borandi's Xbox 360 diary

Retired

2009-04-13T16:40:00.004+01:00

Well, if you couldn't have guessed from the lack of posts since September 08, I've retired from the GS race. It was a snap decision - the circumstances in my life have changed such that Xbox 360 gaming is no longer important.

I still have my Guitar Hero and some RPGs, but apart from that, I'm selling everything else, including my US Xbox 360 and my second UK 360.

A full list of what's for sale can be found at http://tinyurl.com/borandiSale

Email me if you want anything - borandi [at] gmail [dot] com

I'll be writing a new blog soon, based on what may become my profession - PC building and overclocking. Stay tuned, or something.

Edit - here it is. http://borandipc.blogspot.com

The Easy Games - September 2008

2008-09-11T01:14:00.004+01:00

At time of writing, I'm at 55 retail completions and 28 arcade completions. In a descending list of GS/hour:

Avatar
Madden 06
NBA 2k6
College Hoops 2k6
NHL 2k6
Madden 08
MLB 2k6
TMNT
Open Season
Fifa 06 RTFWC
NBA Live 2006
NHL® 07
Cars
Galaga
Surf's Up
Jumper
Lost: Via Domus
CSI: Hard Evidence
Cars: Mater-National
King Kong
POTC: At World's End
GUN
A-Train HX
Fuzion Frenzy 2
Jericho
Fifa Street 3
Fight Night Round 3
Viva Pinata: Party Animals
New Rally-X
Sonic
Eragon
Golden Axe
NBA Street Homecourt
Live Draft Tracker
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
X-Men III
Madden 07
Track and Field
Ms. Pac-Man
NBA Ballers: Chosen One
SpiderMan: FoF
Spyglass Board Games
Shrek III
Summer Athletics
Bomberman Live
Sonic 2
Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires
Meet the Robinsons
Gauntlet
Prey
NBA 2k7
NHL 2k7
3D Ultra Minigolf
Bionicle Heroes
Superman Returns
Bee Movie Game
Dig Dug
Pac-Man
Buku Numeros
Buku Sudoku
Backgammon
Carcassone
Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
NCAA Football 07
Puzzle Fighter HD
Soul Calibur
Uno
Worms
TMNT: Arcade
Bankshot Billiards 2
Enchanted Arms
Phantasy Star Universe
WWE 08
LMA Manager 07
Arkadian Warriors
Civilisation Revolution
Viva Piñata
Wits and Wagers
WWE 07
Fable 2 Pub Games
Pro Evo 6 / Winning Eleven 2007
Undertow
Blue Dragon
Beautiful Katamari
Forza
Puzzle Quest

I've left Puzzle Quest in there, even though it's now got some DLC (for 700MSPs... rip off). To my surprise a few arcade games come in near the bottom.

I have a list of games I still want to play, due to easy GS:

Wall-E
Kung Fu Panda
Bourne Supremacy
Spiderwick Chronicles
Golden Compass
Madden 09
Big Game Hunter
Prince Caspian

and also a few games I own but not completed 100% yet:

Bully
Eternal Sonata
Lost Odyssey
Two Worlds
Cabela Safari
Scene It
Braid

etc. etc.

Here's the PDF of easy games with handy hints for most of the games.

7th September: GS Update

2008-09-07T23:37:00.006+01:00

2 weeks since last update, so lots of gaming to cover :) Take, for example, my last 360voice entry:

borandi hit the switch and fired me up yesterday... his total gamer score is 109,879.That is an improvement of 385 points over last time! He opened up Jumper winning 1 achievement to defeat the game, Live Score Tracker winning 1 achievement, Unreal Tournament® 3 picking up 2 achievements, Infinite Undiscovery gaining 3 achievements, Yaris, Rez HD, Poker Smash, N+, NHL 2K8 adding 4 achievements, Bully Scholarship Ed. finishing an amazing 6 achievements, and laughed with joy and glee the whole time. I like making people happy.

And all the games:

NHL 2K8

0 -> 445 of 1000
10 of 19 Achievements

Started on NHL 2k8 this week. Its... frustrating. The menu system is weird, and like THE LAST NHL 2k7 there is a GLITCHED ACHIEVEMENT!! DAMN YOU 2K SPORTS!! HOW CAN YOU GET THIS SH!T WRONG TWICE IN A ROW!!!... Damn you, and your crappy programmers.

Live Score Tracker

0 -> 195 of 200
11 of 12 Achievements

Live score Tracker is EA's attempt to garnish money from us by making a game related to Fantasy NFL and offering easy gamerscore with it. Damn them. Damn us for buying it! I'm beginning to question EA's ethical practices.

Unreal Tournament® 3

290 -> 420 of 1000
22 of 50 Achievements

Spent a while on UT3 this week - mostly working towards the 200 kills every day for 50 days. On the way, worked on the weapons achievements. Fairly straightforward.

Bully Scholarship Ed.

150 -> 430 of 1000
20 of 38 Achievements

I completely blitzed Bully today. Did some of the story, but mainly worked on the easy achievements, like Kiss 20 Gents, Kick a football 100 times etc. Fairly easy so far, apart from the Shop classes (failed 3x :p).

Infinite Undiscovery

0 -> 50 of 1000
3 of 50 Achievements

I preordered IU with my Elite, so got some additional DLC with it. It's a JRPG with a Star Ocean type battle system. Only played a couple hours, seems fun, though the actual speech in game is words, not vocals which is common nowadays in RPGs. Will play more, will aim for 1k GS :)

Jumper

0 -> 1000 of 1000
20 of 20 Achievements

Jumper is an odd game. It offers a new battle system which is fun, but the camera angles are shoddy and the game is glitchy enough that 3 times I fell through the floor. On a speed run, I completed the story mode in 1hr 1minute, though it took 3 playthroughs to get the achievements. One boss was really hard half-way through the first playthrough, but after that it was easy (even the final boss). Game Complete!

Ticket to Ride™

0 -> 100 of 250
7 of 15 Achievements

I bought Ticket to Ride for the Social 2* badge over at 360voice. It's a fairly easy 200, though I need to boost some online games. Overall, it's a simple (but long) card game.

Live Draft Tracker

0 -> 200 of 200
12 of 12 Achievements

Live Draft Tracker is also one of EA's money making machines. This one is less palateable - too many MSPs!

NBA 2K7

655 -> 1000 of 1000
50 of 50 Achievements

Finally finished NBA 2k7. The main problem here were the blocks. I was able to fire up a second controller to get all block related achievements, and find a boosting partner for the online wins. Overall, a nice 1000 :)

NBA 2K8

210 -> 820 of 1000
40 of 50 Achievements

I played NBA 2k8 in the same ilk as 2k7 - once the blocks were out of the way, the rest was easy. The only achievements left are the online ones. I like the NBA 2k series - nice and somewhat easy :)

Call of Juarez

0 -> 10 of 1000
1 of 36 Achievements

I went into Gamestation and bought Call of Juarez and Kane&Lynch this week in their 2 for 20 (GBP) range. I've wanted CoJ for a while as part of my collection, though I'm not too fond of Westerns. I played this for a little, though it seemed a little frustrating. Must play later.

Buku Números

0 -> 200 of 200
12 of 12 Achievements

I got the opportunity to play Buku Numeros - the Mexican version of Buku Soduku. So I quickly wrapped up the 200GS, fairly easy when I found a boosting partner - which was a bit hard, seeing as only 100 people have ever played the game (according to MGC)!

Marvel Ult. Alliance

980 -> 1135 of 1250
54 of 58 Achievements

I've had Marvel: UA a while, and tbh I should have completed this already! I spent part of this past update time doing the simulation discs. Some of them were hard to get gold, but by using a combination of the best moves and being quick, it worked. After that, a case of getting all the outfits for every character. It was just a case of using one of the Asgard simulation levels. All that's left is to complete the game on hard, 100 arcade wins, and 2 DLC 'Meet X with X' achievements.

Rock Band

265 -> 285 of 1000
15 of 50 Achievements

Did some boosting with Roquey on Rock Band - some Score Duels. We traded about 10 each, along with me getting the 5 in a row achievement (he already had it).

============
No position updates this time - MGC are having problems. We all hope they get it sorted soon :) Good luck guys.

Ordered an Elite!!

2008-09-02T13:50:00.002+01:00

So thats an Xbox 360 Elite (the version with 120GB HDD), Fable 2 Collectors Edition, Fallout 3 Collectors Edition and Infinite Undiscovery for £335 (inc P&P). Thats £30 saving over the cheapest prices to get these together, £65 over Gamestation.co.uk prices. Bargain.

See you on Fable II :)

25th August: GS Update

2008-08-25T22:07:00.001+01:00

Ahaha! I am back! *BIG FANFARE* No really, its all about the gaming.

Are you ready for a recap? I know I am! Giddyup: If your Xbox is depressed, try playing seven days in a row like borandi did last week. It has a way of making you a bit giddy... The gamerscore increase was just insane. I didn't think it would be possible to get 1730 points in such a short span of time but we did. Who knew 209 achievements could be worth that much? Ok I knew that...

For the record, we played 11 new games over the last week. They were Beijing 2008, Braid, Bully Scholarship Ed., ET: QUAKE Wars, Fable® II Pub Games, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, NFL Tour, SEGA Superstars Tennis, SOULCALIBUR, Summer Athletics, and Universe at War. They were all fun... in their own little ways. Also, I think we can all agree that borandi's favorite game last week was ET: QUAKE Wars. He played it on 3 of the days.

Lots of games played - some completed, some bought, some traded, some rented. Some fun, others not so much. Let me explain...

SOULCALIBUR

0 -> 200 of 200
12 of 12 Achievements

I've got the original in the Soul Calibur series (Soul Blade, PSX), and even though I'm not too keen on fighting games, the Soul series is the best. Though this XBLA version is a cut down copy of what was originally released - campaign mode has been cut. That was the best bit!!! But I heard this was some easy GS, so I got it and completed it. With the x360a guide, it was a cinch. Easy stuff. Game Complete!

Unreal Tournament® 3

0 -> 290 of 1000
12 of 50 Achievements

I had some HMV credit and had two options - wait a little while and get Too Human (where the demo was OK), or get UT3 which I know would be a little grindy but FPS fun. Well I got UT3 :) My brother and I blitzed the campaign mode in co-op, and I done a little in multiplayer. What's best is me + 15 easy bots, hyperspeed, small map, automatic weapons. There's a reason I got 457 kills in 20 minutes, 380 ahead of 2nd place :)

NBA 2K8

0 -> 210 of 1000
12 of 50 Achievements

I bought NBA 2k8 and NHL 2k8 from Gamestation a couple of days ago in the 2 for 20 range - bargain!!! So I got the easy achievements out of the way - 15 three pointers, 60 points in the paint, etc. The achs are almost identical to NBA 2k7, so we'll see how it goes. The hardest part is the blocks, which I'm working on.

Guitar Hero III

430 -> 455 of 1000
40 of 59 Achievements

Only one achievement of note on GH3 - the 250k notes hit in career. It came randomly, during a track which I failed - so even failed tracks count. I'm on my way to getting the 100mil total score and the $300k total across career.

Rock Band

245 -> 265 of 1000
14 of 50 Achievements

Not much to report on Rock Band - I got the Jet by doing Expert Guitar/Easy Vocals myself. However, my brother came over this bank holiday so we could go after the Endless Setlist (he can do expert bass, I've done expert guitar). We got upto the PR Firm, and we need another 200 stars to get into the Hall of Fame, then another 300 stars to get to the setlist (or something like that). Anyway he'll be back late September, so I'm hoping to get some more achs then.

The Simpsons™ Game

75 -> 185 of 1000
14 of 44 Achievements

It looks like a lot of people have the full 1k in The Simpsons Game, so I bought it to spend some time on it. I've only played a little so far, but I'm well on the way to completing the story mode. Will get back to you when I do!

WCP All In

0 -> 10 of 1000
1 of 39 Achievements

My brother bought this game, so while he was here we popped it in and I got the achievement for playing a year of career mode. This meant skipping 52 weeks. Easy GS, though the game could look better. I'll borrow this off him and play it more some other time.

Fable® II Pub Games

200 of 200
11 of 12 Achievements

I've never played the original Fable. But apparently I missed out. Like I should be put in front of a firing squad sort of missed out. So in order to get into the mood, I got the Pub Games, an XBLA game so people can try and get gold for their character in the main game before it comes out. Or, they could put their character in debt. Either way, the Pub Games consist of 3 games of chance, and a myriad of easy achievements if you've got a turbo pad. Seriously, for most of them, hold down A and bet away! Eventually, some skill is required, like the 'get a jackpot on each game' achievements. THe only one that was hard was the Keystone jackpot, which took 4 hours to get. I haven't completed it yet - still one achievement related to linking the game to a Fable 2 character. I'll get that soon when the game comes out :)

Beijing 2008

0 -> 300 of 1000
15 of 50 Achievements

I traded in a load (about 8) DS games for some credit, and with it I got Beijing 2008, Bully and The Simpsons. As a fan of Olympic style games, I was wanting to love Beijing. After playing it, yeah I like it, but the developers could have done it in a much nicer way. There are lots of events, but the control system is terrible, and the starting system in races is poor. The achievements are really hard (as in you need a perfect to get them) and they really could have looked at older track and field type games and thought 'what could we improve' rather than 'what could we screw up'. Wait until its a tenner, then buy it. A borandi top tip!

skate.

170 -> 390 of 1000
20 of 44 Achievements

I decided the other day to go take the task of getting all the games from my MGC.net profile, and get them 'above average' GS. Well skate. was the closest game which I own, so I went online. The easiest achievements seemed to be the online ones - get 600EXP in trick events and 600EXP in races. I was already 300/300, but it took 4 or so hours to play ~60 events to get 600/600. Though to be honest, it was fun. It's a shame single player mode is bit gay (but the control system is nice).

Devil May Cry 4

0 -> 20 of 1000
2 of 46 Achievements

DMC4 is supposedly a great game worth playing. Well I got it from LoveFilm, and I find it a bit meh. Most of the game is unlocked as you play (so it's not pick up and play), and generally requires 3 or 4 playthroughs. Each playthough is ~21 stages, each 10-20 minutes long. Well, I have a thing against games with those long stages if you can't save in the middle. It's a hack and slash type game revolving around stylistic fighting with a theme towards the dark and dreary. Maybe I just need to play it more - I'm upto stage 5.

Braid

0 -> 80 of 200
7 of 12 Achievements

Braid has been the centre of some controversy in the XBLA market. Some people hate games that cost 1200 MSPs (like Braid) purely based on price. Others say it's too short. The rest say its a pure masterpiece and worth every penny. Overall, the game lasts 4-5 hours and is a brilliantly made 2D platformer that is visually stunning as well as innovative to the genre. 1200MSPs = ~$10 for 4 hours play? That's a bargain compared to going to see a film. Try the demo, make up your own decision. I love it.

SEGA Superstars Tennis

0 -> 290 of 1000
16 of 45 Achievements

This game has been out a while, so I was glad to get it for 15GBP from GAME. It's a brilliant tennis game mixed with every fabulous SEGA franchise under the sun - Jet Set Radio, Channel 5... all with real tennis and real minigames. A great game in single player, and superb for versus mode.

Summer Athletics

0 -> 1000 of 1000
37 of 37 Achievements

After Beijing being a little disappointing, I was glad to hear that Summer Athletics' achievements would be a lot easier. Well, suffice to say, they were. As a vet of these type of games, this was easy, though some people over at x360a are having problems. Using the x360a guide (and helping add to it a little), the achievements fell. Overall, the game is lower quality than Beijing and could seriously take some hints. I'd suggest people buy Beijing over this. However, Game Complete!

Bully Scholarship Ed.

0 -> 150 of 1000
7 of 38 Achievements

Bully is a game I've been wanting to play for ages - if not just for the 'Kiss 20 boys' achievement. It's been out on the PS2 a while, and came to the 360 (with some extras) about 5 months ago. I found a copy cheap, and it's a brilliant game. Rockstar have excelled themselves again, and I should really play this more. BRB...

25th August: GS Update (2)

2008-08-25T22:04:00.001+01:00

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

0 -> 570 of 1000
30 of 49 Achievements

With my love of guitar games, I just had to get GH:A. Well, that and my old GH3 guitar is a little worse for wear (the buttons stick). I got it with the guitar, and it's great. I completed GH:A on expert with no trouble whatsoever - If I recall correctly, I passed every track first time. Though looking at the achievements, I know there is one I wont get - 325k on Train Kept A Rollin'. I can get 230k, but I'm nowhere near that good.

Lost Odyssey

360 -> 980 of 1100
35 of 42 Achievements

With so much time offline, I blitzed Lost Odyssey. Using my Prima Guide, I got all but one achievement of the original 1000 GS. Unfortunately the final achievement is 'collect all pickups' around the world - which the guide doesnt cater for. Bastards. Though even with the guide, I found Lost Odyssey one of THE BEST games available for the 360. Go buy it - buy it now!

