11th November: GS Update

Another week, another bunch of gaming!

borandi showed up yesterday and we were like a superhero team together. I make a great sidekick! Gamerscore stands at 56,387. Up up and away right? That is an improvement of 545 points over last time! Another day, another milestone. The 56,000 barrier has fallen! He rallied Beautiful Katamari gaining 1 achievement, Halo 3 acquiring an amazing 6 achievements, and then I basked in the warm glow of post gaming. Mmmm warm...

My 360voice actually says I was away the past couple of days, which is true. I had to travel to Oxford for an interview. But I'm back, and ready to rack up that GS.

This following fortnight, I'm participating in the 'XBL 10k Community Challenge - No. 1' as set up on 360voice. Its where a group of people get together, and in a set period, try and get as much GS as possible. This first challenge is for 14 days, and we have 7 people ready to win. The people who start with the lowest have the natural advantage, given that they havent played all the easy games! Well, I've a few easy games left too =D

This weeks games were:

Beautiful Katamari	420 -> 640 of 1250 31 of 40 Achievements
Sonic The Hedgehog 2	190 -> 200 of 200 12 of 12 Achievements
Halo 3	230 -> 735 of 1000 22 of 49 Achievements
Tony Hawk's Project 8	50 -> 120 of 1000 9 of 49 Achievements

This week has been a big Katamari week. I'm at a great point now - all the presents and cousins in the game without the DLC, and I'm 3 stages from getting 100+ points on each stage. I'm back up to second in the UK, and my biggest Katamari is 1.4m kilometres. I've got 95% of the collection, still getting the new bit here and there. I also went online a bit - which can get laggy, but usually goes ok if I'm in a Japanese room. Got the 1000 cookies, so now just after the 50 games worth - I'm sure I'm around the 25 mark. Apart from that, I need the 100/200 requests, 50/100hrs gameplay and the DLC achievements.

Sonic 2 is now complete! I just needed the 10 stage wins online, but usually there's no-one on. Luckily, someone was on, and they asked me to boost. 5 mins later, we both had the achievement. Score =D Game complete!

Warmish Hot Tub and I met up again this thursday for some Halo 3 pwnage. We completed Legendary - so I got all 3 completionist achievements and the 3 stages we had left to do, which was around 500GS. The only achievements left now are skulls, online achieves, and points in the round achievements. Fun =P

I also rented out Project 8 again. I didn't elaborate last time, but its a hellish game. The achievements are hard, and it feels worse than previous Hawk games out there. I'm having trouble with the challenges, and the achievements I got this time were for online, and a viral achievement worth 50GS. I see people online getting 2mill in one combo, so I guess I'm not doing something right...

GS: 55,632 -> 56,437

Completed XBLA:	14 / 36
Completed Retail:	26 / 131
GS Completion %:	38.92%
GS % (Non-Demo):	41.28%

Country Rank:	196
World Rank:	1,310

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 ;)

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