Hello and welcome to another addition of Dave’s X Life, if you’ve not read one of these before, then let me introduce myself and the idea behind the post.
Dave’s X Life is a fortnightly blog by the man behind a lot of things CX, and if I’m not on the front line, you can better your bottom dollar I’m in the background, shaping the team, and most definitely fronting the community efforts within Completexbox.
The whole idea of this blog is to give you readers a more personal insight into what I’ve been getting up to in the world of CX, Xbox, what I’ve been playing, and what’s coming next. The posts are based on my early years within the Xbox brand and eco systems, reading OXM (The Official Xbox Magazine) and other top publications such as Gamer.
Whilst I loved reading reviews and previews of the latest games, finding out what’s coming next and what developers have been working on, what I really loved reading was personal stories and adventures within the Xbox brand, and one of those was Kirsten Kearny’s My X-Life.
Some of you may know Kirsten better by her gamer tag, Kitt-Alpha, and she has always represented fun and excitement within the gaming community. It’s her article’s depicting her life within in the gaming world that is the pure inspiration behind this blog.
Now, Kirsten got up to a lot of stuff, some of it involved call of duty and battlefield editorials, that had her training to be a solider, driving tanks and firing real life weapons, amongst the usual chit chat of what she had been playing, and events that she had been to etc. My X-life is definitely not so entertaining, not even in the slightest. But one thing I can tell you, is that I like to put myself out there within the realms of the Xbox scene, be that community-based game nights, streaming via twitch, talking bollox on twitter, writing for this great publication, sharing screenshots or just gaming in general. And rest assured I have a lot of fun along the way, hopefully bringing smiles to peoples faces.
What I’ve been up to
So, what have I been up to in the world of gaming on Xbox?
Completexbox
As always, I’m usually tinkering around with the website, writing, posting and editing. One thing I love is brainstorming ideas in how we can bring you the very best content, and offering new ways to do this. I’ve alluded to something special is in the works for the past month or so, and we are almost ready to reveal just want that is. Put it this way, you are going to love it and it’s going to give the Completexbox community that something that has been missing. So, bear with us, as we put the finishing touches to something I’m extremely excited about, not long to go now, I promise!
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 in to the mix, and my spare time goes out the window, and that’s not including the usual daily routines, schools, clubs etc. Life get’s 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!
Gaming
Since my last X-Life blog post, I’ve been playing quite a bit of Monster Hunter Rise, a game that I had to check out, but had preconceptions that it wasn’t going to be my thing, and I’ll be honest at first I absolutely hated the game, I just couldn’t get on with it. I found the controls not responsive enough, attacks to slow, text overload and tutorials that I just wanted to skip through and ignore, because ultimately they were presented in such a boring way.
I was also getting pissed off with the layout of the buttons, I couldn’t get off that dam dog thing, and then I couldn’t put my weapon away, then the game said press this button for the map, and opens a completely different thing to what it said it would open. Usually, I would put the game down at this point, especially as it’s a game that’s on Game Pass. One of the services fantastic selling points for me, is that it allows me to experience games that I just wouldn’t normally.
However from a reviewers point, I could see through my own frustrations, to know that Monster Hunter Rise is pretty special, and I decided I’d get stuck in with the game, after all I had a few issues with Skyrim in the past, and put that down several times, only to come back with the attitude of giving it some time and ended up singing it’s praises and absolutely adoring it.
Did I end up loving Monster Hunter Rise – Yes I bloody well did. I changed my weapon, ignored my annoyance with the button layout, completed all the tutorials, got through a few missions, and then bang, I was hooked. So the moral of the story, dedicate sometime to a game. I’m often guilty of not putting the time into games, and then moaning why I can’t get in to them.
Some games are enjoyed like a glass of fine wine, or that special whiskey bottle, savour and take your time, don’t rush it.
Another game I’ve been enjoying this week is Forza Horizon 5, yes that old chestnut. Fancy that, a gamer like myself, whose favourite genre is racers, is enjoying the likes of Forza Horizon 5, since the day it launched. I know, crazy right!
For me once again it’s timing, if I’m truly being honest, I’d have seen every little bit of road that game has to offer within the first month of launch, but some games are just best enjoyed, by taking your time, sitting back, listening to some tunes and completing events. I never use to experience games like this, I was always moving on to the next flavour of the month quickly and had to complete things asap. However, as I got older I always thought I’d have more time for gaming, the kids were getting older, they were into there own thing etc, you’d think I’d have more time to game, but no, that’s not the case. The likes of the first three Horizons were pretty much completed withing a few weeks of launch, but as with life changes we adapt and we find new ways to enjoy our games, be that via new game modes, catching our eye, screenshot taking or people hosting community nights when they could be getting stuck into the latest games.
Do you know what? I wouldn’t change a thing, I love the way I approach games these days, and whilst I still get excited for the next new thing, I now take a look at my back log, and think am I really going to play that, maybe it’s the dad in me!
What else have I been playing?
Well of course Sea of Thieves always features on my playlist, a game that keeps on giving. To be honest other then our latest episode of Two Friends in a sloop, what could go wrong? I haven’t played it. That’s not to say that I’ve fallen out with the game or anything, it’s just you know….busy haha.
Speaking of Two Friends in a sloop, our latest adventure went really well, so well that I personally think Colm has been putting in some training time, because his sailing skills have improved tenfold, and once again, our haul was a thing of beauty. Can it continue?
Other games of note this past fortnight, have been PGA 2k23, Hotwheels Unleashed, Skate 3, and Madden 23 amongst others.
What’s Coming Up
A few things are on the horizon-
First up – is Our Thursday Community game night. This week we are playing Insurgency: Sandstorm, which will provide plenty of action, and hopefully a shooter where I hold my own. As always, I can’t wait to chat with friends and the completexbox community, hopefully we can welcome one or two of you in to the CX Family.
Complete Xbox Community Play – Insurgency: Sandstorm (16th 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 (18th Feb)
Then – It’s 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 – this coming Monday’s game is Grid: Legends
Because I’m organised –
This doesn’t happen normally, but I also know the game for Thursday 23rd February community night, and that is Gears 5, as requested by the Completexbox community within our discord.
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.
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