ET: QUAKE Wars

0 -> 240 of 1000
17 of 50 Achievements

ETQW was on offer on Play-Asia, and after playing the PC version, I thought I had a good feel to what the 360 should play like. In the end, I prefer the 360 version - a lot more pick up and play friendly, even if online there aren't many people. It's your standard team FPS objective style fare - either build this or hack that, or if you're on the other team, defend against the others. Achievement wise, you have the difficulty achievements (complete easy, med and hard), get 3* on all classes on each difficulty, win all maps offline as both sides, play a lot online. I got the play offline ones, done easy on campaign, and one match online. An easy enough 1000 I reckon, just needs some time and effort.

Civilization Revolut'n

855 -> 1000 of 1000
50 of 50 Achievements

I'm glad Civ Rev came to the 360 - this is the sort of game the 360 should have. The final achievements I needed were fairly straightforward with a little help from the x360a forums for the best way of going about it. Though the 'get the unique people' achievement took me about 8 or 9 games of culture farming. The final guy came on the last turn of a game. Lucky or what. 10/10!! Game Complete.

EarthDefenseForce 2017

0 -> 150 of 1000
2 of 6 Achievements

I just blitzed EDF. Easy and Normal difficulties just required some power shooting and fell quite easy. I've been able to play some levels on the 2nd hardest difficulty, and as a result get some strong weapons that I can use on the easier difficulties. It's great. Still more fun on co-op though.

NFS Most Wanted

265 -> 1000 of 1000
15 of 15 Achievements

NFS: MW, in retrospect, was an easy game. Just races from A to B, no real big difficulty when you get the best cars in the game. I found a way to gain bounty other than my previous method which involves driving around the motorway in the bottom left of the map. What was great though, I got the final achievement, but that isnt the end of the game - you have to escape some extreme police. Well I did, got to the final jump... and then my 360 froze up. Haha. Game Complete.

Naruto Rise Of A Ninja

0 -> 360 of 1075
11 of 37 Achievements

I love Naruto, but I'm not fond of fighting games. But I like platformers. Naruto is the ultimate mix of the lot - Platform style for story missions, but fighting mode for encounters. I jumped into it with fervor, and completed the story line (some battles I won by the skin of my teeth). Now the problem is that most of the achievements are now online, and I suck at online play, especially when you need 5 wins in a row with each character. Meh.

CM 2007

365 -> 375 of 1000
17 of 42 Achievements

Only one achievement of note - managed to sign a player for half his value. Didn't really play this much otherwise.

Stuntman: Ignition

100 -> 225 of 1000
14 of 50 Achievements

Last time I played this was from BlockBuster, but HMV are doing this cheap so I picked up a copy. It's a 'meh' game - it could be fun but it's not my sort of thing. Trying to do a succession of stunts, and thus the achievements are dead hard. I got some related to being a tard, and some story mode ones.

FlatOut UC

135 -> 185 of 1000
10 of 45 Achievements

I last played this as a rental from BlockBuster, but now HMV are doing it cheap as well. Now last time I played, I almost broke controllers due to one mission on career mode (one mission out of like 120) which was the last one for me to do, and I couldn't even get the bronze medal. Well I picked it up and on my second go, got the silver! So I got the complete career achievement. Excellent :)

Guitar Hero II

700 -> 760 of 1000
42 of 50 Achievements

Yep, I completed Expert career. A great achievement in my eyes after all the effort I've put in. Free Bird wasn't too hard - I had more trouble on Hanger 18 and it required some practice. Along with this, I also got the 400k achievement - I used Monkey Wrench on Expert. It's an easy track, but when the max possible is 454k you have to be right on the ball. I got 400232 points, with the last chord on a 4x, so basically only got it on the last note. Awesome.

80 -> 100 of 200
7 of 12 Achievements

Now E4 has a decent achievement guide, I decided to go after an achievement or two. I did, the 2000 beats one. The rest could be a bit tricky, and there's an online one left as well.

ACE COMBAT 6

10 -> 40 of 1000
4 of 49 Achievements

AC6 has been on my list of games to get for a while. So I rented it from LoveFilm again and played the next few missions. This game is well worth getting IMO, so I sent it back after a couple of missions with a good mind to buy it soon!

DMMM:Elements

0 -> 20 of 1000
2 of 49 Achievements

I've played Dark Messiah on PC, and the 360 port is done quite well. Imagine Half-Life 2 with a medieval theme. I didnt play this one long. The best bit of these ports from the Source engine is the interaction with the scenery and kicking enemies off ledges. Fun times =D

Conflict: Denied Ops

0 -> 10 of 1000
1 of 44 Achievements

Another short wonder, and to be honest I can't remember much. I have a distinct feeling that the first mission was weird and sent it back to LoveFilm.

F.E.A.R. Files

0 of 1000
0 of 41 Achievements

I had FEAR for a night, played one 20 minute mission, wherein I died after 15 minutes and had to restart. The controls were poor on the 360 - I've played the original on the PC and loved it.

SHReK the THiRD

590 -> 1000 of 1000
22 of 22 Achievements

Rented Shrek from LoveFilm to get the final GS I didn't get the first time round. Just a couple of playthroughs on hard and easy, then a couple of collection achievements. Easy. Game Complete!

==================

GamerScore:	99,889 -> 106569
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	25 -> 26 / 62
Completed Retail:	49 -> 53 / 214
GS Completion %:	46.34% -> 46.49%

Country Rank:	71 -> 66
World Rank:	523 -> 504
Completion Rank:	990 -> 1,049

Play-Asia

2008-08-19T17:40:00.006+01:00

A website I've been using for a while to get cheap games is Play-Asia. I recently got Quake Wars for £15/$30 there on their weekly deals. Downside is delivery takes a week (to the UK) and import fees, which you dodge under $200 or £18. I've imported £35 without paying fees because they were just games - I had to pay fees on my turbo pad. But games like Lost Odyssey I got the better Asian release (all in english) where the box is bigger and better protected and nicer artwork. You can also get region unlocked games there for games that might not be available or before they go on sale in your in your region.

This is my 'link'. Please use it :) It'll probably go up on this site in due course.

A LoL I founded

2008-08-18T12:07:00.002+01:00

Courtesy of TheDailyWTF.com:

Yes, thats a speed ticket for going 4800kph. Mach 4, anyone?

In Case You Hadn't Seen It

2008-08-15T15:45:00.001+01:00

A little ditty, courtesy of Major Nelson:

I am playing the Fable II Pub Games...but I have a little problem

Out of the three pub games, which is your favorite? I’ve run into a very unique situation. I left the game on in my office at home, and I came back in an hour later to find my wife playing the games. Now, she’s not a gamer unless I put the controller in her hand, so this was a bit surprising. What happened next was even more surprising.

Here is how the conversation went:

Me: Hi..what are you doing?
Her (staring at the screen playing Keystone): (no answer)

Me: Hello? What are you doing?
Her: Playing

Me: Why?
Her: I saw these games, and they looked interesting. I’m not very good at them though.

At this point, I am a bit panicked, since the gold you win (or lose) will transfer to Fable II

Me (getting nervous): Umm…are you winning?
Her: No. I think I’ve lost about 3000. 3000 things.

Me (getting more nervous): What do you mean things?

Her: I don’t know…is this Dollars? Cents? Euros?
Me: It’s Gold.
Her: Ok. Gold. (Switches to Fortune’s Tower)

At this point I am trying to get the controller away from her.

Me: Why don’t you let me play?
Her: I like these games. I’m not very good….but they’re fun.

Me: Well, we have a little problem.
Her: What?

Me: Well, you know that game you liked on the original Xbox? Fable?
Her: The one where you could kick chickens? This music reminds me of that one.

Me: Well this game should remind you of that one since these games are from the sequel coming out this fall called Fable II.
Her (now 3400 in debt): Are you going to play it?

Me : Well. That’s where we have a problem.
Her: What’s the problem?

Me: Well, any gold you win in the game you can transfer to the game when it comes out.
Her: Cool. (pause)

Her: Wait. (now playing Spinnerbox) What about the gold you lose?
Me: You mean the gold YOU lost?

Her: Yea. the gold we lost?
Me: No…you lost.

Her: Yea, the gold we lost.
Me (sigh): Yes, the gold you lost. That’s where we have the problem. I’ll now start Fable II in debt. As in poor. As in owing money.

Her (turning to look at me for the first time since I walked in): Wow. That sucks. (she put the controller down and walks out of the room)
Her: I hope you can pay off that debt before the game comes out. I am going out, see you later.
All totaled, as I post this, I am about 3650 in debt. I have some work to before the game releases in October. So if you have any Pub Game tips feel free to post them in the comments.

Oh, and don’t leave your Gamertag signed in to Xbox LIVE playing the Fable Pub Games, as you may suffer the same fate I have.

It made me laugh!

After an Elite

2008-08-13T17:20:00.003+01:00

I've been toying with the idea of getting an Elite for a while now. For two main reasons:

a) The Hard Drive. I currently have a 20gb model, which is full. I have ~50 arcade games, and so many retail games with saves, DLC and additional content that my HDD is full. MS take 7GB as a cache to begin with, only leaving 13. But I now do not have enough space for another arcade game. And now, with the Autumnal Update on the horizon having the opportunity to download a disc to the HDD so it loads quicker, a larger 120GB HDD seems a more worthwhile investment.

b) The Latest Chipset. My current UK pro-console is a repairee. This one has been sent back once. Still works fine, but a new console will have less chance of breakage and a brand new warranty. And I need a new wireless controller - all my current ones have problems - a X button that's hard to depress (thanks to Cola spillage), or an LB button that requires force to use (angry day on CoD4).

And there's the oppertunity to get a deal. i.e. GAME are doing an offer where with an elite, you can pay 25 squids for any new/future game, upto a max of 3. So if I get the Fable 2 Special Edition, Fallout 3 Special Edition and Infinite Discovery (RRP at Game for 150) for 75 squids. Seems like a good deal.

Plus I'll have a second power supply, so I can set the current Pro and US consoles at a different TV and swapped as necessary (it's a palava changing between UK and US consoles on my current TV).

So all I need now is £330. Anyone? :) If only I owned the Nintendo franchise...

(bottom image from Ctrl-Alt-Del)

I can has internetz????

2008-08-12T01:23:00.004+01:00

I CAN HAS INTERNETZ????

Success comes in small lumps. Today, I am writing to you from the comfort of my own laptop in my own home, where a BT Home Hub is slowly chugging away providing me with access to the world outside my 2 mile bubble. It's been a long hard slog, and people at 360voice complained the moment I signed in, but the gaming updatez are (going to) begin again!!! The SQUIRREL is my friend!!

I will have Internet!

2008-08-05T11:42:00.002+01:00

August 11th. That's the date set by BT when I phoned them yesterday. Apparently our last order got cancelled, and they couldn't be arsed to tell us - I was told that the online system is a shambles and not to use it. Whether that's a ploy to get more people to phone so they reach targets I don't know, but I've been faffed around so much with it.

Now, games. This week, I have some new ones, thanks to some trading in of DS games. We have, in the blue corner, Beijing 2008 (which doesn't like my turbo controller), The Simpsons Game, Bully (which is quite fun) and ET: Quake Wars (was 15 squids from Play-Asia; bargain!). Along with that I'm frustrated with GH2: I went after the 400k acheivement with Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench, and got 398.5k. ARRGHH!!!!

Still more misery, but an upside

2008-07-28T09:20:00.002+01:00

Yes, still no internet yet. I'm having to use my work breaks to write these news posts (and do anything else online) now. Those idiots at BT are still acting like devolved monkeys. I might just cancel everything with them and move somewhere else. Bastards.

On the plus side, I managed a spectacular achievement last night - completed GH2 on expert! Take that Free Bird!! The GHA guitar is working wonders and I think my skill level has improved a little. Now out of the 4 guitar related games on the market, I only have GH3 left to do on expert - and I'm stuck on Cult of Personality. Well I haven't played it since my new guitar got here, so I'll try and destroy that tune.

Fingers crossed internet arrives soon,

borandi

BT Phone Home?

2008-07-22T15:17:00.003+01:00

Yes, BT are up their own backsides. Apparently I can have a phone line straight away, but regarding the internet, as I haven't lived in my new place for 2 years, they need me to send various ID to show I live there, including bills showing the address. Hello - I've been living there for a short amount of time AND I'm already paying you for the phone line. Gah.

On the bright side, I now have a University Contract = pay time soon (hopefully) = get back on track with gaming. I bought GH: Aerosmith this week (after seeing Rican get the full 1000 - git) and the new guitar is great. I'm getting through solos now I thought I'd never get through. 4 tracks or so left on GH2 as well.

Still after one person on Civ for the 1k, not touched Lost Odyssey again yet though. I stand at 102k GS or thereabouts.

Hope to be back soon, then I can start checking forums again.

More no update nonsense

2008-07-16T15:44:00.002+01:00

Well I graduated yesterday, resulting in 3/4 days of no 360 to play on, and I start my D. Phil. (a Ph.D. to non-Oxford graduates) today and I've already got a ton of work. On the upside, I should have the internet this evening, meaning a gaming update and a swing back into the 360 world this weekend.

=D

Still no internetz

2008-07-08T21:29:00.003+01:00

No internet yet, but I've a broadband package on the way! Got the BT Broadband Anywhere, as it comes with a mobile (my old Nokia has given up on life), and I get 40 simoleans back from Quidco. Max 8MB/s line (though BT tests show a max 4.5MB/s) with unlimited limits, the usual stuff like that. Should be here middle of next week.

Regardless, I've been gaming somewhat. Lots of Lost Odyssey (might have completed it by next week) and some more EDF 2017. Update in a couple of weeks then =D

July 08 Games List

2008-07-05T17:43:00.004+01:00

From time to time, it's hard to keep track of whats new in the land of the 360. I reckon at least 20 new games are coming out each month now, and to keep track of them, let alone play them all, is a bit hectic.

So I'm running this feature every few months or so. It's similar to my easy games lis t, but it lists all the western (i.e. non Japanese) retail games available from the 360s release in an easy to use .doc format (Word 97-2003 compatible). Easy enough to print out and keep beside your 360 when browsing for online deals or wondering what to buy next.

Download the 3MB file here.

I take my games list from x360a.org, and they're usually on the ball.

Review: A-Train HX

2008-07-05T00:53:00.001+01:00

Sim City started the revolution. I have fond memories as a youngster wiling away hours upon hours, on my father’s Atari 512 STE, playing this 2D classic. Since then, simulation type games have become addictive to the masses, absorbing many hours that could have been dedicated to family, friends, or significant hobbies.

As encapsulating as these games are, A-Train HX is the first to grace the Xbox 360, eighteen months after the 360s release*. This game is the next incantation of the A-Train series (none of which I have played), involving the manipulation of railway services to build a prosperous city.

I say ‘a prosperous city’, which in A-Train correlates to ‘allow the AI to build it’ around your creation. By and large, the A-Train HX dynamics can and will confuse – even the most hardcore simulation game fan will become unstuck at some point. As the Fat Controller, you decide where the train stations and tracks go. You have ultimate control of which trains to put on the tracks – ranging from short freight to large 2000-seater fast trains, or tube trains permeating underneath the ground. In order for the AI to kick in, ‘materials’ need to be transported to stations via freight trains from either outside the cities of factories on your map. When the population starts to build, commuter trains help populate the area and more materials result in a larger set of flats or high rise buildings.

At least this is the gist of the game I get. Even after completing the game and writing a quick start guide for a popular achievement website, I couldn’t tell you much else. There is no tutorial regarding the gameplay, let alone the controls. Oh, the controls! As unintuitive as they are frustrating. Many, many times I hit the right button, but I wasn’t selecting the appropriate item to perform the function I intended – it’s not obvious just which item is selected.

Gameplay wise, there is no story mode often associated with modern simulation games. However, provided are eight default maps on an increasing scale of difficulty, ranging from flat plains to mountains and archipelago. Also provided are the tools to create your own maps, to distribute and challenge your friends. If they have the game, which they probably wont.

A-Train HX is easy on the eye, and on the ear. The only visual hiccup worth noting is the camera manipulation near the end of the map, but all the sounds aid the simulation experience.

Ages 3-15 are not recommended ages for this game. I’m not even sure 16+ is appropriate. In fact, I’d recommend it solely to those who either enjoy their trains, or their simulation games. Also for achievement hunters – a simple achievement set for those that can get to grips with the gameplay and controls. A-Train rewards completing certain tasks, but fifteen hours or less is all that is needed for the gamerscore.

I enjoyed A-Train HX, but I like simulation games. And achievements.

borandi

* In English in Europe – in Japan A-Train HX was released a year earlier, and at time of writing, has not been encouraged to approach US shores.

