Military Gamer

Challenges of Boosting

2011-07-21T23:27:00.000-05:00

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.

o0 SABRE 0o Taking Fire!

2011-07-12T14:24:00.000-05:00

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.

Dusting off the Cobwebs

2011-06-17T19:50:00.004-05:00

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......

Just Sayin

2011-02-08T17:12:00.002-06:00

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.

ThrawnOmega Defeated!

2010-04-12T18:35:00.002-05:00

The mighty ThrawnOmega, leader of the Hand of Thrawn and the Hand of Thrawn Boosting Alliance, member of the x360a Review Team, prominent Blogger, and HMFIC (HeadMuthaF*%kerInCharge) of Walmart has been beaten by yours truly.

You see Thrawn and I entered the Survivor Achievement Edition: Season 2 over on the x360a.org forums. At first I entered the competition to support the community and to use it as extra motivation to score. However, immediately after I joined the gamer known as ThrawnOmega signed up and in his first posted started to trash talk.

I am very competitive by nature so I accepted his side challenge to see who could outlast the other in this community competition.

The rules were simple and straight forward. Score your ass off for 3 days, at the end of the third day the person with the highest achievement score gain wins Immunity and can not be eliminated in the next round. The person with the lowest, well they get the boot. Every 3 days this continues until there is only one gamer standing.

But what makes this "victory" a bit more rewarding is that I have spent the last 2 1/2 days of this round away from home and my 360. I had to go to Louisville, KY over the weekend to observe some Military Training. My flight arrived back home at around 1pm and I was able to get enough points in 5 hours to avoid being eliminated for this round. When I checked the update I was shocked that I wasn't eliminated but that Thrawn was.

Gears 2 laid to rest

2010-04-03T16:48:00.003-05:00

Finally hit level 50!

No more Host Glitches!
No more Two Pieces!
No more Bridge Hosting!
No more 12 years olds!
No more Guardian!
No more Security Grinding!
No more being laughed at by Silva and Bishop!

So Im level 50 and finally hanging up my Lancer. I entertained the idea of going after level 100 and Seriously 2.0 for about a full minute before I slapped the shit out of myself for allowing such a stupid thing to cross my mind. I am in no shape or form a completionist so Ill be happy with my 1610gs and move on.

The only way I will play that game again is if I can finally get a friend or two to knock out the last Horde achievement I am missing (1-20 on Sanctuary), but if not its no big deal!

Gears 3, take your time. Im in no rush to play you.

Crossed to the Dark Side...

2010-03-24T19:00:00.002-05:00

..........NOT!

So yesterday I got this crazy ass notion to buy God of War III. I had played the first two and was blown away with what I had seen so far from III. There was only one thing, I didnt own a PS3, at least not until yesterday.

I forked over some big bucks and came home with a new shiny 250gb PS3 and God of War III.

That is where my excitement ended.

Upon opening up my box I realized that I should have read the contents of the package. No HDMI cables, let alone component cables to support HD!!! WTF!? Sony charges me an arm and a leg and I only get AV cables?

So after few minutes I chill out, and get my new non-HD gaming system hooked up. I start going through the initial system setup and I get to the part to setup my PSN ID (Gamertag)....

1 hour.

1 freaking hour it took me to find a damn PSN ID with the name Sabre that was not taken. I came up with every spelling, leet speak, Im more uber then you, way I could to come up with my name somewhere in it. Ive already said how important that tag is to me so right before I was ready to give up and take my PS3 back for a full refund it finally accepted my new ID.

oSABREo

Definately not my first choice but it will do. After my disgust with the setup I didnt even play God of War last night (besides who wants to play it in 480i?). Instead I fired up my beloved 360 and played Modern Warfare 2 with the fellas in 1080i.

In all I think I have the most expensive paperweight on my block now.

60K

2010-03-20T17:45:00.002-05:00

60k has finally been surpassed.

Gamefly and my local video game rental store were kind enough to provide me with Ice Age and Night at the Museum 2 which finally allowed me to whore past the mark that had been hanging over my head for a very long time.

Surprisingly they were both very enjoyable games. Night at the Museum was a total breeze but Ice Age gave me fits. I still need to go back and finish the Egg Roll 3 challenge for the full 1k. Other then that the rest of the game is a piece of cake, however Im not sure if this game can be completed under 5 hours like it is suggested on x360a.org The challenge acheevos can be hit or miss and its obvious I missed.

Not much to report in other gaming news. Little progress has been made in Borderlands but the little I have done has been rather enjoyable. Daylight Savings has screwed my playing schedule with my buddy eMoander who is back on the west coast. Darksiders was pushed to the back burner again this week, it seems this game is turning into my red-haired step child. Surprisingly HOTBA has made a ton of progress in Fracture with a handful of us only needing the final mp achievement of 1500 games played. Im not sure if we will make a serious run at that one because its only worth a lousy 15 points, but it would be nice to add to my trophy case on trueachievements.com

Soldier's Creed

2010-03-16T11:52:00.002-05:00

I apologize for the double post the first one was a failed attempt from my Droid phone.

