ADAM DOLGE

Title: Executive Editor
Email: adam.dolge@psu.com

Adam is a simple man with a secret desire to rule to world. This desire dates back to playing games like Civilization on the PC. Like everyone else his age (Maryland is still looking for his birth certificate) he remembers spending long nights playing NES classics in his parent’s basement. Adam now spends more time playing video games than he does doing just about anything else. He refuses to pick a favorite game anymore, but when not working on a review he plays a lot of FIFA, Skyrim, Civ V, and is wildly addicted to old, old turn-based RPGs. If there is one thing that turns this kind man into Angry Adam, it’s the lack of originality in today’s video games. He says he would rather play a bad game that puts you in the shoes of a postal carrier than to sit through another apocalypse game.

Adam has a degree in mass communications and has invested more than eight years into the journalism business. He has worked at several newspapers and magazines as a reporter and started working with PSU in spring 2009. He recently celebrated a milestone birthday and is happy he still statistically fits in the average age of gamers. In addition to video games, he’s written about music, education, politics, crime, technology, and food.

You can find Adam on Twitter @ AdamDggidy

MIKE HARRADENCE

Title: Managing Editor
Email: mike.harradence@psu.com

Mike's been an avid gamer ever since he could muster the intelligence required to operate a control pad. For the record, that was about five years old. As a result, he's been gaming since the days of the NES, and has owned virtually every single major console ever released over the years. Unsurprisingly, his gaming tastes cover a myriad of franchises, including Mario, Sonic, Shenmue, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Streets of Rage, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Uncharted, Metal Gear Solid, F-Zero, Silent Hill, Devil May Cry, Formula One, Command & Conquer, The Elder Scrolls and heaps more. As for his favourite game? That'd have to go to the original Resident Evil in all its gory glory. His favourite console is, unequivocally, the Sega Dreamcast. He seems to favour the underdogs in this respect, having also enjoyed his time with the GameCube and Sega Saturn. The original PlayStation is where he made the transition from a semi-hardcore gamer to full-on gaming geek, though.

Mike's history as a games journalist dates back about five years, though he had been previously doing the job in a non-paid capacity 'for fun' until he decided that he might actually have a half-decent chance at making some money out of it. Eventually, after cutting his teeth in a number of freelance-based positions over the past couple of years, he joined up on PSU in summer 2007 and never looked back.

STEVEN WILLIAMSON

Title: U.K. Editor/Sales Manager
Email: steven.williamson@psu.com

Born September 2, 1974, Steven is so old he can remember playing 3D Monster Maze on the ZX Spectrum and spending many months trying to beat the final level of Commando on Commodore 64. He never did.

Such is his passion for videogames, he almost lost his girlfriend of 10 years after spending more time than is healthy locked away in a darkened room playing Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. “You need to make a choice,” she said one night. “It’s me or that bloody computer?” Steven made that choice, and eventually she came to her senses. They’re now married, she now loves gaming too, and the rest is history.

Steven has worked in the industry for over five years, working for some of the top U.K. publications and websites. He now works full-time writing about all aspects of the industry, from business news to complete game walkthroughs.

Steven was very worried about what the release of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim might do to his relationship, so he has encouraged his wife to play Elder Scrolls IV. She loves it, so life in 2011 and beyond is looking very good indeed.

DON OLIVEIRA

Title: East Coast Editor
Email: don@psu.com

Don`s been playing games for as long as he can remember. His father owned a video rental store in the late 80’s - early 90’s, so Don had an advantage over all his friends at school when keeping up with the latest games. Things got “hardcore” -- a term Don isn’t too fond of -- for him when he started spending more time with his Super Nintendo than he would sleeping. MegaMan X, Super Metroid, A Link to the Past, and Super Mario World were some of the first games that Don set out to “master.” This paired with his passion for video games eventually led to Don’s OCD completionist approach to the way he games.