No gaming update

2008-07-04T12:34:00.001+01:00

Yeha no gaming update last week, as I'm currently in flux as to where I'm living at the minute! I've moved to Oxford, but still need to get internet and phone set up and everything. While waiting I have been doing some gaming - mainly EDF2017 and NFS: Most Wanted, but they'll be in my next update. Hoping to get everything sorted in the next couple of weeks, so keep watching this space!

Madden 09 Achievements

2008-07-01T14:15:00.002+01:00

Well, I've played my Maddens. 06, 07 and 08 are all complete, and to keep the streak going, the Madden 09 achievement list is now out, thanks to 360sync. It's a nice list, I hope to complete it soon!

Achievements	Gamerscore
2 TD Kickoff Returns in a game Return 2 Kickoffs for a TD in a game (non co-op)	75
Shut out Rival in a Franchise Shut out Rival in a Franchise game (non co-op)	50
Kick a FG for over 50 yards Kick a FG for over 50 yards in a Franchise game (non co-op)	15
Complete a game without an INT Complete a game without an interception, 5 min+ quarter length (non co-op)	30
6 Rush TDs with the Dolphins 6 Rush TDs in a game with the Dolphins (non co-op)	50
Catch 10 passes in a game Catch 10 passes in a game with one receiver (non co-op)	50
Complete game without fumbling Complete a game without fumbling, 5 min+ quarter length (non co-op)	25
2 TD Punt Returns in a game 2 TD Punt Returns in a game (non co-op)	65
Intercept 6 passes in a game Intercept 6 passes in a game (non co-op)	50
Hold a Rival to under 300 yards Hold a Rival to under 300 yards total offense in a game (non co-op)	50
Score 60 points in a Rival game Score 60 points in a Rival game (non co-op)	30
Score 40 points in a Rival game Score 40 points in a Rival game (non co-op)	20
Record 12 sacks in a game Record 12 sacks in a game (non co-op)	50
6 sacks with 1 player in a game 6 sacks with 1 player in a game (non co-op)	50
80% completion for a game 80% pass completion in a Franchise game, 5 min+ quarter length (non co-op)	50
7 Pass TDs with the Falcons Throw 7 pass TDs in a game with the Falcons (non co-op)	50
550 Pass Yds with the Titans 550 Pass Yds in a game with the Titans (non co-op)	50
300 Rush Yds with the Jets 300 Rush Yds in a game with the Jets (non co-op)	10
Hold a Rival to under 20 points Hold a Rival team to under 20 points in a game (non co-op)	10
Midway Monster Create a legendary player from the past.	50
Can You Believe These Seats?! Celebrate a touchdown in a wall hotspot	30
Steal Their Thunder Steal an opposing player’s touchdown celebration	30
Slam Dunk All-Star Dunk the ball over the goalpost (or at least attempt to) after a touchdown	30
Shine In The Spotlight Celebrate a touchdown in an endzone hotspot	30
Secret Achievement Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement.	50

Review: Fifa Street 3

2008-07-01T00:49:00.000+01:00

Repetative and no longevity. These two characteristics sum up the majority of ‘Street’ type games in what is slowly becoming a quagmire of a genre. So enter the latest football entrée into the bog of foreboding.

My first experience of the game pitted my team of 4* players against a similarly ugly looking bunch of 3* players. Pleasantries were not exchanged and the myriad of football balancing skills ensued. With enough skills performed under my belt, followed by a deflected shot, I had achieved my ‘gamebreaker’ – a special power, which on my next possession I activated, gave a goal on the first shot. I regained possession quickly after the goal kick and subsequently scored again – and again. Here we are, 3-0 up, and only 30 seconds played. What manner of madness is this?

OK, I’m a sore loser. Easy difficulty or lower is my best friend. The next hour of me vs. CPU games resulted in an entire clean sheet. Even a quick foray into the challenge mode yielded little resistive powers behind the three CPUs powering this Microsoft console. Team after team, challenge after challenge, all fall under my spell of apathy, despite all the players being of the same level.

I see many games like this recently – they insist on a five star rating system bt refuse to let anything have only one or two stars. Where are the crap players? Where is the team I can fob off to friends in local multiplayer?

Despite all of this, EA can yield some small home comforts – the menu system in this sports game incantation is clear and easy to navigate (unlike other EA regular outings), and the sounds in game are appropriate – not stellar, just appropriate.

Multiplayer on Xbox Live is very empty – little in the way of players online (just watch, EA will close this server too), and thus games with a friend are mostly what you’ll get. I was getting no lag with UK to US games. The five minute time limit on ranked games is also a downside, as it makes one Xbox 360 achievement a jolly waste of time.

As for the achievements themselves – a visit to an achievement website will quickly net you all but 2 ‘offline’ achievements and the online ones. But do not despair! The 2 offline ones to which I refer involve playing with certain teams you can unlock in challenge mode. Should one wish to not soil their boots by treading through challenge mode, find an online friend who has, have a game of Playground Picks, with them hosting the game and picking the relevant teams for the achievements. The online achievements require only a friend or gaming buddy, but each player will need 25 ranked wins * 5 minutes a game = 50 games total, or 250 minutes plus loading screens.

On the DLC front, 300MSPs gets a pack with teams to unlock and 3 new stadiums. Also, easy achievements.

Overall, a sub-par repetitive football game with no longevity. But easy achievements.

borandi

(NSFW) Zero Punctuation - Haze

2008-06-30T00:41:00.000+01:00

ZP examines the next generic FPS to hit the market.

Review: Bionicle Heroes

2008-06-28T00:34:00.001+01:00

I didn’t know anything about Bionicle Heroes when it first passed my eyes. All I saw was a LEGO symbol – a symbol synonymous with one sort of game: no voice acting, stupidly long linear levels and multiple plays of the same level. After playing BH, it holds up to this branding well.

As far as is ascertainable without investigating the Bionicle world, you play an androgynous ‘freak’. This ‘freak’ can switch persona with a simple change of its LEGO head giving it different powers – but this freak is pissed. Pissed at some random ‘dude’ who can create minions. This ‘dude’ hasn’t stolen the protagonist’s significant other, or an exceptional amount of wealth from some evil caper worth stealing. Thanks to the no voice acting or written story, this tale offers a mind fuck not worth thinking about.

Nevertheless, the game itself acts like a third person shooter. Each level consists of going from point A to point F via points B, C, D and E in typical LEGO sequential fashion. At each point, your goal is gain LEGO pieces by collecting or shooting enough ‘bad guys’ to fill a special meter. This power is unleashed and you proceed to the next point. Each level offers either a level or collectable to finish. Repeat 25 times, ‘story’ complete.

To be honest, the controls are the big let down here. I play the odd FPS/Third-PS, and you should get the normal forward/back/turn/strafe combo with the analog sticks. No such luck in BH, which only strafes if RT is held down. But wait, isn’t that meant to be the fire button? Alas, that is reserved for the myriad of options by ABYX. This combined with the level length and the lack if an apparent story constitutes the main flaws of BH.

On the bright side, the visuals are a credit to the game. When considering the target audience of ages 3-15, the children will like the highly coloured scenery and the responsive sounds BH offers. Unfortunately, not much comfort for hardcore players.

As a game, I can’t recommend BH. It’s dull, boring, and has no ‘yay’ factor after completing a task. In my case, due to the appalling save system the game uses, my save file corrupted at around 80% into the game. Unfortunately, looking at online forums, this problem is common. Nevertheless, with persistence (and another 8 months), I was able to complete the games achievements, totalled around 20hrs play altogether.

On the achievements side, BH is an easy completion in the grand schema of Xbox gaming. Finish the game, kill X amount of each monster and get 5 million coins – these achievements are all straight forward. The main achievement basically requires 100% completion – thus needing every level to be played again (once all the upgrades have been obtained) to get every special item in each level (~9/level), and finish the level with a gold medal (all special items, lots of LEGO pieces). This type of collection achievement is also detriment to the LEGO games.

Bionicle Heroes – one for the kids.

borandi

(NSFW) Zero Punctuation: Oblivion

2008-06-26T00:33:00.001+01:00

During the summer lull of new games, ZP reviews a game revered by many.

99999 (point 99999999)

2008-06-23T21:21:00.005+01:00

Well, here it is. The big 99999. My first achievement was on January 2nd, 2007 on Hexic HD - 539 days ago. That's 186.6GS/day on average, or 7.03 achievements per day. Along the way, I've completed 49 retail games, 25 arcade games, and PSU 1k GS, NHL 2k7 950 GS. My favourite genre should be the RPG, but my most played genre is the Music one. My favourite and worst games in various genres so far is are:

RPG: Lost Odyssey, Arcadian Warriors
Film: Surf's Up, Eragon
Race: Forza 2/Burnout Paradise, Fatal Inertia
FPS: COD 4, R6: Vegas
Music: GH3, DDR Universe
Sandbox: GTA IV, Assassins Creed
Sports: PES 08, Any Fifa game

My top three favourites are:

Lost Odyssey
Guitar Hero 3
GTA IV

Bottom three:

Eragon
Sonic (Retail)
Fusion Frenzy 2

According to MGC, I'm 525th in the world. That means at least 524 have the magical 100k!

23rd June: GS Update

2008-06-23T02:58:00.003+01:00

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

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

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

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

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!

================================

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

===================

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

No news

2008-06-16T19:10:00.001+01:00

Sorry, no blog this week. I´m on my holiday here in Menorca!!! Unrelated, no new ZP either - they´re all at a show or something.

9th June: GS Update

2008-06-09T16:33:00.002+01:00

A new look blog, with some frustrating/fun gaming this week =D

borandi likes to game, I like to game, this is a match made in heaven! It takes a gamer score like 98,884 to be as cool as him. That is a boost of 150 points over last time! He made some progress on NFS Most Wanted winning 1 achievement, Rock Band, PES2008, Blacksite, N+, Catan, Wits & Wagers finishing 4 achievements, and oh... don't tell borandi this, but I have been getting in a little video chat in the off-hours. Booyah!

I've noticed that I've been doing a lot of driving type games recently - this week, NFS:MW, but also the racing in GTA IV, etc. Along with that, some Rock Band, and pursuing various 360voice badges as well.

Wits & Wagers

165 of 200
10 of 12 Achievements

I bought Wits and Wagers this week in order to go after that 3* Party Badge at 360voice. Along with Party Animals (see below) from LoveFilm, I should be getting this badge today. I've seen a couple of people with the full 200GS, and so far it's been quite easy to get GS. There is one main problem - as the questions are tailored to each region, I can't play with the US players (where the majority are) unless I change my Locale on my profile to the US. As such, I did and set up my Turbo pad to keep joining online games and answer the default answer for each question. Now I only need two more achievements - 'Play with 10 different people online' and 'Answer every question'.

Rock Band

50 -> 245 of 1000
13 of 50 Achievements

Green Grass and High Tides, the final song on the guitar, was quite hard. With a few suggestions and an hour in practice mode, I finished the track, using the overdrive/star power only when I really needed it. As such, that makes all guitar difficulties complete! Along with that, Nellas and I are going through World Band Tour mode thing, and we've a couple of achievements in that mode. I've tried doing some singing on medium, only passing the tracks I actually know =D

NFS Most Wanted

10 -> 265 of 1000
11 of 15 Achievements

Ah, what a frustrating game. My first achievement in this game was many, many moons ago. It's been labelled as an 'easy' game, and I was fed up with it sitting there on my profile with 10GS. I also want points towards my 1* Race badge at 360voice. So I'm about 1/2 way into this game now, and one controller fewer. The aim of this game is to meet certain requirements to race against particular people - win races, get police bounty. The downside is, in the races, a normal car/SUV/people carrier will appear out of nowhere, you crash into it, and the other cars will pass you, even though you've lead for 99.99% of the 8 minute race, meaning you have to do it again. Bleh. Also, with the police bounty, x360a.org has a nice guide to get bounty, but doesnt tell you how to lose the police in order to keep it. So I've had to devise my own method. This game is also very odd - the final two achievements are 550GS (iirc) in total, yet they'll probably be little difference in getting them.

Boogie Bunnies

30 -> 55 of 200
6 of 12 Achievements

On Boogie Bunnies, I finished a level in under 2 minutes, got a large bunny combo and reached the jungle. I tried passing the beach levels twice now, but the bunnies never seem to line up nicely. Bleh. Still a bit away from my 1* Puzzle badge at 360voice.

Spider-Man 3

50 -> 110 of 1000
7 of 43 Achievements

After large frustration at GTA IV (see below), in order to get my 1* Sandbox badge I decided to boot up this game (which is crap). It had several very easy achievements I hadn't bothered to get - Swing 50 miles, Ride 5 miles in a car, and go splat 25 times. Easy stuff.

GTA IV

550 -> 580 of 1000
36 of 50 Achievements

Ah, another reason to get angry. On the achievements side, I completed all the assassination missions, and got further in the story. I actually only have 2 or so missions left, but the mission I am on is a biatch. It starts with a 15 minute or so gun fight, followed by chasing a boat in a bike then jumping into a helicopter. After the firefight, if you make one mistake on the chase, you fail. I've now done the firefight 5 times, only for the bike to crash, or the boat to glitch and speed off too quickly. Bleh.

Speedball 2

100 -> 130 of 200
9 of 12 Achievements

A game I've neglected, but randomly decided to play when bored. Last time I left it, I was in the top division in league manager mode, and needed to win it to get the achievement. So I played the season, quitting out if it looked like I was losing. 15 minutes gave me that achievement.

Party Animals

720 -> 1000 of 1000
50 of 50 Achievements

I got VP:PA from LoveFilm this week. Last time I got this, I should have finished the full 1000 - it's very easy. I had to do a 7 race game, then a few 1 race games to play as each characters second colour. Then find all the shortcuts, race every race, then play every game. Very easy. Game Complete!

BOMBERMAN Act:Zero

350 -> 425 of 1000
28 of 50 Achievements

After some talk online about this game, I decided to put it in to get some more achievements. There are a few problems with the achievements of this game - some are online, and no-one plays it online; some take years of grinding. So I went online and actually found some players! I got the achievements for hosting 10 and playing as each colour/sex. With a boosting partner, I could probably get 600GS or so quite quick.

========================

GamerScore:	97,749 -> 98,909
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	24 / 59
Completed Retail:	48 -> 49 / 200
GS Completion %:	45.65% -> 46.10%

Country Rank:	262 (I switched to US for Wits and Wagers)
World Rank:	515 -> 508
Completion Rank:	1,026 -> 993

Liberty City Police Face Allegations Of Incompetence, Brutality

2008-06-04T21:23:00.001+01:00

Taken from theOnion:

June 4, 2008 | Issue 44•23

LCPD officers deal with a shoplifting suspect.

LIBERTY CITY—With the city in the midst of a record crime wave, concerned citizens claim the Liberty City Police Department has done little to prevent the constant car chases, ongoing gun battles, and overall atmosphere of violence that pervade the area.

"I used to feel safe in Liberty City, but lately, it's been total mayhem," said night-shift worker Lola Del Rio, who spoke to reporters while sucking nervously on a red lollipop. "In the past week alone, I've been carjacked twice, run over 10 times, and witness to a half-dozen gunfights that ended with automobiles exploding. What are the police doing to stop all this?"

Officers respond to one of the 43,274 murders reported in the city last month.

Since the surge in crime, which began on April 28 at midnight, more than 830,000 civilians have been murdered—nearly one-tenth of Liberty City's total population. In addition, 35,000 vehicles have been reported stolen, many of which were then driven illegally over sidewalks and pedestrian walkways before plunging into the nearby Humboldt River. And according to startling figures released by local community action group Citizens for a Safer City, drug trafficking has become rampant and prostitution has increased by 800 percent.

"I was shot 14 times on my way to work today, including twice by police," said one Algonquin-area resident. "That is unacceptable."

Many blame the LCPD directly for the increase in criminal activity, citing the department's lax procedure for arresting criminals, which involves taking 10 percent of the suspect's money, confiscating his weapons, and simply releasing him from custody later that day. Outraged citizens say this is not enough, especially in a city where assault rifles can be found on factory roofs and grenade caches are located under the globe at the old World's Fair site.

"The police just let them go, and 20 minutes later they're shooting at the very same criminals from helicopters," veteran crime reporter Mike Whiteley said. "That is not proper law enforcement. We may be seeing a return to the bad old days of 2002, when the police, the FIB, and even Army tank battalions would leave countless bodies on the streets while attempting to capture just one man on some sort of joyful mass-destruction spree."

Perhaps even more alarming, city records indicate that more than 75 percent of perpetrators in mass-murder or vehicular-manslaughter cases escape, usually by simple methods such as driving into a car-repainting facility. Criminals have even eluded pursuit by walking into their apartment and going to bed for six hours, after which the search has been called off.

