If you haven't heard show #139 "Last Call" then this post will come as somewhat of a shock to you. I do encourage you to listen to our final podcast and enjoy a show that will be remembered as a milestone in both my life and possibly yours.



Rodder and I will be retiring from Squad XP and along with us so will the brand that Squad XP has built over the past 5 years. It was fun to do the show and even up to today I've enjoyed every minute of it. But I feel, just like any good series on TV or radio sometimes it just has to move along. I don't know what I'll be doing next. Maybe something with video or I'll just start other projects in my personal life.

If you would like to follow our future projects as well as our day to day lives, our twitter account are available below.

Twitter.com/krockxp
Twitter.com/rodderxp

The site will no longer be updated and our forums will be removed from the Platform Nation list. You can still expect to find Rodder and myself around Platform Nation from time to time.

I want to thank each of you that aided me in my success and I will be forever grateful that you gave us the chance to entertain you each week for the past 5 years.

If you would like to mail your thoughts/reflections or any physical materials, the information for that is as follows.

Mailing Info:

Squad XP LLC
16154 sw 44th LN
Miami, FL 33185

or Via Email ==> krockxp@squadxp.com & rodderxp@squadxp.com

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Our last community event will be the " Xbox Live Squad XP: Community Playdate"

Info can be obtained here or below.

Squad XP will be online Sunday, June 28 from 8:00 – 11:00 P.M. ET (5:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M. PT) playing Left 4 Dead. If you're a Gold Member (if not, upgrade now!), look out for these Gamertags:

• K Rock XP
• RODDER XP
• method in chaos
• DirtyStreetz XP
• jj75 XP

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Best Wishes,

Kelly Rock Gomes // Editor in Chief // GT: K Rock XP // SquadXP.com

Squad XP is giving away an Xbox 360 Pro Console. Over the course of the next 4 weeks just send an email with your name and GamerTag (if you don't have a GamerTag, just send your name) to krockxp@squadxp.com.

You can enter once every week and a winner will be chosen at random on June 17th. The winner will be notified via email. The giveaway is open to everyone anywhere. Good luck!


UPDATE: Contest now ends on June 10th and the winner will be announced along with a big announcement on June 14th.


Kelly Rock Gomes
Editor in Chief
SquadXP.com

Charity Auction – Xbox 360 with custom Gears 2 artwork

Epic Games has teamed up with TechKnow Podcast to bring Gears fans a truly personalized piece of memorabilia – an Xbox 360 console featuring a hand-drawn Crimson Omen by none other than Epic’s own senior concept artist, James Hawkins – all for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  The artwork, along with autographs of Hawkins and Epic’s president, Mike Capps, spans one side of the console.  The opposite side is adorned with signatures of other Gears 2 team members including Cliff Bleszinski, Dave Ewing, Rod Fergusson, Joe Graf, Dave Nash, Chris Perna, Lee Perry, and Alan Willard. For more pictures and more info go to www.TechKnowPodcast.com or head to www.GearsofWar.com

Mike Capps, President

·         VGA HD AV Cable

·         Detachable faceplate

·         Xbox Live Gold membership (3 months)

Many of you have noticed our forums were giving us problems over the weekend. Seems we've been getting a lot of traffic over the past few months. This is causing our database to have a few "hiccups". You can blame it on 1AND1 (our hosting company) if you like.

But on a positive note I was working on my resume last night and pulled for the first time since 2006 our server stats. When I saw it, I'll be honest my jaw dropped. But either way these are the numbers from the source and I want to thank all of you that have made this possible.

Unique Visits 2008 - 617,238
Page Views (Total) 2008 - 2.1M
Server Show Downloads (GoDaddy) - 230,000

These numbers help make sense of some of the issues we've had over the last few months. We'll try and clear these things up to better your experience on the site.

Kelly Rock Gomes // Editor in Chief // GT: K Rock XP // SquadXP.com

Today I spoke to Rodder about some changes I had planned for the site. With time being a significant burden for Rodder and I, we decided to switch up our show format. We will now record a show every other week starting with our upcoming show on Sunday January 11th 2009. Since we'll be missing out every other week our recording time has increased to one hour and thirty minutes.

