10th April: GS Update

Ok so I didnt make a gamerscore update last weekend, mainly because I was too busy. Busy with making extra posts, game guides and watching Zero Punctuation. Deal with it =D . Coupled with this, I'm doing a '2 for 3' deal on updates - 2 in 3 weeks, because I'm away this weekend. Away is as far as I wont update, but still near to a 360 enough to keep my streak on 360 voice going.

Having a new gamer picture is like eating out at a new restaurant... you go in and everything is different and... ok that really makes no sense... bad comparison... never mind. In gaming related news... borandi seemed really excited to play yesterday. Our current gamerscore is 85,191 . That is a boost of 60 points over last time! He played Thrillville: OTR, PAC-MAN winning 1 achievement, Guitar Hero III, Guitar Hero II, Brain Challenge™, DOOM, and then borandi developed a funny twitch and went to try and sleep it off or something. Crazy humans...

Good thing borandi and I got some play time in! Every day we play is another opportunity to pull away from Donny NL and that 40,257 gamerscore!

Hey, I almost forgot! The gamerscore challenge that borandi is competing in is on day 2 and we're doing our best to win this thing. Check out the progress right now! 12 other competitors are racking up achievements and powering up their gamerscores, hoping to secure a victory! Currently borandi is hanging on to the number 6 spot. We've only got one day left. Let's cancel everything on our schedule from school to work to sleep (haven't been following what borandi does these days) and win this challenge!

This week/update brings up several long time completions, and a new game completion. Along with that, I've lots of hand cramp from Guitar Hero and no achievements to show for it. Almost had one, and also trawling through expert on GH2, even 5*ing a few. I also found this site for GH3, giving some of my more spectacular achievements:

Now for the games:

NHL 2K7 650 -> 700 of 1000 13 of 17 Achievements I'm having another crack at this game. Technically I don't have much left - Win 100 games, play 30 online games, quit 10 online games, and the (gliched so no-one can get it) score a penalty on the hardest difficulty setting. I got the 'Win with every team' achievement though. As I'm writing, I'm going after the 100 wins, and later tonight MR WHIPPY 10K and I will be doing the online achievements.
Brain Challenge™ 50 -> 70 of 200 6 of 12 Achievements Not a lot on Brain Challenge - mingo21 and I did the '10 online wins in a row' achievement for 20GS. I'm at 37% brain usage, so almost at 40 for that achievement.
PAC-MAN 130 -> 170 of 200 11 of 12 Achievements Pac-man can go to hell! Haha well the last achievement is bugging me, and according to people online on forums, it's bugging them as well. It involves eating every ghost 4 times in the same level. Now there are online videos for this, but since then I believe Namco have put in a random element so the ghosts don't always follow the same path. I tried for 2 hrs last night for the final achievement, and didnt get it. So I might just have to leave this one. On the otherhand, I got the level 21 achievement.
Thrillville: OTR 130 -> 945 of 1000 48 of 50 Achievements Well I finally sent this rental back, 55GS short. Most of the achievements were easy, just required some grinding. I was lucky on the sideshow achievement, with the 'splat-a-mole' game giving me 5* after 3 tries (some people on forums had 50 odd tries before getting it). The two achs I have left are the ultra hard one (Beat Event Horizon 2 on hard) and beat every arcade game. I did manage to get the 'top 10 in the world' achievement, by building the shortest track on one of the racing games, and finishing a race in under 17.4 seconds. That's a sneaky achievement!
Army of Two™ 65 -> 80 of 1000 4 of 37 Achievements Not much to report on Army of Two. I started the main game a little, healed my partner. This does look somewhat like a fun game, but I reckon it's better in co-op and might wait to play it then.
Mr. DRILLER Online 0 -> 90 of 200 6 of 12 Achievements I bought Mr. Driller. It's very fun, in an N+/Geometry Wars style of 'breaking the controller'. The concept is simple - dig down, don't let stuff fall on you, don't run out of air. Yet it's tricky - you'll have to drill around some blocks, then maneuver so that more blocks dont fall on you. Then you have to drill sideways to reach the air pickups. It's fun, and frustrating. Online is poor - the host having the advantage. I managed to get one online achievement, but most people quit as they can't do anything, and that doesn't count as a win.
A-Train HX 640 -> 1000 of 1000 24 of 24 Achievements YaY I completed A-Train! I did my guide for 640GS (which I will post here soon), and then between several of us at x360a.org, we managed to figure out the rest. I then did some videos for my guide. A fairly easy 1000 in the end - there's only one or two real tricky achievements, but once you understand the way the game works, it's relatively simple. Game Complete!
Forza Motorsport 2 970 -> 1000 of 1000 44 of 44 Achievements The last achievement I needed was the 'One Million Online Credits', which was fairly easy - just kept playing the Nissan Speedway with my Ford GT40 (or TVR Speed 12 or Mercedes SLK-GTR, depending on what was allowed). I managed the final 126k in a night, totalled about 10hrs online (which did include some boosting). A very heartwarming 1000GS. Game Complete!
Undertow 165 -> 200 of 200 12 of 12 Achievements Likewise with Undertow - just needed to grind out those 10k kills. 80 kills in 2 mins with the first map, I just did 1500/2000 a night to get it. Game Complete!
Catan 110 -> 120 of 200 8 of 12 Achievements I haven't had an achievement on Catan for ages, however I was lucky to invite in mingo21 into a game for 10GS. Mingo has all but one ach on Catan, the one he is missing is the '1000pts in online play', despite having won almost 200 games now. Some people have that ach, so we is thinking that it's just being a bit glitchy.
Winning Eleven 2007 240 -> 280 of 1000 7 of 23 Achievements Like I said before, this game is essentially Pro Evo 6, but renamed for the US. I won one of the longer cups since the last update, a nice 40GS. I'll soon start on the leagues. ===================