However, one LCPD official, who wished to remain anonymous, blamed the recent crime wave on the police department's lack of proper equipment.

"We are only equipped to pursue a suspect within a small radius on a very basic half-centimeter radar screen," the officer said. "If we were allowed to seek criminals who escaped this radius for more than 15 seconds, our results would improve dramatically."

"And to those who say the LCPD is too quick to resort to deadly force, remember that almost 850,000 police officers, FIB agents, and N.O.O.S.E. [National Office of Security Enforcement] team members have died in the line of duty in the past month," he added.

Nonetheless, residents say that their confidence in the Liberty City police force—low in the best of times—has eroded almost completely.

"I was buying a hot dog from a street vendor in Hove Beach yesterday when I saw someone run a red light, barrel down the sidewalk, careen into a garbage truck, exit his vehicle, steal a nearby convertible, and drive away," one Broker resident reported. "A nearby police car didn't even react. But when the car behind him nicked his fender, the officer shot the driver through the windshield and walked away."

"That is not the kind of law enforcement we want for our community," he added.

Most admit that the problem is not a lack of police presence, as the LCPD currently operates 15 different police stations throughout the city's four boroughs, and there is a seemingly infinite number of officers on duty at all times to respond to reported crimes. However, citizens say the officers' "shoot-first" mentality and willingness to accept bribes only contributes to the city's widespread violence and corruption.

"It's almost as if the cops in this town are as much an adversarial faction as the criminals," said public defender Kiki Jenkins, who is rumored to be instrumental in recent incidents of police being inexplicably pulled from chases and criminal pursuit. "Sure, we have excellent radio stations and an incredible range of things to see and do here. But if I were younger, I'd move to Mario World in a second."

(NSFW) Zero Punctuation: TWOWY (NDS)

2008-06-04T01:47:00.000+01:00

ZP examines a JRPG. He hates JRPGs (whereas I love them), so I think this critique is a big pile of poo. Nevertheless, it's here for your benefit.

(NSFW) Zero Punctuation: Painkiller (PC)

2008-06-02T01:45:00.000+01:00

During the game release lull, Zero Punctuation reviews Painkiller, where your gun can fire shurikens AND lightning!

1st July: GS Update

2008-06-02T00:46:00.002+01:00

It's been the final week of my degree course (with one more minor test type activity left next week), so after the exams were done, it's on with the gaming!

borandi really threw down yesterday. It was good to see! I wish you could have been there! Last time I checked, his gamer score is 97,689. That is an improvement of 925 points over last time! Welcome to 97,000!! He played Rock Band adding 3 achievements, Lost Via Domus finishing an amazing 24 achievements to master the game, Bionicle Heroes gaining 1 achievement, and then nothing... nothing at all...

Did I mention the gamerscore challenge that borandi is competing in? Bookmark this link now and check out all the action! 4 other people are also involved... which is madness. Current rank out of all those people is number one though. Everyone else is jealous... I feel their hate. I've made a wager with the 4 other Xboxes in the Challenge -- let's not blow this thing...

This week saw the arrival of Rock Band into my profile. At the equivalent of $90(45GBP), it's the most expensive game (just the game, on it's own) I've ever purchased. It's been part of a want for a long while, plus a personal gift to myself for finishing! I haven't got the instrument pack yet, I'll probably get that in a few months when a) I have the money, and b) it comes down in price. In the mean time, I've got my GH3 controller for lead and bass, and the wired headset for vocals. More about Rock Band below.

Besides Rock Band, there were a few completions this week, including an old-time grind, and another 'position to remember' completion.

So for the games:

Rock Band

0 -> 50 of 1000
5 of 50 Achievements

I got this game Friday, and now it's Sunday night/Monday morning. What do I think of Rock Band? Well, it's a very good game. There's only so much you can say about this music genre type games, and I thought GH3 had done well, but Rock Band just takes it a step further with a bit of spit and polish to make everything look neat. The layout of the game itself is good and clean, and the repertoire of music tracks available are varied, with many more available on the Marketplace. My first experience of RB was one I was rather expecting - I was told that it was easier on GH3, so I stuck it on Expert difficulty straight away. That was fine, except when I played, the timings were significantly tighter than GH3. That's very good at least, means I have to play to a beat, rather than be slightly off. So far, I'm now at the final track on expert. I haven't had to repeat one yet to pass it, except this final one - it's a bastard. 9 minutes 49 seconds of Freebird style playing and me with a semi-broken wrist. One thing I notice with Rock Band on Guitar is a lot of the tracks have the same note repeated, quickly, for a long time. So my hand hurts. So when I got to this track, I got 80% through TWICE, and a solo kills me. Thats 8 minutes into the track, so you bet it's annoying that to go through it again I have to play though ALL 8 minutes. Pah.

On the vocals side, I suck as I'm tone deaf. However, Roquey and Nellas seem to be pretty good - Roquey has been able to 95%-99% a few songs on hard, and Nellas has finished some on expert as well. It looks like I may be calling upon them to do my Vocal achievements, but we'll see and I'll practice. My vocal range is limited to C, C#, and some wierd falsetto, currently.

GTA IV

540 -> 550 of 1000
34 of 50 Achievements

Not much GTA at all this week. However, the GTA 'kill a developer' achievement was released into the wild. Common thought was that this achievement was not viral, as in you would have to personally kill a developer to get it. But, it seems like it is viral, and spread like wildfire. I caught wind of this fact, and jumped into an online game of Cops and Crooks. I got the achievement on my first kill, so that was handy =D

Bionicle Heroes

940 -> 1000 of 1000
49 of 49 Achievements

A grinders hardship can be summed up with Bionicle Heroes. For those that have followed my story, this is how it has gone:

I got the game and starting playing it in the morning of 17th February 2007. I sat playing through every level, for almost 8 straight hours. I was 18 stages in (~83% through the game), when I received the following message: 'Autosave Failed'. I did not know what this meant at the time, but to sum up - this game, which does all the saving automatically, will not let you save in two places. If it fails to save, it will no longer save, and your previous save is corrupt. What this meant for me is, that those 8 hours of playing went down the tube. I had 800 or so GS in the game by this time, and the final achievements would require playing through those 8 hours again.

So, over the course of the next 16 months, I played a level here, a level there, making sure not to play it for too long at a time. Until last night that is, when I blitzed 14 levels or so to get the final 19% of the game. It required completing each stage with a gold medal, and collecting every Gold and Silver canister (people have reported in online forums that this isn't necessary, but for me it was) to get the full 100%, and 5 million monies along the way.

My Bionicle Heroes story is a weary one, and I'm glad to get this POS out of the way. Game Complete!

Lost Via Domus

125 -> 1000 of 1000
30 of 30 Achievements

At first, I was saving Lost for a 8-week GS competition over at x360a.org. But then I dropped out, seeing as I will be moving in that time (stay tuned) and then used it for a 360voice 5-day auto challenge. Lost, in all respects, is a fairly easy 1000. No hard parts, a fairly quick game, but at the same time, dull. Not necessarily boring, but just dull. You don't get a sense of 'Why am I playing this?', but you also do not get the sense of 'This is fun and enjoyable!'. With the online guide at x360a.org (check the forums), it was fairly easy with minimal thinking. Game Complete!

Boogie Bunnies

0 -> 30 of 200
3 of 12 Achievements

I bought Boogie Bunnies for Nellas this week, and also as part of my on-going quest for the 1* Puzzle badge over at 360voice. It's one of these 'match 3 in a row and try not to die' type games, apart from this game uses over the top cute bunny type creatures, who sound like they've been eating the defauly soundbites from every Worms game every made. I haven't had a serious go of this game yet, however the achievements look a bit tricky (Nellas has 6 atm, compared to my 3) and might require some proper playing time.

Jewel Quest

60 -> 110 of 200
8 of 12 Achievements

Jewel Quest is also part of my 1* Puzzle gaining quest. This week I finished off the first playthrough, and gained the 500k score margin. Then I got 4/5 through the second playthrough, then I must've pressed a wrong button on a menu option, but I have to start my second playthrough again. Bah humbug.

Burnout Revenge

165 -> 200 of 1000
12 of 36 Achievements

With it being the end of my degree and all, one night involving some mates and pizza, we started taking turns doing crash events on Burnout Revenge. The next day I decided to persue some more achievements, and ended up getting the ones for '250 takedowns' and 'perfect the 2nd stage'. This game is fun, albeit having a high difficulty curve to get the achievements. For crash events, it's better than Burnout: Paradise, but Paradise beats it on everything else.

Buku Sudoku

0 -> 200 of 200
12 of 12 Achievements

Buku was one of the XBLA games released this week. I'm not usually a fan of Sudoku, but after having a look at the achievements, I decided to have a bash. Overall, this game is VERY easy. Achievements include 'win 25 online games', 'win one of each board', 'win one of each difficulty', 'win 200 games', 'get 10million points'. Now what makes this easy is that the helpers on this game make it simple to guess the number required. So if you turn all them on, and do simple 6x6 easy boards, the 200 wins is easy at 20secs/win. In the online modes, if you do co-op 6x6 boards on easy, both people get the online win, making that simple. With the points, if you mix some 6x6 easy with a few (12-15) 12x12 boards on easy which take 2 minutes to solve, the points are easy.

Also something special worth noting - according to MGC I was:

10th in the World to complete Buku
2nd in the UK to complete Buku

Not bad, eh? Game Complete!

Army of Two™

340 -> 470 of 1250
18 of 47 Achievements

Not much to say about Army of Two - I completed story mode, and got all the associated achievements, as well as killing 250 with machine guns and 30 with riot shield melee. The achievements left involve completing it on the hardest difficulty, some more 'kill with X weapon', and a couple online. EA released some FREE DLC (yes, that's right - free) for the game, but as this is my US copy, I need to use my US account to get the DLC. But the DLC is currently only for Gold members, and my US acc is Silver, so I'll have to wait a bit.

Call of Duty 4

770 -> 940 of 1000
35 of 37 Achievements

I am now done with CoD4. When I saw in Blockbuster that I could get Rock Band for 15 quid if I traded in CoD4, I leapt at the opportunity - after I'd finished all the achievements first. If you may remember, I was stuck on 'In the War Room' on Veteran difficulty and could not get past it, so I did the final 2 levels on Easy. Well this time, I did the final level on Veteran (for an achievement), then 'In the War Room' on Hardened to get the 'Complete on Hardened or Veteran' 90GS achievement. To be honest, Hardened difficulty was very, very easy compared to Veteran. Well apart from that, I had to collect all the intel on every level (x360a.org guide for that, quite easy). That leaves me with two achievements which I have resigned myself to never getting - 'Complete In the War Room on Veteran', and 'Mile High Club'. I also wont be getting them as I traded my copy into BlockBuster. But they didnt get any Rock Band in on their next delivery, so I got a full refund and bought it from GameStation (hence the $90/45GBP price tag). Game Complete? Not quite, but game finished with.

========================

GamerScore:	96,139 -> 97,749
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	23 -> 24 / 58
Completed Retail:	46 -> 48 / 200
GS Completion %:	45.28% -> 45.65%

Country Rank:	73 -> 73
World Rank:	534 -> 515
Completion Rank:	1,072 -> 1,026

24th May: GS Update

2008-05-24T22:30:00.003+01:00

This past couple of weeks has experienced plenty of gaming, with a lot of work fro my Degree in the middle (priority was probably in that order, it probably shouldn't have been!) but here we are for another GS update.

Go ahead... call me a wussy... but I almost started crying when borandi turned me on yesterday. 96,089 points of raw gamer score are making you jealous! That is a profit of 175 points over last time! That puts us above 96,000 points! He rallied Hexic 2, Civil War finishing 3 achievements, Guitar Hero II, Army of Two™ winning 4 achievements, KUF: Circle of Doom, Jewel Quest acquiring 4 achievements, GTA IV, and afterwards, there were some awkward stares and silence... you know how it is.

Oh and it is time for a gamerscore challenge update... listen up... Here is the link: check it. 4 other people are throwing down in this challenge. If I do the math correctly, it means that 4 players X 5 days means a whole lot of trash talk! That doesn't matter though because borandi is beating them all! Number one baby! It's good to be in the lead, but there's still 2 days left in the challenge and 4 challengers looking to eclipse our achievements with some of their own.
There have been two major targets this week: the application of my new turbo controller, and going after some more 360 badges.

Well my Hori Turbo pad arrived, and my general impression is that it's quite good. The turbo features are such that you can set each of the ABXY to either 13 or 26 button presses per second when you hold the respective button. Also, the D-Pad is infinitely better than the normal 360 pad. The analog sticks are looser, which make it a bit difficult in aiming in FPS games. The LT+RT buttons are smaller, so easier to press in games which just require pressing, but a bit worse for driving games, as you don't have the range of pressures you do with the normal 360 pad. Also, every so often the controller disconnects from the 360 (even though it's wired), and when chatting online, the 360 wired headset doesn't stay connected to the controller. So overall, it's good for games that either require the turbo buttons or offline gaming, and not on FPS or driving gaming. Saying that, I've applied it to DDR Universe and Track and Field (despite having 200/200, but I broke most of my records).

With respect to 360voice, I've started posting on the forums over there. Good bunch of people for the most part - the odd idiot who doesnt read or engage brain, but you get those everywhere (and they will be removed soon, mwhahahaha!). On the badge front, I got my 50 watchers badge thats to some posting in the 'watch me' forum. Thanks to the Turbo Pad, I got my 1* Music badge (along with completing GH3 on hard) and I also got the 1* FPS badge with some Army of Two. I'm still going after the 1* Sandbox badge with GTA4.

So what about the games?

Bionicle Heroes

900 -> 940 of 1000
47 of 49 Achievements

Well I'm almost at the end of this game. I completed the story mode, so now I can go after 100%. On the way, I got enough money to unlock the 3rd special stage, and get a couple of 'Destroy X' achievements. All that's left is the '100%' achievement, and the 'Collect 5million' money achievement.

Jewel Quest

0 -> 60 of 200
6 of 12 Achievements

Looking at my badge calculator over at 360voice, I noticed I was only 220 GS away from my 1* Puzzle badge. After looking at all the games for the badge, I compiled the list of best games to buy in order to get the badge depending on it's average GS earned/player according to MGC. Jewel Quest came top, so I bought it. It's essentially like Bejeweled and Puzzle Quest, though you have to clear items from every square of the board at least once. For the full achievement set, you have to go through the story 5 times - each playthrough being more difficult than the last. I'm almost at the end of my first time through, about 7 stages from the end.

Guitar Hero III

400 -> 430 of 1000
39 of 59 Achievements

Well, as mentioned above, I managed to complete Hard on GH3 - a monumental achievement in my eyes. After having so much trouble with One and Raining Blood, I managed to do both in the same day, leaving only Lou's final battle left. And that final battle takes the biscuit. Lou gets all the power ups before you do, and the song is difficult enough that anything like Whammy or Double Notes totally screws you over. I tried well over 50 times, then managed to get it by getting two boosts that I don't normally get. General consensus is that the best way to beat Lou is to use a Whammy on his green note streak.

GTA IV

375 -> 540 of 1000
33 of 50 Achievements

I'm now 70% into the game from the 100% completion statistic. Achievements wise, I got the 500k money achieve, deliver 30 cars by text, explode 10 vehicles in 10 seconds (use a long vehicle, block a bridge, wait for lots of cars, shoot in the air to get people out of their cars, arrange them if necessary, then launch a grenade in the middle, then wait with the rocket launcher to pick off a couple more), killed 20 criminals via the police computer, and a couple of story achievements.

Army of Two™

225 -> 340 of 1100
14 of 41 Achievements

Thanks to DDR Universe, I had my US 360 out, so I decided to go for my 1* FPS badge on 360voice. Also, I've been neglecting the Army of Two story, so I marched through to Stage 5 (out of 6) and it was rather fun. Nothing much else to say.

Civil War

525 -> 545 of 1000
30 of 50 Achievements

I initially started on Civil War to get my FPS badge, hoping that the achievement for '750 kills' would unlock. So I finished the story (I was only 2 stages from the end), then redid the stage where I got most of the kills. Amazingly, I only got 10 more - it seems that I need 750 kills, only counting the highest kills on each stage. Thats a balls achievement. It's a balls game as well - being shot through shrubbery from 2000 ft with a pistol by the AI on easy is pointless.

Lost Via Domus

0 -> 125 of 1000
6 of 30 Achievements

I got LOST from LoveFilm this week. Word is that it's an easy 1000. I only did the first couple of stages, and with an online guide, it is fairly easy. A bit of a stupid game though. Imagine CSI, but less fun and more frustrating.

