Each month, a different member of the team will sit down to tell us about the games that hold a special place in their heart. These are the games that shaped us, and this week it’s the turn of Ecommerce Manager Simon. We sat down with him to discuss his favourite games growing up!

Name:

Simon Moore

Role in the company:

Head of Ecommerce

Preferred console/method of gaming:

PlayStation 4

First console/game you played:

Pong!

Favourite game of all time:

It's very difficult to choose as there have been so many great games over the years. In my younger years, I spent hours playing the likes of Kick Off 2, Lemmings and Settlers. From my teens through to my early-mid 20’s I must have wasted whole days worrying about the morale of my various different teams in Championship Manager. Gran Turismo took driving games to a totally different level, whilst the roaming free world action of Grand Theft Auto changed the way we play games.If I had to choose one though (and it’s a bit of a cheat as it's more of a franchise now) I would have to say Mario Kart. I have played and loved every different version. Great in single-player and even better in multi-player mode. In fact, when our PlayStation 4 broke recently, my 7-year-old son and I reverted to playing on Mario Kart on our SNES Mini each night instead!

Least favourite game of all time:

Controversially, I would have to say any fighting game but in particular Street Fighter. Not that I think it is a bad game or anything, it's just that I'm absolute garbage at ALL fighting games. I am sorry to admit that I'm just a random button masher and have never understood how other people remember all the special combo moves.

The game you’re most looking forward to:

Not a game as such, but I am looking forward to the launch of Google Stadia and how that will change the face of gaming. As a once hardcore gamer but now pretty casual, I like the idea of being able to pick up and play on any screen or device whenever the mood takes you, rather than being confined to a single box under a single TV. Just as Netflix has become part of our daily lives, I think Stadia and whatever Microsoft, Amazon, Sony and co come up with will soon become the norm as well.

Greatest gaming achievement:

Taking Notts County from the bottom of the Football League to the top of the Premier League and then on to become European Champions in around 10 seasons of playing Football Manager 2005. A 38-year-old Roy Keane, who I had managed to talk out of retirement, was my central midfield lynchpin, whilst I also managed to sign a little known 16-year-old youth player called Gareth Bale on a free transfer from Southampton who I converted from an average left back into a dazzling goal-scoring left-winger!

Other i.e. anecdotes, stories, quips and memories:

I once had an altercation at a launch event for the previously mentioned Gran Turismo 3. This was Sony’s flagship game for PlayStation 2 at the time and I was working with them to help launch it with a bang. There was this girl, however, who despite several requests not to, was insistent on taking lots of photos and recording various activities. It was then pointed out that she actually worked for Microsoft and was, in fact, on a spying mission. They were about to launch the original Xbox along with Project Gotham Racing, a direct competitor to Sony’s title. I had to ask her to leave immediately which she didn’t take too kindly to but eventually agreed. Fortunately, I bumped into the same girl a few weeks later at a different event that I wasn’t involved in and we were able to laugh about the whole situation. She eventually became my wife!Stay tuned for more in our ‘The Games that Shaped Us’ series in November, and read the previous instalment while you wait. We’ll also be bringing you some interviews with some of our friends and partners for an insight behind the scenes of games publishing and development