Wow.

Yeah. So, I'm utterly failing at keeping this blog updated. Instead of boring everyone with the details, I'm just going to post the numbers:

Currently playing: Brutal Legend
Current gamerscore: 22,015/73,145
Completion %: 30%
Number of games played: 75 (Brutal Legend being the 75th)

As far as reaching my 100K goal...I've increased my gamerscore by +9,780. Only 9.78% of my overall goal. >__< Not exactly the best considering there is only a little over 2 months left.

Happy gaming.

Time to hit the ground running!

Okay...so my plans on being more active over the last month failed horribly. That's my bad. Between work and going on vacation, I found myself less and less interested in gaming, let alone trying to break 100K. I know, I know. That is pure blasphemy. I cannot help it. I'm bad at that.

However, now that I'm back to a regular pace and there seem to actually be games coming out to play, we'll set ourselves back on track and get to running. First plan of action is to go through my 40+ library of games and try completing as many achievements as possible by next week...August 25th to be more precise. Come on, Batman: Arkham Asylum will pretty much own all of my 360's time in the coming weeks.

Aside from that, that's all I've got.

Happy gaming!

Almost another month...

My sincerest apologies to anyone who actually reads my blog here. Its been nearly one whole month since my last update. While that is unexcuseable, I have been heavily tied down with work so not much gaming has happened. I have picked up "BlazBlue" but that's been about it.

Expect major gaming after my vacation in August.

Transform and roll out!

Well, its finally official. The summer drought is in full effect for gaming. It's sad to say that the next big game releases through the next month are merely sports titles and movie tie-ins. Its been a good run up til this point, though, with releases like Ghostbusters, Prototype and imFamous (if you own a PS3). Actually it'll be kind of refreshing to step back and not have to worry about buying any games for a while. And by "a while", I mean until August 25th when 'Batman: Arkham Asylum' finally drops.

Oh well. That just means I can shift through the library of games I already own and try completing them closer to their 1000 points instead of just letting them sit there and collect dust.

Anyways, that's all.

Happy gaming!

Bustin` makes me feel good!

I realize that I'm in the middle of a very gaming intensive challenge at the moment but I'll be damned if Ghostbusters: The Video Games isn't a blast!

I'm serious, the game is too fantastic. I'm not saying this just as a Ghostbusters fan, but as a gamer. Great graphics, fantastic story, a killer control scheme, and fun multiplayer...what more could you ask for? The only thing I can say that would be a negative is that it takes a while to actually be able to get into a multiplayer match. Still, it is just so fun.

Achievement wise, only 120 points are allotted to multiplayer, with only 20 of those points being leader board based. Aside from that, its all pretty straight forward with story based achievements and a couple collecting things.

Bottom line, I recommend everyone buy this game, or at least rent it. This is how movie based games should be. It also helps that it was written by Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis.

Happy gaming.

I really suck at this...

...updating that is.

It's been about a couple weeks since my last update. Unfortunately, work has been kind of hectic. We've been really short handed, so getting in some legitimate gaming time forces my hand at times. See, gaming isn't my only passion. I'm also an artist, so whenever I can have to decide between working on my gamerscore vs. my art, the art is going to win. I'm not trying to use that as an excuse but as a fact. Gaming is a hobby whereas I want to have a future career in drawing for Marvel or DC Comics.

Anyways, so a bit of an update. I'm currently sitting at +18,645, which is good for a 28.63% completion over all. I'm working on perfecting my first retail game to 100%. The game? "Bourne Conspiracy". The two primary achievements I'm working on at the moment are "Treadstone Assassin" and "World Traveler", along with the final two passport collections, which are good for another 150 points. After that, it'll primarily be just trying to get those damned achievements on accuracy. I swear, I can not get anything less than 13% no matter how horrible I shoot.

Aside from that, I'm becoming rather ancy. It's only 6 long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long days before the release of what is one of my two most anticipated games of the summer: GHOSTBUSTERS!!!!



I broke down and ordered the Amazon exclusive Slimer Edition of the Xbox 360 version. It was a bit more, but it game with an 11" Slimer statue, exclusive skins, an Ecto-1 keychain and a set of Ghostbuster Mini-Mates based on creatures from the game and "The Real Ghostbusters" cartoon from the late 80's. I even paid the little bit of extra to make sure it is delivered on release day. My supervisor at work is pissed I bought it from another place than Best Buy, but you know what? If my stupid store would actually get awesome exclusives or actually release a game on it's release date, then they'd get all my money like they used to.

