Filed by matt on Friday, August 22, 2008 at 10:17 pm

I have accomplished something for the first time – I collected all 50 achievements and 1,000 gamerscore from Lego Indiana Jones.

As I have mentioned before I am not motivated by achievements but this did feel pretty good. What set this game apart was that all achievements were, forgive me, achievable. I didn’t have to play through the whole game 5 times or drive every road on the island or kill a member of the design team online. Helping me in my quest was the intertubes with walk-throughs and lists of all the achievements. It would have been more meaningful if I had gotten it all without the assistance but I am at peace with it. I didn’t use any cheat codes to skip anything. I earned it all – just with a map telling me exactly how to get there when I got stuck.

Filed by matt on Saturday, May 31, 2008 at 5:49 pm

I bought, played, and finished the Penny Arcade game, On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode 1. I quite enjoyed it. I talked to Tycho a few weeks ago at a convention and he said it was a cross between adventure and RPG games in the vein of earlier Final Fantasy. I nodded along but having never played that series of games it really didn’t mean anything. It took me a few rounds of combat to get the hang of how it worked but once I “got it” I really enjoyed it. I found the play length ok and wasn’t put off at all by the $20 cost that others are bitching about. Their response to the cost issue makes sense to me – there’s a free demo – if you don’t like the demo no one’s making you buy the game.

The other notable event was that I actually got 9 of 12 achievements, or 75%. That’s pretty much unheard of for me and I’m very impressed with myself. I did have to consult an online guide for two spots I got stuck in – the last pair of FFs and the penultimate boss dude – I hadn’t fully grokked he wasn’t in the area I was looking.

A fully enjoyable game and I look forward to the sequels. 

Filed by Richard on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 at 7:15 pm

Having just finished the full story of Grand Theft Auto IV, I’m left with clear conclusion that Rockstar does not care a whit about Xbox Achievements. When was the last time you spent 35 hours completing the basic storyline of a game and only earn 135 out of 1000 possible points?

Yup, you read that right. You only get 135 points total points for completing GTA IV’s story mission; a few random achievements here and there and then 60 points for finishing the whole thing off.

Make no mistake, GTA IV is a giant game, with more opportunities to spread around the achievement love than any other game, ever. With a new multiplayer component, and dozens of possible side-missions (like assasinations and stunt jumps), it’s clear that spreading achievement points around would be a challenge.

But judging by the implementation of points, it is evident that the folks at Rockstar didn’t even bother trying to meet the challenge.

Typically in Xbox 360 achievements are doled out relatively regularly, while putting a premium on finishing intense or challenging levels. Obviously GTA IV could not offer achievements after every level, because there is like 75 in all before you finish the game. But you would think that you wouldn’t be able to go like 15 hours between getting achievements during the normal course of play, as I did, wouldn’t you? You’d think the achievements would always come after noteworthy challenges, not seemingly random levels, wouldn’t you? You’d also think that you would have much more than 75 points under your belt for 35 hours of work, just before you get the final “you won” achievement.

Here’s a tip for Rockstar, try to estimate how much time your typical user is going to spend on activities and dole out your achievements accordingly. If the vast majority of your users are going to spend their time on the story, make that the focus of your achievements. And spread those achievements more regularly.

But Richard, you say, none of this is proof that Rockstar hates achievements. This may be true, but how do you explain the utter lameness of the graphics for the achievement logos? (they look like stick figures that I drew in 2nd grade). How do you explain that they didn’t bother to develop any secret achievements? (Something that almost every other great game does…). Why aren’t any of the achievements particularly clever? (The only thing clever I found was the naming of the achievement where you score with your girlfriend “Warm Coffee.”)

And most egregious of all, why do you have to sign out of GTA IV and log onto to the main XBox screen to simply see your achievements? The menu screens of GTA IV are so detailed that you can track how many hot dogs you’ve eaten, how many miles you’ve walked, your favorite hat, etc., but apparently there wasn’t enough room to tell you what achievements you accomplished (It seems clear that they are attempting to make the experience identical on the PS3 and the Xbox, right down to the menus… even if that means leaving out stuff that you will find on every single other Xbox in-game menus).

