Showing posts with label HOTBA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HOTBA. Show all posts

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Challenges of Boosting

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.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

60K

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

Monday, March 15, 2010

New Banner

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.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

March

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!

Friday, February 26, 2010

HOTBA

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.