MC0REBE's Blog - Jan to Mar 15 (59 followers)

Blog

• 

  Date range... Oct - Dec 16 Jul - Sep 16 Apr - Jun 16 Jan - Mar 16 Oct - Dec 15 Jul - Sep 15 Apr - Jun 15 Jan - Mar 15 Oct - Dec 14 Jul - Sep 14 Apr - Jun 14 Jan - Mar 14 Oct - Dec 13 Jul - Sep 13 Apr - Jun 13 Jan - Mar 13 Oct - Dec 12 Jul - Sep 12 Apr - Jun 12 Jan - Mar 12 Jul - Sep 11
• Blog RSS feed
• View full blog

Hey guys!
I'm back here with another Extra-Life blog. Last year was successful (or at least to me) due to all my gaming sessions, the 24 hours stream (that turned into an 18 hour stream due to internet issues ), give-aways and selling games for charity. This year however, I'm taking a different approach, and this blog will prove that (hopefully ).

I'll be doing an auction for My Horse and Me 2 Achievements, a game that is wanted by many collectors or achievement hunters. Some of you might think I'm behind the profits I could gain, but there's more to it - so stick with me for a moment.

How will it work?
I'm not even sure myself, but this will be a learning process for all of us. I could create an auction on eBay or any other similar website, but they would require you to pay to me and that's not what Extra-Life is all about. So I've started with the following set of rules. Please take note that some can be added along the way, as this is new to me and I'm still trying to figure out the best way to both raise money for a great charity cause and to successfully complete this auction.

- Enter the auction by donating at least $1 to my Extra Life page. Whilst doing so, also mention your gamertag so I can add it to my personal spreadsheet I will link in a thread on my leaderboard.
- I'll add you to a created leaderboard here on TA, which will remain private for the above set rule. On there, a thread will be created about this auction where you can offer what you want to pay for the game.
- Once you've won the game, pay the game by donating the amount of money you've choosen to my Extra Life page. I will not ask for a single Dollar, Euro or Pound to "sell" this game, so the full price will go to charity.
- Once the 24 hour stream is over, somewhere in October (I don't know if there's a set date already); I'll be shipping the game in the next 7 days. I know it is a while before that happens, but it will make it easier for me shipping all give-aways and other stuff I will do through this event. When that day comes close, I'll ask you to pay for shipping through PayPal and will be different according to where you live. I did free shipping last year, and it was more expensive than I figured it would be. I don't see this as a payment for the game really, and every online seller has their set rules as well.
- The auction will end in 3 months from now, on May 31st, 2015.

What happens after this auction?
More give-aways, auctions and selling games for charity; but not after this auction, I'll be doing some more of these things in between as well! I want 2015 to be one of my best years in terms of doing something for the greater good and Extra Life is a great start. Obviously my upcoming plans will become clear with future blog posts, so please follow this blog and you might encounter something that does interest you. I will also be updating the website I'm hosting with every single blog post I create here on TrueAchievements so keep an eye on it too if you wish.

Is there anything else to gain?
Other than having a new game and the great feeling you've done it for charity, no. But you'll be loved by thousands of children that have gotten a better live with your money. The money that you've donated will be mentioned in one of my blogs, but if you want to remain anonymous; please mention it through PM or a message on Xbox Live.

How will I be certain I'll receive my game?
I'm giving you my word and my promise, and I'm not the person who tends to break those. In case something does go wrong while the game is shipped, I have another personal copy I can gift you instead. I'll be shipping these games with a tracking number and you'll be able to check in once it has been posted. Obviously I'll be PM'ing you the info for that after I've done that so I can continue to stay honest with you.

Can I enter other give-aways?
Yes, auctions aren't give-aways. For those games, you can enter more than one; but you can only win one to make sure not one person wins everything. I know the chances are slim, but they do exist and it's a rule from last year I'll be carrying over. Those rules will be mentioned on those specific items as well, so make sure to read through those.

As for any other events I will be running, please join as much as you can. As mentioned before, I don't want to do this to fill my own pockets and I'll be donating myself after all my sessions are expired. I currently have sessions going for all Zombie easter eggs in the Call of Duty franchise and I'm also trading weapons/clothing in Fable III for those who need it. Any other session might be popping up in the near future, and if you wish to get help don't hesitate to send me a PM. If possible, I'll create a session with a slot reserved for you! As mentioned in the session notes, for those that read them anyway, I'll be donating $1 for every person I help, but please consider donating yourself after I've spent some time helping you. I know this sounds like paying to receive help, but it's more a call to those that don't know the things Extra-Life stands for.

