24th May: GS Update

This past couple of weeks has experienced plenty of gaming, with a lot of work fro my Degree in the middle (priority was probably in that order, it probably shouldn't have been!) but here we are for another GS update.

Go ahead... call me a wussy... but I almost started crying when borandi turned me on yesterday. 96,089 points of raw gamer score are making you jealous! That is a profit of 175 points over last time! That puts us above 96,000 points! He rallied Hexic 2, Civil War finishing 3 achievements, Guitar Hero II, Army of Two™ winning 4 achievements, KUF: Circle of Doom, Jewel Quest acquiring 4 achievements, GTA IV, and afterwards, there were some awkward stares and silence... you know how it is.

Oh and it is time for a gamerscore challenge update... listen up... Here is the link: check it. 4 other people are throwing down in this challenge. If I do the math correctly, it means that 4 players X 5 days means a whole lot of trash talk! That doesn't matter though because borandi is beating them all! Number one baby! It's good to be in the lead, but there's still 2 days left in the challenge and 4 challengers looking to eclipse our achievements with some of their own.
There have been two major targets this week: the application of my new turbo controller, and going after some more 360 badges.

Well my Hori Turbo pad arrived, and my general impression is that it's quite good. The turbo features are such that you can set each of the ABXY to either 13 or 26 button presses per second when you hold the respective button. Also, the D-Pad is infinitely better than the normal 360 pad. The analog sticks are looser, which make it a bit difficult in aiming in FPS games. The LT+RT buttons are smaller, so easier to press in games which just require pressing, but a bit worse for driving games, as you don't have the range of pressures you do with the normal 360 pad. Also, every so often the controller disconnects from the 360 (even though it's wired), and when chatting online, the 360 wired headset doesn't stay connected to the controller. So overall, it's good for games that either require the turbo buttons or offline gaming, and not on FPS or driving gaming. Saying that, I've applied it to DDR Universe and Track and Field (despite having 200/200, but I broke most of my records).

With respect to 360voice, I've started posting on the forums over there. Good bunch of people for the most part - the odd idiot who doesnt read or engage brain, but you get those everywhere (and they will be removed soon, mwhahahaha!). On the badge front, I got my 50 watchers badge thats to some posting in the 'watch me' forum. Thanks to the Turbo Pad, I got my 1* Music badge (along with completing GH3 on hard) and I also got the 1* FPS badge with some Army of Two. I'm still going after the 1* Sandbox badge with GTA4.

So what about the games?

Bionicle Heroes 900 -> 940 of 1000 47 of 49 Achievements Well I'm almost at the end of this game. I completed the story mode, so now I can go after 100%. On the way, I got enough money to unlock the 3rd special stage, and get a couple of 'Destroy X' achievements. All that's left is the '100%' achievement, and the 'Collect 5million' money achievement.

Jewel Quest 0 -> 60 of 200 6 of 12 Achievements Looking at my badge calculator over at 360voice, I noticed I was only 220 GS away from my 1* Puzzle badge. After looking at all the games for the badge, I compiled the list of best games to buy in order to get the badge depending on it's average GS earned/player according to MGC. Jewel Quest came top, so I bought it. It's essentially like Bejeweled and Puzzle Quest, though you have to clear items from every square of the board at least once. For the full achievement set, you have to go through the story 5 times - each playthrough being more difficult than the last. I'm almost at the end of my first time through, about 7 stages from the end.

Guitar Hero III 400 -> 430 of 1000 39 of 59 Achievements Well, as mentioned above, I managed to complete Hard on GH3 - a monumental achievement in my eyes. After having so much trouble with One and Raining Blood, I managed to do both in the same day, leaving only Lou's final battle left. And that final battle takes the biscuit. Lou gets all the power ups before you do, and the song is difficult enough that anything like Whammy or Double Notes totally screws you over. I tried well over 50 times, then managed to get it by getting two boosts that I don't normally get. General consensus is that the best way to beat Lou is to use a Whammy on his green note streak.

GTA IV 375 -> 540 of 1000 33 of 50 Achievements I'm now 70% into the game from the 100% completion statistic. Achievements wise, I got the 500k money achieve, deliver 30 cars by text, explode 10 vehicles in 10 seconds (use a long vehicle, block a bridge, wait for lots of cars, shoot in the air to get people out of their cars, arrange them if necessary, then launch a grenade in the middle, then wait with the rocket launcher to pick off a couple more), killed 20 criminals via the police computer, and a couple of story achievements.

Army of Two™ 225 -> 340 of 1100 14 of 41 Achievements Thanks to DDR Universe, I had my US 360 out, so I decided to go for my 1* FPS badge on 360voice. Also, I've been neglecting the Army of Two story, so I marched through to Stage 5 (out of 6) and it was rather fun. Nothing much else to say.

