About From Grove

	Name: Josef Israelsson	Name: Mats Frånberg
	Best game(s) during the last three years: I really love the fact that I’ve played a LOT of video games during the last couple of years. I’ve laid my hands on top quality games such as Uncharted 2, Bowsers Inside Story and Chrono Trigger. But if I’d have to choose one then Super Mario Galaxy 2 is definitely the game I’d put in front of all the others. Brilliant gameplay, perfected controls, and game design and music that few others can even come close to. To me that game definitely qualifies to the top-five of all time. If I got to select a second game then Borderlands 2 would take that spot. I’ve never spent that many hours with a first person shooter before (I don’t dare to tell you the numbers), which is because of the beautiful scenery in combination with the high-pace action. It’s been long since I’ve had so much trouble letting go of the joypad.	Best game(s) during the last three years: If I was to choose one game it would have to be Dark Souls. It’s hard to fathom just how good this game is. At first I didn’t understand what all the fuzz was about, so I put it away and tried again later only to put it away again and then try it for a third time, and then it was all so clear to me. I was terrified exploring the dungeons, truly terrified, and yet so intrigued by the sheer joy of exploring and actually feeling in total control of my destiny. The rewards of beating a boss or making it to that wonderful bonfire is unparalleled to anything I’ve ever played before.
	Favourite game character: Definitely Bowser. No other supervillain is blessed with so little self-distance that every scentence he bruits causes a good laugh. It also makes me wanna be Bowser. Imagine being so convinced that the rest of the world thinks you’re the most powerful creature that exists, despite the fact that a clumsy little plumber over and over steals your (kidnapped) princess. That takes an impressive amount of self-confidence.	Favourite game character: I really like Donkey Kong from Mario Kart snes. Back then he didn’t have the mullet and was wearing a white tank top. The kart looked so small and Donkey so big, and the tank top made him look less intelligent. Love it!
	Three good game sound tracks: Donkey Kong Country (snes), Final Fantasy 6 (snes), and Super Mario Bros (nes).	Three good game sound tracks: Journey to Silius (nes), Advance Wars, days of ruin (Nintendo DS), Dark Souls (ps3, xbox 360)
	Games that had impact on me: There was a period in my life when I dreamt of tetrominoes almost every night. I believe it’s known as the Tetris syndrome, but to me I guess it got worse than that. In my imagination I started to fit things in daily life together. When I walked around more or less everything around me had to have a perfect placement in relation to it’s surroundings. Cars, furniture and even people, they all needed to be matched up. Even today I’m pretty confident that Tetris is the reason of my good organizing skills.	Games that had impact on me: When I first played phantasy star at a friends house I was totally blown away. And when we entered the first dungeon it was as if I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
	Funny gaming memory: When I was eleven I had completed basically all of the games that was available on the Nindendo 8-bit system in Europe. So I wrote a letter to the biggest (and only) video game magazine in sweden to make my virtue known. And guess what – a few months later I ended up being the Power Player of the month in that magazine! That’s still one of my greates successes in life if you ask me.A funny thing is that I recently got contacted by the creators of a known video game blog as they were trying to get in touch with one of the Power Players from that era. It’s hard to be humble when phrases like “A living legend” were brought up during the interview. Therefore, even today, 22 years later, I’m pretty proud of being the Power Player of the month back in 1991.	Funny gaming memory: I had just been dumped by a girl that I really liked and was feeling very sad. I remember standing in a store looking at games. I bought golden eye and went home, I didn’t know anything about the game but before long I was enjoying life again 😉
	Something game-related that I’m looking forward to: To see what Nintendo have planned to get back to the top of the industry with WiiU, to play the upcoming sequel to A Link to the past on 3DS, and to enrich my already overstuffed livingroom with even more game consoles now that Playstation 4 and the new Xbox is approaching.	Something game-related that I’m looking forward to: Dark souls 2, obviously, even without the virtuosity of Hidetaka Miyazaki I must say I’m very excited about this game. Dwarf Fortress 2 “slaves of Armok” looks so incredibly interesting, but the difficulty getting into it makes Dark Souls look childishly easy to understand. But, I will try!
	Currently listening to: Borderlands 2 soundtrack, Sean Rowe, and The Black Keys.	Currently listening to: Kurt Vile