XCinX's Vault

Update: Where the hell...?

2011-06-24T14:16:00.000-07:00

So, it's literally been months (five to be exact) since my last update.

Wow.

That is totally unacceptable. Unfortunately, while I do have time to play the games, it hasn't been all about achievements for me lately. Hopefully soon I'll be able to return to my hunt for a 1ooK. Until then, please accept my sporadic updates.

See you online!
XCinX

Update #3: ....

2011-01-22T20:50:00.000-08:00

This week sucked. Zero points earned. ZERO!!

Why?

DC Universe Online has pretty much engulfed my soul. Luckily, Dead Space 2 launches on Tuesday and I'll definitely be picking it up on the Xbox 360.

Anyways, guess I should do some sort of update:

Gamerscore on 1/01/11: 40,230
Current Gamerscore (as of 1/22/11): 41,275
Yearly Increase: +1,045
Weekly Increase: +0

Update #2: Late Edition

2011-01-17T11:26:00.000-08:00

Yeah, so, sorry. This week's update is definitely late so I just get on with it:

Gamerscore on 1/01/11: 40,230
Current Gamerscore (as of 1/15/11): 41,275
Yearly Increase: +1,045
Weekly Increase: +395

Update #1: First Week In!

2011-01-08T22:01:00.000-08:00

Well, howdy, everyone.

We're officially one week into 2011 and the achievements are dinging like mad. Well, sort of mad. With no new Xbox 360 games out for the foreseeable future, I'm playing catch up on older games.

Anyways, the update:

Gamerscore on 1/01/11: 40,230
Current Gamerscore (as of 1/08/11): 40,880
Yearly Increase: +650
Weekly Increase: +650

Not a bad start from only Lego Batman and Borderlands (Game of the Year Edition).

Happy Hunting.

Goodbye 2010, Helllloooo 2011!

2011-01-01T11:38:00.000-08:00

It's finally over. 2010 is finally behind us and we're into 2011. Thank whatever holy deity you believe in.

I'd planned on delivering some "year in review" gaming article, but honestly, everyone has done that to death by now. The only thing anyone has to know about my feelings toward this last year was that Bayonetta was my "Game of the Year". Yeah, you heard me right. The game was more than I could hope for and was simply amazing.

But time for some yearly stats!

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 1/01/11): 40,230
Increase: +15,955

So, this year, I came close to increasing my gamerscore by almost 16,000 points. Impressive considering 09-10 was just a little over 12,000. Sadly, I only managed to hit my secondary goal (40K) and came no where near my main goal (75K).

I digress, however, it is a new year! Time to reset the goals back. I think I'm going to shoot for 80,000 points this year. I think it is possible. That is only 40 full retail games. Maybe it is time to finally invest in a Gamefly account?

Well, Happy New Year and happy hunting!

40,000!!!

2010-12-28T17:30:00.001-08:00

Finally.

After a week of grinding through various games, I hit my secondary goal of 40,000 points on December 28, 2010 with the achievement "Mask-O'-Raider" (Completed all Quests in the game) from Costume Quest. It was worth 25 points.

While it is still a stark contrast from the original goal of 75,000 I'd set for myself, it does feel good to accomplish it. It has been a long and tiring year, full of heartache and pain, but it's over now. An old year ends just so a new one can begin.

Bring it on, 2011!!!

Happy hunting.

Update #51

2010-12-27T20:35:00.000-08:00

This is the final proper update of 2010!!

So, here is this week's update:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 12/27/10): 39,910
Increase: +15,635
Weekly Increase: +900
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 35,090

It was an eventful week, one of my better earning weeks in recent memory, too!

Anyways, expect one final update on New Year's Eve and that'll be it.

Update #50 - 8 days left

2010-12-22T11:16:00.000-08:00

Yeah, yeah. I'm two days late. Sorry about that. I've been sick and haven't even wanted to look at a computer.

Anyways, my update:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 12/22/10): 39,010
Increase: +14,705
Weekly Increase: +525
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 36,020

I'm a mere 990 points from my secondary goal of 40,000 points to start 2011 off in style. With 8 days left in 2010, I'll have to earn roughly 123.75 points per day. Time to get to earnin' I guess!

Happy hunting, everyone.

Update #49 - Disappointment

2010-12-13T19:12:00.000-08:00

Well, I caved. The reasoning behind the lack of achievement gathering this week was due to joining World of Warcraft. I promise, I'll make it up next week!!!

The update:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 12/13/10): 38,485
Increase: +14,180
Weekly Increase: +50
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 36,545

Update #48

2010-12-06T10:09:00.000-08:00

Four weeks left of the year, uh? Well, that really sucks.

Oh well.

The last week was spent mopping up achievements in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (though still need to finish the single-player story mode) and trying to clean up some XBox Live Arcade game achievements, most notably Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's: Decade Duel. Needless to say, it was a lack luster week for achievement hunting.

Anyways, the update:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 12/06/10): 38,405
Increase: +14,130
Weekly Increase: +140
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 36,595

Correction on the "Increase": Evidently, my math sucks. I was about 600 points off of what my actual yearly increase has been. It has since been corrected.

A lame increase, for sure. However, the 40,000 threshold is still very doable by the end of the year. Right now I am 1,595 points from that goal. With four weeks left, I need to average 398.75 points to get there. We'll round up to 399. Time to update the "Hit List"!

Hit List (12/6/10):

1.) Lego Batman: 665 points
2.) Alan Wake: 500 points
3.) Enslaved: 400 points
4.) Fable III: 275 points
5.) Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions: 220 points

Those five games alone, if I earned all those points, would be a total of 2.060 points. That would be more than enough to put me into the 40K club. Alan Wake and Fable III will, without a doubt, be the most time consuming of the bunch, but all good things are worth the work. Right?

Happy hunting!

Update #47

2010-11-29T18:25:00.000-08:00

Thank god that week is over. I swear, working retail on Black Friday is hell. Plus, it leaves me with so little time to game since I get to work 32 hours in three days.

Oh well.

Like I said, not much gaming was accomplished. I finished a little mopping up on Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. I spent most of the time hunting feathers and flags, since I want to move on once I complete the story mode. Aside from that, nothing else. So I guess it's time for the numbers, then:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 11/29/10): 38,265
Increase: +13,515
Weekly Increase: +240
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 36,735

As far as hitting 40K by the end of the year, I'm a mere 1,735 points from that. I should be able to hit it, I think. I've still got five weeks left in the gaming year.

Happy hunting.

Update #46

2010-11-22T19:45:00.000-08:00

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood accounted for most of the achievements earned this last week, as well as mopping up a few odd-and-end campaign achievements in Call of Duty Black Ops.

So, here's the update:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 11/22/10): 38,025
Increase: +13,2750
Weekly Increase: +515
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 36,975

I'm only needing a total of 1,975 points to knock myself into the 40K zone. That should be accomplished by the end of the year.

Anyways, happy hunting!

40K is possible!

2010-11-20T23:12:00.000-08:00

In my last post, I humored the concept of at least hitting 40,000 Gamerscore by the end of the year. Today, I by-passed 38,000. That means I need a mere 2,000 in 5 weeks. Totally doable.

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood should offer around 400 more points without much hassle, not to mention the couple hundred left in Fable III. I need to map this out and use my time wisely!

