Seven Steps to Boost Your Gamerscore

Last time I wrote about why I like getting achievements. This time, I want to give some insight on how I go about getting those ‘cheeves. A few people I know keep prodding me to write about this, so here we go!

1. Play games you enjoy – This probably sounds dumb or obvious, but you shouldn’t play games you don’t really like. You’ll notice I have some games like Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2009 (that’s everyone’s favorite to pick on so I point it out in particular) that I’ve 1000pted. Guess what? I actually like playing those games… rag-dolling animals is fun for me and I don’t get to do that in any other game. By contrast, I wasn’t feeling the recent Harry Potter game (too long and involved), Deadliest Catch (too repetitive), or Dead Rising (terrible save system) so I stopped playing them. I will admit I will put up with a mediocre game just to get achievements though, since playing a bad game is more fun for me than watching a decent TV show. I think it’s really up to the individual player, but as long as there is enough “fun” to keep me interested I’ll stick with the game.

2. Find the fast points – This goes against #1 in someways. You’ll see I’ve 1000pted a hockey game which honestly I didn’t think was that fun (I’m not a big fan of hockey in general, nothing against the game itself). However, early sports games for the 360 are some of the easiest to get achievement points in. Avatar: The Last Air Bender is everyone favorite example of quick points. You can get all 1000 points in under three minutes. For someone who is into getting achievements, getting fast points is fun by itself. If I can play one game of NHL 07 and get 1000 points, it’s pretty freaking fun to see that you’ve unlocked 26 achievements for 1000 points in a match or two. Getting back to Harry Potter; I wasn’t having a ton of fun playing the game and it was long, so the investment in time for points wasn’t worth it.

> – – – Read the rest – –

A Treatise on Achievements

I get a lot of flak for having a huge gamer score. Part of the problem people have is that I play games to “boost” the score; games I probably wouldn’t play otherwise. For example, I probably wouldn’t be playing Lost, the Cabela series, and a few other games if it weren’t purely for achievements. Also, those people never look at all the AAA games I’ve played, or point out that I’ve played the same or more (both in amount of games and achievements in any particular game) of any game they’ve touched. Haters!

However, here is where I take a stand. On the Internet! Every game I’ve played, even Cabelas, I’ve been able to take something away from. Before achievements, I’d stand around a Best Buy, look at the back of the box and laugh at the value games, then buy my copy of Halo, Gears, whatever.  I was a game snob. Now that I play these kinds of games, in addition to the AAA titles, I fully appreciate a good game when I see it. The difference is huge. I remember growing up, when I thought all games were good, mainly because I could only get one a year.

> – – – Read the rest – –

Indie Games Galore!

Going to GDC always inspires me to go on an indie game bender. A few of us are sitting at this big award show hosted by the Independent Games Festival (IGF) waiting for the Game Developer’s Choice Awards and feeling guilty that we’ve played 0% of the games they’re calling out. Between the bunch of us we only heard of like three games they talked about…

So, within the next week I start getting games from Steam, downloading them for the PC or getting them for my iPhone. The one thing I found about a lot of these indie games I’m interested in is that most of the nominees (and some of the winners) haven’t even released their game yet. How does that work exactly? Does this happen in the movie industry too? “Well, no one has seen this movie yet, but here’s your award, I’m sure it’ll turn out great.”

Anyway, after getting back from San Francisco, I went on my yearly indie game binge. Here’s a quick run down of the games I played:

> – – – Read the rest – –

An Oldie But a Goodie – Halo: Combat Evolved

Yes, that’s right. The first Halo. I recently finished played though it again (on normal, which was difficult enough) since I had never done a proper play through back in the day. I played sections of it at friends houses, played some multiplayer here and there, but I never played it from beginning to end. Shhh, don’t tell anyone – I never owned an original Xbox.

So how does Halo hold up over all these years? It’s interesting. Some parts of the game hold up really well, while others make you wonder why it got above a 90%. I guess combat has evolved over the past few years.

What stands out the most is how solid the game is in general. Even today, there aren’t many shooters that have such varied and interesting weapons. There’s enough different types of enemies and vehicles to keep game play interesting and the story and presentation are very well done. Another surprising thing is that you don’t come across many bugs or unpolished features.

> – – – Read the rest – –

Real Life Treasure Hunting: Geocaching

I’ve always wanted to get into geocaching since I heard about it years ago. If you’ve never heard of geocaching the premise is simple – people hide stuff out in the real world, and other people try and find it. Sounds easy, but once you start throwing stuff like puzzles, encryption / decryption, nano and microcaches and muggles, the hunt becomes much more challenging and interesting.

A perfect storm occurred in order to get me hooked on geocaching. Like I said, I had always wanted to do it, but you really need a GPS device to go hunting for caches. Luckily, I recently got a iPhone with GPS hotness. The Appstore happened to have a holiday sale going on for the Geocaching.com app ($3, down from $10), which helps you find nearby caches to your location, shows them on Google maps, and so on. I was at my sisters place in Oregon visiting, and my brother in law had taken my niece geocaching a few times and wanted to go again. We were bored, and there happened to be a few within walking distance, so it was on.

