24th February: GS Update

A random slew of games this week. Played some new ones, played some old ones, focused on some RPGs and did some multiplay.

borandi showed up yesterday ready to dominate. Total gamer score stands at 75,521. That is a boost of 740 points over last time! Another day, another milestone. The 75,000 barrier has fallen! He made some progress on Poker Smash, NHL 2K7, The Orange Box acquiring an amazing 10 achievements, NBA LIVE 07 picking up an amazing 8 achievements, Guitar Hero III, Undertow picking up 2 achievements, Two Worlds gaining an amazing 6 achievements, and before I even realized it, he was finished and I was sad.

Oh hey, time for the gamerscore challenge update too... borandi still has that going on and stuff. 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 rocking out on this thing which keeps it fun. Out of all those people, borandi is currently parked at number 2. With only one day left though, we need to make that last big push!

Also got through some gamerscore, hitting that 75k barrier. That's 10k since the year beginning. It might go up somewhat, as I've now started a LoveFiLM subscription for games and films, so I can start renting again. I've opted for the 3 games/films at a time for 18.99GBP/month. Just got the confirmation email, so I might see some games in the post by Tuesday. First on my list is Kingdom Under Fire, as I've had a couple of inquiries about whether I had it or not for online multiplayer. Then after that, it's Thrillville, Avatar and some other easy games.

Now for this weeks gamerage:

Rapala Tournament	0 -> 40 of 1000 1 of 30 Achievements
Splinter Cell D.A.	0 -> 100 of 1000 4 of 38 Achievements
The Orange Box	0 -> 205 of 1000 26 of 99 Achievements
Eragon	270 -> 540 of 1000 22 of 37 Achievements
Two Worlds	270 -> 800 of 1000 35 of 41 Achievements
Undertow	115 -> 165 of 200 11 of 12 Achievements
NBA LIVE 07	0 -> 650 of 1000 11 of 15 Achievements
NHL 2K7	535 -> 650 of 1000 12 of 17 Achievements
WARRIORS OROCHI	40 -> 110 of 1000 5 of 29 Achievements
LMA Manager 2007	870 -> 1000 of 1000 22 of 22 Achievements
Lost Odyssey	110 of 1000 4 of 36 Achievements
DEAD RISING	140 -> 240 of 1000 12 of 50 Achievements
Arkadian Warriors	190 -> 200 of 200 12 of 12 Achievements

I've always been a fan of fishing games, just out of blind ignorance I suppose. Rapala on the 360 got a bit of rap as it's not that indepth, it's a boring game and a significant portion of the gamerscore is glitched. However, I caught a few tiddlers - enough to unlock a 40GS achievement. Not many people have played this game it seems, as there isnt a significant guide for it.

I also started to play Splinter Cell Double Agent. A couple of training missions, the first story mission and half an online game. The online game was 'half' as my 360 froze mid game (it's been doing that since the repair). The game loading was slow, the controls are stodgy and clunky, and it's not really a fun stealth game. However, it seems a little boostable so I'll keep with it a little while.

I've been after The Orange Box for 360 for a while. I've got it on PC, and competed Portal and played some TF2, but never really tried the linear storyline. I didnt buy TOB, but a friend got it so I borrowed it. I completed Portal (again), and did most of the achievements on TF2 - just needing the 1k kills and the 'room of eight' achievements. I also started the single player HL2 campaign - it's going ok so far.

Bleh - Eragon is a long, boring, crappy game. I don't want to know the story line. I don't want to play through 18 levels, both on Normal and Hard difficulty. If they included points on the game for kills and so forth, it'd make this a more fun game. It's just that the combat is almost superfluous and boring, and most of the levels are just running though a stage trying to avoid the combat. But nevertheless, I'm now over half way through.

Now I've got the guide for Two Worlds, the game got a bit easier. I completed the rest of the storyline (including that final 370GS achievement), and now I'm searching around for all the 'visit' achievements and getting level 50. Should be straightforward - apart from the 'find everything' achievement. Hopefully this will get me the 2* RPG badge on 360voice too.

Undertow had a mixed myriad of achievements when it was released - especially the 'complete each stage on co-op' and 'complete each stage on ultra' achievements. Both of which I was able to complete thanks to rican ninja89. It was touch and go on some of the stages, but we pulled through with active defences. All that's left now is the 10k kills achievement. Thankfully, offline kills count too, so several hours doing the same level over and over should do it.

