GhostReconAdvancedWarfighter
Latest
Those are the lamest achievements ever
The hip and trendy kids over at G4's The Feed put together a list of what they think are the 17 lamest Xbox 360 achievements to date. Horrible games like Bomberman Act Zero and NBA Live '07 made the list as well as our favorites like Gears of War and Rainbow Six Vegas. We agree with most of their picks, but really agree with hating NBA Live's "Online With 1,000 People", GRAW's "Committed (Multiplayer)" and FFXI's ridiculous "Reach Level 75 with each character class". We guess this article made us further realize that there are truly lame achievements out there and that we have to be careful. Remember, friends don't let friends spend days on end trying to earn lame achievements. It's one epidemic that we can stop.[Via Digg]
Free GRAW Chapter 2 in latest OXM
Yes, we are a little slow on reporting this, but better late than never right? Gamertag Radio found out that in the April issue of Official Xbox Magazine you'll be pleased to find that the Chapter 2 content for GRAW will be included on the demo disc. True, the magazine does cost $10, but if you're a regular subscriber or are a religious purchaser, then all the better. If you remember, the Chapter 2 content was originally released to on the XBLM for a whopping 1200 Microsoft Points, but was recently discounted to a more reasonable 600 Points. So, if you play GRAW, buy the April issue of OXM, haven't purchased the Chapter 2 content, and won't be purchasing GRAW 2 ... then it'll be like Christmas all over again, but in March.[Via Joystiq, Thanks, to everyone who sent this in]
GRAW 2 weekend full of prizes and fun
United States residents fear not, Canada gets Call of Duty 3 love, but you get GRAW 2 fun. With the release of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, Xbox Live will be hosting a GRAW 2 72-Hour Weekend starting March 16th and running through the 18th. During the weekend's festivities you'll have the opportunity to win great prizes, play against GRAW 2's dev team, and download an exclusive gamer picture. They'll be giving away prizes every hour (pre-registration required) for all 72 hours, Friday will be play time with the developers, Saturday the Frag Dolls will be online, and Sunday will be the universal leadboard competition where the winner will walk away with a Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive and a Samsung home theatre in a box. Phew ... check out the official website for all the details and be sure to register before the 16th for the hourly giveaways. Free friendly competition and prizes, what could be better?
UK GRAW 2 preorders getting exclusive weapon [update 1]
Our UK friends who preordered Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 at their local GAME store will be receiving a special treat. Xboxic discovered that preorders will be emailed a code that will allow them to download a new gun called the Famas. Of course this begs the question whether or not it is really fair for certain players to have weapons that others either can't get or would have to pay for. We don't agree with messing up the "balance" of GRAW 2's multiplayer weapons system (if there is balance) by allowing exclusive weapons and not having a level playing field. What do you think, should developers offer rare or purchasable weapons in FPS or do you think it just isn't fair?Update 1: Chris stopped by the forums to set things straight. This free code is for the Famas gun in the single player campaign and not multiplayer. Everyone will have the gun in multiplayer. You can now rest, everything is zen-like in the world.[Thanks, dpcough]
GRAW 2 MP demo assaults Xbox Live
The GRAW 2 multiplayer demo that was promised last week is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace. Clocking in at around 300 MB, the demo allows up to 16 players on one map called Outpost. It's arguable that this demo is more important than the recently released campaign demo, as players will be spending most of their time in multiplayer. The demo is currently only available to gold members.In a surprise twist, a much larger MLB 2K7 demo is available as well. Go forth, download, and enjoy.
New Platinum Hits games coming in March
The Gamerscore Blog guys are confirming a few games that will be headed to the Xbox 360 Platinum Hits lineup on March 16th in North America. If you didn't know, the Platinum Hits program is a list of games that have been singled out to retail for $29.99, because they "supposedly" achieved greatness during their lifetime. We may not always agree with certain games that come to the Platinum Hits, but nobody can disagree with the cheaper pricetag. Below is a list of games that will become Platinum Hits in North America. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat Burnout Revenge Call of Duty 2 Dead or Alive 4 Fight Night Round 3 Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Top Spin 2 Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis
GRAW Chapter 2 expansion is now 1/2 off
When Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter's expansion pack came out on the XBLM there was a little uproar from the fans. Not due to the luscious content it held, oh no, but because the download cost a whopping 1200 Microsoft Points! But today Ubisoft announced that the Chapter 2 expansion pack has been discounted to a more reasonable 600 Microsoft Points. Go download the expansion pack for the new uber low price and if you already purchased it for 1200 ... that kind of sucks. Maybe Ubisoft will be nice next time and not gouge their loyal fans who ate up the content right away. [Thanks, Derka]
New GRAW 2 and Bioshock trailers
Some brand spanking new trailers were unveiled at the Spike Video Game Awards last night. It's a good thing that somebody was actually watching the show, otherwise we never would have known about these new trailers for Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 and Bioshock. GRAW 2 is of course the highly anticipated sequel to GRAW (perhaps you've heard of it). Bioshock is the spiritual successor to the System Shock series and contains some very, very freaky environments and monsters. The GRAW 2 trailer is embedded above, and the Bioshock trailer is (appropriately) embedded below the break. (Underwater humor, get it? ... oh, never mind.)
Wait ... what's up with GRAW's achievements?
