Good God, the competition this year has been fierce. We survived this week, but I worry about our long-term chances.
Regardless, here are the games that've been in my console this week:
Pneuma: Breath of Life - 1183 Points - I started the week with an interesting little puzzle game. While I enjoyed the gameplay quite a bit, the narrator is really annoying, and the whole thing is awfully short. Still, it was good for over 1000 points in only a couple hours, so it helped me start this scoring period off right.
Just Dance 2014 - 194 Points - I'm a big fan of dance games right now because they give a nice opportunity for some exercise while contributing to the GTASC cause. This week, I nabbed the achievement for getting 3 stars in each song. The next big step of going to 5 is going to be tough.
Sacred Citadel - 486 Points - More Sacred Citadel as well. I finished all the level challenges, which were more tedious than difficult, and knocked out a few other random things. It's clear at this point that completing this game will just take time, as nothing about it is particularly hard. Among the remaining time-consuming goals? Playing through the entire game three more times. Joy.
Double Dragon Neon - 404 Points - Because I haven't gotten my fill of beat 'em ups with awkward controls, I played through this one. It's silly, which is easily the game's biggest strength, but that doesn't make up for the generally clunky combat. There is some potential buried inside, so if you're willing to work past the initial frustration of coarse movement controls, you might have a fair bit of fun on the harder difficulties.
Dance Central 2 - 264 Points - More dance games! I was getting tired of grinding the same songs over and over, so I popped this one in for a little more diversity. Unfortunately, I'm a little disappointed with this game's soundtrack overall; it has some quality songs, but a lot of them are not things I'm really interested in playing. We'll have to see how I feel after dedicating a bit more time to it.
On Friday morning, our team was in a pretty rough spot, already being below the elimination line. As such, I whipped out some of the games I'd been saving that I knew could yield some points without too much effort:
The Raven - 529 Points - This game is essentially a terrible point-and-click adventure. Maybe it's just a consequence of the Xbox's control scheme, but it blows my mind how incredibly frustrating this game is to control. It's absolutely miserable. And the storyline isn't all that interesting, either. In short: stay away (unless you're desperate for some achievements, in which case, follow a guide and don't look back).
Velocity 2X - 1221 Points - Velocity 2X is easily my favorite of the games I played this week. Nothing else even comes close to competing for that honor. It's fast-paced action with awesome visuals and a high skill ceiling. I'm really going to enjoy working towards the "perfect" medal achievements, even if it's going to be insanely hard.
Tomb Raider - Definitive Edition - 25 Points - I loved the Tomb Raider reboot from a few years ago, and I'm quite excited to play Rise of the Tomb Raider sometime soon. Before that, though, I want to replay the previous game, so why not stack some achievements along the way?
As is tradition, I completed daily challenges for Magic Duels and Kinectimals Unleashed, too. I also did some work in Neverwinter, chugging away at the various campaigns (including the new one that was released for the Xbox this week!). More of the same for each of these, so not much to report.
Here's hoping next week is a little less stressful...
Tell me about what you've been playing recently!
Showing posts with label Achievement Report. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Achievement Report. Show all posts
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Sunday, February 7, 2016
GTASC 2016: Week 4 Report
Hoooooo boy. This week was another scary one, though this time for good reason - going into the last 8 hours of the scoring period, we were about 100 points below the elimination line. I busted out some of my quick-and-easy achievements to keep us above the threshold. I think I've been a bit too conservative with my achievements,so it's probably worth pushing a bit harder in the near future.
Even so, here's what I was playing this week:
Neverwinter - 90 Points - Same as last week - grinding campaigns, not much else to say. I did pop one achievement for completing one of the epic dungeons, but the others are still a bit beyond my reach (unless I end up with somebody who can carry me through, but those people seem quite rare).
Sacred Citadel - 381 Points - Sacred Citadel is the newest free "Game with Gold" for the 360, so I started that sucker up this week. It's a pretty disappointing beat 'em up, where, among other things, it is far too easy to stun lock enemies (and be stun locked by them). I played through every stage, so the only remaining achievements are going to be rather grindy affairs. I'll probably work on that slowly over the next few weeks.
Far Cry 4 - 1241 Points - Oh, boy, Far Cry 4. Despite having a favorable opinion of Far Cry 3, I hated this one when I started playing it last summer. The driving mechanics are awkward, it's frustratingly difficult to trigger the on-screen prompts to interact with objects, it's impossible to engage in melee combat with enemies (because they always knock you down before you can connect), the map is huge and vehicles are surprisingly hard to find, and the random wildlife annoyingly gets in the way. It's just not fun.
Still, I started it up again this week when a teammate wanted to try to knock out the coop achievements. We weren't able to get those done (we can't connect to each other for some reason, despite being able to do coop with randoms online), but the effort inspired me to work on the single-player campaign. I've now completed the story, so it's just a matter of cleanup from here.
Rare Replay - 373 Points - This was my "quick-and-easy" desperation move. In under half an hour, I earned nearly 400 points. It would've been nice to save those for later, but the peace of mind they gave was totally worth it. Here's hoping I won't have to whip something like this out again next week...
Magic Duels and Kinectimals Unleashed, too, though I (still) didn't earn any points in either this week.
But enough about me, what have you been playing this week?
Until next time, have a good one!
Even so, here's what I was playing this week:
Neverwinter - 90 Points - Same as last week - grinding campaigns, not much else to say. I did pop one achievement for completing one of the epic dungeons, but the others are still a bit beyond my reach (unless I end up with somebody who can carry me through, but those people seem quite rare).
Sacred Citadel - 381 Points - Sacred Citadel is the newest free "Game with Gold" for the 360, so I started that sucker up this week. It's a pretty disappointing beat 'em up, where, among other things, it is far too easy to stun lock enemies (and be stun locked by them). I played through every stage, so the only remaining achievements are going to be rather grindy affairs. I'll probably work on that slowly over the next few weeks.
Far Cry 4 - 1241 Points - Oh, boy, Far Cry 4. Despite having a favorable opinion of Far Cry 3, I hated this one when I started playing it last summer. The driving mechanics are awkward, it's frustratingly difficult to trigger the on-screen prompts to interact with objects, it's impossible to engage in melee combat with enemies (because they always knock you down before you can connect), the map is huge and vehicles are surprisingly hard to find, and the random wildlife annoyingly gets in the way. It's just not fun.
Still, I started it up again this week when a teammate wanted to try to knock out the coop achievements. We weren't able to get those done (we can't connect to each other for some reason, despite being able to do coop with randoms online), but the effort inspired me to work on the single-player campaign. I've now completed the story, so it's just a matter of cleanup from here.
Rare Replay - 373 Points - This was my "quick-and-easy" desperation move. In under half an hour, I earned nearly 400 points. It would've been nice to save those for later, but the peace of mind they gave was totally worth it. Here's hoping I won't have to whip something like this out again next week...
Magic Duels and Kinectimals Unleashed, too, though I (still) didn't earn any points in either this week.
But enough about me, what have you been playing this week?
Until next time, have a good one!
Sunday, January 31, 2016
GTASC 2016: Week 3 Report
I was a little worried nearing the end of this week, as we were only 1,000 points above the elimination line with about 6 hours to go. I have to remember that we're still early in the competition, so the ~100 teams that were behind us weren't all going to blast ahead while I was asleep.
We ended the period 1,017 points above the line. I really should not have been worried.
Anyway, here's what I worked on this week:
Neverwinter - 404 TA Score - Oh, boy, Neverwinter. I hit level 70 at the beginning of this scoring period, which unlocked epic dungeons and three new campaigns. I got achievements for some of the epic dungeons and skirmishes, but I still have a long way to go on that front, as the highest-level dungeons require my character to be a lot stronger than he currently is. Plus I still need to get my secondary character up to level 70 as well. I imagine there will be a lot of Neverwinter grinding in the next couple months.
The good news: this new content is a hell of a lot more interesting than the painfully repetitive "vigilance" tasks that got me from level 60 to 70. It's hard, to be sure, but it's a lot more diverse, so it feels a lot less tedious.
The Walking Dead: Season 2 - 545 TA Score - Yeah, I know I'm way behind on this one. I bought it back when it was new, but I never got around to playing it. Figured it would be an easy way to get a few hundred points this week, and it definitely was that.
I'll admit: I wasn't really feeling the story through the first three episodes or so. Yeah, I though Clementine's development was done really well, but it wasn't until the last third of the game or so that I truly got invested. I ended up with a pretty good opinion of Season 2 overall, but it took a while to really grip me.
Just Dance 2014 - 283 TA Score - Big surprise, I'm sure - I kept grinding away at this one, earning 5 stars in a handful of songs. I think I still have a decent ways to go, though I haven't actually counted up the number of songs I've completed (the in-game menu is atrocious, so it's a huge pain to check how many stars I've earned on each Classic routine). I did, however, pop the achievement for burning 2000 calories, which came with a sizeable TA score.
Polychromatic - 1047 TA Score - More Polychromatic as well. I knocked out the skill-based achievements with a little practice. After that, it was just a matter of grinding out a bunch of points. Overall not too bad of a completion.
I also realized this week that I've failed to mention a couple of the other games I've been grinding recently: Magic Duels and Kinectimals Unleashed. I'm far from earning any achievements in either of these games, but I'm doing daily quests to keep inching closer. Slow and steady.
That does it for this week's gaming on my end. What were you playing this week?
Until next time, have a good one!
We ended the period 1,017 points above the line. I really should not have been worried.
Anyway, here's what I worked on this week:
Neverwinter - 404 TA Score - Oh, boy, Neverwinter. I hit level 70 at the beginning of this scoring period, which unlocked epic dungeons and three new campaigns. I got achievements for some of the epic dungeons and skirmishes, but I still have a long way to go on that front, as the highest-level dungeons require my character to be a lot stronger than he currently is. Plus I still need to get my secondary character up to level 70 as well. I imagine there will be a lot of Neverwinter grinding in the next couple months.
The good news: this new content is a hell of a lot more interesting than the painfully repetitive "vigilance" tasks that got me from level 60 to 70. It's hard, to be sure, but it's a lot more diverse, so it feels a lot less tedious.
The Walking Dead: Season 2 - 545 TA Score - Yeah, I know I'm way behind on this one. I bought it back when it was new, but I never got around to playing it. Figured it would be an easy way to get a few hundred points this week, and it definitely was that.
I'll admit: I wasn't really feeling the story through the first three episodes or so. Yeah, I though Clementine's development was done really well, but it wasn't until the last third of the game or so that I truly got invested. I ended up with a pretty good opinion of Season 2 overall, but it took a while to really grip me.
Just Dance 2014 - 283 TA Score - Big surprise, I'm sure - I kept grinding away at this one, earning 5 stars in a handful of songs. I think I still have a decent ways to go, though I haven't actually counted up the number of songs I've completed (the in-game menu is atrocious, so it's a huge pain to check how many stars I've earned on each Classic routine). I did, however, pop the achievement for burning 2000 calories, which came with a sizeable TA score.
Polychromatic - 1047 TA Score - More Polychromatic as well. I knocked out the skill-based achievements with a little practice. After that, it was just a matter of grinding out a bunch of points. Overall not too bad of a completion.
I also realized this week that I've failed to mention a couple of the other games I've been grinding recently: Magic Duels and Kinectimals Unleashed. I'm far from earning any achievements in either of these games, but I'm doing daily quests to keep inching closer. Slow and steady.
That does it for this week's gaming on my end. What were you playing this week?
Until next time, have a good one!
Sunday, January 24, 2016
GTASC 2016: Week 2 Report
Another week down, and 385 teams remain. Here's what I was up to this week:
Rare Replay - 966 TA Score - This week, I focused on Atic Atac, Lunar Jetman, and Killer Instinct Gold.
Atic Atac and Lunar Jetman are older games like the ones I played last week, and they also aged terribly. Lunar Jetman in particular is trash - really awkward controls and plagued with awful slowdown when too many objects are on screen. It's all characteristic of the earliest video games, but it made grinding out the achievements a pain. Granted, the in-game cheats make it doable, but it still sucked.
For Killer Instinct Gold, I just got the easy achievements for playing each game mode and playing as all characters. I spent maybe 10 minutes in the game, which I'm putting off because I usually need a lot of practice to do decently at fighting games, and I'm not quite ready to make that commitment.