I've had NBA Live 07 a while, not really bothered to play it. However, I stuck it in with NickHarkonnen to see what it was like. 8 minutes and 150GS later, my interest was piqued. I looked online for a guide to the achievements, and got another 500GS in 15 minutes. The only achievements left are online ones which should be easy to get - apart from the 'play online with 1000 people on' achievement, given that when I saw the lobby, there was 27 people online.

I was able to get the 'win an online achievement' for NHL 2k7 this week. I now have to play as each team once, win 100 matches, play 30 online and quit 10 online. That gets me to 950GS - but the last achievement in this game is glitched, to 950 is the max. EA should sort this out. They fixed The Godfather - now fix this.

NickHarkonnen and I also did some Warriors Orochi. We just grinded out some abilities, and in single player I was also able to get some more characters. When my abilities are almost maxed, I'll go after completing the storylines.

I fired up LMA 07 with two leagues to go, at ~6pm at night. By midnight. I had the final achievements. Luckily, there was not much reloading needed, and I'm happy this game is finished. Game Complete!

I didnt get any more achievements in Lost Odyssey, but I played a while - now nearing the end of the first disc I think. The bosses are still hard, and the story is still excellent. Good stuff.

For the blast from the past game of the week (might be a new feature), it was Dead Rising. A game I regret not playing more. However, this time, with a little guide, I got the hang of driving round in cars and vans, running over zombies. This lead to the 1k kills and 10k kills achievements, and I picked up a couple of others on the way, as well as my first finish of 72hr mode. It should be easier when I hit level 50.

Finally, Arkadian Warriors. I finished it shortly after last weeks main post (hence the mini-update), with a few playthroughs of the first stage. Game Complete!

GamerScore:	73836 -> 76106
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	15 -> 16 / 45
Completed Retail:	35 -> 36 / 180
GS Completion %:	39.28% -> 40.06%

Country Rank:	130 -> 120
World Rank:	856 -> 813
Completion Rank:	2,394 -> 2,125

[Aiming for that 3* RPG badge on 360voice]

17th February: Mini Update

Just finished Arkadian Warriors. 6 times through the first level with a weak weapon made it easy.
Game Complete!

17th February: GS Update

Various ups and downs gaming this week. I ended up putting in all the games that I own that I've not played yet into my xbox, so they would all show up in my profile. Hopefully some 0 GS games would shame me into playing them ;) Also received my copy of Lost Odyssey =D

It is that time of the week. I got your weekly recap right here: Oh man are my cores just rocking... borandi played seven days last week! SEVEN! That is a NUMBER SEVEN followed by NO ZEROS! HOT! Ready for this? Last week saw an increase of 1784 points! My eye almost bleeds looking at a number that large! Getting 87 achievements can do that to you. I was there. I saw it!

I told borandi to try 15 games last week: Poker Smash, The Club, The Godfather™, DEAD OR ALIVE Xtreme 2, Football Manager 2007, Hitman: Blood Money, LOST PLANET, Need for Speed™ Carbon, Over-G, Pimp My Ride, Rapala Tournament, Rumble Roses Double X, SAMURAI WARRIORS 2, Star Trek Legacy, and NBA LIVE 07. It was a mix of good and bad. Oh, and borandi seems obsessed with role playing games lately... You can tell because Blue Dragon was the favorite last week. He played it on 5 of the days.

There are still a couple of games in my US pile I still need to put in ;)

Arkadian Warriors	95 -> 190 of 200 11 of 12 Achievements
Guitar Hero III	275 -> 285 of 1000 30 of 59 Achievements
LMA Manager 2007	670 -> 870 of 1000 18 of 22 Achievements
WAR TECH:SenkoNoRonde	490 -> 520 of 1000 17 of 25 Achievements
WARRIORS OROCHI	0 -> 40 of 1000 2 of 29 Achievements
DEAD OR ALIVE 4	80 -> 245 of 1000 16 of 45 Achievements
Two Worlds	260 -> 270 of 1000 24 of 41 Achievements
Lost Odyssey	0 -> 110 of 1000 4 of 36 Achievements
Undertow	50 -> 115 of 200 9 of 12 Achievements
Pimp My Ride	0 -> 30 of 1000 3 of 30 Achievements
Football Manager 2007	0 -> 9 of 1000 3 of 50 Achievements

Arkadian Warriors was added to the RPG genre over at 360voice. Thus it became higher up on my priorities list =D For some reason, playing the game this time round was incredibly easy. I completed the last 7 missions in the main quest, got the 500k gold achievement, and at the end redoing the final level netted the 'level 20' achievement. All that's left now is the 'kill 100 with exploding vases' achievement. It should require a bit of grinding the first mission, but not too difficult.

