18th November: GS Update

A couple of completions this week!

borandi brought the pain yesterday... the good kind... the gaming kind. We are up to 58,327 points of gamerscore. Jealous? That is an increase of 150 points over last time! He rocked out to TimeShift winning an amazing 9 achievements, Puzzle Quest, and laughed with joy and glee the whole time. I like making people happy.

Oh BTW, did you know that borandi is competing in a gamerscore challenge? Here is the link: check it. 6 people are throwing down in this challenge. If I do the math correctly, it means that 6 players X 14 days means a whole lot of trash talk! borandi has the number 2 spot... With 9 days to go though, anything can still happen though... get on it!

As you can see, I'm 2nd in the XBL Challenge so far - still got a few games up my sleeve though!

Puzzle Quest	60 -> 200 of 200 12 of 12 Achievements
Call of Duty 4	0 -> 190 of 1000 8 of 37 Achievements
Hexic 2	0 -> 80 of 200 8 of 12 Achievements
TimeShift	0 -> 150 of 1000 9 of 47 Achievements
Open Season	40 -> 1000 of 1000 46 of 46 Achievements
DDR/DS Universe	190 -> 350 of 1000 10 of 32 Achievements
SmackDown vs RAW 2008	0 -> 510 of 1000 10 of 26 Achievements

This week was a big Puzzle Quest week. After at least 15hrs worth, I now have all the achievements. The 'Create a Godlike' achieve was quite easy - on the DS version it did take me a while. The online match was annoying too, given that the only people I saw online were top in the world and were really good (had the right skills). I eventually found a guy and we won one each unintentionally. Game Complete!

I rented CoD4 today, and will have it for the next couple of days. Its very good so far - I'm going through it on Veteran Difficulty to start with, but I'm stuck at the TV station. I've got a few of the random achievements so far - 4 head shots, 20 second run though. I might restart on easy, just to at least complete the game =D

This week was Xbox Live is 5ive week, and everyone got Carcassonne free. Unless you've a Korean account, then you get Hexic 2 free. So I got Hexic 2 on my Korean account. Achievements are ok so far - I have some quite hard ones left to do though - beat the computer on expert (very very hard!), make a black pearl, make a cluster, win 10 online. At least three of those I should get!

I rented Timeshift too this week. It's a fun, interesting game - I got through the first two levels on Elite. It runs like CoD - lots of checkpoints. The time shifting feature is quite fun too. However, online mode is a bit annoying - I joined a team battle, first team to 100 kills, and some guy joined in half-way and ended with a 15-3 kill to death ratio. Bastard.

I ran through Open Season - first just the levels, then for all the collection achievements. Quite quick - probably around 4 hours in total. A couple of the automatically running levels (like the snowball) are a bit challenging, but the help of a guide sorted it out. Game Complete!

I also fired up some DDR Universe. I'm at the final stage in quest mode, but the final boss guy has an advantage on every track, so I have to have my advantage enabled AND do really well. Apart from that, I'm also getting the standard tracks a ranking - I've done just under half atm.

Rented WWE 08 too. Its much like WWE 07, apart from less of the annoying online achieves, and less loading screens. Its all good stuff - the achievements are easier now with sliders, and I got the big 350GS simming achieve. I could have got a few more, but I was being a bit stupid :p

GS: 56,437 -> 58,617

Completed XBLA:	15 / 37
Completed Retail:	27 / 134
GS Completion %:	39.51%
GS % (Non-Demo):	41.91%

Country Rank:	179
World Rank:	413

21st October: GS Update

A busy week in terms of work, so not much gaming. But it was luck that a new shop opened this weekend: the second largest GameStation in Europe. They were having some bumper deals on the opening weekend, so I picked up six 360 games for not much money (some of which I havent played yet). I also bought Eternal Sonata, and imported Beautiful Katamari, which should be here next week.

borandi seemed really excited to play yesterday. Our current gamerscore is 51,949 . That is a profit of 10 points over last time! He rocked out to Eternal Sonata finishing 1 achievement, Puzzle Quest, Streets of Rage 2, and then he started getting all these friend requests because of high awesomeness levels.

