Xbox Live Rewards

Basically, I save up my easy games for these kind of challenges. There are plenty on Game Pass too, stuff like Donut County and Rain on Your Parade don’t take long to get through, maybe a few hours each.

I think I used most of the arrows in my “easy game” quiver last time they did this. I think I got around 5000 points or something, which is amazing for me.

But I’ll see if I can scrounge up any easy finishes in my game library this time, but I don’t think I’ve got anything obvious left.

Maybe this article would help you find easy games you haven’t tried? I’ve played most of them and they’re all pretty good too.

Might be something worthwhile in the recent GWGs.
… maybe I just want a reason to play Truck Racing.

I’ll post any easy, fun ones I come across.

TrueAchievements is all over it.

Did you 100% that game?

I looked at the achievement list and one of them sounds horrible.

No I didn’t, at a certain point you need to go back through the levels in new game plus, and I didn’t really feel up to it. I liked the game but once was enough.

I got my first achievement of the week. 25 points! (plus 50 for getting an achievement today).

It has begun!

So I’m looking at Surviving Mars, knowing that it’s leaving Game Pass in the near future, and I am wondering … maybe now it’s time to cheat. I know there are mods out there you can download that allow you to get the entire 1000 points in a matter of minutes. Lots of people have done it, and during this 10K game-a-palooza whatever, it actually earns you real money.

But I can’t. And it’s kind of silly I know, but my achievement list means something to me. I think of it as a scrapbook, or a kind of crazy quilt I’ve been knitting that bookmarks my life in games over the years. And I’m not going to claim I haven’t taken advantage of exploits, stuff that might even be considered (gasp!) cheating in some circles. But I have at least played and, to varying degrees, enjoyed those games. The idea of booting up a game and just running a script or mod to just give me all the achievements just seems to be missing the point of all this.

But that’s just me, I’m not about to tell anybody else how they should do things, or sit in judgment of those who do grab the achievements without playing. Like I said, the fact that there’s actual money involved blurs the line such that I have given it serious thought. But today at least, as I have the previous times I’ve thought about this, I’m going to say no.

Ok, progress report on that 10,000 quest.

So far so good! I’ve gotten to about 3,300. I continue to play games that reward me very little points like Supraland (some, not much), and Microsoft Flight Simulator (none). But I also played games like Mushroom Quest, which is a neat little puzzle game that I finished last week to get 2000 points. It wouldn’t run on the Series X after the first time I quit, but it ran fine on my Xbox One. Usually when I play these little puzzle games, they get mentioned as being “quick completions” by sites like TrueAchievements because what they really mean is “if you follow the walkthrough and cheat, it’s really quick”, which makes it pointless, IMHO. I mean, if you cheat and look up the solutions to a puzzle game, why the fuck are you playing it in the first place? Anyway, Mushroom Quest was not like that. I didn’t cheat, and I did get stuck a few times, but after stepping away from the game, my brain figured it out and I was able to finish the whole thing. Noice!

I’ve got this weekend, and then next weekend too, so hopefully I can get over 6000 this time.

You’re keeping pace with me, I think I may be around 3700, 3800. I’m up to my elbows in Mass Effect, which is going to slow me down this time around. I may fit in a smaller, easier little game between ME and ME2, just to try to squeeze out a little extra points. I don’t see myself getting close to 10,000 this time though, no way.

Uh oh. I don’t see Xbox Game Pass for PC - 6800 points for one month on the rewards page anymore. The only Game Pass option I see now is 12000 points for one month of Ultimate. Noooooo!

One game I bought in last week’s sale for $3 or something was “Without Escape”, since it was recommended in that TrueAchievement article as a good adventure game besides being easy achievements.

And unfortunately, I should have read more details than “adventure game”, because it is the Myst/Riven style of adventure game that I hate, where you’re going around an empty world with no characters except yourself, solving riddles. Ugh. After bashing my head against it for 20 minutes, I said fuck it, and used to walkthrough to finish the game in another 15 minutes. I don’t have time for that kind of game. I just don’t get the appeal of Myst, never have, never will.

So how far did everyone get yesterday?

Last I checked last night, I was at 7555. But I think I got two more achievements in Supraland after that. So maybe around 7575 I think.

You beat me, I think I got to around 6000 or so.

Only 3400 or so. I got distracted by gameplay and forgot to keep grinding the cheeves out. I suspect that being “supposed” to generate them makes a part of me want to subvert the program. Ah well, 3k extra rewards points is always welcome. I’ve managed to generate enough to pay for almost half of a memory expansion card for the Series X after only half a year.

Anyone ever enter the sweepstakes using points and won? Thanks to this thread, I started doing the web daily sets, and had more points piling in, so I threw a few thousand (Maybe $5 worth ;) ) at one of the sweepstakes which ended June 1.

Logged in yesterday to see if I had won, and “results pending”. Apparently I won’t find out until August what the results are. That’s no fun!

On the other hand, do your daily sets if you want points. Takes about 2 minutes a day.

Never. I assume it happens, but experience has taught me I’m not a “sweepstakes win” kind of guy.

Yeah I generally just stick to store credit with my points. Never been a big gambler.

Yeah, I’ve never won anything in the sweepstakes. I usually only enter when they give me free entries, but I did pay for some entries once.

With my Ultimate Game Pass topped up for 3 years, and $10 at a time auto-redeemed for $$ on the Xbox store, I do have to wonder what I’m going to spend all these accumulated points on exactly. I guess I might go the @Mellified route and maybe around November I can get Microsoft currency and spend it on the online Microsoft store to get accessories or something on Black Friday.