X07 Toronto Impressions

There's nothing greater than having a big community event. Hundreds of fans all playing tons of new games, chatting, having fun; and then the power goes out. Someone drove into a power line and the whole block where Microsoft's annual X07 event was held last night. It didn't put a damper on the evening's spirits though, generators were on standby and there were plenty of games up and running.

There was a ton of unreleased titles to demo, including; Rock Band, Guitar Hero III, Devil May Cry 4, Turok, Skate, Fatal Inertia, Scene It!, Viva Pinata: Party Animals, Gears of War PC, World in Conflict, Hellgate London, The Simpsons Game, and tons of Xbox Live Arcade titles. That's not to mention the big multiplayer Halo 3 arena that was set up in the corner running the latest build. Sure, it was hot, and sure it was dark but the games were there and that's what we came for.

I got a chance to play quite a few of the games, I will detail my experiences later when I post the podcast. I got an opportunity to talk to and interview a few interesting characters, including John Pocaro from the Gamerscore Blog, Francois Boucher-Genesse from Bungie, and Angela the product Manager for Scene It! and Viva Pinata: Party Animals. It was a pleasure sitting down with these guys and chatting about the games, look forward to those interviews in the podcast tonight as well.

Lastly, the event co-coordinators couldn't let us walk out empty handed so the evening closed with a mad dash for swag bags as everyone left. Some of the stuff I got will be given away later on in the podcast, so listen for your chance to win!