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 purpose of my blog is to provide you, the readers, with a more in-depth look into what I’ve been up to in the world of CX, Xbox, what I’ve been playing, and what’s next. The articles are based on my early experiences with the Xbox brand and eco systems, reading Gamer and OXM (The Official Xbox Magazine), among other prestigious magazines.
While I like reading game reviews and previews to learn more about what’s new and what developers are working on, what I really enjoyed reading were the personal accounts of Xbox users’ experiences. One such account was Kirsten Kearny’s My X-Life.
Kirsten has always been a colourful and exciting figure in the gaming scene, and some of you may know her better by her gamer alias Kitt-Alpha. The sole motivation for this blog came from one of her articles that portrayed her life in the gaming industry.
In addition to the normal chitchat about games she had been playing, events she had attended, etc., Kirsten got up to a lot of stuff, some of it including Call of Duty and Battlefield editorials in which she was training to be a soldier and driving tanks and firing actual weapons.
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 people’s faces.
What I’ve been up to!
So, what have I been up to in the world of gaming on Xbox?
Well for me I’ve been extremely busy withing the last fortnight or so, even doing things a little bit outside my comfort zone, but as always, I enjoy what I do and I try to have a lot of fun with it along the way.
Completexbox
As usual, you may find me deep within the CX website, writing, posting, and editing. I enjoy coming up with innovative ways to deliver you the greatest material and participating in brainstorming sessions to come up with these ideas.
For weeks, months even I’ve been holding something back from you guys, but now I don’t have too! The cat is out of the bag, not only did we surprise you with The World Famous Complete Xbox Podcast, but also The Complete Xbox Community announcement, where yes, I made a video which involved a rotating hat.
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
A New 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 there 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 listen to the first two podcast episodes below –
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
Gaming
Since my last X-Life blog post, I’ve been playing quite a bit of Atomic Heart, a game that has divided the gaming community as a whole. A very Marmite game, you either love it or hate it, well maybe not quite that strong, because overall I’m in the middle of how I feel about the game.
The thing is Atomic Heart is not a bad game, it’s just not as engaging, immersive as I had hoped. I feel there is far to much dodgy stuff within the game for today’s world and the gaming industry as a whole. The best way I can think of describing this, is by the references, racist, sexed up kitchen appliances, and male arsehole of a character, and what the whole game betrays, a very sad world which I feel that we’d all hoped we’d left behind.
The game has very strong influences from the likes of Bioshock, but I just feel there’s a lot of Duke Nukem in there, in the sense of its style and teachings, which I feel is perhaps not what the gaming world needs right now, as we try to move passed the Sexist tones that it promotes.
Now as I said above, the game is not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, and yes you can look passed all that I mention above, and find some scenes funny, with a little whit, providing laugh out loud moments, it’s also visually stunning, and I quite like the whole robot’s and AI rising up, after all I’m a very big terminator fan. I just feel the game is let down by some of the narrative, the combat seems a little all over the place, and it’s not immersive enough to really capture you, if anything the more you play, the more you want to pull away.
I liked my saying I posted in the previous blog, about how some games are enjoyed like a glass of fine wine, or that special whiskey bottle, savour and take your time, don’t rush it. Well Atomic Heart is the complete opposite, don’t waste your fine stuff, use a cheap bottle for this one!
Another game I’ve been enjoying recently is Cities: Skylines Remastered. If you know me personally then this would have come as no surprise, I absolutely love the game, for me its pure chill, the type of game where you think you’ll just spend 20 mins tinkering, and before you know it hours have passed.
I grew up with the likes of sim city, and I know a lot of people from my age bracket did the same, and absolutely loved crafting their cities. Now you can relive it all over again, but with a lot more sophistication, amazing detail and space, with added management opportunities. Oh and it’s on Game Pass too, and if you own the original, you get the upgraded version for free.
What else have I been playing?
PGA 2K23 tour golf is never far away from my playlist, and once again I’ve hitting the golf course. Golf games have always stayed with me through out my gaming life, and this one is by far the best golf game ive ever played. I love the detail and the new rpg style elements, yes rpg elements I said it, and of course the career play, top golf and the communities with inside the game.
We also have our own golf society inside the game that I’m looking to hold weekly 18 hole rounds if people are willing.
Scars Above is another game that I’ve been lucky to play. An amazing game filled with action in a third person style. There’s loads to discover, and shoot in this immersive sci-fi action adventure.
And my play list would not be complete without a sail across the sea of thieves, a game that has grown and grown, and for me is simply one of the finest games there is out there. Best enjoyed with at least another, but that’s not to say you can’t sail alone and get the job done.
What’s Coming Up
A few things are on the horizon-
First up – is Our Thursday Community game night. This week we are playing Gears 5, 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.
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 March)
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
Racer Monday – Complete Xbox Community Play – Grid Legends (Game Pass via EA Play) 6th March
And Last but not least…..
We have our amazing discord, and it’s exactly that! The people within our discord community are so welcoming, and really demonstrate that family vibe that I am always banging on about.
There’s something for everyone with inside our discord, and it really is the best place to chat about gaming, multiplatform, real life, tv, film, sports, organise game nights, and of course find out the latest details about community nights and gamerscore challenges etc.
You can join the discord Here
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