Over the course of the last year of owning an Xbox 360 my Gamerscore has been steadily climbing, although I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's impressive. My score is exactly 11,715, which I suppose is a decent number for only a year of gaming. According to the new "Achievement Progress" tab on my 360's dashboard I have a potential Gamerscore of 51,640. This is, of course, made much higher by games that I popped in for only a second before never playing them again (Spiderman 3, Fable 2, Too Human, Guitar Hero: Metallica, Prototype, Flock, Need for Speed Carbon, and many others among them), but I've also only gotten 100% in one game in all of my hours playing the 360 over the course of the last year, that game being the original Banjo-Kazooie for XBLA.
Needless to say, I've gone for 100% in many of my other games, but with no success. Several achievements for Left 4 Dead alluded me due to the necessity of having a great team to acquire them (Safety First and Nothing Special come to mind), and I put over 100 hours in Tales of Vesperia before deciding halfway through my second playthrough that I simply did not have the time to go for the full 1000. Despite my lack of success at getting all the achievements in each game I played, I often spent hours grinding away at games that I otherwise would have put down much sooner; I did this all for the sake of getting something extra tacked onto the big flashing number that greets me whenever I turn on my console.
While going for the insanely difficult "Manbearpig" achievement in the surprisingly fun XBLA release, South Park Tower Defense, I had a bit of an epiphany. As I restarted the level for the 10th time due to the drunkeness and overall inability to do anything correctly of my teammates, it hit me that I was not having fun. I had performed a meaningless task in a game that would have otherwise been enjoyable for hours, with no reward to myself. Even if I had gotten the achievement, I still could've spent those hours of my time doing something interesting instead of just tacking on another 20 points to my Gamerscore. What other games could I have been experiencing for the first time if I had chosen to spend my time with them instead? Mass Effect and The Orange Box are sitting unplayed in my library, and I know that once I dive into those games I'll enjoy them a lot, so why would I waste my time going for achievements in games that I have already played to the point of souring them?
Take for instance the "Smile" achievement in Geometry Wars 2, where players not only have to beat the ridiculously difficult "Sequence" mode, but they have to intentionally fail on some parts of it in order to make the sequence board look like a smiley face. That's not fun! I had to spend hours just to beat sequence in the first place; beating the mode while intentionally doing badly on the 2nd, 4th, 11th, 15th, 17th, 18th, and 19th levels of it (as the "smile" achievement requires) would likely take an entire day, and the reward of getting 25 meaningless achievement points would simply not be worth it.
I'd love to hear from someone who got the "Light Seeds Master" achievement in Prince of Persia. Tell me, was that fun for you? I bet following around the predetermined paths and revisiting all of the environments more than twice, all for the mindless collection of over 1,000 of those God-forsaken light seeds was just a blast. How about it, those of you who found every flag in Assassin's Creed? Were those few points really worth the hours upon hours that you spent holding down the trigger button and running laps around the cities?
For me, I think that while achievements are often fun little distractions that can add on significantly to the amount of time (and ultimately value) that players get out games, really hard achievements that require repetitive action, grinding, or otherwise boring activities that wouldn't be considered fun should be completely ignored in favor of spending gaming time with something new. Instead, it might be better to just enjoy games for what they are, playing through the campaign and, if necessary, letting that stand as the experience that was had with the game.
Despite my rather staunch stance on the fact that a Gamerscore isn't worth anything and shouldn't be pursued with too much of a person's time, I do believe that achievements are a great way to get more out of a game in an interesting and fun way. The best achievements are ones that can be acquired through cooperative play, as getting in other people on a challenge can make for a fun experience. I eventually got the "Manbearpig" achievement in South Park TD by playing the game locally with friends, and explaining the game's mechanics and successfully completing the challenge was pretty enjoyable, but I don't think that I'll ever return to the game to go for the other two achievements that I'm missing. As gamers, we should always get our money's worth out of games, but we should also know when to put a game down and go do something else, regardless of whether or not we've wrung all the silly achievement points from it. There are too many fantastic games available on the 360 to only experience a few, so go ahead, rent some random games that you think might be fun to just play through one time. Dig into the back catalog for your game system and just have fun.
This was all started as a rumor that was posted by ShackNews but it ended with pure fact and Microsoft has even started to drop some of the employees that are not working on Halo Wars, as soon as Halo Wars is complete Ensemble Studios will close there doors.
