Personnel Files – Dan

Editor in Chief – Ready Up

Name: Dan Bendon

Age: 33

Current Location: At my desk in Glasgow, looking out over a dreary day. The sounds of Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Minecraft can be heard coming from behind me.

First gaming memory: Playing a pretty bad platform game called Wee Shuggy on my uncle’s BBC B Micro. He’d copied the code from a BBC magazine and saved it to a tape. My sister and I played the crap out of that stupid little game.

Longest gaming session: A full 25 hours playing Burnout Paradise in 2009 with Kirsten, Simes, Fran, Martin & Shaz to set the world record for “Longest Marathon Playing a Racing Game”. It was amazing fun but I don’t think I’d want to do it again!

Least favourite genre: It’s a cop out answer but since I don’t like the sport in the slightest it would have to be football games. Other than that I’ll play pretty much anything. I’ve even been know to enjoy some of the less serious football games such as Mario Striker and FIFA Street on occasion, I’ll also note that I will happily watch people play a football game and enjoy that more than watching the real sport.

Favourite gaming snack: I went through a phase of eating Twiglets while playing but you get all the Marmite coating all over you pad, they are the snack of the gods though but as with most great things in life there was a high price to play. I ended up settling on eating popcorn, not as mighty as Twiglets but much cleaner.

Reaction to dying in-game: I very rarely get angry playing games, at most it’ll be a sigh. I did once bang my arcade stick on my desk during my preview of  Street Fighter IV after repeadidly getting smashed by the boss Seth while trying to unlock all the characters. It was just a small bang, dropping the stick from about an inch off the desk, then I switched it off. Kirsten commented that it was the most angry she’s ever seen me get while playing any game.

Favourite game character: Ryu is, and always will be, the most iconic video game character of all time in my book. Yes, he’s fairly expressionless and generic but he embodies everything I like about fighting games, he’s accessible but capable of some amazing things in the right hands. Everyone knows (or should know) how to throw a fireball and everyone can appreciate… well, this video sums it up.

Most hated game character: I don’t hold a grudge but of recent times it’s either Hope or Vanille from Final Fantasy XIII. Hope is such an unbelievably wet fish and Vanille talks such nonsense she sounds like a critically damaged computer running a Turing test.

Favourite game EVER! It has to be Super Mario Bros 3, it’s just about perfect and I could play it over and over. In more recent times every single Lumines games has taken a hold on me in such a way that I couldn’t call it a favourite, it’s more like a problem I have. Recently, in preperation fo rthe Vita launch, I played the XBLA version for the first time in ages and right away got a message from Tony that read “I thought you were clean?”, says it all really.

Mark asks: Would you eat a physical copy of your favourite video game for a million quid?

Dan: Oh yeah, no problem. I’d even eat a copy of Kane & Lynch 2 for £20.

Fran asks: If you would like to answer any question in an interview, what would it be and why?

Dan: I would like to be asked the following – “Do you happen to know anything about the specifics regarding the traditional rotational direction of spiral staircases in castles?” I would like to be asked this because I do know about the specifics regarding the traditional rotational direction of spiral staircases in castles. I encourage anyone that meets me to ask me about it.

Carly asks: As a cosplayer I gotta ask: if time and budget were no issue, which fighting game character would you cosplay as and why?

Dan: As budget is no option I’d go for a fully working suit based on the Lost Planet mech from Tatsunoko Vs Capcom, because then I’d have a huge working robot suit.