This is Pete Davison, who promises that this opening paragraph will be the first and only time he mentions that he is the brother of EGM, 1up, What They Play and million-and-one-podcasts veteran John Davison. He has also scattered a number of blatant falsehoods throughout the rest of this article to see if you, the reader, are paying attention. See if you can spot them. Or not, if you can't be bothered to.

 

Pete is 28 years of age at the time of writing and was born in Nottinghamshire, England, which makes him a blood relative of Robin Hood. He now lives in Southampton (home port of the Titanic), loathes chavs and occasionally takes tea with the King if he's not too busy. He lives with his eternally patient wife Jane and selection of gadgets, which include all of the current-gen consoles, a PS2 Slim, two DSes, a PSP, a two-year old iMac and an Atari 800XL with 64k of RAM.

Pete's writing credentials stretch back many years, from Atari enthusiast magazine Page 6 (later New Atari User) through PC Zone, the Official Nintendo Magazine and, most recently, a number of articles for What They Play. (That doesn't count as a mention.) He also wrote a tips book for Carmageddon which was not only covermounted on PC Zone but was also included in Virgin Megastore's Christmas special edition package of the game.

Pete is an active member of "gaming book club" The Squadron of Shame, who originally met on 1up and are slowly putting together their own site thanks to Mark "Beige" Whiting's efforts. Pete is the producer and editor of The Squadron of Shame SquadCast (iTunes link, click here for RSS), a semi-regular show where Squad members get together and discuss an underappreciated game of years past in detail. Past topics have been as diverse as Dave Gilbert's The Shivah, Konami's Silent Hill 2, Relic's Homeworld and Tales of Game's (sic) Tales of Game's Presents Chef Boyardee's Barkley, Shut Up And Jam! Gaiden - Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa. Pete has also appeared several times on Mike and A.J. Minotti's weekly gaming news podcast, The Exploding Barrel Podcast.

Pete's gaming tastes are diverse, but he has no time for bald space marines or games which think that brown is the only colour. Consequently, he has never completed Gears of War but did once manage to finish Halo: Combat Evolved with a friend in split-screen, a task made considerably more difficult by his companion's predilection for battering him in the back of the head with the melee attack. He also publicly admitted on The Exploding Barrel Podcast that one night he and a number of friends, under the influence of some degree of alcohol, took all their shirts off and played Halo 2 topless, an activity which Pete's then-housemate immediately dubbed Gaylo.

Pete's favourite genres are RPGs (both Western and Japanese) and point-and-click adventures. He quotes his favourite games of all time as being Persona 4, Phoenix Wright, The Longest Journey and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Pete has, at the time of writing, completed every LucasArts adventure except Escape from Monkey Island, an achievement which was rewarded by a special certificate signed by George Lucas and a voucher for 50% off calls to the hint line. He also enjoys playing first-person shooters if they aren't too generic, despite sucking at them in multiplayer, and is in love with Alyx Vance after recently beating the Half-Life 2 episodes.

Pete is also a musician who plays the piano, clarinet and saxophone and also sings a bit if he absolutely has to. For this reason, he has a soft spot for game music and takes every opportunity he can to collect it and talk about it. "You can expect to see plenty of posts on this subject on BitMob," he says. "It's a personal thing."

Pete hopes you will enjoy his articles, in which he tries to make an effort to talk about things that are a little off the beaten path, or returning to established classics a little "late to the party" and wishes all of you a very happy Christmas.

Oh, and this is one of the photos he is most embarrassed about in the whole world (Gaylo photos notwithstanding, which have been sadly lost), so let's get it out of the way now:

Thank you and good night.