Follow My Game

Brick's in the House Baby!

2009-10-25T10:58:00.006-05:00

Have you ever played a game, and just didn't want to stop? A game so good that you found yourself asking "what time is it?" over and over, only to realize you've stayed up 8 hours too late? Sorry, Legendary, but you can blame Borderlands for that one. This game throws you in the experience, keeps you there, and just doesn't let you go until you physically pass out, and even then, you'll be thinking about it in your sleep.

The first experience I had with the game was hopping into a co-op game with Omega and Rand, and learning the basics of the game like Deal of the Day, the skill tree, inventory, and stuff like that. Once I got the hang of everything, the game came together and became really enjoyable.

Some may say I became addicted to vending machines in the end, that's only some-what true... it's just because my x-button mashing skills are so much better than everyone else's, that I always had a full inventory, thus was in the vending machine 80% of the time.

Another thing I was great at, was driving; one word: impeccable. I didn't ever complete the 5 seconds of air-time challenge, but I could flip another car in an instant. If you thought you were going to enjoy riding with me, you thought wrong. It either meant you were going to end up face-down on the ground with an exploding barrel as your last hope, or you would find yourself stuck half-way up a staircase not able to move. Most of the time it was just better to walk, but even then you might find yourself pushed 300 feet from your original destination, courtesy of Apple's Taxi Inc.

Don't even get me started on the loot. I was accused of hording it all, but let's get one thing straight, I had very good reason. At the second boss, the bone guy, the really tough one that downs you if he even looks in your general direction. Well, we finally kill him and I go down simultaneously. Rather than listen to Apple crying out for help to be picked up, what do Rand and Omega do? They go straight for the loot and leave me to die. Up until that point, we were sharing loot, but from there on out it was every man for himself. I couldn't believe the betrayal myself...

The art style in the game is cel-shaded, and I really liked that. It's good to have a unique change once in a while. I liked how you could tell how rare a weapon was by it's color also, even though the so-called Legendary weapons were way worse than the ones we were finding that were ranked lower. All in all, Borderlands has been one of the most enjoyable game I've played to date, yes, even better than Sacred 2.

My Seraphim Could Beat Up Your Seraphim...

2009-10-19T11:58:00.003-05:00

WARNING: This blog may or may not contain "dork shit." =P

Well, I finished Sacred 2. Total time to 1000: 123 hours. I reached level 63, and was able to find some people hosting a Niob difficulty game at level 66 and 67, and finally got that achievement yesterday afternoon.

Then, I finished up the boring Level 15 achievements with the two remaining classes, High Elf and Temple Guardian. After that, I finished up the last achievement by going through a campaign with zero deaths. It was one of the more enjoyable playthroughs, because it was on Bronze, and I had all the knowledge of playing with a level 60+ so I put a bunch of level 60+ stuff in my level 20's gear. Needless to say, I was untouchable. :D

Tomorrow I'm going to try and pick up Borderlands. I really, really hope I can find it tomorrow, otherwise I'm going to have to miss out on some co-op action, which will probably be a lot of the fun. In the mean time, I think I'll play me some NFS: Shift or Space Chimps. Such great choices, right?

Sacred 2: Niob, Here I Come

2009-10-17T21:32:00.004-05:00

Sacred 2, your days are numbered. I started my epic journey ten days ago, and I've only got four achievements left. A total of 97 hours to show for it, and a few more to go, and by few I mean 10+.

I've just spent the last few days solely leveling my main character and going through the Bronze, Silver, and Gold campaigns. I thought the game would be almost impossible at my level to beat Gold, but it was actually really easy. I soloed the last boss in about five minutes.

Now it's time to ride my red sabertooth tiger to the promise land, which is the Niob achievement. Once I hit level 65 I'm either going to have it by way of other people hosting, or trying to complete Platinum campaign. I'm currently a level 58 Seraphim with 8,275 hit points, an attack value of 3,065, and a defense of 937; so, I'm a little overpowered for my level.

There was a point where I loved this game, and then a point where I was starting to get bored. I'm now back to loving it, even with the hours I've put into it. Being overpowered has never been so much fun...

Sacred 2 Fallen Rand

2009-10-15T06:23:00.002-05:00

Ten days too long, I know, right? or maybe for some of you, ten days wasn't long enough in between blog posts. Anyway, there's a good reason, but it's also a bad reason. My laptop decided to not display anything correctly, about a week ago. Long-story-short, I called HP, they said the monitor didn't count as hardware so it wasn't covered, and I've been sitting here thinking of ways to either fix my computer, persuade HP that it is covered, and/or buy a new LCD monitor for $300.00; none of which I really want to do.