The first GHIII achievement in a while came my way this week =D Was playing some co-op with Nellas, and we got the 100% a song co-op achievement. Unfortunately, some games are weird with two players getting the same achievement at once, so Nellas didnt get it. It was an easy track, so we can get it again.

Last week, I was 10 games into the German season on LMA Manager 07. This week, I finished the German league achievements and the French league achievements. All that's left is the Dutch and Portuguese leagues. Four, maybe five hours of simming I reckon.

I didn't actually play any WarTech this week. I just left the console on for a few hours while working around the house, and got the '10 hours played' achievement. While doing nothing, might as well try and earn something ;)

I started playing Warriors Orochi on advice that it should be an easy 1000GS - about 30 hours or so. Its like Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires, but more RPG and Story based. It's fun - each map takes around 20 minutes (rather than 5) and is quite easy to win (unlike Ninety Nine Nights). Well, except for the final bosses. I got my characters to level 40ish and the final boss kicked my ass. More grinding, better weapons, more skills. Not too hard, just a little bit of playing and grinding.

As I've stated before, Dead or Alive 4 is an annoying game. It's got an annoying difficulty curve, and I suck at it. So rican ninja89 and I went and did the online achievements - 5, 10 and 20 consecutive wins, beat people on 10-14, 15-19 and 20+ win streaks, achieve rank B and D. I didnt take long =D

I opened up Two Worlds for the first time since September this week. I had no idea what I was doing. Controls, storyline, nothing. So I bought the guide - it has the main storyline and all the side quests explained, so the rest of the achievements should be fairly easy. Didn't play it much though. Will focus on it soon ;)

Lost Odyssey. All the best elements from Final Fantasy in a Japanese-RPG, and I'm only two hours in. Seemless transition from FMV to in-game action sequences. It makes Blue Dragon look like a minor 'Side Project' or 'concept car' to test the engine. Get this game, now.

Also did some online achievements in Undertow with rican ninja89. We also started the story mode on Ultra, and did about 5 stages. 200/200 is perfectly possible on this game, just needs some grinding and a small amount of skill (hopefully).

Pimp My Ride is one of those games that has been labelled as 'easy' by the gaming community. So I gave it a 45 minute whirl when I was putting in all my unplayed games. It looks easy, and a bit of a grind. I'll play some more later.

Also with Football Manager 2007 - I just simmed for about 30 mins, and got a few achievements. This game reminds me of FM06, which was crap. Bleh.

GamerScore:	73072 -> 73836
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	15 / 45
Completed Retail:	36 -> 35 / 178
GS Completion %:	43.51% -> 39.28%

Country Rank:	129 -> 130
World Rank:	860 -> 856
Completion Rank:	1,812 -> 2,394

It looks like the new PSU achievements kicked in on mygamercard.net - hence the 36 -> 35 game completion drop.

4th January: GS Update

Some good news and some bad news this week.

Whilst playing some LMA Manager 2007, my UK 360 decided to RRoD again. I say 'again', however this current console was a replacement for my last one that I had to send back for RRoD. This new one was built two days before HDMI became standard in Pro machines (so, late August). That makes it 4 months old on RRoD time. A bad deal if you ask me. However, if I get a new one back, fingers crossed it comes with a HDMI port (for my new TV) and is further updated. Incidentally, it was almost a year to the day since I bought my first 360, so I'd be on the wire with regards the original warranty (but if you remember, Microsoft extended the RRoD to a 3 year warranty, so I'm safe).

This has significantly resigned me to my US 360, for which I've been reluctant to play in case that RRoD. But, I spoke to a nice lady called Katrina when I phoned up about my UK 360 - she was really helpful and also mentioned that the UK centre will soon deal with US systems. By 'soon', she explained that probably meant '12 months'. Unfortunately I didnt get any compensation this time. Also, the call centre was outsourced to Germany, rather than the stereotypical India.

But as mentioned, I'm on my US 360. That cuts most of the possible games I can play - all the Racing games, all 2K sports games, and various others. But it allows me to focus on certain other games, like Beautiful Katamari, which I've been demolishing this week.

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 65,507, I should have known that was the case. That is a gain of 80 points over last time! He played Metal Slug 3 gaining 4 achievements, Marble Blast Ultra finishing 3 achievements, Beautiful Katamari, and almost cried with joy. I have that effect on people.

