Dave’s X Life

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, I continue to be hard at work with the Completexbox team, not just on the website – posting the latest gaming news and editing reviews written by this talented team, but by writing my own reviews this past week, finalising the community gamer score challenge, adding another community night to the mix, streaming more often on the completexbox twitch account, taking over the CX twitter account, welcoming a new writer to the team, and last but not least – working on a secret project that will add something amazing to this great publication I enjoy writing for and really pull in the family feel, community wise.

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, without giving anything away watch this space!

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!

Surely, we can’t get this lucky again?

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 some time on recently is Grounded. Once again, my middle son is the influence here. After playing it with a group of friends (him), I was asked if we could play it together, and after playing it at launch and seeing what it had to offer, I was a little underwhelmed at the time. There just simply wasn’t enough to do, whilst it was fun, it didn’t capture me, and to be honest last week was the first time I had booted it up since the early days and boy has it changed.

The game is absolutely packed with things to do and is so much fun. We had loads of fun base building, and completing tasks as we went along the way, with even penciled in another adventure.

So what else have I been playing, well quite a few games actually. I revisited Insurgency Sandstorm, as part of one of our community nights on a Thursday, and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it, even if someone did skip the tutorial again (which would have made a lot of sense if I had bothered to do it). I think I enjoyed it because I was picking up kills and showing some worth to my team, but also down to the knowledge and teachings of a couple of our community members who absolutely adore the game. Once I was brought up to speed, the game felt fresh and energised, a wonderful multiplayer shooter that everyone should give some time to experience.

Then there’s Dead Space, a stunning atmospheric sci-fi experience that once you start, you won’t want to put down. An absolute masterpiece, and pure example of how to produce a remake, whilst staying true to the original.

Dead Space Remake Review

Other games of note that I have played recently are – Saints Row (so much fun), PGA 2K23 & PGA 2K21 (community society events, held every week), NFS: Unbound (fantastic arcade racer), and The Witcher 3 – Wild Hunt Xbox Series X|S Update (boy does that game feel fresh and look stunning).

What’s Coming Up

A few things are on the horizon – First up is Our Thursday Community game night. This week we are playing Skate 3, which will provide plenty of skating action, tricks, and races apparently. I’ve played the tutorial, and absolutely loved what I’ve learnt so far, and I can’t wait to chat with friends. Hopefully we welcome a few more newcomers into the Completexbox family too.

Complete Xbox Community Play – Skate 3 (2nd February)

Next up – This Saturday I jump back into a sloop with Colm from Last Save Loaded, for our Two Friends in a sloop, what could possibly go wrong stream via our twitch channel.

The details about this stream can be found here

This is one that’s not to be missed if you are up early on a Saturday morning, why not join us and interact with us!

Two Friends in a Sloop, What Could Possibly Go Wrong? – Saturday Morning Stream (4th Feb)

Then – Introducing Racer Monday’s, Just like our Thursday night madness game pass session, I have decided to host another community night, but this time on a Monday and dedicated to Racers from Game Pass. Every Monday Complete Xbox invites you to join us for some Racing fun, with a little bit of competitive action and plenty of chat, all streamed live via our Twitch account. And just like our other community night, we believe in everyone getting involved, that’s why our chosen game will always come from Game Pass.

And Last but not least…..

As I mentioned right at the start of the blog post, we are hard at work on something really big at Completexbox, which will add something amazing to our website, offer something that is missing, that a few have been crying out for, and help grow that family like feel community I always bang on about.

Just maybe, we will have some more news on this before I write my next X-Life post.

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

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