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Canadian Gamer Spotlight – Club 108

You might know him from his popular Club Import posts in the forums - our next Xbox CGS features the one and only Club 108.  A self professed fighting game fanatic, when he isn’t playing DOA, you can find Club lending a hand to other gamers in the community or sharing his passion for Xbox at events in and around Toronto.  I sat down with our next nominee to get to know him a little better – and I have left in the trademark Club 108 punctuation for your reading pleasure.

Jade: I always like finding out how people pick their Gamertags…how did you come up with yours?

Club 108: I still remember how I got it haha ^.^’ After a friend came with me to purchase my Xbox we got home and in such a rushI just wanted to get online and team up with my friend on the same console and play some online Hockey! So I wanted something that locals could recognize and I needed it fast. The first thing that came to mind was my at the time workplace, “Club 108”. I guess they had a lot of free advertising thanks to me haha Also, 108 was a number I ran into a lot when gaming and I like to go clubbing, so it was a combination of the three.

Jade: And how long have you been on Xbox Live?

Club: Hmmm I’ve been hooked on Live ever since I can remember. I first signed up when “NHL Rivals 2004” came out January of 2003.

Jade: The one thing that always sticks out about you for me is your wild collection of video game-themed Hawaiian shirts…which one is your favourite and where do you find them?

Club: Oh I love my Hawaiian shirts. It’s hard to choose a favourite but I’d have to say it’s a tie between my “Ryu” from Street Fighter shirt and “Haoumaru” from Samurai Showdown (Samurai Spirits). They were actually very few made of all the shirts that I have. I bought them at T-Shirt stands all over Toronto, so most of them were imported from the manufacturer. But there is still one shirt I haven’t been able to find. It had “Yun” and “Yang” from the “Street Fighter 3” series!

Jade: You’re hardcore Club.  What’s the one thing you like best about the Canadian Xbox community?

Club: There’s lots of good things about our community and all the members of the Canadian Xbox community. But the one thing that I like the most is how helpful the community is. If you have any question and I mean ANY question ^_^, there is always someone out there that is willing to help you out. I remember seeing people posting about everything ranging from “How to get my girlfriend into gaming” to “Someone broke into my house and stole my Xbox 360!”.

Jade: Ya, well I’m still waiting for someone to offer to find the guys that broke in.  When you aren’t playing on Xbox Live, how do you keep yourself busy?

Club: At the moment I just work and I’m getting into Mixed Martial Arts training. I’m currently visiting different Dojos around the GTA to meet some of the best Martial Artists out there and get some advice and new techniques. I am also working on putting together a bunch of offline Xbox 360 events – keep watch for more on this.

Jade: We first ran into each other playing DOA4, would you say fighting games are your favourite genre?

Club: Oh yes, I still remember tagging up and winning with you online… haha that one guy that just lost it still cracks me up. Fighting games are definitely my favourite genre with music games landing a close second. If I can just let Microsoft know this genre is huge with an enormous fan following everywhere - it rivals the FPS genre without a doubt, in my humble opinion. Here’s my master plan for Xbox 360 to dominate in fighting games – finalize Backwards Compatibility with full online multiplayer support for “Capcom vs. SNK 2 E.O.”, “Guilty Gear X2 #Reload”, “Street Fighter Anniversary Collection”, “Samurai Showdown V”, “King Of Fighters NEOWAVE”, and an Xbox Live Arcade version of “Marvel vs. Capcom 2” (With Xbox Live multiplayer support) Next, with the addition of “Virtua Fighter 5” being released on the Xbox 360, now all we need is for Namco to work on an Xbox 360 version of “TEKKEN 5: Dark Resurrection”. That’s my ultimate wish list.  With all of these amazing fighting games on Xbox 360, the console would truly be “BEASTING” on the competition.

Jade: No problem, I’ll run that up the flagpole for you Club.  Share one of your favourite Xbox Live experiences with us.

Club: Wow tough question! Honestly there’s been a ton of fun moments on Xbox Live that have made me laugh so hard that I cried ^O^’. There was this one time when I was playing “Texas Hold’em” and I think someone from that “Crank Yankers” TV show on the Comedy Network came on. He started making all these funny remarks about how he could play the drums and started to go “Ba dap bada boo bang ba dap bang boom!”. And he had one of the funniest voices on the show so everyone in the room was just laughing their butts off. And he went on to joke around with everyone in the room, it was really a fun time that you could only experience on Xbox Live and I think every Xbox game from now on should have Xbox Live multiplayer support.

