Random stuff from an Xbox 360 gamer

End of year completions!

2011-12-28T15:04:00.002Z

I've completed 5 games since my last post; all of which were on my HTC HD7. The completed games are (in order of completion):

Doodle God
Minesweeper
Full House Poker
Kinectimals
geoDefense

If you've got a Windows Phone I definitely recommend picking up geoDefense and Full House Poker. They're both cracking games and were very fun to complete.

Can't say much about Minesweeper; it's the same game that everybody knows. Can't complain about a freebie though.

Kinectimals was great too, considering it's a port of a Kinect game; the touch controls worked great (although some tricks can be a pain to get right). My daughter was fascinated by my tiger, she wanted to feed it every minute!

Beyond Good & Evil HD completed!

2011-12-14T23:33:00.002Z

Holy shit this game is awesome!

Never played this when it was first released for PS2, Xbox and GameCube. To be honest I hadn't even heard of it until it was announced for XBLA.

But I can definitely say it's one of the best XBLA games I've played in a long, long time.

If you haven't tried this yet I highly recommend downloading the trial. It's well worth 800msp (I got it for 240msp so I was well chuffed!).

Very pleased to add this one to the completion wall. I can't wait for the sequel!

Lots of new games

2011-11-30T14:16:00.002Z

Had a fair few new games recently; most of which have come from the recent "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday" deals.

Then my nephew had Skylanders for his birthday, which resulted in me becoming a big kid again and buying it for myself. Along with several of the additional figures.

Also picked up a couple of cheap games for my HTC HD7 (when it finally arrives).

And finally managed to download Batman: Arkham City (PC) that I got for free from an old work colleague.

Here's the full list of everything I've picked up recently:

Beyond Good & Evil HD
Fallout 3 (PC)
Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure
The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile
Limbo
The Baconing
Assassin's Creed (WP)
Full House Poker (WP)
Dead Rising 2: Case Zero
Disney Universe
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes
Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY (PC)
Batman: Arkham City
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (rental)
PowerUp Heroes (rental)

One step closer to being a true achievement whore...

2011-11-30T14:08:00.003Z

A game easier to "complete" that Avatar; I never thought it would be possible.

Completing Fallout 3 PC is borderline cheating. Silly developers leaving in the "addachievement" console command.

Ah well, this will probably be the fastest I'll ever earn 1550 GS.

Definitely not proud of having this on the completion wall but this is now game number 86.

Game number 85 on the completion wall!

2011-11-19T00:29:00.003Z

And it was a cracker!

Very enjoyable game even if it did have a shit load of grinding.

Hard mode was bloody tough too!

Had fun completing it though (unlike my last rental...).

Great voice acting (pretty sure the whole film cast did the voices) and very good character likenesses too.

It's a welcome addition to the completion wall.

Now to see whether Boomerang will finally send through LEGO Pirates...

Zombie bashing is fun!

2011-11-02T21:00:00.002Z

Picked this up for a bargain price of 200msp and very glad I did.

Even though it's basically a glorified demo of Dead Rising 2 it was bloody good fun.

Very short game but, as there's a time restriction, it's not always possible to get everything done in the same play through.

Nice addition to the wall!

Three new completions!

2011-10-30T22:59:00.003Z

Why oh why did they change the game format for this?

The previous LEGO Indy game was brilliant; this one was dull, boring and tedious.

Ah well, it was a rental and it's another game on the completion wall.

Also finished another couple of the Kinect Fun Labs: Avatar Kinect and Air Band.

Both were pretty shit but the completions still count.

75% off Fable III (PC) for 1 week only!

2011-09-03T15:04:00.001+01:00

Until September 8th Fable III (PC) is currently available for just £8.74 (download here).

Couldn't resist it for that price so picked it up plus its DLC.

Now just need the time to play it!

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands completed!

2011-08-10T00:01:00.003+01:00

Woohoo! Another Boomerang title added to the completion wall and my 80th completed game!

Very good game too: Decent story line; great graphics; and pretty decent voice acting.

Also had a good amount of collectibles.

Some of the achievements looked tricky to start with but got them all without too much trouble.

I recommend everyone give this a try!

Recent completions

2011-08-01T07:43:00.006+01:00

I've complete three games since I last updated this blog.

Firstly I finished off my latest rental from Boomerang; The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon.

Was a pretty decent decent platformer; fairly close to the original Spyro game on the PS1. Had some crappy achievements though, especially the co-op one...

Still enjoyed completing this one though.

I also finished off a couple more of the Kinect Fun Labs titles: Build a Buddy and Googly Eyes.

Both were pretty boring to be honest. Still additions to the completion wall though.

Shadowrun completed!

2011-06-25T12:20:00.004+01:00

Ah finally finished off this pretty unique shooter.

