Time Doesn't Stop

After taking my foot off the gas pedal for two identifiable periods in the past two years it would only make sense that I've fallen significantly behind in playing recently released games, specifically ones of AAA caliber. This has put me in a mental pickle as I am trying to sort through all the major releases I want to play along with the numerous titles I want to play for gamerscore and completion purposes.

I've always said that there is an important balance that must be met in order to succeed in consistently elevating ones gamerscore at a rapid clip. Of course there is an overarching time factor, but also the ability to maintain motivation and enjoyment in gaming is crucial. Also, breaks are often necessary every now and then (I would recommend not going completely cold turkey for multiple months lol). Personally, I am one that likes to play games with a guide by my side (for achievements and collectibles) and knowledge of potential glitches or problems I may have to avoid in a game. As a result, I often shy away from playing the newest releases.

Thankfully, there are not too many releases during the early portion of 2011 that I am overly hyped for. The two exceptions that come to mind are Dead Space 2 and Test Drive Unlimited 2. Oddly enough, both are sequels. Over my years gaming I've found I am the type of person who much prefers delving into an experience I am somewhat familiar with rather than exposing myself to something new. Irregardless, I feel that in the first few months of this calender year will serve as a nice period of time to do as much catch up as I possibly can.

My next post will feature not only my 2011 gamerscore goals, but also will be the first post I will be featuring music. Until then, have a safe and happy New Years Eve.

A New Era

I once again went on hiatus throughout the summer months thanks largely in part to my obsession with baseball. About a month and a half ago I got back into more gaming and subsequently more long nights chasing achievements. I've now slowly eased into both putting some points up along with knocking out a few completions as well. Finding a balance will be key for me in progressing at a solid clip in the new year.

Speaking of which, now that the new year is quickly approaching I am considering a number of new years resolutions that I plan on following through on for a change. Aside from the gamerscore goals I will be making in the next few days I am going to make a very serious commitment to following a posting schedule here on my blog. Also, I plan on unveiling a podcast in the new year that will focus largely on achievements and "gamerscore culture." I don't want to get too far into details on this post as they have not yet been fully resolved, but I promise that if you have an interest in gamerscore and the ongoing grind that it can sometimes be, it will be a must listen.

Another component of this blog that will be focused on more in the new year is the implementation of music. I plan on having a song in every post I make in the new year that will somehow tie into that post. It may be linked to the mood of the post or it might be directly linked to the content of the post itself. Hopefully through the music I use on the blog I will be able to make a greater connection with readers and potentially introduce them to bands and genres of music they may not have explored. I play a lot of piano and music is something that is an important part of my life so I want to not only communicate that with readers, but also share some music I love with them.

For now that will be all. Expect a few more post to come before the end of 2010, however I will not be doing any gaming as I am on holidays in Palm Desert and have no Xbox. I know in the past I have eventually drifted away from this blog and I promise that this time will be different. Despite having a fairly small readership I value every single reader I have and would like to provide content that is compelling and something I can be proud of. Stay tuned as the new year is the beginning of a new decade and a new era on this blog.

The Show

My future dedication to the xbox could be in danger. Tomorrow I'll be picking up my copy of MLB The Show 10. Words cannot describe how excited I am to start playing it. Many of you probably think I'm completely off the wall but this is probably the most excited I am for a game since the release of Gears 2. I spent hundreds, maybe thousands of hours playing MLB The Show 09 and I am afraid the same may occur this year. With Spring Training just kicking off the baseball season is just amping up and I am hyped for it.

The way I play MLB The Show is that when I get the game I start a franchise with every team in the league. I then playthrough a few exhibition games to get use to the game again. After that I am all ready to fire up some franchise play. Usually I'll play a few games with my favorite team, the New York Yankees. After that I am constantly cycling playing with all the teams to get use to their roster and to learn about them for the upcoming season. I am a subscriber to MLB TV and it is not uncommon for me to be watching up to four games at the same time.

Seeing as I am only 1k away from 200k I will try to get there before I really crank it up with The Show. I want to make sure I hit 200k before any lapses in playing xbox occur. My FEAR 2 boosting will keep me on live daily but while boosting I'll more than likely be playing The Show. If you can't tell I'm fired up to pick up my copy and throw a few pitches at Yankee Stadium, so I am just going to stop before a really start rambling. Go Yankees and thank God that there is a good baseball game I can count on like The Show every year.

Failure in Consistency

Once again I have faded from writing here on my blog. I have been busy with hockey playoffs and lots of gaming so I'll go with those two excuses. Seriously though, I will try to make a better effort in the future to get my consistency back to where it was in January.

Since my last update I have completed a number of retail games. These completions include Skate, Rogue Warrior, Dante's Inferno, and Vancouver 2010. I am also only one firefight map away from completing Halo ODST. Of the above games I enjoyed Skate the most. Despite not being able to get of your skateboard, Skate was an incredibly fun and easy to learn game. With a little practice I was able to get through all the challenges and milestones relatively easily. I also liked Dante' Inferno. I liked the combat and platforming anyways, but I despised and did not enjoy the environment or story of the game at all.

Once ODST is finally completed I will have three incomplete games sitting at the front of my card. All three of which I have started up within the last week. The long term project of the three will be Fear 2. I am nearing the end of the campaign but to complete the game I am looking at around 100 hours of boosting the multiplayer. Yesterday I spent about 5-6 hours boosting and gained close to 5 % of what is needed. Also, months after its release I have finally started playing Borderlands. Everything I read on the game said it was best served in co-op. So that is exactly how I played. With the help of Sajaa we fired through the main storyline of the game in one sitting of around 5 or 6 hours. I enjoyed it a lot but since Sajaa's character was so much more powerful than mine he ended up doing a lot of the work. Lastly, I started Tiger Woods 09 which was the only game I had originally planned to have added to my card. It should be a relatively painless 1k but if I had known I was going to be getting into Fear 2 and Borderlands I may have postponed it a bit.