Update #45

2010-11-15T10:36:00.000-08:00

I finally did it!

All year long, I've had a black cloud hanging over my head for having played Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Burning Earth. It wasn't that I played it that has bothered me, hell it was an easy 1,000 points! It was the fact that it has been my biggest single week gain ever! I've never gotten close to that and it's driven me nuts. However, that is all over now!

Fable III and Call of Duty: Black Ops sealed the deal for me, netting a whopping 1,045 points! Though, to be fair, 10 points were scored from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's: Decade Duels. Still, that is a nice bulk total. Still falling short of my projected weekly goals, but every achievement counts!

In other news, my weekly updates have been off considerably. Somewhere along the line I've missed counted and my net growth totals for the year have been off by about 1,400 points. So the new update has been retro-acted to reflect the actual totals.

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 11/15/10): 37,510
Increase: +13,235
Weekly Increase: +1,045
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 37,490

I'm finally at the half-way marker of my 2010 goal of 75,000 gamerscore. Sadly, with only a few weeks left in the year, I don't see me hitting that goal. I would like to at least break 40,000 by the end of the year, though. Going into 2011 with a higher end score would definitely get me off to a good start. Plus, I'd only be 60 retail games from that elusive 100,000 points.

Oh well. Happy hunting, guys and gals!

Update #44

2010-11-07T23:31:00.001-08:00

Holy shit.

Are there really only eight more weeks in this year? I honestly can't believe it. It feels like only yesterday we celebrated the new year for 2010. That's the fast paced world of retail for you. You never have time to enjoy life or the holidays.

Oh well, right? This isn't about that! This blog is about gaming and the joys of getting to knock out achievements!!

This week saw a few things. First, finished my first play-through of Star Wars: The Forced Unleashed 2. For everyone's negative reviews, I thoroughly enjoyed this game! I was able to finally get to the half-way point on Fable 3. Unfortunately, work and everything else has kept me from devoting the time that game rightfully deserves. Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's: Decade's Duels finally launched this past week on Xbox Live. I was big into the card game back in school (carried my deck every where!) and I still enjoy collecting the cards every now and then, so I was excited for this title. Unfortunately, it was a mixed bag. I'm actually writing a review on it, so look forward to seeing that soon.

Anyways, lets get to the update, shall we?

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 11/08/10): 36,465
Increase: +11,190
Weekly Increase: +545
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 38,535

Though, score wise, this wasn't my best week (it does rank in the Top 10 of the Year, however) it was more about quality over quanity. Going into the final stretch of 2010, we only have two more major titles that'll be releasing and finding their way into my console. The first is this Tuesday's "blockbuster", Call of Duty: Black Ops. Then the following week will see Assassin's Creed Brotherhood finally sneak onto store shelves. I'm not too sure about either of them, especially Brotherhood, but they both look too cool to pass up.

Anyways, this was an earlier posting than I normally do, but that is because I'll be working the midnight launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops at work and won't have time to post it tonight. Besides, at 1:45 in the morning, what else should I be doing? Sleeping?

Happy hunting.

Update #43 - Fall Dashboard Edition

2010-11-01T18:46:00.000-07:00

Evening, gents and ladies.

Well, it's that time of year again. That's right, time for a new Xbox 360 dashboard. Honestly, I do not mind it all that much. It's a little plain for me, but all in all, it is rather nice. My only issue is that some of my Avatar Awards (namely the ones from Comic Jumper and Costume Quest) seem to be glitched/broken now. Hopefully a fix is in the works as I seem to not be the only one experiencing the problems.

In achievement/gaming news, Fable 3 and Star Wars: The Forced Unleashed 2 compile the bulk of the achievements earned in the last 7 days. Hydro Thunder also gets a little love, too.

The Forced Unleashed 2 offers some incredibly easy achievements with little-to-no work what so ever. I had unlocked nearly 200 points within an hour. If it wasn't for enjoying the story and watching the cut scenes, I'd have the game completed an 75% of the achievements already unlocked. Fable 3, alas, requires a little work. Not a complaint, mind you, considering that they are far easier than some of Fable 2's achievements.

Anyways, onto the weekly update:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 11/01/10): 35,920
Increase: +11,645
Weekly Increase: +575
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 39,080

Update #42

2010-10-25T11:08:00.000-07:00

Okay, so admittedly, I fell extremely short of my original desired weekly goal of 4,000 points. Unfortunately, working retail during the holidays full time doesn't warrant a lot of free time. Combine the early morning shifts, long hours and working with a few people you cannot stand on a daily basis, you find yourself too tired to even turn on a console for a few minutes let alone several hours.

But I digress. I was still a semi-productive week. I finished the single player campaign of Red Dead Redemption and finished a rather annoying achievement in Comic Jumper. If they'd release the damned patch, I'd actually be able to complete it to perfection.

Anyways, this week's update:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 10/25/10): 35,345
Increase: +11,070
Weekly Increase: +290
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 39,655

Update #41

2010-10-19T10:28:00.000-07:00

So, we're back on track. In good time, I suppose. The next few weeks see the launch of some major games so I need to be on the ball.

Sadly, I have merely 11 weeks left to obtain my goal of 75,000. I'm just under 40,000 away from hitting that goal. 4,000 points a week doesn't seem that impossible...if I didn't have a full time job to attend with. Well, I guess I need to stop writing and get to gaming.

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 10/19/10): 35,055
Increase: +10,780
Weekly Increase: +115
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 39,945

Update #39 + #40

2010-10-11T16:54:00.000-07:00

Hey, gang.

Been awhile, uh? Yeah, I was out of town last week and forgot to post an update early. My bad.

Anyways, lots of updates/reviews coming, but for now I'll just leave you with this week's update:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 10/11/10): 34,940
Increase: +10,665
Weekly Increase: +275
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 40,060

Update #38

2010-09-27T17:09:00.001-07:00

Evening, boys and girls.

Well, we're officially two weeks out from the launch of Halo: Reach. Honestly, I was so worried the game wouldn't live up to the hype. I figured it'd turn out to be another game I got excited for this year and just gave up on. Nope. I love it! I'm four achievements shy of hitting the 1000K marker with it. Which is a good thing since Bungie let it slip that there is new DLC on the way with 10 new achievements worth 250 points. Woot.

That's not to say I only played Halo this week. I did take a small killing spree break to play some Red Dead Redemption. As the year's end is approaching, I'd like to attempt having as many games from this year completed as possible. I've already knocked out Bioshock 2 and Bayonetta.

Up to bat this week is Dead Rising 2 which promises to be a game that needs multiple play throughs. Oh joy!

Anyways, onto this week's update:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 9/20/10): 34,665
Increase: +10,390
Weekly Increase: +205
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 40,335

Update #37 - Killing Spree!

2010-09-20T19:51:00.000-07:00

Damn it...Halo lives up to the hype!

Plus I finally broke 10K! Another woot!

Anyways, update time and now back to Halo!

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 9/20/10): 34,460
Increase: +10,185
Weekly Increase: +690
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 40,540

Update #36- The Calm Before the Storm

2010-09-13T04:37:00.000-07:00

So, tonight is the night. Tonight the calm breaks and we begin the mad tilde wave of games launching for the Fall/Holiday seasons. Of course, the first game crushing onto the shore is the fabled Halo: Reach. A title that lacks any need of an explanation, Reach has been something of a media tank...nay...juggernaut for the gaming industry.

