27th January: GS Update

Various gaming this week - some more easy games, some new ones too. Also, hit 70k gamerscore!

borandi brought the pain yesterday... the good kind... the gaming kind. We are up to 70,262 points of gamerscore. Jealous? He made some progress on Blue Dragon, Hardwood Spades, Guitar Hero III, and before I even realized it, he was finished and I was sad.

And the games:

WAR TECH:SenkoNoRonde	0 -> 120 of 1000 5 of 25 Achievements
Guitar Hero III	275 of 1000 29 of 59 Achievements
Hardwood Spades	40 of 200 4 of 12 Achievements
Blue Dragon	80 -> 110 of 1000 8 of 43 Achievements
Meet the Robinsons	0 -> 720 of 1000 32 of 38 Achievements
Spider-Man™: FoF	350 -> 1000 of 1000 12 of 12 Achievements
Oblivion	1000 -> 1250 of 1250 60 of 60 Achievements
Assassin's Creed	40 -> 60 of 1000 3 of 44 Achievements

I picked up WarTech: Senko no Ronde before Christmas on a whim - a rare enough game, available for 10GBP brand new. I never considered playing it until browsing through the internet, and it came up on a blog of easy games. I peered over the achievements, and a guide, and yes, it looked very easy - play through story mode 8 times, through time attack mode 8 times, play 100 hours, play 1000 online matches, reach rank X online. On this game at least you can do the achievements on 'very easy' mode =D I trudged through two story modes and two time attack modes in 90 mins. The only problem people online have been saying is that to reach the top rank required for an achievement, it requires 230 wins with a boosting partner, at a maximum rate of ~35 an hour. That's some hardcore grinding. Apart from that, looks like some easy GS.

Yes, some more GH3. I recently placed a note on AceyBongos' Xbox blog describing how I feel about GH3:

I've hit a wall on GH3 - a couple of songs from the end on hard mode, where they really hammer the 32nd notes (Iron Maiden and Slayer). Apart from trying to do those, and getting the 200k on Cult of Personality, GH3 has kinda lost my interest. I hope Rock Band brings something new to the 'press coloured buttons in time' genre. All we need is a release date... =D

So yeah, I'll play it for a bit of fun, but not a lot else. I still have the career co-op stuff to do, when I can find someone willing to go through 48 music tracks four or five times.

I've also been trying some Hardwood Spades. It's becoming easier to win, but the streaks and moon shots seem a long way off. The 100 games shouldn't be hard to get though.

YaY for Blue Dragon! I've been neglecting this way too much, so I ploughed ~20 hours into the game in two days. Now I'm at around the part where I was before I reset and starting playing with the guide. I'm at the same level as I was, but I've played 10 more hours but all my characters have almost maxed out all their classes. The achievement I got was the 'Complete Mechat Stage 1: Perfect' which is thought of to be a hard achievement to get. It took me a couple of tries, but with the guide it was easy enough.

I bought Meet The Robinsons, like WarTech, sometime before Christmas. Again, this was meant to be easy GS - and it is. I've been playing through the story mode, and after 6 hours I'm near the end. However I missed a couple of items, and I might have to playthrough the bastard again to get the final achievements. Apart from that, a very easy game. Graphics, sound, gameplay are above the level of a movie of a film, but nothing spectacular. A second rate game - fun for kids, but not much holding it together.

Spiderman: FoF has been a fun game. The levels are simple, fun, and short. There are 20 in the game, and collecting the 3/4 bits per level makes it a good achievement game. The final achievement is to upgrade your whole team - this requires replaying the final stage about 10 times to complete all the upgrades. Apart from that little annoyance, an easy 1000GS. Game Complete!

I completed Oblivion (to 1000GS) in Feb 07. It was an easy game - I wasnt too fussed about the side quests, and ploughed through the game in a little under 35 hours I think. So up comes the expansion, Shivering Isles. This game costs a bomb under the marketplace, but offers 35+ hours more gameplay over the original game. It would do, if you did the side quests. I was able to borrow a mates 'Game of the Year' edition of Oblivion which came with the expansions (Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine) in order to get the final achievements. 6 hours, and some weird storyline, got me the final 250GS. Game Complete!

