We all got crabs!

That got your attention, didn’t it!

I mentioned in my previous post that there really wasn’t a whole heck of a lot I could share right now about last week’s Summit, however there are a few things that occurred that I can talk about and this happens to be one of them.

On Tuesday of last week, our hosts surprised us with a special dinner trip for some fresh seafood. What they didn’t tell us was they had made arrangements for us to tour the Deadliest Catch’s fishing vessel the Northwestern (which was docked for some routine maintenance) as well as a chance to go hands on with the upcoming Deadliest Catch Alaskan Storm video game.

We were treated to some of the best salmon and king crab legs that I’ve ever had as we sat along the pier with crew members and their families. Afterwards, Matt Bradley, deck hand on the Northwestern, took us aboard for a close-up look within the ship. During the entire time we were there, they had 3 Xbox 360 units for us to experience the game.

I was able to get a short amount of time in playing one of the included mini-games which challenges players to maneuver a much smaller water craft along the choppy ocean, hitting check points as you go. Although this was still an incomplete build of the game, I along with others in the group, were very impressed with the way it looked and played. The “campaign” mode of DC:AS will allow players to manage all facets of their ship as they tackle the icy waters in search of the ultimate haul and the big payday. The game is on track for release in mid-May and after having had the chance to test drive it last week, I can say that I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the final version.

Below are some photos that I took while aboard the Northwestern, more of which can be viewed on my Flickr page.

Great community folks

“Dude, where you been?”

I know I haven’t been around all that much over the past couple of weeks, although there are a couple of good reasons as to why. The first has to do with a job change that I won’t bore you with, but the second may be of a little more interest…

Last week I flew out to Seattle to attend Microsoft’s MVP Summit, an amazing event which brought together people from all over the world to collectively meet, exchange ideas and share feedback from the communities we are all involved in. While I really can’t discuss the majority of what went on during the event, I can tell you without reservation that the group of Xbox community members I met during my stay were among the friendliest, funniest and most passionate gamers I’ve ever had the pleasure of spending time with.

Most of their websites, blogs and forums are linked under the “Xbox MVP Webring” listing here on TRB, but they all deserve an additional shout-out, so here goes (if I’ve missed anyone, I apologize. It wasn’t intentional):

Kamshaft

Peench

Morgon

Wiseguy

Mordeux (who I owe a dinner next year for taking all his $$ in poker)

Avid X3ro (who owes me an “optimal temperature coffee”)

Club 108

CraigN

MASTAglach820

BAPenguin

boid

litheon

El Hatton

MPDamon

Fatty Chubs

PMS Kitty

FragMaster B

Tbird

SpaceGhost2K

Knuckles Dawson

de menace

cjivan

And last but certainly not least: John, Tony, Chris, Nelson and Sara.

Thanks to all for a GREAT week!