Congrats........

A few salutations are in order. First of all the mighty Fro has hit 200k - a mighty feat indeed considering just how quickly he has accomplished that goal, he overtook me some time ago which kind of smarts since I was 50k ahead of him at one point but what can I do in the face of such beastliness?

Second of all, Stallion has been inducted to the Book of World Records for his massive gamerscore. A nice bit of recognition not only for him but also for the entire gamerscore 'profession' as such. It certainly opens up the door for a whole slew of potential records related to points. Good to see that the authors are aware of potential hackers out there too, as there have been numerous points recently when cheaters have snagged the top spot. So congrats to the legit number one.

Now that we've got that out of the way I can talk about me, ha ha!

Personally speaking I've been edging closer to 1k in Hot Wheels, which will be a relief to get finished as the game is rapidly outstaying its welcome. The A.I is fairly cheap at times and the collision detection is a joke on certain corners and jumps - with your car being sent spiralling through the air just for hitting a slight dip in the track. Ugh!

I've also started up Virtua Tennis 2009 (my latest review) and the game is proving something of a disappointment at the moment. Not that it is a bad game as such, but the gameplay is the same as the original Virtua Tennis that I played way back on the Dreamcast. It really does seem that very little has changed? I know the adage 'if it ain't broke.....' but surely something new could have been added. It's still plenty of fun though but just seems to have become the latest in a long line of barely updated sports titles.

Next up will be Red Faction - which I have some high hopes for. Fingers crossed that it lives up to the hype.

Swinging...........

Stop your dirty minds - I was talking about Bionic Commando, obviously.

The game is really growing on me despite the few annoying niggles that have kept it from greatness. I suspect my Commando run through will run into some snags at some point but for now I'm just loving swinging around and heaving cars at people. Good times.

After my previous list (of games that I've played but not completed) I thought I'd bust out a list of the games I actually own but have never played. It's kind of shocking how big it is really and there are plenty of points on offer here that I may never get around to. We shall see.

Let's delve into my stash of games then:

A-Train HX (meant to be an easy 1k)
Afro Samurai (tough in parts but doable)
Armoured Core 4 (easy 800 points, then a slog for the rest)
Armoured Core For Answer (ridiculous online stuff)
Assassins Creed (some glitchy stuff but fairly easy)
Battlestations: Midway (tough expert campaign)
Beowulf (meant to be awful)
Brothers in Arms (completed this on my GF's account - then realised you could cheat the 100 days played stuff. I'll go back to it at some point)
Bully (easy, though time consuming, 1k)
Call of Juarez (not going to start until I find people to boost with, the online is dead)
Command and Conquer 3 (need a second machine to boost this)
C&C: Red Alert 3 (meant to be doing the online with a friend but we never got started)
Conan (three plays needed - fun)
Condemned 2 (need people to play online with)
Crackdown (meant to be awesome, think I'll play it fairly soon)
Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant (easy 1k)
Dark Sector (need online players)
Dead Space (awesome game, no excuse for not playing it. Sorry)
Devil May Cry 4 (the achievements scare me, ha ha)
Dynasty Warriors: Gundam (fairly standard 1k, with grinding)
EDF 2017 (tough single player, really want to start this)
Eternal Sonata (two plays needed but easy enough)
Fallout 3 (not playing just to spite Thrawn. Ha ha, I want to play it honestly)
Far Cry Instincts (no reason not to play it, just don't want to)
Far Cry 2 (was a gift and the MP stuff is sick)
GTA IV (Webb cries whenever I mention not playing this, but I swear I will one day)
Infinite Undiscovery (long ass game, and at three playthroughs needs a solid investment of time)
Kingdom Under Fire (needs a lot of grinding and I'm not feeling it)
Lego Star Wars: Complete Saga (going to play this co-op with the lady, as I have with the other Lego games)
Lost Odyssey (more RPG style fun, need some free time)
Madagascar 2 (fairly easy 1k, but I need to be in the mood)
Mass Effect (three more playthroughs, it's becoming a common theme)
Mirrors Edge (a game that intrigues me but not enough to play at the moment)
Naruto: Broken Bond (I actually really loved this game, so want to start it again on my own account)
Prince of Persia (an easy enough 1k)
Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (need boosting pals)
Samurai Warriors 2 (hack and slash stuff I need to be in the mood for)
Secret Service (an easy 1k)
Sid Meiers Civilisation Revolution (easy enough to 1k but I need to get around to it)
Silent Hill (on my current list of games to play)
Smash Court Tennis 3 (need a second console to do this ideally)
Sonic Unleashed (bad reviews have killed this for me)
Star Wars Force Unleashed (easy enough 1k but I haven't found the time)
Stormrise (need an online buddy to go for this)
Supreme Commander (got it on the cheap and still haven't played it)
Tenchu Z (easy enough 1k but you have to play each mission three times, ugh)
The Club (need two consoles ideally)
The Godfather (have to grind to level 50 and I can't be bothered right now)
The Incredible Hulk (easy enough 1k)
Tom Clancys Endwar (the glitchy achievements have put me off)
Tomb Raider Underworld (easy 1k, just need to play it)
Tomb Raider Anniversary (same as above)
Too Human (long, tough and dull - not feeling this right now)
Turok (need online buddies)
Two Worlds (easy 1k, but time consuming)
Virtua Tennis 3 (almost impossible gold challenges have put me off)
Warhammer Battle March (need two consoles ideally)
Warriors Oroichi (grindfest)

