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Name:
Neil Hughes

Position:
Community Manager

Age:
35

Location:
West Midlands (UK)

Bio:
By day I answer to the name Neil, but by night I become ‘The Grateful Ghoul’ on Xbox Live. My obsession is my blessing and yet also my curse, as my quest to breakaway from an underachieving player at FIFA 09 in the XBLN League and to cease being cannon fodder on Call Of Duty seems to gets more and more frustrating.

My earliest video gaming memory was spending hours with my Grandad playing PONG, this was where my obsession with gaming began. When not watching Rocky movies I then found myself addicted to the Atari 2600. This console rocked my world in every way possible and I get goose bumps if I see a picture of it even now. It’s a work of art with its wood veneer finish and joysticks that could survive countless hours of intense movement on the infamous 1500 metres. Only a real man could last 1500 metres without getting tired arms.

Suddenly everything changed and I dabbled with ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 gaming, but must admit that when my parents brought me a BBC B computer for ‘education purposes’ I was a little gutted, but the Amiga 600 was only a few years away for me.

The circle is now nearly complete as my love affair with video games returned to the console, I jumped ship to the PlayStation, Xbox and finally found a console I always dreamed of in the form of the Xbox 360. The boy that played PONG dreamt that one day he could play games with people from all over the world with ease, maybe even play in a real football league. The boyhood dream came true.

Favourite Genre:
1. Sports (I’m a sucker for any sports game that I can pick up and play on a rainy afternoon).
2. First Person Shooter (I love the smell of Call of Duty in the morning).
3. Survival Horror (The words Resident Evil spoken by a gravelled voice maniac, or vision of the deserted streets of Silent Hill still make the hair on my neck stand up).

Gaming style:
Irrational and unconventional.

Special Move:
Triple-tap-pass across the box!

Most Common Quote:
‘GET RID OF IT!’ (usually shouting at my defenders who are under pressure during a FIFA or PES league game)