the XBLA game room has a date-o

so the XBLA game room finally has a date, and some official pricing information. the arcade room itself will be a free download, which is what i was kind of expecting/hoping it to be priced. the date of download availability is March 24th. each game will have three pricing options. if you buy it to play on both your pc and your xbox 360 then it is 400 msp. if you choose to go with one or the other, then the games are 250 msp a piece. the third option is the ever so sketchy "one-play" option, which will cost you 40 msp a pop, basically 50 cents, and they still don't define what is considered "one-play".

to be perfectly honest with you, i will pretty much be getting all my titles at the 250 msp, single platform price. i just can't justify buying the game to play on two different platforms, when i know that i will only end up playing it on the one. i am curious to see if this will actually affect the price point of other titles that are simply old titles launched for xbla download. one would think that it would effect market place pricing of xbla titles overall. i doubt it, but who knows maybe we will actually see a change in how the other games are offered altogether.

why would that news be important here? well there was talk of the actual game room having achievement points that may only exist in the free game room download itself. i am not exactly sure what they are, but i would guess them to be similar to the achievement points that are available by playing 1 vs. 100 live. i foresee them being things like, challenge a friend to a game, purchase some random number of titles, have so many people visit/play in your game room. hopefully, the actual games themselves will also garner you the standard 200 gs point value.

anyway, more news about it can be found here

just another Morbo monday

happy obscure U.S. holiday day! the Xbox 360 chart has been updated. we will begin updating the PS3 chart on friday to avoid any time collisions, and to allow us more time for that chart. we are just over halfway through the first month, and it has become a rather heated race so far.

we should also be hosting our first challenge at 360voice fairly soon. if you are not a member of their site yet, sign up! it is free, and you get a personal blog that logs all of your Xbox 360 goings on for you! plus if you are looking to get on the chart this year, that is kind of one small thing that we ask of you.

from the forums of xbox360achievemments.org

thanks for all the great responses everyone. we will start adding new people the charts in the coming weeks. there has been a slight delay because of the addition of the PS3 trophy chart. although it appears to be up and running it still needs some behind the scenes tweaking, but that's a post for another forum.
when you are added on the chart, you will be notified via message either on this site, or 360voice. also, this year we may have a little surprise in store. sort of an initiation. nothing to worry about though, it will be in the form of a tiny sort of "getting to know you" type survey. look for it when you receive your official invite/listing. you'll have to answer the questions, and remember, they will be posted on the blog for all to read.
as in the prior year, all points will be updated to the first of January, no matter when you are added on to the actual site. unless of course you joined up at 360voice after the first, then they will reflect accordingly. don't wait to sign up for a free account at 360voice though, the sooner the better. your points placement depends on it!

i can tell you're lying because your lips are moving

some new avatar awards have become available for the Lips series, bringing the grand total up to 14. here is what they have so far:

Over the Top: Sing one song (M)
Sassy Pie: Sing one song (F)
Shades of Infinity: Earn an Infinity rating on a song (M)
Shades of Infinity: Earn an Infinity rating on a song (F)
Disco Kicks: Earn a Gold Cup (M)
Disco Boots: Earn a Gold Cup (F)
Crystal Corduroys: Win 20 challenges (M)
Crystal Mini: Win 20 challenges (F)
Shades of "Lady Gaga": Earn the Superstar Grand Rank (M)
Shades of "Lady Gaga": Earn the Superstar Grand Rank (F)

as you can see, the awards and what it qualifies to get them seems to repeat through the sets, or at least have very similar awards and qualifications. the reason being is that one half of the awards are for male avatars, the other half are for female avatars. currently, this set includes avatar awards for both Lips and Lips: Number One Hits. the following avatar awards should become available once Lips: Party Classics launches on March 02, 2010:

