27th May: GS Update (1)

Well it's definately time for a GS update. Thankfully I've finished all my exams for this academic year, thus I can devote some time to 360 gaming =D In the past week, I've rented a few games and got pissed off at a few others.

American Wasteland (of the Tony Hawk fame) is my first attempt at playing a skateboarding game in quite a while. I've completed a few during the genre, so I looked forward to playing this. Sure enough, it's still classic Hawk. Lots of grinding, manual-ing and grabbing galore. There are two main modes - Story and Classic. Classic involves 6 retro skate parks, with 10 goals each (score, collect secret tape, collect letters, etc.). Story takes you through the new storyline - help build a new skatepark after coming to LA from HickVille. Sometimes the story line isnt clear, but its good Hawk and worth playing if you like the series. The achievements seem alright too - Every 10 goals in classic, playing each level online, getting a score above 1000 on each map in free skate, story mode, everything 100%. I've still a few maps to get and story mode to do, but 100% seems a bit of a bitch - you have to do every special gap and trick in the game. Blegh. But I'll enjoy this the longer I play it hopefully!

Full Auto again - I tried for some online acheives, but the people online were being assholes, purposely driving behind to get the kills. On one race, it was Class C restricted, but this guy got 70 seconds ahead in one lap. WTF??? Well I also did a section on single player, so still a lot to go, but it's fun.

Played the demo of Centipede and Millipede. It's classic retro. I didnt like it then, I'm still not keen on it now. If this game was 200MS points, then maybe.


Saw a few people on my list had Heavy Weapon, so I played the demo. It's quite fun - your standard 2D sidescrolling shoot and kill sort of game. Plenty of levels to choose from. This would be better if they'd made points = money to buy upgrades, rather than 1 upgrade per level. I'd get this from XBLA if I had some spare MS points, but I'm saving up for Undertow.

Small Arms is a 2D style fighting game along the same lines as Super Smash Brothers, but with guns. To be completely honest, even from the demo, they overcomplicated the controls. I'm not going to be getting this with my points.

I booted up FM2006 to see what else I could do. During playing, I got a message from someone random to try and get some online achievements. Did a few of those, and he told me that he got his ~500GS from the game was to basically take control of as many teams possible in a one division game, then leave it on overnight. I did so, but forgot to disable the option for the xbox auto shutting down after 6hrs. But I got a fair chunk of achievements during that time =D Need to do it a bit more for a few more GS.

Still on the quest for Catan achievements. I've done another 5/6 games getting the largest army card, so only a few more for that. Then it's a case of about 100 wins online (or 1000 points worth). Given that a full game can last 40 mins, that achievement is a long time away!

I tried demos of the new XBLA games Xevious and Rush'n Attack. Wasn't impressed, even for retro games. I've never heard of these games before, and they didnt want me to buy them. Come on MS, where's Undertow?

Tried some more single player CoD3. The controls are still giving me grief.



Another batch of Pro Evo. I'm now about 26 games into my Premiership Season - another 12 or so to go until I finish that achievement.