Interview | September 1, 2012 2:40 pm

By AJ

A big thanks to Revelation1318 for all the graphics!

AJ: Well, well, well. It's been a long time coming for this asshat. Someone I used to play with quite a bit, but then him and Gabriel got married or something... I don't even...

Anyways, most people know you as A Silent Circus, but I know you a turd-nergler, or Chad. They're both pretty synonymous anyways. For anyone wondering about that weird name, don't ask (or ask in the comments, I'm not 100% sure about how it came to be but maybe Chad can fill you in). Well, without further rambling, let's get it going!


So Chad, why don't you start off by telling everyone here a bit about yourself while I deposit the cash you sent me to be in the spotlight. I mean, whhhhaaaaaa?

Chad: Alright well, first off, I honestly don't really read or pay attention to the CS's normally so I have no idea what the format or how long I should make my responses so DEAL WITH IT (puts some sweet aviators on).

My name's Chad for those who don't know, but I usually just go by Circus online, I'm 24 about to turn 25 this month (starting to feel like an old man), I live in Ohio and I currently attend Kent State University for Computer Science and I'm thinking about taking a minor in Psychology but I haven't really decided. Let's see, I work at a Holiday Inn doing night audit since I love night shift and it's a cake job where I can sit around most nights and do homework or watch TV shows and browse the web on nights where I have no school work to do, like a boss of course.

I obviously enjoy playing games but right now I've kinda been in a non gaming mood and haven't played much of anything besides some casual Battlefield 3 for fun and an occasional random game here and there, I've mostly been spending my summer break lounging and spending time with the girlfriend more often than not, oh, and trying to get back into decent shape by running every day and cutting down on the soda...next!




AJ: So besides ridiculously, and I mean ridiculously long run on sentences (that whole fucking answer was one long ass sentence for you folks keeping score at home) and spending time with your "girlfriend," I'll assume you mean Gabe since you didn't deny my previous assumption, what else do you enjoy, besides the already mentioned?

After that, why don't you tell everyone what type of games you enjoy most and why you enjoy said games.

Don't worry guys, after the usual boring questions are out of the way we'll get to the raunchy, horrendous questions!

Chad: Yeah that was one long sentence eh? Well, you know what, I'm already over it so you should be too. *insert profanity*. Hey now, we're facebook friends so you should know that my girlfriend is indeed NOT Gabriella and nor is it...CRAZY MINDY...ahahahaha, that's a whole other story we won't get into just yet, but later down the road on....STALKER FILES, the Chad Thompson saga! Her stalking me, not the other way around of course, I'm not hiding in any windows or snatching any peoples up...

I am however dating one of my ex's from a few years ago that I've been friends with for almost 10 years now? So it's all good and it's been a healthy relationship thus far since she doesn't mind me playing games on my down time and all that, hell, she even encourages it sometimes since she knows I haven't really been playing much lately.

Other than the already stated (games, school, work), I don't do much else besides catch up on TV shows, watch movies like everyone does, and spend time with my family every Sunday, oh, I do watch a lot of youtube (Rooster Teeth, video game trolling, Epic Rap Battles, etc...). OK, what games do I enjoy most, my favorite game for the last couple months has been Battlefield 3, I've always been a huge fan of Battlefield so every new title's a day one buy and I always try and get as many of my friends to play it as possible which has been a task lately since they're all asshats or suck at the game so they don't enjoy playing it. I was pretty much playing it a few days a week for the first few months it was out before finally taking about a 2 month break from it? They put out a title update that nerfed tons of shit and really turned me off from the game since it basically noobiefied (new word, trademark that for me) everything that took a while to unlock and required a high level, so out of nowhere all the good perks on the vehicles and such seemed to be worthless so I said yeah, fuck this, break time. I just recently got back into it with the Close Quarters DLC and it seems like they bumped some of the stuff back up to around normal that was horrifically nerfed from the last patch so it made me a happy panda.