Civil War 525 -> 545 of 1000 30 of 50 Achievements I initially started on Civil War to get my FPS badge, hoping that the achievement for '750 kills' would unlock. So I finished the story (I was only 2 stages from the end), then redid the stage where I got most of the kills. Amazingly, I only got 10 more - it seems that I need 750 kills, only counting the highest kills on each stage. Thats a balls achievement. It's a balls game as well - being shot through shrubbery from 2000 ft with a pistol by the AI on easy is pointless.

Lost Via Domus 0 -> 125 of 1000 6 of 30 Achievements I got LOST from LoveFilm this week. Word is that it's an easy 1000. I only did the first couple of stages, and with an online guide, it is fairly easy. A bit of a stupid game though. Imagine CSI, but less fun and more frustrating.

DDR/DS Universe 400 -> 900 of 1000 27 of 32 Achievements Aha - the gold mine for the Turbo pad! Beforehand I got to the final area boss, and he was kicking my arse. So I pull out the turbo pad, and after some initial working out how to use it, I finished the story mode. Using the pad, and some online help, I was also able to unlock all the extra tracks, and do the 3rd, 4th and 5th set of challenges for achievements. With hindsight, I could have made 840GS without it given enough time - all it requires is a lot of the quest mode items. But now, according to MGC, I'm in the top 50 in the world...? Chances are I won't ever get the full 1000GS as it's bloody hard from here on out.

Lost Odyssey 235 -> 360 of 1100 6 of 42 Achievements Using my guide, I'm now onto the 3rd disc (it approached unexpectedly, I must say), having played just over 20hrs. It's still an awesome game, I recommend it to everyone!

Test Drive Unlimited 630 -> 670 of 1000 35 of 46 Achievements After watching lots of Top Gear (A very popular car show) again, and watching my favourite ever car on some tests - the Koenigsegg CCXR - it was time to break out a game which has the car. Well TDU has a couple of Koenigsegg cars, and I bought one in it a while ago. So I decided to lots of A-rank races with it. On the way, I got the '60 gold cups' achievement.

FIFA Street 3 0 -> 1250 of 1250 32 of 32 Achievements I got Fifa Street 3 from LoveFilm this past week. Online, it was rated as 5-12 hours completion, and the DLC is only 300MSPs. Well I got most of the offline ones fairly easily, then finished the game with Undefy, Haly x3h and Sofa King 10k. The game is ok, better than NBA Ballers, but worse than NBA Street Homecourt. The achievements are very easy - the one that takes the time is the 25 online ranked wins, each win takes 5 minutes = 2hrs per person. Other than that, Game Complete!

The Club 465 -> 535 of 1000 31 of 50 Achievements I got out The Club due to mingo21 getting it. I haven't actually played it since the weekend it came out. It's a shame really - I would have played it more if it had some better online modes - they dont really cater for players that aren't that good =D Well we boosted a few online achievements - Win a DM without dying, Capture 25 flags, Kill 25 foxes. There's a few others we can boost as well.

Stranglehold 235 -> 400 of 1250 23 of 55 Achievements I've been seeing Stranglehold near the bottom of my 'games with 1250GS' list for a while now, so I took it out of it's shrink wrap (my last play on it was a rental) and completed the main story. ZachSP8 10k is going to help me boost the online stuff when we get time. I will also need to complete it on the hardest difficulty to get the GS. The DLC is majorly overpriced, at 1200MSPs for a few maps. 300MSPs like Fifa Street 3 would get them a sale from me. 1200MSPs is stupid. You hear me? STUPID!

Ridge Racer 6 5 -> 17 of 1000 3 of 36 Achievements A game I've been neglecting, I did a few races offline and then boosted some online with ZachSp8 10k. It's basically a drifting game (so far), and I'm winning most of my offline races.

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(Note the following is 3 weeks difference, as MGC was playing up last GS Update:

GamerScore:	91442 -> 96139
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	23 / 56
Completed Retail:	44 -> 46 / 199
GS Completion %:	43.78% -> 45.28%

Country Rank:	88 -> 73
World Rank:	601 -> 534
Completion Rank:	1,319 -> 1,072

20th January: GS Update

The weeks gaming.... Well to start, there was revision. Lots of revision. Then modular exams. Then gaming. Lots of gaming. Not standard pick up and play, but hard grinding that only comes with the satisfaction of laying on a couch, eating a takeaway, and drinking energy drinks. Proper gaming.

borandi held the Xbox button on his controller down for a few seconds and our adventure began! A gamer score of 68,362 is lighting the way. That is a gain of 1,350 points over last time! That was enough to cross the 68,000 mark! Good stuff! He rallied CSI-Hard Evidence gaining 5 achievements to finish the game, Mass Effect gaining 1 achievement, SmackDown vs RAW 2008 winning 3 achievements, Spider-Man™: FoF adding 5 achievements, and then I needed a nap. Don't judge me! It's a lot of work pushing all those pixels.

