9th March: GS Update

From the shackles of work, to an easter break full of gaming. I've done quite a bit this week - a couple of new games, a near completion too on a favourite.

There are people out there who think video games are violent. But after borandi played yesterday with his gamerscore of 79,081 points, there wasn't any violence at all. A little drooling maybe but definitely no violence. That is an increase of 530 points over last time! That puts us above 79,000 points! He rallied NEW RALLY-X winning an amazing 12 achievements to finish the game, Guitar Hero III gaining 1 achievement, Guitar Hero II, Bee Movie Game, Catan, G.R.A.W., Small Arms acquiring an amazing 8 achievements, Forza Motorsport 2 acquiring an amazing 6 achievements, FC Instincts Predator, as well as stared off into space... thinking about the one that got away.

This week, I picked up two games - Bladestorm and Virtua Fighter 5. Bladestorm I believe holds the record as the biggest demo on the XBLM at 1.9GB - it was an alright demo, lots of hack and slash. I last played VF5 as a rental, and thought it was a lot better than DoA4. I found it cheap, so I picked it up. I also received in the mail a lot of MS points - 12600 to be exact. I managed to find them at a 20% discount, but haven't figured what to spend them on yet. So far, Small Arms and New Rally-X. But I'm also thinking some Pac-Man too.

Forza Motorsport 2	665 -> 930 of 1000 42 of 44 Achievements
Small Arms	0 -> 110 of 235 8 of 14 Achievements
Bee Movie™ Game	0 -> 560 of 1000 37 of 50 Achievements
Guitar Hero III	295 -> 310 of 1000 32 of 59 Achievements
NEW RALLY-X	0 -> 200 of 200 12 of 12 Achievements
Speedball 2	40 -> 100 of 200 7 of 12 Achievements
Burnout Revenge	55 -> 165 of 1000 10 of 36 Achievements
DEAD OR ALIVE 4	245 -> 295 of 1000 20 of 45 Achievements
Poker Smash	70 -> 80 of 200 6 of 12 Achievements
BLADESTORM	0 -> 300 of 1000 6 of 18 Achievements
Eternal Sonata	10 -> 20 of 1000 2 of 22 Achievements
Marble Blast Ultra	70 -> 75 of 200 6 of 12 Achievements
Halo 3	735 -> 745 of 1000 23 of 49 Achievements
Marvel Ult. Alliance	230 -> 250 of 1250 19 of 58 Achievements
Mass Effect	270 -> 395 of 1000 15 of 45 Achievements

It's been a brilliant week for my Forza gameplay. To start, I finished all the arcade races gold, then I was fortunate enough to get given 10million from ZACHSP8 10K. That was just enough to buy every car in the game. Now, I'm sending them to Roquey (my brother) so he can get that achievement too. All I have left is to get 1,000,000 credits online, and complete the time trials. I've tried a few of the time trials though, especially that one at the 147-corner Nürburgring - was 30 seconds off pace. Might need to practice that one.

I purchased Small Arms, hoping it was an easy set of Gamerscore. Well, 110GS was. The rest consists of getting 50 kills in a survival mode, and winning 100 matches. Some simple grinding should get all but the 50 kills.

I got the Bee Movie Game from LoveFilm this week. I'd heard it was an easy 1000GS. I've so far done the story, now it's a case of doing the specific missions. The jobs were long and arduous, now I'm after concept art, and the human encounters. Sooner or later, 1000GS should be mine.

After many weeks of trying to get 200k on Cult Of Personality in Guitar Hero III, I finally achieved 201k! I just picked up the game, and got the achievement. No warm-up necessary, though the 499 note streak at the beginning helped :)

New-Rally X is defined as one of the easy arcade games. I'd just not been in a position to get it. An easy 200GS, I got it in about an hour. I found getting to level 16 harder than the 100k score target. Game Complete!

I boosted the online achievements for Speedball 2 - also got the 'injure 5 people in one match' achievement. I still need to get the achievements related to the leagues and knockout tournaments.

Burnout: Revenge is a game I haven't played in ages. I tried joining some online games, only to find I was booted for not having a mic, or not being in the right region. Bunch of bastards. In the end, a couple of friends and I got together and we played online for a while. Lots of takedowns involved.

I helped Roquey boost a little on Dead or Alive 4. We got his win streaks, as well as gold/silver/bronze stars. On the way, I got my 50 wins. I also left the 360 on overnight, and got the 5hrs and 10hrs played achievements.

I managed to finish the Poker Smash puzzles, netting 10GS. Tried going online for the achievement - played a couple of games which lasted 10 minutes each, but I didnt get a win.

I fired up some Bladestorm. It's quite fun - hack and slash meets RPG/Dynasty Warriors. 150GS for creating a character (takes 5 mins), then another 150GS in the first 5 hours. The premise of the game is that you're a mercenary during one of the many English/French wars. You can accept jobs from the English or the French, after all a mercenary should have no ties.

It an effort to go after that 3* RPG badge over at 360 voice, I fired up Eternal Sonata. It looks like I've only played the game for 3 hours, so I put another couple into it, and netted one 10GS achievement. I should put some time into this game - its quite fun.

I opened up Marble Blast Ultra for a little while - did one of the advanced levels, and also hunted down the easter egg achievement.

Roquey still needs the legendary Halo 3 achievements, so this week him and I (with another friend) went through a level or two of the story. I also found a skull, thanks to the guide that was put on Inside Xbox.

Also for the 3* RPG Badge, I did a little of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. The game really is a bit boring, and much better when in co-op.

