6th November: GS Update

Update is a bit late this week - I've been tired for some god awful reason.

Go ahead... call me a wussy... but I almost started crying when borandi turned me on yesterday. 55,557 points of raw gamer score are making you jealous! That is a profit of 215 points over last time! He rallied Puzzle Quest, UEFA CL 2006-2007 finishing 3 achievements, and laughed with joy and glee the whole time. I like making people happy.

What is really good is that every day played is another chance to catch up to rican ninja89 and that 56,682 score... Make it happen borandi!!

Did I mention that I like it when people like us? borandi's gamer reputation increased yesterday proving that he is an all-around nice guy.

And the games:

The Simpsons™ Game	0 -> 75 of 1000 8 of 44 Achievements
UEFA CL 2006-2007	10 -> 350 of 1000 6 of 31 Achievements
Sonic The Hedgehog 2	145 -> 190 of 200 11 of 12 Achievements
E4	15 -> 35 of 200 3 of 12 Achievements
Halo 3	170 -> 230 of 1000 16 of 49 Achievements
Yaris	5 -> 35 of 200 4 of 12 Achievements
Clive Barker's Jericho	0 -> 110 of 1000 6 of 42 Achievements
Virtua Fighter 5	0 -> 55 of 1000 5 of 32 Achievements
Quake 4	85 -> 90 of 1000 8 of 50 Achievements
Eternal Sonata	10 of 1000 1 of 22 Achievements
At World’s End	550 -> 1000 of 1000 30 of 30 Achievements

The Simpsons Game was released this week, and after playing the demo last week, I rented it as soon as I could. In general, it's a fun platformer. It's your stereotypical platformer/Simpsons combo, with humour (i.e. it informs you when you hit a game cliché) typical to the Simpsons. People who aren't fans of the game will just see it as another platformer, and gamerscore whores will find it annoying due to the collection achievements. At times the graphics are really poor, but in general hold up to a mid-range set of 360 standards. I'll rent this again in due course, to at least complete the main game.

Long time readers may remember my last encounter with UEFA CL: It was appalling. I was so used to Pro Evo, I couldn't stand this game. I rented it again, given that ZACH SP8 10k had just purchased a copy and wanted the online achievements. He directed me towards the easier achievements - win the UEFA cup once, then three consecutive times, on any difficulty. Each win of the UEFA cup - that's about 18 matches at 2 min halves, including loading times, took just over an hour. I've learned how to adapt to this game now - it requires proper skills, unlike the bombing down the pitch like in Pro Evo. I'm happy to have about 1/3 of the GS on this game, but I'd have to focus for the other achievements.

I loaded up Sonic 2, aiming to complete the single player mode. It was quite easy in retrospect, with the final boss requiring some finesse and active saving. The only achievement left is the 10 XBLA wins online, and as no-one plays this, I'll need to boost with someone.

I fired up E4 again, this time to play with the predetermined music supplied with the game. As a result I hit a couple of achievements. This game only lends itself to 30 minute sessions, so I'll come back to it to grind out a couple more achievements.

Thursday was another HUCS gamernight, and we played Halo 3. I say 'we', it ended up being Warmish Hot Tub and I. Thus, we played through some more of story mode on Legendary (Warmish has done it on Heroic, so he knew what he was doing). As a result, in 3 hours we got through 4/5 levels, and I got another couple of achievements. Well I'll get to the rest some other time :p

I fired up Yaris so get the online achievements, and hoping to get a few more levels in. Fat chance! I need more coins to beef up my car. Got the online ones though, but still stuck on level 3.

I rented Jericho. I posted this on my 10k forum:

Rented it, played it, its quite fun. Not on the same level of Bioshock, but the story is compelling nonetheless. I dont see how the countries that banned it (Aus/Ger, cant remember which) could do so - I've seen more gore in GoW! So far going through on hard is quite easy actually, as it's kind of a CoD system with very frequent checkpoints. You're also in a squad of 7 initially, that can resurrect each other as needed.

Worth a rental, not much to do on if after completing it on hard though I reckon. I got 110GS in around an hour, just going through the story line, done 6/30 missions. Some of the 'go through without getting incapacitated on hard' might be a bit difficult.

I'll rent it again. It was fun.

I also rented Virtua Fighter 5. Its a lot more fun than Dead or Alive 4. Kudos. Worth another rental.

Also a boost with Rican Ninja89 on Quake 4 - I got the 100 points in multiplayer matches achievement. We worked primarily on the excellent and impressive achievements however.

I played for an hour on Eternal Sonata too. I'm awaiting a guide for it (as I get with all my RPGs) just so I dont miss anything. I could do it without the guide, but in general I find it less fun if you miss 50% of the side quests.

Heh I decided to grind At Worlds End! Got the full thousand - completed the game, and went after the 100 souls. I did Port Royal, and in the first tavern fight keep using Jacks special to earn skulls, then used 1 skull at a time away from the enemies then cut them down except the main guy. Rinse and repeat! I actually finished that level with 99 souls total (bleh), but I had a few levels with 0 souls (Davy Jones' locker) so I did it then.

