Over the years I have spent many hours Boosting games with friends and strangers to unlock achievements. Some of those achievements have been awesome like the 40 points I got for reaching level 50 in Too Human (very underrated game!), most have been a grind fest, and then there are some that completely SUCKED like all the multi-player points I got out of Wolfenstein.
What I am realizing now though is that the game being boosted is not always the problem. Its the people I am boosting with!
I guess early on in my short career of achievement hunting I got spoiled. I teamed up with an awesome group of guys for a GSL over on x360a.org and we later went on to form our own boosting group, the Hand of Thrawn Boosting Alliance. I still keep in touch with the guys I played with but because I took an extended absence from the achievement scoring scene I have fallen waaaaay behind. I am left to boost with strangers and people I find on the forums at x360a and TrueAchievements.com as most of my buddies have already played the game I am playing.
Since coming back to point scoring I have boosted two games, Bulletstorm and Assassins Creed: Brotherhood. Both quality games but I can not say the same for the boosting partners/groups I have had. It seems that people who team up on the fly dont like to communicate, or even worse dont even have a mic! Then there is always that one guy who bails as soon as he pops his achievement and leaves the party hanging. Not to mention the chance of Microsoft getting in the way and we start having those random party drops every other 5 minutes. I am sure most of you have had these same experiences at one point or another
This past week I finally discovered the nifty feature of "Gaming Sessions" over on TrueAchievements.com. The concept seems pretty cool and tonight I finally set up my very own session to do some XP boosting in AC:Brotherhood. I had decent results tonight with it so using the "Gaming Sessions" will be my tool of choice going forward.
Right now I am focused on boosting AC:Brotherhood to unlock the Download Complete achievement (reach level 50 in MP) and the Employee of the Month (MP bonuses). I just needed to vent a little bit of boosting frustration in this blog. Though TA raised my hopes a little tonight I may have to change my choice of games to titles with all/mostly offline achievements.
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Thursday, July 21, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
o0 SABRE 0o Taking Fire!
A few weeks ago I posted that I was back to Achievement Hunting. In my last post I stated that finding time to play was a concern for me and boy was I right.
I have been extremely busy with work running Close Combat Attack (CCA) Ranges for the last two weeks and have this final week to go. In a CCA range we try to re-create a scenario where a ground unit has to call for air support from an AH-64D Apache Longbow. The scenario we have been using for the last week: a convoy of five vehicles traveling on the outskirts of town hits an IED, disabling one vehicle, and starts taking small arms fire from the enemy.
The soldiers in the vehicles start engaging the targets with their M249s and M4s. The leader of the convoy calls in a team of Apaches (a team consists of two Apaches) and passes the location of the enemies. The Apaches then come in and start their strafing runs, engaging the targets with their 30MM Cannon and 2.75 Rockets. Needless to say the sight of it all is pretty badass. The training we are doing now will hopefully lead to lives being saved on the battlefield.
With all that going on my Xbox Live time has been non-existent to say the least. Gaming with a 6 year old for a Co-op partner has also proven to be a real challenge. I can honestly say that my son is one stubborn kid and it’s clear he gets it from his Mother! We finished the story mode of Toy Story 3 and we are now working on the Toy Box missions. Some of the harder achievements I will have to go back and unlock when he is asleep though. We also started or should I say continued an old save of Marvel Ultimate Alliance campaign. The save date on Marvel:UA dated all the way back to 2007! I never finished the game obviously but I kept it around because my son is big in to super-heroes. We are running with the four man team of Captain America (me of course), Deadpool (my son), Spider-Man, and Wolverine. If that is not a dream team of super-heroes then I don’t know what is. I have no intent of trying to 1k this game. There are far too many collectible for my 6 year old to patiently sit through while I look at guides to ensure I get them all. Instead we will just demolish all the foes standing in our way and complete the story.
For my solo play I was trying to work on the campaign of COD:Black Ops. I have hit a wall of frustration playing on veteran mode so I decided to put the game back down before breaking my controller. Maybe the long layoff has deteriorated my skills but I don’t remember the last few COD titles being this tough on veteran. Or maybe this old Sergeant just needs to spend some more time on the rifle ranges.
