Gears of War: RAAM Killer

The Xbox 360 news is flowin' and I have a stack of stories to publish but I really just want to crow about my Gears of War achievements for this week.

Several weeks ago, Taylor blogged about his Top 10 Xbox 360 Achievements. I don't have anything close to 10 achievements that I find especially noteworthy, just the satisfaction of defeating General RAAM, the end boss of Gears of War on Insane difficulty.

Opinions differ on how difficult it is to beat Insane General RAAM. To put things in perspective, it only took me one or two tries on the two lesser difficulty levels (Casual & Hardcore) to best RAAM. The battle was more of a polite ritual. Truth be told, getting through the various stages on Hardcore was far more challenging than fighting the end boss. And it shouldn't be this way! C'mon, it's the End Boss, the Big Cheese. RAAM crumpled after little more than a handful of shotgun blasts to his ugly mug.

On Insane, my friend and I probably clocked in about twenty attempts, amounting to 60-80 minutes of play time. We cried and cursed. There was much throwing up of our hands and sighing. Then we cursed some more. But we finally pulled through it.

How did we do it? To be frank, I don't think our method can be duplicated with any rate of success. It was just a lot of luck and persistence that got us through. I armed myself with a sniper rifle and shotty, while my friend passed off the shotgun for his trusty Lancer. Upon arrival at the grand showdown, we simply parked our asses at the first block of cover and began pelting away at RAAM's face with sniper fire. As he got closer, we emptied out our supply of grenades on him, to no avail really, since he was protected by the Kryll most of the way.

Then the real fun began. RAAM got to within kissing range and we simply hid. Yes, we stayed cowering behind our cover, which suddenly felt way too small for two fully-armoured manly-men marines. Oh, we also did something else. Blindfire. We blind-fired like there was no tomorrow. Me with the shotgun, and my friend with his Lancer. It was a fantastic game of cat and mouse as RAAM circled around our cover, we quickly hopped over and hunkered back down on the other side. Then we waited for him to point his mottled ol' finger, which signaled the flight of his Kryll entourage, and we unloaded on him. Repeat and rinse. Eventually, the crazy general gave up the ghost and mercifully allowed us to finish our grueling trek through the Insane campaign.

Is this best way to tackle RAAM? Probably not. He would foil our little dance around cover countless times, shooting us while we were halfway over or simply just getting a good angle on us and blowing us away even while we thought we were safely behind cover. Other times, I'd try to cheat and walk around our block of salvation and be torn to bits by the swarm of Kryll. I can't imagine how hard it would be to battle him solo, with the brain-dead AI-controlled Dom watching my back. Uggh.

Well, I just wanted to share that scintillating story with you. I really enjoy the Achievements system for the 360 and beating Gears of War on Insane is the first of my achievements that I am truly proud of.

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Your Gamerscore and You - Part Uno

My gamerscore is sitting pretty at 1200 points roughly one month after buying my Xbox 360. The whole idea of achievements and points seemed rather trivial even during that week I was weighing the pros and cons of grabbing a 360. It was a superficial premise, to rewarding players for doing something they would do anyway, which is to play their games. I perhaps thought that there would be material motivation for raising your gamerscore: special offers, discounts on new games, free downloads in the Marketplace or something tangible for gaining achievements.

I quickly realized there was no system in place to "cash in" points from you gamerscore. Aww poo, then what good is it? As a gamer I could understand the inherent joy of racking up a lot of points and comparing yourself alongside other hardcore gamers. Even that mode of enjoyment, however, is deeply flawed. There is theoretically no limit to your gamerscore. It does not reflect with much accuracy your overall skill or dedication as a 360 gamer, as it is an amalgamation of all the games you have ever played and how much progress you have actually made in each game.

So I concluded, rather prematurely, that the whole notion of achievements and points was a gimmick. It still wasn't a potent enough reason to not buy a 360. Once I had plugged in my new game console at home, it was only the games that I cared for. Live was still but a glimmer in my gamer's eye. It sounded like a slick online matchmaking system, but nothing more. I knew I would get around to it eventually, but I was in no rush.

How things change. Four and a half weeks later I cannot even imagine using my 360 without Live and I always have my eye trained on my gamerscore. It crawls higher, ever so slowly, but I'm watching it. My eyes brightern every time I hear that telltale "BLIP" during gameplay and the "Achievement Unlocked" icon flashes onto my screen. The questions begin rolling in: I wonder which achievement that was? How was is it worth? How many more do I need to unlock to get them all?

For all their superficiality, the achievements system taps into a very pure desire of all gamers, if not all people and does it with remarkable simplicity. In my next post, I'll also get into how it ties into a more practical side of the overall Xbox Live experience.

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