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Welcome to another wonderful edition of X3F Achievements 101. Today's topics of discussion include Major Nelson's warning about gamesaving, sludging through the online multiplayer Achievements of Fuzion Frenzy 2, my experience thus far with Project Gotham Racing 4, and the rather annoying list of Achievements found in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Anyway, all the goodness that you've come to expect is included after the break.
Read MoreWelcome to another edition of the weekly Gamerscore whoring extravaganza, X3F Achievements 101. As usual, I'll discuss the latest in unlocking Achievements, or discuss any news that's especially pertinent to the Achievement obsessed. This week covers the painful to play, yet easy to complete Fuzion Frenzy 2, the near perfect list for Halo 3, and the just released Orange Box. All that and more is available after the break, so dive in.
Read MoreThis latest edition of X3F Achievements 101 is up for your perusal, and touches on the joys of traveling when having an Achievement streak to maintain, while at the same time exploring potential options to make it more viable, namely Live for Windows on Vista. I also talk about finishing up Shadowrun, commenter responses on "boosting", and my time with BioShock, as well as what quickies I've got lined up prior to the launch of Halo 3. All of this and more can be found after the break.
Read MoreThe fancy lads over at Eurogamer gave a good, hard look at Burnout Paradise, and how Criterion is focusing on the "seamless" gameplay. Given the open environment of Paradise City, where we suppose the grass is indeed green and the girls above average, there are plenty of opportunities to expand on the number of things to do beyond racing and crashing. Aided by the addition of a handbrake, Burners will be able to perform Power Parking, where if you see a space between two parks vehicles that you may be able to squeeze into, and hopefully you can pull it off without hitting the curb or their parked vehicles. It's the little things like that which give us a lot of hope for this iteration of the Burnout series. Check out the full scoop by clicking the "read" link.
Read MoreSo, as per our discussion before, I'm going to be in Toronto today, and want to throw down an X3F Meetup for any readers in the area. After perusing the comments of the announcement of it taking place on the 27th, (which is today), I decided to go with Lick's Ice Cream Burger Shop for our location. The address and contact info is readily available and we'd love to see you there. Meetup time is going to be starting around 7:45-8:00 PM ET. Hopefully we can have a good time and get some equally good grub. We'll see you there. Feel free to use comments here as a means to organize stuff amongst yourselves. Note: This story will be bumped periodically to keep it easily accessible.
Read MoreWe went to the Press only Hothead Games Q&A for their upcoming PC (Windows, Mac and Linux) game for Penny Arcade, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One. It opened up with a new trailer that built upon the previous one, that has taken huge steps in capturing the Penny Arcade look, in both the 2D and 3D realm. As they start showing the same demo on the show floor today, the trailer and gameplay footage will more than likely be hitting the intertubes soon so you can form your own opinions in the the progress of the art direction. After the trailer played the fired up their build of the game and started a new campaign. Full details on the demo and information from after the Q&A session can be found after the break.
Read MoreWhile 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.
Read MoreMS just sent out an announcement that Project Gotham Racing 4 will be arriving on October 2nd for the MSRP of $59.99. To sweeten the deal, the also announced some more vehicles in the game, both those with two wheels and four. Personal favorites at X3F Towers in the most recent bunch include the Ariel Atom 300 Supercharged, making a return since being introduced in PGR2, and getting "High Def'd" in PGR3. Since it would be boring to use some stock PGR4 logo as the image for the post, we're grabbing the Ariel's segment from Top Gear and spreading the love. Full list of announced vehicles after the break.
