Points, points, points

Well after the fun and games (plus no small amount of work) following Gamescom I am now back to a bit of normality. My whole week following the event was spent writing up previews for a bunch of games and compiling the top ten list with Webb - the controversy, ha ha!

Then I had Batman: Arkham Asylum on preorder which needed reviewing, so I swept through it on easy on my better halfs account in order to sample everything on offer and have just commenced my own hard playthrough on my own tag, replete with 240 collectibles to hunt down, woo hoo! Still it is one of those games that I am genuinely enjoying playing through, so the second run through will be a blast not to mention the fact that hard difficulty makes it all the more fun. It will definitely be joining the elite ranks of games that I have bought and not traded in (I think that list is comprised of Dead Rising, GOW and Blue Dragon).

As opposed to the less glamorous ranks of games I've bought and have yet to play...........

Onto the achievement front and it has been a busy week all around. I started my hard playthrough of Batman but have only reached about 25% complete so far, mainly due to the fact I've been flitting about somewhat. Firstly I decided to spend my massive stockpile of MS points on a bunch of arcade games even though I generally avoid them. I picked up Castle Crashers (which my girlfriend has been bugging me to get for ages - glad to finally oblige), Cloning Clyde, Shadow Complex, Wolfenstein 3D, Golden Axe, Altered Beast, Comix Zone, Penny Arcade Episode 2, Family Game Night (all of them - only to realise I can't play Scrabble without a US console, doh) and a few bits of DLC for Mass Effect, PoP and Star Wars: TFU.

I figured that I was never going to use the points on anything worthwhile so may as well cash them on for some easy arcade games. Pretty much all of the games I bought can be completed solo or with the bare minimum of online help and it will give me something to play when I have a spare five minutes here and there.

I made a start on Family Game Night and suffered the ignominy of seeing my girlfriend roll three legit Yahtzees in only our second game (no wild dice either) while I have yet to get it. My last three games I managed to roll two yahtzees each time but that last one eluded me. Bah. Still I have polished off Connect 4 and Boggle plus only need an achievement or two for Battleship, Yahtzee and Sorry Sliders. A fairly easy 1200 points overall though it pains me to see Scrabble sat there - unable to be completed.

We also got cracking with Castle Crashers and I'm loving it. Easily the best original arcade game available (notice my careful wording there? So Monkey Island can still reign supreme) and one that I can see myself putting some major time into. It is nice to have a game that is just a bit of fun rather than worrying about serious plot. I've only snagged 65 points so far but the rest will come with time and I'm in no rush to get them, which is a change for me. Though it would be nice to find a bossting buddy for the online stuff at some point.

Also on my weekly gaming radar this week were Damnation and Left 4 Dead. I finally got around to snagging some more points in L4D as I boosted all bar one of the Versus mode achievements (just need another 500 or so Special Infected damage to be done) and it has given me the impetuous to go back and try to finish that game off. I really haven't played it since I reviewed it back in the day and it has been sat on about 600 points since then.

Damnation on the other hand was more of a chore, though made less painful by having good partners, due to the stupid online achievements. For a start you need at least four players to start a game - a multiplayer tradition that really pisses me off. Then you have to host 25 games, win 25 games, win on each map, win each gametype etc etc. Considering you have to repeat the process for four players it can soon get repetitive and takes up a goodly number of hours. Thankfully three of us are done and we only need Cru to swoop in and host/win the required number of games. I'll be glad when its done though I still need to finish up the game in co-op.

My main goals for the upcoming week are to try to complete as much of Batman as I can, finish off Family Game Night and hopefully get a good chunk of either L4D or Damnation out of the way. Bring it on.