As you can see, that is one hell of a list. Most of the reasons for me not playing a certain game revolve around either sheer laziness or the fact that the online aspect is extremely long winded. There are also a ton of RPG's on there that need a ton of playthroughs or a crapload of time. In fact I even have one or two games on here that I actually played on a backup account for review purposes (thinking I wouldn't like them enough to bother with for points) and want to go through again. If I only played for points they would probably already be on my account but I like a nice completion % too.

At the end of the day it all comes down to time. As if I had enough of it I would be playing through all of these games at a rate of knots - alas, I am forced to play what I can, when I can. So I will continue to muddle along and do what I can. Once I've cleared the backlog of games I've started but not finished then I will gradually start as many of these games as I can. Starting with an RPG or two and most of the easier 1k's on the list - things like PoP and Tomb Raider etc.

If I don't buy a new game for a year I will still have plenty to do, so that's something I guess.

150k whoop whoop!

Well, I finally hit another milestone over the weekend but it doesn't seem to hold the joy or significance that I felt when I hit 100k even though it probably should. I think the problem now is that so many people have hit over 100k that it is becoming somewhat old hat - and the next big milestone has become 200k.

Just a quick browse down my friends list shows how common 100k is, and there are a significant number of people already well on their way to 200k. It's a shame really as hitting another 50,000 points should be something to celebrate rather than a mere stepping stone. Ah well, such is life.

The tally was finally reached through a combination of Bionic Commando and Hot Wheels. I actually really enjoyed Commando though I'm not looking forward to my second run through on the hardest difficulty. You can check out my review (on the right) but I'll just say now that the game is a lot of fun just let down be some dodgy swinging mechanics at times along with some dubious instant death issues in terms of radiation and water that can kill you just be being knee deep in it for too long. Nice. I'm hoping to finish up all of the challenges and collectables this week and then move onto Commando difficulty next - hopefully that will prove to be easier than I'm being led to believe.

Hot Wheels is just flat out boring at the moment. The game itself is kind of amusing but having to replay the same tracks and challenges three times over has gotten old fast. I've polished off Easy and Medium thus far and I'm ready to get cracking on Hard this week. I've managed to get all bar three of the flames on offer from the those difficulties too, so I can now afford to miss a ton of secondary goals on Hard whilst still geting enough flames from just winning to tip me over the required number for the Beat That rank.

Hopefully I can finish that crap off this week at some point as I really hate driving games and, even though this is a fairly fun arcadey one, it is still tiresome.

Every point I get on it is edging me closer to that elusive 90% completion too - though Bionic Commando kind of hit that a bit once I started it. I think the full 1k in that game will be fairly straightforward though, so it should not be a problem for long.