Even some completions this week. Awesome.

Beautiful Katamari	1170 of 1250 39 of 40 Achievements
SmackDown vs RAW 2008	865 -> 1000 of 1000 26 of 26 Achievements
Spider-Man™: FoF	0 -> 350 of 1000 6 of 12 Achievements
Mass Effect	170 -> 210 of 1000 10 of 45 Achievements
CSI-Hard Evidence	0 -> 1000 of 1000 5 of 5 Achievements
Hardwood Spades	20 -> 40 of 200 4 of 12 Achievements
MLB 2K7	0 -> 560 of 1000 17 of 33 Achievements
DDR/DS Universe	350 -> 400 of 1000 11 of 32 Achievements

Once again on the Katamari grind. I'm probably 20hrs or so away from the achievement - I had it on a couple of days but like I've mentioned before, I dont like it on for long periods (incase of RRoD) and save every hour or so. But as I look on mygamercard.net now, I'm no.1 in the UK for BK - one person has the 1000, 2 of us have > 1000. If I can get 1250 first, it'll be a great goal to have! Here's a picture:

I have finally completed WWE SvR 08. This game was easier than 07, but sure as hell annoying. I got 865 from rental before, and the last bit was a series of final achievements. It was on offer a while back, so I bought it, and unwrapped it this week. I got the rest of the offline achievements, no problems, however the final achievement I needed was '5 Title Defences against 5 different gamertags in 24hrs'. Basically, it either means be really good (which is almost impossible - everyone online are vets and the lag is horrible) or post on every achievement website possible to get boosting partners. Well, I started at 1am with a friend, then by morning I had a couple other requests. I was on and off all day, checking messages, and getting some matches. However, I turned off the *box once or twice, and also did matches in Rising Star and Free (two different modes based on experience). By the time I had 5 wins, and the achievement didnt pop up, I was a bit miffed. Then on six wins, angry; seven wins, furious. In the end, I decided to leave my 360 on until the matches came, which put me off of Spiderman until this achievement popped. After all that, on my 10th match against a different GT, 23hrs and 55 minutes after my first match, the achievement came up. Game out, onto completed shelf, restore hair from floor to head. Game Complete!

Ah yes, a new game as well. I bought Spiderman: FoF over christmas - mainly because is was cheap, but also I'd seen it was an easy 1000GS. And 'they' weren't wrong. I actually like this Spiderman game - it reminds me of the old ones. More platform oriented, linear based, power-up type (like Marvel: UA) that is fun to play, unlike that crappy Spiderman 3. As I write now, I'm 8 levels in, with lots of various upgrades, and half the achievements. The rest are for completing the game while collecting everything (not hard, maybe 3 to 7 items per level), fully upgrading my last skill, and upgrading all the extra characters. That final one looks like a bit of a chore - possibly doing the final level over and over which is mentioned in some guides.

Mass Effect is a game I should not be putting off - its fun, great story (despite what Zero Punctuation says), and non-linear enough to deserve around 100 hours exploring it. However, the achievements aren't that easy. Like I've mentioned before, the achievements basically require 3 play throughs - I'm 15hrs into my first, probably around 60-70% complete. I've done a couple of side missions, but not many. The achievements I acquired this week come from 'Meeting all species' and '75% total Paragon' (basically means doing all the good stuff, answering nice, etc.).

I have a couple of points to make about CSI: Hard Evidence. The story line is good - typical CSI faire. However, I hate this sort of game. It requires searching each area thoroughly, enough to get several stadia sized headaches. Luckily, this game has a hints system if you get stuck. Even luckier, is that x360a.org has a thorough indepth guide, resulting in a 6.5hr completion time. Now I've been after this game a while (due to the easy GS), however my local rental place has not had it. I walk in after my last exam to treat myself, and there it is on the wall. Paid the nicely sum of 4.95GBP, walked home, then realised my UK 360 is still in for repair. Luckily, the game worked (however Bladestorm didn't, so I took that back and swapped it for Rush Hour 3), and I completed it that day. I would recommend the game for the story line, but not a lot else. Not a lot of replay value. However, Game Complete!

Some more Spades as well, in various 10 minute pick-up-and-play sessions. These were just regular grindy achievements - 500 tricks, 10 wins. I get how to play this game, but a bit frustrated on how its purely luck, and it isnt like Poker where you can force people out.