Other than Battlefield, I don't know man, nothing has really kept my attention this year, as you know, I'm very ADD with my games so it's like an on and off love affair with most of the games I play, I had a fun time doing coop with Saints Row 3 (which goes back into last year), had a good time making new friends on Resident Evil: ORC (and getting grenade killed in an elevator), everything else that I dumped time into dated back into a last year release like Batman AC or Skyrim. My favorite single player game off the top of my head that actually came out this year would honestly be Kingdoms of Amalur followed by Mass Effect 3 (SHIT ENDINGS!), nothing else really stands out, I dumped tons of hours into KoA, vastly underrated game and very fun IMO.

AJ: Oh God, Mindy... Don't even get me started on her (for everyone else here, it's not our Mindy, it's some psycho that lives near Chad, not in Georgia).

Chad must've been on drugs when he was with that Mindy girl, I imagine this is how he felt most of the time.

I still haven't played Battlefield 3. It's been on my list of games to play for the longest time but I just never picked it up. I'm more of a cod fan but I did enjoy BF2. I'm sure I'll grab BF3 to help me reach 200k.

I know I've asked you this before so I somewhat know the answer, but do you have any set gamerscore goal in mind? I'm struggling to reach 200k, but you've surpassed that.

Also, what's been your least favorite game on the 360? I know my list of ass games is forever expanding with speeds that rival the universe's growth, maybe even faster.

Chad: Well, grab BF3 and I'll meet you on the battlefield soldier! What a gay pun, but in all seriousness I can't stand CoD anymore. I had my friend with tourettes over the other day, aka Twitch, and that was the only real game I had with splitscreen that he wanted to play so I sat there and TRIED playing it for a few hours and it's just such a bad game, the community just completely ruins any fun in that game, every time I died I would either scream at the screen, him, or almost break my controller because it was bullshit 99% of the time and everyone fucking CAMPS.

As of right now I don't really have a gamerscore goal set per say, I had a goal of 250k by August on TA, but I didn't reach that one and I'm kind of in a non gaming mood right now so I'm just like meh, maybe 250k by the first of the year if the world doesn't end by then? I lol'ed at ass games, my LEAST LEAST favorite game that I'd rather have eat my ass would be Vampire Rain, it's very easy for that 600 or so gamerscore from online, but holy shit, WORST SINGLE PLAYER EVER. I remember trying the first level of that game and dying repeatedly at like the first time you actually encounter a vampire besides the one they actually let you kill to progress. Stealth game MY ASS! Those mother fuckers smell you through your TV screen and immediately spot you, doesn't help that your soldier stealths around like Solid Snake took a big old fucking dump in his drawers then ran outside and stuck a flare up his ass!

Inevitably you also knew that I'd bring up the Fable franchise, I can hear the hate brewing now from several members of the site who like Fable, but I just can't have a terrible game discussion without bringing it up. Where to start with the atrocity that is Fable, I'd have to start with the horrendous dialogue and stupid shit that they call humor or maybe that's just British humor, I don't know, regardless, it's atrocious and makes my ears bleed. I laugh at some pretty retarded shit but Fable just makes me want to punch children. Then you have the horrible navigation system, the joke that they call an interactive map or stupid ass hub like in Fable 3, yeah, I want to pause and load for 7 minutes any time I have no idea where I'm going or what I'm supposed to be doing because your game sucks asshole. The combat's at least bearable when the framerate isn't chugging along at 4 frames per second, the graphics suck, the world sucks, the characters look like assholes, the setting sucks, story sucks, everything about it sucks.

/rant.

AJ: I'm pretty sure the BEST game we played was undoubtedly Conflict: Denied Ops. By far the most superb voice acting in a video game. Ever. Nothing even comes close. GREYYYYNAIIIIIDDDDDEEEEEE! As we both murder everyone around, then one downs syndrome asshole sucking his thumb in the corner of some dark room runs out and tickles us both to death causing us to replay 247 hours to get to that exact spot only to have the same thing happen.

Oh, and don't even get me started on Gayble. The hours I could spend brutally murdering anyone on that development team... FUCK YOU, EVOL! AND YOUR FONDNESS OF GAYBLE!

Ok, breathe.... Let's get back on track. If you could transform your girlfriend to exactly resemble anyone on Earth, who would it be and why? Also, I'm totally messaging her your answer on Facebook so make it really terrible. Bette Midler? Glenn Close? Oh I know, Steve Buscemi!

