and that, but there’s no point in me doing it, best to write the basic of my history and the most enjoyable parts of it.

I love original Soundtracks from games, Halo 2, halo 3, Lost Odyssey, Mass Effect, they add so much more to the game, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R main theme is my favourite along with Halo 1/2/3 theme. The reason I love the S.T.A.L.K.E.R theme is that it captures the tense, dark gritty, gloomy sad atmosphere of the world that is in the game so beautifully.

I love my music, all kinds of metal, all kinds of dance, 80’s funk the best music. Movies are my second passion, I have seen movies from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s every B-Grade movie I have seen every B-Grade actor I know. You know the site IMDB I’m like a walking version the site, but my knowledge is only limited to the past few decades.

Gaming and Movies are my passions, nothing compares to them.

Hopefully you guys after reading this have gotten a bit more information on basically what my history of gaming has been like and what I enjoy.

Cheers, thanks for reading, and hope to see you on the Australian Xbox Forums, or Xbox Live. And if you want to hit me up with a msg to host a game of gears for you and your mates, or FIFA08 to gimme a game or any particular game that I have then hit me up with a msg.