GamerScore:	83701 -> 85191
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	18 -> 19 / 52
Completed Retail:	38 -> 40 / 192
GS Completion %:	41.13% -> 41.80%

Country Rank:	104 -> 102
World Rank:	707 -> 701
Completion Rank:	1,773 -> 1,691

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]

17th February: GS Update

Various ups and downs gaming this week. I ended up putting in all the games that I own that I've not played yet into my xbox, so they would all show up in my profile. Hopefully some 0 GS games would shame me into playing them ;) Also received my copy of Lost Odyssey =D

It is that time of the week. I got your weekly recap right here: Oh man are my cores just rocking... borandi played seven days last week! SEVEN! That is a NUMBER SEVEN followed by NO ZEROS! HOT! Ready for this? Last week saw an increase of 1784 points! My eye almost bleeds looking at a number that large! Getting 87 achievements can do that to you. I was there. I saw it!

I told borandi to try 15 games last week: Poker Smash, The Club, The Godfather™, DEAD OR ALIVE Xtreme 2, Football Manager 2007, Hitman: Blood Money, LOST PLANET, Need for Speed™ Carbon, Over-G, Pimp My Ride, Rapala Tournament, Rumble Roses Double X, SAMURAI WARRIORS 2, Star Trek Legacy, and NBA LIVE 07. It was a mix of good and bad. Oh, and borandi seems obsessed with role playing games lately... You can tell because Blue Dragon was the favorite last week. He played it on 5 of the days.

There are still a couple of games in my US pile I still need to put in ;)

Arkadian Warriors	95 -> 190 of 200 11 of 12 Achievements
Guitar Hero III	275 -> 285 of 1000 30 of 59 Achievements
LMA Manager 2007	670 -> 870 of 1000 18 of 22 Achievements
WAR TECH:SenkoNoRonde	490 -> 520 of 1000 17 of 25 Achievements
WARRIORS OROCHI	0 -> 40 of 1000 2 of 29 Achievements
DEAD OR ALIVE 4	80 -> 245 of 1000 16 of 45 Achievements
Two Worlds	260 -> 270 of 1000 24 of 41 Achievements
Lost Odyssey	0 -> 110 of 1000 4 of 36 Achievements
Undertow	50 -> 115 of 200 9 of 12 Achievements
Pimp My Ride	0 -> 30 of 1000 3 of 30 Achievements
Football Manager 2007	0 -> 9 of 1000 3 of 50 Achievements

Arkadian Warriors was added to the RPG genre over at 360voice. Thus it became higher up on my priorities list =D For some reason, playing the game this time round was incredibly easy. I completed the last 7 missions in the main quest, got the 500k gold achievement, and at the end redoing the final level netted the 'level 20' achievement. All that's left now is the 'kill 100 with exploding vases' achievement. It should require a bit of grinding the first mission, but not too difficult.

The first GHIII achievement in a while came my way this week =D Was playing some co-op with Nellas, and we got the 100% a song co-op achievement. Unfortunately, some games are weird with two players getting the same achievement at once, so Nellas didnt get it. It was an easy track, so we can get it again.

Last week, I was 10 games into the German season on LMA Manager 07. This week, I finished the German league achievements and the French league achievements. All that's left is the Dutch and Portuguese leagues. Four, maybe five hours of simming I reckon.

I didn't actually play any WarTech this week. I just left the console on for a few hours while working around the house, and got the '10 hours played' achievement. While doing nothing, might as well try and earn something ;)

I started playing Warriors Orochi on advice that it should be an easy 1000GS - about 30 hours or so. Its like Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires, but more RPG and Story based. It's fun - each map takes around 20 minutes (rather than 5) and is quite easy to win (unlike Ninety Nine Nights). Well, except for the final bosses. I got my characters to level 40ish and the final boss kicked my ass. More grinding, better weapons, more skills. Not too hard, just a little bit of playing and grinding.

As I've stated before, Dead or Alive 4 is an annoying game. It's got an annoying difficulty curve, and I suck at it. So rican ninja89 and I went and did the online achievements - 5, 10 and 20 consecutive wins, beat people on 10-14, 15-19 and 20+ win streaks, achieve rank B and D. I didnt take long =D

I opened up Two Worlds for the first time since September this week. I had no idea what I was doing. Controls, storyline, nothing. So I bought the guide - it has the main storyline and all the side quests explained, so the rest of the achievements should be fairly easy. Didn't play it much though. Will focus on it soon ;)

Lost Odyssey. All the best elements from Final Fantasy in a Japanese-RPG, and I'm only two hours in. Seemless transition from FMV to in-game action sequences. It makes Blue Dragon look like a minor 'Side Project' or 'concept car' to test the engine. Get this game, now.

Also did some online achievements in Undertow with rican ninja89. We also started the story mode on Ultra, and did about 5 stages. 200/200 is perfectly possible on this game, just needs some grinding and a small amount of skill (hopefully).

Pimp My Ride is one of those games that has been labelled as 'easy' by the gaming community. So I gave it a 45 minute whirl when I was putting in all my unplayed games. It looks easy, and a bit of a grind. I'll play some more later.

Also with Football Manager 2007 - I just simmed for about 30 mins, and got a few achievements. This game reminds me of FM06, which was crap. Bleh.

GamerScore:	73072 -> 73836
Zone:	Pro

Completed XBLA:	15 / 45
Completed Retail:	36 -> 35 / 178
GS Completion %:	43.51% -> 39.28%

Country Rank:	129 -> 130
World Rank:	860 -> 856
Completion Rank:	1,812 -> 2,394

It looks like the new PSU achievements kicked in on mygamercard.net - hence the 36 -> 35 game completion drop.