Gaming with Friends & M&M’s!

The other night, my husband and I hosted an impromptu video games with friends.  We used to do this all the time when Rockband was popular, we had some fun jamming sessions back then.  But we moved to a new house, life seemed to get busier, and we just haven’t had a gaming session since.  We invited our friends over to play Forza 4, a fun, real-to-life racing game that puts you in the driver’s seat.

The week before, I visited Walmart to buy an XBOX Forza 4 and one of our favorite candies, M&M’s!  I was trying to save them for our gaming party, whenever that was going to be, but quite honestly, all of us couldn’t keep our hands off of them.  I thought all of us liked the peanut M&M’s best, but my kids insisted on the plain M&M’s.  I was shocked they didn’t favor the peanut kind like my husband and I. I gave in and bought two large bags, one peanut and one plain.  Later, I rediscovered the irresistibility of plain M&M’s!!!

Video Games with Friends – Forza 4

Anyways, I digress. Back to Forza 4.  Now, I don’t know about you, but I have always had trouble with racing games.  For some reason, I can never get the knack of driving my car through the track without crashing at every corner.  This has been a source of frustration for me as long as I can remember.  Needless to say, I was a bit hesitant in playing the Forza 4 video game.  But knowing our friends coming over weren’t hardcore gamers, I felt we could all learn together.

It stated on the Forza 4 package that the game was better with Kinect.  Really?  I was curious.  Perhaps it would be easier to drive with an invisible steering wheel than with a controller.  And you know what?  It is!  I actually drove pretty well.  Although I bumped into a few items, I never wiped out!  Of course, it helps that the Kinect part of the game comes with auto acceleration and breaking.  Huh?  Who’d of figured that?  I was driving like a pro.  In fact, all four of us were!  And the novelty of using an invisible steering well was fun too!

As Forza 4 is rated E by the ERSB, it’s a game I can share with my kids as well.  I know they too will enjoy the simplicity of putting out your hands and turning a steering wheel.

It’s amazing how intense you can get when you’re driving a souped up car and using an invisible steering wheel.  At times I caught myself clenching my hands really tight as I turned a sharp corner.  You really do feel as if you are in the car driving in the race.  We drove through the picturesque alps of Switzerland and through parts of Spain.  Beautiful scenery  and the visual details of our car choices were incredibly real to life. Forza 4 comes with two discs, with the second disc loaded only with hundreds of cars to choose from for your racing cars.  With Kinect, you are able to inspect your car thoroughly – the exterior, under the hood, and even the instrumentation at the dash simply by leaning forward and turning the car around with your hand.  If you’re a car buff, Forza 4 offers an incredible experience.

As we tried out the game, we gobbled down M&M’s.  Our kids would come in and out of the room grabbing some too.  They would throw them up in the air and see if they could catch them in their mouths.  The adults, on the other hand, wouldn’t risk dropping a prized M&M on the floor!  M&M’s are the perfect snack for video games.

Instagram Pixel Art M&M’s Contest – Win an Xbox One Gaming Pack!

Gaming is Better with M.  M&M’s is having an Instagram contest where you can make a video gaming and/or racing inspired pixel art out of M&M’s to celebrate the launch of Forza 5.  Make one and post it on Instagram and Twitter, with the hashtags #FueledByMM and #contest.  The contest runs from December 4th through December 18th.  You can only enter the contest if you upload your image to Instagram with the hashtags during these dates.  My daughter had fun making a mosaic out of M&M’s.  She created an M&M playing video games with a Xbox game controller!  We can’t wait to enter!

What could you win?  You could win a gaming pack worth around $600 containing a new Xbox One, Forza 5, and M&M’s!  Or if you prefer, you can have the cash equivalent.  Cool.  The winner will be chosen at random.

Forza 5

With the introduction of Xbox One this week, Forza 5 will also be available.  Due to the superior graphics that Xbox One contains, the Forza experience will be even more exhilarating with high density, next-generation graphics in 1080p resolution at 60 frames per second.  Not only will there by stunning detail with the makeup of the cars and scenery on the road, but even the crashes themselves will be extensively detailed showing each scratch and ripped apart metal and contortion of the vehicle.   Of all the ten years Forza has been into play, it has never been able to reach such an exemplary level of a real-life experience as Forza 5 will portray on the Xbox One.

Forza 5 will retail for $59.98 and can be pre-ordered at Walmart.com.

Buy, Snap, Redeem Promotion

Does trying out the new Forza 5 while eating M&M’s sound good to you?  If you’re going to buy Forza 5, buy it at Walmart, as they are offering a $10 eGift card to Walmart to offset the expense of your future purchases.  The promotion is called Buy, Snap, Redeem.  It involves purchasing Forza 5 and M&M’s.  The promo, begins on the launch date of both Xbox One and Forza 5 – on November 22nd.

To participate:

• buy a bag of M&M’s (participating M&M products include: M&Ms Peanut 42oz Stand Up Pouch, M&Ms Milk 42oz Stand Up Pouch, M&Ms Peanut Butter 38oz Stand Up Pouch, M&Ms Pretzel 30oz Stand Up Pouch, M&Ms Peanut 19.2oz Large Laydown Bag, M&Ms Milk 19.2oz Large Laydown Bag, M&Ms Peanut Butter 18.4oz Large Laydown Bag, M&Ms Pretzel 15.4oz Large Laydown Bag.)
• Buy the Forza 5 game
• Snap a photo of qualifying items on the receipt on your phone and text it to 811811
• Redeem:  You will receive a text back with a reward code valid for a $10 eGift card to Walmart

 A Mom’s Perspective

I’ve forgotten how fun it is to play video games with friends.  We had a great time, laughed a lot, and all of us enjoyed the M&M’s.  I love that I found a racing game that I can finally play and with Kinect, there was no learning curve other than ensuring you stay within the Kinect camera range.  This was hard at times as I found myself hovering my whole upper body to the left sometimes to make those turns!

I love that using Kinect with Forza 4 allows you to focus on the driving and not the shifting and breaking.  This makes Forza a great racing video game for kids.  Yet, by using the regular Xbox controllers, hard core gamers can have more control of the car like they expect.

Enjoy video games as a family.  There are so many games out there to suit your interests and video games provide a great bonding time with your kids.