Neverwinter - 0 TA Score - More of the same grind, completing daily quests and slowly working to level 70. No achievements this week, but I did sink a decent amount of time into it.
Just Dance 2014 - 146 TA Score - Also similar to last week's activity, but I managed to wipe up a few random achievements in this one. The bulk of the points came from winning all the game's dance battles (which was pretty easy, to be honest), but I also kept working towards 5 stars on every song.
Polychromatic - 888 TA Score - Polychromatic is an old-school, arcade-style shoot 'em up, with all the usual pros and cons - it's challenging and can be exciting to continually push for a higher score, but it gets repetitive pretty quickly. Still, this type of game is typically good for a decent chunk of TA Score, and while I still haven't earned the hardest achievements, over 800 points in about an hour-and-a-half of gameplay is a great contribution to my team.
And at that point, I stepped back as it seemed we had reached a safe score for the week. We're still in the opening weeks of the contest, so we haven't reached the point where each scoring period will be a challenge. Gotta keep pacing myself.
That's what I've been up to this week; what have you been playing?
Until next time, have a good one!
Rare Replay - 966 TA Score - This week, I focused on Atic Atac, Lunar Jetman, and Killer Instinct Gold.
Atic Atac and Lunar Jetman are older games like the ones I played last week, and they also aged terribly. Lunar Jetman in particular is trash - really awkward controls and plagued with awful slowdown when too many objects are on screen. It's all characteristic of the earliest video games, but it made grinding out the achievements a pain. Granted, the in-game cheats make it doable, but it still sucked.
For Killer Instinct Gold, I just got the easy achievements for playing each game mode and playing as all characters. I spent maybe 10 minutes in the game, which I'm putting off because I usually need a lot of practice to do decently at fighting games, and I'm not quite ready to make that commitment.
Neverwinter - 0 TA Score - More of the same grind, completing daily quests and slowly working to level 70. No achievements this week, but I did sink a decent amount of time into it.
Just Dance 2014 - 146 TA Score - Also similar to last week's activity, but I managed to wipe up a few random achievements in this one. The bulk of the points came from winning all the game's dance battles (which was pretty easy, to be honest), but I also kept working towards 5 stars on every song.
Polychromatic - 888 TA Score - Polychromatic is an old-school, arcade-style shoot 'em up, with all the usual pros and cons - it's challenging and can be exciting to continually push for a higher score, but it gets repetitive pretty quickly. Still, this type of game is typically good for a decent chunk of TA Score, and while I still haven't earned the hardest achievements, over 800 points in about an hour-and-a-half of gameplay is a great contribution to my team.
And at that point, I stepped back as it seemed we had reached a safe score for the week. We're still in the opening weeks of the contest, so we haven't reached the point where each scoring period will be a challenge. Gotta keep pacing myself.
That's what I've been up to this week; what have you been playing?
Until next time, have a good one!
Sunday, January 17, 2016
GTASC 2016: Week 1 Report
It's finally 2016, so it's time for the next round of the Great TrueAchievements Score Challenge. Teams are back up to four members this year, and Team Lazy Eye is looking to improve on last year's 75th percentile performance (our best one so far).
In addition to scoring as much as possible, I plan to write up little summaries of my performance each week, including brief descriptions of my thoughts along the way. Mini achievement-oriented reviews in a sense.
Here's what I was playing this week:
Gems of War - 735 TA Score - Despite getting lots of praise, I was never a big fan of the Puzzle Quest formula. Taking turns matching gems on the same board as your opponent encourages you to make matches specifically to prevent big combos instead of trying to set them up yourself. It can lead to profoundly frustrating gameplay, as the random gems that refill the board dominate can create losses out of nowhere and some real feel-bad moments.
Gems of War doesn't really expand on that premise in any meaningful way, but it was a free game and reasonably mindless, so I got into it. The downside? It took me nearly 120 hours to reach level 100, which earned me the final achievement in the game. It has a fantastic TA ratio (7.35), which is awesome, but it required many hours of mind-numbing grinding this week (and in the weeks prior).
Neverwinter - 176 TA Score - Neverwinter is a pretty reasonable MMORPG, especially for a free console title. The latest updates have added some pretty disappointing content (unabashedly repetitive questlines, for one), but it's good for some serious TA Score if you can dedicate the time to grind up in levels.
Most of what I've done with Neverwinter this week was daily Guild quests to farm Guild Marks, Along the way, I completed 10 normal dungeons and finished killing the required number of giants and trolls to earn three achievements. Not huge, but my main character is tantalizingly close to the level cap, which will unlock a lot more content and allow me to nab several more achievements. Looking forward to that in the next few weeks.
Rare Replay - 1708 TA Score - This was the big one this week. A collection of a ton of classic Rare games (though sadly not the most iconic Rare games in my mind, the Donkey Kong Country series, for obvious trademark reasons), Rare Replay has a lot going for it. To be totally honest, though, a lot of the early stuff hasn't aged very well at all. Even so, I'd definitely say it's worth the investment.
On the achievement front, I focused on Snapshots (little challenge levels specially designed for the older games), Gunfright, and Snake Rattle N Roll.
Gunfright and Snake Rattle N Roll are both perfect examples of games that haven't aged well, but the save and rewind features make the achievements for those games trivial. They're not terribly time-consuming, either, as I spent less than 2 hours on each of those games.
Snapshots can be very challenging, as you can't save or rewind, so you have to do it all legit. Still, with some practice (and occasionally a good guide), I was able to knock several of them out this week.
Just Dance 2014 - 9 TA Score - I've been a fan of rhythm games since I first played DDR back in high school. The more recent motion-sensing dance games scratch that same itch, albeit in a different way. Another upside of Kinect games is that they typically have pretty inflated TA Ratios, so they're great for a competition like the GTASC.
This week's achievement was just liking a dance video that somebody uploaded, so it required minimal effort (for a surprising Ratio of 1.77), but I also worked on earning stars, inching closer to the achievements for earning 3 and 5 stars on all songs.
And that was it for this week. The GTASC is a marathon competition, as it lasts all year, so I'm trying to pace myself a bit. As a result, I've spent a lot of time grinding towards big achievements instead of rushing full speed ahead. Looking forward to an epic performance this year.
Anyway, that's what I've been up to this week, what have you been playing this week?
Until next time, have a good one!
In addition to scoring as much as possible, I plan to write up little summaries of my performance each week, including brief descriptions of my thoughts along the way. Mini achievement-oriented reviews in a sense.
Here's what I was playing this week:
Gems of War - 735 TA Score - Despite getting lots of praise, I was never a big fan of the Puzzle Quest formula. Taking turns matching gems on the same board as your opponent encourages you to make matches specifically to prevent big combos instead of trying to set them up yourself. It can lead to profoundly frustrating gameplay, as the random gems that refill the board dominate can create losses out of nowhere and some real feel-bad moments.
Gems of War doesn't really expand on that premise in any meaningful way, but it was a free game and reasonably mindless, so I got into it. The downside? It took me nearly 120 hours to reach level 100, which earned me the final achievement in the game. It has a fantastic TA ratio (7.35), which is awesome, but it required many hours of mind-numbing grinding this week (and in the weeks prior).
Neverwinter - 176 TA Score - Neverwinter is a pretty reasonable MMORPG, especially for a free console title. The latest updates have added some pretty disappointing content (unabashedly repetitive questlines, for one), but it's good for some serious TA Score if you can dedicate the time to grind up in levels.
Most of what I've done with Neverwinter this week was daily Guild quests to farm Guild Marks, Along the way, I completed 10 normal dungeons and finished killing the required number of giants and trolls to earn three achievements. Not huge, but my main character is tantalizingly close to the level cap, which will unlock a lot more content and allow me to nab several more achievements. Looking forward to that in the next few weeks.
Rare Replay - 1708 TA Score - This was the big one this week. A collection of a ton of classic Rare games (though sadly not the most iconic Rare games in my mind, the Donkey Kong Country series, for obvious trademark reasons), Rare Replay has a lot going for it. To be totally honest, though, a lot of the early stuff hasn't aged very well at all. Even so, I'd definitely say it's worth the investment.
On the achievement front, I focused on Snapshots (little challenge levels specially designed for the older games), Gunfright, and Snake Rattle N Roll.
Gunfright and Snake Rattle N Roll are both perfect examples of games that haven't aged well, but the save and rewind features make the achievements for those games trivial. They're not terribly time-consuming, either, as I spent less than 2 hours on each of those games.
Snapshots can be very challenging, as you can't save or rewind, so you have to do it all legit. Still, with some practice (and occasionally a good guide), I was able to knock several of them out this week.
Just Dance 2014 - 9 TA Score - I've been a fan of rhythm games since I first played DDR back in high school. The more recent motion-sensing dance games scratch that same itch, albeit in a different way. Another upside of Kinect games is that they typically have pretty inflated TA Ratios, so they're great for a competition like the GTASC.
This week's achievement was just liking a dance video that somebody uploaded, so it required minimal effort (for a surprising Ratio of 1.77), but I also worked on earning stars, inching closer to the achievements for earning 3 and 5 stars on all songs.
And that was it for this week. The GTASC is a marathon competition, as it lasts all year, so I'm trying to pace myself a bit. As a result, I've spent a lot of time grinding towards big achievements instead of rushing full speed ahead. Looking forward to an epic performance this year.
Anyway, that's what I've been up to this week, what have you been playing this week?
Until next time, have a good one!
Monday, July 6, 2015
Achievement Report - Bean Dive 2015
It's that time of year again! The time when gamers rejoice and play all the games in their backlog just long enough to pop a single achievement.
That's right, this weekend marks the beginning of the annual Bean Dive over at TrueAchievements. Check out my report on last year's dive to read some of my thoughts on why I enjoy this particular event.
My Dive
Rather than waste any time, I'll get straight to the summary. I'll list each game that I played this weekend, followed by an approximate amount of time I played it while going for the first achievement, and some brief thoughts about the game.
As I now have an Xbox One, I'll split the games by console for easier parsing.
Windows 8 (7 Games):
Age of Sparta - <5 minutes - Another in the long line of free-to-play empire building games where you have to wait inordinate amounts of time to do anything unless you pay for things with real cash money. Meh. I guess I could see this being a mild distraction from time to time.
Dragon Mania Legends - 5 minutes - Looks just like Age of Sparta, except that you're training dragons instead of Greek troops.
Dungeon Hunter 5 - 15 minutes - This looks like a surprisingly good action RPG for a free game. Not groundbreaking, for sure, but it should be decently fun.
Make it Rain - <5 minutes - Oh, what have I done? This is one of those games where the only point is to click or swipe repeatedly. It was free, though, so I downloaded it. Like a chump. At least I'll be able to write a scathing review of it at some point...
Modern Combat 5: Blackout - 5 minutes - This game actually seems pretty cool. While the graphics are pretty low quality, it might be an enjoyable first-person shooter with reasonably high production value. I'm amazed that I'm almost excited to play a few Windows 8 game, but hey, here we are.
Overkill 3 - 10 minutes - This game could be a neat rail-shooter, but the controls are atrocious. It seems like it was designed for touch devices, but I have to play with a mouse and keyboard. Maybe I'll be able to blaze through it sometime soon.
Tiny Troopers - <5 minutes - I only played the tutorial, but it seems like a nice little point-and-click combat game. Could be fun, but I'm not expecting a whole lot out of it.
Xbox 360 (24 Games):
Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON'T KNOW - <5 minutes - The first achievement popped part way through the tutorial, so I didn't get to see much of the game. The basic 2D Zelda-esque mechanics seems decent enough, but seeing as I was pretty disappointed with a later Adventure Time game, I worry that this one will be a big letdown.
Angry Birds: Star Wars - 10 minutes - I didn't really play this game; there's an achievement for watching the credits, so I started that text scroll and let it run while I did other things. No thoughts here, obviously.
Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel - 10 minutes - You get an achievement at the end of the tutorial, so this one was pretty quick. It seems like a pretty good coop third-person shooter, especially so if you're playing alone, as there appear to be some useful commands for managing your AI-controlled partner. Of all the shooters I've played in the last few days, this one is probably the most exciting.
