NHL 08 Compreet-o!!!

In between having enjoyable sessions of learning about the "world of magic" with LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 and the "world of Dracula" with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, I've been able to get a few sessions in of NHL 08 with someone I could actually tolerate boosting with.  Even though our first try was unsuccessful, tonight we happened to hit it just right on our first game and get the Penalty Shot Hero achievement.  That was a great burden off my shoulders, considering that the servers were supposed to go down sometime tomorrow and I wouldn't have been able to do it as easily offline (read: post from Shauna about NHL 08).  So I will probably play a little more Lego HP tonight and then go to bed feeling relatively accomplished.  Also, on a sadder note, it seems that the moderator achievement on Need for Speed: Prostreet might have become unobtainable within the past few days.  If that's the case, I will be sad....

Monday already?

Well, I feel like I didn't get to fully accomplish anything this weekend, being hamstrung by EA's desire to shut down servers, still, but on the plus side I did get the last online-only achievement for NHL 08 with my Swiss friend.  Around that, I got to play through the first and part of the second year of LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 as part of a pseudo-mandate from Shauna.  All in all, it's another enjoyable Lego game and also a tolerable Harry Potter experience, since no one talks and its breadth is riddled with hunts for stud and interactive fixtures to unlock the meta-quests.  To wrap up the evening, I got contacted by one of the guys who took part with me in a horrible abortion of a boost session for NHL 08, where it seemed no one could get on the same page and everyone left frustrated, whether they got the achievement or not.  Unfortunately for me, the guy who I was contacted by was more than likely the one who destroyed that session.  So this new session was also taxed by his inability to focus on the game and add to that the fact that we no longer had control of all the player, unlike the previous session, so I went to bed fully exhausted and ungratified by the whole situation.  Add to that the fact that he invited me to his party while he's trying to boost a few other games and wasting my time, and he sits and complains about other people that he's boosted with while also touting himself as a great booster.  I'll try to remember that I don't ever want to bother with him again.  Where's Shauna?  Maybe I can talk her into trying again, since the first attempt went so well. :-P

Shauna...

...hates NHL 08.

getting it started...

Well, I think that I'll start this up as there's no time like the present and I'm hoping that the first step is the hardest to getting this rolling.  As a side note, I'm going to try and tag all of these blogs with an Amazon link to the games for ease of investigation by interested parties.  If someone happens to buy a game through one of our links, that's just a little more positive reinforcement for keeping this rolling.

Anyway, today I was talking with Shauna and day-dreaming about Deadly Premonition all day.  It's funny to me that we're basically finished with the game and it still seeps into both of our minds.  It probably doesn't help that I was listening to the soundtrack for it for the better half of the day.  Anyone interested in said soundtrack can find some well-prepared version out on the `net, just by searching.  If you're having a hard time, then let me know and I'll try to find and post a link to the place where I found it.  It's also sad, to me, that we can obsess about it so much and then not have the time, with our other plans and TV schedule for this morning.  It'll just have to wait for another day, I guess.  It's not like any citizens of Greenvale are waiting for us...well, maybe no one except Nick.

After arriving at home, this evening, I decided to play some Hasbro Family Game Night while waiting for Shauna to make it back from work.  I think I made a little progress before being interrupted by a guy that was dangling the "Beating Tough Competition" achievement in NHL 08, over my head.  It was go time!  I guess he wasn't too bad beyond a little verbal abuse, since I've heard whispers of people charging MS Points in order to bestow that achievement on others.  Well, one way or the other, it's done now and, hopefully, I won't have to deal with any more games that have their servers being shut down, at least for another year. :-\

Anyway, ran out to do some errands and get dinner with Shauna.  After that, watched TV until 10 and then plugged away on hockey some more.  I feel like the controls on this one are way more complicated than the last time I played, to the point where my created team of atomic supermen were still bested by the mediocre team of Japan.  Sorry Flint Sorcerers (my team's name) maybe next game...