For the last year, we have been bombarded by previews, betas, live action commercials, and general hype for what is being described as Bungie's "swan song" for Microsoft. I was able to get in on the beta back in May and I was impressed with what the game, at the time, had to offer. Was I blown away and left speechless? By no means. At it's heart and core, it is still just a First-Person Shooter. Still, as the months pressed on, I have felt my anticipation for the title grow steadily to the point where I am absolutely ecstatic for the tonight's midnight release. I think the last game I was this excited for was Bayonetta, and we all know how that turned out for me, uh?

Anyways, onto this week's update:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 9/13/10): 33,770
Increase: +9,495
Weekly Increase: +555
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 41,230

This last week was spent on Dead Rising: Case 0 and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Dead Rising: Case 0 was completed to 100% making it my 4th perfected titled (2nd Xbox Live Arcade Game completed to 100%). Spidey's new game is somewhat a mixed bag for me. As a Spider-Man fan, I absolutely love it and think it is probably his best outing on any console since the old games on the first Playstation. Though, Maximum Carnage on the Super NES was an amazing title! Still, I find myself comparing it (or at least being asked to) to Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Both games are amazing in their own right, but being part of the superhero genre, they have to be compared. Batman requires more thought and patience, with every level and boss uniquely their own. Visually, Arkham Asylum is more realistic, looking as though it was a controllable version of the Chris Nolan films. Shattered Dimension, however, looks like a comic brought to life, with every chapter playing out like it's own issue. The only complaint I'd have with the game would be that the bosses are "pattern bosses". Even though they can be hard, and down right annoying, they each have a pattern you must discover. After discovering their pattern, you merely play the waiting game.

Still, I'd give Shattered Dimensions a solid 4 out of 5. Is it perfect? No. Is it a fun game that keeps you hooked until the end? Most definitely. Plus, if you thought collecting little green orbs in Crackdown was addicting, you haven't experienced anything until you start hunting spiders.

Well, until next time. Happy gaming.

Update #35- An Arcady (is that a word?) Week

2010-09-06T12:52:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so this was a semi-productive week. I was able to knock out the primary play through for Bioshock 2, just some odd and ends to clean up, as well as knock out Shank and Dead Rising: Case 0. Though in all honesty, Dead Rising: Case 0 pissed me off a little.

You are able to carry off your level and combo/scratch cards, but the time limit kills a lot of the fun. A game like this just begs to be explored and treated like a fun little amusement park of slaughter and fun. After all, you can't spell slaughter without laughter. Yes, I know that the argument could be made that the time limit just encourages multiple play-throughs. That is true, but with every week providing a AAA-title or the like starting on September 14th, there is just so much time in a day or week. Oh well, guess you just don't play them all at once...heh.

As I said, I was able to knock out the primary campaign play through of Bioshock 2. I've updated my Hit List to reflect the current five titles and their gamerscore output potential (1,635 points).

Anyways, onto the weekly update:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 9/06/10): 33,215
Increase: +8,940
Weekly Increase: +420
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 41,785

Update #34

2010-08-30T21:51:00.000-07:00

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 8/30/10): 32,795
Increase: +8,520
Weekly Increase: +65
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 42,205

Update #33

2010-08-23T20:53:00.000-07:00

Evening, everyone!

So, I'm back from almost a week in Chicago. I was up there attending Wizard World Chicago Comic Con. Not much going on video game wise there, but I was able to attend the official release party of Mafia II and pick up some nice sway. Also got a chance to play some Metroid: Other M. If I have time between Halo: Reach and art, I may have to pick it up, honestly.

Anyways, to the update!

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 8/23/10): 32,730
Increase: +8,455
Weekly Increase: +95
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 42,270

All 95 points were from Bioshock 2 before I went on vacation. Not the best week, mind you, but achievements are achievements! Now that I can get back to my gaming, expect big things in the pipeline!

Happy gaming.

Update #32

2010-08-16T15:23:00.000-07:00

Another wasted week of gaming. The next week won't be any better since I'll be in Chicago Thursday through Sunday.

Anyways...

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 8/16/10): 32,635
Increase: +8,360
Weekly Increase: +125
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 42,365

Update #31

2010-08-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

Shit...I didn't even realize I'd forgotten to update. Oh well...

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 8/09/10): 32,510
Increase: +8,235
Weekly Increase: +40
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 42,490

Well, I guess +40 points is better than nothing, right?

Anyways, we're in a dry spell gaming wise. Unless you're into sport games. Trying to catch up on everything before Halo: Reach drops in a month. Alas, I have a major convention coming up, so they have me working constantly to make up for the days I'll be missing. Yay me.

Oh well.

Happy gaming!

Update #30

2010-08-02T20:55:00.000-07:00

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 8/02/10): 32,470
Increase: +8,195
Weekly Increase: +110
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 42,530

Update #29 - Post Comic-Con Edition

2010-07-26T15:46:00.000-07:00

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 7/26/10): 32,360
Increase: +8,085
Weekly Increase: +0
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 42,640

Yeah, needlessly to say I failed at any attempt of gaming this week. I was unfortunately too busy with work and art to get caught up in the achievement hunting. Hey, I've still got 5 months! That's less than 10,000 points a month. It's doable...right?

O_o

Happy gaming...

Update #28

2010-07-19T20:55:00.000-07:00

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 7/19/10): 32,360
Increase: +8,085
Weekly Increase: +310
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 42,640

Update #27

2010-07-12T21:33:00.000-07:00

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 7/12/10): 32,050
Increase: +7,775
Weekly Increase: +240
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 42,950

Not bad considering I only played Crackdown 2. Picked up Singularity today, so lets see how this week rolls.

Happy gaming.

Update #26

2010-07-05T09:41:00.000-07:00

Morning, gents.

Just getting the weekly update out of the way:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore 7/05(on 10): 31,810
Increase: +7,535
Weekly Increase: +295
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 43,190

Update #25

2010-06-27T21:27:00.000-07:00

Afternoon, boys and girls.

It's that time of the week again. It's time to look back on the previous week and see rather or not it was a good week of gaming. This week, honestly, has been one of the better weeks in a while.

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 6/28/10): 31,515
Increase: +7,240
Weekly Increase: +435
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 43,485

Really, only two games were played this week: Transformers: War for Cybertron and Bayonetta. Honestly, the most important part of my gaming this week happened yesterday by knocking out the "Infinite Climax" difficulty in Bayonetta. I needed to knock it out a long time ago. Now all that is left to do in that game is a couple combat achievements and the mini-mission games. Those can wait, though. I've got Naughty Bear this week, along with wanting to catch up on my Mass Effect 2 achievements.

Anyways, that's all for today. Happy gaming!

More than Meets the Eye!

2010-06-27T20:42:00.000-07:00

So, I've spent the last few days shooting things up in Transformers: War For Cybertron. Short campaign aside, its a well crafted love letter to the fans of the original series. So much so, that its credit theme is a newly reworked Transformers theme by the man himself, Stan Bush. Sadly, it isn't the best game if you want 1000 points. While the multiplayer achievements are easy to obtain (they just take forever to get to so be prepared for a lot of grinding), you will find out that there are only about 2000 people online at any given time. That doesn't bid well for a game who's primary attraction is the well crafted multiplayer that is as though Gears of War and Unreal Tournament had a love child.