GS: 54,442 -> 55,632

Completed XBLA:	13 / 36
Completed Retail:	26 / 131
GS Completion %:	38.37%
GS % (Non-Demo):	40.70%

Country Rank:	200
World Rank:	1,328

- Thats top 200 in the UK. w00t ;)

28th October: GS Update

Another week, more gaming! I might have to tone down some more in the following weeks - work is beginning to creep up and deadlines looming! On the plus side, however, I now own 106 retail games.

borandi likes to game, I like to game, this is a match made in heaven! It takes a gamer score like 54,317 to be as cool as him. That is an improvement of 135 points over last time! He rocked out to Overlord gaining 1 achievement, Madden NFL 08, Speedball 2, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR06 picking up 1 achievement, Carcassonne gaining 2 achievements to complete the game, Catan, E4 acquiring 1 achievement, and then he had to stop because we both couldn't take it anymore... we were spent.

And the games this week:

At World’s End	425 -> 550 of 1000 22 of 30 Achievements
Madden NFL 08	0 -> 1000 of 1000 48 of 48 Achievements
E4	0 -> 15 of 200 1 of 12 Achievements
Carcassonne	150 -> 200 of 200 12 of 12 Achievements
Tiger Woods PGA TOUR06	0 -> 50 of 960 1 of 16 Achievements
Overlord	280 -> 530 of 1000 30 of 44 Achievements
Quake 4	80 -> 85 of 1000 7 of 50 Achievements
Beautiful Katamari	0 -> 420 of 1250 26 of 40 Achievements
Crash Of The Titans	0 -> 133 of 1000 9 of 47 Achievements

This is now the forth or fifth time I've rented Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. It's the only game I've rented, so maybe I'll complete it this time! I only picked it up a few hours ago, and ran through the next couple of levels. I only have 8 achievements left - the last 3 levels, all Calypso pieces, and 100 souls. So that's what, another 3 rentals? :p Apparently the 100 souls can be tricky, but I'll have a bash at it.

I actually found a cheap(er) copy of Madden 08 this week to buy. I cant find it to rent, so I bought it, and had a wonderful sight after my first game on it: 27 achievements for 545GS. This game was very easy :) You can also sim ALL the achievements, as shown by my friend who got 17 achievements for 405GS just by simming a 15min qtr game. Fantastic. Well I had a little trouble on one achievement - the 4 blocks achievement. I kept intercepting the ball instead :p But an hour of simming got that final one. Another game complete Jeeves!

I played the demo of E4 just as a random bored thing to do. It was rather interesting, though I didnt really see the point of it. Then I read the 'How to play' section, and under advice, bought it for 800MSPs. It's a fun game :) Just blowing up stuff to either the music provided, or your own. I added a track with 596BPM :) Makes the game a bit easier too. Though I played for 30 mins with the same music track repeating in the background, and got 17 trillion points. I look on the scoreboard, and lo and behold, 17,000 trillion. WTF?? How long do these guys play the game??? The achievements look tricky though, so I'm not expecting 200 from this one. It's like Geometry Wars on crack.

I was able to boost with 3 other friends my final 2 achievements on Carcassonne: Win vs 3 other players, and win by 50 points. It should have been an easy 200GS, but the lack of people online made the online ones a bit tricky.

Tiger Woods 06 is one bitch of a game. To start with, some achievements require you to play online modes. Modes that EA have shut down for cutting into their 'profit margins', thus you cant get these achievements anymore. W*nkers. Though I boosted a little with rican ninja89, and I got one achievement by accident. Woo! 50pts!

I was also able to boost most of the online achievements for Overlord. 50 wins on slaughter and pillage for each player took around 2 to 2.5hrs. The wins are easy - go kill something, then the other person quits and you get the win. I also played a little of the story mode, getting the Arcanium smelter.

I also boosted somewhat on Quake 4 with mingo21 and rican ninja89. We're going after various achievements, like the 500 excellents and 250 impressives. It's a slow process, probably going to take months. I should also play some of the story mode tbh.

I imported Beautiful Katamari the week of its US release. And I'm glad I did, its a wicked game!! After 7 hrs, I had completed the main quest, now I'm finishing up some of the secondary tasks. For several days, according to mygamercard.net, I was no.1 in the UK for GS!
I'm number one!
Yup, thats no.1! Out of about 15 people who'd played it in the UK =D I want to get hold of the downloadable content for it, but that's Asia only. Probably wont make it to the UK marketplace until it gets released here - sometime in January then.

I rented out Crash of the Titans earlier this week. It's your typical Crash Bandicoot platformer, though lacking somewhat in the graphics department. I didnt get to play it a lot, but if you like your platformers, you'll like Crash Bandicoot.

