Every now and then I take my thoughts about the games I have, the games I want, and achievements, and put them all in a melting pot, and out comes this disdain for some developers and their choice of achievements. I should probably say next that I am a completionist. I like to get everything I can (within reason) in a game, and I like that achievements exist, it helps promote that complete feeling with a game. BUT, some games have achievements that are either pointless, nearly impossible, or just incredibly frustrating.

I recently 1000ed Modern Warfare 1, and I must say that the Mile High Club achievement was one of the most frustrating things I've ever dealt with in a game. For those unfamiliar, you have to, on veteran difficulty, essentially manuever through/past and kill about 30 guys as you try to get to a hostage (it's all on a plane). Oh, and you only have 60 seconds. I'm all for hard achievements, but the whole premise was a little off. I doubt any special forces guy would just RUN through guns blazing without care for his life. The lack of realism definitely bothered me. I've heard most people take anywhere from 2 to 10 hours do complete it.

It also doesn't always feel like skill is the primary factor. Sometimes a few guys jump out around a corner, and you're dead instantly. Sometimes you throw a flashbang, it lands at some guy's feet, and he's not affected (this part annoyed me most). Maybe if the whole thing was designed better (10 second would make a whole WORLD of a difference, or even 5 seconds) it would have been much more satisfying. In the end, I only felt annoyance and disdain for Infinity Ward (that + MW2's PC version getting gimped = me not buying anymore IW games so whatever).

Also, recently got to the end of Lost Odyssey only to discover that I supposedly missed some items. I thought the treasure trove achievement was only for chests and treasure hunts, but it's actually everything. I was using a guide but I still missed some (my fault) but really, what's the point? Same with Blue Dragon, what's the point in getting EVERY item in the game? That means every rock that has a potion, or 10G. It all seems so pointless.

And lastly, Gears of War. I loved Gears of War 1, it was the first game I got on 360. Then I checked out the multiplayer achievements and thought of starting a new profile and not playing GoW just to avoid them. I mean really, yet again, what's the point? Does any other game have more pointless achievements? Most people end just boosting them if they want them, I don't know of anyone that got them legitimitally (though I'm sure they exist, and some may even comment here).

And so, I refuse to buy GoW2, I may borrow it and play with an alternate account, but seeing as how those achievements are even worse, I don't want to make my completionist side to be even more annoyed. And then there are games where you have to reach #1 on the multiplayer leaderboard for an achievement. I don't want to have to play the same game for a month+ to get an achievement, 1-2 weeks of serious play (20-35 hours) should be plenty (in most cases). If every RPG and every FPS I get needs 200+ hours to get all the achievements, I'm going to end up buying less games (and eventually playing less just from getting sick of it)

Just my little rant/opinion on achievements lately. Thoughts?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCD

Not yet, ugly boxart puts me off though ...

Haha, I'm really not. Just because I really like to finish games, and 100% them, doesn't mean I feel an uncontrollable urge to. It just feels nice to have all those shiny achievements =)

@Seece, anything in particular come to mind?

I have 50,000+ gamerscore and way more trophies than Kantor, so I know the feeling, believe me.

Same here, although I'm quite pissed about the achievements in Blue Dragon.

Finished the game with 90G or so. (Can't look it up now, cause my 360 is about to break again)

Haha hot damn, I'm at about 25,000. Would be much higher if I wasn't so busy with music stuff.

One of my friends was in the top 25 in the world at one point a few years ago before going crazy and quitting games for months haha. He had 2 minions farming achievements for him (2 brothers) and some friends helping him. They also glitched it so they had 3 360s with his gamertag on it, and they update all of them into 1 main gamertag. The extra 2 systems were modded, and they pirated all the shitty games they could, but they bought all the good stuff. He was the one who got me into achievement farming (though I was always legit).

Nowadays, I aim for achievements but I don't go crazy over them.

Oh yeah? That was one of the earliest games I 1000ed, what achievements pissed you off? It had a similar achievement to LO's treasure trove, where you have to find every item in every field/dungeon. I mean, it is the same developer, so it makes sense, but it's still soooo annoying.

I never got the 2 'shame' achievements in BD though.

Pretty much every achievement that forces me to replay a game.

I used to check out the achievements before I play a game, but now I just play it and hope that the game gives you a chapter selection screen to get the ones you missed.

I'm tired of looking out for certain events that gives you an achievement.

Yeah, it's okay anyways, you're not missing much. The story was decent, but one of the characters was sooo annoying. Whether you had the game in English, Japanese, or muted sound (the last is the best choice), he was still annoying. Really killed the game for me.

"I'm tired of looking out for certain events that gives you an achievement" This is why I look up achievements before I play, if things like this are in the game, I use a guide. And it's 'funny' that the games you DON'T want to re-play are the ones you need to. I hate using guides, but I hate re-playing boring games more.