General Update 12: Shouting from the roof tops!

Work has been crazy busy for the last week or so and it’s not looking to get any better. I’ve not let work before 8 this week it’s that crazy, which I guess just about evens out the awesomeness I had at the weekend. That’s right It was my friend Maggie’s Wedding, she and her new husband both looked very happy and beautiful, I’m sure they had a great day. So a heartfelt congratulations go out to the newly weds!

It has been a little frustrating though not being able to play on the Xbox as for those who follow me closely will know that I’m very very close to the 50K mark. However I should be able to break through it before the end of the year. I still have a list of game to go back and play to try and get the full 1000g. Alan Wake, Dragon Age: Origins, Wet and let’s not forget the fact I need to complete Red Faction: guerrilla.

However for those who follow me on the Twitter, you will already know that I won a competition for a free Pacman Championship DX download code from Xbox Live’s very own MrPointyHead. The ask with all the gritty remakes being done including Disney’s Mickey Mouse how would we re-imagine PACMAN.  “Vegetarian Det. P. Ackman is hunting a group of drug dealers known as 'The Ghosts ' through Neon Japan's Rave Scene!”  That was my entry and here was the tweet where I found out I’d won. “For a re-imagining worthy of whoever wrote the Super Mario Brothers movie, @GamerPraggers earns the Pac-Man C.E. DX code!”  I’ve very excited and frustrated as I’m not able to go home and play it now!

So this was a quick post to say I’ve not forgotten about you and to gloat over my win, and now back to work! *sigh*

General Update 11: We Don't Talk Anymore. . .

I suppose I should be grovelling to you for forgiveness due to my being absent so long, no blog entries or twitter tweets and you are right of course, but I blame my friend Mags, who is getting married in a couple of weeks, she got me hooked on the telly series House. I am now all up to date with the series and can hopefully focus on my writing. I did plan a few entries but never got around to write them the plans are still there and while I do still plan on writing my second entry about the EuroGamer Expo, some of the news stories I want to write about are long gone. But I could use them for writing practise.

So things that I’ve been up to in the past few weeks, I got the Fallout New Vegas Collector’s Edition, and I’ve taken photos of it being unboxed so that will get its own special dedicated post. I didn’t get Fable 3, I was financially short that month and I have plenty to be getting on with games wise, I’ve also got the Awakening DLC for Dragon Age:Origins as well as Ironman 2 on top of this I want to add the Borderlands Game of the year edition for all of the DLC.

As far as actually playing goes, I’m only about 20 hours into Fallout New Vegas and I’ve only completed the first mission on Ironman 2. You may also remember that in General Update 10, I mentioned that I had 3 more achievements for Mass Effect 2 DLC. It just so happened that the following Mondays Deal of the week was on Mass Effect 2 DLC, so I was able to pick up the last one for the last few achievements, making Mass Effect 2 the newest entry to my 100% Club. 

General Update 10: In Space No One Can Hear You Shout "Wohoo!"

So this is my first post in a little while, but I’m back now. I’ve been semi busy, what with having a full time job but I was also in London last weekend for the Eurogamer Expo. I managed to get a look at some of the top new titles that will be coming out in the next 10-12 months and being my first Expo I wasn’t disappointed.

Before I went away for the weekend I started a new run through of Mass Effect 2 on Insanity. As I said in a blog post earlier this year I was giving up as I didn’t want to hate the game. This week has seen my plough through the point at which I was stuck and all the way through to the end. Yes i have now got the 1000g avaliable for the main game. I have also done the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC. So I only have 3 more achievements to get for me to have the full compliment of achievements for the game, but they can wait.

The one think I thought I should mention about the Expo, before I do my full write up which I will try and put up during the week, was that I found a game that I didn’t originally think I would be interested in but after trying it out at the expo I decided that it’s worth a go. The game was Castlevania Lord of Shadows. I’m not entirely certain what it was about the game that I liked, the graphics are pretty awesome, but it also looked like there would be plenty to do as well. It was released last Friday and I did pick it up on the day of release. I tried it Friday night but then I was called off to save the galaxy!