Microsoft paid Rockstar a reported $50 million dollars to provide some exclusive content for the Xbox… you’d think for that money they would have put just a tiny bit of effort into making this game ever-so-slightly unique for Xbox users.

Filed by Richard on Saturday, May 3, 2008 at 5:12 pm

So I’m about 25 hours into GTA IV right now. The entirety of the world is right; it’s a great game. No point in wholly dwelling on what’s so great, let’s delve into what’s not-so-great.

Achievements: I can’t figure out why, but Rockstar doesn’t seem to like XBox 360 achievements. Sure you earn achievements, but you can’t even find out what achievements you’ve earned while in the game. The in-game menus tell you in the most minute detail how long you’ve been walking, your favorite restaurant, your favorite weapon, and about 50 million other details. But you have to log off the game, and open up your main Xbox menu to find your achievements.

And I cannot think of another game where I’ve dutifully followed the story, put in 25 hours of time, and only earned 50 POINTS! To give Rockstar the benefit of the doubt, the game has so many different possible tasks that they had to spread it around a bit, but how many games are there where you can be 90% done with the main story line and only have earned 5% of the available points?

Microsoft famously paid Rockstar $50 million bucks to have some exclusive content for the XBox system; they should have also required them to make the achievements a bigger deal.

 Despite what so many people have said about this game being completely revolutionary; it’s clearly simply an extremely good, evolutionary step in the GTA franchise. And that’s a good thing. It’s really not that different from all of the GTA III games; just much more detailed, much better written, and much better looking. But the same things that we got used to 8 years ago are still there: buildings and enviroments “appearing” before you as you outrun the computer’s computational power; certain rare cars appearing by the dozens after you find yourself driving one, etc. Much has been made of the independent suspension that cars have now incorporated; it’s definately there, but the driving just feels absolutely identical to the last few games.

The game also features the same satirical take on violent, extreme America; with advertisements, TV shows, stores, etc. featuring extreme versions of right-wing commentators; liberal radio shows, etc. I found these elements as funny and interesting as in previous versions; which is to say I didn’t find them funny at all. Merely stupid.

Oh, and those neverending drives to certain missions? There still there; but thankfully most (but not all) of them can be eliminated by catching a cab–the best new feature of the game).

And back again is the too-low camera angle during driving that doesn’t allow you to see far enough ahead; you find yourself constantly adjusting the camera.

So far there are not any of the wacky missions that typified the last iteration of the game (no rocket packs… yet). And the missions seem pretty fluid, and beatable.

 But there are some issues of fighting in halls and inside buildings; the camera bounces around a bit and doesn’t allow you to always see your enemies; and the new cover system, similar to the system in Gears of War, really fails in some hallways as it bounces you from cover point to cover point, when you just want to release cover.

I played all of the previous versions of GTA on a pc, and I miss a favorite feature: the ability to create a radio station of my own MP3 files. Some of the long drive and car chases in this new game could really use AC/DC’s Hell’s Bells.

It’s clear that Rockstar has matured and recognized the inherent value of their IP; and didn’t feel the need to populate the actors with dozens of famous names. In the last two versions, almost every single voice heard was a famous one; I don’t recognize a single voice in this game (though there are a few famous people who play themselves: Ricky Gervais, Katt Williams, Iggy Pop). They also did not bust open the music licensing money chest like they did in the last two versions; Many reviewers have found the music choices sublime and effective; I found them annoying and second-tier. I immediately turn off the radio whenever I get in a car.

 Another minor quibble; the phone that you use (it’s your lifeline really), has a screen that’s too dark to read, especially text messages). It helps later when you get a newer, brighter phone, but not by much.

All of these quibbles aside, it’s obviously a truly great game. In terms of pure gaming experience; I think Bioshock is a better game, but this is a pretty good second place. We are definately in the golden age of console gaming…

Filed by Richard on Saturday, April 26, 2008 at 12:06 am

I am so frickin’ excited about Grand Theft Auto IV. Three days away! I purchased my XBox on November 29, 2006, specifically because Grand Theft Auto was supposedly going to be released exactly one year later (it got pushed back because of PS3 issues). Now the day is almost upon us!

