At the end of our X Team dinner last week, we gave the guys (and girl) a little assignment. Ian had briefed them on the Xbox Team’s direction and practices and they were to go home and think about how they could fit into and contribute to the team.

We’ve now received all the submissions and will review them and make a decision as soon as we can. Unfortunately, Ian has gone off on a business trip so, obviously, I can’t sit him down for a discussion.

Ian is always flying off on business trips and I’m a little jealous but the grass is always greener on the other side. I’m quite sure he would give away his trips if he could. Haha.

I can’t wait to welcome our new member to the team! Someone new to bully! JUST KIDDING.

Tons of games to review! Okay, I’m going to go give some love to my Xbox 360 now. Chat again!

I hope you guys all had the chance to check out XGS (Xbox 360 Gaming Showdown 2009) over the weekend! It was a great event, wasn’t it?

I was going to blog about it but I lost all my XGS photos!

Last weekend, I bought some new PC parts in honour of the launch of Windows 7.

After I got my new PC up and running on Sunday, I downloaded the XGS photos.

Two days later, one of my new hard disks failed, and then the motherboard failed and then the entire PC refused to boot up, and the photos are in there.

It’s going to take a while to get my PC running again and I don’t know if the photos will come back.

In the meantime, some updates on the X Team recruitment!

After looking carefully through all the applications, we narrowed our search down to four people we thought best suited for the role.

Last night, Ian and I took them out for dinner to get to know them.

They’re all awesome!

Clockwise from left:

1. Jonathan is an established TV producer who has many ideas on how we can improve communications with Xbox 360 users.
2. Hafizah is a digital animation student who writes really well and has been gaming since she was five (like me)!
3. Me!
4. Gene used to moderate Game Axis forums and has awesome video skills.
5. Ian!
6. Alvin runs a popular otaku blog which he updates four times a day and he is good in japanese!

I wish we could recruit all of them but we need to start small or it’ll get messy. Ian and I will make a decision once we find some time to discuss it.

In any case, they’re all fine gamers and I’m glad to know them!

And I promise to update this blog more frequently now.

=)

Hello everyone! =)

Want to be part of our online team to help reach out to local gamers? We are now looking for a volunteer to join the X Team!

• You will work closely with me and the Xbox Team to help promote Xbox Singapore activities in various Internet communities.
• You will have access to some of the latest Xbox 360 games for reviewing. Your writings will be published here and on our fast-growing Facebook fan page.

We’re only recruiting one person for now because it’s kind of like a beta. We want to work with someone fun-loving and creative who can help us shape the way we reach out to our fans.

So, if you think you’re that person, we’d love to hear from you! It would be great if you’re also sensible and responsible, can write pretty decently and are active in online communities (Xbox forums) or social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc).

Please send an e-mail to sheylara (at) gmail (dot) com with the following info:

1. Name
2. Xbox LIVE Gamertag
3. Occupation
4. Favourite game genre(s)
5. Online communities you’re active in
6. Links to your written work, if any
7. Hours per week you’d like to spend on X Team activities
8. 100 words or less to explain why you want to be part of the X Team

Shortlisted applicants will be contacted via e-mail, where I might ask you some follow-up questions.

Update: I forgot to include a closing date! Please submit your applications by October 6, 2009. Thank you!

This funny title started as a children’s book in 1978 about a town called Chewandswallow where it literally rains and snows food.

It’s now a movie and a game, released Sep 18 and 15, respectively.

Well, I have somewhat outgrown children’s movies and games (Hello Kitty not counted because Hello Kitty is for all ages), but of the five new games I received this week, I decided to play CwaCoM first because it looked the simplest and I just wanted to play something brainless after suffering an insufferably busy week.

Surprisingly, I found it enjoyable. In fact, I want to play it right now instead of writing GGF, but we can’t always do what we want, especially since GGF is already a day late!

So I will zip through GGF today and maybe have some time left over to get back to it. =P

In CwaCoM, you play a quirky inventor who invents this machine that makes food fall from the sky so that people can have better lives.

The machine works but then quickly gets out of control. Soon, your townsfolk are terrorised by giant foodstuff raining on them mercilessly.

Imagine being flattened by this giant piece of broccoli!

Or giant burgers!

I must say, though, that playing this game made me very, very hungry.

So, your task is to get out there and vaporise food. You have five different weapons which deal with the monstrous foods in different ways, such as melting them down or hacking them to pieces.

Killing food earns you points which you can use to upgrade your weapons.

Some foods just sit there harmlessly (or obstruct passageways) while other foods are aggro. For example, you could get rained on by sizzling hot chilli sauce or get bitten by cute gummi bears that won’t leave you alone until you slice them into oblivion.

The first mobs you’ll encounter are annoying snowmen that shoot snowballs at you the moment you walk into range. You’ll need to melt them down before they pelt you to death with snowballs.

It doesn’t matter if you die, though. The game just lets you start over where you last died, with no penalties.

In this way, you progress through five acts, each of which consists about five missions. I’ve only completed the first act. It’s fun! And I believe it will get more interesting in the later acts when you get to change weapons mid-mission.

Besides fighting homicidal foodstuff, you also have the challenge of navigation. Once in a while, you’ll have to figure out how to use objects in the environment to help you get where you want to go.

There are some places that are quite hard to get to but you’ll want to get to them in order to unlock the ultimate weapon.

You can probably complete the game without it, or you can redo missions to get what you missed earlier.

I think kids will really love this game. Adults with a sense of fun will like it, too.

I think I want to watch the movie, now!

Hi guys! Microsoft Game Studios has released some really nice videos of Forza Motorsport 3. The game will launch on October 27 this year. Can’t wait, right?