Thanks for reading, and hopefully, we all speak soon! As always, stay safe and awesome!
- MC0REBE

Haaarrroooooo ,
Another month flew past which isn't really that surprising if it only counts 28 days. Those 28 days were somewhat hectic at some points, but as usual we managed to get by to survive those busy days. I'm not talking about the things I work for on TA, or my own review site; but my personal life. We finally took the step to start searching for a new place to live now that my girlfriend is expecting a second MCore Jr. I'm hoping deep inside that we get blessed with a boy, but seeing as I did that when little Hailey was born, I'm happy to see it healthy no matter what the gender is.

The changes have their impact on our lives though and I can say those hormones released with a pregnancy don't really help if we're discussing one thing or another. Obviously gaming time will become rare if we do find that perfect spot to live in, but all should be going back to normal shortly after. But enough about me, let's get to some numbers!



MC0REBE won 206 Achievements in 16 games, for a total of 10,585 TrueAchievement points (4,740 GamerScore)

February has better stats than January, with 55 more achievements and a few completions in the same amount of games. I managed to get double the TA score in comparison with last month, so I'm happy with whatever I achieved.

Best achievement in TA


Being a music and rhythm game addict, I just had to start this game after seeing Dang3R Gaming stream it on Twitch over and over again. This game isn't Guitar Hero by a mile, but fairly enjoyable. Luckily I got some easy tracks as the last 2 to make sure this achievement is saved on my card!

Best achievement in GS


I unlocked 4 achievements worth 100GS in the past month, but I've picked this one as I really enjoyed Fable. Yes, that's right; I enjoyed it. I ignored it for so long and decided to finally get it over with but I couldn't enough of it and I even decided to start Fable III once I finished this one. I feel the story is pretty good, although it feels like it takes forever to start the next "sequence". I would recommend it to everyone that like easy score or a good story. Only downside in Fable II: co-op sucks.

Best achievement in TA-ratio


With a ratio of 7.82 at the time of writing, no other achievement gets close in terms of ratio. In fact, the 10 best achievements based on ratio were from the exact same game ...

Games played (8 Xbox 360, 8 Xbox One)
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Assassin's Creed Unity, Band Hero, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Escape Dead Island, Fable II, Fable III, FIFA 13, Guitar Hero: World Tour, KickBeat – Special Edition, Minecraft: Xbox One Edition, THIEF, Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, Trials Fusion and Xbox Fitness

Games completed (2 Xbox 360, 2 Xbox One)
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Escape Dead Island, Fable II and Minecraft: Xbox One Edition

Obtained milestones
- Completion percentage: 53%
- Achievements won: 6,250
- TA Score: 230,000

I want to do a special shout out to https://www.trueachievements.com/Finch+Q.htm for helping me complete Minecraft Xbox One Edition and Dang3R Gaming for getting those last stupid dyes in Fable II.



So, the Extra Life season is back. And with that being said, so are my COD: Zombies sessions with some small extensions. I decided that I wouldn't only help people with Call of Duty: Black Ops, but I figured I'd add https://www.trueachievements.com/Call-of-Duty-Black-Ops....htm and Call of Duty: Ghosts (for both Xbox 360 and Xbox One). On top of that, I will also do some sessions to exchange all weapons and clothing for Fable III. I'm planning to do one Zombie/Extinction session each week, as well as doing a separate session to make one certain person happy in Fable III. For every person I help, I'll donate $1.00 to make sure that I continue where I left off last year.

I also decided to stream some more as soon as my new capture card gets here. I'll be editing those videos and upload them to my YouTube channel, and since I'm partnered I am lucky to get some revenue of all views I receive. Because of that, I decided I would donate 75% off all revenues so I could keep supporting the good cause. But obviously I can't do it all alone and that's where I need your help. If you go to my Extra-Life page, you can make a donation yourself. I'm not asking for big ones, even the people that donate $1.00 contributed to the good cause.

Obviously I've set a high goal for the upcoming year, but I think I have some great ideas to auction games as well as selling some to raise money just like I did last year. I can't afford to offer an Xbox One like my good friends Beth Bear are doing, but you can make sure I have some great ideas to make sure I reach my goal of $2,500. So come and help me out please .