Picked it up for just 75p when it was part of the GfWL sale. Never heard of the game before seeing it there but couldn't really say no at that price.

I found it to be a pretty decent online shooter with an unusual mix of guns and magic.

Some of the achievements were a bit of a bitch but discovered that, as my PC was powerful enough, I could run 8 instances of the game and basically boosted most of it by myself.

Still enjoyed several "real" games though.

Nice addition to my completion wall!

Ancients of Ooga completed!

2011-06-07T18:42:00.005+01:00

Another great game from NinjaBee.

Was stuck on a certain section for ages, just because I was being stubborn and wanted to do it without dying.

Well today I thought "fuck it" and blitzed through the rest of the game.

Very fun and totally recommend it if you like platformers.

Also completed the 1st of 4 "Kinect Fun Labs" games, "Kinect Me". The Fun Labs titles are basically tech demos to show off what Kinect can do, which just happen to provide 8 achievements for each title, worth a total of 50G.

Nothing ground breaking, but I won't say no to free achievements!

Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper completed!

2011-05-31T17:23:00.002+01:00

Another Boomerang rental completed.

Pretty poor game to be honest. Definitely not the worst game on the Xbox, just very boring and long winded.

It's a port of the PC version, which seriously lets it down in places. Some of the puzzles don't work very well with a controller, they really need a mouse.

Graphically it was pretty shit too. I'd say PS2 quality. Definitely didn't push the Xbox 360 to its limits.

However, it was actually a pretty decent story. The Jack the Ripper story has always intrigued me and it was enjoyable to take part in it. The ending of the story (in game) was a good addition to the story and one that is entirely plausible.

The achievements were very easy too. Definitely a game for the achievement whores out there.

Best send this one back to Boomerang and see what they send next.

Plants vs Zombies completed!

2011-05-29T00:47:00.002+01:00

Woohoo! Finally added this to my completion wall!

Awesome game and definitely recommended.

With my wife's help I finally managed to finish off the remaining survival maps to unlock the Endless Survival mode.

We'd found a great strategy for this mode that required very little maintenance once it was set up. Made it far easier than expected.

Proud to add it to the wall!

Lots of boosting this week

2011-05-24T12:28:00.002+01:00

I borrowed my brother-in-law's Xbox 360 while he's away on holiday purely to get a shit load of boosting done with mine and my wife's accounts.

Already helped her to obtain over a dozen achievements, and that was just day 1.

I'm currently working on online kills in Duke Nukem 3D, need another 250 to finish that off.

Then I'm going to move onto Carcassonne to help my wife sort out the online achievements for that.

Then, if I have time, I'm going to work towards the Worms Armaggeddon online wins. That one will take some time though.

Hoping the Icelandic ash cloud keeps my brother-in-law in Cyprus so I can boost some more... lol

Portal 2 completed!

2011-05-24T07:54:00.005+01:00

This game is nothing short of amazing.

The single player story was superb. None of the puzzles were ridiculously hard, it was a good length, and it was very funny.

The co-op mode was even better. I was lucky that I had a great co-op partner to do the whole thing with, we had a right laugh doing it (even when cocking up several times).

Can't wait to see what the (free!) DLC will bring when it's released..

If you don't own this game yet, quit what you're doing right now and go get it!

Faery: Legends of Avalon completed!

2011-04-19T00:26:00.003+01:00

Glad I got this cheap.

It wasn't a bad game, it was just pretty slow going. Really wished it had voice acting too, would have made it more enjoyable.

Ah well, game number 70 on my completion wall!

Unbound Saga completed!

2011-04-13T07:57:00.005+01:00

This was pretty damn good considering it only cost 160msp.

It reminded me of a "grown-up" version of Comix Zone. It's basically a side scrolling beat-'em-up set in a comic book.

The cell-shaded graphics added to the comic book effect and I liked how defeated enemies turned into scraps of paper and were blown away in the wind.

But that brings up an age old problem with this type of game: There is just not enough variety in the enemies or bosses.

Ah well, can't really complain after paying so little.

Game number 69 on my completion wall!

Now to decide which game will become completion number 70...

Costume Quest completed!

2011-04-05T00:12:00.003+01:00

Damn this was fun!

Picked it up in the recent XBLA sale (along with its DLC) and extremely glad I did.

It's a great little RPG even if it is on the short side. It only took a couple of days to complete but it was enjoyable all the way through.

Yet another game on the completion wall!

Another awesome sale on Xbox Live!

2011-03-30T11:46:00.001+01:00

Once again Microsoft are hosting an awesome sale on Xbox Live content. You can see the full list here.

