Fridaily Update

Celebrations were had,
Super Hard mode was beaten

A while ago I thought this day would never come but today I can finally say I'm finished with Bionic Commando: Rearmed. Thursday night saw the realization of weeks of effort, all for 5 measly Gamerscore. If I were doing this for the points alone I probably would have moved on long ago but I like to think of myself as a completionist and while I'm not sure Bionic Commando: Rearmed was the hardest game I've ever slogged through it would definitely have to be one of the hardest ones in a long, long time.

Yesterday was a weird day, filled with ups and downs, which is why I didn't end up posting anything - I just didn't seem to have it in me. The completion of Bionic Commando: Rearmed Thursday night did cap off a mixed day on a high note and help to put yesterday behind me. This won't be then end of Nathan Spencer as today, after a brief stint revisiting Joe Danger 2: The Movie and completing the Undead Movie Pack DLC, I've started working on Bionic Commando: Rearmed 2. Yes you read that right, more Bionic Commando action than you can shake a stick at. I'm sorry if you've had enough of Bionic Commando but I figured while it was still fresh I might as well put the skills to use and finish the sequel off as well. Before we go deeper into that, lets talk about Joe Danger 2: The Movie.

Fast paced and loads of fun. You should give Joe Danger a try

Joe Danger was a cool little game that can also be very hard, however I found it insanely fun. You play as a cartoon stuntman doing all kinds of daring tricks and stunts while trying to complete the different objectives each level tasks you with. I absolutely loved Joe Danger so when Joe Danger 2: The Movie came out I jumped on it quick. After completing Joe Danger 2, I had deleted it off my hard drive sad that there would be no more Joe Danger for the foreseeable future. I was happily proven wrong when word of DLC for Joe Danger 2 reached me. I bought and played the Undead Move Pack last night and this morning and while happy to revisit Joe Danger I found the DLC to be lacking and very short. After maybe 2 hours I was finished with Joe Danger again. Until next time buddy.

Back sporting a Mo this time

This quick pallet refresher proved to be all I needed to start thinking about tackling Bionic Commando: Rearmed 2. I thought what the hell, let's strike while the iron is hot. I had a quick look at the achievements and after playing the game for a little while I think I was right in my assumption that this incarnation of Bionic Commando will be easier than the last. It's been pretty fun so far, and I think I'm somewhere around halfway through my first play through. There seems to be a lot more levels this time, and the achievements require a lot of playthroughs, but with the quick progress I've been making so far I think this game won't put up half the fight the previous one did. The swinging mechanic is different this time, it behaves the way I thought it should have in the first game. After playing the original for so long however it's weird getting used to the change.

That's it for this week. No PC games, no phone games, just straight Xbox this time. I'll be back sometime next week, Monday is a public holiday so I'm unsure if I'll be writing anything but something will go live Tuesday for sure. See you all then.

Wednesdaily Update

Foil me once, Gottfried, shame on you.
Foil me twice, shame on me.

OK, let's get it out of the way again - Bionic Commando: Rearmed, I played it. I played it and played it and still haven't managed to beat the last level. I am getting very confident that it will happen soon though, as I'm now in a position where I can semi-reliably tell what heights the rockets are coming at now and usually make it into the third or forth sequence of the boss battle. It's agonizingly close and I did manage to beat the boss once, but I ended up dying on my way out of the level and it just happened that it was my last life. You can imagine some choice words were thrown around after that. I've done it before and I can do it again, it's just a matter of time and knowing that has taken some of the frustration out of each failure.

I'm still working my way around the map collecting extra lives before tackling the level. I still reliably make it to the boss with one or less deaths but the whole preparation process takes a while and can take a toll on my frustration levels when having to repeat it over and over. This has led me to continue playing Cook, Serve, Delicious in between attempts and I'm closing in on that second star restaurant rating. I'm interested to see if anything changes in the later game of Cook, Serve, Delicious as at this stage I've pretty much bought all the equipment available to me. Just buying and upgrading different foods might not be enough to keep my attention for too much longer. I have managed to obtain a couple of golden tickets, and so far the game has been obfuscating their use in mystery. I'm interested to see what they end up unlocking.

A walking boat in space

After working through 30 waves of Survival: Settlement last weekend, I got back in contact with my buddy Dillagence and he helped me through 20 waves of Survival: Swamp. We smashed through it in one go, netting me the "Swamp Survivor" achievement. This means one of the easiest multiplayer achievements is the only one I have left, however Iron Brigade seems to be very temperamental with constant disconnections and dropouts plaguing most of the matches I've been in. Sometimes it's me, other times a person I'm playing with but I don't think I've been in a match where 1 person hasn't dropped midway. This makes the last achievement very problematic as it asks you to "Complete a mission with 4 players". The quickest and least problematic way to do this is to play a boss level which can be beaten with 4 players in less than a minute, however no-one wants to play these levels. Dillagence and I were trying to sucker 2 other players into completing a quick match with us but most left the instant they saw it was a boss level and when trying to play a normal level someone always dropped out mid game. It was quite frustrating and I gave up after a while, but I will eventually get back to it and finish Iron Brigade once and for all.

Lastly the reason this blog is so late today is that I was out all day. I had a couple of appointments, and things ran long. I barely have had any time to even browse the internet today so if this entry seems a little rushed it's because it is. I'm trying to finish and post it before midnight, which as of right now is in 15 minutes. This time spent waiting for appointments was of some use though, as I made some stellar progress through pack 2 in iStunt 2. I've only got a few levels to get all the gold stars in now and it'll be smooth sailing from there. That's it for this blog entry, I've got to quickly find some pictures and post this now. Please leave a comment, anything you'd like to see on my blog, what you like best about it, constructive criticism or just that you flat out hated it. Hope everyone's had a good day and I'll see you all again Friday.

Xbox One Reveal Thoughts

We're going to do something a little different that the normal review today. The Xbox One was announced last week and I refrained from making any real comments about it because there was a lot of conflicting reports on a whole range of issues. I wanted to get most of the details ironed out before I would commit a few thoughts to paper just to make sure the opinions I had were based on actuality and not something that wasn't a reality. I've got a lot to say so there will be more Xbox One features leading up to E3.

I'm digging the new gamepad. The new analog sticks
and the D-Pad look like improvements.