> – – – Read the rest – –

TripleA: Axis & Allies For Free

Some guys at work started up a game of Axis & Allies. I had never played it before but have heard a lot about it. The game plays about how you’d imagine: you control one (or more) of five nations during World War 2. The basic game is is to attack and defend various territories with pieces representing various military units. Axis & Allies is easy enough to understand, but there are a lot of rules, and it’s not a beginners board game by any stretch of the imagination.

So, I watched the guys at work play and I really wanted to get into a game. However, they played over the course of three days and never finished the game properly. Part of the reason they never finished is because I went off and searched for online versions of the game, and ran across “TripleA“, an open source, video game version of Axis & Allies. It’s free, and it’s an exact replica of the board game version. They were hooked.

> – – – Read the rest – –

Hello There Ladies and Gents!

Those lyrics always get stuck in my head when I play Rock Band 2 for some reason.

Anyway, Rock Band 2 is the shizzle and I refuse to believe otherwise. Harmonix basically took Rock Band, added and fixed all the stuff I had issues with which basically makes this this perfect music game for me.

I didn’t get the new instruments. I think buying a new guitar or drum set with every iteration of the game is silly and wasteful. I’m still rockin’ the Guitar Hero II guitar, the OG Rock Band guitar (which sucks so the bassist always gets it) and the OG Rock Band drums. And they suit me just fine, especially since I had the pedal replaced after it snapped in the middle.

> – – – Read the rest – –

’08 RPG Showdown: Fable 2 vs Fallout 3

RPG sequels. One by the renown Lionhead studios (led by the insatiable Mr. Molyneux) and the other by the stalwart Bethesda studios which is a… Zenimax Media company (what?). Two very big RPGs for the ’08 gaming season, both of which I just 1000pted. Which one will reign supreme?

Well, neither and both. While there are some similarities between the two, they are both very different RPGS. Fallout 3 is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland in an alternate future with a 1950’s atmosphere. Fable 2 is set in the fairly tale-ish world of Albion where swords, magic and flintlock pistols deliver justice.

Good vs. Evil: Moral Choices

The whole good vs. evil choice thing has been around for a while in RPGs but it seems like moral choices are becoming a staple mechanic. Fable 2 and Fallout 3 both feature a fairly well done morality system. As you can imagine, killing innocent people, trespassing and stealing in either game makes you more “evil” while being selfless and assisting others makes you “good”. In both games, you get a visual representation of your moral standing. In Fallout 3, you get a 2D image and some text that shows your current moral standing and title. In Fable 2, you’re shown through your character model. For example, your avatar might sport a halo over their head, or possibly horns if you go the evil route. Your dog companion will reflect you play style as well by looking shinier or mangier.

> – – – Read the rest – –

Dead Space: My October Surprise

I honestly wasn’t that excited about Dead Space. There were a few people in the office who religiously watched preview videos for this game, but I just couldn’t get into it. That main character looked weird to me and Dead Space seemed like a pretty standard third person game. It didn’t grab me initially and I didn’t plan on purchasing it. However, once the game was released, it started getting decent reviews (mostly around 90) so I took another look. Other people I knew started playing it and loving it, so I figured it was time to see what all the fuss was about. I’m glad I did.

Dead Space is what I call a “well done game.” It’s not super innovative or ground breaking, but every aspect of the game (save a few gameplay events, which I’ll get to later) from design to art to animation to sound (especially sound) is executed so smoothly. Dead Space certainly borrows from many other games. Influences from games like Doom 3, Resident Evil 4 and Gears of War are apparent, but Dead Space feels like a game you haven’t quite played before.

> – – – Read the rest – –

Not Human Enough

Well, if the title is any indication you can guess where this is going.

I picked up Too Human with an open mind, and thought it might be decent. Sometimes you see opinions on message boards which tend to be overreactions. Someone I knew told me they were enjoying Too Human, so why not? I didn’t have anything else lined up at the time.

I fired it up and was actually drawn in right away. The introduction was decent. I like spacey stuff and as it turns out, you coming in off a drop ship with some other military types to search some cave in some remote region that everyone is scared of. You play as “Lord Baldur,” and you soon learn that the entire game’s story is based on Norse mythos, set in some techno-future. Okay, points for originality.

The combat isn’t bad to start with. I knew beforehand there would be lots of melee attacking, so I went with the Berserker class. You end up pushing the analog stick towards the enemy you want to attack, and then you keep changing the sticks direction to attack a new enemy (no buttons required). Eventually you end up getting guns, but they do less damage than melee weapons (and the range on them is terrible). Anyway, it’s definitely unlike any control scheme I’ve encountered again. More points for originality.

> – – – Read the rest – –