Jared Rea

I swore that I’d never change my Marty O’Donnell gamerpic, but after both yesterday’s video and a rousing speech by Senator Kennedy, I felt inspired to stand a bit taller. May the brilliance of his mullet shine upon those whose Xbox’s are deemed noble. Good night, sweet prince. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

The avatar swap was made as a show of support for Microsoft and MTV’s recent Rock the Vote collaboration (even if I still prefer the wonderfully ludicrous “Vote or Die”) which will not only provide streaming election coverage to Xbox 360 owners but more importantly, allow them to register to vote. Not that I enjoy the idea of your average Xbox Live citizen being enabled with the power of the vote, but I do appreciate the advocacy.

Whether these new voters go on to cast their ballot for Barack Obama, John McCain, or hell, even Bob Barr, I can only hope that this somewhat risky team-up inspires the youth of Xbox Live take a serious look at the issues and realize just how important this election is. I guess I have a somewhat selfish reason for wanting this, as I recall standing outside the voting booth in 2004, realizing that I was the only person under the age of 30 at my station. My generation simply can not afford to remain ignorant to the ever changing world around them.

There should be a film made about my playing Halo 3 again. It would be called, “How Jared Got His Fierce Back.” And while they’re at it, they could make a documentary about why I don’t blog when I totally should, like last week when I put my new feature up about Xbox 360 achievements and how they need fixing.

I was actually inspired by an article by Nadia Oxford over at 1UP on how we, the gamers, are completing our games less and less these days. In my case, I already knew she was right, but I checked out my Gamercard anyway and found that for all these games that I love, my lack of achievements said otherwise. This sent me into a brief frenzy of achievement hunting, which would explain why you may have seen me playing The Simpsons Game and Project Gotham Racing 4.

Kongregate, which has an achievements system all its own, also played into all this as I rediscovered it thanks to our indie gaming week over at GameTap. It’s amazing how Microsoft’s system has changed the way we play games and appreciate games, as there’s nothing more rewarding than earning a few ego boosting points simply by burning the rope. Unfortunately, developers still have plenty to learn about making them so.

You may have heard that the packaging for Microsoft’s latest JRPG adventure, Lost Odyssey, is lacking in quality. Well, I’m here to tell you that’s not true. You see, the tri-spindled discs and enveloped fourth is what you find in the regular edition of the game. You’re a hardcore gamer, are you not? Why settle for the ordinary when you could have the extraordinary!

Our special edition of Lost Odyssey has arrived and I’d like to take you on a special tour of what you’ll find inside.

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