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Two Worlds Achievements revealed
Upcoming Online RPG Two Worlds had its 41 Achievements revealed today, at IGN, of all places. Either way it seems to be the standard fair of objectives. At the very least, one would have to agree that it certainly seems far more obtainable than Final Fantasy XI's current set. Also worth noting is the final Achievement of "Defeated the Grand Enemy" has the second third highest Gamerscore worth of 370 points, next Madden NFL 06's "Complete 30 Years of Franchise", for 400 GS, and 2006 FIFA World Cup's "Complete all Scenarios", a 500-pointer. Are you going to be unlocking away next month in Two Worlds?
Achievements revealed: Ratatouille, DiRT and more
Yesterday, Xbox360Achievements.org posted complete achievement lists for a few upcoming games including family friendly Ratatouille and the messy DiRT. Ratatouille offers a bunch of objective based achievements with nothing overly spectacular, except for the "Beat Hoisting the Hefty Weight" which caught our eye. DiRT's achievements are rather bland too, nearly a yawn-fest until we spotted the "First Clean Race" achievement. That achievement will be impossible for those of us who like to play dirty. Also, take a gander through Aegis Wing's achievements and focus on getting a few friends together to earn the "Epic Warrior" achievement. Hooking up four players has never been so rewarding. Read - Ratatouille Achievements Read - DiRT Achievements Read - Aegis Wing Achievements
Forza 2 achievement details race in
While waiting for a certain demo to drop we advise giving the Forza 2 achievements a look over. Over at Achieve360Points they posted a complete list of all 44 in all their glory, including four secretly secret achievements. And we must say, our favorites have to be the "All Cars From" achievements for France, Korea and Spain. Those achievements are only worth one little gamerscore point ... we guess foreign cars aren't cool enough to have a normal amount of gamerscore points. Though, we have mad respect for the "All Cars From Sweden" achievement, they must have lobbied hard for their gamerscore worth.[Thanks, DjDATZ]
Shadowrun Achievements pinged by Enhanced Vision
Matt Webster, better known as "fall" in the Shadowrun community, played the retail version of the game, revealing the Achievements to the world. Overall, they seem pretty balanced, actually encouraging players to give various magic, races and weapons their due play time. The cool thing is because of the lack of ranked matches, unless specified, you'll be able to get Achievements in private games with your friends. We all know how difficult the alternative can be. On top of that we've got 6 Secret Achievements, including the lone one worth 100 Gamerscore. So, Training Levels aside, what do you plan on trying to unlock first?
Eets Achievements edibly available
Yesterday, to go along with the announcement of the double header Wednesday with Eets: Chowdown and Pinball FX, the guys over at Xbox 360 Achievements uncovered all the Achievements for Eets: Chowdown, while having had Pinball FX's set for a while now. So go ahead and take a quick peek and what you'll be shooting for in the puzzle game. We're kinda craving a Double Marshoburger ourself. That being said we're kind of curious why "Smoreland" is worth 0 Gamerscore. Anyway, the game looks promising, will you be playing it tomorrow?
Finally, Halo 2 Vista achievements revealed
Even though Halo 3 is heading to the Xbox 360 this Fall, PC gamers will just be getting their first taste of Halo 2 next month. And, as an added bonus, those PC gamers who buy Halo 2 on Vista will get something Xbox gamers didn't, achievements. MyGamerCard.net discovered all 41 achievements for Halo 2 Vista that range from progressing in the single player campaign to all kinds of multiplayer honors. Overall, we think the achievements are pretty average and in some cases a tad unbalanced, but there is a wide variety so we can't complain too much. Take a look at Bungie's first foray into the achievement world, make the jump for the full list of Halo 2 Vista achievements.
IM coming to Xbox 360, keyboard accessory this summer
Alright, so Gamespot's leakier than a colander full of swiss cheese, but now we've got the official details (from Microsoft this time) on what's included in the upcoming Xbox 360 Spring Dashboard update, due in one month beginning the week of May 7th. Integrating the 6 million Xbox Live users with the 260 million Windows Live Messenger users stands at the core of the upcoming update, allowing Xbox 360 users to communicate with up to six of their PC, Mac, or mobile phone bound friends at once.To aid gamers in their instant messaging, Microsoft is also preparing a keyboard accessory for the Xbox 360 controller, which will connect via the headphone jack. The un-named, un-priced, and un-dated device, which currently exists only in the pristine renderings contained in the gallery below, is reportedly due "this summer." In the interim, an on-screen or USB keyboard will do the trick.Also included in the Spring update: a new Achievement pop-up that displays the name and associated gamerscore value; a separate Xbox Live Marketplace blade to help organize the perpetually overcrowded service; the ability to begin watching incomplete video downloads; and a new auto-off function to put that system to sleep after it's done downloading. Oh, and Major Nelson's favorite new feature? Yup, the Dashboard will finally list what game is loaded in the disc tray. No more trial and error![Update: Xbox.com has been updated with a fairly repetitive list highlighting some additional features of the new update, including H.264 and MPEG-4 Part 2 video support (hrm?), WM-DRM streaming, the (now more informative) tray icon displays achievements and gamerscore for that game, and Xbox 1 games "show the name and image of the game."] Engadget has some additional details on the keyboard accessory, including the unfortunate news that the device prohibits the use of existing headsets and will come with its own.]%Gallery-2485%
Is Guitar Hero breakin' the law? Breakin' the law?