Here is the post that started it all from ShackNews: "Shacknews has learned via multiple independent reports that developer Ensemble Studios (Age of Empires) will shut down operation following the release of its upcoming title Halo Wars.
According to sources, Those attached to Halo Wars have been offered incentives to stay on the project until completion.
Halo Wars, an RTS based on the Halo franchise, was announced in September of 2006. The Xbox 360 title is currently slated for release sometime in the first half of 2009.
Ensemble Studios was founded in 1995. The Microsoft-owned company is best known for the Age of Empires series of RTS games."
With that said Microsoft responded to the rumor with this E-mail that was sent around to all employees of the company: “Today, we shared with our employees at Ensemble that we have plans to close the studio after Halo Wars RTM. Such a decision is never easy. Like any business, we’re accountable for making tradeoffs and the right level of investments that will drive profit and future growth. However, as we reviewed our first-party portfolio and where we need to invest and divest our resources to achieve our long-term strategies, it became clear to us that closing the studio and redeploying those resources to other more scalable ventures is the right thing for our business at this time.
“Unfortunately, our decision to close Ensemble will adversely impact many of the studio’s team members. Following the closure, the Ensemble leadership team will form a new entity and have agreed to partner with Microsoft to develop future products and provide support for Halo Wars post launch. While the new company will be hiring a portion of the Ensemble employees, its size and resources prevent it from offering positions to the entire Ensemble team. We hope to integrate much of this creative talent into MGS or the broader IEB team, where we have relevant openings.
“Ensemble Studios has produced many notable games over the years – including the Ages franchise – that have helped MGS become a leader in interactive entertainment. And now, Halo Wars is already proving to be a hit by people who have seen and played early versions of the game. The Ensemble team is committed to continuing its development, testing and support of Halo Wars through to the completion of halo wars. We’re also working closely with the studio’s leaders to ensure a smooth launch of the game in early 2009 and continuing support thereafter. We will support the studio in every way possible as they work to deliver this highly anticipated game.
“This action notwithstanding, I want to emphasize that the overall investment Microsoft is making in video game development is not diminished, and we will continue to bring in talent to work on titles and franchises where we’ll see the most ROI. Our priority is to continue to nurture the creative freedom that allows us to successfully drive our business strategy forward. Meanwhile, we’re launching some outstanding games over the next few months. We’ve just launched Too Human and Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, and soon we’ll see many other games hit retail store shelves, including Scene It! 2, Fable 2, Gears of War 2, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Lips and, of course, Halo Wars.
“I want to thank you for your hard work and focus as we head into the next few months and make this a blowout year for first-party games. Please be supportive and respectful of our Ensemble colleagues as they go through this tough time.
Content: Too Human Price: Free Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions except Japan
Dash Text: [ESRB: T (Teen) BLOOD,LANGUAGE,MILD SUGGESTIVE THEMES,VIOLENCE] Step into the world of "Too Human," the third person epic action game from renowned Canadian developer Silicon Knights. As the cybernetic god Baldur, players are thrust into the midst of an ongoing battle that threatens the existence of mankind. In "Too Human" an ancient machine presence has forced the god's hand. Baldur is charged with defending humanity from an onslaught of monstrous war machines bent on the eradication of human life. Size: 1.09 GB
It appears one of the most anticipated and delayed RPG's of recent memory will be getting a playable demo through Xbox Live Marketplace
Silicon Knights anticipated Xbox 360 exclusive Too Human will be getting a playable demo that will be available from Xbox Live Marketplace soon. This is according to Silicon Knights CEO Denis Dyack. Speaking to Eurogamer, Denis said:
“We haven’t announced a date yet. Our goal is to try to get it out obviously before the game releases, and we’ll announce the specific timing of that shortly. But a demo is absolutely planned. We think it’s critical for the game. If things go as planned, gamers should get a demo well in advance before the game’s released."
After the news from Microsoft’s Spring Showcase this week that Too Human will be available at retail on the 19th of August for North America and Europe on the 29th of August, it seems we won’t have to wait that long to have a go on this highly anticipated game.
According to Denis, they are still talking internally about what the demo should include. "The more we put in the demo, the more challenging it’s going to be. We’re probably going to focus on the first level of the game," he stated.
"We really want people to focus on the gameplay, because the fusion between RPG and action is something really new. You can’t really tell what the game’s like till you sit down and play."