I have been extremely busy with work running Close Combat Attack (CCA) Ranges for the last two weeks and have this final week to go. In a CCA range we try to re-create a scenario where a ground unit has to call for air support from an AH-64D Apache Longbow. The scenario we have been using for the last week: a convoy of five vehicles traveling on the outskirts of town hits an IED, disabling one vehicle, and starts taking small arms fire from the enemy.
The soldiers in the vehicles start engaging the targets with their M249s and M4s. The leader of the convoy calls in a team of Apaches (a team consists of two Apaches) and passes the location of the enemies. The Apaches then come in and start their strafing runs, engaging the targets with their 30MM Cannon and 2.75 Rockets. Needless to say the sight of it all is pretty badass. The training we are doing now will hopefully lead to lives being saved on the battlefield.
With all that going on my Xbox Live time has been non-existent to say the least. Gaming with a 6 year old for a Co-op partner has also proven to be a real challenge. I can honestly say that my son is one stubborn kid and it’s clear he gets it from his Mother! We finished the story mode of Toy Story 3 and we are now working on the Toy Box missions. Some of the harder achievements I will have to go back and unlock when he is asleep though. We also started or should I say continued an old save of Marvel Ultimate Alliance campaign. The save date on Marvel:UA dated all the way back to 2007! I never finished the game obviously but I kept it around because my son is big in to super-heroes. We are running with the four man team of Captain America (me of course), Deadpool (my son), Spider-Man, and Wolverine. If that is not a dream team of super-heroes then I don’t know what is. I have no intent of trying to 1k this game. There are far too many collectible for my 6 year old to patiently sit through while I look at guides to ensure I get them all. Instead we will just demolish all the foes standing in our way and complete the story.
For my solo play I was trying to work on the campaign of COD:Black Ops. I have hit a wall of frustration playing on veteran mode so I decided to put the game back down before breaking my controller. Maybe the long layoff has deteriorated my skills but I don’t remember the last few COD titles being this tough on veteran. Or maybe this old Sergeant just needs to spend some more time on the rifle ranges.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Dusting off the Cobwebs
Earlier this week I decided it was time. Time to come back to the Achievement Game.
This decision did not come easily. As much as I enjoy playing video games, a lot has changed for me over the last year. I recently had another child, work is still as demanding as ever, and I also am still committed to raiding on the weekends with Wiping with Style.
The first question I asked myself was if I had the time to play my beloved 360. The answer is I do, just not as much time as I would like. With my gaming time being limited I told myself I would have to make the most of it. I cant allow myself to get distracted or to sit idly on the dashboard for extended periods of time. I have to constantly be aware of that next achievement, so to ensure I stay focused and on track I have gone back to the trusted site of www.x360a.org. The Road Maps will help me be as efficient as possible and increase my achievement to time played ratio.
The second question I had to answer was how I was planning to tackle the task of reaching 100k. That was pretty easy for me to figure out as right now I have a pretty large backlog of video games I own. Some still need to be played for the first time(in the wrapper), and others that I need to complete. So my personal stash of games will get me started but I will eventually reactivate my GameFly account.
The third question I asked myself is probably the most important. How was I going to avoid burning out and quitting again? Well for starters, no more shit games. I know that will be harder said then done but I am going to try to avoid the garbage games, even if that means passing up an easy 1k. My thought process on this is that playing quality games will keep me coming back but will also allow me to build a list of games I can burn through should I ever enter another GSL (HOTBA Reunion!). I have decided to juggle no more then 3 games at a time as well. Like I said above I want to play as efficiently as possible. However, I plan on trying to have at least one game that has some sort of co-op available that way I can also use the time to game with my 6 year old. Today we started on Toy Story 3 and the four achievements I unlocked mean even more to me because they were completed with my son.
