So I finally finished disk one of Lost Odyssey. And I got 125 points for it too. If I had known how close I was to the end of that disk the last time I played, I would have continued on. It was nice to see something happy happen for a change in the game. As I watched the shower of flower petals fall all I kept thinking was I wanted to see Kaim smile at least once before the game was over. He didn't but it was close. I've played the game for just under 20 hours so it looks to be around 80-100 hours before I finish it. I heard the last disk was very short on game play so maybe the other disks will take longer.
Lost Odyssey is one game I have on my list to finish this year. Although I already have those 1,000 points in my plan towards my 10,000 point goal for the year it's nice to see my gamer score jump up in a large chunk. The 340 points I got from Scene it? help too. It's actually starting to look like 10,000 points are doable before the year's out. All of my planned calculations would come up 200-300 points short. I never figured in Scene it? because I didn't own it yet so things are moving long nicely.
The sooner I can finish Lost Odyssey and BioShock the sooner I can go back to Mass Effect. I don't like playing too many RPG type games as the same time. Sometimes it gets too hard to remember where you are in the story and where you need to go next if you haven't played the game in a while. If the story is in a different genre, like Lost Odyssey is fantasy and BioShock is science fiction, it makes things a little easier. I still have to finish Final Fantasy VII too. I reminded dain of that fact last weekend and he just kind of shrugged it off. Hello! He was the one who picked the games out and agreed to finishing them.
So if I can finish Lost Odyssey, BioShock, both Lego Star Wars games and pick up a couple more achievements in Scene it? all I've got left to do is pick up some achievements in some of my Arcade games. Anyone up for a little Gauntlet or Bomberman Live? Come on I've got this all planned out. I just need one or two achievements in a bunch of the Arcade games and I'll be passing 10,000 in gamer score before you're tired of eating turkey at Thanksgiving. I've budgeted my gamer score increases for the rest of the year so why can't I budget my bank account just as well?
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
It's been nice knowing ya
To all my friends who are going to purchase Grand Theft Auto IV (or have already) I've got a couple of things I want to say to you. 1) It's been nice knowing ya. 2) Don't forget me. And 3) when you come up for air (in a couple of months or so by my guess) look me up on your fiends list and reintroduce yourself. Who knows, I might even send you an invite to play a game with me . . . if I can remember who you are. :)
Monday, April 28, 2008
New Poll - What game are you most looking forward to?
Okay the new poll is up. What game are you most looking forward to? I'm sure there's other games out there that might be tickling your fancy so be sure to tell me what they are . . . after you vote of course.
By leaps and bounds
My gamer score shot up by leaps and bounds over this weekend. Why, you ask? Because I got a new game.
I picked up Scene it? to have something the whole family can play when we get together. It worked . . . kind of. My mother spent most of the time in the other room trying to get her infant grandbaby to sleep. And my sister-in-law spent most of her time wrangling her other two kids and the controller they were suppose to be sharing. It was chaos and bedlam most of the time so I wonder if anyone had any fun.
I was able to score 340 points in three games. But I really didn't earn them all myself. While the family was playing, dain and I were sharing a controller. We were logged into my profile on that controller so anything we did I would get the credit for. My parents were playing under dain's log in and they did manage to get a few achievements for him, but not many. My brother kaiakapero picked up some for himself all on his own.
But the achievement I picked up this weekend that I'm most proud of was the Heartbreaker achievement for Portal. You get it for completing the game. The last time dain and I played Portal (side by side) we had to quit because our brains were turning to jelly. We had no idea how close or how far we were from finishing the game. Apparently we weren't far from finishing it at all. We only had about four or five areas left but we were hopelessly stuck in one area. We could see where he needed to go but we couldn't figure out how to get there.
When I was out buying my second Plug and Play charging cord I picked up a strategy guide for The Orange Box game. I figured we would need it if we were ever going to finish Portal. And we did. I told dain that we'd check to see how to get ourselves unstuck but I wanted to try to finish the game without getting any more help unless we absolutely needed it. Turns out we didn't.