DDR/DS Universe

400 -> 900 of 1000
27 of 32 Achievements

Aha - the gold mine for the Turbo pad! Beforehand I got to the final area boss, and he was kicking my arse. So I pull out the turbo pad, and after some initial working out how to use it, I finished the story mode. Using the pad, and some online help, I was also able to unlock all the extra tracks, and do the 3rd, 4th and 5th set of challenges for achievements. With hindsight, I could have made 840GS without it given enough time - all it requires is a lot of the quest mode items. But now, according to MGC, I'm in the top 50 in the world...? Chances are I won't ever get the full 1000GS as it's bloody hard from here on out.

Lost Odyssey

235 -> 360 of 1100
6 of 42 Achievements

Using my guide, I'm now onto the 3rd disc (it approached unexpectedly, I must say), having played just over 20hrs. It's still an awesome game, I recommend it to everyone!

Test Drive Unlimited

630 -> 670 of 1000
35 of 46 Achievements

After watching lots of Top Gear (A very popular car show) again, and watching my favourite ever car on some tests - the Koenigsegg CCXR - it was time to break out a game which has the car. Well TDU has a couple of Koenigsegg cars, and I bought one in it a while ago. So I decided to lots of A-rank races with it. On the way, I got the '60 gold cups' achievement.

FIFA Street 3

0 -> 1250 of 1250
32 of 32 Achievements

I got Fifa Street 3 from LoveFilm this past week. Online, it was rated as 5-12 hours completion, and the DLC is only 300MSPs. Well I got most of the offline ones fairly easily, then finished the game with Undefy, Haly x3h and Sofa King 10k. The game is ok, better than NBA Ballers, but worse than NBA Street Homecourt. The achievements are very easy - the one that takes the time is the 25 online ranked wins, each win takes 5 minutes = 2hrs per person. Other than that, Game Complete!

The Club

465 -> 535 of 1000
31 of 50 Achievements

I got out The Club due to mingo21 getting it. I haven't actually played it since the weekend it came out. It's a shame really - I would have played it more if it had some better online modes - they dont really cater for players that aren't that good =D Well we boosted a few online achievements - Win a DM without dying, Capture 25 flags, Kill 25 foxes. There's a few others we can boost as well.

Stranglehold

235 -> 400 of 1250
23 of 55 Achievements

I've been seeing Stranglehold near the bottom of my 'games with 1250GS' list for a while now, so I took it out of it's shrink wrap (my last play on it was a rental) and completed the main story. ZachSP8 10k is going to help me boost the online stuff when we get time. I will also need to complete it on the hardest difficulty to get the GS. The DLC is majorly overpriced, at 1200MSPs for a few maps. 300MSPs like Fifa Street 3 would get them a sale from me. 1200MSPs is stupid. You hear me? STUPID!

Ridge Racer 6

5 -> 17 of 1000
3 of 36 Achievements

A game I've been neglecting, I did a few races offline and then boosted some online with ZachSp8 10k. It's basically a drifting game (so far), and I'm winning most of my offline races.

======================
(Note the following is 3 weeks difference, as MGC was playing up last GS Update:

GamerScore:	91442 -> 96139
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	23 / 56
Completed Retail:	44 -> 46 / 199
GS Completion %:	43.78% -> 45.28%

Country Rank:	88 -> 73
World Rank:	601 -> 534
Completion Rank:	1,319 -> 1,072

Overview of the 360 RPGs

2008-05-23T10:06:00.000+01:00

Here's something I wrote as a reply to a 360voice forum post that might be of benefit to RPG fans who have a 360 but not sure what game to get.

My overview of the RPGs on the 360:

Arkadian Warriors: Nice XBLA title - fit into the size window by having the dungeons randomly generated. Action style combat, though nice and easy to complete.
Blue Dragon: Took 96hrs for a complete playthrough to get all the achievements (with a guide, I'm a fan of official guides that rock). Created by the FF team (story and music) and art done by the Dragonball Z guy. It's quite fun if you like FF and/or DBZ.
Enchanted Arms: Graphically great, not so good storyline. 35hr completion (achievements for completing the game), can get boring in places, so it's a bit of a grind.
Eternal Sonata: Not properly played yet (no decent guide, the official one is crap), but still RPG style battles in an action environment. A new idea, implemented well, with a good storyline. Requires two playthroughs minimum for 1000 GS. A cross between FFVIII and Blue Dragon, though much shorter.
Lost Odyssey: IMO, a new standard in J-RPGs for the next gen consoles (I still love Chrono Trigger). I'm ~22hrs in and now on the 3rd disc, so I dont see it being more than 60/70hrs for the full 1000GS. Excellent 'blow your mind' story, great graphics, excellent lip synching etc. Every so often the town visits break the flow of melee combat, but still an excellent game.
Marvel Ult. Alliance: Almost completed the GS in this, just imagine Marvel characters + action combat + A levelling system. To me, a bit boring, but it has its fans.
Mass Effect: Too much dialogue, but good implementation of FPS/RPG type elements. I'm a JRPG fan, so meh.
Oblivion: Nice FPS/RPG type game as well, but see Mass Effect. My g/f has spent 160hrs on the game, and only done 10% of the story, as she has tried to visit EVERY dungeon in the game.
Phantasy Star Universe: Played the originals on Dreamcast, so I loved this. 35hr completion - some action elements and an average story, but nice graphics and combat system.
Two Worlds: Like Oblivion, but a small notch worse. I quite liked it, as it incorporated new elements to that type of game, but it tried to incorporate a lot very quickly, and wasn't fully developed.
KuF: A retail version of Arcadian Warriors basically - better graphics, but pure dungeon grinding with a small hint of a story. Online play though, which is a bonus.

Top 3 IMO:

Lost Odyssey
Phantasy Star Universe
Blue Dragon

(Because I prefer JRPGs over games like Oblivion and Mass Effect)

(NSFW) Zero Punctuation - GTA IV

2008-05-23T01:45:00.000+01:00

The bleating followers of ZP's reviews force him to go after GTA IV. Watch, as the bile pours from every orifice. Or does it?

By the way, Niko is Serbian. We know this, as one point in the game, it's either Roman or Niko comment on how their Serbian native tongue is rusty.

HalyCopter

2008-05-22T01:40:00.000+01:00

Just a shoutout to a random who I boosted with this week - Haly x3h. Go visit her website, and marvel at this piece of work.

Belated Update

2008-05-21T01:39:00.003+01:00

Sorry, no update on Sunday. It'll be a couple of days (probably) before another one. It's the last few weeks of my Degree, so along with procrastinating with the 360 and work, I've not had time for much else. BBIAB =D

NBA Ballers Story Mode Guide

2008-05-16T03:22:00.000+01:00

I created the following guide during my second playthrough.

It displays an overview of the moves, and goes through every chapter in each episode telling you the way I did it.

Example:

It's in PDF format here (110k).

12th May: GS Update

2008-05-12T18:24:00.001+01:00

A few odd games this week, nothing too focused.

Like a king on his throne, borandi said 'awaken' and for him I did comply. 92,872 points represents the size of our growing kingdom. Ok, enough of this Monarchy stuff. That is an improvement of 220 points over last time! He rocked out to Football Manager 2007 picking up 1 achievement, NBA Ballers:Chosen One finishing an amazing 7 achievements, BioShock winning 1 achievement, and then I told him to keep playing but he didn't... out of spite I think.

Did I mention the gamerscore challenge that borandi is competing in? There's so much action in this one, you may pay for the whole seat, but you'll only need the edge!!111! Witness the spectacle. There are 4 other people playing along as well... they better watch out. Currently borandi is holding the number 2 spot in the group... decent. With only one day left though, we need to make that last big push!

360voice had a big badge update this week. I lost a few badges as a result - 1* Music, 1* FPS, 1* Sandbox. But also gained a couple - 50% completion and 2* Party. The music badge is a bummer, as almost 1/2 the games are US only which I dont have yet. The sandbox badge is a bit annoying - I was hanging on by 5pts, then they added both GTA and Bully to the genre, but only got 300 on GTA.

I also wrote a guide on NBA Ballers, but more about that later.

Guitar Hero III

390 -> 400 of 1000
37 of 59 Achievements

After several weeks on and off, with the aid of a mirror, I redid Easy mode on a new band on Lefty Flip in order to get the 'Hendrix Reborn' achievement. Now it's a case of doing as many tracks as possible across all 5 bands to get the 100million points, $350k and 250k notes achievements.

NBA Ballers:Chosen One

0 -> 1000 of 1000
20 of 20 Achievements

NBA Ballers was one of the LoveFilm rentals this week. Imagine NBA Street Homecourt, without the fun moves. It's basically a set of 1 vs. 1 matches for story mode, and 3 hours to complete. Another 3 to complete again for that achievement, then 25 wins online and a few other specific skill achievements. I made a guide over at x360a.org, which I've set to be posted here in a couple of days. Not a fun game by any stretch, though. Game Complete!

BioShock

275 -> 285 of 1100
25 of 51 Achievements

In a minor attempt to get my 1* FPS badge back, I thought I'd fire up some BioShock. But it was 3am, so I got as far as getting the Jackpot on the one-armed bandits.

Football Manager 2007

9 -> 204 of 1000
18 of 50 Achievements

Nothing much to say here. I started a game with max players in top positions at various clubs, then went on holiday and left the 360 on for around 15hrs this week. As a result, a lot of achievements pop up.

GTA IV

325 -> 375 of 1000
25 of 50 Achievements

A couple of achievements on GTA. Enough story missions complete to get access to all the islands, and a set of 5 flips in a car. About 50% of the game complete.

SAMURAI WARRIORS 2 XL

0 -> 50 of 1250
1 of 29 Achievements

I noticed a few people have the full 1000 on this game, so I put it in. Only a small dabble, I played the minigame from the main menu and won for the achievement, but also started a few of the story missions.

Scene It? LCA

445 -> 770 of 1000
33 of 42 Achievements

I did aim one evening to try and finish Scene It. With Wiki and IMDB at hand, and a digi cam, I took photos of each question then paused it, then looked online for the answer. The main achievement on this game is getting 60 correct answers without getting one wrong. I think I got to around 28 before one of the questions was the picture of an actor and he looked more like the wrong guy than the right one. That took 70 minutes to get that far. So I just finished the Long Game and put it away.

Army of Two™

80 -> 225 of 1100
10 of 41 Achievements

Another attempt to rekindle my 1* FPS badge. I went after some weapon achievements, thanks to the guide over at x360a.org. It involves replaying the first mission over and over again, as there is a point where 120 guys spawn 2 at a time, and you have infinite health and ammo.

LEGO Star Wars: TCS

100 -> 210 of 1000
11 of 42 Achievements

Another part of my semi-interested runs at the next Family badge. Like the other LEGO Star Wars, this is just as boring and uninteresting. A few achievements from going through the first episode, nothing much else.

PES2008

235 -> 260 of 1000
10 of 28 Achievements

One achievement - the 100 assists one. I'm around 10 or so games from finishing the English league.

Geometry Wars Evolved

20 -> 30 of 200
4 of 12 Achievements

Aha! Geometry Wars was one of my first ever games I got an achievement in. It's ridiculously hard. But I managed to get the 'get 250k points' achievement.

======================

I'm not putting up the MGC stats this week. There's been a mixup over there and some of my games that used to be there aren't showing. It should be fixed up by next week.

(NSFW) Zero Punctuation - Mailbag Showdown

2008-05-12T00:33:00.000+01:00

According to his email, no-one liked ZP's review of Smash Bros. Brawl. Here's why you're wrong.

The Easy Games - May 2008

2008-05-11T00:59:00.000+01:00

67 Completions. Which are the easiest, which are the quickest per GS? Well, here's my list:

Avatar
Madden 06
NBA 2k6
College Hoops 2k6
NHL 2k6
Madden 08
MLB 2k6
TMNT
Open Season
Fifa 06 RTFWC
NBA Live 2006
NHL® 07
Cars
Galaga
Surf's Up
CSI: Hard Evidence
Cars: Mater-National
King Kong
POTC: At World's End
GUN
Fuzion Frenzy 2
Jericho
A-Train HX
Fight Night Round 3
New Rally-X
Sonic
Golden Axe
NBA Street Homecourt
Eragon
X-Men III
Madden 07
Track and Field
Ms. Pac-Man
SpiderMan: FoF
Spyglass Board Games
Bomberman Live
Sonic 2
Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires
Meet the Robinsons
Gauntlet
Prey
NHL 2k7
3D Ultra Minigolf
Superman Returns
Bee Movie Game
Pac-Man
Dig Dug
LMA Manager 07
Backgammon
Carcassone
Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
Uno
Puzzle Fighter HD
NCAA Football 07
Worms
TMNT: Arcade
Bankshot Billiards 2
Enchanted Arms
Phantasy Star Universe
WWE 08
Arkadian Warriors
Viva Piñata
WWE 07
Pro Evo 6 / Winning Eleven 2007
Undertow
Blue Dragon
Beautiful Katamari
Forza
Puzzle Quest

What does that mean? Play Avatar for quick GS. Play Viva Pinata for easy GS, but it takes a bit longer. The PDF showing all this data is available here.

(NSFW) Zero Punctuation - God of War: CoO (PSP)

2008-05-10T00:38:00.000+01:00

Another series game - this time God of War on the PSP. ZP provides his retrospective.

borandi's Quick Start Guide to A-Train HX

2008-05-09T00:43:00.000+01:00

I said I'd put up my guide at some point! So here it is. Click the following link to go to the thread where I originally posted it.

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/showthread.php?t=64270

borandi's Quick Start Guide to A-Train HX
=========================================

This guide is for people to follow in order to get over half of the GS in A-Train HX without playing about too much with the core gameplay. This strategy worked for me (640GS in ~5hrs) and I hope it does for you too.

I'll start as if you've just put in the game without reading the manual (I didnt get a manual as it was a LoveFilm rental).

Edit - The basic principle is 'Get Money Quick'. When this guide was first written here, we used the stock market. However, a quicker way has been discovered using Property. See the Youtube videos to see how. The Stock Market method will remain here so people can learn the controls or cant follow the videos.

When you've selected your storage device, you'll come up against the main menu. Here, use the D-pad to navigate (the D-pad and left analog stick do different things in this game, and you'll be using the D-pad a lot). Select New Game and there are eight different scenarios for you to conquer. Choose the one in the top right, called Clear River and Rice Paddies - this map is easy, it's what I did most of my early achievements on, and you start with 1 billion monies (for ease of use, I'll just put $ from now on).

When the map starts, press start. This is the instant pause button in the game.

Now we look at the HUD provided. Currently selected in the top left is what I'll call the Game Menu which uses a twist style function to navigate. If you press RB, the speed is now selected - this is in the top right corner, and should now be flashing. You can use the D-Pad left and right to adjust the speed, or press up on the D-Pad to set the speed back to normal. For this guide, I suggest putting it all the way to the right, as we need to sim a lot of days to get these achievements.

Pressing RB again takes us to the cutaway guide, to the right of the speed. This is for when you want to build in mountains or underground. RB again takes you to the bottom right, where the train selector is. Here you can view the path each train takes on its day. RB again brings up the calendar, and here you can set dates where your timer will automatically stop. This is useful on Tax Days (1st Apr and 1st May I believe) so you can cobble funds together. RB a final time brings us back to the Game Menu.

The Game Menu is fairly intuitive. However, if you want to delete a piece of rail, you have to select the rail menu and go to the delete function there - same applies for buildings, you have to use the construction delete funtion for those.

But the main crux is the market menu, which brings up the stock market. Go there now (highlight it, press A).

There are 50 companies from which you can buy stock. Now with any stock market, you have to use the 'buy low and sell high' strategy. This game can be a bit picky with stock market rises and falls, so keep an eye out of those.

To get these easy achievements, we need to make lots of money on the stock market - about 12 billion to begin with. Now as a general rule, I buy below $7 a share, and sell above $13. You can't make any money with small gains, as every time you buy or sell, 10% is charged as a commission fee. Sometimes the game will take shares as low as $1, or as high as $20, so we need tactics to counteract that too.

From the beginning, the shares are usually around $8, so try and buy the cheapest you can find. You can press Y to increase the amount that you buy (up to 10 million). Buy as many as you can, but leave at least 200 million in the bank - this is very important; you're current funds are in the top center right of the screen. You can only buy 10 million shares from each company, but you can buy shares from as many companies as you like.

When this is done, press start. Now you will see the days go by quickly, and the stock prices rising and falling. As a market, they rise as a group and fall as a group, so you wont see $4 on one set and $16 on the other, they'll all be around $4 or around $16, etc. Also, share price is not based on how well you play each scenario - its random.

As the days go by, you'll see the odd message saying 'the stock market is falling!' or 'the stock market is surging!'. As a general rule, ignore these messages. Most of them are hoaxes - some of them are true, but most spout the most purile lies.