I thought today I would post a bit about the Man behind the tag. When I first started this blog I posted how Sabre Oscar was my call sign during my first tour in Iraq and was my original Gamertag. During my achievement journey it has changed to Sabre x360a and will be changing again soon.

As most of you know I am a Military man. I am a Sergeant First Class in the Greatest Army this world has ever known. The rank of Sergeant First Class was not given to me easily nor was it unlocked after completing certain 'achievements' in the Army. Rather it was earned through 10 years of Hard Work, Blood, Sweat, and Tears.

I joined the Army at the age of 17 and shipped out when I was 18. Seven days after I graduated High School I was staring a Drill Sergeant in the face. I have only known two things in my life, the first being a knuckle head son in my parents house and the Duty of being a Soldier.

We have a saying in the Army that we call the Soldier's Creed that is drilled into our heads from day one of boot camp, and I can honestly say that this is the easiest way to explain the way I live my life.

I am an American Soldier.
I am a Warrior and a member of a team.
I serve the People of the United States and live the Army Values.
I WILL ALWAYS PLACE THE MISSION FIRST.
I WILL NEVER ACCEPT DEFEAT.
I WILL NEVER QUIT.
I WILL NEVER LEAVE A FALLEN COMRADE.
I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills.
I always maintain my arms, my equipment, and myself.
I am an expert and I am a professional.
I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.
I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.
I am an American Soldier.

My life as a soldier has been very rewarding. I have traveled the world and seen everything from the beautiful city of Barcelona to Saddam's Palaces in Tikrit. I met my Wife while serving in Germany ( she was in the Army too and can beat your ass!) and together we fought in Iraq.

I know that the Army or the Military in general is not for everyone, But know this. There are many more men and women just like me that will gladly pick up our rifles, our rucksacks, and kiss our families good-bye to go kick some ass so that you dont have to.

New Banner

2010-03-15T22:07:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to give a shout out and thanks to BL4CK SiLv4 for the new banner.

Nothing of significance to report on the gaming front. Still banging away at Fracture, Gears 2, and Borderlands. I picked up a few easy games to get a quick 1k so I should finally break 60K this week.

March

2010-03-09T19:22:00.005-06:00

The month has gotten off to a slow start due to some real life issues but its time to get energized and start scoring.

I should stay scoring at a decent pace this month and will hopefully make up some ground on my push to 100k. My plan of playing 4 games will keep me from getting bored but I have to be careful and remember to say hello to my Wife every once in a while. I just paid for her to get her hair done so that should earn me at least 3 weeks of game time right?

First up will be Boderlands. I heard a ton of great things about this game and Im really looking forward to playing this. My first play through will be strictly co-op. I will be playing with a good buddy of mine, eMoander, so party chat will be entertaining as well. Hopefully the game will live up to the high expectations I have in my mind about it.

HOTBA is back at it again with another horrible game. This month we will suffer through Fracture together. Im not sure if we will go for the 1500 multi-player games played acheevo but it would be a nice one to have and brag about....well maybe not. Im not sure if I will play the rest of the campaign yet. Im not really worried about my completion percentage right now so this will probably look horrible on my gamercard when I send it back to Gamefly.

When Im not making fun of Moander or knee deep in mindless boosting with HOTBA I will be playing Darksiders. Sadly this game kind of got pushed to the back burner last month, but I will make amends and finish at least one play through...

Now the game that will drive me nuts this month is Gears of War 2. I have made up my mind to finish up two more achievements in the game, which means I need to hit level 50. As of this posting Im at level 44. 50 is as far as I go then Im never touching this game again....or should I say until Cliffy B releases more dlc. So if anyone is down for some Guardian boosting holla at your boy!

HOTBA

2010-02-26T15:00:00.003-06:00

The Hand of Thrawn Boosting Alliance (HOTBA) was created earlier this year by ThrawnOmega with the intent to tackle the tough and mundane multiplayer achievements with a group of friends. This is so much easier and reliable then depending on some random 13 year old that you met on the forums and agreed to boost with, only to have him bail on you after he got his achievements because his mom said he had to go to bed....

Thrawn set out to recruit former teammates from previous GSL teams he captained and followers from his blog. In end adding 7 gamers to the alliance for a total of 8 ( you are all welcome for the 1st Grade math lesson). Myself having been a member of his GSL VII team it was obvious I had to be included to the HOTBA to keep all the knuckle heads in line.

The gamers are as follows in order of Gamer Score.....lol...(inside joke).

