I am Martyn Stanley, gaming since 1983 starting with the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k. I graduated to the Atari ST, then SNES, then PC before adding the Sony PS1 and PS2. I currently own a Sega Megadrive, Nintendo 64, Sony PS2, MacBook Pro, Xbox 360, Xbox One S and Xbox Series X. I also have an old Sega GameGear and Nintendo Game Boy knocking about somewhere.
When I'm not gaming, I like writing. As of 1st January 2021 I have a series of six 'Deathsworn Arc' fantasy novels published as well as several short stories and a YA Vampire novel called Ofelia. I won the 2017 DriveTribe article of the year and for three years was an active Freelance journalist on the platform.
I completed my Open University Science degree over the course of nine years and finally graduated with first class honours in 2019. Studying while working full time and looking after young kids was probably the hardest thing I ever did.
As well as a hardcore gamer, author, journalist and Open University Graduate, I'm also a bit of a petrolhead. In 2020, after looking for 'the right one' for years, I finally bought a bucketlist car I'd wanted for years - a Porsche 911.
Gaming wise Witcher 3 'The Wild Hunt' was an all-time favourite. I loved that game and even started reading the novels. Cuphead I was a huge fan of! Fiendishly difficult, but extremely good fun. 100%'ing it is probably my crowning gaming achievement.
2020 was all about survival horror. This was the year I 100%'d Resident Evil Remake 2 & 3 AND Resident Evil 4 HDR. I also played a lot of Jedi: Fallen Order, I loved the story, but I preferred the gameplay of Force Unleashed and its sequel if I'm honest.
2021 is going to be the year of Tony Hawks and Cyberpunk. An odd combo, but I loved THPS on the PS1 and spent hours 100%'ing it back in the early noughties. Now I'm doing it again, but sharing the experience with the kids. Cyberpunk 2077 is a game I've been looking forward to for years. It's the main reason I went all out to get an Xbox Series X. Yes, it's glitchy, yes, there's cut content, no I don't care. The game was over-ambitious, I always thought this. CDPR sounded like they were promising the impossible. So far I'm 20 hours in and I'll be honest I'm enjoying it, however I AM really glad I'm not trying to play it on the One S, I feel that would've been quite painful.