[ Dan Amrich ]
I was a senior in college; writing was my minor but TV/Radio was my major. I had aims to be either a DJ or a record producer. My senior year, I took a class called Writing as a Critic, and it felt amazing – I simply found what I was supposed to do with my life. J
That said…I don’t know that I work in journalism. I see myself more as an entertainment critic, and I take my responsibility seriously, but I don’t always agree with the term “gaming journalist.” I don’t think I have earned it.
2. How old were you when you said, "Holy hell. Gaming is awesome." Or something along those lines.
I always loved non-video games, and I remember playing board games like Monopoly and Scrabble really really early. I was at a computer fair at the local library and one machine was running a Space Invaders clone – I was hooked. And I remember standing in lines five people deep to play Pac-Man when I was 10 years old. It was at Station Break, an arcade at Madison Square Garden , in the train station. Later on when I moved to New York for a few years, I would stop by Station Break every day on my way to work and play NBA Jam!
3. What's the toughest part about reviewing a game?
Feeling like you’ve had enough time with it to pass judgment. We all take the responsibility pretty seriously – someone’s $60 is on the line, and while our opinion probably isn’t the only thing they’ll read on the way to making up their mind, we know they are coming to us for trusted advice. So the only way to have our advice be trusted is to be informed…and that means spending a lot of time with the game, testing all of its modes, the works. It often spills over into the nights and weekends, which doesn’t sound like it would be a problem, but we all try to have lives outside of the office, too.
4. Having to play video games for your job probably gets in the way of playing games you want to play, but can't. What game do you always mean to pick up, but can't?
You are absolutely right – it’s a little maddening to know about all the good games but not be able to play them. At the moment it’s Overlord. I’m working my way through BioShock right now and I will finish that no matter what. But Overlord came out right around the same time and I did the review, but now I want to play it on my own time. I have a stack of games that I have never gotten a chance to finish, or even play – Bully on PS2, which I started but won’t finish now that it’s coming to 360; Breakdown for Xbox, which I bought used but never got to play for more than half an hour; Hotel Dusk on DS, which I won’t let myself start until I’m done with Pheonix Wright (and I have the sequel for that one waiting for me too). I intentionally didn’t buy Zelda for Wii because I knew I simply wouldn’t have time to play it.
5. Both of us are brothers in the irony red rings of death. We say we have good xbox's and they haven't gotten the red rings of death, and then we get the red ring of death. How did you feel when your 360 died on you? And do you have any red rings-fix-it-yourselves?
I did what I was told – I called tech support and got it repaired. I didn’t want to monkey with home remedies; I waited overnight to buy my system and I was didn’t want to risk that investment. But when it happened I felt…almost relieved. I was hearing all the stories and reading all the letters from readers and realized it was only a matter of time for me. I was grateful that I had so much time without needing the repair, and I’m sure there are other launch systems that are just fine. But considering how much I use my machine, I wasn’t too surprised when it went goofy on me. I got it back today and it works fine; total turnaround time was four and a half weeks.
6. What's it like working at OXM? Are all your co-workers your friends, or do you have rivalries within the office?
There are only friendly rivalries. We all get along great but we are all very competitive. Much trash is talked – good natured, but intense and nasty if you didn’t know we were friends. When I joined the staff, Fran said “You better be able to talk a good game, because otherwise, you’re fired.” I thought she was kidding; it was just an opening salvo. Also, we are keenly aware of our Gamerscores and we actually have a custom high score list online so we can always check it and make fun of each other.
7. Pirates or Ninjas?
Robots. Let’s think realistically about the future, shall we?
8. What's are you looking forward to in gaming this year?
Undertow on XBLA has me stoked. I’m really most interested to see what original things come through XBLA. I also want to see how Rock Band and Guitar Hero III are different, as well as how they’re alike.
9.We all know a game called Halo 3 is coming out. What weapon are you excited the most for?
Whatever one Ryan doesn’t know how to use well. He’s an animal, the best Halo player I’ve ever seen.
10. You also play guitar. How long have you been playing, and why did you start?
Same reason everybody starts: I thought it would get me girls. I was a senior in high school when I got serious about learning guitar. I taught myself out of guitar magazines and books of sheet music; it was a major event the day I realized I knew seven chords from “American Pie” and those seven chords made up about a third of everything the Beatles ever recorded. I was hooked from that day forward. I saved my money all through my senior year of high school, and when other guys were getting their first cars, I spent nine months of savings on a 1979 Les Paul Custom. I still have it, but now it has about 12 friends at home. J I play some guitar in my 80s cover band, Fast Times, and I do video game parody songs under the name Palette-Swap Ninja with my friend Jude.
11. When rock band comes out are you Drums, vocals, bass, or lead guitar?
Yes! I am looking forward to playing all of them. I sing in an 80s cover band, so singing in Rock Band isn’t as thrilling for me…but I tried to learn drums and failed, so that’s really a fun challenge. And I play guitar and bass, but I still haven’t gotten bored with doing that in Guitar Hero, so I don’t expect to be bored of it in Rock Band, either.
12. Favorite band?
All time, has to be The Beatles. My parents weren’t into rock, but my sister was, and I still can pop in a Beatles album from time to time and find my jaw on the floor – they made so few mistakes, and so many songs are memorable and well written. But I also love Van Halen (I can’t play like Eddie, but that’s one reason I love hearing him), and I listen to a lot of Fountains of Wayne and Barenaked Ladies. I like pop punk too – Bowling for Soup, Green Day – but less so on emo. I am a sucker for good guitar hooks and clever songwriting. Also? I love Bach.
13. Anything you would like to advertise?
Other than OXM, no! J I would ask that if anybody hasn’t picked up the magazine in a while because they think everything is online…they might be surprised at some of the features we’ve been doing. We still take great pride in what we do, and we are trying to do the kind of articles that many online sites don’t. That said, we will be relaunching our website later this year so keep an eye on officialxboxmagazine.com and soon you will see new content there as well. Promise!
If anybody wants to hear Palette-Swap Ninja, it’s myspace.com/paletteswapninja
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