Why Resident Evil Fans Should Love Degeneration

It's a well-known fact that videogames make really bad movies. Some are definately worse than others, put it's widely acknowledged that every film that uses a game as it's basis is bad.

Resident Evil: Degeneration, the latest effort, is a full-length CG animation and is, in theory, the first film to do it's videogame inspiration any justice at all.

Forget the previous RE trilogy of movies; Degeneration is completely unrelated and fits in with the overall story of the main series of games. It is set one year after the events of Resident Evil 4, and sees Leon S. Kennedy teaming up with Claire Redfield for the first time since RE 2 to combat a new threat to civilization. 

Of course, most RE fans have already slammed the movie, as have fans of general cinema and videogame fans who aren't particularly into RE but happened to see the film. However, I don't understand why. Ideally, a fan of the RE series should really enjoy this film. 

For a start off, the plot makes little to no sense. It's jumbled, the characters aren't convincing, the voice acting is bad and the script is terrible; just like the games. It's riddles with cliche, has the most ridiculous action scenes ever and it's defining moment is when a character injects pure G-Virus into himself and becomes a giant tyrant with an eyeball in it's shoulder. Again, just like the games.

But of course, this isn't what people want from a film. It's things like this which emphasise the fact that games stimulate people in very different ways to films. They're both two similar forms of media, but what works well for a game doesn't do so for a film, and vice versa.

This brings us to the root problem of videogame-to-film conversions. In order for a movie based on a game to please a fan of the game, it must be like the game. And in order for it to be like the game, it needs to forget the fact that it is in fact a film, a medium which doesn't rely on saving graces such as gameplay to rescue it. This leaves us with a product which can't quite decide which side it wants to lean to, and ends up displeasing both audiences. 

Obviously, this is the reason why films based on games will never work. Uwe Boll needs to read this, and maybe then he will understand and stop butchering perfectly good videogame franchises. It will probably never happen, but we can hope, right?

While we're on the topic, the latest game-to-film project to be released is Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. Remember the first SF film? Jean-Claude Van Damme as Guile? Remember how bad it was? Expect more of the same.

- DC Nightmare 

26th Feb - Gamerscore/Challenge Update

So yeah, I made my target at around 15:15 on the final day. It was good that I didn't have to bring out any of my reserve games like Conan or Gears of War. I did pull out another arcade game to boost me up by an easy 200 points, but other than that progress with the games I had already started was enough to bring me to 10,000.

It's been a while since I last posted a gamerscore update. It's often disheartening to look over my list of games played and see how much I need to write, so I have finally plucked up the courage to get it done. Here's what I have been playing over the past four days:

Quantum of Solace

710 -> 805

I finally went online with this and picked up some of the more simple achievements. Winning a match and disarming a single bomb were easy; luckily, in the same game, I caught all of my enemies hanging around in a group which allowed me to mow them all down and get my "Win as Bond" achievement. Since then I've managed to pick up all the other match type-specific achievements and I'm currently working on my 100,000 credits earned and buying everything from the store.

Smackdown Vs Raw 2009

580 ->670

I picked up another couple of really easy achievements on this game. To get the first two, I jumped into an exhibition Inferno match against Kane, kicked his arse and got two achievements for it. Then I went into season mode as Randy Orton, beat down Chuck Palumbo for a while and earned the achievement for getting a five star rating in a season match, worth a big 60G. All my remaining achievements on this require some serious time investment, but now I've hit 10K I have some time to clear things up.

Scene It? LCA

860 -> 885

I turned this on for a single game and managed to pick up the achievement for answering every audio question in a single block. For some reason, this time I tried the audio answers on the site I have been using they worked, allowing me to net another 25 points.

Lego Batman

810 -> 830

I'm currently running back through this to pick up all the collectibles, rescue all the hostages and obviously hit 100%. On my way there, I picked up the "Down the Rabbit Hole" achievement for walking five enemies to their deaths using Mad Hatter's mind control ability.