That aside, I finally managed to put a scratch into my fabled "Hit List". Threw Bayonetta into the ol` 360 yesterday and finished out the "Infinite Climax" mode. It wasn't hard since the "Bird Flute Glitch" makes it easy to eradicate most of the lesser bosses. Hey, before you judge me, I completed the game fairly on Normal without cheating. Besides, it is an exploitable issue in the game. It's not like I'm gamesaving my way to 100% or some noob shit like that.

Anyways, playing through it again solidified my resolve that Bayonetta is still my official "Game of the Year". I know that is crazy talk considering this is the year that gave us Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead Redemption, two equally fascinating and extraordinary games. But that is the point! They met every last expectation people had about those games. Bayonetta, on the other hand, had low expectations surrounding it. Everyone was expecting a generic hack-and-slash with a story that takes itself too seriously, a clone of Devil May Cry. Oddly enough, it turned out to be one of the best reviewed games of the year, as well as one of the best selling new I.P (intellectual properties) titles to launch this year.

Anyways, just felt like talking a little gaming. See you all tomorrow for the weekly update.

Happy gaming!

Update #24

2010-06-21T18:29:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so gaming this week was in the far, far backseat of priorities. Don't even get me started on my whole "Hit List" idea from last week. Didn't get a chance to touch a single one of them. It is kind of embarrassing.

Anyways, onto this week's "update"...:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 6/21/10): 31,080
Increase: +6,805
Weekly Increase: +115
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 43,920

Last week, I had a chance to pick up Crackdown from Gamestop while I was on "vacation". I popped it in for a couple hours today and have to admit it is still as fun today as it was 3 years ago. The Crackdown 2 demo went live today and I don't mind the graphic change. Over all, it plays exactly like the original just with a new cell shaded graphic engine that is like a comic book version of Borderlands.

Anyways, happy gaming.

Update #23 - E3 Edition + Hit List

2010-06-14T20:02:00.000-07:00

Wow. Lack luster start to E3, folks. "Project Natal" was renamed "Kinect". Still not interested. A new Xbox 360 was showcased, this time with built in Wifi, for $299.99. Somewhat interested in that, honestly. No new games were revealed or showcased that made my jaw drop. Though, some trailers for previously announced titles were amazing. Bioware, where were you when Lucas decided to make those god awful prequels?!

Anyways, you don't care about my opinions on E3. You just want the update:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 6/14/10): 30,965
Increase: +6,690
Weekly Increase: +170
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 44,035

Not much gaming has happened in the last week. All the time gaming was spent picking up a couple loose achievements in Alan Wake and Red Dead Redemption. I've got a week before the next game of interest rears it's ugly little head, Transformers: War for Cyberton. That means a week to play mop up some achievements in the following games. Ladies and gents, allow me to introduce a new feature at my blog....The Hit List!

Every week, I'll update the hit list to cover a particular goal. Most of the time it'll be to just play clean up, others to 100% a game, or maybe try and achieve a hard achievement. Due to the fact of an ever fluctuating work schedule (I work retail and try to publish my own monthly comic book series), I'll only be starting out with a small list of 5 titles. So, without further a due, the first in a long line of "Hit Lists":

- Bayonetta : Goal - Finish the "Infinate Climax" mode for a smooth 100 achievement points.
- Bioshock 2/Darksiders: Goal - Finish campaigns for undetermined amount of points. To be frank, I lost track of where I was in both games so I couldn't imagine how many points are left. I'd estimate at least 200.
- Mass Effect 2: Goal - Complete the "Missing Memory"/Kasumi DLC for 15 points. It may not seem like a lot, but every little bit helps.
- Lego Batman: Goal - Complete the "Villain" story mode for an estimated 300 points.

Total points potentially achievable: 615

Well, that's it for tonight.

Happy gaming!

Update #22 - A day late

2010-06-08T19:37:00.000-07:00

Yeah, sorry about that. Looks like my streak has again had the rest button hit.

Anyways, the update will still reflect yesterday's numbers and not today's:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 6/07/10): 30,795
Increase: +6,520
Weekly Increase: +300
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 44,205

A bigger week than I've had in the recent past, all thanks to finally taking the time to knock out Alan Wake. I was playing on Hard, so that was 80 points since the difficulties stack. I'm going to put off the "Nightmare" difficulty play through and the collectibles until a later date. I've got a couple weeks before another game comes out that I honestly want, which is Transformers: War for Cybertron. Until then, I want to try and finish as many games as possible that I haven't even beaten a single play through of yet (like Bioshock 2 and Darksiders).

Well, enough small talk. Happy gaming!

Collectibles in Video Games

2010-06-02T21:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, time for a little bitty rant for the night.: Collectibles in Video Games!

Currently, I'm playing through (back and forth, mind you) two really good games: Alan Wake and Red Dead Redemption. They are both fantastic games in their respective genres and are well worth the time it takes to complete them. While they are great, they are two totally different games. 'Alan Wake' is survival thriller title that is rather linear and short. 'Red Dead Redemption' is a open-world western in vain of Grand Theft Auto. They are also games that take their collectible hunting (with achievements around them, mind you) in different ways that are on the total opposite ends of the spectrum.

'Red Dead Redemption' offers collectibles in forms of "challenges" that you complete to level up, earning fame and money. In the end, upon finishing all the challenges, you are awarded with an amazing outfit for your character to wear that affects the game. These challenges are not tedious in the least. They vary from collecting gold bars of a lost treasure to various hunting challenges. These keep things interesting and fun for a game that can last 30+ hours.

'Alan Wake', on the other hand, does not offer this. They offer 6 different collectibles: manuscript pages, coffee thermoses, chests, pyramids made of coke cans, televisions and radios. There are 12 pyramids, but you only need 5 of them for the achievement. Not a big deal. There are 11 radios and 14 televisions, easily found without much hunting required. Again, not a big deal. Now, there are 30 chests that must be sought after, many occasions forcing you into a corner with no ammo and half a dozen Taken (the enemies in the game) surrounding you. Then the final two! There are 100 coffee thermoses to be found and 106 manuscript pages. 15 of those manuscript pages cannot be found until you play "Nightmare Mode", a mode that cannot be unlocked until first completing the game on Hard.

The television and radio shows offer a somewhat entertaining distraction to the game, but some of the songs and videos are so cheesy and campy that they break up the mood initially set by being chased through the moonlit wilderness by demonically possessed town folk. The manuscript pages add more depth to the story, but ultimate give spoilers to events that are about to happen. The rest? Tedious and over-bearing work that is an obvious attempt to lengthen what was a short game to begin with by a couple hours.

Where am I going with this, you ask? Honestly, I didn't know myself until trying to race through my first play through of 'Alan Wake' this afternoon. I'm racing to this coal mine in Episode 4, listening to another narration of Alan discussing how the world is out to get him, and I see a thermos on the side of the road. I stopped and got it, grinding my teeth to the fact that this game suffers from the same symptoms the first Assassin's Creed did. The symptom is in the form of collectibles ranking up in the 200+ range, stemming from a disease known as "Lazy Developers".

