Year in Review

Evening, everyone.

Alas, the year is coming to a close and, with that, our first annual 100k for Child's Play.

Originally, at the end of last year, I made a New Year's Resolution to up my gamerscore by 100,000 points. That seemed like a rather pathetic resolution, but I soon discovered that several close friends had similar goals. Though, honestly, none of theirs were as crazy as my goal. After several conversations, we then decided to band together to turn it into more than a simple bragging right competition.

As the year progressed, however, our personal lives began to intrude and force us to realize that 100,000 points per person was asking for a bit much. So, the founding fathers of the challenge (myself -XCinX-, RaverZombie69 and MOtaku) met and discussed the current state of our bold venture. It was decided that we would instead strive for a combined total of 100,000. So, lets examine and see were we ended the year at with our top 5 participants:

XCinX - +12,005
RaverZombie69 - +7,445
MOtaku - +21,077
MackD512 - +18,004
Gackt x360a - +83,070

Total - 141,601

We ended +41,601 beyond our goal when only looking at the top 5 members. We ended the year with a total of 17 participants, the end result much higher if they are included. I only calculated those with more than 5,000 points aquired over the year.

We are looking at doing this again next year, possibly even extending a hand to our PS3 brothers and sisters...somehow adding Trophies to the mix as well. Those details are still being hammered out, however.

So, to everyone who participated, donated to Child's Play, or just left your kind comments, I'd personally like to say thank you. Happy holidays and happy gaming.

-XCinX

Shameless plug...

Yes, so I'm about to be a bit of a jerk and do a moment of shameless self-promotion.

See, aside from being a major gaming nut, I'm also a bit of a freelance artist and I self-publish independent comics. A while back, I created a publishing group called Spastic Creations! to help make myself seem more professional. Early last week, I purchased a new domain and web host service, finally getting it only a few days ago.

http://www.spasticcreations.com

Right now, we've just got our participating stories in a local publication called Comic Quest Showcase that was self-published by the best comic shop in town, Comic Quest. Over the next couple months, we'll be handing more product as we get our stuff in from the printers and manufactures, such as comics, t-shirts, prints, and pvc/action figures.

Just to make all of you go to the site...starting Sept. 20th, if you go to the site and want to buy something, use the product code 100k4life to get 15% off your entire purchase plus some free art work, such as a sketch card of a character of your choice.

Well, that's all I've got for tonight. Kinda of in between games at the moment, having picked up Batman: Arkham Asylum for the Playstation 3 (Sorry, 360, but the Joker trumps achievements every damn time!) and waiting for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 and WET. I will be picking those up for the Xbox 360, though, so no worries.

Happy Gaming,
XCinX

Moment of truth...

How's everyone doing this morning? I hope this entry finds in you in good health and good spirits.

So, we're down to the last quarter of our challenge. With August coming to an end rather quickly, that leaves us four months left in our event. Some may say, "Four months?! Shit, that's plenty of time!" Honestly, it's not, really.

As of Motaku's last chart update, we were at +58,990 as a group. That is more than half of the over all goal. The closest gamer to the individual goal of 100K is Motaku with an impressive +17,125 points. Heck, I started this little thing and I haven't even broken 10K yet. So, grats to Motaku.

My question is, though, did we burn ourselves out too quickly or were we doomed from the start? I mean, 100K is a lofty challenge in it's own but to go after that in only a year's time? Should we have been a little more conservitive and made our group goal 100K but everyone's individual goals be something smaller (like 25K) or their own goal? There has been a lot of competition in this, which there should have been, but were we taking it too far? I know RaverZombie69 stressed concerns over the idea that we'd become more obsessed with the idea of achievements and less on the idea of actually having fun playing game, hence why he has been on his Playstation 3 more lately than his Xbox 360.

I ask such questions because, honestly, I could see this group becoming something bigger once the challenge is over. I mean, as a whole, we've gotten some impressive and postitive responses from the fine folks over at 360achievements.org's forums. We could potentially go beyond this blog, create our own website and be more about supporting other gamers who are after such high scores (legitly, mind you, gamesaves and cheaters can go screw themselves!) while raising awareness for charity programs like Child's Play. Hell, we could even go as far as creating our own charity events and donating the money ourselves. Though, for such a thing to happen, I think we'd have to be extremely opened minded and allow for PS3 users to participate as well with their Trophies.

Sorry about such a long post about nothing concerning video games themselves. I'm just curious to see what went wrong. We were all so passionate in the beginning about this and now it seems like only one or two people even care. I know I'm guilty of letting the responsiblities and pressures of life get in the way of my fun time.

Though, I've always got time for 'Splosion Man.

Happy gaming!

`SPLOSION!

