A sort of topic for the 360 owners only. Anyone can join in as well. Not really and xbox fanboy that would kill you for stating your opinion.

Anyway, as for the achievements for the 360. Do you think they're neccisary or important?
To me, I think so. It gives me a reason to play the game on a harder difficulty or not to skip the side quests only to get one of those little things that light up my screen and my day. Why else would you chanllenge that huge optional boss when you can just as easily sneak right on past it? Why other then to get an achievement would you help the dying soldiers on the cliff side when you could also let them die? Why would you replay the game to get all the hidden little things other then to challenge yourself?

I also find that if they pop up at a certain moment they can be kind of funny too. You're stuck in a huge gun blazing battle. Bullets wizzing past your head. You duck out for a moment and fire off a few shots and by the time you duck back in a little xbox achievement symbol has popped up on screen just to let you know that what you just did rocked. That happened a few times in FEAR and a couple of other games and I found it sort of funny. Just breaks the atmosphere with a happy little "yay, have some points moments".

Is there any particularly hard ones or games that are just too easy to score in (see King Kong the pile of poop that calls itself a game)? Or just general comments about my silver round friends.

I like the achievements.

One particularly funny one was when I was playing Half-life 2 in The Orange Box. I was operating that crane in Highway 17 and had managed to collate my car and several containers. I hit the drop button and saw that I had gotten the OSHA Violation achievement without trying.

Sure enough, I go down there and see three different pairs of legs sticking out from underneath the containers.

i like getting achievements without tryin to, just because you did something stupendous by pure accident. Some of the achievments annoy me though, the point where you find yourself wasting time cos theres an achievment there. Assasins creed gives you achievements for collecting all the flags... thats just a plain waste of my time, i completed the game, i've done all the little side quests (mostly cos at first i didn't think of em as side quests) and now i've got to walk, run, jump and ride my way round the stupidly large maps looking for flags, that doesn't give it replay value it surely gives it i've got nothing at all to do for 6 hours value...

McMo0^:
i like getting achievements without tryin to, just because you did something stupendous by pure accident. Some of the achievments annoy me though, the point where you find yourself wasting time cos theres an achievment there. Assasins creed gives you achievements for collecting all the flags... thats just a plain waste of my time, i completed the game, i've done all the little side quests (mostly cos at first i didn't think of em as side quests) and now i've got to walk, run, jump and ride my way round the stupidly large maps looking for flags, that doesn't give it replay value it surely gives it i've got nothing at all to do for 6 hours value...

I usually don't do the 'find all the hidden little things for no reason' achievements. I tried to do the Condemned one where you have to pick up dead birds and pieces of metal. Woooo fun!

Stranglehold had a couple of funny ones: You get an achievemnet for killing everyone and not taking any damage in a shoot out. I didn't know that at the time so after I blew everyone's brains across the room without taking a bullet, a friendly reminder popped up to say I was doing alright. The other one was the one where you kill people with the environment. I was balsting away happily like a little girl with duel pistols when I hit a barrel that blew down a sign that crushed 4 guys that gave me an achievement!

The flag achievements are the only ones I havent done. No way am I going to spend hours looking on each corner and alley. It would be just frustrating, not fun.

Overall I like achievements when they add replay value, or when I unlock one I didnt even know it was there. :)

The Assassin's Creed ones are pretty annoying; I prefere one's that make me feel like I'm actually achieiving something rather than spending time with the game on.
The HL2 achievements are pretty good; there usually an element of puzzle solving or hunting required for the Lambda Locator quest, and other collection quests are based on relatively few items (like the retro HEV faceplate).

I'm impressed at the new Bioshock achievement - get through ti without using the Vita-CHamber on hard - that's going to be tough but there will be a sense of pride at the end of the day. If I ever get past the first Big Daddy, that is.

I think archievements are a nice addition to games, but not really necessary.

I'm starting to play Mass Effect for a second time, and i don't feel like i should be shooting for archievements like certain weapon masteries and so forth, just because i don't have them.

However, i really DO like archievements that inspire you to do something "extraordinary" you would not necessarily come up with yourself.

The Half-Life Archievements for example suggest to try out certain play styles, and some make you really appreciate the small details of the game world. (Although the Gravity-Gun only Archievement for Ravenholm is a bitch)

And the Dead Rising archievements felt like optional challenges, especially when you started to get bored with your zombie-infested sandbox.

