Gamer Spotlight:
TriXie Interviews Bubble Shield and Power Drainer
They're high school twins in Vancouver, British Columbia. When they're not gaming, they work hard and play hard. Say a double hello to Bubble Shield and Power Drainer.
TriXie: What's the story behind your Gamertags?
Bubble Shield: It's the same name as one of the Halo® 3 gadgets. When the information came out about the beta weapons and gadgets, we quickly made the Gamertag Bubble Shield. We weren't sure if that's what it was really called, so we made some backup names like Bubble Dome and Bubble Sphere. We also made the Gamertag Power Drainer because those gadgets are alike, like us. We also get reactions from the Halo 3 players, some good and some bad like, "Wow, what kind of losers would name themselves after gadgets from Halo 3?"
Their Gamertags come from Halo 3 gadgets.
TriXie: What do you do up in Vancouver, B.C.?
Bubble Shield: I work at McDonald's. My job is easy. I just go around cleaning tables and sweeping floors. Sometimes I find lost items like iPods and wallets, but I don't keep them of course, I have to put them in the lost and found.
Power Drainer: Right now, I'm working at Safeway, in the deli making sandwiches. It's a great job, because it's so easy. All I do is stand and make sandwiches! My favorite subject in school is P.E. because we play Capture the Flag a lot, just like Halo.
TriXie: What's the worst or weirdest job you've ever had?
Bubble Shield: I used to work at Burger King and I had to dress up as the King. I had to wear a fake beard and sideburns, a crown, a cape, and the King's long sleeve shirt, pants, and royal shoes. This was during the summer and I had to jump up and down with a sign. The sun was out and it was very hot with the cape, I almost died from the heat!
The King appreciates Bubble Shield's commitment.
Power Drainer: The worst job I've ever had was when I was working at Toys R Us. I was the stock guy, stocking shelves. Working there is basically working in a big cold factory with little kids window shopping for toys, auuugggghhhh!
TriXie: How long have you been on Xbox LIVE®?
Bubble Shield: We've been on Xbox LIVE since 2003. The first game we played was Halo 2. We didn't know how to play against people online at first, we thought we could choose the map and settings for ranked players. When we had two controllers plugged in, we wanted to play Big Team Battle, and it said "Guests cannot play in ranked matches" and we didn't know what the hell was going on! But then we bought two LIVE accounts. We were the best at Big Team Battle because we always got the flag.
TriXie: Do you have an archenemy on Xbox LIVE?
Bubble Shield: My archenemy on Xbox LIVE isXDest. I played him on Dead or Alive® 4 online and he beat me 23 to 0, even after the twentieth match, where he doesn't win any rank off of me, he kept playing me until I threw in the towel.
Power Drainer: Ummmm..... his Gamertag is Bubble Shield. Hahahahaha.
This guy got floored like Bubble Shield.
TriXie: What's your Xbox setup like?
Bubble Shield: We both use the same TV. It's a sucky 20-inch standard TV that was given to us as a Christmas present nine years ago so we could play Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. We haven't even played our Xbox 360® in hi-def graphics once! We are saving up for a 50-inch TV but, it's hard when we're trying to save up for our future '67 Mustangs and Hummers!
TriXie: Sounds like Santa needs to bring you boys an HD-TV! What's the best feature of Xbox LIVE?
Bubble Shield: I think the best feature is the message system. You can receive a message anywhere, in a game, watching a movie, listening to music, anywhere, unlike some of the other systems out there, not mentioning any names *cough* PS3. A little prank I like to do is go on MSN and change my screen name to "Achievement Unlocked," then I type a message to someone who is playing their Xbox 360 and say something like "Played with Bill Gates 200GS."
Power Drainer: I think the best feature is taking guests and more than one Gamertag online. It makes everything more fun when you're playing with other people on the same screen. It's the best with Halo 2 and Halo 3. Going online split-screen against a bunch of other people is like the old days of GoldenEye multiplayer, but online!