Now, I'm not saying having collectibles in a game is a bad thing. Far, far from it! Hell, in Assassin's Creed II, I couldn't stop my constant searching for those elusive feathers. Every new feather put me one step closer to a special cape for Ezio. I felt a sense of accomplishment as I scaled the tallest structures in search for those ivory feathers. It primarily stemmed from the game's gorgeous environment giving me a reason to want to explore, to see every lush detail the designers had given us. The same goes for 'Red Dead Redemption'. The west never looked so grand in digital form before. I could spend hours just galloping along on my trusty steed, watching as the sun set and rose over a land and time long forgotten.

'Alan Wake', to my dismay, offers none of that. It throws you into a horror story in which you have little to no means of defending yourself. Believable given the fact that, if you were placed in the same situation, the likelihood of finding a small armory in a backwaters town is slim to none. However, given the fact that this game places you in that situation with little means to defend yourself and still ask you to hunt down 200+ relics that do absolutely nothing for you save boost your gamerscore is rather insulting. It's like dangling a piece of angel food cake in front of a starving person covered in raw meat while surrounding them with a dozen starved tigers. It's cruel, unusual and harsh.

Now, you're probably thinking, "Well, no one is forcing you to hunt them down." That is true! No one is. I just want to get my money's worth in my games. If that means trying to get all the collectibles or achievements (or trophies for my PS3 titles), so be it. However, I refuse to accept the fact that game developers constantly use collectibles in such a manner instead of actual game content. It's disgusting and immoral, the saddest fact being that collectibles like this are becoming more common placed in DLC.

I'm sorry. I know that this seems like such a tiny, tiny thing to complain about in a generation full of game delays, technical bugs in retail games, full games being released incompletely with the original content coming out as post-launch DLC. Just chalk it up to another late night gaming rant.

Until next time, happy gaming.

Update #21- 5 months down!

2010-05-31T20:00:00.000-07:00

Wow. Today is the last day of May and, as we find ourselves about to enter another month, I can't help but wonder where are the time went to!

Heh...anyways, the update!

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 5/31/10): 30,495
Increase: +6,220
Weekly Increase: +110
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 44,505

Not much to say tonight. Work has been a killer so maybe I'll update later this week with a better posting.

Happy gaming and happy Memorial Day!

Update #20- New week and a correction

2010-05-24T18:35:00.000-07:00

Woot! 20 weeks into our 2010 challenge. It's definitely been one hell of a ride this year. With so many amazing games launching, like Red Dead Redemption and Bayonetta, it isn't hard to see why this year is shaping up to be far better than last year.

But today isn't about my "insight" into the gaming world, it's about the weekly update:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,275
Current Gamerscore (on 5/17/10): 30,385
Increase: +6,110
Weekly Increase: +320
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 44,615

Correction: I've been operating my chart based on having started the year at 24,250. Evidently, I read my chart on www.360voice.com the wrong way. 24,250 is what I had on the start of 12/31/09 and not the end. On the start of 01/01/10, I had 24,275.

My data above now reflects the said error. I was considering updating the previous 19 entries, but that seemed like a lot of work for a difference of merely 25 points.

Anyways, thank you all for your time as usual. Happy gaming!

Update #19

2010-05-17T21:11:00.000-07:00

Told you that you would all get the new update on time! Well, an hour to go and it'd have been late. Oh well, still on the same day.

Anyways, onto the update:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,250
Current Gamerscore (on 5/17/10): 30,065
Increase: +5,815
Weekly Increase: +155
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 44,935

That is all working out some Splinter Cell: Conviction and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. Hopefully this week will be devoted to Alan Wake and Red Dead Redemption.

Well, happy gaming!

It's over 30,000!!!!

2010-05-12T19:54:00.000-07:00

Well, actually, it's right at 30,000.

Thanks to a long jam session of Splinter Cell: Conviction, I landed right on top of 30,000 this week. The achievement to get me there was Hunter Master, worth a wopping 50 points!

Big thanks goes out to RaverZombie69 for helping me achieve it!

Happy gaming!

Update #18 - Past due

2010-05-12T19:46:00.000-07:00

Wow. I went 17 straight weeks into this year's challenge and I hadn't missed an update. Week 18 hits, and I'm two days late. How did I let that happen? Shit, I must be getting old.

Anyways, this week's update will be retroactive to Monday May 10th, the day I should have updated. Next week's update will be returned to it's regularly scheduled time slot:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,250
Current Gamerscore (on 5/10/10): 29,910
Increase: +5,660
Weekly Increase: +0
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 45,090

Obviously, if you saw my placement on the official blog's chart, I earned no points last week. This week, however, I'm shaping up fairly well, even breaking into the 30K area! More on that in my next entry, though.

For now, however, happy gaming!

Update #17 - 4 months down, 8 to go

2010-05-03T10:52:00.000-07:00

Afternoon, boys and girls.

So, this past week saw little to no gaming, mostly due in part for preparing for Free Comic Book Day 2010. All in all, it was a fun event as usual. Sold some books and did some sketches. It was a good time.

Anyways, the update:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,250
Current Gamerscore (on 5/03/10): 29,910
Increase: +5,660
Weekly Increase: +90
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 45,090

This update also marks the end of the 4 month of updates as we go into May, 5th month of our competition. For the month of April, I was able to accumulate a grand total of +1,120 points. Not to shabby but is definitely a distance from the 5,000 per month I originally set out to accomplish. Oh well, life happens I guess.

Though, interestingly enough, I am trending +305 points over what I did this time last year. It doesn't feel like I've done more gaming this year more so than last year, so I guess it's a good thing I've decided to attempt to raise my completion percentage up as well as my gamerscore.

Well, here's hoping to doing better next week!

Happy gaming.

Late night/early morning ramblings

2010-04-27T02:15:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so, I'm not really in the "sleeping" mood (it's only 4:15am and I have to be getting ready for work in 4 hours...yay retail!) so I was looking and comparing my progress this year. For those that aren't aware, and shame on you if you aren't, this is the second year of the 100K for Child's Play achievement marathon. Essentially, we raise money and awareness for the Penny Arcade Child's Play charity by playing games and earning achievements. Hey, it's no different than having a sponsor for Relay for Life or any of those other charity fund raising events. The only difference is we chose to relax indoors as opposed to sweating outside.

Anyways, some interesting stats:

Last Year (2009) -

01/01/2009 - 12/31/2009: 12,015 points earned. This is a low number considering I was trying for 100,000.

04/27/2009 - Gamerscore: 17,570, +5,335. I had earned 5000+ points in 4 months, coming out to an average of +1,333.75 points per month.

Current Year (2010) -

01/01/2010 - 04/27/2010 (current): 5,570 points earned thus far. That is just under half of all of last year's earning.

04/27/2010 - Gamerscore: 29,829, +5,570. Compared to this same date, one year ago, I am trending up +335 points, averaging a total of +1,392.5 points per month.

++

Personally, I consider this a victory. Yes, I am again trending away from my projected goal. To reach my more realistic goal of reaching a gamerscore of 75,000 this year, I would have had to be earning +4,230 points per month. Going into the month of May, I'll actually need to up my earnings to +5,647.5 points per month to just hit my goal.