The big reveal was much maligned and disparaged by nearly everyone everywhere I went on the internet. I couldn't really understand why. That's a lie, I know why, it's the same why behind nearly every goings on in the world - people are self centered, selfish and arrogant as a whole. I'm not trying to insult what seems like nearly everyone on the internet but if they would take the time to step back and look at the reveal objectively I think it was pretty successful in what they were trying to do. This was a nationally televised conference in the United States and as such Microsoft wanted to reach out to the every man. This was not a reveal for the gamers.

Everyone complaining about the Xbox One is deep into games. They love them, it's a major part of what they do with their free time and they enjoy it. Microsoft knows this audience, they know what matters to them is games but lets face it, games are still looked down upon by most of the mainstream. Games are seen as a waste of time, and gamers are still maligned as geeks, nerds and social incompetents. Microsoft has since come out with the lofty sales goal of 1 billion console sales, which gamers have reacted to with bemusement, seeing it as proof Microsoft have gone batty and they would have, if they were targeting gamers. A quick look for Xbox 360 sales figures found that 77 million were sold worldwide, well short of the billion mark. Looking at their 1 billion aspiration and the previous super popular console sales number, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Microsoft might be losing their mind, but then remember the Xbox One reveal.

What's more mainstream than TV?

That's right, they weren't targeting gamers. They know most gamers will buy an Xbox One or an Playstation 4, and that's a battle they probably think they can win at a later date, say E3. This reveal they were targeting the mainstream. This is the first time anyone has seen the console, and they are televising it nationally. If they come out and reveal the console as just that, a console, the mainstream market will nod, put it in their collectively looked down upon console box and won't give it another thought. If they come out and reveal the console for something the mainstream market can use and position it as such, with games being a bonus feature, then all of a sudden they're a lot closer to that 1 billion sales mark.

Bundling a motion controller device with the new Xbox One
may be a play to recapture more of the Wii buyers.

Do I think Microsoft will hit their 1 billion sales mark? No, probably not, but they're fighting in a much larger area now. Collectively the sales for Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii console total under 300 million (with the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 both selling around 77 million each while the Wii reached 100 million). Now some people bought multiple consoles, and the Wii sales were mostly to people who don't buy consoles and the Wii ran away with it. I think Microsoft saw this and thought "Wii killed it by selling to the mainstream, and it was a dedicated games console. Imagine what we could do if we convinced the mainstream that this box enriches something nearly 100% of people do - watch TV, playing games is a bonus".

Now I hope I don't have to point out to people that companies are in business for one thing, and one thing only, money. Microsoft positioning the console this way does something they want - it gets their foot in the door for mass market adoption. This isn't guaranteed obviously and as such they need to be able to rely on their already established market to catch them if they fall. It's because of this that I find it funny people have been saying Microsoft has forgotten about the gamer. They need us, we're their safety net! They haven't forgotten about us - they're banking on us saving their ass if they fail. Obviously Microsoft has been putting the effort in to make a games console for us. They've been securing exclusives and trying to give us the best gaming experiences they can deliver. This just wasn't the time for them to show it to us, Microsoft knew this and tried to temper expectations. Microsoft came out and said before the reveal that it wasn't going to show games or talk to much about anything gamers would find particularly exciting and they're saving E3 for that.

E3 will govern if I return to the Playstation brand for the first
time since the original Playstation or if I forge ahead with
the Xbox path I've blazed the last 8 years.

Will this gamble pay off? Only time will tell, Microsoft obviously thinks they have a really strong E3 line up and maybe they do. Personally the Xbox One reveal was exactly that, they revealed a box, it's called the Xbox One. The other stuff they talked about did nothing for me. I learned a little bit about the console and learned a lot about how they are trying to sell this console to people that aren't me. E3 is coming and coming soon, and E3 is my time. E3 is when I make my decision on what this console holds for me. They will show games, people will be talking about games, and developers for the first time will be able to talk about working on the next generation of games a little more openly. E3 is games and games are what I enjoy, the Xbox One will play games, in fact, contrary to popular internet opinion, it's main focus is games. How they advertise the Xbox One to non gamers is just that, advertisement. Advertisement's job is to bend the truth and sell things to people that they wouldn't otherwise buy, and it's the mass market Microsoft is really trying to hoodwink here. The Xbox One is a games system and I can't wait for E3 to roll around so I can make a more informed decision on which game system is really for me.

Mondaily Update

I admit there was some yelling, both in celebration and
frustration this weekend. Success is near, I can feel it!

It's another Monday and I finally have hit a decent milestone in Bionic Commando: Rearmed! Finally something I can point to and show some progress. Yesterday saw me finally managing to barely finish off the Challenge Rooms and boy was it a close finish. My heart was thumping when I crossed the finish line with less than a second on the clock. This brings me to a total of 195/200 achievement points obtained in Bionic Commando and I'm still working on the last level on Super Hard difficulty, but I have hope that it will be mine soonish too.

After trying that last level for a solid 5 days or more I've come to the point where I can reliably finish the level with 1 or no deaths. I've also discovered a tactic which sees you go back and revisit all the non combat levels in the game which house an extra life to let you face the boss with 15 or so lives to spare.Those 15 lives are then promptly thrashed by the boss but I've been making progress and I'm at the point where I know I will eventually be able to beat him, it's just a question of how long until it happens. Collecting those lives takes a while, which can be frustrating and then dying over and over adds a lot more frustration so I can only have a good two or three runs before I'm not at my best which this over this past week has seen me turn to Cook, Serve, Delicious on my PC.

Press the right buttons and do it fast, other orders are queuing up!

I've talked a bit about Cook, Serve, Delicious before but if I were to describe its gameplay to someone I'd have to say you get an order, then try and fulfill it as accurately and quickly as possible. You do this in the form of a button pressing mini game and try to fill every customers order and not let them wait to long and eventually leave. It's really quick with a round lasting 10 minutes or so which is perfect for breaking up my Bionic Commando: Rearmed induced frustrations. There's a layer of restaurant management and menu planning on top of this in the downtime between rounds. It's a simple game but it's serving me well and can become a little addicting.

Over the weekend I also returned to Dust: An Elysian Tail, which is another game I had finished a while before starting this blog that I noticed I didn't get all the Avatar Awards available. After looking up the award I had missed I discovered it had actually glitched on me and is one of the first ones you normally get. I started a new game on the easiest difficulty and ran through the game as fast as I could and ended up unlocking it in an hour or so. After deleting it from my hard drive again I took another look through my avatar awards and noticed a couple more games were missing a few so I've redownloaded them and will return to them eventually too.