Besides all that, in my gaming life I started up Sacred 2 a week ago and haven't stopped playing since. Literally, I think I've played every minute of every day since I've gotten the game. No, wait, that's Stallion and his Super Weapon on Chromehounds... I've only played all but a few hours every day.

I don't know where to begin with Sacred 2. The game some-what reminds me of Runescape, an MMORPG that I used to play when I was younger, which was as addicting as WoW is for some people. I've never actually played WoW, though, so I wouldn't exactly know, but it's up there.

We (Omega, Fro, Bro, and I) originally got Sacred 2 together to enjoy the loveliness that is co-op. We ran through the story 1.5 times and that's been about it. It lasted about 20 hours, and we still have to go through it 2.5 more times together.

On the single-player side of the game, I've been in a whore-type mode for some reason. 50 hours and counting, and I just completed my first campaign solo. I've done pretty much everything I can do in the game, with about 820 in it already. I have to play the Silver, Gold, and Platin campaigns before I can enjoy the full 1000 though. Even though I'm 70 hours in, it could very well take another 70 hours to do just that.

The map on Sacred 2 is so huge, that it makes Oblivion look like a playground; Sacred being the town. There are so many things to do, explore, and fight. The leveling system is one of the hardest to understand at first, though. It took me a really long time before I knew what everything was.

Besides that, this has easily become one of my favorite games. Even though the next 70 hours are just going to be gaining levels, it's the first 50 that really count, right Too Human? Right.

Forza 2: Weakened

2009-10-05T15:54:00.004-05:00

I started Forza 2 a month ago for reasons I've forgotten by now. The first race, I had one of the hardest times I've had with a racer, because it was my first full simulation racing game. After learning that it's not your typical Need For Speed take-a-corner-at-200-mph racer I began to have more of an appreciation for the game.

I started playing the game again about a week ago. The majority of the races in the beginning I played on the easiest setting, with all assists on. It's the only way I could actually get a win, because it takes some time to learn how to drive in Forza. I then found the Hire Driver feature, and I had at it. I've been playing the game with a hired driver at Skill level 1, and 55% earnings from each race.

I know it defeats the purpose of enjoying the game, but to be honest, this game is way too long for someone just entering the simulation racer genre, and that's me. I actually really enjoy the game, and am some-what looking forward to Forza 3, but for the rest of Forza 2, and that won't be long, I'm going to be hiring a driver until I reach level 50 and finish the game.

I did have some fun with the car achievements when I reached level 40; a little experiment to try and unlock them all in the same minute (except Korea), and it worked somewhat. It actually spread between two minutes but it was done in under one. I bought every car except one in reach region and saved those last cars in the Auction House. When I had the remaining 8, I selected Receive Car for each one and like magic all the car achievements popped one after another.

I'm currently in the process of winning the next two Career tournaments, because I just hit level 45. After I finished those, I'll go for 50 and finish the other two to complete the career. Then, it's just the Arcade Mode achievements and the Online boosting.

This game is severely starting to wear me out, and I need to finish it quick before I start to hate all games period, again.

So-Long Server0355, You Will Be Missed

2009-10-01T06:36:00.004-05:00

I had the pleasure of finishing up Section 8 about two weeks ago. Aside from the graphical decline, the game actually runs very smoothly and is quite enjoyable. It may not be up to par with some multiplayer games, but at least I had fun, something I can't say with some of the bigger titles...

I then proceeded to find two copies of NFS: Carbon and boost the hell out of it for OXP, something I did not enjoy doing one bit. It was the same time ODST came out, the lack of sleep made me cranky. I'm still pissed it's going to be near impossible to get that 100 point achievement for reward cards. I did get Level 50, however, so whenever I feel inclined I'll finish the single player achievements for a total of 845 gamerscore.

People do crazy things when servers are about to be shut down. I remember the Call of Duty 3 scare when a bunch of us boosted like 60 hours just to get that General achievement. The funny thing is, most of them didn't go back to finish the campaign yet. Another situation I can think of that's more recent is Chromehounds. I think tjayars, smrnov, Stallion, and MightyMango are tackling that game and getting the most out of it before the servers croak in January.

I understand the pros of dedicated servers, but I think it's time Microsoft does something about achievements and dedicated servers with a time limit on them. Even though it's a very small percentage of people who actually care about unattainable achievements, it shouldn't be looked passed so easily considering every achievement is supposed to be unlockable, regardless of how long it's been out.

