Wade Larson, Associate Editor (Midwest)

Wade Larson is a suave and dashing spy, traveling the world in search of adventure, danger, and the meaning of life. When not working for a classified international security agency, he doubles as a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he works for the school paper writing video game reviews, news, and previews, and occasionally committing some real journalism.

He joined Ripten in November of 2007, and contributes his journalistic wisdom and 1337 writing skills. So far, his journey has taken him to strange lands (Nebraska) and led him to meet some awesome new people at Ripten, where he hopes to hone his craft to a fine edge, capable of cutting through Internet and industry bullshit alike.

Wade has been playing video games since his brother got a Nintendo Entertainment System during Christmas 1990. Some of his earliest memories are of Contra, the Konami code, and Blades of Steel hockey, which he grew very adept at, particularly the minigame between the 2nd and 3rd period and fighting.

But all this was mere foreplay for what was to come. During the heyday of the SNES, Wade’s heart was stolen, and he knew love for the first time – In the form of a green-haired esper-woman named Terra. After discovering Final Fantasy III (VI, for the purists out there) Wade was never the same, and 2D RPGs came to define his childhood like nothing else. Years later, he owns the soundtrack to the game and still gets weak in the knees when he remembers the Opera scene.

Square and Nintendo’s parting was a painful time, like watching his parents split. He lived with Momma Nintendo until the GameCube, when he finally branched out to other systems.

With work and school, Wade has little time for the 40-hour epics of his childhood. His days are now consumed by frag fests on Call of Duty 4 and his world tour with his Rock Band, Sick Hippos.

Wade is a man of many tastes, a fan of action / adventure games, shooters and games that generally rock his socks off. Some of his all-time favorite games include the Legend of Zelda series, Metroid, Resident Evil 4, God of War and Doom 3.

When he’s not playing video games he reads, writes, drinks beer and watches the History Channel.