The achievement list for the game is rather sound, too, save for a few online multiplayer achievements. Given the fact that I utterly love the series and that the multiplayer is similar to that of the Horde Mode in Gears of War 2, I don't see myself hating them. This shall be the first game I complete to perfection that I actually care about.

Anyone else planning on picking this one up?

Status Update for May 24, 2009

Afternoon, everyone.

This entry is primarily for my own self-indulgence. I just need to get my records in order for everything, primarily my challenge goals.

So, here we go:

Current Gamerscore: 17,875/63,910 (27.97%)
Total number of games played: 67

Games at 100%:
Dash of Destruction (200/200)

Games at 1,000+:
Fable II (1,140/1,350)
Halo 3 (1,095/1,750)

Games at 800+:
Assassin's Creed (815/1,000)
Bioshock (775/1,000)
Naruto: Broken Bonds (900/1,000)
Prince of Persia (930/1,000)
Resident Evil 5 (855/1,000)

Really, a 28% out of 67 games really isn't that good. Hmmm...one of the bigger problems is the older games I played back before I had XBox Live. I really think that multiplayer achievements need to be restricted to DLC. Then again that is just me, I guess.

Oh well, happy gaming.

Current Challenge

Over at 360voice.com, I'm currently holding the 3rd place spot. The 1st place player is nearly +3,000 point ahead of me. It may be possible to catch up since I haven't even started "Silent Home: Homecoming" or "Bourne Conspiracy", which are supposed to be a relatively easy 1000 points with 1 or 2 play throughs. Either way, I have been playing catch up on "Fable II".

The new "See into the Future" DLC came out last week, which I had to avoid for a few days since I had my glasses eaten by my dog. However, once I got them back, I was all over it. Which was sad. I hadn't read any reviews and didn't realize it was only a couple hours long. That seems....pathetic. I don't know why, but it just feels really, really cheap. Honestly, why can't more developers take a cue from Bethesda? That copy knows how to make DLC and expansions.

I guess that's all, really.

Happy Gaming!

Sometimes...

Sometimes this job has its perk. By this job, I mean working at Best Buy. By perks, I mean the few times out of the year I get to honestly enjoy my job. They gave me a copy of UFC 2009: Undisputed to "study" for a demo event on the 23rd. Not to shabby.

Also, my deepest apologies for not keeping my word and updating. I've been working 40-hour a week work weeks. Gaming has had to take a back seat to real life.

Luckily, I am back now, even have a new challenge going on over at 360voice.com!

Happy gaming.

Evening, everybody!

I hope this finds you all contempt and happy, or whatever. Sorry, I'm kind of in a good mood today. Not only did Best Buy start their awesome $10 game sell (picked up Bourne Conspiracy, Infinite Undiscovery, Jericho, Silent Hill: Home Coming, and Soul Calibur 4 for the Xbox 360, while also getting 007: Quantum of Solace, Fracture and Hellboy: Science of Evil for the PS3) but I've also got my confirmation that I will indeed have my copy of Ghostbusters on release day. See, I had to just buy the "Slimer Edition" from Amazon. Its a bit pricey, sure, but that statue...god...so awesome. ^^; Sorry. Long before the games, comics or anime...I had 1 obsession: Ghostbusters! This is their 25th anniversary. I'm going to go all out, k?!

In other gaming related news, I've been playing catch up with Fable II and Prince of Persia. An awesome bloke by the name of MOtaku (from over at the 100K blog) hooked me up with details on a silly little glitch in the programming of Prince of Persia that only requires you to play the last boss again to get 110 achievement points. That would be the and Be Gentle With Her (100) and Speed Demon (10) achievements. The Speed Demon achievement requires that you beat the game in under 12 hours. While that's nothing major, as long as you aren't orb hunting, 10 points just doesn't scream incentive to make me actually sit through the game again. Not that I wouldn't, but I'm backed up on other games I need to play.

I'm actually contemplating getting a Gamefly account so I could have access to the older games I played back when I didn't care about achievements. I figured that, as long as they aren't multiplayer/online achievements, I could possibly raise my score by about 15,000 over the course of a month or so. I'm just debating the actual benefits, though. I mean, I now have 5 new games to focus on their 5,000 points (I think Silent Hill will be an easy 1000, really), not to mention the other games that I own (like Wheelman) that I'm not even to 500 on.

