12th May: GS Update

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.

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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.

13th January: GS Update

This week has been somewhat entertaining. On Jan 6th, we had the Microsoft CES Keynote speech, delivered by the one and only Bill Gates (and Robbie Bach). It's Bill's final keynote, and he didnt have much in the way to say about the Xbox 360. No big announcements regarding hardware or packages. All that was said was regards the now 10 million Xbox Live members, and 17 million consoles sold - and they reached that 10 mill target 6 months early. Thinking about it, I dont know one game that has more than 2 million online gamertags associated with it - looking at mygamercard.net, Hexic HD has 1.05 mill, Halo 3 has 1.05 mill (a mere concidence) and I'm a particular world rank X of 1.7 million. Thus a lot of this tags are either SPAM, or just secondary accounts. Currently there are 5 accounts on my system - my main that subscribes, two spares for regional downloads, my girlfriends, and a mates'. Thus it can be clear by '10 million accounts' that maybe 80% of them are SPAM ones. This leads me to another point - 17 million consoles sold, and so few of them go online? Most of the 360 fun is online! Either MS have inflated their figures or just havent got the message out that the 360 is an online console. If they had included wifi as part of the hardware, I could see a lot more 'players' being part of this online community.

As regards the gaming, this week has been so-so. I'm up to my ears in exam revision, thus limited to few games. My 360voice states:

I thought borandi just wanted to listen to music or watch a DVD. Turns out he was there to game. With a gamer score of 66,287, I should have known that was the case. That is an increase of 115 points over last time! He rocked out to Metal Slug 3 acquiring 1 achievement, Omega Five, Hardwood Spades gaining 1 achievement, Scene It? LCA adding 4 achievements, Guitar Hero III, and... hmmm... I forget what else we did...

This weeks XBLA releases were Omega Five and Tron. Omega Five is the side-scrolling blaster (which I bought and think is ok), whereas Tron is the old pre-arcade version of the game (and is crap).

Scene It? LCA	280 -> 445 of 1000 21 of 42 Achievements
Guitar Hero III	275 of 1000 29 of 59 Achievements
Hardwood Spades	10 -> 20 of 200 2 of 12 Achievements
Omega Five	0 -> 40 of 200 3 of 12 Achievements
Metal Slug 3	60 -> 70 of 200 6 of 12 Achievements
Beautiful Katamari	1170 of 1250 39 of 40 Achievements
Marble Blast Ultra	30 -> 70 of 200 5 of 12 Achievements
G.R.A.W.	420 -> 670 of 1000 27 of 43 Achievements

Nellas and I have played about 4 games of Scene It? this week. As a result, we're slowly starting to get the achievements for '25 questions correct about the 80s/90s/Romance/SFX' type of achievement. I also got a couple of 'get all questions correct in this block' and a short game score achievement. When I'm not embroiled in revision, I could go through this for a while making mental notes of the answers (and using some forums) and hopefully try and get 1000GS in this. The hardest achievements (apparently) are getting 60 correct without one wrong, which will take some skill as I'm not a film buff.

I've spent quite a few days on GH3 this week, mainly for one purpose - to get the '200k on Cult of Personality without using star power' achievement. I've been working on it on Hard difficulty - expert contains too many 32nd length notes and I cant press the buttons quick enough. However, I'm getting quite good on Hard, with 940/980 notes hit and getting most of the hammer-on sequences correct. It's just a case of minimising damage - each time you break a 4x streak, you lose at least 5k in points. My best is at 182k, and I can usually get 175k. Thus, I need to just get slightly fewer mistakes on a run through. Hitting all the notes should get me around 199.5k, but as there are quite a few chords and also there's a little trick of using star power at the end which doesnt effect the achievement. More practice needed, though I've probably done it around 30 times this week.

I fired up some Hardwood Spades as a few people on my friends list have the full 200 and I'm stuck with only 10GS. I think I'm getting the hang of it now, randomly getting one achievement, and just need to focus on certain specifics to get the others. More practice methinks.

