Three more games down, though I didn't do so much. I thought it might be a good idea to start playing games on the hardest difficulty if they had stackable difficulty clear achievements. Bad idea. Back to easy blitzes for completion achievements, and then going back for Hards. So here's what I've been playing.
Bully: Scholarship Edition
Achievements: 38 (all offline, 1000gs)
Welcome to Grand Theft Auto: Lite. Like its big brother series, Bully is your typical Rockstar sandbox game with way too much to do. It's fun, though, since you get to do it as a two-faced snot kid beating up other snot kids, with the lack of a fatal edge to things being a nice touch.
Definitely a grind whore, though. I eked out a whole bunch of achievements just by killing time in the first chapter, which wasn't so bad since progressing in the classes gives you bonuses you can use elsewhere. The one problem is you can't just sleep anytime you want; you have to wait until 7 PM rolls around, even if you've cleared any classes you might have to take for the rest of the day, which basically leaves you little more option than to just screw around, especially if you've cleared all the optional errand missions for that chapter.
Still, it's pretty fun, and I look forward to getting back to it when I have more time for it. Worth a playthrough, and the achievements aren't particularly difficult, just time-consuming.
The Darkness
Achievements: 50 (38 offline for 795gs, 12 online for 205gs)
There's multiplayer for this? Mmmkay. Yeah, I'm a little confused, too. However, the single-player game is pretty excellent. I remember being impressed by the demo, and I'm really glad this popped up from Gamefly, finally.
FPS with special-powers sort of game, with the powers combined pretty well with your shooty gameplay. You basically try to keep things dark so your powers will work, summon buddies to do dirty work or distract enemies for you, and proceed to make a mess of things. I'm down with this.
Achievements are progress based, with a fair amount of exploration and secret-based ones for nitpicky whores like myself, so remember to find all the phone numbers you can. I actually really liked the phone bonus/secret system, as it added a level of depth and gave the setting a bit more life. It was cute.
Still, didn't get so far since this was the first game I pulled that Hard playthrough nonsense on. Ugh. Play this game, but go easy at first so you can get the hang of it. The beginning, before you even have powers, is pretty unrelenting.
Condemned 2: Bloodshot
Achievements: 38 (24 offline for 600gs, 14 online for 400gs)
Oh man, the first game was sooo good, can this one live up to the legacy? And there's multiplayer here, too? WTF?
Actually, the multiplayer aspect seems pretty fun, since this time around, they really polished and upped the focus on the melee combat system. You must learn decent timing and combo techniques if you want to do well without dying, and I both appreciate and hate this fact.
Fortunately, they also provide a "Bloodshot Fight Club" mode where you can set things up to practice your combat with pretty much any melee weapons in the game against several types of enemies, and it's also a good place to grind out the specific kill type achievements. You also unlock new levels to do so in through completing the game, which is nice for variety's sake.
As for the single player campaign, you're back as Ethan Thomas, about a year after your getting kicked off the SCU and doing quite a number on that little orchard. Drunk and depressed, it looks like your buddy Vanhorn is back, your comrade Rosa's still working and lost some weight, and they're both looking for you because there are... problems.
A lot of the elements from the first game returned, including the forensics aspect and tools, which makes me happy; if you'd just been running around pummeling things this time around while the situation just got weirder, I'd be kind of disappointed. Instead of collecting dead birds and metal, however, you're tuning TVs for story-related info and breaking the sonic emitters that are attracting and killing the birds in the first place.
One other thing is that this game clearly came a long way from the visuals of the first. It's beautiful, for a crumbling city full of posessed bums and monsters. Yeah, monsters. They've got claws. They're dicks. The bums are smarter and tougher now, too, which is why I mentioned you really need to learn how to fight.
If you dug the first Condemned, you need to play this. If you didn't play the first Condemned, you need to play that and then play this. There are no excuses. Go. Now.
As a heads up, I should mention that Sega is finally starting up the Phantasy Star Universe Maximum Attack G extension they promised on 8/1/08. What this means is a) if you have PSU, with the AotI expansion, you should be playing for the boosted experience and goodies out the wazoo, and b) this is the only damn thing I'm going to be playing for the three week's the extension is running, most likely, so it might get a bit quiet here. If you want to run with me, I'm most likely going to be playing as my main FO, Picklebutt, running C-grade runs to finish get the badges I need for the limited edition casting Mag, and then hitting higher grades for better loot and experience, as well as spell grinding. See you there!
Coming soon: Soul Calibur IV review, since I reserved the Limited Edition and have a sexy arcade stick coming next week.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Blockin' yo cock like a tank at Tiananmen.
Oh man. Yesterday, I woke up at 3:30 AM, worked, came home, took a nap, and woke to a thunderstorm and a fried modem. Everything's cool now, though, so your XBLA blurbs are only slightly stale this week.
1942: Joint Strike
Achievements: 12 (10 offline for 175gs, 2 online for 25gs)
Cost: 800 MS Points
I have to admit, I played my fair share of 1942 and 1943 in brick-and-mortar arcades as a kid, and the P-38 was my favorite plane for a while thanks to that. Not because of any love of aviation technology or WWII history, mind you, but because that joined tail thing it had going on was funky lookin'. Love it.
While I'm almost ready to be tired of these arcade rehashes popping up on XBLA, Capcom at least does a nice job of doing them well, as opposed to Atari and Namco who, for the most part, seem to just be coughing up ports with a spit polish.
For you young'ns, the whole idea behind the 194X series is that it's a top-down, vertical bullet hell with WWII-inspired planes and settings. I think it was the first one that was supposed to be set at the battle of Midway, though the events portrayed were a little... off. I only played the demo, so I'm not sure where this one is supposed to take place, but I flew over a (sweet-looking) volcano at one point in the first level, so I imagine it's somewhere in the Pacific.
This time around, you have a choice of three planes: the original P-38 Lightning, the DH-98 Mosquito, and the funny looking Japanese J7W1 Shinden. Dude, your wings are backwards, and it's Japanese, so of course I played as the Shinden.
As you fly along blowing things out of the sky, weapon powerups and medals drop for you to collect, the latter being something you need to collect for an achievement. Other achievements are obtained through high scores, playing as all the planes, and playing on the hardest difficulty. The online ones are just for rocking some co-op, which I think is a nice addition.
All in all, it's as solid a successor to its franchise as Commando 3, and I suggest you pick this one up as well, despite the lack of a SFIITHDR (long acronyms much?) beta with this one, so far as I know.
Go! Go! Break Steady
Achievements: 12 (8 offline for 125gs, 4 online for 75gs)
Cost: 800 MS Points
Not a sequel to Go! Go! Hypergrind, as much as I would love one. Rather, this one is more a bizarre marriage of elements from Zuma, Gitaroo Man, and Bust-A-Groove.
Yeah, that makes no sense in print, but it actually plays out pretty well. The game could best be described as a rhythm/puzzle game fusion. You're a break dancer, and while your character dances in the background, you get thrown alternating sets of button patterns and curves of "Beatniks," which are little heads of different colors. You have to fire new Beatniks into the mess to make sets of three and clear them, as well as setting up combos, and your results on that front determine what your next dance move (and the button pattern for it) will be. The more complex the move, the more difficult the approach of the button pattern is to follow; sometimes they'll come in a wave pattern, or even a spiral.
