From Wikipedia: The first implementation of an easily accessible and multi-game achievement system is widely considered to be Microsoft's Xbox 360 Gamerscore system, introduced in 2005. Microsoft extended Gamerscore support to the Games for Windows - Live scheme in 2007 by including support for Achievements in Halo 2.
My experience with Achievements began when I bought my first Xbox 360 in February of 2012.
And thanks to trueachievements.com I see my first achievement was in one of my absolute favorite games, that I found thanks to the Xbox 360, F.E.A.R. gave me my first 5 Gamerscore. That's awesome, because I love that game!
As I started accumulating achievements, I made a tentative goal of trying to get 10,000 per year. But between working full time, kids, etc... I wasn't always able to hit that goal.
But now, 11 1/2 years later I am at the brink of 6 digits
It was pretty neat to land on the "9's" for the points, and then I let my Xbox languish and went and played my PS3 for a week and a half. I had thought about trying to find a achievement with 1 Gamerscore, but figured with my luck I would end up unlocking something else anyway.
This last weekend, I popped the 100,000 Gamerscore, and as I write this I am sitting at 100,215.
I don't plan to go for 1,000,000. I don't have that kind of time with everything I do and want to do, but I applause those that have done it.
Tuesday night after work I got into my car, and it drove me to my favorite Salvation Army. No, really, I swear. I did not plan to go, but I left work and just found myself there.
First I picked up some DVD's
He-Man for me and Pokémon for my Daughter for .99 each
True Blood season 4, $2.99
Onto the Games!
Chicken Shoot for the Wii, $1.99
Midnight Club 3 Dub Edition for PS2, $1.99
RTX Red Rock for PS2, $1.99
Brand New, Factory Sealed Jackbox Party Pack for Xbox 360 for, .99
Not a bad haul for magically ending up there. But Thursday I decided to swing out there again, And.....
First, I Picked up a stack of Dvds
All .99 each
A couple I had seen years ago, A-Team, The Fifth Element, When a Stanger Calls (Which I remember the original being the better of the two) but I did not have, and had been wanting to see again.
And a few I had been looking for, Catch and Release has Kevin Smith in it, I had found it one time at a thrift store, but the case was empty, so I was glad to finally find a copy. Mr & Mrs. Smith I have owned since 2005, but the standard edition, looking forward to checking out the Unrated.
And I also grabbed a couple games
Max Payne for the Xbox, $1.99
Fight Night Round 3 for the Xbox 360, $1.99
I had this game a long time back (2010 I think?). It is one of the easy 1000 Gamerscore games. I had traded it off after I got the 1000, But figured for $1.99, might as well add it to the collection again to stay. I did swap it into a standard green Xbox 360 case though, since the disc holder tabs were broken.
It was the infamous 50% off your highest priced item coupon day at Half Price Books this last weekend, and well you know of course I went!
First off a few non gaming finds. My wife and I have quite the movie collection, I wouldn't say it rivals my game collection, but it's close. Blu Ray's, DVD's and VHS Tapes that never made the jump to DVD or Blu Ray. Anyway, we love our movies.
So, I was perusing the clearance section in the back of the store, and found Steelbooks! Now anyone who follows this blog or knows me, knows I love Steelbooks. Anyway, I found these for $4.99 each, they were originally the DVD/Blu Ray combo pack, but the price tags said Blu Ray Disc only, which was fine with me as my wife and I already have them on DVD, They are guilty pleasure movies for us.
I believe these were Best Buy exclusive Steelbooks? I remember seeing an ad and thought, Hmm do I really Need them? The Fast and the Furious (#1) and Fast & Furious (#4)
Ok, now onto the games! Only 2, but hey great additions to my collection.
A few months ago I picked up the standard edition of this game (See that Blog HERE), but for (Another) $6.00 I found the Complete Edition, which I will be swapping the Complete Edition Disc into my game case, and selling the standard edition in the complete edition case, and recoup a few bucks.
And what did I decide to use my coupon on? Well I didn't really find anything super rare or super expensive, so I bought this for $10.00 (50% off $19.99)
Far Cry 4 for the Xbox One, the only Far Cry game I haven't played yet.
That's it for today, but never fear I already have another pile of pickups, for another post!
I hadn't been really out and out game hunting for over a year, so we decided (my daughters n I) to take the afternoon, and hit up some Pawn Shops and Thrift stores, here's what we found.
Our first stop was at Goodwill Where I picked up a Brand New Sealed Xbox One First Person Shooter. Raid: World War II. Even if it isn't great, hey, it was $5.00.
Next stop was at the Salvation Army. where I picked up Juiced 2 for the PSP, Missing the Manual Though.
Next stop on the route was at a Pawn America where I found myself another Sega 32X game I needed for my set, Toughman Contest for $15.00. I also watch 32X auctions, and check new listings every day or two and knew there was a Box, Manual and insert currently on eBay for $12.00.
The price tag says $15.00, but when I got to the register, after waiting FOREVER for a clerk, I asked the lady ringing me out if she could do any better on the price? She responded with $12.00 and I said great, thanks!
Next stop was at a Savers, where I picked up a DVD and Complete Sega Genesis game.
Halo Legends DVD, $2.99
And a complete and Great condition copy of Tecmo Super baseball for the Sega Genesis for $1.99. I opened it up at the store and saw the inside was MINT!
Next stop was another Pawn America and I picked up one a the few games on my PS3 list, Haze a PlayStation Exclusive First Person Shooter and the Saw UMD movie for the PSP.
