Hello and welcome to Dave’s X Life, a blog entry describing my recent activities related to everything Xbox. This idea was motivated by the early Xbox years I spent reading OXM (The Official Xbox Magazine) and other top publications like Gamer.
Reading the morning newspaper while drinking coffee is one of my small pleasures in life, but I believe it all began with reading gaming magazines. I used to occasionally pick one up on the way home from work, grab a cup of coffee, and then just relax on the couch while reading page after page, soaking up the most recent information on anything Xbox related. Nowadays, everything is available at your fingertips thanks to social media and mobile news.
It’s a shame that one of my go-to sources of comfort is no longer available to me, but I still enjoy reading. To be quite honest, if there was a gaming publication that covered everything Xbox, I would read and purchase it. Although newspapers aren’t as popular as they once were, and I do occasionally miss physical news and reviews in a world of digital content, let’s face it: in a connected world, you have access to everything you want, whenever you want it. If you miss something, you can bet your bottom dollar that you will hear about it via social media.
As I indicated above, my blog post was inspired by gaming publications; nevertheless, Kirsten Kearny, often known as Kitt Alpha, is one of my all-time favourite gaming journalists. In a monthly essay, Kirsten wrote about everything that happened in her gaming environment, and it was really fascinating to read. Kirsten talked about all the press conferences, getting to drive a tank and even getting some army training in the process. Of course, there was a lot of discussion about gaming as everything, including the tank driving, was about gaming.
Now, my X-Life may not be as interesting, but it will hopefully let you get to know me personally, as well as provide some reading material that is worthwhile. One of the best things about writing for and editing this great website, is that I get to produce content in a new form, for a new generation of gamers, and fellow gamers from my era.
I am truly proud of everything we do at Completexbox, and am thoroughly enjoying the growth and journey that we are currently on, and I welcome you to enjoy the ride with us, as we are constantly evolving to provide you with the latest content.
What I’ve been up to
So, what have I been up to in the world of gaming on Xbox?
Well first things first, sorry about the delay in writing this next blog entry. School Easter Holidays kind of got in the way, and those that know me best, know I’m a family guy first. But that’s not to say, I didn’t tinker with things behind the scenes, posting the fabulous completexbox team’s content, and working with the complete xbox community to bring you that personal touch that really stands out within our content. I’m super proud of the team, we are like a family, always constantly talking and pulling together to provide you with the very best content possible.
As always, I’m never too far from the action, hosting our community nights on a Monday and Thursday. Always great fun, with plenty of chat, and a chosen game from Game Pass.
Recently i’ve tried to increase my twitch activities, and provide more streams, always difficult when the kids are off school. I’ve also been playing around with TikTok, and Youtube shorts too, and generally having a lot of fun.
Another great thing I’ve been working on behind the scenes, is additions. Additions to the team and supporting another podcast or two. We’ve also had a number of guest reviews too, which is always a pleasure to work with people from the gaming community.
I love the community, talking to people, campaigning, and hearing the voices of many gamers in my ears whilst having fun. This year, I really want to build on that. Anyone who knows me personally, or through Xbox and gaming channels will know my passion, so if you have an idea, get in touch, maybe we can work together and create something special!
Gaming
Since my last X-Life blog post, I’ve been sailing the Sea of Thieves with my middle lad who absolutely adores the game, my only problem, he loves to attack other ships. Whilst Sea of Thieves is a pirate game and its part of the game to do the dirty to other ships, I prefer to do tasks, earn the booty, take out the skeleton ships, and then only then, if we have to, defend our ships loot from other players. So, when we play together there’s normally a conflict of interests, and one of us is made to concede or walk the plank!
Now, it’s totally different when I jump into a sloop with Last Save Loaded’s Colm. We are usually on the same page, and whilst we go looking for adventure, we do try to keep out of trouble. We like our loot, the working together to achieve a reasonable haul, and taking out skeleton and pirate captains.
Our latest Two Friends in a sloop, what could go wrong? Went, how shall we say it, a little too well. We managed to defeat plenty of skeletons, tussled with strange enemies, swiped away pirate legend ghosts, and had a ball brining home plenty of skulls for some order of souls levelling up, all without damaging the ship. Although we did get the ship stuck for twenty minutes and talked about a local coffee pusher at a hospital, and surprisingly this was hugely entertaining on stream.
Surely, we can’t get this lucky next time.
Sea of Thieves is a game that will truly live on in my mind, it’s game where friendships are forged, and memories are made. Massive thank you to Rare and Xbox for creating such a wonderful experience.
Another game I have spent a fair bit of time on recently is EA Sports latest golf game, EA Sports PGA Tour Golf, I was lucky enough to receive a review code for the game, and really put the game through it’s paces, streaming my thoughts live via twitch, and then penning a review.
I’ll post the link for the review below, but what I will say it’s the best golf game I’ve ever played, and I’ve played a lot of them. This game is Golf’s approach to GET GOOD!
There’s a 10hr trail provided by EA Play and Game Pass Ultimate, however I feel you need all 10hr’s of the trial to really full in love, as it takes some getting use to, and the whole RPG Golf mechanics used in the game, really come into their own later in the game.