Aside: I like Oblivion - its a great RPG. It just lacks a few things, like colour (everything seems like a shade of brown), multiplayer, and 360 mods. The PC version has a large mod backing, where people have created their own cities for the game, etc. and made it easier to navigate and so forth. If the 360 had that sort of backing, people would be playing Oblivion more than they normally do! Nellas has got >160hrs gametime, just trawling through the dungeons in the game.

Yes, I rented Assassin's Creed. No, I dont really like it. It's just not enough substance in the game - I have to walk everywhere, be careful that I dont push people over, the controls are a bit sloppy, and it isnt intuitive. I'm sorry guys, this game goes towards the back of my shelf - or back to Blockbusters actually.

Also, I completed Beautiful Katamari, as per the mini update ;)

GamerScore:	68,512 -> 70,382
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	15 / 42
Completed Retail:	31 -> 34 / 157
GS Completion %:	41.72% -> 42.58%

Country Rank:	150 -> 142
World Rank:	967 -> 910
Completion Rank:	2,293 -> 2,007

2nd December: GS Update

Lots of gaming this week:

Joined a 3 day challenge on 360voice for the viral achievement. It was quite fast paced, but unfortunately a couple of people pulled out some easy games (NBA 2k6, Avatar, College Hoops 2k6), but I came in a respectable 5th out of 17 with 1864GS gain.

Signed up to an account on Guitarhero.com, which keeps track of all your GH3 career progress and so forth. Check it out here.

Here's what my 360voice said yesterday:

Pick it, pack it fire it up, come along, lets get borandi's gaming on! Gamer score is 62,061. That is an increase of 1,090 points over last time! That was enough to cross the 62,000 mark! Good stuff! He made some progress on Crash Of The Titans winning 3 achievements, Cars: Mater-National acquiring an amazing 13 achievements to finish the game, LEGO Star Wars: TCS adding 2 achievements, Guitar Hero III acquiring 1 achievement, Eragon acquiring an amazing 11 achievements, MLB 2K7, Assassin's Creed picking up 2 achievements, and then I basked in the warm glow of post gaming. Mmmm warm...

borandi also wrapped up a gamerscore challenge today. Remember? borandi didn't manage to get enough points to win... we had to settle for a comfortable spot at number 5. We may have lost, but we're no quitters. Nothing is over until we say it is! We're going to dust off that controller, hold our head high and get our game on! We're marching right into another challenge and this time, we'll be taking home the gold! At least I think that is the plan...

And the gamage:

Blue Dragon	50 of 1000 6 of 43 Achievements
Guitar Hero III	160 -> 215 of 1000 23 of 59 Achievements
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men	0 -> 70 of 1000 5 of 47 Achievements
Boom Boom Rocket	100 of 200 9 of 12 Achievements
Assassin's Creed	0 -> 40 of 1000 2 of 44 Achievements
MLB 2K7	0 of 1000 0 of 33 Achievements
Eragon	150 -> 270 of 1000 11 of 37 Achievements
LEGO Star Wars: TCS	0 -> 40 of 1000 2 of 42 Achievements
Cars: Mater-National	0 -> 1000 of 1000 16 of 16 Achievements
Crash Of The Titans	133 -> 333 of 1000 21 of 47 Achievements
Mass Effect	135 -> 170 of 1000 8 of 45 Achievements
Beautiful Katamari	640 of 1250 31 of 40 Achievements
Blacksite	0 -> 409 of 1000 26 of 44 Achievements
PES2008	0 -> 55 of 1000 3 of 28 Achievements

I only stuck in Blue Dragon for a few hours this evening, but I'm getting a bit further (I restarted in the middle of Disk 2 because I'd missed a lot). I'm now at Talta Village on the first disk again, though using the barrier has weakened my characters compared to before. I need to beef them up :D

Some success in Guitar Hero 3! I'm now 3 songs away from completing Hard, and it's pissing me off. Started co-op career, and did some boosting online for wins and streaks. Need to start looking for a second wireless guitar though. I did play some with the controller. It's do-able, but not natural.