Late Saturday night a good friend on Xbox Live told me that there was a Iron Brigade session scheduled later that night for the hardest achievement in the game. Settlement Savior requires you to "Complete wave 30 on Survival: Settlement". Dillagence and I have taken a couple of shots at this before in other sessions and it's very hard if you're approaching it wrongly. This session started at 1:30 am Sunday morning and was scheduled for 2 hours, needless to say it wasn't that easy and we played long into the early morning. For the first couple of hours everything was going smoothly and we played and failed a good number of games but then disconnections started plaguing our matches. One particularly good game saw me and the session host disconnect deep into the match leaving Dillagence and another session goer to fend for themselves and eventually earn the achievement. By this time the session was already long past finishing and being so early in the morning I wasn't sure if there would be a will to continue but Dillagence stuck in there and we tried once more which when smoothly for me and saw me obtain this achievement too. The session host was having connection issues but started playing with some other people and managed to unlock it himself as well so apart from going to sleep at 6am everything turned out great and I was happy I had another achievement I wasn't sure if I'd get under my belt.

It was cool to return to Iron Brigade again. I really enjoyed my time playing it.

This leaves 2 more multiplayer achievements to go in Iron Brigade but I think those will fall pretty easily if I put a little time in. Speaking of a little time I completed a couple more levels in iStunt 2, getting me past the half way mark in Stadium Stunts pack and closer to my second world with all the starts collected. Upon completing the second world with all stars it will be all downhill as there are no other achievements requiring 100% completion. I feel good about this weekends progress, and while it hasn't resulted in huge Gamerscore gains it has seen some progression in some of the more difficult completions I've been working on lately. 

Fridaily Update

I'm going to stop putting Bionic
Commando pictures in here soon.
I'm sure you're as sick of seeing
them as I am.

Friday always turns up so expectantly. Maybe I'm losing track of time because I've been stuck playing Bionic Commando: Rearmed for so long. Once again there has been some progress but no big milestones in relation to collecting the last two achievements I need to complete the game. I've managed to struggle through and eventually destroy another 2 levels in a row in the mission mode. This brings me to the last level and boy is it a beast! I've tried around 50 times so far and haven't gotten through the first part of the level.

Eventually I got frustrated and turned to the Challenge Rooms and made some good progress there too. I've now finished every Challenge Room except the last two. Hopefully I'll get them soon so I'll finally have something to show for this massive time commitment. I'm feeling especially rushed at the moment because of the announcement and relatively near release of the Xbox One. I still have a huge stack of games I haven't even touched and a bunch of boosting to do just to complete what I've already bought. I don't even want to think about the heap of games I still want to buy and play!

With Bionic Commando: Rearmed being so frustrating I've spent some more time on my PC playing intermittent bouts of Cook, Serve, Delicious. I've been coming up in Cook, Serve, Delicious' world with my restaurant receiving it's first make over and star. Personally I feel like my restaurant deserves much higher than 1 star status with flawless or near flawless service every day.

I'm working towards 2 star status

That's everything to have happened this week. I wish I'd achieved more. Once I finish Bionic Commando: Rearmed I have big plans, involving rapid fire completions and a renewed focus on boosting but I'm also deciding if I should just start Bionic Commando 2 straight afterwards as there must be some skill transfer and in the long run it'll probably be better to see if I can't just smash the sequel too. I've heard it's easier aswell, which is nice. Leave a comment if you'd like and have a good weekend everyone!

X-Men XBLA Review

I have some vague memories of playing X-Men in the arcades years ago. There were not many arcades around, and I barely ever went but I remember being invited to a friends birthday party at one and among the many games we played I'm pretty sure X-Men was one of them. At the time there seemed nothing to the game except to mash the buttons, and playing it again now it seems like I wasn't that far off all those years ago.

Overview

X-Men was originally a 4 or 6 player Beat 'em Up arcade game. You could play as either Colossus, Cyclops, Dazzler, Nightcrawler, Storm or Wolverine as you work your way through a number of Marvel super villains, foiling their dastardly plans until you reach Magneto and put an end to all this tom foolery for good. Each character can beat the many enemies into submission with a range of hand to hand attacks and a unique and powerful special move.

Rational
I'm a decent fan of Marvel's characters and Beat 'em Ups, with TMNT 1989 and Streets of Rage being my favourites, but X-Men just didn't do anything for me. X-Men just seemed like there was no apparent strategy or techniques for working your way through the game. Games were designed to suck quarters out of you back then but this is ridiculous. In TMNT 1989 (another Beat 'em Up available on XBLA) you can learn the levels and develop tactics for the wide range of enemies you'd encounter and even eventually maybe beat the game on one quarter. No such luck here, the sheer amount of enemies they throw at you in a single encounter makes dodging and moving around without getting hit nearly impossible.

This lack of strategy just turns the game into a shallow button masher, and without the impetus to do good (because your dollar isn't on the line anymore) you just button bash and continue your way through the game. When played this way X-Men is quite boring and short. All the challenge is pretty much removed by respawning then using all your supers and doing as much damage as possible before dying and repeating the process. It's when you look back on a game like this that you can really see how cheap the design really was.

Summary
X-Men only offers something to those that hold some sort of nostalgia for it. The game by itself is plain, offers little variety or strategy and is over in less than an hour. The only other way X-Men might interest you is if you are a major Marvel fan looking to mindlessly press a couple of buttons for a while. There's no story or gameplay hook to keep you coming back for more. X-Men's one redeeming feature may be that it has an easy 200 points if you have a friend with the game, so if you're way into achievements you might give it a look.

Wednesdaily Update

Urgh, just go away Rad

Man Bionic Commando must be the most talked about game on this blog. Yes I'm still playing it. Yes I've made some more progress. Yes, it's still hard. Bionic Commando: Rearmed is almost infuriatingly hard, I can only play it in 30 minute chunks before I'm swearing and punching things. This has stifled my progress a lot as I can't just sit there and play for hours, but the end is slowly getting closer. I managed to pass another level today and I do feel things are getting easier, but not by much. There are 3 more levels to go and once again I'm here hoping to finish it very soon.

Xbox One, the future is coming real soon!