And teh games:

TotemBall	10 -> 20 of 200 2 of 12 Achievements
Call Of Duty 3	150 -> 195 of 1000 9 of 26 Achievements
Beautiful Katamari	970 -> 1090 of 1250 38 of 40 Achievements
Marble Blast Ultra	0 -> 30 of 200 3 of 12 Achievements
Metal Slug 3	0 -> 60 of 200 5 of 12 Achievements
BioShock	205 -> 275 of 1100 24 of 51 Achievements
LMA Manager 2007	535 of 1000 10 of 22 Achievements
Crackdown	810 -> 820 of 1250 43 of 50 Achievements
Arkadian Warriors	70 -> 95 of 200 8 of 12 Achievements

Yes, I fired up the Totemball. With a sheer lack of games to play (and sleep), as well as having my camera set up for once, I just pressed play and had a go. Yes, the game sucks - I can never get in a position to give me full control of the up and down stuff. However, I got the '100 shiny things' achievement.

With all the hype over CoD4, I got out the CoD3. For me, it never made the series feel brilliant - it was just 'another' WW2 clone. However, I got over this step, and continued with my single player (which I last left on 4th August). Within 10 minutes I had two more achievements, and it seems relatively straight forward. I might work some more on this later.

Now to the 'Game of the Week' - Beautiful Katamari. I've had some laughs, some tears. I've trolled forum after forum, looking for those elusive items to get my 100% completion. There were several problems, though. Some forums were diabolical and didnt help at all. After downloading the DLC, it puts the extra items in the middle of all the other collection items, however are not required for the achievement - certain people online had the DLC, others didnt, thus some locations were different and some items were not needed for the achievement. After around 10 hours of searching, asking questions online, and often doing a whole stage just for one item, I got my 100%! w00t! Also, along the way, I got the 50 hours playing achievement. That leaves two left - 200 requests completed, and 100 hours. It'll be a case of quickly doing the requests, and leaving the console on an eternal mode for the hours. Each worth 80pts, totalling 1250. Watch this space!

In the december update, MS lowered the prices on certain XBLA games. One of them was Marble Blast Ultra - a game which I'd played the demo of and quite liked. Thus, at 400MSPs, it was a steal. Upon purchase, I raced through the easy stages all under par for those achievements, then got a couple of stages into intermediates. The main downside to this game is that it's not entirely intuitive - repeated plays of the same level start to be required to get through the level. Also, the achievements on offer yield quite little for a lot of work. At least its a pick up and play game.

Metal Slug 3 - the new game on XBLA this week. While 'new' to XBLA, its an arcade classic, one that all gamers that have been around for the past 10 years should have played. Its your typical platformer/shooter with big a$$ guns and explosions. I snapped it up at 800 points, and decided to complete it for once. 45 minutes on hard mode with infinite continues yielded most of my achievements, with a quick burst on easy to get another. This game is a great arcade title - still as good (or bad) as it was when it was released. Admittedly, its easy to get killed, and most of the achievements rely on not dying in a level, but its quick, easy, and fun. Well worth it (even if you stay at < 100GS).

I'm quite ashamed to have neglected Bioshock for so long. I last played it in September when I rented it, then I traded 3 games (TMNT, Gun and Open Season) for it off a friend who didnt want it. It's sat on my shelf for over a month now, and I only put it in my console this week. After having to relearn the controls (and the storyline), I got another chapter into the game, saved a few little sisters, and took a few photographs of splicers. Some quick and easy achievements, now I'm upto 'Cohen's Masterpiece'.

LMA Manager - the RRoD culprit. I was just into a new Italian league - about 20 games in. It should be an easy 1000GS, as long as it doesnt break anything.

Crackdown! I did the online collection achievement (100 markers in 2:30) with time to spare, then was told of a brilliant website for the other achievements - http://candiedskull.com. Thus I got half of the stunt markers in the game, with the other half to get when I put the game in again. That website also gives some hints to the racing achievements, which to be honest, aren't that fun.

A little more Arkadian Warriors too. Upto stage 11 now, and got the 100 items sold/bought achievement. More grinding on this should net the full 200GS.

GS: 65,392 -> 65,762

Completed XBLA:	15 / 41
Completed Retail:	29 / 153
GS Completion %:	38.94%
GS % (Non-Demo):	41.16%

Country Rank:	152
World Rank:	1,022