12th May: GS Update

A few odd games this week, nothing too focused.

Like a king on his throne, borandi said 'awaken' and for him I did comply. 92,872 points represents the size of our growing kingdom. Ok, enough of this Monarchy stuff. That is an improvement of 220 points over last time! He rocked out to Football Manager 2007 picking up 1 achievement, NBA Ballers:Chosen One finishing an amazing 7 achievements, BioShock winning 1 achievement, and then I told him to keep playing but he didn't... out of spite I think.

Did I mention the gamerscore challenge that borandi is competing in? There's so much action in this one, you may pay for the whole seat, but you'll only need the edge!!111! Witness the spectacle. There are 4 other people playing along as well... they better watch out. Currently borandi is holding the number 2 spot in the group... decent. With only one day left though, we need to make that last big push!

360voice had a big badge update this week. I lost a few badges as a result - 1* Music, 1* FPS, 1* Sandbox. But also gained a couple - 50% completion and 2* Party. The music badge is a bummer, as almost 1/2 the games are US only which I dont have yet. The sandbox badge is a bit annoying - I was hanging on by 5pts, then they added both GTA and Bully to the genre, but only got 300 on GTA.

I also wrote a guide on NBA Ballers, but more about that later.

Guitar Hero III 390 -> 400 of 1000 37 of 59 Achievements After several weeks on and off, with the aid of a mirror, I redid Easy mode on a new band on Lefty Flip in order to get the 'Hendrix Reborn' achievement. Now it's a case of doing as many tracks as possible across all 5 bands to get the 100million points, $350k and 250k notes achievements.

NBA Ballers:Chosen One 0 -> 1000 of 1000 20 of 20 Achievements NBA Ballers was one of the LoveFilm rentals this week. Imagine NBA Street Homecourt, without the fun moves. It's basically a set of 1 vs. 1 matches for story mode, and 3 hours to complete. Another 3 to complete again for that achievement, then 25 wins online and a few other specific skill achievements. I made a guide over at x360a.org, which I've set to be posted here in a couple of days. Not a fun game by any stretch, though. Game Complete!

BioShock 275 -> 285 of 1100 25 of 51 Achievements In a minor attempt to get my 1* FPS badge back, I thought I'd fire up some BioShock. But it was 3am, so I got as far as getting the Jackpot on the one-armed bandits.

Football Manager 2007 9 -> 204 of 1000 18 of 50 Achievements Nothing much to say here. I started a game with max players in top positions at various clubs, then went on holiday and left the 360 on for around 15hrs this week. As a result, a lot of achievements pop up.

GTA IV 325 -> 375 of 1000 25 of 50 Achievements A couple of achievements on GTA. Enough story missions complete to get access to all the islands, and a set of 5 flips in a car. About 50% of the game complete.

SAMURAI WARRIORS 2 XL 0 -> 50 of 1250 1 of 29 Achievements I noticed a few people have the full 1000 on this game, so I put it in. Only a small dabble, I played the minigame from the main menu and won for the achievement, but also started a few of the story missions.

Scene It? LCA 445 -> 770 of 1000 33 of 42 Achievements I did aim one evening to try and finish Scene It. With Wiki and IMDB at hand, and a digi cam, I took photos of each question then paused it, then looked online for the answer. The main achievement on this game is getting 60 correct answers without getting one wrong. I think I got to around 28 before one of the questions was the picture of an actor and he looked more like the wrong guy than the right one. That took 70 minutes to get that far. So I just finished the Long Game and put it away.

Army of Two™ 80 -> 225 of 1100 10 of 41 Achievements Another attempt to rekindle my 1* FPS badge. I went after some weapon achievements, thanks to the guide over at x360a.org. It involves replaying the first mission over and over again, as there is a point where 120 guys spawn 2 at a time, and you have infinite health and ammo.

LEGO Star Wars: TCS 100 -> 210 of 1000 11 of 42 Achievements Another part of my semi-interested runs at the next Family badge. Like the other LEGO Star Wars, this is just as boring and uninteresting. A few achievements from going through the first episode, nothing much else.

PES2008 235 -> 260 of 1000 10 of 28 Achievements One achievement - the 100 assists one. I'm around 10 or so games from finishing the English league.

Geometry Wars Evolved 20 -> 30 of 200 4 of 12 Achievements Aha! Geometry Wars was one of my first ever games I got an achievement in. It's ridiculously hard. But I managed to get the 'get 250k points' achievement.

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I'm not putting up the MGC stats this week. There's been a mixup over there and some of my games that used to be there aren't showing. It should be fixed up by next week.

