Gaming Bits .003: Arbitrary 20k

20,000 Gamerscore
Hit an arbitrary milestone this weekend when I cracked the 20k mark with my Xbox LIVE Gamerscore. Gamerscore is one of the biggest strokes of genius Microsoft had with the Xbox 360. Sony is still trying to catch up with their flawed Trophy system, and Nintendo just doesn't care too much, which is pretty much how I feel about their games since gamerscore started being measured. It IS silly, but it has affected my gameplay. I only buy games on the PS3 that I can't get anywhere else, if a game is out on both systems, I buy the 360 version because I have the chance to play it with my friends. My LIVE friends list is much larger because it was established first and gamerscore gave my friends something to talk about, and now none of us want to move to another platform. With sites like 360voice.com and GiantBomb.com tapping into my stats, it's really building up my loyalty to my Xbox LIVE profile. Gamers are all about loyalty, we need to be loyal to something, so it's going to take a royal screw up on Microsoft's part to lose us down the road.

Burnout Paradise
I was glad to have Burnout Paradise take me over the 20k mark. I've spent a lot of time with this game in the passed year and a half, and I feel like I'm just now learning to play it with the Big Surf Island DLC. All I have left to do on the island now is the online challenges as soon as Robeque and I can get our schedules straight. Overall Burnout Paradise is my favorite game on the system, next to Rock Band, which is saying something.

Ghostbusters
Too many recommendations from gamers and movie fans like me made me overcome the average review scores for Ghostbusters. Picked this one up later in the week and have been having a blast. The game is noticeably flawed, but nothing gets in the way of the characters and the unique ghostbusting gameplay. There is so much obvious fan service in the story and hidden items, that I can't help but love it. Be warned though, anyone with just a passing interest in the source material will be bored very easily. Trapping ghosts can get tedious, and enemy targeting could have been handled a lot better. My brain chalks it up to authenticity, or maybe that's just me rationalizing the fun of having Bill Murray and the entire cast being a part of this game.

Rocket Riot (demo)
Real-time Worms with rocket packs, ninjas, and pirates. As soon as I can talk someone into multiplayer, consider it bought. The pseudo-3D and blocky art style definitely makes this game standout, and the "descriptive" music got a few laughs the first time I paid attention to the lyrics. This game will be great for short and mindless online sessions with friends while we wait for a larger game to come together. At least, until Worms 2: Armageddon comes out.

Trash Panic
The PlayStation Network definitely gives me the hit I need from weird Japanese games. Trash Panic is a unique Tetris-meets-physics style puzzle game. The game is hard and unforgiving, but it's still the best $5 I've spent on the PS3. I have no idea what is actually going on in the game outside of the core gameplay, but I like it. PSN Exclusive games have been the redeeming factor of my PS3 purchase outside of Blu-Ray.

Red Faction: Guerrilla
I finally figured out how to properly play Red Faction. Only took me 6 hours of gameplay and a few videos online, but the game is fun again. You absolutely have to us hit-and-run tactics to have any chance of survival in this game. Which makes sense if I had read the title :P Do NOT stick around after a battle, run away, wait for your alert level to die down, then come back to clean up.

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Elsewhere

Overlord II comes out this week, which is the sequel to one of my favorite games of 2007. This is one of those games I'd buy out of support of the developer, as I like their style, their evil, evil, style. However, I've obviously purchased more than I have time for recently. Reviews are saying this game is just more of the same, which isn't a bad thing when I'm ready for a bit of some strategy based minion destruction.

Grand Slam Tennis for the Wii keeps trying to get my attention. It's been out for a couple of weeks now and was one of the first games to utilize the Wii MotionPlus controller add-on. Apparently, this game has a pretty steep learning curve in order to be able to compete online. I assumed the gameplay would be dumbed down, and I'm happily mistaken. Color me intrigued.