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 ;)

14th October: GS Update

This week has been a busy week! Where do I begin....

On Thursday, I organised and ran a Halo 3 on XBL night for the Hull University Computer Society (HUCS, for which I am Vice-President). We had 6 to 7 people on for most of the time, mainly playing some Big Team Battle. Eventually people logged off until we hit 4 players, then we started doing story mode on Legendary, till around the third stage.

On Saturday, I was at a HUCS LAN for around 10 hours. Lots of PC games (Quake Wars, UT3 Demo) with some Console play on the side (a 2 vs 2 Halo 3 Tournament - my team went out in the semi-final 25-24, some Wii Tennis and some Guitar Hero). Good fun had by all!

So, for my 360voice:

Pick it, pack it fire it up, come along, lets get borandi's gaming on! Gamer score is 51,609. That is a gain of 5 points over last time! He rocked out to Amped 3 finishing 5 achievements, Battlefield 2: MC, Pro Evolution Soccer 6, Blue Dragon gaining 1 achievement, and then borandi had to stop for a bathroom break or something... Humans really are bags of mostly water. Also, don't tell borandi I told you this, but we have now gamed 50 days in a row... he doesn't like to share that with others. If I understand the rules, I think we are getting a streak badge...

w00t 50 days ;)

Puzzle Quest	0 -> 40 of 200 4 of 12 Achievements
Blue Dragon	45 -> 50 of 1000 6 of 43 Achievements
Pro Evolution Soccer 6	840 -> 880 of 1000 20 of 23 Achievements
Halo 3	125 -> 170 of 1000 14 of 49 Achievements
Bankshot Billiards 2	120 -> 175 of 200 11 of 12 Achievements
Sonic The Hedgehog 2	45 -> 125 of 200 8 of 12 Achievements
Yaris	0 -> 5 of 200 1 of 12 Achievements

I picked up Puzzle Quest from XBLA for 1200 points. I like the 360 graphics, but gaming on the DS was easier (plus there was a bug to get easy exp). So far I'm level 23, about 10% into story mode - I spent a while grinding exp on an easy quest. The rest of the achievements bar one should be easy to get, the other one is a game on LIVE, which I'll probably do when I'm level 50.

I started a new game on Blue Dragon, this time going through with my guide to get all the items and achievements. I got the first button mashing one that I missed previously, and I've got to the Devee village this time so far. Instead of focusing on Generalist and Guardian classes, I'm focusing more on the Barrier class, as well as the Generalist, so I can use that field barrier to easily kill enemies.

PES 6 is still a slow grind - I won the 20 games or so left of Serie A to get that achievement, now I'm in the Dutch league as PSV Eindhoven, about 10 games in. So that makes around 140 games left until 1000GS.

Like I said previously, I've been playing some Halo 3 online with friends and as part of HUCS. I got the first 3 skulls, the triple kill achievement, and I'm also now a sergeant rank.

Bankshot Billiards is a slow game now as well - the only achievement left is the 'play 200 games', which is glitched such that you have to win 200 games to get it. I'm about 140/150 games into it, so several hours with the TV on should get that, and the full 200GS.

I've had Sonic 2 a while, but never seriously played it yet. This time, I went after the emeralds and the super sonic achievements - they're very easy with that save function! The only achievements left are to complete the game, complete the game fast, win 10 games online and Chemical Plant zone 1 in 45 seconds (which imo is quite hard).

Yaris is the free game on XBLA this week. It's a bit naff, and it looks like most achievements can be had online. I'll play more later.

GS: 51,359 -> 51,629

Completed XBLA:	11 / 33
Completed Retail:	24 / 113
GS Completion %:	40.89%
GS % (Non-Demo):	43.76%

Country Rank:	246/215083
World Rank:	1564/1563274