Goodbye Bizarre Creations, and thanks so much

I'm not sure how I couldn't make a blog about this one. Sure, I only ever played the Geometry Wars games but I did buy Blur, it's just still sealed. But, Geometry Wars is my favourite XBLA series and second favourite Xbox series of all time. It's one of the best games on the Wii and even though I haven't played the DS version I'm sure that's good too. When Bizarre made the first game and I downloaded it, I loved it.

I was a bit skeptical at first, I had just gotten my Xbox 360 back in early 2007 and had some points to download my first XBLA games. I knew I wanted Smash TV, which I kind of regret thanks to that glitched Achievement but I really didn't know what else. My friend Siriku told me about Geometry Wars and it didn't seem too exciting and I wasn't too interested. But I wanted to know more and once shown the game and realising it had little to do with math I decided to download it. It was the first dual stick shooter I had played and the controls were perfect. It might have felt a little weird at first but they made so much sense, this game was amazing. A few years later I finally got all of the Achievements in it and that was awesome, it was my most played Xbox 360 game of all time by this point. It's a really odd one too as usually these days once I've finished a games Achievements then I'm done with it. Geometry Wars manages to be one of the few cases where this isn't true, I still play it today and it's still just as good.

Then came Geometry Wars 2, was it better than the first? Well, with all of the different game types it has, the game certainly tries it's hardest to be better. I don't know if it's just nostalgia for the first game, but I like them just as much as each other and find it really difficult to choose between them. Geometry Wars 2 was really awesome, my favourite mode being Pacifism which involves you going through gates to kill enemies and you're not allowed to shoot. Geometry Wars 2 quickly became my second most played Xbox 360 game and it deserves it greatly.

I want to say thank you to Bizarre Creations and in particular the Geometry Wars team, you created such and amazing series which I still play today and will probably continue to play for many, many years to come. It's sad to know that it's highly unlikely we'll see Geometry Wars 3, it's really sad to know that you won't be bringing us great games any longer. But thank you so much for those great games and I hope you have a great future wherever and whatever it is that you decide to do next.

Thanks for reading, bye :)

Fast and the Furious: Adrenaline and Forza Motorsport 2

Two games completed this week, Fast and the Furious: Adrenaline and Forza Motorsport 2.

Fast and the Furious for WP7 wasn't a terrible game, in was fun but did have its flaws. For example, I would be racing through a track and then all of a sudden my phone goes to sleep. Yeah, I could probably change this in the settings of the phone but it's a hassle. The game can't tell that you're playing a game and doesn't know not to turn off. To solve this, since the tilt controls seemed to be the problem I decided to choose another option of controls. At that point, the game became unplayable and I had no choice but to go back to tilt controls. The game also has a nitro button, which I could also potentially use to solve the problem, but sometimes the phone just went to sleep anyway. So as a result, I decided I'd pause the game every 30 seconds in a race and despite losing some immersion I finally finished the game like this. So overall, I do not recommend this game unless of course you're looking for an easy 200 because this game is that. I'll give it a 3.5/10.

Next was Forza 2 which I have been doing for a very long time. Finally, thanks to some help from some friends I got the 1,000,000 online credits achievement. I don't know how many times I raced 75 laps on the Nissan Speedway, but I strangely didn't mind it. For some reason I didn't mind the repetitiveness of the game either, racing the same tracks with different cars. Don't get me wrong, this game has a good amount of tracks but given how long it takes to get the achievements it does get repetitive. You'll have to complete every race in the game and there are loads of them. I haven't played this in a while other than for the online achievement so I can't really say how long, but it is long. It's a fun racing game though and if you like racing games, then I recommend this one. I'll give it a 8/10.

Thanks for reading, bye :)

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Guitar Hero 5 Mobile, Fruit Ninja and Madagascar Kartz

Three games completed this week, Guitar Hero 5 Mobile, Fruit Ninja and Madagascar Kartz.