Free L4D DLC Anyone?

2009-09-29T10:36:00.005-05:00

Let me explain.

After waiting up so patiently for this mornings release of the new campaign Crash Course DLC Add-on for Left 4 Dead, I was only shocked to realize it was 240 MSP over-priced. It released at 800 MSP, when it was stated several times that it was to be released at 560 MSP. I waited probably close to an hour before I decided to purchase it as over-priced; I was very eager and anxious to play it.

Omega and I went through the campaign several times, enjoying it fairly well. At first we thought it was going to be quick since it only had two chapters, but it took around 30 minutes to complete (on easy). I don't really enjoy the multiplayer portion of L4D, I'm more of a Co-Op guy; but I was actually enjoying the multiplayer portion, while going for the new achievements, at the same time.

After we finished up I decided to call Microsoft for a refund of the 240 MSP, because it was then lowered from 800 to 560. I talked to a total of three people, all very nice, but the call was quite long. I eventually talked to a guy who had the authority to refund MSP, and he told me that he understood the situation and was going to refund me my points. I got off the phone and noticed he refunded me an full 800 MSP, not the 240 MSP. So, I basically got the L4D DLC free for purchasing it early; I'm cool with free stuff. =)

Fallout 3 and the World of DLC

2009-09-24T09:01:00.003-05:00

Even though I finished Fallout 3 a full 12 days ago, I still wanted to blog about it, I just haven't gotten around to it yet... until now.

A lot of the time, when I buy DLC, I don't really ask myself "Is it worth it?" I already know that most of the DLC I buy isn't worth the cash, let alone the bandwidth it takes to download it. The only reason I make such absurd purchases is to see a completion, not to enjoy the half-assed (if any, HALO WARS) content.

Fallout 3 DLCs (and some particular others) are actually worth the purchases, in my honest opinion. You may not like it as much as the original game, you may think they could have done better, made it longer, or even more enjoyable; but at least there's content. Some games add a different mode, some achievements, charge $10, and call it an add-on, so you're quite literally paying for achievements.

With Fallout 3 you got five add-ons with five different stories, and almost every single one was over two hours or more to complete, and that's not even counting the side-quests. Along with buying every add-on, they've decided to throw in a Premium Theme, something 'Splosion Man and The Maw give you just for playing through the game. Regardless, I'll be using that theme come Oct. 1st when it becomes free for us DLC dependent whores.

Snow Shoes and Rand Grenades

2009-09-11T03:19:00.003-05:00

On my quest to 200k, I most recently played Ski-Doo Challenge. I had heard a little about this game and how frustrating some of the achievements could be. I played the game for around 3 hours and had 800 points; I thought the rest was going to be easy. So, I took a break, watched Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, did some errands, and came back to finish it.

The career kind of got on my nerves sometimes because of how annoying the other drivers were. Every time you slide just a little too much, it seems the AI is always right behind you and they always hit you... several times; and somehow you get to last place before you re-spawn from the crash. Anyway, I finished the career for all the collectibles and only had 3 achievements left: Double Backflip, Double Frontflip, and Orbit (stay airborne for 5 seconds).

I had done some reading in the forums and found out that the backflip is much harder than the frontflip. It was weird when I found out, that wasn't the case for me. I almost immediately got the Orbit achievement, and it took me another 30 minutes to get the backflip, and just barely. I then proceeded to try and do a frontflip for the next 2 hours. That was the most frustrated I've gotten in a long time. After doing everything perfectly for almost the entire time and not having enough rotation, I decided to change my rider; yes, my rider.

I picked the first option (all stats are average) oppose to my previous rider, (a lot of strength, no agility) and I did a double frontflip the first time, but didn't land it correctly. All I had to do was select the correct rider, and I could have saved myself a lot of trouble.

With the completion of Ski-Doo I also gained a spot on the Wisconsin Leaderboard to 3rd, but was quickly passed up again. Now to go re-pass him playing the rest of the DLC in Fallout. 1550, here I come!

Guitar Hero 5 is Okay in My Book

2009-09-07T07:22:00.004-05:00

Yes, finally a Guitar Hero game I LOVE and am able to get the full 1,000. We all know how much these games can screw up our completion percentage, but this one is just brilliant. Not only is it the easiest Guitar Hero game, it might be the easiest music related game out there; even easier than Rock Band.

It allows you to complete challenges with a band, and even if you don't do the specific challenge, you still get credit. You need 50 Diamond and 808 stars, not hard when you have the beginner+mic+fan combo going on. 6 Stars a song, and some challenges and you're well on your way to 1,000 in this game.

