42. Ottawa Export

So, now that you’ve all been using the NXE for a few days what do you think?  Is it the massive change that you’d thought it would be? Anything else you wish would have been done?  I can tell you that there are still a few things I’d change, but they’re all relatively minor.

On the gaming front, I’ve recently finished the campaigns of both Gears of War 2 and Tom Clancy’s EndWar.  The former I probably don’t need to talk about since you’ve all already played it, but the second game is a little more rare.  In fact, aside from Maranda, I’m the only one on my friends list who’s been playing it.  I find this troubling not because I think it’s an amazing game that you’re all missing out on, but because I really want them to make a sequel and iron out all the issues I have with the game.

Yes, EndWar is one of those games where the first in the series feels more like a proof of concept then a full game.  It has some solid mechanics with some decent gameplay but it feels like too little content spread out over too much time.  Every mission plays out almost exactly the same: Capture the points, defend them until you win.  In order to mix things up a little, Ubisoft implemented ‘DEFCON’.  Essentially, when you’ve captured enough points to start the victory countdown-timer, the other side gets immediate access to their faction’s WMD.  This is a game-changer as your entire force can be wiped out if you’re not careful and have spread them out all over the map.  The trick is, however, to NOT trigger DEFCON and wipe out all your opponent’s units instead (each side has a finite amount of reinforcements that  can be called in).  This way WMDs can never be triggered and all you have to do is stop the enemy from capturing the majority of points.  Trust me, it’s a lot easier.

Of all the RTS games I’ve played on console (and I’ve played quite a few) I certainly enjoyed this one the most.  The addition of the voice controls make this the first really playable RTS on the console and it will make you wish that more games had competent voice commands.  But, like I said, the sequel is the game that we should be looking forward to.  Seems like there are a lot of those out this year…

Cliff Bleszinski from Epic Games

X08 is pretty different for me than it is for most.  Typically, attendees fall into two different groups; people who are showing off their games and the people who are there to play them.  Myself? I’m there pretty much to meet people and network.  Yes it’s true, for me the games are secondary.

In fact, X08 marks the first X0 event where I’ve even picked up a controller.  I made it a point to get there early enough that I’d have time to play games in between conversations and I’m very glad I did because X08 was, by far, the best in the entire series.  No contest.  I guess the high-lights would be:

• Meeting everyone that I met! Fans, friends, gamers… they were all awesome.
• Meeting Cliff from Epic Games
  
• Meeting Donna from Electric Playground
  (I still feel bad because our camera was a little screwy and we had to take three pictures before it worked right!)
• Getting interviewed by Jake for I.X.
• Going to dinner afterward with the community

Of course, an X0 wouldn’t be complete without a few games. Read on, my friends.  Read on.

I just received word that Microsoft is going to be holding a contest to celebrate the upcoming release of GTA4.  Grand prize is a trip to New York to attend an Xbox Live Gold party.  There are literally thousands of other prizes too: elite consoles, Microsoft points, Gold subscriptions, etc.  If you’re interested is winning free stuff, be sure to click this link sometime before April 14th.  (Open to US and Canada residents, age 18+)