There are a few other things you might want to know. This doesn't change any other part of the site. All it does is give us the chance to be more consistent with the production of our shows and allows us to have a little more free time to tend to our daily lives and site obligations. I want to thank everyone for their continued support of Squad XP and I'll be addressing this on next week show. In the meantime feel free to drop us some feedback on the forums.

On a final note, we will record when there are trade shows going on. This means if our off week falls on the weekend E3 is going on, we'll man up and record back to back shows.

Kelly Rock Gomes
Editor in Chief
GT: K Rock XP
SquadXP.com

Be sure to check out the Platform Nation Community Choice awards and place your votes for the Game of the Year, Best Xbox 360 game, Best Shooter and many more awards. Check it out at http://www.platformnation.com/2008/12/14/pn-community-choice-awards/

What happened on the forums today was just a training exercise. Just kidding, looks like our IP tracking app managed to log 95mbs of peoples browser and IP data (That's right Squad XP can see you while you sleep).

My buddy who does all the web stuff corrected it and everything seems to be back to normal. I'll keep up some internal testing, if you have any strange issues shoot me an email.

PS: We WILL behaving a Thanksgiving show this week, along with plenty of shots that all of you have donated. Thanks so much for the support and if you want to get a Thanksgiving shot in for this week (Every Thanksgiving shot will be taken, regardless of the amount of alcohol we consume) the links to participate are on the left part of the site.

Like Aussie would say, Cheers!

Kelly Gomes
Editor in Chief
SquadXP.com
GT: K Rock XP

Sorry about the delay in the show, but K Rock is out of town, so instead of a show coming out on Sunday, expect a super awesome early show sometime mid-week. Hear Rodder's views on Dead Space and the new CoD: WaW BETA, but until then, keep on gaming!

Thank you to all who participated but we are all out of Beta codes at this time if more become availible a new posting will be added via SquadXP.com or you can Follow me on Twitter.com/RodderXP.


Rodder XP

We have 5 VIP End War Tokens to give away.

All you have to do to get one and start whoopin ass over XBL is E-mail (Contest Closed, all beta codes were given out)and write a brief sentence about K Rock and his fascination with Meatspin .com (Broke the link NSFW).

Rodder XP

In a posting on the official Dead Space  Web  site, EA community manager Ben Swanson announced that the Xbox 360,
PlayStation 3, and PC game "will be banned in Germany, China, and Japan." Swanson did not say what indications the 
team has received to suggest the imminent banning of the sci-fi survival horror game. 
 
 
Dead Space is set for an October 14 console release in North America (October 20 for the PC version), with a European launch
set for October 24. As of press time, EA representatives had not returned requests for clarification on the nature of the bans or why
they are expected to come.

READ FULL STORY HERE.

Samsung Mobile, which is the worldwide partner of the World Cyber Games (WCG), today announced two opportunities for gamers to win a chance to attend the WCG 2008 Grand Final in Cologne, Germany this November.

Now in its second year, Samsung Mobile will host the Samsung Mobile Challenge at World Cyber Games events in 10 countries around the world, ending with the Grand Final. The E For All Expo, a premier consumer gaming event held in Los Angeles, will serve as the location for the WCG USA 2008 National Final. From October 3-5, Samsung Mobile will offer the opportunity for the general public to enter the Samsung Mobile Challenge as a walk-up contestant with a chance to win cash, prizes and a trip to the WCG 2008 Grand Final in Germany to play for even more prizes.

The Samsung Mobile Challenge will feature the recently launched SAMSUNG INNOV8 and M3510 as the official mobile phones of the World Cyber Games. Participants will have the opportunity to play Asphalt 4: Elite Racing, developed by Gameloft, the official game of this year’s Samsung Mobile Challenge. The game puts the user in the driver seat of 10 dream cars and motorcycles with amazing 3D environments and various racing modes in different global locations like Paris, Shanghai and New York City.