TriXie: What is your favorite LIVE-enabled game?
Bubble Shield: Dead or Alive 4. If you took Xbox LIVE away from Dead or Alive 4 then you would take away its life. Around the DOA community like Dead or Alive Central and around the servers I'm known as The Bass Master. The online ranking system in this game is the best ranking system I've ever seen. To keep your rank you have to actually be good, unless you do what most of the high ranks do and that's kill noobs all day.
Power Drainer: Probably Dead or Alive 4 too. It has a hard ranking system if you're just an average player. To make it to the SS rank you have to play every day and become better every day. I think this game is the biggest online party game, because everyone just talks and tells jokes while we watch two people go one on one. Winner stays!
TriXie: What is your favorite offline Xbox game?
Bubble Shield: That would be Guitar Hero II™. This is one of the few games that you have to actually practice at to be good, and when you hit the note and the song plays, it's like you're actually playing the song.
Power Drainer: No, it's Dead Rising™, of course! I think Dead Rising has the best story out of any game ever created. The storyline is interesting and it's fun to play. The cutscenes in Dead Rising are the best. Killing the zombies is fun, but making it to a psychopath and watching the cutscene is what makes this game even more fun. Props to Capcom, wooooo!
Props to Capcom for Dead Rising!
TriXie: What do you think is the best game of all time?
Bubble Shield: I think the best game of all time is Halo 3, but best game of all time that's notHalo would be Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. I couldn't stop playing it. It's going to be a long time untilDiablo 3 comes out, so Hellgate London will have to do until then.
Power Drainer: Yeah, the best game of all time isHalo 3. Only because it has good single player and awesome multiplayer. Going online on Big Team Battle 8 vs. 8, Capture the Flag is the best thing about Halo 3. There is so much to do, from driving the warthog, to flying a banshee, to sniping the other team, Halo 3 rules!
TriXie: What do you think is the best film of all time?
Bubble Shield: The best film of all time is The Bourne Ultimatum. I like Jason Bourne better than James Bond. He's sharper, stronger, faster, wiser, and cooler!
Power Drainer: I think the best film of all time is Saw. It was interesting from start to finish with all the twists. The first Saw was the best of all four. Dr. Laurence Gordon rules!
TriXie: What do you think is the best album of all time?
Bubble Shield: The best album of all time for me would be Graduation by Kanye West. He's different than most of the other sucky rappers out there, plus he knows his clothing and he bought some nice expensive Jeremy Scott glasses.
Power Drainer: The Emin3m Show. I buy all my songs off Zune Marketplace.
TriXie: What's the funniest thing you've ever heard on Xbox LIVE?
Bubble Shield: That would be the time when me and my bro were playing Assault in Halo 2. We were pwning the other team so much. Our whole team was at the bomb station. Some guy was holding the bomb and singing "I got the bomb, baby, I got the bomb, baby" repeatedly with a nice song texture and everyone on the team was dancing by crouching up and down. We kept doing it until we armed it and the enemies came and ruined our party.
Power Drainer: One time, we told our younger brother to make a crazy face while we took a picture of him with the Vision Camera, and we made some monster noise into the mic. Then we sent the message to all the recent players. We got a message the next day froFrAnKnBeAnS420, saying that his son opened up the message, thought it was Uncle Sam, and he started crying and stuff.
The Vision Camera can be a lot of fun.
TriXie: What is your greatest Xbox LIVE moment?
Bubble Shield: Me and my bro went onUNO®with our vision camera. We both dressed the same and one of us was sitting on the chair with a drink, and said, "I'll be right back. I'm going to go get a snack." He went left, and I came in from the right and sat down with a bag of chips. The three other people in the room were saying, "How the hell did you do that?" We said it was magic, but after a while, we both went on the cam.
Power Drainer: When I found Billy Talent on Game with Fame. They were playing Gears of War®, and I joined their player match game.
TriXie: What's your favorite TV show?