While I'm not the biggest fan of the visual style they went with, it's kind of urban and cute enough, so it's not a dealbreaker. There's a lot to keep track of, honestly, but it's just barely below the Too Damn Distracting mark. I suggest it if you're looking for another rhythm game to play, but otherwise you might as well pass.
So the other day, I finally got my hands on an underappreciated gem from the early days of the 360, Condemned. While not nearly as creepy as I had been led to anticipate, it was still a good ride.
Condemned: Criminal Origins
Achievements: 50 (all offline, 970gs)
Yeah, that's right. Only 970gs. No one knows why they didn't cram another 30-pointer in there or distribute those extra 30 amongst some other achievements, but whatever. This game is great.
In Condemned, you're an FBI agent who starts off the game investigating a serial murder case in a town that's apparently going to hell fast, and lucky for you, your career seems headed there just as quickly by the end of the first level. Framed for a crime you're quite certain you didn't commit and the weirdness level climbing rapidly through the roof, you set off to clear your name and, if possible, make the guy who screwed up your life pay.
I remember passing over this because I repeatedly keep making the mistake of thinking survival horror games are going to scare me, but once again, this one did not. It's freaky, sure, and there are some good surprise attack points throughout the game, but for the most part, it's just a solid story that makes it worth playing rather than any spook factor.
Another neat thing is that, besides the mostly melee-oriented combat in a first person world, there's also an element of investigation to things, since you're a detective of sorts and trying to find evidence to clear yourself. It's a nice little distraction from wondering how many hobos you're going to have to bludgeon to death around the next corner, and all the visuals for the investigation tools are neat, if in many cases completely impractical.
My only real complaint is that the game is fairly short, even if you're going in blind. Achievements are mostly of a catch-em-all, with things to collect in each level (dead birds and hunks of metal, oddly enough), with a few more for level completions and weapon usage. As a heads-up, let me recommend you play through the game the first time only hitting people with melee weapons, and switch up as often as you can; you get achievements for a total melee clear up through the second-to-last level, and for hitting enemies with every melee weapon ever. Even firearms count as melee weapons, since you can switch to melee mode with the right bumper and pistol-whip or whack them with the stock, though in both cases the weapons take damage and eventually break. There is an achievement for going and shooting enemies with every firearm as well, but you can just reload the library level and disarm hobos for most of the guns (.45, revolver, pump shotgun, submachine gun), and there's a sawed-off shotgun behind the desk on the second floor. Then you just keep going to the next level, the school and grab the rifle in the "hut" by the playground and finish the level to unlock your points.
Definitely play this, but make sure you rent or borrow it, even if it's cheap by now. The unlockable extras are neat, especially the original demo of the school level that they kept a lot of elements from, but not worth really keeping this around unless you're a collector.
Oh yeah, a heads-up for you contest types. They're running a Play & Win with Gears Of War for GoW2 stuff, including limited edition copies of the game and a custom Gears 360. It's one of those reg online or download-the-gamerpic contests, so it's easy to get in, and then you just have to play once every hour you get a chance to get entries in. That is a potential twenty-four entries a day, if you find a way not to sleep. It's running until July 27th, so hurry up!
1942: Joint Strike
Achievements: 12 (10 offline for 175gs, 2 online for 25gs)
Cost: 800 MS Points
I have to admit, I played my fair share of 1942 and 1943 in brick-and-mortar arcades as a kid, and the P-38 was my favorite plane for a while thanks to that. Not because of any love of aviation technology or WWII history, mind you, but because that joined tail thing it had going on was funky lookin'. Love it.
While I'm almost ready to be tired of these arcade rehashes popping up on XBLA, Capcom at least does a nice job of doing them well, as opposed to Atari and Namco who, for the most part, seem to just be coughing up ports with a spit polish.
For you young'ns, the whole idea behind the 194X series is that it's a top-down, vertical bullet hell with WWII-inspired planes and settings. I think it was the first one that was supposed to be set at the battle of Midway, though the events portrayed were a little... off. I only played the demo, so I'm not sure where this one is supposed to take place, but I flew over a (sweet-looking) volcano at one point in the first level, so I imagine it's somewhere in the Pacific.
This time around, you have a choice of three planes: the original P-38 Lightning, the DH-98 Mosquito, and the funny looking Japanese J7W1 Shinden. Dude, your wings are backwards, and it's Japanese, so of course I played as the Shinden.
As you fly along blowing things out of the sky, weapon powerups and medals drop for you to collect, the latter being something you need to collect for an achievement. Other achievements are obtained through high scores, playing as all the planes, and playing on the hardest difficulty. The online ones are just for rocking some co-op, which I think is a nice addition.
All in all, it's as solid a successor to its franchise as Commando 3, and I suggest you pick this one up as well, despite the lack of a SFIITHDR (long acronyms much?) beta with this one, so far as I know.
Go! Go! Break Steady
Achievements: 12 (8 offline for 125gs, 4 online for 75gs)
Cost: 800 MS Points
Not a sequel to Go! Go! Hypergrind, as much as I would love one. Rather, this one is more a bizarre marriage of elements from Zuma, Gitaroo Man, and Bust-A-Groove.
Yeah, that makes no sense in print, but it actually plays out pretty well. The game could best be described as a rhythm/puzzle game fusion. You're a break dancer, and while your character dances in the background, you get thrown alternating sets of button patterns and curves of "Beatniks," which are little heads of different colors. You have to fire new Beatniks into the mess to make sets of three and clear them, as well as setting up combos, and your results on that front determine what your next dance move (and the button pattern for it) will be. The more complex the move, the more difficult the approach of the button pattern is to follow; sometimes they'll come in a wave pattern, or even a spiral.
While I'm not the biggest fan of the visual style they went with, it's kind of urban and cute enough, so it's not a dealbreaker. There's a lot to keep track of, honestly, but it's just barely below the Too Damn Distracting mark. I suggest it if you're looking for another rhythm game to play, but otherwise you might as well pass.
So the other day, I finally got my hands on an underappreciated gem from the early days of the 360, Condemned. While not nearly as creepy as I had been led to anticipate, it was still a good ride.
Condemned: Criminal Origins
Achievements: 50 (all offline, 970gs)
Yeah, that's right. Only 970gs. No one knows why they didn't cram another 30-pointer in there or distribute those extra 30 amongst some other achievements, but whatever. This game is great.
In Condemned, you're an FBI agent who starts off the game investigating a serial murder case in a town that's apparently going to hell fast, and lucky for you, your career seems headed there just as quickly by the end of the first level. Framed for a crime you're quite certain you didn't commit and the weirdness level climbing rapidly through the roof, you set off to clear your name and, if possible, make the guy who screwed up your life pay.
I remember passing over this because I repeatedly keep making the mistake of thinking survival horror games are going to scare me, but once again, this one did not. It's freaky, sure, and there are some good surprise attack points throughout the game, but for the most part, it's just a solid story that makes it worth playing rather than any spook factor.
Another neat thing is that, besides the mostly melee-oriented combat in a first person world, there's also an element of investigation to things, since you're a detective of sorts and trying to find evidence to clear yourself. It's a nice little distraction from wondering how many hobos you're going to have to bludgeon to death around the next corner, and all the visuals for the investigation tools are neat, if in many cases completely impractical.