I managed to complete the story for Mass Effect. It looks like the I didnt get the 'play through most of the story with X ally' achievements - I would have to do most of the sidequests to get those. Thus, only 3 more playthroughs to go!

GamerScore:	77231 -> 79081
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	16 -> 17 / 47
Completed Retail:	37 / 182
GS Completion %:	40.63% -> 41.02%

Country Rank:	123 -> 111
World Rank:	801 -> 779
Completion Rank:	2,001 -> 1,894

2nd March: GS Update

An up and some week with a myriad of games and gamerscore.

When borandi was walking by I pretended to be off. I think it tricked him into turning me on for a few games. Gamer score stands at 77,026. That is a gain of 80 points over last time! That was enough to cross the 77,000 mark! Good stuff! He rallied Guitar Hero III, Poker Smash adding 2 achievements, Undertow, Two Worlds, Mass Effect acquiring 2 achievements, and after we were done, borandi hugged me with his eyes. It was one of those platonic hugs... you know...

Oh and it is time for a gamerscore challenge update... listen up... If you are curious, follow along over here. 4 other people are also involved... which is madness. Currently borandi is holding the number 3 spot in the group... decent. And while we have 5 days left, let's not procrastinate. Pick up that controller and get to unlockin'!

On the bright side, I ordered 6 Xbox Live 2100 Microsoft points cards this week, at the fantastic reduced price of 12.97GBP each. They normally sell for 16.99/17.50 each, so I thought this was a bargain =D Hopefully I'll be able to stockpile on some easy XBLA games and get some that I've always wanted.
On the flip side, I was expecting Kingdom Under Fire from my LoveFilm subscription. Instead, they decide to send me the ~30th game on my list - Superman Returns.

And the gamerage this week consists of:

PES2008	55 -> 130 of 1000 5 of 28 Achievements
Guitar Hero III	285 -> 295 of 1000 31 of 59 Achievements
NBA 2K7	545 -> 655 of 1000 33 of 50 Achievements
Mass Effect	210 -> 270 of 1000 13 of 45 Achievements
Poker Smash	40 -> 70 of 200 5 of 12 Achievements
WARRIORS OROCHI	110 -> 140 of 1000 6 of 29 Achievements
Eragon	540 -> 660 of 1000 27 of 37 Achievements
Superman Returns	360 -> 1000 of 1000 18 of 18 Achievements
Rapala Tournament	40 -> 90 of 1000 3 of 30 Achievements

PES2008 should be an easy 1000. Apparently, according to online forums, we're looking at around 150 hours or so. The main achievement requires 500 games worth, plus some online bits. At 5 minutes minimum a game, thats some serious time. On the other hand, I did 8 or so games of the first league. That netted be 10 straight wins and the 100 goals achievement.

Looking at my GH3 achievements, I realised I'd missed an obvious one - 5 star all songs in all easy songs. Turns out I needed to do that final Slayer song. Also, that annoying fact that it didnt award me the lefty/righty achievement when I was working on it last.

I last played NBA 2k7 in July 2007. The main problem I was having then was that it was almost impossible to block a CPU team. However, this time, I was able to get most of the online achievements. All that's left on that front is the 10/20 wins online, which shouldnt take much time. I just need an easier way to get blocks.

I also continued doing some Mass Effect. I'm now on Ilos, and finished the Paramour achievement. Level 34, on easy. Died once on Matriarch Benezia, but kept it together. I'm still plotting my next two playthroughs of this - currently on 20 hours and in the last dungeon, so it shouldn't take longer than Blue Dragon for the full 1000GS.

I went out of my way to get two Poker Smash achievements - the 'triple smash', and the conservative 'get to level 7 using only triples' achievements. Both were relatively easy - I did get slightly annoyed with that last one, as I got to the end of level 6 and bodged the last triple with a full house. But within 20 minutes, it was done =D

Warriors Orochi is still getting the grinding done - now more than 40 levels of abilities. Havn't really tried going to complete the story modes yet, as I got my ass handed to me last time.

I still cant stand Eragon. Maybe 3 or 4 levels at a time until it gets done. And when it's done, I'd like to get rid of it. Bleh.

Ah, this weeks annoying rental - Superman Returns. Last time I played it, I complained that the story mode didnt go as fast as I wanted. This time, I spent 60 minutes on my save file and I'd completed the story mode. Nice and easy. I then worked on the Bizarro minigames, which did somewhat annoy me when the controller would not pick up the combo I was doing (RB, X+A) and decided to pick up something else (X+A) which wasted time. The 100 kittens took two hours, and that left me with 10000 miles, 12 hours, and 10000 tons needed. I used my girlfriends hair band to hold RB and one of the analog sticks, and left the Xbox on overnight (~10 hrs). When I came back to check, I'd done 19hrs total and 10500 miles. I restarted a new game and went to WarWorlds to pick up the big apartment type buildings for an hour to get the 10000 tons achievement. It needed 300 pick ups of those big things. Ah well, now I can send this game back. I wonder what they'll send me next. Game Complete!

Rapala is still fun ;) I managed to finish the first tournament - quite comfortably. The second lake challenge was quite easy - I just kept casting where I started, and five pike later, I ended the day around 30lbs ahead of the competition. I also emailed Activision Value, the company that produces this game. Why? Well, achievements are glitched. The max GS on this game is 720. So they should either a) fix it, or b) reduce the maximum. So get on with it already.

GamerScore:	76106 -> 77231
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	16 / 45
Completed Retail:	36 -> 37 / 180
GS Completion %:	40.0640.63%

Country Rank:	120 -> 123
World Rank:	813 -> 801
Completion Rank:	2,125 -> 2,001

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!