Cheats don't disable achievements, just leaderboards (FINALLY). Auto-kick works like a charm, and so does no fail, and since you can play custom songs (and get achievements) the score achievements, 500k solo and 3m as a band are pretty easy when you have a song that contains 4,000+ kicks for drums with Auto-kick on.

Although, there might be a glitched achievement, Sampler Plate. Somehow Rand and I got passed the glitch, but Stallion was stuck in the dust working us like dogs to try and deglitch that turd of an achievement. Mush! ...then a two minute break.

Wolfenstein and Boosting

2009-09-03T04:55:00.002-05:00

I ended up finishing Wolfenstein (full 1000) and I gotta say, the single player was actually quite enjoyable even with 400-so collectibles. Now, for the multiplayer part I'm kind of on the fence. I do have some-what of a biased opinion on the subject because I was glued to Returned to Castle Wolfenstein for the original xbox for some time; like 600-some-odd hours or something. The multiplayer itself wasn't and isn't bad, it's the frame-rate and laggy issues that make it kind of sub-par. If there was no lag, this game would be extraordinarily fun online. The 10 hours I spent playing online were fun, even with the lag, because most of them were spent with friends, so that's probably why.

I'm in like a boosting paradise right now or something. So many games I'm working on, and they just keep piling up. We got Quantum of Solace (PC), which is probably 25 more hours if everything goes right. I want to do Carbon before the shut the servers down without notice (or maybe they already have?), Halo Wars maybe, Legendary which I'm currently working on, and then finally I'm going to have to do 1,000,000 online credits in Forza 2 eventually, so that will be fun. I can't wait to hit 200,000 and get me some Lost Odyssey, a game I WILL play once I reach my milestone... =)

New Avatar Awards Approaching?

2009-08-25T14:09:00.002-05:00

Well, as you may or may not know, 'Splosion Man is to be the first game to feature Avatar Awards, but they've yet to be released. Many speculate every game will soon feature Avatar Awards, but that isn't going to happen until 'Splosion Man's Avatar Awards are released and they've stated that the process has been delayed to an extent. I do, however, have some pictures of some new Avatar Awards from an upcoming game called Darwinia+ for the XBLA.

Section 8 Demo and Some Good Ol' Wolfenstein

2009-08-24T11:07:00.003-05:00

After hearing so much about Section 8, and how one of the developer's called it a "Halo Killer," I had to check it out for myself. I downloaded the 800 mb or so demo and started the multiplayer. It took a few tries and then it just let me host a game, fair enough. It didn't take long before the game was a full 8 on 8 combat.

The first thing I did, was probably the most unique. I marked a spot on the map and dropped in from the sky, which I think you can only do if you are Section 8, not Arm. Apparently I picked the wrong spot to drop in, because as I was heading down to whatever planet it was, I was almost immediately shot down by enemy artillery. So the red circles aren't safe spots... gotcha.

I safely landed for the first time and started to run.. err slowly crawl. I honestly thought I had accidentally clicked in the crouch button because it felt like I was moving at the rate of a large turtle; then, I found the run/dash button a.k.a. rhino speed. Once you start running, you can't stop, or at least I couldn't figure out how. The run, however, is pretty sweet because you go from a slow turtle into a cheetah in a millisecond.

One of the coolest things about Section 8 is how they have Squads, Classes, and almost everything is customizable to your liking. I think I counted 8 Classes, each one with a unique ability; and with each class you can customize your armor, weapons, and modules. Modules being abilities or attributes like 150% longer time before turrets attack you.

That reminds me, the turrets can get kind of annoying if you don't know how to deal with them, and I definitely didn't at first. There was another issue I had, also, and it was with the frame rate. Section 8 is from the makers of Two Worlds, go figure; but it's definitely not as bad as Two Worlds, just a little bit. All-in-all I think this game could do very well and could be very fun if they tweak the frame-rate issue. It will have dedicated servers, allow you to create your own dedicated server, or just host your own match if you want. Many possibilities with this game, which is always good.

Moving on to my first love: Wolfenstein. I picked up Wolfenstein yesterday and played some multiplayer and didn't know how I felt after my first game. I soon realized that it's definitely a really fun game to play as a team, especially when you do really well. I like how you earn gold from everything and can use that to purchase upgrades within the game, whether it be a Flak Jacket, Veil powers, or even a scope for your Kar98.

