Meet The Team… Ciaran J. Utting
Oh yes! It’s time for another thrilling episode of Meet The Team! This week our special guest is the Norfolk dewelling, beard growing Ciaran J. Utting. Here, he discusses Kerry Katona, gaiety and nuclear weapons. Nobody knows what the J stands for. Fact.
The J stands for Enigma
1. Who are you and what do you do?
I’m a joyless fussbudget who likes to pretend they know what they’re doing. I’m predominantly fuelled by a desire to savagely dissect video games with as pretensions an air as I can muster, unless they’re good, in which case I will dissect them less savagely, but still pretentiously. I’m a content writer and some-time editor for HardReset. I refuse to use exclamation marks.
2. How and why did you decide to write for Hard Reset?
Essentially, they were the first website that offered to gallantly publish my work without returning drafts with the words “too imperious” written all over them in red pen. What this basically meant for me is that it was actually a good forum for people who genuinely loved video games, and as such they were comfortable discussing them in any capacity, without all the PR drivel and hyperbole that frequently goes with it.
3. Pick your poison: 360, Wii, PS3?
Those are my 3 options are they? Good job I’m not one of those self-entitled PC gamers… Well, as a rule, Microsoft usually get my vote because they really revolutionised online gaming with Live. I suppose it could be argued that they also helped get all those annoying teenage boys on Call of Duty, so I might revoke that. PlayStation get my thumbs up for the Vita. It’s hard to choose. However, I can say with some certainty that the Wii can go fuck itself.
4. Apart from playing videogames, what else do you do in your spare time?
I took pleasure in a great many things before the weight of the world crushed my youthful gaiety. Now I enjoy simply making light of other people’s personal misfortunes, usually while smoking a cigar and playing golf. Charitably however, I will hold doors open for good looking women, providing they are less than 5 feet away. So that’s my precious spare time taken care of. What next?
5. Pimp yourself! What’s your Twitter/Facebook/website/YouTube?
You can follow me on Twitter @ciaranutting. My online portfolio can be found at ciaran-utting.co.uk, but the majority of its content are things I’ve written for HardReset anyway. Still, it looks nice, in a soulless, modern kind of way. If you want my drole observations in your ear while you play video games, add my on XboxLive. Gamertag = MurphyTing.
6. Finally the most important question; what’s your favourite game?
I honestly believe it would take me longer to consider an answer to this question than it would for Kerry Katona to work out what on earth happened to Schrödinger’s cat. There are so many different facets to consider, I suspect that my answer (like pretty much everyone else’s) would change on a daily basis. But I’m nothing if not audacious, so I’ll hang my hat up and say Half Life 2. As an experience it is basically unparalleled, and it broke more new ground than Castle Bravo. To this day it remains a master class in story telling and character development, two things that are sorely lacking in today’s gaming arena. So there.
About the Author
Ben Quy+ Hard Reset's Personnel Manager, Fan of MMA & Pro-Wrestling. reader of many books & comics. Administrator by day, Xbox warrior by night. Card carrying member of the FGC. Enjoys Monty Python.