Stick to your stock screen until the majority of the 5 prices you are looking at reach above $13 - this could take 2 minutes or 10 minutes as the stock market is random. When this happens, press start to pause the game. Now we need to save the game. This is done by going to the Game Menu, and selecting File, then Save. [Note, you cannot overwrite a save game - it has to be deleted first by pressing X, then you can save it the slot]. Once that is done, go back to the market. Press right on the D-pad, and what said 'Buy shares' now should say 'Sell Shares'. Sell all the shares you own. Your money should now be over 1 billion by a small amount (I was by 160 million the first time). Now save the game again, but this time in a different slot.

Go back to the market, and resume the game. If after 5 days or so the stock market has risen, go back and reload the save where you had the shares. In general, this game does follow the same trends everytime after a save (at least for a short while), so this is generally a good indicator. If you reloaded, sim 5 days, and if it's still higher this time round, save before you sell the shares and after you sell the shares. That way, if the shares go up higher still, you can reload and save.

When the shares have peaked and you've sold them all, the market should decline again. This time, we're waiting for shares to dip below $7. This time, we save the game before you buy, and save the game after you buy. That way, if they dip below $5, we can reload the save with all the money and buy them at the cheaper prices. Again, buy as many as you can, but leave at least 200 million in the bank.

You need to repeat the buying/selling/saving process for a while. As you accumulate more money, you'll be able to buy more shares each time, and thus make more profit. About 4 billion is needed to buy from every company on the stock market.

Once you have around 7.5 billion, now we can go achievement hunting. Keep a save file with all this money, just so you can come back to it and get some other achievements.

In the market screen, press LB until you see the bank. Here, we need to take out lots of loan. Press Y until the loan amount is 1 billion, then press right on the D-Pad so it becomes a 2 year term. Then take out as much as you can (goto each line in the table and press A). You should be able to take out 4 or 5 billion, and your total money should now exceed 10 billion (the more the better).

Now goto the project sub menu of the Game Menu. Here, you can create Bullet Trains and MagLev Trains - which cost 600 million and 10 billion respectively. Create both on the map - they should be easy to place, this is an open map. These trains take 128 days to build, so sim through them until they are done. When they are built, you should get the following achievements:

Bullet Train in Service - 30GS
Complete the bullet train project to open a bullet train line.

Maglev Train in Service - 60GS
Complete the linear train project to open a maglev train line.

Railway Kingdom - 60GS
Total railway assets exceed the total of non-railway assets by over 15% when the game is cleared.

Harmony With Nature - 60GS
Blocks of trees exceed 300 when the game is cleared.

The Great Leap Forward - 60GS
Clear the game within 5 years.

Now reload up your save with all the money. Goto construction, a choose the small factory. Build 60 or so. After simming a day or two, you should get these achievements:

Factory Head - 30GS
Number of factories exceeds 30.

Company Expansion - 50GS
Number of your properties exceeds 60.

You can also build 30 stations, from the station menu. Any will do, the cheaper the easier though. After another day or two, this achievement will be yours:

Station Expansion - 30GS
Number of stations exceeds 30.

The rail laying achievements are quite easy. Press RB until you get to the cutaway option in the top right, and press down twice, then A. The screen should turn almost completely orange - don't worry, this just means you are underground. Now bring up the rail menu from the Game Menu. We need to put down 2000 bits of rail, so keep building in an up and down. 2000 takes a long time (5-10 minutes), and at this point it's probably best to keep the timer running for this one. You'll get a message when you hit 1000. These achievements will unlock as you go through:

Tube Expansion - 30GS
Total length of rails in tunnels exceeds 100.

Public Transport King - 30GS
Total rail length exceeds 2,000.

Ah here's something I almost forgot - go back to the bank screen (under Market). Now keep taking out max loans and paying them back (press A again after taking them out). After less than a minute, this achievement will unlock:

Sign of Success - 40GS
Bank interest paid exceeds 500 million.

If you need all your money back, now is a good time to reload, as these other achievements require some money and time.

These achievements require some basic knowledge of how the train system works in this game, as well as some info about materials.

About factories and materials: most of the buildings in this game require materials. Materials come from factories, or trains that deposit them in material yards as they come from off the map. Trains can only deposit materials in yards within a certain radius of the station, and buildings have to be built near materials in material yards.

Now go back to sea level, and find the patch of water in the bottom right of the map - this is so we can build a port. A port needs a stretch of land next to water of 4/5 squares, so keep this in mind when building.

Near the edge of the map (3 squares away), build a Marshalling Yard with five platforms (press Y to change the number of platforms), with the barriers of the station facing into the main map. Now build rail such that each of the five platforms is going to the edge of the map. Now build large Material Yards around the station - I believe each station can reach out 20 squares or so, so populate the area around the marshalling yard with lots of material yards - keep them close together. Now we need to buy trains.

Goto the train menu. You will see that you already have 3 trains. Ignore those for the time being. Using the D-Pad, goto train spot number 4. Press A to buy a train. Here you see the list of trains available - scroll down until you see the Model EC6 HS Goods Train. Press Y until it has 7 carts, then press A. Now move to one of your platfroms of the Marshalling yard, and press A twice. The train should now be set. Do this with the other 4 platforms.

If you sim a few days, you should now see materials building up in your yards. Good, we need lots and lots.

First task should be to build a port and an airport. If your Marshalling yard is close to the water, building a port is easy - note what looks like the building section of the port actually goes in the water, the rest is on land. The airport is easy too - just find an open space near the material yards. These achievements should be yours:

Take to the Skies - 30GS
Construct an airport.

Port of Call - 10GS
Construct a port.

Now, we build leisure facilities. This is under the construction menu. Here we go with the one that uses the least materials - the shrine. Build 20 of these and sim a day for this achievement:

Leisure Industry Leader - 30GS
Number of leisure facilities exceeds 20.

Now these next set of buildings may take a while. They need lots of materials and money. I'm talking about the landmarks. Find a space near the material yards, and build them one by one. You only need one of each. When they are all built, you get this achievement:

Tourist Trap - 50GS
Construct all types of landmarks.

All that's left is to reload your save and keep playing with the stock market. When you hit 10 billion, this achievement is yours:

Top Trader - 40GS
Share trading profits exceed 10 billion.

Many thanks to woody1993 for the following info on other achievements:

Quote:

I would play the stock market until you have about 35 billion and save this map as it will be extremely useful in a few of the achievements later on (you should get the 30 billion in assets by doing this also)

Railway Microstate achievement

Like borandi says just find a map with a track length less than 300 at the start of map and play the stock market till you get about 7 billion then take loans out till you get past 10 billion then you should get the achievement i personally done it on north/south of the mountains map

National Conquest

Complete the eight original maps this is easy but time consuming just play the stock market as before when you get to 10 billion you clear the map

I cleared all eight maps but didn't get the achievement at first so i went to my map list and deleted the maps i downloaded and created then cleared an original map again so to be certain i would just have the eight original maps to start with when you do this achievement

Industry Leader

Just play stock market again till you get 30 billion and selling any property you own counts towards your total assets

City Expansion

I did this one by building as many supermarkets,convenience stores and restaurants as i could then sold them to the city and built more and sold them and so on until the achievement popped up this could take some time but you will get it eventually

Or do the property baron achievement and sell everything, then build, then sell. (Go to the market screen, then LB to get to where you can sell properties).

Quote:

Top Taxpayer

You should get this by doing Property Baron

I got this during Property Baron - 15 bil in income tax!

Quote:

Property Baron - also see video underneath called 'Using Property Pt 1'

I built five long tube stations on the edge of the map one level down underground (you can do this by pressing rb until you to the enable cutaway part) then put five goods trains on them with seven carriages then surround the stations with large material yards if they exceed 20 spaces away from station nothing will be dropped off on them, return to normal level then build 50 department stores 1 (you can use other shops and property's but i found these to be best) if you build tall buildings or skyscrapers they will not make a profit until they are fully built.Put a few elevated stations close to the stores so the population will build around them, pretty soon you should be making a profit go to to management info on report at the top of page it should say subs,profit/year it's this total which must succeed 20 billion don't worry it doesn't have to be done in a year. I waited a year until my city built up a bit then i took all my trains off sold them then left it on over night to get this achievement but that's just the way i did it you don't have take your trains off

Subway Mall Expansion

It's best to do this achievement with a highly populated city when my city had about 9000 population i built an underground double tube station, on the first track i put a goods train with a material yard close by, on the second track i put a tube train, i connected this station with another station further on after a while a subway expanded from the back of my tube station this expanded two at a time to a maximum of eight in length 16 in total when it was fully built i built another six tube stations in close proximity to the original tube station when all fully expanded you should get the achievement (a fully extended subway mall attached to a tube station should resemble the letter t)

I made a video showing about Subway malls. One thing I didnt add is that these malls work best when using tube trains and underneath current towns.

YouTube - A-Train HX - Underground Malls

Useful Links to A-Train HX:

http://www.artdink.co.jp/japanese/ti...en_playing.php
A website that introduces the core concept of the game
(As mentioned by DJ Psydande in another thread)

Videos for making money, made by borandi:

YouTube - A-Train HX - Using Property Pt 1
YouTube - A-Train HX - Using Property Pt 2
YouTube - A-Train HX - Using the Stock Market

(NSFW) Zero Punctuation - Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)

2008-05-08T00:36:00.000+01:00

The next game in the Super Smash series. Zero Punctuation expresses his joy.

(NSFW) Zero Punctuation - Condemned 2: Bloodshot (360)

2008-05-06T00:32:00.001+01:00

A chilling look at the sequel of Condemned (a game I've still yet to play) courtesy of Zero Punctuation.

4th May: GS Update

2008-05-04T19:18:00.003+01:00

The week is all about GTA. GTA this and GTA that. You can't escape it!!! *evil grin*

Oh man, borandi was totally in the gaming zone yesterday when he fired me up to play. 91,332 points of total gamerscore doesn't do his skills justice. That is a profit of 150 points over last time! He played GTA IV winning an amazing 7 achievements, Lost Cities, BLADESTORM, PES2008, Marvel Ult. Alliance finishing 3 achievements, and oh... don't tell borandi this, but I have been getting in a little video chat in the off-hours. Booyah!

Oh and it is time for a gamerscore challenge update... listen up... Bookmark this link now and check out all the action! 4 other people are also involved... which is madness. Currently borandi and I are on top of the challenge mountain... it's so beautiful, and high. I can see my house from here. Is that an airplane, or a space shuttle? How's the weather down there? We're in the home stretch with 24 short hours left! Work for that win!

Well I'll explain GTA a little later on. Apart from that, I got Avatar this week from LoveFilm for an easy 1k, I passed 90k, no XBLA game this week (thanks to GTA), though there was a very exciting talk over at 360voice about their merger with GamerDNA. All those that participated got the 'Plays Well with Others' badge, so I joined in (at 3am UK time) and is was good fun.

Marvel Ult. Alliance

515 -> 980 of 1250
50 of 58 Achievements

Lots of MUA this week. The main story line is complete (on easy), wrapping up those achievements, as is all the costumes from the DLC pack achievements. Alongside that, 500 enemies thrown off a ledge, and enough statues to unlock Daredevil and Black Panther. I'm currently working my way through the simulator (managed to get all the discs), going for gold in each. After that, I'll be going for all the costumes on each character, and that should leave two DLC achievements, and complete on Hard left.

PES2008

210 -> 235 of 1000
9 of 28 Achievements

Just one achievement this week - 'Keep foul ratio below 0.1 per match for the last 10 matches'. I'm about 27 games through the English league now (out of 38), going after the 100 assists achievement.

GTA IV

0 -> 325 of 1000
23 of 50 Achievements

Ah yes, the big game itself. It says I've notched up 24hrs in the game already, though some of that is during dinner, etc., where I forgot to pause it. Well, what do I think? It's a very good, all round game. It has bits of everything, and is an absolutely stunning environment to be in. Game of the Year for sure, unless something like Fable 2 shows something spectacular. The developers have worked hard on GTA, balancing every aspect and giving the player freedom to do what they want, with some minigames and a nice multiplayer option to play around with. Some of my best moments in GTA:

- I met a random guy on the street, high on drugs, called me a eastern european tard, then gave me $100 'courtesy of Uncle Sam'
- If you cause a ruckus in a strip club, they throw you out, and all the strippers seem to go outside. I just saw one walk outside, in broad daylight, and she started eating a hotdog.
- Bumped into a hobo, he shouts 'I ain't got any bananas!'
- Did a double flip in a police car and the lights got smashed, the siren now plays like its broken

A few small bugs though. One - at some point in the game, you have to leave the area of your first home with your cousin. Then, when you go bowling or so with him after that, you have to pick him up from the first area where people are after him. Some other responses from NPCs are also out of sync. Also, a distinct lack of things to do in Single Player compared to previous games, like taking cars to the docks for money etc. I'm hoping the August DLC for the 360 shows some more spectacular stuff.

As far as achievements go, it's not really a game you can get achievements easily in - the average GS so far (according to MGC) is about 25. That said, I passed the 90k mark with GTA as some of the achievements are really easy. Escape from a 4* wanted level? Go up and down the runway on a bike. Spend 5 mins at a 6* wanted level? Take a boat or heli and drive round the unopened islands early on at full speed where they cant catch you. Some of the multiplayer ones look a bit tricky - 'Kill 20 people with a pistol match in a ranked match'. Luckily however, if you're the host, you can set it to a small map, pistols only, 20 min match to get that achievement easy.

Go buy the game and enjoy it. It's worth your monies. Over at metacritic, GTA has been getting 100% marks from a lot of magazines. In my eyes, a good game, but not 100%. I'd give it a 98%, as there are some touchup/QA issues they could have worked on, but its GOTY material nevertheless.

Avatar: TLA: TBE

0 -> 1000 of 1000
5 of 5 Achievements

The undisputed easiest 1000GS of any game on the 360. All it involves is tapping B on the first level, until your combo hits 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 - and your combo stays unless you get hit. So I did the full 1000GS on each of my 3 accounts and Nellas did it on hers for her first completion. So I timed it the third time round. One minute and 55 seconds from pressing play on the dashboard, to the full 1000GS. Easiest game ever. Game complete!

Guitar Hero II

640 -> 700 of 1000
40 of 50 Achievements

Two easy achievements I'd been neglecting on GH2 this week. I had to start a new band to get the 'buy every guitar' and 'buy every finish' achievements, but all it took was 22 5* songs on medium to get enough money, which is now quite simple for me =D

===================

GamerScore:	89487 -> 91442
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	23 / 55
Completed Retail:	43 -> 44 / 196
GS Completion %:	43.39 -> 43.78%

Country Rank:	91 -> 88
World Rank:	637 -> 601
Completion Rank:	1,439 -> 1,319

27th April: GS Update

2008-04-27T23:04:00.004+01:00

A mix this week. Some news, some games.

borandi came to represent the gaming world. 89,362 points and counting! That is a profit of 40 points over last time! He rocked out to Lost Cities, BLADESTORM, Call of Duty 4 gaining 1 achievement, Lost Odyssey, and almost cried with joy. I have that effect on people.

All this week has been a buzz around GTA4. It comes out Tuesday, despite a large number of people playing it already (thanks to people working in game stores, or people selling it early). My preorder was in, and the money has gone out, so I expect it to be dispatched, ready for Tuesday. I'll probably play it a good lot, apparently it's a lot of fun.

PES2008

130 -> 210 of 1000
8 of 28 Achievements

Just a little bit of PES08 - just 5 or so games. Yet as a result, 3 achievements unlock - 2+ goals average in 5 games after 20, possession > 60% in last 10 games, beat all England teams. Like PES6, this game will take a while. Each game is 5 mins, and one of the final achievements is 'play 500 games' - thats 2500 mins (even without loading), which is 42hrs.

Lost Odyssey

110 -> 235 of 1100
5 of 42 Achievements

After some recent FPS gaming, I decided to delve back into the RPG arena, now that I have the Lost Odyssey guide - I've played it almost all weekend. As a result, I got to the second disk in around 10hrs from a new game. The guide is a brilliant help, especially with the bosses which are hard for a JRPG.

Call of Duty 4

190 -> 770 of 1000
31 of 37 Achievements

Well it looks like last time I played CoD4 I didn't update. Well I was at 600GS, stuck on the level where you got 20 minutes to get out. I was literally pulling my hair out. That was in November, so now I took off the shrink wrap (I bought it around Christmas, last play was a rental) and put it in again. A quick youtube guide got me through that level, and the next, until the point where you've got 9 minutes to save the missile launch. Now that level is an ARSE. You have to get into a couple of pathways that face each other, and enemies are on either side. You cant peer round to shoot one then the other, and grenades dont work. So I'm basically buggered - and as a result, I almost broke a controller. So I set the difficulty to easy and breezed past the last two levels. I dont think I'll comp this game on veteran, I just dont have the patience, and Activision frustrates gamers like me with these achievements. Why not make a couple online, like reach level 54? (Which is v. easy on the PC version).