Assassin's Creed IV - 15 minutes - This game might actually be fun... I have grown tired of the repetitive nature of the Assassin's Creed games, so I skipped AC3 entirely. This one was available for free with Games for Gold, so I downloaded it anyway. It's nice to see an Assassin's Creed game out in the jungle instead of even more featureless alleyways.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - 20 minutes - It's been a while since I've played an FPS set in World War II, so this might be fun to get into. I'm not overly excited about it, though.
Dark Souls II - <5 minutes - All I had to do is die; that's pretty easy in a Dark Souls game... I know exactly what I'm getting into with this one. I've recently had renewed interest in the Dark Souls franchise, so I'll have to get back to this one once I finally play through the first.
Destiny - 15 minutes - I only completed the tutorial mission, but Destiny certainly like a fun loot-based shooter. I can definitely see it getting repetitive as I know some people complained shortly after release, but I think I'll have fun with it, at least for a while.
The Evil Within - 45 minutes - Survival horror games always make a good impression on me, and this one is no different. There are a few aspects of the introductory chapters that remind me of Deadly Premonition, which I love, so I'm looking forward to playing this one.
F1 2013 - <5 minutes - The first tutorial task (accelerating and stopping) can earn you an achievement, so I didn't even try turning my vehicle. It seems like a relatively straightforward racing game, though.
Gears of War: Judgment - 5 minutes - Simply put, this is a Gears of War game. A third-person shooter where enemies are bullet sponges and a heavy emphasis on use of cover. It's about what you'd expect from the franchise.
Just Cause 2 - 5 minutes - Yet another game that didn't wait long to give me an achievement, so I don't have much of an impression here. I've never played a Just Cause game before, but I might be able to get into this one.
Just Dance 2014 - <5 minutes - I had unreasonable amounts of fun playing the dance sequences in Kinect Star Wars, so I picked this one up hoping for more of the same. It's not quite as ridiculous as the Star Wars dancing, and the moves seem more complex, but I think it should be fun.
LEGO Movie Videogame - 5 minutes - I've been getting a little burned out on LEGO games in the last few years - the original LEGO Star Wars was phenomenal, but the franchise has been run into the ground more recently. I got this one (on sale, of course) because of how cute the LEGO Movie was; I figured it was worth giving LEGO games another chance. I only played the prologue stage, so I don't have a very good impression of it, but it'll probably be one of the first games I go back to in the coming weeks.
Max: The Curse of Brotherhood - 5 minutes - Seems like a cute, simple platformer. Should be fun.
Metal Gear Solid HD Edition - 30 minutes - Games with clunky controls aren't usually very good. Stealth games provide even less leeway with imprecise movement and awkward interactions than your average game. Stealth games with clunky controls are miserable. I'm not looking forward to playing this one again.
Metro: Last Light - 5 minutes - There wasn't much of an impression for this game as the first achievement popped very quickly. The opening sequence really reminds me that I need to brush up on the Metro 2033 storyline, confirming my need to replay Metro 2033 before diving into this one.
Mini Ninjas - 5 minutes - I barely progressed into the tutorial for this game, though it seems like it could be a cute little action-adventure game.
MX vs. ATV Alive - 5 minutes - A racing game. There doesn't seem to be anything particularly exciting about this one. It is a little weird to run a race without a minimap somewhere; maybe I've been spoiled by recent racing games.
Silent Hill HD - 2 hours - It took a while to get to the first achievement in Silent Hill 2, so this was one the longest for my dive. When it came time to declare allegiances, I was always a Resident Evil fan, so I've barely played anything in the Silent Hill franchise. So far, I like what I see, and I'm excited to run through a couple of the first Silent Hill games. The one downside? The game lagged like crazy when I earned that achievement. I hope that's not a persistent trend...
Sniper Elite V2 - 10 minutes - I have worries about this one because one part of the tutorial was totally opaque to me. I actually had to look up a guide to figure out what I had to do, so I fear that the whole game will be unnecessarily confusing. I guess we'll see.
South Park: The Stick of Truth - 5 minutes - It's been a while since I've watched South Park, but I've already seen bits and pieces of this game in other places. I think I'm going to enjoy the combination of South Park humor and what seems to be a pretty solid RPG.
Thief - 15 minutes - I recall thinking that the mix of stealth and special arrows formed a cool basis for a game back when the original Thief games were released 15 years ago. This one doesn't seem like it plays quite as smoothly as I remember from its predecessors (though to be fair, I'm probably misremembering that anyway), but it definitely seems good enough, at least from the introductory mission.
Two Worlds II - 15 minutes - Seems like one of the many Elder Scrolls style RPGs that have glutted the market in the last several years. It doesn't seem terrible like some of them, though.
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - 15 minutes - Unsurprisingly, this seems like a solid RPG. I'm looking forward to giving it a go at some point.
Xbox One (24 Games):
AirMech Arena - <5 minutes - It didn't take long to earn an achievement in this one, but I've also played the 360 version, so I know what I'm getting into.
Assassin's Creed IV - 10 minutes - For someone who really doesn't like the Assassin's Creed franchise, I sure play a lot of the games... I got this for the same reason I got the 360 version - it was free, so why not? Maybe I'll eventually complete it twice?
Blue Estate - 20 minutes - I may be one of the only people in the world who gets excited about a good rail shooter. This seems like a good one. It reminds me a bit of House of the Dead: Overkill in that the story is way over the top. I'm really looking forward to this one.
Castle Storm: Definitive Edition -<5 minutes - I've already played the 360 version of this one, and it was a decent amount of fun. I got this version for free from Games with Gold, and I can't say no to a free game (see my collection of Win 8 games for evidence of that...).
Chariot - 5 minutes - A friend challenged me to earn all the achievements in this game because it's apparently quite hard. Obviously I couldn't pass up a challenge like that! It seems like it'll be a cute little platformer, so I'm excited to get deeper into it!
Costume Quest 2 - 2 hours - It's a turn-based RPG just like its predecessor. I'm sure it will also be a little quirky along the way.
Dance Central: Spotlight - 5 minutes - Another dancing game, though this one came for free with the Xbox One Kinect. It seems more like what I was hoping for with Just Dance, so I think I'll be happy with this one.
Far Cry 4 - 1.5 hours - Far Cry 4 feels very similar to Far Cry 3 (here's my review for that), so I expect it to be a very similar experience - reasonably fun for a while but awfully repetitive by the end. Even worse, the storyline doesn't seem to have the same charm as its predecessor, so it's probably going to be a less enjoyable game overall.
Final Fantasy Type-0 HD - 5 minutes - I'm not quite sure how I feel about this one. It strikes me as a spiritual successor to Resonance of Fate, which was a pretty good, unique game, but it had a steep learning curve (so it was really hard to get into it). I'll have to give it more of a shot before drawing any real conclusions.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection - 1 hour - It's a collection of all the Halo games. I'm sure you know what that means. However, I tried to get the achievement for completing a multiplayer match, but in waiting for about 15 minutes at two different times, I could never get a match started. After that, it took about 20 minutes to get an achievement in one of the single player campaigns. That multiplayer difficulty worries me a bit (a lot), but the campaigns should be as good as the originals.
Lifeless Planet: Premier Edition - 5 minutes - Man, many of these games seem really sweet! This one strikes me as an interesting exploration/survival game. I'm looking forward to playing it, though it's probably not one of my favorites in this list.
Massive Chalice - 5 minutes - I've long been a fan of turn-based strategy games, and this one seems to fit that bill perfectly. A freebie from Games with Gold; I think I'll have a fun time playing it.
Metro 2033 Redux - 1.5 hours - I first played Metro 2033 years ago, and I've never played the sequel. I kind of wanted to play the first once more before tackling Last Light, plus they were both on sale recently, so here we are.
Metro: Last Light Redux - <5 minutes - Same deal as the 360 version. I got this version on sale a while back, not realizing I already had it on the 360... I guess that's what happens when you have a big backlog of games.
Ori and the Blind Forest - <5 minutes - It didn't take long to pop an achievement, but from what I hear, this game is a wonderful little Metroidvania title. It looks and sounds fantastic, too, so I'm really looking forward to it!
Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare - 10 minutes - I completed a single multiplayer match, getting two kills (and one achievement) in the process. It seems like this one will be similar to last year's Gotham City Imposters - a cute, fun team shooter that gets kind of stale once you've sunk a fair number of hours into it.
Pneuma: Breath of Life - 5 minutes - I just made it through the prologue, and this one seems like an adventure/puzzle game. I've been a big sucker for adventure games since The Longest Journey charmed me. I haven't found another game that has lived up to the standard that The Longest Journey set, so maybe this one will.
Pool Nation FX - 20 minutes - Pool video games are always a bit weird in my book. It's really tough to capture the precision in both cue position and viewing angles that you use when playing the physical game. I spent some time playing a versus match before realizing I could nab an achievement much sooner in a different way. What I saw basically confirmed my fears - the control scheme, while reasonably complex, still feels awfully clunky. I'm not sure this'll be much fun.
Project Spark - <5 minutes - Welp. I barely had to start this one to pop an achievement because it seems to be synced with my progress in the Win 8 version. It's a cool outlet for creative types, allowing players to design epic levels and whatnot, so my experience is mostly going to depend on what other people do with it. Still, there may be some cool things to do whenever I decide to go back to it.
Shovel Knight - 10 minutes - I was really excited about this game the first time I learned about it, both for its nostalgic factor (it's very reminiscent of old school Mega Man games) and because it seems like an awesome platformer (it's very reminiscent of old school Mega Man games). The first stage didn't disappoint, and I'm really looking forward to this one.
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition - 1 hour - Another game I've already played on a different platform (you can read my review of the 360 version here). I wanted to play through this game one more time in preparation for Rise of the Tomb Raider. I expect it to be as awesome on the One as it was on the 360.
Warframe - 20 minutes - This game seems pretty sweet. I always love a good coop multiplayer game, and from what I could tell by completing the tutorial and one mission, this will be a good one. Plus it's gorgeous. I'm excited!
Watch_Dogs - <5 minutes - The first achievement in this game pops very shortly after you first get control. I know there was some drama about this game when it was first released (though I don't remember what that drama was), but I don't have any sort of impression about this game yet. No real commentary here.
Zombie Driver Ultimate Edition - 5 minutes - I've already played this game before (you can read my review of the Xbox 360 version here), so I know what I'm getting into with this version. It still looks like it'll be good for some mindless arcade action, so it'll be nice to pick this one up every once in a while.
My dive included 55 games and nearly took the entire weekend and dropped my overall completion percent by an astounding 8.65%. There are a few other games that I would have included, but I played each of them for a few hours and didn't come close to unlocking an achievement, so I decided to call it done.
The Best of the Bunch
I wanted to narrow this field down to 6 that I'm most interested in playing, so here they are:
Blue Estate
Modern Combat 5: Blackout
Ori and the Blind Forest
Shovel Knight
South Park: The Stick of Truth
Warframe
And there you have it, this year's exciting Bean Dive. You can probably expect reviews of some of these games in the coming weeks!
That's right, this weekend marks the beginning of the annual Bean Dive over at TrueAchievements. Check out my report on last year's dive to read some of my thoughts on why I enjoy this particular event.
My Dive
Rather than waste any time, I'll get straight to the summary. I'll list each game that I played this weekend, followed by an approximate amount of time I played it while going for the first achievement, and some brief thoughts about the game.
As I now have an Xbox One, I'll split the games by console for easier parsing.
Windows 8 (7 Games):
Age of Sparta - <5 minutes - Another in the long line of free-to-play empire building games where you have to wait inordinate amounts of time to do anything unless you pay for things with real cash money. Meh. I guess I could see this being a mild distraction from time to time.
Dragon Mania Legends - 5 minutes - Looks just like Age of Sparta, except that you're training dragons instead of Greek troops.
Dungeon Hunter 5 - 15 minutes - This looks like a surprisingly good action RPG for a free game. Not groundbreaking, for sure, but it should be decently fun.
Make it Rain - <5 minutes - Oh, what have I done? This is one of those games where the only point is to click or swipe repeatedly. It was free, though, so I downloaded it. Like a chump. At least I'll be able to write a scathing review of it at some point...
Modern Combat 5: Blackout - 5 minutes - This game actually seems pretty cool. While the graphics are pretty low quality, it might be an enjoyable first-person shooter with reasonably high production value. I'm amazed that I'm almost excited to play a few Windows 8 game, but hey, here we are.