Jade: I’m all for giving back to the community and you do this ten-fold every week. You dig up some seriously hot Xbox news in your updates posted on the Xbox Canadian Live and Xbox sites…where do you get your information and how did the updates come to be?

Club: Oh yes, my babies Club “NEW RELEASE” (C.N.R.) and Club “IMPORT” (C.I.) hehe. For the game release dates I just call up my local gamestore and check out the official websites to narrow down the exact release dates for people. For the marketplace content I was one of the first people to post them in full detail online, I just checked the Marketplace everyday and updated when it was needed. It actually first started when there was some confusion over when “Fight Night Round 3” and a few other games at the time were coming out.  I just kept people posted on the latest and greatest, and everyone was very thankful.  It just turned into a weekly post. And for C.I. I wanted people to know about the Japanese Xbox 360 market and what they had too. Then I just kept on improving their layouts and content, turning both into what they are today ^_^.

Jade: What was your favourite Xbox 360 game in 2006?

Club: Wow! Why do I get all the tough questions haha ^.^’. There were a ton of great titles released in 06’, but based on graphics, gameplay, multiplayer support, and sound, I’d go with “Gears of War”. But there are two games that I think people should try out. “Test Drive Unlimited” has the best sound I’ve ever heard in a racing game (in first person view) and it’s really fun just driving around online running into other racers. Also, “Tomb Raider Legend” is another game people just passed by and may have not noticed. It has pretty good graphics for an early Xbox 360 title and the gameplay is really addicting, it’s similar to the “Prince of Persia” series.

Jade: Some great recos Club.  Okay, what Xbox 360 game are you most looking forward to in 2007?

Club: There are a TON of promising titles coming out this year! For me, I’d have to go with “Guitar Hero II” (hopefully it gets Xbox Live multiplayer support). But some others that are in the running are “Assassin’s Creed”, “John Woo presents: Stranglehold”, “Def Jam: ICON”, and of course “Halo 3”.

Jade: Favourite video game of all time?

Club: I still can’t get sick of arguably the best fighting game out there “Street Fighter Anniversary Collection” back on the original Xbox! As many other fans, I am still praying that this game gets back-compatibility support soon (wink, wink).

Jade: Best movie in 2006?

Club: I would have to say without a shadow of a doubt that “Jet-Li’s Fearless” was my favourite movie in 06’ and is in my top 10. If you are a fan of fighting movies, go out and rent this and I’m sure you’ll love it so much that you’ll end up buying it.

Jade: What about your favourite TV show?

Club: I can never get enough of SPIKE TV’s “MXC” a.k.a. “Most Xtreme elimination Challenge”. There are so many jokes in each episode that even if you end up watching the same episode again, you will discover even more jokes (especially what the contestants say).

Jade: Kenny Blakenship’s my hero!  If you were stranded on a desert island, what would you bring to entertain yourself?

Club: I would take a Volleyball. I really enjoy playing but I would also hope to end up on “Zack Island” and then I’d be able to play volleyball with all of the “Dead or Alive” girls ^_^’.

Jade: Nice ulterior motives with that volleyball Club. If you could have any gamerpic you wanted, what would it be?

Club: I would have to say Kenshin from the extremely popular Anime series “Rurouni Kenshin” a.k.a. “Samurai X”. I personally think there should be some Anime downloads in the Marketplace like TV episodes, themes, and gamerpics. There’s a ton of other Animes that I would like to get gamerpics for like “Bleach”, “Samurai Champloo”, and “Spawn” just to name a few.

Jade: And finally, what one last thing do you want the Canadian Xbox community to know about you?

Club: I would just like the community to know that I’m always looking for help/support in regards to video game events and even CNR. Right now I am putting together a small group that currently consists of me, Vectoin, and Angelsynn. If you want to help out just send me a message via Live and we can talk ^_^.

Thanks for all you do for the Xbox Canada community Club, a well deserved nomination.  Make sure to check out Club 108’s updates each week.  And to nominate a gamer for the Canadian Gamerspotlight, send me an email to jade@microsoft.com.