Business is picking up.

Well, after a bit of a lull in the review period it looks like they are rapidly going to be picking up over the next few months. I have just finished up Battlestations Pacific (check the link on your right) and have moved on to Bionic Commando with plenty more titles looming on the horizon.

Still with things like Prototype, FUEL, Batman: AA etc coming up I can't say I'm going to be upset about being busy. Though I doubt I'll review all of the triple A stuff but that doesn't stop me from buying them..........and then leaving them to rot on a shelf while I play somethiong crap for points. The shame.

On the bizarre side, I'm actually enjoying Bionic Commando which is a shock considering all of the bad write ups it has had thus far. I put a few hours into it yesterday and actually had a lot of fun. Though I'm not sure if the game will stay entertaining throughout so only time will tell. Still, it's certainly an auspicious beginning.

I've also been dipping in and out of Hot Wheels again. The game is pretty easy but still quite long and arduous. I've snagged 130/780 flames so far, and will be doing my best to keep that figure as high as possible so that I can cruise through the harder stages. Fingers crossed.

Once that badness is out of the way (along with Commando which seems a reasonably straightforward 1k) I'll switch over to NBA Ballers and Velvet Assassin. Another new game to get through and a half finished game to tidy up.

I'm liking the way this works and I'm almost, ALMOST, at 90% completion which is nice.

Big CONGRATS to Apple who not only overtook me in the race to 200k but also hit the 150k milestone in doing so - not bad considering he was about 8k behind me when the race began. I guess I'm getting lax but such is life.

Ticking over

Well, I've pretty much finished my latest review for Battlestations: Pacific and it should be up on x360a.org fairly soon (today hopefully) if you fancy a read.

Overall I really enjoyed the game, but the initial learning curve will be a bit much for more casual players. If it takes you a few hours just to get used to the controls and strategy then are you really making the game accessible enough? I don't think so, but hopefully the game will find its niche as it has plenty about it to recommend. A good length set of campaigns, plenty of units and just plain fun in terms of dog-fighting and the like.

I've also finished off the first set of races on Hot Wheels - so just three more groups to polish off on the Easy difficulty and then I can repeat the whole process again on Medium and Hard. What fun! The game is actually not too bad, but having to repeat the same races/goals three times is pretty stupid.

On the plus side I only need to get 720/780 of the flames for the full 1k. Meaning I can miss 60 of the side goals on my way to completing the game. I plan on pretty much maxing out the easy and medium difficulties so I will need less replays on the tougher mode. Hopefully it all goes to plan.

I've also gone back to Scene It: BOS in a bid to get the full 1250 on that. Once these two are out of the way I'll only have NBA Ballers in the 'easy but unfinished' bracket on my 360. So I'll get that done next. Then I'll have no choice but to play something tough, bring the noise.

For Apple..........

Here is my upcoming playlist* of games:

Mass Effect
Fallout 3 (with ALL the DLC)
Eternal Sonata
Two Worlds
Lost Odyssey
Bladestorm
Infinite Undiscovery

After that, Star Ocean and Tales of Vesperia will FINALLY be released over here so there will be even more RPG goodness to be had.

Yup, some nice easy points there to accelerate me ahead of everyone in the race to 200k.


*Subject to change at my own contrary whim, ha ha!

133

Yet another game was crushed by my mighty skills. Yes, Wheelman was finally polished off last night and it was no surprise really as the story portion of the game is undeniably short and sweet, so it was only a matter of time for the 1k once the side missions were all at S-rank.

Still, it's another game onto the completion pile and one less taking up a spot on my list of unfinished games (which now stands at 34). If I could get that number down to <15 then I would consider it a job well done. Probably try and polish off Hot Wheels next, simply because it is meant to be fairly easy and is a driving game (which I hate).

After that I don't know whether to go back and polish off something else or crack on with something new and shiny. Not necessarily brand new that is - just something that I haven't yet played. I have a ton of RPG's sat around and really want to get stuck into one of them. I'm toying with the idea of Fallout or Mass Effect. Probably go for ME as it is meant to be shorter for the 1k.