If Game Stooge had its way, these guys wouldn't be the only ones with Guitar Hero-related legal woes. It may be a little hard to swallow, but a recent editorial on the site makes the assertion that having to unlock songs in the game before you can play them is an illegal practice -- "quite illegal".The piece insists that the reward for mastering hot licks should not be the rest of the game, but bonuses like the achievements system of Xbox 360. Although Game Stooge doesn't say so, it's an argument that could be extrapolated to most games, which often require completing one stage before playing the next. It's here that the plot sort of gets lost, when Game Stooge suggests that advertising more features than are immediately available is actually illegal. The idea is almost kind of cute, like your mom suing you for not honoring the "Good for 10,000 World-Class Backrubs" coupon you made her when you were seven.But before Game Stooge proves that there's nothing more rock 'n' roll than an understanding of the legal system gleaned from Phoenix Wright, does the editorial have a point? If you buy a game, should you be able to do whatever you want with it from the word "go"? Or should you, like a young Stevie Ray Vaughn, have to play until your calluses fall off and then glue them back on?[Update: The Law of the Game, new kid on the sparsely populated legal video game blog block, tackles the GameStooge editorial, with real-sounding legal terminology. You go, Matlock!]
Spider-Man 3 catches Achievements, akin to flies
The sleuths over at Xbox 360 Achievements uncovered the Achievement list for May's Spider-Man 3. Looking over the list, it seems to cover all the free-roaming and mission based aspects of the game, similar to Crackdown, but in an SM context. A cool thing we're seeing for the first time is a secret achievement that is simply listed as one in the details that isn't actually "hidden". Our guess is that it has to do with the symbiote costume and/or your actions with it. So, we leave you with three queries. First, are you looking forward to going through the trick races and completing all the side quests for some Gamerscore goodness. Second, why does the gamer in question not have the "Master Web Swinger" Achievement if he's got the preceding and following ones? Finally, does the tendency for Spider-Man films and movies releasing in May have anything to do with the title character's Aunt?
Kongregate announces achievements and microtransactions for online Flash games
Flash gaming community Kongregate recently announced a few Xbox Live-ish upgrades to be rolled out over the next few months. Starting today, time-limited achievements will be available for select games. The current challenge for The Fancy Pants Adventure requires you to collect five trophies within the game and rewards you with a collectible Rumiko card. Gather cards to participate in the site-wide multiplayer game Kongregate will unveil in a few weeks.And coming this summer: microtransactions! Developers are working with Kongregate to weave this into their titles to allow in-game purchases. One use for this system will be unlocking extended versions of games for just a few pennies per level. Most of the microtransaction earnings are paid to the game's programmer, adding incentive for developers to hop on the unlockable-content bandwagon.Kongregate is setting itself up to be the most developer-friendly Flash community on the web. It's an easy hook for developers, but will the casual gamer get pulled in by microtransactions and collecting achievements?
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]
Halo 2 Achievements for Vista
In a recent blog entry by Hired Gun, the MGS team responsible for bringing Halo 2 for Vista posted recently regarding the 41 Achievements the game will have. They cover the easy ones and the difficult ones the put in, from sticking your first enemy in multiplayer to killing someone who beat the game on Legendary to playing through the single player campaign without dying, although they didn't specify the difficulty required. Interestingly enough Silver members, while able to play multiplayer in Halo 2 Vista, they won't be able to unlock Achievements online or use the matchmaking, while Gold members get the full course. So, do you plan on taking your Xbox 360 account over to the land of mouse and keyboard to get Halo 2 Achievements?
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.
Crackdown co-op achievements explained
It wasn't long ago that our lovable Dustin Burg encountered some problems gaining achievements while playing a co-op session of Crackdown. He was able to gain certain achievements, but achievements for removing gang leaders were not earned. Additionally, gang leaders he had killed during co-op reappeared during the single player campaign. We received an official comment from Microsoft regarding this issue. Basically, the company line goes like this: when players enter a co-op session, they are essentially entering the friend's version of Pacific City. Individual achievements can be gained during co-op, but gang related achievements cannot. This was done to prevent one player from doing all the work and essentially giving the achievements to the other player. So, there you have it fanboys. If you want gang achievements, you'll have to make sure you're hosting. While this will no doubt irk poor Dustin (you should hear him rail in the latest Fancast) at least it explains the issue.