He stated that the demo will be available before the beginning of August, so not too long to wait. Be sure to check back into 360-hq for more news as its released
Today was the first day of Microsoft Gamer's Day 2008 and 360-Hq has a giant update on it
Following up on our previous MGD Article After the first day of Microsoft Gamer's Day 2008 it appears a lot has turned out true and if I had to take a guess more will be announced tomorrow and the next day for the Microsoft event.
To start things off and to make it easier I will go down the list of what has been announced, describe it, and there will be links at the bottom of the article.
Gears of War 2
A very minor update and really more info about what has been shown. Cliff Bleszinski demonstrates the Gameplay Trailer again. Not much new info about it except to still expect in November 2008 and the battles will be on a much larger and more intense than ever scale. Although there haven't been many details there have been quite a few new screenshots, below is a sample. At the bottom of the Article there will be links to all the Gears of War 2 Screenshots.
Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise
Officially announced and a lot of details released. First of all the game is set to release September 2008 and is bigger and even better than the original. First of all I will describe what to me seems to be the newest and most innovative feature, The Vision Camera Card Scanning. Dubbed as the Piñata Vision, it involves the use of the Xbox Live Vision Camera and you put piñata card with its unique barcode up to the camera and the game will automatically add that piñata/item to the game. It seems gimmicky but the games premise is sending piñata's to parties all over the world to save them from evil, so it seems like it could work well. Here is Rare's official description of it
Plug in an Xbox LIVE® Vision camera and interact with the game through the use of printed cards featuring a unique barcode. Flash a piñata card up to the Vision camera, and the content will drop directly into the game.
Seems like an innovative idea for Xbox and could end up selling a lot of consoles. But wait don't think thats all to set this Piñata game apart from it predecessor, there is co-op! now you can simply plug in a second controller and friends or family instantly have access to a second set of tools the same as the first player, now you can work together to make the best Viva Piñata garden! Hopefully more details will be released tomorrow and you can be sure to get the info from 360-hq!
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
Formerly known as Banjo Kazooie 3 or Banjo Threeie, it has now been announced the new Banjo Kazooie game will innovate on the way you play a platformer by making vehicles that you customize the main component. It seems like it could really help the failing Platformer genre and breathe new life into the two console generations old "Banjo Kazooie." Also new to this title will be multiplayer both locally and through xbox live. Expect co-operative and competitive multiplayer modes. Here is the first real trailer with gameplay footage! Expect to see the full version of the game this Holiday Season 2008 (October - December)
Fable 2
Set to reinvent the popular series and bring many wanted features to the table. This game is set 500 years ahead of the original Fable so you can expect to see a lot of new innovations including weapons such as guns. That’s not all expect to see a host of co-op and xbox live options when the game releases this Holiday 2008 Season.
Here is the official description of what’s new
You'll have even more choices to continuously shape who your characters become in a world 10 times the size of the iconic Xbox game. Fable 2 introduces a host of exciting new features, including a first-of-its-kind Xbox LIVE Arcade experience, and a genre-stretching multiplayer experience, allowing you to easily play Fable 2 with friends and family side-by-side from the comfort of a living room couch.
There were not so many details released today but more of a media update so be sure to check out the screenshots at the bottom, also here is the official video!
Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One
The Announcement of next week's arcade title comes as bit of a surprise, as it is based on the popular Web comic. Expect a full RPG like experience with customizable characters on the Xbox Live Arcade this May 21 2008. Set at retail of 1600 MS points ($20 USD) this should be one really long and good game! Expect to see the same sort of content you see in the Web Comics with the same art and comedy style. I don't think too many details will be released about this title so be sure to check out the screenshots at the bottom!
Too Human
With the much anticipated and much delayed RPG there must be some good news eventaully right? Right! The game will release August 19 2008 in North America! Also the game will feature online only xbox live co-op play so you can play with friends online! Words can't describe how much this game has been anticipated and delayed but it looks like it is really coming. Check out the new Screenshots and we even have a wallpaper for you and your pc!
Ninja Gaiden 2
The highly acclaimed Ninja Games sequel only got a very minor update with no new media but still some news. The games release date has been bumped up three days to June 3rd 2008! Also there has been some light shed about downloadable content.
With the release of Gamerpics and Themes, available on Xbox LIVE beginning today. The Gamerpics packs include five new images each, at 100 points per pack, and the Themes, which focus on heroes and bosses, are 150 points per pack ...
