Achievement Unlocked 12.06.08: Q and A and P of P

Posted by Rod Oracheski on 12.06.2008

With a busy schedule of accepting awards keeping him occupied, 411mania's Rod Oracheski goes to the mailbag to answer reader questions, plus gives some early impressions of the new Prince of Persia game.



Unfortunately, having to attend an awards banquet tonight means I didn't have much time for writing Achievement Unlocked, and it's actually past the time when it's supposed to be up that I'm starting to write it, so I'll have to fall back on another round of quick content fillers in a style I called Questions Being Answered!

Questions Being Answered

First up is Trevor T, who isn't very good at looking through the boxes:

Who wouldn't buy from this guy?

QUESTION: "I got an Elite that has HDMI but I don't have a cable. Is the picture better than component enough that I should get a HDMI cable at Best Buy?"

ANSWER: The Elite ships with an HDMI cable, so check the packaging again. Maybe it's inside a cardboard sleeve? In any case, it's really not essential that you run out and get a cable - either cable will provide you with a 1080p picture (if your set supports it) so the only real benefit would be to have both audio and video going through a single cable. If you can't find the one that came with it, I'd recommend hitting up Monoprice instead of Best Buy. You can get a 6-10 foot HDMI cable for about 1/7 the price Best Buy would charge and it'll work just as well. Don't buy into the Monster hype.

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Michael H. has the next question, wondering which Call of Duty is the one to spend his money on:

QUESTION: "I never got around to playing Call of Duty 4 when it came out. I was happy enough with Halo 3 at the time and don't have the money to spend on games I won't play much. Now that I have some money and Halo 3 is starting to wear thin should I get Call of Duty 4 or Call of Duty World at War?"

ANSWER: If budget's the issue, you'll be able to find Call of Duty 4 at a considerably lower price than the newer game. If you want to play offline, that's probably not a bad way to go. If you're looking for online play then unfortunately, given the first look at the Xbox Live activity numbers, it seems like the audience is split between the two offerings so it's tough to say which will offer up more long-term online fun. If I had to guess, given Infinity Ward's somewhat abysmal support record for Call of Duty 4, we've seen the last of the new content updates for that one and World at War is the way to go. You really can't lose either way - though World at War's online seems a little less polished than CoD4's, it's definitely still a blast.

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Tim G. wants to know what's hidden on his Achievement list:

QUESTION: "Secret achievements drive me nuts. How do you find out what they are and what you need to do to get them?"

ANSWER: I think they're supposed to, though most games seem to only hide ones related to the story to keep spoilers away from the general public. If you want to brave the secrets of the Achievement list you can check out this list which has pretty much every released game and some upcoming ones as well. But don't blame me if it reveals plot points you didn't want to know!

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Martin H. needs shopping advice. This one was asked and answered a while back, but I figured the advice is timely now:

QUESTION: "I want to pick up two or three games for my son Nick. He's 13 and likes basketball so I was thinking of a basketball game but need other options as well."

ANSWER: Well there wasn't really a question but I suggested either NBA Live 09 or NBA 2K9, with a preference for 2K9. Unlike last year, both games are worth checking out but the 2K brand still has the edge. Other games I suggested, throwing out a fairly wide range of games suitable for a 13 year old who I haven't a clue about likes and dislikes for, included Race Driver: GRID, Crackdown, Kameo, and possibly a LEGO-branded game. I'd now also add Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts to that list - plus parental choice selections like Mirror's Edge or Smackdown vs Raw 2009.

If anyone needs more suggestions, keep watching 411mania's Game section articles. I'm sure people will be starting their 'best of' lists for the year any week now.

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Hardcore Kitty has NXE

Someone identified only as 3th3rn3t, which is an affront to the English language, asked about NXE:

QUESTION: "I live in an area with no high speed internet. How can I get the update and is it worth extra effort to get?"

ANSWER: If you know someone who does have it, you could always take it there. Alternately there'll be games coming out in the new year that will have the update on the disc. It's also going to be put up on Xbox.com at some point, and you could grab it from there and burn it to a disc or possibly even put it on a USB drive.

As to whether or not it's worth packing up your Xbox and taking it to a friend's house, or even the other steps, is up to you I suppose. It's definitely a nice revamp of the user interface and, even if you just have a 20 GB HDD, being able to install whatever game you're currently spending the most time on is a nice touch. The update isn't really, as I mentioned in an earlier column, something I understand getting really excited over - but the features are pretty nice nonetheless. If it's not too hard to get, I'd definitely recommend doing it.

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Simon H. wants to know what the deal is with the videos:

QUESTION: "How are you recording the videos you post? I'd like to record some Left 4 Dead video."

