Kinect Fun Labs completed

The gadgets contained in Kinect Fun Labs are awesome little examples of what the technology can do. My only complaint is about the somewhat repetitive nature of the achievements, which turned into somewhat of a grind to get the full 200 for all four gadgets. I'm not really sure what else I will start on next, a lot of real-life things are starting to cut into my gaming time, but hopefully I can continue to sneak in some time for gaming at night. The achievement posts may not come as quickly as I'm not really chasing achievements so much as I'm just playing some games for fun, and if I get some points that's just a bonus. I looked over the achievements for Duke Nukem Forever, and while that game is currently getting panned pretty hard by the critics, I will probably pick it up as soon as someone drops the price down into the $30 range. I will be playing it for mainly nostalgia sake, but I have to say I applaud Gearbox for not putting in any obvious multi-player only achievements in that list.

Singularity completed, Kinect Labs started

So I finished up Singularity last week before I had to travel for a few days for work. Great game. I really wish I had gotten into this game before the multiplayer community died, I would have liked to check out those modes. Since I couldn't ever get into a game I simply traded the game away and didn't worry with completing the achievements for this game.

Kinect Fun Labs. Wow, four mini games with 50 gamerscore each. An easy, and free, 200 with only a few "grindy" ones. I finished up Kinect Me, which was pretty accurate considering my lighting issues that my Kinect has always complained about, is a fun little photo-booth style app that scans your face and clothing into an Avatar-like body. Googly Eyes lets you scan objects in and make puppets that you can put googly eyes on, and make little videos to share. Build A Buddy is similar, but you make little "buddies" that you don't puppet around the app.

These games are great little tech demos to show off the power of the Kinect. However, with releasing some titles that are now giving away only 50 gamerscore, is it now the time to start clamoring for Xbox Live Indie Games getting the same ability for their paid versions? Fifty gamerscore seems like a good amount to allow these independent developers to have, and only in the paid versions.

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.

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.

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.

The Final Table

So after finally getting my head around the fact that I can't play normal poker hands in the last pro-takedown tournament in Full House Poker, I got the Final Table achievement to pop last night on my fifth attempt. Just a little tip that I found helped me, as soon as the game starts pause the game and select sit-out. Walk away for about 15-20 minutes. You will post blinds and fold out of every hand. This helps you let the AI take each other out, and when you come back you should have 3 or 4 open seats. This is a good time to come in and start playing "poker". You will want to call basically every hand. By doing this you should be able to use a few other strategies against the AI and walk away with the victory pretty easy. The AI will hang play Ace-rag hands a lot, and they seriously overvalue any pair they get. You can tell what they have if they bet anything over half of the pot, they have a strong hand. If they are betting minimums, they have nothing and if you have any sort of hand keep playing them. You will have to re-raise them continually to get any sort of decent pot, and sometimes they will even fold out at this point. One other thing to keep in mind, if they ever check on the turn or river card (and a straight draw is on the table) pop out a small minimum bet. If they come back with a re-raise get out of there as they have a huge hand. I won lots of hands with low pairs and low two pair hands, and once I started using these strategies instead of regular poker strategies I cam out a winner. If you haven't unlocked it previously, you will also unlock Rollin' as the pay-out for winning this tournament is 500,000 credits.

Another Ambush!

Movie tie-in games, what to say? However, Megamind: Ultimate Showdown happens to be one of the better ones I have played. While the game is clearly geared toward the younger generation of gamers, it actually is a pretty decent platformer. While the boss fights seem to get easier as the game goes on, it is constantly throwing achievements at you for simply playing the game. The only tricky achievements are the boss fight ones that require you to not die during the encounter, and even these are not that difficult. In fact, I managed to get through almost all of the last boss without taking ANY damage.

The game is relatively short (approximately 5 hours to complete the game), so it is definitely a rental over a purchase in my opinion. There is essentially no replay value (unless you have little ones) and there are several noticeable areas where the game could have used a little more polish. Overall I would rate this game as GOOD (borrowing from Stallion83's scale).