Now that was a banner month.
On my last update, I reported that I acquired 5400 gamerpoints and completed 7 games in a two-month period. I beat both those marks during the month of July.
My gamerscore now stands at 96,585... a phenomenal 6,020 increase in one month. And I completed 12 games, including my nemesis, L.A. Noire.
A third of the completed games were ones I had begun before this year. A third of the games were movie-tie-in games. But only a quarter of the games were XBLA games. Shucks. Almost had it all add up.
I achieved 100% gamerscore on two games this month, both of which are listed as finished games, although technically I got the last 2 achievements for A World Of Keflings about 15 minutes after midnight, into August. But I'm going ahead and counting it all as July because I'm still awake.
Oh, and while I'm on full disclosure, I cheated a little bit this month by deleting all the Zero-Point games from my profile. There were around a dozen of them. They range from played for a couple hours and still haven't unlocked anything yet (Onechanbara, Record of Agarest War) to barely played and haven't felt like going back to it (Culdcept Saga, NFL Tour). Even with over 10,000 points being taken out of the average, my overall completion percentage only moved about 1%.
Finished Games Breakdown:
L.A. Noire: 750 out of 1400 gamerpoints, for 53% completion. Getting 3/4 of the achievements while being so frustrated by tedium is quite an accomplishment. I was being more stubborn than determined, though. One of the achievements I did not get was for collecting all the gold film reels... because I never saw a single one. Usually designers throw a few collectibles in plain view so you at least know what to look for, but I guess not. I'm sure I'll return to more achievements when the DLC goes on sale. And I'll probably complain about the game then, too.
Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon: 180 of 1000 gamerscore. Yeah, that's a really low score. Damn near Homefront low. The achievements are all grinding. I beat the game on normal. I'll have to play through again on Hard and Inferno and will probably have at least half the achievements at that point. Oddly there is no Easy difficulty.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One: 620 out of 1000. Ugh, no stacking achievements means if I want to 100% this game I have to play through it three times. I beat it on hard, so it's not very challenging. It's just unnecessarily long. And lame. I don't remember a part in the book or movie where Harry keeps going off on his own to save random wizards, and yet that accounts for about a third of the game.
50 Cent Blood On The Sand: 560 out of 1000. This was a fun game. A just crazy blowin'-stuff-up game is always welcome. I definitely want to play the co-op online sometime soon.
Army of Two: 340 of 1250 gamerscore, for only 27%. Some extremely dumb co-op A-I nearly ruined this game. And with EA shutting down the online servers for this game, I may never find out if it's actually fun to play with real people.
Shadow Complex: 130 out of 200, 65% completion. How have we not gotten a sequel to this game yet? It is a run-and-gun game that feels like what a modern Contra should be, with some craft secrets and awesome melee moves. Other some inconsistencies with the depth-aiming, this is a totally wonderful game.
Captain America Super Soldier: 1000 of 1000! This may be the most fun movie-tie-in game I've ever played. The only other real contenders would be Toy Story 3 (a by-the-numbers story mode is offset by the more-open Toybox mode) and X-Men Origins Wolverine (which did seem a bit too long for amount of variety in gameplay). Captain America is pretty much a straight forward knock off of Batman Arkham Asylum, only he is a faster character so it plays more actiony and you don't have to bother with all that stealthy stuff. Good voice work, too. The story would have been better if they hadn't had to avoid the movie plot (Red Skull shows up, attacks briefly, then walks away to return to the movie).
Full House Poker: 275 out of 300 gamerscore, which is about 91%. I maxed out at level 50 the same day I beat the All-Pro Tournament, so I didn't have to decide which one of those would be considered beating the game. I only have one more achievement to get, I just need to remember to play on a tuesday or saturday to get in on the online Texas Heat game.
Green Lantern Rise of the Manhunters: 900 of 1000 gamerpoints. I can't believe they charge a full $60 for this cheap God-of-War knock off when most Movie-Tie-Ins go for $50. Captain America was $50 and it's so much better. The lamest part of this game is that Green Lantern doesn't fly during most of it. There are three flying levels (which are the most enjoyable parts of the game) but the for rest of it, you can't even double-jump. It's all just bleah. And though there is local co-op, player two gets no achievement points. Double bleah. Add in some glitches that made me reload a checkpoint and this is one generic overpriced bleah-soaked game.
Transformers Dark of the Moon: 750 out of 1000. This is basically the same game as War for Cybertron, with a few improvements such as unlimited ammo. It's unfortunately short (less than 4 hours) and you don't get to pick your character like in the previous game. However, I liked it a lot. Fun times.
Shadows of the Damned: 710 out of 1000 gamerscore. Another game that doesn't stack difficulty achievements, which means it would take three playthroughs to get all the points. It was enjoyable, but without the "What the hell am I playing??" factor on repeat visits, I don't know if it'd be worth it. I enjoyed it while it lasted though. Except for the running from the instant-kill parts.
A World of Keflings: 200 of 200! I really like these Keflings games. They make me wish there was a much bigger, more in-depth version, as long as they retain their goofiness.
Believe it or not, I actually completed every new game I started in July. It was close, however, as I started A World of Keflings with less than 12 hours left in the month. Just barely made it. But that's also why I haven't started Bastian or From Dust. I can safely do so now.
Of the games I completed this month, I gathered about 62% of their available gamerpoints. This brings my overall gamerscore percentage to 29.5%. With only 5 months left in the year, I'll need to raise that by just over one full percentage point each month in order to reach my 35% goal. Doable, but it'll be close.
However, with the 12 games finished this month, I only have 10 more to go by year's end. That'll be difficult not to achieve, provided I actually continue playing games for the entire time.
And the reviewing-games goal... Pphht.
