23rd September: GS Update

I didn't think I would see him yesterday, but borandi was back and ready for action. Total gamer score is 48,689 points. That is an increase of 215 points over last time! He rocked out to Blazing Angels, Marvel Ult. Alliance finishing an amazing 7 achievements, Guitar Hero II, EarthDefenseForce 2017, Carcassonne, Burnout Revenge winning an amazing 6 achievements, Smackdown vs RAW 2007 gaining 2 achievements, and then borandi went to get some food. I told him to bring me back something but I got seriously dissed.

Hmmm... I just realized... borandi must not have anything major going on in his life right now because we have gamed 30 days in a row! Can you believe it? Give us the badge for streaking! w00t!

Smackdown vs RAW 2007	860 -> 970 of 1000 27 of 29 Achievements
Burnout Revenge	0 -> 55 of 1000 6 of 36 Achievements
EarthDefenseForce 2017	0 of 1000 0 of 6 Achievements
Guitar Hero II	480 of 1000 32 of 50 Achievements
Marvel Ult. Alliance	120 -> 230 of 1250 18 of 58 Achievements
Test Drive Unlimited	360 -> 590 of 1000 32 of 46 Achievements
Pro Evolution Soccer 6	840 of 1000 19 of 23 Achievements
G.R.A.W.	145 -> 245 of 1000 10 of 43 Achievements
Aegis Wing	45 -> 75 of 200 6 of 12 Achievements
BOMBERMAN Act:Zero	250 -> 350 of 1000 20 of 50 Achievements
2006 FIFA World Cup™	500 of 1000 4 of 5 Achievements
PGR 3	35 -> 175 of 1000 7 of 25 Achievements
Chromehounds	120 -> 140 of 1000 6 of 49 Achievements
DEAD RISING	80 -> 140 of 1000 7 of 50 Achievements
DiRT™	370 -> 420 of 1000 24 of 49 Achievements

It's been retro game week this week. I looked through my played games list, and went through my list backwards a few for the games that I own.

Last time I played WWE 07 I had got to the point where I had to finish the last couple of belts by doing the challenges in the PC. I was having a lot of trouble - but I changed the settings so there was no ring-out or DQs, so I could get weapons out the side of the ring. That made most of the challenges easy, apart from the 2vs2 matches, as my partner would often get pinned in the first couple of minutes. The Kahli vs. woman match at the end was actually quite easy - I was able to keep doing grapples from behind to damage his head so it went red, then put him on the floor and kept damaging his legs till they were red, then it was an easy pin. I also went through the roster pinning everyone on hard mode, to get that achievement. Though I did it by choosing one wrestler to pin the next and so on, I should have got the 'win with every wrestler' achievement, but it didnt unlock (some sort of glitch). That hard mode achievement took around 3 hours to do though, so I might wait until next week to do the equivalent Legend mode achievement.

I took Burnout Revenge off my 'still to play' shelf and started to go through it. NickHarkkonen and I took turns in career mode, and I also did some online mode - which was very fun to play when I wasn't hitting random trees. EA have shut down all their sports '06 games servers, so I'm surprised they haven't shut down their Burnout servers yet. All the achievements in this game require a lot of playing, hence why I've only got a few easy ones atm.

Nick and I are on lvl 33 of EDF - another 20 to go until we finish easy mode. Health around 700 and it's very easy - we've even been doing some levels on the difficulty above easy to get some better weapons.

We also cranked out some GHII, with Nick starting his career mode on Easy. I did a couple of songs on Hard (I still can't get passed that one song, but I'm able to do the rest in that section) and one on expert.

Nick and I also did some Marvel Ultimate Alliance - a game I think is a lot better in co-op mode than single player. We've just been grinding through the main story - we've just started Act 2. It's a fun game, just a bit boring.

I got out some Test Drive Unlimited which I haven't touched in a while. My goal was just to get some easy achievements, but I also did the Island Tour race in my Koenigsegg CC8S - 118miles took only 44 minutes (I was doing 260mph in the straights) - which gave me 30GS. I was able to reach Champion level (needed 450GS) which unlocked a very easy speed race which gave $75k per win (so about $150k/minute). All that money has given me most of the collection achievements.

I'm now 20 games into Serie A on PES6. It's a long hard grind, but now only about 140 games to go until 1000GS.

I also played some GRAW which I haven't touched in a while. I was told of some cheats available for infinite HP, so I did the first 4 levels on hard :) Though there are still quite a few levels to go.

I played some Aegis Wing - using 2 controllers I got the 'combine with a friend' achievement, as well as the 'dont shoot for a level' one. I have 4 controllers, so I guess I can do the 4 ship formation achievement too.

Bomberman Act Zero is an annoying game, but I got a few of the Secret Panels now that there is a guide for them :)

Fifa 06 is an odd game - an easy 500GS and a very tough 500GS. The tough part is to do some challenges, and I was able to do another 5 this week. The hard ones are still to come though.

I've never played PGR3 seriously, so I went someway though career mode this week. I was able to get a platinum medal on manual for 60GS using the fastest car on the first speed track.

Also did some online with Chromehounds online, getting the '50 shots fired' achievement (i.e. 50 HOUNDs destroyed.

I haven't played Dead Rising since January 2nd - 5 days after I got my first 360. That was on a 13" SCART CRT, so now I'm using a 19" HDTV, it looks LOADS better. I'm able to actually do parts of the story - but I prefer mindlessly going around killing zombies :) I got to the gun shop with the psycho, but he killed me :(

I also did the online achieves for DiRT while I was still renting it.

