9 weeks left in the challenge to get 500 gamerscore points in all my games, and it isn’t looking good.  You see, I actually had a big master plan over the last couple of months.  I’d concentrate on work, take the month of November off, and just play games the whole month.

However that backfired.  First, I didn’t get as much done work wise as I wanted, and ended up adding more on my plate with a bunch of new projects.  Second, I forgot that around about this time was when I’d be adding a ton of new games to my list, like Lego Batman, Call of Duty 5, Gears of War 2, Fallout 3 and Saints Row 2.  So yeah, it’s been a bit of a bitch.

To make things worse, the first game on my list today is Civilization Revolution.  On Sunday I decided to play this, beat it, then play Superman Returns, beat it, and finally beat Saints Row 2 to make this week a great success.  Unfortunately this game wouldn’t play nicely, freezing up my 360 requiring a hard boot literally every few turns.  So now this game is basically useless(although I’ll test it with the 360 disc install feature first), but thankfully I managed to beat the game anyway.

So In Civ, I played a whole bunch of different scenarios, winning as Mongols, Arabs, Indian, Greek, Russian, Japanese and Egyptian.  I also won an Economic victory on King, as well as won with just one city on King.  This got me the following achievements: All Others Must Fail, A Night Without Fear or Blame, An Indomitable Will, Power Never Takes a Back Step, The Guy Who Signs The Checks, A Short Life of Glory, A Great Wind is Blowing, Victory over Lesser Men and I Will Not Be Triumped Over.

All that put me at 505 and I’ll put this on the shelf until the update on November 16th.

Saints Row 2: I mugged 50 citizens for Stilwater Welcoming Committee.  I also completed Trail Blazing for the Stuntman achievement, beat Zombie Uprising for Romero’s Hero, beat all levels of Septic Avenger for Splaster Chief and beat the Sons of Samedi missions on co-op, for the Remind Me of the Babe and Pot Luck achievements.  Oh and I got revenge on that cunt Julius for Vengeance.  Current score is 370 and I will wrap that up this week.

Lego Batman: Still the all-Mason show.  He ate 15 enemies with the Venus ride on, built the Giant Lego Robot and completed the first Villain episode.  This got him the Kiss from a Rose, 0000001 0000011 and Villain achievements.  Current score: 260.

CURRENT GAMES STILL TO DO:

(Current points in parenthesis)

1. Assassins Creed (105)
2. Burnout Revenge (115)
3. Call of Duty 2 (0)
4. Call of Duty 4 (50)
5. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (125)
   
6. Lego Batman (280) +60
7. Saints Row 2 (370) +120
8. Shrek The Third (0)
9. Superman Returns (340)
10. Tiger Woods 09 (180)

So 10 games.  Fallout 3, Gears and COD 5 will make 13 games, which will be my final total of games to beat.  I’m going to try to get that list down to “1 a week” as quick as possible.  So theoretically I have to beat 5 games this week, so that I can get into the 1 a week target.  Saints Row 2 will be done for sure, and I think Superman Returns should be easy enough.  Lego Batman I’ll also get start playing at least a level a day with Mason, and hopefully get that over the 500.   Oh who am I kidding, I’m never going to beat this fucking challenge.

ACHIEVEMENT TARGET HIT:

1. Bioshock (910)
2. Blitz: The League (520)
3. Bully (1000)
4. Burnout Paradise (500)
5. Cars (1000)
6. Civilization: Revolution (505) +150
7. Crackdown (535)
8. Dark Sector (620)
9. Dead Rising (520)
10. Fight Night Round 3 (1000)
11. Gears of War (520)
12. Kameo (610)
13. Karaoke Revolution: American Idol Encore Edition: (520)
14. King Kong (1000)
15. Lego Indiana Jones (920)
16. Lego Star Wars (900)
17. Madden 2008 (880)
18. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (830)
19. NBA 2K8 (880)
20. NHL 2008 (575)
21. Open Season (1000)
22. Rainbow Six: Vegas (500)
23. Saints Row (500)
24. Scene It (595)
25. Splinter Cell: Double Agent (550)
26. Stuntman:Ignition (505)
27. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1000)
28. Tetris Evolution: (515)
29. The Darkness (795)
30. The Outfit (655)
31. The Simpsons Game (845)
32. The Spiderwick Chronicles (1000)
33. Tomb Raider: Legend (560)
34. UEFA Euro 2008 (505)
35. WWE: Smackdown vs RAW 2007 (650)

Week 8 is over and I’m hoping that I didn’t fuck up bender’s score for a change. Maybe I screwed up someone else’s score instead!

