Long Weekend

So I've been working slowly through the single-player portion of Singularity and I'll have to say I'm digging the atmosphere. This game reminds me a lot of Bioshock, with the dark-creepy atmosphere. I really dig the time-line flashbacks that are presented in-game. I think that's a really good touch to present story elements in a way that flows with the overall story and atmosphere of the game. As far as the achievements, it seems like they almost left checkpoints in that the testers exploited for the weapon based achievements. Almost all of the achievements for gun-specific kill counts can be performed at almost the next checkpoint after you get the weapon. All you have to do is restart checkpoint to your hearts content and grind them out. Some of these can even be done the instant you get the gun (here's looking at you Drive By).

Overlooking that slight ability to cheapen some of the achievements, the game throws them at you pretty liberally in the single-player portion, and there are several story based achievements, a handful of collectibles, and a few miss-able ones. A pretty good mix I must say. I'm not sure what the multiplayer population is for this game, so I doubt I'll get many (if any) of those before this one goes out for trade on Goozex.

Blogging Catchup

So, I've been behind on my blogging duties the last few days. But I've notched up several achievements over the weekend and the past few days. I started working on some multiplayer achievements in Red Dead Redemption in a quest to help some fellow True Achievement users. I also started knocked several achievements out in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. I've had this game for a while, and just pop it in from time to time when I feel like playing an easy relaxing game. I also just started working on Limbo via the 3 pack - LIMBO, Trials HD, Splosion Man disc I got from Gamefly. This game is freaking awesome and I know I'm WAY late to the party on this one, but it's still great none-the-less.

Steaming Pile

Well You Don't Know Jack Jack Pack 3 DLC is in the books. So now all that remains is waiting around until July 4th to get Turncoat legitimately. I don't know why I feel so strongly about doing that achievement legit, I guess because the game came out with ample time to try and do this one legit I didn't see the need to date-glitch it. Also, since JP3 just came out, and it's only a month or so until this can be done legit, I'll just wait. I've got a few other games I need to make some significant progress on, and get off of my gaming shelf.

You Don't Know Jack

So I knocked out the You Don't Know Jack Pack 2 DLC last night, and I wake up this morning to see Jack Pack 3 is released! Hooray! So this game can now actually be completed if you want to jump in your time machine to get the "Turncoat" achievement. I still plan to get this legit on 7/4/11, so this game may end up being completion #51, or I might get one or two in before July 4th rolls around.

I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to tackle next. It is currently a toss up between Enslaved: Odyssey To The West, Singularity, Darksiders, or doing Portal 2 co-op. To be truthful, it will probably be all of them in some sort of rotation over the next couple of weeks. I'm currently trying to get to 115,000 gamerscore by July 1st, as well as getting to 160,000 TrueAchievement score by the same day. So not only do I need to pick up about 60 gamerscore per day from now until then, I have to pick up some challenging achievements too so that the TA ratio doesn't drop too fast and erode any progress on the TA score front.

Space Channel 5: Ulala?

So finishing up the games in the Dreamcast Collection that I had a desire to play, lead me to attempting a Space Channel 5: Part 2 run. Man, I just could not get the hang of the timing windows in this game. I never played this game back on the Dreamcast, so I can't say if this version is harder than the original, but the True Achievements ratio shows it's been difficult for more gamers than myself.

I did, however, near completion #51 on SEGA: Bass Fishing. I might have entertained a completion if I had not needed to grind out about 236 more catches. I did manage to nab all of the achievements except the catch 500 fish one, so I feel pretty good about that.

Crazy Taxi was completed for completion #50, as well, and to be perfectly honest that game seems a lot harder than it is to 100%. When I first started the Crazy Box challenges I questioned my ability to play Crazy Taxi. I think I could complete that whole challenge section in one sitting after learning the tricks, and more specifically, how to properly execute a Limiter Cut. That is definitely the key to finishing stage S-S.

Amazing Driver

After as much trouble as I had reacquainting myself with the controls to Crazy Taxi (courtesy of the Dreamcast Collection), I did not expect to knock out section 3 of the Crazy Box as well as all but the last Special section last night. This looks like a really good candidate for completion #50 this weekend, as all I have is the lap around the city to finish off (as well as maybe grinding out a few games to unlock the avatar shirt for 5 hours of gameplay).

Crazy Taxi & Bass Fishing

So I started chipping away at some of the games on the Dreamcast Collection last night, and I got about half-way through the Crazy Box challenges in Crazy Taxi. Man, does this make me wish for a Jet Grind Radio port to the XBOX along with some Chu-Chu Rocket. I spent hours back in the Dreamcast days playing Crazy Taxi, Jet Grind Radio, Chu-Chu Rocket and Ready to Rumble. I never did play much of SEGA Bass Fishing, but I tackled the arcade mode on the XBOX last night unlocking 3 achievements there. I'm not sure if I'll complete either of these games, Crazy Taxi is the closest as I'll only have to knock out two more sections of the Crazy Box, and Bass Fishing requires a "catch 500 fish" grind for one achievement. Anyway, this disc collection can be found pretty darn cheap right now, and you get 4 decent XBLA titles it's definitely worth checking out.

112,000+ & Matt Hazard laid to rest

So I finally knocked out the story in Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazzard, and this was a pretty decent game. Probably a little cheap in places on the Maximum Hazard difficulty, but using the code to unlock that difficulty is the only reason I got all three difficulty achievements. If I had unlocked that difficulty the normal way I doubt I would have done a second play-through.

Lunacy

So I finished Portal 2's single player over the weekend, and I still hold to my previous comments. Portal was such a better game all around. I felt they drug out the game-play maybe an hour and a half too long with the "story". The ending felt contrived and out of place considering the rest of the game. It was a good game, just not the great game some people were making it out to be.

I tried to get my wife into some of the split-screen co-op with me, but after a few puzzles she hit me with "Is this all it is? This is boring..." and "is she [GLaDOS] going to talk the whole time?"

This is from someone who doesn't play a lot of hardcore games, but sees me play plenty of games. She wasn't even that interested in the story or the game play. I'm sure I am in the minority still, but this game is far from Game-of-the-Year material, and I really hope that is evident by the time those lists roll around.

I'm not Cave Johnson

I picked up Portal 2 on sale this week and started in on the single player almost immediately. I have to say, while the game is good, it's just not the same as the Portal we all loved from The Orange Box. Things feel a bit too "on-rails" versus the first game. The jokes seem forced in some areas, and even though I'm not done with the single player, I just don't think I am going to be as satisfied as I was with the original game upon completion. Hopefully the co-op addition can make up for that, most people have suggested it does.