Full day of gaming today! Got a few new games off of my shelf, and also spent some MS Points.
Sonic the Hedgehog to start. I've always been a big fan of the retro 2D sidescrolling Sonic games, and not one 3D encounter has really tickled my fancy. This 360 version looks ok enough. I'd heard a lot of problems with the camera, but I havent had any problems yet. There is the odd circumstance where Sonic flies past the camera too fast, but nothing too serious. Gameplay wise, the only element they have added since the Dreamcast version is that missions are based in cities, and you have to talk to people to find them, then buy upgrades from rings you get during the stages. While a nice addition, it isn't quintessential Sonic. As for the acheivements, they seem either impossible, or a solid 10 hrs on each to get them. No big achievements for progressing through the storyline. The game was clearly rushed, even the instruction manual explains features which aren't in the game. Bad play Sega. Bad play.
Full Auto on the other hand, was a game I'd heard nothing but positive things about. And they weren't wrong! I had a Burnout on the PS2, and this is what essentially Full Auto is. Race with weapons on your car, trying to do as much damage as possible without getting hit, and trying to come in first. Each race takes around 5 mintues, and there are plenty of different races and tracks to keep one occupied. Kudos. Achievements are progressive too - total number of kills, damage, and for completing certain races. I'm going to like Full Auto from day one (until I have to get SA rank on each race... =D )!
My affair with Bionicle Heroes is not a good one. When I got it, I tried to get all the achievements in one day. I was 8 hours in on this Sunday, about two levels from the final boss. The auto save feature (usually always a lifeline) kicked out a horrible error message - "Unable to save game". Shit. This has happened to me and many, many others online. To some, it has happened 4+ times. I was 76% of the game complete, and 860GS in. The downside is that to get the last 140, I'd need to play these 8 hours again. So this time, rather than doing it all at once, I'm doing it a level at a time. So I did one level today.
Catan again. This game is great! Though the achievements I have left are long ones. Today I got the one for 100 Victory Points total.
I bought Galaga today with 400 MS points. Very easy to get all the achievements - about an hour. Its typical arcade Galaga, I really need not say much more. If the developers had not added the 'Restart from level x' function in the start menu, then this game would be a lot harder!
NHL 2k7 - I bought this at the time because acheive360points forums said it was fairly easy, and I found it cheap. Well for a hockey game, its quite good. Controls are very responsive and there are plenty of options to choose and edit. Achievements seem straight forward, and just need a serious sit down over a few hours to get them all. The only flaw I could notice was the non-user friendliness of the menu interface. Sometimes it was just too annoying, unlike the Madden menu interface.
Crackdown is always a great game. I purchased the 800 MS add-on pack for this today. The new add-ons seem a great addition, but given that I've done the major storyline, they got kinda dull, fast. The new achievements are nothing to sniff at either - most of them require a fair few hours focus on each to get them. Shame that the H3Beta isnt up yet.
I bought MUA a while ago when they announced the extra achievements. It was still rather expensive, so I got it second hand. Its a combination of hack and slash, with a little of problem solving. Not a combination I like I'm afraid. I stuck it in, played a few minutes, then took it out.
Robotron is a hard game. No extra GS for me today from it.
I played the Contra demo a while back - it seemed kinda difficult, and not my sort of game. Luckily, a friend has it tied to his account, and I can play when he is signed in. On my third game, I was getting a lot better - I got the achievement for not dying in the first round. I was well chuffed with that. I expect the 100k co-op, and the co-op completion achievements to be very hard. Luckily I see a couple of friends on my list have all 200, so I'll probably call on them for those achievements in the future.
CoD3 is a game all my friends have, and I got mine out of the shrink wrap today. Not a lot to say - I dont like FPS without a keyboard and mouse, and CoD3 is a bugger to control. I've come to the same conclusion as many reviews - CoD3 is CoD2 with nicer graphics and more missions. CoD3 has less checkpoints, which is annoying, but the achievements are more spread out than CoD2 - some are for easy things, others are very hard to get. In a way, that makes it better =D
Overall quite a good day - 1 XBLA games complete, and 6 new games tested. Still, shame about H3Beta.
