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.

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

4th September: GS Update

From my 360voice:

I thought maybe the power was out yesterday... imagine my surprise when borandi hit the switches! Gamerscore stands at 44,999. That is a profit of 195 points over last time! He rallied BioShock winning an amazing 10 achievements, Stuntman: Ignition adding an amazing 7 achievements, Guitar Hero II, and then he had to stop because we both couldn't take it anymore... we were spent.

And the games:

BioShock	0 -> 205 of 1000 18 of 50 Achievements
Guitar Hero II	480 of 1000 32 of 50 Achievements
Stuntman: Ignition	0 -> 100 of 1000 7 of 50 Achievements
Track and Field	200 of 200 12 of 12 Achievements
Blue Dragon	15 -> 45 of 1000 5 of 43 Achievements

Bioshock is one of the games of the year, without a doubt. It's been a while since the story mode on an FPS has kept me interested, and Bioshock deserves all the praise it gets. So far I've been having fun, taking pictures and setting people on fire; as well as injecting myself with whatever shiny liquid is thrown my way :) Graphics are excellent, sound is great, storyline is way cool. Downside? Lack of a multiplayer mode, but then I suppose Bioshock is a work of art, whereas GoW is a long hard grind. If you haven't played Bioshock, go play it. Buy it, rent it (what I did), whatever. Just enjoy! (Warning to all those with a weak disposition.)

I'm now 30/48 in hard mode for GH2 - getting onto the really hard stuff. I've been stuck at 3 stars per song since song 6 or something, so I doubt any 5 stars are winging my way. My fingers feel almost fine getting to the keys now, though its a case of my brain putting them in the right order at the right time, and timing those hammer-ons/pull-offs just right.

I also rented Stuntman: Ignition. I've been told its a replica of a PS2 game (which I never played), in the same what that Flatout:UC is a replica of FlatOut 2. But besides this, the game looks very good on the 360 - basically each level is a scene you have to drive for in a film/commercial, with action and stunts that you have to do in order to pass. I've done 12 rounds so far, and it's getting a bit boring. Just the same sort of stuff - fail it three or more times, pass, then move on. Worth a rent, not really worth a buy, unless you love your driving games.

Played some T&F online - I heard that most people cant play T&F properly, so I wanted to win. Ended up playing a game for 40mins+ against one guy and we reached the 4th stage. I broke some of my records, but the lag was annoying - I had to pre-empt pressing the button at the right time on several events - long jump, javelin, hammer, high jump, etc. Good fun, shame I lost. Shouldn't really play it at 6am not having gone to bed.

Blue Dragon is still as good as ever! I'm getting into more of the non-linearity now, with options to do things and go places (sort of). I just got the thing to disable blue barriers, and I also found a room to get 10+ monsters in one encounter - actually I got 11 :D I have a picture, but not a camera cable to upload it - watch this space! That 10+ encounter took me around 20 minutes to set up (of getting mobs together, then running away from battles, etc.), and one spell each round to finish. Got that achievement 30GS, and the 'running away 50 times' achievement for 0GS.

GS: 44,774 -> 45,109

Completed XBLA:	10 / 27
Completed Retail:	21 / 100
GS Completion %:	40.44%
GS % (Non-Demo):	43.50%

Country Rank:	321/210009
World Rank:	1986/1529404

(woo! 100 retail games played :D)