Lost: Via Domus

0 -> 1000

This is one really simple game. Most of the achievements come from simply playing the main storyline, and all of the others are really simple to get. The only mildly tricky parts of the game are the fuse box puzzles, but I used some images to show me the correct solutions. As a Lost fan this game disappointed me in a way because it didn't tie in too well with the storyline of the TV show, but it definately looked the part.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

0 -> 440

I love Oblivion, but the achievements really do take some time to unlock. It's worth it for the detail that has been put into the world, but I'm glad I wasn't relying on it to hit 10,000. I selected a Dark Elf and have so far made him an expert in archery and destruction magic. I played through the arena, fighters guild and dark brotherhood sidequests with almost no difficulty. I will be sure to play through the whole game and the Shivering Isles expansion pack though, simply because of how much I enjoy it.

3 on 3 NHL Arcade

0 -> 200

This was the arcade game I downloaded to get that easy 200 point boost. It's really simple to pick up all of the achievements in one or two matches, and as long as you have three controllers then grabbing the two online achievements is also really easy. It's a relatively fun arcade ice hockey game, based around using powerups and basic tricks to outplay your opponent.

I also got entered into an auto-challenge over at 360voice. So far I've only had a minor points increase, but no-one else seems to have noticed the challenge has started which leaves me at the top of the leaderboards. I'l be sure to keep everyone updated with my progress in that.

GS

8305 -> 10175

Retail Complete: 4/10

Arcade Complete: 9/9

Tutorials - Harry Potter Avatar

Yet another avatar tutorial. This one is perhaps my favourite so far, because it really does look exactly like Harry. He's not the most intimidating of game characters, but he's definately got comedic prospects. This one isn't from an online video so I can't provide a link, but here are the specifications for you to make your own.

Hair - Swept From Right (brown)

Eyes - Soothing (green)

Eyebrows - Straight and Thick (black)

Ears - Small

Nose - Small

Chin - Small

Mouth - Angry

Top - Crew Neck Sweater

Bottoms - Worn Jeans

Glasses - Studious Glasses

Shoes - Black Formal Shoes

- DC Nightmare

Tutorials - Clearing Your System Cache

This was something I discovered a while back when I accidently downloaded the update for Crystal Quest which made the achievements almost impossible to unlock. After investigating this online, someone told me that the way to cure my problem was to clear the system cache of my hard drive, clearing the update and allowing me to play the original version of the game, albeit offline.

As well as clearing game updates (for whatever reason), you can also use this trick if you're 360 seems particularly slow or sluggish, and it can sometimes help out with glitched achievements.

Xbox recommend you don't do this without their say so, but it cannot harm you're 360 in any way. However, you do need to be prepared for the effects. All of your game updates will be removed, so if you want to play certain games whilst connected to Xbox Live you will have to re-download the updates. Other than that, everything else remains intact, so you don't have to worry about your game saves, profiles, demos, videos etc.

Anyway, to clear the system cache you need to head to the Memory option in the System area of your dashboard. When you have found it, you need to highlight the HD icon and hit Y.

You then need to enter the following code: X, X, Left Bumper, Right Bumper, X, X. You will then see a message to confirm the system maintainance, which of course you should proceed with. Afterwards, the process is complete.

- DC Nightmare 

Quantum of Solace Review

Goldeneye is widely regarded as one of the greatest First Person Shooter of all time. Since then, everyone has held high hopes for every new Bond game and every time they have been disappointed. After a wealth of sub-par editions to the franchise, Quantum of Solace, running on the Call of Duty 4 game engine and developed by Treyarch (the devs of COD3) has the best chance yet of coming close to the benchmark set all those years ago. Let's see how it holds up.

I Love:

The Bond License: QoS is the first game in a while to be linked with an actual movie (in this game two; Casino Royale and QoS) and it really helps the game along. Daniel Craig looks excellent and his presence in the game gives it some real authenticity and style.

The Multiplayer: There's a nice selection of maps online, quite a few game modes, a busy community and a neat weapon purchase/upgrade system. Lag is rarely an issue and it's quick and easy to find matches.

The Boss Fights: Rather than present the player with an unstoppable powerhouse which can soak up countless bullets and grenades, Treyarch instead present the boss encounters as neat little Quick-Time Events. QTEs are present in almost every game these days, but here at least they are used in a reasonable and welcome fashion.