Optimistically, that is possible. Given that I am only at 29,820 out of a possible 80,000+ gamerscore, simply going back and 100% past games would allow me to earn that and then some. Realistically, however, given my working schedule (again, yay retail!) and schedule for my self-publishing, I am forecasting that I'll be lucky to hit my goal. I'm not saying it is impossible, just improbable at this moment in time. Though, I'm not giving up! 100,000 gamerscore will be mine, damn it!

Then again, maybe it's just the lack of sleep talking.

Anyways, happy gaming!

Update #16

2010-04-27T00:06:00.000-07:00

Ok, so depending on how you look at it, I'm late on the update. Technically it's 2am on Tuesday where I live, but it's still Monday on the west coast. So, for the sake of keeping my record in tact, I'm saying it is still Monday. It's my blog, so I'll say it if I wanna.

Anyways, I've only played two games this past week (Lego Batman and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2). So lets get to the update, shall we?

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,250
Current Gamerscore (on 4/26/10): 29,820
Increase: +5,570
Weekly Increase: +345
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 45,180

I need to finish Lego Batman this week, along with the "Realistic" difficulty on Splinter Cell: Conviction. That's nearly 1K in points alone between those two games and I'll need them. Next Monday is the start of the Halo: Reach beta and I have a feeling that'll be sucking up nearly all of my gaming time for the foreseeable future.

Well, that is it for today. As always, thanks for stopping by and happy gaming!

Update #15

2010-04-19T14:57:00.000-07:00

Evening, everyone.

Finally in the 29K zone. Hopefully next week's update will find me basking in the glow of the 30K club lights!

Needless to say, Splinter Cell: Conviction took up that last week. I have to say, the single-player story mode is rather short but the co-op and multiplayer based aspects are fantastic. Needless to say, however, it is highly advised to play with someone you know. Like most co-op games, I played with my brother. We've been gaming for so long together that we can almost instinctively know what the other is thinking without speaking. And in this game, that is the kind of gamer you need to play with.

Anyways, the weekly update:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,250
Current Gamerscore (on 4/19/10): 29,475
Increase: +5,225
Weekly Increase: +500
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 45,525

Happy gaming!

Update #14

2010-04-12T19:36:00.000-07:00

Not a whole lot to say other than I beat Afro Samurai and am uber excited for Splinter Cell: Conviction tomorrow. It's nice to see my XBox 360 getting some mad love again.

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,250
Current Gamerscore (on 4/12/10): 28,975
Increase: +4,725
Weekly Increase: +185
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 46,025

Happy gaming!

Update #13 - Three months down, nine to go

2010-04-05T18:28:00.000-07:00

Evening, everyone.

So, it is the 5th of April. That puts us 13 weeks into our second annual "100K for Child's Play" event. I'd bore you with a bunch of useless statistics, like how many new games vs. old games I've played (damn you, Avatar: The Last Airbender!!), but here is all that matters:

Anyways, another week means another update. So here we go...

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,250
Current Gamerscore (on 4/05/10): 28,790
Increase: +4,540
Weekly Increase: +275
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 46,210

Given that we have nine months left, I have a chance of hitting my goal if I pick up the pace. If I can just manage +5,135 points per month, I'll hit it. The bad thing is that the silly Playstation 3 has to have so many good games come out the last couple months, plus Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver launching.

Oh well, time to get my game on!

Happy gaming.

Correction

2010-04-02T22:53:00.000-07:00

Evening, everyone.

Not really an update per say, I just felt the need to make a correction. In my last post, I'd stated that I'd been doing better this year at this time with +4,265. However, last year on April 3rd, I had a yearly total of +4,755. That's a horrid difference of -490.

Like I said, not really an update, nor is it really important, but I just wanted to correct an error in my reporting.

That's all.

Happy gaming.

Update #12

2010-03-29T20:01:00.000-07:00

How's everyone doing tonight? Good, I hope!

Anyways, another week means another update. So here we go...

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,250
Current Gamerscore (on 3/29/10): 28,515
Increase: +4,265
Weekly Increase: +95
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 46,485

Those +95 points are only thanks to picking up Afro Samurai this afternoon from GameStop. They had it for $10 new as a part of their "Game Days of Summer" sales event. I only got in a couple hours but I'm enjoying it. I loved the anime series and movie, and I regretted not buying it when it was newly released, so it is nice to play it.

Anyways, hopefully I'll get in some serious gaming sometime soon. It's just really weird trying to balance seven thousand different things at once. Though, to be fair, I am doing a million times (well, maybe not a million, but it is a lot) better than I did last year. 3 months in, last year, I had maybe 1,000+ points.

Well, enough with the rambling.

Happy gaming!

Update #11

2010-03-22T22:38:00.000-07:00

New week, new update.

Alas, God of War 3 and Final Fantasy XIII have hindered my gamerscore gain as of late. Luckily, I finished God of War this evening. I can now focus on going on to finishing up some of the Xbox 360 games that are piling up.

Anyways, the update:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,250
Current Gamerscore (on 3/23/10): 28,420
Increase: +4,170
Weekly Increase: +0
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 46,580

Happy gaming!

2010-03-15T22:02:00.000-07:00

Barely made my weekly posting!

Anyways, the boring stuff:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,250
Current Gamerscore (on 3/16/10): 28,420
Increase: +4,170
Weekly Increase: +1,000
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 46,580

Yeah, so I finally got a copy of Avatar: The Last Airbender. That was the only reason I earned an extra thousand points.

I'm officially a score whore.

Happy gaming

I'm officially a whore

2010-03-10T19:28:00.000-08:00

Today, I finally broke down. Even though I'm enthralled but the wonderful beauty known simply as Final Fantasy XII I finally bought a copy of Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Burning Earth. A local electronic store had a used copy for $12, has a wonderful return policy, and the fact I haven't earned a single achievement in 2 weeks made me snap. So, here in a few minutes, I'll make up for the lack of 2 weeks of gaming in 5 minutes.

May the Heavens forgive me...

Update #9

2010-03-08T21:18:00.000-08:00

Well, I might not be adding any achievement points at the moment, but at least I'm constantly updating!

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,250
Current Gamerscore (on 3/08/10): 27,420
Increase: +3,170
Weekly Increase: +0
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 47,580

Yeah, so, my bad. Alas, the last couple weeks offered more playtime from my Playstation 3 than my Xbox 360. It doesn't seem to be letting up any either. The best I'll be able to do is go back and actually finish Bioshock 2 and Darksiders. Final Fantasy XIII comes out tomorrow, but I'm getting that on the PS3. Then God of War 3 is next week.

...I actually feel sad for my little green machine....

Well, happy gaming!

Update #8 - Two Months Down

2010-03-01T20:36:00.000-08:00

Well, this is a sorrowful update. A whole week with ZERO increases. I blame it on my rekindled fascination with Poke`mon and the PS3 exclusive Heavy Rain.

Anyways, the stats per usual:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,250
Current Gamerscore (on 3/01/10): 27,420
Increase: +3,170
Weekly Increase: +0
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 47,580

Well, that's it. Happy gaming!

Update #7

2010-02-22T20:04:00.000-08:00

Bet you all thought I forgot, uh? Ha! Nope.