GS: 47,769 -> 48,789

Completed XBLA:	11 / 28
Completed Retail:	21 / 104
GS Completion %:	41.89%
GS % (Non-Demo):	45.18%

Country Rank:	266/212000
World Rank:	1677/1543243

17th September: GS Update

borandi had to choose between watching TV and playing with me and I am happy to say I won... this time... Gamerscore is at 47,704 points. That is a gain of 330 points over last time! He opened up Pro Evolution Soccer 6 winning 4 achievements, Bomberman LIVE winning 1 achievement to master the game, and then nothing... nothing at all...

Two Worlds	40 -> 260 of 1000 23 of 41 Achievements
EarthDefenseForce 2017	0 of 1000 0 of 6 Achievements
Sonic The Hedgehog 2	35 -> 45 of 200 5 of 12 Achievements
DiRT™	315 -> 370 of 1000 21 of 49 Achievements
Bomberman LIVE	135 -> 200 of 200 12 of 12 Achievements
Pro Evolution Soccer 6	360 -> 840 of 1000 19 of 23 Achievements
Rainbow Six® Vegas	0 -> 210 of 1000 9 of 36 Achievements

If you couldn't have guessed from my 'Return of my UK 360' post, I'm a lot further in Two Worlds now. 7 hours in, with achievements to match. I'm missing the level 35+ achieves, the visiting places achieves, some skill ones and a few story achieves. I'm reading around that a couple of achieves are glitched, so I hope they sort that out soon.

My good friend NickHarkonnen is now back from the summer vacation. We got a few levels of EDF2017 done today - this is a game that truly is more worthwhile in co-op mode :) I guess we're about half way through the game on the easiest setting, though the weapons we have now are no-longer one-hit killing some of the easier enemies. Bah humbug!

We also played some versus and co-op on Sonic 2 - I remember playing it for hours on versus when I was younger. As a result, we hit past Hilltop and got a chaos emerald for the achievements upto that point.

I rented out DiRT again, as one of the people on my friends list was also renting it, so we could get the multiplayer achieves. I got a few more single player achievements - FWD and Tier 2 complete.

I was informed this week that to get the online Bomberman LIVE achievements I was missing (win a 4 + player girl costumes only match, win 5x 4+ player matches in a row), it was easy enough to start a private match, invite a friend, and have both people sign a guest on with the second controller. 5 minutes later, we both had the achievements. I also got the 60 costume balls achievement (I was about 20 out last time), so I can wrap this game up as complete. Hoorah!

Now I've got my UK box back, I can play those UK games like Pro Evo 6. I hit up another friend to help with the 100 played/100 win achievements online (about 3 hours), and I also finished the D2/D1 league and cup achievements (took around 5 hours). I now only have 4 leagues left to complete the game, so it shouldn't take long. Maybe a week =P

I also rented R6, and got some boosting achievements done. Having played the game a bit more now, I'm understanding the appeal, but not loving it. Needs a few more rentals to reap some more benefits.

GS: 46,729 -> 47,769

Completed XBLA:	11 / 28
Completed Retail:	21 / 103
GS Completion %:	41.48%
GS % (Non-Demo):	44.68%

Country Rank:	275/211567
World Rank:	1741/1540523

19th June: GS Update

It's been a very DiRTy couple of days. What a game.

DiRT™	0 -> 315 of 1000 17 of 49 Achievements
Boom Boom Rocket	75 -> 100 of 200 9 of 12 Achievements
Forza Motorsport 2	186 -> 271 of 1000 20 of 44 Achievements
Gears of War	80 of 1250 7 of 57 Achievements

DiRT is the rally version of Forza, albeit with less options. It drives and handles like Forza, but gives that rally element of crashing into trees while only doing an average of 60mph. I like it also because on Rookie difficulty it's fairly easy to win =D Though I've done most of exhibition apart from the big 6 rally tournament, 20% of Career, and a few online games. Online is fun and just what I sort of imagined it to be - up to 100 people in a lobby, vote for a track, everyone does a time trial at the same time on it. Quickest time wins. That's all well and good, but I never came near the top in a 20 man lobby, so goodness knows how I'm going to get that achievement. Though apart from the online ones, the offline ones seem kinda easy.

I picked up some Boom Boom Rocket today, and finished off three songs to get all the firework types. I also found out that along with the ABXY buttons you can also use the D-Pad. *d'oh!* Though it really helped with the final song on hard. The last 3 achieves will need some work on though!

Still doing some Forza 2 even though DiRT is here. Got to level 40, so I was able to get some gold cups and the level 40 achievement. Also managed to buy/sell 10 cars in the auction house for that achievement. I also got out my best car, headed to the easiest Nissan Raceway track on Career, stuck all the difficulty settings as high as they would go, and win to get the Natural and Hardcore achievements. Using the Nissan Raceway meant that I only had to change gears to go up, and using the best car meant that even on the highest difficulty, I still had a 50kph+ advantage.

Yes, I still suck at GoW. No matter how many Annex games I play. Though I'm probably up to 50 global kills now, probably a 0.1 kpd ratio and 5 hours played online. I might aim for a boosting group this weekend if we can get enough people together.

GS: 33191 -> 33616

Completed XBLA:	7 / 20
Completed Retail:	17 / 68
GS Completion %:	42.21%
GS % (Non-Demo):	46.05%

Country Rank:	587/151831
World Rank:	3298/1170328