With such a daunting task hanging over my head, sacrifices must be made.
The major sacrifice I’m making on this run to 20,000 achievement points is quality. The quality of games, the amount of quality time I get to spend with my girlfriend, quality sleep, and overall, my quality of life. The games of this past week hold true to each and every one of those examples. Yes, I have lowered my standards in the name of meaningless achievement points.
Take a look at the games I played this week: "College Hoops 2K6," "CSI: Hard Evidence," "The Orange Box," "Every Extend Extra Extreme," and "Virtua Fighter 5." While I was able to score a resounding 1,890 points, but at what cost did it come? Besides putting me at an overall score of 7,775 points towards my 20,000 by February 10th, my brain is starting to become mush.
On the one hand, "College Hoops 2K6" afforded me the same opportunity that I had the week earlier with "NBA 2K7": getting 1,000 points in one game in about an hour. That is great, and I have officially played more video game basketball in the past two weeks than I have since "Jordan vs. Bird" was in my NES. So, that was easy. However, suffering through the product placement-riddled crapfest that is "CSI: Hard Evidence" just for an easy 1,000 is really a testament to my dedication to this overall goal.
The fact that "CSI" was obviously designed to be played on a PC is overly apparent. The left analog is basically used as a (poor) mouse cursor. Additionally, even though the game has no actual action sequences, it still somehow manages to have the most unresponsive controls on the Xbox 360. No one, under any circumstances, should be playing this game, yet, here I am, with another hour and a half, and 200 more points to go, suffering, immensely. I will finish it. My standards are lowered.
On a more positive note, cracking "The Orange Box" and getting to play some "Portal" this week may have been the only thing that saved my brain from deteriorating into a(n even more) useless lump of grey matter. Thinking in 3-D, if even for a paltry 40 points, made my week, so much so that the Aperture Science Center voice may be my new favorite video game character.
I'm not sure how much intellectual fulfillment my brain is going to get this week either, with more kids games coming to me courtesy of Gamefly. While it may not be as sexy, or masculine to have 1,000 points in "Cars," or "Open Season," but at the end of the day, if they get me closer to "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" then it really doesn’t matter to me.
It's been a long week. There's a lot going here at MTV Games, and will continue to be going on through the end of November. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the past two weeks -- and their significant increase in overall achievement points -- will help carry me through the busiest month of my year, but we'll see how that goes. If you see me online, feel free to say "Hi!," or let me know you enjoyed (or not) my post, or even comment on the fact that "Virtua Fighter 5" should only be played with an arcade stick. Follow along with me on Xbox Live, or check out my gamer tag: jaded cynic.