BATTLESTATIONS......

Battlestations Pacific is my latest review and my initial impressions of the game are quite good. It's an action/strategy title and one that occupies a fairly empty niche in terms of competition. The whole thing looks and runs a bit better than its predecessor, not to mention the fact that the game ups the ante in terms of scale and available units.

My one negative thus far would be the fact that, for people with low levels of patience, the game may well be a tough nut to crack. Personally I like a bit of strategy and enjoy games that build up gradually until you have a full grasp of everything at your disposal. I appreciate that this will not be everyones cup of tea though.

Because of some rather weighty online achievements I'll be playing this game on my backup account - as even though I like it, I can't see the online community being large enough to sustain any kind of assault on the online points. I may well give it a chance at 1k one day, but I want to go back and complete the first game before that.

Yeeeeah boi!!!

After a bit of trial and error I finally managed to knock off the rest of the side missions on Wheelman - 105 of the little tykes at S rank. I didn't play at all on Friday, so managed to get the remaining 26 I needed over the course of Saturday and Sunday. In fairness, once you have the mechanics of the game down, they are all fairly straightforward.

After hearing some of the nightmare stories going around I assumed that some of the missions would really push me to the limit, but out of the seven different types of quests at least five of them were a walk in the park. The most tricky, in my eyes, were the taxi missions as they required getting to a set location in a fairly tight time limit and some of them could be ruined by even one crash. Things like Fugitive followed the same general rules, but with people constantly attacking you, but the times seemed a lot more generous. I actually managed to finish the last Fugitive mission on my third attempt with an S-rank (I died on the first two runs so got no rank at all). Not too shabby.

I then started to run through the rest of the single player missions and am pretty much right at the end. I have a couple of interlinking missions to do before I can take on the bosses of each gang which stupidly requires a different save game for each. As once you kill one of them the story follows a set path, so you have to go back to an old save and select a different boss until you have all three achievements. Stupid really. Once they are out of the way I'll have a couple more tasks before finally getting the full 1k.

Frankly the story mode is amazingly short and, if it weren't for the side missions, the whole game could probably be done in less than 10 hours easily.

Still I'm happy to have it on the verge of completion and then I can move onto something shony and new. Boo yah!

Getting there.

Well, I've gone back to The Wheelman now in a bid to finish that bad boy off. I managed to display some extremely good memory skills in remembering which of the lion statues I had already smashed and dashed around the rest of them in double quick time.

There is nothing as satisfying as being sat on 99/100 collectables and seeing the last one sat in front of you ready to be snagged. Especially when I had a sneaking suspicion I was going to end up one short and have to drive around looking for it, boo yah!

Next up I have decided to finish off ALL of the side missions to S-rank before finishing off the remaining story missions. I had a pretty good run last night and polished off all of the Hot Potato and Made to Order quests (15/15 each) to rank S. That leaves me at 79 missions done so far and two of the seven categories done and dusted. Plus, the final Made to Order mission is meant to be one of the worst of them all too.

Most of the other categories are at ten or eleven S-ranks out of fifteen - except for the Fugitive ones which are only at seven for some reason. Seems that most of them didn't unlock until I hit the last story checkpoint, so there is plenty of work still to do and 26 missions left to conquer.

Given the chance I will endeavour to finish off another couple of categories tonight - possibly the Rampage, Taxi or Street Showdown ones. Probably leave Fugitive until last, and Contracts as and when I'm feeling it. After all of this work the rest of the story will only take a few hours to run through so it will be pretty much mission accomplished.

Hopefully I can get this game out of the way in the next week or so and move onto something else. Here's hoping...........

My to do list.

I keep on whittling on about the annoying games I still have sat around on my card so I thought I would actually take a proper look and see what I had outstanding in terms of points. The list is a lot longer and more troublesome than I had first realised (let's just say that 100% completion will NEVER happen). See allow me to show you the damage and then explain how I'll tackle it.