My only real complaint is that the game is fairly short, even if you're going in blind. Achievements are mostly of a catch-em-all, with things to collect in each level (dead birds and hunks of metal, oddly enough), with a few more for level completions and weapon usage. As a heads-up, let me recommend you play through the game the first time only hitting people with melee weapons, and switch up as often as you can; you get achievements for a total melee clear up through the second-to-last level, and for hitting enemies with every melee weapon ever. Even firearms count as melee weapons, since you can switch to melee mode with the right bumper and pistol-whip or whack them with the stock, though in both cases the weapons take damage and eventually break. There is an achievement for going and shooting enemies with every firearm as well, but you can just reload the library level and disarm hobos for most of the guns (.45, revolver, pump shotgun, submachine gun), and there's a sawed-off shotgun behind the desk on the second floor. Then you just keep going to the next level, the school and grab the rifle in the "hut" by the playground and finish the level to unlock your points.
Definitely play this, but make sure you rent or borrow it, even if it's cheap by now. The unlockable extras are neat, especially the original demo of the school level that they kept a lot of elements from, but not worth really keeping this around unless you're a collector.
Oh yeah, a heads-up for you contest types. They're running a Play & Win with Gears Of War for GoW2 stuff, including limited edition copies of the game and a custom Gears 360. It's one of those reg online or download-the-gamerpic contests, so it's easy to get in, and then you just have to play once every hour you get a chance to get entries in. That is a potential twenty-four entries a day, if you find a way not to sleep. It's running until July 27th, so hurry up!
Friday, July 18, 2008
Try not to suck any dick on the way to the parking lot!
Atari manages to mangle yet another license. I almost think Uwe Boll's film based on this property was better than this pile of trash.
Alone In The Dark
Achievements: 49 (all offline, 1000gs)
Fuck this gaaaaaaaaaaaaaame.
Some of you may remember the original Alone In The Dark PC game. It was all right, and did wonders for starting up the 3D survival horror genre. Well, they done gone and screwed it all up.
Pretty much the only thing they got right with this mess was enforcing the rule that if you mess up, you dead. I'd be okay with this if the controls weren't poorly mapped, clunky, and the sort of action and gameplay they were going for still were not properly tuned to the console format at all.
Clunky camera doesn't help, as things try to be a little too cinematic. At certain points, I loved the idea, but mixing gameplay with what was going on was just not well thought out. Spacing things with a bit of in-game cutscening would not have hurt, and would have made me a lot happier with myself.
Speaking of the cinematic element, there's a sort of fast-forward/rewind option in the pause menu, in case you want to go back through scenes or skip ahead. I'm not sure why it's there, honestly. Sure, maybe you want to get past a part you're having a hard time with (which for some people would be the whole damn game), but for what? Skipping nukes your chances at completion achievements for a given chapter unless you go back and play straight through later, so for the story? HA!
The story sucks. You're an amnesiac (oh great) who runs into a priest who knows you, watches a bunch of random innocents die, bumps into a Primary Female Interest and learns some evil power that seems to operate like Tremors blown way out of proportion is looking for a rock the priest is wearing around his neck. That's what I got out of the first two chapters, anyway.
And what happens at the end of chapter two? A horrendously buggy driving sequence, wherein you either get sideswiped by a cop early on and you die, narrowly miss a turn and die, or get right near the end, driving through the front of a mall, having no idea where to go from there, and you die. It's bad enough that on top of this, in the sort of car-tutorial-y parking garage sequence, I had the delight of veering a bit to the left on a jump, clipping into the wall, and being trapped in a swooshy, slo-mo "excitement ooh you're in midair" effect with no way out. It was as if I were Schrödinger's cat, but subjected to terrible programming rather than a radioactive isotope or poison or whatever.
Until Atari deigns to pump out another 3D Godzilla fighter with some online play for the three-snitsky, I don't think we're talking. This is the kind of game I'll come back to when I can get a nice buzz on and I haven't been up since 3:30 in the freaking morning thanks to work.
Oh yeah, finally looked at some of the unveils from E3. Kind of digging how MS stole from Apple again, taking the gallery look from Leopard for their new Dashboard setup, and thisMii60 Avatar thing looks neat, too. I totally called the idea of unlocking clothing and what have you via gameplay for them when I first saw them. Should be fun.
Time for a little blackcurrant tea and some .hack//GU to try and soothe the soul before bedtime.
Alone In The Dark
Achievements: 49 (all offline, 1000gs)
Fuck this gaaaaaaaaaaaaaame.
Some of you may remember the original Alone In The Dark PC game. It was all right, and did wonders for starting up the 3D survival horror genre. Well, they done gone and screwed it all up.
Pretty much the only thing they got right with this mess was enforcing the rule that if you mess up, you dead. I'd be okay with this if the controls weren't poorly mapped, clunky, and the sort of action and gameplay they were going for still were not properly tuned to the console format at all.
Clunky camera doesn't help, as things try to be a little too cinematic. At certain points, I loved the idea, but mixing gameplay with what was going on was just not well thought out. Spacing things with a bit of in-game cutscening would not have hurt, and would have made me a lot happier with myself.
Speaking of the cinematic element, there's a sort of fast-forward/rewind option in the pause menu, in case you want to go back through scenes or skip ahead. I'm not sure why it's there, honestly. Sure, maybe you want to get past a part you're having a hard time with (which for some people would be the whole damn game), but for what? Skipping nukes your chances at completion achievements for a given chapter unless you go back and play straight through later, so for the story? HA!
The story sucks. You're an amnesiac (oh great) who runs into a priest who knows you, watches a bunch of random innocents die, bumps into a Primary Female Interest and learns some evil power that seems to operate like Tremors blown way out of proportion is looking for a rock the priest is wearing around his neck. That's what I got out of the first two chapters, anyway.
And what happens at the end of chapter two? A horrendously buggy driving sequence, wherein you either get sideswiped by a cop early on and you die, narrowly miss a turn and die, or get right near the end, driving through the front of a mall, having no idea where to go from there, and you die. It's bad enough that on top of this, in the sort of car-tutorial-y parking garage sequence, I had the delight of veering a bit to the left on a jump, clipping into the wall, and being trapped in a swooshy, slo-mo "excitement ooh you're in midair" effect with no way out. It was as if I were Schrödinger's cat, but subjected to terrible programming rather than a radioactive isotope or poison or whatever.
Until Atari deigns to pump out another 3D Godzilla fighter with some online play for the three-snitsky, I don't think we're talking. This is the kind of game I'll come back to when I can get a nice buzz on and I haven't been up since 3:30 in the freaking morning thanks to work.
Oh yeah, finally looked at some of the unveils from E3. Kind of digging how MS stole from Apple again, taking the gallery look from Leopard for their new Dashboard setup, and this
Time for a little blackcurrant tea and some .hack//GU to try and soothe the soul before bedtime.
This is not helping my recovery at all.
Live Arcade pretty much shat the bed this week when it came to new games, and I discuss how bad I am at playing a virtual version of a sport I played poorly when I was eight. XBLA updates first, since they're going to be quick.
Coffeetime Crosswords
Achievements: 12 (all offline, 200gs)
Cost: 800 MS Points
I'm a word nerd, so I should be all over this, but tell me something. WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD MAKE A CROSSWORD GAME WITHOUT ANY SORT OF KEYBOARD SUPPORT?! This is so not worth 800 points, but I might end up buying it anyway.