Biker Guy: Earn a Big Bang rating and hit all gestures in the song "YMCA" (M)
Biker GAl: Earn a Big Bang rating and hit all gestures in the song "YMCA" (F)
80's Heartthrob: Earn a Big Bang rating and hit all gestures in the song "I Think We're Alone Now" (M)
Teen Sensation: Earn a Big Bang rating and hit all gestures in the song "I Think We're Alone Now" (F)

personally, i have yet to earn any of the avatar awards for this game despite the fact that i have actually earned all the achievements that would correspond with the awards for the game. i do not have Lips: Number One Hits at the moment, and if i recall correctly the Shades of "Lady Gaga" are specifically for that title, but perhaps you must have the second game in order to unlock the first set. until i receive my copy in the mail, this shall remain a mystery i suppose.

access granted

ok so i have completed the necessary steps for the PS3 trophy chart to be displayed in the same area as the 360 with pretty much a toggle button to control the two. for the moment, the gamertags are real, the point values are fictitious. from the looks of things, there may be a general divide between the two gaming systems. so it may be wise to pick one or the other to work play. unless, of course, you feel you play them both equally, or you just want to see how many points you can earn overall. either way, i look forward to the coming months now that all the major site work is out of the way. we can get on to adding new people to the chart(s), and score maintenance and blogging. won't that be nice. anyway, i believe my next post will be my review of Cabela's Alaskan Adventures and the terrors that it holds. for everyone in the group, now is actually the time to catch up and overthrow me. i am currently trying to finish Marvel Ultimate Alliance to 100% i only have the final two achievements remaining, and of course they are time consuming. so it won't be easy to get over the next few days.

get ready to feel the power of attorney!

it's the first chart collapse of the year. as you can see, the chart has been adjusted to represent the points earned in total for the month of January, and has also already been primed for the upcoming February earnings.

Current earnings:
M0taku: 1940
XCinX: 1705
MackD512: 1465
RaverZombie69: 1140

in addition to the chart update, i also added these figures to the gamercards located in the sidebar on the right. to display the current scores in the form of a rollover.

also exciting news, the PS3 chart is officially completed. the point calculator is also running nominally now as well. the only thing missing from the equation is the ability to swap between the two charts without using any additional space. i have the know how, i just have to get it to work without running into any of the errors i've been accidentally causing during the coding process. so look for that update soon.

Achievement Tip #1: Bayonetta and Infinite Flutes

Evening, boys and girls.

Given that we all come across games that we absolutely love yet can be a pain to achieve 100% on, I'd like to introduce a new feature to our little corner of the world. This new section will be little tricks, tips, or non-offensive glitches that will help give you that edge on the game.

So, to kick off this new feature, we will be using a tip from the first new game of 2010 (yes, I realize this is a month late!): Bayonetta!

As anyone knows, Bayonetta was created by the same gaming genius who created Devil May Cry, Hideki Kamiya! As such, playing the game on anything other than Normal can be a bitch. Though, through many play throughs and studying, a glitch in the inventory system can be...abused to make sure that those "infinate Climax" mode (Hardest difficulty in the game) plays like Easy.

In the game, there is a rare item, Magic Flute, which can insta-kill lesser enemies, dealing great damage to mid-level bosses and a nice amount to end game bosses. To get one, you either find the two that are hidden in the game, win one in the Angel Shoot Out mini-game (the shooter between levels) or create one in you concoctions.

Now that we know the iteam, lets talk about how to use it to your advantage. Obtain one, doesn't matter how, and map it to your Left D-Pad. DO NOT use the item via the D-Pad. Instead, keep going to your inventory system and use it from your inventory wheel. This will use the flute without actually removing the one from your mapped button. For some reason, the game doesn't recgonize that you have used the item, thus you technically have an infinte amount of these demon/angel destorying items.

Another added bonus: The game doesn't count the use of the item against you in the end of the levels. Thus, you will always get at least a Gold medal for beating the stage without taking damage if you time it right.

I played the game on Normal the first time through without the glitch, beating it under 6 hours. This helped me beat the game on Hard in 2 hours, 17 minutes. I am currently running through the game on "infinate Climax". It sucks that you have to beat the game on x-difficulty to unlock the next hardest level for the achievement, but with this glitch you can have all three play throughs knocked out in about 4-5 hours and be 435 points richer.

Well, that's it. Happy achievement hunting!

-XCinX