I Hate:

The Lifespan: The single player campaign on offer is very short and easy, even on the hardest difficulty. There are undoubtedly some frustrating parts, but this seems to be the fault of the game rather than yourself and helps to expose flaws in the gameplay.

The Graphics: Although Bond himself looks good and there are some nice effects here and there, the majority of the game is bland and uninspired. The environments are relatively varied, but the cover-based gameplay soon becomes repetitive.

The Perspective: Because of the massive amount of time you will spend in cover, in third person, the thought occurs to me that perhaps this game would be better suited to a general TP perspective along the lines of Gears of War. It would make sense to show more of Bond seeing as he is the focal point of the game.

Regardless of the fact that this is clearly another generic FPS, I like it and would recommend it. It has some nice features and decent multiplayer, and the achievements are easy. It's no Call of Duty, but it's definately worth trying out in between the bigger titles.

6.5/10

Achievement Difficulty: 4/10 

"I Run Faster With A Knife..."

I recently stumbled upon one of my favourite videos of all time. It's been so long since I last watched it, seeing a link to this recently when I was browsing gaming videos on youtube was a really welcome surprise. It's a classic video and most people have seen it, but it made me laugh so much I just had to post it for everyone's enjoyment.




Boom Headshot ;)

- DC Nightmare

Another Addiction

I recently checked out a highly-recommended Xbox 360 site to see what all the fuss was about. You've most probably heard of it, but if not go and check out what's on offer: www.360voice.com

The idea behind this is a smart one. The site keeps track of what games you play and what achievements you manage to pick up, and then writes a daily blog post about your recent playing history from the perspective of your Xbox. It's a cool idea, and it's handled really well. I've added some Javascript to this blog so that it updates with my latest 360.voice blog post.

However, it isn't really the blog that has me hooked here. The site also has a feature revolving around "badges", which work in a similar way to achievements in that they give you rewards for fufilling specific criteria. The only difference is these rewards are based on achievements, meaning that I am essentially achieving one thing in the hope of achieving something else, and that sounds perfect to me.

Anyway, here is a link to my 360voice blog. If you're a member, then please start watching me on there, and I will return the favour. Hopefully this latest discovery of mine won't prove quite as time-consuming as the achievements themselves.

- DC Nightmare

Lego Batman Review

Lego Batman is the fourth Lego adaptation to hit the Xbox 360. The first two were dedicated to the Star Wars universe, the second to the Indiana Jones trilogy (obviously the latest film was blatantly disregarded) and this latest edition explores the DC legend that is Gotham City.

This game was a win-win for me, because as well as being a fan of the previous lego games I'm also a big DC/Batman fan, so this has a lot of selling points for me. Lets see how it stand up to scrutiny:

I Love:

The Characters: LB offers a huge range of playable characters, and it's great to see loads of familiar faces in there. There's a nice mix of heroes and villains, and a comfortable range of abilities and quirks to make each character relatively unique to play as.

The Villain Stories: The idea of playing each storyline through from the perspective of the villains involved is a great idea. It's great fun playing as the villains because of their wide range of specific abilities, rather than having to constantly change suits like in the hero campaigns.

Combat Improvements: There have been some minor changes to the combat system, but it is always nice to see some advancement. Now we have the ability to grab and throw enemies, and some characters have very unique attacks. Bane is my personal favourite, but there are a lot of little quirks to look out for.

I Hate:

New Storylines: While the campaigns are still fun to play, it disappoints me that they are so difficult to comprehend. I understand the idea that Lego men don't speak, but surely there must be a slighter more effective way of conveying the narrative? When playing from the perspective of the villains, it is made easier my textual introductions to each mission but in the hero campaigns you are left somewhat in the dark.

The Formula: As fun as it is, the Lego franchise is undoubtedly becoming old. For an achievement guy like me, playing through all the levels in order to find every collectible becomes very tiresome really quickly, especially after playing through the other Lego games. I have a feeling this may be the last in the series.

No Online: The multiplayer mode that we saw in Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga has been curiously omitted in LB. It would of been nice to take this selection of characters online, and I'm sure the concept would have proved popular.

Overall, LB is still great fun to play despite getting the feeling that you have seen and done most of it before. Setting it in the Batman universe was a great idea and works very well with the format. Hopefully this will be the last Lego game, at least for some time, because then the developer runs the risk of simply re-skinning all their existing titles. Time will tell.

