Achievement Unlocked 09.26.08: Nuts & Bolts & Lions & Bears - OH MY

Posted by Rod Oracheski on 09.26.2008

411's Rod Oracheski takes a look at the Achievement lists for Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and the latest Cabela's hunting game, plus a quick look at the Halo 3 title update and the Achievements it brought with it. On the PS3 side of things, Burnout gets a patch that brings Trophies - but you'll have to work for them.



A busy week means a short Achievement Unlocked, though there isn't a great deal to talk about in any case. A couple new Achievement lists were released: Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 09. There was a title update to Halo 3 that added in a slew of new Achievements, though you can't get them all at this point. On the PS3 side of things, EA finally released the patch that brings Trophies to Burnout - even if it's not exactly as promised.

So let's get to it, starting with those new Achievement lists.

Some vehicles are a disaster waiting to happen...

Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

You can find the full list here. It's not a bad Achievement list, all in all. There are a few Xbox Live-only Achievements, though only a few. There are also a few collect-a-thon Achievements, though perhaps not as many as I'd imagined it would have. Two of them are multi-step Achievements (gathering a Jiggy nets you an Achievement, then another at 10/30/60/131, for example) while the third is simply a 'gather all [x]' style one.

Here's a quick look at the best of the bunch:

Next-Next-Gen: Place the LOGBOX 720 Game Globe on its plinth in Showdown Town. 10 Gamerscore.

I don't know if the task associated with this one is going to be interesting or not, but the name struck me as funny. It's past the time we should be calling the current consoles 'next gen' offerings, but it keeps happening.

Massive Damage: Aim at the 10 legs for massive damage. 20 Gamerscore.

An Achievement that also acts as a gameplay tip is kind of interesting, though the whole 'attack its weak point for massive damage' joke has been done to death.

Speedy of the Colossus: Build a vehicle with 200 blocks or more and go over a set speed. 25 Gamerscore.

I almost added in the Minimalist Achievement as well (build a vehicle with five blocks or less and go over a set speed) but decided this one was more interesting. With the ability to add multiple propulsion methods to a craft, I wonder just how fast you can get them to go. It's an Achievement that will get people to try something different, and at 200+ blocks it's almost guaranteed to have unforeseen things happen...

Looks like Afrika, only way more violent...

Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2009

This 21 Achievement list is a prime candidate for a revamp one day, with only two Achievements that I considered worth a mention. You can check out the full list here, but I don't know why you'd bother. Maybe the nine Secret Achievements will be awesome, but I kind of doubt it.

I have to admit, however, that I harbour a burning desire to play Cabela's games every time I see one on the shelf - just like the impulse to play LEGO-branded games. It's something I'm working through with a sponsor, though if they ever release a Cabela's LEGO edition I'm done for.

Here are the Achievements I didn't actively dislike:

Snakes on a Plain: Take down at least 15 Poisonous Snakes playing Career Mode. 20 Gamerscore.

I'll refrain from asking why Poisonous Snakes, much less 15 of them, would be playing Career Mode and instead ask why is a Snakes on a Plane joke still funny enough to get included on the list?

Apiphobia: Destroy at least 10 Bee Hives playing Career Mode. 20 Gamerscore.

The fear of bees is nothing to laugh at, but this Achievement was better than the other 19 I had to choose from. Come on, guys - you have all kinds of material to work with here, you can do much better than this.

Looks like he had the bean burrito platter

Halo 3: Updated

I have to admit that I haven't had a chance to fire up Halo 3 since the update, busy with work and a few other games, but I'll get around to it this weekend for sure. The update adds in a number of new Achievements, though I think only a handful can be unlocked at the moment. The rest are waiting on a new map pack - they reference being available on "any Mythic map" - so we'll have to wait for more on that end of things.

The update brings Halo 3's total Gamerscore to 1,750, which strangely prompted complaints from gamers who had 1,000/1,000 and feel it's 'unfair' that they had a 'completed' game taken away from them. I guess it shows you can't please everyone - the only thing I'd complain about with this update is that so many require DLC that isn't out, and we don't know a price on.



PS3 owners with Burnout Paradise can pop it in and get the new update that includes the long-promised Trophy support. The Trophy list is largely the same as the Achievement list, though with worse names. I'm not sure why they'd change the names but hey - at least they're here, right?

Unfortunately for those who were looking forward to downloading the patch and having a bunch of new Trophies, it doesn't work that way. Despite promises that the Trophies would be retroactive, they weren't able to get that to work and you'll have to start a new save and earn them all over again.

Wipeout HD hit the PSN, which I think brings the total number of games with Trophy support to 10, though I'm admittedly not positive that Ferrari Challenge got its Trophy patch yet. This one has 37 Trophies (25 Bronze, 7 Silver, 4 Gold, 1 Platinum) with the best of the bunch being 'Happy Accident?' for executing a barrel roll. Most of the Trophies are of the 'get every medal' style, which isn't very creative for a game with as much action as Wipeout.



This week I've been playing LEGO Batman and even though the action is as repetitive as ever, the cutscenes are awesome. I really wish they'd shake things up on the gameplay side of things, instead of just recycling the 'bash everything' gameplay from...well, from every other LEGO game they've ever made.

There are a ton of unlockables and both Batman and Robin have an assortment of secondary outfits to try out. The special abilities for those outfits can be used to find things in earlier levels, which really ramps up the replay value - though you're not going to find different gameplay anywhere, so that might limit the fun for some.

The new Brothers in Arms game hit my desk as well, and though I haven't had a chance to check it out yet I'm looking forward to it. The strategic element to the combat in the first game was something I enjoyed, and the Unreal Engine 3.0-powered graphics promise to step up the presentation as well. I'm definitely going to get into this one tonight after the hockey game.

Sackboy has potential...

I got a LittleBigPlanet beta key as well, and spent a few hours with that one. I'm not sure what to think of it, to be honest. Like Spore, it offers up a wealth of creation options but - also like Spore - the gameplay side of things is a bit less exciting than I'd expected. The environments available in the beta differ wildly, though after a few hours it felt like I was doing the same things over and over. In that way it reminded me of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. You start the game and think there's so many cool things to do, only to find out a level or two later that you've really done them all and have four or five levels left to get through.

There are only three planes of depth to the game, and transferring quickly between them is kind of a crapshoot at this point. That's especially disappointing when you're doing the races found in levels, when a bad transition can cost you a shot at the top of the leaderboards. There are a few physics glitches as well, though these are generally more funny than frustrating.

The ability to check out levels that other people created is nice, but there's an awful lot of garbage to wade through already. Levels with poorly-placed (or not placed at all) respawn locations, elaborate machines that don't work - all lumped in with the levels that are actually worth your time. There's even a working 'Tetris' level, but good luck finding that among the 'watch the moving penis!' ones. I can see the created levels quickly becoming something I'd avoid, instead just downloading 'recommended' ones and letting someone else be the guinea pig.

I'll try to get a video or two of LittleBigPlanet captured and uploaded in the next day or two and you can check it out for yourself.

Until next week, I'm out.