It's a sad reality, but I was talking to MOtaku the other day and I realized the only game I've perfected (100%) on is Dash of Destruction, the Xbox Live Arcade title that came out back in November. I have gotten Halo 3 passed 1,000 points, but that doesn't count since it's total points available is 1,750. I honestly think the one I'm closest too, without having to go back through and doing another run on, is Fable 2. So, why is that sad? I've only perfect 1 game out of 65. >__<

I'm making it a personal goal of mine to max out at least 5 games by time the next big release on the Xbox 360 hits, which is Batman: Arkham Asylum. I'm totally not resting until that game is maxed!

Well, that's really all for tonight.

Happy gaming!

Last chance for survival...

You know, it's been a while since I last picked up Valve's awesome Left 4 Dead. It wasn't that I hated the game or anything. Far from it. Yet when yo only offer two campaigns for the online VS. mode, you can only expect so much replay value. Finally, however, I had a reason to dust off the old thing as of Tuesday with the dropping of the "Survival" DLC via Xbox Live.

All I can say is "wow....".

I've honestly never had a game put me in my place before. Not only did this game teach me who is boss by shoving so many damned Tanks and special Infected up my ass, but it also taught me a valuable lesson I won't soon forget. The lesson? ALWAYS USE A DAMN HEADSET!

It is literally impossible to last longer than 2-3 minutes of Survival Mode without some sort of communication going on between you and your team mates. You just can't. Between trying to strategically place gas containers, propane tanks and pipe bombs to trying to show everyone the most beneficial defensive positions on the maps, you need to be able to talk. I will say, though, I did run across one player who did try communicating without a headset (turns out he has never had a reason to buy a new one after his dog ate his default wired one), but he did so by using the flashlight and attempting Morris Code. I was honestly taken back by that.

Still, even though it is a free download, I can't help but feel...a little jipped. First, the PC users using Steam recieved 7 new achievements via the download and new software update. I'm not sure what they are at the moment, as the only proof of this is from Valve's official blog. Secondly, it is awesome having the new map to play Survival on ("Last Stand", a lighthouse with it's back to a cliff over looking the ocean), but what about some new weapons? I mean, they took away the software glitch that originally allowed you to reload while performing a melee attack, so there really aren't any defensive weapons or a reason to rely on melee combat for any reasons. It's not like I'm asking for a dozen new weapons or anything, but is there truly any reason why we don't have a chainsaw yet? Or some sort of bladed melee weapon? Personally, I'm still wanting some sort of explosive projectile weapon to assist with the Tanks, but I'm not holding my breath or anything.

Still, I'm not really complaining, its free and awesome. That is a rare combination this day and age with video games and DLC. I'm just looking towards the future on some things I'd like to see Valve do that'll have us playing it a decade from now, just as people are doing with Half-Life.

In other gaming related news, I finally went through and finished the Knothole Island expansion for Fable II. Honestly, definitely not worth the 800 points. Its far too short, adds nothing to the overall nariative and only offers a handful of decent items to your inventory. I will admit that I'm a bit fan of the knight armor, since the light shining from the visor depends on your allignment (red for evil, blue for good). Plus, it was a very easy 100 points for about 3 hours of work.

For whatever reason, however, I cannot help but be excited for the next expansion "Into the Future". I think it has something to do with the additional 250 achievement points on top of a glimpse at whatever is in store for us with Fable III. Then again, Lion's Head Studios are notorius for delivering false promises so maybe I shouldn't be too excited. Meh...why not?

Anyways, that's all. Happy gaming.

So much for updates, uh?

Heh...didn't I pledge to update on a more...frequent basis? XD Yeah, that's definitely happening. Then again, it's been a boring last couple of weeks. Between the drama of work and trying to get my comic book off the ground, gaming has taken a "backseat", as it were.

Somethings of noteable interest, however:

- First, I did come in dead last during the most recent gamerscore challenge over at www.360voice.com. To be more exact, my final score was +725, an horrid 475 points from first place. MOtaku had a fantastic +1,200 points, easily scoring him 1st place, and securing my 4th place seat.

- With what gaming I was able to accomplish, I did manage to raise my gamerscore average to 28.20%. That is up 1.45% from last month. My goal is to increase my average to 40% by the end of the entire 100K Challenge.

