9th December: GS Update

Lots of older games this week, along with the Dashboard update!

borandi needed a friend like me yesterday... I could see it in his eyes. I am there for you brother. Remember that. Gamer score is 62,806. That is an increase of 160 points over last time! He rocked out to Saints Row picking up 1 achievement, Guitar Hero III adding 2 achievements, Pro Evolution Soccer 6, Test Drive Unlimited, LEGO Star Wars: TCS picking up 3 achievements, Forza Motorsport 2 winning 1 achievement, and did it while marvelling at the framerates and stellar particle effects. In the now-you-know department, I really thought that gaming 20 days in a row would hurt... but it actually felt good... it felt warm... like butter straight out of the microwave. If I understand the rules, I think we are getting a streak badge...

The dashboard update was alright, I guess. Some good bits, some bad:

Like: See motto in the friends list
Friends of Friends
Bio
Xbox Live Originals

Dislike: Arcade games are now deeper in the menus
The dashboard is still sloooooooooooow
Combination of friends and messages
My favourite bit of the market place, 'Featured Downloads', where that was a fun small list to look through, was removed - the new 'Spotlight' button is too thick and chunky.
Xbox.com seems a lot slower after the update

Overall:
I enjoy the added functionality, but they need to focus more on efficiency once in a while.

Ideas for the future:
Like the auto-download feature for XBLA games, have an auto-download feature for all free themes and gamerpics.
Have a small 'download' bar in the corner when you are downloading something
A customisable blade - you can choose the links on it, kind of like an iGoogle homepage (or even adaptable to RSS feeds)
An option to turn down the font size. I can read size pt.12 fine, rather than everything in size pt.30.
Increase speed of Xbox.com!!!!!

And the games:

Guitar Hero III	215 -> 270 of 1000 28 of 59 Achievements
Forza Motorsport 2	409 -> 665 of 1000 32 of 44 Achievements
LEGO Star Wars: TCS	40 -> 100 of 1000 5 of 42 Achievements
Test Drive Unlimited	590 -> 630 of 1000 34 of 46 Achievements
Saints Row	130 -> 200 of 1000 14 of 43 Achievements
Crackdown	780 -> 810 of 1250 42 of 50 Achievements
NFS ProStreet	0 -> 165 of 1000 10 of 48 Achievements
Beowulf	0 -> 90 of 1000 3 of 31 Achievements
Clive Barker's Jericho	110 -> 225 of 1000 13 of 42 Achievements

As usual, some more GH3. Still 3 away from completing hard, though I completed medium all with 5 stars, and some more boosting online. Starting to go through easy with lefty flip, and did a little more on expert.

I pulled out Forza 2 after a while, and finally moved up to level 50, and completed all the races. Now it's a case of getting the achievements for all the cars, and the million credits online. There's been some free download packs and some pay-for-DLC as well since I last played this, but I'm not one to buy extra cars.

My girlfriend bought Lego Star Wars: TCS, and I've been watching her play through it. It seems like the first three episodes are a lot shorter than those from Lego Star Wars II. Also the achievements are more amenable - I was able to get the 200 dodges and the 20 perfect lightsaber attacks. Most of the other achievements are for completing levels and getting all the collectables.

I also pulled out Test Drive Unlimited. I remember the last time I played this - I did the 120 mile around the island challenge in 40 miles (average ~180 around Hawaii, how cool is that). Now it's a case of doing the rest of the challenges. I did about 10 to 20 races, and I'm also having to start to buy cars specifically for races (e.g. an Audi, Saleen, etc.). The achievements I got this time around were '40 gold cups' and 'own 3 bikes'.


I'm also getting back into the rhythm with Saints Row, in preparation for GTA4 when it comes out next year. Rican Ninja89 and I went through a couple of online stages for achievements, and I was also able to complete Los Carnales storyline - which in itself was a b*tch. Anyone who has done this will know - every time you fail the mission you have to drive a couple more miles to restart it, and then you're confronted with people with rockets while driving akimbo trying to shoot down a plane. *fun*

Everyone loves Crackdown - its great fun. I just put it in to have a go at some of the orb collection achievements, but instead I finished the rooftop races achievement. I should get on with the racing achievements, but they're a bit boring.

