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Well tonight is the Lost Planet All Nighter, guaranteed to be a fun time and the rumor is there will even be prizes. I still am not sure if I will be able to participate, or if I do for how long, but if possible I plan to be there. I will post a follow up blog if I do attend. Who else is going?

So after dying to this evil butcher countless times I finally started to do some research on how to best defeat him. Everyone mentions to get a shotgun, or other various weapons which completely depend on you clearing a different area - or they are not available to you. Furthermore somehow I ended up being extremely low on time for this battle - so running around collecting weapons through the mall, (especially weapons that I would have to clear a boss to actually have access too) wasn’t really an option. One other suggestion was the sledgehammer - but I did not have much luck with this weapon either.

Just when I was about to throw in the towel and restart the game with my current character status, I decided to give it another try. In the back of the room there are quite a number of racks, and I took him out pretty easily by swinging these racks at him. I simply would dodge what attacks I could, and hit him as many times with a rack before it broke, or he broke it. Then simply go grab another rack. I should also mention I went in with and used a number of jugs of orange juice - but every attempt before (with the sledgehammer and any other weapons I had access too) I was lucky to get him down to 50% life - using these racks, I died with him being at 10% the first attempt, and finishing him the second time. You might want to give this option a try.

Well as expected, the rumors are true. Not so long ago there was a post by Deaconblade 360 about a possible promotion from xbox that would give you rewards for your gamerscore - but the details were a bit vague. It looks like microsoft has officially released this promotion, and you have to sign up for it on Feb 12th if interested. Essentially the current contest is a 3 level system in which you have 1 year to obtain a certain level of gamerpoints. Here is a quick run down of the prizes for the first installment of this program:

Level 1 (0 – 4,999 annual Gamerscore):
The popular Xbox Live Arcade game Contra (rated: E10+) from Konami (Retail Value $5.00)
Exclusive Old Spice Level 1 Xbox Rewards gamer picture
An experience upgrade to Xbox Rewards Level 2

Level 2 (5,000 – 9,999 annual Gamerscore):
The popular Xbox Live Arcade game Contra (rated: E10+) from Konami
Exclusive Old Spice Level 2 Xbox Rewards gamer picture
100 Microsoft Points
An experience upgrade to Xbox Rewards Level 3

Level 3 (over 10,000 annual Gamerscore):
The popular Xbox Live Arcade game Contra (rated: E10+) from Konami
Exclusive Old Spice Level 3 Xbox Rewards gamer picture
200 Microsoft Points
Old Spice T-Shirt (Estimated Retail Value $10.00)
A copy of Fuzion Frenzy 2 game (rated: E10+) (Estimated Retail Value $50.00)

Microsoft and Old spice (the sponser of this challege) are going the extra step and as long as you achieve 1,500 points between February 12th and April 12th you qualify for a special bonus. You will get upgraded to the next level (so if you recieve at least 5,000 gamerscore in this timeframe you will automaticially be upgraded to level 3)

The program specifies that these rewards are unique to this challenge - new challenges will become available with different goals that you need to reach and prizes to win. They also specify that they will be watching for you cheaters - so don’t expect to obtain your free copy of Fuzion Frenzy 2 by downloading game saves for example - you have been warned!

Read more here: Xbox Official Rewards Site

first of all i just enabled a random theme, I am having some issues on the shell account after transferring the site. Funny thing was it was working, but now I essentially have lost all write access to the files on the server - no clue what happened, but this happened right when I activated a plugin that modifies my configuration files - long story short, since I cant write to the files it stored the file with zero bytes, and destroying the site - I have the site up and running but without most any of my plugins until I get a resolution to the problem with the host……

About the game:
This is a game based on the Disney/Pixar Movie “Cars”. A game in which you can play as various characters from the movie such as Lightning McQueen, Porsche, and Mater to name a few. It is a racing game at heart, with plenty of other activites to complete as well. The game comes with a smaller/easier mode for the children - but don’t get too excited achievements don’t unlock in this mode so you can’t use your kids to rack up those points
The game has quite a few different modes, it has the obvious racing mode, but also some general games to spice it up a bit, like the postcard hunt or the tractor tipping activities.

Single Player (Story Mode): 7/10
I am not extremely far into the game to say the least - but all ready its getting a bit repititious. The races are pretty similar, and there are quite a few that you must complete. The actual big races can only be played by reaching enough trophy points - which are gained by winning smaller racers, or playing the various other activities. I found it pretty interesting that in the big races - just like the movies you can take a pit stop (and almost guarantee to blow your tires if you dont do it). If it werent for the repetitious feel of the game I probably would rate this higher. Even the activities can feel this way, for example in the Tractor Tipping activity you sneak up and scare the tractors (again like in the movie) but after you complete the stage - the next stage is the same process - but with a different layout.

Multiplayer: N/A
I have not loaded multiplayer, but it seems to be your standard multiplayer functionality - I am not going to rate this area simply because I have not actually used it at all myself.

Graphics/game play: 8/10
The graphics are made to look like the animation in the movie, and there is plenty of detail in the terrain and the cars themselves. The gameplay is pretty standard, you can drift and use power boosts during races making it a bit more then simply running around the dessert in circles.

Achievements: 8/10
Looking at the achievements (since I have only unlocked one at the moment). They look to be spread out nicely to keep yo playing for a while. There are achievements that are related to the various mini games that you can play, and achievements that are unlocked by winning the major or milestone races. Considering the game in a whole I think the achievements are designed well. Most importantly they are all based on actually accomplishing something - they might not be the most difficult achievements to obtain - but at least you actually have to finish a specific race, or complete a mini game - simply staring at the screen for a number of hours, or pressing a button on your controller isnt enough.

In Short..
I got this game on a rental mostly just to see what it was like, but also so my son could see the game (to watch not play - 2 year olds still have a little bit of trouble with console games), but I find myself playing it even when he is sleeping or not around because the various activites and races are interesting - and the achievements, although are probably not difficult based on the fact that its a younger kids game - they aren’t as simple as ‘push the left thumbstick’ like in madden 06 for example. I probably wouldn’t have bought it, unless my son was older and wanted it for himself, but it was definately worth a rental in my eyes.

I give it a 7.5 out of 10

The achievements in Crackdown look like a real good time - I am sure the dev team had a blast coming up with them, here is a video (I believe released by Microsoft) showing a couple of them off.

I got a free pre-order (or $5 off of the retail cost) for a previous trade in - so cant want to give the full retail game a spin