Double D Dodgeball
Achievements: 12 (8 offline for 115gs, 4 online for 85gs)
Cost: 800 MS Points
Ugly "retro" styled dodgeball game with terrible control scheme. You'd think they'd map shooting to the A button or something, but no. It's on the right trigger. I pretty much had to get raped for a bit before I figured that out. To hell with this, I'll wait for Pirates vs Ninjas Dodgeball thx.
It might be worth mentioning here that we had a kid we called "Double D" in high school, which was short for "Dickless Doug."
EA Fantasy Football Live Draft Tracker
Achievements: 12 (All online? I dunno. 200gs)
Cost: 400 MS Points
I don't understand Fantasy Football at all. Here's hoping I can find some other people willing to throw away five bucks for what looks like it's a fairly easy 200gs. One day.
And now, sport.
College Hoops: NCAA 2K8
Achievements: 30 (26 offline for 870gs, 4 online for 130gs)
I played basketball as a kid, but didn't really get it beyond "ball goes in hoop, you get points." I don't get plays, I have trouble watching it, and I don't know any of the defensive or dribbling tricks or anything. Of course, I knew I was going to go far with this game.
You can get a handful of achievements just by going in and making your own chant, a crappy play, and doing the easiest training mission, as well as uploading your crappy starting roster. Woop de doo. Other than that, I'm pretty much hopeless. One of the nice things is that you can spam the offline achievements with two controllers and some settings tweaks, but I do not have the patience for that.
Be forewarned that there's one online achievement, for 20gs, that you pretty much can't get now - it was a qualification thing for an online tourney this past February. I thought that sort of thing violated the whole 1000gs out of the box thing, but whatever. Less than an hour in, and I'm shipping it back.
At least it looks fairly neat, and was kind of fun even though I was completely lost. Throwing your player into a random match right when you start up the game? NOT THE BEST IDEA.
Coffeetime Crosswords
Achievements: 12 (all offline, 200gs)
Cost: 800 MS Points
I'm a word nerd, so I should be all over this, but tell me something. WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD MAKE A CROSSWORD GAME WITHOUT ANY SORT OF KEYBOARD SUPPORT?! This is so not worth 800 points, but I might end up buying it anyway.
Double D Dodgeball
Achievements: 12 (8 offline for 115gs, 4 online for 85gs)
Cost: 800 MS Points
Ugly "retro" styled dodgeball game with terrible control scheme. You'd think they'd map shooting to the A button or something, but no. It's on the right trigger. I pretty much had to get raped for a bit before I figured that out. To hell with this, I'll wait for Pirates vs Ninjas Dodgeball thx.
It might be worth mentioning here that we had a kid we called "Double D" in high school, which was short for "Dickless Doug."
EA Fantasy Football Live Draft Tracker
Achievements: 12 (All online? I dunno. 200gs)
Cost: 400 MS Points
I don't understand Fantasy Football at all. Here's hoping I can find some other people willing to throw away five bucks for what looks like it's a fairly easy 200gs. One day.
And now, sport.
College Hoops: NCAA 2K8
Achievements: 30 (26 offline for 870gs, 4 online for 130gs)
I played basketball as a kid, but didn't really get it beyond "ball goes in hoop, you get points." I don't get plays, I have trouble watching it, and I don't know any of the defensive or dribbling tricks or anything. Of course, I knew I was going to go far with this game.
You can get a handful of achievements just by going in and making your own chant, a crappy play, and doing the easiest training mission, as well as uploading your crappy starting roster. Woop de doo. Other than that, I'm pretty much hopeless. One of the nice things is that you can spam the offline achievements with two controllers and some settings tweaks, but I do not have the patience for that.
Be forewarned that there's one online achievement, for 20gs, that you pretty much can't get now - it was a qualification thing for an online tourney this past February. I thought that sort of thing violated the whole 1000gs out of the box thing, but whatever. Less than an hour in, and I'm shipping it back.
At least it looks fairly neat, and was kind of fun even though I was completely lost. Throwing your player into a random match right when you start up the game? NOT THE BEST IDEA.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
GET IN THE CAR
....
Cabela's Big Game Hunter (2008)
Achievements: 31 (all offline, 1000gs)
...but you could only carry 40 lbs back to the wagon.
Huntin' shit. That's it. I refuse to elaborate.
...okay, you want to know what it's like? Here:
Go to hell.
This is an easy 1000gs, just mind the log crossing bit in the first level. If you screw it up, you have to delete all the saves for whatever gamertag is going for that 5gs pain in the ass and try again. Best to just get everything else, then go back, delete everything, and start a new game to get it over and over until it unlocks.
Here's a walkthrough, don't waste your time otherwise. Took me less than five hours, and even then it was only that long because of the log thing and because cougars are assholes.
Sorry I'm pissy. It's frustrating that this game is a damn handout, but it's frustrating that perfection is such a pain, too. This never happened.
Cabela's Big Game Hunter (2008)
Achievements: 31 (all offline, 1000gs)
...but you could only carry 40 lbs back to the wagon.
Huntin' shit. That's it. I refuse to elaborate.
...okay, you want to know what it's like? Here:
Go to hell.
This is an easy 1000gs, just mind the log crossing bit in the first level. If you screw it up, you have to delete all the saves for whatever gamertag is going for that 5gs pain in the ass and try again. Best to just get everything else, then go back, delete everything, and start a new game to get it over and over until it unlocks.
Here's a walkthrough, don't waste your time otherwise. Took me less than five hours, and even then it was only that long because of the log thing and because cougars are assholes.
Sorry I'm pissy. It's frustrating that this game is a damn handout, but it's frustrating that perfection is such a pain, too. This never happened.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
This is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass.
Bit of an impromptu hiatus as of late, as I was watching all of the new Doctor Who season 4 in as much of a marathon as could be mustered, around work and what have you. Great season, all in all, though I think seasons two and three were both stronger. A great way for Russell T. Davies to finish his run on the show, and they did a nice job of tying in the spinoff shows, Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventures (which I need to catch up with now). Definitely a recommend if you're into campy sci-fi. Sorry for being vague, but I don't want to spoil anything.
I think the first GV movie review will be popping up soon, as well; some OB people recently helped me track down (inadvertently) this old animated film I saw as a kid and have been trying to find for years. Gandahar (or as it was released here in the US, Light Years) is this weird piece by Rene Laloux where robots from the future are invading the planet Gandahar, and this guy and his companion and her dope alien titties are called upon to make it stop. It's been so long that I can't really remember more to synopsize with, so details and spoilage will come once I've watched it.
Anyway, on with the main matter at hand, some game catchup.
Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Achievements: 37 (all offline, 1000 gs)
I am a (few) big m(a,e)n yes I am, and I've got a big gun.
Wow. Just... wow. Lives up to the hype. Yet another game where I really don't need to tell you it's awesome, because anyone who's anyone who can even mildly put up with FPS games has been urged into picking this up and been playing it for months.
In short, Infinity Ward's taken the fairly solid Call Of Duty series and finally managed to pull it out of the quagmire known as A Shit-Ton Of WWII Games, taking us to MODERN DAY instead. Despite the time transplant and the completely original scenario in this one, you still play the game from multiple fronts and for multiple nations, all stocked by people just as stereotypically whatever-ish as was common in the previous games. Don't get me wrong, I love that, in a sort of "hoo man, this is over the top," sort of way.