I picked up several new items from this sale plus the current Deal of the Week:

A World of Keflings - 400msp
Costume Quest - 600msp
Unbound Saga - 160msp
Faery: Legends of Avalon - 600msp
Raskulls - 400msp
Raskulls DLC - 160msp
Worms 2 DLC - 200msp
Mirror's Edge DLC - 400msp

Hopefully I'll get round to playing them soon!

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II completed!

2011-03-16T23:30:00.003Z

I can't make my mind up about this one. It was a very short (and pretty weak) story, but the improvements over the first game (AI, Force powers etc) were all great.

I still enjoyed it but think I prefer the first game more.

Still happy to have it on my completion wall though!

Section 8 completed! Ooh déjà vu...

2011-03-10T07:47:00.000Z

This game is so good I got it for GfWL just to complete it again.

Not much else to say other than it's an awesome game and looks superb on my gaming PC.

If Section 8: Prejudice is just as good it will be superb!

DeathSpank completed!

2011-02-20T22:32:00.002Z

Yet another game picked up in a recent sale. Both this and its sequel were half price.

Enjoyed it loads. It is very funny and the gameplay is superb. It has a boat load of quests but was quite short.

It is now my 64th completed game!

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion completed!

2011-02-16T23:30:00.001Z

Wow what a game!

Picked this up second hand about two years ago. Loved Morrowind on the PC so was eager to give this a try.

I was blown away! I had so many "wow" moments just from walking from town to town. It is a beautiful game.

The story line is great and there are also loads of side quests to do.

It also has some of the best expansion packs around. Shivering Isles could easily have been a stand-alone game.

It took a while to get there but Oblivion is now ready for the completion wall!

Bring on The Elder Scrolls V!

Got loads of stuff I need to do...

2011-02-14T13:38:00.003Z

So many games, so little time...

I've got so many games I want to finish off, or even start, I think I need to make a to-do list of what I want to get done.

Firstly I need to help my wife finish off Mini Ninjas. I've had the game on rental from Boomerang for over 2 months now so really need to get that one sorted out.

Thankfully she doesn't have much left to do in the game so I'm hoping to get that sent back to Boomerang by Friday.

Then I want to finish off Oblivion. There are just two achievements left from the Shivering Isles DLC so should get that finished by the weekend.

After that, well, that's where I need to just list everything down that I've got on the back burner. Not sure on what order they'll get done yet...

Here's what I've got so far (top two are what's listed above, everything else is in the rough order I want to get them done):

Help Lou finish Mini Ninjas.
Complete Oblivion: Shivering Isles.
Finish off Section 8 (PC).
Get the remaining "kill" achievements in Shadowrun.
Get the multiplayer achievements in Crash Course.
Finish the "Marathon" achievement in Trials HD.
Finish DeathSpank.
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood multiplayer.
Finish Vandal Hearts.
Start and complete the BioShock 2 Protector Trials.
Finish Quake 2.
Finish Duke Nukem 3D single player.
Finish my Eternal Sonata Encore play through.

Plus there are a shit load of games I've started but haven't done much in them:

Fallout 3
The Sims 3
Transformers: War for Cybertron
Blur
Dance Central
Viva Piñata (both Xbox 360 and PC)
Dawn of War II
Sacred 2
Lost Odyssey
Ghostbusters

And there are even games I haven't even started yet!

Final Fantasy XIII
Red Dead Redemption
Borderlands
DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue

I think the next couple of years are going to be very busy...

Woohoo new stuff for my birthday!

2011-01-19T09:36:00.005Z

It was my 30th birthday yesterday (woohoo!) so decided to buy some new stuff with my birthday cash:

Kinect
Dance Central
DeathSpank
DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue
Borderlands GOTY
Red Dead Redemption

The Kinect is awesome! I wasn't that impressed when I first had a go on one at Christmas but I think that was because it hadn't been calibrated correctly.

I made sure mine was set up correctly and it seems so much more responsive.

Spent a few hours killing myself playing Kinect Adventures but loved every second of it.

Can't wait to see what new games are released for it!

Mini Ninjas completed!

2011-01-10T07:00:00.000Z

Finally managed to put away my Christmas games long enough to finish this one off.

It was a very fun game even though the avalanche level nearly spoilt the entire game...

Still enjoyed it though and can now add it to the completion wall!

Christmas gaming gifts!

2010-12-27T10:22:00.002Z

I got lots of new games this Christmas. 1 from my beautiful wife and I bought 3 with some game vouchers I received.

My new games are:

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - Ultimate Edition
The Sims 3
Transformers: War for Cybertron

Only tried The Sims 3 so far but it's very fun.

Can't wait to try out the others!

Blacklight: Tango Down completed!

2010-12-20T23:33:00.001Z

Awesome game!

Picked it up when it was on offer recently (got it for only £2.49) just for the hell of it.

Didn't know anything about it and just fancied playing a shooter on the PC.