PeteMoss, who made 11 correct picks, is this week’s winner and as a result moves from 10th place overall to a three way tie for 6th, with Hamass and Shaft, and six points out of the overall lead which continues to be held by Kender. His 9 correct picks this week put him at 76 points, two ahead of HRH and nateeasy who are now tied for second place.

This week’s low total of 6 correct picks is shared by manbooba, CliffX, and Mallard who is starting to run away with last place overall as, with 55 points, he is now four points behind Scotsman for second last. cheekbone didn’t make his picks for obvious reasons and is given four points. I’ll leave him on here until next week since I’ve already listed his score.

WEEK 8 FUN FACTS

Two winning teams were picked by everyone this week with the Jets over the Chiefs and the Ravens over the Raiders. Cleveland (JoeyAt75, buckdiddy) were the least picked winning team this week.

WEEK 8 RESULTS

1. PeteMoss – 11
2. SoP – 10
2. loosejonnyt – 10
2. n00b – 10
2. HRH – 10
2. JoeyAt75 – 10
2. Dirty Hun – 10
8. buckdiddy – 9
8. Boner – 9
8. Rookie Monster – 9
8. Kender – 9
8. Shaft – 9
8. Taff – 9
8. tron – 9
8. viceroy – 9
16. nateeasy – 8
16. Osiris – 8
16. Hamass – 8
16. robelgordo – 8
16. YRD – 8
16. daycru – 8
22. Scotsman – 7
22. Tucho – 7
24. Mallard – 6
24. manbooba – 6
24. CliffX – 6
27. cheekbone – 4

OVERALL

1. Kender – 76
2. HRH – 74
2. nateeasy – 74
4. robelgordo – 72
5. viceroy – 71
6. PeteMoss – 70
6. Shaft – 70
6. Hamass – 70
9. SoP – 68
9. YRD – 68
11. JoeyAt75 – 66
11. buckdiddy – 66
11. Boner – 66
11. Osiris – 66
11. daycru – 66
11. manbooba – 66
17. Rookie Monster – 65
17. CliffX – 65
19. Tucho – 64
20. Dirty Hun – 62
20. tron – 62
22. loosejonnyt – 61
22. Taff – 61
22. cheekbone – 61
26. Scotsman – 59
27. Mallard – 55

WEEK 9 SCHEDULE

Green Bay at Tennessee
Tampa Bay at Kansas City
Baltimore at Cleveland
Detroit at Chicago
NY Jets at Buffalo
Jacksonville at Cincinnati
Houston at Minnesota
Arizona at St. Louis
Miami at Denver
Atlanta at Oakland
Dallas at NY Giants
Philadelphia at Seattle
New England at Indianapolis
Pittsburgh at Washington

Manager Results
There were plenty of points scored this week. No fewer than ten managers cracked the century, with Catmando leading the way on 156 points. I’d kick him out of the competition, except I don’t think it’s possible. But I predict by the end of the season Catmando will be docked just enough points to miss out on prizes.

The best this week amongst people that contribute to the forums was Dr. Mort, with 154 points. He has generously written about the secrets of his success in the View From A Manager section below. The overall leader is still Hamass, who was 3rd for the week and leads by 28 from Catmando and a whopping 83 from the next eligible player for prizes. Hamass has already placed his jersey request, but I still think it’s too early to write-off the challengers.

Here is the full table:

News and Notes
Another reason to hate the Guardian fantasy football competition – I think the upcoming midweek round is not treated separately from the weekend matches. I’m judging this by the fact you can save your team for this weekend, and next weekend, but not in between. That means there are a whopping 20 games to consider this week. And that if you fuck this up, you’re going to lose a lot of points. The games are:

Sat 25th October 2008
Everton v Man Utd
Sunderland v Newcastle
WBA v Hull City
Blackburn v Middlesbrough

Sun 26th October 2008
Chelsea v Liverpool
Manchester City v Stoke City
Tottenham v Bolton
Wigan Athletic v Aston Villa
West Ham Utd v Arsenal
Portsmouth v Fulham

Tuesday 28th October 2008
Newcastle United v West Bromwich Albion

Wednesday 29th October 2008
Aston Villa v Blackburn Rovers
Fulham v Wigan Athletic
Hull City v Chelsea
Stoke City v Sunderland
Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur
Bolton Wanderers v Everton
Liverpool v Portsmouth
Manchester United v West Ham United
Middlesbrough v Manchester City

Personally I feel pretty good about the 20 games because I finally got Matthew Turner in my team. For those that don’t know, Matthew Turner is a defender for newly promoted Hull City, who have so far this season have defied the odds by being in 3rd place, ahead of big teams Manchester United and Arsenal. Judging by Turner’s points haul they have achieved these lofty heights by having Turner make 37 tackles and 22 clearances every game. I think Hull don’t actually have any other defenders besides Turner. Anyway, the great man has 153 points from 8 games this season. The next most valuable player has 126 points. Which means the legend is about 3 points better per game than the next best player in the English Premier League. His value in the game has gone from $4m to $6.5. An England call-up is inevitable, I think he’s going to partner Rio or Terry in the next World Cup qualifier.