Overkill 3 - 10 minutes - This game could be a neat rail-shooter, but the controls are atrocious. It seems like it was designed for touch devices, but I have to play with a mouse and keyboard. Maybe I'll be able to blaze through it sometime soon.
Tiny Troopers - <5 minutes - I only played the tutorial, but it seems like a nice little point-and-click combat game. Could be fun, but I'm not expecting a whole lot out of it.
Xbox 360 (24 Games):
Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON'T KNOW - <5 minutes - The first achievement popped part way through the tutorial, so I didn't get to see much of the game. The basic 2D Zelda-esque mechanics seems decent enough, but seeing as I was pretty disappointed with a later Adventure Time game, I worry that this one will be a big letdown.
Angry Birds: Star Wars - 10 minutes - I didn't really play this game; there's an achievement for watching the credits, so I started that text scroll and let it run while I did other things. No thoughts here, obviously.
Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel - 10 minutes - You get an achievement at the end of the tutorial, so this one was pretty quick. It seems like a pretty good coop third-person shooter, especially so if you're playing alone, as there appear to be some useful commands for managing your AI-controlled partner. Of all the shooters I've played in the last few days, this one is probably the most exciting.
Assassin's Creed IV - 15 minutes - This game might actually be fun... I have grown tired of the repetitive nature of the Assassin's Creed games, so I skipped AC3 entirely. This one was available for free with Games for Gold, so I downloaded it anyway. It's nice to see an Assassin's Creed game out in the jungle instead of even more featureless alleyways.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - 20 minutes - It's been a while since I've played an FPS set in World War II, so this might be fun to get into. I'm not overly excited about it, though.
Dark Souls II - <5 minutes - All I had to do is die; that's pretty easy in a Dark Souls game... I know exactly what I'm getting into with this one. I've recently had renewed interest in the Dark Souls franchise, so I'll have to get back to this one once I finally play through the first.
Destiny - 15 minutes - I only completed the tutorial mission, but Destiny certainly like a fun loot-based shooter. I can definitely see it getting repetitive as I know some people complained shortly after release, but I think I'll have fun with it, at least for a while.
The Evil Within - 45 minutes - Survival horror games always make a good impression on me, and this one is no different. There are a few aspects of the introductory chapters that remind me of Deadly Premonition, which I love, so I'm looking forward to playing this one.
F1 2013 - <5 minutes - The first tutorial task (accelerating and stopping) can earn you an achievement, so I didn't even try turning my vehicle. It seems like a relatively straightforward racing game, though.
Gears of War: Judgment - 5 minutes - Simply put, this is a Gears of War game. A third-person shooter where enemies are bullet sponges and a heavy emphasis on use of cover. It's about what you'd expect from the franchise.
Just Cause 2 - 5 minutes - Yet another game that didn't wait long to give me an achievement, so I don't have much of an impression here. I've never played a Just Cause game before, but I might be able to get into this one.
Just Dance 2014 - <5 minutes - I had unreasonable amounts of fun playing the dance sequences in Kinect Star Wars, so I picked this one up hoping for more of the same. It's not quite as ridiculous as the Star Wars dancing, and the moves seem more complex, but I think it should be fun.
LEGO Movie Videogame - 5 minutes - I've been getting a little burned out on LEGO games in the last few years - the original LEGO Star Wars was phenomenal, but the franchise has been run into the ground more recently. I got this one (on sale, of course) because of how cute the LEGO Movie was; I figured it was worth giving LEGO games another chance. I only played the prologue stage, so I don't have a very good impression of it, but it'll probably be one of the first games I go back to in the coming weeks.
Max: The Curse of Brotherhood - 5 minutes - Seems like a cute, simple platformer. Should be fun.
Metal Gear Solid HD Edition - 30 minutes - Games with clunky controls aren't usually very good. Stealth games provide even less leeway with imprecise movement and awkward interactions than your average game. Stealth games with clunky controls are miserable. I'm not looking forward to playing this one again.
Metro: Last Light - 5 minutes - There wasn't much of an impression for this game as the first achievement popped very quickly. The opening sequence really reminds me that I need to brush up on the Metro 2033 storyline, confirming my need to replay Metro 2033 before diving into this one.
Mini Ninjas - 5 minutes - I barely progressed into the tutorial for this game, though it seems like it could be a cute little action-adventure game.
MX vs. ATV Alive - 5 minutes - A racing game. There doesn't seem to be anything particularly exciting about this one. It is a little weird to run a race without a minimap somewhere; maybe I've been spoiled by recent racing games.
Silent Hill HD - 2 hours - It took a while to get to the first achievement in Silent Hill 2, so this was one the longest for my dive. When it came time to declare allegiances, I was always a Resident Evil fan, so I've barely played anything in the Silent Hill franchise. So far, I like what I see, and I'm excited to run through a couple of the first Silent Hill games. The one downside? The game lagged like crazy when I earned that achievement. I hope that's not a persistent trend...
Sniper Elite V2 - 10 minutes - I have worries about this one because one part of the tutorial was totally opaque to me. I actually had to look up a guide to figure out what I had to do, so I fear that the whole game will be unnecessarily confusing. I guess we'll see.
South Park: The Stick of Truth - 5 minutes - It's been a while since I've watched South Park, but I've already seen bits and pieces of this game in other places. I think I'm going to enjoy the combination of South Park humor and what seems to be a pretty solid RPG.
Thief - 15 minutes - I recall thinking that the mix of stealth and special arrows formed a cool basis for a game back when the original Thief games were released 15 years ago. This one doesn't seem like it plays quite as smoothly as I remember from its predecessors (though to be fair, I'm probably misremembering that anyway), but it definitely seems good enough, at least from the introductory mission.
Two Worlds II - 15 minutes - Seems like one of the many Elder Scrolls style RPGs that have glutted the market in the last several years. It doesn't seem terrible like some of them, though.
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - 15 minutes - Unsurprisingly, this seems like a solid RPG. I'm looking forward to giving it a go at some point.
Xbox One (24 Games):
AirMech Arena - <5 minutes - It didn't take long to earn an achievement in this one, but I've also played the 360 version, so I know what I'm getting into.
Assassin's Creed IV - 10 minutes - For someone who really doesn't like the Assassin's Creed franchise, I sure play a lot of the games... I got this for the same reason I got the 360 version - it was free, so why not? Maybe I'll eventually complete it twice?
Blue Estate - 20 minutes - I may be one of the only people in the world who gets excited about a good rail shooter. This seems like a good one. It reminds me a bit of House of the Dead: Overkill in that the story is way over the top. I'm really looking forward to this one.
Castle Storm: Definitive Edition -<5 minutes - I've already played the 360 version of this one, and it was a decent amount of fun. I got this version for free from Games with Gold, and I can't say no to a free game (see my collection of Win 8 games for evidence of that...).
Chariot - 5 minutes - A friend challenged me to earn all the achievements in this game because it's apparently quite hard. Obviously I couldn't pass up a challenge like that! It seems like it'll be a cute little platformer, so I'm excited to get deeper into it!
Costume Quest 2 - 2 hours - It's a turn-based RPG just like its predecessor. I'm sure it will also be a little quirky along the way.
Dance Central: Spotlight - 5 minutes - Another dancing game, though this one came for free with the Xbox One Kinect. It seems more like what I was hoping for with Just Dance, so I think I'll be happy with this one.
Far Cry 4 - 1.5 hours - Far Cry 4 feels very similar to Far Cry 3 (here's my review for that), so I expect it to be a very similar experience - reasonably fun for a while but awfully repetitive by the end. Even worse, the storyline doesn't seem to have the same charm as its predecessor, so it's probably going to be a less enjoyable game overall.
Final Fantasy Type-0 HD - 5 minutes - I'm not quite sure how I feel about this one. It strikes me as a spiritual successor to Resonance of Fate, which was a pretty good, unique game, but it had a steep learning curve (so it was really hard to get into it). I'll have to give it more of a shot before drawing any real conclusions.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection - 1 hour - It's a collection of all the Halo games. I'm sure you know what that means. However, I tried to get the achievement for completing a multiplayer match, but in waiting for about 15 minutes at two different times, I could never get a match started. After that, it took about 20 minutes to get an achievement in one of the single player campaigns. That multiplayer difficulty worries me a bit (a lot), but the campaigns should be as good as the originals.
Lifeless Planet: Premier Edition - 5 minutes - Man, many of these games seem really sweet! This one strikes me as an interesting exploration/survival game. I'm looking forward to playing it, though it's probably not one of my favorites in this list.
Massive Chalice - 5 minutes - I've long been a fan of turn-based strategy games, and this one seems to fit that bill perfectly. A freebie from Games with Gold; I think I'll have a fun time playing it.
Metro 2033 Redux - 1.5 hours - I first played Metro 2033 years ago, and I've never played the sequel. I kind of wanted to play the first once more before tackling Last Light, plus they were both on sale recently, so here we are.
Metro: Last Light Redux - <5 minutes - Same deal as the 360 version. I got this version on sale a while back, not realizing I already had it on the 360... I guess that's what happens when you have a big backlog of games.
Ori and the Blind Forest - <5 minutes - It didn't take long to pop an achievement, but from what I hear, this game is a wonderful little Metroidvania title. It looks and sounds fantastic, too, so I'm really looking forward to it!
Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare - 10 minutes - I completed a single multiplayer match, getting two kills (and one achievement) in the process. It seems like this one will be similar to last year's Gotham City Imposters - a cute, fun team shooter that gets kind of stale once you've sunk a fair number of hours into it.
Pneuma: Breath of Life - 5 minutes - I just made it through the prologue, and this one seems like an adventure/puzzle game. I've been a big sucker for adventure games since The Longest Journey charmed me. I haven't found another game that has lived up to the standard that The Longest Journey set, so maybe this one will.
Pool Nation FX - 20 minutes - Pool video games are always a bit weird in my book. It's really tough to capture the precision in both cue position and viewing angles that you use when playing the physical game. I spent some time playing a versus match before realizing I could nab an achievement much sooner in a different way. What I saw basically confirmed my fears - the control scheme, while reasonably complex, still feels awfully clunky. I'm not sure this'll be much fun.
Project Spark - <5 minutes - Welp. I barely had to start this one to pop an achievement because it seems to be synced with my progress in the Win 8 version. It's a cool outlet for creative types, allowing players to design epic levels and whatnot, so my experience is mostly going to depend on what other people do with it. Still, there may be some cool things to do whenever I decide to go back to it.
Shovel Knight - 10 minutes - I was really excited about this game the first time I learned about it, both for its nostalgic factor (it's very reminiscent of old school Mega Man games) and because it seems like an awesome platformer (it's very reminiscent of old school Mega Man games). The first stage didn't disappoint, and I'm really looking forward to this one.
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition - 1 hour - Another game I've already played on a different platform (you can read my review of the 360 version here). I wanted to play through this game one more time in preparation for Rise of the Tomb Raider. I expect it to be as awesome on the One as it was on the 360.
Warframe - 20 minutes - This game seems pretty sweet. I always love a good coop multiplayer game, and from what I could tell by completing the tutorial and one mission, this will be a good one. Plus it's gorgeous. I'm excited!
Watch_Dogs - <5 minutes - The first achievement in this game pops very shortly after you first get control. I know there was some drama about this game when it was first released (though I don't remember what that drama was), but I don't have any sort of impression about this game yet. No real commentary here.
Zombie Driver Ultimate Edition - 5 minutes - I've already played this game before (you can read my review of the Xbox 360 version here), so I know what I'm getting into with this version. It still looks like it'll be good for some mindless arcade action, so it'll be nice to pick this one up every once in a while.
My dive included 55 games and nearly took the entire weekend and dropped my overall completion percent by an astounding 8.65%. There are a few other games that I would have included, but I played each of them for a few hours and didn't come close to unlocking an achievement, so I decided to call it done.
The Best of the Bunch
I wanted to narrow this field down to 6 that I'm most interested in playing, so here they are:
Blue Estate
Modern Combat 5: Blackout
Ori and the Blind Forest
Shovel Knight
South Park: The Stick of Truth
Warframe
And there you have it, this year's exciting Bean Dive. You can probably expect reviews of some of these games in the coming weeks!