GS: 52,354 -> 54,442

Completed XBLA:	13 / 35
Completed Retail:	25 / 128
GS Completion %:	38.30%
GS % (Non-Demo):	40.68%

Country Rank:	216
World Rank:	1,377

12th September: GS Update (1)

Lots of games these past few days! Here's what my 360voice said for my weeks gaming:

Do you know what time of the week it is? Time to talk about what happened these last seven days: It is a good one! borandi had seven days of gaming! In a row! I know! Crazy! The gamerscore increase was just insane. I didn't think it would be possible to get 1220 points in such a short span of time but we did. Who knew 91 achievements could be worth that much? Ok I knew that...

NEW GAMES! NEW GAMES! NEW GAMES! 8 of them to be exact! BioShock, Stuntman: Ignition, Cyberball 2072, Fatal Fury Special, Overlord, DEAD OR ALIVE 4, Robotron: 2084, and At World’s End. I want more! I want more! Also, according to the records, borandi must have been craving some FPS action because Gears of War was the weekly favorite. He played it on 4 of the days.

So there you have it... Check back next week for another report from yours truly.

And onto the games:

Two Worlds	0 -> 40 of 1000 5 of 41 Achievements
MOH Airborne	0 -> 230 of 1000 18 of 46 Achievements
Sonic The Hedgehog 2	0 -> 35 of 200 4 of 12 Achievements
TigerWoodsPGATOUR® 08	0 -> 335 of 1000 17 of 31 Achievements
Rockstar Table Tennis	355 of 1000 14 of 29 Achievements
Guitar Hero II	480 of 1000 32 of 50 Achievements
Quake 4	35 -> 80 of 1000 6 of 50 Achievements
Bomberman LIVE	60 -> 135 of 200 9 of 12 Achievements
Saints Row	110 -> 130 of 1000 11 of 43 Achievements
Blue Dragon	45 of 1000 5 of 43 Achievements

Well I was able to play Two Worlds now (see following blog entry), and I'm a bit disappointed. Graphically, it's fantastic. The NPCs and lipsynch are a bit odd, and the frame rate is very poor (inefficient programming). There isn't much of a tutorial, but it's a vast, vast game. I've played it for a couple of hours and I'm still unsure as to what to do :) I made the mistake of taking a bludgeoning weapon against a bear instead of sharp sword, and died a couple of times!

I rented Medal of Honour: Airborne (MOH:A) this week. I've been put off WW2 style FPS as of late (CoD2/3), but this one is actually quite fun and interesting. You run free over the map when you start, with all your primary objectives labelled out. You parachute into whatever area you want, and tackle the objectives in any order you like. The more you use weapons, the more they are upgraded. I got most of the easy achievements (the first three stages and various others), and a couple of multiplayer ones. A good rental :)

Sonic 2 was the XBLA game release this week, so I had to get it (400MSPs). Its just as I remember, and looks kinda wierd on a 19" screen (as opposed to the 13" CRT I huddled near in my youth). Some of the achievements might be hard - all Chaos Emeralds, Supersonic etc. which I never did when I was younger.

I played the Tiger Woods 08 Demo twice when it came out, and I thought it was the best Golf game I've ever played. When I got hold of my rental copy, I wasnt disappointed! It's very easy to control and to pick up and play. There's isnt much to single player apart from the standard Match Play, but there is Tiger Challenges, which would keep anyone occupied for days on end! Created characters are a bit crap until you go through the challenges, however. I got quite a few achievements - I spend a good period of time on the 'Hole in one' achievement, and set up my own courses of holes to get other achievements. I put some challenges up online, and did some easy ones for those achievements. For the rest, I'm going to have to spend quite a few hours to build up my created character, then win a few tournaments.

I'm starting to get up with Table Tennis. I'm working through All-Star difficulty, and playing each match. I win a couple 11-2, 11-5, then spend a good 2 hours trying to beat the next AI, then on what is supposedly the final of a tournament, win very easily 11-2, 11-2. The perfect ace either works 99% of the time on most characters, or 20% on certain others. Pooh. As a result of this utterly stupid AI, I've almost broken two controllers. Oops.

I might have to give up on GH2. I'm at one song now and it's just too difficult - I can barely get 10% into the song because the beginning sequence is stupid. I might be able to hit the 400k/600k pair achieves in the new semester if I get a friend round.

I also continued a bit with the Quake 4 achieves - perfect round, shotgun only. Its quite simple if you save often enough. Though reloading does take a while.

I boosted some with ZACHSP8 10k, from the 10k club, on Bomberman:Live. He helped with several of the multiplayer achievements (tournament, frag a cowboy, 25 frags in a zombie match) - I also learned that you can sign in guests into Live Gold for online action - i.e. a second controller for other achievements that require 4+ players in player matches. I'll be working on that later.

I'm at the last Los Carnales mission now on Saint's Row - and it's so f*ing difficult. I cant get out of the car to shoot the aeroplane, and there are rocket launchers everywhere. Every time I restart the mission, I have to drive for 2 mins to get to the right area. Bleh... Though I got the 20hrs playing achievement.

I'm still on the second disk on Blue Dragon - it's still fairly linear, buy my characters are all level 35ish now. The Prima guide is available at amazon.co.uk, so I think I'll grab that for help with the achievements and such.