BL4CK SiLv4
Bishop024
ThrawnOmega
Derek1337
Xylofreak03
Sabre x360a
DarkTharen
Blind Ragee

So far we have "officially" boosted 3 games: Wolfenstien, Turning Point, and Frontlines. Having this group has made playing crappy games like Wolfenstien easier because everyone knows, Misery loves Company! Party chat is always entertaining with one of the group highlights being the discovery of www.peopleofwalmart.com

The biggest reason why I joined this group was not only to play games with some kick ass dudes but it will also to motivate me and keep me on track for my goal of 100k. As we play more games readers will continue to hear about the HOTBA through out the year.

G.O.A.T.

2010-02-17T17:36:00.002-06:00

I finished my Mass Effect 2 play through earlier this week and I have never been more excited for a game as I am for Mass Effect 3.

ME2 is the Greatest Of All Time.....imo.

I know there are many out there that would say the game was great but not worthy of the status I am giving it. I have been playing games since the age of 6 and this one sits at the top for me.

Bioware did a fantastic job with the story and the side stories of your crew. The world they have created can be expanded on ten fold if they so choose so. One of the big reasons ME2 won me over is because I was already invested in their world. I played ME1 like most gamers but I also read both books before playing ME2.

Based off the second book the Illusive Man was everything I thought he would be and more, but what was even more awesome was seeing the Flotilla. Yes this hard ass Soldier has a inner Geek inside him.

However, what made this game truly enjoyable was being able to experience it with my Wife. Most games I play she could care less about. Not this time. She was as anxious as I was for me to continue to playing. Hell she even recommended the crew-member for me to hook up with!

Mass Effect 3 can not get here soon enough!

Three Hot Chicks...and a Ugly One.

2010-02-01T21:50:00.002-06:00

2010 has started off on a serious high note for me. During the month of January I have played 3 amazing games Assassins Creed II, Darksiders, and Mass Effect 2 (My front runner for greatest game ever!). All three of these games have brought something different to the table for me.

AC2 had amazing gameplay, fantastic graphics, and Ezio is a freakin rockstar! The story was very well done and had me hooked all through out the game. I need to go back and collect all the feathers and finish off one or two more achievements to have the full 1K.

Darksiders has not got as much love from me as the other two, due to real life Army missions, but the time I have spent in it has been awesome. The game is flat out FUN. I need to hurry up and get back to this game asap. No way in hell can I leave it hanging unfinished. But all my time as of late has been taken up by....

Mass Effect 2! O-M-F-G! Im about 24hours in and without a doubt I can honestly say that this has been the greatest gaming experience of my life. Not since I was a kid playing Super Mario Brothers 3 have I had this much fun in a game. Bioware did not just raise the bar, they blew the motherf***er into outer space!

However, with all groups of Hot Chicks there is always one. You know who Im talking about. The one you try to be nice to in hopes that she passes a good word along about you, but who really you cant stand to be around. Not because she is ugly but because she is always negative, treats you like shit, and her achievement list requires insane amount of hours boosting....err wait, wtf was I talking about again? Well to get to my point, my Ugly game of the month was Wolfenstein. If you have not played it I now envy you. The multiplayer achievements are so freaking stupid the the devs who thought about them should be shot (30mins of Veil Speed anyone?). Then to top it off the single player is full of collectibles, which isnt necessarily bad but the campaign is shit! I had to apologize to my gamercard after I got rid of this game.

January also saw me revisit Street Fighter 4, I finished Spec Ops in MW2(but had to carry my partner all the way!), and even took part in the 1000 players Online achievement in NBA Live 07. No doubt January was a awesome gaming month just to bad February is going to suck for me.....

Gears of Modern Assassins 2

2010-01-06T18:36:00.000-06:00

Look who's back!

Okay not really but I am bored as hell right now so I thought I would drop a post to let you all know what I have been up to.

My gamercard shows I have done almost nothing gamerscore wise since July, only putting up 2.9K. With the move to Texas and new Army duties I needed to focus on real world stuff for a while. I was still gaming but more for enjoyment then for score.

As the title of this post says most of my time the last few months has been Gears of War 2, Modern Warfare 2, and Assassins Creed 2. I clearly have a love hate relationship with Gears but just when I think I am done with the game Epic always seems to pull me back in. Damn them and triple xp weekends!

Modern Warfare 2 has been my favorite game of the three listed. The campaign story was great, Spec Ops is awesome, but everyone knows this game is all about the multiplayer. I have started to really focus on the MP so that I can finally get Prestige ranked for the first time ever. I mean seriously, how can I call myself a gamer if I have never earned Prestige in Modern Warfare?

Assassins Creed 2 was a Christmas gift from the Wifey (yes she supports my addiction). I can honestly say though that knowing the game was under my tree for two weeks and not being able to open it up and play drove me absolutely crazy! So far I am having a blast in the game and will be 1k'ing it in the next few weeks.