I'd never played a mobile version of Guitar Hero before, but it seemed like the next logical option for GamerScore on the WP7 and so I downloaded it. Unfortunately, this has to be the worst Guitar Hero I've played but also the easiest at the same time. I think it's the fact that the game wants you to perfect a song on expert that annoyed me the most about it. Considering on the mobile version expert is probably the equivalent to medium this should have been no problem for me. The problem with this achievement was that at times I found the game to be unresponsive. I'd press the buttons but it just sometimes wouldn't register what I'd done. At one point, there was a whole 5 seconds where I could do nothing because the game wouldn't register what I was doing. I can probably almost guarantee that if these "buttons" were actually responsive 100% of the time then I would have had little problem completing this achievement. It's unfortunate as it could have been a better game but it really doesn't deserve the £5.49 price when you can get the next game I'm going to write about for £2.49. I'll give this game a 3/10.

The next game that I completed was Fruit Ninja and unlike Guitar Hero it is very responsive. This is the best WP7 game that I have downloaded so far. It's just so fun to keep slashing fruit over and over using your fingers to swipe the screen. The achievements were great and I had no problem gaining any of them really, it was just an overall fun experience which I'd love to do again. I highly recommend this one, I don't have anything to complain about and the price of £2.49 is really great. I'll give it a 8/10.

Finally, we go back to the not so good games with Madagascar Kartz. Now, I would start comparing this game to Mario Kart, but honestly, although there are similarities there this game does not deserve to compared with such a game. To give you an idea, Madagascar Kartz is like if you took Mario Kart, removed most of the characters, removed most of the tracks, made most of the items blue and red shells, made the mushrooms crash you into a wall or off the edge of a tracks and made the karts slower. The level design is poor, you'll find the AI know all of the shortcuts and that one moment you'll be in first place and the next in last. I can't say that the achievements gave me lot of hassle but this isn't really much of a fun game. Still though, at least it responds better than Guitar Hero 5 Mobile and therefore deserves a better score. I'll give this a 3.5/10.

Thanks for reading, bye :)

Flowerz, Monopoly and Megamind

Wow, three games completed this week. I finished Flowerz and Monopoly on the WP7 and Megamind on the 360.

Flowerz is the game you can download for free if you have a Windows Phone 7. If you want the 200 from it, be prepared to spend a long time playing it. Sure, I was mainly playing it whilst on the train which is quite a short journey for me but I've been consistently playing it since November. There's this one achievement "Clean Slate" which is pretty much a luck achievement. Every morning and afternoon, I'd turn on the game and just go for that achievement, clearing the board of flowers in Standard and Expert difficulty. In Standard this is very easy to do, but once you get to expert it's another thing entirely. Basically, if you haven't played flowers the idea is to make rows of three of a certain flower colour on the board. You can place these flowers anywhere where there is a space. For example you could place three reds next to each other and then they would disappear. Unfortunately, it gets more complicated when you have colours inside colours. For example, the petals could be red and the middle part of the flower could be blue. This time, if you line up three reds, the one with a blue middle will turn blue. So the problem with this achievement was that almost all the time there would be at least a few flowers left on the board. I'd advise anyone going for this achievement to look ahead with their moves using the flower meter at the top which tells you what's coming next. Planning your moves is essential for this achievement and like most guides say, it is best done in the early levels. I'd say specifically the first three as more colours are introduced after that. If you think you're doing well though, don't just stop at level 4 as it's still possible to do. Overall I'd say this was a fun game, though with amount I played it for consistently it did get a little boring and repetitive at times. If you have a Windows Phone 7 or are getting one, this is a must download, even if I only say this because it's free. I'll give it a 6/10.

Monopoly was next for my completions and this was an easy one. There was only one achievement which gave me some trouble and that was "Globe Trotter". The thing with this one is that, like the first 360 retail game you have to land on every property on the board - or as those who say it's glitched will tell you, every space on the board. It's not hard, but it does take a bit of time. You should just set up a game for 2 people and have player 1 buy every property. Well, actually have player 1 bid $1 on the property so that they win it. At the inevitable point where player 2 gets low on money, just trade most of player 1's money to player 2. This way the game keeps going and eventually that achievement will unlock. Overall, I'd say that this game is a good port of Monopoly although I absolutely hate the music, I had the sound off the entire time. It's quick and easy achievements, I'll give it a 5.5/10.