 IGN, the notoriously stingy Video Game reviewers, just gave the thing 10 out of 10! They didn’t even give Bioshock 10 stars. Apparently they haven’t given a game 10 stars in 10 years.

Bring on GTA IV!

Filed by Richard on Sunday, April 13, 2008 at 2:57 pm

Assassin’s Creed is a great game; it’s many faults are swamped by it’s many virtues. The story of an Assassin travelling through the Holy Land during the age of the crusades, Assassin’s Creed puts you squarely into that far away time. Essentially a first-person shooter without guns, Assassin’s Creed represents a remarkable step forward  visual game design.

Much of the action takes place among major Holy Land cities like Jerusalem and Acre, and each city is truly epic in size and detail. Your assassin character can wander the streets and climb the city walls; the attention to detail remains high throughout. If there were not a single bit of gameplay the game would almost be worth the money just for the opportunity to wander the dusty streets, bump into townsfolks, and climb the myriad spires to take in the entire city. It’s rare the game that make you feel fully sucked into setting of the game by simple visuals alone, but Assassin’s Creed does this and then some.

The physical interaction with your character and the townsfolks feels more realistic than any game I’ve ever experienced. A crowded alley or square of most games seems to represent a major challenge to game designers as the AI townspeople will move in unrealistic ways, such as everyone walking in the same direction, etc. The “people” of Assassin’s Creed wander any which way, stop, scratch themselves, have conversations with each other, move out of each other’s way, and more. It’s a remarkable thing to watch.

Perhaps the major fault of Assassin’s Creed is the repetitive nature of the challenges. Many times you are called on to save a citizen from being hassled by local thugs, eavesdrop on a conversation, or assasinate a knight. And every single time (well almost every time), the challenge is identical. Unlike Grand Theft Auto, which presents unique challenges every time; your challenges in Assassin’s Creed are essentially the same on hour 20 as that are at hour 5.

And the fighting is essentially a button mashing affair. There are many different button combinations that you learn throughout the game, designed to break holds, lunge, defend yourself, etc. Yet I found easy success just hitting the sword button over and over, while hitting the “defend” button every fifth time or so.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; there are bad button-mashing games, and this isn’t one of them. If you want to be tactical and learn the combos, it will definately work and work well. But if you want to just mash your opponents to death you have that option as well.

One small note: in my eternal challenge to to best Matt on Xbox games, I (of course) have shot straight past his score 825 to his 755. Furthermore, in terms of individual achievements in a game, I have equaled every single one of Matt’s acheivements… until now (not counting Gears of War, which I didn’t finish). There is an acheivement in Xbox360 that requires you to hit a button at a key moment during several cut scenes. I wasn’t really paying attention to acheivements until halfway through the game, and at that point it was too late. It would probably take about 5 hours of my time to get the acheivement, and as much as I like being the top dawg; it ain’t gonna happen in this case…

Filed by Richard on Sunday, April 6, 2008 at 5:37 pm

In this latest edition of the Juno-awarding winning Mustardayonnaise podcast, Matt and Richard discuss DVRs, Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Six, and lots, lots more!

 

 Mustardayonnaise 73 [61:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Filed by Richard on Friday, March 28, 2008 at 1:25 pm

So I came into a bit of money two weeks ago and decided to splurge and buy a new XBox 360 game. In addition to the enjoyment of playing a new game, this opportunity also affords me the chance to revisit my previous analysis of my Xbox skills in relation to Matt’s.

 Regular readers of this blog will remember that I was able to, using a variety of metrics, conclusively prove that I am better than Matt at Xbox. 28% better in fact.

With the recent acquisition of a copy of Assassin’s Creed (45 dollars at my local Fred Meyer store), I am now able to continue my analysis.

Since I am currently involved in the game’s main campaign, my gamer points for the game are 530 to Matt’s 755. What’s appreciated from an interpersonal and pyschosocial perspective is the fact that Matt can claim dominance over me in Assasin’s Creed during the brief interval between my beginning the game and my ultimate passing of his gamer score. Though I rarely am in the position to experience this myself, I know that many people who are consistenly bested in a competititon with a friendly rival will focus on a small area where their skills do shine, so as to not get overly dejected.