That will be all for the previous month, keep an eye on the next blog. It might be an auction for a game you might want !

As always, stay safe and awesome!

- MC0REBE

PS: No idea why I included FIFA15 in the title, so I edited it. Stupid me

Hey all,
I hope you all have a great new start to the new year. Personally, mine didn't start off very well and I'm going through one of the hardest times in my personal life. I've come to the point where it's hard to trust those that surround me and where everything I say or do is being doubted by almost everyone that can see what I'm doing. Not only is my "family-in-law" being overprotective to my girlfriend and my little girl, they seem to succeed in making me feel horrible. I don't know if I'm getting sick because of that or because of the flu virus that's roaming around but I do know that I just need a break of all the bad stuff happening around me.

That being said, I do feel satisfied with the time and effort I put into the WT Team seeing as that pretty much is the only thing right now I do well. Overall communication has definitely improved and the tracking system Ackter and myself put in place finally seems to pay off after a long and hard time of starting all over. It wasn't easy to replace thirtysmooth, but I seem to do a fairly good job in managing the team. Obviously there's no one to see that but me, but seeing as the backlog has been depleted completely; we can make time for other projects such as porting and going through some of the older guides to polish them up.

In other news, I'm also happy with the progress me and AFalcon90 are making with our own website. Keeping up with all the news in the gaming industry surely is something we underestimated, but I think we're doing a fairly good job reviewing the games as we get them. as some of you might think, we are not trying to compete with TA in any way, we just thought it would be more "professional" to have our own website. If developers trust us with doing what they expect us to do, why not give them some more publicity in the meantime?

As for the stats, I decided to go for a new lay-out. I was thinking my old blogs were just a wall of text where people scrolled through and there's really no point in posting a big achievement list and basically say "Hey, look what I've done last month". I'll do the same categories, but I'll just list one achievement or game and maybe write something about it. Let me know what you think, maybe I could add some more stuff in later!



MC0REBE won 151 Achievements in 16 games, for a total of 5,534 TrueAchievement points (3,495 GamerScore)

January wasn't the best month, but then again; I was taking it slow since GTASC 2015 just started. I'm not really interested in blowing all my easy points in the first period, and with all the games both me and Spiral pre-loaded; I think we might have a good shot in winning that sweater. We have our plans made for all bonuses and we just need them to randomly appear so we can get those tasty and free points.

Best achievement in TA


I was sad to idle dualbox this game when I found out that achievements didn't unlock because the XP wasn't sticking to my profile. After 3-4 months trying to load my skate.-Profile, my rank finally registered and I was happy to see that all the XP did save on my tag. Needless to say I only needed to play one game. That sounds easier than it was, since the servers were done. The standard talk of "reboot your console", "reboot your router", or "clear your cache" obviously wasn't helping and EA did some extra effort to get those servers back online. Big thumbs up to them, they seem to have grown in their customer service (unlike others *ahem* Ubisoft *ahem*).

Best achievement in GS


I only unlocked one achievement worth 100GS, so this was an easy pick as I would have to pick my favourite one otherwise. Seeing as this comes from Valiant Hearts: The Great War (Xbox 360), I just like to note that I absolutely loved this little game. I'm interested in everything that happened in both World Wars, seeing as they provide beautiful (but sad) history. This game, based on real events and artifacts like letters, surprised me in every way and is a contender for a GOTY 2015-award.

Best TA-ratio achievement:


After finally unlocking the achievement for using the app 20 days in a row, I just browsed through newspieces to get this one unlocked and to complete the title. Sadly, there was no "MC0REBE completed the game/app TrueAchievements" on my feed though. At least it fits in nicely in my trophy case.

Games played: (5 Xbox 360, 5 Xbox One, 1 Xbox One App, 3 WP, 3 Win 8)
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Despicable Me: Minion Rush (WP), Despicable Me: Minion Rush (Win 8), Escape Dead Island, FIFA 15 Ultimate Team (WP), Funk of Titans, L.A. Noire, Rayman Jungle Run (Win 8), Skate 2, Skate 2 (GER Ver), Tales from the Borderlands, THIEF, TrueAchievements, Unmechanical: Extended Edition, UNO & Friends (WP), UNO & Friends (Win 8) and Valiant Hearts: The Great War (Xbox 360)

Games completed: (1 Xbox 360, 1 Xbox One, 1 Xbox One App)
TrueAchievements, Unmechanical: Extended Edition and Valiant Hearts: The Great War (Xbox 360)

Obtained milestones:
- TA Score: 220,000
- Completed games: 135
- GamerScore: 130,000



So, 2014 has passed and for new releases; it was quite disappointing. Obviously there were some good games released here and there and the following are my favourite ones.