- I've decided that Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad must be one of those games that were sent to destroy a gamer's soul. I've never wanted to destory something as bad as I want to break that disc! After 8 levels (out of god knows how many), 4 hours of play, I only unlock...1 achievement! A stupid 20 pointer at that. I honestly started to envy every zombie I was killing by the end of the night. STAY AWAY FROM THIS GAME! Ignore anything I said in the past, I'm allowed to make a mistake. Avoid at all costs! If someone comes up to you on the street and offers to give it to you for free, give them $20 to keep it.

I think that's all for now.

Happy gaming.

A fresh new month

Evening again, everyone.

So, for those that are following, I'm the co-founder of a charity challenge called 100K in 360 for Child's Play. It is our desire to raise awareness for the Child's Play Foundation by raising our GamerScores by 100,000 points in a mere 360 days. As of April 1st, we hit the start of our fourth month. As a solo participant, I've earned a mere 4,830 points of the 100,000 goal. As far as the group is concerned, we've raised 20,000+. So, as a group goal of 100K, we're about right on par with where we need to be.

I don't know if it's just because everyone else has a "life" but it feels like only a couple of us are still in this for the long haul. I mean, it was/is a stupid goal, really. I decided that I wanted one of my New Year's Resolutions to be "Pass 100K in gamerscore on my XBox 360". I started talking to some of the guys around work and we decided to do it as a group thing since the majority of us are XBox fans and a few actually care about the whole Gamerscore/Achievement system. It wasn't until sometime in mid-Decemeber that I went to the guys and we discussed doing this as a charity event. When January 1st rolled around, we hit the ground running. We had our first challenge over at www.360voice.com. During that challenge, which lasted an entire month, I gained +3,405 points.

Now, three months after that challenge? I'm sitting at about +1,400 gain since then. Really? I've played dozens of games and logged in countless hours for gaming sessions, most of which have lasted until all hours of the night. One would think I would have made it further than that. I know I haven't exactly been playing the easiest games in the world, but I just can't bring myself to play the really crappy games. >_< style="font-style: italic;">Avatar: The Last Air Bender- The Burning Earth. Yet, time and time again, I can't do it. I just can't.

*sigh*

I know that this is supposed to be a competition that is just for fun, but it just irks me sometimes, you know?

Oh well.

In other news, I'm currently working on Resident Evil 5 and Fable II during the course of this current challenge. I figure I'd like to get them maxed out since they both have new DLC coming down the pipeline. The RE5 "Versus" DLC is do out by the end of the week with the new DLC for Fable II is set for sometime in May. Besides, I ordered a new XBox 360 through the Microsoft Retail Expertzone my copy of Fable II is playing so much better on this one than my old system. I'm so close to maxing it out anyways.

Well, enough for my ramblings. Happy gaming!

I need to update more...

Wow, just wow. Its been over a month since my last update. 0_O Really?

So sorry about that. The last month has been kind of hectic. I spent most of it trying to get my comic done and published in time for Free Comic Book Day 2009. I did play some games, but nothing really major. So far, the big three I've been playing are:

Resident Evil 5- 630/1000
Wheelman- 105/1000
Castle Crashers- 150/200

On RE5, I've completed the game and am just going back to get the rest of the achievements that are collecting and weapon related before the update at the end of the month that introduces 250 new points that are all online-multiplayer based. I'm just really starting out on Wheelman. I like the game so much because it only includes two small achievements based on collecting/finding certain things. I'm all for that. With Castle Crashers, I'm pretty much putting a stake in it. There is one more story based achievement, while the last two are multiplayer based. Oh well.

So, for my usual update...

Current Gamerscore: 16,990
Gamerscore increase since January 1st: +4,755
Current 360voice.com challenge stats: +385/3rd place
Grand total from goal: 95,245


A little side note from my last update concerning Onichanbara: Samurai Bikini Squad...WHAT THE F@#K WAS I THINKING?! I have games that I've bought, played and gotten no achievements, like Perfect Dark Zero. But, under no circumstances, have I gotten no achievements because I just can't stand the damned thing! I've never had a game that has made me so frustrated trying to play as that game.

Simple: Avoid at all costs!

That is all for now. Happy gaming!

Update! Woot!

