7th September: GS Update

2 weeks since last update, so lots of gaming to cover :) Take, for example, my last 360voice entry:

borandi hit the switch and fired me up yesterday... his total gamer score is 109,879.That is an improvement of 385 points over last time! He opened up Jumper winning 1 achievement to defeat the game, Live Score Tracker winning 1 achievement, Unreal Tournament® 3 picking up 2 achievements, Infinite Undiscovery gaining 3 achievements, Yaris, Rez HD, Poker Smash, N+, NHL 2K8 adding 4 achievements, Bully Scholarship Ed. finishing an amazing 6 achievements, and laughed with joy and glee the whole time. I like making people happy.

And all the games:

NHL 2K8 0 -> 445 of 1000 10 of 19 Achievements Started on NHL 2k8 this week. Its... frustrating. The menu system is weird, and like THE LAST NHL 2k7 there is a GLITCHED ACHIEVEMENT!! DAMN YOU 2K SPORTS!! HOW CAN YOU GET THIS SH!T WRONG TWICE IN A ROW!!!... Damn you, and your crappy programmers.

Live Score Tracker 0 -> 195 of 200 11 of 12 Achievements Live score Tracker is EA's attempt to garnish money from us by making a game related to Fantasy NFL and offering easy gamerscore with it. Damn them. Damn us for buying it! I'm beginning to question EA's ethical practices.

Unreal Tournament® 3 290 -> 420 of 1000 22 of 50 Achievements Spent a while on UT3 this week - mostly working towards the 200 kills every day for 50 days. On the way, worked on the weapons achievements. Fairly straightforward.

Bully Scholarship Ed. 150 -> 430 of 1000 20 of 38 Achievements I completely blitzed Bully today. Did some of the story, but mainly worked on the easy achievements, like Kiss 20 Gents, Kick a football 100 times etc. Fairly easy so far, apart from the Shop classes (failed 3x :p).

Infinite Undiscovery 0 -> 50 of 1000 3 of 50 Achievements I preordered IU with my Elite, so got some additional DLC with it. It's a JRPG with a Star Ocean type battle system. Only played a couple hours, seems fun, though the actual speech in game is words, not vocals which is common nowadays in RPGs. Will play more, will aim for 1k GS :)

Jumper 0 -> 1000 of 1000 20 of 20 Achievements Jumper is an odd game. It offers a new battle system which is fun, but the camera angles are shoddy and the game is glitchy enough that 3 times I fell through the floor. On a speed run, I completed the story mode in 1hr 1minute, though it took 3 playthroughs to get the achievements. One boss was really hard half-way through the first playthrough, but after that it was easy (even the final boss). Game Complete!

Ticket to Ride™ 0 -> 100 of 250 7 of 15 Achievements I bought Ticket to Ride for the Social 2* badge over at 360voice. It's a fairly easy 200, though I need to boost some online games. Overall, it's a simple (but long) card game.

Live Draft Tracker 0 -> 200 of 200 12 of 12 Achievements Live Draft Tracker is also one of EA's money making machines. This one is less palateable - too many MSPs!

NBA 2K7 655 -> 1000 of 1000 50 of 50 Achievements Finally finished NBA 2k7. The main problem here were the blocks. I was able to fire up a second controller to get all block related achievements, and find a boosting partner for the online wins. Overall, a nice 1000 :)

NBA 2K8 210 -> 820 of 1000 40 of 50 Achievements I played NBA 2k8 in the same ilk as 2k7 - once the blocks were out of the way, the rest was easy. The only achievements left are the online ones. I like the NBA 2k series - nice and somewhat easy :)

Call of Juarez 0 -> 10 of 1000 1 of 36 Achievements I went into Gamestation and bought Call of Juarez and Kane&Lynch this week in their 2 for 20 (GBP) range. I've wanted CoJ for a while as part of my collection, though I'm not too fond of Westerns. I played this for a little, though it seemed a little frustrating. Must play later.

Buku Números 0 -> 200 of 200 12 of 12 Achievements I got the opportunity to play Buku Numeros - the Mexican version of Buku Soduku. So I quickly wrapped up the 200GS, fairly easy when I found a boosting partner - which was a bit hard, seeing as only 100 people have ever played the game (according to MGC)!