I hope to start posting more regularly with updates on my 2010 goals, The Hand of Thrawn Boosting Alliance, and other topics that relate to this blog.

Attack Plan In Place

2009-09-01T20:18:00.000-05:00

With my 2009 goal already met I needed something new to keep me motivated to continue scoring for the remainder of the year. Actually, to keep me scoring until Modern Warfare 2 comes out.

My plan is somewhat of a ripoff of Thrawn's plan that he used during the summer, after the GSL had ended, but only slightly different. I am only going to focus on 3 games (2 retail, 1 arcade) from 3 different genres to keep it fresh and prevent burnout/boredom.

1. Dead Space (FPS/Horror): I have had this game from Gamefly for far to long and I need to finish this up. Im almost half way finished with my first play through and Im currently sitting at 205/1000. The game is fantastic and if you have not played it you need to take your ass over to your nearest Blockbuster and rent it now! This game came highly recomended to me from BL4CK SiLv4 (who has a new blog by the way http://silv4.blogspot.com/ ) and it has not disappointed.

2. Grand Theft Auto 4 (Sand Box): This game is sitting at an embarrassing 15/1000 (not counting DLC). For some reason I never got into this game, I guess Nico just wasnt my kind of guy so the game sat collecting dust. I don't know if Ill get the full 1k in this but any progress in this will be good progress for my completion percentage.

3. Feeding Frenzy (Arcade): 150/200. Only 3 achievements left in this game but they are time consuming. Still needing 40 thousand in the Food Bank, 1000 Sharks eaten, and 10 hours played. Ill work on this for a few minutes a day until completed. As of this posting my Food Bank is at 21k but unfortunately there is no way to track how many Sharks you eat or how many hours you play. Ill be glad to have this game completed.

Now I dont expect to stick to this plan 100% of the time but having this in place will keep me focused. I do plan on doing some multiplayer with friends and boosting when the opportunity presents itself.

Texas

2009-08-19T22:14:00.001-05:00

After being MIA for the last month I am finally back on Xbox Live. My move from Cali to Texas is complete. I was able to take a month off between my move and during that time I did not touch my Xbox. It was kind of refreshing to step away from the gamerscore grind.

However, all good things must come to an end. Im re-focused (okay not really) and will be hitting my back log hard. During my time off I decided I wanted to save a bit of money so I will not be buying as many retail games as I normally do, but instead will be working on my completion percentage. My 1 game plan with Gamefly should be enough to keep me satisfied until all the new major releases come out during the holiday season.

Ive already reached my goal for 2009 but with the games I already have I should be able to bang out another 10k before the end of the year without too much trouble.

As for the Army side of things...Im now stationed in Fort Hood, Texas. My new position is sick and it will allow me to do some traveling, and not the middle east type of vacations. It also comes with greater responsibility but the best part is that I will have more time off to do shit that is important to me like chill with the family, advancing my education, and game.

One last thing....GO COWBOYS!

50K....Finally

2009-07-06T00:19:00.000-05:00

I didnt win my race. I didnt hit my June goal, but as they say....better late then never. Tonight I finally crossed the 50,000 gamerscore mark that had been eluding me the last month.

After a few distractions, setbacks, and save files corrupting I have reached my 2009 goal. In reality I should have hit this some time in the middle of June but with preparations for my family and I's move to Texas I have been a bit preoccupied.

Once I get settled in to Texas I will re-evaluate my gamerscore goals for this year. Maybe Ill challenge someone or work on my gamerscore completion, which stands at 59%. Right now though I can tell you I want to enjoy gaming for the next month so Ill probably tackle some RPGs that I have left neglected.

History of my Gamer Tag

2009-06-11T15:00:00.000-05:00

Upon the initial setup of my first 360 in late 2006 I was presented a screen to enter my Gamer Tag name. A name that would represent me across the vast network of Xbox Live. At first this little task of picking a name seemed like a daunting one.

For many years I was known by Vindi in the game World of Warcraft but I did not want to continue that name on my 360. I struggled to come up with a creative name to represent my mad gaming skills. However I did not want my name to be like every other 12 year olds name so I decided to go with something a bit more personal, a name I had been known as before. A name that I had been called by on a battlefield and Im not talking Call of Duty.

The name I chose was SabreOscar. Sabre Oscar was my call-sign during my first combat tour in Iraq. During that tour my responsibility was to move forward with the ground forces and provide operational updates to my Attack Helicopter Unit, a Squadron of AH-64A Apaches. Many nights my team and I found ourselves in the middle of no where in Iraq with our sole purpose of calling in air strikes and making sure that the Infantry had the air support that they needed from the Apaches. The men and women that I served with in that unit, 2-6 Cav, still refer to me by Sabre Oscar to this day.

I felt SabreOscar would be a fitting tag as it had a meaning behind it. I kept the tag for two years before recently changing it earlier this year to Sabre x360a.

