GamingNovice.com

Okay as of Friday the 24th of October I am sitting on the verge of 20,000 gamerscore. Only a mere 195 points away. What happens once I pass that glorious 20k mark? Nothing. But was it fun to get there. Heck yeah.

Has Microsoft changed the way people (I know some, not all gamers) play video games? Achievements and now Trophies in PS3, reward players for doing something a particular way, or reaching a certain stage/level/mission in the game. Some reward you for playing a game multiple times. Has it changed the games and the way we play them? Sometimes. Is it for the better? I think that answer is both yes and no.

Look for a followup coming. I want to talk more about achievements and what it has done to gaming, but right now I need to see if I can squeeze out 200 more points from Fable 2.

The New Xbox Experience, ie Xbox Dashboard version 3.0, ie NXE is set to unleash to all Xbox 360’s connected to Xbox Live on November 19th. If you are unfamiliar with what NXE is all about, head over here and take a look http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/nxe/

Update (10/24): Head over to majornelson.com and sign up to get at the NXE before the 19th. You need to grab your Console ID before signing up.

XBL will be offline from 12:01am Monday morning until sometime before 12:01am Tuesday morning. They have scheduled a 24 hr outage, but may be back online before then. It is all backend work in prep for the fall dashboard update and the NXE (New Xbox Experience). Once it’s back up, you will not notice anything different… yet.

What to do in the mean time? Finish up that story mode in GTA IV, get your Global license in GRID, or jump in and play some Lego Batman or Star Wars Force Unleashed.

You could always go outside and enjoy these last days of sunshine before we set the clocks back and up here in the north woods it will be dark by 5pm.

See you online tomorrow…………..