It also turned out that we wouldn't have figured out how to get unstuck without the book's help. I never would have figured out that I had to set up portals to get a laser to shoot the tube releasing a cube so I can use that to get up into a small crawl space. I felt incredibly stupid for not seeing the solution to the problem. But then I finished the game and felt incredibly smart for having figured out all those puzzles and made it to the end. Of course I had dain sitting with me to help work through things. Two minds are so much better one.
Do I expect my gamer score to go up this much every weekend? Not unless I buy a new game with easy achievements every weekend. And I know from past experiences that some new games don't always handout achievements so easily (I'm thinking Blue Dragon for starters). Besides, my bank account would need to grow by leaps and bounds in order to afford all those games. Bummer.
I picked up Scene it? to have something the whole family can play when we get together. It worked . . . kind of. My mother spent most of the time in the other room trying to get her infant grandbaby to sleep. And my sister-in-law spent most of her time wrangling her other two kids and the controller they were suppose to be sharing. It was chaos and bedlam most of the time so I wonder if anyone had any fun.
I was able to score 340 points in three games. But I really didn't earn them all myself. While the family was playing, dain and I were sharing a controller. We were logged into my profile on that controller so anything we did I would get the credit for. My parents were playing under dain's log in and they did manage to get a few achievements for him, but not many. My brother kaiakapero picked up some for himself all on his own.
But the achievement I picked up this weekend that I'm most proud of was the Heartbreaker achievement for Portal. You get it for completing the game. The last time dain and I played Portal (side by side) we had to quit because our brains were turning to jelly. We had no idea how close or how far we were from finishing the game. Apparently we weren't far from finishing it at all. We only had about four or five areas left but we were hopelessly stuck in one area. We could see where he needed to go but we couldn't figure out how to get there.
When I was out buying my second Plug and Play charging cord I picked up a strategy guide for The Orange Box game. I figured we would need it if we were ever going to finish Portal. And we did. I told dain that we'd check to see how to get ourselves unstuck but I wanted to try to finish the game without getting any more help unless we absolutely needed it. Turns out we didn't.
It also turned out that we wouldn't have figured out how to get unstuck without the book's help. I never would have figured out that I had to set up portals to get a laser to shoot the tube releasing a cube so I can use that to get up into a small crawl space. I felt incredibly stupid for not seeing the solution to the problem. But then I finished the game and felt incredibly smart for having figured out all those puzzles and made it to the end. Of course I had dain sitting with me to help work through things. Two minds are so much better one.
Do I expect my gamer score to go up this much every weekend? Not unless I buy a new game with easy achievements every weekend. And I know from past experiences that some new games don't always handout achievements so easily (I'm thinking Blue Dragon for starters). Besides, my bank account would need to grow by leaps and bounds in order to afford all those games. Bummer.
Poll Results - How many 360s have you owned?
Okay, here's the results from the latest poll.
I'm really not surprised by those numbers at all. What I would like to know is of those five people who said they've owned two systems how many were because they got a different system back after they sent theirs off to be repaired or they bought a second system to use as a backup. Feel free to leave me a comment if you're one of them.
What I was a little shocked to see if those that voted for the three, four and especially 5+ options. It leads me to ask: "How much does loyalty cost?" The only items I've had to replace or buy backups for on any of my other systems are controllers. The original controller I got with my PS2 finally died a couple of weeks ago. Considering how much game play I got out of it it was money well spent. Can you say that for your Xbox 360?
This shortened lifespan the Xbox 360 console has seems to have crossed over into their peripherals as well. I'm currently on my 5th headset and second Plug and Play charging cord. One of my headsets had the connecting post that goes into the controller break off inside the controller. It took some jiggling and a lot of praying before I was able to knock that piece out so I could use that controller again. How bad would that be to have to replace a controller just because a part of the headset connector got stuck in it? All of this and I've only had my system for 16 months.
So, at what point do you draw the line and say I'm not going to spend another dime on yet another Xbox 360 or it's peripherals? Or do you just naturally budget money for things like headsets and new consoles because the games are that good? I remember when my video game budget was just for games. And with games now at $60 a pop can you really keep affording new games if you keep having to rebuy all the extras not to mention new systems? At what point do you say 'enough is enough' and no matter what games are coming out on the Xbox 360 it's not worth it to you to play them any more? Do you stay loyal until the warranty runs out?
