31st March: GS Update

Games have been plentiful abound this week, though I have been keeping back the GS so that a couple of friends of mine can win the Viral badge over at 360voice.

borandi showed up yesterday and we were like a superhero team together. I make a great sidekick! Gamerscore stands at 83,621. Up up and away right? That is an improvement of 60 points over last time! He opened up Winning Eleven 2007 picking up 1 achievement, N+, Brain Challenge™, Burnout Paradise picking up 1 achievement, Forza Motorsport 2, and it's a good thing he stopped there, otherwise the concentrated awesomeness could have blown out my circuits.

This is really good stuff... the more we play, the more chances we have to leave TheWings977 in the dust. Call me crazy, but a 73,076 point cushion is not nearly enough for me...

Oh, guess what? Our gamerscore challenge is going strong... If you are curious, follow along over here. 2 other people are throwing down in this challenge. If I do the math correctly, it means that 2 players X 3 days means a whole lot of trash talk! Currently borandi is hanging on to the number 3 spot. However there are still 2 days left to score achievement glory. Let's get to the top of that challenge board! Go!

Let's see what's happened this week... 360voice has now increased their watcher limit to 100. I trawled through the appropriate threads on the forum, so now I'm watching 50 or so people. If you want to be watched (and if at all possible, please reciprocate =D), send me a message or comment on my 360v blog.
Xbox.com has had a new facelift. The new style is A LOT quicker than the old one, but now is more minimalist. I love it with lots of info on one screen, but they've had to change it to reduce load on their already bursting servers. Fair enough - although now my friends list is split into sets of 15, and often I have more than 15 friends online at the same time, so I have to click more links to find some of them. Bleh.

MS has also started going after gamesavers. Good on them. There are plenty to look for and cut down, so hopefully I'll be able to shoot up the rankings somewhat. All my score is legit, with some boosting and cheat codes thrown in (GUN, GH3), but I've never used someone elses saved game and claimed it as my own.

In other news, there has been lots and lots of Forza. See later for more info! Also, I was delighted to be presented with 6 new games this week by Nellas, after her trip back home to the US for 3 weeks. These were: Army of Two (US), Winning Eleven 2007, Fifa 07, Medal of Honor: Airborne, The BIGS and History Channel: Civil War. Four of these are US only releases, so I'm glad to have them.

Now onto the gamerage!

Army of Two™	0 -> 65 of 1000 3 of 37 Achievements
Forza Motorsport 2	930 - > 970 of 1000 43 of 44 Achievements
N+	55 -> 70 of 200 5 of 12 Achievements
Burnout Paradise	340 -> 360 of 1000 24 of 50 Achievements
Winning Eleven 2007	0 -> 240 of 1000 6 of 23 Achievements
Chromehounds	140 -> 160 of 1000 7 of 49 Achievements
Guitar Hero III	325 - > 365 of 1000 35 of 59 Achievements
Thrillville: OTR	0 -> 130 of 1000 9 of 50 Achievements
A-Train HX	0 -> 640 of 1000 16 of 24 Achievements
College Hoops 2K7	0 -> 165 of 1000 8 of 49 Achievements
Splinter Cell D.A.	100 -> 125 of 1000 6 of 38 Achievements
Big Bumpin	30 -> 40 of 200 3 of 12 Achievements
Halo 3	780 -> 800 of 1000 30 of 49 Achievements

I haven't really started in Army of Two yet. I've done the training, then was called into a 4 player online game with rican ninja89, mingo21, and Chewy027. We went after the quick online achievements (play an online match, win an online match without buying any weapons, collect 20 mini-objectives) but the big one is the 'Earn one billion dollars online', which in reality will probably take 250-300 twenty minute matches. That's a lot of $$$.

Ah yes, Forza 2. Almost complete =D I finished all the time trials - the last one on the Nurburgring had me almost tearing my hair out. After 25 laps of 7.5 minutes each lap, I finally beat the 7:09 time requirement. Now, my last achievement is the 1 million credits online, which is incredibly slow. You get next to nothing online, expecially if you're not first. At the start of the week, I had 250k. After a 4-player 75 lap Nissan Speedway win (120k for winning), ZACHSP8 10k managed to rustle up 8 gamers for some boosting - we all got a 75 lap Nissan Speedway win
(150k win). I also did some public matches and won 2x5-player 25 laps and 1x4-player 75 lap race. Now I need only 126k for the achievement. Why am I doing Nissan Speedway? It's an oval, requires minimal thought, and with the Ford GT40 I can do it at 248mph = 35.3 seconds a lap. Now though, most public servers dont like the GT40, so I use a TVR Speed 12, which does a lap in 36.0 seconds. Failing that, I've just purchased and done up a Mercedes CLK-SLR, which does 39.0 second laps and has near perfect cornering.