@__@

Wow...so...it's been almost a month since our last true update. Something truly amazing has dropped since the last update, however:


Words cannot truly begin to describe how insanely awesome this game is. It is by far the best thing I've ever spent my hard-earned Microsoft Points on. Just do yourself a favor and buy this game. Also, download the demo as well. It has a hilarious trailer for the game at the very end. It is well worth playing just for that.

Well, that's it for now. Expect some major news coming up next week after I get back from vacation.

Cheers!

Achievement Review: Gunstar Heroes (XBLA)

ok so this is the first of any kind of review that i am doing, in relationship to the games that i use during the achievement gaining process. i will probably use this method more and more often in the future, and as it develops, there will probably be more of a regular standard to how i do the reviews.

Achievements: 12
Achievement Points: 200
Pros:
-achievement(s) can be obtained on easiest level
-achievement(s) earned through game progression (boss)
-achievement(s) for playing with each type of weapon
-100% completion in under 5-hours of game-play

Cons:
-achievement(s) require multiple play-through
-achievement(s) rely on a specific random event

Overall Difficulty: Very Easy

ok i'll go over the basics here. the pros seem pretty self explanatory, i tried to avoid using words that wouldn't allow for exceptions. the first is obvious, you don't have to play the game on hard or even normal to obtain achievements. in this case, you can earn every last one on easy!

game progression to me refers to two things. either you earn an achievement for completing a level, or you earn them by defeating a boss character. this may seem like two different pros, but in some games such as this one, there is no definitive line between them. when you reach the end a level, you face a boss character. defeating that boss character completes the level. there are other games, Silent Hill 5 for example, where there is no actual level beginning or ending. simply a progression from the start of the game to the end of the game. there are, however, several boss characters in the game itself. an example of the other type would be Lego Batman: The Videogame, in which you gain achievements for completing level one, level two and so on in that fashion. for now, i think i will leave them as one category until i find a valid reason not to. i labeled it as boss, because that is what the achievements themselves unlock as.

ok the third may seem a bit confusing. playing with each type of weapon may seem like a chore, but the reason i see it as a pro is because you only have to try the weapon once, and then you never have to use it again. to me that seems pretty easy. the con side of this would of course be complete the game with every weapon. which this game doesn't require.

completion time is very important to any gamerscore gains. especially if you are playing a game that you may not enjoy, the soon it is over the better. even if it is a game you like, the moment you earn all the achievements, the more time you have to enjoy the game for the sake of gaming.

ok now for the cons. i gotta be honest though, even though it did have two very specific cons, they don't take long to obtain so they may seem kind of weak. however, i see cons as things that the game requires you to do, regardless if it enhances the gameplay. so let's start with multiple play-throughs. multiple play-throughs for the sake of multiple play-throughs is just plain pointless. there are games that circumvent this by having stackable achievements and the like, but most of them require that you start a new game for seemingly no reason. in Gunstar Heroes, that reason is to play with each one of the weapons at the start of the game. like i said, you can easily do this by selecting a weapon, starting the level, quitting or dying, and then move on to the next weapon. in fact, for this particular game, the whole process takes about a minute, but why do it at all. all the weapon choices appear throughout the game, so why not have option to just use the weapon during gameplay and be done with it. in case you're wondering, those particular pros and cons are referring to the same achievement.

as for our final achievement critique, as it were, i had not even thought this up before playing Gunstar Heroes, but after writing it down i began to think of other instances it occurs. here's the general idea, there is a specific occurrence in the game, but it happens at random. random in this case meaning the player has no control over making it happen by just playing the game. in Gunstar Heroes, the instance is one of the boss battles. a boss that resides at the end of a otherwise simple "minecar level", apparently rides around in a giant transforming robot. this robot has seven different forms, each form has it's own attack. here's the kicker, even though he starts with the same form each time, after that he randomly shapeshifts into one of the remaining six when you defeat the current form. the achievement for this boss, however, doesn't rely solely upon beating him alone. you have to beat him when and if he changes into his crab form. there is actually no guarantee that you will even see that form before you either a. beat the boss required number of times that is changes shape, or b. die in the process of trying to beat him. this idea irks me, because you could replay this level several times over and never see that particular form, or never beat when you do encounter it. another prime example of this is the spinner box achievement from Fable II: Pub Games. anyone who has played Fable II is probably more than familiar with the pub game called spinner box. again, there is an achievement associated with it that is completely left up to chance. there is no skill involved, there is no reward for putting in a great deal of time or effort. you obtain it by nothing more than the fact that you somehow managed to beat the games ridiculous odds, and that folks it what grinds my gears.

at any rate, that ended up being a more lengthy explanation than what i was going for. fear not though, should i repeat said pros and cons in the future, i won't have to describe them again. that is of course in case you failed to read this post.

sounds like someone has a case of the mondays

ok, so the chart is updated, on time for once. i know it's crazy talk! the chart has been updated to reflect the gains since last monday. as always, if there are any discrepancies, please let me know so they can be corrected.

