First there was Avatar, then there was My Horse and Me2. Now there is Disney Sing It with Hannah Montana not too far away.

There is no denying that earning achievements and boosting gamerscore is extremely addictive. There is a huge community of competitive gamers eager to get to the top of leaderboards whether they be worldwide, or just amongst friends.

This led me to wondering, how far will you go to boost your gamerscore? Would you risk the ridicule of friends to get that extra 1000 points?

Those of you who have looked on my Xbox 360 profile will have noticed that I have earned 1000 gamerscore on Avatar and also played my fair share of other “kids games”. I sort of have an excuse as my girlfriend has kids who own an Xbox 360, but that doesn’t really mask the fact that I would still have played the games if she didn’t.

The game I received most comments about from friends was Disney Sing It. I got quite a grilling for having that on my profile eventhough a lot of them are “achievement whores” too. I must say though that I don’t chase after gamerscore as much as I used to. Lately I’ve been playing a lot of games purely for the enjoyment of the gameplay and story, but I am still tempted to go that extra mile sometimes to grab a couple of points.

What I’d like to hear are your stories, the readers of this blog. What games are you most ashamed of playing? Do you only play games that have easy achievements? Have your friends ever mocked you about certain games on your profile?

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Those who have been following my 360voice profile will know I have been spending quite a lot of time on Rainbow Six Vegas 2 lately. The game is incredibly enjoyable online with many features and unlockables which keep me coming back for that “just one extra round!”.

One thing I have always wanted to do though (since Rainbow Six Vegas 1) is map my face onto my character. Last night I finally got that opportunity thanks to a friend of mine temporarily lending me his Xbox 360 Live Vision Camera.

The results were.. interesting. The face-mapping is quite detailed but for some reason it can’t quite do hair properly. Nearly every attempt resulted in me looking either bald, or having a huge white skull showing at the back. Luckily I managed to get over the baldness issue thanks to a hat I managed to unlock a few days earlier. Phew!

Anyway, this got me to thinking. What other Xbox 360 games make use of the Live Vision Camera?

Thanks to Wikipedia, I managed to find this great list of games:

In-Game Video Support

• Battlezone
• Band of Bugs
• Bankshot Billiards 2
• Bomberman LIVE
• Burnout Paradise
• Carcassonne
• Chessmaster LIVE
• Civilization Revolution
• Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
• Domino Master
• Duke Nukem 3D (in lobbies)
• Gin Rummy
• Hardwood Backgammon
• Hardwood Hearts
• Hardwood Spades
• Lost Cities
• Pinball FX
• Rocky and Bulwinkle
• Soltrio Solitaire
• Spyglass Board Games
• Texas Hold ‘em
• Ticket to Ride
• Uno
• Uno Rush
• Vigilante 8 Arcade
• Warlords
• Wits and Wagers
• Word Puzzle

Controller Functionality

• Pinball FX
• TotemBall
• Rayman Raving Rabbids
• You’re in the Movies

Face Mapping Support (Digimask)

• FaceBreaker
• Football Manager 2007
• Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
• Pro Evolution Soccer 2009
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2
• World Series of Poker 2008: Battle for the Bracelets
• World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions

Other

• Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise

Admittedly, I haven’t heard of all of these. I imagine some of them are American releases or like “Uno Rush”, coming soon.

There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of making me want to purchase and Xbox Live Vision Camera (or justify a purchase), but I think the face-mapping feature in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 was very entertaining.

If you have a friend who has a camera, ask kindly if he/she will let you borrow it for a short period. If you are thinking of getting a camera yourself though, my best recommendation is that you get one bundled with the “You’re in the Movies” game.

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I stumbled across 360voice after viewing one of my friend’s Xbox 360 motto. I was curious as to what the site was about (although obviously it was something Xbox related), so I logged onto my PC and gave it a visit.

360voice is a site that tracks data about your Xbox 360. Upon signing up you add your gamertag and within a few days it begins displaying various statistics about your achievements, how often you play, and any challenges you have accomplished.

The great thing about 360voice though is that each day your Xbox 360 automatically blogs something about you (or it) whether you play or not (in quite a humorous manner).

360voice also has a great community where players arrange gaming nights and help each other complete games and obtain difficult achievements (where possible). The site even has it’s own form of “achievements” called “badges” which are earned by accomplishing various criteria such as playing/finishing certain games, winning competitions, and playing for a number of days.

Check it out today and get your Xbox blogging!

+ For those interested, you can track my profile here.

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Xbox Live Marketplace – Xbox Original Fable 33% off – this week only!

Sounds pretty sweet doesn’t it? For those who missed out on Fable the first time round, you may be thinking this is a great opportunity at the lowered price of 800MS points.

You are wrong.

For some reason, Microsoft (or Lionhead) decided the best idea would be to make the inferior version available for download. That’s right, this is in fact the original version of Fable, and not the updated/improved “Lost Chapters” version.

So what are you getting for your money (around £7)?

Don’t get me wrong, the first Fable game is the reason I purchased my original Xbox in the first place. The game looked just too awesome to miss out on, and it was. It was not long after though that Fable: The Lost Chapters was released.

Most people thought that “The Lost Chapters” didn’t really offer much new content to warrant purchasing it if they already owned the original, but for me the newer version felt so much more complete. The story seemed to make a bit more sense as characters appeared in cut scenes a bit more, areas felt populated/alive thanks to having an extended development time, there were some new quests, items, and areas to explore, and overall the package just felt more “finished”.

So why on earth didn’t Microsoft (or Lionhead) release this version on the “Xbox Originals” download list?

I have no idea.

So before you attempt to download this having being tempted by the offer, think about these points:

• You are getting the inferior version of the game
• You can get a copy of “Fable: The Lost Chapters” for cheaper than the current offer price
• The download version offers nothing new (no achievements, updates, or online features)
• Downloading this will take up precious space on the Xbox 360’s tiny Hard Drive

I appreciate Microsoft’s offer, I really do. But I think this time I will give it a miss. So far the weekly deals have been a bit of a let down for me. Fingers crossed for something better next week.

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Lionhead have recently announced on their blog that there is more donwloadable content coming for the Fable 2 on the Xbox 360.

Fable 2 is one of those games that you wish would almost never end. Whilst the news is very exciting, there wasn’t really much said about it.

Finally we’d like to address a question that comes up a lot;

“Will there be any more DLC for Fable II?”.

The answer is quite simple;

“Yes”.

This comes as no surprise after the recent announcement from Jonathan Ross (via twitter) about providing voice talent in “Fable 3″ (which a lot of us assumed was a mistaken statement about Fable 2 DLC).

We can only hope that more details will emerge soon. As soon as there is, be sure to come back here for the latest information

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