Hey, it's 2009! I wanted to do a round-up of my gaming in 2008, with some fun facts. On with the show!

Facts:

53 individual full games (including XBLA) in my Xbox 360 Game History was played in 2008.
Gamerscore went from 13,242 to 30,903 (a 2.334 times increase).
Gamerscore at the end of 2008 was 30,903 out of 45,835 possible points (67.4%).
2008 game played on most individual days while connected to Xbox Live: Burnout Paradise (38 days).
Most achievement points from a 2008 game unlocked: Fable II (930 points).
2008 game played through the most times: Ninja Gaiden II (six times).

Timeline:

I made this by going through my older blogs and my 360 game history;

January 2. - New HDTV and bedroom. Borrowed DiRT, Burnout Revenge and Call of Duty 3 (and I still haven't delivered them back!)

January 24. - Bought Burnout Paradise.

February 1. - Bought Metal Slug 3.
February 12. - Borrowed Crackdown.


March 13. - Bought Mass Effect Bringing Down The Sky DLC.

April 9. - Got a new cell phone, which I still have, the Sony Ericsson W960i. Got to borrow Assassin's Creed.
April 29. - Bought Grand Theft Auto IV.

May 30. - Created a Japanese XBL account to download the Ninja Gaiden II demo.

June 6. - Bought GRID.
June 25. - Got Ninja Gaiden II after much delay. Game of the Year for me.
July 1. - Reviewed Ninja Gaiden II.
July 25. - Bought Ninja Gaiden II Mission Mode DLC.
August 11. - Bought Geometry Wars 2 and Braid.
August 12. - Reviewed Geometry Wars 2.
August 13. - Reviewed Braid and bought Bionic Commando Rearmed.
August 27. - Bought Castle Crashers.
September 4. - Bought F.E.A.R. Files.
September 7. - Bought Oblivion Shivering Isles DLC.
September 26. - Bought Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway.
September 30. - Red Rings of Death!

October 20. - Xbox 360 repaired and returned.
October 24. - Bought Far Cry 2 Limited Edition and Midnight Club: Los Angeles.
November 8. - Bought Gears of War 2 and Fable II.
November 21. - Bought Penny Arcade Episode 2.
December 3. - Bought Banjo-Kazooie (XBLA).
December 17. - Downloaded Dash of Destruction.
December 22. - Borrowed Rainbow Six Vegas 2.

My friend came over and we traded some games. He was in desperate need of games, and I lend him a hand... He got to borrow Fable II, Ninja Gaiden II and F.E.A.R. Files, while I got back my copy of The Orange Box and got to borrow Rainbow Six Vegas 2. I don't plan on playing it much online, so I like how you get EXP from the singleplayer as well. I'll also use that EXP glitch where an enemy spawns at the same time infinitely... That's why you won't see me playing it online, since the patch fixes it :P It's a cool game.

Remember Yaris? Possibly the worst game on XBLA, but everybody was treated to its awfulness since it was free. I'm sure most people's first impressions were "IT CAN NOT BE UNSEEEEEEN!!!!!!!!!!"


There's a new free, ad-heavy game on the XBLA. Luckily, it's not as dreadful. It's nothing I would buy, but it has a bit of charm. The singleplayer is split into two parts; T-Rex and Truck. The truck has to pick up bags of Doritos, while the T-Rex (or, more aptly, Doritosaurus Rex) will only settle for eating the trucks. As you progress through levels, more trucks and dinosaurs go at it at the same time, making things more hectic. As you progress, a dude will upgrade your Truck or T-Rex (D-Rex?), along with some text popups that happen to be amusing from time to time.

The best part about this game is the achievements. They are ridiculously easy. After completing the game in, say, 20 minutes, I had 11 of the 12 achievements. A quick local multiplayer match later, and I had 200/200 points. Dash of Destruction sucks, but is free. Sort of like me! Wait, what?

Far Cry 2 is fun online. Sure, it can be laggy as hell, but god damn. I love that 50 caliber sniper. I made a compilation of kills over the course of four matches. It took me a while to make, but took even longer to upload since I wanted to use YouTube's new HD feature. This is why I urge you to click on the video and click "watch in HD". There's a double-kill, some sweet healing animations (the last one makes me sick to my stomach every time) and I shoot a guy in a hang-glider!