After snooping around Xbox 360 Achievements we found one game's achievements to be rather interesting. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter has been out for a long time and now it has just came to our attention that its achievement point totals are extremely odd. Take a look at the whole list of them, notice anything a little weird? If you look closely you'll notice that there are achievements that award you Gamerscore points listed at 2, 8, 16, 24, 28 and 32. We've never seen any games offer such odd Gamerscore point totals, usually they are in increments of five, never being as odd as these. Are we missing something here or are there other games out with such odd Gamerscore point totals attached to achievements? Microsoft, don't let them do this to our nice rounded multiples of five ... it's just not right.
Sweet Xbox 360 bundle from Future Shop
We got a great deal for all the Canadian readers in Xbox 360 Fanboy land. Future Shop (the "it" electronics retailer in Canada) is offering an irresistible Xbox 360 bundle. What's included is a premium Xbox 360, G.R.A.W, XBL Arcade: Unplugged, Ridge Racer 6, and our little gem Gears of War. The price is pretty nice and may make you want to slap yourself and call your pet salamander Sally. You get everything for the low, low Canadian price of $449.99. Better than playing hockey in the Summer and is just an all around good deal isn't it, eih?[Thanks, Randy]
Top 10 awful achievements
Let's face it, some 360 achievements are pretty difficult to get. Others are pretty easy. However, there are some that are too easy or too hard. And of course there are those that are just stupid (here's looking at you Kong). GamersReports has taken our distaste for crappy achievements and combined them with our love of easily digestible lists of information. The product of this peanut butter/chocolate creation? A top ten list of the worst achievements on the Xbox 360, of course! Even better, Joystiq went to the trouble of recreating this list, which we will delicately lift for our own personal gain. It's the American way. Behold: Mini-Games (Enter the Mini-Games mode); Madden 2007 Pyromaniac (Jack used fire to scare off enemies and get out of harm's way); King Kong The Graduate (Earn the highest score on every drill in Training Mode); Rockstar Table Tennis Tactical Instructor (Top marks in every Story Mode mission); Chromehounds Play Some Online (Compete in each of the online game modes at least once); Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006 Food Bank; Feeding Frenzy Game Master (Finish the entire game without continuing while using default settings); Smash TV Complete 99 Stages (standard mode); Bomberman: Act Zero Transmissionary (Answer all calls from Otis); Dead Rising World Champion (Multiplayer: Climb to the top of the universal leaderboard); GRAW Do you agree with this list? Any others you'd care to throw up there?[Via Joystiq]
New GRAW content deploying this month
Ubisoft has released details of the Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter premium content bundle planned for release this month on Xbox Live Marketplace. The package will include four new co-op missions, which also double as general multiplayer maps. In addition, Ubisoft is offering these four new maps, plus four original maps, for play in different times of the day (i.e. altered map lighting).The download will also feature five new weapons: the SR-25 SD sniper, M468 carbine, M468/M320 grenade-launcher mod, AK-47 LMG, and SCAR-H SV. Players will also have access to Canadian CADPAT and British DPM camouflage patterns, in addition to 4 new avatar faces. Ubisoft has not yet specified a price for the content bundle.
Havok vs AGEIA: the physics/PhysX showdown
We recently covered the hot topic of physics acceleration, and FiringSquad has gone one further, pitting AGEIA and Havok against each other in an interesting debate. As competitors are wont to do, the companies directly attack each other to a certain extent, but in other ways the arguments exemplify the CPU-GPU/PPU battle.A user comment sums it up: "Developers are unlikely to make gameplay dependent on the presence of a PPU until it's widely adopted. Until then it'll probably be limited to effects (and taking the gameplay physics load off the CPU)." As PPU adoption becomes more widespread, developers may embrace it, but we need developer support to make the case for adoption -- it's a vicious circle that AGEIA will have to break.To further fan the flames around physics acceleration, a source close to the DirectX steering committee has told Joystiq that Microsoft's DirectPhysics API may not be going ahead after all. Instead, Microsoft may approach a laissez-faire attitude and snap up whichever acceleration solution emerges as the winner.[Thanks, John]
Ageia PhysX card makes explosions look pretty
Ageia has posted two videos comparing an explosion in the PC version of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter on machines with and without the company's $300 hardware PhysX physics card. It's clear to see that the explosion is much more impressive on the PC with a PhysX card--the shrapnel and massive smoke cloud is entirely absent on the normal machine. However, there's some inconsistency in terms of the explosion's effect on the gameplay. In the video without the PhysX card the screen doesn't shake and a nearby soldier is unaffected by the blast. In the video with the PhysX card the screen shakes relatively violently and the soldier dies (although he's slightly closer to the blast). Of course its possible that the second video could have been tweaked to further differentiate the two machines' explosions, but if simple effects like a screen shake requires $250-300 worth of hardware it's not hard to envision a lot of pissed off gamers.[Update: fixed grammar error (moved over an apostrophe, added an "s")]
Metareview - G.R.A.W. (Xbox 360)
Any haters in the house? The early consensus (8 reviews, all 90% or above) suggests that Ubisoft's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for the Xbox 360 is going to become a prime target for Xbox-loathing fanboys who still think the 360 isn't next-gen. Will they find a kink in the armor? Or did the four-month delay allow Ubi to reach perfection? Here's a glimpse of the praise so far: GameSpot (92/100) - "Advanced Warfighter is the best-looking game to date on the Xbox 360, and it offers exceptional tactical shooting action to back up those great visuals." IGN (92/100) - "You'll be impressed with the stunning single-player game, and when you're done, you'll finally get to play long sessions on Xbox Live with an online game that's fully equipped to deliver a next-gen package. My advice, get this game..." Stuff (90/100) - "Advanced Warfighter on the 360 is so beautiful, we actually dry-humped our conference room TV set."