- Despicable Me: Minion Rush (WP/Win 8)
If you love the movies, then chances are that you will love this game. Even though it’s nothing more than an endless runner, the games surrounds our little buddies the Minions and I play it more often than I dare to admit.

- Watch_Dogs
I was about to write about Assassin's Creed Rogue, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Maybe Assassin's Creed Unity could’ve been my pick here but since Ubisoft didn’t deliver it 3 months after pre-ordering it with them, so I figured I’d go with a new IP. Since everything in technology interests me, it would be weird if this wasn’t in my favourite games of the past year. I don’t believe it entirely lived up to the hype it was promised, but overall the game was a great experience. Los Angeles feels so vivid and realistic and Aiden was someone I could relate too as someone that puts family in first place. Not only was the story line great, there were plenty of side missions to keep you roaming around the city.

- Tales from The Borderlands
Unlike TellTales releases like The Walking Dead & The Wolf Among Us who were dead serious, Tales from The Borderlands takes you on a tour full of hilarious events. Having played Borderlands extensively, all the easter eggs and small hints towards those games always put a smile on my face. I know only the first episode has been released, but after playing through the first episode entirely (and watching my girlfriend play); the DLC is highly ranked on my wanted list. ENGORGE!

- Never Alone
I love platformers so that genre was hard to choose from. But as a person who likes a great story, the choices were more limited. Never Alone is a nice, small game that was released under ID@Xbox and surprised me in every way. The story is compelling and doesn’t make you eat your wrist out of boredom and the controls work nice. Since this is a pretty cheap game, I’d recommend it to everyone who loves a good story, platformers or easy achievements. Not convinced yet? Read our review here.

- South Park: The Stick of Truth
I was going to write an expanded blurb about the re-release of Pokémon Sapphire/Ruby, but this was honestly my most anticipated release from 2014. I dare to admit that I’m not really into RPG games and I haven’t played a turn based RPG for a very long time but South Park was a game I’ve played and completed 3 times in a row back-to-back. Just like all episodes, this game doesn’t take itself seriously and is a great game to relax since there’s not much skill needed to get through it. The dialogues are awesome, the soundtrack is epic and the graphics make you feel like you are actually in an episode.

- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
After the disappointment Call of Duty: Ghosts brought us, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to buy this game. I was more considering spending my cash on a game I knew I would enjoy than on another COD game that was likely to disappoint. I was wrong. Advanced Warfare feels like a completely reboot of the franchise and I haven’t enjoyed a single player campaign more since I’ve played and completed World At War. Both Black Ops entries were great, but this game is one to remember and absolutely a recommendation.

- FIFA 15
I know it’s the same game every year. But not to me. It’s a restart of Ultimate Team which is the reason why people who love FIFA pick up the most recent entries. This was, and still is for that matter, the game I tend to play casually if I don’t feel like playing anything else. The graphics are once again improved (for the current-gen consoles that is), the tactics system got refined and overall playing a game of FIFA seems something that I do just to relax.

- THIEF
Without a doubt one of the best games I’ve played in a long time. Whether or not Dishonored stole its ideas from this franchise (or the other way around), THIEF is a game you play visible but hiding in the shadows. The adventure of Garreth was one of the best ones I’ve played in a stealth game for such a long time and I enjoyed pretty much everything about it. Sure, the story could be long-winded for those who choose to run and gun instead of sneaking; but for those that like to do it the other way around, than this game is one you should’ve played.

So what is my GOTY? Great question. There wasn't a whole assortment of new IP's I can go for, and I refuse to pick a game that was already released a year earlier on Xbox 360. Apart from the ID@Xbox games, the games on there are disappointing. New games? NOOOOO! Re-releases? YESSSSSS! I refuse to take part in that, unless when it's a game I thoroughly enjoyed such as Murdered: Soul Suspect, Tomb Raider or my latest game, THIEF.

After considering all games released in 2014, my choice wasn't that hard to be honest. From fart jokes to the combat system, the cheesy dialogues and references to the TV show; I just had to go with South Park: The Stick of Truth. I've played the game 3 times back-to-back, even after earning every achievement, just so I could try the different classes. If you haven't played it, you should!

