Steam!

So, I'm starting to use Steam more now. If you want to add me on Steam, here's my Steam ID Page.

Games I'm Actually Playing (that you can play with me!)
Team Fortress 2
Left 4 Dead
Empire: Total War

Games I'm Gonna Play for the Achivements (either single player or games you don't want to play with me)
Portal
Half-Life 2: Episode One
Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Day of Defeat: Source
Counter-Strike: Source (when they supposedly get released)

Miscellaneous Category (everything else)
Half-Life 2 -- Why aren't there achievements for this? They certainly exist for the Xbox 360.
Dawn of War II -- I think these are integrated into Steam
Sins of a Solar Empire -- I think there are achievements in this game and if so, they should be integrated into Steam

Steam also has a neat feature where you can use it to launch non-Steam games. The actual level of integration of these games is quite minor; basically, it shows up in your launcher list (basically organizing your games) and if you play the game, it lets all your Steam friends know that you're playing. Steam also tracks how many hours you've played that game, so if you like collecting data on your life, this is an enabler.

Google Searches and Xbox 360 Achievements

So, as most people know, I am obssessed with Xbox 360 Achievement points:



As anyone who is similarly addicted to improving their Gamerscore, there comes a point where one has to decide whether or not serious "boosting" (that is, really cheesy behavior just to improve one's Gamerscore) is called for. I decided to take a look as to how easy this is without actually taking the step (for now). What resulted? A little Google auto complete-like humor:



But enough about that. This is what I found:

1. Easiest 1000G
If you want both to get a lot of points and get 100% of the points in that game, Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Burning Earth is that game. AtBE has the somewhat dubious distinction of being able to earn all 1000G in five achievements in about 5 minutes.

2. A Quick 6000G
Gamespot has a pretty good and quick guide to do this. The quick summary: you can rent these (mostly EA sports) games and boost your score quite a bit and quickly.

3. More Recent List of Easy Achievement Boosting Games
A quick and easy list of games to get 100% of the achievements in can be found here. Notice how three of games are FIFA soccer games? Five more are sports related. Makes you wonder about how much thought is put into these games beyond the sports action; but I suppose that's not surprising given how a sequel is made every year in a particular (mostly EA... did I say that already?) sport franchise. I mean, you have to get capture all the the new changes, right...?

4. The 10 Xbox Live Achievement Commandments
This one really isn't about boosting, but I thought it was kind of funny.

Little things.

I think I've decided to leave the blog commenting options controls in German, somewhat in homage to LeAnn's voicemail machine.

Inconsiderate people really suck. On an unrelated note, has anyone seen four JSD T-Shirts at Pitzer? Two black ones, a green one, and a red one. Not that anyone from Pitzer reads this. Not that anyone reads this.

I've decided to rewrite the rules for Gorkamorka. Normally I'm a purist when it comes to rules, but since Gorkamorka is no longer supported by Games-Workshop and has no Living Rulebook of its own, I figure I may as well. It probably also the most flawed rules which would make it harder to get other people to play, which I hope to rectify.

I've been playing Medieval II Total War again, and this time as the French. And I don't know, but I think I've been in a war with Germany/Holy Roman Empire for just about the entire game now (at least 100 years).