About Game Rant

Game Rant was borne from the desire to bring the same news, reviews and opinionated editorial to the video game arena that Screen Rant brings to movie and TV news.

The goal here at Game Rant is to cover video game news and review games from a middle ground/average person perspective. We try to take a common sense approach to video game news: Stepping back and looking at the big picture to determine whether something is a good idea… or an idiotic one.

Game reviews are written from the point of view of “was it a fun/exciting/scary/compelling game” instead of from some high-brow, esoteric level. On the other hand a game has to have more than just cool graphics and fantastic CGI to be considered great by the folks at Game Rant.

Rob Keyes (Editor-in-Chief)

Robert Keyes started writing for Screen Rant in September 2008 as its only Canadian writer. He was offered a writing position at Screen Rant based on his participation on the site as a long-time commenter and story-submitter. Not long later, Rob became an Editor where he continues helps publish the growing number of articles we write, and writes a ton himself, specializing in comic book and video game movies. Check out his resume of X-Men and Transformers editorials…

Rob is also the Editor-in-Chief of this newly launched sister site for Screen Rant, GameRant.com which keeping in the style of the flagship site, covers video game news/previews/reviews (without the sugar coating of course).

Rob is 24 years old with a Masters Degree in Economics. He wishes to eventually mesh his business, computer, economics and finance backgrounds with his love of the media entertainment industry with hopes of a career in one of the fields down the road.

Rob is an avid viewer of all kinds of film and television and is also a big video gamer. Much of his spare time is spent with friends playing and/or watching sports and all of the entertainment forms listed above. That is, when he’s not working at his day job or the two sites.

When it comes to games, Rob still holds his love for PC gaming but plays most new titles on the consoles, holding favor for co-operative play which sadly is becoming a fading phenomenon.

Follow Rob on Twitter @rob_keyes

Follow Game Rant on Twitter @gamerant

Ben Kendrick

Ben Kendrick is a graduate of the New School’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program, with an emphasis in fiction. Currently, Ben is nearing completion of his novel: How I Saw Myself on America’s Most Wanted and serves as the co-editor of the literary magazine LIT.

In his professional life Ben is a college english professor in Brooklyn and is already the author of a theological curriculum based on the ABC television show LOST, as well as numerous columns in various publications.

Ben has been avid gamer ever since he received his first console, an NES he discovered, and subsequently set-up, after snooping through his parent’s closet a week prior to Christmas. He is especially interested in games that successfully advance the player’s ability to interact with narrative and characters in a meaningful way.

Please visit his website if for no other reason than to get a better sense of the conditions under which he was conceived.

Follow Ben on Twitter @iambenkendrick

Zac Landry

Toronto born Zac Landry has played games his entire life. He still remembers having his cousins over when he was a young lad to play his brand new Nintendo Entertainment System. One of his greatest gaming moments came at the tender age of five. On world 1-1 in Super Mario Brothers, Zac fell into and miraculously jumped out of the pit near the end of stage. His family cheered in disbelief as he finished the level. To his knowledge, he is the only person to accomplish this great feat and has not been able to recreate it since then.

Zac is an owner of all current generation consoles and loves playing all the great titles each platform has to offer. His favorite games of all time are Mario 3, Mario 64, Perfect Dark and Gears of War. His favorite genres are shooters and action RPGs. He doesn’t discriminate and will try anything at least once.

Zac Landry started writing for Game Rant in September 2009. He is a top graduate of the 2D Art and Animation program at the Art Institute of Toronto. He plans on continuing his studies in the Game Art and Design program. For now Zac is working, saving for school and doing his homework (playing games whenever possible). Zac hopes to develop his skills and gain a career in the video game industry as an environmental artist.

Alex Sebenski

Alex Sebenski became involved with writing for Game Rant in October 2009. Alex is 23 years old with a Bachelors in Commerce, Major in Marketing from Dalhousie University. His interests, other than video games include watching hockey, buying new technology and enjoying horror films.

Alex finds himself committing to long term relationships with both first person shooters and music games but can be found on occasion having an affair with an RPG, racing, or fighting game. Accompanying his love of games comes an obsession for having the newest and best technology to make his gaming experience run smoothly, with the big screen and surround sound. Both horror films and games provide the thrill that whets Alex’s appetite for excitement, loving nothing more than a tasteful exploding head or zombie assault.

Alex’s day job is in the field of finance so his involvement in gaming reviews and news at Game Rant is an outlet for his marketing and advertising training to be released. He hopes to fully utilize his knowledge and use as an advantage to provide high quality insight in his writing.

Follow Alex on Twitter @alex_sebenski

Riley Little

Riley Little was born in Huntsville, Ontario, Canada and landed a gig with Game Rant along with Ryan and John, by running into Rob Keyes at Comic-Con and on the flights back to Canada. After keeping in touch and sharing some common interests (i.e. video games) Rob offered Riley and the trio a chance to write articles for the site.

Riley’s best memories of videogames come from the SNES with Donkey Kong, but games really took  his personal interest with the arrival of N64. Smash Bros., Mario Kart, and Mario 64 revolutionized gaming for Riley and he instantly fell in love. The best game series of all time in his opinion… SUPER SMASH BROS. No, it’s not perfect but the nostalgia puts it over for him.

Aside from gaming, Riley loves fishing and plays hockey (yes, very Canadian I know). He is a Toronto Maple Leaf fan, but most of the time he wishes he weren’t. Riley recently returned from shooting a Bruce Lee travelogue for Northern River Productions, a project which details all the locations Bruce Lee shot his movies in, very cool stuff.

Yes, you may click the image to enlarge and see this awesomeness that is this Ninja Turtles cover starring Riley.

Follow Riley on Twitter @GnarleySquid

John Jacques

John Jacques was born in Bracebridge, Ontario and ran into Rob Keyes while nerdin’ it up at the San Diego Comic-Con. He was was later invited to join Game Rant’s team as a writer along with hometown friends Riley Little and Ryan Blanchard.

John’s favorite games include the original Mario Kart, Perfect Dark, Fallout, Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike and Gears of War. Having worked in a Cyber Cafe and then in an Electronics Department, he pretty much makes sure his life revolves around games – seems to be a pretty good theme so far.

When John isn’t being an nerd (every now and then), he’s a football (read: soccer) fanatic and worships Manchester United and Toronto FC, even though one of those clubs isn’t quite as successful as the other (it’s the Toronto Curse). Also, by far his favorite band is JOURNEY – and he damn well encourages you to play some right now as you read this!

Follow John J on Twitter @makelevi

John Comerford

John Comerford is a graduate of North Central College’s school of Psychology and has pursued his counseling career at DeVry University as an Academic Advisor in the Chicago-land area.

John is also a long time writer for the Advanced Iron PDF zine, and is the current Editor-In-Chief of that publication. Over the last several years John has worked closely with Vic Holtreman to overhaul the zine both in style and content for a new generation of readers, and was brought on board as a columnist for Vic’s Game Rant website as well.

John is a completist of sorts, spending most of his game-time on his PS3 collecting platinum trophies. Being a product of 80’s pop culture, John is no stranger to retro gaming, and sees the gaming hobby more ubiquitously than whatever current consoles may represent. He hopes to bring this perspective to his writing at Game Rant, along with a bit of fun to the gaming hobby.