Stallion VS EA Servers: A Battle to The 15th Round

Achievement Bounty 2-8-2011 (7) (170GS)

Achievements obtained from NHL 09 and Test Drive Unlimited 2.

The Chase Down Progress as of 2-8-2011:

22 of 39

22 completed games. 39 days have passed in the calendar year.

This is where the slippage begins for the chase down due to getting wrapped up in other things. Me versus the EA servers. A battle I knew would be a lost cause. EA was pulling the plug on various games on the 8th. And NHL 09 being one of those games. I found myself in a race against time, once again. At the beginning of the day, I had no intentions on getting this done. I was going to just let it slide.

Not sure what changed my mind about going for it, but I cautiously jumped in.I started at around 11:00PM EST on the 7th. 150 games played in online team play mode while maintaining at least an A- was the requirements. This is for the EA Sports Hockey League Legend achievement. Not knowing exactly when the servers were being shutdown on the 8th, I was taking a risk. Some people claimed 3:00AM EST would be the final bell. I was thinking more like 5:00AM or 6:00AM in my head. Regardless, I knew the servers were a ticking time bomb. I had to get it done faster than humanly possible. I became a robot for 6 straight hours. I probably blinked twice...three times at the maximum.  My blatter suffered, my belly ached, and my ass hurt. (But my hands were relaxed thanks to XtendPlay ;) ) It was like staying alive a little longer once the bottom of each hour passed by. 3am, 4am, 5am; a sigh of relief came over me each time.

At around 5:42AMish I go into my final game, game number 150. I finish that game off and I'm starting to feel really good about making the decision to go for it. To get that specific achievement to pop, you have to check your performance tracker just off the main menu. As I am doing just that, I get this message: "CANNOT RETRIEVE STATISTICS FROM EA SERVERS, PLEASE TRY AGAIN LATER."

FREAK OUT!

As you can see in the picture above, 150 games played. A overall ranking. The severs went down right when the achievement was suppose to pop. Talk about unfortunate luck. Not 120 games played or even 133 games played. But 150 on the dot. Not only was I pissed off, it was kind of humorous to me as well. Here's some of the thoughts that crossed my mind: "Just my luck", "EA is laughing at me right now ", "Those bastards waited for me to get to 150 games then pulled the plug", "That damn achievement is worth BIG TA points", "Why did you look at that Xbox live message early on? It slowed you down", "Why did you take a piss at 144 games played? That cost you the achievement." "And I thought Zakke cock blocked me good in Chromehounds....".

Hey Zakke! Are you going to PAX east this year? You should come by and I MIGHT let you touch my Guinness World Record. I Teabagged your....blow up doll. This is in reply for THIS. Justified retaliation on my part, I believe.

I got served!

Picture above shows that everything checks out. Except for one MAJOR detail. A card not being unlocked that should be. So here I decided to wait for the servers to come back online. It was wishful thinking, I know. I knew it was the end. My gut feeling even told me to give up, there was no turning back. The scoreboard most definitely read, "fucked". I waited patiently for an hour, nothing happened. I kept trying to connect to EA numerous amounts of times to no avail. It was a waste. I was doomed!

I was about to call it quits and pack it up. But it was too unbelievable for me just to give up. At roughly 7:10AM, the servers came back on and the achievement immediately popped. Making that one of my most memorable achievements yet. The ordinary just doesn't cut it at this stage. That one made me bust a groove. The 100 point achievement put me at 533,533.

533,533 by accident

Busting a groove continued because this little baby came out on the same day.

In the 2011 stats below, nothing from Test Drive Unlimited 2 is included. Not sure where to rank it since they are having server issues. Good to great range. I hope all the reviews out there mentioned that ginormous problem.

Read more for 2011 stats update.

