If you haven’t read one of these before, then let me explain myself and the concept for the post. Hey and welcome to another installment of Dave’s X Life.
The man behind many CX initiatives writes a blog called Dave’s X Life every two weeks, and if I’m not there, you can bet your bottom dollar. I’m working in the background, developing the team, and unquestionably leading Completexbox’s community initiatives.
My blog’s goal is to give you, the readers, a more in-depth insight into my activities in the CX and Xbox worlds, as well as what I’ve been playing and what’s coming up. The writings are based on my early encounters with the Xbox brand and eco systems, reading Gamer and OXM (The Official Xbox Magazine), among other prominent magazines.
While I enjoy reading game reviews and trailers to find out what’s new and what developers are working on, the personal tales of Xbox players’ experiences were what I truly enjoyed reading. My X-Life by Kirsten Kearny was one of these accounts.
Some of you may be more familiar with Kirsten by her gaming identity Kitt-Alpha, who has always been a vibrant and fascinating personality in the gaming community. Her blog style articles, based around on her life in the gaming industry served as the sole inspiration for my very own blog.
Kirsten engaged in a lot of activities, some of which included Call of Duty and Battlefield editorials in which she was practising to be a soldier and driving tanks and firing real weapons. This was in addition to the usual banter about the games she had been playing, the events she had attended, etc.
Now my X-Life might not be as entertaining, but it will hopefully help you to get to know me personally, and provide some reading material that holds some worth. As a person 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.
Sadly I won’t be driving any Tanks, but if anyone from Official Xbox reads this, I’m game if you want to get in touch.
What I’ve been up to!
So, what have I been up to in the world of gaming on Xbox?
As always I love nothing better than to game, to sit back and unwind, forget the daily challenges of life and get lost in the magic that only gaming can provide, be that via a single player title, or a multiplayer classic.
Gaming is good for the soul, but I’ve found something that’s even better, a community, a family of gamers, I found the CX family to share it with.
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 just shy of 100 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
At Completexbox we are always on the look-out for new contributor’s to the website and the CX Community itself, are vision and future is bright, so in order to provide you with the content you deserve we have added some fantastic new writers to the team, please welcome Lee Reid, Chris Wallace, Duncan Baxter.
We are always open to guest reviews at CX too, so if you want to get involved, then please contact me via our twitter account, and we can have a chat –
Oh and one last thing, i may have something else up my sleeve in terms of adding to The Complete Xbox Community… Watch this space!
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 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 links to the first two podcast episodes inside.
The World Famous Complete Xbox Podcast – All the details and the first three episode links
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!
Racer Monday – Complete Xbox Community Play – Wreckfest 20th March
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 a few gaming videos mainly on Hogwarts Legacy, but a few other’s also. Catch a couple of them below-
@mrc_copperpot Hogwarts Legacy, big Spiders!!! #hogwartslegacy #xbox #spiders #gaming #gamersoftiktok #playstation #nintendo #completexbox #completexboxcommunity
@mrc_copperpot Fernbus – Coach Simulator on Xbox Series X/S #Talkingheads #roadtoknowwhere #completexbox #xbox #gaming #fernbussimulator
https://www.tiktok.com/@knackeredback
Gaming
Since my last X-Life blog post I’ve been thoroughly hooked by Hogwarts Legacy. It’s such a fabulous game, full of charm, wit, story and loads to conquer. I find myself picking it up to do a few merlin trials when I have 20 minutes spare, and then getting completely sucked into the whole environment.
It’s a game where you can do as much as you want, and at your own pace, and there’s something for everyone, and with no real grind to it too!
Hogwarts Legacy is an immersive, open-world action role-playing game called Hogwarts Legacy is set in the Harry Potter books’ original setting, and you get to experience Hogwarts in the 1800s for the first time. It’s a real treat to roam the land freely, with Hogwarts, Hogsmeade and the forbidden forest wonderfully created, I swear that just flying around on your broom, is just as fun as the missions, and story focus itself, exploration is certainly where this game excels.
Another game I’ve really enjoyed playing recently is Fernbus Simulator, yes some of you will say a Coach Simulator sounds boring, and I’ll be the first to admit on paper, I’d agree with you, but having played Bus Simulator and other games in this genre, there’s something about them, that just works. Personally, I think it’s the pure chill factor, take your passengers from A to B, enjoy the beautiful scenery, whack on a podcast (may I suggest ours) and enjoy a nice relaxing experience, that will provide plenty of daft little giggle moments too. You can read CX’s Jordan Campbell’s review below –
Moving on to Cities: Skylines Remastered, what can I say, except the addiction is real. I am absolutely one of the games biggest fans, and I will not hide that. The game maybe a little daunting to some, but once you get the hang of the game, the sky’s the limit with City building gameplay that is second to none. I adore the game; it is, in my opinion, one of the most relaxing games on the market. It is the kind of game where you anticipate playing for only 20 minutes but end up playing for several hours. 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?
If I’m honest, not very much else, other then the usual quick round of golf on PGA 2k23 for the Completexbox Golf society, 18holes every week, except this past week where I have made a complete boo-boo, and set a 9 hole round, Oops!
Oh, and I’ve been playing the games related to our community nights too.
I perhaps might have played more Xbox the last couple of weeks if it hadn’t been for what is being nicked named Dial Up Xbox in our house. We have a few extra Xbox gamers in our household, and as you know the limits with gamesharing this only works with two consoles, and not a third (my kids are spoilt, they know it). So, we refer to this as todays Dial up.
So basically if I want to go on the Xbox I have to arrange with my oldest son, and push him to a Gamepass game, as he’s often signed into my account in the background, so that he can access the full list of games I own, leaving me with a useless Xbox downstairs.
Kids!!!
What’s Coming Up
A few things are on the horizon-
First 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 below –
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 March)
Next up – Sunday Coffee Game and Chat (game yet to be decided)
If you’re up early on a Sunday, then why not join Complete Xbox for our weekly early Sunday morning stream via our Twitch channel
Every Sunday join me (Gamertag iisdalaw) and for a chill-out gaming session in a rather different unwind with a cup of coffee kind of approach. If you’re like me, lay ins just don’t happen on a Sunday, whether that be because you’re an early riser and always will be, suffer from insomnia, or have work shift patterns that mess with sleep. Sometimes we need a little something game-wise but aren’t quite in the mood for an all guns blazing play through.
I prefer an easy chill out game from time to time and it certainly fits my way of life on a Sunday. Sometimes there’s nothing better than sitting there when things are all quiet with a nice cup of coffee and a game that doesn’t involve too much effort.
So, with that all that said, every Sunday from 6:30 am GMT, I invite you to join me in a chosen game from Game Pass, a game that has featured on Games with Gold, EA Play, a Free to Play title, or even a newly released Indie title.
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 Wreckfest.
Racer Monday – Complete Xbox Community Play – Wreckfest 20th March
Because I’m organised – Thursday 23rd KartRider Drift
CompleteXbox invites you to join us for some Thursday night madness. Every Thursday we invite you, the players to join us – as we play a selected online title from Xbox Game Pass.
The action kicks off at 9pm UK, and Xbox live parties will be open from just after 8:30pm UK, for more information or just a friendly chat then why not add my Gamertag iisdalaw. I’m open to messages anytime during the days to come and onwards of course! Just remember to follow my Gamertag before 8:30pm UK on the night if you want to join in the fun!
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