Saturday, July 5, 2014
Achievement Report - Bean Dive 2014
For the last few years, the True Achievements community has celebrated summer by committing achievement hunter statistical suicide. Bean Diving, dreamed up by TA member Beanpotter, involves playing every game in your backlog until you pop at least one achievement in each.
The way I see it, there are a couple good reasons for taking the plunge (aside from the community event aspect of it). First, from an achievement hunting perspective, it makes your achievement stats an accurate representation of all the games you own; it means your completion percentage reflects your full collection.
Second, and I think more importantly, a Bean Dive gives you a taste of all the games in your backlog. It allows you to discover gems you may have purchased but overlooked. Past dives have gotten me really excited about some of the games I kept putting off. I take it as an opportunity to see what games I should be playing.
My Dive
This year, I figure I'll take some notes as I dive and share them with the world. Here's how it'll go down: I'll list a game, give an approximate amount of time to pop the first achievement, and then brief thoughts on it. At the end, I'll summarize the ones I'm looking forward to.
Asura's Wrath - 5 minutes - A beautiful game. The first level is a combination of Panzer Dragoon-type gameplay and quick time events. I think I'll enjoy playing it much more for the ambiance and story than the gameplay, but I'm looking forward to playing this one.
DiRT 3 - 5 minutes - DiRT 3 seems much more streamlined than its predecessor. Different options aren't as obvious, but I think that might actually make the experience a little less overwhelming. Should be a fun one.
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen - 10 minutes - Seems like this one's a pretty decent RPG, though completing the first quest doesn't show much of it off. I'm excited to come back to it.
Far Cry: Instincts Predator - <5 minutes - I didn't get much of a feel for this one, as I followed the solution on TrueAchievements for popping a simple multiplayer achievement.
Far Cry 2 - 5 minutes - This game seems like it'll just be your typical FPS. Nothing too exciting here.
FIFA 14 (Win 8) - 10 minutes - I'm not a huge fan of the sport in the first place, but I grabbed this game because it was free (I have to stop doing that...). It doesn't seem like it'll be a very fun game due to very simplistic yet frustrating controls.
Gotham City Imposters - <5 minutes - The achievement popped right as I booted the game, so I didn't play any of it. I already have the PC version, though, so I know what it's about. Seems like it'd be a lot more fun with a consistent group to play with...
Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition - <5 minutes - The first achievement in this one is trivial, but I played the demo a bit earlier this week. I'm pretty excited to play this one for real, so it may be the first game I get into post-dive.
Kinectimals Unleashed (Win 8) - Another free game I'll regret starting. It just seems like it'll be incredibly tedious...
L.A. Noir - <5 minutes - The vehicle achievement can be done as soon as you get control of the character, so I didn't get to experience much here. I'll have to give it more of a shot later.
Microsoft Sudoku (Win 8) - <5 minutes - It's a basic Sudoku game. What do you expect?
Remember Me - 5 minutes - I'm intrigued. It's gorgeous, and it seems like it has an awesome story. Aside from running, there wasn't any gameplay in episode 0, so I can't comment on mechanics, but I think this will be another good one.
Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends - 2.5 hours - Nope, not a fan. I'm not sure why I picked this up in the first place years ago, as I've never really liked the "kill hundreds of mooks with sweeping attacks" genre. It's basically a button masher, and as such it's probably one of the last games from this dive that I'll play, if I ever get around to it.
Sanctum 2 - 5 minutes - I like this FPS-tower defense hybrid. This game may be one of the first I go back to after the dive.
Saints Row 2 - 1 hour - I'm losing interest in GTA-style games. Maybe it's just an age or maturity thing, but this one didn't appeal to me too much.
Saints Row: The Third - 5 minutes - This one seems much better. I think it's finally at the level of absurdity that it's essentially mocking itself and the sandbox crime genre. Smoother control scheme, too. Seems like a good one.
Spectral Force 3: Innocent Rage - 5.5 hours (I already logged 4 hours, though, so it wasn't that bad) - It's a turn-based strategy RPG, in the vein of classics like Ogre Battle and Fire Emblem. I like those kinds of games, though this one seems like it's exceptionally complicated.
Super Street Fighter IV - 5 minutes - I'm not a big fan of fighting games, and I've always preferred the ones that are way over-the-top to more competitive ones. This one seems like it'll be a pretty nasty grind for me. Not looking forward to it.
Tomb Raider: Underworld - 5 minutes - The tutorial wasn't bad, though the camera is pretty frustrating. Seems like a decent piece of the Tomb Raider marathon that I'll probably do at some point.
Viking: Battle for Asgard - 20 minutes - This game made a bad impression because I couldn't figure out where to go right at the start. It seems like it might be an entertaining third-person action game, though.
The Walking Dead: Season 2 - 10 minutes - Sequel to the popular adventure game; seems like more of the same. But that's not necessarily a bad thing!
21 games and nearly a full day later, my completion percentage has dropped a whopping 3.11%. I played another game for a couple hours, Dungeon Defenders, but I was still not even half way to the first achievement, so I decided to abandon it.
The Best of the Bunch
Having completed my dive, these are the games I'm most excited to play:
Asura's Wrath
Dragon's Dogma
Guacamelee!
Remember Me
Sanctum 2
Saints Row: The Third
I hope to review these games as well, so look forward to more detailed thoughts on these games in the coming months!
The way I see it, there are a couple good reasons for taking the plunge (aside from the community event aspect of it). First, from an achievement hunting perspective, it makes your achievement stats an accurate representation of all the games you own; it means your completion percentage reflects your full collection.
Second, and I think more importantly, a Bean Dive gives you a taste of all the games in your backlog. It allows you to discover gems you may have purchased but overlooked. Past dives have gotten me really excited about some of the games I kept putting off. I take it as an opportunity to see what games I should be playing.
My Dive
This year, I figure I'll take some notes as I dive and share them with the world. Here's how it'll go down: I'll list a game, give an approximate amount of time to pop the first achievement, and then brief thoughts on it. At the end, I'll summarize the ones I'm looking forward to.
Asura's Wrath - 5 minutes - A beautiful game. The first level is a combination of Panzer Dragoon-type gameplay and quick time events. I think I'll enjoy playing it much more for the ambiance and story than the gameplay, but I'm looking forward to playing this one.
DiRT 3 - 5 minutes - DiRT 3 seems much more streamlined than its predecessor. Different options aren't as obvious, but I think that might actually make the experience a little less overwhelming. Should be a fun one.
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen - 10 minutes - Seems like this one's a pretty decent RPG, though completing the first quest doesn't show much of it off. I'm excited to come back to it.
Far Cry: Instincts Predator - <5 minutes - I didn't get much of a feel for this one, as I followed the solution on TrueAchievements for popping a simple multiplayer achievement.
Far Cry 2 - 5 minutes - This game seems like it'll just be your typical FPS. Nothing too exciting here.
FIFA 14 (Win 8) - 10 minutes - I'm not a huge fan of the sport in the first place, but I grabbed this game because it was free (I have to stop doing that...). It doesn't seem like it'll be a very fun game due to very simplistic yet frustrating controls.
Gotham City Imposters - <5 minutes - The achievement popped right as I booted the game, so I didn't play any of it. I already have the PC version, though, so I know what it's about. Seems like it'd be a lot more fun with a consistent group to play with...
Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition - <5 minutes - The first achievement in this one is trivial, but I played the demo a bit earlier this week. I'm pretty excited to play this one for real, so it may be the first game I get into post-dive.
Kinectimals Unleashed (Win 8) - Another free game I'll regret starting. It just seems like it'll be incredibly tedious...
L.A. Noir - <5 minutes - The vehicle achievement can be done as soon as you get control of the character, so I didn't get to experience much here. I'll have to give it more of a shot later.
Microsoft Sudoku (Win 8) - <5 minutes - It's a basic Sudoku game. What do you expect?
Remember Me - 5 minutes - I'm intrigued. It's gorgeous, and it seems like it has an awesome story. Aside from running, there wasn't any gameplay in episode 0, so I can't comment on mechanics, but I think this will be another good one.
Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends - 2.5 hours - Nope, not a fan. I'm not sure why I picked this up in the first place years ago, as I've never really liked the "kill hundreds of mooks with sweeping attacks" genre. It's basically a button masher, and as such it's probably one of the last games from this dive that I'll play, if I ever get around to it.
Sanctum 2 - 5 minutes - I like this FPS-tower defense hybrid. This game may be one of the first I go back to after the dive.
Saints Row 2 - 1 hour - I'm losing interest in GTA-style games. Maybe it's just an age or maturity thing, but this one didn't appeal to me too much.
Saints Row: The Third - 5 minutes - This one seems much better. I think it's finally at the level of absurdity that it's essentially mocking itself and the sandbox crime genre. Smoother control scheme, too. Seems like a good one.
Spectral Force 3: Innocent Rage - 5.5 hours (I already logged 4 hours, though, so it wasn't that bad) - It's a turn-based strategy RPG, in the vein of classics like Ogre Battle and Fire Emblem. I like those kinds of games, though this one seems like it's exceptionally complicated.
Super Street Fighter IV - 5 minutes - I'm not a big fan of fighting games, and I've always preferred the ones that are way over-the-top to more competitive ones. This one seems like it'll be a pretty nasty grind for me. Not looking forward to it.
Tomb Raider: Underworld - 5 minutes - The tutorial wasn't bad, though the camera is pretty frustrating. Seems like a decent piece of the Tomb Raider marathon that I'll probably do at some point.
Viking: Battle for Asgard - 20 minutes - This game made a bad impression because I couldn't figure out where to go right at the start. It seems like it might be an entertaining third-person action game, though.
The Walking Dead: Season 2 - 10 minutes - Sequel to the popular adventure game; seems like more of the same. But that's not necessarily a bad thing!
21 games and nearly a full day later, my completion percentage has dropped a whopping 3.11%. I played another game for a couple hours, Dungeon Defenders, but I was still not even half way to the first achievement, so I decided to abandon it.
The Best of the Bunch
Having completed my dive, these are the games I'm most excited to play:
Asura's Wrath
Dragon's Dogma
Guacamelee!
Remember Me
Sanctum 2
Saints Row: The Third
I hope to review these games as well, so look forward to more detailed thoughts on these games in the coming months!
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Achievement Report - July 6, 2013
As expected, I've spread my gaming love around quite a bit this week. Here are the happenings:
Bean Dive
I mentioned last week that I'd be participating in TrueAchievement's annual Bean Dive. Out of fear for Team Lazy Eye's position in the GTASC, I've hastily done just that (and in the process missed the opportunity for a bunch of Games on Demand titles that were on sale this week...). Here's what I started:
Dark Souls (PC) - yeah, I already have the Xbox version, but I got this one on the cheap during a Steam sale. It can't hurt to have two copies of a soul-crushingly hard game, can it?
Crash Course 2 - a free game released a couple months ago, the rampant server issues had prevented me from ever playing it. For some reason, it let me in last weekend, so I'm not complaining.
Renegade Ops - I picked this up during a recent Deal of the Week, as I've always enjoyed twin-stick shooters. After playing for about 15 minutes, I don't yet have a strong opinion on it.
SEGA Vintage Collection: Monster World - this one is undoubtedly the disappointment of the bunch, as the Monster World games have definitely not aged well. A tedious grind is ahead of me with this game...
Spartacus Legends - another free game. I've never been too keen on fighting games, but the gimmicks in this one might be enough to keep me interested for a while. Who knows?
Disney Universe - an equally valid title would be "LEGO Disney," as it follows the same formula as the LEGO games. I'm a fan of that silly style of platforming, though, so I think I'm going to enjoy this one.
The Cursed Crusade - I grabbed this game because the synopsis sounded interesting and it was heavily discounted. I'm not too impressed, but at least it doesn't seem like it's going to be a huge investment.
Rayman 3 HD - another special deal acquisition, I bought this one because I adore Rayman Origins. Origins was the first Rayman game I'd ever played, so I wanted to give an earlier iteration a shot; seems like it'll be fairly fun.
A pretty pathetic Bean Dive compared to what some people are doing, and its effect on my completion percent was barely noticeable (it dropped 0.91%). It's fun to contribute to the site-wide statistics, though, so I'm glad to have been a part of it. Maybe next year I'll have a more exciting showing.