I'm glad I got it though. It's a superb game!

It took a while to find some matches to start with (Reach and Black Ops had just been released so everyone else was off playing those) but, once I did, I had a blast!

Very proud to have this on my completion wall.

World of Goo, my 60th completed game!

2010-12-16T20:46:00.001Z

A very strange and unique puzzle game.

It's one of the best examples of "easy to pick up but very hard to master" that I've seen.

Very fun game but I had to resort to using several video guides to do some of the levels. Some are very difficult.

Glad to have it as the 60th game on my completion wall!

Harms Way completed! And yes, I know it's an easy one!

2010-12-09T07:39:00.004Z

This was one of two free games released yesterday. This and Doritos Crash Course are the two finalists in this years Doritos Unlock Xbox competition.

Harms Way is an arcade style team based racer, where one guy is the driver and the other controls a gun turret. Basically the driver has to win the race while his team mate in the turret has to take out the other drivers.

For a free game it is extremely well presented and it plays brilliantly.

The achievements were extremely simple, however. I obtained all of them within 30 minutes (and most of that time was spent trying to find and join an online game).

But, a result is a result, and this is now on the completion wall!

Section 8 completed!

2010-12-07T22:47:00.000Z

Woohoo! Section 8 has finally been completed!

It took a while but I finally obtained rank 50!

One of my favourite games on the Xbox 360 and it was also one of the cheapest I bought. Got it for only £6!

Most people dismiss this as it's not Call of Duty or Halo. Well that's their loss. They're missing out on one hell of a tactical shooter.

Section 8 has now jumped to the top of my "best retail game by TA ratio" list on TrueAchievements, finally knocking The Orange Box off the top spot.

Can't wait for the sequel to be released!

Portal: Still Alive completed!

2010-11-30T23:46:00.001Z

This was a triumph.

I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS.

It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.

Sorry, couldn't resist!

Picked this up in a recent deal for only 400 points (should have been 1200msp) even though I'd already mastered it in The Orange Box.

There's just something about Portal that I love. Not just GLaDOS (although she is fantastic), everything about the game is incredible.

The extra "Still Alive" maps were great and made me use my brain for a change!

Very pleased to add this to my completed collection.

And, just because this song is awesome, here is "Still Alive" :)

Monday Night Combat completed!

2010-11-30T10:20:00.001Z

Finished off the last achievement for Monday Night Combat last night. Ended up boosting for it as the timing required to get a triple kill is very tight.

It's a very good game, even more so because I got it for free!

All of the achievements are very easy to get either solo or through boosting. The entire set of Crossfire achievements can be won in a local split screen match.

Even so, I can see myself playing this one again as it's very fun!

Time to add it to the completion wall!

Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 completed!

2010-11-30T10:16:00.003Z

Woohoo! Another one for the completion wall!

Can't beat an old school top down shooter. Very fun game even though it's very short.

It's prequel, MERCS, was one of my all time favourite games on the SEGA MegaDrive so just had to pick this one up when I saw it on XBLA.

I have to thank my beautiful wife for helping me complete the game in co-op. Couldn't have done it without her!

Castle Crashers completed!

2010-11-26T23:43:00.001Z

Picked this up last December when it was part of the New Year deals. One of the best XBLA games I own and one that I will definitely still play even though I've won all the achievements. Trying to unlock all of the characters will take a lot of time!

It's a very tough game even on the standard difficulty, and Insane mode definitely lives up to its name!

It's a shame that the online mini-games aren't up to the same standard as the main game. Resorted to boosting the achievements for these in the end, was just too frustrating trying to get them legitimately.

Very proud to have it on the completion wall!

Pac-Man CE DX completed!

2010-11-18T15:38:00.002Z

A new version of Pac-Man was released yesterday for Pac-Man's 30th anniversary.

It's an upgraded version of Pac-Man Championship Edition, which was released a couple of years ago.

It's an absolutely awesome game, which greatly improves on the previous version.

The achievements are much simpler this time round but there is loads of replayability from the different modes and maps.

A worthy addition to the completion wall!

I'm a party animal! Another one for the completion wall!

2010-11-16T23:33:00.001Z

Well this was a big change of pace. Viva Piñata: Party Animals has been completed.

It's a very easy game with regards to achievements but was also very fun. Decent enough to play solo but was great fun with other "real people" playing.

Nice bit of healthy competition playing against my wife (although I think she cheats lol).

Definitely recommended if you've got kids. They will love the characters and all the bright colours.

Time to send it back to Boomerang. Will have to wait a while for my next rental though, I finished this one very fast!

Another one in the bag. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 completed!

2010-11-03T08:25:00.004Z

Huge thanks to A7X Sephiroth from TA for helping me complete the DLC for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 last night.

It meant that I can now add the game to the completion wall!