Read MoreGamestop has a funny video advertisement about moving on from Halo 2 to Halo 3, and bids farewell to various memorable locations in Halo 2's multiplayer maps, like the the indoor palm trees of Ivory Tower, or the sniper spot on Ascension. Fortunately, you won't have to say goodbye to the weird spinning fan thingy with no overt purpose of Zanzibar, as it returns in the form of Last Resort, and is shiny. The same can be said for Lockout which will be back as Guardian. All of that to say "buy teh Haloz."[Thanks, Magic Whiskey]
Read MoreOver at Xbox 360 Achievements, there are a slew of new Achievements listed for retail and arcade games alike. They have Two Worlds, Skate, which came straight from EA, Fatal Inertia, NHL 08, & Medal of Honor: Airborne. On the XBLA side of things, there is the cheaper of the two Arcade games that came out today, Space Giraffe, Fatal Fury Special and we're especially happy to see Sonic 2 make it there as well. A cool little reveal about Sonic 2 is that it will have online multiplayer, derived from the splitscreen multiplayer found in the Genesis version. So, those are plenty of lists for you to examine for your next target of 1000 or 200 Gamerscore. Retail: Read: Two Worlds Read: skate. Read: Fatal Inertia Read: NHL 08 Read: Medal of Honor: Airborne XBLA: Read: Space Giraffe Read: Fatal Fury Special Read: Sonic 2
Read MoreDuring the recording of this week's fancast, we were discussing BioShock's spectacular reviews scores thus far, and our special guest pointed out Sony Defense Force's take on the title. It was nice to see the journalist in question take a step back and look at the game for what it is, regardless of the platform the site specializes in. Time is taken to make accurate comparisons between the performance on the 360 as well as the potential differences found should BioShock ever run on the PS3. All in all, it was a good read, and nice to see an unbiased review that isn't afraid to point out BioShock's glaring flaws that take away from a potential immersive experience.Under the advisement of Heliophage: "Tee-hee-hee loljk guyz ^_^"
Read MoreHot off the wire is that this week is that we're in for another Xbox Live Arcade twofer this Wednesday, with the release of Space Giraffe, as well as Street Trace: NYC. The former of the titles is from Llamasoft, and designer Jeff Minter, featuring 100 levels of gameplay, and completing them unlocks a new game mode (as long as you have a high enough anal score). On the Street Trace side of things, you get get your fill of arena battles and racing across the futuristic wastelands of New York City, Marty McFly style. You have your choice of up to 8 player multiplayer over Live or 4 player splitscreen locally across the four arena stages. Space Giraffe will run you 400 MP and Street Trace clocks in at 800 Microsoft Points, and will be available 9:00 AM GMT or 2:00 AM PT and 5:00 AM ET. Update: Fixed price point for Space Giraffe.
Read MoreWow. Splitreason a clothing company that does gaming related apparel, just released "Achievement Locked" underwear for those of the female persuasion. They come in white, have a little "Achievement Locked" notification on the top left, and *ahem* look very nice. They come in at $12.95 and ship in two to five business days. We don't know about you, but this definitely gives new meaning to the term "Achievement Whore". Anyway, if you manage to unlock this one, you win. We got some model shots for you after the break, but obviously it may not be that safe for work.
Read MoreSo, as luck would have it, I'll be in Toronto immediately after PAX'07. My flight comes in around 4:30 PM ET, and that evening I'll be free to meetup with you readers. Unfortunately, Red Robin isn't as widespread as originally thought. It turns out there are only 18 in Canada, and much to my surprise, 14 of them are in British Columbia, which would explain how commonplace I thought they were. The other four are in Alberta which doesn't really help matters.What does this mean? This means I need your help figuring out a good place to wine and dine. As the people from the local meetup would recall, I'm a fan of good burger joints (and bottomless fries wherever possible). Any suggestions? Also, feel free to start "signing up" now, so I can organize an RSVP list. Either leave a comment with your attendence or eatery suggestion, or shoot me an email at david [at] xbox360fanboy [dot] com with the subject heading X3F@T.O. I look forward to seeing you there.
Read MoreThis past week had all three of Penny Arcade's comic had to do with 360 titles, namely Stranglehold's demo, BioShock's demo and street date breakery. Soft Targets gives insight into the Precision Tequila Bomb, and Gabe's definition of "headshot," and the Achievement that should be awarded for proficiency therein. Our Continuing Series is a public service announcement to parents and the dangers of their kids splicing with plasmids. Finally, A Dark Recipe goes to show the lengths at which Tycho would go to secure a copy of Bioshock before the street date, obviously he didn't hear about our contest.Read: Soft TargetsRead: Our Continuing SeriesRead: A Dark Recipe
Read MoreJade chimed in on the Xbox Canada thread about X07 still hitting America Jr. this year. She confirmed that it was taking place in Toronto, Ontario on August 28th, and is giving community members an opportunity to attend. As of 5:00 PM ET (aka now), you can email jade@microsoft.com with your name, address, email address and gamertag. There are only a limited number of spots so you may want to act fast. If any readers here at X3F get, or already have invites be sure to let us know in the comments section.
Read MoreThe boys over at Xbox 360 Achievements came across a startling discovery, there is a second page on Xbox.com that has a set of Halo 3 Achievements that are all Secret Achievements. Now, if you take a look at the Gamerscore values, they are all consistent with the list of visible Achievements. Based on that, as well as the fact that there have been recent updates to images and meta game point requirements in the readable list, we feel this is either a glitch in the system more than Bungie trying to pull a fast one on Achievement Whores.
Read MoreOver on the Xbox Canada forums, there is a thread confirming that there will be an X07 Canada taking place this year, as opposed to its European brethren . Last year, X06 came to Canada for the first time, and was held in Toronto, Ontario, and was significantly smaller than the one in Barcelona, but it was nice to have some semblance of the event represented in North America. Unfortunately, there isn't any word of where or when it is taking place in the post, but it is said to be "invite only" this time around.Update: Xbox Canada's Jade sent us a message saying the Canada has been having X0 events since 2002, and that X06 was the first time it was opened to the public, and was merely a media event up to that point.