the new challenge will begin in a few short days, i'm still waiting on a few more people to sign in, but we should more than likely be up and running by the 1st.

i currently have almost every traveler's tales lego game for the xbox 360 in my collection. there are three that i know of that i am missing. lego star wars, although i have lego star wars: the complete saga. i don't have the first one by itself. i highly doubt that i will buy it, but i will probably add it to my queue for a rent. the other two have yet to be released. lego rock band, which i don't know how i feel about that idea yet, and lego harry potter. some things that are disappointing about the series, if you can call it a series. with the exception of star wars: the complete saga, none of the other lego titles have online multiplayer. i think that is a big let down, because the games are really fun two-player games.

games i am currently working on: Devil May Cry 4, Marvel: Ultimate Allaince, Silent Hill 5, and Boom Boom Rocket. i have a few others from gamefly that i plan to run through when the challenge starts. the above titles are ones that kind of take some time to acquire all the achievements, so when i say working on them, i mean it.

Boom Boom 100K!

as promised, here is the information for the new challenge that we are hosting over at 360voice:

Title: Boom Boom 100K!

Winner's Reward: Bragging rights!

Duration: 14 days
Code: AH4S9359

Send this URL to friends so they can join:
http://www.360voice.com/join/AH4S9359

like i said before, the prize should be fairly obvious, but i do not want to ruin it for anyone by posting it in here. at least not until after the challenge has begun. at which point i will ruin most things. the new challenge is "set" to begin on the first of july. so sign up quickly so we can meet the deadline.

so another challenge has drawn to a close over at 360voice, and yet again we were all handed a slice of pwndcake by one of the newer challengers to join up. i can honestly say that there were a lot of points earned this round, and at some point i was actually a competitor for the lead. that point was near the start of the challenge and nowhere near the end of it.

i will be posting a new challenge up as soon as we are clear to do so, and there will be a small prize awarded to the winner. unless the winner happens to be me, in which case that would be kind of pointless. if that ends up being the case, then the person who takes second place shall receive the prize. i am not going to let it go to waste. at any rate, when the challenge has been posted, it will give a very obvious clue as to what the winner will receive. so if any of you have been waiting for a good time join, i think now would be that time.

for now, congratulations to Alfman1 for taking home the imaginary trophy for this round. you can put it up there with all your other awards. check back within the next 24-hours and the new one will posted. the way it looks, people are already chomping at the bit for the next one to start. we will still give everyone ample time to join, but do not wait around until the last minute. you just might miss out.

yay! new achievement generator found, i kind of like this one better because it makes that awesome sound effect that actually happens when you scroll down to it. entertaining.

anyway, on to businesses. the chart has been updated, and i think it may be high time that look into some sort of portable device that will allow me to manage the chart updates from other locales. like that verizon netbook, that would be awesome. downside to that is, i don't have verizon, nor do i plan on getting verizon anytime in the future. although, i have to be honest, they have some pretty neat stuff being developed for things that aren't an iPhone, and that makes me kind of jealous. like the wi-fi in your pocket thing, fantastic!

in gaming related news, xbox live is currently down for maintenance, which means you can still play games, you just technically will not get credit until they are up and running again. this in turn directly affects 360voice, which will not be receiving any updates until the maintenance has been completed. my suggestions, do not play any games that you do not plan on having afterward, because you may need to "replay" them again later.

news only affecting me, Beowulf was sent back, and i received the Bee Movie game. this seems to be a gawd awful trade as i recently looked up the achievement listing for it, and it is 1000 points of nothing but collecting. there is only one, count'em, one achievement that is even story related. really dreamworks, really?! i cannot imagine the people who went to see you movie doing half of these things. stupid collection achievements giving me agita!

Anniversary Update! We're half-way there!

Happy anniversary, guys!

This month marks the 6th month mark into our year long challenge. It doesn't seem like its been that long, but I'll be damned if it hasn't been. It's been 6 months of mixed releases, delays, games with great achievement lists and then the type that were horrible beyond all reason *cough*Onichanbara*cough*.

So, with out further delay, a bit of a statistical update:

Total achievement points accumulated since Jan. 1st: +38,833
Number of participants: We only have the top 10 most active players on the chart.
Leaders of the pack: MOtaku (+12,790), MackD512 (+7,929), XCinX (+6,074), RaverZombie69 (+3,765)

We have around 199 days left in our event. I think we may possibly hit the mark as a group overall. As far as individual player goals are concerned, MOtaku is on the path to becoming the only one to cross that 100K threshold. So, congrats to you, man. That isn't to say that I won't be giving him a run for his money. As the summer progresses, and more games come out, then I'll definitely be putting up a good fight! Heh...

Anyways, enough wasting all your time. Again, happy anniversary, guys and gals! Now...get back to gaming. Those points aren't going to earn themselves!