N+ is also doing my head in. Sometimes it is just so unresponsive. Thus I got the 1000 deaths secret achievement. I'm also upto Chapter 23 or so. Did some online races and co-op campaign, so maybe those achievements might pop soon.

I haven't been playing much Burnout Paradise this week - just the odd race here or there. I'm several races away from my A license, and I also got the achievement for a 10x multiplier in showtime.

Winning Eleven 2007 is the US version of Pro Evolution Soccer 6, which if you remember I have the full 1000GS in it. So I started on the easy achievements on WE07. I've played about 40 games so far, but still have all the leagues and all the online to do yet. Fun =D

I did a little Chromehounds too this week - just 4 or 5 deploys with rican ninja89. I got my 'Capture 100 COMBAS' achievement, so nothing major. This is another game on my 'to do' list.

Ah yes, some GH3. rican finally got the German song 'Erten Was Wir Saen', and we did some rocking - with me on bass, both on expert. Without any effort, we hit 900k, getting the '700k co-op' achievement. In actual fact, only the host got it, so we had to do it again with the other person hosting. We also got a terrific achievement - 2000 note streak! We had planned to do this on Through the Fire and the Flames, but we tried it on this German song, with me on Easy lead guitar, rican on expert bass (no guesses who the better guitarist is, lol), and on our 4th attempt, we got a 2150 note streak. =D

Thrillville is one of my LoveFilm rentals for the time being. As far as I can tell, it's an 'easy' 985GS according to rican, with one 15GS achievement that is stupidly hard. It's like the new version of Theme Park, so I'm looking forward to getting to grips with it.

I've been looking forward to A-Train HX for some weird reasons. One, it was released in Japan ages ago, and now makes it to UK shores. Two, it's not out in the US. Three, most people have played it (in Japan) have the full 1000GS. So I got my LoveFilm rental (minus a manual), and had a go. Without the manual or a guide, it's startling of what you have to do, as there is no tutorial. Online websites have no help, as almost no-one who speaks English has the game. So I fiddled with it, then posted an easy 'Quick Start Guide' over at x360a.org for everyone to enjoy. Within minutes of posting, it was made a sticky, so result! I'll post it here after this post. (Which reminds me, I didn't look at Zero Punctuations post this week, or last week... I'll post those too).

I had my US 360 out for a while this week. So I put in some College Hoops 2k7, a semi-easy game if the guides online have anything to go by. The good thing about this game is the sliders - it makes the game somewhat easier :) However, with any basketball game on the 360, the blocks are the problem achievements. I put the slider up for free throws, and managed the hard free throw achievement =D I need a proper thrash of this game.

I boosted a little on Splinter Cell with rican - just a couple of levels as one of the sides. Nothing too serious with this game yet.

Some Big Bumpin as well - given that there was some promise in boosting it this week. That didnt materialise, but I managed to get that achievement for the middle competition in single player mode which didn't unlock last time.

Yes, I did play some Halo 3 again this week. More specifically, I played through a level to get the skull and the points achievement for it. I need 2 more gold skulls, several online achievements and all but 1 points achievement.

GamerScore:	82246 -> 83701
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	18 / 51
Completed Retail:	38 / 192
GS Completion %:	41.62% -> 41.13%

Country Rank:	106 -> 104
World Rank:	735 -> 707
Completion Rank:	1,767 -> 1,773

24th February: GS Update

A random slew of games this week. Played some new ones, played some old ones, focused on some RPGs and did some multiplay.

borandi showed up yesterday ready to dominate. Total gamer score stands at 75,521. That is a boost of 740 points over last time! Another day, another milestone. The 75,000 barrier has fallen! He made some progress on Poker Smash, NHL 2K7, The Orange Box acquiring an amazing 10 achievements, NBA LIVE 07 picking up an amazing 8 achievements, Guitar Hero III, Undertow picking up 2 achievements, Two Worlds gaining an amazing 6 achievements, and before I even realized it, he was finished and I was sad.

Oh hey, time for the gamerscore challenge update too... borandi still has that going on and stuff. 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 rocking out on this thing which keeps it fun. Out of all those people, borandi is currently parked at number 2. With only one day left though, we need to make that last big push!

Also got through some gamerscore, hitting that 75k barrier. That's 10k since the year beginning. It might go up somewhat, as I've now started a LoveFiLM subscription for games and films, so I can start renting again. I've opted for the 3 games/films at a time for 18.99GBP/month. Just got the confirmation email, so I might see some games in the post by Tuesday. First on my list is Kingdom Under Fire, as I've had a couple of inquiries about whether I had it or not for online multiplayer. Then after that, it's Thrillville, Avatar and some other easy games.