Read More300 is on Xbox Live Video Marketplace for Live members in the U.S. It's available in both Standard Definition and High Definition, the HD rental weighing in at 5.3 GB. Really, that's all we gotta say about it. Er ... go download it now? Seriously though, it's really an epic film that we enjoyed in theatres, and having the HD DVD allows us to appreciate the quality of its digitally distributed cousin.[Thanks, J.R.]
Read MoreBeautiful Katamari's demo just landed on Marketplace and has been rolling up a storm. At first, it was available on a recent OXM demo disc, but now it is available for the whole world Canada, America, and Mexico (read: North America) to download. It weighs in at just under 435 MB, so it's not going to break the disk space bank, although X3F reader Magic Whiskey tells us that it's also on the short side, but enough to get the premise of the game. Give it a download and tell us what you think.
Read MoreX3F Reader and Best Buy employee Zathu hit us up with some sage wisdom for those hunting down HDMI capable Xbox 360s. According to Zathu, his store got a fresh batch of them, and noticed that they have their own SKU and UPC, and anyone can simply ask their local Best Buy if they have SKU 8493838 in stock. He also notes that they should have a seperate price tag denoting the HDMIness of the console for easy pick'ns. That should assist any of you looking to get your hands on one.[Thanks, Zathu]
Read MoreMajor Nelson gives word that Guitar Hero II has another track pack available on Marketplace. This time, though, it's not a rehash of Guitar Hero I songs, but actually a band themed packed full of master tracks. Sounds too good to be true, right? Precisely, as it still costs 500 Microsoft Points, which is not as bad for fresh content, and the band in question is My Chemical Romance. Now, we've had a couple of rants about reader response to anything involving MCR and their 360, and expect to see more of the same here. In any case, the songs in the pack are "Famous Last Words," "This is How I Disappear," and "Teenagers." Now, remember that it's down the road, and not across the street.
Read MoreWe just got word from Microsoft that this Wednesday we'll be treated to an XBLA twofer, Hexic 2, and Ecco the Dolphin. Hexic 2 will feature new formations, such as "lines" as the Achievements would suggest, new pieces, and a head to head multiplayer mode. Fortunately Alexey Pajitnov, who made the original Hexic, as well as Tetris, had his hand in this sequel, so fans should feel right at home. Ecco will also be available as part of the SEGA Vintage Collection, and will have Leaderboards for "Best Times" for the levels and enhanced sound and graphics. No official announcement on the pricing, but if you wanted our "professional" opinion, Hexic 2 will go for 800 Microsoft Points, and Ecco at half that price. Update: Prices confirmed on Gamerscoreblog.
Read MoreWelcome to another edition of X3F Achievements 101, and this week we touch on some of the builds used in Shadowrun while getting the Achievements for playing 100 matches as each race, and the fun found in being a Katan00b, though scoring bleed outs takes far more skill that just mashing the right trigger on your enemy and hoping for a kill. I also dabbed into the multiplayer portion of The Darkness, and scored some Achievements in that, as well as finally getting some overdue ones in the game's single player story. All of this and more can be found after the break.
Read MoreGamersyde has some scans of Halo 3 from the latest Famitsu magazine. The text is pretty much all in Japanese though we expect few of you to notice as it's surrounded by pretty pictures. Shown across the seven (Ha!) scans are some campaign missions, armor permutations, weapons, equipment, and multiplayer levels. Most of these have been seen before in some form or another, but any Halo 3 news is good Halo 3 news, even if we don't get to play the Epsilon build.[Thanks, DjDATZ]
Read MoreGamersyde has a slew of new images of Battlefield: Bad Company. We haven't heard much on Bad Company short of a few screenshots since the trailer hit Marketplace back in February. These new shots are all pretty slick, showing off the characters, hum-vees, helicopters, weapon models, and some spiffy explosions and destructible environments. It's looking very pretty and we can't wait until we get more details on how well it plays. Check out the screens after the jump. [Thanks, Brian LQbano]
Read MoreUpdate: x360a has the pictures for the list in case you're interested.MyGamercard.net got their hands on the Achievement list for Crash of the Titans (which explains the slightly jumbled headline) today. The list seems to point at completing various tasks throughout the story, with some extra stuff thrown in for beating the game on the Hard difficulty and earning Gold Idols on all the levels on hard. Hopefully the Achievements will be retroactive so those who want to tackle those can get the other ones at the same time. There are also 5 secret Achievements which account for 75 Gamerscore. In total there are 47 Achievements for the standard 1000 Gamerscore.
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