They kept all the classes from the previous Wolfenstein, even the medic, which was my favorite one. They didn't keep the poker needle though, it's like a stop-watch now or something; I just would have preferred to poker-n-get-out. The flamethrower and the Panzer were kept also, which you can find MajinFro using all the time, like a nub, haha. :) I didn't play the single player yet, but Stallion said it was really good. So, I might start that in a few days, after Alone in the Dark.

My Avatar Wears Ralph Lauren, Nub

2009-08-21T17:05:00.004-05:00

Oh God, the Great Avatar Debate. The Avatar Marketplace hit Xbox 360 early last week and there has been a very special debate going on ever since. One that deals with whether or not it's reasonable to buy clothes for your digital avatar with these so-called "Micro-Transactions."

I'm not really sure you can consider $4.00 a Micro-Transaction, considering around 1/4th of Arcade games are $1.00 more, and those at least come with game play and achievements. Well, most of them, anyway; I'm looking at you Interpol.

Some say buying clothes is the same as buying anything else online or digitally (Music, Movies, Games). I have to reiterate my stance earlier and say with music: you can listen, with movies: you can watch, with games: you can play, but with avatar clothing purchased on the marketplace: you can hope people like what you look like. What I mean is, if you want somebody to know you wear Adidas clothing, why should you have to pay for the real clothing, and then purchase it digitally? Adidas should be covering the charges for the advertising that's incurring because of it.

Now, I'm not saying everything on the Avatar Marketplace is unreasonable. I'm sure there will be an item that is a must-have for me no matter what the price (Assassin's Creed Robe), but that hasn't happened yet. Until then, I will be saving my Microsoft points for some excellent arcade games and over-priced DLC.

The Game Styles section in the Avatar Marketplace on the other hand is the prime example of what Microsoft should be doing with the Avatar Awards. Instead of charging $12 for a Clone Wars outfit, light saber and all, they could have put those resources into the next Star Wars game, for example.

Who knows, maybe Assassin's Creed 2 will be attached with a full-body outfit. Then again, maybe we'll get some white shoes awards and have to buy the outfit for $15.00, hood not included.

In the words of a good friend, "For every $1.00 you spend on avatar clothes, donate the same to a child in need." - Stallion83

"Whatever!" Said the Completion Fairy

2009-08-18T06:04:00.005-05:00

Recently, I made a bet with myself to reach 95% completion by Jan. 2010. I've always wanted 99%, but I know that it just isn't in me, and 100% literally isn't possible. I want to reach 95% completion and stay there. As of right now, I have a ton of uncompleted games on my card, even with the 88.07% I currently have. I'm sitting at 169,909 out of 192,920 right now and I figure it will take 13,365 worth of games to reach it. That is, 13,365 of games I've already played. The only way a new game wouldn't hurt my quest is if I finished more than 95% of it. So, I'm thinking easier games until I reach 200,000, then, whatever until I reach 95%. All DLC included... Yes, we're talking Transformers 2.

Pile O' Unwanted

My Achievements

Click the tab My Achievements, then click Show/Hide completed games.

'Splosion Man: DEMOLISHED!!1!!

2009-07-28T01:32:00.005-05:00

Sorry for the aggressive title, but it had to be done. 'Splosion Man has just been completed and it feels so good. The cakes were getting a little annoying near the end, because the levels take so long. Trueachievements.com says that was my 29th completed XBLA, now I think I'll play some Arkadian Warriors for my 30th.

Omega and I did some of the Co-Op in Arkadian Warriors last night and just one thing can be said about it: The multiplayer has more lag than Castle Crashers, N+, and 'Splosion Man combined, 'nuff said. I think I'll be finishing this one on my own, and out of the co-op lobbies.

Ever since NBA 2K9 became "boostable" I've been wanting to, well, boost it. Blind sent it to me a while back and I've been holding it hostage (along with many other games) ever since. I planned to do it with Stallion, but he couldn't get a copy of it until just now. Rand said "It can't be done! It needs to be done at 3 a.m. fools!" or something like that. We tried it anyways and it ended up working. So now I'm done with the "Wins" achievements and only need the Team 2K along with two other single-player achievements. Whenever it is that Fro gets off his Ever Quest, becomes a man again, and gives us that achievement. =)

...and Microsoft decided to not send out emails about the new dashboard Preview Program, so I have to wait until tomorrow for an update, if they send one. Even then, the dashboard isn't likely to release until Wednesday anyway.