So that is my plan and I am going to do my best to stick to it. This week I have been working on Bulletstorm and managed to complete the Anarchy Master achievement with a friend. I finished the campaign, now I just need to go back and clean it up a bit. As mentioned Toy Story 3 is being worked on and I am going to flip a coin to decide on my next game to play. The candidates are COD:Black Ops and Bioshock 1. All in all this week was a good reintroduction back in to the achievement scene. As of this posting I have unlocked 21 achievements for 405 points. 100k will be mine......
This decision did not come easily. As much as I enjoy playing video games, a lot has changed for me over the last year. I recently had another child, work is still as demanding as ever, and I also am still committed to raiding on the weekends with Wiping with Style.
The first question I asked myself was if I had the time to play my beloved 360. The answer is I do, just not as much time as I would like. With my gaming time being limited I told myself I would have to make the most of it. I cant allow myself to get distracted or to sit idly on the dashboard for extended periods of time. I have to constantly be aware of that next achievement, so to ensure I stay focused and on track I have gone back to the trusted site of www.x360a.org. The Road Maps will help me be as efficient as possible and increase my achievement to time played ratio.
The second question I had to answer was how I was planning to tackle the task of reaching 100k. That was pretty easy for me to figure out as right now I have a pretty large backlog of video games I own. Some still need to be played for the first time(in the wrapper), and others that I need to complete. So my personal stash of games will get me started but I will eventually reactivate my GameFly account.
The third question I asked myself is probably the most important. How was I going to avoid burning out and quitting again? Well for starters, no more shit games. I know that will be harder said then done but I am going to try to avoid the garbage games, even if that means passing up an easy 1k. My thought process on this is that playing quality games will keep me coming back but will also allow me to build a list of games I can burn through should I ever enter another GSL (HOTBA Reunion!). I have decided to juggle no more then 3 games at a time as well. Like I said above I want to play as efficiently as possible. However, I plan on trying to have at least one game that has some sort of co-op available that way I can also use the time to game with my 6 year old. Today we started on Toy Story 3 and the four achievements I unlocked mean even more to me because they were completed with my son.
So that is my plan and I am going to do my best to stick to it. This week I have been working on Bulletstorm and managed to complete the Anarchy Master achievement with a friend. I finished the campaign, now I just need to go back and clean it up a bit. As mentioned Toy Story 3 is being worked on and I am going to flip a coin to decide on my next game to play. The candidates are COD:Black Ops and Bioshock 1. All in all this week was a good reintroduction back in to the achievement scene. As of this posting I have unlocked 21 achievements for 405 points. 100k will be mine......
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Just Sayin
Damn its been awhile since I've been on here. I've disappeared from the Xbox secne but I haven't stopped gaming.
The evil folks of Blizzard Entertainment have sucked me back in. The last six months I have been playing a ton of World Of Warcraft and mixed in some Starcraft2 when Im not wtfpwning murlocs.
Upon returning to WoW I ended up starting my own 10 man Raiding Guild, Wiping with Stye www.wipingwithstyle.com and have put a lot of time into running that Guild. I have gone back to playing my Undead Priest and have been enjoying the latest expansion. For those interested you can find me on the US-Uldum Server on the Horde side of course.
On the console side of things I can be spotted playing Black Ops every once and a while and I also recently started a new save on my much beloved Mass Effect. I plan on playing through ME1 and ME2 again before ME3 launches later this year.
The evil folks of Blizzard Entertainment have sucked me back in. The last six months I have been playing a ton of World Of Warcraft and mixed in some Starcraft2 when Im not wtfpwning murlocs.
Upon returning to WoW I ended up starting my own 10 man Raiding Guild, Wiping with Stye www.wipingwithstyle.com and have put a lot of time into running that Guild. I have gone back to playing my Undead Priest and have been enjoying the latest expansion. For those interested you can find me on the US-Uldum Server on the Horde side of course.
On the console side of things I can be spotted playing Black Ops every once and a while and I also recently started a new save on my much beloved Mass Effect. I plan on playing through ME1 and ME2 again before ME3 launches later this year.
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