So, Archievements can stay, but don't expect me to go hunt for every single one of them

I really enjoyed a few of the Halo 3 achievements. worked my arse off for the "two for one" kill.
I'm not a big fan of the "have 50 points for completing a chapter of the plot". seems a bit odd to reward something so obvious and often easy. But the rewards for the weird and the cool are great, like tossing back a grenade with your zero point manipulator.
It's nice to get your pat on the head when you know you really deserve it.
The only real achievement hunting I've done is in H3 though. You just felt like you'd be some kind of awesome for having them all, which unfortunately led to a lot of "Hey do you guys want to get achievements?" talk in game. No I don't want to help you cheat! It took me too much damn time and luck to laser two people at once, I'm not gunna stand still for you ****!

The only game I ever tried to get achievements for was Half Life 2, because the achievements for that game are awesome. I don't mind them though, they just seem kind of... unnecessary. Maybe if they made it so you could access "special" demos or trailers off the marketplace thing if you had a high gamerscore. They should give us some kind of reward for buying all those games.

If they show some actual imagination in the achievements I think they are worth having but all too often they're just shoved in for the 360 version.

Call of Duty 4 had some decent ones, finishing a level gets an achievements but there were also little bits to do for bonus achievements which I liked. The achievement for pressing start in The Simpsons Game was fairly inspired as well. I also like stuff that provides a bonus challenge, the Hendrix Reborn achievement in Guitar Hero 3 fits nicely into that category.

Overall though, they're completely unnecessary with only a few games carrying the worth of the whole system.

MS had a competition lsat year, where gamers whi increased their gamerscore by a certain number of points within a limited period of time got prizes. They should do that sutff more often; first 1000 people to get 1000/1000 on Too Human get a free Too Human theme or something. Would push up early sales, and get XBL busy for something that isn't Halo.

I view Achievements as suggestions, not mandatory "to do" items. Still, many times they're a lot of fun to shoot for. Portal (and Orange Box in general) had a few that really encouraged monkeying around with the game engine (Free Fall and the long-jump one especially), and Mass Effect and Crackdown both made excellent use of Achievements to encourage map exploration. (Dead Rising, too.) Crackdown's "Base Jumping", for instance, is something I'd probably never have tried without seeing the Achievement and it turned into one of the most challenging and fun single quests in the game for me.

They're not essential, but I'd certainly miss Achievements if they were gone.

-- Steve

First off I'll say that I don't own a 360. I'm looking, but not buying, so to speak. However, the Orange Box for the PC introduced me to the Achievements through Portal and TF2. When I first found myself earning an Achievement, I thought, 'Wow! what ever I did, I did right!' and continued to play. After several days of this, I realized I could view the Achievements I had collected as well as the ones I still had to collect.

Instantly I was hooked and went about picking up every Achievement in Portal that I could. I had to go back and re-do some levels, and find ways to earn the Achievements outside of normal play (who honestly got to Terminal Velocity just by playing the game). I then moved into TF2 and began to collect them there. Most of those I earned from just playing normally, and that's what I liked about them. So it was a nice contrast that was built into the same box set of games. Portal had Achievements that you earned by playing outside of the box, and Team Fortress 2 had Achievements that you earned by doing what you logged in to do.

Both of the games had very enjoyable Achievements because they weren't extremes in their chosen field. The Achievements weren't so hard to get that it killed the fun of the game, nor were they so easy to get that just by completing the basic task of converting oxygen to carbon dioxide I suddenly got the Achievement 'Air Breather'. It's when there's a decent mix of difficulty of casualness that makes it good for me.

And from the other posts here, I can gather that not every game is given the same curve in earning Achievements. Picking up dead birds and bits of metal? Joined the Highway Clean-Up Crew, did we? I'm not saying those Achievements are bad, but I will say they were probably placed there for someone with an OCD level higher then me. Or the guy in Monk. But that's par for the course when it comes to games, so there's nothing really shocking there. Some games just like to cater to people who like to mess with fiddly bits, or at least like to spend time picking up virtual trash to make the virtual world a better place. Between smashing virtual skulls in.

Other times though, games like Stranglehold, Bioshock, Half-Life 2 and Dead Rising feel like the Achievements were made for them. They're right on the curve of 'playing around' and 'focusing on something' which makes them enjoyable without being reserved for the afore mentioned OCD inclined.