Bubble Shield: Hmm, my favorite TV show is The Simpsons. All of the old Simpsons episodes from Season 9 and down are funny. Everything above that is boring, they need to rehire the old writers.
Power Drainer: Johnny Bravo by Seth Macfarlane (creator of The Family Guy). It's a funny cartoon. It's better than Family Guy.
TriXie: I had a sick crush on Johnny Bravo. Who is your inner rock star?
Bubble Shield: My inner rock star is the guy who was interviewed on the Guitar Hero II video with Major Nelson.
TriXie: That would be Gene Simmons. How about you, Power Drainer?
Power Drainer: Leo Laporte from The Lab with Leo Laporte TV show. He was playing Guitar Hero III and doing good on Expert mode.
TriXie: If they made a movie about your life, who should play you?
Bubble Shield: Adam Sandler, because I'm crazy!
Power Drainer: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, cause he's fly.
TriXie: What superpower would you like to have?
Bubble Shield: To be able to walk through walls, floors and ceilings. I could sneak into Microsoft headquarters and see all the information on the next console.
Power Drainer: Probably invisibility, so I could walk into the bank and walk out with cash. Hahah.
TriXie: What celebrity would be the worst roommate?
Bubble Shield: The guy from Jeopardy because he would want to teach me schoolwork, and I don't like schoolwork!
Power Drainer: Jack Thompson, even though he isn't a celebrity. Because I wouldn't be able to play Dead or Alive 4, or Dead Rising, or Halo 3.
TriXie:Who's your favorite superhero?
Bubble Shield: Wolverine from The X-Men. He seems like a normal guy on the outside, but on the inside has claws, super stamina and strength.
Power Drainer: Captain America, cause he's cool. He has a cool suit, a cool voice, and a cool shield.
TriXie: Hot celeb you'd like to be stranded on a desert island with?
Bubble Shield: I'd like to be stranded with the girls on Zack's Island from Dead or Alive: Xtreme 2.
Power Drainer: Me too.
They may be hot but I'm not sure they're real.
TriXie: If you could be any videogame character, who would it be?
Bubble Shield: Gordon Freeman, because he gets to travel through a huge world with all these mutant aliens, and I would get the portal gun so I could portal my way around places.
Power Drainer: Frank West, because he gets to loot a mall. I'd go loot EB Games, and a zombie break out in real life would be the best thing ever.
TriXie: What's the worst food you've ever eaten?
Bubble Shield: The worst food I've ever eaten would be Kraft singles. That cheese tastes disgusting. My dog liked it though, he ate the whole package and he still wanted more.
TriXie: It's not even cheese—it's "cheese food." It's like what you feed to your pet cheese.
Power Drainer: The worst food I've ever eaten is Pizza Pops. They look good, but it's like eating a bag with a tomato sauce and meat inside.
TriXie:What do you think is the best thing about Xbox 360?
Bubble Shield: Best feature would be Xbox LIVE, because the future is now and the future is online play. Before, we only wanted to buy games that were more than one-player, now we just want the game to be online, and we don't give a damn if its one- or two-players online.
Power Drainer: Xbox LIVE for sure, and let me be the first to say that Microsoft should always charge for Xbox LIVE!
TriXie:What is the Xbox 360 achievement that was hardest to get?
Bubble Shield: Hardest achievement for me would be 1000 note streak on co-op (Keef & Mick Award) on Guitar Hero II. You have to be good at it, and on top of that, your partner has to be good at it. Whenever I missed a note and my partner didn't notice, I wouldn't say anything and wait until the end of the song.
Power Drainer: 100 Wins in Survival (Single) inDead or Alive 4. It's the hardest achievement in the game and only skilled players can get it … wooooo!
TriXie:What would you like to be doing in ten years?
Bubble Shield: In 10 years, I would like to be chairman of Microsoft.
Power Drainer: I'd like to be Bill Gates' janitor, mopping up his mansion.
Interview by TriXie