This hope is expedited because of last nights Xbox One reveal. The next generation now has a name and it's deadline is looming over me. I turn around and take a peak at my stack of unplayed games then think about the many other games I haven't even bought yet that I want to play and I don't know if I'll be anywhere near finished by the time Xbox One comes about. I'm not sure if I'll grab the Xbox One on launch, as I still will have a whole bunch of games to play, but then again I think I'm in this situation because I waited about 2 years before I got my Xbox 360 and I tried to catch up on that 2 year period, which never happened. To this day I think I am about 2 years behind on all the games I want to play. It's this thought that makes me not want to repeat this process again, but what about all the games I haven't played yet. Having two systems on the go just means needing even more time to devote to gaming. It's a tough spot to be in, but most first world problems are lol.

Used games always seemed like a rip off to me anyway.
Shops offer you less than you'd get if you sold them direct
on eBay then turn around and sell them for 5 dollars
cheaper than the new copy.

I've seen a lot of negativity over the Xbox One on the internet but I'm still pretty optimistic. The presentation didn't really offer much to the hardcore gamer in me but then again it wasn't aimed at me. The presentation was televised nationally in America, and catered towards mums and old people to let them know the reason they should buy an Xbox. Of course it still does games, it will do them better than the Xbox 360 but with all the hate I've been seeing online people don't seem to realise this. I've seen people saying consoles are over, mostly in relation to the way Xbox One will handle used and traded games. You can't trade in or buy used games on the PC anyway, they've had single use serial codes for years. The TV stuff is an addition, the internet and Skype functionality is an addition. I think come E3 there will be a whole heap of gaming news and everyone will be flocking back into the fold.

Xbox One drama aside, I've been spending some more time on my PC lately due to Bionic Commando: Rearmed infuriating me so much. I finished Evoland, which was an awesome game and you should really check it out. I'm not sure if I'll review it as it's not an Xbox related game, but if I ever find myself with nothing to talk about I might. Say something in the comments if you'd really like to hear something about it. I moved onto another PC game called Cook, Serve, Delicious which is a great game to play between spurts of Bionic Commando: Rearmed to compose myself. Cook, Serve, Delicious is an restaurant sim/action management game. You manage your restaurant, choose what food to serve and what to use your hard earned money on at the end of each day but you spend the bulk of your time serving orders to your customers in the form of many different fast paced minigames. It's pretty much a restaurant themed Warioware with a higher level macro sim game being played over the top in the down time between serving. It's a lot of fun and you should check it out. Cook, Serve, Delicious is perfectly paced to be played in 10 minute sittings, like breaking up your frustration playing Bionic Commando: Rearmed for example.

These last couple of blog entries have gone up pretty late, I apologise for that and I'm going to try and get back to my normal posting times. Especially now with my new found enthusiasm to push through and complete as many games as I can before the Xbox One comes out. I'll hopefully be online and gaming a lot more. Leave a comment, and I'll see you all Friday.

Alien Hominid HD XBLA Review

Today's review is Alien Hominid HD. This game was released waaaay back in the early days of the Xbox 360 launch, which is about when I first bought it. I had heard good things and decided to take the plunge only to find myself way out of my depth. Alien Hominid HD seemed hard and unforgiving in a way that I wasn't ready to deal with at that point in my Xbox 360 life. Upon returning to it almost 4 years later I found that I was mostly mistaken and managed to get through all of Alien Hominid HD in a few days. With the exception of a couple of frustrating achievements I found Alien Hominid HD to be very enjoyable.

Overview
Alien Hominid HD started out life as a flash game on Newgrounds. Alien Hominid  was a cartoon fun, fast take on the classic run and gun action games like Contra. Behemoth decided to port the original game to the XBLA making it the high definition Alien Hominid we now have available. You play as an alien initially shot down by the United States to find yourself in a world of problems as you battle your way through FBI agents to regain your ship and try to escape this hell hole called Earth. Things are obviously not as easy as all that and you find yourself facing off against stronger and stronger foes in your quest for freedom.

Alien Hominid HD also includes a bunch of minigames, for you to try your luck at. Some are completely different than anything you'll experience in the main Alien Hominid game. One of these games is Super Soviet Missile Master, which has it's own achievement related challenge. This tasks you with flying a missile towards the US dodging obstacles in between and is reminiscent of an old Atari 2600 game.

Rational

Alien Hominid HD offers non-stop action

When you first start Alien Hominid you are thrust into the game with most of the options hidden away from you. This is the main reason I fled from Alien Hominid HD those many years ago. When you start a new game there are no difficulty options to pick, you just go. This confusion led to frustration and eventual surrender. The difficulty options are available to you in the options menu, make sure you take a trip there before picking new game. I would recommend running through on easy, as even easy posed some difficulties for me, though I really am not trying to present myself as an expert on this type of game because I'm not. Easy is enjoyable and offers just enough resistance to you as you get used to how the game controls and what it is asking from you.

There's a co-op option and many different mini games

Once I'd completed Easy I felt like I had a decent handle on the gameplay mechanics and I did a little better on the harder difficulties, but even then I was dying a lot and I didn't find Alien Hominid much fun anymore. If my first experience with Alien Hominid HD would have been the experience I had those many years later I wouldn't have avoided playing the game for so long. It's hard for me to be too negative on Alien Hominid as it was released so many years ago, but you can tell. The way the game moves and how the graphics look, they aren't near as sharp as those we've experienced in the years since Alien Hominid HD's release. Even the later releases by Behemoth blow Alien Hominid away.

The last gripe I had with Alien Hominid HD is that I felt the game never really told me how I should play it, or introduce any tactics to me. I wasn't making much progress until I found some guides that gave me a much clearer idea of the gameplay flow. Again this is another sign of Alien Hominids age, which is funny as I've played quite a few re-releases of older games and it seemed like most of those explained their gameplay just fine.

Head biting 50 enemies without touching the ground was one of the most infuriating achievements I've gone for

Summary
Overall Alien Hominid HD is a demanding game that people will get some fun out of if they have the dedication to learn how they should best play it. Running and blasting can be fun for a while, but when you really learn how everything is meant to work you make much faster progress and the whole game becomes more enjoyable. I can't say I recommend going back and picking this game up if you missed it when it was released, but it is worth taking another look at if you moved on prematurely like I did.

Mondaily Update

This weekend was a bit all over the place in terms of gaming. I didn't put the solid hours into Bionic Commando: Rearmed that I had planned so, while progress was made, I didn't get as far as I would have liked. I feel like I did make it past the tipping point as I completed another 3 stages in fairly rapid succession but I'm now stuck on one stage. I don't think it will be a problem for that long it's just that I didn't get to dedicate a huge chuck of time to finding strategies and working through it logically. I'm still hopeful that I will get through the rest of this game quickly, with only the last level being the only major hurdle in my way still. We'll see how that goes when I get to it.