I got my MLB 2k7 to work! =D =D I trolled a couple of achievement forums, and the problem arises in how the game is saved. Now from the release of this game, there has been an update and a free stadium to download. When you apply the update, the game saves it differently. However, it only loads correctly when the stadium is downloaded. So I hopped onto my US account and got it. I've picked up just over half the achievements - most of the rest require online play, or specific offline play targeted at just that achievement. The online achievements require 'Win twenty 9 inning games online', which is a hellish feat. I'll add this one to the grind pile?

Last but not least, DDR Universe. Now I'm still having trouble with story mode (that final boss battle is a b!tch), but I churned out 10 tracks on freeplay to get the '40 songs cleared' achievement. There are achieves for 50, 60 and all, as well as the various challenges still to do. But you can only play this game a bit at a time.

GamerScore:	66,357 -> 68512
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	15 / 42
Completed Retail:	29 -> 31 / 156
GS Completion %:	41.16% -> 41.72%

Country Rank:	160 -> 150
World Rank:	1,042 -> 967
Completion Rank:	2,517 -> 2,293

Woohoo, top 1000 in the world!

18th November: GS Update

A couple of completions this week!

borandi brought the pain yesterday... the good kind... the gaming kind. We are up to 58,327 points of gamerscore. Jealous? That is an increase of 150 points over last time! He rocked out to TimeShift winning an amazing 9 achievements, Puzzle Quest, and laughed with joy and glee the whole time. I like making people happy.

Oh BTW, did you know that borandi is competing in a gamerscore challenge? Here is the link: check it. 6 people are throwing down in this challenge. If I do the math correctly, it means that 6 players X 14 days means a whole lot of trash talk! borandi has the number 2 spot... With 9 days to go though, anything can still happen though... get on it!

As you can see, I'm 2nd in the XBL Challenge so far - still got a few games up my sleeve though!

Puzzle Quest	60 -> 200 of 200 12 of 12 Achievements
Call of Duty 4	0 -> 190 of 1000 8 of 37 Achievements
Hexic 2	0 -> 80 of 200 8 of 12 Achievements
TimeShift	0 -> 150 of 1000 9 of 47 Achievements
Open Season	40 -> 1000 of 1000 46 of 46 Achievements
DDR/DS Universe	190 -> 350 of 1000 10 of 32 Achievements
SmackDown vs RAW 2008	0 -> 510 of 1000 10 of 26 Achievements

This week was a big Puzzle Quest week. After at least 15hrs worth, I now have all the achievements. The 'Create a Godlike' achieve was quite easy - on the DS version it did take me a while. The online match was annoying too, given that the only people I saw online were top in the world and were really good (had the right skills). I eventually found a guy and we won one each unintentionally. Game Complete!

I rented CoD4 today, and will have it for the next couple of days. Its very good so far - I'm going through it on Veteran Difficulty to start with, but I'm stuck at the TV station. I've got a few of the random achievements so far - 4 head shots, 20 second run though. I might restart on easy, just to at least complete the game =D

This week was Xbox Live is 5ive week, and everyone got Carcassonne free. Unless you've a Korean account, then you get Hexic 2 free. So I got Hexic 2 on my Korean account. Achievements are ok so far - I have some quite hard ones left to do though - beat the computer on expert (very very hard!), make a black pearl, make a cluster, win 10 online. At least three of those I should get!

I rented Timeshift too this week. It's a fun, interesting game - I got through the first two levels on Elite. It runs like CoD - lots of checkpoints. The time shifting feature is quite fun too. However, online mode is a bit annoying - I joined a team battle, first team to 100 kills, and some guy joined in half-way and ended with a 15-3 kill to death ratio. Bastard.

I ran through Open Season - first just the levels, then for all the collection achievements. Quite quick - probably around 4 hours in total. A couple of the automatically running levels (like the snowball) are a bit challenging, but the help of a guide sorted it out. Game Complete!

I also fired up some DDR Universe. I'm at the final stage in quest mode, but the final boss guy has an advantage on every track, so I have to have my advantage enabled AND do really well. Apart from that, I'm also getting the standard tracks a ranking - I've done just under half atm.

Rented WWE 08 too. Its much like WWE 07, apart from less of the annoying online achieves, and less loading screens. Its all good stuff - the achievements are easier now with sliders, and I got the big 350GS simming achieve. I could have got a few more, but I was being a bit stupid :p

GS: 56,437 -> 58,617

Completed XBLA:	15 / 37
Completed Retail:	27 / 134
GS Completion %:	39.51%
GS % (Non-Demo):	41.91%

Country Rank:	179
World Rank:	413