And the games:

Battlefield 2: MC	210 -> 250 of 1000 12 of 46 Achievements
Open Season	0 -> 40 of 1000 2 of 46 Achievements
CM 2007	0 -> 365 of 1000 16 of 42 Achievements
Streets of Rage 2	175 of 200 11 of 12 Achievements
Puzzle Quest	0 - > 60 of 200 5 of 12 Achievements
Eternal Sonata	0 -> 10 of 1000 1 of 22 Achievements
DDR Universe	0 -> 190 of 1000 6 of 32 Achievements
Speedball 2	0 -> 40 of 200 3 of 12 Achievements
Halo 3	170 of 1000 14 of 49 Achievements
Bankshot Billiards 2	175 -> 200 of 200 12 of 12 Achievements
Ridge Racer 6	0 -> 5 of 1000 1 of 36 Achievements
NFS Most Wanted	0 -> 10 of 1000 1 of 15 Achievements
Call of Duty 2	230 of 1000 4 of 13 Achievements
Sonic The Hedgehog 2	125 -> 145 of 200 9 of 12 Achievements

I've done a little boosting on BF2:MC, getting some more of those online achievements. In particular, I got the Navy '5 water vehicle kills' and '20 C4 kills' while helping a friend from 10k get some other achievements.

Open Season was one of the cheap games I picked up this week. Looks fairly easy, though I didnt play it much - too many games, not enough time!!!!!

CM (Championship Manager) 2007 isnt a bad game. I'm always reluctant with Football Management sims as they usually are overcomplicated and take too long (or have an elaborate load/save system). So I started a season with Man Utd., and in a few hours I was winning lots (thanks to reloading after a loss) and got quite a few achievements fairly easily. Not many people have this game, and I'm already in the top 300 in the world for GS.

I started a new game on SoR2 on Hardcore, going after that 800k achievement. Basically it'll be like going after the Golden Axe one - beat an enemy without losing health, then save. If hit, reload. I'm halfway through stage two, with ~125k score.

Played a bit more of Puzzle Quest. It's annoying that it's different from the DS version - you cant infinitely raise your stats given enough money, and my favourite weapon has been dulled a little. However, I'm hitting for 11 for every 3 skull combo, and winning easy.

Eternal Sonata's graphics are awesome - they look better than Blue Dragon/Two Worlds/Gears of War. They look Cel Shaded, but its done in such a good way. I played the game for a little over an hour, and I cant help but feel that these new RPGs just aren't as varied as the Final Fantasies of yore. There's little to do with regards to side quests. What might be annoying with Eternal Sonata is that to get 1000GS, you have to play through it twice.

I imported DDR Universe - I had a feeling it might drop off the side of the earth soon. It's an easy game so far - if you start to fail you never lose, and can keep going. It's the only DDR game I've seen with a story mode (which is a bonus), which improves the game immensely over other DDR games/clones. Overall, it looks like an easy 750GS, but some of the challenges look immensely hard.

Speedball 2 came into XBLA this week. It's a game I've been waiting for a while, and one I used to play on the Commodore 64 and Megadrive. The XBLA port is a very good one - improved graphics with retro style as an option, and a much easier to navigate front end. Kudos!

Nellas and I played some social matches online. We came 1st/2nd on a king of the hill game, though a few online players were bunny hopping everywhere. Cheating b*stards!

I finally completed Bankshot Billiards 2. I turned it on, played a large number of games, then thought I had 20 left, so turned it off. Next day, I log in, play 2 games and that final achievement unlocked. =D Game Complete!

I opened Ridge Racer and Need For Speed: MW to get the 'Launch King' badge over at 360voice. I've had the games in my collection for ages, just never opened them. I'll take a better look at them at a later date.

I also went back to CoD2 - I still need to complete this game on Veteran (I've done it on easy on PC already), and it's still quite hard. Grind, grind, grind!

After watching a video online to get the Chemical Plant 1 quick time, I had a bash at it. Took around 15 minutes to get the correct path just right, and another 20GS.

