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.

End of Week 5 of GSL

Okay well I sat out Week 3 and didn't bother doing this for Week 4 so its now time for my end of Week 5 review. It's been a low scoring week, getting 1200+ or so which is bad but I'm not disappointed as I got more than I was expecting. So what have I been playing.....

So my Dad went and bought a new Xbox 360 alongside the games the guy he bought it off had, one of them being Call of Duty 4. Now I loved Call of Duty 2 and bought Call of Duty 3 when it was released to feed my passion for the genre. But Call of Duty 4 came out and went huge, making me not want to play any more. Weird I know but I don't like following the big crowds, add to the fact this version was modern day I thought I would pass it. Now however I was told by my brother (kizwiz) that it has easy gamerscore so I thought I'd play it to boost me some points. Sure enough I've managed to get 200G so far just by completing a few levels on veteran and getting random achievements like 4 headshots in a row. I really enjoyed playing it and the challenge of Veteran difficulty reminds me of the countless hours I spent getting 1000 on Call of Duty 2. It's all good though, I do like a good challenge.

I didn't know what to play this week so I decided to pick one of the games I own but have never truely played and try to get gamerscore from it. I was aware that Stuntman Ignition gave 30G out for the completion of every Movie, that was 150G I knew I could get right there so I decided this would be my game of choice for this week. A great choice it has been as I've found myself playing this the most out of all of my games. I've always liked the game as it's concept is unique and a pleasure so I'm glad I have finally given it the attention it deserves collecting the random "do this 20 times" achievements as well as completing career. I now need to go and 5 star everything which will be tricky but possible (remember I like a challenge) and then find a boosting partner to play online with. I want to stick to giving this game my attention so that I can get the achievements whilst I remember the levels and am good at it, will most likely play a bit next week.

I actually went and played Sega Rally before I even began working on Stuntman which I admit has taken my attention away from this great game. I bought it for £10 waaay back when I went Milton Keynes a few months ago and yet never found time to give it a play. I needed gamerscore so I thought I'd put Sega Rally in and get some easy points, I was wrong. It doesn't give out easy points, it's time consuming and potentially quite hard. I had a shock when in my first race in a Championship rally the flock sprinted ahead of me, spraying dirt in my face. But thankfully I picked up the slick controls quite quickly and have fallen in love with how the game handles driving. It's a lot different to any other racing game I have played and you do truely feel like a master when you drift around a corner with style. I did a few championships and boosted for the online Ranked achievements this morning but that's all I've done so far. I decided that I would be able to pre-play the game outside of the GSL week so I have left it for now.

Easiest game to 1000? No as the developers of Avatar made getting 1000 gamerscore on a game possible for a baby to accomplish, however Codemasters have structured the achievements on LMA Manager 2007 to make them extremely easy to get. As they are all "win this" it means constant simulating and saving before a game so you can load back up and play again if you lose is needed. Make a few tactical decisions such as buying players (Sylvain Wiltord for Rangers got goalscorer of the season for me, oh yeah) and you'll be able to win no problem. I would have gotten 1000 by now if it wasn't such a loooong drag. You need to do 8 seasons which take a couple hours at least each to do which means this is the game I have been pre-playing before the week starts. I have currently done 3 out of the 8 leagues and have started my fourth, with just 3 weeks left of GSL I need to step it up to make sure I make the gamerscore count for the competition.


I played a few more games this week such as boosting online with my brother to get Prizefighter ranked achievements and playing on drums on GH World Tour for a few achievements but only minimal playtime on these games. Of course I got some gamerscore from Skate 2 (putting me at 750 currently) but I can't be bothered to discuss that in-depth right now. Might aim to get the 1000 before the end of GSL so I'll discuss it then.

That's enough from me for now, biggest blog post I've ever wrote? Hmmm, might be....

Vampire Rain Online Achievements = Easy

After an hour and a half me and Wadinho have walked away from Vampire Rain 650 Gamerscore richer. They are very easy to do and can be combined together to make it less time consuming. It never got boring either really and it was pleasant controlling the Nightwalker and doing crazy ass 50 feet jumps and such, a unique feature not seen in many shooting games.

Other than that I haven't gotten much gamerscore today apart from 1 level of Challenge Mode in Pac-Man Championship Edition and not be hit by a gun and complete a time trial level on Mirror's Edge. Therefore today's gamerscore gain was pretty bad for me as I definitely should have played more games and gotten more. Yesterday was good with LMA Manager and TNA netting me 600G so I'm looking at over 1,000 already on two days of having college and one of them starting at 9PM.

So yeah the future looks good for reaching my 3,000 goal this week but I'm playing all my easy games to do so. Halo 3 and Smackdown vs Raw 2008 will give me 770 Gamerscore for completing on Legendary and doing a year of GM mode. They will help lots in my bid to finally get 3k this week. Whether I can keep it up for next week is another matter.....