The list shows the games I'm missing points on (I've not included games I have 1k in that also have DLC):

RETAIL

Battlefield 2: MC - 315/1000
Beautiful Katamari - 340/1250
Bladestorm - 150/1000
C&C Kane’s Wrath - 120/1000
Chromehounds* - 700/1000
Gears of War 2 - 210/1425
Gears of War - 720/1250
GRAW* - 737/1000
Guitar Hero 2* - 320/1000
Halo 3 - 800/1750
HAWX - 555/1000
Hellboy: SoE - 310/1000
Hot Wheels - 120/1000
Left 4 Dead - 550/1000
Lost Planet - 350/1000
NBA Ballers - 335/1000
NBA Live 07* - 900/1000
NHL 09 - 250/1000
Perfect Dark Zero - 150/1000
Project Sylpheed - 60/1000
Rainbow Six Vegas - 820/1000
Scene It: BOS - 515/1250
Spiderman 3 - 10/1000
Splinter Cell: DA - 670/1000
Table Tennis - 630/1000
Vampire Rain - 650/1000
Viva Pinata 2 - 20/1000
Wheelman - 405/1000
WSC 2007 - 550/1000
You’re in the Movies - 140/1000
TOTAL - 12402/31925

Arcade

Boogie Bunnies - 85/200
Eets: Chowdown - 20/200
Gauntlet - 45/200
Geometry Wars* - 40/200
Texas Hold ‘Em - 105/200
TOTAL - 295/1000

So that leaves me with a whopping 20,228 points outstanding - though with a few caveats. All of the games I have marked with a * are ones that I NEVER expect to get maximum points on, mainly due to the outrageous hours required or a level of skill that I know I don't possess.

Chromehounds and GRAW fall into the former category, as they would take thousands of hours each to 1k and it would be a total waste of time to even try. Maybe if I become a millionaire with 8 available 360's and unlimited time on my hands I would change my mind.

Guitar Hero 2 and Geometry Wars fall into the latter - as I will never get good enough at either game to max out the score. Not to mention the fact I would need to find an equally skilled partner to finish off GH2 in local play - not gonna happen.

The final game is NBA Live 07 - a painful blip. I was actually going to max this out when x360a did a big event to get 1,000 people online. Unfortunately my internet connection went down two hours before the event started and, when it came back on half an hour too late, there were only 800 people still online. Thanks Virgin broadband.....

Other notable issues mainly come from games that I have been banned from playing on my own (as my GF wants to play them with me) and includes: Beautiful Katamari, Viva Pinata 2, You're in the Movies and Eets Chowdown. Though I do plan on maxing out these games at some point when given the green light to do so. I also plan on picking up SOME points from GRAW and the like too.

Everything else though is a clear 'can do' 1k if I put my mind to it. Even getting Elite on R6V or Seriously on GOW is not beyond me if I can find the time to fit them in. My ideal goal would be to finish off all of the easier titles on there and then go after one old title at a time alongside a more current game. I think most of the DLC will be safely ignored too, especially on cash in games like Halo 3 where it has just got ridiculous - I'll aim for the original 1k and nothing more.

The more eagle eyed may notice that I have done online achievements and nothing (or very little) else on a number of games; Lost Planet, C&C, Hellboy, Katamari, Battlefield, NBA Ballers and Vampire Rain. This is because they were games I expected to have zero online community in a short space of time, so I boosted them all early doors which allowed me the luxury of doing single player stuff at my leisure.

The list is pretty imposing and there are some killer games on there in terms of time and skill - but I'm confident I can get up to 90%+ completion at some point. At which point the rest of these titles may well get left in the dust so I can focus on newer games.

The number grows......

Managed to finish off Looney Toons: Acme Arsenal this morning. There were relatively few hiccups along the way and I'm surprised it has taken me so long to get around to it. The main reason is because I was playing the game in co-op and my lady refused to let me play it without her, ha ha!