7/10

Achievement Difficulty: 4/10

Tutorials - Making A Mario Avatar

After seeing how convincingly the Joker could be created on NXE, I had another look online and found a tutorial for how to make Mario. It's from the same user who did the Joker and the video guide can be found here. Once again, for the people who would rather read it step-by-step here, these are settings you need to create a convincing Mario:

Hairstyle - Right Curved Parting (black)

Eyes - Soothing (black)

Eyebrows - Arched (black)

Ears - Small

Nose - Bulbous

Facial Hair - Rich Moustache (black)

Chin - Long

Mouth - Open

Top - Red Formal Shirt

Hat - Red Baseball Cap

Bottoms - Worn Jeans

Shoes - Black Formal Shoes

Gloves - White Dress Gloves

Anyway that's it. I think it looks pretty good, it's my avatar at the moment anyway. There's a Gordon Freeman one on the same channel as well, so I will probably make a similar post for that one as well soon, just to complete the set. 

Enjoy!

- DC Nightmare

22nd Feb - Gamerscore Update

It's been a very busy 48 hours and my profile has seen some serious increases in total score. Reaching 10,000 in my remaining time is going to be pretty tight, but I might just be able to pull it off with some careful thought and some serious playtime over the next couple of days. The only downside is that college starts again tomorrow, severely limiting the time I have got to play. We will see how I manage, and hopefully will still continue to see the points come in.

My time has been occupied by five major retail games, all of which seem to require a lot of work for the full 1000. Luckily, these games also provide a lot of quick and easy points,  which has helped to push my score up rapidly but hasn't done my completion any favours. When I have reached my target, I'm definately going to go back and clean these games up. 

Quantum of Solace

0 -> 710

The vast majority of points from this game come from playing through the single player campaign. I stuck it on 007 (the hardest difficulty) and followed this walkthrough to attain every achievement quickly and easily. The game isn't too hard, but there are some frustrating points which show some of the game's flaws. I'm going to explore these in a little more depth in my review of this game (coming soon!). Campaign aside, I also jumped online and grabbed some of the easier achievements; win five territory control matches, defuse a bomb, win a round as Bond, escape as Bond, finish top of a ranked game. The online is great fun and most people aren't very good, so picking up the points is easy. However, achieving 100,000 online credits is going to take a lot of time. 

Smackdown Vs Raw 2009

0 -> 580

I'm a big fan of this series, and I like this particular installment. I really like the "Road to Wrestlemania" mode, and the gameplay tweaks have been made where they needed to be. The roster is a little lacklustre, but all the big names are there. I picked up all the achievements for the story modes, which included unlocking every bonus. They're all very simple to do, but some require multiple saves. I also did some easy achievements such as messing with the highlight reel, fighting in both the locker room and the parking lot, and performing a hot tag. The rest of the points are simple but take a lot of time. I will go back to this as soon as I reach my target.

Scene It? LCA

0 -> 860

This game is apparently fairly difficult, but the people who said that obviously haven't seen this site. For every question that came up I paused the game, searched for the correct answer, unpaused and got every question correct. The only difficult part is correctly answering every question in a block of audio clips, because for some reason the sound files on the site don't play for me. Still, for the remaining achievements it's simply a matter of perseverance, and I don't see 1000 taking too long for this. I will nab the remaining points after midnight on Tuesday though.

Lego Batman

340 -> 810

I spent a lot of time on this these last few hours, because I knew that at a certain point the achievements would start flooding in. I was correct, and after finally completing all the hero and villain missions (all superhero) I could jump into freeplay with all the characters I had unlocked and grab a large number of really quick and easy points. Completing the bonus levels for really simple, and with my stud multiplies turned on I maxed out the stud counter and bought everything I had unlocked without effort. All that remains is to collect the remaining items, which I shall return to after 10,000 has been reached.

Mirror's Edge

475 -> 745

I completed the campaign mode fairly quickly and easily for the majority of these points. After that, I got three stars on the first time trial for the "On The Clock" achievement, then did a speedrun of the prologue and chapter 1. I completed the story without firing a shot which netted me the "Test of Faith" achievement worth 80G, and collected ever bag. Overall nice and easy so far, but clearing up the remaining points is going to take some serious time and effort.

