JOE’s Gaming Round-up

JOE's round-up continues with one gamer's milestone Gamerscore, the latest Alan Wake DLC and the long-awaited release of Fallout: New Vegas

JOE

By Emmet Purcell

Welcome to another week of JOE’s videogame round-up. As always, we’re looking to provide you with up-to-the-minute news, download reviews, weekly charts and forthcoming release dates on a weekly basis. So if thereâ€™s anything you think weâ€™re leaving out, or would like us to shine a spotlight on, feel free to leave a comment below.

News

Xbox 360 gamer hits over 500,000 Gamerscore

Sorry Stallion83, but this Achievement would impress us more from you

Xbox Live Achievements are one of the biggest masterstrokes of today’s gaming era, as they not only combine the notoriety and one upmanship that gamers love with a concept that encourages players to extend the longevity of their titles and try others. One such gamer, Stallion83, has took the competitive pursuit of Achievements to new heights – with a Gamerscore of 500,000, as you can see from his recent activity here.

Stallion’s true goal is still a far way from completion, however – the avid Xbox fan hopes to one day reach a score of 1,000,000. As we write this, the man himself was busy on the career mode of Kareoke Revolution – now that’s dedication!

Blizzard to sue Starcraft II hackers

Having never played Starcraft myself, I have no idea what’s going on

Starcraft II developers Blizzard have issued a lawsuit against three men that they claim are guilty of “multiple counts of copyright infringement” for producing hacks and cheats in the phenomenally successful RTS sequel. The men, known in the game’s community as ‘Cranix’, ‘Permaphrost’ and Linuxawesome’, are being sought to pay damages and a cut of the money from their sold hacks. The suit states as below:

‘â€œJust days after the release of StarCraft II, Defendants already had developed, marketing and distributed to the public a variety of hacks and cheats designed to modify (and in fact destroy) the StarCraft II online game experience.”

Download of the Week

Alan Wake: The Writer (560 MS Points)

What’s going on? Oh wait, it’s Alan Wake… nevermind

Remedy Entertainment close the final chapter of Alan Wake with their second downloadable installment, Alan Wake: The Writer. The first episode, The Signal, was released in July, winning huge plaudits from some critics for introducing new gameplay concepts (shining your torch on words for their tangible objects to appear), but coming up short in addressing the increasingly complex and surreal plot of the atmospheric title. Reviews for The Signal claim that the new installment is extremely well-paced and a fitting conclusion to the Wake saga. Let’s hope so, and let’s hope Remedy actually has a handle on the storyline they’re trying to tell.

Friday Releases 22/10/10

Mad Max in Las Vegas? We can’t wait to see what Obsidian has created

Without doubt, this weekend’s releases are firmly dominated by Fallout: New Vegas, the first Fallout installment since Fallout 3 walked away with numerous Game of the Year accolades in 2008. Developed by Obsidian Entertainment, rather than Bethesda Studios, early previews of the title reveals that not much has changed since Fallout 3, perhaps to New Vegas’ detriment – we’ll have to wait until Friday to see if Obsidian can shake off their reputation as the ‘B’ team of Western RPGs (the studio developed Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II in 2004). Elsewhere, Shinji Mikami’s take on third-person shooters lands with Vanquish and Professor Layton solves his latest mystery on the Nintendo DS.

Xbox 360

Costume Quest (XBLA)

DJ Hero 2

EA Sports MMA

Fallout: New Vegas

Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole

Saw II: Flesh and Blood

Super Meat Boy (XBLA)

Vanquish

Playstation 3

Buzz! The Ultimate Music Quiz

Costume Quest (PSN)