The main game was very fun but the DLC was pretty boring for the most part. Just 4 additional Simulator missions that were not very original at all.

And I totally hate "Balance", all because of those damn proximity mines! Took us around 90 minutes just to work on that one particular achievement. Evil!

It felt damn good, though, when the achievement finally popped.

Time to send this back to Boomerang. I wonder what I'll get next...

I got Monday Night Combat for free!

2010-10-18T10:00:00.006+01:00

I was given a free code for Monday Night Combat over the weekend!

It was slightly cheeky in how I got it though. My daughter woke me up at 2:30 Saturday morning so I sent the developers a Tweet asking for them to send me a code to cheer me up.

Was very surprised when I received a message with the code!

Downloaded it and had a quick game yesterday and it looks really impressive.

Hopefully I'll get more time to play it properly over the next few nights.

For anyone who doesn't know what MNC is, here's the official debut trailer:

Big milestone for the completion wall. 50 games completed!

2010-10-11T11:12:00.006+01:00

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed has become my 50th completed game!

Finally managed to pick up a copy of the Ultimate Sith Edition to get all the DLC, which meant I could finally get the remaining achievements!

The DLC missions were fun but very short. They added a great twist to the story, though, so it was very enjoyable to play through them.

Games for Windows Live

2010-09-21T10:13:00.003+01:00

Recently picked up a couple of games that support Games for Windows Live:

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II Gold Edition (game + expansion)
Blacklight: Tango Down

Blacklight was available for a bargain price of only £2.49 as part of the recent Deal of the Week for GfWL titles (75% off). Looks pretty decent so far, just need to find the right time to encounter the active players.

Also got Dawn of War II for an awesome price of £13.95. Buying the game and expansion separately would have cost around £25.

It's been years since I last played a Real Time Strategy game so it will take some getting used to it but, from what I've seen so far, it is going to be a great game.

Gears of War 2 Completed!

2010-09-13T08:33:00.004+01:00

The time has come to add Gears of War 2 to the completion wall!

Finally finished off the Seriously 2.0 achievement last night to earn the full 1750 Gamer Score!

I'm very pleased to add this to my completion wall. I've been working on it since January 2009 and thought for ages that I'd never get it done (Rank 100 on 1x XP!?) but, thanks to the awesome XP events, I soon got that one out of the way.

Also couldn't have done it without the TrueAchievement co-op Horde sessions. The guys in those were awesome!

The Dark Knight takes his place on the completion wall!

2010-09-03T14:03:00.005+01:00

Woohoo! Finally got 100% in Batman: Arkham Asylum!

I finished the story and predator challenges about a week ago, and finished my hard play through a couple of days ago.

All that remained were the insane combat challenges.

I'd struggled with these for ages, only just scraping a bronze medal on most of them. Until this morning...

Not sure what happened this morning but something finally clicked and I managed to get a gold on each challenge.

That made Batman: Arkham Asylum my 48th completed game!

The Horde have been defeated!

2010-09-01T10:15:00.002+01:00

320 waves of the Locust Horde have now been defeated.

Last night I completed the last Horde achievement: "Blood on the Sand" - Waves 1-50 on the Nowhere map.

It wasn't the smoothest session I've been in. We had 1 guy drop out after the 2nd wave for no reason, and 1 other guy spent far too long trying to melee the Butchers...

But a result is a result and it felt great seeing the achievement pop.

Now all that stands in the way of completion are 33000 Locust drones...

Yet another Gears of War 2 XP event!

2010-08-19T13:52:00.010+01:00

Rod Fergusson (@GearsViking) has confirmed that there will be another XP event for Gears of War 2: http://twitter.com/GearsViking/status/21522786178

It will be for the Labor Day holiday and will run from Friday 3rd September until Tuesday 7th September.

He has also confirmed that there will be no limit on how much the XP multiplier will be!

All you need to do to help increase the XP multiplier is "Like" the official Gears of War Facebook page. You can find this at: http://www.facebook.com/gearsofwar

*EDIT* The XP multiplier has been confirmed to be 25x! Good luck to all those going for their wings!

For the Horde!

2010-08-18T12:01:00.005+01:00

It's been a while since I posted on here.

I've been pretty busy lately with various Horde sessions in Gears of War 2.

All set up on TrueAchievements.com I've been trying to clear out all of the remaining Horde achievements.

Only 3 Horde achievements remain now:

Icy Dead People - Complete waves 1 through 50 on any Snowblind Map Pack map in Horde (any difficulty)
Am I Only Dreaming? - Reach level 40 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 - 40 on the Memorial map in Horde
Blood on the Sand - Reach level 50 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 - 50 on the Nowhere map in Horde

I've got a session on Monday night to do "Am I Only Dreaming?", and have already done the first 28 waves for "Icy Dead People" and first 10 waves for "Blood on the Sand".

