Michael Durr

Overpaid Severance, Everquest 2 Server Logs & Xbox Live Hackers on the Rise – Welcome to the column that promises to not knock anybody off-line unless they are on a 14.4k baud modem known as Dare to Play the Game.

This past weekend I finally beat Lego Star Wars Complete Saga for the Xbox 360. The game came to a satisfying conclusion and many achievements were gained. I found my way to 620 achievement points out of 1000.
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Gamestop Shafting Employees, Guild Wars delay & the Final Roster for Legends of Wrestlemania – Welcome to the column that is the Santino Marella of the gaming community known as Dare to Play the Game.

My first full week back with my Xbox 360 has been an exercise in finishing up some old games. I now have every achievement in Fable II Pub Games with the exception of the locksmith achievement which is gained by unlocking all games.
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Red Dead Revolver Sequel, Splatterhouse yanked & People try harder against other people – Welcome to the column that now has a value menu, twice the terrible jokes and only half the content known as Dare to Play the Game.

On Monday, I received back my beloved Xbox 360. WOOHOO! *jump for joy*
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Hardcore Gamer Demographics, Standoff in Ohio Gamestop and the World of Goo in bankruptcy? – Welcome to the column that held a survey and determined that Morgan Webb should stop trying to be a Barbie doll and go back to her roots known as Dare to Play the Game.

On Thursday of this week, I received my coffin. On Friday, after packing the console securely, the Xbox 360 was sent back to Microsoft (their Mesquite, Tx location).
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Guitar Hero: Metallica tracklist, Tax Break for Game Developers and the US Senate concerned about Microsoft layoffs – Welcome to the column that had to lay off all of their fact checkers to stay liquid (not that we had any fact checkers before) known as Dare to Play the Game.

It happened. Again. For the second time in roughly 2 ½ years, I got the fatal Xbox 360 blow. The Red Rings of Death.
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Nintendo has growth issues, Rockers who can’t play RockBand and Circuit City is all gone – Welcome to the column that says it is responsible for 99% of the bad jokes against the Wii, Nintendo 64, and Portal known as Dare to Play the Game.

There were essentially three games that I played this week: Lego Star Wars CS, Fable II Pub Games, and RockBand 2. In Lego Star Wars, I played half-way through the 4th episode. I’ve noticed that the stages are a lot longer and you simply can’t zoom through them as much as you would like.
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No Blu-Ray for Xbox, Fallout 3 level cap to 30 & the MMO Crash of 2008 – Welcome to the column that will be going Blu-ray as soon as it figures out how to reconfigure the CPU that resembles a Commodore 64 known as Dare to Play the Game.

Gaming was a weird bag for me this week. I primarily played Lego Star Wars CS and find myself done with Episode 3.
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Most Played over Xbox Live, Lego Rock Band & Illinois Senate hates alcohol? – Welcome to the column that would be rich if it had a nickel for every bad gaming idea to be made this year known as Dare to Play the Game.

I am currently not playing Fable II, I know you are in shock. So since my time in WoW is limited on purpose; what exactly am I playing? Believe it or not, Lego Star Wars CS and Burnout Revenge. Not Paradise, the older one.
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Video Game Physiques, Sixty Dollar Standard Disappearing & Michael Phelps: Next Action Hero? – Welcome to the column that brings in the New Year with as much booze, chicken wings and women that $10 and witty jokes will get him known as Dare to Play the Game.

This past week I found myself playing two games in the 360 arena: Fable II & Lego Batman. In Fable II, I went to the task of getting all of the achievements that I reasonably could on my “good” character. This included things like getting married, having a child, getting married again, etc.
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Death to the Clamshell, Guitar Hero: Metallica Edition & Breath of Fire dismissed? – Welcome to the column that Santa Claus brought three non-working N64’s, two suspended WoW accounts and no Morgan Webb in a pear tree known as Dare to Play the Game.

This weekend I beat Fable II. Now, many beat this game a long time ago but I was taking my time. I wanted to be in line for certain achievements and my hard work payed off. As a result of buying Giles’ farm, I found myself to be the recipient of a wonderful weapon. Ever see Army of Darkness? I got me what can only be described as a boomstick.
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Crying in Games, Need for Speed headed for the scrap heap & the Used Games debate – Welcome to the column that can be bought new, used or in a junkyard underneath the blue cowboy boots that your mom gave you known as Dare to Play the Game.

My 120gb hard drive for my 360 has been working quite well. I had the opportunity to test it on Fable 2 quite a bit over the past week. The Xbox no longer sounds like a tractor train ready to explode at any moment. As reported, loading is much faster. Any of the major areas in Fable load much faster giving me more actual playtime. So far, the investment seems worth it which was something I was quite worried about at one point.
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