This month was Console Monster’s first GamerScore competition which I felt went really well. I managed to obtain 5,000 GamerScore throughout the entirety of the competition, though I’ll still be racking up the points in order to catch up with fellow Console Monster staff member and GamerScore competition partner: Reece.

"Excuse me, I'm lost." - Lost: Via Domus

The GamerScore competition meant I played an array of new titles throughout the month. Madden NFL 06, Fight Night Round 3, Eat Lead, Lost Via Domus and Open Season all helped me immensely, providing me with huge GamerScore increases despite not being the most enjoyable of titles.

My highlight of the month has to be the incredible Brutal Legend, a title that I didn’t initially have high hopes for. From the review: “The combination of a humorous action-adventure story with music and gameplay to match makes the game one of the most unique titles on the market at the moment and one I thoroughly recommend any gamer to purchase.”

Rock on! - Brutal Legend

This month also saw me reviewing two movie-to-game conversions coming in the form of Disney Pixar’s Up and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, both of which have provided me with sufficient entertainment despite not being AAA titles. NHL 2k10 was another title I’ve reviewed throughout the month, a game I enjoyed despite not being a huge ice hockey fanatic.

Both FIFA 10 and Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony look set to take me nicely into November having obtained both titles towards the end of October. Nevertheless, November is shaping up to be an impressive month for new releases with Ghostbusters, Assassin’s Creed 2, Left 4 Dead 2 and LEGO Indiana Jones 2 all on my radar.

Surprisingly, it’s taken me just over a week to finish the short Halo 3: ODST storyline. Why? Reason being, there is a problem with the game. Originally on the game’s release date, I made progress through the single player mode before being invited to play the game co-operatively with my friend. An hour or so into the game, we were guided to the game’s first beacon, which was greeted with shouts of: “WTF!?” It appears the game had reset my progress, though still displayed each mission I'd previously played under "Replay Mission."

After this incident, I’d more-or-less given up and it wasn’t until I was invited to Console Monster member: Glitch100’s attempt to obtain the Vidmaster Challenge: Déjà Vu achievement that I even thought of returning to the campaign. Having completed the final level (and obtaining the achievement), I finally decided to return to the campaign. The solution to my problem was to play through the levels the game told me to go to and within the last few hours, I finally unlocked the level Data Hive.

For those with a similar problem, another solution is to get someone who has already unlocked Data Hive to play the level with you. It's as simple as that.

Despite the problems I’ve had with Halo 3: ODST’s campaign, it has been an enjoyable experience, even if the story mode wasn’t amazingly scripted. The levels are brilliantly designed for the ultimate Halo experience and there’s enough variety to make me want to play it all over again on Legendary.

Holy smokes Batman! September has come to a pleasant end for me, having enjoyed a range of new titles and returning to some older ones too.

Who so serious? - Batman: Arkham Asylum

This month saw the arrival of three new titles to my collection, the highlight of which is the incredible Batman: Arkham Asylum. I wasn’t a huge fan of the demo and I’ve never much of a Batman fan either, though after an hour or so into Arkham Asylum – I was hooked. It’s definitely a contender for game of the year and a title that I am proud to own.

Next up was Guitar Hero 5, a title I reviewed for the site. After the disappointing Guitar Hero: World Tour, Guitar Hero 5 proved to be a pleasant surprise and is definitely a worthy purchase for Guitar Hero fans. This was followed by Sonic & Knuckles, an Xbox Live Arcade title I had high hopes for. Unfortunately it didn’t meet my expectations as you can read in my review.

Owch... DST - Halo 3: ODST
 

Of course, how can I forget this month’s biggest title: Halo 3: ODST. Having enjoyed the confusing yet enjoyable storyline and having spent many hours on the Firefight game mode, ODST is a worthy expansion onto Halo 3, one of the titles I returned to throughout the month.

With the release of FIFA 10 early next month, I’ve been playing the game’s demo a fair bit and whilst the improvements are noticeable, I haven’t quite seen anything majorly different from FIFA 09, another title that earned its place back in the hard drive. Gears of War 2 is another title I played a fair bit having made progress in the Insane campaign and I also made progress in Overlord 2’s story mode.

Should have gone to Specsavers... - Overlord II (2)

Next month I’ll be earning GamerScore in the Console Monster GamerScore Competition on the likes of Madden 06, Lost and Open Season, as well as purchasing a few new titles such as FIFA 10 and Lips: Number One Hits.

August seemed to fly by with myself contracting swine flu towards the end of the month. Who said pigs couldn’t fly?

This month saw three new titles appear on my gamer profile. The first of which was G-Force, based on the movie (which I’ve still yet to see!), a title I enjoyed despite its errors. The other two titles were Xbox Live Arcade titles, both released as part of the Summer of Arcade promotion. Trials HD and Shadow Complex both proved worthy titles and I certainly recommend both of them.

Other than that, there’s not too much to report. With no new titles cropping up on my radar, I returned to Need for Speed: Undercover and The Golden Compass, completing the story mode in both and having upgraded to 50MB broadband, I returned to Liberty City and Jacinto for multiplayer experiences in both Grand Theft Auto IV and Gears of War 2 respectively.

Possibly the highlight of the month has to be FIFA 09. With the football season back in full flow and a buzz surrounding its sequel, the return to FIFA 09 was certainly an experience as I tried out new game modes that slipped past me previously and loved them.

Unfortunately, my GamerScore didn’t see a particularly hefty rise, despite the fact I finished fourth in 360Sync’s GamerScore Challenge, though my swag winnings continued having won t-shirts from the Twitter feeds of OXM UK and IL-2 Birds of Prey and various Resident Evil 5 figures and MotoGP (Wii) game from Capcom-Europe.

Next month’s looking up with the release of Rock Band: The Beatles, Colin McRae: DiRT 2, Need for Speed: Shift and Halo: ODST. All of which I cannot wait to play. In the mean time, I’ll be returning to some of the older titles in a bid to raise my GamerScore after last month’s rather abysmal attempt.

The month of July started off great with sunny weather and, more importantly, great gaming. This month I played five new titles. The first three were all retail titles, coming on the form of Overlord 2, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits, three titles I reviewed for the site.

The titles proved to be great titles for different reasons. Overlord 2’s humour and bizarreness make it a unique title that’s proves to be a fairly enjoyable experience. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince had a fairly good storyline and entertaining objectives, despite being short in length and Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits has a great track list; despite the feeling we’ve seen it all before.

Never has playing plastic instruments been so much fun. - Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits

This phase was quickly followed by an Xbox Live Arcade phase in which I received Sorry! Sliders, Texas Cheat’em and Rocket Riot, three Xbox Live Arcade titles that have all provided sufficient playtime until quite arguably the best Arcade title of the year arrived.

Splosion Man, the latest title from Twisted Pixel Games, is one of my favourite titles to date. The way in which the game has been cleverly produced, combining a puzzle title into a side-scrolling platformer with incredible humour made the title a pleasure to play.

This month was also a month for downloadable content, with both Halo Wars (Historic Battles) and Gears of War 2 (All Fronts Collection) getting significant playtime. Unfortunately, this is where the fun stopped as personal problems persisted which look set to continue into the start of August. Nevertheless, with no titles cropping up on my radar until the end of the month, August will be a time to catch up on any old titles and to increase my GamerScore.