BLADESTORM

550 -> 600 of 1000
12 of 18 Achievements

I still like Bladestorm - its the Hack and Slash with out the frustration and a little bit of strategy. I got the 3*, and the Book of Camels. I'm taking a liking to the Halberds, the Poleswords. With their 3 specials, they can take out a whole squad which they are weak against. As a result, my Halberds book is at 73%, which is enough for the final achievement. Now I'm working on a couple of other groups - archers and spears. I cant stand the cavalry, though.

Lost Cities

0 -> 80 of 200
5 of 12 Achievements

Lost Cities is the XBLA game this week, which I bought so Nellas and I can play. It's a simple card game, with some easy achievements - except the 'Win 300 games' achievement. A game lasts 3 rounds, and a round can last 4-5 minutes. Thats 3600 minutes, or 60 hours.

Guitar Hero III

365 -> 390 of 1000
36 of 59 Achievements

Not much on GH3 this week - Nellas and I finally finished co-op easy. We're doing a couple of tracks at a time - I hope to get 5* easy, 5* medium co-op, as well as complete co-op as lead and bass eventually.

Viking

0 -> 90 of 1000
6 of 50 Achievements

I got a small chance to play Viking this week. One of my friends had bought it, and came over one evening. I played for an hour, but it looks an alright game. I cant really tell if it's going to be a good one, as there was no real tutorial. But the slicing and dicing was fun, anyway.

G.R.A.W.

670 -> 736 of 1000
30 of 43 Achievements

A couple of online achievements on GRAW - a group of 6 of us went for the Crackshot achievement (10x headshots without reloading with at least 5 different gametags in the room) as well as Team Player (Win 30 co-op matches with at least 6 GTs in the room). On the way, I managed to get the Sniper ach (500 head shots in multiplayer).

LEGO Star Wars II

350 -> 390 of 1000
14 of 29 Achievements

I started playing this just to get some achievements, and complete it a little more for the 360voice 2* family badge. Yet I can't still stand this game - the levels are still too long, and too boring. It's all a boring grind. I got 2 level completion achievements, then couldn't stand it any more.

=================

GamerScore:	88841 -> 89487
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	23 / 55
Completed Retail:	43 / 194
GS Completion %:	43.28% -> 43.39%

Country Rank:	89 -> 91
World Rank:	634 -> 637
Completion Rank:	1,425 -> 1,439

20th April: GS Update

2008-04-20T13:13:00.004+01:00

This has been one exciting week (and a half). On a spur for some completions, I ended up with SEVEN new completions. Yup, thats SEVEN! =D

borandi is awesome! Just plain radical even... I say that because we played some games. Did you know our gamerscore is 88,816? That is a profit of 945 points over last time! That was enough to cross the 88,000 mark! Good stuff! He made some progress on Civil War adding an amazing 27 achievements, MS.PAC-MAN picking up an amazing 12 achievements to finish the game, PAC-MAN adding 1 achievement to master the game, Crash Of The Titans acquiring 1 achievement, Puzzle Fighter HD winning 3 achievements to complete the game, BLADESTORM, Burnout Paradise, Bejeweled 2, Geometry Wars Evolved, Texas Hold'em, and then borandi developed a funny twitch and went to try and sleep it off or something. Crazy humans...

This is really good stuff... the more we play, the more chances we have to leave Stignob 10K in the dust. Call me crazy, but a 2,305 point cushion is not nearly enough for me...

And..... guess what? I will reveal the latest gamerscore challenge status to you as a matter of public record. If you are curious, follow along over here. There are 3 other people involved. I didn't know borandi even knew that many people. Currently, borandi has been using every power-up in his achievement-gaining arsenal, rocking the lead with authority! Only one day left too! This is good stuff!

On the 360voice side of things, I've gone for my 1* FPS badge, 1* Retro badge, I'm just a smidgen off a 1* Music badge (thanks to DDR2 and RockBand not being out here yet) and I also got the 1* 'Hail to the King' badge for getting wins in challenges. I won a 13 player, 3 day challenge, came 2nd in a 8 player 3 day challenge (I was giving out the viral), and I'm on my way to winning a 4 player 3 day challenge. I would go for the 2* family badge, but I dont have any of the other games for that one - I'd complete Shrek if I got it from LoveFilm.

As for the games:

Texas Hold'em

115 -> 140 of 200
7 of 12 Achievements

I was let on to a fabulous way of playing Texas Hold'em, at least for the 1000 hand ach and the 'get all hands' ach - and it involves clamping down the A button in a normal single player match. Then the game plays itself. However, I've seen people leave this game on all night for weeks to get the 'get all hands' ach, to no avail. Time will tell! (I got the 1000 hands ach this week.)

Burnout Paradise

360 -> 560 of 1000
32 of 50 Achievements

According to the in-game timer, I've played B:P for 30 hours already. That's a lot, and I didn't realise it was that many. However, some useful information came my way this week. Using the Carson Fastback, it's easy to do drifting burnout donuts in the baseball stadium. With that, it was easy to do the 20x burnout ach, and the 1 million stunt run achievement (I was able to do that normally yesterday, 2.2m, using the quarry and the bridge). With that came the A class licence. I also did some online achs - won an 8 player race, make 50 online rivals, completed 1 and 20 online races. The other online ach required a bit of tweaking - start an online game, but make it private. Now set all the road rules, except near misses. Make the game open, and as one or two people come in, start a race, and eventually the room will fill. When the room is full, go to the stadium and look for a row of parked cars (or Watt St.) and set the best near miss record (make sure 8 people are in the room at this time). If you get that (or someone beats one of your other records), you'll get the 'In 8 player online Freeburn led 6 of the Today's Best Scores' achievement. Easy stuff.

Puzzle Fighter HD

120 -> 200 of 200
12 of 12 Achievements

I last played PF:HD in late August - the week it came out - with ZACHSP8 10k and we went after the achievements. After that week, 3 still eluded me - 5x chain, 7x chain, and complete story without using a continue. Well, thankfully the guides are up on the appropriate websites and I had a gander. Within 10 minutes, I had the 5x and 7x chains, and another 10 minutes saw the complete story mode ach. Nice and easy =D Game Complete!

Crash Of The Titans

333 -> 343 of 1000
22 of 47 Achievements

Crash is my LoveFilm rental for the time being. I've basically had to restart my game on Hard, as according to everyone online, that's the best way to do it (so you can get the hard achievement). Well, I like Crash games, except this one. The levels are too long (15-30 minutes), and the game is unbalanced (at least on hard). Tbh, I'd only play a level at a time if I could. And the fact that you have to replay a whole level if you miss one little thing needed for an achieve is also ridiculous. This is akin to 'Lego Star Wars' syndrome. Both games have lead charagcters that don't speak, both games have long ass levels that are too long, both games drag on for years and years with no reprieve, and both games require 100% completions for achievements. These developers can f**k off.

PAC-MAN

170 -> 200 of 200
12 of 12 Achievements

Ol' Mr. Pac-dude can now die a happy death. I did that final achievement, without the hint or whiff of a guide - I used all my guile, and 5 lives in the process. To start, eat enough dots so they all come out. Now keep moving so all the ghosts bunch up and follow you. Now go for a pill and eat the bastards. Repeat. Die in between if you have to. Just kill Blinky. Game Complete!

MS.PAC-MAN

0 -> 200 of 200
12 of 12 Achievements

The little yellow bitch is just as annoying as her no-bow wearing moronic cousin. And yes I do imply that they inbreed. Actually, I prefer Ms. Pac-man, purely on the fact that the levels change, and you're not scurrying around the same path for 21 levels trying to get achievements. Also, the final achievement I found easier on Ms. Pac-man. Game Complete!

Civil War

0 -> 525 of 1000
27 of 50 Achievements

History Channel: Civil War is a US only game (based on the US Civil War) that tries to be an FPS. By all means, it is an FPS, although you seem to be the only bastard on your side. I started to play through this game, though the missions as both the Union and the Confederacy. Yet every mission I played (on easy), my idiotic 'team-mates' seemed to enjoy charging at will, dying in the first 5 seconds. There's only me left, doing the rest of the campaign. I did the Union and most of the Confederacy on easy before turning the game off. There are various rants on forums regarding the level of difficulty of this game, basically requiring you to save every 5 seconds in case some enemy decides to shoot through 500yds of weeds and trees and hit you square on the head. Yes this game is difficult, the AI is over-powered, and they've completely missed the market they were aiming for when this game was released. You can't teach the Civil War to 8 year olds when they don't want to play because they keep dieing. And the amount of death in this game is unsuitable for that age group (2 hours and 550 enemy kills). I may complete this game sometime, along with climbing Mount Everest and destroying the Moon.

NCAA® Football 07

825 -> 1000 of 1000
50 of 50 Achievements

I had 3 achievements left on NCAA 07 when I started it up again this week - Get 8 5* recruits in a season, Win the National Championship three times in a row, and go through 60 seasons in dynasty mode. Well I played for 2 hours, going for an achievement I already had, which was stupid. Then I was reading on some forums on how to get these achs. It involves having a good run of the National Championships (i.e. simming, saving and reloading in case of loss), then finding each of the recruits' perfect pitch by reloading. So I did. And after the hat-trick, it took 4 tries to get the recruits. After that, a day and a half of simming while watching TV for the 60 seasons. It's a LONG time to sim. Game Complete!

Guitar Hero II

520 -> 640 of 1000
38 of 50 Achievements

Ah it's always welcome when some GS has been earned on GH2! I was able to get four achievements this week - 300k on a song (Monkey Wrench on Hard), quite a few in co-op with Nellas - 400k co-op (also MW, me on Medium lead, Nellas on Easy bass), 100% a song in co-op (Cherry Pie, both on easy), 600k co-op (Free Bird, me on Medium lead, Nellas on Easy bass). All the achs left are almost impossible, apart from the guitar finishes one. I'm working on getting money for that, though I'm running out of tracks I can do, so I might have to start another band for cash.

KUF: Circle of Doom

100 -> 430 of 1000
13 of 32 Achievements

I bought KUF from Play-Asia, so now I can join people on my friends list who seem to be always playing it. Well after a dabble with the previous rental, it all seems to be going smoothly now, thanks to Roquey. He's pimped 2 of my characters out, so they easily reach level 120, and we've gone and killed a few of the bosses at each stage. The main time consumption on this will be the story mode for each character, but at level 120 and going through normal difficulty should be easy enough.

DIG DUG

0 -> 200 of 200
12 of 12 Achievements

I bought Dig Dug after my last post, as I needed an arcade completion for my '20 XBLA Complete' badge on 360voice. For the most part, it was frustrating - often needing 3 lives to complete a level or two. The final achievement is reminiscent of the Pac-man achievements. It involves digging every bit of the screen in a level. However, what they dont tell you, is that you have to dig the areas that are already pre-dug by the game before you begin - so all the holes the monsters live in, and the initial dig down before you get control, all of these have to be dug too. I didn't realise this until 90 mins of frustration and twice where it didn't unlock. A hard achievement, but I managed it. The trick was to keep 2 enemies on the screen, and if they start to get too close, then attack them until they almost pop, then carry on - it keeps them stationary for the max amount of time, allowing you to get some distance. Game Complete!

Clive Barker's Jericho

225 -> 1000 of 1000
42 of 42 Achievements

I last rented Jericho at Christmas. Personally, I thought it was a realitively cool game - nice story line, not too hard. However one thing that did annoy me (and Zero Punctuation) was the level design (brown castle, brown castle, brown ruins, etc) and how I kept back-tracking without realising. However, rican ninja89 had the full 1000GS on it, so I got it from LoveFilm. With the helpful suggestions now available on the achievement forums, 1000GS was easy! On a level of King Kong, I'd say. It took me 2 hours to complete the rest of the story line, then another hour to get the various 'kill' achievements and 'complete without dying' achs. I did enjoy Jericho - it was the right length for an FPS, and a good story. Shame about the level design though. Game Complete!

Marvel Ult. Alliance

250 -> 515 of 1250
31 of 58 Achievements

Ok, so I've been putting off this game a while now. Mainly because I didn't really understand the game mechanics, and it seemed better in co-op. But I got off my arse, and did some single player story. By-the-by, it's an alright game. It plays like most others in it's genre, but offers some RPG elements (which may annoy others). I did some of the story, and also bought the DLC pack for those achievements. I'm currently running around with Dr. Doom, Magneto, Cyclops and Sabretooth =D Most of the achs I'll get from the story mode, others I'll need to specifically seek out.

Hour of Victory

240 -> 320 of 1000
16 of 50 Achievements

Looking back at my achievement list, I last played this game (when rented) back in July, but made no note of it as I was moving and travelling at the time. This game is heralded as one of the worst of the 360. It's a WW2 FPS (a genre that's beaten like a dead horse until it looks like it's alive), which for the most part, is quite easy, except for two factors - a) Few checkpoints, b) One level where you have to drive a tank through a town without it blowing up, with no checkpoints. When I played this game last, I was stuck on that level. So I got it from LoveFilm, and tried again. After several hours, I did the mission twice - the first time, it didn't count one of my kills for the objectives, so it wouldn't unlock the final door for me (the bastards) so I had to do it again. At that point I got really angry and sent the game back to LoveFilm.

Brain Challenge™

70 -> 85 of 200
7 of 12 Achievements

Not much to say about Brain Challenge, apart from I did the 40% brain usage achievement. When I bought this I started to play it every day. Now it holds almost no entertainment value. How hum-drum.

F4: ROTSS

60 -> 80 of 1000
4 of 19 Achievements

I rented this game back in July 07, thought it was crap. Then saw it was on sale for 5GBP at Christmas, so picked it up then. I took it out of its shrink wrapper this week, as it's a game I know I have to complete. F4 is by no means a graphically poor game - they've included all the visuals you'd expect. However, they've let themselves down on two accounts - a) The level design is abominable - I'm into the 3rd or 4th stage and I've been stuck several times; b) This type of game has been done to death - so do it right - controls are meant to be responsive! So I did a level, not too much. I've had some advice from MR WHIPPY 10K on how to get the achieves, so it's a case of grind, anger, grind.

NHL 2K7

700 -> 950 of 1000
16 of 17 Achievements

MR WHIPPY 10K and I did the online achievements, and I knocked out another 30 wins in quick play (seeing as the online ones didnt count). This leaves a dilemma - the last 50G achievement is glitched - i.e. you can do it, but it wont unlock - or so say the bods at the gamerscore websites. And they're right - only 4 people have the achievement, and they are known gamesavers and hackers of the system. So now, is this game marked as complete? If 2k Sports ever decide to fix their games (but they're as stubborn as EA and cant get their backsides in gear), then I'll go for the final achievement. I wont play it otherwise. Game Complete...?

Eragon

1000 of 1000
37 of 37 Achievements

At last I can consign this one to the completions pile. Eragon has plagued me with annoyance since the first level - seemingly over lengthened for the level of enjoyment. The first time you play, you may think 'this looks cool!', but then realise that what you did in the first 10 minutes is repeated for the next few hours. BORING. Game Complete!

====================

GamerScore:	85191 -> 88841
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	19 -> 23 / 54
Completed Retail:	40 -> 43 / 193
GS Completion %:	41.80% -> 43.28%

Country Rank:	102 -> 89
World Rank:	701 -> 634
Completion Rank:	1,691 -> 1,435

10th April: GS Update

2008-04-10T16:46:00.013+01:00

Ok so I didnt make a gamerscore update last weekend, mainly because I was too busy. Busy with making extra posts, game guides and watching Zero Punctuation. Deal with it =D . Coupled with this, I'm doing a '2 for 3' deal on updates - 2 in 3 weeks, because I'm away this weekend. Away is as far as I wont update, but still near to a 360 enough to keep my streak on 360 voice going.

Having a new gamer picture is like eating out at a new restaurant... you go in and everything is different and... ok that really makes no sense... bad comparison... never mind. In gaming related news... borandi seemed really excited to play yesterday. Our current gamerscore is 85,191 . That is a boost of 60 points over last time! He played Thrillville: OTR, PAC-MAN winning 1 achievement, Guitar Hero III, Guitar Hero II, Brain Challenge™, DOOM, and then borandi developed a funny twitch and went to try and sleep it off or something. Crazy humans...

Good thing borandi and I got some play time in! Every day we play is another opportunity to pull away from Donny NL and that 40,257 gamerscore!

Hey, I almost forgot! The gamerscore challenge that borandi is competing in is on day 2 and we're doing our best to win this thing. Check out the progress right now! 12 other competitors are racking up achievements and powering up their gamerscores, hoping to secure a victory! Currently borandi is hanging on to the number 6 spot. We've only got one day left. Let's cancel everything on our schedule from school to work to sleep (haven't been following what borandi does these days) and win this challenge!