Time to have some fun!

Evening, everyone!

Just letting everyone know that the new challenge officially launches in a couple hours. This is our biggest challenge to date, with 7 challengers duking it out over the next three weeks.

Check back shortly for our 6 month anniversary celebration!

Happy Gaming!

A new challenge emerges!

Evening, everyone.

This morning, our fourth challenge came to a conclusion. The winner was Shukuzen Kiraa with an astounding +4,415! Not too shabby for two weeks worth of work.

So, not to be one to sit on the side lines, we've got the next challenge going over at 360voice.com!

Title: Look up in the sky! Its a bird! Its a plane! Its...A NEW 100K CHALLENGE!!

Url: http://www.360voice.com/join/W36T234O
Entry Code: W36T234O

We're going to wait until we have at least 5 challengers before we start this one. So, come on down and fight!

Happy gaming!

Under Construction

ok well that was easy enough...

now all i have to do is get the post data to actually appear at the bottom of the post with it. instead of at the top where it currently resides. also, that is probably where i'll put my gamerpic as well.

so i'm one step closer to getting what i want with this. i reverted the site to a simpler layout so that all of the assigned widgets would work with it correctly. the pic thing apparently can only be done by admin. which is lame, i think everyone should have the option to post a sig if they are a group member. i don't see why you need to have full admin rights to put a pic at the bottom of a post you submitted. strange. i will look into some solutions for that. so far, i have not figured out how to post my pic at the bottom automatically, but i will work on that.

newcomers newcoming

ok after some forum posting we have some applicants that are interested in joining up. look for them to appear in the upcoming posts and updates to the chart. and of course the weekly update has been completed as well. on a personal note, i have officially conquered the 10k mark. w00t! i have to give some credit to Kiraa who joined or recent 360voice challenge. not only has he challenged me far beyond what i am capable of, he has provided me with some useful game leads for future. so a big thanks for that. if you actually check on the challenge, you may note that he is doing an incredible job of owning the board. i am slowly trailing, but i do not know if i have enough time to even catch up to him.
two new games to add to my retail completion: Robert Ludlum's: The Bourne Conspiracy; Sonic's Ultimate Game Collection

i would add both to being reasonably easy to complete to 100% no-online achievements. there is a glitch that helps with the Bourne Conspiracy that makes the difficulty achievements considerably more maleable than they appear. and with the exception of one particular game in Sonic's UGC (i'm looking at you Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine), the other achievements are generically easy, and involve almost natural game playthrough.

also, as soon as i figure out how, we are going to be adding some sigs to our post. to fancy pants this place up a bit. they will include, but not be limited to, our chosen pic as well as one of these handy little do-hickies

sure, i could manually add this to each post manually, but what's the point of coding if you aren't going to bother to use it.

Forum signatures!

Afternoon, everyone.

I just wanted to post a couple things today, since I do know that it is a holiday weekend and whatnot.

First, I want to welcome anyone who is discovering this blog via my forum posting over at http://www.xbox360achievements.org/ (You can read the post here: http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/showthread.php?t=142947). It is nice to have others showing a genuine interest in what we are doing.

Secondly, I've made a very simple forum signature pic that I'd like anyone participating in this challenge place in any of their signatures on gaming sites:



Just click on the image and then right-click on it and save it. This will hopefully intice others to take a look at the blog and be inspired to either join and do something for the charity. Isn't that the whole point, after all?

Well, anyways, I'll let you all get back to your family and gaming.

Happy Memorial Day and happy gaming!

jam tomorrow... jam yesterday...

ok, so the current challenge took a little time to get started, but it is officially up and running, and will begin taking tallies of scores tonight! so that should be nice. we have a newcomer joining us from the 360voice forums. his gamerscore alone is a 100-grand over mine total gamerscore. not just what i have earned since we started in January, but points i have earned since owning an xbox. so he looks to present a challenge to all involved.

signed up for the roster are myself, xCinx, RaverZombie69, MackD512 and Shukuzen Kiraa. the latter of course being our esteemed welcomed guest. considering both his current gamerscore, and his 360voice stats which include over 40 retail games, and 20 arcade games at 100% completion, and being in the top 1% of all 360voice gamers. i think we have our work cut out for us. so let's not make it too easy on wee fella.

Free Comic Book Day

Evening, everyone.

Not meaning to post twice in a row about things not pertaining to the 100K Challenge, I just wanted to bring it to everyone's attention that Saturday (May 2nd) is Free Comic Book Day.

Why exactly am I bothering everyone with this?

Well, two reasons really. First and foremost, there will be free comics! Not just any free comics, but comics that have to do with video games. There will be at least a World of Warcraft comic and Gears of War comic there (those or the only two I've seen first hand thus far). Secondly, and this is a bit of a selfish plug, I'll be on hand signing copies of my new comic, The Comic Quest Showcase. I'll be there from 10am-1pm. If you stop by and say you read about the event from this blog, I'll even do a free sketch for you!

