so on december 31st i made a promise to myself, i wouldn't make any new years resolutions.
a few drinks later and i had made three.
one of these resolutions is to hit the 30k gamerscore mark by the same time next year. 30k is not a massive amount compared to some of the guys on here but it is double my current points so it seems a fair challenge.
so i have set about grinding points.
open season is a veritable treasure trove of easy to obtain achievements and this is what attracted me to it. i had no intention of enjoying the game, it is after all a licenced cartoon movie game, but i was pleasantly surprised.
the game follows the exploits of Boog the house trained bear and Elliot the runt like deer. they both end up in the forest and boog must make his way back to the town of timberline where he was cared for by beth the park ranger.
first off, the game looks surprisingly nice. everything is very crisp and clean and smooth looking. it is a multi format game and as such is no gears of war but it does look nice. it uses the art style of the film to recreate the feel of american mountains and forests and texturing and lighting is quite nice. some gimps on the xbox.com forums went so far as to call it the best looking game on the system which is stretching the truth but it does make a nice change from photo realistic textures.
the game wasn't what i expected, it isn't a generic platformer which is normally what these games are. instead, it uses easy puzzles to create stealth type levels. this stealth is incredibly crude, sneaking up on hunters and roaring to scare them being the most common task. you have to befriend the animals of the forest by completing tasks for them and once you have you can use them to help. if a hunter is hiding in a cabin and shooting you as you go past, lob a skunk down the chimney to get the hunter out and then scare him away.
the levels aren't challenging due to the target audience but they have some nice touches and there are some nice set piece levels. there is a level where you are rolling down a hill in a giant snowball and must guide through a slalom of spiky rocks. another level sees you hanging on to an out house that's floating down the river and you must guide it past more spiky rocks.
the achievements are simple enough to get but some of them involve finding every collectable badge in a level. this is fine in the early levels but later on you get a sniff ability which allows you to sniff out hidden objectives and badges. the issue here is that there is nothing to indicate where the badges are so i went through the levels with gamefaqs open so i could find the badges.
my favourite touch is the way you are asked questions in the first person cutscenes. characters will ask you a question and you must use the right stick to nod and shake your head in response. i thought that this was a nice little feature that should make its way into other games.
it certainly isn't worth buying but if you are desperate for an interesting diversion to the endless slaughter of terrorists/akrid/locust and are an achievement whore then this is worth a rent. although expect messages from more discerning gamers asking WTF you're doing.
unfortunately i didn't get 1000/1000 as my 360 died but i will be going back to it to whore it up some more.
a few drinks later and i had made three.
one of these resolutions is to hit the 30k gamerscore mark by the same time next year. 30k is not a massive amount compared to some of the guys on here but it is double my current points so it seems a fair challenge.
so i have set about grinding points.
open season is a veritable treasure trove of easy to obtain achievements and this is what attracted me to it. i had no intention of enjoying the game, it is after all a licenced cartoon movie game, but i was pleasantly surprised.
the game follows the exploits of Boog the house trained bear and Elliot the runt like deer. they both end up in the forest and boog must make his way back to the town of timberline where he was cared for by beth the park ranger.
first off, the game looks surprisingly nice. everything is very crisp and clean and smooth looking. it is a multi format game and as such is no gears of war but it does look nice. it uses the art style of the film to recreate the feel of american mountains and forests and texturing and lighting is quite nice. some gimps on the xbox.com forums went so far as to call it the best looking game on the system which is stretching the truth but it does make a nice change from photo realistic textures.
the game wasn't what i expected, it isn't a generic platformer which is normally what these games are. instead, it uses easy puzzles to create stealth type levels. this stealth is incredibly crude, sneaking up on hunters and roaring to scare them being the most common task. you have to befriend the animals of the forest by completing tasks for them and once you have you can use them to help. if a hunter is hiding in a cabin and shooting you as you go past, lob a skunk down the chimney to get the hunter out and then scare him away.
the levels aren't challenging due to the target audience but they have some nice touches and there are some nice set piece levels. there is a level where you are rolling down a hill in a giant snowball and must guide through a slalom of spiky rocks. another level sees you hanging on to an out house that's floating down the river and you must guide it past more spiky rocks.
the achievements are simple enough to get but some of them involve finding every collectable badge in a level. this is fine in the early levels but later on you get a sniff ability which allows you to sniff out hidden objectives and badges. the issue here is that there is nothing to indicate where the badges are so i went through the levels with gamefaqs open so i could find the badges.
my favourite touch is the way you are asked questions in the first person cutscenes. characters will ask you a question and you must use the right stick to nod and shake your head in response. i thought that this was a nice little feature that should make its way into other games.
it certainly isn't worth buying but if you are desperate for an interesting diversion to the endless slaughter of terrorists/akrid/locust and are an achievement whore then this is worth a rent. although expect messages from more discerning gamers asking WTF you're doing.
unfortunately i didn't get 1000/1000 as my 360 died but i will be going back to it to whore it up some more.
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