Possible Crackdown co-op achievement problems
If you've been playing Crackdown co-op style, then we need your input. After playing co-op with a friend the last two nights we noticed a problem with the achievements in the game. The problem arose when I was invited to a co-op Crackdown session, which was easy enough. Hours went by, we were leveling up our characters, earning achievements for such deeds, and even picked up the "Double Trouble" achievement. It was bliss until we killed every gang member in Los Muertos. My friend (who was hosting the game) unlocked two achievements, both the "Los Muertos Intel Master" and "Los Muertos Cleanser". But there was a problem, I didn't receive any achievements. We then exited the game, I started a solo campaign by myself and noticed that all the progress I made in co-op with my friend was remembered except for how many gang members we found/killed. My agent's skill levels were retained, all agility orbs remembered, and even the supply points were marked as located. But it still showed that I haven't killed or found any of the 21 gang members and therefore haven't earned those corresponding achievements. So fanboys, do you have a similar story or is this a weird one-off incident? Have you been playing co-op and earning achievements pertaining to taking down the gangs and its members? I've sent out a query to the powers that be and hopefully we will get some answers, because playing co-op and not earning certain achievements is ridiculous. Again, any information from you guys would help to get this issue figured out.
Cowabunga! TMNT achievements uncovered
Those busy bees over at Xbox 360 Achievements discovered all of the achievements for upcoming Ninja Turtles game TMNT. Getting all 1000 gamerscore points doesn't look all that hard either, because simply beating the game will get you 800 points. Also, it looks like Ubisoft decided to not make all the achievements have a nice rounded gamerscore point total, opting for annoying ambiguous numbers. And overall, these are still pretty lackluster achievements with no creative flair ... hopefully they put a little more thought into the game than they did into its achievements.[Thanks, Peter J]
The real Achievement limit is 60
Back on Thursday, we reported how in an MTV interview, David Jones of Real Time Worlds said that they had a part in changing the total Achievements limit to 80 from 50. Then, of Friday we told you about Aaron Greenberg talking about more Achievement rules on Major Nelson's podcast for that week. Well, it turns out that he also touches on the Achievement limit and it doesn't coincide with what David Jones stated in the interview. According to Greenberg, the new Achievement limit is 60, not 80, which is what Oblivion will have after the release of the Shivering Isles expansion. So either Jones was embelishing the increase, or Aaron didn't get the memo at the time of recording. None the less, we here at Fanboy Towers wanted to set the record straight and give you all the facts on this new policy.
GRAW 2 Achievements revealed
360Monster held a contest in which the winner would spend a day with Ubisoft and get some hands on time with GRAW 2. Winner "Phatmuther" took some pictures of the 43 Achievements available for the game, and there are a few cool ones, and thankfully no sign of any world ranking based Achievements. The list seems pretty balanced between multiplayer, co-op and single player based goals. The coolest one we have a description for is "Ultimate Defender" where you have to win a 60 minute Co-Op Defend match. Full list and select descriptions can be found by clicking the "Read" link. Pictures from the event are also available for your viewing.
Real Time Worlds has MS raise total Achievement limit
When David Jones of Real Time Worlds was looking at the ideas for Achievements for Crackdown, they had at around 200 or so to choose from. Jones said he wanted to just reward gamers for doing what they do best, having fun. When Microsoft told them they were allowing a total of 50, David felt that would cripple the whole concept of how they were going to approach the game's Achievements. So, when Microsoft recently altered their policy on Gamerscore, they also moved the total Achievements to 80 at Real Time Worlds' request. This gave Crackdown some breathing room with the upcoming 100 and potential 250 Gamerscore add-ons. Hopefully with proper feedback, their new content will be as fun and fulfilling as the current list. What Achievements would you want to see on top of the current set in Crackdown?
Xbox Rewards Revamped [update 1]
Due to issues with the servers overloading at the Xbox Rewards site, the guys at GamerscoreBlog announced that they would be extending the Old Spice Challenge to April 15th. This gives you an extra month three days to rack up your Gamerscore by 1,500 and they even added supply to the rewards so that more gamers can win. When we got word that the policy had been updated, there were brief hopes of broadening the access to the program, but given how much traffic they're getting, that obviously was not the case. Still, they say the site will be back up and running within the next 48 hours. If you haven't gotten in already, are you going to try now that the rules have been amended?[Thanks PacoDG]Update: Barbie says "Math is hard."
