merry xbox-mas: tech tuesday
By annemarie on December 20, 2011 | Filed Under events, tech tuesday, things
I’ve made reference before to the fact that I have iChildren who are used to playing on my iPhone and iPad but haven’t actually ever delved into the world of video games and their ilk. I also have a husband who’s been hankering for some kind of gaming system for awhile now but as we have a small living room there’s not a lot of space for the jump around sort of games we thought we might like.
So when I was asked to host a party at Xbox 360 Central in Park Royal where we could test out the Xbox360 and the new Kinect Games, Kinect Disneyland Adventures and Kinect Sports: Season Two while mingling with some yoyomama readers it seemed like both fun and an opportunity to give the games and system a whirl. Interestingly many of the yoyos who attended were also newbies, attracted by the idea of giving the Xbox 360 Kinect a thorough test.
Note the intense look of concentration on our faces. We were both playing to win!
As the party got started parents stood by while their kids played the games, aided by helpful brand ambassadors who coached them through getting started and playing all the different games. But as the party progressed more and more of the mums and dads who were there stepped up to the plate – or the top of the ski hill – and jumped right in. It was great to watch fathers and daughters play tennis and fathers and sons race down ski hills side by side and two girls battle Captain Hook, finally vanquishing him by pushing him off the plank at the end of a vigorous sword fight. As my eldest said, “Wow, I sweated almost the whole time.” The other thing I noticed is that kids and adults were pretty evenly matched, which makes it more fun for everyone. Though I suspect with a bit of time my kids would be outplaying me.
me winning at tennis!
Now I must admit to being a bit of a snob about gaming systems, after all isn’t playing a real game of tennis, real skiing or real swashbuckling better for you? Well, perhaps not in the case of swashbuckling but certainly playing “for real” is probably better for kids but after being stuck home during some interminably gray, wet weekends I can totally see the appeal of blowing off some steam as a family and getting some rousing tournaments, or dance competitions, going on. And, as this (slightly blurry) picture illustrates, I had great fun playing tennis with my husband (it looks like I won don’t you think?) and could see us indulging in an adult evening of Xboxing rather than regular old, sedentary TV watching.
In fact the new year is bringing a bigger living room for us and I’m thinking the Xbox 360 Kinect system might be the perfect housewarming gift…but don’t tell my kids! Or my husband…
That was such a fun night! Thanks for a great event!
This is what Santa brought us this year! I’m loving getting some exercise in when no-one thinks they are exercising