6th November: GS Update

Update is a bit late this week - I've been tired for some god awful reason.

Go ahead... call me a wussy... but I almost started crying when borandi turned me on yesterday. 55,557 points of raw gamer score are making you jealous! That is a profit of 215 points over last time! He rallied Puzzle Quest, UEFA CL 2006-2007 finishing 3 achievements, and laughed with joy and glee the whole time. I like making people happy.

What is really good is that every day played is another chance to catch up to rican ninja89 and that 56,682 score... Make it happen borandi!!

Did I mention that I like it when people like us? borandi's gamer reputation increased yesterday proving that he is an all-around nice guy.

And the games:

The Simpsons™ Game	0 -> 75 of 1000 8 of 44 Achievements
UEFA CL 2006-2007	10 -> 350 of 1000 6 of 31 Achievements
Sonic The Hedgehog 2	145 -> 190 of 200 11 of 12 Achievements
E4	15 -> 35 of 200 3 of 12 Achievements
Halo 3	170 -> 230 of 1000 16 of 49 Achievements
Yaris	5 -> 35 of 200 4 of 12 Achievements
Clive Barker's Jericho	0 -> 110 of 1000 6 of 42 Achievements
Virtua Fighter 5	0 -> 55 of 1000 5 of 32 Achievements
Quake 4	85 -> 90 of 1000 8 of 50 Achievements
Eternal Sonata	10 of 1000 1 of 22 Achievements
At World’s End	550 -> 1000 of 1000 30 of 30 Achievements

The Simpsons Game was released this week, and after playing the demo last week, I rented it as soon as I could. In general, it's a fun platformer. It's your stereotypical platformer/Simpsons combo, with humour (i.e. it informs you when you hit a game cliché) typical to the Simpsons. People who aren't fans of the game will just see it as another platformer, and gamerscore whores will find it annoying due to the collection achievements. At times the graphics are really poor, but in general hold up to a mid-range set of 360 standards. I'll rent this again in due course, to at least complete the main game.

Long time readers may remember my last encounter with UEFA CL: It was appalling. I was so used to Pro Evo, I couldn't stand this game. I rented it again, given that ZACH SP8 10k had just purchased a copy and wanted the online achievements. He directed me towards the easier achievements - win the UEFA cup once, then three consecutive times, on any difficulty. Each win of the UEFA cup - that's about 18 matches at 2 min halves, including loading times, took just over an hour. I've learned how to adapt to this game now - it requires proper skills, unlike the bombing down the pitch like in Pro Evo. I'm happy to have about 1/3 of the GS on this game, but I'd have to focus for the other achievements.

I loaded up Sonic 2, aiming to complete the single player mode. It was quite easy in retrospect, with the final boss requiring some finesse and active saving. The only achievement left is the 10 XBLA wins online, and as no-one plays this, I'll need to boost with someone.

I fired up E4 again, this time to play with the predetermined music supplied with the game. As a result I hit a couple of achievements. This game only lends itself to 30 minute sessions, so I'll come back to it to grind out a couple more achievements.

Thursday was another HUCS gamernight, and we played Halo 3. I say 'we', it ended up being Warmish Hot Tub and I. Thus, we played through some more of story mode on Legendary (Warmish has done it on Heroic, so he knew what he was doing). As a result, in 3 hours we got through 4/5 levels, and I got another couple of achievements. Well I'll get to the rest some other time :p

I fired up Yaris so get the online achievements, and hoping to get a few more levels in. Fat chance! I need more coins to beef up my car. Got the online ones though, but still stuck on level 3.

I rented Jericho. I posted this on my 10k forum:

Rented it, played it, its quite fun. Not on the same level of Bioshock, but the story is compelling nonetheless. I dont see how the countries that banned it (Aus/Ger, cant remember which) could do so - I've seen more gore in GoW! So far going through on hard is quite easy actually, as it's kind of a CoD system with very frequent checkpoints. You're also in a squad of 7 initially, that can resurrect each other as needed.

Worth a rental, not much to do on if after completing it on hard though I reckon. I got 110GS in around an hour, just going through the story line, done 6/30 missions. Some of the 'go through without getting incapacitated on hard' might be a bit difficult.

I'll rent it again. It was fun.

I also rented Virtua Fighter 5. Its a lot more fun than Dead or Alive 4. Kudos. Worth another rental.

Also a boost with Rican Ninja89 on Quake 4 - I got the 100 points in multiplayer matches achievement. We worked primarily on the excellent and impressive achievements however.

I played for an hour on Eternal Sonata too. I'm awaiting a guide for it (as I get with all my RPGs) just so I dont miss anything. I could do it without the guide, but in general I find it less fun if you miss 50% of the side quests.

Heh I decided to grind At Worlds End! Got the full thousand - completed the game, and went after the 100 souls. I did Port Royal, and in the first tavern fight keep using Jacks special to earn skulls, then used 1 skull at a time away from the enemies then cut them down except the main guy. Rinse and repeat! I actually finished that level with 99 souls total (bleh), but I had a few levels with 0 souls (Davy Jones' locker) so I did it then.

GS: 54,442 -> 55,632

Completed XBLA:	13 / 36
Completed Retail:	26 / 131
GS Completion %:	38.37%
GS % (Non-Demo):	40.70%

Country Rank:	200
World Rank:	1,328

- Thats top 200 in the UK. w00t ;)