About Me

My name is Darren Arquette, I’m a student at the University of Teesside studying Creative Digital Media.

aming technology and techniques fascinate me, always have and always will do. They’ve driven me to a gaming degree, and aspirations to a whole lot more. Here though, I’ll be reviewing games for how they put their technology to work to deliver a compelling experience.

When I was growing up I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life, which path to take so to speak, with no real role models it was a very hard choice for me to make.

This was until I reached the age of twelve and played two great games for the PlayStation: Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII. Before this moment I was more of a casual gamer, and had a few gaming consoles such as the Commodore 64, SEGA Mega Drive and a SEGA Saturn, but it didn’t really click in until then.

I had and always wondered how they make games but I only played them from time to time – rainy days and Sundays. But after Metal Gear and Final Fantasy, I knew I was hooked for life. Those two games were like nothing I had experienced before, and opened my eyes to gaming.

I loved their connection to the player and imaginative attempts to break the forth wall. They were really trying to get to you while you played. Metal Gear Solid tells you which buttons to press, even to turn the console off – not a good idea. And of course there’s the infamous fight with Psycho Mantis whom can read your memory card. Then Final Fantasy, with its massive world and deeply flawed, but brilliantly human characters that made you care about them.

All this set me on a read towards the video game industry, and to learn the technical ins and outs of making games, and maybe one day to be a Game Director. And since then I’ve been working my butt off through School, College and now University to grasp every thing slither of understanding about games that I can.

It hasn’t all been easy for me, I wasn’t one of the most intelligent students in school, heck I had to fight tooth and claw for every single grade I got, and just scraped into College. But this is my dream, I often remind myself, and I’m not going to give up without a fight.

Click here to see my CV or follow the links at the top.