Time for the weekly update:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,250
Current Gamerscore (on 2/22/10): 27,420
Increase: +3,170
Weekly Increase: +315
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 47,580

Again, another week of decent gain, but not what I was really hoping for. My personal goal has been to average between 100-200 points per day, averaging at 700-1,400 per week. Right now, I've been lucky to keep my head above the +300 point range. My problem is that, at the moment, I'm trying to focus my attention on completing one game at a time.

God, I'm so close to the 30K marker. I guess I just need to finish Bioshock 2 and Darksiders so I can get prepared for the onslaught of PS3 titles dropping, as well as new Pokemon games!

Happy gaming!

DLC: Achievements vs. For the Fun of the Game (Mild Spoilers)

2010-02-17T07:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday it was announced by Ubisoft that the next installment of the Assassin Creed II DLC would drop earlier than expected, coming out tomorrow (Feb. 18th). It'll be available for a mere 400 Microsoft Points. There will be NO achievements in this DLC as was with the first one last month.

Let me start this conversation off by stating that, when it comes to choosing my games, achievements (and trophies to a lesser extent) have absolutely no baring on if I purchase a game or not. Yes, they are nice and are an active goal at all times for my gaming, but only as an extension. For the most part, I value achievements (and, again, trophies) as an incentive for actually completing a game or a reason to go back and play a game over and over that would normally have no replay value (I'm looking at you, Bourne Conspiracy!).

By default, that logic extends to DLC (down-loadable content) as well. If the content is worth the extra money, such as new levels/chapters/missions or maps for multiplayer, then by all means I'll buy it. I mean, if I love a game enough, why not buy something to expand the experience by as much as possible? Achievements or not, if it is worth it, I'll do it.

In my personal opinion, these two chapter packs are not. And on this one, it is because of the lack of achievements.

Let me explain.

As much of a backtracking statement as that was, I have a valid reason. I apologize if you haven't finished the game, but to defend myself I must offer some mild spoilers. Both DLC chapters are "lost" memories from the game. There are two memory core segments (#12 and #13) that are unplayable in the initial release due to the memories being "corrupted". From the day I, or anyone else for that matter, came to that moment in the game, I knew what was going to happen. They would be made as additional expansions later down the line. Sweet, right? Unfortunately not.

Both "chapters" offer an additional hour, maybe two if you take your sweet time, of gameplay. Neither offer new locations, characters, gameplay mechanics. Nothing. They are the exact same thing we did a dozen times over the first time through, with the exception of using Davinci's "Flying Machine". You only had one shot at that fun little toy in the first game. You get to use it a couple more times starting tomorrow. These "expansions" feel as though they were deliberately yanked from the game in prerelease. Being that these two do absolutely nothing to expand on the initial story line, it seems that they were removed to be DLC on purpose.

If this is indeed the case, which many are citing, then it begs the question as to why one should buy it? They might be fun little diversions, but why pay an additional $10 for content that you should have already been allowed? This is where the achievement factor comes into play. At least with achievements, I'd feel some sort of desire to to play through it all over again. As it stands, even with my immense love of the game (first retail game I completed to 100%), why bother? Ubisoft gave me no reason, only a sickening feeling that I was cheated out of content.

Update # 6

2010-02-15T15:22:00.000-08:00

Wow.

I'm actually at Week 6 of the challenge and I haven't missed an update. Color me impressed. One of my 'New Year's Resolutions' was to stay more on task, while another was to have a sort of "return to form" for how I used to be. The former being that the challenge and getting my art done would be a top priority, while the latter was just to be more of a nerd like I was at one point. That means more games!!

Anyways, time for the update:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,250
Current Gamerscore (on 2/15/10): 27,105
Increase: +2,855
Weekly Increase: +340
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 47,895

It wasn't my best week ever, but it is far, far from the worst. I think the problem for the lack of gain this week was due to bouncing between games too much. I bought Bioshock 2 on the 9th, playing it off and on until Friday when I picked up Darksiders. Eh...I wasn't going to, but Gamestop had it on sale for $39.99. Not a bad deal considering it had the code for the free copy of Red Faction: Guerrilla. So, technically two good games for $20 a piece.

I actually have a clearing coming up now that I can use to finish games and earn some achievements while nothing launches on the Xbox 360 that is of pressing concern for me over the next month or so. My Playstation 3, on the other hand, will be seeing a major workout until April. Heavy Rain comes pouring in at the end of the month while both Final Fantasy XIII and God of War 3 land early next month. I've been hearing a lot of conflicting reports concerning the newest installment of Final Fantasy, as to rather the Xbox or Playstation versions are better. Frankly, I don't care. Final Fantasy XIII was one of my 5 reasons for wanting a Playstation 3 and it still is.

Well, that's all for now.

Happy Gaming!

Update #5

2010-02-08T22:03:00.000-08:00

Evening, everyone.

Update is a few hours late. Oh well, right? Anyways, here is this week's update:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,250
Current Gamerscore (on 2/08/10): 26,765
Increase: +2,515
Weekly Increase: +755
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 48,235

Not too bad of a week, really. It's primarily from Mass Effect 2 and finishing the first play through. Bioshock 2 is out now, or tomorrow (depending on where you live), so here's to another good week.

Happy gaming!

No one left behind...

2010-02-06T21:43:00.000-08:00

Finished Mass Effect 2 tonight. I picked up +415 points from it. I'm at 900/1015 (47 out of 51 achievements) with it, mainly needing the "Power Gamer" (reach lv. 30) and Insanity difficulty achievements. I'm looking at these as being "life-time achievements", ones to come back to later when I have more time. After all, there are only 2 more days until Bioshock 2 drops.

Happy gaming.

Crazy little rambling...

2010-02-03T19:15:00.000-08:00

I don't know why I found this funny, but last night I had my gamerscore at 26,300. That is a +310 increase in the 24 hours since my update on Feb. 1st. I know that is a realively low increase compared to most major achievement farming marathons, but damn, that was 310 in one day versus the 155 from the entire of last week.

Heh...sorry. Random rambles....

Happy gaming.

Update #4

2010-02-01T18:41:00.000-08:00

Evening, everyone.

Today's update has the pleasure of being not only a weekly update, but also our first monthly update of 2010. While my month was relatively...bountiful, the last week was not so much. I earned a few achievements, but I spent the weekend with my girlfriend, so gaming was not an issue.

Anyways, here is the obligatory update:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,250
Current Gamerscore (on 2/01/10): 25,990
Increase: +1,740
Weekly Increase: +155
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 49,010

As one might suspect, the 155 points are purely from Mass Effect 2. The game is a more perfected game compared to it's first installment, so the achievements don't feel like a mindless, relentlessly unending grind-fest. The biggest issue I had with the first game was the Alley achievements. You were required to play the game at least 3 times to get all 6 of them as you could only acquire 2 a play through. The new one merely requires you to play a single mission to gain their loyalty. Works for me!

In other gaming related news, my good pal M0taku over at our 100K Challenge blog has come up with a great system for using/tracking Trophies so that we might extend a hand to our Playstation 3 friends. Many thanks go out to him on that!

Well, that's all for now.

Happy gaming!

Update #3

2010-01-25T20:40:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the late update, but here we go!