Then I had seen that Gamestop was selling Star Wars Battlefront II, Brand New for $19.99. We decided to go to the one closest to the Pawn America, but they didn't have any Xbox One copies. So, we shot over to another Gamestop on the way back home and they also had no copies for Xbox One.
Undeterred we walked across the parking lot to Best Buy, where they had copies and price matched Gamestops sale price.
I figured at $19.99 it was time for me to finally pick this up and play through the campaign, and whatever Multiplayer I could.
When we got home, I checked the mailbox and had a package I had ordered from Walmart.com
Sebastein Loeb Rally Evo. If you have been following this blog, you'll know that I have been playing a lot of Dirt and WRC Rally games and found this game available for $11.xx brand new on Walmart.com, and figured I'd give it a shot.
Then after we got in the apartment, I hopped onto eBay and clicked buy it now for the Toughman Contest Box, Manual and stuff.
And a few days later, it arrived
We also decided to try our hand at making a video for You Tube on this trip You can watch it below.
I popped into Goodwill on my way for a specific reason, which will be coming to this blog soon.
But, for today, I picked this up for $1.99
A Great First Person Shooter for the Xbox 360, also backwards compatible on the Xbox One.
But Inside...…..
Tom Clancy's Endwar and Mass Effect Bonus Discs
Cool, I already had Rainbow Six Vegas 2, and I did NOT have these Bonus Discs. So, when I got home I used this dual disc case, along with another extra one I had, and I added them to my copies of the End War and Mass Effect games.
As I have mentioned in my recent blogs, I have been playing a lot of the Dirt series on the Xbox 360. Well, that has lead me to another game series I was unaware of, FIA World Rally Championship or WRC Games.
I had been doing some research, and found that WRC and WRC 2 were released in Europe on the PS3. WRC was also on the PS2 in the U.S., but since 3-5 were on the PS3 in the U.S., and the PS3 was region free, I decided I wanted to get WRC and WRC 2 for the PS3. So, I will be importing these from Europe. The Friday night before fathers day, I decided to go out and game hunt for a few of the titles in the WRC series. I had seen that Gamestop had WRC 3 & 4 for $7.99 each, and there were a few nearby stores that had them. So, my kids and I hopped in the car and went off to see if I could find some good, complete copies.
Our first stop was at the Gamestop local to me, they showed online as having a copy of WRC 3 in stock. We go there, and I find the copy of WRC 3. and it is in a generic gamestop case, no art or manual, so I pass. But, I did find a copy of Splinter Cell Double Agent I did not have for $2.99, and it was complete and in good shape.
However, this was Gamestop. So it couldn't be as simple as getting my item and leaving, oh no, they...……….. gave me the wrong game in the case. Once we got outside, I checked in the case, because, well, it's Gamestop, you have to. And of course it was not Double Agent, no it was Splinter Cell Blacklist. Close Gamestop, you ALMOST got it right. So of course, I had to go back in the store tell the Store Manager who was the one who helped me, that he gave me the wrong game. He got me the right game and I left, Not Surprised...……
Now I have all the 360 Tom Clancy Games
Off to the next Gamestop which was supposed to have WRC 4. They had another generic case and no manual copy, so again, I passed. On to Gamestop #3. They also had a Generic case for one of them, I forget which at this point, but they DID have a Brand New (open) copy of WRC 6 for the Xbox One for $15.97. So me being me, I had to buy something on my journey, why not this?
Then, we swung into one more Gamestop on the way home, and they had no copies anywhere for PS3, I don't remember which one they were supposed to have, but we left empty handed.
I had read that the WRC games are more akin to "simulation" than the "arcade" style of Dirt. I gave the game a go that night after we got home. And, yes it definitely was a different style of gameplay than the Dirt games I had been absorbing the last 2 months. But, in a good way, I really liked it.
Here is a video I took of me playing WRC for the first time.
My oldest daughter and her fiancee' came over the day following fathers day, as she had to work and wasn't able to come on fathers day. And, they had got me WRC 3 and WRC 4, Wow, I did not expect that. My future son in law drove around town hitting Gamestops to get me these. I was surprised and very excited.
Missing the manual, but it had the artwork and game disc, and that's good enough for me
Complete, there was no manual for this game, just the 2 leaflets.
And today the brand new sealed copy of WRC 5 for the Xbox One I got off eBay for $15.00 arrived
These games are great, and I absolutely recommend them!
The last Dirt game on the Xbox 360 I haven't played.
As promised in my last blog (HERE), I tracked down and bought myself another game in a new game series I recently discovered, Dirt 2!
Had been watching some auctions and such on eBay, most of them were selling and being sold for over $10.00. Well, I was being cheaper than that and waited. Finally a seller listed a 7 day auction for Dirt 2, starting at $4,20 plus $2.66 shipping. But, they also had a Make Offer button. I didn't know you could have a make offer button on an auction.
So, being cheap I shot the guy an offer of $3.34. Figured, Why Not? To my surprise, it was accepted! Scoring me the game for a total of $6.00 shipped!
Complete and in Great Shape!
I forced myself to grind out the 1,000 miles driven in Career in the original Dirt first (Took 3 nights after work), because I knew if I started Dirt 2, I wouldn't go back and finish up Dirt.
Once I finally got the achievement I didn't even finish the race and popped Dirt 2 into my 360 and gave er a go! And it is awesome! Another Great Codemasters racing game. Another Recommend!