2011 Stats

Achievements & Gamerscore

Total achievements: 490

Total gamerscore: 10,321

Retail game achievements: 274

Retail game gamerscore: 7,331

Arcade achievements: 81

Arcade gamerscore: 1,310

DLC achievements: 25

DLC gamerscore: 485

Windows Phone 7 achievements: 133

Windows Phone 7 gamerscore: 1,680

Kinect achievements: 26

Kinect gamerscore: 1,050

Achievements from amazing games: 50

Gamerscore from amazing games: 1,130

Achievements from great games: 63

Gamerscore from great games: 1,171

Achievements from good games: 108

Gamerscore from good games: 2,160

Achievements from decent games: 102

Gamerscore from decent games: 1,890

Achievements from bad games: 94

Gamerscore from bad games: 1,730

Achievements from terrible games: 68

Gamerscore from terrible games: 2,225

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Games Played

Amazing games: Halo: Reach, Red Dead: Redemption, Dead Space 2

Great games: NBA 2k11, DJ Hero, Rock Band 3, Raskulls, DeathSpank, BioShock 2, DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue, Mafia II

Good games: Lost Planet 2, Lara Croft: GoL, Project Sunburst (WP7), Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, Parachute Panic (WP7), Fable III, Axel and Pixel, Rocket Riot (WP7), Flight Control (WP7), Wallace and Gromit #4, Monkey Island: SE, The Oregon Trail, NHL 09, OMG: Our Manic Game

Decent games: Games Chest Solitaire (WP7), Revolution (WP7), Kinect Adventures, Karaoke Revolution, Golf: Tee It Up!, de Blob Revolution (WP7), Brick Breaker: Revolution (WP7), Cabela's North American Adventures, Microbot, Fifa 08, Bubble Town 2

Bad games: FF: Adrenaline (WP7), Dead Space: Ignition, Women's Murder Club, MorphX, Guitar Hero 5 (WP7)

Terrible games: Turning Point [FR/DE], Family Game Night 3, Game Party: In Motion

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Completed Games

Overall: (22) Family Game Night 3, FF Adrenaline, Golf: Tee It Up!, de Blob Revolution, Dead Space: Ignition, Women's Murder Club, Star Wars The Force Unleashed II, Halo: Reach, Raskulls, Cabela's North American Adventures, MorphX, Axel and Pixel, DeathSpank, Guitar Hero 5 (WP7), Wallace and Gromit #4, Rocket Riot (WP7), Flight Control, OMG: Our Manic Game, Game Party: In Motion, DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue, Mafia II, Bubble Town 2

Retail: (7) Family Game Night 3, Star Wars The Force Unleashed II, Halo: Reach, Cabela's North American Adventures, MorphX, Game Party: In Motion, Mafia II

Arcade: (7) Golf: Tee It Up!, Dead Space: Ignition, Raskulls, Axel and Pixel, DeathSpank, Wallace and Gromit #4, DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue

Kinect: (1) Game Party: In Motion

Windows Phone 7: (8) FF Adrenaline, de Blob Revolution, Women's Murder Club, Guitar Hero 5, Rocket Riot, Flight Control, OMG: Our Manic Game, Bubble Town 2

DLC: (4) Endor DLC - Star Wars The Force Unleashed II, Minerva's Den - Bioshock 2, Raskulls Reinforcements 1 - Raskulls, The Snowy Mountain Dungeon - DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue

Amazing games: (1) Halo: Reach

Great games: (4) Raskulls, DeathSpank, DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue, Mafia II

Good games: (6) Star Wars The Force Unleashed II, Axel and Pixel, Wallace and Gromit #4, Rocket Riot (WP7), Flight Control, OMG: Our Manic Game

Decent games: (4) Golf: Tee It Up!, de Blob Revoltion, Cabela's North American Adventures, Bubble Town 2

Bad games: (5) FF Adrenaline, Dead Space: Ignition, Women's Murder Club, MorphX, Guitar Hero 5 (WP7)

Terrible games: (2) Family Game Night 3, Game Party: In Motion

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*MISSING ALL STATS FROM TEST DRIVE UNLIMITED 2*