Honestly, I was expecting to just get dropped into the Iraq war, so the original story was a bit of a surprise, but it made sense pretty soon as I realized, "Oh yeah, the war in Iraq had no resolution," and would thus make for a pretty poor game, what with no end.
Achievement spread is typical for the FPS genre. Beat the chapters, beat 'em on hard, do specific events well. What surprised me is that none of them were for online play, despite that aspect being so rich. Ah well, makes getting 1000 a lot easier, so I'm not complaining.
Personally, I blew the whole minimum two hours' play time just trying to ace the "ship simulation" in the first level, out of perfectionism, but you know what? I enjoyed the entire time. A couple of bits where I was yelling at the screen, sure, but no controller throwing. It was still fun every time. That's why I sent it back relatively early; I know I need to buy this game and sit down with it to give it all the respect and time it deserves, which would totally bog down the process here.
Unless there's something horribly wrong with you, like there is with me, you need to own this game. Moving along, now.
Golf: Tee It Up!
Achievements: 12 (10 offline for 160gs, 2 online for 40gs)
And you thought today's post title might imply a bowling game.
Activision, I'm not happy with you, given the current state of Guitar Hero. However, this little golf game of yours ain't so bad. With character models reminiscent of games like Hot Shots and a generally cute, fun atmosphere, it's nice to see 3D Ultra Minigolf get a "real" golf counterpart on Live Arcade.
There's not too much in the way of innovation in the world of golf games, to be honest. There are several realistic course runs, with future ones downloadable I imagine, some customizability for your avatar with unlockable outfit accessories, a click-click swing mechanic, and for whatever reason, bunnies. Mmmkay. Play is solid, things look nice, and the music is unobtrusive.
Your achievements are all for successful scoring/doing well on the various courses, save for a couple you get for just playing online, one for playing at all (1,000 swings), and a couple gimmick ones. Easy-ish 1,000, and if you've been waiting for a truer golf game, here you go.
Schizoid
Achievements: 12 (10 offline for 165gs, 2 online for 35gs)
Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice.
...I never would've expected to describe something as "Ikaruga meets Burnout."
That says it all, even though it makes no sense at first glance. If you're not familiar with Ikaruga, it's a shmup by Treasure (WOO!) where your ship switches between white and black to deal differently with similarly colored enemies onscreen. Well, in this little game, you're both colors. That is, you're red and blue, at the same time because you (or you and a friend) are two different ships.
The Burnout bit comes in given that you're not shooting anything; rather, you're just flying through enemies the same color as you and avoiding those of the opposite color. Stages are one-screen and strewn with obstacles like walls and whatnot, like many a classic-styled arcade game, which means things can get fairly crowded as the level number gets higher. All in all, the key is that you have to play with someone else to get very far, be it offline or online, or else develop some sort of dissocation between your two hands so your attention span can actually control two ships at once.
Your achievements come mostly from beating X number of levels, clearing certain things without dying, and exploring all the game modes. I always like promotion of all the game modes, as it shows a developer is proud of its work and wants you to try everything.
Worth a buy if you're into true arcade-y stuff or solid co-op gaming.
Next up in the queue are Bully: Scholarship Edition and Cabela's Big Game Hunter '08. I might be able to get to at least one of these, maybe both, by tonight, but probably won't do any writing up until tomorrow. Hopefully this copy of Bully works.
.hack//GU 3 is still amazing, even if story-wise, it's kind of dragging early on. I'm on the cusp of hitting up the PK tournament, but I've already taken champion rank and gotten most of the cards in the Crimson VS side game, if that's any indicator as to how much I've played. A little voice inside my head is whispering "Matsu. Cosplay," over and over since I've been getting in shape as of late, and I may stop ignoring it if he gets a little more interesting as a character. But yeah, this game, man. This game.
Another element of note is that the PS3 finally implemented itsripoff version of Achievements, called Trophies, and they're actually going to apply some to previously-released games. I have this bad feeling I might be extending the GV project to PS3 once I get through the alphabet of 360 games sometime early next year. Uh oh.
I really need to get an icon for that gs thing so I stop typing "gs." It would look so much better.
I think the first GV movie review will be popping up soon, as well; some OB people recently helped me track down (inadvertently) this old animated film I saw as a kid and have been trying to find for years. Gandahar (or as it was released here in the US, Light Years) is this weird piece by Rene Laloux where robots from the future are invading the planet Gandahar, and this guy and his companion and her dope alien titties are called upon to make it stop. It's been so long that I can't really remember more to synopsize with, so details and spoilage will come once I've watched it.
Anyway, on with the main matter at hand, some game catchup.
Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Achievements: 37 (all offline, 1000 gs)
I am a (few) big m(a,e)n yes I am, and I've got a big gun.
Wow. Just... wow. Lives up to the hype. Yet another game where I really don't need to tell you it's awesome, because anyone who's anyone who can even mildly put up with FPS games has been urged into picking this up and been playing it for months.
In short, Infinity Ward's taken the fairly solid Call Of Duty series and finally managed to pull it out of the quagmire known as A Shit-Ton Of WWII Games, taking us to MODERN DAY instead. Despite the time transplant and the completely original scenario in this one, you still play the game from multiple fronts and for multiple nations, all stocked by people just as stereotypically whatever-ish as was common in the previous games. Don't get me wrong, I love that, in a sort of "hoo man, this is over the top," sort of way.
Honestly, I was expecting to just get dropped into the Iraq war, so the original story was a bit of a surprise, but it made sense pretty soon as I realized, "Oh yeah, the war in Iraq had no resolution," and would thus make for a pretty poor game, what with no end.
Achievement spread is typical for the FPS genre. Beat the chapters, beat 'em on hard, do specific events well. What surprised me is that none of them were for online play, despite that aspect being so rich. Ah well, makes getting 1000 a lot easier, so I'm not complaining.
Personally, I blew the whole minimum two hours' play time just trying to ace the "ship simulation" in the first level, out of perfectionism, but you know what? I enjoyed the entire time. A couple of bits where I was yelling at the screen, sure, but no controller throwing. It was still fun every time. That's why I sent it back relatively early; I know I need to buy this game and sit down with it to give it all the respect and time it deserves, which would totally bog down the process here.
Unless there's something horribly wrong with you, like there is with me, you need to own this game. Moving along, now.
Golf: Tee It Up!
Achievements: 12 (10 offline for 160gs, 2 online for 40gs)
And you thought today's post title might imply a bowling game.
Activision, I'm not happy with you, given the current state of Guitar Hero. However, this little golf game of yours ain't so bad. With character models reminiscent of games like Hot Shots and a generally cute, fun atmosphere, it's nice to see 3D Ultra Minigolf get a "real" golf counterpart on Live Arcade.
There's not too much in the way of innovation in the world of golf games, to be honest. There are several realistic course runs, with future ones downloadable I imagine, some customizability for your avatar with unlockable outfit accessories, a click-click swing mechanic, and for whatever reason, bunnies. Mmmkay. Play is solid, things look nice, and the music is unobtrusive.
Your achievements are all for successful scoring/doing well on the various courses, save for a couple you get for just playing online, one for playing at all (1,000 swings), and a couple gimmick ones. Easy-ish 1,000, and if you've been waiting for a truer golf game, here you go.