So, come on our for all the good fun stuff and free comics!

Happy gaming!

Best Buy $10 Sell

For those of you who probably don't pay much attention to the news sites like Kotaku, or to the deal-sites like cheapassgamer, I wanted to let everyone know that there is a great sale going on at your local Best Buys. Throughout the week, 100 games are on sale for $10! This sale has something from every platform, except PSP and PC. I picked some games up earlier and here was my pull:

The Bourne Conspircey (Xbox 360)
Infinite Undiscovery (Xbox 360)
Jericho (Xbox 360)
Silent Hill: Home Coming (Xbox 360)
Soul Calibur 4 (Xbox 360)
Fracture (PS3)
Hellboy: Science of Evil (PS3)
Quantom of Solace (PS3)

You should go check out your local stores to see if there is anything you may want for your collection, or at the very least, some easy achievement pointers!

Happy gaming (and shopping)!

Challenge Ahoy!

ok the new challenge is posted over at 360voice, here's all the info you need to know.

Title: 100k for Child's Play, and Sparta!!!

Winner's Reward: Bragging rights!
Duration: 14 days
Code: V3QSD3I5

Send this URL to friends so they can join:
http://www.360voice.com/join/V3QSD3I5

feel free to sign up at any time. although it will begin as soon as april 30th. members pending. so try to sign up by then.

also, since the last challenge ended, i was able to go back to my regular gaming. i have picked up two new arcade titles. Minesweeper Flags, and Penny Arcade: On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness. i also downloaded Aria, one of the community games, but for reasons unknown i have not been able to play it.

i picked up Prince of Persia for the first time in a long time to finally complete the original thousand points. i went on to play some of the Epilogue DLC, only to have that permanently freeze on the loading screen. i skimmed through some forums, apparently this is actually quite common, the quick fix is to clear the cache. until now, i did not even know you could do this. what you need to do is go to the system settings, select memory, and they hit Y. after that screen opens you tap X,X, L bumper, R bumper, X,X, and it will ask you if you want to do maintenance on you Xbox, or something along those lines. select yes, and your good to go. i wonder if this will also fix my issues with Aria, since it was a similar loading screen error on that game as well.

Survival Mode and Rewards!

While technically this has nothing do with our challenge, I felt I had the duty to report that the Left 4 Dead DCL, "Survival", has been officially posted in the Xbox Live Marketplace. Well, actually, it was put up about 3 hours ago, but I had pick to play it first or report on it first. My choice was gaming, of course.

Sadly, it offers no new achievements. I'm sort of okay with that, as I find adding more achievements to the original 1,000 a bit lack luster and unappealing when it is only for multiplayer or character based actions. I am, however, perfectly fine with adding new achievements/points when it is for an expansion, such is the case with Fallout 3 and Fable 2. Though, it should be said that with the new "Survival" mode, it does make getting the legendary Zombie Genocidist achievement a million times easier. I mean, my average survival game was 4 minutes. I averaged roughly 200 zombies per game.

In other orginization-related news, I would like to mention that I'm looking into offering "incentives" to the participants that reach certain milestones within our challenge. I need to get with the co-chairs of this committy and a few other people, but I believe I'll be able to roll out some sort or incentive program that will reward those gamers out there that are really striving for that 100K.

Well, that's all for now. Happy gaming!

it's going to be the future soon...

i know i am always talking about updates all the time, and what is to come for our site, challenge, and its members. i simply cannot help it. i like to think we are progressively moving forward. if that requires a bunch of what seem to be minute updates along the way, then so be it.

first of all, i for one cannot believe that we are already in month four. it is madness i tells ya, madness! and although some of the shiny has worn off, i think we still have good chance of making it.

a new thing that found kind of useful, and yet somewhat unnecessary is the Streak Saver from the good people over at 360voice. the idea behind it is to simply be able to sync your progress in a more manual way. i will say that sometimes the auto-sync for the site leaves something to be desired. especially if you play overnight and it crosses that "collection time" which they recommend you do not do anyway. with this handy little tool, you can simply turn on the app, let it run in the background, and it does a check for gameplay on your gamertag about every five minutes or so. plus, you can to do a complete gamertag sync at while, this is useful if you think there are any games or achievements you think you may be missing from the site. it also seems to be useful when you have just earned some points, and for reasons unknown then do not post on your blog until a day later. at least it seems to help with that issue. another benefit, offline gaming can also be added on with the click of a button without actually putting the game back in or anything. i dunno, it appears to be kind of a neat little gadget if anybody is interested.

things to come, our 100k 360voice group posting, and an update in the morning.

3 months and...

Howdy, everyone.