In addition to its presence at the E For All Expo, Samsung Mobile is offering gamers a chance to play Jet Set Racer, a game inspired by Asphalt 4: Elite Racing, on Samsung Mobile’s Web site. Users can log on to http://wcg.samsungmobile.com beginning September 2 to compete against other players in the online racing competition where the driver must become the most prestigious racer and achieve a high score. The competition ends September 28 and high scoring players will win Samsung mobile phones and/or games and the highest scoring player will win a trip to the WCG 2008 Grand Final in Cologne.

For complete rules and regulations, please visit http://wcg.samsungmobile.com. For more information on the World Cyber Games, please visit www.worldcybergames.com.

More Than 50,000 Players Competed Throughout the Competition

Esque Eady, was named the Grand Prize winner of the NCAA Football ‘09 Tournament sponsored by GameStop, Corp. (NYSE:GME), the world’s largest video game and entertainment software retailer. Eady received the Grand Prize of $5,000 for winning the tournament.

Eady tackled his competition of ten Semifinalists during the Finals event on August 30, near the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, GA, to be named the NCAA Football ’09 Grand Prize Winner. Prior to the Finals event, he outplayed over 60 participants in three rounds of competition at the Store, District and Regional levels. More than 50,000 players participated in the multi-tiered national tournament.

NCAA Football ’09 allows players to get into the spirit of the game for their favorite college team. This groundbreaking game offers unique college style animations that keep a loyal fan base with Home Field Advantage. Every player has the opportunity to run school specific plays and up to 60 years of Dynasty with full recruiting, stats and custom schedules. For a full list of game details, visit www.gamestop.com.

How will you create the universe? Gamers around the world can find out this week as the highly anticipated video game Spore™ ships to retailers for the PC, MAC® and Nintendo DS™, mobile phones and the iPhone™. Spore is rated E10+ by the ESRB, and retails for $49.99. The collectable Spore Galactic Edition is also available for $79.99, which includes “The Making of Spore” DVD, a hardback art book, fold-out poster, 100-page Galactic Handbook and the National Geographic Channel documentary “How to Build a Better Being” DVD.

Spore will be on store shelves around the world on the following dates:

September 4th: Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Finland and Australia
September 5th: Rest of Europe and South America
September 7th: North America
Spore gives players their own personal universe in a box. Create and evolve life, establish tribes, build civilizations, sculpt entire worlds and explore a universe filled with creations made by other gamers. Spore gives players a wealth of creative tools to customize nearly every aspect of their universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even spaceships.

“Spanning hundreds of millions of years, Spore’s scope is unprecedented in gaming. It has been a long time in the making and the team at Maxis is excited to finally share the game with the world,” said Will Wright, chief designer at Maxis. “We can’t wait to see the amazing worlds that our fans build, as they tell their own stories with the game.”

“Spore is an outstanding achievement,” said Frank Gibeau, President of the EA Games Label. “The blending of gameplay, editors and online community through pollinated content came together to deliver on Will Wright’s big idea – to create and control your own personal universe. The team at Maxis has built an extraordinary game that has the potential to become a platform for creativity, and innovation for years to come.”

To download a free trial of the Spore™ Creature Creator, please visit www.spore.com. For screen shots or more information about Spore, please visit our press web site at http://info.ea.com.

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. announced today that a wide selection of music from its popular games has been added to the iTunes store. Much of this music was originally available only in collector’s editions of the games, or at special events such as the company’s BlizzCon® gaming convention. Six Blizzard Entertainment® soundtrack albums are currently available:

StarCraft® Original Soundtrack
Diablo® II Original Soundtrack
Warcraft® III: Reign of Chaos® Original Soundtrack
World of Warcraft® Original Soundtrack
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade® Original Soundtrack
World of Warcraft: Taverns of Azeroth Original Soundtrack

The albums have been placed on a new Blizzard Entertainment hub page within the iTunes store. This page also hosts content such as the BlizzCast™ podcast and trailers and gameplay footage from upcoming Blizzard Entertainment games, with more material to be added in the months ahead. In addition, the “Diablo III Overture” from the company’s recently announced action role-playing game, Diablo III, is available as a single and has been highlighted as a Discovery Download, making it free to download until Tuesday, September 9.

Players in the regions iTunes serves (North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan) can purchase the music at standard rates for each of those regions. For more information, please visit www.blizzard.com.