When I was originally informed about there being a two day event in Los Angeles dedicated to the Call of Duty franchise, I got excited. It’s usually because I become a fanboy whenever the Call of Duty name is raised but once I heard what the plans were for the event, I grew even more giddy as a nerd.

Call of Duty: XP is described by Activision on the XP website as:

Call of Duty XP is the premiere live fan experience for Call of Duty gamers at every skill level. Attendees will witness the global reveal of Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3 multiplayer and get first crack at the title, which releases this November. Also debuting is Modern Warfare 3′s new Spec Ops survival mode and the feature-complete version of Call of Duty® Elite. Ticketholders can participate in numerous gaming challenges and Call of Duty-inspired live action-experiences, and enjoy live musical performances from The Dropkick Murphys and superstar Kanye West. XP will also host the finals of the $1 Million Tournament presented by Activision and Xbox 360®.

Well, the event took place last weekend and we were lucky enough to be invited by Activision to attend with press passes to cover the event..and get free stuff. On the lines of free stuff, every “goodie” bag given out to attendees had a redeemable code for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Hardened edition inside where they could go online, redeem the code and the game would be sent on the release date.

While at XP, you have a plethora of things to do whether you were into paintballing on the Modern Warfare 2 map, Scrapyard or try playing the Modern Warfare 3 gauntlet. You could tell that Activision and Xbox really put their money where their mouth was because they made XP truly a fan experience.

A ticket for Call of Duty: XP would set you back $150, at first seeming pricey, but you realize you get a lot more bang for your buck. With that $150, you would get Modern Warfare 3 Hardened edition ($100), Kanye West and Dropkick Murphy concert ($300), I could keep going and make this sound like a MasterCard commercial but I think you understand what I’m saying. There were appearances made by Xzibit, Kevin Garnett of the Boston Celtics and Chris Bosh of the Miami Heat showing up for Pros vs GI Joes, a non-profit organization that organizes video game matchups between athletes and U.S. Army servicemen overseas.

All game stations had a 21′ flat screen television for each player, along with the TV setup, the gaming headset company, Astro, provided over 850 A40 headsets for the event, each headset with a MixAmp. The headset did provide a sense of professionalism in-game, communicating with your friends using $250 headsets was incredible and added to the experience.

There were also a few panels with developers from Treyarch and InfinityWard discussing the games past and present. The event lasted two days and it was amazing. Truly, Activison did great work here and I had fun every second I was there. My only complaint is that they haven’t announced whether or not they’ll do a Call of Duty: XP 2012..I hope so.