Getting his foot in the industry as a video game tester based out of Montreal, Canada, Don quickly understand the ins and outs of games. Starting his journalism career at PSU was a fitting choice; Don loves all consoles and platforms, but spends most of his gaming time with his PS3, and has been a huge PlayStation fan since the PS one.

Some of Don’s favorite game franchises: Metal Gear Solid, MegaMan (classic & X), Metroid (Prime included, Other M excluded), Resident Evil, Dead Space, Street Fighter, Devil May Cry, Starcraft, Diablo, Burnout, Fallout, and way, way more.

You can find Don on facebook at Don Oliveira, and on twitter @DonOther.

ROB MANNING

Title: Forum Manager
Email: cuguy@psu.com

Born in April of 1974, Rob has been gaming since he could walk. Starting with the old Pong plug-in console, he has owned nearly every major gaming console up to present day. His fondest memory of gaming? Easy—playing tape-drive-cassette based games on his good old Commodore 64k. Once he found PSU.com fin 2007, it has been his home online for all things gaming related.

Rob’s favorite all time game is a little known Commodore 64k game called Oubliette. A simple dungeon crawler in the vein of D&D complete with obscure key commands and a simple one-line dungeon. He can’t forget an honorable mention to the Leather Goddesses of Phobos either, as that text adventure frustrated him for many moons.

Gaming time is hard to find these days, but it can be done. With twin boys, a full time job as an Civil Electrical Engineer and his duties for PSU.com, life stays pretty hectic.

JOSEPH FAIT

Title: Marketing / Contest Manager
Email: joseph@psu.com

Born September 11, 1991, Joseph is one of the youngest, most attractive members of PlayStation Universe. Focusing most of his time on trying to get fantastic items to give away to readers, you’ll often find Joseph knee deep in ready to be shipped boxes, figuring what item goes to whom.

Joseph is a multi-console person, owning a PS3 as well as an Xbox 360 (No Wii, thank you). He enjoys every type of game except sports and racing sims. His favorite game from the PS2 era is Soul Reaver 2, and from this generation Metal Gear Solid 4. ‘

You can find him on twitter @AcesHigh291 or on PSN as AcesHigh291 as well.

Timothy Nunes

Title: Staff Writer

Born in February of 1987, combining with a few mishaps in his childhood, Tim missed out on the first major wave in the gaming industry, so things like Commodore 64 and even the Atari sound like historical topics to him. He first dabbled into gaming with the original Game Boy, and spent an unhealthy amount of hours trading beginning Pokemon with his cousin to have all three. He then “upgraded” to the Nintendo 64, because he thought that “64-bits was better than 32-bits;” he learned his lesson quickly after the Christmas of ‘99.

After spending some time with a new cousin through marriage, he was exposed to the one game that would change his life forever: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Driven by the vast dialogue, realistic graphics, and the sweet mullet that Snake sported, he began his obsession with the MGS series, and that obsession begot his love for the PlayStation brand; he’s owned every model and remodel of every PlayStation console to date; for the record, all of them, apart from the Vita, have had an MGS game on them.

Steven Chaffin, Jr.
Title: Database Manager

Born in April of 1995, Steven’s gaming experiences don’t date back as far as his colleagues. Steven grew up with the likes of Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong on the Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and Nintendo 64, but didn’t become an avid gamer until the Game Cube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox came around. Ironically, Steven’s favorite console at the time was his original Xbox, which exposed him to the likes of Battlefield and Halo; the must-play games of the time. Some of his favorite games and series that arose from that generation of gaming include Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, Land of the Dead, Battlefield, and Super Smash Bros.

As it stands, Steven owns every current generation console, although his PlayStation 3 is the only one he consistently plays. He, like many gamers, went through a phase of playing ungodly amounts of Call of Duty, racking up 21 days total played in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. He invested even more time into The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which served as a gateway to Steven’s current fascination with RPG titles. Nowadays, and in the time to come, Steven can be found playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Twisted Metal, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Starhawk, and (maybe) Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

You can follow Steven on Twitter @steven_chaffin , on LinkedIn, and his PSN is SchaffinOSX.