The end is in sight!

Bing, bong, crash! SDCC gives you wings!

2010-07-26T08:21:00.005+01:00

Well the Gears of War 2 San Diego Comic Con 20x XP event has come to a close.

It was an awesome event, it allowed me to go from rank 50 to rank 100 doing only casual boosting (I don't think I'll ever play King of the Hill again).

So, I finally gained my wings, and now the completion of Gears of War 2 is in sight.

Just need to finish off 210 waves of Horde first...

Another rental completed!

2010-07-23T14:22:00.003+01:00

Finished off LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 this morning. Very fun game and I think it's one of the better LEGO games available.

Just need to help my wife finish it on her account and I can send it back to Boomerang.

Gears of War 2 20x XP Event

2010-07-19T16:37:00.002+01:00

There will be another Gears of War 2 XP event later this week, with a massive 20x multiplier bonus!

The event is running for the duration of the San Diego Comic Con; From 12:30 EDT on Thursday 22nd July until 20:00 EDT on Sunday 25th July.

I plan on joining (and hosting) some boosting sessions (setup on TrueAchievements) to try and earn rank 100 and get the Veteran Gear achievement.

Finger's crossed they go well and I can get that achievement out of the way!

Another 3 for the completion wall!

2010-07-08T13:50:00.006+01:00

I've been at home sick the last couple of days so spent it relaxing on the sofa with the Xbox controller in hand.

Gave me a good opportunity to finish off some more XBLA games. I can now add the following to my completion wall:

UNO Rush
Feeding Frenzy
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge Special Edition

It felt great playing Monkey Island 2 again. Definitely the best in the series.

Another one for the completion wall...

2010-06-25T14:57:00.004+01:00

Finished off The Saboteur last night.

I think that was the best game I've played this year (even beating Assassin's Creed II and BioShock 2).

Very stylish and extremely entertaining. Well worth a look if you enjoy the sandbox genre of games (think GTA).

Off back to Boomerang it goes. Lets see what they send me next.

New games but no time to play!

2010-06-18T15:28:00.003+01:00

Picked up some new games from the current sale and deal of the week:

Geometry Wars 2
Trials HD (plus DLC)
UNO Rush
Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment

No idea when I'll get chance to play them (still hooked on The Saboteur at the moment) but wasn't going to miss out on their deals.

Crazy XBLA Deals!

2010-06-14T15:01:00.001+01:00

This week there are two sets of deals on the Xbox 360 marketplace.

First off is the usual Deal of the Week. This week we have the following games on offer (deal price is in brackets):

Shadow Complex (560 msp)
Trials HD (560 msp)
Marvel vs Capcom 2 (560 msp)
TMNT Turtles in Time (400 msp)
Splosion Man (400 msp)

Also, starting from Wednesday 16th June and running until Tuesday 22nd June, there will be a big XBLA sale to celebrate E3 2010. The games on offer are as follows (deal price is in brackets):

A Kingdom for Keflings (400 msp)
Alien Hominid (400 msp)
Banjo Tooie (800 msp)
Bionic Commando Rearmed (400 msp)
Bomberman LIVE (400 msp)
~~Braid (800 msp)~~
Castle Crashers (800 msp)
Castlevania (400 msp)
Contra (240 msp)
Crystal Defenders (400 msp)
Geometry Wars 2 (400 msp)
Magic the Gathering (400 msp)
N+ (400 msp)
Panzer General (400 msp)
Portal (800 msp)
TMNT: 1989 Arcade (240 msp)
Uno Rush (400 msp)
Vandal Hearts (800 msp)
Zombie Apocalypse (400 msp)

*EDIT* Looks like Braid is not part of this sale as it is still just listed at 800 msp and that should be its new permanent price.

~~I'm not sure about Braid being listed in that offer at 800 msp as it was meant to have been permanently reduced to that cost anyway. I'll update the post once the cost has been confirmed.~~

There are some cracking offers up for grabs though. I'll be getting a few for sure!

Gears of War 2 - Title Update 6 & DLC Price Drop!

2010-05-27T11:11:00.005+01:00

Title update 6 was released yesterday alongside an amazing and permanent discount on all map packs.

The map pack prices are as follows:

Flashback - 400 points (same price)
Combustible - 400 points (down from 800)
Snowblind - 400 points (down from 800)
Dark Corners - 560 points (down from 1200)
All Fronts - 800 points (down from 1600)

This is an absolute steal if you've never picked up any of the map packs as you can now get them all for just 800 points!

Full release notes for title update 6 can be found in an earlier blog post.

Oh, and it's also a TRIPLE XP "weekend" to celebrate the release of the update! This is running from Thursday 27th May to Tuesday 1st June (starts and ends at around 15:00 BST)

I chose the impossible. I chose...