Finally, don’t forget you can check out injuries here: http://www.physioroom.com/news/engli…jury_table.php
It’s not 100% accurate and I take no responsibility if you’re not-injured star player ends up missing both fixtures this week.

View From A Manager

As I mentioned earlier, this week our guest writer is Dr. Mort. The doctor has had a couple of excellent weeks and moved up to 4th overall.

When I first signed up I figured the key was to get a couple of big names who put up big numbers and then fill in the rest with above average cheaper players. But, I also thought it was important to front load my team, so I ran a 3-1-3-3.

My main problem with the scoring format is that defenders are now worth too much, especially ones from shitty teams who have to make so many tackles and clearances. My team is totally backloaded and yet I scored 154pts last week.

So Dr. Mort has discovered the trick is exploiting the flawed scoring system and stacking the team with defenders. Wise words! Good luck to everyone this week.

Ten weeks left in the challenge, and it is time for some serious fucking gaming.  And that is what I did this week – I dedicated almost 30 hours to video games this past week.  End result?  Almost no fucking progress.  Why exactly is this word?  Three words.  One number.

Saints Row 2.

I got this on Wednesday, and that is pretty much all I have played since, and spent many, many hours playing it, for very, very little achievements.  That’s the thing about a game like this – there is just so much shit to do.  I SHOULD beat it by Week 43 however, and then I have a down period before Fallout 3, Gears of War 2 and Call of Duty 5 come out thankfully, so I will use that week to focus even more on the games I currently have.

As for Saints Row 2?  Story wise I completed the prologue for the Welcome Back achievement.  I also got Seppuku for defeating the Ronin, and The Duelist for doing it in co-op.  That is the best thing about this game, and I pity, I repeat, PITY, anyone who plays this game by themselves.  Find a buddy to play with, because it makes a great game 200x as great.

I’ve also did a lot of activities.  I completed insurance fraud for the Ambulance Chaser achievement, completed FUZZ for the Reality Star achievement, completed all levels of Mayhem for Wrecking Crew, Demoliton Man for beating the Demolition Derbies, completed all fight club for Do Not Talk About It, killed all hitman targets for Hello 47 and took all cars to the chop shops, for Where’s My Car?.

A lot done, but not finished yet!  In regular gameplay, I’ve sang along to the radio for Soprano, completed the Strong Arm Tutorial, grabbed 50 Human Shields for Love Thy Neighbour(and promptly brutalized them with my shotgun), won an XBox Live Party game for Spread The Love, gambled $500,000 in the game(big surprise!) for I’m Not Addicted, taunted 50 gang members for Trash Talker , got 3 gold stars in vehicle surfing for Surf’s Up, threw someone a long long way for Going the Distance, which is an extremely fun achievement, and defeated my partner in a co-op diversion for True Pal.

Wow – quite a lot huh?  Final score?  Sad to say – just 250, only halfway there.  Thankfully just by beating the game all in co-op, I will achieve the excellent score of 280, so if I do that I will be above the 500 and can put this away and tackle some other games.

Amazingly, I do have some other games worth a mention:

Lego Batman: It’s the all-Mason show again as I haven’t yet sat down to play this.  I am going to put that off I think for awhile as it is easy to do and I am burnt out on the lego games.  Mason collected all suits for Nice Outfit, knocked 5 people into the ground at once for Gentlemen, Start Your Screaming and beat the first Hero episode.

Tiger Woods 09: I sank 50 birdies with a created golfer for the Tweeter achievement.  I still haven’t looked at the achievements for this game, I plan on going through a whole season, and then just seeing where I am at with achievements, and then actively go out for any I need to get me over the 500.  I think I am going to start playing a tournament a day of this.  Yes, that is what I will do.  First thing in the morning every day, that’ll be on my priority list.