So yeah, a really busy 48 hours. I'm pretty pleased with what I have got to so far, but I need a really convincing increase over the next 2 days to be able to break 10,000. To summarise:

GS

5475 -> 8305

Retail Complete: 3/8

Arcade Complete: 8/8

22nd Feb - Updates

Because of the number of posts I am making, it has come to my attention that posts are becoming lost amid various GS updates and suchlike. To make navigation easier, I have added a labels gadget to this page so that you can easily find specific posts about topics which interest you. You can find the labels over on the right.

When I recently reviewed Mirror's Edge, I used a format which is very similar to the one found on Kotaku. It some ways, it's a direct rip-off, but then again I did insert my own scores for overall quality and achievement difficulty. I just wanted to bring up that I am fully aware that I didn't come up with this reviewing technique myself, but I thought that for this blog it was an appropriate style to use, because it allows me to get my points across without writing masses of information.

I've also decided that it would be a good idea to write a post that explains a little bit about what features people can find here. When I've done it, I'm going to put a link to it on the right hand side of the page so that people know to click there for the list of features. 

The latest (pretty big) GS Update will be online within the next 24 hours, alongside reviews for Lego Batman and Quantum of Solace. Also, I'm going to be writing another couple of tutorials in the next day or two, so look out for the Mario avatar and how to clear your Xbox 360's system cache. Both will be pretty short, and I'll link the Mario avatar to the video walkthrough, but it's always nice to have some variety of content.

- DC Nightmare

Mirror's Edge Review

It's pretty rare these days that a game really captures my attention in a way that makes me look at an entire genre in a different fashion. It seems more often than not in this era of gaming that originality has been sacrificed in favour of better graphics and physics, but Mirror's Edge is one of those rare games which, for me at least, has completely opened up the genre to new ideas. Here's the lowdown:

I Love:

The Visual Design: ME looks unlike anything I've ever played before. The idea of the stark white background symbolises the oppression the city is enduring at the hands of the government, and the red "runner vision" which provides a subtle guide through each level is a genius touch. Every indoor area has its own very thematic design, making a very unique use of bright colours. Overall, very impressive.

The Controls: Usually in regards to FPS games, platforming is a terrible idea. When I first heard about the concept behind this game, I shuddered at the idea. A poor control scheme could have ruined this, but what is in place is designed excellently. Pulling off complex maneuvers is a breeze and using the shoulder buttons to do so just feels smooth and natural.

Chase Scenes: When the player is being pursued by various armed personnel across rooftops, along trains and through storm drains, the experience is very intense. When you pull off a perfect stunt, there are very few other games available on the platform which can provide a similar feeling. ME is at it's best at full speed and in the open.

I Hate:

Combat: Although generally it should be avoided, there are times when you must engage the enemy and this is where the fun levels start to dip. The disarming system in place is obvious enough but it seems vaguely hit-and-miss, and attacking the enemy with basic punches and kicks is often difficult because of the hit detection. Shooting is average, but aiming is slightly difficult. Fighting really lets the game down in parts.

Indoor Platforming: Faith's repertoire is designed almost entirely for outdoor use, so when I get restricted to narrow corridors or linear scaffolding, the experience becomes somewhat diluted. Some of Faith's abilities are tricky to pull off on a small scale, and making smaller more precise jumps rather than massive ones seems awkward and needlessly tricky. Too much of the game is set indoors.

The Length: The campaign is very short; 3-5 hours short. For a game like this I can see why the length isn't excessive, but it could of been made slightly longer without becoming tedious. There is a lot of replay value in the time trials and speedruns, but for me I like a varied story experience with some length and a fully developed narrative. Because of the size of the campaign, the plot feels rushed and incoherent as well.

So yeah, ME is one of my favourite games at the moment. Despite the minor criticisms I have highlighted with it, the good points far outweigh the bad. I would definately recommend this to anyone, even though the achievements (especially now the new DLC has been released) are really tough. I'm determined to continue with this until I 100% it, because I think a game as fresh and unique as this deserves the attention.