My only real gripe is that they aren't more widely available for PC games. Even then, I'd like to even have the ability to 'wear' them like a badge in Online Play. Just the option to go into my Achievements menu, select one, and have it's image be placed on my shoulder, chest, back, or forehead like some kind of small badge of honor, 'Look at me! I actually healed people as a medic!' Maybe then they'll get off my case when I go on a Needle Gun rampage through enemy lines...

Yan-Yan

I love the 360 Achievements, they add replay value to a game and push you to work a little harder at getting and seeing everything in the game. I know it pushes me into replaying a game that I might otherwise not have replayed, leading me to find all sorts of interesting things.

I thought that Mass Effects achievements were especially interesting because they actually changed elements of gameplay along with letting you unlock options for character creation.

Also, I just really love seeing my points go up. There is something intrinsically satisfying about getting a higher score, no matter what you are getting it in.

I feel like achievements don't only give you a level of satisfaction at doing something right in a game (or in some cases let you laugh at yourself or someone else for screwing up) but also expand gameplay by making the player seek out and experience more of the game then they might otherwise have.

Achievements are generally something I ignore. The exception here is for games like Mass Effect, where the unlockables are tied to the achievements. If an achievement is going to give me the ability to train my adept to use assault rifles, I care. If it's just going to add to my Gamerscore (which, face it, no one ever looks at EVER), I don't care.

I'm aware that the general purpose of achievements is to force players to play through the whole game. AC gives achievements for collecting flags, which basically forces the player to touch every inch of every city. Crackdown gives achievements for doing all the different car stunts. Mass Effect gives achievements for playing throuhg the bulk of the game with certain characters in your party. If you get 1000/1000 (or whatever) on any given game, you can probably say that you've played the whole thing.

However, achievements are for the Type A personality players who play games with certain goals in mind. If there is a bar, it must go higher. If there is an unlockable, it must be obtained. Every ending, even the ones that are basically the same, must be seen.

I, however, play a game to have fun. I do exactly and only the stuff that is fun, and if it isn't fun, I'm not going to beat myself up over it. I can only imagine the pain that was getting every vehicle stunt marker in Crackdown without using a guide. And if you are using a guide? That's part of the test. You're now cheating JUST TO GET GAMERSCORE. Think about that.

- J

Seeing people talk about the Dead Rising Achievements. Those ones were fun to do. Dead Rising and HL2 had the best achievement scores. Two points for shooting hoops with dog.

I finished most of the dead rising ones except for the impossible. Survive 5-7 days?! Survive overtime mode without being captured?! Kill 52000 zombies?! What the hell. I don't think I'll ever push myself that hard but I still admire those achievements. Just not that good yet. The two I can't do in HL2 is the Don't walk on the sand and the gravity gun only in ravenholm. In episode 1: Use one bullet only?! I may gather the strength one day to pull that one off.

They are fun. Particlary if on the orange box, but I think it would be nice if we could spend them on Xbox Live.

I quite liked the achievements on Timeshift, for example Look What I Can Do for walking on water. However there are some achievements that just annoy me, like Zombie Genocider on dead rising who can be bothered to kill 53,000+ zombies

But I say achievements add replay value to a game and I say stay

Achievements are great! Gamerscore, not so much.
Acheivements are motivation to do things or rewards for pulling off crazy stuff. A bit of recognition really.

What's really good though is when they unlock more things (see:halo 3), which gives people even MORE reason to do the hard things the achievements tell you to do. (and thus, people play the game to the full extent that the developers intend, so you're getting the full game experience)

I personally find achievements pointless. They don't really add anything to my gaming experience.

But seriously, what does the Gamescore do exactly besides the fact you can show it off to friends and feel like a big ol' nerd for haveing so many points? Is there some way to spend them on live or do some online games have a gamescore cap on them?

Achievements give you something to do once you've beaten the game. Although there are extremely stupid examples.

Such as an Airbender game that came out, where you can literally get all 1,000 GS in two minutes. Look it up on youtube, as I don't know the rules on posting such things here.

I like achievements because with them Xbox stands out from the other consoles (I'm not just an Xbox fanboy),Wii has the in game type interactive thing, and PS3 is going to have the Sim thing not sure dont own a PS3 but eventually wanna get one.