I continued BloodForge boosting off and on over the last couple of days, dedicating a chunk of Sunday to finishing it up. Big thanks to Beast Incarnate for sticking with me through all my internet problems. I'm not sure if it was just the game or my internet or something else but searching for challenge updates seemed to take longer and longer and by the end of our boost it was trying to pull data from the servers for over 5 minutes before it would get anything. This must have fucked something up somewhere as the challenges started to become glitchy, with killing the last enemy in a wave not triggering the start of the next one multiple times. I ended up replaying waves multiple times while I'm sure Beast was sitting there wondering if I even knew how to play the game because of how long it was taking.

Sepia toned violence

Eventually it was obvious something had messed up somewhere between the servers and I with my screen becoming flooded with dummy challenges, all from Beast - even though BloodForge only lets you have one active challenge between any two people at a time. I had to click on each one, sit through 5 minutes of it contacting the server only to find myself dumped back at the main menu because that challenge obviously didn't really exist. It was beginning to get frustrating but I knew I only need one or two more to complete BloodForge so after some determination the last achievement was mine.

After finishing BloodForge I found myself in the Avatar Awards section of the dashboard. I'm not really sure what made me go peeping around in there but I discovered I hadn't unlocked all the awards in a couple of XBLA games I had recently finished. I saw that there was an award I missed in Crazy Taxi, which required me to play the game for 10 hours. Not being the biggest Crazy Taxi fan I decided to just grind it out by letting it idle in 10 minute Arcade mode. I knew this would take a while with minimum input from me, seeing as I unlocked the award for playing the game for 5 hours shortly before being finished with the game, so I went looking for something I could do to occupy my time.

Evoland evolves and adds new gameplay and graphics as the RPG progresses

This led to me looking at and enjoying Evoland. My computer is right next to my Xbox so I could reach over every 10 minutes to restart Crazy Taxi while I was playing. Evoland is a PC game that chronicles the progression of the RPG genre. As you get chests you gain abilities and new gameplay options, updated graphics, RPG tropes and more. It's a fun run through of RPG's as they evolved and as someone who has seen them as they did it was cool to experience it all in one game. It's fairly short and I'm just about finished with it but it was a great distraction while grinding Crazy Taxi and a great game to just play and experience yourself.

That's it for this weekend. I managed to squeeze in a couple more levels of iStunt 2. Slowly progressing there as well. I guess the theme for this weekend was slow progress but progress is indeed progress. Thank's for reading, leave a comment if you'd like and I'll be back Wednesday.

Xbox Support - Serious Sam: The Second Encounter Email Response

I received this short email yesterday:

Service Request Number: (Edit: Removed)

Frank,

My name is Roderick with the Xbox Customer Care Advocacy Team. First, I sincerely apologize for any inconveniences that your downloadable content (DLC) issue may have caused you. Thank you for trusting our team; I want to reassure you the your downloadable content (DLC) issue is my highest priority as I work to resolve it with the highest quality.

I have confirmed that Serious Sam HD: TSE is not available in your region.  Although there are some add-ons or trials available, the actual full-game is not available in your current region.

We at Microsoft value you as a loyal customer of the Xbox LIVE experience . Should you need additional assistance, please reply to this email or contact us at 1-800-4MY-XBOX and reference the above service request number and I will be more than happy to resolve your issue.

Sincerely,

Roderick D.

Xbox Customer Care Advocacy Specialist

Customer Advocacy & Exceptions Management Team

Maybe Serious Sam HD: TSE has too many big spiders?

I can't say that I wasn't expecting this outcome, I was just hopeful for something more. It still doesn't address the fact that Serious Sam HD: TSE was advertised as for sale in Australia on the DotW. It still doesn't address why we are able to download the demo, or even see the game page for Serious Sam HD: TSE on the Xbox at all as any other game that isn't available here doesn't have a presence on the marketplace. Lastly what I'd like most is an explanation as to why the first and third Serious Sam entries are available for download in our region but not the second. Is it a publisher thing? Is there something in Serious Sam HD: TSE that isn't in the other Serious Sam games that our ratings board wouldn't have approved?

No matter the answers I guess the outcome is still the same; Serious Sam HD: TSE is still not available to download in Australia, but still confusingly has a Marketplace presence that they can offer discounts on but not actually sell it to us.

Fridaily Update

Welcome to another Fridaily Update, this week has been a bit slower than normal due to me still struggling away on Bionic Commando: Rearmed. I did make some more progress, working my way through 4 different stages so far and getting closer to the point where I felt the game got a bit easier last time. Let's hope that's still the case for Super Hard as these levels can be really trying! I managed to get the Helmet upgrade, which gives me an extra hit to work with but the enemies don't take any prisoners and 1 more hit helps but isn't the game changer I'm looking for. I really hope I manage to complete this run sometime this weekend as I can't help but feel that this is starting to drag, taking time away from me playing other games.

Speaking of other games I've managed to convince my good friend Beast to start playing BloodForge so we can both knock out the achievements tied to the challenge arenas of the game. I think BloodForge is an average game, with some great style and violence to it, but their challenge system is actually really neat. I'm sure some other games are doing the same thing, I just can't think of any right now. BloodForge's challenge arenas are basically wave survival with different and more numerous enemies swarming you as the waves progress. In between each wave you have the ability to choose a modifier which will give you more or less points as you progress. Once you die you can send a challenge to a friend who, if they accept, will have to try and beat your score or survive longer than you did with the modifiers you picked. If they win the challenge can then be bounced back to you and you'll have to try to beat the new high score. When somebody fails, it's game over and you can issue a new challenge if you'd like. It's a cool system that doesn't require you to be online at the same time.

BloodForge's style is great!

We've been sending challenges back and forth to work towards our multiplayer achievements and as soon as I have mine I will have BloodForge completed and will start working on another review. Apart from BloodForge the only other game I've made some more progress in is Angry Birds, finally managing to 3 star all the levels Episode 2 had to offer. If I'm honest it wasn't really me who completed Episode 2. I only had one level that I could not 3 star, even though I must have tried over 100 times. I was at my parents place Wednesday night and my brother was there, who is a much better Angry Birds player than me, and he said he'd give it a go. After ten minutes I heard that familiar 'bloop' that we all love so much and as soon as I finish Bionic Commando: Rearmed I will start work on finishing the rest of Angry Birds. I just need to worry about 3 starring all the levels in Episode 3, which luckily is the last episode to have any star related achievements, as the rest are all grinding related and can be done on any level.