Yeah, so I've not been around for 8 days. My apologies. Though I really don't think anyone is paying much attention to my personal gaming blog anyways.

I digress.

Since the last update, I've actually managed to pass 15,000 points. A bit thanks goes out to the easy story based achievements of Superman Returns: The Video Game and the time consuming achievements of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Some more specific numers/specs (Based mainly on my account from GamerScoreGoal.com) :

Current Gamerscore: 15,730
Gamerscore Increase Since January 1st: +3,495
Gamerscore Total at 360voice.com and Rank in Current Challenge: +3,055/2nd Place
Total Away From Desired Goal: 96,505

Like I said, these numbers are primarily compiled from gamerscoregoal.com as I liked to keep them up to date and in real time. So, my score since the first of January will conflict a little with MOtaku's chart over at the other blog.

I'm actually still playing Superman Returns: The Video Game, primarily for 2 30 point achievements:

- Frequent Flier: Travel a total of 10,000 miles. (30)
- The Greatest Day: Play for a total of 12 hours. (30)

Believe it or not, these two are the most boring achievements to work on, primarily because of them being time consuming. So, yeah, I'm being cheap about it. I taped my controller's analog sticks in opposing directions so Superman flies in a constant circle. So, I'm watching tv and the game is still going. Easy enough. Really though, the game only takes 6 hours. Hunting down the 100 kittens for the "Mr. Whiskers" achievement only takes about 2 hours. How else am I supposed to get the second one?

Oh well. The things we do for charity, right?

In other news, I picked up a rather...interesting title the other day:

Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad

Yeah...wow. I got the game primarily because it was featured on X-Play's "Only in Japan" segment months ago. Plus, it only cost me $33 thanks to the employee discount at work. I wasn't expecting much since it was a game that was made in 2006, and I'm glad I wasn't.

The gameplay is straight out of the Dynasty Warriors series. That's not a bad thing, mind you. It's just that that means that you have just a hack-and-slash on your hands. Though, later levels let you play as a gunslinger, so I guess you then have a hack-and-slash-shoot-em-up on your hands then. The camera is a bit wonky at times, though easily return to normal with a click of the right-analog stick. Graphics...meh...like I said, its a game from 2006.

My problem with the game, though, is about the text in the game. Yes, the dialouge is in Japanese. No problem, as I love the language and the culture. The problem is that in the text boxes that they translated, the English is horrible. The sentences run on and on. They don't space inbetween words, instead opting to space the middle of the words themselves when they decided to use the space bar. To some, that's not a problem, but as I like to write, it kills me to sit through them.

The achievements are 50/50. Half of them are easily obtainable through the story mode on normal. The others require multiple play throughs, since the difficulty level achievements are not stackable, or at least require you to play through only certain levels. See, the bulk of the achievents are "Challenges". They require 3 levels to complete. Example being the "Genocider" challenge achievement. For 20 points, you have to kill 250 zombies, then 400, and then finally 600 zombies. Again, that is one of the achievements easily obtainable via storymode play through number one. But still, it is a bit annoying.

All in all, if you're inbetween games and have $40 bucks to burn, its a fun little title. Otherwise, rent it only if you're bored.

Well...I thinks that's all really. Happy gaming!

And this got "Game of the Year" how...?

So...yeah...

I have been trying for days to play and finish "Fable 2". I've been really interested in continuing the "Knothole Island" expansion. No problem, right? Well...there is a problem: the game freezes roughly 10 minutes into game play.

Upon searching the Lionhead forums, I found a thread about the freezing issue with 3 million plus comments. Each and every comment had the same issue: the newest patch they released and the expansion are freezing the already buggy title. Out of all those complaints/comments, only one comment was "officially" from Lionhead. They said that the issue is Microsoft's problem, send your system in, because they don't have time to try and isolate the bug that is causing the freezing.

First, they screw us over by giving away the Limited Edition bonus content away for free. Now this?

Maybe I'm just jaded because I've grown used to developers/publishers putting out titles that are complete...but really? I've wasted $80 (retail disk and DLC) that I cannot complete? I'm not one to start screaming for my money back...well, except for when I saw Catwoman...but something has to give on this one. I guess Lionhead just doesn't want to get a strong footing in this current generation. I'll definitely have to reconsider any future purchases from them, thats for sure.