My reason for the switch was for gamerscore purposes. It was this year that I began taking gamerscore seriously and actively getting involved on the x360a.org forums. I switched my tag but my forum name on the site still remains SabreOscar. Sabre x360a allows me to represent the Army and x360a community.

For those interested here is a little article that was done on my unit. I was quoted in it and for the record the writer of the article miss-quoted me but Im not surprised lol.
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=14468

Defeated

2009-06-05T21:45:00.000-05:00

My race with Gamergirl6969 ended earlier this week as she beat me to 50k. In what was a tight race early on finished in a four thousand point blow out.

Congrats are in order and I tip my hat to her. Female gamers should not be taken lightly and she be treated with respect as with all gamers. The topic of females in gaming has been highly debated so Ill save my thoughts on this topic for another time.

Once things settle down for me in Texas Ill be looking for another opponent to race.

50K Push

2009-06-01T16:13:00.000-05:00

Its been a while since I have posted here so I felt I would give a brief update. Since the completion of the GSL I have taken things pretty easy in relation to point scoring. I have spent my time playing "Good" games and time consuming games which has led to May being my lowest scoring month of 2009.

I completed Too Human and can honestly say that I enjoyed every hour of it. The grind was a daunting task but with the new spider farming method discovered I was able to finish my last two achievements needed. I was fortunate to get the help of some fellow gamers from x360a.org on some of the tougher ones and I have to send a shout out to FlipSwitch from x360a. This guy has a TON of Too Human knowledge. Thanks also goes out to Method x360a and Prodigy1980 for there help as well. Without them I might still be trying to finish the game.

I also finished the story line of Resident Evil 5 but still need to go back and clean it up for the 1k. Sacred 2 has been taking up most of my time the last week and is a very addiciting game. If you dont believe me then you an read ThrawnOmega's blog. Another big time sink for me this past month was Gears of War 2 multiplayer. I managed to reach level 25 but thats about as far as I am going. To many nights of frustration and wanting to smash my controller into the ground for me to go any higher. Although its always a blast to game with my boys ThrawnOmega, BL4CK SiLv4, and Bishop024.

However its time for me to get serious again. With my upcoming move to Texas in July I have decided that I want to close out the month of June by reaching my goal of 50k. As of today I am currently off the mark by 4,610. I would like to get as many if not all of these points from games in my backlog allowing me to raise my 58% completion percentage at the same time. It shouldnt be too hard but I may have to rent a game or two if it comes down to crunch time and Im still short.

Im Back!

2009-04-24T21:17:00.000-05:00

After being crippled by the Red Rings of Death this weekend I decided that I would use this time to take a break and catch my breath. That lasted for about 24 hours.

I shipped out my system on Monday and started considering my options of games I could play to pass the down time of no 360 capabilities. My options looked very promising:

1. Wii - Mario Galaxy
2. PS - Final Fantasy VII
3. PC - StarCraft (never played before)
4. PC - World of Warcraft

I used to play WoW pretty seriously for a couple of years. I was a hardcore raider in one of the top guilds on my server. WoW took alot out of me that I did not realize until I quit playing last year. In a moment of weakness on Tuesday I reactived my WoW account and logged in for the first time in many months. I played around for a few hours on Tuesday and Wednesday and even earned a few achievements in WoW. However, achievements in WoW are no where near as satisfying as they are on the 360. I quickly became bored and realized that WoW was no longer for me.

My Wife was able to sense my boredom and made one of the best suggestions ever in our 5 years of marriage (ok she has probably made better ones). I guess she got tired of me talking to her and told me to just go buy a new one. I know, I know all of you are thinking to yourself how lucky I am. All I can say is I picked a winner!

I walked into my favorite video game store and a few minutes later walked out in style. I went big and bought a new 360 Elite! So now Ill be rocking with my boys and knocking out those chievos with the Black on Black Elite.

RROD

2009-04-20T01:10:00.000-05:00

Those three red lights have struck my system again for the second time. The first took place last November. I was playing some MP Gears of War 2 with my friends when my system shut down.

Xbox customer service is always a pleasurable experience.....(hope you picked up on the sarcasm there). I will be sending my system off this week and the nice little lady on the phone, who is somewhere in a distant country, told me my system would be out for three weeks.

I got to find something to fill my 360 time to keep me from going insane.

GSL AAR

2009-04-13T12:10:00.001-05:00

What an amazing 8 weeks of gaming! The gaming event known as the Gamer Score League has come to an end. No more latenights, no more boosting games that I would never tell my friends that I played. Best of all, no My Horse and Me 2! If the GSL was one week longer it would have made its way to my door step and I would have been forced to play it...whew that was close.