Now for this weeks gamerage:

Rapala Tournament	0 -> 40 of 1000 1 of 30 Achievements
Splinter Cell D.A.	0 -> 100 of 1000 4 of 38 Achievements
The Orange Box	0 -> 205 of 1000 26 of 99 Achievements
Eragon	270 -> 540 of 1000 22 of 37 Achievements
Two Worlds	270 -> 800 of 1000 35 of 41 Achievements
Undertow	115 -> 165 of 200 11 of 12 Achievements
NBA LIVE 07	0 -> 650 of 1000 11 of 15 Achievements
NHL 2K7	535 -> 650 of 1000 12 of 17 Achievements
WARRIORS OROCHI	40 -> 110 of 1000 5 of 29 Achievements
LMA Manager 2007	870 -> 1000 of 1000 22 of 22 Achievements
Lost Odyssey	110 of 1000 4 of 36 Achievements
DEAD RISING	140 -> 240 of 1000 12 of 50 Achievements
Arkadian Warriors	190 -> 200 of 200 12 of 12 Achievements

I've always been a fan of fishing games, just out of blind ignorance I suppose. Rapala on the 360 got a bit of rap as it's not that indepth, it's a boring game and a significant portion of the gamerscore is glitched. However, I caught a few tiddlers - enough to unlock a 40GS achievement. Not many people have played this game it seems, as there isnt a significant guide for it.

I also started to play Splinter Cell Double Agent. A couple of training missions, the first story mission and half an online game. The online game was 'half' as my 360 froze mid game (it's been doing that since the repair). The game loading was slow, the controls are stodgy and clunky, and it's not really a fun stealth game. However, it seems a little boostable so I'll keep with it a little while.

I've been after The Orange Box for 360 for a while. I've got it on PC, and competed Portal and played some TF2, but never really tried the linear storyline. I didnt buy TOB, but a friend got it so I borrowed it. I completed Portal (again), and did most of the achievements on TF2 - just needing the 1k kills and the 'room of eight' achievements. I also started the single player HL2 campaign - it's going ok so far.

Bleh - Eragon is a long, boring, crappy game. I don't want to know the story line. I don't want to play through 18 levels, both on Normal and Hard difficulty. If they included points on the game for kills and so forth, it'd make this a more fun game. It's just that the combat is almost superfluous and boring, and most of the levels are just running though a stage trying to avoid the combat. But nevertheless, I'm now over half way through.

Now I've got the guide for Two Worlds, the game got a bit easier. I completed the rest of the storyline (including that final 370GS achievement), and now I'm searching around for all the 'visit' achievements and getting level 50. Should be straightforward - apart from the 'find everything' achievement. Hopefully this will get me the 2* RPG badge on 360voice too.

Undertow had a mixed myriad of achievements when it was released - especially the 'complete each stage on co-op' and 'complete each stage on ultra' achievements. Both of which I was able to complete thanks to rican ninja89. It was touch and go on some of the stages, but we pulled through with active defences. All that's left now is the 10k kills achievement. Thankfully, offline kills count too, so several hours doing the same level over and over should do it.

I've had NBA Live 07 a while, not really bothered to play it. However, I stuck it in with NickHarkonnen to see what it was like. 8 minutes and 150GS later, my interest was piqued. I looked online for a guide to the achievements, and got another 500GS in 15 minutes. The only achievements left are online ones which should be easy to get - apart from the 'play online with 1000 people on' achievement, given that when I saw the lobby, there was 27 people online.

I was able to get the 'win an online achievement' for NHL 2k7 this week. I now have to play as each team once, win 100 matches, play 30 online and quit 10 online. That gets me to 950GS - but the last achievement in this game is glitched, to 950 is the max. EA should sort this out. They fixed The Godfather - now fix this.

NickHarkonnen and I also did some Warriors Orochi. We just grinded out some abilities, and in single player I was also able to get some more characters. When my abilities are almost maxed, I'll go after completing the storylines.

I fired up LMA 07 with two leagues to go, at ~6pm at night. By midnight. I had the final achievements. Luckily, there was not much reloading needed, and I'm happy this game is finished. Game Complete!

I didnt get any more achievements in Lost Odyssey, but I played a while - now nearing the end of the first disc I think. The bosses are still hard, and the story is still excellent. Good stuff.

For the blast from the past game of the week (might be a new feature), it was Dead Rising. A game I regret not playing more. However, this time, with a little guide, I got the hang of driving round in cars and vans, running over zombies. This lead to the 1k kills and 10k kills achievements, and I picked up a couple of others on the way, as well as my first finish of 72hr mode. It should be easier when I hit level 50.

Finally, Arkadian Warriors. I finished it shortly after last weeks main post (hence the mini-update), with a few playthroughs of the first stage. Game Complete!

GamerScore:	73836 -> 76106
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	15 -> 16 / 45
Completed Retail:	35 -> 36 / 180
GS Completion %:	39.28% -> 40.06%

Country Rank:	130 -> 120
World Rank:	856 -> 813
Completion Rank:	2,394 -> 2,125

[Aiming for that 3* RPG badge on 360voice]