In other news, I finally hit the 15,000 gamerscore level. A little over a month into the challenge and I've only aquired a little under 3,000. I am finally signing up for Gamefly so I'll be aquiring Avatar: The Last Airbender- The Burning Earth. Easy 1,000. Any other easy point recommendations (no sports games, though)?

Happy gaming!

Burnt out?

Well, I've had the day off today and I did my best to game as much as possible. Problem is...no game kept my interest for more than 45 minutes or so. I was able to pick up an achievement in Naruto: Broken Bonds, but that won't do much really. I think I may just need to take a day off of the gaming, challenge or not be damned.

On a totally unrelated note, I found out that there is a Best Buy smaller than the one I work at hosting a major Resident Evil 5 launch party. Not a big deal, my store gets passed over on everything anyways. The part that bothers me is that the whole event started from one employee's idea to have the staff dress up as zombies. I had that idea months ago but my managers just ignored the idea. Hell, seems that is the whole thing that always happens any time I come up with an idea.

Well, that's all. Happy gaming.

Believe it!

Evening, everyone.

This is rather sad. I have been playing Naruto: Broken Bonds for nearly 4 hours today and I only acquired 45 points. I'm at the dreaded half-way point in the game, that spot where you are in between the two main sections of a game, doing mindless and tedious things. It isn't too bad, though. The game is fun and it is reminding me as to why I like the Naruto anime and manga so much.

In other news, the Resident Evil 5 demo went live today via XBox Live. I haven't had a chance to play it yet, but I'm getting that gamer's itch to play it like mad. More on that later, though.

Anyways, happy gaming!

14,000+

Evening, ladies and gents.

It is Saturday, so time for a "Week in Review" type segment!

Its been a rather off-and-on type of week. I haven't exactly had the chance to do as much gaming as I'd like, but I made the best of what I could. Lord of the Rings: Conquest and Naruto: Broken Bonds were the two titles owning the most out of my system.

Lets just get to break down of stats:

Current Gamerscore: 14,015
Gamerscore Increase Since January 1st: +1,780
Gamerscore Total at 360voice.com and Rank in Current Challenge: +1,545/2nd Place
Total Away From Desired Goal: 98,220

And for the "Notable Accomplishment of the Week", I passed the 14,000 Gamerscore threshold. I achieved it with the achievement Team Champion, worth 25 points, from Naruto: Broken Bonds.

Anyways, happy gaming.

Better than originally expected.

Well, things are looking up a bit.

Over at the other blog I created, www.100kchallengein360.blogspot.com which is the official site for our challenge, MOtaku has edited our tracker to make it so that the challenge start date was officially the first of the year. MOtaku's original start date was January 9th, but a couple of us started on the first unofficially. So he decided to make everyone's gamerscore tracking retroactive to January 1st.

Which is awesome since I'd achieved almost 300 points between the 1st and the 9th. So now my total is +1,620 instead of +1,395.

So, an update:

Current Gamerscore: 13,855
Gamerscore point gain: +1,620
Total away from goal: 98,380

Yeah, I'm still quiet a bit away from reaching that 100k marker, but the gaining of those +225 points will help in the long run.

I'm definitely going to be sticking to my resolve to try and not purchase too many new games over the course of the next few months. I mean there are exceptions like Resident Evil 5 and Afro Samurai, but I really need to stay focused on trying to raise the average I have by earning more achievements in the 33 titles I already own. Besides, I still haven't decided if I'm picking them up for the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3.

Well, anyway, happy gaming.

For a day off, I really didn't do much in terms of gaming, sadly.

My goal for today was to increase my gamerscore +500, but as of writing this, I've only managed to increase it by +105. That came from finishing off The Simpsons story mode and one additional time trial. I think on my next day off I will work on completing the time trials and finding all the Clitches. That would be an increase of +145. Not a whole lot, sure, but it'll help increase my completion ratio and adds to my 100,000 point challenge.

I picked up Naruto: Broken Bonds last night before leaving work. From what I can tell, 400 or so of the achievement points in that game are based on online fighting (Boo!) and doing a bunch of item hunting and mini-games. Not a big deal, really. Though, I really really hate online fighting achievements. Its not that I'm horrible at online multiplayer portions of a game, but that people tend to cheat and I can't bring myself to cheat.

Oh well.

Anyways, happy gaming.

Don't have a cow, man.

Not a whole lot to talk about this evening, as most of my day was spent at work.