I almost wasn’t going to get it as Fallout 3 is released next week and Fable 3 the week after that, and with the fact that I have just ordered Dragon Age: Awakening and Iron Man 2 I’ve got plenty to be getting with for the time being.

Weekly Round Up 01: Week Commencing 13/09/2010

Last week was a quiet one for me gaming wise, purely because I got into a couple of TV series that I’ve started watching the box sets of, but that’s now why you are here. I did have a good weekend before last week in that I managed to gain the last few achievements for The Secret of Monkey Island. Last week I did get an evening on the Xbox on the Wednesday, a mate was over and I showed him a couple of indie games including AppleJack, which got voted OXM’s best Indie game, so it’s not just me that thinks it’s great. The other Indie game I should him was The Impossible Game. A really simple to pick up and play game that is very addictive but as I only had the trial it didn’t take long for us to reach the end.

I did get some more time on Dragon Age: Origins towards the end of last week. I’m still working on my second full play through and I’ll admit I’m starting to get a little bored of it, weather that’s because I’m playing as a Mage or because it’s just the same over and over. I know that you can go either way on some of the major decisions in the game, but I’ve completed all of the origins stories so I know which origin will make the story more interesting when I come to make those decisions. I think I’m going to have to complete this play through and have a rest from it and pick up Mass Effect 2.

What else has been happening? The Tokyo Game Show 2010 was last week and while a few new connect titles have been announced, I can’t think of any major that was announced, but then again I can’t say I was paying much attention. I’m still looking forward to the EuroGamer Expo which is in a couple of weeks. With Fable 3, Fallout New Vegas, Brink, Assassins Creed: Brotherhood, Crysis 2 and Dead Space 2 all playable on the show floor, I’m very excited. Nothing has been announced for Kinect yet, but I’m hoping they do so I can see for myself how well it reacts to your movements.

Another thing worth mentioning is the fact that Microsoft has announced that it will be raising the price of some Gold Membership options at the start of November. For where it matters the most, here in the UK, we get of very lightly the price change only affects the 1 month option. And raises it from £4:99 to £5:99, so an extra 12 pound a year, which makes a full year’s subscription out right cheaper but about 20 quid. So what are you waiting for?

General Update 08: DLC Dilemma

Hello Gaming Fans. I am back from my un-explained absence. But this will change shortly. I’ve been a little quiet on the update front with having a full time job which is a pain in the ass, so when I get home all I want to do is chill in front of my XBOX? So I hardly get the time to write entries, which is probably why I have a dozen or so entries lined up for me to write. The majority of which are reviews.

So what has been happening with me? well I gave up on GTA IV and returned it to my friend who I had borrowed it from. He in return gave me back Call of Duty: World at War and Red Dead Redemption. I did try COD:WaW when I got it back as I had found that I got stuck around half way through my veteran Difficulty play through. The level I was stuck on was Burn ‘em Out. And after a solid 3 -4 hours I did manage to make it to the end of that level which was when I turned off the Xbox for the evening, and I’ve still yet to go back to CoD:WaW.

After CoD:WaW I pick up one of my Christmas Presents from last year. Ghostbusters I really enjoyed this game I even managed to play through the main campaign on the hardest difficulty although there is a slight glitch than can be exploited to make getting this achievement a hell of a lot easier. Following my ghost busting career, I picked up sword and shield and ventured forth into the kingdom of Ferelden in Dragon Age: Origins. I have finished the game on one of my characters and as of Last night I managed to complete the origin story of 2 more characters.

The final game I’ve completed in my absence was Wet I got it cheap from amazon and it was so cheap it was hard not to buy it. Wet, while a little fiddly to start with does become very entertaining, and while I’ve completed the story once I still have another 3 or four play throughs to get some more achievements.

Speaking of achievements, I have now broken the 47k mark on my gamerscore and from looking at my stats on TrueAchievements.com, which gives me my stats without DLC included, it shows that I am almost on my goal of reaching the 70%/70% mark I had set myself. The 70%/70% stat is worked out by the percentage of total achievements and gamerscore of the games on my gamertag. My current stat is 69.42%/69.07% for Retail games.

