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, the PSP, the PSP GO!, and now own an Apple iPod Touch, which I use probably more than my home consoles these days!

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, a RTS (sometimes), driving games (sometimes and casual over hardcore), and even adventure games like Broken Sword.  My current favourite series are Assassin’s Creed and Uncharted though.  Anything with a historical bent gets my interest over a modern city setting any day, but if a game goes too ‘fantasy’ it can lose my interest too.

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 too.

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 quality 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 or opinion articles for parenting and gaming magazines and a book for the Queensland History Teacher’s Association on Nazi Germany. I enjoy time with family, movies, reading, historic architecture and exploring new places as I’m able.

I consider myself a casual gamer even though I used to 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 15, 11, and 7.

Regards,

~ David Hilton (dkpatriarch)