Finally, the last game was Megamind. This game has to be one of the simplest 1000's that I have ever obtained from a game. While it might not quite be as quick as avatar, this game isn't terrible and takes under 5 hours to complete. There isn't much to it other than to make sure you don't die on a boss and to complete a level without dying, it's just so easy. It's definitely a rent though, I feel sorry for anyone who brought it, it's too short for that. Overall, I'll give it a 6.5/10.

Thanks for reading, bye :)

2 Rivals 1 Challenge

So it's been over 7 months and I haven't made a blog post.

Well, I know I said I was back twice but this time it's

actually true because I need this blog to track my

progress. I have two rivals right now who have both made

goals to defeat my GamerScore. One is MagicalChaos who

I'll have to stay infront until July 31st 2013, a very

long time. The other is Demon Liar, who set his goal to

defeat me by January 24th 2012. Demon Liar has been

infront of me before, but as TrueAchievement history shows

I did beat him back.

I have some plans which I don't think I'll go into here in

case either one of them reads this blog. But I've got a feeling it will work since I feel it's somewhat unique and involves things which I'm 99% sure that neither of them use. Perhaps I'll one day reveal it since I'm confident it will work. So I guess if I do reveal it, it will be on August 1st 2013? That's quite a long while away, so hopefully I'll remember by then.

Other than that, this is just yet another one of those "I'm back" posts. The current plan is to post a blog every Tuesday and so we'll see how that goes.

My Gamerscore Plan and Gears 2 6x XP

So I've been making this Gamerscore system in a spreadsheet which will allow me to increase my completion percentage and also let me play new games. It took a while to make and it's main purpose though was to provide an accurate representation of what I consider completion percentage. This means that I removed all glitched achievements and achievements worth 0 points so that they didn't affect the percentage. I never understood why the big sites such as TrueAchievements didn't do this, at least with glitched achievements it makes it inaccurate.

As for playing new games, that's much more complicated:

So X is the achievements I have gained since I started the system. So if I have gained 100 achievements since starting this system then X will be 100.

Next the achievements gained are divided by a number which is determined depending on the completion percentage I have.

For 10% or less:

X / 4

100 / 4 = 25

For 20% or less:

X / 3.5

100 / 3.5 = 28.57

For 25% or less:

X / 3.25

100 / 3.25 = 30.76

For 30% or less:

X / 3

100 / 3 = 33.33

For 40% or less:

X / 2.75

100 / 2.75 = 36.36

For 50% or less:

X / 2.5

100 / 2.5 = 40

For 60% or less:

X / 2.25

100 / 2.25 = 44.44

For 70% or less:

X / 2

100 / 2 = 50

For 75% or less:

X / 1.75

100 / 1.75 = 57.14

For 80% or less:

X / 1.5

100 / 1.5 = 66.66

For 90% or less:

X / 1.25

100 / 1.25 = 80

For 95% or less:

X / 1

100 / 1 = 100

For 100% or less:

X / 0.5

100 / 0.5 = 200

The number gained after the division means that I can start a game with that many achievements. So if I have 60% or less and have gained 100 achievements during the system then I can start a game with 44 achievements or less. Once the new game has been entered into the spreadsheet the achievements of that game are subtracted. So If I start an Arcade game with 12 achievements then I have enough achievements left over to start a game with 32 or less achievements. Or 32.44 to be accurate.

I've probably completely confused you if you read the whole thing, but this system works and is letting me get a higher completion whilst starting new games.

Here's the file if anyone's interested:

http://rapidshare.com/files/398956486/GS_Completion.xlsx.html

Also, I'll be playing Gears 2 a lot this week as it's 6x XP. If you're interested in joining me or have your own session add, message or invite me.

Thanks for reading, bye :)