4th May: GS Update

The week is all about GTA. GTA this and GTA that. You can't escape it!!! *evil grin*

Oh man, borandi was totally in the gaming zone yesterday when he fired me up to play. 91,332 points of total gamerscore doesn't do his skills justice. That is a profit of 150 points over last time! He played GTA IV winning an amazing 7 achievements, Lost Cities, BLADESTORM, PES2008, Marvel Ult. Alliance finishing 3 achievements, and oh... don't tell borandi this, but I have been getting in a little video chat in the off-hours. Booyah!

Oh and it is time for a gamerscore challenge update... listen up... Bookmark this link now and check out all the action! 4 other people are also involved... which is madness. Currently borandi and I are on top of the challenge mountain... it's so beautiful, and high. I can see my house from here. Is that an airplane, or a space shuttle? How's the weather down there? We're in the home stretch with 24 short hours left! Work for that win!

Well I'll explain GTA a little later on. Apart from that, I got Avatar this week from LoveFilm for an easy 1k, I passed 90k, no XBLA game this week (thanks to GTA), though there was a very exciting talk over at 360voice about their merger with GamerDNA. All those that participated got the 'Plays Well with Others' badge, so I joined in (at 3am UK time) and is was good fun.

Marvel Ult. Alliance 515 -> 980 of 1250 50 of 58 Achievements Lots of MUA this week. The main story line is complete (on easy), wrapping up those achievements, as is all the costumes from the DLC pack achievements. Alongside that, 500 enemies thrown off a ledge, and enough statues to unlock Daredevil and Black Panther. I'm currently working my way through the simulator (managed to get all the discs), going for gold in each. After that, I'll be going for all the costumes on each character, and that should leave two DLC achievements, and complete on Hard left.

PES2008 210 -> 235 of 1000 9 of 28 Achievements Just one achievement this week - 'Keep foul ratio below 0.1 per match for the last 10 matches'. I'm about 27 games through the English league now (out of 38), going after the 100 assists achievement.

GTA IV 0 -> 325 of 1000 23 of 50 Achievements Ah yes, the big game itself. It says I've notched up 24hrs in the game already, though some of that is during dinner, etc., where I forgot to pause it. Well, what do I think? It's a very good, all round game. It has bits of everything, and is an absolutely stunning environment to be in. Game of the Year for sure, unless something like Fable 2 shows something spectacular. The developers have worked hard on GTA, balancing every aspect and giving the player freedom to do what they want, with some minigames and a nice multiplayer option to play around with. Some of my best moments in GTA: - I met a random guy on the street, high on drugs, called me a eastern european tard, then gave me $100 'courtesy of Uncle Sam' - If you cause a ruckus in a strip club, they throw you out, and all the strippers seem to go outside. I just saw one walk outside, in broad daylight, and she started eating a hotdog. - Bumped into a hobo, he shouts 'I ain't got any bananas!' - Did a double flip in a police car and the lights got smashed, the siren now plays like its broken A few small bugs though. One - at some point in the game, you have to leave the area of your first home with your cousin. Then, when you go bowling or so with him after that, you have to pick him up from the first area where people are after him. Some other responses from NPCs are also out of sync. Also, a distinct lack of things to do in Single Player compared to previous games, like taking cars to the docks for money etc. I'm hoping the August DLC for the 360 shows some more spectacular stuff. As far as achievements go, it's not really a game you can get achievements easily in - the average GS so far (according to MGC) is about 25. That said, I passed the 90k mark with GTA as some of the achievements are really easy. Escape from a 4* wanted level? Go up and down the runway on a bike. Spend 5 mins at a 6* wanted level? Take a boat or heli and drive round the unopened islands early on at full speed where they cant catch you. Some of the multiplayer ones look a bit tricky - 'Kill 20 people with a pistol match in a ranked match'. Luckily however, if you're the host, you can set it to a small map, pistols only, 20 min match to get that achievement easy. Go buy the game and enjoy it. It's worth your monies. Over at metacritic, GTA has been getting 100% marks from a lot of magazines. In my eyes, a good game, but not 100%. I'd give it a 98%, as there are some touchup/QA issues they could have worked on, but its GOTY material nevertheless.

Avatar: TLA: TBE 0 -> 1000 of 1000 5 of 5 Achievements The undisputed easiest 1000GS of any game on the 360. All it involves is tapping B on the first level, until your combo hits 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 - and your combo stays unless you get hit. So I did the full 1000GS on each of my 3 accounts and Nellas did it on hers for her first completion. So I timed it the third time round. One minute and 55 seconds from pressing play on the dashboard, to the full 1000GS. Easiest game ever. Game complete!