8.5/10

Achievement Difficulty: 8/10 

20th Feb - Gamerscore Update

Finally hit my milestone today. I used to Kung Fu Panda to make the final jump, after bringing my score up to 4000 with the use of three arcade games. Other than that, I started a new game as well in Mirror's Edge, a title I am very impressed with. Expect a review to be posted some time very soon.

Until then, take a look at how I finally hit my 5000 milestone:

New Rally X

0 -> 200

This is one of the easiest arcade games. It's disgustingly basic, and the graphics are truly appalling. The concept behind the game is to steer a little car around a track collecting flags which give points, and avoiding obstacles such as big rocks and other cars. You can fire smoke to defend yourself should a car get too close, and the gameplay doesn't get any more advanced than that. The achievements are really easy, and the hardest, "Double Extend", luckily popped for me in my first attempt. I managed to complete around six stages without dying, making it simple to rack up the remaining points needed for the achievement. Game Complete.

Ms Pacman

0 -> 200

A retro classic here, and yet another arcade game with nice and easy points. The only difficult-ish achievement is "Perfect", which requires you to eat all four ghosts on a stage four times in a single round. A lot of people have been having some serious trouble with this, but I got it on my second attempt. I'm sure it was luck, but I'm glad I don't have to do it again. Game Complete.

Pacman

0 -> 200

The achievements for this game are almost identical to the ones for Ms Pacman, so I complete the game in a similar amount of time. I had read in a number of places that the "Perfect" achievement for this version is much harder due to how the ghosts move around and spread themselves out, but I managed to get it first go and found it much easier that before. Either way, Game Complete.

Kung Fu Panda

0 -> 1000

This is definately one of the best kids games I have ever played. Unlike most, it isn't riddled with bugs and glitches and the gameplay is fun and relatively varied. On top of this, the achievements are nice and easy but the downside is that the full 1K requires two playthroughs. Still, the game is short and simple and running through it twice was quick and painless. I really enjoyed this game and was pleasantly surprised by how charming it was. Expect a review soon. Game Complete.

Mirror's Edge

0 -> 475

For me, this is one of the best games available on the console. It is nothing like any other game I have ever played, and the visual design is stunning. With the new DLC, the total points available here are 1250, but maxing this one out is going to be tough. The campaign is relatively short and easy, but some of the time trials are just awful. I have reached around mission 8 in the campaign, not firing a gun and collecting all the bags. I've also got some of the move-specific achievements as well as the secrets. Maxing this out is going to take a while, so I will probably stop playing for a while until I reach my 10,000 target, but I still have a few simple points to pick up here.

GS

3340 -> 5475

Retail Complete: 3/5

Arcade Complete: 8/8

Feb 19th - Gamerscore Update

Another solid day of gaming today, with a pretty significant increase in my total score. As it stands, I'm well on my way to achieving the 5000 milestone, but my overall target of 10,000 is looking bleak.

I think it's all going to depend on how fast I hit 5000. I've been purposely holding off playing certain games because I need to keep my score ending in a 0 to make the milestone easier to hit. The only mistake I made so far was playing Lego Batman as one of my first games, but I was so desperate for something to play I had little choice. Achieving the full 1K on LB is going to delay the milestone for far too long and most probably render the 10,000 unreachable, so to counter this I'm going to stop playing fairly soon and play something else to boost those missing points. I'm leaning towards Oblivion because it deals out points in 10s and 50s which is exactly what I need. Time will tell, and my decision will have been made before tomorrow's update.

Anyway, this is what I have been doing over the past 24 hours:

King Kong

0 -> 1000

Back to basics with this one. KK is a breeze to fully complete, and only took me around 3/4 hours. It's a competant if unimaginative FPS; the graphics and sound design are definately there, but the level design is poor and the puzzles are a joke. Every single one consists of burning some thorns, retrieving a stick, placing said stick in a big pillar and using it to open a door. This game should have been so much better. On the plus side, the Kong sections are loads of fun. Game Complete.

