David Hilton’s Bio

aka dkpatriarch:

My first video gaming experiences were back in the early ’80s with the little portable Pac Man and Frogger sets and the Apple IIe games Castle Wolfenstein and Choplifter. I lost interest in gaming until the early ’90s when I enjoyed the 486 PC games like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Heretic, and Tie Fighter. I got sick of needing to know too much about computers to get the games to work properly, so I abandoned the PC as a gaming platform.

Later I purchased the N64, which was the first console I bought, and it still rates as providing me with some of my best gaming memories. From here on I kept up with console gaming and bought the Playstation 2, Nintendo Gamecube, and Microsoft Xbox close to launch. I currently have the 360, PS3 and the Wii sitting in my lounge. I have also owned the portable DS and currently own a PSP.

My gaming tastes are pretty varied; I can enjoy a sports title like NHL, shooters like COD and GRAW, an Oblivion-like RPG experience, a hack n’ slash like Onimusha, an RPG (sometimes), driving games (sometimes and casual over hardcore), survival horror games like Resident Evil, and adventure games like Broken Sword.

I prefer the experience of playing local multiplayer with family and friends together, over the online ‘pot luck’ experience. My kids, and even my wife (depending on the game), enjoy gaming.

My ideal game looks good, has a decent story, is an enjoyable gameplay experience and has interesting, atmospheric, and diverse locations. It is a game without frustrating timing-based button combinations, poor save points, or artificial methods of extending gameplay like repetition, overly used enemy spawning, and over done cut scenes. A good example of such a game (and underrated in my opinion) is Thief 3 for Xbox.

After earning my BA in History and English in Canada (where I was born), I moved to Australia where I finished a Graduate Diploma in Education. After discovering that teaching was not for me, I went on to write light hearted articles for parenting magazines and a book for the Queensland History Teacher’s Association on Nazi Germany. I enjoy movies, reading, researching overseas trips I one day hope to take (I’m the extended family’s unofficial travel agent), and shopping on ebay!

I consider myself a casual gamer even though I play games fairly often. Importantly, gaming has provided me escapism and some relief in my current struggles with chronic illness. I am happily married with three fantastic boys aged 13, 9, and 5.

I’m also currently contributing to the new Australian 360 Magazine in the opinion section, so keep an eye out for my rantings there too.

Regards,

~ David Hilton (dkpatriarch)