My GS changed thusly:
23930 -> 24835
Sonic The Hedgehog: 0 -> 0
Full Auto: 0 -> 225
Bionicle Heroes: 880 -> 880
Catan: 70 -> 90
Galaga: 0 -> 200
NHL 2k7: 0 -> 235
Crackdown: 670 -> 740
Marvel Ultimate Alliance: 80 -> 80
Robotron: 2084: 50 -> 50
Contra: 0 -> 50
Call of Duty 3: 0 -> 105
Retail complete: 14/80 (15 w/Oblivion to 1000)
XBLA complete: 6/19
American Wasteland (of the Tony Hawk fame) is my first attempt at playing a skateboarding game in quite a while. I've completed a few during the genre, so I looked forward to playing this. Sure enough, it's still classic Hawk. Lots of grinding, manual-ing and grabbing galore. There are two main modes - Story and Classic. Classic involves 6 retro skate parks, with 10 goals each (score, collect secret tape, collect letters, etc.). Story takes you through the new storyline - help build a new skatepark after coming to LA from HickVille. Sometimes the story line isnt clear, but its good Hawk and worth playing if you like the series. The achievements seem alright too - Every 10 goals in classic, playing each level online, getting a score above 1000 on each map in free skate, story mode, everything 100%. I've still a few maps to get and story mode to do, but 100% seems a bit of a bitch - you have to do every special gap and trick in the game. Blegh. But I'll enjoy this the longer I play it hopefully!
Full Auto again - I tried for some online acheives, but the people online were being assholes, purposely driving behind to get the kills. On one race, it was Class C restricted, but this guy got 70 seconds ahead in one lap. WTF??? Well I also did a section on single player, so still a lot to go, but it's fun.
Played the demo of Centipede and Millipede. It's classic retro. I didnt like it then, I'm still not keen on it now. If this game was 200MS points, then maybe.
Saw a few people on my list had Heavy Weapon, so I played the demo. It's quite fun - your standard 2D sidescrolling shoot and kill sort of game. Plenty of levels to choose from. This would be better if they'd made points = money to buy upgrades, rather than 1 upgrade per level. I'd get this from XBLA if I had some spare MS points, but I'm saving up for Undertow.
Small Arms is a 2D style fighting game along the same lines as Super Smash Brothers, but with guns. To be completely honest, even from the demo, they overcomplicated the controls. I'm not going to be getting this with my points.
I booted up FM2006 to see what else I could do. During playing, I got a message from someone random to try and get some online achievements. Did a few of those, and he told me that he got his ~500GS from the game was to basically take control of as many teams possible in a one division game, then leave it on overnight. I did so, but forgot to disable the option for the xbox auto shutting down after 6hrs. But I got a fair chunk of achievements during that time =D Need to do it a bit more for a few more GS.
Still on the quest for Catan achievements. I've done another 5/6 games getting the largest army card, so only a few more for that. Then it's a case of about 100 wins online (or 1000 points worth). Given that a full game can last 40 mins, that achievement is a long time away!
I tried demos of the new XBLA games Xevious and Rush'n Attack. Wasn't impressed, even for retro games. I've never heard of these games before, and they didnt want me to buy them. Come on MS, where's Undertow?
Tried some more single player CoD3. The controls are still giving me grief.
Another batch of Pro Evo. I'm now about 26 games into my Premiership Season - another 12 or so to go until I finish that achievement.
Virtua Tennis 3 is the other rental I got with Cars. Now, I'm a big fan of Virtua Tennis from the Dreamcast, but after playing the demo on XBL Marketplace, and losing horribly, I wasn't going to get it. So when I have the chance of free rentals, why not? Nick and I played a few games, and it was fun! I'm currently working my way through the Single Player mode, and its going very well (mind you, I'm on the easy stages =P). I'm going to have to rent this again, or buy it if it comes down in price. Got some GS today though.
