Achievements have obviously been one of Microsoft's most popular brainstorms for their 360 platform; many gamers are obsessed with "maxing out" their Gamerscore.  They can also add some interesting replay value to games by suggesting unique or difficult tasks to perform that may not otherwise have occurred to players.

However, I find it very irritating when developers get lazy (or just plain evil) and throw in achievements that are either inherently stupid or completely impossible.  Why bother including goals that no one will want to pursue, or are completely unreasonable or pointless?

My vote for the best use of achievements (that I have seen):

Mass Effect.  Not only are the achievements logical and obtainable (though not without significant time and effort), they actually affect the gameplay!  Certain achievements provide bonuses during future gameplay, which is a fantastic idea that I would love to see more of.

My vote for the worst achievement (that I have seen):

The "Buy a Guitar Already" achievement in Guitar Hero III.  This achievement requires you to complete a career on Hard or Expert difficulty using a standard controller.  Why the hell would anyone ever want to do that?  Give me a break.  Screw you, Neversoft.  Harmonix kicked your arse anyway.

In any case, please discuss and provide further examples of the best and worst uses of achievements in your experiences.

Hmmm.

Most difficult, craziest and hardest would be DOAX2's clothing quest achievements. Expecially when you obtain all of them. I/my friend spent 5+ hours on the game and got 5 achievement points! Rather useless for a crappy game. Achievements should of focused on obtaining certain times and point values on the various games.


Most satisfying achievements are many, as I always enjoy each one I get. Getting 1250/1250 of Oblivion was alot of fun. Infact, every RPG achievement I've got was very satisfying, as RPG achievements have usually been great. I'm still working on Blue Dragon (85/1000) and Eternal Sonata (140/1000), but even though they are difficult, they aren't as abstract and stupid as other games.


Least satisfying are the achievements from most American football games (sans NFL Blitz). Usually in the 1st game, you can unlock 5-10 achievements. Who cares if you make a 20 yard pass or score a touchdown!?

Im actually a fan of "finish stage 1/2/3" or "finish the game on x" difficulty achievments. Its nice getting something as you progress or beat a game.

world champion in Ghost Recon : AW how the hell will you ever do that

I saw something about an achievement in MoH airborne, you get it in the training mission (or maybe just your first jump) by jumping out of the plane. This is impossible to fail

Worst: GH3's 'Nearly there'. All you have top do is fail a song after 90%, so you just hammer the strum bar and get it.
Best: I think Bullet Witches 'Complete entire game on hell difficulty' is cool, as you only get 1g for it, so its the achievement, rather than the score that counts.

I don't have a 360 but I'm regularly hearing from one of my best friends her obsession with her Gamerscore, and according to her, the Avatar game is ridiculous for easy points. Apparently you can get a full 1000 points from that game in less than 10 minutes lol.

avatar takes around 30 seconds to get all achievment points.

This one could be best or worst, depending on your views of achievement whoring.

The worst achievement I've encountered is ''Buy a guitar already'' from GHIII. Like wth, why would I want to use a stupid controller to beat hard or expert. I find that game so cheap with the achievements. I don't have ''one'' favorite achievement but I really like the ones in CoD4.