Galaga

0 -> 200

This is a fairly simple arcade game; in fact, I think its the second easiest of them all behind Dash of Destruction. Moving through the levels takes little skill and a touch of perseverance, and reaching stage 30 takes no time at all. Scoring a perfect on the bonus stage is remarkably easy when using a dual fighter, and obtaining one is almost as simple. The only thing that I didn't accomplish on my first attempt was the "enemy fighter" achievement, where you must shoot down one of your captured vessels. It's fairly tricky to hit, but it only took me I think three goes. Game Complete

Sonic the Hedgehog

0 -> 200

Another Genesis/Mega Drive classic. Personally, I prefer this one to the sequel. The achievements are almost identical, if a little easier due to the lack of online and easier special stages. The "Fast Win" achievement is 20 minutes shorter than the one for Sonic 2, but the game is much shorter and easier so I didn't notice it at all. I think I could speedrun this better when I was about 10, but nevertheless I still clocked in at way before 40 minutes. Game Complete.

Lego Batman

0 -> 340

Lego games are well known for being time consuming, so it was a bit stupid of me to start this one so early. However I did, and am currently 49.8% in. I personally think this is the best entry in the series, and the ability to play the storylines from the perspective of the villains is a great feature. When I hit an achievement which brings my score up to a 50 or a 100, I'm going to stop playing until after I have reached my milestone. The last achievement I got was "Richest Man in Gotham", for maxing out my stud counter. I used the code for the multipliers and kept them on from the start. They make getting superhero/villain ratings laughably easy, which lessens the need to destroy everything in site, decreasing the amount of time it takes to complete levels. 

The next game I am going to play is Kung Fu Panda, and I'm fairly confident in how fast I can get that finished. I should hopefully have hit 5000 before midnight on the 20th, and will be able to announce it here. Hopefully. In summary:

GS

1600 -> 3340

Retail Complete: 2/3

Arcade Complete: 5/5

18th Feb - Gamerscore Update

Overall, it has been a good day of gaming today. I decided to start on the easy games to help boost my score quicker, so I found King Kong and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lying around waiting to be played. I haven't touched King Kong yet, but I spent some time with TMNT as well as some arcade games. 

I decided it would be easier to complete four retail and five arcade titles rather than five straight retail, because I have a number of relatively simple XBLA games hooked up to another account. When I have this other account signed in on a different controller, I can access the arcade games. As daft as it sounds, I didn't know this before today, so that was a pleasant surprise. 

Anyway, this is what I've been playing over the past 24 hours: 

TMNT:

0 -> 1000

This is an older title that I had lying around, and the achievements are very simple to obtain. Playing through the storyline will net all but two of them, and to bag the remaining points you simply need to complete a level without gettting hit, and jump back into an already completed level to pick up a golden coin. The game itself is a linear action platformer, with simple combat and basic platforming. Graphically it's very poor, but it is rather fun for the first few levels. Around level 8 or so it starts to get tiresome, but the easy achievements make up for this slightly. There are 16 levels, all of which took me around 10 minutes to complete. 16 x 10 = 160 minutes, so 2 hours and 40 minutes. Game Complete.

Dash of Destruction

0 -> 200

DoD is an arcade game made by Doritos. It was released as a free promotional game a little while ago, and is still free now if you haven't picked it up yet. It's worth it - the achievements are very easy. The game is made up of two campaigns, and playing through both will earn you all but one achievement. In one campaign you play as a T-Rex who must chase and eat Dorito vans, while in the other campaign you take control of a delivery van, and must avoid the hungry dinosaurs. It's very simple to breeze through the campaigns, and probably took me 10-15 minutes to wrap up both. After that, a simple multiplayer match with two controllers was all that was needed to wrap up the final 15 points. Game Complete.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

0 -> 200

The sequel to one of my all-time favourite games. This is when Sonic was a household name and starred in the best games money can buy. The achievements here were of average difficulty - collecting all the Chaos Emeralds was a pain because of the special stages, and speedrunning the entire game was tedious due to the amount of saving and reloading that needed to be done. In the end I got through it though, and it wasn't all that bad. Probably took me around two hours to knock out all the offline stuff. For the online, I boosted with LadyDeathstroke and we got our ten wins each in around twenty minutes. Overall, fun and moderately challenging, but nothing too difficult. Game Complete

Golden Axe

0 -> 200

Another childhood Sega classic. I played online with LadyDeathstroke to get the online achievement, and we helped each other out for the "Survivor" and "Perfect Win" achievements. For the remaining points, I played local co-op with another controller and the character I hadn't yet controlled, and by the time I had finished the story I had the full 200. A very easy but fun game. Game Complete.