ANSWER: I use a capture card that will capture up to 1080i video - the Blackmagic Intensity Pro. I output at 720p (going higher seemed a waste for video going onto the Internet for streaming) via HDMI on the Xbox 360 (no HDCP on HDMI for gaming) and component on the PS3 (for some reason it has HDCP for gaming - I'd need a devkit to capture via HDMI with a PS3...anyone want to send me one?) to a 3.5 TB HDD RAID, then edit the video with Adobe Premiere.

Going that way can be pretty expensive, but if you don't need to capture high definition video there are a number of other options to check out. It's impossible to recommend one without knowing price range and computer setup, so hit Google and start checking around. Just remember - internal cards will almost always be better than external cards and the more HDD space you have, the better. Generally you'll want to have your video recording to a HDD RAID that doesn't have your OS on it, so keep that in mind if you're going to buy/build a computer specifically for this kind of thing - you can go a little light on your OS-bearing HDD space if that means having another TB to store video on.

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Jason B. wants details on Killzone 2:

QUESTION: "What's the word on Killzone 2? Is it going to be better than the first?"

ANSWER: It'll be a better looking game, that's for sure. Those who dislike the 'grim and gritty' take that most modern games have will likely hate the 'brown with more brown and some blowing brown stuff' look of it, but the art style is consistent at least. The movement looks good, but hopefully the game is still getting some tweaking to the transition and death animations.

The only real concern I'd have for the game is the AI, which just wasn't all that hot in the first game. Guerilla had some big ideas with the original game, but it was hobbled by hardware that just wasn't up to the task of delivering what they asked of it. It's unlikely that's going to be the case with the PS3, especially with the amount of time they've had to get the game ready to go. This is one that Sony absolutely can't have release before it's ready, so expect it to be as polished as it can be. If not, Killzone 2 may wind up the same as Resistance 2 - a game I'd recommend for those who will play online, but maybe disappointing for those who just want a challenging single-player session.

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The questionably-named CRAYOLA WARRIOR wants details on Halo 3: ODST:

QUESTION: "Is it true that the new Halo game will be more like Ghost Recon?"

ANSWER: Maybe - nobody really has much for details on exactly how the game will play. I'd be willing to bet it will be less like Ghost Recon and more like Halo 3, however. I think they've said the multiplayer will feature the same gameplay as Halo 3, so it's unlikely they'd make too drastic of a change to how you play in the single-player missions.



The Trophy list for Lord of the Rings: Conquest is available, a 48-Trophy list that's heavy on the mundane unlocks related to storyline. There are a few good ones here, though they might not be particularly hard to get - kill 100 enemies in one life or get a 30-hit combo counter as a warrior, get 25 headshot kills or 25 kills with fire arrows (both in one life) as an archer, etc...

They did a good job with the Trophy names though, calling back parts of the movie/books in a way that will please the hardcore fans. I'll admit that I don't know a great deal about this game at this point, being overwhelmed by the flood of games in recent weeks, but hope to get more on it soon.



The new Prince of Persia is out, and it looks amazing. Unfortunately it really felt a lot less impressive than it looked in a four-hour play session at a friend's house. If you're much of a gamer at all, it's unlikely you'll find much challenge here.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, however. For every gamer out there who loves the challenge that a game like Call of Duty: World at War offers up on the hardest difficult, there are just as many - if not more - who are tired of feeling like they're never going to finish a level. This game should fill the bill nicely into that category of gamers.


If you're more of a hardcore style of gamer who demands challenge, maybe just give this one a rent. It's a bit on the short side and while the visual style probably isn't going to get old before you're done, the gameplay might.

A game that isn't getting stale for me is The Last Remnant. The farther I get into the game, and higher Battle Rank I become, the more options are opening up for me in combat. I've been revising my Unions again and again as I 'get' the interplay between capabilities more. Instead of trying to balance out every Union, I've dabbled with more experimental ones that have different mixes of damage versus healing - with mixed success. Tracking down and eventually beating the rare monsters has been a real time sink, and some of those battles make me wish the game had a multiplayer component.

When not playing TLR, I finally hopped into World at War multiplayer, after a week or more of putting off the people I played Call of Duty 4 multiplayer with. As a result, I joined up with a level 30ish, a 47, and a 50. By the end of the hour or so gameplay session, I was level 7 and starting to feel better about my chances online. The maps are going to take some serious getting used to, however.

One thing I really liked about CoD4 was how polished the maps were. There were very few spots where you could hold off the enemy indefinitely - for every door you could cover, there was a window that left you open to snipers or grenades. The maps in World at War haven't impressed me with that just yet, though that may very well be because I simply don't know them all that well yet and don't have the weapons or perks to start formulating high-level combat strategy. Expect to hear more on the online portion of that game in the future.

The Internet will be stewing over THIS in the next few hours. No idea what it means, but I'm sure it'll prompt speculation - wild or otherwise.

Until next week, and some Resident Evil 5 impressions, I'm out.

OK, here's one pic to hold you over - click for full-size version.



And a video - who says I never give you anything?