XBOX 360 tour hits SVSU

April 2, 2007 —

by Adam Baudoux

Sophomores Peter Ossian and Issac Hudson play an XBOX 360 game during the tour's stop at SVSU on Saturday. SVSU was the only Michigan university the tour stopped at. Sophomores Peter Ossian and Issac Hudson play an XBOX 360 game during the tour's stop at SVSU on Saturday. SVSU was the only Michigan university the tour stopped at.

by Adam Baudoux

Students took on the roles of dancers, warriors, race car drivers, and turtles, and fought in battles to the death at the XBOX 360 College Game Tour Saturday night in the Multi-Purpose Room.

SVSU is one of 30 schools the tour visits and is the only Michigan stop this semester. The crew traveled everywhere from SVSU, to Arizona State, to the University of Florida. The event was brought by Game Live Events and is sponsored by many different companies, including Suzuki, Best Buy, and DirecTV.

The crew members set up a variety of brand new XBOX games for students to test out and to see the future of gaming. Some games included were DDR Universe, Overmatch, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Ghost Recon 2. Each station provided full versions of the games, not just demos.

Many students, however, focused their attention primarily on Halo 2. Four students could compete against each other at a time and winners walked away with new Xbox 360 games, which usually cost from 40 to 60 dollars.

Another main attraction was the Championship Gaming Series (CGS) tournaments. Students played FIFA '07, Dead Or Alive 4, and PGR 3 to win $100 and a chance to compete with other professional gamers on television.

According to tour manager Jay Kennedy, DirecTV is treating CGS like any other professional sport and is taken seriously. By late June, gamers will compete against others from all over the world in New York City on national television.

"It's a multi-million dollar production," Kennedy said. "It's about getting the format right and making it presentable."

CGS will be conducted like a real tournament and players will get salary pay as well as professional uniforms. The gaming tour is working as a way to draft players for the event.

Director of Student Life Janelle Hemingway and the Valley Nights committee helped bring the event to SVSU. Many committee members, including Shelly Decker, were happy with the large crowd and said the tour crew members were exceptionally pleasing and enjoyed helping them.

"They're a really great crowd to work with," she said.

Students also responded well to the event. Second year student Drew Askew enjoyed himself and was often found near Halo 2. "My favorite part is the Halo 2 competition - even though I lost," he said.

Askew also said he would love to see more events like this on campus and that he would definitely come to something like this again.

Freshman Will Buckner agreed with Askew and also mentioned this should be a repeat event. Buckner, like many other students, went to the event to play sports games. He didn't seem too concerned about prizes and said he was just there to play.

"We should definitely have stuff like this more often," he said.