Retired

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

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

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!!

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

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...