Along with boosting Fear 2 this afternoon and evening I hope to finish up the Fear 2 campaign. I want to get that single player out of the way so that beside the tedious boosting, I will be done with the game. This will free up the rest of my non-boosting time to be spent with Borderlands and Tiger Woods. I enjoy playing both so I cannot say for certain which game I will stick with more. Nevertheless I would love to have them both completed by the end of the week.

Like I said, I will try to get back to a more consistant delivery of blog posts but if my track record is any indication of how that turns out I would not put money on it. Everyone enjoy your Monday's, I know most people hate Monday's but I don't mind them at all.

Teleporting Crash

I must say that I have never experienced collectibles as annoying as the ones in Crash Mind over Mutant. The game as a whole is just a piece of crap for the most part. An open world that is uncomfortable to navigate and collectibles that are quite troublesome. If the guide on x360a was not so poorly written then they would not have been so bad but because the guide was so difficult to understand I found them very annoying. Overall the games is easy, even the collectibles you will find them eventually if you just plug away at them. However when I think about my time spent with the game I will simply think of being annoyed.

This weekend I have a fairly busy reffing schedule. It will be good to rack up some cash though so I'm not really complaining. Monday is a holiday as well so I will have a full day to kick back and relax. Hopefully by the time school resumes on Tuesday I can get through a few more retail completions. I am going to start off by targeting the single player in Rogue Warrior while boosting it when my partners are available to do so. When I'm through with Rogue Warrior I think I will hit Spongebob and try and get through that as quick as possible. I might even through in a quick arcade completion like Gunstar Heroes.

As I'm approaching 200k I keep thinking to myself what I am going to do next. I would love to plough forward to 300k by the end of the year but at the same time I don't want to go and wear myself down again. As of late I have been more into completing games, both arcade and retail. When all is said and done I think I need to come up with some sort of strategy that will allow me to advance my gamerscore while enjoying games that are actually fun and enjoyable. Also, as I progress to 300k I want to go back and try to tidy up my card as much as possible. I have never been one in the past to care about completion but lately I have really tried to improve mine. I may even reach 70% by the time I'm at 200k.

I figure that if I am at 250k by the end of July I am going to have a damn good shot at 300k. The whole trick for me will be balancing fun games and whore games. It has becoming more and more clear to me that the key to a successful gamerscore whore is to obviously put in lots of time but more importantly it is necessary to be consistant. It's quite obvious and unrealistic to go hard and score 12-15k a month. It is best to shoot for at least 8-11k with at least 3 or 4 games to be ones you love and enjoy. Also, I feel that taking a night or two off from gaming to just relax and forget about things is a nice break.

Hopefully you all enjoy your long weekends. I know that I will find it quite relaxing and productive if all goes well. Now time to go listen to Mickey Rourke swear up a shit storm in Rogue Warrior!

Flying to New Heights

Late last night I finished one of my favorite games to date on the 360. Assassins Creed 2 simply was a masterpiece and one of the most intriguing experiences I've had with gaming. The story itself was incredibly well done and one could ponder all day about the possibilites of where the third game will be. The game was far less repetative than the original as it was far more diverse in its storytelling and mission structure. To be honest the only major problem I had with the game was the assassinations at the end of each DNA block. They seemed far less important and it was very difficult to actually assassinate your target. In most cases you had to fend off a bunch of guards before fighting the target. Unlike in the original where you could sneak in and assassinate the target and then sneak out with no detection.

Nevertheless, despite my few complaints I overall loved and savoured my time spent with Assassins Creed 2. Now that it's complete I'm going to be starting up Crash Mind Over Mutant. I'm not expecting to much from it nor am I expecting much from Rogue Warrior which I plan to play right after. Hopefully I'll be doing some ODST firefight as well every night for the next week until that is done. I am slowly getting amped up for finally hitting 200k. If all goes to plan I should be there within the next few weeks.

Short Absence

I am sorry for the delay between my last post and now. I've been finally getting back to gaming and haven't really felt like doing any writing at all. However, I have made some decent progress on my goals for the year the past week or so. More specifically I have knocked out a couple of completions on both the arcade and retail sides of things. Regardless of my success completing games lately (easy as they may have been) I am still behind pace on my goal of 300k by the end of the year.

Out of my recent completions Saw has to be the one I have enjoyed the most. For a game that I did not expect much from I found it quite enjoyable. In some cases I enjoyed it even more than I did Silent Hill Homecoming. I especially enjoyed how the game greatly limited the use of combat and focused on solving satisfying puzzles. My other retail completions, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and NCAA Football 07 were both boring and not really worth talking about. Also, I got in like so many others on the NBA Live 07 festivities and finished that bitch even though I almost overslept the event. My lone completions on the arcade since my last post was NBA 2k10 Draft Combine. To be blunt, it was as shitty as a basketball game could be on the arcade.

As for the coming few days I am focused on Assassins Creed 2 which I have been loving so far. I am also slowly working towards completing Halo ODST when my group can get together to do so. Following Assassins Creed 2 I plan to play Crash Mind Over Mutant and Rogue Warrior. Both of which should be easy and fairly quick completions. I'm not sure of arcade games I will be playing soon but there will be some no doubt. Anyways just a quick update on my going ons as of late. My latest absence was due to my trip to the Rockies for the most part, so I should be back to a post ever day or two now. Enjoy your weekends everyone, I know Assassins Creed 2 will treat me well!