For me, I think I'm good for one more console and then I just might move on to the PS3 for good. It's not that I'm not enjoying my time playing on the 360, but it's getting to be a very expensive habit to maintain. But I guess all drug dealers, whether they're selling crack, heroin or Xbox 360s, will always remind you of the 'good times' to give you a reason to keep coming back for more.
How many Xbox 360s have you owned?
0 = 0
1 = 1
2 = 5
3 = 1
4 = 1
5+ = 2
I'm really not surprised by those numbers at all. What I would like to know is of those five people who said they've owned two systems how many were because they got a different system back after they sent theirs off to be repaired or they bought a second system to use as a backup. Feel free to leave me a comment if you're one of them.
What I was a little shocked to see if those that voted for the three, four and especially 5+ options. It leads me to ask: "How much does loyalty cost?" The only items I've had to replace or buy backups for on any of my other systems are controllers. The original controller I got with my PS2 finally died a couple of weeks ago. Considering how much game play I got out of it it was money well spent. Can you say that for your Xbox 360?
This shortened lifespan the Xbox 360 console has seems to have crossed over into their peripherals as well. I'm currently on my 5th headset and second Plug and Play charging cord. One of my headsets had the connecting post that goes into the controller break off inside the controller. It took some jiggling and a lot of praying before I was able to knock that piece out so I could use that controller again. How bad would that be to have to replace a controller just because a part of the headset connector got stuck in it? All of this and I've only had my system for 16 months.
So, at what point do you draw the line and say I'm not going to spend another dime on yet another Xbox 360 or it's peripherals? Or do you just naturally budget money for things like headsets and new consoles because the games are that good? I remember when my video game budget was just for games. And with games now at $60 a pop can you really keep affording new games if you keep having to rebuy all the extras not to mention new systems? At what point do you say 'enough is enough' and no matter what games are coming out on the Xbox 360 it's not worth it to you to play them any more? Do you stay loyal until the warranty runs out?
For me, I think I'm good for one more console and then I just might move on to the PS3 for good. It's not that I'm not enjoying my time playing on the 360, but it's getting to be a very expensive habit to maintain. But I guess all drug dealers, whether they're selling crack, heroin or Xbox 360s, will always remind you of the 'good times' to give you a reason to keep coming back for more.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Jack Thompson's "your mama" insult
Okay, if you ever play a video game online you're going to hear a "your mama" insult. But I think Jack Thomson's "your mama" email sent directly to one of Take Two's Executive's mother (via their lawyers) about the impending release of Grand Theft Auto has got to take the cake. Who sounds like a 12 year old now?
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Surprise!
Some times surprises are nice. Other times they miss the mark.
I picked up two achievements yesterday. I'll tell you about the second one first. It was Ogre Slayer in Puzzle Quest. Apparently you get it for defeating on Ogre boss. I wasn't expecting to get the achievement so it was a pleasant surprise when I heard that beep. My immediate reaction was "what did I do" and then the description popped up. It's nice to just play a game because you like it and are having fun when unexpected achievements pop up. I'm not playing the game for the achievements (although I will make sure I get them all) but for the challenges and the game play. Playing that way leaves me free to enjoy what I'm experiencing.
And now to the first achievement I picked up. It was a disappointment in two ways, 1) I knew it was coming, and 2) I earned it a long time ago. I'm talking about the Private First Class achievement in Rainbow 6: Vegas 2. Because this game is a sequel they built in the capability to recognize your save from the previous Vegas game. What that meant for this game was that you probably already achieved the rank of Private First Class so you wouldn't be able to unlock the achievement in the new game. In other words the game was broken. At least this achievement was. They had to make an update for this game so that people could get an achievement they earned a while ago. All I had to do was put the disk in and boot up the game. Achievement unlocked.