Just popping in for the traditional monthly update, trying to keep everyone up-to-date on all the small little details of the challenge.

First, let me thank MOtaku for all his hard work here on the blog. He has the misfortune of having to update the chart, at the bottom of the screen, on a weekly basis. Right now, it isn't too bad with just the 10 of us, but if/when we get more people in on the band-wagon, it might just get a bit more difficult. So, thanks, MO!

Anyways, onto the details!

Details for our 3rd official month:

Number of participants: 10
Total points earned since Day 1: 21,829 (+3,634 over last month)
Leaders of the pack: MOtaku- +5,750 (1st), XCinX- +4,605 (2nd)

So, we only gained a combine total of +3,634 points this month? Last month was shorter, with less new releases, and we still managed to gain +7,840 that month. Is everyone just losing interest? Not enough good games? Do we need to start offering prizes for the top player(s) each month?

That is definitely something to consider, I suppose.

Well, here's to a better month in April!

Happy gaming!

tweek it, map it... recap it.

so the weekly update is in, and i noticed some things when i was punching in the numbers. number one, on the chart, the people who have the lighter colors lines representing their gains. well their update "anchors" where almost impossible to see. i corrected that by just changing everybody's anchor to a basic black color. it is very easy to distinguish from the line itself, and allows us to use the rollover score read with ease.

after doing that, i realized how much our chart resembled what could only be described as a very complex version of a Guitar Hero music sheet. it is almost kind of eerie, and yet i wonder what it would sound like were it actually playable.

something else i noticed, the score to achievement ratio. i mean there is a serious lack of any kind of trends here. where i did over 300 points this week with around 7 achievements or so, i think Jake did like 75 achievements, and only got 45 points. wtf?! there is some serious unbalanced gaming going on there. i mean a good chunk of his achievements had to be worth nothing, and that is a gyp quite frankly. so what i may do is whip a chart to tandem the gamerscore. the second chart of course would display achievements gained. since this is also information that is contained in our weekly recaps over at 360voice, it should be no trouble at all. it will include all the data available back to the beginning of our mission. i would expect that to be up before next weeks updates.

the one difference to note between the two charts. our gamerscore chart is a cummulative score. so every week, the scores are tallied and added on to our previous scores. the second chart tracking our actual number of achievements gained would only represent that week in the update. so unlike now, where the chart is steadily rising to our individual goals. the new one will be showing each weeks endeavors, and will have all the peaks and valleys one might expect to see on a graph. at any rate, i am going to get busy coding that up.

Round 3 is a-go!

What's up, everyone?

Just dropping by to let everyone know that the new challenge on 360voice is pending.

If you are wanting to join us for our next round, just hit up this link: http://www.360voice.com/join/CI581IP6

As soon as everyone joins up, I'll start it up. It is going to be a week longer than our last one because there are a few hot titles coming out between the end of March and beginning of April. I didn't want us getting caught inbetween challenges with a bunch of games.

Anyways, sign up and lets get this party started!

Happy gaming!

much faster than advertised...

i originally had planned to have the non-google widget version of our chart up by next week monday. well good news everyone! i actually finished it yesterday. all in all, with some minor tweaking today, it took much less effort than i had originally planned. now that this particular task is complete, and i am aware of just how easy it is to add on a second chart - mayhaps tracking the groups total achievments. this will come in handy once we figure out the donations part of our charity. laters.

oh, and btw, if you do not like the current color of your line, feel free to shoot me the hex of one you like better. the obvious exception to this, of course, would be white, as it would not be visible at the moment. also, let's try not to avoid dupe colors as well.

ok there seems to be some updatum infinitum going on over at 360voice. yesterday, i read that they were have some site issues due to hacker interference. today, they are completely down. i do not think this will affect the tracking we use, as i believe it is the same system that runs gamerDNA. which is their current parent site. the weekly chart update may be delayed until their site it up and running again. also, i have no idea how this will affect the current challenge of which we only had a few days left to complete. at any rate, if the update doesn't happen tomorrow. that is more than likely the reason. unlike my reasons as of late, of which i have had none.

speaking of the chart, i have been doing some research, and i am going to be working on a method that will make the update easier to... well update i guess. right now, the chart is only a few upates long. so it is not too cumbersome to use the google widget thingum. however, at some point, it will become a totally unholy mess that i have to sift through. so, over the course of the coming days, between my anti-bioweapon efforts, i will be working on the way i had originally planned to post the chart on here before i found the easier way. or at least what was at the time easier. i would expect this change to take place before the next episode of heroes. as i believe they are skipping a week, and i am not exactly sure why.

Gears of Evil 5!

So, how's everyone doing tonight?