Schizoid
Achievements: 12 (10 offline for 165gs, 2 online for 35gs)
Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice.
...I never would've expected to describe something as "Ikaruga meets Burnout."
That says it all, even though it makes no sense at first glance. If you're not familiar with Ikaruga, it's a shmup by Treasure (WOO!) where your ship switches between white and black to deal differently with similarly colored enemies onscreen. Well, in this little game, you're both colors. That is, you're red and blue, at the same time because you (or you and a friend) are two different ships.
The Burnout bit comes in given that you're not shooting anything; rather, you're just flying through enemies the same color as you and avoiding those of the opposite color. Stages are one-screen and strewn with obstacles like walls and whatnot, like many a classic-styled arcade game, which means things can get fairly crowded as the level number gets higher. All in all, the key is that you have to play with someone else to get very far, be it offline or online, or else develop some sort of dissocation between your two hands so your attention span can actually control two ships at once.
Your achievements come mostly from beating X number of levels, clearing certain things without dying, and exploring all the game modes. I always like promotion of all the game modes, as it shows a developer is proud of its work and wants you to try everything.
Worth a buy if you're into true arcade-y stuff or solid co-op gaming.
Next up in the queue are Bully: Scholarship Edition and Cabela's Big Game Hunter '08. I might be able to get to at least one of these, maybe both, by tonight, but probably won't do any writing up until tomorrow. Hopefully this copy of Bully works.
.hack//GU 3 is still amazing, even if story-wise, it's kind of dragging early on. I'm on the cusp of hitting up the PK tournament, but I've already taken champion rank and gotten most of the cards in the Crimson VS side game, if that's any indicator as to how much I've played. A little voice inside my head is whispering "Matsu. Cosplay," over and over since I've been getting in shape as of late, and I may stop ignoring it if he gets a little more interesting as a character. But yeah, this game, man. This game.
Another element of note is that the PS3 finally implemented its
I really need to get an icon for that gs thing so I stop typing "gs." It would look so much better.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Don't give a damn 'cause I'm stone dead already.
Bully: Scholarship Edition and Army Of Two showed up today, but Bully locks up just trying to load after the intro, so Army Of Two it is.
Army Of Two
Achievements: 47 (37 offline for 1045gs, 10 online for 205gs)
Asses to elbows.
Everyone has pretty much already played this who wanted to, so I'll try and keep it brief. You're two private military contractor dudes in masks with guns and the whole game is about teamwork, mostly drawing fire while the other moves in for the kill. You've got an AI partner or can work co-op, and you shoot your way through several military hotbeds in the wake of 9/11.
The first thirty minutes: Not bad, not bad at all. I got through the training mission on the regular difficulty despite not having really FPSed for a while, and everything's fairly fluid, gameplay and control wise. I've heard complaints that the AI occasionally stands there and gets shot up like a 'tard, but I've yet to encounter this problem.
Graphically, it's fairly pretty, and the cutscenes are amazing. The addition of the GPS system overlay is a neat idea, and integrates fairly well into gameplay.
The one thing I don't like so much is that the game relies a lot on replays, especially to make money to unlock new masks and guns (which nab you achievements), which sounds like it could become tedious, even with the two extra levels they added in DLC. It's nice to ensure people will keep playing your game, but I prefer that sort of thing come from quality, rewarding experiences rather than a carrot on a string.
All in all, though, it's a cute little game. I'll have fun with it. Worth a rent, and probably not too hard to grind through all 1250gs if you have the time.
Army Of Two
Achievements: 47 (37 offline for 1045gs, 10 online for 205gs)
Asses to elbows.
Everyone has pretty much already played this who wanted to, so I'll try and keep it brief. You're two private military contractor dudes in masks with guns and the whole game is about teamwork, mostly drawing fire while the other moves in for the kill. You've got an AI partner or can work co-op, and you shoot your way through several military hotbeds in the wake of 9/11.
The first thirty minutes: Not bad, not bad at all. I got through the training mission on the regular difficulty despite not having really FPSed for a while, and everything's fairly fluid, gameplay and control wise. I've heard complaints that the AI occasionally stands there and gets shot up like a 'tard, but I've yet to encounter this problem.
Graphically, it's fairly pretty, and the cutscenes are amazing. The addition of the GPS system overlay is a neat idea, and integrates fairly well into gameplay.
The one thing I don't like so much is that the game relies a lot on replays, especially to make money to unlock new masks and guns (which nab you achievements), which sounds like it could become tedious, even with the two extra levels they added in DLC. It's nice to ensure people will keep playing your game, but I prefer that sort of thing come from quality, rewarding experiences rather than a carrot on a string.
All in all, though, it's a cute little game. I'll have fun with it. Worth a rent, and probably not too hard to grind through all 1250gs if you have the time.
XBLAW 7/2/08
Hey, brochachos. Big catchup day for XBLA, all demo-based but I'll still be making Buy recommends despite my inability to purchase much right now.
Aces Of The Galaxy
Achievements: 12 (11 offline for 190gs, 1 online for 10gs)
The poor man's Starfox.
Rails shooters! Woo! And it's very pretty, even though the visuals remind me a lot of the spacefleet and asteroid belt battles in Lego Star Wars. Very fun.
The only online achievement is playing a co-op match. Sounds easy enough. I'll say buy it, if only because I love blowing shit up.
Buku Sudoku
Achievements: 12 (9 offline for 145gs, 3 online for 55gs)
GRIDS.
It's sudoku. That game where you put numbers in little boxes and try not to have the same in any given line or mini-grid. There's shitloads of books on this out there. It's a craze. You should know what this is.
Not a bad little representation of the puzzle, though. The music's a little elevatory, but other than that, it's fun if you're into Sudoku. I'm not sure how online competition works unless it's a speed run thing, but okay. Buy it if you like number puzzles. If not, avoid it entirely.
Elements Of Destruction
Achievements: 12 (10 offline for 175gs, 2 online for 25gs)
Blow me like a tornado.
You're a guy who's been turned into a ball of energy that can take the form of different sorts of weather and natural disasters, and your mission is to fuck shit up before people can stop you. Awesome. Pretty simple controls, with different mechanics (stick twirling, button mashing, etc) for different Elements, so you don't get bored just hammering A all the time. Not all that complex, but fun enough. I'd say buy it.
Achievements are mostly story benchmark-based in offline mode, and then the two online ones are one for co-op, one for competitive play. Decent incentive to try everything. I should mention the "Time Bandit" achievement has the most disturbing pic I've seen in a while for one of these things:
Seriously, what the hell is going on here?
Frogger 2
Achievements: 12 (9 offline for 150gs, 3 online for 50gs)
Feeling froggy? Wanna jump?
Ugh, I suck at Frogger. Naturally, I suck even more at Froggering while trying to collect ship parts, coins, music notes, balloons, and god only knows what else for some ugly looking alien thing that crashed in my pond.
The music is obnoxiously cutesy and makes me want to punch things, but the graphics are an okay update while keeping to the classic top-down view. Nothing real amazing about the achievements save for some catch-em-all stuff and them wanting you to play online a lot for one of them.
I guess if you're really into hopping, you can put on a custom soundtrack and have at it. Not worth 800 points, by any means.
Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm
Achievements: 12 (all offline, 200gs)
Wasn't this cool three years ago? Hoo man.