'Splosions Man: With A Little Help from My Friends

2009-07-27T08:37:00.002-05:00

Omega and I stuck it out though the horrible lag and completed 'Splosion Man multiplayer while obtaining all the cakes in the process. I could see multiplayer being really fun playing couch co-op, but over LIVE it was just a mistake (I think) to even release it. You think they would have done a little more testing to help it out a bit, but it's how Castle Crashers was, and how N+ still is. Manageable, but not fun in the process of completing it. I'm not at the full 200 quite yet, I still need a few more cakes in single player which I'll be doing later today.

For now I'm anxiously awaiting an email from Microsoft telling me "You're In!" for the NXE Preview Program. I'm not positive I'll get in right away, or at all, but I have a pretty good feeling there's an email with my Gamertag in it. I guess all I can do is wait it out.

(via MajorNelson on Twitter)

"The Previw Program notification emails are scheduled to go out today.....I have meeting later today to confirm we are still on schedule."

'Splosion Man: The End is Near

2009-07-26T08:06:00.002-05:00

When I said "Haven't reached the number one spot in any level yet... but maybe we can pull something together in multiplayer," I wasn't exactly serious; it was just a little wishful thinking. Well, it turns out after we finished level 2-16 Omega said "Did you know we beat that in par time?" So we looked at the leaderboard, and sure enough I'm sitting in 1st and he's right behind in 2nd place.

Best Score Leaderboard 2-16
Best Time Leaderboard 2-16

We did get most of the multiplayer campaign done, even though it's nearly impossible to get a non-laggy game going for more than a couple minutes. I can't count the time we had to re-host just to pass a level. We're probably going to finish the rest up later today, and then all I need to do is pick up a few cakes in single-player and that 200 will be mine, then probably back to BF:BC full-time.

'Splosion Man: The Birth of a King

2009-07-24T23:51:00.002-05:00

"The Sistine Chapel? Putting a man on the Moon? Trifles. It is only today that the human race has reached its pinnacle achievement. Don't look to the screen for Splosion Man - he's in your heart." - Splosion Man

Today I am a King. The achievement I unlocked even said so... All Hail The Splode King, that's me. I played Hardcore Mode most of the day until my LIVE suddenly went out for about an hour, then I resumed and finished up the last level 3-18. I was 12th person (via leaderboard spot) to finish Splosion Man on Hardcore. I still have the entire multiplayer to do, that is if Rand ever succeeds in getting on the game again. =P

I'm not sure how long it actually took me to complete the entire campaign on Hardcore, but here are some times for each chapter.

Chapter 1: 39:22.25
Chapter 2: 43:41:48
Chapter 3: 56:09.46

So roughly under an hour for each chapter. I moved up on several leaderboards in the 3rd chapters as well to as high as 2nd place. Haven't reached the number one spot in any level yet... but maybe we can pull something together in multiplayer.

'Splosion Man: Day 2

2009-07-24T03:50:00.003-05:00

Well I'm currently on day two of my 'Splosion Man Marathon, in a quest to be one of the first, and maybe few, to 200 'Splosion man.

As I've said before, this game is one of the most fun, and challenging games I've ever played. I finished the single-player yesterday, and I started the Hardcore Mode out of curiously today. Somehow it hooked me, and I've been sweeping some levels, and getting owned on others. The hardest so far has been 3-3 (which is what I just currently finished), but that's probably all I'll get done today.

I was looking at the leaderboard, because I love stats, and I noticed I was placed as high as 3rd in some levels. This only being because in hardcore mode you don't get checkpoints, and everything kills you in one hit. So you are forced to play the level straight-through, no stopping, dodging every enemy. Which would explain the high placement in some leaderboards.

As of now there are only three people who have completed hardcore mode (at least on the leaderboard), so I'm hoping to be the next one.

Oh, yeah... Everybody loves donuts... GO NUTS!

and the ole time favorite: Splode Beneath My Splosion

Summer of Arcade: 'Splosion Man

2009-07-23T03:32:00.002-05:00

Why hello, it's been a while. Fairly too much to blog about, so I'll just make this primarily about 'Splosion Man, the greatest Arcade game of all time!

On a side note, I've been taking sort of a break from gamerscore in general and playing games I really enjoy a lot more. Which has it's faults, because now a ton of people are creeping up on me, including Cru. Rest assured though, I'll never let her pass me. =P

Back to topic: We've all been awaiting 'Splosion Man ever since they replaced it with TMNT Re-Shelled a couple weeks ago. When I heard it was from the makers of The Maw, I admit, I was excited. They give away free premium themes after all, amiright?

Well there's no shortage of free premium themes, gamerpics and yes, even avatar props. Check out these pics of the free theme: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

I purchased the game earlier today, and played a little of the online multiplayer, and it's one of the greatest things to ever exist. If you have no clue what 'Splosion Man is, it's a lot like N+, with a little extra awesome.

