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For the past few weeks, my Xbox has been solely used for Team Fortress 2 and the 1 vs. 100 beta. I’m not sure what makes it so damn addictive, but I can never seem to walk away from it (unless it’s extended play of course). Now I have one more reason to keep playing this game: Achievements. When I was playing the Canadian Beta, I noticed in the menu there was a section for achievements, but it didn’t show any when I clicked on it. Now the first season’s achievement list has been leaked. 1 Vs. 100 will play out in 13 week-long seasons, and each season will allow you to obtain 200 Gamerscore. These are the leaked achievements for season 1.

- Low Rider – 5G: Answer instantly and incorrectly 3 times in a row.
- Showboating Specialist – 10G: Max out your Avatar Action 10 times in a single Live round.
- Thrifty Skipper – 10G: In Extended Play, save up the maximum of 3 skips in a single round.
- Speedy Delivery – 20G: In a single round, score a total of 1300 points in time bonuses.
- Game Show Guru – 25G: In a single round, achieve a streak of 12 correct answers.
- Quick Draw – 25G: In a single round, recieve six consecutive Instant Answer bonuses.
- Golden Century – 25G: Answer a total of 100 questions correctly.
- Hair Trigger – 25G: Get 3 consecutive questions right while receiving an Instant Answer bonus for each.
- Trivia Fanatic – 30G: Answer a total of 500 questions
- Go Streaking! – 15G: In a single round, achieved a Streak of 5 consecutive correct answers.
- Group Hug – 10G: Your team of four achieved a simultaneous Streak of three consecutive correct answers.
- Quarter Century -10G: Answer a total of 25 questions correct.
These all seem pretty easy to obtain, since around half of the Gamerscore can be earned without actually answering questions correctly. The only thing that concerns me is that they are “seasonal” achievements. Which means if you don’t get them in that season, they may be gone for good. Either way, when 1 Vs. 100 is released, achievement whores everywhere can rejoice.

There is a mega crazy sale going on in the the iPod Touch/iPhone App Store. iPod Touch/iPhone owners with an Internet connection can log onto the App Store and download one of the most addicting game experiences of our time for just one US dollar. You better act quickly, however. This sale only lasts until midnight on June 14th. So you have a few days. But be sure to download it.

I’ve been a little sad recently. MAG is only coming to the PS3, and since I never plan on purchasing a PS3, I probably won’t get to play it. But new hope has arisen for me in two ways. The first way being a trailer for Huxley, and the second way being a new job posting from Microsoft. The job posting says “We are building an extremely high performance system to extend console games to the server in new was; creating a completely new set of web services to support dynamic programming information of games and scheduling data.” As usual, I did not understand a word they said. It was what they said afterwards that made me happy. The requirements section says that the person must be capable of “building a backend capable of hosting a 300,000 player game in real-time with real money on the line (anti-cheating, etc).” This sounds like a very promising game, but I’m pretty sure it will end up being an Xbox Live Primetime game rather than a game like Halo or Call of Duty. Also, I have no idea how they will be able to support that many people. Whatever it is, I hope it will be the start of many MMOs on the Xbox 360. Do you think this will be a hit or a flop?

A large surprise from the E3 Press Conference was Valve’s announcement of Left 4 Dead 2. It was surprising mainly because of Valve’s history of post-release expansions. Due to this, no one expected a sequel to the original game to come this soon. But for many, the announcement has become much more than just surprise. Now, a new group on the Steam Community site has pledged to boycott Left 4 Dead 2. The group has already gathered about 10,000 members and is growing.

The group (titled “L4D2 Boycott (NO-L4D2)”) posted some key reasons for why exactly they’re so upset with this announcement, here of which, I’ll list.

Significant content for L4D1 was promised, and never delivered

Valve put little faith in L4D1 since they almost certainly started working on L4D2 right after release

The fact that L4D2 is nearly identical to L4D1 will decimate the community for both games

The announced date is not nearly enough time to polish content or make significant gameplay changes

The new character designs seem bland and unappealing so far

L4D2 is too bright to fit in with L4D1’s visual aesthetic

The fiddle-based horde music is extremely disliked, though the differently orchestrated music is otherwise welcome

L4D2’s release will result in a drop in quality and frequency for L4D1 content, even compared to before

The community has lost faith in Valve’s former reputation for commitment to their games post-release

While some of these pranks are pretty weak (fiddle based music and bright visuals, anyone?), many of these points do seem like legitimate points of criticism. More troublesome, though, are reports that posts regarding the boycott group on the official Steam forums are being removed, with those making the posts receiving warnings (as you can see in this forum screen photo).