Chad: Conflict Denied Ops, oh shit, how we spent so many hours in frustration on that game, that game had the worst checkpoint system and AI ever seen to date on ANY console, you nailed the description of that game spot on. I also fondly remember helping you do that shit on Portal 2 without dying, that shit was hard to explain exactly what to do and when to do it when you were on a blind run, NO PUT THE PORTAL THERE ASSHAT, NO THE OTHER COLOR ONE! I'M COLOR BLIND AND EVEN I KNOW THAT! Good times.

Well in the sake of her getting a message on Facebook, I'd have to say I wouldn't change a thing, except for her bad morning temper lmfao she does NOT like to be talked to or fucked with when she first wakes up. I don't know man, off the top of my head the first chick that comes to mind, whether it be from tons of exposure (she's in every other movie now) or just the fact that she's young, hot, and not a total slut, I'd go with...Emma Stone, she's just got that look and she seems like she could be pretty crazy in bed too, she's got that bad attitude look to her...Olivia Munn's fucking sexy too.




AJ: Lmao, fucking Portal. I'd forgotten all about that. That was hilarious. Also, I think I'm going to tell your girlfriend you wished she looked more like Nell Carter. Yea, that's the one.

Moving on. I know we haven't talked much lately so here's a question for ya, what games are you looking forward to? Halo 4 perhaps? I know I'll be playing that day one. I recently saw a video for it and damn it looks good. You're usually looking forward to games I've never heard of though, so go!

Chad: Nell Carter?!? I don't even...Right now I'm looking forward to Darksiders 2 which is on it's way to me, Madden 13 after playing the demo and enjoying the new game engine, and then BORDERLANDS 2! I sunk a LOT of time into the first one playing with a lot of different friends each time and all the countless DLCs (Mad Moxxi was one of the worst DLCs EVER though) and I'm sure this new one won't be any different, school starts up in 2 weeks though so I'll also be preoccupied there, sad face. Then I got the new Battlefield 3 DLC, Need for Speed Most Wanted, Halo 4's on radar, and then nothing really until maybe Dead Space 3 in February.

AJ: Oh god, if Dead Space 3 is half as good as 2 I'm going to burn down Meta's place in excitement. Borderlands 2 is very "meh" for me. After all the rancid ass DLC I don't know if I even want to pick up the sequel. It was fun with friends, but so many different aspects of the game just totally turned me off to anything and everything Borderlands. /rant.

Meta: Oh shiite I didn't even know Circus was the CS.

Ask him which Between the Buried and Me album is his favourite, and ask him which album he would recommend to someone who has never heard them, and maybe a couple specific songs.

Ask him who he likes in the fight of Alien versus Predator and why. If he answers Predator, ban him.

Ask him who he'd vote for out of Will Ferrell or Zach Gali...gallif... gallfuckwhatever.




Chad: Well piss, those are some off the wall questions, I guess I expected nothing less. My obvious favorite BTBAM album is...The Silent Circus, it's just such an awesome one from start to finish and definitely set the tone for what was to come from BTBAM after a stellar debut self-titled CD which was a little heavier but didn't sound as well produced (common for a first album). TSC is followed closely by Alaska which is the CD that pretty much solidified them as a top rotation on my iPod and one of my favorite bands in the genre.

Specific songs for people JUST getting into them, shit, I'd have to take like 2 songs from each CD just to show how much they've progressed over the years so I'll do an album by album 'this is what the fuck is up' rundown (skipping 'the anatomy of' since it's a cover album). BTBAM- More of myself to kill, Aspirations. TSC- Ad a Dglgmut (that's how it's spelled), Mordecai. Alaska- All bodies, Selkies: the endless obsession. Colors (which basically started their one long continuous song split into segments agenda that continues until now)- (B) The decade of statues, Sun of nothing. The Great Misdirect- Obfuscation, Fossil Genera...and THAT wraps it up for my BTBAM discussion (sorry to anyone bored :-P actually, no I'm not, deal with it).

Alien vs Predator, if only the movies were as good as I'd hoped they would be at the time (I avoided the game), even though Pred's a complete badass I'd still have to choose the aliens just because of their sheer numbers and their adaptation and ability to survive, plus the queen alien's a pretty big bitch.