Lemmings with a license. You're the retarded moose and I guess you have to clear the way for the little bastards, or something. I dunno, I just burned them all to death like I thought I was supposed to and failed the trial mission.
Achievements come from doing everything. If you're really still into this crap or want to pay for 200gs, feel free to waste your money.
Roogoo
Achievements: 12 (10 offline for 172gs, 2 online for 28gs)
D'awwwwwwww so kyooooooot.
Remember those pegboard toys you had as a kid? Where you would try to hammer the round peg into the square hole? Or am I just too old and kids these days have no idea what that phrase even means anymore?
Well, if you do have some idea what I'm talking about, that's what this game is, except the board is round now. Shapes drop, you rotate the boards as the shape falls through in order to get the shapes to the bottom board. Oh, and you're a teddy bear or something, but you yourself don't seem to come into play much save for standing on the bar that tells you when you fail.
Clearly a kid-oriented game, so I'm not sure why they implemented online multiplayer, but it's cute and some easy gamerscore. I'm not sure why they priced it at 800 points, save for the fact it looks really good.
Sealife Safari
Achievements: 12 (all offline, 200gs)
It'sPokémon Fishyfish Snap.
Some crusty-looking dude has hired you to take pictures of fish. Which I'm kind of down with, given my National Geographic-loving, I-wanna-be-a-marine-biologist childhood. Seriously, though, it's totally Pokémon Snap underwater, up to and including little things you throw at fish to fuck with them and get different pictures and on-rails movement.
The fish and environments look cool, though. If you liked Snap, or just want a pretty chill game to relax to, you could spend your money on worse.
SOULCALIBUR
Achievements: 12 (all offline, 200 gs)
WELCOME BACK TO THE STAGE OF HISTORY (BITCH)
If you don't know about Soul Calibur, do yourself a favor right now. Stop reading, go up to the address bar in this window, go to eBay, and find yourself a Dreamcast and this game. I'm serious, and really hope the DC version was the one they ported for this. It's the best damn weapon-based fighting game series of all time, possibly the best 3D fighter series, and this is probably the best game in the series.
Should you not want to do that, just stop reading this blog forever, because I have no reason to talk to you again. BUY BUY BUY.
Ticket To Ride
Achievements: 15 (13 offline for 195gs, 2 online for 55gs)
A long train held up by page on page. A long reign held up by rage.
Based on the boardgame of the same name, this game is in the vein of Catan, in that you're trying to connect stations with continuous train routes and block your opponents from doing the same. Longest Route is totally a reward, which is why I love this crap (LONGEST ROOOOOAD). You're given specific routes to fill, however, and the more of those you fill, the better off you do.
Just a heads-up, the extra 50 gs are from an expansion that isn't available yet (TtR Europe), but I imagine will be out in a month or two. I say buy, but I love this game because it can get kind of cutthroat, even if cheating's pretty much impossible in the XBLA version.
Warlords
Achievements: 12 (10 offline for 160gs, 2 online for 40gs)
I don't care if you guys need a Cleric.
Another Atari update with classic/evolved play modes, except this one, I've loved for ages. Finally, no more unlocking it as a secret on one of the Lunar discs on Playstation!
The idea is, you've got a fortress, and your a paddle blocking this ball from breaking things down. You can hold the ball briefly to change the attack angle more accurately, and in the evolved mode, now you can tilt for quicker direction shifts and a better element of surprise. Pretty straightforward, like these tend to be. I really need to stop using that as a descriptor.
Definitely worth 400 points, so unless you prefer your fun super-complex, pick it up posthaste.
Wits & Wagers
Achievements: 12 (9 offline for 150gs, 3 online for 50gs)
Your intelligence is stupid.
So it's a quiz show, but your intelligence isn't all that matters. All participants pick an answer to the same question, and you bet on which answer you think is actually correct, so even if you don't know something, you can try to bluff people out or at least try and have a good eye for who knows their stuff. If you've ever played the board game Balderdash, it's reminiscent of that, but not just with words.
Or, if you've played the boardgame Wits & Wagers, it's exactly like that.
There's camera functionality included so you don't have to pick one of the myriad ugly faces for your character they threw in there, but instead of taking a shot of your head, it just takes a shot and throws it on a little TV with arms and legs. Kind of lame, but it could be worse.
Achievements reward you for playing the crap out of this game; you actually get points for answering all 700 questions available in the full title. Whoa. Not bad if you're into trivia, and were looking for something with questions on things other than movies.
Wolf Of The Battlefield: Commando 3
Achievements: 12 (11 offline for 194gs, 1 online for 6gs)
Real men shoot from the hip.
Oooooh man. It's a shame most kids who pick this up nowadays are going to think, "Oh, it's like Assault Heroes." SHUT UP. ASSAULT HEROES IS LIKE THIS, PRICK! YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW. Capcom brings back the classic in style, with help from Backbone Entertainment, who've never done me wrong.
Not only is the gameplay just as fun as Commando ever was, but the stylized art is kind of cool, and there are little animations for every single menu. They really went all out with this. Granted, I expect said animations to start annoying the piss out of me eventually when I'm just trying to get things done and get back to playing, but who cares? SHINIES.
Of course, the other big selling point is that buying this apparently gets you in on the Street Fighter II HD Remix beta, which I guess is neat.
Who'm I kidding? HD Remix looks sick as hell. You probably ought to spend points on this.
Aaaand I think that means I'm caught up now. Whew. You might end up with a double post today since I've got stuff on the way from Gamefly again, but hey, nothing wrong with that. Just means I'm keeping up now.
Outside of the realm of the 360, I finally started up .hack//GU volume 3 yesterday, and it is, of course, love yet again. Dunno how long it's going to take me to finish it, since I'm holding off on playing it every day to keep the points whoring going, and I've been running a leveling mission between every story event, but so far things still fail to disappoint.
The funniest thing was walking in to my new @HOME, checking my Ryu Books, and OH LOOK ALL BUT THREE ARE MAXED OUT HERE HAVE SOME EXTRAS AND GO AWAY. My only complaint is that leveling in this one is kind of a bitch, but it got harder between 1 & 2 as well, so I expected it. Here's hoping the movie comes out over here.
Aces Of The Galaxy
Achievements: 12 (11 offline for 190gs, 1 online for 10gs)
The poor man's Starfox.
Rails shooters! Woo! And it's very pretty, even though the visuals remind me a lot of the spacefleet and asteroid belt battles in Lego Star Wars. Very fun.
The only online achievement is playing a co-op match. Sounds easy enough. I'll say buy it, if only because I love blowing shit up.
Buku Sudoku
Achievements: 12 (9 offline for 145gs, 3 online for 55gs)
GRIDS.
It's sudoku. That game where you put numbers in little boxes and try not to have the same in any given line or mini-grid. There's shitloads of books on this out there. It's a craze. You should know what this is.
Not a bad little representation of the puzzle, though. The music's a little elevatory, but other than that, it's fun if you're into Sudoku. I'm not sure how online competition works unless it's a speed run thing, but okay. Buy it if you like number puzzles. If not, avoid it entirely.
Elements Of Destruction
Achievements: 12 (10 offline for 175gs, 2 online for 25gs)
Blow me like a tornado.