2010-05-24T14:15:00.004+01:00

The BioShock 2 Special Edition!

Picked it up from ShopTo.net for £29.85. Not a bad price considering it retailed at close to £70.

As well as the game the Special Edition includes:

12" vinyl LP with official BioShock orchestral score
Audio CD with official BioShock 2 orchestral score
3 vintage Rapture advertisement posters
164-page hardback book "Deco Devolution The Art of BioShock 2"

The CD for the BioShock 2 score is also designed to look like an LP. A small but very cool touch.

The art book is also very impressive. It contains both concept and actual art from BioShock 2, including the characters, locations and weapons, from both the single and multiplayer modes.

Now I just need to find out my old record player...

Another one bites the dust. 40 games completed!

2010-05-21T09:13:00.003+01:00

Finished off Sonic & Knuckles last night, which became my 40th completed game!

Never played this one when I had my MegaDrive so was quite strange playing an old game for the first time. It's aged pretty well considering it's from the 16bit era.

It's not my favourite of the "classic" Sonic games but much better than Sonic 3 in my opinion.

It makes a nice addition to my completion wall.

Gears of War 2 Title Update 6 Incoming!

2010-05-19T13:53:00.015+01:00

Details of the upcoming title update for Gears of War 2 were released yesterday by Epic:

Improvements
Title Update 6 makes these new improvements:
Adds a new public multiplayer match option called Social Xbox LIVE (aka player matches), open to anyone who owns all downloadable maps (that is, All Fronts Collection). We’ll be having a promotion that will dramatically reduce the cost of the All Fronts Collection.
You can join Social Matches in progress and can quit any time without penalty, although players who quit a match early don’t receive earned experience (XP) from that match.
Social matchmaking lets your party join a match in progress. If a match is not found, your party hosts a new match, filling any empty player slots with bots.
Social Matches automatically cycle to the next map without further matchmaking.
Teams are rebalanced between matches based on XP level without splitting parties.
If you quit, your spot is taken by a bot until a new player joins the match. That new player can join while the match is in progress.
If you join a match in progress, you are assigned a team based on XP level and party size.
If you join a match in progress, you replace a bot at the earliest opportunity: at the first bot’s death for respawning game types (for example, Annex) and at round completion for Warzone, Execution, and Wingman.
Social leaderboards become part of the War Journal.
Renames Public Matches to Ranked Xbox LIVE Matches to differentiate these from Social Xbox LIVE Matches, and adds some improvements to these matches.
Improved host selection using bandwidth testing and previous hosting data has been added.
Before the match begins, teams are balanced based on XP without splitting parties.
Renames Private Matches to Custom Xbox LIVE Matches and makes these matches invite-only.
Adds the ability to join Horde sessions that are in progress.
In Social Horde, you can join a session in progress through matchmaking and you are able to continue your session from the last wave you failed without starting over.
In Ranked Horde, you can join a session in progress only through invites.
If you join a session in progress, at the end of the session you receive the score you achieved during the time you spent in the session.
Improves the precision of weapon selection using the D-pad.
Improves client-side hit detection for ballistic weapons.
Exploit Fixes
Title Update 6 fixes these possible exploits, where under certain circumstances:
Execution rules could be ignored when using certain weapon types.
On the Subway map, you could get outside of the playable environment by sliding into cover and rolling between a train car and the side of tracks.
On the Blood Drive map, you could get outside of the playable environment in various locations.
Players could grief other players on Submission, Annex, King of the Hill, and Guardian games by preventing the objective from being completed while racking up experience. Title Update 6 adds match time limits to each of these game types to prevent this practice.
General Fixes
Title Update 6 fixes these other issues as well:
An issue that could cause your profile to be overwritten, erasing XP level, and achievement progress.
An issue that could cause a campaign save slot to be overwritten if you previously chose to continue without saving and then signed in.
Balancing
Title Update 6 makes these balancing changes:
Changes the Gnasher Shotgun pellet pattern to increase hit consistency.
Changes the Guardian game type to select the leader based upon XP level (highest to lowest).

A classic has been completed

2010-05-17T09:34:00.003+01:00

Finished another game Saturday night. This time it was the original Sonic the Hedgehog on XBLA.

This was one of the first games I owned on the MegaDrive so was an instant buy as soon as I saw it on the marketplace.

Still an awesome game to this day. Feels good finally adding it to my completion pile.

Another one for the completion pile...

2010-05-14T09:07:00.003+01:00

Finally finished off Carcassonne last night.

First picked it up for free in November 2007 for Microsoft's "LIVE is 5IVE" event (Xbox LIVE's 5th anniversary).

Not the most exciting game I own but definitely a change of pace compared to some I've been playing.

It is now my 38th completed game.

