It’s actually a rhetorical question — effective December 1st, Xbox.com has retired the ‘Xbox Dad’ persona/column on family gaming.
My sincerest thanks to the original Xbox Dad (Duncan) for sharing his column with me this year — and to the folks at Xbox.com for the opportunity to contribute. It was a great experience to have this outlet for my passion on video gaming with your children.
Xbox.com does have other resources for family-friendly gaming:
The ‘Family Games Blog’ where the other community voices are offering snipits on what they and their kids are playing
In the Xbox Forums, check out the ‘Gamer Parents & Family Gaming’ forum
If you’d like to see more info on Xbox family gaming, please give them your suggestions.
If you are looking for any of my 2008 family-friendly gaming commentaries, here they are:
Fantastic Four – Rise of the Silver Surfer
Fathers Day 2008 – what one Xbox Dad got this year
LEGO : Star Wars — the best kids’ game that I know of
New Xbox Experience (NXE) is here – my kids are loving the avatars
Scene It – Lights, Camera, Action
I took a few days off before Thanksgiving (eating turkey, playing a lot of games, and breaking 15,000 on my gamerscore), so beyond the games above, here are some glowing endorsements (hopefully to be blogged here) — for the some great Christmas presents:
Fable II — yes, it is as awesome as most of the hype. If you are a role-playing fan, this is a must have (and get it before December 14th, so that you will be ready when the first downloadable content is added).
A Kingdom for Keflings – a very innovative and addictive Xbox Live Arcade game that takes advantage of the new NXE avatars. All of my kids enjoyed it, and it was even more fun in Co-Op across Xbox Live. If Xbox Live Marketplace keeps coming out with little Co-Op’s like this, I may need a 3rd Xbox360 so that my boys and I can co-op.
LEGO : Batman — perhaps my new favorite Lego video game (which is saying something). There is less source material than the Star Wars trilogies, but you get to play the same levels not only from the hero (Batman) point of view, but also as the villains’ (Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Two-Face, Catwoman and Poison Ivy).
Star Wars : The Force Unleashed — not for kids, but definitely for Dad !!
Perhaps Xbox.com will offer another persona for family game recommendations in 2009 — or maybe another online gaming site will offer me a podium to write from :-).
But in the meantime, I will start posting my game feedback back on this blog, when I can.
As always, thanks for reading…