Monday, June 23, 2008

23rd June: GS Update

The Update after the holiday! Yes, I now have a very bad tan. Menorca was great this time of year, but I still missed the thrill of achievement seeking - even when having a beer alongside the Mediterranean. Envious yet? =D

As a result of my 'week off', my 360voice had a field day, spouting all sorts of hatrid that my 360 was unhappy to be played. Take this excerpt:
If borandi doesn't play me tomorrow, I have this sinking feeling something really bad will happen... like a meteorite obliterates all life on earth and the EMP takes all electronic devices with it.
However, I've been busy since I've been back. Take a look at these games I've played:

Civilization Revolut'n

Civilization Revolut'n

0 -> 855 of 1000
46 of 50 Achievements

I've been a fan of the Civilization series since Civ II on the PC. I'd spend hours upon hours with the game. It would eat up my spare time. It would devour my sleep time and make me miss meals. This new game, CivRev, is no exception.

No, seriously. I bought this game and starting playing it at 4pm. Last thing I knew, I was being messaged at 4am for some boosting on a different game. Then 20 minutes later, I was back on CivRev for another couple of hours. Now, I haven't spent that long on one game for ages. It's just something about the Civ series that makes players lose track of what day it is.

Civ is a hard game to describe if you've never played it. In a nutshell, you control a Civilization (duh) - you decide whether to make new cities, to focus on science or money, to focus on attack or defence. Your surroundings determine whether you can attack, or whether it pays dividends to play one strategy over the other. It's turn based, so you move all your units and make all decisions, then it moves onto the next player. CivRev is fixed at 5 players (1 player, 4 CPU) on a fixed sized map. Each decision can yield 1000s of different combinations of potential outcomes, which is why CivRev games can take ages to finish.

Compared to older Civ games, CivRev is essentially a dumbed down version in large print. The games are simpler, and the controls work well for a console. But CivRev captures the spark of Civ games. These games are still rough around the edges and need a little QA, but play beautifully and you'll want to keep playing them.

The achievements of CivRev are fairly easy - win as every civilization, certain city achieves, a handful of easy ones that are unlocked in the first 15 minutes of play, and some hard ones, such as win on the hardest difficulty for every type of victory, and win by the year 1000AD. At time of writing, I'm 50th in the world on GS =D I play it too much maybe...

Big Bumpin

Big Bumpin

40 -> 60 of 200
4 of 12 Achievements

This was the game that interrupted my CivRev marathon =D I was in a boosting party of four - we got one guy the achievements he needed, then he buggered off. The bastard.

GTA IV

GTA IV

580 -> 650 of 1000
38 of 50 Achievements

A couple of achievements on GTA - win each type of MP game, and complete SP! I managed to do that final mission, eventually! In the end, I had to not focus on the main target - killing the guy. Only when I got to the final part (after the helicopter flight) could you actually kill him, so I did it then =D Now I'm on a quest for 100%. All that's left is - 200 pigeons, 50 stunt jumps, meet all random people and the 30 most wanted criminals.

Wits & Wagers

Wits & Wagers

165 -> 200 of 200
12 of 12 Achievements

Not much to say here - I got the final achievement, answer all 700 questions. It only took 150 games (2/3 nights with a turbo pad). However, it seems like it took longer for one guy on my friends list, who took nearly 400 games. Game Complete!

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GamerScore: 98,909 -> 99889
Zone: Pro

Completed XBLA: 24 -> 25 / 59
Completed Retail: 49 / 201
GS Completion %: 46.10% -> 46.34%

Country Rank: 73 -> 71
World Rank: 515 -> 523
Completion Rank: 1,026 -> 990

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On a side note, I'm 111GS from 100k. I'll see if I can make 99999, not sure if exactly 100k is possible though if I go for that =P I have no plans to stop at 100k. However, I'm moving next week, so keep you're eyes peeled =D

1 comment:

jen/haly said...

I'm really tempted by Civilization Revolution, although I can't really afford it so have to see if I can find something to trade in. Loved the PC games.
Good luck hitting 99999 and with the move!