Omega Five is one of this weeks XBLA releases, which I bought. I've always been a sucker for side scrolling shooters, as long as I can do them. Omega Five is Hard! I've died at the second level boss a few times now, but managed to get all the achievements upto that point. The achievements in this game are more geared towards completing with character XYZ without losing a life/continue. Hard achievements for a hard game.

Another side scrolling shooter, Metal Slug 3, also involves completing level XYZ without dying. After using 71 continues on my playthrough on Hard, I fired up some easy mode and tried that. Several attempts resulted in getting the first level done quick and without dying, however I'll need to grind out the other level achievements. Bleh.

I've done some mild work into getting that 100hr BK achievement. Probably gave around 15hrs while I was revising, though it's hard to tell.

I grinded through some Marble Blast Ultra - successfully completing all the Intermediate levels. I had to redo 4 or 5 to get them under par time, and some of them were frustrating. The Expert levels look impossible, and there's no-one online for the online achievements.

I haven't played GRAW for a while, and I knew I had some easy achievements to do. Last time I played this, I went through Hard getting the story achievements. This is an old game, which if you complete a level on Hard you don't get the 'level complete' achievement for easy at the same time. Thus, this time round, I played the campaign on easy mode for an easy 250GS. Now, the only achievements I'm missing involve serious amounts of multiplayer work. Pah.

GS: 65,762 -> 66,357

GamerScore:	66357
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	15 / 42
Completed Retail:	29 / 154
GS Completion %:	38.96%
GS % (Non-Demo):	41.16%

Country Rank:	160
World Rank:	1,042
Completion Rank:	2,517

28th December: Christmas GS Update

Seasons wishes to everyone! If you're celebration includes gift giving, then I hope you got/gave what you wanted!

My Christmas was particularly uneventful (the way I like it =D) but now I'm back on the 360 and doing some serious gaming yet again.

I turned my 360voice off while I was away, but here's what the first blog back had to say about me:

Consoles are for playing! I am glad borandi picked up on that yesterday... Gamerscore is a respectful 65,217 points. That is a boost of 470 points over last time! That was enough to cross the 65,000 mark! Good stuff! He made some progress on Guitar Hero III, Beautiful Katamari gaining 5 achievements, NCAA® Football 07 acquiring 2 achievements, MLB 2K7, DDR/DS Universe, and then he had to stop because we both couldn't take it anymore... we were spent.

I did game over the festive season - mostly on a 360 without an internet connection byt was able to continue the gamerscore goodness throughout.

Beautiful Katamari	640 -> 970 of 1250 36 of 40 Achievements
Scene It? LCA	0 -> 280 of 1000 14 of 42 Achievements
MLB 2K7	0 of 1000 0 of 33 Achievements
NCAA® Football 07	790 -> 825 of 1000 46 of 50 Achievements
Guitar Hero III	270 -> 275 of 1000 29 of 59 Achievements
E4	35 -> 80 of 200 6 of 12 Achievements
TigerWoodsPGATOUR®07	0 -> 60 of 1000 6 of 27 Achievements
Arkadian Warriors	60 -> 70 of 200 7 of 12 Achievements
PROJECT SYLPHEED	460 of 1000 15 of 24 Achievements
ICC Cricket 2007	480 -> 530 of 1000 15 of 20 Achievements
ACE COMBAT 6	0 -> 10 of 1000 1 of 49 Achievements
Tomb Raider: Anniv.	0 of 1000 0 of 32 Achievements
LMA Manager 2007	0 -> 535 of 1000 10 of 22 Achievements

The wonderful developers of Beautiful Katamari released the 'final' batch of Downloadable Content (DLC) required to get the final achievements over the festive period - while I was away. Thus the first game I played when I got back home ended up being BK with the extra DLC. The new levels are great - more BK goodies =D I've been able to complete all the DLC achieves (100% Presents/Cousins, 1.5million km Katamari) and also done a few of the original achieves (100 Requests, 50 online matches). Thus the only ones I have left are 50/100 hrs playtime, 200 requests, and 100% collection completion. The playtime and requests should not be a bother, and I'm 98% on the completion, but its a case of finding the right level for the right stuff I'm missing. At some point I'll go troll a few forums to get the ones missing, and get my first 1250 in a game :)

I received Scene It for christmas. Its a good game, but I'm not a film buff, so it's pure luck I've got some achievements. In a nutshell, the achievements for this game are getting X amount of questions right in each section, with X points needed or X questions correct in a row. Thus I'm hoping I get a lot of repeated questions, such that I can just answer the ones I remember :) Overall, its a fun game with friends, good after a film night. After an hour at a time though, it gets a bit boring.