After we had some fun in the co-op, I spent a few hours (5 1/2 to be exact) completing the Single-Player. Which is VERY challenging is some of the later levels. I did eventually complete it though, and to my surprise witnessed one of the greatest endings in a video game, ever. Here is a little sneak-peak: Here

I honestly couldn't ask for a better way to start Summer of Arcade off.

This Is What I've Been Up To The Last Week

2009-06-25T14:54:00.002-05:00

Ever since I bought Red Faction just over a week ago, I've pretty much been playing it non-stop the entire time. I do love this game a lot, but I could have finished the single player a lot sooner if I hadn't come across a major problem with an achievement that ultimately took me about four days to accomplish.

I'm talking of course about the 104 Guerrilla Actions you have to complete. One of the most pesky achievements ever. It took me around 22 hours or so to complete the my first of three play-throughs. I mined all the ore, found all the radio tags, and smashed all the crates. When it came time to finish the Guerrilla Actions, I only had about 70 left to do.

I eventually got to 102 Guerrilla Actions but the other two were literally impossible to find and would not spawn; I was at 31 hours now. So, I decided to start a new campaign and made sure I did every Guerrilla Action that popped up, and didn't miss a single one... I completed my second play-through in about six hours.

I then started to try and find the rest of the Radio Missions first, I succeeded in finding around 11 Radio Missions before they stopped appearing again, for the second time in a row. I thought not missing any Radio Missions was the trick, but apparently it wasn't; I was well over 8 hours in already.

So, I decided I'd try one last time, and maybe, just maybe I'd get lucky. I had the game plan of only liberating a sector after all Radio/Normal Guerrilla Actions were complete. This time every Radio Mission showed up in it's assigned spot and i didn't dink around hardly at all try to find them. I was a nervous wreck pretty much the entire time just thinking in the back of my head, "What if it glitches out on me again? All this time wasted," but eventually I got to the last sector and it all added up; 11 hours later.

I'm now the proud owner of a new baby achievement called Revolutionary. She's about seven hours old and stands out amongst her siblings. I'm on my way to collect the rest of the ready-to-hatch achievements.

Here are some stats from Red Faction that I've acquired over the passed 8 days.

Number of playthroughs: 3
Number of hours in single-player: 51
Destruction caused: $4,504,990,000
Number of deaths (single player): 21
Number of kills (single player): 8231
Kilometers walked: 346.88
Kilometers driven: 1434.81
Hours spent walking: 26:25:03
Hours spent driving: 25:14:29
Guerrilla Actions Completed: 249
Story-line missions completed: 60
Matchmaking games won: 77

Apple

The Games We Play Just For Co-Op

2009-06-15T10:16:00.007-05:00

Last week I had the privilege (yeah right, amirite?) to play Damnation Co-Op with Rand al Thor 19. We love our Co-Op games if you know what I mean. "It makes everything better," as he would say. As soon as we started playing we could tell they attempted to rip-off so many games it was a bit hard to count. Gears of War being one of them, Tomb Raider, and Assassin's Creed/Prince of Persia being a few more; maybe GUN too.

There ain't nothing wrong with a little bit of everything.

The game starts you out jumping through some windows, climbing polls, and jumping over a bridge. These are the games best features, besides Co-Op itself. Oh, and the fact that you could revive your teammate from anywhere, no matter where either of you were at any given time; that was nice.

If I can't see you, you can't see me!

Collectibles really weren't a burden, it actually gave us something to look forward to, since the levels were so huge. Honestly, some of the biggest levels in a video game, ever. Sometimes the camera would pan across miles of terrain, several times in one level. Most levels were traveled by foot, only a small number were drivable by this huge Bat mobile-motorcycle-looking-thing with 6 wheels, which was every bit as awkward to drive as it sounds.

That's only 1/10th

The game wasn't terribly difficult on Insane for the guest, as it was for the host. Host took about 1-2 shots to die, whereas the guest could take around 7-8. The game was so easy sometimes, I was scared we were accidentally playing on Casual instead of Insane.

We did manage to finish the multiplayer achievements, which are kind of ridiculous considering NO ONE plays this game online. Some make you win 10 games in a row, others make you host 25 games in Ranked Matches. There is also the fact that you have to have at least 4 players to start a game.

