Week of 16 Mar 2025
“I now feel your flesh.”
Achievements Earned In:
- Skull and Bones
- Open Roads
- MLB The Show 24
- Transference
- Hitman HD Pack
As this week started, I found myself still in Wisconsin at a resort, so I could only quickly jump into Skull and Bones to get an achievement to extend my streak while the kiddo and I frolicked in the wave pool and lazy river. But once I was home from work the next day, it was time to wrap this up. The main barrier was reaching Kingpin I so I could unlock the ability to claim a manufactory. The quickest way to rank up in the current build of the game is to just… sail about and wreck up anyone you come across. Works spectacularly! I would have wrapped this up a lot quicker but I couldn’t find a single guide anywhere that told me what quest line to complete to unlock trade routes and manufactories. Fun fact: just complete the quest chain from Yanita and you’ll get the related achievement as part of the quest line. This mostly left Magellan, which is for sailing 1000000 meters in total. I’d reached around 80% of that by playing through the rest of the game, so I sailed back and forth across the Baixio Grande area of the Open Seas to rack up distance with as little effort as possible. I’d also make sure there was a steady tailwind when sailing in the direction I was going. It took only a little bit of time and I’d completed the game! I don’t think this was great or anything, but I enjoyed this for what it was. Definitely not a AAAA-game, though,
Achievements unlocked: 50 (+9) | Completed
With my time on the seas completed, I figured I’d hit the list of games leaving Game Pass at the end of the month. I decided to start with a quick one: Open Roads. It’s a fun little narrative game staring Keri Russell and Kaitlyn Dever as a mom and daughter, respectively, as they discover a family secret and hit the road to uncover the truth. This is accomplished by small areas to explore first-person, interspersed with conversations between mother and child. It’s very simplistic and straightforward, but the dialogue between the two leads is believable and entertaining enough to stay engaging throughout. The completion in turn is easy, with only a few missable achievements and collectibles to keep an eye out for. Follow a guide, enjoy the story, profit!
Achievements unlocked: 16 (+16) | Completed
The two leads are very static and simple, but the environments look pretty good!
Playing sports games is something I tend to avoid best I can, but MLB The Show 24 is leaving Xbox Game Pass and with a sub 4-hour completion, why not? I’ll be honest… this was a blast. First off, because I’m achievement hunting, I turned all the skill sliders to be benefit, hobbling the opposing team and making mine a bunch of superhumans. Was this “fair”? Absolutely not. But the power fantasy of smoking every single batter (of the Montgomery Biscuits, which of course I had to play them) while they couldn’t even get a single hit was amazingly fun. During my first game I was able to knock out a good majority of the achievements, and easily knock out the rest but one within three hours. The trouble came with the final one, for sliding and scoring a catch, and I just about did my head in trying to get this wonky mechanic to work. There were multiple settings I got changed as I struggled to get it to work, finally switching to the Boomers (and player-locking to Ken Griffey Jr., of SNES-game fame) and playing center field. It took far too long, almost 1/4 of my completion time for that one achievement. Even funnier, when I finally got it, I definitely dropped it. I’m not sure why it counted, but we take those! A fun completion, overall.
Achievements unlocked: 25 (+25) | Completed
You can’t beat the ‘stache.
It was on Thursday I kinda realized I still had Ubisoft+ for a few more weeks! Why not play something short and easy from that service? This led me to Transference, a game exploring the digital memories of a troubled family, published by a studio founded by Elijah Wood! This is one of them there “walking simulator” games, where you wander from place to place solving simple puzzles and learning lots of exposition. The subject matter here can be a little uncomfortable (tw: domestic abuse) and it can be downright creepy at times! Cool game, but VERY easy and quite short. Follow a guide and this will be a cinch.
Achievements unlocked: 14 (+14) | Completed
Bruh, no one wants to watch videos of your kid!
Okay, enough messing around! It was time to dive back into the world of assassination in Hitman HD Pack, namely Hitman: Contracts. This half of the bundle has pretty much the same achievements as the other (get all weapons, Professional playthrough, etc) but the quality-of-life additions already make this much easier than Silent Assassin. The one caveat is that, due to how you unlock some of the weapons needed for that achievement, I will have to score a “Silent Assassin” rating on every mission this time. Since I’m gonna keep this to a “single” playthrough, I’ll have to do so on Professional. Again, this is much easier overall, but I’m not looking forward to it. Took me a bit to find a viable guide this time, as too many Hitman walkthroughs want to be wordy and complex, yet still too inaccurate somehow. Ugh, hopefully this isn’t too painful as I go into the fourth mission.
Achievements unlocked: 31 (+7) | Completion: 62%
Rarest Achievement:
The Poacher in Skull and Bones [4.19]
Most Common Achievement:
Into the Rabbit Hole in Transference [1.00]
