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TMNT: The new king (Kong) of easy achievement points
Ubisoft's TMNT title learned a couple things from Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie, their video game adaptation from last year. First, long names are best left as acronyms (PJKK: TOGotM). Second, spice up a less-than-stellar licensed game with 1000 additional reasons to buy it regardless. Yup, it looks like TMNT is poised to take away the easiest 1000 Xbox 360 achievement points crown from the previous king, err, King Kong.Let's see what the critics have to say about the game's easy points: IGN says "the new king of easy Achievement Points has arrived." GameSpot offers, "There are also achievements to consider, but they also happen to be incredibly easy to acquire, with many of them relegated to points for beating levels and pulling off individual special abilities. Even still, the better graphics and achievements ultimately make the 360 version the best by default." Finally, Team Xbox says, "If there's one good thing about TMNT, it's the fact that the game steals the title of 'Easiest 1000 Achievement Points' from Ubisoft's own King Kong. You'll probably be able to get all 1000 in less than 4 hours." We wonder if achievement points will really be a quantifiable factor in picking which console to buy that multiplatformer on.
Machine used to unlock Xbox 360 Achievement Points
Just 60 of 'em. Yep, $60 for parts and a long day's worth of labor birthed the "xBot," a monstrous lil' bugger that latches onto the Xbox 360 controller and presses 'Start' and 'B' like, well, like a machine. Car mechanic David Harr assembled the xBot to unlock a pair of Perfect Dark Zero Achievements, which require playing 1,000 (offline) multiplayer matches in both Deathmatch and DarkOps modes -- each worth 30 points. Since matches don't need to be completed to register as "played," Harr calculated that it would take him roughly 40 hours to start, exit, and restart enough matches to unlock the Achievements; he would use just ten to assemble his xBot. Muahahahah!While some whine that Harr's 'workaround' is unethical, the Seattle mechanic argues, "This is not playing online on Xbox Live -- it is not playing against other people ... This is a one trick pony, getting you just 60 points. It's not stepping on anyone's toes." We say, let him have his 60 points.
Stuttering start for Microsoft Rewards program
The Xbox Rewards program remains deadlocked today, following yesterday's launch, which apparently drew more prospective registrants than anticipated. If you've yet to register -- perhaps planning to leisurely earn your 'rewards' during the allotted month -- you've likely already missed out. 'Cause guess what? All those rewards are limited to finite numbers; paltry numbers when compared to Xbox Live's user base.This isn't an 'Old Spice Challenge,' it's a Competition -- and no doubt there are enough registered players teens already racing to gobble up those prizes. If you're lucky, you might score (possibly another) copy of Contra, since 70,000 download codes will be handed out. But even the '100 Microsoft Points' prize (limited to 6,000 winners) could be gone by week's end. Bah, who wanted Fusion Frenzy 2 anyway?Hint: Try this link.
Aquazone publisher fishing for MS Points, 5000 MS Points!
EA could learn a thing or two from Frontier Works. The publisher of Aquazone released its Japanese aquarium sim with only 480 unlockable Achievement Points. To get the rest, players need to hit Xbox Live Marketplace and start paying.Recently, an additional 400 points were made available through the purchase of 18 new fish. Anyone willing to take the bait would end up forking over an alleged 5,000 Microsoft Points ($62.50).Suspiciously, each fish weighs a mere 108KB, suggesting that purchasers aren't actually downloading new content, but simply buying code that unlocks the relevant data on the game disc. This would explain how Frontier dodged Microsoft's requirement, which demands that all Xbox 360 titles include 1,000 Achievement Points (Xbox Live Arcade games must contain 200 points). Aquazone does offer 1,000 points to add to your Gamerscore; but it costs more than your playing time to unlock them. Scandalous.[Via GameLife]