Marvel Ult. Alliance 980 -> 1135 of 1250 54 of 58 Achievements I've had Marvel: UA a while, and tbh I should have completed this already! I spent part of this past update time doing the simulation discs. Some of them were hard to get gold, but by using a combination of the best moves and being quick, it worked. After that, a case of getting all the outfits for every character. It was just a case of using one of the Asgard simulation levels. All that's left is to complete the game on hard, 100 arcade wins, and 2 DLC 'Meet X with X' achievements.

Rock Band 265 -> 285 of 1000 15 of 50 Achievements Did some boosting with Roquey on Rock Band - some Score Duels. We traded about 10 each, along with me getting the 5 in a row achievement (he already had it).

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No position updates this time - MGC are having problems. We all hope they get it sorted soon :) Good luck guys.

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

29th June: GS Update

FlatOut UC	0 -> 35 of 1000 3 of 45 Achievements
NBA 2K7	525 -> 545 of 1000 26 of 50 Achievements
Just Cause	75 -> 185 of 1000 18 of 50 Achievements
Eragon	0 -> 150 of 1000 6 of 37 Achievements
Carcassonne	105 of 200 8 of 12 Achievements
Command & Conquer 3	0 -> 20 of 1000 1 of 22 Achievements

Plethora of games today.

Managed to rent Flatout today. I'm a bit disappointed, as it's basically the same as Flatout 2 on the PC. Almost identical. I got bored of the PC version fairly quickly, and I'm basically bored with Flatout already. I've a few of the easy achievements - participate in a cup, 5 slams etc. But most of the rest of the achievements seem difficult - Complete Carnage Mode with all gold; Complete FlatOut Mode with all gold in all cups and events; Win Derby class in Flatout Mode (all cups gold) with an unupgraded Chili. There are a few online ones, but I cant really be bothered with it. It's no Forza - it's not even Destruction Derby on the PSX. Now that is a classic.

Pulled out NBA 2k7 from the shelf to get an easy achievement - 81 points in one game with Bryant. There are quite a few achievements I have left that involve shot blocking, yet I've played around 30 games, and got about 2 blocks total. Odd.

Got out Just Cause - a game I played for around 8hrs when it came out but put it on the shelf for newer games. It's got all the fun elements of GTA/Saints Row with a 'Columbia Drug Ring' bonus added in. Downside is that the world is too big and doesnt really have an easy transport system. But nevertheless, I got the 1000 metre base jump achievement (1109m), and a few general achievements (20 side missions, collection mission, kill 500). What is getting me at the minute is that it wont let me take over any green districts - but will let me get the yellows. Slightly odd.

Eragon has sat on my shelf for two months, and everywhere says it is an easy game, so I got it out of its shrink wrap. Its basically the same style as Pirates of the Caribbean/Shrek III - hack and slash. It gives you a bow and magic, which is a nice touch, but there is less to collect (one secret egg per level). Achievements are for completing levels on Normal and Hard, but unfortunately they are not retroactive (i.e. completing a level on Hard does not unlock the Normal difficulty achievement). So I played the first three levels on Normal and Hard for those achievements. The first level involves no real fighting, so for 5 mins work, 50GS. The rest is getting harder, but not that much. I could only be bothered to play it for an hour.

Played some more Carcassonne as well, now in the top 15 in the world with ~60 single player wins. Did some legit against the AI too in order to help with the 5000+ score achievement - in two successive games I won 167-67, 167-100. =D I did the achievement list for a360p.com, so I'll post it here too.

Also rented C&C3 today. Took it straight back for Flatout later this evening. I dont like RTS from the off, and while C&C is a good franchise, and this game has great graphics, it doesnt work well on the 360. Controls are not precise, and you cant really select the units you want. Main reason I dont like RTS is that I seem to have bad 'Computer Luck' (i.e. one time in Texas Hold 'em me and a mate just went all in for 50 hands, I won 2 of them). As a result in a 10 unit vs 10 unit battle, I always lose :( Even if the units are the same.

Also passed 35k today =D

GS: 34,798 -> 35,128

Completed XBLA:	7 / 21
Completed Retail:	17 / 74
GS Completion %:	40.92%
GS % (Non-Demo):	44.35%

Country Rank:	506/202641
World Rank:	2988/1502472