Gaming wise, I was able to knock out some levels in The Simpsons. That boosted my achievements by +90, bringing my total since the challenge started to 13,710. That is a gain of +1,265 since January 9th.

Honestly...that's really not too good.

See, for those not in the know, I'm participating in a challenge to increase my Xbox 360 Gamerscore by 100,000 points over the course of 360 days. It has been nearly two weeks since we started. If we round up the days since the start to two weeks even, that makes my gain an average of +632.5 points per week. Now, multiply that by 51 weeks (since we're not doing a full year) and that brings the total to +32,257.5 points. If that happens, I'll have fallen exactly short of my goal -67,742.5.

Also, looking at my current Gamerscore ratio, I am sitting at 13,710/54,870 and that is good for 24.99%. Honestly, I don't think I'll be able to make up all 41,160 achievement points that I'm missing, but I do think that going back and trying would help further my goal than just constantly buying or renting new titles. Looking over the list of the 58 games I've played in the past and present, I definitely know some of them to be impossible, mostly because some of them are multiplayer over XBox Live and are so old that I doubt many gamers even still remember them. Though, I am still tempted to just get 1 achievement via Perfect Dark Zero. Fat chance, I know, but sue me...I can dream.

Hmmm....time to rethink my position on this gaming schedule. Right now, being short handed at work, I only get about 2 days off a week. I'm sure once the summer comes and we get some more folks on board then I'll get an extra day off, so that'll help.

Also, any recommendations on some games with easy achievements would be greatly appreciated. Please, though, try to avoid sports titles. I tend to hate those more than I hate movie-based games. >_<

Anyways, happy gaming.

You shall not pass!

Evening, everyone.

Just a little daily update from yours truly.

Not much to really talk about. The only game I played today was Lord of the Rings Conquest, picking up a nice 245 Achievement Points. That will be good enough to give me a total challenge gain of +1170, easily securing me the #1 seat in the current challenge I am in for raising awareness for Child's Play.

Speaking of Lord of the Rings Conquest for a second, I rented it and I've got to admit, it is a lot better than I'd originally given it credit for. There are times in which it is frustrating, and there are some random glitches, but after finishing the game, I liked it. If anything, it was an easy 580 points. That is all from the two story campaigns, which I'm missing two or three from.

Well, that's all from me for tonight.

Happy gaming.

Fire sale!!

Morning, everyone.

Not much of an update tonight...erm...this morning. Really, it's still the evening for me since I just got off work. That's really the only bad thing about being the senior of my department at work, I end up closing so much.

Anyways, gaming wise, I did a measely 15 points; a 5 point achievement in Marvel Ultimate Alliance and a 10 point achievement in Lord of the Rings: Conquest.

Pathetic? Yes, but for good reason. I got up early to hit up my local Circuit City to check out and see if they had started liquidating their inventory yet. Sadly, they hadn't at the time. Though, I did find out that they had later on while I was at work. No big, since I found a little rare gem.

The said rare gem? Overlord! It was only $20, which is simply amazing since I've only found it used at all my local Gamestops for anything from $18-$25. This was a favorite of mine and one I can't wait to finish.

That's all really.

Happy Gaming!

Achievement Unlocked: Advantage XCinX!

Ello, everyone.

This is what I hope to be the first post in a long line to come from me. I started this blog simply as an extension of a project my brother and I started with a friend of ours. The project is to raise awareness for a charity called Child's Play by raising our Xbox 360 Gamerscores by 100,000.

To find out more on our project, and to follow on how we are doing as a group, please visit www.100kin360challenge.blogspot.com for all the information.

As for my own person progress....

At the start of this project, my Gamerscore was 12,445 when we officially start on January 9, 2009. As of this morning (January 16, 2009), I am sitting at 12, 920 for a gain of 475 points. That's not going to cut it. The challenge as only been live for a week, and that's all I've accomplished. At this rate, I'll only raise my Gamerscore by 24, 700. I've got to pick up the pace.

I did pick pick up both Dark Sector and Superman Returns today for a fairly decent price (thank you, Best Buy employee discount!). I'm only half-way through the first and never played the second. So those should me some nice achievement boost there. I wish I could just get my hands on Avatar: The Last Air Bender- The Burning Earth!! Easy 1000 points right there.

Well, that'll be all for now, folks. Good luck and happy gaming.