The Hand of Thrawn was put together by ThrawnOmega with the intent to go out and have fun. In the weeks leading to the GSL we were called out by a few teams, L4A and Rogue Squadron. I happy to say that we crushed both those teams as we cruised to a very respectable 5th place finish (possibly 4th still awaiting word from the moderators).

My Teammates have been nothing but class acts and Id like to thank them all for all the help, games, and latenight conversation they provided.

Week 1 GSL Starting Score: 24,220
Week 8 GSL Ending Score: 42, 655

I put up 18,435 in 5 weeks of play (I rode the bench for 3 weeks). I have to give a special shoutout to Thrawn because if it wasnt for him my score would not have been possible.

Now its time to go back to regular gaming and avoiding all easy games so I have ammo for GSL VIII.

March Recap

2009-04-02T22:35:00.000-05:00

Coming off the best month I have ever had I did my best to keep my momentum going. March was not quite as successful as February but one must take into consideration that I rode the bench for two weeks straight in the GSL.

Gamerscore on March 1st: 33,300
Gamerscore on March 31st: 40,550
Gamerscore Gained: 7,250
Retail Completed: 3
Arcade Completed: 0
GS needed for 50K: 9,450

There are two weeks to go in the GSL so my scores for April will not be anywhere near as high as they have been for the last few months. Im figuring out now how I want to spend my time on the 360 once the GSL ends.

One thing I know for sure is that I will be going back to complete Resident Evil 5!

Gamergirl6969 is seriously kicking my ass. Our race to 50k will be over by the end of this week. I just have to do my best to make it a respectable race and not a total blow out. For the record I blame ThrawnOmega for sitting me two weeks in a row =)

*Gamergirl6969 deserves all the credit. She has gamed her ass off and put up an enormous amount of points during this GSL.

AAR GSL Week 6

2009-03-31T00:10:00.000-05:00

Week 6 GSL Starting Score: 37145
Week 6 GSL Ending Score: 40475
Week 6 GSL Points Scored: 3330
Hand of Thrawn Current Rank: 5th

What was supposed to be a big gain for me after two weeks on the bench turned out to be just an average week. 3,330 points put up for week 6. Respectable but lacking imo. Wednesday and Thursday nights continue to be a struggle as I only get in four hours of gaming on those nights after working 11 hour days.

Saturday was probably my most frustrating day in this whole GSL. It started when my copy of NBA Live 08 would not load all the way for me. I would get ready to start my game and at the loading screen right before tip off I would get the "unable to read disc" error. So I jumped in my pimp ride and went down the street to my local game store and had them buff it out. While I was waiting for my game I was happy to see that the rental place next door had a copy of Wrestlemania Legends available to rent. My Team has been telling me how there is an easy 600 pts in this game so as you can imagine I was stoked to find a copy. Im standing in line for a few minutes behind then get to the counter. I hand over the case to my prized GSL game only to find out that they had mistakenly put the case out for display and they had no copies for rent. Talk about a huge let down.

Good news though is that Im now less then 10k away for from 2009 goal of 50k. Looks like Ill have to tweak it again but not sure what to yet.

Sergeant First Class Selection

2009-03-24T23:41:00.000-05:00

Most of my gaming friends know that I am a Soldier in the US Army. With this being my Military Gamer Blog I thought I would share the news that today I was selected for promotion by the Army to the rank of Sergeant First Class (E-7). Obviously this is a huge "Achievement" in my military career. Now what does any of this have to do with Gaming? Well more rank means more money which means more retail games!

Race Update

2009-03-21T19:41:00.000-05:00

I am getting smashed. Gamergirl6969 had two huge weeks in the GSL and has left me in the dust. Last time I got my ass kicked like this by a chick was when I was in the second grade and some fifth grader named Shelly (aka Shelly Smelly!) pushed me down on the playground and took my lunch money.

Its not over yet though. Im back in the lineup next week in the GSL so at least Ill make the race a little more respectable.

AAR GSL Week 4

2009-03-16T00:57:00.000-05:00

No score update for me as I rode the bench this past week.

Hand of Thrawn Current Rank: 5th

The week off aloud me to catch my breath and watch my team take care of things. We are still in 5th place but the Young Guns gained some serious ground on us. We hold a very slim lead on them but we should be able to pull away in this next week.

Im on the bench again for Week 5 so Ill be continuing to try and support my teammates and try to pre-load some points as well.

In other GSL news there is a very tight race for fist place. KOTOR and Team Short Bus were battling out with the lead going back and forth over the week. Of course I had to get my bag of popcorn as some more drama unfolded.

AAR GSL Week 3

2009-03-08T20:54:00.000-05:00

Week 3 GSL Starting Score: 34265
Week 3 GSL Ending Score: 36510
Week 3 GSL Points Scored: 2245
Hand of Thrawn Current Rank: 5th

What was to be a promising week for me turned out to be another dissapointing one. Between work and getting sick on Thursday night I did my best to make to put down as many points as possible.

