Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

I’ve been asked a few times why I “blog” about video games. Initially, the answer seems pretty simple. Originally, the goal of a friend and I in starting TopOfCool.com was to provide reviews that were of higher quality than a lot of the reviews on the internet at that time. We especially loathed the fan gush sessions that passed for anime reviews (and still do, mostly).

Naturally, I wanted to be able to get review copies of anime DVD’s and video games. And a few press passes to events like E3 and AX would be nice too… but is there more to it than just getting free stuff?

Microsoft seems to think so. We were invited to attend a Crackdown Community Day at the Xbox campus in Redmond, WA on February 2nd. It would have been really easy to just send out some review copies of Crackdown and call it good, but the entire event gave members of the community a chance to rub shoulders with each other and key members of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 team.

It began simply enough. Dinner at the Family Pancake House. The “FPH” had the virtue of being a 30-second walk from our hotel rooms at the Redmond Inn. Once we sat down for some hearty pancakes and waffles, the conversation naturally turned to the subject of Our Beloved Hobby. Some were more outspoken than others *coughcough*Ron from Destructoid*cough* but we all had a good time trying to shake down John Porcaro, Tony Hynes, and Chris Paladino for info on Gears for the PC, the Halo 3 beta, and HDMI Xboxen. (The response to all inquiries was a stern poker face, however.)

After pancakes (and the now infamous Bacon Waffle), we headed back to the hotel lobby for even MORE video game discussion. Which is the real reason Microsoft brought us all there. We are part of a community. “Community” can sometimes become a buzzword at large companies, and the reason is that when a group of people gather together in a common pastime, especially one as potentially moving as video games, there is an instant inherent bond that exists.

Microsoft could’ve invited the big players like Kotaku or Joystiq (and I’m sure they get their fair share of face time with MS), but there was a sense that Microsoft sees the importance of the “grass roots,” the “committees of correspondence,” if you will. This is especially obvious when you realize that one of their online community managers, Chris Paladino, was just one of us. He started out as a podcaster and is certainly not the typical Marketing/PR guy. He still plays D&D occasionally, and has admitted to having a collection of Shadowrun RPG books.

So, for whatever reason, Microsoft had chosen a ragtag group of bloggers and podcasters, including one of the writers at GTA Warehouse, a GTA fan-site (very appropriate considering Crackdown’s roots).

The next morning we were shuttled to the Xbox campus, waited in the lobby while we were given visitors’ badges. We were then ushered to a… shall we say… unconventional conference room.

Tony briefed us on the day’s itinerary. A discussion and demo by Craig Evans, the global product manager for Crackdown. A tour of the Xbox Operations Center (aka XOC, pronounced “Zock”). Lunch. Then, an afternoon filled with hands-on play of Crackdown.

Once Tony had finished, he then opened up the floor to questions. There were more stern poker faces as we broached topics such as Halo 3, but I was actually surprised at the level of candor and honesty that the MS guys had, especially in the face of questions about EA’s marketplace shenanigans, the now famous HDMI Xbox pic, and cursing Crackdown with the Halo 3 beta. I must say we grilled them pretty fiercely (or at least I tried to) and I found their answers to be mostly satisfactory. [FYI, one MS employee, who will remain unnamed, responded to my questions about EA with a sarcastic, "We love the relations we have with our 3rd-party publishers," while then sticking out his tongue in disgust.]

After our “conference” we moved to the “briefing room” where Craig Evans fired up the game and ran us through a quick and dirty tour of Pacific City. I can’t yet get into too many specifics, but let’s just say that when he maxed out the various skills (as you’ve seen in the demo), there was much entertainment to be had.

The XOC was our next destination as “e” showed us around the heart of Xbox Live. For those who don’t know, the XOC is a Network Operations Center for Xbox Live. In techie talk, that means a command center where a crew of XOC techs monitor the traffic of Xbox Live, investigate errors and anomalies with the network, push any of the many content updates to Xbox Live Marketplace, constantly run simulated user sessions and anything else that one of the largest online gaming networks might require. Unfortunately, pictures were prohibited under threat of physical harm, but unless you’re someone who knows what the difference is between CSS and a CSS, it probably wouldn’t be very interesting anyway. Well… except for the… interesting species of Xbox Hardware (100-120GB hard drives?) or the massive collection of every single Live enabled title (and every localization and iteration thereof). Good times… good times…

We then grabbed some grub at the on-campus cafeteria (which was very tasty) before heading back to the fun room for some Crackdown fun.

Here’s where the story takes a turn for the worse. You’re probably thinking, ohmigosh, the game must suck. Hold up, there buckaroo. My full Crackdown review will be coming up this Monday, but any disappointments with this part of the day had nothing to do with the game itself. It had more to do with the POWER GOING OUT for the monitors and consoles we were going to be using to play the game with. Yeah. It sucked… especially since we actually were able to get into the game and start moving around right when the power died. Chris and Tony were obviously disappointed in this gut-wrenching turn of events, but Major Nelson was on the scene to save the day… as it were.

After some quality time with Major and some of the other fine folk at MS, power was restored, and cars and bodies were thrown with reckless abandon.

As the day wound down, and we had more discussions about Our Beloved Hobby, I had a hard time imagining Sony (or a lot of other game publishers) inviting a bunch of bloggers to just hang out and get excited about their product for a day. It was definitely a unique experience (especially touring the XOC) and I look forward to sharing my thoughts on the game itself in a few days, when the NDA embargo is lifted.

Until then, I’m gonna go play some Crackdown…