You're a guy who's been turned into a ball of energy that can take the form of different sorts of weather and natural disasters, and your mission is to fuck shit up before people can stop you. Awesome. Pretty simple controls, with different mechanics (stick twirling, button mashing, etc) for different Elements, so you don't get bored just hammering A all the time. Not all that complex, but fun enough. I'd say buy it.
Achievements are mostly story benchmark-based in offline mode, and then the two online ones are one for co-op, one for competitive play. Decent incentive to try everything. I should mention the "Time Bandit" achievement has the most disturbing pic I've seen in a while for one of these things:
Seriously, what the hell is going on here?
Frogger 2
Achievements: 12 (9 offline for 150gs, 3 online for 50gs)
Feeling froggy? Wanna jump?
Ugh, I suck at Frogger. Naturally, I suck even more at Froggering while trying to collect ship parts, coins, music notes, balloons, and god only knows what else for some ugly looking alien thing that crashed in my pond.
The music is obnoxiously cutesy and makes me want to punch things, but the graphics are an okay update while keeping to the classic top-down view. Nothing real amazing about the achievements save for some catch-em-all stuff and them wanting you to play online a lot for one of them.
I guess if you're really into hopping, you can put on a custom soundtrack and have at it. Not worth 800 points, by any means.
Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm
Achievements: 12 (all offline, 200gs)
Wasn't this cool three years ago? Hoo man.
Lemmings with a license. You're the retarded moose and I guess you have to clear the way for the little bastards, or something. I dunno, I just burned them all to death like I thought I was supposed to and failed the trial mission.
Achievements come from doing everything. If you're really still into this crap or want to pay for 200gs, feel free to waste your money.
Roogoo
Achievements: 12 (10 offline for 172gs, 2 online for 28gs)
D'awwwwwwww so kyooooooot.
Remember those pegboard toys you had as a kid? Where you would try to hammer the round peg into the square hole? Or am I just too old and kids these days have no idea what that phrase even means anymore?
Well, if you do have some idea what I'm talking about, that's what this game is, except the board is round now. Shapes drop, you rotate the boards as the shape falls through in order to get the shapes to the bottom board. Oh, and you're a teddy bear or something, but you yourself don't seem to come into play much save for standing on the bar that tells you when you fail.
Clearly a kid-oriented game, so I'm not sure why they implemented online multiplayer, but it's cute and some easy gamerscore. I'm not sure why they priced it at 800 points, save for the fact it looks really good.
Sealife Safari
Achievements: 12 (all offline, 200gs)
It's
Some crusty-looking dude has hired you to take pictures of fish. Which I'm kind of down with, given my National Geographic-loving, I-wanna-be-a-marine-biologist childhood. Seriously, though, it's totally Pokémon Snap underwater, up to and including little things you throw at fish to fuck with them and get different pictures and on-rails movement.
The fish and environments look cool, though. If you liked Snap, or just want a pretty chill game to relax to, you could spend your money on worse.
SOULCALIBUR
Achievements: 12 (all offline, 200 gs)
WELCOME BACK TO THE STAGE OF HISTORY (BITCH)
If you don't know about Soul Calibur, do yourself a favor right now. Stop reading, go up to the address bar in this window, go to eBay, and find yourself a Dreamcast and this game. I'm serious, and really hope the DC version was the one they ported for this. It's the best damn weapon-based fighting game series of all time, possibly the best 3D fighter series, and this is probably the best game in the series.
Should you not want to do that, just stop reading this blog forever, because I have no reason to talk to you again. BUY BUY BUY.
Ticket To Ride
Achievements: 15 (13 offline for 195gs, 2 online for 55gs)
A long train held up by page on page. A long reign held up by rage.
Based on the boardgame of the same name, this game is in the vein of Catan, in that you're trying to connect stations with continuous train routes and block your opponents from doing the same. Longest Route is totally a reward, which is why I love this crap (LONGEST ROOOOOAD). You're given specific routes to fill, however, and the more of those you fill, the better off you do.
Just a heads-up, the extra 50 gs are from an expansion that isn't available yet (TtR Europe), but I imagine will be out in a month or two. I say buy, but I love this game because it can get kind of cutthroat, even if cheating's pretty much impossible in the XBLA version.
Warlords
Achievements: 12 (10 offline for 160gs, 2 online for 40gs)
I don't care if you guys need a Cleric.
Another Atari update with classic/evolved play modes, except this one, I've loved for ages. Finally, no more unlocking it as a secret on one of the Lunar discs on Playstation!
The idea is, you've got a fortress, and your a paddle blocking this ball from breaking things down. You can hold the ball briefly to change the attack angle more accurately, and in the evolved mode, now you can tilt for quicker direction shifts and a better element of surprise. Pretty straightforward, like these tend to be. I really need to stop using that as a descriptor.
Definitely worth 400 points, so unless you prefer your fun super-complex, pick it up posthaste.
Wits & Wagers
Achievements: 12 (9 offline for 150gs, 3 online for 50gs)
Your intelligence is stupid.
So it's a quiz show, but your intelligence isn't all that matters. All participants pick an answer to the same question, and you bet on which answer you think is actually correct, so even if you don't know something, you can try to bluff people out or at least try and have a good eye for who knows their stuff. If you've ever played the board game Balderdash, it's reminiscent of that, but not just with words.
Or, if you've played the boardgame Wits & Wagers, it's exactly like that.
There's camera functionality included so you don't have to pick one of the myriad ugly faces for your character they threw in there, but instead of taking a shot of your head, it just takes a shot and throws it on a little TV with arms and legs. Kind of lame, but it could be worse.
Achievements reward you for playing the crap out of this game; you actually get points for answering all 700 questions available in the full title. Whoa. Not bad if you're into trivia, and were looking for something with questions on things other than movies.
Wolf Of The Battlefield: Commando 3
Achievements: 12 (11 offline for 194gs, 1 online for 6gs)
Real men shoot from the hip.
Oooooh man. It's a shame most kids who pick this up nowadays are going to think, "Oh, it's like Assault Heroes." SHUT UP. ASSAULT HEROES IS LIKE THIS, PRICK! YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW. Capcom brings back the classic in style, with help from Backbone Entertainment, who've never done me wrong.
Not only is the gameplay just as fun as Commando ever was, but the stylized art is kind of cool, and there are little animations for every single menu. They really went all out with this. Granted, I expect said animations to start annoying the piss out of me eventually when I'm just trying to get things done and get back to playing, but who cares? SHINIES.
Of course, the other big selling point is that buying this apparently gets you in on the Street Fighter II HD Remix beta, which I guess is neat.
Who'm I kidding? HD Remix looks sick as hell. You probably ought to spend points on this.
Aaaand I think that means I'm caught up now. Whew. You might end up with a double post today since I've got stuff on the way from Gamefly again, but hey, nothing wrong with that. Just means I'm keeping up now.
Outside of the realm of the 360, I finally started up .hack//GU volume 3 yesterday, and it is, of course, love yet again. Dunno how long it's going to take me to finish it, since I'm holding off on playing it every day to keep the points whoring going, and I've been running a leveling mission between every story event, but so far things still fail to disappoint.
The funniest thing was walking in to my new @HOME, checking my Ryu Books, and OH LOOK ALL BUT THREE ARE MAXED OUT HERE HAVE SOME EXTRAS AND GO AWAY. My only complaint is that leveling in this one is kind of a bitch, but it got harder between 1 & 2 as well, so I expected it. Here's hoping the movie comes out over here.
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