GS: 51,629 -> 52,354

Completed XBLA:	12 / 34
Completed Retail:	24 / 125
GS Completion %:	37.84%
GS % (Non-Demo):	40.25%

Country Rank:	239
World Rank:	1,529

14th October: GS Update

This week has been a busy week! Where do I begin....

On Thursday, I organised and ran a Halo 3 on XBL night for the Hull University Computer Society (HUCS, for which I am Vice-President). We had 6 to 7 people on for most of the time, mainly playing some Big Team Battle. Eventually people logged off until we hit 4 players, then we started doing story mode on Legendary, till around the third stage.

On Saturday, I was at a HUCS LAN for around 10 hours. Lots of PC games (Quake Wars, UT3 Demo) with some Console play on the side (a 2 vs 2 Halo 3 Tournament - my team went out in the semi-final 25-24, some Wii Tennis and some Guitar Hero). Good fun had by all!

So, for my 360voice:

Pick it, pack it fire it up, come along, lets get borandi's gaming on! Gamer score is 51,609. That is a gain of 5 points over last time! He rocked out to Amped 3 finishing 5 achievements, Battlefield 2: MC, Pro Evolution Soccer 6, Blue Dragon gaining 1 achievement, and then borandi had to stop for a bathroom break or something... Humans really are bags of mostly water. Also, don't tell borandi I told you this, but we have now gamed 50 days in a row... he doesn't like to share that with others. If I understand the rules, I think we are getting a streak badge...

w00t 50 days ;)

Puzzle Quest	0 -> 40 of 200 4 of 12 Achievements
Blue Dragon	45 -> 50 of 1000 6 of 43 Achievements
Pro Evolution Soccer 6	840 -> 880 of 1000 20 of 23 Achievements
Halo 3	125 -> 170 of 1000 14 of 49 Achievements
Bankshot Billiards 2	120 -> 175 of 200 11 of 12 Achievements
Sonic The Hedgehog 2	45 -> 125 of 200 8 of 12 Achievements
Yaris	0 -> 5 of 200 1 of 12 Achievements

I picked up Puzzle Quest from XBLA for 1200 points. I like the 360 graphics, but gaming on the DS was easier (plus there was a bug to get easy exp). So far I'm level 23, about 10% into story mode - I spent a while grinding exp on an easy quest. The rest of the achievements bar one should be easy to get, the other one is a game on LIVE, which I'll probably do when I'm level 50.

I started a new game on Blue Dragon, this time going through with my guide to get all the items and achievements. I got the first button mashing one that I missed previously, and I've got to the Devee village this time so far. Instead of focusing on Generalist and Guardian classes, I'm focusing more on the Barrier class, as well as the Generalist, so I can use that field barrier to easily kill enemies.

PES 6 is still a slow grind - I won the 20 games or so left of Serie A to get that achievement, now I'm in the Dutch league as PSV Eindhoven, about 10 games in. So that makes around 140 games left until 1000GS.

Like I said previously, I've been playing some Halo 3 online with friends and as part of HUCS. I got the first 3 skulls, the triple kill achievement, and I'm also now a sergeant rank.

Bankshot Billiards is a slow game now as well - the only achievement left is the 'play 200 games', which is glitched such that you have to win 200 games to get it. I'm about 140/150 games into it, so several hours with the TV on should get that, and the full 200GS.

I've had Sonic 2 a while, but never seriously played it yet. This time, I went after the emeralds and the super sonic achievements - they're very easy with that save function! The only achievements left are to complete the game, complete the game fast, win 10 games online and Chemical Plant zone 1 in 45 seconds (which imo is quite hard).

Yaris is the free game on XBLA this week. It's a bit naff, and it looks like most achievements can be had online. I'll play more later.

GS: 51,359 -> 51,629

Completed XBLA:	11 / 33
Completed Retail:	24 / 113
GS Completion %:	40.89%
GS % (Non-Demo):	43.76%

Country Rank:	246/215083
World Rank:	1564/1563274