I now have a hate/hate relationship with MLB2k7. I imported it for my US 360, given that it seems an easy 1000GS. However, I bought a preowned copy, and its a bit scratched. As a result, it sometimes corrupts all MLB2k7 saves, thus I can't get achievements as it wont save properly. I'll need another copy to get my GS. Damn.

On a US 360 spree, I also pulled out NCAA 07 to get the final few achievements for it. The ones I have left are pretty hard - 60 seasons in dynasty mode being the big one, also 8 5* recruits at the end of a season, and winning 3 seasons back to back being the other. All rather time consuming, all requiring a good portion of time (60 seasons is ~8hrs according to guides online). I was able to get a couple of achievements though - '#1 recruit class' and 'win a championship game'.

On my way through GH3, it was going to be required that I complete a difficulty on lefty. And I did - Easy difficulty - but the lefty achievement didnt unlock. Damnit. Got the achievement for doing easy though.

I played a couple of games of E4, but the GS change I have above is the result of missing the game off my list on the relevant update. I still cant find a decent guide online for this game to help me get the rest (they're not too clear).

I had the chance over christmas to play Tiger 07. I prefer Tiger 08, mainly because of the clicky way of hitting the ball, and the quality of graphics. I didnt get to play 07 much though, but its like an improved version of 06. It has quite long loading times as well, which is a downside.

I was able to start a co-op game with my brother Roquey of Arkadian Warriors, and we both got the two dungeon co-op achievements :) The rest of the achievements I need to get will require some grinding however.

I was lucky enough to buy a copy of Project Sylpheed cheap before I left. This game is typical Square-Enix greatness, and has a well deserved place on my shelf. I was able to participate in one mission before I left, and improved my level score by 10x for mission 2 =D Thankfully there are quite a few guides now online to help me get the full 1000GS.

Along with Sylpheed, I also bought Brian Lara ICC 07. The achievements I have left for this game require lots of one day internationals and 5 day test matches with all teams, but I was abe to get King Pair achievement - get one batter out in his first ball in both innings. With some deft saving, and awesome bowling skills in which I got 5 wickets in 5 balls in the first innings, I was able to get this achievement first time without any reloading. Awesome.

One of my final 'free' rentals was Ace Combat 6. I was exceptionally busy those couple of days, and only had time to play it 30 minutes before I had to give it back. I wish I'd played it more - the first mission was an absolute blast. I'm having a rekindled fondness for flying games, and AC6 felt like one of the best I've ever played. Must play more....

My other final 'free' rental was Tomb Raider: Anniversary. Now I haven't technically done any in Legend, neither have I been a fan of the series (unlike my Grandfather who has his PC pre-order in the day of announcing the next one). But Anniversary seemed fairly polished - not the best graphics *cough*Bioshock*cough* but challenging gameplay nonetheless. I cant really comment - didnt play it for that long and not a fan of the series.

Aha - now LMA Manager is a game that has been on my shelf for quite a while. It's loomed over me with the 'easy 1000GS' tag thanks to several of the people on my friends list having the full GS. And it is easy - thanks to the relatively quick save/load system. If I lose, I reload. Simple as. The achievements basically revolve around winning 8 different leagues in 8 different countries, and as long as you pick a strong country then a nice win streak is a good as yours. I have 5 leagues left (3 leagues = 500 GS when you get the European cups) and hopefully they're the small leagues.

GS: 64,082 -> 65,392

Completed XBLA:	15 / 39
Completed Retail:	29 / 153
GS Completion %:	38.77%
GS % (Non-Demo):	41.03%

Country Rank:	146
World Rank:	1,010