On the bright side of things this was probably one of the most enjoyable weeks of gaming. Reason being was the amount of time spent playing with friends mixed in with GSL drama. Big shout out goes to Derek1337, my teammate that helped me finish up Lord of the Rings Conquest (what an awful game). The real highlight was listening to Bl4CK SiLv4's all night gaming session as he approached the 100k mark. Congrats again bro on the milestone.

In league news The Hand of Thrawn moved into 5th place this week. There is still a large gap between us and the 4th place team, The Sinster Six, but I have confidence that my team will close on them in the next week.

February Recap

2009-03-02T17:04:00.000-06:00

With February being a short month I am very pleased with my numbers for this month. Considering that this month got off to a slow start as I waited for the launch of GSL VII, over at x360a.org, I finished the month quite nicely.

Coming in to the month my GS stood at 23,508. I used the momentum from January and dropped over 9k points, a very large part of that was due to the GSL and my kick ass Team Captain ThrawnOmega who lent me ten games from his collection to plow through.

Gamerscore Gained: 9,792 (oh so close to 10k)
Retail Completed: 6
Arcade Completed: 0 (no time for arcade titles with GSL)
GS needed for 50K: 16,700

My race with Gamergirl6969 has heated up and right now she is enjoying a small lead. She has publicly stated that her motivation is to catch my team, The Hand of Thrawn. My fellow teammates will not allow her and her team Left 4 Achievements to catch us. I just have to do my part and beat her to 50k.

AAR GSL Week 2

2009-03-01T17:09:00.000-06:00

Week 2 GSL Starting Score: 30745
Week 2 GSL Ending Score: 33985
Week 2 GSL Points Scored: 3240
Hand of Thrawn Current Rank: 6th

What a disappointing week for me. My goal had been to drop four thousand points this week but I failed to do so.

Eragon, single handily ruined my GSL week. This game was so horrible and boring that I fell asleep on three different occasions playing it, and we all know there is no sleeping in a GSL. It is projected as a 5-10hour game but probably took me longer. The only bright spot was that I did 1k it so I will never have to insult my 360 again by loading up this horrible game.

The game I did enjoy this week was Cars. My Son is a big Cars fan so playing with him watching and cheering me on (or yelling at me when I lost) was a enjoyable experience. The game was rather fun and with the help of the youtube videos I was able to 1k this game also. For the record it took me one hour to find all the postcards.

Im in the lineup for week 3 of the GSL so I plan on making up for some of the lost ground from this past week. I need to hit my local stores and load up on some more ammo. As a team we did fairly well as Bishop x360a and BL4CK SiLv4 led the charge which aloud us to secure the 6th spot in the league. We have a small mountain to climb to break into the top 5 but it is a doable. We just have to remember its a Marathon, not a sprint.

AAR GSL Week 1

2009-02-22T18:09:00.000-06:00

What is an AAR?
An After Action Review (AAR) is a review of training that allows soldiers, leaders, and units to discover for themselves what happened during the training and why. It is also used to solicit ideas on how the training could have been performed better. AARs are not critiques because they do not determine success or failure; rather, AARs are professional discussions of training events. Leaders and evaluators avoid lecturing participants on what went wrong. They use AARs to tell a story about what was planned, what happened during the training, why it happened, and what could have been done differently to improve performance. ~~Army Field Manual 25-101 Battle Focused Training

Week 1 GSL Starting Score: 24220
Week 1 GSL Ending Score: 30695
Week 1 GSL Points Scored: 6475
Hand of Thrawn Current Rank: 7th

With this being my first Gamer Score League I went into the week not really knowing what to expect. I felt I had strong showing for my first week but consistency and endurance will be the key to success.

Planning: I had my weekly plan laid out well in advance which was a huge benefit. Going forward I will continue to do this and discussing my plan with my Team Captain, ThrawnOmega, and my fellow Teammates, DarkTharen, Bishop x360a, BL4ACK SiLv4, and Derek1337

Execution: I played a total of 9 games, completing 3 of them. NCAA March Maddness 07 was my greatest challenge, as I grew very frustrated with the All-American settings achievements. So much so that this game will probably stay at 960gs on my card for a long time. Areas for improvement would be on the researching of the achievement guides before playing the game. I found myself having to pause my game more frequently then I would have liked to look at guides over at x360a.org.

My Week 2 plan is already set and will use the next few days to refine it and strategize with my Team as we make our move up the ranks.

Hurry Up and Wait

2009-02-12T23:56:00.000-06:00

Hurry up and wait. The phrase that every new soldier in the US Army becomes familiar with within their first weeks of service.

Hurry up and get to where you need to be. Wait for additional orders.

Never did I think this phrase would relate to my hobby of gaming, but in fact that is exactly what I have been doing for the last two weeks as we inch closer to the launch of GSL VII.