I'm sure we're all too busy playing the last major release of the month to be reading the intertubes, but I thought I'd post an update anyways. Of course, by "last major release", I mean the last note-worthy video game, Resident Evil 5. There are a few more potential releases worth checking out in the coming weeks, most notably Wheelman and Wanted: Weapons of Fate, as well as a few arcade titles. Still, Capcom's latest zombie...erm..."infected" shooter is probably the last to really catch the eyes of everyone.

On the achievement side of things, I think you're looking at one of the easiest 1000 points you could possibly gain for a Triple-A title. I mean, 370 of those are just for beating the game's various levels/chapters and difficulties. Good thing, thought, that the achievements are stackable, so you could get all those in just two play throughs. Unfortunately the hardest difficulty can't be unlocked until you beat the game on "Veteran".

Not a big deal, really, since the game is pretty fun and addicting. It is a tad like "Gears of War", though. That isn't a bad thing, but I'd have liked to see this entry in the series push the boundaries like "Resident Evil 4" did back on the Gamecube, and later Playstation 2. I wasn't expecting ground breaking, "Oh my god! I can't believe they did that!" game play, but something new would have been nice.

Speaking of something that would have been nice...actually getting what is depicted in the Collector's Edition press release. See, in all the initial product photos, we were shown that the Chris Redfield figurine was about the same size of the video game box itself. The figure actually looked like the 6" figure from the RE5 figure line from Neca. Any sane person would actually think that that was the figure that they were getting, or at least one of similar stature. Instead we are given a measly 2" figure similar to the Altair figure from the "Assassin's Creed" Special Edition. Bleh. Then...don't even get me started on the "messanger bag", again depicted as being much, much larger. Again, we are given a paper-thin fabric bag that is about the same quality of the "Support the Arts/Music" bags you can get at Hot Topic for $1.

If I hadn't gotten it at a discount thanks to working at Best Buy, I'd have been rather pissed. Oh well.

Anyways, enough ranting. Happy Gaming!

2 months in!

Well, we are in the mist of a heated battle over at 360voice.com right now. Erm...okay, so it just started a day or two ago, but whatever. MOtaku was the winner of our first challenge, but it was only the first of many!

I just thought I'd drop in to do a little update since we just passed the 2 month marker of the entire year long challenge. Using the chart that MOtaku is gracefully updating for us, here's a few specs. We're currently running with 10 participants, rocking out a total of 18,195 points between the 10 of us. That's an increase of +7,840 over the last time. Our busiest week was between February 16th and February 23rd. Current forerunners of the challenges are MOtaku (+4,395) and myself (+3,675).

I don't know if it was just because the month was shorter than the others or just because nothing was really released, but gaming wasn't really in the cards, uh?

Oh well! Here's to March and hopefully more fruitful point gains!

Mar 2 update, a day late.

ok, i really have no excuse for not updating the chart yesterday. the fact of the matter is, i simply kind of forgot. i did not even realize that i was a day off until i was posting the chart and i almost put the wrong date on it. i blame all the sushi i have been eating over the weekend.

in case you missed it, Braid was available on XBLA last week for a mere 800 points. from playing the demo so long ago, i had actually been waiting on a price drop for quite a while, even if it was only a temporary one. the game is easy in the sense that it is essentially a side scrolling platformer, that makes odd references while being artistically alluring all at once. it does have a more challenging side. one that is based on puzzle solving, and time manipulation, sort of a solve-em-up if you will. so completing the game, is not necessarily as easy as playing through. nevertheless, you will still earn achievement points for doing both.

Who watches the Watchmen?

Greetings, everyone.

Been a while, um? Tonight begins our second challenge over at www.360voice.com, so I thought I'd pop in and just chat about the gaming deal of the week going on over at Best Buy right now.

See, whenever you buy an XBox 360 console or anything related to XBox Live (games are excluded unfortunately), you receive a voucher for 2 free tickets to see The Watchmen film in either standard or IMAX theaters. Why I think this is so impressive is because The Watchmen: The End is Nigh is laughing on XBox Live this Wednesday for 1600 Microsoft Points. The game is roughly 8 hours in length with 6 chapters set as a prequel to the movie, playing as Nite-Owl and Rorsach in their early days as heroes during the 1960's.

Still, 1600 points might seem a bit steep for a super-hero beat-em-up, but think of it this way: you are buying the game and getting to see the movie or you're buying 2 tickets to the movie and getting the game for free. Either way, even if the game is only mediocre at best, you get a good 2 and a half hours at the theater.