That will be all for now. As always, stay safe and stay awesome!
- MC0REBE

Hey all,
A new year has come and I can't believe that my birthday is coming in exactly 3 weeks. Not only was 2014 a busy year for me, it was also one of the more rewarding ones. True, I had my fair share of things that shouldn't have happened, but we learn from our mistakes (or at least we are supposed too) and move on. I made some new friends this year, but sadly saw a few go but that's the way it seems to go.

For one, I was really happy with my assignment as Walkthrough Manager. I'm not really convinced I deserve the title, there's more people within the TA community with some more background in actually managing a team; but admins, thirtysmooth and TrueAchievement gave me their blessing and here I am now. I'd like to think I'm doing a decent job: there's certainly more communication within the team (and drives my girlfriend crazy from time to time due to the Skype notifications ), and my Assistants and myself started a better tracking system for checking walkthroughs.

The second thing I was really proud about was (and actually still is) the fact that I managed to sneak into the top 20 teams in the GTASC last year. It was fun when it started, but evolved into something more serious and I was completely stressed out during the last few weeks my team participated. I was convinced we could've knocked ourselved into the top 5, but the TA app wasn't really helping with increasing the overal TA-scores. Even though we were the highest scoring team in the week we were eliminated (minus the "free points"), we did get eliminated and I was kinda relieved it was over. I'm looking forward to this year, as I am more prepared in terms of having a backlog ready and all that stuff.

Another thing I was proud about was the Extra Life period. I didn't raise as much as I wanted too, and maybe that was in my own hands; but I still managed to raise $100 more than I initially wanted too. I did a few gaming sessions for COD: Zombies and had a lot of fun helping people where I could and that's also one of the things I'm looking forward too this year.

Also, I started school again to get a degree in responsive webdesign. I learned a thing or two myself and was able to create my own decent webspace, but wasn't qualified enough to find a job in it. Due to my classes, I've learned so much more and I'm really relieved I will finally have a job in the future that interests me. As you all might have noticed, I launched my own website together with my buddy AFalcon90 and I think we started out just fine with over 5,000 hits in the first week.

The last thing I want to mention before all of you loose interest in this wall of text is that I'm so happy with the people I'm surrounded with. Although this includes the people I play games with and speak with on a daily basis, this part is especially for those I know personally. My girlfriend supported me so much the past year with all the crazy decisions I made (and truth be told, some weren't the greatest; but what can I do ). Another person I need to thank for supporting me day in, day out is my buddy Nick. He's always there to listen to all the stupid things that flap out of my mind. Another person I have to thank for the past year is offcourse Patrick. Jij komen hierr zo pwraten teken mei?! Always up for a laugh! I could do honourable mentions, but I know that you all know who you are.

This blog is already so far in, and I didn't realise I'm about to break the keyboard but we're almost there. For once, I'll skip the December Recap since I planned to write a recap about the whole year. Here it comes, hold on to your horses!

MC0REBE won 3,892 Achievements and 5 Challenges in 233 games, for a total of 150,162 TrueAchievement points (82,916 GamerScore).

Top 3 best TA score achievements: (thank you TU TA-ratio increase!)




Top 3 best GS achievements:




Top 3 best TA-ratio achievements: (and again, thank you TU TA-ratio increase!)




Top 3 best games in TA:
Xbox Fitness (7,828 TA)
Trials Fusion (4,782 TA)
Call of Duty: Ghosts (4,314 TA)

Top 3 best games in GS:
Call of Duty: Ghosts (2,000 GS)
Trials Fusion (1,725 GS)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (1,610 GS)

Top 3 best games in TA-ratio:
Guitar Hero: World Tour (7.09 TA-ratio)
Xbox Fitness (6.39 TA-ratio)
Tetris Blitz (WP) (5.14 TA-ratio)

Top 3 genres in TA:
Shooter (34,139)
Action-Adventure (29,015)
Sports (24,813)

Top 3 genres in GS:
Shooter (17,830)
Action Adventure (17,780)
Sports (10,550)

Top 3 genres in TA-ratio:
Racing (2.74)
Sports (2.35)
Music & Rhythm (2.19)

I'll leave it that for this blog, since I need to wake up early tomorrow morning . My next blog will be about my GOTY stuff, so keep an eye out for that! As always, STAY AWESOME! As an additional note, have a great 2015!

- MC0REBE