GTASC
It finally happened. Nearing the end of this week's scoring period, Team Lazy Eye was at the bottom of the bracket. We valiantly fought to push our way out of the danger zone, but in the final minutes, the team in last place (Carved Out of More Pork) zoomed ahead, bumping us down far enough for elimination.
We made it to the top 48, though, so we (barely) accomplished my goal of being in the top 50. Maybe we'll have better luck next year.
Anyhow, beyond the Bean Dive, I spent most of my Xbox time on three games:
I continued playing Disney Universe and Crash Course 2, earning many of the achievements in each.
I also spent some more time with Nier, although I didn't do much aside from additional crafting material farming.
In the end, it wasn't enough to keep us going, but it was a fun competition while it lasted.
StarCraft II
I played a fair amount of StarCraft this week, too, knocking a good number of vs. AI matches out. I still have a ways to go on that front, but progress is progress, eh?
Rogue Legacy
In the middle of last week, I bought Rogue Legacy. It is one hell of a game, and I sunk a good chunk of my spare time into it this week. I don't want to say too much about it now, as I'm drafting a review for it, but if you're interested, I streamed my first playthrough. Check out the VODs on twitch.tv or YouTube.
And that does it for this week. Now that the GTASC isn't on my radar anymore, I don't really have many concrete gaming goals for the next week. I'll also be much busier in general for the next few weeks, so I may not have a lot going on until the end of the month. Either way, I hope to have something to talk about this time next week. Until then, tschüss.
Bean Dive
I mentioned last week that I'd be participating in TrueAchievement's annual Bean Dive. Out of fear for Team Lazy Eye's position in the GTASC, I've hastily done just that (and in the process missed the opportunity for a bunch of Games on Demand titles that were on sale this week...). Here's what I started:
Dark Souls (PC) - yeah, I already have the Xbox version, but I got this one on the cheap during a Steam sale. It can't hurt to have two copies of a soul-crushingly hard game, can it?
Crash Course 2 - a free game released a couple months ago, the rampant server issues had prevented me from ever playing it. For some reason, it let me in last weekend, so I'm not complaining.
Renegade Ops - I picked this up during a recent Deal of the Week, as I've always enjoyed twin-stick shooters. After playing for about 15 minutes, I don't yet have a strong opinion on it.
SEGA Vintage Collection: Monster World - this one is undoubtedly the disappointment of the bunch, as the Monster World games have definitely not aged well. A tedious grind is ahead of me with this game...
Spartacus Legends - another free game. I've never been too keen on fighting games, but the gimmicks in this one might be enough to keep me interested for a while. Who knows?
Disney Universe - an equally valid title would be "LEGO Disney," as it follows the same formula as the LEGO games. I'm a fan of that silly style of platforming, though, so I think I'm going to enjoy this one.
The Cursed Crusade - I grabbed this game because the synopsis sounded interesting and it was heavily discounted. I'm not too impressed, but at least it doesn't seem like it's going to be a huge investment.
Rayman 3 HD - another special deal acquisition, I bought this one because I adore Rayman Origins. Origins was the first Rayman game I'd ever played, so I wanted to give an earlier iteration a shot; seems like it'll be fairly fun.
A pretty pathetic Bean Dive compared to what some people are doing, and its effect on my completion percent was barely noticeable (it dropped 0.91%). It's fun to contribute to the site-wide statistics, though, so I'm glad to have been a part of it. Maybe next year I'll have a more exciting showing.
GTASC
It finally happened. Nearing the end of this week's scoring period, Team Lazy Eye was at the bottom of the bracket. We valiantly fought to push our way out of the danger zone, but in the final minutes, the team in last place (Carved Out of More Pork) zoomed ahead, bumping us down far enough for elimination.
We made it to the top 48, though, so we (barely) accomplished my goal of being in the top 50. Maybe we'll have better luck next year.
Anyhow, beyond the Bean Dive, I spent most of my Xbox time on three games:
I continued playing Disney Universe and Crash Course 2, earning many of the achievements in each.
I also spent some more time with Nier, although I didn't do much aside from additional crafting material farming.
In the end, it wasn't enough to keep us going, but it was a fun competition while it lasted.
StarCraft II
I played a fair amount of StarCraft this week, too, knocking a good number of vs. AI matches out. I still have a ways to go on that front, but progress is progress, eh?
Rogue Legacy
In the middle of last week, I bought Rogue Legacy. It is one hell of a game, and I sunk a good chunk of my spare time into it this week. I don't want to say too much about it now, as I'm drafting a review for it, but if you're interested, I streamed my first playthrough. Check out the VODs on twitch.tv or YouTube.
And that does it for this week. Now that the GTASC isn't on my radar anymore, I don't really have many concrete gaming goals for the next week. I'll also be much busier in general for the next few weeks, so I may not have a lot going on until the end of the month. Either way, I hope to have something to talk about this time next week. Until then, tschüss.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Achievement Report - June 29, 2013
This week was not nearly as frightening as last week. Our team pulled out of the gate pretty strongly, securing a safe position early on. Still, I had a respectable showing throughout the week.
On another note, I started writing a review for DarkStar One, and I discovered something interesting: I actually have a hard time talking about games I don't like. I know a lot of people find it easy to rant about bad games and rave about good ones, but it seems like I'm a little lacking the ranting skill. I'll see if I can work on that one.
GTASC
Following last week's progress, my first accomplishment this week was completing DarkStar One. As I mentioned last week, the achievements are incredibly tedious and generally very boring, so this wasn't a hugely entertaining process. Now it's done, though, so I'm thankful for that...
The only other game I really played this week was Wednesday's new XBLA release, Magic: The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014. Being a Magic veteran, I had no problem blowing through the campaigns on the highest difficulty setting, spending only about 10 hours in-game to earn all the achievements. For players new to the game, I imagine that the learning curve could be pretty high, but I would still think that it wouldn't take more than 15 hours to complete. Plus it's pretty fun, so I highly recommend it for achievement hunters.
Kingdom of Loathing
I'm chugging through my latest Bad Moon run. It's going pretty slowly (as expected and by design), but it may start speeding up a bit in the next week, as I've spent a fair amount of time leveling. Either way, it'll probably be a couple more weeks before I move on to something else.
A leisurely BM run gives a great opportunity to grind some things out. I spent a bunch of extra turns in A Large Chamber to earn the Evil's Okay in My Book trophy (although I haven't purchased it yet), and I'm using this run to do a 100% Blood-Faced Volleyball run (which I screwed up the last time I tried it).
An intentionally slow run is great for accomplishing secondary KoL goals, like tedious trophies or earning swagger for usually non-PvP players (Hardcore runs are great for that - break your Hippy Stone early in the run, then stockpile fights until you hit the limit or approach the end of your run; that way you'll minimize the effect on your play, and because you're in Hardcore, you don't stand to lose anything in defensive fights).
StarCraft II
I played a bunch of StarCraft matches this week, working primarily on two particular achievements:
I've worked towards the 250 Terran wins vs. AI, bringing myself within 30 wins of earning that achievement. Once that one's done, finishing the wins vs. Elite AI achievement (I need 106 wins for that one) won't be quite as annoying, as I don't hate playing the other races as much as I hate playing Terran...
When I play big team games (3v3 and 4v4), I tend to play random to make progress on this achievement. I find that the big games are a little less strategic and a little more cheesy, so I don't think I have nearly the disadvantage that I'd have when off-racing in 2s or 1s.
I'm making good achievement progress in SC2, currently sitting at 5520 achievement points overall. Of course, there's still a lot to do (I have barely touched 1v1, for example), so I wonder if I'll be able to earn all the achievements, even after Legacy of the Void...
I also signed up for ggtracker to get some detailed analysis of my play over time. The site requires you to manually upload replays (I haven't seen any obvious options for automatic uploads), but it spits out a number of cool stats and it's prettier than sc2gears (plus more easily shared). I don't see any point in uploading vs. AI replays, so my profile is a little sparse right now, but it could be a pretty cool tool in the future. I'm excited about it.
And that does it. This coming week will be interesting for gaming, as there's a holiday and TrueAchievement's annual Bean Dive phenomenon. The Bean Dive is an incentive for players to pop an achievement in every game they own but haven't played. Named for the resulting dip in completion percentage, it's a great opportunity to find really exciting games that might otherwise stay on the shelf for a few more months. I like it, and it probably means that I'll be playing a wide variety of games before next Saturday. Until then, tschüss.
On another note, I started writing a review for DarkStar One, and I discovered something interesting: I actually have a hard time talking about games I don't like. I know a lot of people find it easy to rant about bad games and rave about good ones, but it seems like I'm a little lacking the ranting skill. I'll see if I can work on that one.
GTASC
Following last week's progress, my first accomplishment this week was completing DarkStar One. As I mentioned last week, the achievements are incredibly tedious and generally very boring, so this wasn't a hugely entertaining process. Now it's done, though, so I'm thankful for that...
The only other game I really played this week was Wednesday's new XBLA release, Magic: The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014. Being a Magic veteran, I had no problem blowing through the campaigns on the highest difficulty setting, spending only about 10 hours in-game to earn all the achievements. For players new to the game, I imagine that the learning curve could be pretty high, but I would still think that it wouldn't take more than 15 hours to complete. Plus it's pretty fun, so I highly recommend it for achievement hunters.
Kingdom of Loathing
I'm chugging through my latest Bad Moon run. It's going pretty slowly (as expected and by design), but it may start speeding up a bit in the next week, as I've spent a fair amount of time leveling. Either way, it'll probably be a couple more weeks before I move on to something else.
A leisurely BM run gives a great opportunity to grind some things out. I spent a bunch of extra turns in A Large Chamber to earn the Evil's Okay in My Book trophy (although I haven't purchased it yet), and I'm using this run to do a 100% Blood-Faced Volleyball run (which I screwed up the last time I tried it).
 |
| A trophy quite a bit out of the way of a normal ascension run. |
StarCraft II
I played a bunch of StarCraft matches this week, working primarily on two particular achievements:
 |
| So. Close. |
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| Chug-chug-chugging away! |
I'm making good achievement progress in SC2, currently sitting at 5520 achievement points overall. Of course, there's still a lot to do (I have barely touched 1v1, for example), so I wonder if I'll be able to earn all the achievements, even after Legacy of the Void...
I also signed up for ggtracker to get some detailed analysis of my play over time. The site requires you to manually upload replays (I haven't seen any obvious options for automatic uploads), but it spits out a number of cool stats and it's prettier than sc2gears (plus more easily shared). I don't see any point in uploading vs. AI replays, so my profile is a little sparse right now, but it could be a pretty cool tool in the future. I'm excited about it.
And that does it. This coming week will be interesting for gaming, as there's a holiday and TrueAchievement's annual Bean Dive phenomenon. The Bean Dive is an incentive for players to pop an achievement in every game they own but haven't played. Named for the resulting dip in completion percentage, it's a great opportunity to find really exciting games that might otherwise stay on the shelf for a few more months. I like it, and it probably means that I'll be playing a wide variety of games before next Saturday. Until then, tschüss.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Achievement Report - June 22, 2013
Oh boy. I've been rather busy this week, so I haven't had as much time for gaming, and our team faced elimination going into the final hours of the GTASC. Fortunately, a couple of us were able to snag several hundred points in the last few hours, so we managed to survive, putting us in the top 50 overall. Here's what happened:
GTASC
Most of my gaming this week has been focused on DarkStar One: Broken Alliance. While the basic setup isn't too bad, the game itself is terribly, terribly tedious and repetitive. The achievement list adds further pain by requiring you to visit several hundred locations (about half of which will great you with a small group of hostile pirates), and you'll engage in the same little skirmish every time an enemy shows up. It's also setup so that you can't easily run from battles, so you have to go through with every one of the mind-numbing fights.
I've spent a total of about 20 hours on the game, and I'm still probably 5 hours or so away from finishing it up. It's not hard, just terrible.
In the last couple hours of this week's scoring period, I switched over to Home Run Stars in an effort to maximize my TA Score to time ratio. A little over half this game's Gamerscore isn't too bad, as you'll get a bunch of it just for completing the game (which can admittedly be pretty challenging near the end). Earning gold medals and completing all the game's FameStar challenges seem like they'll require some dedication, though, so the second half will be a bit more demanding. Still, I estimate that a full completion will take fewer than 6-8 hours, so it doesn't seem too bad overall.