Head shots are literally impossible

In all, between the four of us (Rand, Stoph, jimmy, and I), we hosted 100 matches. In the last 25 or so matches we ended up playing this really fun, hilarious game-within-the-game. We were hosting King of the Hill on this level that had a huge center tower with buildings scattered around it. It also had really tall totem polls in the corners of the map that had ropes that were attached to the center tower that you could swing to.

Head Punching Time!

Whoever was winning the match had to stay in the middle to capture the point for 10 points, but they had to defend 3 others who were constantly climbing up and/or swinging in from totem polls to try and punch the guy in the head and quickly dash and try not to get killed.

Let's take the middle, he won't suspect a thing!

If you could successfully punch the the guy in the head and make a clean getaway, you win the challenge. This by far was the best experience in the game that I had. I killed a lot of good men that day, but was also punched several time without ever knowing a thing.

Apple

Completion Drives Me Nuts Sometimes

2009-06-15T09:42:00.003-05:00

As you may know, a while back I had two games saves corrupt one right after another. One was NFS: Undercover and the other was Viva Pinata for PC - LIVE. I was definitely overwhelmed at the time and decided it was best to leave those games for later... much later.

Undercover

Well that time finally came and I managed to finish up Viva Pinata PC with some help from a few friends and their delicious chocolate coins, they spared me. I've come to realized that auto-saving is anything but good. It's the reason both of my saves we're corrupt or completely lost. I spent around 6-7 hours the first time, before my save corrupted. I ended up playing the game for around 10 hours total the second time to accomplish 980. Then, I just left the game run for 40 more hours for the full 1000. You could consider that 7 hours lost.

Viva Pinata

The next game was Need for Speed: Undercover, which is a much worse story. The game has 187 races, and by the time I completed the story I still had around 60 races to do. I finished up a majority with around 20 left. After, specifically a Cop Mission, the game was auto-saving when my system froze. I had around 18 hours played at the time on the game.

"Auto-saving... DO NOT COMPUTE"

So I decided since I'm kind of a completion junkie I would just finish the game, like a man (thanks to blind for sending me the game). I put the game in, turned off the auto-save, and started racing. I had some trouble with the first few races because of the terrible cars they start you out with. Eventually, I started not completely hating the game and started winning some races. I played the game for a few days and finally ended the game with around 22 hours played; 22 hours wasted for 100 points. This is why completion frustrates me sometimes.

I'm apparently not the only one who had this trash happen to me, Stallion said the game did the exact same thing to him with only 7 races left. Fortunately, he had his save backed up on a memory card.

I'm just happy these game are finally finished and I hope it never happens to me ever again.

Apple

MGC Leaderboards

2009-06-03T13:59:00.010-05:00

So, I've been browsing some of the Mygamercard.net Genre Leaderboards the last couple of days and it got me wondering what position I'm in for each category. I did the research, and the results are in... which surprised me quite a bit. This is a good way to tell what my gamerscore is pretty much comprised of.

Genre - Rank - Gamerscore

Action/Adventure - 1882 - 33605
Fighting - 18620 - 2000
East Asian - 41506 - 850
Party & Family - 25 - 31605
Racing - 28778 - 4495
Roleplaying - 3114 - 7970
Shooter - 312 - 30930
Sports - 240 - 35325
Strategy & Puzzle - 19245 - 1740
Xbox Live Arcade - 675 - 10062

Clearly my strong-points are in Party & Family, Shooter, Sports, and XBLA. My weaknesses are a different story: Fighting, East Asian, Racing, and Strategy & Puzzle clearly need to be worked on more than others. This is going to be one of my goals, to try and get every rank under 10,000.

Seeing that I'm currently ranked 25th in Party & Family, I had a look to see what it would take to get to the #1 spot. To my surprise, it looked easier than I thought. The current #1 spot as 38,975 points; which is a difference of 7370 points. Some of the games in the category I started but never finished, but some I haven't even touched. Here is my plan/layout of what I want to do to accomplish the #1 spot.

AI:KR2 (1000)
Bee Movie (1000)
DDRU1 (900)
DDRU3 (700)
Disney Bolt (1000)
Disney/Pixar UP (1000)
Harry Potter (1000)
Hot Wheels (1000)
HSM3: Senior Year DANCE (1000)
Madagascar 2 (1000)
Monsters Vs. Aliens (1000)
Night at the Museum 2 (1000)
Ratatouille (1000)
~~The Tale of Despereaux (1000)~~ (Apparently this will never be released, thanks JC)
You're in the Movies (1000)

If I completed all of these it would be a gain of 14,600 points, about 7,000 over the current leader. This is my current plan, along with 200k for the next few months. I hope I can make it happen.

Apple