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Meet Game Informer's New Associate Editor!
After years of reading the magazine and website, I'm thrilled to say that this week is my first as Game Informer's new associate editor. If my name looks familiar, you may have seen it in my freelancing days, which saw me contributing to outlets like IGN, Joystiq, Kotaku, Official Xbox Magazine, and GamesRadar. You may also know me from my time running the now-defunct VideoGameWriters.com (or VGW), or from when I was covering the music industry with a focus on the rock genre.
My gaming history started with some of the most essential games anyone can play: The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt, and Tetris. My favorite story is how my aunt and uncle would hide the NES when I came over because they actually wanted to see me when I visited, rather than watch me disappear into the basement.
While those four games were the building blocks of my life as a gamer, it was the next generation of consoles that solidified my lifetime membership in the club. I found a SNES Super Mario World bundle under the Christmas tree one year, and I used that to delve deeper into games like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Mario Kart, and Donkey Kong Country. When my family had to move unexpectedly, my Super Nintendo was packed away for months; it was then that I procured a Sega Genesis and my love of the Sonic the Hedgehog series began. I liked Sonic 2, but it was Sonic 3 & Knuckles that truly grabbed me and had me pouring hours upon hours into multiple playthroughs.
From that point on, I owned as many consoles as I could, and my tastes have shifted and evolved as much as I have as a person. It's hard for me to nail down one genre or category to call my favorite, but I like action/adventure games, shooters, most sports games, puzzle games, and pretty much everything else. I say that I play almost everything, but I'm far from the best at stealth games. I'm also uninitiated when it comes to the Dark Souls series, so I'm sure I'll be introduced to those games by some of my new coworkers in short order.
People always ask me what my favorite game is, and much like my favorite music and movies, that changes by the day. I figured I would do my best and provide a top 5 list of my favorite games to help you get to know me. Please note that these will probably be completely different in a month.
1. Zelda: Ocarina of Time
2. Final Fantasy X (Terrible voice acting and all)
3. Pokémon Red/Blue
4. Portal 2
5. Mass Effect Trilogy (Yes, I'm counting this as one)
I've also spent an ungodly amount of time playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero.
In case you can't tell, I'm super excited about joining the Game Informer team. I have some cool ideas I think you'll enjoy. I look forward to interacting with everyone on the site and at events, but if you'd like to reach out to me on social media, you can find me on Twitter @brianpshea where I talk about gaming, sports, and try and make a lot of really dumb jokes. You can also email me directly at brianshea@gameinformer.com.
Thanks for reading and I'm excited to get the ball rolling on the things I have planned!
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