Currently renting Kane & Lynch, If you haven't heard, Jeff Gerstmann, GameSpot's (now former) Editorial Director, was seemingly fired after his review of Kane & Lynch, to which he awarded 6/10. To be honest, he's not far off. The gameplay is exceedingly linear, and the controls are sloppy. Story line is a bit weird too. I tried to play online, but I could barely connect to any game. When you cant connect, it kicks you to the front menu, thus having to select multiplayer, and search again for a game. Bad planning = not a fun game. I've robbed a bank though, and that was fun.

I downloaded the (free until mid december) extra song pack for Boom Boom Rocket, and its a continuation of the 'classical remix' style of the game. Playing it again has made me realise just how much they've missed out on with the possibility of the game. Dedicated controllers, more tracks, etc. Could have easily made a retail game, with different skylines and firework types. Still, I didnt get any more achievements (yet).

I also rented Assassin's Creed, but didnt play it much. I got it with a couple of games for the 360voice competition, thus spent more time on the easy games. Though what I did play of Assassin's Creed was quite good. Most reviews label it as 'awesome gameplay, though repetitive'. I havent played it enough for the repetitiveness, but the gameplay was great. Graphics are awesome, though as a chemist I must point out that the onscreen molecules while loading make no sense chemically (cheapskate designers). The controls are simple enough, though to be honest I really need to play it more to have an opinion.

I fired up MLB2k7 for the gamerscore challenge, did what it said on a guide to get most of the achievements, and not one unlocked, as well as the game couldnt see my hard-drive. I spent 3.5 hours editing stats for nothing. Load of bollocks.

Also, Eragon for the achievements. Last time I played this game, it was boring. It still is, and as such only played a few more levels.

Also rented the new Lego Star Wars. Reviews about this game are quite similar - 'polished graphics, but no improved gameplay. Also have to do the episodes from the last game for the achievements'. I agree to a certain extent - nicer graphics, but I didnt like the gameplay from the last game, so having to play ALL those levels again is going to be a bitch. So I didnt play it much. But they have made the achievements for this game more amenable - none of this 'complete the level without dying' crap. Nellas actually bought the game, so we'll play it later maybe. Added benefit is online Xbox Live play too.

Cars: Mater-National was the main game I rented for the 360voice challenge. It seemed easy enough looking online at the achievements, and seemed to follow the stylings of the other Cars game. Well, it took me around 10 hours to complete, as there are quite a few races and minigames, as well as some basic collection achievements. To be honest, I preferred the previous Cars game over this one. Nevertheless, game complete!

I noticed a couple of people on my friends list have the full 1000 on Crash of the Titans, so I rented it again. Got to level 8 in the time that I had it, and it's still an easy enough game. Just will have to keep plugging at it. Though I've started it on easy, so I'll need to replay it on hard to get ALL the achievements. It'll get easier when I have maxed out stats.

Mass Effect is still an awesome game. I completed another section of story, and its quite riviting. Only downside is that it's not got a 'Pick up and Play' story mode. Good thing you can save most of the time.

This week I picked up some US Microsoft Points so I could get the extra levels of Beautiful Katamari. The extra levels are easier than the main game, but they do help towards the achievements. I didnt play the extra levels long, so I'll need to focus a little to get the achievements.

I also got a chance to play Blacksite: Area 51. It's a run of the mill FPS - main storyline takes around 3 hours to complete, and is regarding genetic modifications the US makes to its 'KIA' soldiers. Quite interesting, the graphics are good, but the game is too short. Its not as good as CoD4 or Bioshock, better than Perfect Dark, in the same region as Timeshift.

Put in Pro Evo 08 for the first time this week. Its much like Pro Evo 6, but a bit easier and the achievements look quite easy. Just need to put some time into it. I won the first few games of a new league though.

GS: 60,107 -> 62,131

Completed XBLA:	15 / 38
Completed Retail:	28 / 144
GS Completion %:	38.99%
GS % (Non-Demo):	41.40%

Country Rank:	155
World Rank:	211

Assassin's Creed Video

Looks great =D Though it's not high on my list compared to Two Worlds and Blue Dragon, so I'll probably play the demo before shelling out some notes.

Note: Video from CTRL+ALT+DEL News Item.