PixlBit

     Lately this has been the only day I can play games with a friend of mine. We play from 3pm to 10pm, not really enough time to make a whole lot of progress in a full console game, but ok for smaller games like those on XBL.

     So I put aside Oblivion for the time being because I’m kind of fed up with it and on Tuesday I’m going to start playing Angry Birds Star Wars on XBL exclusively.  I hate to leave Oblivion behind, or stop playing Etrian Odyssey Untold, but if I want to get this day-one, I’m going to play it and finish it before anything else; no more purchases that just go on a stack I never get to.

            

     I’ve been making a routine of checking sales now on XBL and found Skulls of the Shogun at half price. I’ve wanted this game for a while and at $5 it’s a good deal. I almost got Ghostbusters too, a game I’ve wanted to play for a while. It was $7 for the download (it’s $10 at Gamestop).

               

     My friend got the collector’s edition of Aliens: Colonial Marines on Amazon for $40 and was playing it next to me. The collector’s edition is really cool. I took a picture of the action figure, patches, and document folder above. The graphics seem to be using the same engine used on Duke Nukem Forever. Both games are by Gearbox, so it’s not a stretch to think that. I even heard a few voice actors that clearly worked on Gearbox’s Borderlands as well. Aliens: Colonial Marines does great fan service as my friend was commenting on all the little details in the game that appeared in the movies, even some stuff from deleted scenes. The game has co-op too, so it may be that I go pick it up so we can do that, but playing only one half-day a week, I don’t think it’s worth it. Progress would be too slow week to week.

    I wanted to get Serious Sam 2 and 3 HD, but I decided to do an achievement run on Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter that I already owned. First I tried out the Serious Sam achievement for playing the whole game on Serious difficulty, which is next to the highest. A few levels in, and I was crying, so I gave up on that. Then I went for two at once with the I Am Invincible achievement for playing the whole game without firing a single bullet or shell, and the Look, It’s a Secret one for finding 50 secrets. I used only my knife until I realized you could also use the laser gun, and I used a YouTube video to tell me all the secret places. I’ve already gone through this game once without help and didn’t get 50 secrets, so I thought a guide was a good idea. Only thing was, it made getting through the game slow going.

    A few other setting tweaks were also necessary: Tourist difficulty (the easiest available), turn auto weapon pickup off (I almost ruined my run by accidently picking up and shooting a rocket launcher, but a quick reload of an earlier save erased my mistake thankfully), and turn Infinite Amo on. I also had Hippie on for blood, which makes all the monsters burst into flowers, carrots, and pumpkins, and the ground gets stained with flower prints. At one point, I was stabbing at Harpies flying above me, and I was caught in a rainstorm of Carrots. At another point, I was being mobbed by frogs and the explosion of flowers was a sight to behold. I wish I could’ve had video clips of both of them.

   As it turned out though, I didn’t get either achievement because looking for secrets took too long (I only got to 30 secrets). In the last hour I had to play, I dropped the search for secrets and just ran for the end of the game, but I didn’t make it. I had to leave my friends place just before the final level. RATS!!!