X3F Achievements 101: Star Power, Summon, Strangle, & Sniping

While a little later than usual, there's another wonderful X3F Achievements 101 for you this week. A first for the column, a reader organized a gaming session in Shadowrun, and the latest downloadable content for Guitar Hero II threw some Achievements that are now easier to get, if you're willing to pay for the content. We're also testing out a new timeslot, posting the column at the tail end of the work week instead of at the beginning. So, continue on to another action packed Achievements 101.

Guitar Hero II has been getting some side play time from me, and I've made some serious progress since I picked it up again. First off, I recently played finished off the Hard Career, which I've been capable of, but actually put off for when I needed it. In terms of 5 stars on songs, I recently seemed to cross some threshold for the earlier songs 5-star cutoff when being able to complete later songs. At the moment I'm sitting at about 26 of 48 songs rated at 5 stars, with at least 10 of which I achieved within the last fortnight.

The new My Chemical Romance Pack also allowed for two other Achievements that I had previously not unlocked become readily available. Particularly on the song "Famous Last Words", you can get the 400k Club Achievement on Hard with moderate ease. On Medium, the song has 1038 notes, so you can nail the Yngwie Malmsteen Award if you haven't already gotten it. Those still working on their 5 stars should check out Score Hero's 5 star cutoffs, which show the minimum point value required for the rating, based off of user submissions.

Currently, in Shadowrun, I'm sitting at 990/1000, with only the Human Player Achievement left in my crosshairs. My current Human build is based more on just having fun than playing seriously. Enhanced Vision and Teleport are my primary purchases, with Tree and Rez lower priorities. When I can afford it I like to grab a Sniper Rifle and have at it, even though I got the Achievement for the weapon last week while still as the Elf. If the guys at FASA did one thing right, it's the sniping. Either way, I'm at the very least, a third done my 100 games as a Human and should have a full 1000 shortly.

Last week, I tried a little experiment in the public games, I wanted to see how well a party could boost while in a Public match. At first I started off small, with a lone friend, Kodiak 1080, who just so happened to be a Vista player, and a simple 5 kill Achievement, Master Gardener, which required your weapon to be Strangle. The plan was simple, find a game where we were seperated, go in Private Chat, and co-ordinate our rendezvous accordingly, considering it a bonus should he be rezzed in the same round. The Strangle kills were easy to come by, especially on Temple Grounds, as we'd meet inside the temple where the Artifact spawns in Attrition, which was out of the way of the other pesky players during the Raid match.

Once the Strangle kills were complete, we decided to finish off the Sniper Achievement, which was easy since he was visible only a few steps from his spawn, and was likely to get rezzed. Needless to say, it went swimmingly, since not only did he supply me with excessive sniper kills, the rest of his RNA team were like fish in a Barrel. At the end of the match I got both my Sniper Achievement, which I had been working on with my Elf, as well as the Master Gardener which was taken care of in the first few rounds.

Kodiak continued the same technique, only using minion kills towards my Summoner spell, all the while inching closer to Mine is the Superior Platform, as he was on Vista. We'd both cheer when after my minion was finished with him, I'd go off and cast Summon in another firefight and and have Behemoth (or whomever) score some more kills for me. After a while, we took it a step further. Our party had doubled in size, and we still aimed to split the group. So long as Kodiak and I were seperated, we'd go forth, find a secluded area, my Minion would Kodiak, he'd get rezzed by the second opponent, die again, then the minion would kill the rezzer. This gathered far more attention in the Public Matches, and more often than not, one of the teams would vote to boot a party member. But we eventually got Summoner.

This past Sunday, a column reader, MIKEYT85 organized a Private Match to get the Mine is the Superior Platform Achievement, since he had both Vista and a 360, as well as 2 Gamertags so he could play on both platforms simultaneously. I asked if we could use this opportunity to tie up some loose ends on my side of things, to which he agreed. I already finished up Mine is the Superior Platform with Kodiak that morning, but needed a few stragglers, such as 3 for the Price of 1, Master Theif, Healer, and Godlike. We even had Dan Landeck a.k.a. Xx d04 xX, who was a guest on our fancast come in and get some as well as help out. It all went without a hitch and I extend my thanks to Mike and everyone who assisted in the Godlikes, Healers and triple 'nade kills.

So, that wraps up this week in Achievements 101. This next week will require plenty of Achievement Jujitsu as I head off to PAX and then off to Toronto. It shouldn't be too hard, but I wouldn't doubt that there will be something worth talking about. As such, the next column will probably be hitting on Friday as well. As always, feel free to contact me with regards to any Achievement endeavors such as Mike's get up, suggestions, comments or questions with the info below.

Email: david [at] xbox360fanboy [dot] com | Subject: Achievements
MSN: knuckles_dawson@hotmail.com | AIM: Knuckles Dawson
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