We're not here today. Seriously, we're taking Friday off. That's because we all worked on Monday, which is "Labor Day" in "America." It's a holiday of some sort. But we had a lot of video shot at PAX last weekend that would not lie dormant for another day, so we opted to work Monday and not work Friday.
Actually, the weird thing about doing the start-up business thing is that you never truly feel like you're not working. At least I don't. In addition to writing this post about achievements, I'll probably also write a review of Section 8 today. And I've got hours of Need for Speed Shift ahead of me, as well. It's kind of the nice thing about this line of work, really. You can get things done even when you're sick, provided you're not totally bedridden. I was sort of bedridden for a day or two this week due to whatever the hell I contracted at the Penny Arcade Expo last week. Nick Chester from Destructoid wrote me before PAX even started and joked about how he hoped he could avoid the "nerd flu." I didn't realize how prescient that man truly was.
I'm feeling almost completely better today, thanks for not asking. I'm left wondering if all this really was the "swine flu" or not. As you've probably read, there have been a bunch of cases of it coming out of Washington lately, both from PAX, and at a college, where something like 2,500 cases were reported. All of this made me sit down and figure out what, exactly, H1N1 is. Turns out it's pretty much just "the flu." Just like any other season, there's something going around that'll get people sick. I feel like a sucker for buying into all the fear-mongering that's gone on over this whole thing, but I suppose it does have a different impact on children, the elderly, and so on. But for most of us, it's not exactly a life-threatening thing. So maybe you don't need to stockpile food buckets and water purifiers. Maybe the endtimes aren't coming this year. Fingers crossed for next year!!!!!!11
So let's get down to achievements. First, the top ten list, which is a measured by people visiting the top-level achievements page for a game.
Top Ten Sets (9/4 - 9/11)
- The Beatles: Rock Band
- Batman: Arkham Asylum
- Halo 3: ODST (blocked)
- Madden NFL 10
- Champions Online (Steam)
- Darkest of Days
- Guitar Hero 5
- Shadow Complex
- Garry's Mod
- Wolfenstein
Yes, The Beatles have taken the top spot. It's a good set of achievements, as far as music games go. Also, the game has a pretty slick achievement browser in place that lets you easily track your progress. I wish more games would do things like that, and things like the little pop-up updates on how close you're getting to an achievement. Also, Halo 3: ODST has appeared, though the full list is currently set to private. Earlier this week, I played through the final, retail version of ODST for review purposes. I earned a bunch of achievements, but they won't properly show up on the site until the list gets unblocked... which I expect will happen right around its release date later this month. As you might have guessed, that's about all I can say about ODST at the moment.
You know what? I really want to play Champions Online. But I know if I invest in an MMO, it'll eat up all of my time--time that I'll need to play things like Need For Speed Shift, which I'll be reviewing next week. Since that one's not blocked, you can view the full list of Need For Speed Shift achievements right now. It's one of the new sets we've pulled into our freakish hell-machine this week. Here's the full list:
New Sets (9/4 - 9/11)
- Bayonetta (blocked)
- Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising
- Need for Speed: SHIFT
- Pinball Hall of Fame
- Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
- Resident Evil 5 (is this the PC version? I'm not sure yet)
- NBA Live 10
- Brutal Legend
Yep, it's still like a month out, but if you want to see Brutal Legend achievements, we've got 'em. That means someone, somewhere is playing a copy of that game on retail Xbox 360 hardware. That someone is not me.
Speaking of Brutal Legend, you should check out the video we shot at PAX with Double Fine's Tim Schafer. He and I walk and talk our way around the show floor and discuss a bunch of things that aren't really related to his upcoming game. Plus it's always nice to find someone else who appreciates Star Raiders. I wonder how many times EA had Tim walking around the show floor with different camera crews that weekend? I know X-Play did something similar with Morgan Webb. Either way, that's probably one of my favorite videos on the site and one of the better interviews I've done. Interviewing people is probably the hardest thing I do because you never really know if the person you're talking to is going to just give you talking points or be willing to talk about more than the current product they're promoting. It's probably the last work-related thing I do that still makes me a little nervous. Of course, dudes like Tim Schafer make it easy.
Our interview with Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins--the men behind Penny Arcade--was also very easy. We just sort of sat down and started talking, even though the cameras weren't on yet. That probably made it weird for Vinny to edit, since there wasn't ever really an "intro" to the video. They also had a camera crew on-hand, which probably led to some great "camera filming camera" moments. Their cameras captured the stuff that our cameras didn't, so maybe "part 1" of that session will get out there someday.
OK, individual achievements. These are measured by traffic directed to a specific achievement page, whether people click through from a game's main list or end up here because they're using a search engine to find info on a specific achievement. Looks like Batman's holding up pretty well here, but NHL 10 is #1 because I linked to it on Twitter a couple of days ago. The icon for that one is just a fat Honda logo. It's certainly not the first sponsored achievement out there, but usually they try to tie it in somehow. This one? Just a logo. Weird.
Top Ten Individual (9/4 - 9/11)
- NHL 10 - Gold Team
- Batman: Arkham Asylum - World's Greatest Detective
- Garry's Mod - Secret Phrase
- Batman: Arkham Asylum - Freeflow Perfection
- Batman: Arkham Asylum - Perfect Knight
- Batman: Arkham Asylum - Party Pooper
- Batman: Arkham Asylum - Mano-A-Mano
- Batman: Arkham Asylum - Freeflow Combo 40
- Batman: Arkham Asylum - Crack The E-Nigma
- Shadow Complex - Minimalist
OK, that's all I have to say for this week. But let's do this again next week, cool?