I knew the fix was coming after reading about it online. Even if I hadn't planned on playing a few matches with my friends I would have put the game in just to get the achievement I already earned. It was very anticlimactic to hear that beep at the title screen knowing it was for some previous exploits in the game. And frustrating wondering if any other achievements are glitched.
There's nothing more frustrating than knowing you've done something that qualifies for an achievement and you don't get to hear that beep because the achievement is broken. What's the point of having achievements if you can't . . . um, I don't know . . . ACHIEVE them? If you need 100 kills you should get your achievement once you take out that 100th person. Not when you kill 115 people. There are several games with glitched achievements. I try to avoid games like that but I don't avoid the comments people make on forums about them. Their frustration is palatable.
Microsoft did something right but putting achievements in games. Now all the other systems are scrambling to catch up and show off their own rewards system. PS3 is suppose to have trophies and the Nintendo DS is coming out with DGamer stuff starting with the new Chronicles of Naria Prince Caspin game. I don't expect things to be perfect, but developers know what achievements are and how to program thems since they've been around for awhile. So why can't they make them work?
The frustration of a glitchy achievement could be more than the joy of unlocking an unexpected one. It could ruin a gamer's enjoyment of the game. And it could make people decide not to get it in the first place. Now I'm glad the Private First Class achievement was fixed and I got it, don't get me wrong. But my faith in developers who put out unfinished games, broken achievements and glitched games is waning. Playing video games can be expensive (more on that with my poll results in a couple of days) but they should, most importantly, be fun and exciting and full of good surprises not bad ones.
I picked up two achievements yesterday. I'll tell you about the second one first. It was Ogre Slayer in Puzzle Quest. Apparently you get it for defeating on Ogre boss. I wasn't expecting to get the achievement so it was a pleasant surprise when I heard that beep. My immediate reaction was "what did I do" and then the description popped up. It's nice to just play a game because you like it and are having fun when unexpected achievements pop up. I'm not playing the game for the achievements (although I will make sure I get them all) but for the challenges and the game play. Playing that way leaves me free to enjoy what I'm experiencing.
And now to the first achievement I picked up. It was a disappointment in two ways, 1) I knew it was coming, and 2) I earned it a long time ago. I'm talking about the Private First Class achievement in Rainbow 6: Vegas 2. Because this game is a sequel they built in the capability to recognize your save from the previous Vegas game. What that meant for this game was that you probably already achieved the rank of Private First Class so you wouldn't be able to unlock the achievement in the new game. In other words the game was broken. At least this achievement was. They had to make an update for this game so that people could get an achievement they earned a while ago. All I had to do was put the disk in and boot up the game. Achievement unlocked.
I knew the fix was coming after reading about it online. Even if I hadn't planned on playing a few matches with my friends I would have put the game in just to get the achievement I already earned. It was very anticlimactic to hear that beep at the title screen knowing it was for some previous exploits in the game. And frustrating wondering if any other achievements are glitched.
There's nothing more frustrating than knowing you've done something that qualifies for an achievement and you don't get to hear that beep because the achievement is broken. What's the point of having achievements if you can't . . . um, I don't know . . . ACHIEVE them? If you need 100 kills you should get your achievement once you take out that 100th person. Not when you kill 115 people. There are several games with glitched achievements. I try to avoid games like that but I don't avoid the comments people make on forums about them. Their frustration is palatable.
Microsoft did something right but putting achievements in games. Now all the other systems are scrambling to catch up and show off their own rewards system. PS3 is suppose to have trophies and the Nintendo DS is coming out with DGamer stuff starting with the new Chronicles of Naria Prince Caspin game. I don't expect things to be perfect, but developers know what achievements are and how to program thems since they've been around for awhile. So why can't they make them work?
The frustration of a glitchy achievement could be more than the joy of unlocking an unexpected one. It could ruin a gamer's enjoyment of the game. And it could make people decide not to get it in the first place. Now I'm glad the Private First Class achievement was fixed and I got it, don't get me wrong. But my faith in developers who put out unfinished games, broken achievements and glitched games is waning. Playing video games can be expensive (more on that with my poll results in a couple of days) but they should, most importantly, be fun and exciting and full of good surprises not bad ones.
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