As I was saying.

Bionicle Heroes is 100% done, and it didn't hurt too bad at all. Despite my corrupted save issue, which I found out is not a unique occurance but is pretty rare, I managed to rally and destroy that game.

It turns out the thing I was doing when my save bugged, letting the game run in a certain place with the fire button rubberbanded to pile up kill counts and money, is totally unnecessary. I managed to bag all but one of the kill count achievements and both money collections (2.5 and 5 million studs, respectively) in just two playthroughs. Unlike the Lego Star Wars stud achievements (both II and TSC), the money collecting is cumulative and not counter-based, so you can still upgrade and buy secrets and it won't set you back.

The whole blitz all the levels, then upgrade abilities and clean up maneuver worked nicely, though I did stop to upgrade weapons and armor frequently, as it saves so much trouble and boosts our finish ratings since you won't lose masks as much, if at all.

If there was a tricky part, I'd have to say it was getting a Gold completion rating on the third bonus level, and even then it only took a half dozen tries, tops. 56 kills is an easy mark to reach with Nuparu, the black dude with the grenades, once his weapon's upgraded. Another delay came up when I forgot to get two of the gold canisters I needed from... Avak? The brown boss, down in the dungeon/dynamo/et cetera area; when he went to pull his switches, no enemies felt like coming out. A quick trip to the Dashboard and back into the game fixed that, though, so it seems like a minor bug.

Anyway, two new releases this past Wednesday, so let's get to it. No game availability for now since Live's being schizotypal and I really need to get to bed anyway.

Omega Five
Achievements: 12 (all offline, 200 gs)

I love shmups. I suck at dodging bullets. You'd think these two would cancel one another out, but no, I am a sucker and threw down money for this little number. Not disappointed at all, even though I haven't found time to even clear the first stage yet.

Achievements are run of the mill for this sort of thing; beat the missions, beat the game without dying with each character, do something (or do nothing) with the different characters' special moves. Simple. If you're good at this sort of thing, you could probably bang them all out in a couple of hours. I might be able to at least get the special move ones and the basic level clears. We'll see.

TRON
Achievements: 12 (10 offline for 185 gs, 2 online for 15 gs)

One of these days, I will sit down and train myself to play these old two-stick arcade ports on a controller. It's just not the same, and while it's more reasonable for, say, Smash TV (I played that back on the SNES anyway), I'm never going to get anywhere in TRON or Robotron if I stay this bad.

That being said, it's a true port. No "evolved" modes or any of that crap, which is pretty refreshing. The only thing that's new would probably be the online multiplayer.

Your two online achievements are one for scoring high in co-op, and one for winning three versus games. The rest is just clearing all the levels, and a few skill-based ones like dodging grid bugs or getting to the MCP in six shots. I can't play that level without muttering, "End of line," whenever I finish/die. Sorry.

Worth it if you like the classics and can deal with them on a controller, since it's only 400 points. I'm going to wait a bit, myself.

I've probably said it before, but where the hell is Rez?

Oh yeah, since I had to pound away at Bionicle due to the save game snafu, I'm giving Blitz and Blazing Angels an extra day or two to make up for time lost playing catchup. On its way is Blue Dragon, which is mostly grind-based achievements, and that has me wondering something: should I suspend the one week rule for RPGs because of the tendency towards grinding? I mean, a lot of them are an easy 1,000, it just takes time to pound away at them. I got a solid finish in Enchanted Arms that way, and that was totally Gamefly'd.

Chances are I'll do it, at least until the unlikely event arises where I'm working on four RPGs at once and things are getting stale here, fast. Are there even four RPGs for the 360?