Bioshock 2 for £17.95? Damn right!

2010-05-11T12:06:00.003+01:00

Zavvi.com currently have Bioshock 2: Rapture Edition for £17.95 with free delivery.

This is their deal of the day so grab it fast!

You can find the product here.

Bioshock 2: Rapture Edition is a UK exclusive only available at zavvi.com. The Rapture Edition includes the game and a hardcover book "Deco Devolution - The Art of Bioshock 2"

Yet another game completed!

2010-05-04T09:50:00.003+01:00

It's taken 2.5 years but Forza 2 is finally complete!

It started off as a fun game, but soon turned into a boring grind-fest. I'm glad to be done with it to be honest.

Don't think I'll be playing any more racing sims any time soon.

Completed my 35th game!

2010-04-30T09:26:00.004+01:00

Finished off another game the other night to take me to 35 completed games. Finally got the last achievement in Sensible World of Soccer on XBLA.

Glad to be done with it, to be honest. I'm terrible at it...

I'm also still ahead of schedule to reach 50 completed games by December 2011.

Achievement addiction...

2010-04-26T10:14:00.003+01:00

I think I'm addicted to earning achievements.

I must be to want to play through Luxor 2 just to earn an achievement that will put me back on a "normal" gamerscore (one that ends in a 0 or 5).

Luxor 2 is probably the most frustrating game I've played on the Xbox 360, yet I'm still forcing myself to play.

I've lost count of how many times I've yelled at the TV because of this game, which really pisses my wife off (and I don't blame her). Playing this game puts me in a really foul mood but I can't just say "sod it". I can't stop playing it until this achievement pops.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel though, there's only a few levels left until I earn the achievement. Then the bad moods will stop. At least until I find another game with shitty achievements.

Achievements, the drug of the 21st century gamer...

Demos and trials

2010-04-21T23:09:00.005+01:00

Tried out a few demos and XBLA trials tonight. Most were average to shitty but one stood out by a mile... "Wet".

Very slick and very cool. It was like playing a Tarantino movie.

Will definitely be adding that to my rental list in the morning.

Xbox Live Marketplace Schedule - April 20th to May 3rd

2010-04-21T15:54:00.004+01:00

April 20th - Avatar Marketplace

Gears of War 3 collection

April 20th - Games on Demand

Halo 3
Saints Row (Europe only)
Sonic The Hedgehog (Europe, Australia and New Zealand)
Need for Speed: Carbon (Asia)

April 22nd - Game Add-ons

Left 4 Dead 2 The Passing - 560 MSP

April 22nd - Avatar Marketplace

Saints Row 2 collection

April 26th - Deal of the Week

The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, reduced from 800 MSP to 400 MSP

April 27th - Games on Demand

SHReK the THiRD (Everywhere, excluding Japan)
Far Cry 2 (North America only)
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (North America only)

April 28th - XBLA Wednesday

Tecmo Bowl Throwback - 800 MSP
Game Room - Basketball, Megamania, Night Stalker, Pitfall!, Rack ‘Em Up, Realsports Volleyball and Super Breakout

April 28th - Game Add-ons

MEGA MAN 10 Endless Attack mode - 80 MSP
MEGA MAN 10 Special Stage 2 - 80 MSP
MEGA MAN 10 Special Stage 3 - 80 MSP

April 29th - Game Add-ons

Just Cause 2 Black Market Aerial Pack - 160 MSP
BioShock 2 Rapture Metro - 800 MSP

April 29th - Avatar Marketplace

Diesel collection

May 3rd - Halo: Reach beta

Requires Halo 3: ODST to gain access

May 3rd - Deal of the Week

Zombie Apocalypse, reduced from 800 to 400 MSP

Another game completed

2010-04-21T15:50:00.006+01:00

Finished Prince of Persia last night. Quite an enjoyable game but very repetitive, and the Epilogue level was extremely frustrating at times.

The achievements were simple enough to get though, which is great for a rental game.

I'm glad I only rented it too. There's no replay value at all once all the achievements have been earned (which in Prince of Persia means you've done all you can in the game).

Sent it back off to Boomerang today so lets see what I end up with next.

First things first...

2010-04-21T15:00:00.003+01:00

Right, boring history lesson to start with kiddies.

I've been a gamer for as long as I can remember. Started off with my dad's ZX Spectrum in the mid to late 80's, which then got upgraded to a MegaDrive (yes I'm English so don't go calling it a "Genesis").

Next console to grace my presence was the PlayStation, then the PlayStation 2.

After that I started "collecting" consoles and ended up with an N64, GameCube, DreamCast and original Xbox (plus a multitude of hand-held consoles).

Then along it came... The Xbox 360.

Got it for an early Christmas present in October 2007 and I've been addicted to it ever since.