DLC is something else I have been thinking about recently. I have at least 2 DLC add-ons that I have yet to play, and yet more are being released. With half a dozen being available for Dragon Age: Origins which include the expansion pack awakening, there are a few for Mass Effect 2 as well that I need to try for, and the Toy box for Crackdown 2 is also now available. Is now the right time for me to take a break from the retail side of things and try and get the most out of the games I’ve already got? Some of which the core games still hold achievements for me to get. Yes, Alan Wake I’m talking about you and your Nightmare play through!

General Update 07: Visitation Rights

So it's been a while since I've given an update on what I'm playing. In my last update I was working towards the Liberty City Minute achievement in GTA IV. This I am pleased to say I have now done, however the game then became a real grind for me to work on the other achievements. Liberty City (5) is makes me feel like I'm playing the Sims as I have to keep up appearances with the other characters. So the weekend before last I decided that I would try another one of the many games that I have laying about waiting for me to get around to them.

In this instance it was Darksiders. It's a good little game which I picked up at the same time as I got Dante's Inferno and I must say I much prefer Darksiders to Dante's. I managed to finish it just before last weekend as I was going to lend it to a friend however before starting this game I did look to see if there were any missable achievements. There were 4 and I'll admit that I did look up how to get them because as I keep saying my list of games still to play consists of;

• Dragon Age: Origins
• Left 4 Dead 2
• Red Faction: Guerrilla
• Ghostbusters

These are just the games that I have to finish for the first time, I also have a list of games that I need to go back and play again including;

• Alan Wake - Nightmare play through as well as the Signal DLC
• Mass Effect 2 - Insanity play through and additional DLC
• Monkey Island SE

Then there is my list of games that I still want to get;

• Dead Rising
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
• Bayonetta
• Brutal Legend
• Gears of War 2
• Wolfenstein
• Metro 2033
• Final Fantasy XIII
• Neir
• Prototype
• Dark Void
• Iron Man 2
• Sacred 2

Don't even get me started on games I'm still waiting for. Maybe I should buy an old game with every new game I buy that should provide me with a decent spectrum of games. I've also borrowed Ninja Gaiden 2 from my friend in exchange for Darksiders, Singularity and Lego Harry Potter. Before I left for my mates at the weekend I was thinking about trying a couple of demo's from the games market place, but I was running late and didn't get around to it. But while I was at my mates he had a two of the games downloaded.

First up was the demo of a Kingdom for Keflings, a nice little base building game that from the demo seemed quite addictive. I downloaded the full game when I go home and I'm glad I did it's a fun game with it's heart in the right place, it's also a good choice as a game for young kids. The second was a game that he had downloaded the full game for when it was on offer and that is Shadow Complex. I only tried out the challenge rooms which were enough to make me want to get it but not enough for me to shell out the 1200 MSP for it.

The other thing I should mention that I tried at the weekend for the first time was the Zune Video Marketplace. I was very impressed with the service. I chose to download the movies rather than stream as I wasn't sure what my speed was going to be like and it took about an hour to an hour and half for half of the movie to download and then I was able to start watching it. The pricing was good as well at £3.28; converted from 380 MSP for an HD film it's slightly cheaper than some other rental places, so if you're stuck on a Friday night for a film then give it a go, i highly recommend it.

General Update 05: A birth (day), a wedding and lot and lots of grisly death

As you may have noticed I didn’t do a Friday LOL on Friday, this was due to me going away for the weekend. It was my sisters Birthday and a friend’s wedding and I was in attendance of both. With being away I didn’t get much of a chance for getting any gaming in but considering I’ve not posted since last Friday an update on what I’ve been doing to avoid my bloggers responsibilities is probably warranted.

Crackdown 2 makes up the most of what I’ve been playing lately although I did download The Secret of Monkey Island 2: le chuck’s revenge Special Edition that was released last week. While I was at my sisters I did get to play on her Xbox but as it was her Birthday I didn’t play on my Gamertag I was on hers helping her to achieve the last two achievements for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

The achievements in question were Master of Flying, which was to get 5 Stars for all of the Flying tasks, and Duelling Veteran, which was to score 5 Stars on 10 Duels. The Dueling achievement was fairly easy once you know how. But the flying one is only possible with practise. Getting both of those for my sister gave her her first 1000g game.