This week/update brings up several long time completions, and a new game completion. Along with that, I've lots of hand cramp from Guitar Hero and no achievements to show for it. Almost had one, and also trawling through expert on GH2, even 5*ing a few. I also found this site for GH3, giving some of my more spectacular achievements:

Now for the games:

NHL 2K7

650 -> 700 of 1000
13 of 17 Achievements

I'm having another crack at this game. Technically I don't have much left - Win 100 games, play 30 online games, quit 10 online games, and the (gliched so no-one can get it) score a penalty on the hardest difficulty setting. I got the 'Win with every team' achievement though. As I'm writing, I'm going after the 100 wins, and later tonight MR WHIPPY 10K and I will be doing the online achievements.

Brain Challenge™

50 -> 70 of 200
6 of 12 Achievements

Not a lot on Brain Challenge - mingo21 and I did the '10 online wins in a row' achievement for 20GS. I'm at 37% brain usage, so almost at 40 for that achievement.

PAC-MAN

130 -> 170 of 200
11 of 12 Achievements

Pac-man can go to hell! Haha well the last achievement is bugging me, and according to people online on forums, it's bugging them as well. It involves eating every ghost 4 times in the same level. Now there are online videos for this, but since then I believe Namco have put in a random element so the ghosts don't always follow the same path. I tried for 2 hrs last night for the final achievement, and didnt get it. So I might just have to leave this one. On the otherhand, I got the level 21 achievement.

Thrillville: OTR

130 -> 945 of 1000
48 of 50 Achievements

Well I finally sent this rental back, 55GS short. Most of the achievements were easy, just required some grinding. I was lucky on the sideshow achievement, with the 'splat-a-mole' game giving me 5* after 3 tries (some people on forums had 50 odd tries before getting it). The two achs I have left are the ultra hard one (Beat Event Horizon 2 on hard) and beat every arcade game. I did manage to get the 'top 10 in the world' achievement, by building the shortest track on one of the racing games, and finishing a race in under 17.4 seconds. That's a sneaky achievement!

Army of Two™

65 -> 80 of 1000
4 of 37 Achievements

Not much to report on Army of Two. I started the main game a little, healed my partner. This does look somewhat like a fun game, but I reckon it's better in co-op and might wait to play it then.

Mr. DRILLER Online

0 -> 90 of 200
6 of 12 Achievements

I bought Mr. Driller. It's very fun, in an N+/Geometry Wars style of 'breaking the controller'. The concept is simple - dig down, don't let stuff fall on you, don't run out of air. Yet it's tricky - you'll have to drill around some blocks, then maneuver so that more blocks dont fall on you. Then you have to drill sideways to reach the air pickups. It's fun, and frustrating. Online is poor - the host having the advantage. I managed to get one online achievement, but most people quit as they can't do anything, and that doesn't count as a win.

A-Train HX

640 -> 1000 of 1000
24 of 24 Achievements

YaY I completed A-Train! I did my guide for 640GS (which I will post here soon), and then between several of us at x360a.org, we managed to figure out the rest. I then did some videos for my guide. A fairly easy 1000 in the end - there's only one or two real tricky achievements, but once you understand the way the game works, it's relatively simple. Game Complete!

Forza Motorsport 2

970 -> 1000 of 1000
44 of 44 Achievements

The last achievement I needed was the 'One Million Online Credits', which was fairly easy - just kept playing the Nissan Speedway with my Ford GT40 (or TVR Speed 12 or Mercedes SLK-GTR, depending on what was allowed). I managed the final 126k in a night, totalled about 10hrs online (which did include some boosting). A very heartwarming 1000GS. Game Complete!

Undertow

165 -> 200 of 200
12 of 12 Achievements

Likewise with Undertow - just needed to grind out those 10k kills. 80 kills in 2 mins with the first map, I just did 1500/2000 a night to get it. Game Complete!

Catan

110 -> 120 of 200
8 of 12 Achievements

I haven't had an achievement on Catan for ages, however I was lucky to invite in mingo21 into a game for 10GS. Mingo has all but one ach on Catan, the one he is missing is the '1000pts in online play', despite having won almost 200 games now. Some people have that ach, so we is thinking that it's just being a bit glitchy.

Winning Eleven 2007

240 -> 280 of 1000
7 of 23 Achievements

Like I said before, this game is essentially Pro Evo 6, but renamed for the US. I won one of the longer cups since the last update, a nice 40GS. I'll soon start on the leagues.

===================

GamerScore:	83701 -> 85191
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	18 -> 19 / 52
Completed Retail:	38 -> 40 / 192
GS Completion %:	41.13% -> 41.80%

Country Rank:	104 -> 102
World Rank:	707 -> 701
Completion Rank:	1,773 -> 1,691

(NSFW) Zero Punctuation: No More Heroes (Wii)

2008-04-10T16:38:00.001+01:00

Here's a look at a game that pushes some limits. ZP reviews No More Heroes on the Wii.

A Potential DRM Solution

2008-04-06T14:19:00.003+01:00

There is a general disdain in the 360 community over Microsoft's handling of Digital Rights Management. Why? Well, say you buy an XBLA game on the 360. It ties your download to the serial number of your console so you can play it offline. Then, you get the three red lights, and your console gets replaced with another - this one has a different serial number. Your downloads merely think that you have just gone round a friends - they don't update the fact that your old console broke.

This has been an issue for sometime now. In order to play these downloads, you'd have to be online, connected to Live (Gold or Silver, doesn't matter). Your family could only play those XBLA games if you were signed in too.

Now, there is a potential solution, thanks to Deaconblade! It does mean losing all your saved games, but check the full article here:

http://www.unscripted360.com/2008/02/08/drm-follow-up-tip

This tip will help those of you who don’t know that you’ve been updated. For those still in a DRM punked status, I’ll keep investigating to see if something more can be done. Now let’s get on to the tip shall we.
DRM Tip (for those trying to access Arcade titles offline and can’t)

-Log on to Xbox Live with the same Gamertag you initially downloaded the content to
- Go to your Systems Blade > Memory > Games
- Locate the Arcade games you can not access offline and delete them including saves
- Go to your Marketplace Blade > Account Management > Download History
- Search for the same content in your history and download it again

This may not work for those who a) have not had your console serial # properly updated or b) if the content is no longer in your Download History. I know a few users who tried this after last weekend’s show (including myself) and it took care of the problem. So give it a shot.

So, there you have it. Enjoy =D

The Easy Games - April 2008

2008-04-05T00:21:00.003+01:00

Well, I've now completed 58 games (59 if you count Phantasy Star Universe) and it's time I updated the list.

How do I work it out?

Well I take the number of hours it took to complete the game. Then divide by (total GS/200). This means that I if one Retail game and one XBLA game took the same time per GS to complete, I should take 5x shorter on the XBLA game. Comprendez?

Well even if you dont, the following list is in order of 'Play the top games to get GS the quickest'. If two games take the same amount of time, they are in the order of difficulty.

Madden 06
NBA 2k6
College Hoops 2k6
NHL 2k6
Madden 08
MLB 2k6
TMNT
Open Season
Fifa 06 RTFWC
NBA Live 2006
NHL® 07
Cars
Galaga
Surf's Up
CSI: Hard Evidence
Cars: Mater-National
King Kong
POTC: At World's End
GUN
Fuzion Frenzy 2
Fight Night Round 3
New Rally-X
Sonic
Golden Axe
NBA Street Homecourt
X-Men III
Madden 07
Track and Field
SpiderMan: FoF
Spyglass Board Games
Bomberman Live
Sonic 2
Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires
Meet the Robinsons
Gauntlet
Prey
3D Ultra Minigolf
Superman Returns
Bee Movie Game
LMA Manager 07
Backgammon
Carcassone
Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
Uno
Worms
TMNT: Arcade
Bankshot Billiards 2
Enchanted Arms
Phantasy Star Universe
WWE 08
Arkadian Warriors
Viva Piñata
WWE 07
Pro Evo 6 / Winning Eleven 2007
Undertow
Blue Dragon
Beautiful Katamari
Forza
Puzzle Quest

You can download the full PDF file (with my notes, and reasons why they are in this order) here.

There we go. The easy games - the ones I've completed. 39 Retail, 19 XBLA = 42800GS.

PS I know Avatar isn't up there. I haven't had a copy in my hands to play yet, but you could expect it to be at the top. 1000GS in 1/60th of an hour? =D

(NSFW) Zero Punctuation: Army of Two

2008-04-05T00:20:00.001+01:00

Ah, a game I do have. And I love the gays. ZP reviews Army of Two.

(NSFW) Zero Punctuation: Zack & Wiki

2008-04-05T00:19:00.000+01:00

ZP reviews a game I've not heard of. But you see, I dont have a wii.

(NSFW) Zero Punctuation: Turok

2008-04-05T00:17:00.001+01:00

Just a backlog of some ZP reviews. Apparently Turok is a BAD game.

31st March: GS Update

2008-03-31T01:27:00.005+01:00

Games have been plentiful abound this week, though I have been keeping back the GS so that a couple of friends of mine can win the Viral badge over at 360voice.

borandi showed up yesterday and we were like a superhero team together. I make a great sidekick! Gamerscore stands at 83,621. Up up and away right? That is an improvement of 60 points over last time! He opened up Winning Eleven 2007 picking up 1 achievement, N+, Brain Challenge™, Burnout Paradise picking up 1 achievement, Forza Motorsport 2, and it's a good thing he stopped there, otherwise the concentrated awesomeness could have blown out my circuits.

This is really good stuff... the more we play, the more chances we have to leave TheWings977 in the dust. Call me crazy, but a 73,076 point cushion is not nearly enough for me...

Oh, guess what? Our gamerscore challenge is going strong... If you are curious, follow along over here. 2 other people are throwing down in this challenge. If I do the math correctly, it means that 2 players X 3 days means a whole lot of trash talk! Currently borandi is hanging on to the number 3 spot. However there are still 2 days left to score achievement glory. Let's get to the top of that challenge board! Go!

Let's see what's happened this week... 360voice has now increased their watcher limit to 100. I trawled through the appropriate threads on the forum, so now I'm watching 50 or so people. If you want to be watched (and if at all possible, please reciprocate =D), send me a message or comment on my 360v blog.
Xbox.com has had a new facelift. The new style is A LOT quicker than the old one, but now is more minimalist. I love it with lots of info on one screen, but they've had to change it to reduce load on their already bursting servers. Fair enough - although now my friends list is split into sets of 15, and often I have more than 15 friends online at the same time, so I have to click more links to find some of them. Bleh.

MS has also started going after gamesavers. Good on them. There are plenty to look for and cut down, so hopefully I'll be able to shoot up the rankings somewhat. All my score is legit, with some boosting and cheat codes thrown in (GUN, GH3), but I've never used someone elses saved game and claimed it as my own.

In other news, there has been lots and lots of Forza. See later for more info! Also, I was delighted to be presented with 6 new games this week by Nellas, after her trip back home to the US for 3 weeks. These were: Army of Two (US), Winning Eleven 2007, Fifa 07, Medal of Honor: Airborne, The BIGS and History Channel: Civil War. Four of these are US only releases, so I'm glad to have them.

Now onto the gamerage!

Army of Two™	0 -> 65 of 1000 3 of 37 Achievements
Forza Motorsport 2	930 - > 970 of 1000 43 of 44 Achievements
N+	55 -> 70 of 200 5 of 12 Achievements
Burnout Paradise	340 -> 360 of 1000 24 of 50 Achievements
Winning Eleven 2007	0 -> 240 of 1000 6 of 23 Achievements
Chromehounds	140 -> 160 of 1000 7 of 49 Achievements
Guitar Hero III	325 - > 365 of 1000 35 of 59 Achievements
Thrillville: OTR	0 -> 130 of 1000 9 of 50 Achievements
A-Train HX	0 -> 640 of 1000 16 of 24 Achievements
College Hoops 2K7	0 -> 165 of 1000 8 of 49 Achievements
Splinter Cell D.A.	100 -> 125 of 1000 6 of 38 Achievements
Big Bumpin	30 -> 40 of 200 3 of 12 Achievements
Halo 3	780 -> 800 of 1000 30 of 49 Achievements

I haven't really started in Army of Two yet. I've done the training, then was called into a 4 player online game with rican ninja89, mingo21, and Chewy027. We went after the quick online achievements (play an online match, win an online match without buying any weapons, collect 20 mini-objectives) but the big one is the 'Earn one billion dollars online', which in reality will probably take 250-300 twenty minute matches. That's a lot of $$$.

Ah yes, Forza 2. Almost complete =D I finished all the time trials - the last one on the Nurburgring had me almost tearing my hair out. After 25 laps of 7.5 minutes each lap, I finally beat the 7:09 time requirement. Now, my last achievement is the 1 million credits online, which is incredibly slow. You get next to nothing online, expecially if you're not first. At the start of the week, I had 250k. After a 4-player 75 lap Nissan Speedway win (120k for winning), ZACHSP8 10k managed to rustle up 8 gamers for some boosting - we all got a 75 lap Nissan Speedway win
(150k win). I also did some public matches and won 2x5-player 25 laps and 1x4-player 75 lap race. Now I need only 126k for the achievement. Why am I doing Nissan Speedway? It's an oval, requires minimal thought, and with the Ford GT40 I can do it at 248mph = 35.3 seconds a lap. Now though, most public servers dont like the GT40, so I use a TVR Speed 12, which does a lap in 36.0 seconds. Failing that, I've just purchased and done up a Mercedes CLK-SLR, which does 39.0 second laps and has near perfect cornering.

N+ is also doing my head in. Sometimes it is just so unresponsive. Thus I got the 1000 deaths secret achievement. I'm also upto Chapter 23 or so. Did some online races and co-op campaign, so maybe those achievements might pop soon.

I haven't been playing much Burnout Paradise this week - just the odd race here or there. I'm several races away from my A license, and I also got the achievement for a 10x multiplier in showtime.

Winning Eleven 2007 is the US version of Pro Evolution Soccer 6, which if you remember I have the full 1000GS in it. So I started on the easy achievements on WE07. I've played about 40 games so far, but still have all the leagues and all the online to do yet. Fun =D

I did a little Chromehounds too this week - just 4 or 5 deploys with rican ninja89. I got my 'Capture 100 COMBAS' achievement, so nothing major. This is another game on my 'to do' list.

Ah yes, some GH3. rican finally got the German song 'Erten Was Wir Saen', and we did some rocking - with me on bass, both on expert. Without any effort, we hit 900k, getting the '700k co-op' achievement. In actual fact, only the host got it, so we had to do it again with the other person hosting. We also got a terrific achievement - 2000 note streak! We had planned to do this on Through the Fire and the Flames, but we tried it on this German song, with me on Easy lead guitar, rican on expert bass (no guesses who the better guitarist is, lol), and on our 4th attempt, we got a 2150 note streak. =D

Thrillville is one of my LoveFilm rentals for the time being. As far as I can tell, it's an 'easy' 985GS according to rican, with one 15GS achievement that is stupidly hard. It's like the new version of Theme Park, so I'm looking forward to getting to grips with it.

I've been looking forward to A-Train HX for some weird reasons. One, it was released in Japan ages ago, and now makes it to UK shores. Two, it's not out in the US. Three, most people have played it (in Japan) have the full 1000GS. So I got my LoveFilm rental (minus a manual), and had a go. Without the manual or a guide, it's startling of what you have to do, as there is no tutorial. Online websites have no help, as almost no-one who speaks English has the game. So I fiddled with it, then posted an easy 'Quick Start Guide' over at x360a.org for everyone to enjoy. Within minutes of posting, it was made a sticky, so result! I'll post it here after this post. (Which reminds me, I didn't look at Zero Punctuations post this week, or last week... I'll post those too).

I had my US 360 out for a while this week. So I put in some College Hoops 2k7, a semi-easy game if the guides online have anything to go by. The good thing about this game is the sliders - it makes the game somewhat easier :) However, with any basketball game on the 360, the blocks are the problem achievements. I put the slider up for free throws, and managed the hard free throw achievement =D I need a proper thrash of this game.

I boosted a little on Splinter Cell with rican - just a couple of levels as one of the sides. Nothing too serious with this game yet.

Some Big Bumpin as well - given that there was some promise in boosting it this week. That didnt materialise, but I managed to get that achievement for the middle competition in single player mode which didn't unlock last time.

Yes, I did play some Halo 3 again this week. More specifically, I played through a level to get the skull and the points achievement for it. I need 2 more gold skulls, several online achievements and all but 1 points achievement.

GamerScore:	82246 -> 83701
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	18 / 51
Completed Retail:	38 / 192
GS Completion %:	41.62% -> 41.13%

Country Rank:	106 -> 104
World Rank:	735 -> 707
Completion Rank:	1,767 -> 1,773