Still we polished off the storyline and then I went back to mop up the few things I was missing. The gold achievement popped up randomly, the time trial achievements were super easy (as I'd thought they might be an issue) and of the rest only the Combo Loco achievement caused me any trouble. Getting 12 kills at once seemed an easy enough task but the game decided to glitch me out of it a number of times - as I would be surrounded by 15 enemies, and combo hit them ALL to death but only be credited with seven kills.

Not cool.

Finally got it with a 14 kill combo this morning though and then ran through the first level a few times to max out each characters illudium gauge. Job done.

It means I'm up to 132 retail games complete (though a few are missing DLC) and that is another game that was sat on my card that is now out of the way. Might have more kudos if I'd polished off Project Sylpheed, Bladestorm, Rainbow Six Vegas, Gears of War, Gears of War 2 or Perfect Dark Zero - all of which are sat around on my card. But it's a step in the right direction.

Next up I'll try and go back to Hot Wheels: Beat That. I hate driving games, and this is a particularly crap one. But at least it is meant to be fairly easy and it is currently stuck on 120 points. Then I can take aim at one of the tougher games on the above list.

SHAZAM!!!!

Spent most of last night looking for lion statues on Wheelman - I've got 65 so far and have exactly 35 left on the map I'm using. However, I have a sneaky suspicion that I will have found at least one of them beforehand so I'm probably have to runthrough the entire list again to find the one or two I was missing.

It's my own fault, as I'd found 15 of them while playing the game but never made a note of where they were so now it is coming back to haunt me. As I've gone along I have been writing down the lions which don't seem to be present anymore (on the assumption I've found them already) so they will be my first port of call should I fall short of the number required.

It's a pain in the ass and completely uncalled for in this type of game. The stunt jumps were fun and novel but this is just ridiculous.

Also got another level done on Looney Toons - would have been two but the game glitched out on the last war level. So I'll have to replay it tonight, good times.

Best laid plans........

Well so much for me going back to Wheelman and Project Sylpheed. While I was out at the weekend my lady stumbled across a copy of You're in the Movies (with camera) for only £14.95. I've been trying to avoid the game to be honest due to the potentially glitchy achievements and the fact I hate jumping around like a fool when playing games (Wii anyone? NO!).

Still I could hardly say no as she puts up with all of the crap I play, so it's only fair. Plus we do tend to have an inordinate amount of fun when we play games together which is sadly a bit of a rare occurence nowadays. We then spent an afternoon playing through a few movies until I could take no more - mainly because I was physically shattered, ha ha!

I did manage to snag the online achivement on Puzzle Quest (thanks to Thrawn) to finish that badboy off, and I have made some progress on Wheelman. I've managed to finish off 69 side missions to rank S but then needed to progress the story to open up some more. I did a few main missions to open up the rest of the city and then spent some time mopping up all of the cinematic jumps. Next up I'll hunt down the 100 lion statues before going back and mopping up the rest of the side missions.

Hopefully they won't be too much effort - as I find the Rampage, Contracts, Fugitive and Hot Potato missions fairly easy. Though the Taxi and Made to Order ones can be a nuisance at times.

Another spanner was thrown in the works (but in a good way) as we also went back to play Looney Toons: Acme Arsenal in co-op last night. Been a while since I played this game and it's one of the few on my tag that I wanted to go back and tidy up. Managed to get the last co-op combo achievement done along with a few others. So I just need to finish off the game, do the three speedruns, get the solo combo achievements and tidy up a few loose ends. Then that will be another game in the bag. Boo yah!

So my curent playlist looks like this:

Looney Toons: Acme Arsenal (hopefully finish this week)
The Wheelman (side missions will be a pain, hope to get all statues found this week)
You're in the Movies (just playing for fun for now)

Once I complete something then Silent Hill will replace it on the list, so hopefully that will happen this week at some point.

Back to the old stuff

Finally finished Hannah Montana last night and I also polished off the single player aspect of Puzzle Quest - so I just need to find someone to help me out with the solitary online achievement as I've literally found NO ONE playing the game.

After that I'll just have Gauntlet, Boogie Bunnies and Eets Chowdown to finish to get all of my arcade titles out of the way. I don't include Geometry Wars in this as I know that I'll never be good enough to polish that badboy off, a fact I can live with seeing as I still enjoy the game.