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,250
Current Gamerscore (on 1/25/10): 25,835
Increase: +1,585
Weekly Increase: +615
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 49,165

Yeah, I've had a busy week. The main reason for such a large gain is the "Pennicle Station" DLC for Mass Effect (Easy 150 points for a Lv. 60 character) and picking up another 425 points thanks to Bayonetta.

I'm glad I just finished the main portions of Bayonetta. All that is left is "Infinite Climax Mode" and a few odd achievements. They'll have to sit for now as Mass Effect 2 lands tomorrow.

Happy gaming!

Don't Fuck with a Witch!

2010-01-24T13:02:00.000-08:00

At like 3:30 this morning, I finally got through my first play through of Bayonetta. Not only adding another solid 115 points to my score, but solidifying my belief that that Bayonetta is indeed one of the finest action games made in the past decade. Everything from the opening minutes of the game until the sultry dance scene at the end of everything makes this game a must own. What can one expect, though, from the creator of the original "Devil May Cry".

Now, to just run through it on the other difficulties and play clean up on the achievements.

FINALLY!!

2010-01-22T00:23:00.000-08:00

After 60+ hours of Mass Effect, I have a maxed out Lv. 60 character + those two damned Alley achievements that were annoying the hell out of me. I wanted to throw down the game on "Insanity" for that achievement, but it was getting way too long and the new version comes out on Tuesday. I have a game save on Insanity, so I'll go back to it once a drought hits.

That's all really. I just wanted to scream out about those Alley achievements (for Garrius and Wrex respectively) that have driven me nuts for three play throughs.

Happy gaming.

Update #2

2010-01-20T20:13:00.000-08:00

Evening, boys and girls.

New update:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,250
Current Gamerscore (on 1/12/10): 25,220
Increase: +970
Weekly Increase: +135
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 49,780

It wasn't a very productive week, I know. Yet, with Mass Effect 2 just days away, it felt it. My main goal to hit Level 60 and beat the game on Insanity and Hardcore (all three were worth 125 points). I managed to get level 60 and beat the game on Hardcore. Insanity has taken a bit out of me. Without being able to level up any further, it makes it feel like I'm grinding for nothing. Thus taking all the fun out of the game.

I broke away from Mass Effect to dive into Bayonetta again. Yet another game kicking my butt. I spent an afternoon just item/halo farming, making no attempts to advance the storyline. Sadly, that resulted in only 1 achievement worth a measly 5 points. Now that I'm through with Mass Effect for the time being, I think I'll finish up it before Mass Effect 2 lands on Tuesday.

In other news, we've been hard at work trying to redo our "100K for Child's Play" blog. The chart and tracking systems are being given completely new overhauls in attempts to make things easier on our end. We're also really trying to figure out a way to include the Playstation 3's Trophy support into our event. Sadly, we have had no luck in that.

Well, I believe that's all for tonight. Told you all I'd be updating regularly from here on in, didn't I?

Happy gaming!

Semi-update

2010-01-17T13:18:00.000-08:00

Afternoon, everyone.

This isn't really a Gamerscore update, but more of an update about the blog. I just wanted to point out a couple things about the new update/look:

First, the new header. Over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be revamping the overall look of the blog. Up til now, it was fine. But as I go into my second year of trying to get the 100K, and support our gamer challenge for Child's Play, I feel I need to start making this place feel more like me. So, yeah, it's purely cosmetic, but I think it'll be worth it in the end.
Secondly, to the right (under my profile), you'll notice a Top 10 list. As a new game comes out I'll update the list. This is solely for the Xbox 360, even though I am an active Playstation 3 user.

Okay, so that's it for the day. A semi-update, one that is extra small at that!

Anyways, happy gaming.

Mass Effect...a Massive Headache

2010-01-16T19:51:00.000-08:00

Ok. So, this is so much an update as it is a rant.

Currently I'm about to go through my third play-through of Mass Effect, and don't get me wrong, I love the game completely. It's a bloody brilliant game. I hate it that it took the second one coming out to get my ass to complete it, at least once anyways. However, I've never had so much issues with a set of achievements before.

I'll admit on my first play through (done on Normal), I didn't think about the X-Ally achievements and was solely focused on finishing it. I studied up for my second play-through (this time on Hard), yet I still didn't get the achievement for using Wrex and Garrius the entire run. I about wanted to throw my controller through the wall. An entire play-through, one of three needed to get 120 points/6 achievements.

The only reason I'm running through the third play-through is so I can max my character to Lv. 60 for the next game, and to get the "Insanity" achievement. I honestly don't think I can do anymore with this game after that. I'll probably come back to it during a gaming drought, but I can't with so many other fantastic titles to focus on.

Ok...end of rant/observation. Back to achievements!

Happy gaming!

12 days into the new year...

2010-01-12T19:03:00.000-08:00

So we're officially almost 2 weeks into the new year, and I've been trying to start it off with a bang. The two primary titles being played are Bayonetta and Mass Effect.

Let's start with the basics:

Starting Gamerscore (on 1/01/10): 24,25o
Current Gamerscore (on 1/12/10): 25,085
Increase: +835
Gamerscore Goal for 2010: 75,000
Distance from Goal: 49,915

My plans our to update this blog on a weekly basis, depending on my work schedule and the like. I'd prefer to update daily, but until things settle down at work, I don't see myself doing a lot of gaming on a daily basis. Or I should say, I don't see myself earning enough achievements to warrant a daily update.

I am considering picking up Darksiders this weekend, but between trying to max out my character in Mass Effect to Level 60 and all the other games I haven't opened...I'm wondering the logic of adding yet another game to my list. Plus, it's like two weeks until Mass Effect 2 and four weeks until Bioshock 2.

Well, that's all, folks. Happy gaming!

Guilty Pleasure

2010-01-06T04:07:00.000-08:00

Wow.

Has it really been nearly 3 months since my last post? *Shakes head* Well, that's the crazy world of holiday retail for you.

Anyway, as much as I'd love to make this a great big "coming home" style entry, full of sweet details and what not, I cannot. This is just a simple entry to state that the 2nd Annual 100K for Child's Play is in full swing and I'm kicking things off with my new favorite action game, Bayonetta. To say it is a guilty pleasure would be selling the game short. Everyone must play this game, and no...this isn't a repeat of Onichanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad, either. It is actually a great game getting great reviews (IGN gave it a 9.5 and Famitsu gave it a perfect 40).

Again, no major updates aside from I'm back.

Happy gaming.

Wow.

2009-10-13T19:45:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-08-19T09:23:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-07-20T20:28:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-23T08:30:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-06-19T13:10:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-06-10T10:17:00.000-07:00

...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

2009-05-24T14:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-23T20:21:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-05-18T17:12:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-26T17:06:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-04-23T13:58:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-04-19T22:26:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-06T13:43:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-04-03T14:27:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-02-16T18:28:00.000-08:00

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...?

2009-02-08T23:26:00.001-08:00

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?

2009-02-03T18:04:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-26T20:15:00.000-08:00

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+

2009-01-24T21:45:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-01-22T20:28:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-01-21T20:47:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-01-20T22:01:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-19T20:02:00.000-08:00

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!!

2009-01-17T22:13:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-16T01:45:00.000-08:00

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.