All I ever wanted.

I'm on vacation this week from my real job, so I've got plenty of time to pay attention to this. High on the agenda is getting some images to pretty things up around here and make it not so type-type-type, though I haven't finished editing them down for this update.

Catching up from this past week, I've got a handful of games I played. Not as bad as the past few huge updates.

Vigilante 8 Arcade
Achievements: 12 (11 offline for 180gs, 1 online for 20 gs)
MS Points: 800

I missed out on the original Vigilante 8, but the demo gives me the impression this was someone's answer to Twisted Metal back in the day. Cars drive around and pick up weapons and powerups to make other cars go splodey. Eh.

Not that I'm knocking it, really. I just wasn't particularly impressed, either. If I had experience with the original, I could judge things based on the faith of the translation, but ah well. I do kind of dig the 70s motif. Achievement spread is nice and sounds easy, if a bit grindy at points. Guess you should buy it if you were a fan in the day or like mindless missile-fests. Can't say I don't.

Battle Fantasia
Achievements: 48 (44 offline for 880gs, 4 online for 120gs)

From the dudes who brought you Guilty Gear, Arc System Works, we have another similarly awesome fighter, but decked out in 3D sprites and a fantasy RPG feel. I skipped most of the story scenes to save time, but the basic gist is that a bunch of people are on quests that end up pitting them against this badass suit of armor from hell.

Pretty solid fighter, as is to be expected from Arc, but if you were hoping for much of anything from the RPG side, too bad. At best, you get the same sort of storyline shifts from doing certain things in certain battles as you got in some of the later GGX iterations, and little numbers pop up whenever you hit or get hit. The rabbit wizard's wand levels up as you do better, too. The end.

My one gripe, as mentioned in an earlier brief post, is that the autosave isn't automatically set to ON. I ended up clearing three characters' basic stories before calling it a night during my first session, only to find the gallery stuff I'd unlocked gone the next morning. Always make sure it's on, since some people don't bother defaulting that for some reason.

Achievement spread is mostly simple, with fight counts, story completion, and progress in every mode coming into play, but there's about 200gs worth of CRAZY SHIT you need to do if you want a perfect completion. Mostly insanely high combos, but there's one thing that requires you to hammer your parry button at 212 bpm to survive the last boss' ultimate attack.

Yes. 212 BPM. Someone clocked it. If you want to see how to do it (the achievement is Perfect Hero), peep the last video here. Yeah. Whoa.

Still, love it to death. I highly recommend if you're into 2D fighters, or dudes that rock a combination hoverbike/chainsaw.

Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath
Achievements: 44 (34 offline for 890gs, 10 online for 110gs)

Didn't spend any time in campaign mode, so I can't comment on that, but OH MY GOD THE INTERFACE IS SO MUCH BETTER THIS TIME AROUND. Not much changed, to be honest, save for the addition of a whole pile of factions, but instead of the PC-esque build menus they kept for C&C3, Kane's Wrath implements a radial pop-up that is worlds easier to navigate, and therefore speeds things up handily.

Gameplay, as I hinted, remains pretty much the same, though these new groups have their own tricks. For gamerscore, they want you to run the campaign, then do everything else (skirmish, quick matches online, and a challenge mode) with everyone possible. The only non-story secret achievement is skipping the Boot Camp when you first start campaign, which you can probably only do right at the beginning of your save file, so just say no. Then go back and do it for some points anyway, since once again, it's linked from the main menu. It's also the same damn training course, save with new menus. Ugh.

Solid RTS, though at this point I'd probably just recommend you go out and grab C&C: Red Alert 3. George Takei as the head of Japan? Madness!

Beijing 2008
Achievements: 50 (46 offline for 925gs, 4 online for 75gs)

Ugh. Thanks, Sega. This isn't your daddy's Track & Field, I'll say that much.

This game is all about perfection. Save for the handouts you get for merely hosting a match (good luck finding anyone), making a custom dude, and playing the game with your Rock Band setup (seriously, there's one for playing with 4 controllers on one console, and so long as you've got A buttons to work with, the thing gives it to you), you have to play until you're absolutely amazing.

I didn't even waste a half hour on it, nevermind the normal hour. I'll come back to it when there's nothing else I want to play, or I find someone with whom to boost the online crap. Bleh.

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam
Achievements: 15 (all offline, 1000gs)

OH HELL YES. For some reason, mindless, repetitive button mashing to execute mass murder is so much more satisfying when giant robots are involved instead of random, faceless Chinamen. I'm not even that big into Gundam, per se, but that doesn't matter, because the game follows the anime plots decently enough, and has a character profile section to blow several key plot points in case you haven't watched a given series! NICE!

Really, it's just a reskinned DW, so it's still crappy old DW, but whatever. 'splosions. You get your 1000gs mostly just from beating the game with everyone ever, leveling someone and their machine to the max, and playing a lot of missions, so I think I might bother to grind this one out.

Cool if you're into Gundam, but even then, I'm not sure you really want to buy it to own. Rent away.


I believe Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway is next up. No, I haven't bought anything new since RB2 this holiday game season, and if anything, the next thing I pick up will probably be DDR Universe 3, because I'm a huge douche. I swear, I've been invited to more Gears 2 games in the past week than I have birthday parties in my entire life.