Speaking of Ferrell vs Zach, I just got back from seeing the Campaign today with my sister and girlfriend and I didn't think the movie was nearly as funny as I though it would be, the best parts were Ferrell's rage induced outbursts and most of the funny parts they showed in the previews (big surprise), but I still like Ferrell more simply because of Anchorman (one of my favorite comedies ever), and of course, Old School (can't wait for the sequels to both). It seems like whenever Zach has a really funny part he's limited in appearance or because of the writing (my favorite character by him was on the HBO show Bored to Death), and his standup (if you can call it that from what I've seen) is funny but not HILARIOUS.

Closing note to AJ, not ALL the DLC from Borderlands was terrible, I really only disliked the Mad Moxxi one, everything else was bearable and fun in coop for me so I'm more anxiously awaiting the second, plus I love pick up and play coop, oh, and Darksiders 2 is pretty good so far from my 2 hours hands on earlier.

AJ: Fuck your closing note and fuck Borderlands! Your opinions are wrong and after this is over you're banned! I honestly didn't read through any of that band nonsense in your answer mainly because I had no idea what was going on.

Kat: has a question for you. She wants to know how you drive if your eyes are always closed.

Chad: Hahaha what an asshole! I get that a lot though due to my chinky pictures, it's mostly only in pictures that I look Chinese, I swear! Or anytime there's sunlight, or anytime I smile, shit, as far as I'm aware I only have Polish in my blood, or so my mom claims...Anytime we're taking a family picture my mom's always like 'open your eyes more!' and I'm like, 'I'm trying to, they're as open as I can get them!' My girlfriend makes fun of it a lot too, le sigh, assholes.

AJ: I honestly don't even know how you do anything with your eyes closed all the time. Did you lie when you said you worked at a Holiday Inn? Are you sure you don't work at Panda Express?

Since the people of XBA nominated you, is there anyone you'd like to thank or give a shout out to? Besides the obvious me, of course.

Chad: Hahahaha I WISH I worked at Panda Express just because that's like one of my favorite places to eat and we don't have any nearby here I'd probably get sick of it quick if I worked there though and fast food places SUCK to work at (worked at McD's in high school). When I came to visit you on my trip last year or the year before (I don't keep track of time very good), we ate at that Panda Express twice hahaha.

I'll give a shout out to you (even though we haven't had the time to game or talk much/make fun of people lately), Junior for all the coop'ing and help/friendly shit talking and convos over the past few years, my cousin Adrian just because, Rich for all the entertainment and sighing in Battlefield 3 and boost sessions, Beaver because fuck you that's why, and anyone else that I've bullshitted with or had some laughs or any help from over the last few years!

AJ: Well unless you can think of other shit to talk about, I'm fresh out of questions. This was fun, though. I learned some shit I didn't already know, didn't read some stupid music shit and got to make fun of worthless ass Adrian (right there, just did it).

All in all, thanks for taking the time out of your oh so busy nights at work the last couple weeks and I hope you enjoyed the interview.

Chad: Hahaha damn it, Adrian, the one person who never wants to hang out whenever you try and hit him up when you're in the area (the gym is more important since it's gonna get up and disappear the next day if he decides to chill with you). I don't have anything else, just hope it's long enough, I told you going into this that I had no idea what I was doing and hopefully I didn't suck at doing it since I never read them myself, but I think I answered the questions in a thoughtful and insightful manner.

You're supposed to be Mr. Barbara Walters over there at the helm with your question machine and you're special futuristic computer thingy ma bob! Thanks for taking the time out of your equally as busy night shifts and thanks to all the people that elected me for this monthly awesome CS interview, even if they're make believe, oh, and fuck the Dallas Cowboys and fuck salt!

AJ: As always, I have to have the last word, so I'll thank you again for your time and send you on your merry way with a new set of shades! Enjoy them! And for everyone still reading at home, if you feel there's something you'd like to ask Chad, feel free to do so below!

As always, feel free to use this fancy calendar as your desktop!

Keywords: A Silent Circus, Circus, Douche-nozzle, Turd Nergler, Asshat