Game Completed: Phantasy Star Universe

This is the first of hopefully many blog posts I write which give a mini little review of the game I have completed and my story of how I got the achievements. I do not plan to review the game properly, just bring up points that I liked/disliked about the game.

So Phantasy Star Universe! I was aware this game gave you 1000 just for completing the game, no collecting or tricky/frustrating achievements and no need to examine a Road Map careful, I just went straight into the game and started my 30 hour quest. Despite it being extremely cheesy (the universe is going to die, we must save the world crap) it did manage to amuse me and I ended up watching the hours worth of cut scenes throughout the game. I need to mention that it sucks I wasn't able to fully appreciate what the game had to offer as I stuck to the same sabre and gun throughout (despite getting better versions). The main reason for this was because I didn't understand how to synthesise weapons and stuff. The game did explain well but I never picked it up and it was only on the last level of the game did I realise there was armour which was explaining why enemies were being able to kill me so easy! Last point I can be bothered to make is moan about the lack of checkpoints as having to go and repeat 30 minutes worth of progress when you die really isn't fun.....

Final Verdict: - If you want easy gamerscore then play this but it'll take you 20+ hours for the 1000. It's fun but does get repetitive and can become a bore but the game does offer enough RPG characteristics to spice it up and make it more enjoyable. I recommend.

End of Week 8 of GSL

I didn't think I would be playing this week, the schedule had me down for being a sub but due to Wadinho going on a holiday and kizwiz not wanting to play I was basically forced (by myself, no one on the team made me) to play as I fought to get the Not So Silent Ninjas to 7th. Check out my mini reviews of the games I played in my last and final week of the GSL.

Now Skate 2 came out late January, just when I happened to get the RROD so I purchased it on PS3 (not wanting to miss out on playing it) and ended up trading it in and getting it on the 360 just when the GSL was about to start. I had already gotten the majority of the trophies on the PS3 version and therefore wasn't fussed about waiting a couple of months for the GSL to end for me to play however I was aware it had easy gamerscore so throughout the 8 weeks I have played it gradually, finally getting to Week 8 and after a bit of pre-playing before the week started got nearly all of the achievements done. The game is really good and it's been great to take a break from whoring crappy games during the GSL to play a bit of something I love and still manage to get gamerscore from. I won't discuss the game anymore as I fancy doing a blog dedicated to the game but wanted to include it in this end of week review as I did play a lot pre-week and finish off the majority of the achievements.

From the previous week I bought PGR4 as a friend of mine wanted me to get it so bad he was willing to spend £5 towards me doing so. I was aware it did have easy gamerscore so I decided to act and buy the game for Week 7. It helped that week (200 QUICK Gamerscore) but I didn't have the time to give the game the attention I wanted to do, that's what I did this week. I have been so hooked on playing this game (up until yesterday, 3 days after GSL when I finally got to Rank 1) as it's so god damn fun and easy for gamerscore, I entertained myself collecting the random puzzle achievements and eventually bored it out in Career mode trying to rank up. Been unable to play online with my friend much as I've been so focused on the Single Player aspect, that will be done soon as I aim to get Gold on everything in Arcade (and maybe Platinum if I'm lucky).

This World War game should have been left in the 20th century with those that had fallen in war as it's a pretty bad game, as I discovered when I finally played the Story Mode after boosting online for weeks. Throughout the week and the days post GSL I have managed to finish off the game, getting a full well deserved 1000 gamerscore from it. Having to go through the majority of the levels 3 times, one for each character (total of three) wasn't as hellish as I had imagined it would be thanks to the levels being rather quick (got longer as the game progressed though!). I was extremely greatful for the simple structure the achievements have which is simply complete every level on the game for the gamerscore. There's no need to collect any crap or play on Veteran difficulty which meant I need not worry about missing out achievements which if you didn't know causes me lots of stress. I can forgive the (at times) dumb AI and the odd glitch where you get stuck in between the door as overall the game is quick and different, meaning you won't get bored as you continue to gain easy gamerscore. I recommend this to all, even completionists (if you can be bothered to boost for 10+ hours online which I'm sure you will).

They are the three games I mainly played during the last and final week of the GSL. I will be writing another blog post shortly writing about the overall experience of participating in a GSL and hopefully throw up some interesting statistics about my performance during the competition. Other games I played this week were:

Golden Compass (oh how crap!, will speak about in the future), Phantasy Star Universe, Prince of Persia and Condemned 2.