We are in the gaming release period drought, which is good for me as I still have a few games that I need to go back and finish. Red Faction: Guerrilla, Darksiders (which has had a sequel announced), Ghostbusters and the big one Dragon Age: Origins. Dragon Age has also had a Sequel announced from what’s been said about it it’s only going to have one character. 

Last Remnant? more like Lost Remnant!

As you may have noticed I've not written in a while. I would like to say that this was because I've been busy putting the finishing touches on some of the many posts that I have been promising over the past couple of months, or that I was working hard on playing Final Fantasy XIII, or that I had been abducted by aliens. Unfortunately it's not the case for any of the above. So here is a quick run down of what I've been up to.


After completing Wolverine I was in a Marvel Mood, however with a backlog of games only just a little shorter than the list of up coming games, I want to get my grubby little gamer hands on, I didn't feel I could justify getting another game. But my girlfriend helped me out but buying me Iron Man. However I didn't play it straight away. I decided that, as I was most of the way through playing The Saboteur, I would finish it first. 


I finished Iron Man in about a week and it took me another week to whore all  the achievements. I liked it, mostly because I'm a Marvel Fan Boy, but also I got to play as Iron Man, I mean who wouldn't want to be a millionaire Playboy genius! However there were some very frustrating moments, but I will explain more about those in the review.


After that I thought I would get my fill of JRPG's, what with the then upcoming release of Final Fantasy XIII, so I dusted off my copy of Last Remnant and picked up where I left off. Unfortunately the save file I had going was past a certain point so i had to go back a bit and try again, which has turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I'm actually doing better than I was.  


And that's pretty much it, I've taken a step back from playing everyday as my gf has been playing FF13. I will get around to it at some point, but not yet. I've still got Dragon Age, Left4Dead2, Ghostbusters and Dead Space from before Christmas, as well as BioShock 2, Dante's Inferno and numerous others that I still want to buy, I'm sure I will be kept busy.  

“Busy” Weekend

Another weekend done with and another game completed as well. Friday night I completed X-men Origins: Wolverine on Hard which game me the last Achievement for the 1000G, the review will be up this week so look out for that. I was then able to get back to playing The Saboteur. I must be most of the way through the story now but I know that completing a lot of the free play events will take up a lot of time.

After The Saboteur I have a choice do I play Ghostbusters, Ironman or Dragon Age: Origins? I have started on both Ghostbusters and DA:O but Ironman is a new one. I’m leaning towards Ironman as I’m interested to see what it’s like, but I do know It didn’t get very good reviews.

So what have you been playing recently? Also does anyone know of any other good Marvel games on the Xbox 360?

What Have I Been Doing?

I know I said I was going to try and write an entry every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but I let it slip a bit this week but thats probably due to playing Mass Effect 2. However with posting this update, then there will have been 2 updates this week so it's only one that has been missed, which isn't too bad.

As I said in a previous post I recently bought Mass Effect 2. I've now completed the story, however I'm still working towards 2 more achievements. I've only got Warp Specialist - Warp the barriers of 25 enemies, and the biggest one Insane - Complete the game on the Insanity Difficulty. The latter I am finding a lot more difficult than when trying to complete the first game on Insanity, but as was pointed out earlier today, when you were continuing a game you already head decent weapons, but this time round you have to wait for the upgrades to come, although you do start with the main weapons.

I have seen the teaser trailer for Fallout: New Vegas. Although it's only a teaser trailer and not designed to give anything away, I'm sure there will be plenty of speculation as to what it will include. I'm guessing the figure at the end is either someone from the Brotherhood of Steel or it's the character that you will be playing.

So what does the near future hold for me on the gaming scene? Well, I'm hoping to finish off Mass Effect 2 to the full 1015G (go Figure!), and as the neither pick up Dragon Age: Origins again or maybe go back and pick up The Saboteur. However we are only 4 days away from Bioshock 2 being released, and I'm really interested in that as well, but what with my birthday coming up I've already decided that I'm not going to be getting any games as I already  have a large back log of games.