It’s also important to note a factor strongly in Matt’s favor vis-a-vis our relative Gamer Scores. Prior to Assassin’s Creed, my Gamer Score was 28% better than Matt’s against identical games. But Matt accumulated 755 points in Assassin’s Creed, and for me to simply maintain my already considerable lead in percentages, I would need to score about 1050 points. Of course Assassin’s Creed only offers 1,000 points. So from this perspective, while I will certainly continue my dominance, Matt will slightly cut into my percentage lead, regardless of the fact that I will have beaten him in Assasin’s Creed.

So kudos to Matt; keep at it!

Matt is going to kill me.

Filed by Richard on Sunday, February 24, 2008 at 2:46 pm

Even the most uncomplicated minds can see that I am better than Matt at Xbox; After all I have consistently outpaced him in overall Xbox gamer points since my purchase of an Xbox 360 about 15 months ago. But comparing overall gamer scores is a fool’s errand. To find out how much better I am at Xbox360, we must put on our green eyeshades, sharpen our pencils, and crunch some numbers.

Matt and I have each played dozens of games on the Xbox360. But for an effective comparison, we must limit our examination to the games that Matt and I have both played and earned points with. This narrows the selection down to 12 games: Orange Box, Halo3, Texas Hold’Em, Bioshock, Project Gotham Racing, Crackdown, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Test Drive Unlimited, Call of Duty 2, Gears of War, Hexic, and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter.

Just comparing these titles directly, it’s fairly clear that I have significantly outpaced Matt. Matt’s total Gamer Point score is 3882 for these games. My score however, tops out at 4975, or a full 1,100 points higher. In fact, in purely statistical terms, I am 28.16% better than Matt.

But let’s dig deeper into these scores. Is it fair to lump in a game like Project Gotham Racing for Matt, given that he clearly barely played the game (he scored 20 to my 320)? So in a effort at fairness, I have crunched the numbers again, this time pulling out the results of PGR, as well as Gears of War (a game that I didn’t make much effort with, and didn’t finish). The result? I am 28.5% better than Matt, a tiny, but discernable uptick in my previous score analysis.

In conclusion, the numbers conclusively show that Matt has benefited from my unemployment these past few months (and resulting inability to purchase new games); or there would be many more points of comparison and many more opportunities for me to increase my lead. But as it is, I remain contented with my mathematical proof that I am better than Matt.

28% better.

Filed by matt on Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 8:46 pm

Kind of funny that Richard and I finish Half-Life 2 within a week of each other considering it’s been out since November. Unlike Richard I never played it on the PC so it was all new to me and I quite enjoyed it.

The game is structured so that it has no cutscenes – everything is learned through playing the game and interacting with people in the environment. Maybe I don’t play enough games but I think that’s still a pretty unique choice.

The presence of walk-throughs on the intertubes presents one with the option of having every step laid in front of them if they want. By and large I like to play the game and experienceit  as I go but I admit there are times where I’m stuck and I’ll gladly look something up. If the choice is between 2 hours trying to figure something out or cheating with a walk-through, well in this case my saved 2 hours of time more than offsets my ethical slide.

The best part about finishing the game was clicking over to Half-Life 2 Episode 1 immediately afterward. That Orange Box is the finest video game value in the history of man.

Filed by Richard on Saturday, January 26, 2008 at 8:19 pm

Finally played through Half-Life 2 on Xbox360. I had previously played the game on the PC when it was first released back in, was it 2004? At the time I thought it was the greatest game ever; Though time marches on, Half-Life 2 still deserves the title.

It’s amazing how much depth there is to this FPS. The game has about 9 or 10 major sections; any two which would constitute a typical game. One section might focus on driving skills, one might focus on sniping; others might be more team focused. It’s just an incredibly deep game.

I was struck by how much easier the game was on the Xbox than the PC. I think a lot has to do with the very forgiving targeting system. Though there was plenty of action, I played through entire hours of the game without dying or even risking dying.