Guitar Hero II 640 -> 700 of 1000 40 of 50 Achievements Two easy achievements I'd been neglecting on GH2 this week. I had to start a new band to get the 'buy every guitar' and 'buy every finish' achievements, but all it took was 22 5* songs on medium to get enough money, which is now quite simple for me =D

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GamerScore:	89487 -> 91442
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	23 / 55
Completed Retail:	43 -> 44 / 196
GS Completion %:	43.39 -> 43.78%

Country Rank:	91 -> 88
World Rank:	637 -> 601
Completion Rank:	1,439 -> 1,319

27th April: GS Update

A mix this week. Some news, some games.

borandi came to represent the gaming world. 89,362 points and counting! That is a profit of 40 points over last time! He rocked out to Lost Cities, BLADESTORM, Call of Duty 4 gaining 1 achievement, Lost Odyssey, and almost cried with joy. I have that effect on people.

All this week has been a buzz around GTA4. It comes out Tuesday, despite a large number of people playing it already (thanks to people working in game stores, or people selling it early). My preorder was in, and the money has gone out, so I expect it to be dispatched, ready for Tuesday. I'll probably play it a good lot, apparently it's a lot of fun.

PES2008 130 -> 210 of 1000 8 of 28 Achievements Just a little bit of PES08 - just 5 or so games. Yet as a result, 3 achievements unlock - 2+ goals average in 5 games after 20, possession > 60% in last 10 games, beat all England teams. Like PES6, this game will take a while. Each game is 5 mins, and one of the final achievements is 'play 500 games' - thats 2500 mins (even without loading), which is 42hrs.

Lost Odyssey 110 -> 235 of 1100 5 of 42 Achievements After some recent FPS gaming, I decided to delve back into the RPG arena, now that I have the Lost Odyssey guide - I've played it almost all weekend. As a result, I got to the second disk in around 10hrs from a new game. The guide is a brilliant help, especially with the bosses which are hard for a JRPG.

Call of Duty 4 190 -> 770 of 1000 31 of 37 Achievements Well it looks like last time I played CoD4 I didn't update. Well I was at 600GS, stuck on the level where you got 20 minutes to get out. I was literally pulling my hair out. That was in November, so now I took off the shrink wrap (I bought it around Christmas, last play was a rental) and put it in again. A quick youtube guide got me through that level, and the next, until the point where you've got 9 minutes to save the missile launch. Now that level is an ARSE. You have to get into a couple of pathways that face each other, and enemies are on either side. You cant peer round to shoot one then the other, and grenades dont work. So I'm basically buggered - and as a result, I almost broke a controller. So I set the difficulty to easy and breezed past the last two levels. I dont think I'll comp this game on veteran, I just dont have the patience, and Activision frustrates gamers like me with these achievements. Why not make a couple online, like reach level 54? (Which is v. easy on the PC version).

BLADESTORM 550 -> 600 of 1000 12 of 18 Achievements I still like Bladestorm - its the Hack and Slash with out the frustration and a little bit of strategy. I got the 3*, and the Book of Camels. I'm taking a liking to the Halberds, the Poleswords. With their 3 specials, they can take out a whole squad which they are weak against. As a result, my Halberds book is at 73%, which is enough for the final achievement. Now I'm working on a couple of other groups - archers and spears. I cant stand the cavalry, though.

Lost Cities 0 -> 80 of 200 5 of 12 Achievements Lost Cities is the XBLA game this week, which I bought so Nellas and I can play. It's a simple card game, with some easy achievements - except the 'Win 300 games' achievement. A game lasts 3 rounds, and a round can last 4-5 minutes. Thats 3600 minutes, or 60 hours.

Guitar Hero III 365 -> 390 of 1000 36 of 59 Achievements Not much on GH3 this week - Nellas and I finally finished co-op easy. We're doing a couple of tracks at a time - I hope to get 5* easy, 5* medium co-op, as well as complete co-op as lead and bass eventually.

Viking 0 -> 90 of 1000 6 of 50 Achievements I got a small chance to play Viking this week. One of my friends had bought it, and came over one evening. I played for an hour, but it looks an alright game. I cant really tell if it's going to be a good one, as there was no real tutorial. But the slicing and dicing was fun, anyway.

G.R.A.W. 670 -> 736 of 1000 30 of 43 Achievements A couple of online achievements on GRAW - a group of 6 of us went for the Crackshot achievement (10x headshots without reloading with at least 5 different gametags in the room) as well as Team Player (Win 30 co-op matches with at least 6 GTs in the room). On the way, I managed to get the Sniper ach (500 head shots in multiplayer).

LEGO Star Wars II 350 -> 390 of 1000 14 of 29 Achievements I started playing this just to get some achievements, and complete it a little more for the 360voice 2* family badge. Yet I can't still stand this game - the levels are still too long, and too boring. It's all a boring grind. I got 2 level completion achievements, then couldn't stand it any more.

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GamerScore:	88841 -> 89487
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	23 / 55
Completed Retail:	43 / 194
GS Completion %:	43.28% -> 43.39%

Country Rank:	89 -> 91
World Rank:	634 -> 637
Completion Rank:	1,425 -> 1,439