Happy New Year

Hello again Game Fans, I hope this post finds you all well, and that you had a pleasant festive period. Mine was good, I did clocked up a few miles and got a few hours in on the Xbox while I was away as well. Me and the misses loaded out profiles up onto a memory unit and it was like we never left. . . except for the fact that I left a save file behind on my Sisters Xbox. oh well I'm back down there in Feb so I'll get pick it up then.


So I got what can only be described as an immense haul of games over xmas, so before i went away I got Left 4 Dead 2, Lego Batman and The Saboteur in my new Xbox bundle, and i had just recently bought Dead Space. I then got Ghostbusters, Xmen Origins: Wolverine, Dragon Age:Origins, Assassins Creed 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. My favourite so far is Lego Batman well thats the one I've spent most time playing, but only because my girlfriend it playing it with me. I also have a major gripe with it, but I'll save that for another post. 


My biggest discovery on the trip away started on Christmas Day, when my girlfriend's brother wanted to play 1 vs 100. I've got to say I really enjoyed it. it's free for gold members to play and is a lot of fun to play especially when you have a group of friends around. I do have a few issues with it, the first is every 15 mins or so there is an "ad break", with annoying adverts for Avatar and Bing but they do give you chance to check your stats and achievements. the second problem I've found is that although there is a segment in the live show for a live host, the UK season 2 doesn't have one, which is a shame. Apparently there was on in the Beta version last year, but for this season there isn't. this next one is only a small one, and that is when you load it up for the first time, it does take a while to down load, but once is has been downloaded you can get in fairly quickly. 


It's a good little game especially when you are paired up with 3 other people so you can see their answers and see how you are doing in relation to them with regards to score, as it gives you a bit more to think about that just the questions. 


Well I'm going to leave it there for now and do another post tomorrow night.


And before anyone asks no i haven't won anything on 1 vs 100.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas dear readers I hope this post finds you all well stuffed following a Christmas dinner and that you presents were what you wanted, nothing too embarrassing. I've been lucky enough to have gotten everything that i asked for, and more besides.


I recently bought myself a present the week leading up to Christmas. A brand new Xbox Elite, with the wireless entertainment pack and two games, PURE and Lego Batman, and then two other games as well, my choices were the saboteur and Left 4 dead 2. Up until I left for my Christmas tour I was really enjoying the saboteur I tried L4D2 but I think that it's more of a game to play with friends rather than on your own, so I'm going to wait and see if any of my friends are playing on it when I get home.


So far I've gotten Dragon Age: Origins and XMen Origins : Wolverine. so I'm going to be spoiled for choice when I get back. So this was just a quick update to say Merry Christmas.

Crack-done . . . Mostly!

Over the weekend I got the last few achievements for Crackdown, ‘Orb Hunter’, ‘Ring Leader’, ‘Confiscator’, ‘Flippin’ Crazy’ and ‘Body Armor’. I did have some trouble with the orbs, but that’s only because I missed one while ticking them off, but I got there in the end. This leaves me the co-op achievements, ‘Double Team’, ‘Tag Teamer’ and ‘Pack Rat’, as well as ‘Psych Out’ – complete all Time Trial missions at the Psychotic Difficulty. The only reason I’m saving this one is that I’m hoping to do it in conjunction with the co-op achievements, although if I get desperate for 100g I might go back and try for it.

I’ve resumed my Naruto: The Broken Bond game and working through the story mode. I was going to start again and pick up all the coins marking them off on a map, but I’ve read that I don’t need to as once you’ve completed the story it reveals them all on the map, Good News! However there is the ‘Hokage’ Achievement for reaching Hokage Rank online, worth 0g and you have to beat the number of wins of the current Hokage to gain the achievement.

I also picked up the Game of the Year Edition of Fallout 3. I’m going to play this once I’ve completed Naruto: TBB. I’m going to be going through my saved games first to try and find one near the level/alignment achievements, and then try each of the DLC’s. This should take me up until Christmas but in case that doesn’t work I man splash out on Dragon Age: Origins.