After U360′s debut UK Showcase, the nominations and personal pitches for a Showcase started to soar.  I can’t get to them all just yet but I will indeed get to them all.

For now, have another dose from the ‘other’ side with yet another UK Unscripted 360 Showcase.  Who’s on tap?

Now tell us, first and foremost, who is the guy behind the name?

Whagi is what’s called in the industry as a “Classic Gamer”, or to put it into layman’s terms, an “old fart.”

I’m 39 and have been gaming across multiple platforms for nearly 30 years; my first console was an Orange Binatone that my mother and father bought for me one Christmas. It had cool games in black and white, games like, errr, Pong and Squash (Pong against a wall). It was amazing, well it was at the time. It’s what first got me into gaming.

I like to ask this all the time.  What’s the story behind your Gamertag?

It’s not quite as exciting as it sounds. I used to play a lot of MMORPGs on the PC and the first one I played my character had a little stumpy tail that moved back and forth as he walked. So I called him Whagi, as in a tail wagging. Yes I know its spelt different, but I wanted it to stand out a little bit from the crowd. I have been using it ever since, no matter where I go or what game I play.

That makes a lot of sense.  I’ve noticed you have a thing for backgrounds.  Can you explain a bit about Whagi’s backgrounds?

I saw a hole in the community and I have tried to fill that hole. I created a site where the whole community, both the US and the UK could easily find good quality HD gaming background images that they could instantly use as 360 backdrops without having to hunt down screenshots themselves and then have to edit the images to make them fit. I hope that’s what I created anyway and that people are finding it a useful addition/resource. People can freely PM me and ask for gaming backgrounds that they would like to see on the site and I will create as many as I can in my free time.

HD backgrounds…nice.  It’s obvious you’re a fan of the Xbox 360.  Why did you choose the 360?

I chose the 360 simply because I had many years of fun and great experiences with the original Xbox both offline and online. I was lucky enough to be part of the original Beta testing Live team and even at that very early stage I could see the true potential of the whole Xbox and LIVE experience. But now, the 360 and LIVE have gone far beyond my expectations, now they are fully integrated into my gaming life. It will continue to improve and grow, especially now that MS have announced LIVE Anywhere, that will encompass my entire gaming across the 360, the PC and even my mobile phone. Personally, I can’t wait.

If you could, paint a picture of your dream setup while playing the Xbox 360 and run down what you currently have.

Well, I have an entire spare second bedroom. I would love to completely convert that whole room into a gaming den complete with top spec 5.1 sound system built into the walls and a huge display taking up one of the four walls. That to me would be more or less perfect; I could totally immerse myself into a games environment and almost be part of the game.

My current setup it quite good. I have a 32” HDTV and the 360 outputting its 5.1 sound digitally to a 5.1 surround sound system in my living room. I’m still stunned by how most of the games look and sound.

What would you say is the best title on the Xbox 360?

This is a little bit of a bad question for me personally, and most people in the UK forums know the answer already.

Oblivion is by far the best game I have seen on the 360 and in fact the best game I have seen and played on any platform since playing Pong. The graphics, sound, environment, game play, the openness and the way it immerse you into another World is just stunning. My jaw still hits the ground now when I return to play the Market Place downloads for it.

Just take a peek at our Oblivion thread in the UK forums; it’s the biggest thread at 152 pages! It’s full of great people all having fun and going out of their way to help others, which goes for the UK forums as a whole also, a lot of great people there.

That’s a lot of pages.  What’s the game you’d rather just erase from your history of played games?

I don’t have to go very far back to answer that question. X-Men on the 360! I have never played a worse game ever. The graphics were some of the worst I have seen in a game, the game play and controls were also some of the worst. I hated playing it and I mean I physically had to force myself to get up and play it, it cost me money, so I had to finish it. The 360 certainly does not need titles like that when it is capable of so much more.

Pick a date and fast forward to it.  Which of your most wanted titles would be releasing on that date?

I’m looking forward to a lot of the upcoming titles due for release at the end of this year and the beginning of the next, as are we all!

It really is no contest, and no it is not Halo 3 (although of course I am looking forward to that also), it has to be Gears of War. That game just looks stunning and hopefully it will take full advantage of all the 360 and LIVE has to offer. It will also be the first game I will experience that uses the Unreal 3 engine, so the whole package is really going to blow us all away I think.

Are you a big supporter of the Gamerscore system and Achievements?

Yes I am, 100%. I think both Gamerscore and Achievements have improved my gaming immensely. I play games fully now and not just run through them. One of the first prime examples was Condemned, that game was amazing. I found myself hunting down the birds, metal pieces and secrets just to get the Achievements, but in the end, hunting for them all became just as much part of the fun as the whole game.

Another good example is Call of Duty 2, I would never have even considered playing that game on Veteran difficulty setting if it was not for the Achievements, and believe me, and they truly are well earned ones also. The game was in a class of its own on Veteran, something I would have missed out on if it was not for the achievements being there.

Yes there are one or two games out there that make a fool out of Gamerscore and Achievements. King Kong and a lot of the EA sports titles for example make them far too easy. But with a lot of the new 360 games, they seem to be getting the balance right as far as what you need to do to earn achievements.

What feature of the Xbox 360 would you like improved?

A little quieter, they are rather noisy beasts at times. Made a lot more stable, they do seem to be giving people problems at times, locking up and three red lights. I truly feel for all fellow gamers that this happens to, it happened to me once already. I’m sure MS are doing everything they can to improve these issues. A much larger hard drive needed more for the future than right now. Faster downloads speeds from the Market Place. It’s still very slow for a lot of people.

There has been rumour of a new controller.  Would you welcome that?

If it improves on what we currently have, yes, I would welcome it with open arms. Any controller that improves and simplifies user input is good. Added functionality such as movement sensors that might get added are also good news. Basically anything that leads games developers to be more innovative when designing and developing games is something all gamers want to see.

Are you planning to purchase the Xbox Live Vision Camera?

Indeed I am. I think the world deserves to behold such a beauty as myself. But to be serious, it will be great for all uses, such as, seeing your friends’ faces while playing poker, UNO and other Live games, applying your own face onto in game models within games, personalizing your Gamercard image within your friends list and I think the most important one is for talking to family and friends. Looking forward to it greatly.

There was a recent Showcase done with a fellow UK gamer, Darth Invidious, and he spoke about the release dates and gamers in the UK being upset.  How do you feel?

This is another difficult question for me, as I am known for my positive attitude towards the 360. But I feel I have to speak from the heart and say how it is amongst a lot of the 360 community.

I think it’s not just the people from the UK that are a little disappointed, I think a lot of people from all regions where the 360 was released have been somewhat under whelmed by the 360s initial game releases. We were all promised so much for launch, and then got so little. Yes there where good titles at launch but there were also a few bad ones.

Also a lot of games seem to be released without being correctly bug tested, rushed to market then patched later through the Market Place. People buy a game expecting it to be playable at the very least some of which have not even been that, COD2 online was unplayable by many for quite sometime and there are others.

The current summer drought of new games does not help either, people get bored.

Saying that, I have found most games good fun and very enjoyable. Just enjoyed Prey and currently playing Chromehounds and LOTR, both great games.

Ok.  One shot.  One game.  You against Peter Moore.  Who wins and what are you playing?

I win, Quake4, 1 on 1 Deathmatch

Now take a Whagi moment and speak your last words to those who will be reading your Showcase.

I would like to thank everyone in the 360 community for their great support toward the 360 across the World and all the help and support they all give each other within their own countries forums. Well done everyone.

Cheers
Whagi LOL