Brilliant news folks: XTIVAL’S BACK WITH THE COOLEST LINE-UP YET! That’s an actual quote by the way, not me shouting in all upper-case text. That’s right it’s here again. Not that you need me to remind you, the epoch-shatteringly awesome Xtivals of previous years have made the annual holiday more important to you than your own birthday. Gear up to enjoy GAMES and MOVIES on your xbox. Same as you could yesterday. Only now it’s Xtival which makes it cool and sexy.
See, what they’ve done is taken the words ‘xbox’ and ‘festival’ and mashed them together. It’s this kind of revolutionary thinking that has earned Microsoft the respect and unquestioning obedience of all gamers worldwide.
This weekend on the 27th-29th November why not get yourself a free limited edition avatar shirt (free after standard mobile network text charge of course), a free premium theme, and plenty of music stuff from “the number one artist” you’ve never heard of called Tiësto. Twitter and Facebook are also there. Because before now you didn’t have those.
Xtival is an attempt by the European Xbox team to create the illusion that they actually give a crap about the customer. The one redeeming feature of Xtival is that it offers full Gold privileges for people who currently have Silver LIVE accounts for 72 hours. Which, some would argue, they should be getting anyway. The competitions on offer are simple raffles which you participate in by downloading a gamerpic and playing a certain game over the Xtival weekend. Some small community sites are hosting tournaments, too. But, you’re not a part of those communities so won’t have heard about it.
I appreciate that they’re trying to get the community involved and showing people that the Xbox is a relevant entertainment medium. I just feel that they could have tried a little harder. They’re hardly even advertising this stuff. I learned of it when I visited the UK version of Xbox.com and was assaulted by auto-playing embedded audio (which is a big no-no in web development). AceyBongos did do a Bongo’s Bulletin: Xtival Special on it, but if you actively watch the videos on the Inside Xbox channel you need to re-evaluate your life.
It’s clear that Xtival disappoints me, but please do check it out. Encourage community events that champion active participation. Surely they can only get better through iteration and reflection. Download a gamerpic or theme or something, free is free after all.
(By the way: To get to it select the ‘Xtival’ option on the spotlight channel, that isn’t explicitly stated anywhere looked).
As this is the 4th Xtival I can’t see things getting any better.
I need an Xbox so I can take part in these activities!
At least Microsoft is getting some PR mileage out of it.
Xtival drinking game, requires 4+ people for best results:
1. Make up a silver Xbox Live account for each person.
2. Play Call of Duty/Halo/Gears online.
3. Be an arse. Use your imagination for this step.
4. Every time you are called a faggot, you must drink.
5. Repeat steps 3-4 until it’s not fun anymore. This usually takes a while, as the drunker you are the funnier it is.
Play with caution. I would recommend against doing shots or high alcohol content drinks, unless you like being paralytic/dead.
OH I AM SO HYPED FOR XTIVAL
I’ve partied at the Xtesvial all weekend, it was AWESOME!! /sarcasm