That is all, folks. Happy gaming!

minutes to midnight

ok so i was kind of asked to hold off launching the two week challenge a day, so that one of the newer challengers could sign up. so instead of it already being in effect as of midnight p.s.t. it will be launched later this evening around eight in the central time zone, because i will be leaving for work then. not to worry for all those building up points, they still count toward the weekly updates. so keep on plugging away at 'em. just to reiterate, the challenge will launch later today, and all points obtained after midnight p.s.t should be in the challenge.

also, i have an appointment with the optometrist tomorrow to get some smexy glasses. unfortunately, i am almost certain this will require having my pupils dilated. as a result, i do not think i will be playing much tomorrow. or driving, or laser tag, or doing much of anything that requires great ocular acuity. so i would not expect much from me on the first day right out of the gate. i may go grab some sushi with some friends of mine, but that is about it.

night of the living update...

sorry about the much overdue update everybody. i have been spending a lot of time between my two jobs, and not much time being able to do anything else other than sleep. do not believe me!? check my last couple of blogs over at 360voice. at any rate, the chart has been updated for this passed monday. which is just in time to receive another update in about three-days.

while checking out the groups feature over at 360voice, i accidentally created a group and then kind apparently earlier this month. not knowing this, the "group" blog has been updating and tallying information essentially for me alone. i will attempt to send invites to get the rest of the participants to join in, as this could provide some additional widgets for our blog here. things like games played and popularity trackers. i dunno, we will burn that bridge when we come to it.

i believe there was something else i wanted to mention in this update, but for the love of me i cannot think of it. ah well, perhaps i will remember it later and add it to a future post.

Morning, folks.

Just wanted to apologize for posting the link to the gent trying to increase his gamerscore by 1 million points. Upon further looking and reading into his blog, turns out he is abusing the fact he has a region free XBox 360. How? Well, he has Avatar the Last Airbender: The Burning Earth 4 times. Yeah...forget that shit. So just ignore that posting completely.

let the room say awwww...

ok so the first 360voice challenge, due to discussion amongst ourselves, has ended. there will be a new, shorter one to follow suit. so that more people are able to join in on the festivities. as well as possibly kick my arse at some point. seeing as how we would be starting from zero achievements again. the weekly chart will continue to update as scheduled. Zapster has his new 360 in play, and so it should be an even playing field once more.

oh p.s. -- the new challenge is up, and will probably begin on or around the 28th. if everyone is signed up before then, of course we can start in on it sooner than that. here comes the link:
http://www.360voice.com/join/578EK794

Evening, everyone.

Not a whole lot to offer in terms of an update tonight, instead I'm wanting to offer up a link to a rather interesting/informative blog:

http://www.1milliongamerscore.com/

In a nut shell, the gamer Stallion83 is the blog's author and he's on a quest for an amazing 1 million gamerscore. That is actually quite impressive in comparison to our quest for 100K. But I'm not pointing it out as a way of making us feel lower or whatever. I'm pointing it our because of the information it actually holds.

Throughout his posts, when he isn't trying to defend himself against cheating/power saving accusations, he writes about games that are of the easiest achievements. He also offers tips for the harder achievements as well. He does own a PAL XBox 360, meaning he is able to play games from all around the world even though he is located in the US.

So, if you have a free moment while surfing the net or waiting for a match to load in Gears of War 2, swing over and give it a look.

Happy gaming!

and all i've got is 4-minutes

just a quick update this evening. i actually have gaming obligations to attend to at the bar later, and they involve dragging my rock band kit about.

the chart has received the weekly update, and i have been checking in with gamescoregoal.com. pretty much it gives you a chart and tells you what you need to average per day to obtain that goal in achievement points. for our particular goals and time frame, individually, we are supposed to earn about 280-points per day. i only earned 270 in the last week. i looked to see how far behind i am in earnings, and it is pretty close to 8,500. that is crazy!

we are still trying to come up with some way to add on our fund raising portion to the site. we know what we want to do, we know how we want it set up, all that remains is actually figuring out a method that will not accidentally send us to county. hopefully, we can get something up by the end of the month.

Worst Achievement Ever!

Ok. So...little rant at the moment, mainly because my desire to game is not really there. But I digress...

Today, F.E.A.R 2: Project Origins dropped for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Well, the Achievements/Trophies for this are your standard fare, but one kind of irks me:

Five Star General - 100 points: All multiplayer achievements unlocked!

Any one who knows me knows my strong distaste for multiplayer-based achievements. Its not that I'm against achievements that test your skills, but when you throw in the online component...an arena that offers for cheaters galore...you are asking for nothing more than a headache. Some games get the idea of online achievements correctly, like Halo 3, but this one doesn't, especially with an achievement like Five Star General.

Maybe I'm wrong on the matter, but I just don't get it, really.

Happy gaming.

you've been Rick RRoD

so unfortunately, our very own Zapster has received the fatal 360 error rendering it nothing more then a pearly paperweight. he has shipped it to the Soft, and will hopefully be up and running again in no time at all. in the meantime, we may have to come up with some sort of community play-dates to get everybody together and rack up some achievements that way. Cin and i have spoken about this matter before, but it seems now more prevalent than ever due to the needs of a fallen comrade. we shall find some way to keep his gamerscore alive!