So there we have it. I'm hopefully going to start King Kong very soon, as well as complete another two arcade games to boost my total up to 3000. I'm not sure where I'm going to go from there, but so far the Gamerscore Challenge is looking promising, and I'm set to hit my milestone. In summary:

GS

0 -> 1600

Retail Complete: 1/1

Arcade Complete: 3/3

Gamerscore Challenge - Feb 18th - Feb 25th

I've decided to set myself a little gamerscore challenge to provide something memorable to start the blog off on. I've got a lot of games lying around which should be fairly easy to complete, as well as some which should yield a fair number of points in a short amount of time. As such, I have decided to set myself a goal of 10,000 GS, to be reached by midnight next Wednesday. Obviously, I will only start earning points after midnight tonight. 

To make things interesting, I am also going to try and hit the 5000 point milestone on the way there. Call it the half-way mark. However, I've worked out that in order to get there I need to complete five straight retail games, or four retail and five arcade games in order to keep the numbers balanced. After I hit the milestone I'm free to be a little more casual with the games I play. But then again, depending on when I hit the halfway mark I may decide to aim for 10,000 as a milestone, making things much more difficult. Only time will tell.

- DC Nightmare 

The Joker Arrives On The Xbox 360

Before I went online I decided to experiment with my avatar a little, to try and find something cool that would impress people. Because my creative talents aren't necessarily up to scratch at this time in the morning, I headed for www.youtube.com to see what I could find. 

Within minutes I found exactly what I wanted: a tutorial to create The Joker from the DC Universe, in his Dark Knight/Heath Ledger style. The user that uploaded the video was "SomeFamousProduction", and they've also got a couple of similar videos on their channel as well, all of which are equally as impressive. 

Anyway, the link to the tutorial I used is 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUC_TMRNYmY&feature=related. 

Subscribe to the user as well, because they do cool stuff. If you're too lazy to check out the video and want a text walkthrough of how to make The Joker, then check out my summary below.

Be aware that to create The Joker you need to perform the Easter Egg which allows you to access some of the wilder hairstyles and colours. There's a tutorial which tells you briefly how to do so here. Once you have done that, follow these instructions to build the perfect Joker:

Hair - Slicked (Green)
Eyes - Eagle (Black)
Eyebrows - Bendy (Black)
Ears - Shaped
Nose - Sharp
Facial Hair - Twin Mustache (Same Red as Lips)
Features - Forehead Wrinkles
Chin - Sharp
Mouth - Full or Wide (Red)
Body Color - White
Top - Sports Jacket
Bottoms - Pinstripe Pants
Shoes - Black Formal Shoes
Gloves - White Gloves

Why so serious? Have fun with it.

- DC Nightmare

New Beginnings

The purpose of this blog? Basically, to give a summary of my Xbox 360 experiences in the most entertaining and useful fashion possible. 

My aim is to complete every game I own to 100% - every achievement and every point. Whilst doing this, I also want to add one or two interesting features into the mix, and of course keep everyone online updated on what I am doing via this very blog. 

My current tag was created on February 18th 2009 at 01:55am, and at the time of writing stands at zero games played. Hopefully fairly soon we will see a relatively dramatic points increase, even if that means starting with some of the easiest games available. I will also try and keep track of what games I am playing, as well as compose my own reviews and guides for as many as possible.

I also mentioned some "interesting features" earlier. As well as the basic point whoring, I am also looking into a feature called "gamerscore milestones". These are essentially significant/unusual point totals which give a little something extra to aim for. Examples are scores of all the same number e.g. 2222, round figures such as 5000 or 10000, and other unique combinations of numbers e.g. 12345. I will be sure to update my progress towards these milestones, as well as list a few more that I will aim for in the future. As for other features, if I think of any I will be sure to update ASAP.

Well, that's pretty much everything for now. I'm going to start playing some games and earning some points. Check back as much as possible for the latest news and updates. Have fun.

- DC Nightmare