I do agree that some achievements are pointless and time consuming but that is just because game makers just spend a lot of time on making a game and don't really feel like making up new achievements. Ask for the flags and other if they didn't serve as an achievement grabber what purpose would they be there for?..

FearTheLiving:
Ask for the flags and other if they didn't serve as an achievement grabber what purpose would they be there for?..

Exactly. Also not meaning to sound like a fanboy, but why would you bother collecting all the flags on a PS3 or Wii or something? They're long and annoying and if you don't get anything out of it I don't see point in doing it. Move along and go stab some people.

Acheivments are fickle, some can give you 1000 in a few minutes (avatar the last airbender) and some make people cheat in MP (halo 3). But most of the time they are fun and make beating the game on a harder difficulty fun and rewarding.

Achievements are just a way to show how far you've gotten/well you've done in a game, yet are completely pointless. And when Playstation Home launches, the trophy system will be exactly the same albeit in 3D graphical format. Both systems are nothing more than gloating tools for cheaters and people who play too many games ^^

I don't mind the achievements that you get by doing game-required things, so long as they're not ranked as highly as, say, developer-intended challenging achievements or secrets. I do prefer the achievements you get by doing fun (or funny) things, though.

Collecting flags throughout cities in Assassin's Creed? Not fun.
Sticking people to billboards in HL2? Fun.
Killing a person with a toilet in HL2? Funny.

Oh, and if the achievement is worth a lot of points and is for getting ending 1/3 or such, then that's fine too. It's still optional, after all. *cough*Bioshock*cough*.

PurpleRain:
Exactly. Also not meaning to sound like a fanboy, but why would you bother collecting all the flags on a PS3 or Wii or something? They're long and annoying and if you don't get anything out of it I don't see point in doing it. Move along and go stab some people.

I find this interesting.

What exactly do you get from an achievement that you don't get from the game filling in that little "Additional Memories" bar? You speak as if the fact that it adds to your Gamerscore somehow makes it more worth doing this blatantly non-fun activity.

Does this make achievements good or torturous?

- X

Two words: Skinner box

- Alan

Achievements if used right serve to create chalenges harder that just completing the game Dead rising and halo3 are good ones when it comes to achievements.dead rising has some of the "hand-out" style achievements but the majority are unusual or really hard(unusual:raining zombies:knock fifteen zombies in the air simultainiously with a parisol)(hard:unbreakable:complete over time mode without being knocked out).

Achievements are the greatest marketing tool ever to come out of Microsoft. It increases any games replayability and really draws in the completionist.

I'm not an XBox gamer (nor do I play one on TV), but as someone who's already played three PC games with "Acheivements" included (HL2: Ep2, Portal and Gears of War), I feel that my complex and extensive theory regarding their impact on games can be summed up in one word:

Meh.

It's okay to have them in there, so long as they don't significantly retard the "immersion" of the game (which, honestly, does happen when this big bright "You did something nifty!" box shows up) or try to be a substitute for gameplay. And I do like a few of them, especially the various Portal ones and a few of the HL2 ones (still haven't gotten the "Puttin' On A Clinic" one), but a lot of them seem like silly filler (especially many of the Gears of War ones). But I will admit it's fun to kick up the old game now and then and see what new one I can get.

Regardless of achievements, I dump the game as soon as it isn't fun. Going through a board over and over again to try and get an achievement really doesn't do it for me. I have a friend that HAS to get EVERY damn achievement. I just move on to another game and get achievements there. I would rather not spend an hour trying to get a 20 point achievement.

Just my 2cp

I love achievements. Even the regular "well done, you finished a chapter, here's 50 points". I like it that other people can see my accomplishments, how far I've gotten in a game and for some games what difficulty level I've finsihed it at. I like that I did somethign off the wall for my own amusement (I.e.: Irony achievement for photographing Sander Cohen's corpse in Bioshock, and the achievement for leaving behind exactly 47 corpses in Hitman: Blood Money) and it was regonised. I like that people viewing my Halo 3 gamerscore will see I unlocked the Steppin' Razor achievement. Of course they'll also be able to see I haven't managed to finish the game campaign on any diffculty above Normal, but still.

Having a gamerscore of a paltry 6030 is nothing to wave my dick around for, but I like having my accomplishments tracked and visible.