Monday, April 12, 2010

Didn't I pay for that?

Over the weekend I was due to head over to my dad's house and spend some time with him, though he does pop out and do his shopping and head to the pub with his friends etc so I do have a few hours to myself. Perfect time to boost some Annex on Gears - as he doesn't have internet access so I couldn't really get anything done online.

Not wanting to disturb my hooked up 360 I just took the harddrive off of it and stuck it on my new Elite. Big mistake. As it seems that all of my downloaded content is not just tied to my drive and is instead in some way attached to the rest of my Elite. So I couldn't play any of the new Annex maps or even any of my arcade games, grrrrr!

I had thought (and read somewhere) that once you downloaded content from Live you could then play it as long as you used the original hard drive that it was saved on OR if you were on another harddrive but used the original gamertag that downloaded it (though you would have to be on Live for this method to work). What is the point of me paying money to download content and arcade games if I can never play if offline or at another location? Surely once I have paid for the content I should be able to do what I want with it? I'm not saying I want to be allowed to have all my content available to other users (that would be crazy) but why can't I use it on my tag wherever I am - especially if I'm using the same hard drive that the game is downloaded to?

The whole thing reeks of commercialism and a lack of choice, once a consumer has bought a product they should have unlimited access to it - short of issues that could lead to piracy etc. Anything else is just a way for MS to control the content and spoils the expereince for users.

Anyway, that minor quibble forced me to start on Brothers in Arms, which I happened to have brought along with me just in case I got bored of Gears. I'd only unlocked some of the time based achievements prior to that, the ones that just require you to pop the game in your console for a set number of days, so this was a chance for me to finish up the game and chalk up another completion.

The game has not aged well, which is saying something considering it is not THAT old, and looks extremely rough around the edges. The story is overly convoluted and the gameplay is pretty simple and generic. It reminded me of Full Spectrum Warrior in many ways, but didn't seem as tactical or involved as that particular gem. Still I managed to rustle up a few hundred points in short order and should be able to finish the game off in a few more hours. That will leave the 0 point online achievements but I don't know if I can be bothered to go for them, as I don't know anyone who would be willing to join me and boosting with randoms for no pertinent gain seems even more of a waste of time than usual, ha ha!

I also finished off Lips for the second time, though this time around it was all of the DLC that was the focus of my attention and getting to 200k worth of stars in particular. Though the grind for stars was made easier by a novel method involving a thirty minute single note song and a wired mic - good times. It is kind of embarrasing that the game is now my highest ranked in terms of TA but there you are. I should really finish off Snooker 2007 or SupCom to get something credible up there. Ah well.

I also blitzed through South Park which was thoroughly entertaining. The game was in keeping with the spirit of the show, and also a good tactical change of pace. It was the first tower defence game I'd ever played and I really got into it. Though I'm more proud of the fact I managed to get the full 200 points solo - as a couple of the hardest achievements were meant to be recommended for multiple players. I just manned up and went for it, with great results.

This week I'll probably just focus on getting Brothers in Arms done and then I'm really going to push for L4D as I want it to be finally done with. The game has been nearly complete for months now and with just one Expert campaign standing in my way there is no excuse as to why I haven't done it. It would also sneak me ever closer to my goal of 200k with 90% completion and 180 retail games fully finished. Hmmm.......I could also aim for 20 arcade titles done to make it up to a round 200 games complete. That would be cool.

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