I've decided to go back to playing Wheelman, as I'd left it at halfway complete. I've played through the story on my backup (review) account already so I know that aspect of the game is fairly straightforward. The real problem is getting an S rank in all of the side missions and last night reminded me why. It took me about half an hour to get a mere 2 missions to S rank standard and there are 105 in total. Not looking good.

On the plus side part of my issue was the fact I had forgotten the controls, not to mention the fact I've already finished off 48 missions to S rank already. So nearly halfway there I guess.

I'm going to finish off all the missions I can up to the this point (think that will get me to roughly 70 or so) and then polish off the story and scope out all of the jumps/collectables before finishing off the remaining missions. Should keep me sane and at least mean I have a bunch of points steadily ticking in too.

I'm also going to start Silent Hill as I have it on rental at the moment and really need to get it done and dusted. It's been sitting around for a month. Then I'll be reviewing Battlestations Pacific next week so that should keep me busy.

Why do I do it?

Hannah Montana is a truly terrible game, maybe even worse than My Horse and Me 2, and yet I will play it to completion. It's times like these that I wonder what the hell possesses me to play and complete the number of crap games that I do.

On the plus side I have unearthed a few gems in my time that does go some way to compensating for a lot of the tat, I also played a lot of rubbish during the GSL in order to get easy points so that was at least for a purpose.

The thing is once I'd hit 100k I said I'd only play good games that I wanted to play, which went fine for a few months. Then as I got higher in points it became clear that I wanted to get 200k so the crap games started to be put back into my 360. I don't think it's an addiction that will ever go away, ha ha!

Still, after HM I will have no real tat sat around so will be forced to play something good.

That was easy......

After suffering through Shellshock on the hardest difficulty (not that it was hard - just that the game itself is some kind of torture device) I then spent little over an hour breezing through it again on easy. It let me knock off the last two achievements - for playing the game twice and not being killed by an infected during the campaign.

If anyone else out there suffers this game then I can give one amazing tip - use the melee attack (B button) on every infected you come across. The knife and machete are rubbish and can take ten hits to kill anything, but if you have a gun equipped and then melee you can down people in two or three smacks. It makes killing infected ridiculously easy. You only need to shooot them if there are three or more close together - otherwise just give them a smack upside the head. Job done.

So that makes two games from zero to one thousand in the space of a few days. I could have also finished off Hannah Montana but my tolerance for crap had reached its limit. I'll try and finish that off this week sometime though. After which I'll be about 1.5k shy of 150,000. A nice milestone but not a really exciting one - obviously 200k is the ultimate goal.

These easy points are kind of dragging me away from finishing off some tougher stuff on my card, but I'll get around to them eventually.

Pimping easy games

Well I decided to clear the decks of some of my easier games, plus it wouldn't hurt to make my race to 200k at least a little respectable too. I few more 1k tiles on my tag would only make me happier as well so it is win-win really.

I started off with SEGA Megadrive Ultimate Games Collection (think it is Sonics UGC in the U.S) and managed to romp through for the full 1000 in little more than a days work. Started playing it on Thursday night and was done and dusted at some point earlier today. Just played it on and off trying to get each game specific achievement in order. It was amazingly short actually and could be challenging the likes of My Horse and Me 2 as one of the easiest on record.

I'll be keeping the game though, as I love the Shining Force games and never had a chance to complete them back in the day.

Next up was Shellshock 2: Blood Trails. This game is awful. Beyond awful. It bloody well sucks. It's like a low, low budget Call of Duty without the setpieces - or any discernable benefits at all in fact. I'm halfway through hard mode at the moment but will have to play it again on easy for the full 1k. What joy.

After that will come Hannah Montana - another in a long line of 'shameful' games to grace my gamercard. Ha ha ha, I can't resist really and at a mere 4 hours for all of the points who can say no?

After that I will knuckle down and finish off something difficult - honest. Though I do still have Puzzle Quest to go back and tidy up. It's a hard life.........