Tom Leonard, project lead for Left 4 Dead 2, explained why the people at Valve decided to make a sequel only a year after the original’s release last November. Shortly after the first game’s release, Leonard explained, the team “hit the white board and came up with ideas about how we could expand the experience — new characters, new locations, new positioning on the timeline of the infection, new game mechanics.” He continued, “As we started talking that through, it became clear that we weren’t really talking about incremental updates; we were talking about a whole experience. And it would be hard to deliver that totality of experience in incremental bits.”

So far, Valve has not made any announcement regarding the growing boycott. Nevertheless, a lot can happen over the summer. The boycott  may even be able to influence L4D2’s development. We’ll have to wait until November to find out.

You’ve probably got thoughts, rants, and reviews of so many video games that it becomes a problem to keep your thoughs straight. Well, I have great news for you. You can stop worrying.

Starting today, any new or old user of PlayRealm.com can login to their administrative panel and write a post about just about any game news, views, or rants they can possibly think of. Using the build in Wordpress editor is a breeze, too, and will make your voice only that much stronger! Posts will be moderated to make sure no junk makes it’s way onto PlayRealm, but rest assured, quality content will be rewarded.

If you’ve got any question, send me an email at admin (at) playrealm.com or leave a comment. If you want to get started, head on over to your admin panel and get writing! Remember, posts get featured on the front page, so this is also a great opportunity to speak directly to other users or advertise your brand a bit!

With summer upon us, no doubt our gaming hours will increase threefold. While this is all very exciting, I think it would be most fun to make a list of Video Games We Intend To Beat This Summer. I encourage you, my fellow writers and readers, to leave your thoughts or your own lists in the comments. If you disagree with something on a list, be sure to tell us what a better alternative is!

Stolaffer’s List

Mother 3 (GBA)
Earthbound (SNES)*
The Conduit (Wii)
Chrono Trigger (NDS)
Pokemon: Platinum Edition (NDS)
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (GCN)
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (N64)
Kirby Super Star Ultra (NDS)
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)
Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (GCN)
Luigi’s Mansion (GCN)
Killer 7 (GCN)

Edge’s List

Massive amounts of TF2 (360)
Fire Emblem (GBA)
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2/3
Simpsons Hit & Run (GCN)
Skate 2 (360)
Guitar Hero Smash Hits (Hopefully)
Glover (N64) only because SHWORTS says its horrible

Cema’s List

Dragon Quest V (NDS)
Super Smash Bros. Melee (GCN)

Welly welly WELL then! We’ve only got 5 videos this time around, but wait until you hear what they are! Star Wars: The Old Republic (as member Disgruntled Gamer so kindly reminded me), Final Fantasy XIV(14, and 13 doesn’t even come out for another 6 months or so), Castlevania: Lord of Shadow (Which looks like God of War ^ 3), an interview with the creators of Scribblenauts as well as some gameplay footage, and FINALLY, the one reason I MIGHT be getting a PSP (Not the Go, though, that thing is hideous!).

As always, I’ll tease you a bit with this AMAZING trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, but if you want the full story, view on after the break.

Read more…

Nintendo has dropped an image detailing a new Legend of Zelda game. Information is extremely scarce, but the image gives some insight.

Firstly, this is a new Legend of Zelda game, and being that Spirit Tracks is already scheduled to hit the DS, it would be very likely this is coming to Wii. The artstyle is a good indicator too, as I doubt Nintendo would put something like this on the DS (or if they could even manage). The image also has Link without a sword, instead overlaying a Twili-esq. character over where his scabbard would be, which might go to say (again, speculation) that she is, in essence, the ‘master sword’. Also, if you’ll notice, there is no suffix, possibly stating this as the ‘first’ Legend of Zelda, and therefore actually showing the origin of Zelda. Then again, it could just have an incomplete title.

PlayRealm will stay up to date on info concerning this new Legend of Zelda game, but one thing’s certain: It’ll be awesome.