I rented NFS ProStreet, and it's a bit naff. I thought that racing games would see what Forza 2 and DiRT have done, and capitalise it. ProStreet takes a step backwards - the gameplay isnt that fun, the story line is a bit poor, and it gets boring fast. In other words, it feels like Juiced 2.

Also, Beowulf is a crap game. Linear, bad graphics, bad storyline. Games of films usually go bad, but this one is so special, it could throw stones at the floor and miss. Its not worth a purchase, probably an extended rental if you love the film. Most of the game (when I played it) seemed to centre around a sort of beat-boxing system designed to increase the morale of your troops, most of which die in the battles you fight. Great fun. *sarcasm*

After seeing a couple of people on my friends list have the full 1000 in Jericho, I rented it again. I got a few levels further into the game, though I missed a couple of achievements by dying during a level, but when I get this game again I just need to grind a little to complete it.

GS: 62,131 -> 63,012

Completed XBLA:	15 / 38
Completed Retail:	28 / 146
GS Completion %:	39.02%
GS % (Non-Demo):	41.40%

Country Rank:

154

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.

30th August: GS Update

From my 360voice today:

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 44,493. That is a boost of 179 points over last time! He rocked out to Streets of Rage 2 adding an amazing 8 achievements, Blue Dragon, Saints Row, Puzzle Fighter HD finishing 5 achievements, and then the lightweight went to bed. Freakin' wuss.

LoL! And onto the games I played these past few days:

Guitar Hero II	430 -> 470 of 1000 31 of 50 Achievements
Puzzle Fighter HD	0 -> 120 of 200 9 of 12 Achievements
Spider-Man 3	50 of 1000 4 of 43 Achievements
Saints Row	110 of 1000 10 of 43 Achievements
Blue Dragon	10 of 1000 2 of 43 Achievements
Streets of Rage 2	130 of 200 8 of 12 Achievements
MotoGP 06	0 of 1000 0 of 24 Achievements

I managed to get through and complete EASY on GH2, as well as get all 5 star. Very boring, but now onto HARD mode. I've got 3/48 tracks done there, so some grinding is needed :)

I picked up Puzzle Fighter HD from the marketplace on wednesday - the demo seemed ok and I had a friend to boost on the online achievements. Most of them are easy (due to unlimited continues) and if you pile up alternate sides of the screen each round. The '25 block' achievement gave me a headache (and a sore toe as I threw my controller to the floor in anger and missed) for a good half-hour, but I've only 3 achievements left - 'complete arcade without a continue' (could be hard) and '5x combo', '7x combo' (which are nearly impossible). It's a nice puzzle game for the 360, but there are better games on XBLA worth their 800 MSPs.

I received my winning copy of Spiderman 3 through the mail on wednesday too - and played it a little. I'm going to need a session and a guide to do these achievements (as well as a tranquiliser... probably), which I may attempt in the near future.

More Saints Row done (though no achievements) - its nice and easy-ish so far, but sometimes the damage factor gets raised 1000x for a couple of seconds, resulting in death by those 4 Los Carnales on my tail. Bastards.

I'm at a point in Blue Dragon where I have to protect a couple of carts from monsters. If I manage it without any damage to the carts, I get an achievement and 30GS. The only problem is, it's f**king hard to not get hit. Monsters appear in the same spots everytime, however, up to 3 appear at once, often far away from each other, and the monster circle attack (right trigger) doesn't always pick the bastards up as they spawn. I spent a good 30 mins on it last night, and got quite distraught.

I also got Streets of Rage 2 on the marketplace. A retro game from yesteryear, vastly improved by the save function! I got most of the achievements, including the 'complete without using a continue' and 'complete without a special attack' (do it on very easy settings :p). I'm just lacking the 10 wins online and the two achievements for HARD difficulty - which sound very, very hard.

Moto GP 06 is an annoying game. While my UK 360 is at the cleaners, I'm limited to driving games it seems, thus I took Moto out of it's shrink wrap and stuck it in. First corner, and I'm flying off the track. It seems that every corner requires a maximum of 4mph to go around it, and the controls vary from corner to corner - sometimes too responsive, other times like steering in treacle. It's a WTF situation, and it pissed me off. I can see why it didnt sell too many copies.

GS: 44,314 -> 44,574

Completed XBLA:	10 / 27
Completed Retail:	21 / 97
GS Completion %:	41.09%
GS % (Non-Demo):	44.29%

Country Rank:	1149/840261
World Rank:	1993/1524920