Additional Ninja Gaiden II download content will be available on May 20, with subsequent releases throughout the summer.
I think this might be a typo on Microsoft's part seeing how May 20th will have already passed by the games release. I think they mean June 20 with more releases throughout the summer of 2008. If it is not a typo expect to see the new content in spring/summer of 2009!
Well that wraps up today’s 360-hq coverage of the 2008 Microsoft Gamer's Day Conference going on in San Francisco, USA. Expect to see more tomorrow after the second day of the conference. Until then enjoy the new information and be sure to check out the Screenshots! Also feel free to comment about any of this in our forums and let us know what you’re excited for and what you think about these new games!
Everyone's Invited to Experience Xbox 360 as Microsoft Lowers Estimated Retail Price in Europe
With Estimated Retail Price Starting At €199.99/£159.99, Even More European Consumers Can Enjoy The Definitive High-Definition Gaming and Entertainment Experience
LONDON - Monday 10th March, 2008 - Microsoft today announced it is lowering the estimated retail price (ERP) for its Xbox 360™ family of consoles in Europe. Now with an entry-level ERP of €199.99/£159.99, Xbox 360 is a mass market entertainment proposition with something to offer for every interest and budget.
From Friday, 14th March, Xbox 360, which includes a 20GB hard drive and one wireless controller, will have an ERP of €269.99/£199.99 – a saving of €80/£50 on the current ERP. The Xbox 360 Elite, which comes with a massive 120GB hard drive enabling consumers to store huge quantities of content downloaded from Xbox LIVE™ Marketplace as well as their own music, will have an ERP of €369.99/£259.99 – a saving of €80/£40. The Xbox 360 Arcade console, perfect for those wishing to make their first foray into the gaming and entertainment world of Xbox, will have an ERP of €199.99/£159.99 – a saving of €80/£20.
Xbox 360 is the number one next-gen console in EMEA, owning 42% of the market in terms of life-to-date revenue. Xbox 360 continues to enjoy the highest software attach rate of any game console in Europe with more than 7.0 games sold per console (PS3: 3.8; Wii 3.5) after 26 months on the market .
The new ERPs are part of Microsoft’s ongoing strategy to open up the ultimate in high-definition gaming and entertainment to an even wider audience, with an offering for everyone:
Best Choice for Families
Xbox 360 grows as your family does, offering games and entertainment for every member of the family – from movies to games to music videos.
With over 150 3+ rated games and unparalleled parental controls, parents can feel good about their kids playing Xbox 360
Most Diverse Entertainment
Xbox 360 offers great choice in high-definition entertainment
Xbox Live Video Store offers a wide variety of movies to download, both in HD and SD, enabling great entertainment in the living room at the press of a button
It’s easy to view and enjoy video and photos on Xbox 360 as well as connect wirelessly to share content with a Windows Media Center PC
The Best Games
There will be over 1,000 games available on Xbox 360 by the end of the year, with something for every skill level, interest and taste.
New community games allow gamers to sample the best of indie games, providing innovative new ways to play and enjoy
Blockbuster franchises like Grand Theft Auto IV, with exclusive downloadable episodes on Xbox LIVE, and Rock Band make Xbox 360 the place to be this Spring
Xbox 360 exclusives for 2008 include Fable 2, Gears of War 2 and Too Human, setting new standards for next-generation gaming
“Xbox 360 is now mass market in Europe,” said Chris Lewis, Vice President, Microsoft Interactive Entertainment Business Europe. “We have reached and surpassed several key milestones that form part of our long term strategic plan to achieve critical mass in Europe; and our portfolio now offers the kind of mainstream entertainment experiences that secure wider appeal for Xbox 360. These factors allow us to execute on our strategy to widen the market for Xbox 360, as planned.
“We continue to offer intense, immersive gaming experiences for gamers – but now we’re priced in a way that will allow new consumers to find out for themselves why Xbox 360 is the ultimate in high-definition entertainment.” said Lewis. “History shows that €199/£159 is the price point where a console’s audience begins to expand, and with these new ERPs in place we’re ready to bring more consumers into the Xbox 360 world.”
Metro Simulator 2 is coming soon for Xbox and PlayStation consoles Ultimate Games (@ULTGames) confirmed that Metro Simulator 2, the realistic and relaxing simulator with faithfully reproduced subway realities and train control mechanics from KishMish Games, will laun..
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