I don’t know how much time I spent playing the first go-round, but it was certainly at least 40 hours. It was and is the most time I’ve ever committed to a single FPS campaign. This go round I clocked in at about 14 hours.

Half-Life 2 has the all-time greatest weapon moment in all of games; when your gravity gun becomes energized and allows you to grab humans and fling them with abandon. I remember the first time it happened I was so excited I wanted to get on the phone and call someone. It’s not quite as exciting the second go-round, but it was still incredibly fun nonetheless.

Half-life 2 had so many innovations: the Gravity Gun, a believable partner character (Alyx Vance), a style of play that eliminates “easy,” “heroic,” and “legendary” types of challenges, a unified and truly compelling storyline, etc. Now that Bioshock has come out and set a new bar for First Person Shooters with compelling storylines, Half-Life 2 is ever so slightly dated. But evaluated against what had come before it, Half-Life 2 is still the best FPS ever.

Filed by Richard on Friday, January 25, 2008 at 12:21 am

George Lucas. Peter Jackson. Robert Zemeckis. Three film visionaries who bet the farm on untested technologies for film production; bets that led to the creation of some of the world’s most successful film production and effects houses. But have you heard of Steven Lisberger? How about Kerry Conran? Both of these filmmakers were almost entirely untested by Hollywood. Both of them helmed freshman productions costing tens of millions of dollars using entirely new, completely unproven techniques. And both of them failed spectacularly—or were perceived to have failed; never to make another film since.

Steven Lisberger was the force behind Tron, and Kerry Conran created Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Had each of these films succeeded, it’s certain that the production houses built to create them would be major forces today in Hollywood. Had either of these directors succeeded, perhaps they’d be the household Hollywood names that Lucas, Jackson, and Zemeckis have become. But they didn’t succeed. Nevertheless, they deserve to be praised for their vision and the risks they took. Read on…
read more »

Filed by Richard on Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 6:19 pm

80 whole points better. I had forgotten, but Matt’s post reminded me of that fact too.

Filed by matt on Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 5:50 pm

So recently Richard finished Halo 3 on heroic and apparently exceeded my Halo gamerscore. He seemed pretty happy with that to which I say huzzah sir, huzzah. Yet he knows I am no longer an achievement whore. The XBox Live gamerscore system is powerful stuff – appealing to the collector gene present in every male. Make 10 of something, number them 1 through 10 and men will want to collect them all. Doesn’t matter what it is; comics, baseball cards, 1000 available achievement points in a game, whatever. Yes I’m generalizing but meh.

I know the exact moment when I stopped caring about achievements. I had finished Bioshock but had missed a weapon upgrade station somewhere. A check of the tubes told me where, I loaded a save point, clomped to the location, and tried to access the appropriate location. I spent an hour trying to push the button that would open the door, attack the door in various ways and otherwise try to get in the area but there was a bug that wouldn’t let the door open. I finally had to admit it wasn’t going to happen and I had just pissed an hour away. I could have been doing something productive; working on my house, learning a new skill, reading a book or more likely playing another game. And suddenly the desire to collect points and achievements was drastically reduced and it was revealed as a gigantic time sink that wasn’t worth it. I couldn’t excise the collecting gene completely but I overcame it enough that I now only seek them out if they’re along the way to finishing the game or would take maybe 5 extra minutes.

Assassin’s Creed was a great case in point. The three cities and kingdom each featured a number of flags that could be collected – I’m sure worth achievements. But my experience with a similar hunt on Crackdown proved that even with a map I would never get them all – just spend hours in a futile search for that last one or two. It’s just not worth it to me. Clearly Richard is also getting a charge out of not only getting achievements, but in getting more than me. Can I just cede the overarching contest now and declare him the winner? 

Filed by Richard on Thursday, January 10, 2008 at 2:15 pm

I must have really played the final mission a lot during my first go round, which explains how I was able to finish it without dying this round. The rest of it was generally fun, except for the whole traveling through the giant’s colon to get Cortana thing…

Just for poops and giggles, I checked this site to see how quickly my gamertag updated… Within one second of the “125 point achievement” being posted on my TV screen, I hit refresh on Mustard, and there it was, proof that I’m better than Matt at Halo3.