I got a reply from Xbox Support about my Serious Sam: TSE inquiry which, as I expected, resulted in nothing. I'll post it soon, with some thoughts, on a different entry as this one is getting long. I reviewed Zeit² yesterday, you can read it here. That's everything that's happened in these last few days, leave a comment and I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Zeit² XBLA Review

Zeit² is a Shoot 'em Up, or Shmup, that on first glance doesn't seem very different than the hundreds of other Shmups out there. You control a one ship, hopelessly out numbered by the swarms of enemy ships that are thrown at you and you are almost constantly unleashing a stream of hot death, killing everything in your path. While this very surface level assessment is mostly right it's the addition of one main ability that changes everything.

Zeit²'s neon visuals can be very hypnotic

Overview
That ability is time travel. Zeit² throws many enemies at you, too many to deal with alone but you're not alone, you have yourself watching your back. Zeit²'s main ability lets you travel up to 4 seconds back in time,   this lets you be somewhere else killing a different group of enemies while you watch your previous self kill the enemies you previously did. In effect it lets you be in two different places at once. It's a little confusing at first, but just as you manage to wrap your head around this concept Zeit² throws more at you. It continues like this for the whole game, adding new abilities and concepts as you only just start to understand some of the old ones.

Rational
It's this time travel mechanic that adds a whole lot of the depth and range of tactics unique to this game. There are many team up abilities that can be used it you plan ahead and think about how you can go back in time and use your actions to their fullest. Zeit² gives you more and more of these abilities as you progress, along with other weapons all while throwing new types of enemies at you. It can become quite overwhelming and at times I found myself barely in control of what was happening and just working in pure survival mode.

It's this frenzy that makes and breaks the game in a way. There has to be more ships than you can handle otherwise the time mechanic would make the game too easy. Barely being in control can be fun for a while but whether you pass or fail ends up feeling more like luck, especially the first time you fly through the level. Usually you have been given a new ability and dropped straight in the deep end. Zeit² never lets up. Maybe if the game was a little longer, giving you one extra level in between dropping yet another ability on you, it would give you that little extra time to get a firm grip on the previous ability you gained.

As it turned out I don't think I even used some of the abilities when I had completed Zeit². I was stuck on the last couple of levels relearning some of the abilities I had used and forgotten from the earlier stages. There is so much going on here, and it's all crammed into a really short little game. I beat this in one afternoon, probably somewhere around 2 hours, but if you're into high scores there is so much to learn and build upon here that this game could keep you coming back for months.

Shmups aren't really my thing but I really enjoyed this one

Summary
Zeit² Is short, but packed so densely with game changing abilities handed out on the regular. The action is so manic that unless you very deliberately replay levels and get a firm grip on every ability as you get them you could find yourself in situations that seem nearly impossible. This is a Shmup that relies not only on split second reflexes and timing but also asks you to plan ahead and use careful strategy while doing so. Zeit² isn't necessarily hard to bumble your way through, like I did, but even to me the opportunities for utilizing the different abilities and differing strategies were apparent. If you take the time to learn the stages and are high score inclined this could be a very addictive game.

Xbox Support - Serious Sam: The Second Encounter

Introduction/Disclaimer: 

I'm just posting the transcript of the two chats I had with Microsoft Support on Monday and Tuesday due to me talking about it in a couple of previous blog entries. I have no problem with the Microsoft Support team and I think they've done their job to their utmost. I'm not complaining about the service I received as I believe everyone was courteous and tried to help and it looks like the situation may be resolved one way or the other.

I have edited small portions of the chat to add in some information or thoughts and to censor some private details. Edited portions of the chat will be (bold within brackets). Other than that everything else is exactly the same. The pictures spread throughout the transcript were the pictures I was asked to upload the second time I talked to Support.

First picture linked to in the Second Support Chat showing Serious Sam HD: TSE in the Deal of the Week 

First Support Chat, Monday

General Info

Chat start time                             May 13, 2013 2:47:48 AM EST

Chat end time                               May 13, 2013 3:59:04 AM EST

Duration (actual chatting time)   01:11:16

Operator                                       Eugene (Edit: and Ron)