CURRENT GAMES STILL TO DO:

(Current points in parenthesis)

1. Assassins Creed (105)
2. Burnout Revenge (115)
3. Call of Duty 2 (0)
4. Call of Duty 4 (50)
5. Civilization: Revolution (345)
6. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (125)
   
7. Lego Batman (220) +60
8. Saints Row 2 (250) +250
9. Shrek The Third (0)
10. Superman Returns (340)
11. Tiger Woods 09 (180) +25

ACHIEVEMENT TARGET HIT:

1. Bioshock (910)
2. Blitz: The League (520)
3. Bully (1000)
4. Burnout Paradise (500)
5. Cars (1000)
6. Crackdown (535)
7. Dark Sector (620)
8. Dead Rising (520)
9. Fight Night Round 3 (1000)
10. Gears of War (520)
11. Kameo (610)
12. Karaoke Revolution: American Idol Encore Edition: (520)
13. King Kong (1000)
14. Lego Indiana Jones (920)
15. Lego Star Wars (900)
16. Madden 2008 (880)
17. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (830)
18. NBA 2K8 (880)
19. NHL 2008 (575)
20. Open Season (1000)
21. Rainbow Six: Vegas (500)
22. Saints Row (500)
23. Scene It (595)
24. Splinter Cell: Double Agent (550)
25. Stuntman:Ignition (505)
26. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1000)
27. Tetris Evolution: (515)
28. The Darkness (795)
29. The Outfit (655)
30. The Simpsons Game (845)
31. The Spiderwick Chronicles (1000)
32. Tomb Raider: Legend (560)
33. UEFA Euro 2008 (505)
34. WWE: Smackdown vs RAW 2007 (650)

Week 7 has ended in a New England blowout and the winner of the week is manbooba who, with his 11 correct picks, moves from 16th to 8th place in the overall standings. Meanwhile, Kender has retaken sole possession of first place in the overall standings with 10 correct picks this week which was good enough for a tie for second place with tron, who has now moved out of last place in the overall standings, and viceroy.

Mallard, now is alone in last place overall, and n00b ended up at the bottom of the leaderboard this week managing 6 correct picks each. None of Taff, Dr Mort or cheekbone, who drops from 6th to 15th in the overall standings as a result, submitted picks this week and are awarded with a terrible 4 points a piece. Also, this is the second consecutive week that Mort has not picked. One more time is bye-bye Dr Mort.

WEEK 7 FUN FACTS

No unanimous picks means that the Giants (all but buckdiddy) were the most correctly picked team this week. Tennessee (all but Dirty Hun & Tucho) were the next most popular pick. St. Louis with four picks (nateeasy, Shaft, Tucho, YRD) and Oakland with five picks (buckdiddy, robelgordo, Rookie Monster, Dirty Hun, Tucho) were the least picked teams.

WEEK 7 RESULTS

1. manbooba – 11
2. Kender – 10
2. tron – 10
2. viceroy – 10
5. nateeasy – 9
5. robelgordo – 9
5. Rookie Monster – 9
5. HRH – 9
5. Shaft – 9
5. Tucho – 9
11. loosejonnyt – 8
11. Osiris – 8
11. Boner – 8
11. Dirty Hun – 8
11. CliffX – 8
11. YRD – 8
11. daycru – 8
19. SoP – 7
19. buckdiddy – 7
19. Scotsman – 7
19. JoeyAt75 – 7
19. Hamass – 7
24. Mallard – 6
24. n00b – 6
26. Taff – 4
26. Dr Mort – 4
26. cheekbone – 4

OVERALL

1. Kender – 67
2. nateeasy – 66
3. robelgordo – 64
3. HRH – 64
5. viceroy – 62
5. Hamass – 62
7. Shaft – 61
8. manbooba – 60
8. YRD – 60
10. CliffX – 59
10. PeteMoss – 59
12. Osiris – 58
12. daycru – 58
12. SoP – 58
15. Tucho – 57
15. Boner – 57
15. buckdiddy – 57
15. cheekbone – 57
19. Rookie Monster – 56
19. JoeyAt75 – 56
21. tron – 53
22. Dirty Hun – 52
22. Scotsman – 52
22. Taff – 52
25. loosejonnyt – 51
25. Dr Mort – 51
27. n00b – 50
28. Mallard – 49

WEEK 8 SCHEDULE

San Diego at New Orleans
Kansas City at NY Jets
Atlanta at Philadelphia
Buffalo at Miami
St. Louis at New England
Arizona at Carolina
Oakland at Baltimore
Washington at Detroit
Tampa Bay at Dallas
Cleveland at Jacksonville
NY Giants at Pittsburgh
Seattle at San Francisco