Kingdom of Loathing
My original plan was to complete a quick Way of the Surprising Fist run to grab the Good Will Punching trophy, but I overestimated the total value of random crap I'd accumulated for that purpose. After dumping 300 dense meat stacks, nearly 100 massive gemstones, and a ton of other stuff, I still hadn't earned the trophy. I ended up spending a couple extra days farming GameInformPowerDailyPro magazines to get it done, but I've now officially earned all the trophies associated with Surprising Fist runs - I probably won't ever do another one.
Given that the next few weeks will likely be hectic for me, I opted to transition into another Bad Moon run (this time as a Turtle Tamer) so that I'm not hurt nearly as much if I miss adventuring for a day or two. I may use my schedule for the upcoming weeks as an excuse to do a couple of these Bad Moon runs, depending on how things go.
Aside from the above, I haven't done much gaming. I played a few StarCraft II matches, but no more than five, so they're not really worth describing in any detail.
Like last week, I may not have a whole lot of gaming time this next week, but I've already made a good dent in serving my team for the GTASC by continuing DarkStar One. Still, I hope I'll be able to make significant progress in some of my gaming goals by this time next week. Until then, tschüss.
GTASC
Most of my gaming this week has been focused on DarkStar One: Broken Alliance. While the basic setup isn't too bad, the game itself is terribly, terribly tedious and repetitive. The achievement list adds further pain by requiring you to visit several hundred locations (about half of which will great you with a small group of hostile pirates), and you'll engage in the same little skirmish every time an enemy shows up. It's also setup so that you can't easily run from battles, so you have to go through with every one of the mind-numbing fights.
I've spent a total of about 20 hours on the game, and I'm still probably 5 hours or so away from finishing it up. It's not hard, just terrible.
In the last couple hours of this week's scoring period, I switched over to Home Run Stars in an effort to maximize my TA Score to time ratio. A little over half this game's Gamerscore isn't too bad, as you'll get a bunch of it just for completing the game (which can admittedly be pretty challenging near the end). Earning gold medals and completing all the game's FameStar challenges seem like they'll require some dedication, though, so the second half will be a bit more demanding. Still, I estimate that a full completion will take fewer than 6-8 hours, so it doesn't seem too bad overall.
Kingdom of Loathing
My original plan was to complete a quick Way of the Surprising Fist run to grab the Good Will Punching trophy, but I overestimated the total value of random crap I'd accumulated for that purpose. After dumping 300 dense meat stacks, nearly 100 massive gemstones, and a ton of other stuff, I still hadn't earned the trophy. I ended up spending a couple extra days farming GameInformPowerDailyPro magazines to get it done, but I've now officially earned all the trophies associated with Surprising Fist runs - I probably won't ever do another one.
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| My six most recent additions. |
Aside from the above, I haven't done much gaming. I played a few StarCraft II matches, but no more than five, so they're not really worth describing in any detail.
Like last week, I may not have a whole lot of gaming time this next week, but I've already made a good dent in serving my team for the GTASC by continuing DarkStar One. Still, I hope I'll be able to make significant progress in some of my gaming goals by this time next week. Until then, tschüss.
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Achievement Report - June 15, 2013
I diversified my gaming a bit this week (at least compared to last week), with one notable completion.
GTASC
This week's GTASC offerings started with some relatively simple achievements in both Nier and Rhythm Party. I spent a fair amount of time grinding for crafting materials in Nier (as well as working towards growing a White Moonflower), but I still have a fair ways to go on both of those achievements.
I played a few matches of Happy Wars, too, but that title update is proving to be really slow going. I think I'll be happy if I can get it done by the end of the year...
The big highlight in this week's Xbox gaming was last week's State of Decay (review forthcoming). I managed to snag all the achievements in a little under 25 hours of play time, so it's not an excessive time investment. None of the achievements are too difficult, and it's a pretty fun game, so it's a pretty low-stress completion. State of Decay is a good choice for achievement hunters.
Kingdom of Loathing
Although I missed a couple days in the Kingdom this week, I did manage to complete my first BIG! run. As an added bonus, I made it a 100% Baby Gravy Fairy, bringing my 100% familiar run count to a whopping 17.
I really disliked the BIG! challenge because it ended up displaying the concerns I expressed last week. On the bright side, it'll be easier to do 100% runs (because stat gains aren't important) and it's a good starting point for excursions into the Sea or telescope runs, as it puts you at a pretty high level once you're done. As such, I'll probably end up doing a few more BIG! runs while they're in season, but I definitely won't like it.
My next step, though, is is another Way of the Surprising Fist run (softcore) to get the Good Will Punching trophy. I underestimated how slow the beginning of the run would be (it's the first semi-normal run I've done in ages), and I totally forgot to prepare pulls for the first couple days, so this run is going to take a while. I'm trying to make it another 100% run (this time with a Sleazy Gravy Fairy). I certainly hope that I can move on to bigger and better things by the end of the week; we're probably looking at a Sea run to start working towards the new equipment that the recent Sea updates introduced.
StarCraft II
I actually played a bunch of games this week, playing my 1v1 placement matches (for the first time in a few seasons) and several arranged 3v3 games.
I ended up being placed in the Gold League for 1v1, having only lost one of my placement matches. My loss was a ZvZ, which I hate anyway, but I got screwed by early banelings and no good way to defend against them. My wins were two ZvZs, and one each of ZvT and ZvP. I didn't feel really pressured in any of those games, so I think I can probably move up to Platinum pretty easily with some additional practice.
The 3v3s were the kind of crazy that's characteristic of large team games. We were boosted up to Diamond, which is nice, but I don't think there's a whole lot of strategizing that will help us get better - at this point, I think we each need to develop better mechanics and be better able to respond to scouting information. I would love if we could get up to Masters, though.
And that does it for this week. I don't think I'll be doing anything too crazy in the next week, as I have a lot of work that needs to be done this week, but I guess we'll see. Until then, tschüss.
GTASC
This week's GTASC offerings started with some relatively simple achievements in both Nier and Rhythm Party. I spent a fair amount of time grinding for crafting materials in Nier (as well as working towards growing a White Moonflower), but I still have a fair ways to go on both of those achievements.
I played a few matches of Happy Wars, too, but that title update is proving to be really slow going. I think I'll be happy if I can get it done by the end of the year...
The big highlight in this week's Xbox gaming was last week's State of Decay (review forthcoming). I managed to snag all the achievements in a little under 25 hours of play time, so it's not an excessive time investment. None of the achievements are too difficult, and it's a pretty fun game, so it's a pretty low-stress completion. State of Decay is a good choice for achievement hunters.
Kingdom of Loathing
Although I missed a couple days in the Kingdom this week, I did manage to complete my first BIG! run. As an added bonus, I made it a 100% Baby Gravy Fairy, bringing my 100% familiar run count to a whopping 17.
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| 9-day BIG! run. Far from optimal, but I'm glad to be done with it. |
My next step, though, is is another Way of the Surprising Fist run (softcore) to get the Good Will Punching trophy. I underestimated how slow the beginning of the run would be (it's the first semi-normal run I've done in ages), and I totally forgot to prepare pulls for the first couple days, so this run is going to take a while. I'm trying to make it another 100% run (this time with a Sleazy Gravy Fairy). I certainly hope that I can move on to bigger and better things by the end of the week; we're probably looking at a Sea run to start working towards the new equipment that the recent Sea updates introduced.
StarCraft II
I actually played a bunch of games this week, playing my 1v1 placement matches (for the first time in a few seasons) and several arranged 3v3 games.
I ended up being placed in the Gold League for 1v1, having only lost one of my placement matches. My loss was a ZvZ, which I hate anyway, but I got screwed by early banelings and no good way to defend against them. My wins were two ZvZs, and one each of ZvT and ZvP. I didn't feel really pressured in any of those games, so I think I can probably move up to Platinum pretty easily with some additional practice.
The 3v3s were the kind of crazy that's characteristic of large team games. We were boosted up to Diamond, which is nice, but I don't think there's a whole lot of strategizing that will help us get better - at this point, I think we each need to develop better mechanics and be better able to respond to scouting information. I would love if we could get up to Masters, though.
And that does it for this week. I don't think I'll be doing anything too crazy in the next week, as I have a lot of work that needs to be done this week, but I guess we'll see. Until then, tschüss.
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Achievement Report - June 8, 2013
My gaming this week was skewed very heavily towards my Xbox...
GTASC
Seeing as the title update achievements in Happy Wars are going to be time consuming, I hope to play a match or two each day to grind it out. In my first session of the new week, however, I managed to get "The Godlike Swordsman" for 1000 kills as a Warrior, so that was a pretty nice start to this scoring period.
Making good on one of last week's goals, I started Nier, and it instantly dominated my gaming life. Although it's a beautiful game, the achievements are brutal, with several requiring hours upon hours of grinding. I still sunk well over 30 hours in the game over the last week, and I'm still pretty far from getting it done.
And that was pretty much it. I contribute 957 TA Score to my team over the course of the week, so it was reasonably successful (even if not quite up to the goals I set last week).
Kingdom of Loathing
The slow grind to level 30 got to me this week, so I started powerleveling. It didn't hurt that somebody dropped a little under 500,000 meat in my store, which allowed me to fund some trips to Hamburglaris to take advantage of the scaling monsters and to farm some lunar isotopes (some to sell and some for epic food and booze).
Once hitting level 30, I made my way to Fernswarthy's Basement to get another telescope piece. I was ultimately successful, and I began a new BIG! challenge path run. I'm not too impressed by the BIG! path; starting everything at level 15 is a cool idea, but the general lack of new content is disappointing. I think it would have been a lot cooler if it had a more interesting restriction (like every other challenge path - +ML across the board isn't clever or exciting), but as it stands, I don't think I'll be doing another BIG! run.
This summer might be a good time to focus on aftercore activities on account of the disappointing challenge path. I may venture into Hobopolis in the coming months.
The last couple days have been filled with many hours of Magic (which I'll talk about in this week's edition of Monday Magic), which combined with all my time on Nier led to never booting StarCraft or Guild Wars up. Eh, I had a lot of fun anyway.
I also won't be giving myself concrete goals this week, as I'm planning to grind Nier and Happy Wars quite a bit. Maybe I'll do something more exciting by the end of next week, but until then, tschüss.
GTASC
Seeing as the title update achievements in Happy Wars are going to be time consuming, I hope to play a match or two each day to grind it out. In my first session of the new week, however, I managed to get "The Godlike Swordsman" for 1000 kills as a Warrior, so that was a pretty nice start to this scoring period.
Making good on one of last week's goals, I started Nier, and it instantly dominated my gaming life. Although it's a beautiful game, the achievements are brutal, with several requiring hours upon hours of grinding. I still sunk well over 30 hours in the game over the last week, and I'm still pretty far from getting it done.
And that was pretty much it. I contribute 957 TA Score to my team over the course of the week, so it was reasonably successful (even if not quite up to the goals I set last week).
Kingdom of Loathing
The slow grind to level 30 got to me this week, so I started powerleveling. It didn't hurt that somebody dropped a little under 500,000 meat in my store, which allowed me to fund some trips to Hamburglaris to take advantage of the scaling monsters and to farm some lunar isotopes (some to sell and some for epic food and booze).
 |
| My last two level 30 trophies. |
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| My fifth telescope piece! Only 2 more! |
The last couple days have been filled with many hours of Magic (which I'll talk about in this week's edition of Monday Magic), which combined with all my time on Nier led to never booting StarCraft or Guild Wars up. Eh, I had a lot of fun anyway.
I also won't be giving myself concrete goals this week, as I'm planning to grind Nier and Happy Wars quite a bit. Maybe I'll do something more exciting by the end of next week, but until then, tschüss.
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Achievement Report - June 1, 2013
I had a number of specific gaming goals for this week; here's how they turned out:
GTASC
My first order of business this week was to earn another simple achievement in Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (PC) - Down Boy for killing 13 zombie dogs. It's not much, but it's progress.
I then spent some time working my way through Pid, which is a really cute (and pretty tough) platformer. Completing a single run through the game isn't too bad, but hard mode is a beast and some of the hidden items can be pretty tricky. This one's another long-term investment for a full completion.
Rhythm Party was another source of frustration this week, as I struggled to unlock the last few achievements. I still haven't been able to get a AAA rating on the last song, and I can't manage to maintain constant rhythm tricks throughout a song, so I have some more awkward flailing in my future.