Chat Transcript

info: “If your request concerns current problems connecting to Xbox LIVE, please close your chat session for now, as our agents don't have any more information. We are aware of the issue and will provide status updates at http://xbox.com/status. Thank you.”
info: Privacy Statement 
You are now chatting with 'Ron'.
Ron: Hello, thank you for contacting Xbox Customer Support. My name is Ron. How are you today?
Frank: Good, I can't download Serious Sam: TSE
Ron: Good to hear that you are good,I will do my best to keep it that way.
Ron: Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
Ron: To verify, that is the game,right?
Frank: yes, Serious Sam: The Second Encounter
Ron: Thank you.
Ron: When you try to download it, are there any series of numbers as error message?
Frank: it is currently 400 points off as it is part of the Deal of the Week and I don't want to miss out on this opportunity.
Ron: Got your point, I believe it was 800 points before. 
Frank: When I go to the game to try and download it it only offers the ability to download a trial instead of buying it. I downloaded the trial and when I tried to purchase it in game it gives me an error message with numbers, yes.
Ron: Thank you very much for the information.
Ron: Can you send me the code Frank?
Frank: Yes, one second. I'm loading up the game.
Ron: Thank you.
Frank: Status code: 800700E8
Ron: Thank you. 
Ron: Please bear with me while I check your concern real quick.
Frank: OK
Ron: Well Frank,This error status means is it only temporary and may not pertain to your payment or account information and upon double checking your account everything is smiling back at me. 
Ron: Have you try to test your connection?
Frank: My Xbox Live connection?
Ron: Yes.
Ron: In your console.
Frank: I don't think that is the problem, as I have tried to download Serious Sam: TSE before (a couple of months ago) and ran into the same problem. I have downloaded plenty of games since then, and played multiplayer games since then.
Frank: I can run the test if you'd like me to, I am also planning on purchasing Serious Same Double D XXL and have the ability to do so. I purchase a lot (over 100 so far) of XBLA games and never have had this problem.
Ron: Got your point. Give me a second to check everything tied to your account and the game so that we can make a best plan for it.
Frank: OK Thank you
Ron: Thanks for your patience.
Ron: Thank you for bringing this to our attention. As far as I want to help you
Ron: there is a specific team assign for this kind of issue. So the best way I can do for you
Ron: is to transfer you to our specialist team. I'll go ahead and transfer you directly so we can resolve the issue right away.
Ron: Please stay on the line  as I transfer you.
info: Please wait while I transfer the chat to the best suited  agent.
info: Privacy Statement 
You are now chatting with 'Eugene'.
Eugene: Hello Ron, please give me a minute to check the previous conversation.
Frank: Hi, it's Frank. OK, take your time.
Eugene: Sorry, I got confused with the name
Frank: No problem
Eugene: Alright, so Frank, you were getting an error code of 800700E8, correct?
Frank: yes
Eugene: May I know what troubleshooting steps have you done so far for this.
Frank: I've attempted to download Serious Sam: TSE on my Xbox a couple of times over the space of 3 or more months. Every time only the ability to download the trial was presented to me. I tried on Xbox.com and the same is true there. I have downloaded the trial twice, once in the past and once a few days ago and both times the ability to purchase it from within to trial was met with an error.
Eugene: I see, let me try to double check tha for you 
Frank: OK
Eugene: Can you please try to do these steps Frank.
Eugene: Please sign out any logged in gamertag, go to Settings, Storage, Hard Drive, Gamer Profiles, select your gamertag then select Delete then "Delete Profile Only".  
Eugene: After that, go back to Social, Sign In or Out, scroll right to get to Download Profile. Type in the email address and password for your gamertag.  
Eugene: And please let me know once you're done
Frank: Only on my Xbox or on other devices too?
Eugene: Just to your console
Frank: OK it's downloading now
Eugene: Alright, so you mean its working fine now?
Frank: No, sorry, my profile is downloading now
Eugene: I see, alright, let's just wait for that 
Frank: OK it's downloaded and I'm signing back in now
Frank: Should I try to download Serious Sam: TSE now?
Eugene: Please try to clear cache first for 3 times 
Eugene: 1. Press the Guide button on your controller, go to Settings, and select System Settings.  2. Select Storage or Memory.  3. Highlight any storage device, and then press Y on your controller. (It doesn't matter which storage device you select; the cache will be cleared for all storage devices.)  4. Select Clear System Cache. 
Eugene: Then please let me know once you're done.
Frank: OK, done
Eugene: Alright, so now, please try to redownload the game.
Frank: Should I delete the trial for Serious Same: TSE first?
Frank: *Serious Sam
Eugene: Yes please
Eugene: 0800 587 1102  and the operation hours 09:00-21:00 Monday to Friday / 10:00-18:00 Saturday & Sunday 
Eugene: No worries, that's a toll free number.
Frank: I still only have the option to download the Trial
Eugene: Sorry, please ignore the messages
Frank: No problem
Eugene: Please try these steps instead
Eugene: Delete any active downloads on the Active Downloads screen. 
Eugene: Delete any partial or corrupted downloads. To do this, follow these steps:
Eugene: In the Xbox Guide, select System Settings. 
Eugene: Select Storage. 
Eugene: Select the storage device to which you are downloading content. 
Eugene: Delete the partial or corrupted content. 
Eugene: You can identify any partial or corrupted content by looking for content that has a yellow triangle with an exclamation point. 
Eugene: Move to your Download History under Account Management.
Eugene: Try again to download the content. Delete and refresh your Digital Rights Management database, and clear your console cache. 
Frank: OK I'm looking through now, it's taking a while because I have a lot of content
Eugene: Alright, let's wait for it then
Frank: OK as far as I can see there is no games corrupted, I haven't checked inside all 350 of them for DLC or saves though. 2 of my Avatar Items were corrupted and I deleted them.
Frank: What will deleting my Digital Rights Management database do? I don't have everything I've bought on my Xbox anymore and wouldn't like to lose access to it. (Edit: Never got a reply to this, I hope I still do!)
Eugene: Great! so now, please try to follow these steps.
Eugene: Delete the Digital Rights Management database:
Eugene: From the Xbox 360 dashboard, go to the Settings hub, and select System.
Eugene: Select Storage, and then press the A button. 
Eugene: Select a storage device. 
Eugene: Select System Items, and then press the A button. 
Eugene: Select Rights Database, and then press the A button. 
Eugene: Select Delete, and then press the A button. 
Eugene: Select Yes to confirm. 
Eugene: Clear the Xbox 360 console cache.
Frank: OK I deleted the Rights Database and cleared the cache again.
Eugene: Thank you Frank
Eugene: Now, can you please try to see if you're able to download the game now.
Frank: I still only have the option of getting the trial
Eugene: Let me double check this for you Frank
Eugene: Frank, an additional issue may be your local network, they may have experienced an issue in transferring data. Are you using a router?"
Frank: I'm using a modem/router yes, but I've downloaded hundreds of other XBLA games with this exact setup. One just yesterday, Doritos Crash Course 2
Eugene: We should try directly connecting to your modem to see if your router is causing an issue.  Connect your Xbox 360 directly to your Internet modem and then retry the download.
Frank: The router is a modem/router combination
Eugene: I see, so you are using a gateway.
Frank: I'm sorry but I have a prior engagement that I have to go to. Is there a way to save this conversation for later. I need to leave but don't want to go through this all again for nothing if I recontact Xbox support tomorrow.
Eugene: No worries, I'll make sure to notate everything that we did so you wont be doing all the same troubleshooting steps again.
Frank: OK thank you Eugene. I have to go. See you.
info: Your chat transcript will be sent to (Edit: Removed)@hotmail.com at the end of your chat.
Eugene: You're welcome (Edit: I was running late and just left here after saving the chat transcript)
Eugene: Again,I do apologize for the inconvenience that has caused you.
Eugene: No worries, I have notated everything in the account now.
Eugene: You take care and have a great day!