End of Week 7 of GSL

So this is the third time I've done an end of week review, I didn't do one last week as I did not game but this week (well the one just finished) I did and got lots of gamerscore (5,050 to be precise). It was my last week (I don't wish to play in 8, I'm burnt out) so I gamed really hard, staying up until 7:30AM on Sunday in order to help me get the eventual 1000 gamerscore on Kung Fu Panda. I enjoy the style I have taken towards doing these blog posts, meaning I am going to carry on with describing each individual game and using a box shot of the cover to help illustrate it.

Now I've played a Madden game before but this was Madden 06, packed with 10 or so easy achievements which a friend helped me get with ease. I barely played the game and didn't have a clue what was going on. Fortunately this remained the same in Madden 08 with me simply simulating over half of the achievements in just minutes which made life easy for me. However there were some achievements that no matter how many times you simulate will not unlock, therefore I actually needed to bother to learn how to play a Madden game. After a couple of hours of playing I now have a grasp of the concept behind playing what I previous was a game of chess but on a sports field. The 10 or so achievements I got legitimately (without simulating) really were not too hard, instead at a good difficulty for a novice like me who is playing their first Madden game. I got 800+ gamerscore of this with more being possible however for now I'm going to leave it.

The first "kiddy family game" that I played this week out of two (Kung Fu Panda being the other). This game is definitely a lot better than some of the crappy family games I've had to put up with throughout my time of gamerscore whoring. Playing as Bolt (the dog) is a fun experience as he has a wide variety of attacks and special powers which makes for entertaining battles. Penny (the girl you also control) has a unique gadget which allows her to climb walls and slide accross wires which helps add depth to the level variety. I was able to get the full 1000 on this game by using the achievement guide to make sure I collected all the collectibles. Overall it was a good 1000 to get and although not amazing I am pleased to have it on my profile, would probably play it again for another 1000 if there was another copy lol.

Why have I added NBA 2K7 to this post? Well it's not because I spent a lot of time playing it, it's because I finally finished off the majority of the achievements on the game. With just 3 left to get (2 being silly online ones) I have basically completed the game and thought now would be a good idea to talk about it. So what I did this week in GSL was to get all the players I still needed to get the respective achievement with in to one team and then played against a team with who I gave 5 created players at the height of under 5 feet. Thanks to my brothers help it now became a doddle for me to be able to block all the shots he made against me, considering he was so small and my players were generally tall I didn't even need to jump to block. I have found the achievements on this game to have been good fun to get. There should be achievements for actually bothering to play through career mode and such but I'm not complaining as I have been able to play the game properly and still get the achievements (without the need of simulation which I remember doing on NBA Live 06).

With under 24 hours left of the competition to go I knew I should set my sights on playing Kung Fu Panda as it apparently only takes 6 to 8 hours for the thousand. Now I'm not quite sure how long it did take me but it was definitely around the 10 hour mark and I only needed to go through the game twice unlike three times for people who mess up the don't die achievement. This game has been know as being one of the best family games on the market and quite rightly so as the game has a fresh feel thanks to slick looking graphics and combat features galore. It has a lot of fault though, my main one being the too many repetitive fights which go on for too long found on a few levels. Achievement wise it's a good list involving you to need to get 100% through the game twice. It's a right pain in the arse that the achievements wern't stackable but it doesn't matter, I bothered to complete it twice in a day and now I'm reaping the benefits of a 1000 gamerscore more on my gamercard.

There were other games that got played by me this week however they are not near completition (apart from LMA Manager but I already discussed that). It's worth noting that easy gamerscore was gotten on Smackdown vs RAW 08 (350 for GM mode) and 09 as well playing minimal amounts on PGR 4 and UEFA Champions League. I got 100 gamerscore on Phantasy Star Universe but there's plenty more boredom still to come from that game so I will feature it properly in the future. I'm done for now, will do an in-depth post soon giving an overall summary of the GSL.

Week 7 Off to a Flying Start

With Week 7 being my last one of the competition (due to me most likely sitting out Week 8) I have really put the effort in to ensure I definitely do get to 90,000 gamerscore before the end of the week, hitting my tournament aim.

It's started off really well as I got 100G in minutes on Phantasy Star Universe for spam striking a boss, resulting in it's early grave. Put in Madden afterwards and in 5 minutes or so another few hundred gamerscore had been collected. Unfortunately I got invited to boost in a 6 person Hour of Victory session which I knew I shouldn't turn down due to the probability of never getting a chance to do so if I turned it down now. So a couple of hours there got me 140G and then it was time for an hour of finishing off the simulating the achievements on LMA Manager, netting me the full 1000 gamerscore on the game and another 500 gamerscore to the kitty.

So I've started strong and gotten around 1200 gamerscore already, with so many new games to choose from I have the best chance yet to beat my personal best this week, I'm sure I'll do it this time.