Next I discovered that the title update for Happy Wars introduced several new achievements, so I downloaded that game again and starting grinding towards level 50. I nabbed one achievement in the process, but it seems like it's going to take a while to complete this game again.
Despite last week's goal of earning 1,500 TA Score for my team in the GTASC, I held off this week because my teammates did an excellent job of keeping us in the top 30 for the week. We were pretty safe from elimination, so I figured I'd save some achievements for future weeks.
Kingdom of Loathing
I didn't even come close to completing this week's KoL goal, only hitting level 25 this whole week. Maybe I'll be able to bridge that gap this week...
It wasn't a total failure, though, as I managed to grab the trophy for using 40 4-d cameras. One more down!
StarCraft II
I didn't play much StarCraft II this week, only winning enough vs. AI matches to get up to the 100 wins vs. Elite AI achievement. I really can't wait to be done with the Terran race wins vs. AI, because all these Terran games are really wearing me down...
Guild Wars
This week saw a big jump in my Hall of Monuments rewards points, as I finally completed the Guardian of Cantha title and I acquired the last piece of Elite Luxon armor for my assassin character (which brings me up to three elite armor sets). That gives me 24 of the 30 rewards points necessary to get all in-game rewards in Guild Wars 2, so I hope to be able to make that happen sometime reasonably soon. For now, though, I'll just keep grinding away.
I also completed the Ruins of Surmia and Nolani Academy missions on my new roleplaying character, thus completing both of my Guild Wars goals for the week. Check out the VODs here.
New Goals
I found last week's specific goals to be a good correction to my usual aimlessness, so I think I'll continue throwing out an idea or two for each of the major games I'm playing:
GTASC: I've been playing a lot of Arcade games lately, so I think I'd like to mix it up this week and go back to one (or more) of the retail games in my collection. Here's hoping I can get a completion or two this week.
Kingdom of Loathing: I think this week will sadly be more of the same, as powerleveling is going to be a lot more expensive for an Avatar of Jarlsberg. Hopefully I can actually get those last five levels this week.
StarCraft II: I really don't want to come back to playing Terran exclusively for a long while, so I'd like to chip away at the 250 wins against AI as Terran - fifteen more wins this week ought to be reasonable.
Guild Wars: My next major goal is to complete the Guardian titles on my main character, so I think completing eight more missions on Hard Mode this week is doable.
So I have some specific directions I'd like to pursue in the next seven days; we'll see where I stand next Saturday. Until then, tschüss.
GTASC
My first order of business this week was to earn another simple achievement in Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (PC) - Down Boy for killing 13 zombie dogs. It's not much, but it's progress.
I then spent some time working my way through Pid, which is a really cute (and pretty tough) platformer. Completing a single run through the game isn't too bad, but hard mode is a beast and some of the hidden items can be pretty tricky. This one's another long-term investment for a full completion.
Rhythm Party was another source of frustration this week, as I struggled to unlock the last few achievements. I still haven't been able to get a AAA rating on the last song, and I can't manage to maintain constant rhythm tricks throughout a song, so I have some more awkward flailing in my future.
Next I discovered that the title update for Happy Wars introduced several new achievements, so I downloaded that game again and starting grinding towards level 50. I nabbed one achievement in the process, but it seems like it's going to take a while to complete this game again.
Despite last week's goal of earning 1,500 TA Score for my team in the GTASC, I held off this week because my teammates did an excellent job of keeping us in the top 30 for the week. We were pretty safe from elimination, so I figured I'd save some achievements for future weeks.
Kingdom of Loathing
It wasn't a total failure, though, as I managed to grab the trophy for using 40 4-d cameras. One more down!
 |
| Professional Photographer is now on the shelf! |
StarCraft II
I didn't play much StarCraft II this week, only winning enough vs. AI matches to get up to the 100 wins vs. Elite AI achievement. I really can't wait to be done with the Terran race wins vs. AI, because all these Terran games are really wearing me down...
 |
| Playing Terran in every game is getting to me. |
Guild Wars
This week saw a big jump in my Hall of Monuments rewards points, as I finally completed the Guardian of Cantha title and I acquired the last piece of Elite Luxon armor for my assassin character (which brings me up to three elite armor sets). That gives me 24 of the 30 rewards points necessary to get all in-game rewards in Guild Wars 2, so I hope to be able to make that happen sometime reasonably soon. For now, though, I'll just keep grinding away.
 |
| Remaining Guardian and Zaishen title progress. |
New Goals
I found last week's specific goals to be a good correction to my usual aimlessness, so I think I'll continue throwing out an idea or two for each of the major games I'm playing:
GTASC: I've been playing a lot of Arcade games lately, so I think I'd like to mix it up this week and go back to one (or more) of the retail games in my collection. Here's hoping I can get a completion or two this week.
Kingdom of Loathing: I think this week will sadly be more of the same, as powerleveling is going to be a lot more expensive for an Avatar of Jarlsberg. Hopefully I can actually get those last five levels this week.
StarCraft II: I really don't want to come back to playing Terran exclusively for a long while, so I'd like to chip away at the 250 wins against AI as Terran - fifteen more wins this week ought to be reasonable.
Guild Wars: My next major goal is to complete the Guardian titles on my main character, so I think completing eight more missions on Hard Mode this week is doable.
So I have some specific directions I'd like to pursue in the next seven days; we'll see where I stand next Saturday. Until then, tschüss.
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Achievement Report - May 25, 2013
Oh boy, this has been an exciting week for gaming.
GTASC
This week started a bit slowly for me, only nabbing a few achievements in Kinect Sports last weekend. Slow and steady on that one...
As the week progressed, Team Lazy Eye was near the back of the pack, so I went into an unorganized rush to earn achievements.
For some quick Gamerscore, I grabbed a couple of downloadable games that were discounted this week: Matt Hazard: Blood Bath and Beyond and Rhythm Party. Neither really blew me away, but they both allowed me to get several achievements pretty quickly, so I was happy to get a few extra points for the team. I'll comment on these games in a bit more detail after I've spent more time on them.
I also revisited Microsoft's microtransation behemoth - Game Room. I mostly worked on earning some additional Time Spender medals while trying to improve my Point Buster and Survivalist medals on a couple tricky games. In the process, I reached level 11 and a total of 48 medals, adding a few hundred TA Score to my total.
I screwed around in Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, too, starting to work towards the S+ ranks on each stage. I have been running through the campaign on Professional getting that high rank, earning the achievement for getting an S rank in the process.
My collection contains a few games I've never played, so I took our team's perilous position as an excuse to delve into a few new titles for a few minutes. The XBLA games All Zombies Must Die! and Home Run Stars and the retail Tomb Raider: Legend all seem like they'll be a lot of fun, while Zombie Wranglers seems like it'll just be tedious. The real highlight was Pid, which seems like it'll be a charming, beautiful game. I'll definitely be coming back to that one soon.
And, in desperation, I went back to a game that is covered in years of dust: Zuma (I don't know why I decided it was worth paying for that game...), although I was only able to pop one very easy achievement before I got too frustrated with it to continue.
Still, we survived another week. Here's hoping we can keep that momentum going!
Kingdom of Loathing
As mentioned last week, my adventures through the Kingdom are going to be much more casual, at least until I hit level 30 with Avatar of Jarlsberg and descend into the Basement for another telescope piece.
That said, I am pretty disappointed with a big discovery this week. I didn't realize that an Avatar of Jarlsberg is prohibited from adventuring in the Sea, where I thought I'd be exploring some new content while slowly leveling my character. So instead of diving to the Sea Floor, I have focused my efforts on collecting filthy lucre and fat loot tokens, as well as little time-consuming trophies. I've already knocked out two of those trophies (for adventuring in the bathroom with the autoplunger and for killing Dungeons of Doom monsters a bunch of times), so I'm well on my way.
It's very slow going, but that's the point. KoL isn't taking up nearly as much of my time these days, but I'm still pushing forward, so it's all good.
StarCraft II
My StarCrafting this week was limited to a few vs. AI matches. While I didn't earn any achievements in the process (working slowly towards 250 wins vs. Elite AI), I did finally hit level 30 with Terran.
I guess there's really not much more to say there.
Guild Wars
Unfortunately, I never got around to progressing my new roleplaying mesmer this week, so there aren't any new VODs.
I did, however, do a lot of work towards earning titles on my main character. I primarily focused on the Guardian titles (completing all missions on Hard Mode), and have very nearly finished the Cantha guardian - all I have left to do are the Kurzik missions, which are easily my least favorite missions in the Factions campaign.
GTASC
This week started a bit slowly for me, only nabbing a few achievements in Kinect Sports last weekend. Slow and steady on that one...
As the week progressed, Team Lazy Eye was near the back of the pack, so I went into an unorganized rush to earn achievements.
For some quick Gamerscore, I grabbed a couple of downloadable games that were discounted this week: Matt Hazard: Blood Bath and Beyond and Rhythm Party. Neither really blew me away, but they both allowed me to get several achievements pretty quickly, so I was happy to get a few extra points for the team. I'll comment on these games in a bit more detail after I've spent more time on them.
I also revisited Microsoft's microtransation behemoth - Game Room. I mostly worked on earning some additional Time Spender medals while trying to improve my Point Buster and Survivalist medals on a couple tricky games. In the process, I reached level 11 and a total of 48 medals, adding a few hundred TA Score to my total.
I screwed around in Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, too, starting to work towards the S+ ranks on each stage. I have been running through the campaign on Professional getting that high rank, earning the achievement for getting an S rank in the process.
My collection contains a few games I've never played, so I took our team's perilous position as an excuse to delve into a few new titles for a few minutes. The XBLA games All Zombies Must Die! and Home Run Stars and the retail Tomb Raider: Legend all seem like they'll be a lot of fun, while Zombie Wranglers seems like it'll just be tedious. The real highlight was Pid, which seems like it'll be a charming, beautiful game. I'll definitely be coming back to that one soon.
And, in desperation, I went back to a game that is covered in years of dust: Zuma (I don't know why I decided it was worth paying for that game...), although I was only able to pop one very easy achievement before I got too frustrated with it to continue.
Still, we survived another week. Here's hoping we can keep that momentum going!
Kingdom of Loathing
As mentioned last week, my adventures through the Kingdom are going to be much more casual, at least until I hit level 30 with Avatar of Jarlsberg and descend into the Basement for another telescope piece.
That said, I am pretty disappointed with a big discovery this week. I didn't realize that an Avatar of Jarlsberg is prohibited from adventuring in the Sea, where I thought I'd be exploring some new content while slowly leveling my character. So instead of diving to the Sea Floor, I have focused my efforts on collecting filthy lucre and fat loot tokens, as well as little time-consuming trophies. I've already knocked out two of those trophies (for adventuring in the bathroom with the autoplunger and for killing Dungeons of Doom monsters a bunch of times), so I'm well on my way.
 |
| Mmm, trophies... |
StarCraft II
My StarCrafting this week was limited to a few vs. AI matches. While I didn't earn any achievements in the process (working slowly towards 250 wins vs. Elite AI), I did finally hit level 30 with Terran.
 |
| About time! |
Guild Wars
Unfortunately, I never got around to progressing my new roleplaying mesmer this week, so there aren't any new VODs.
I did, however, do a lot of work towards earning titles on my main character. I primarily focused on the Guardian titles (completing all missions on Hard Mode), and have very nearly finished the Cantha guardian - all I have left to do are the Kurzik missions, which are easily my least favorite missions in the Factions campaign.
 |
| Also pictured: My Party Animal track. Woo-Hoo! |
For this next week, I have some specific goals:
In Guild Wars, I want to complete those Factions missions and move my roleplaying character a bit further into the Prophecies campaign.
In StarCraft, I just want to get the achievement for 100 wins vs. Elite AI (less than 10 wins to go), and I might go after some of the remaining Mastery achievements in the Heart of the Swarm campaign.
In the Kingdom of Loathing, I hope to be able to hit level 30, but I probably won't be able to get a telescope piece before the end of the week.
As for my achievement hunting, I hope to be able to contribute at least 1,500 TA Score to the team (I gave a little over 1,200 this week), possibly more depending on our ranking as the week wears on.
There's a lot to do, so here's hoping I can get it all done. Until then, tschüss.
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