Hurry Up: I have a spread sheet of the games I plan on playing during the GSL. Over the last few weeks I have been hitting the local video game stores, websites, and friends for games that I can buy, borrow, or trade that are on my spreadsheet. With my growing collection I have begun working out the roster of games and what order to play them. I have put my Wifey on notice that any discussion, arguement, agreement we have during the GSL can not be held against me as I will be so focused on unlocking achievement that I probably will not realize she is talking.

Wait: Is it start time yet? Not playing my 360 and unlocking achievements is driving me crazy. I find myself sitting through a episodes of Grey's Anatomy with the Wifey just to keep me away from playing. Waiting. I can only browse through the x360a forums so many times a day, spamming the refresh button to keep me from playing. Waiting. My week 1 roster of games is set, but Ill probably go through it 20 more times before the GSL starts. Waiting.......

January Recap

2009-02-01T12:45:00.000-06:00

January has come to an end and I can honestly say that it was one of my best gaming months. My current Gamerscore stands at 23,508 which put me at a 5,508 gain for the month of January. What is even more exciting about that is the fact that most of those points were earned during a two week challenge. Imagine if I had pushed myself for the whole 31 days! Good thing I didn't do that though because I really need to pace myself with GSL VII just a few weeks away.

Gamerscore Gained: 5,508
Retail Completed: 3
Arcade Completed: 1
GS needed for 50K: 26,492

My Mom always told me to place nice with girls.

Sorry Mom, this girl is going to get her butt kicked. As if I needed any more motivation to reach my goal for 2009, I have agreed to race gamergril6969 to 50K. Should be a very fun race as she is also apart of this seasons GSL.

The Hand of Thrawn

2009-01-30T11:56:00.000-06:00

Its official, I am now a member of The Hand of Thrawn. GSL VII can not get here soon enough now. We might not be the early team favorite to win it all but I strongly feel that we have a shot. I have begun planning my route to put up as many points as I possibly can. The 8 weeks of competition should be very fun and exciting.

The Army says a Soldier only needs four hours of sleep to be effective. My military training in sleep deprevation should give me a slight edge on this gaming battlefield.

Quick Update

2009-01-28T00:30:00.001-06:00

Another game to add to the completed list for my second 100% compeltion of the month. Madden 08 helped me raise my score past the 23k mark and also sealed my victory is the x360a challenge over on 360voice.com!

x360a.org announced GSL VII and I have entered my name to be drafted. Im looking forward to participating. Im hoping to land on a solid team but most importantly to make some new gaming friends. My gamerscore should see a very nice boost from the competion which is a big plus.

My goal to hit 30k by the end of 2009 is going to be smashed early this year. Im officially changing my goal to hit 50k by then end of the year; hopefully by the end of the GSL if Im lucky =).

Fallout 3 Sig

2009-01-22T01:22:00.000-06:00

Was hooked up with this awesome Fallout 3 sig by DirtyMcHater. This guy is extremely talented. You can view some of his work at the following link.

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/showthread.php?t=111121

No new gaming news to report. I have taken the last few days off to focus on English class which is probably a good thing. Once I knock out this essay for the week Ill be back in action.

Nice Start to 2009

2009-01-20T01:49:00.000-06:00

As the countdown to the end of '08 ended and 2009 began, I made a New Year resolution to to take my achievement whoring a bit more serious. On January 1st, I sat at a measly 18,000 gamer score. My goal that I set out for the new year was to reach 30k by the end of '09 which would be a 1k a month pace.

Its three weeks in and I'm well ahead of schedule. So much so that I will have to adjust my goal here shortly. I was in a race to 40k with a fellow member over at x360a.org but due to some girlfriend aggro he had to pull out. Not all is lost though as I am also racing Masonasaur to 60% completion. This race will be very close.

Currently I'm finishing up Cabela's Big Game Hunter. Once completed Ill be just a couple hundred shy of 23k and 5k for the month of January.

Allow myself to introduce, myself.

2009-01-19T23:27:00.000-06:00

Whats the deal? My name is Tim but I carry a few names and titles. Staff Sergeant T, T, SabreOscar, Sabre x360a, but my favorite name is Daddy.

Ive been in the U.S. Army since the age of 18 and will hit my ten years of military service on May 27th. Its an achievement I am very excited about. The life of a soldier is not always easy but I have enjoyed journey along the way.

I have been gaming since I was 6 years old. It all started on Christmas of '86 when my parents got my younger brother and I our very first Nintendo. Over the years I have gone through many different games and systems. The XBOX 360 has been my platform of choice since it came out. I recently became hooked on getting achievements and have found myself trying to earn as many as possible. In the achievement world my 21k score is not much but with the help of friends and an amazing website www.xboxachievements.org my 21k will greatly rise this year.

Not sure why I got the urge to create this blog. It seemed like a good idea but only time will tell.