I’ve also been lucky enough to play the latest Sherlock Holmes game, a remake The Awakened. Built from the ground up, the two games are totally different, and this latest version is a game that will live long in the memory. Whilst being a game that doesn’t hold your hand, it’s packed with real detective qualities, cinematic value, and action. A true masterpiece in this genre.
Other games of note that I have played recently are – PGA 2K23, where I achieved my first hole in one on the game, whilst participating in our weekly golf society event.
The chant is another game I’ve been enjoying recently, I’m loving the graphical visual side of the game, and the story is very intriguing, can’t wait to finish the story off.
Completexbox
After the initial announcements of The Complete Xbox Community, and The World Famous Complete Xbox Podcasts, you may have thought I might go a little quiet, whilst I establish the new segments to our content, and put the pieces together via the completexbox website, but if you thought so, then that’s not my style!
It’s time to get to work, and get to work we have at Completexbox, providing you with extensive coverage in the gaming industry, across all forms of media. It’s been another great few weeks at Completexbox, and we are now over 130 full game reviews since the turn of the year, add to that all the community-based content, the new podcast, and two community nights, we are on an exciting journey at Complete Xbox, and we want you to come on the path with us.
What else CX-wise…… hmmm
So, what’s The Complete Xbox Community all about I heard someone ask?
The community is a partnership with other like-minded creators to bring you diverse and new content through-out the week, every week.
Completexbox has always been about family within our discord community, and we thought we’d extend that family a little bit more, whilst giving you the gaming related content you love, all filtered through the completexbox website, showcasing the amazing content that our partners produce on a regular basis. A family of friends working hard to give you there very best.
For more details about the Complete Xbox Community, take a look at the full post below
The World Famous Complete Xbox Podcast
Yes, a new podcast is here, and I promise you it’s not your usual news orientated, blah, blah, blah.
As with everything we do at completexbox, you lovely people are always in our minds, and we want you to come on this podcast journey with us.
Hosted by the amazing duo of Duncan Voice (Indie Choices) & Odhran Johnson (Gaming Sandbox), who are the real brains behind the project, and are so naturally talented. I for one am absolutely amazed by their quick wit, of the cuff style conversation.
Having been invited on for the opening couple of recordings, I can assure you that they are so welcoming, bringing loads of passion and personality, as we discuss what we have been playing, all things CX, our Game Club Segment (which we invite you to get involved with), and a very dodgy AI generated riddle of sorts for us to solve, don’t ask about that one, that was producer Paul’s idea!
You can find out more about The World Famous Complete Xbox Podcast, with the link to our latest podcast episode.
What’s all this about another community night?
Everyone that knows me, knows I’m a bit of a chatter box. I love nothing better than gaming with people, but as a parent, a husband, I often find it hard balancing life, and where to spend my time. Throw completexbox into the mix, and my spare time goes out the window, and that’s not including the usual daily routines, schools, clubs etc. Life gets busy really quickly, and I know a lot of you lovely people are in the same boat when it comes to finding time to game.
Most of you will know that I host a regular community night on a Thursday, well now I’ve added a second…. yes, I’ve squeezed it in to the weekly routine, and wife approved too haha!
So, on a Monday we have Racer Monday’s, following the same format to the Thursday sessions, but with one change….
Always a Racer from game pass, chosen in advanced, whacked up on the discord and completexbox website, providing you with plenty of time to get the game downloaded in order so you can join us!
Streaming
I’ve been on the stream journey again, whilst I really do not take myself seriously at all, I have added a second camara to the channel, so that when I stream you can see a side profile view in addition to the standard front profile, in order to capture my full reactions to certain things in game, revealing a little more about my personality.
The overlay’s have had a little clean up, and all I need to do now is find some consistent times to stream. At the moment we have, Monday’s & Thursday’s covering the CX community nights from 8:30pm UK time, I also stream first thing on a Saturday & Sunday morning, usually from 7am UK time.
Please help support the channel, all I ask is a follow on Twitch – https://www.twitch.tv/completexboxteam
Getting to Know Me Q&A –
I also took part in a new feature for Complete Xbox, providing the answers to the questions by CX Staff member Guggs!
“2023 has seen Complete Xbox welcome Thistle’Do Gaming, Duncan Voices Indie Choices, Gaming Sandbox & Xbox Nation to the CX community. With an array of new names and faces, we thought you might enjoy learning more about the people bringing you content and collaborations.
Today we bring you a sit-down piece with CX’s team leader, Dave Law”
TikTok
Yes, I’ve been playing around with TikTok, creating short gaming videos, link below-
https://www.tiktok.com/@knackeredback
Youtube
Another thing I’ve been playing around with, is Youtube shorts, check out the channel below –
https://www.youtube.com/@CompleteXbox/shorts
Well, there you have it, another X Life blog post. Let me know in the comments what you have been getting up to in the gaming world of late, and if there’s any ideas you have that can make completexbox even better.
All the best
Dave
Still with us, if so then hit us up via our Twitter account and join our Discord channel for more gaming chat!