Second picture linked to in the Second Support Chat showing Serious Sam HD: TSE in the search results 

Second Support Chat, Teusday

General Info

Chat start time                             May 14, 2013 12:11:41 AM EST

Chat end time                               May 14, 2013 1:15:36 AM EST

Duration (actual chatting time)   01:03:55

Operator                                       John Louise

Chat Transcript

info: “Please wait for an agent to respond.  You are currently '1' in the queue.” 
info: Privacy Statement 
You are now chatting with 'John Louise'.
John Louise: Thank you for contacting Xbox Customer Support. My name is John Louise. How can I assist you today?
Frank: Hello John, I can't download Serious Sam: The Second Episode from XBLA
John Louise: I see. Did you receive any error message, Frank?
Frank: I contacted someone about this problem yesterday and we were trying to find a solution for over an hour but I had to go out, he said he would make some notes or something so I wouldn't have to repeat the whole hour again if I recontacted you guys.
Frank: Yes I recieve an error message
John Louise: Oh I see. May I have the exact error message, Frank?
Frank: However the ability to download the Full Game isn't even visible to me, I had to download the trial and attempt to purchase the game through the demo to even get the option and that's when I get the error message
Frank: Status code: 800700E8
John Louise: Thank you very much for that information, Frank. Please give me a moment while I'm checking on this one. Thanks!
Frank: OK
John Louise: When did you try to download the demo, Frank?
Frank: A few days ago, I've deleted it now as it was requested during some of the troubleshooting steps I was following from Eugene yesterday
John Louise: Oh I see. So you already downloaded the full game?
John Louise: I mean before?
Frank: No, the ability to download the full game doesn't even appear to me
Frank: I downloaded the trial version before
John Louise: I see. May I have the link where you're trying to download the game, Frank?
Frank: I'm trying on my Xbox
John Louise: How about using the PC?
Frank: I've tried before and I actually get an option to download the full version there but I get an error
John Louise: I see. Can we try to download it again using the PC, Frank?
Frank: OK I'm looking at it now and I only get the option of downloading the trial again
John Louise: Have you already tried to download the full game before?
Frank: There's a button to the left that says "Try Demo FREE" but where there should be a button above saying Buy Game it's blank
Frank: I've tried before yes, once a couple of months ago and once a few days ago
Frank: I've downloaded the Trial multiple times, but it never lets me buy the full version
John Louise: Is it an arcade game, Frank?
Frank: yes, Serious Sam HD: TSE
John Louise: How many points did you use to purchase this one? (Edit: I got slightly annoyed here)
Frank: I haven't purchased it, I only downloaded the free demo, when I try to purchase it I get error messages
John Louise: I see one moment let me check this one for you.
Frank: The ability to purchase it isn't even available to me unless I download the free demo first and then try to purchase it from within that. Other games let me purchase them directly from the marketplace
John Louise: I perfectly understand that, Frank. Please give me a moment while I'm checking on this one. Thanks! (Edit: I was questioning his understanding by now)
Frank: OK
John Louise: Try this one, Frank.
Frank: Now it says "This offer is not valid in your region."
John Louise: Oh I see. That's the reason you can't download it, Frank. The game is only available in US region.
Frank: Why would they show it on the Dashboard in the Deal of the Week here in Australia?
John Louise: Did you try to migrate your account on a different region before, Frank?
Frank: I have Serious Sam: TFE, Serious Sam 3 and Serious Sam Double D XXL, all the other games
Frank: No I've never migrated the account
Frank: I've always had this one account, which is linked to the email that I've had for 15 years
John Louise: May I ask if where did you purchase your console?
Frank: Umm, JB HiFi I think, here in Australia
John Louise: Alright, one moment. Let me check it.
John Louise: Thank you for patiently waiting, Frank.
John Louise: You said a while ago that you can see it on the dashboard of your console, is that correct?
Frank: yes, it's advertised in the serious sam deal of the week
John Louise: I see. Can you send a photo of it so we can escalate this issue to our Advocacy Specialist Team?
Frank: also if I serch for Serious Sam it comes up
Frank: how would I do that?
John Louise: When you're searching it on your console?
John Louise: You can take a picture of that with your phone and upload it on this link.
Frank: yes, if I go to games, search for games
John Louise: Click here.
Frank: OK, I will do it now, do you want a picture of the Deal of the Week advertisement and the search results
John Louise: Yes, that would be a great help. Thank you very much, Frank.
Frank: OK I have taken the pictures, I'm just about to upload them
John Louise: No problem, take your time, Frank. Thanks!
Frank: OK, here is the picture of the Deal of the Week. Serious Sam TSE is in the bottom right http://tinypic.com/r/2ltiz9y/5 (Edit: this is the picture at the top of this blog entry)
John Louise: Thanks! Let me check that one.
Frank: This is the picture of the search results when searching for "serious sam". Serious Sam TSE is the second result found http://tinypic.com/r/295pg80/5 (Edit: this is the picture in between the two chat logs)
John Louise: Thank you very much for that information, Frank. Alright. Here's what we can do. I can escalate this issue to our Advocacy Specialist Team so they can investigate on the issue you're experiencing and fix this one. Would that be fine?
Frank: and this is the picture of what the actual game page looks like when I access it through searching or the DotW. It only allows me to download the Free Trial and not the full game. http://tinypic.com/r/25a42ok/5 (Edit: this is the picture below)
Frank: That would be fine but I really would like to buy Serious Sam TSE, and the Deal of the Week will change some time tomorrow. I don't want to miss out on the offered discount if possible.
John Louise: Don't worry I'll add it up on my documentation and our Advocacy team will work on it, Frank. By the way, this process usually take within 3 days. but they may contact you within 24-48 hours depends on how may issues they are handling. Would that be still fine?
Frank: yes that's fine
info: Your chat transcript will be sent to (Edit: Removed)@hotmail.com at the end of your chat.
John Louise: Thanks! May I have the email and number where our Advocacy Specialist Team may contact you incase they will need more information from you?
Frank: my email is: (Edit: Removed)@hotmail.com and no: (Edit: Removed)
John Louise: Thank you for patiently waiting, Frank. Here's your service request number (Edit: Removed). Please write this number down for your records. Our Advocacy Specialist team will reach out to you within 3 days. They will contact you via e-mail at (Edit: Removed)@hotmail.com so please also check your spam and junk folders. If more information is required to address your issue they will call you at (Edit: Removed).
Frank: OK thankyou]\
John Louise: Rest assured that they will investigate on this issue.
John Louise: You're very much welcome, Frank. So is there anything else I may help you with?
Frank: No that's all.
John Louise: Alright, thank you for your time. I really appreciate it. You have a Great day! Goodbye!
John Louise: Thank you for contacting Xbox Customer Support. To properly end this chat session please make sure to click the X button enclosed in a circle on the upper right corner of the chat window above the avatar. Have a great day!
Frank: Goodbye

Last picture linked to in the Second Support Chat showing Serious Sam HD: TSE as it appears for Australians

I'm hopeful that now the situation has apparently been passed up the chain something will happen one way or another. Maybe Serious Sam HD: TSE will finally be available to us in Australia, I can only hope. I'm still awaiting a reply and will update you if/when I get one. Leave a comment below!