Achievement Unlocked

It has almost been a month since my last Achievement update so it's time for a progress report.

Progress in Mass Effect has slowed quite a lot due to the fact that I'm actually stuck in the game. That is weird for me to say as it implies that I don't know what to do but in this case, I do know what to do I just can't do it. I'm on my third and final (or so I hoped) playthrough of the game and as a result, the difficulty I'm playing on is Insanity. Now Insanity isn't hard as such but due to some mistakes, I think I have gotten myself stuck in a particular section. This section (being vague to avoid spoilers) can't be escaped and must be completed for me to progress and due to having no Medi-Gels left and still being on the lower levels for my characters, I'm finding it extremely hard to get past this point. If I get hurt, I can't heal so I have to be really careful otherwise I will die and due to my low levels my weapons/characters/abilities aren't as strong as they could be and yeah I'm just finding it really difficult. I have two options: keep trying with the hope that I may actually pass it (and have a frustrating experience while I am at it), or, drop the difficulty level down to get past the point and use the playthrough to pick up all remaining achievements except for the Insanity one.

If I take the latter option (which I'm leaning towards) then that will mean I will have to do another playthrough just to get the Insanity achievement. Originally my intentions were to get everything done in three playthroughs, but the idea of a fourth isn't sounding as bad as it could do because really all I would have to do is the main story. So far on this third playthrough though, I have picked up a few of the tech ability achievements so it hasn't been all bad.

I obtained the last two achievements I wanted from the XBLA game Battlestar Galactica and in the end it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. I thought beating Scar without dying was going to be extremely hard but once I learned how he reacted to my moves I worked out a way where I could attack him a fair bit before having to retreat to find health. Once I worked that out it wasn't that hard and I managed to do it within three attempts after that. I also finished playing the 50 matches I needed to for the other achievement so it's nice to finally put this game away and class it as completed. I mean sure I could go for the 5000 kills and really finish it with the 200/200, but honestly I can't be bothered.

On the Guitar Hero side of things I have given up on trying to obtain the achievement you get for completing the career on Hard (or Expert) with the controller which is a shame. Why? Well I came really close to managing it by finishing every song except the very last one, which ironically is called 'One' by Metallica. The majority of the song isn't hard at all and I can hit all of the notes but the end section is another story and is frankly impossible if you ask me. I swear it is physically impossible to press the left trigger button on the controller (the green fret) THAT fast and even with the aid of Star Power, I cannot pass the song. So I have given up and instead begun practising playing on Hard with the guitar which actually ended up being a good thing as I'm definitely a lot better now than what I was. I can't hit all of the notes of a song yet and I'm still confusing my fingers a fair bit, but progress has definitely been made which I am proud of. Continue the progress and hopefully I will reach my goal of being able to finish Expert in both games. I did finish the Guitar Hero II career on Hard actually although that was with the controller...

I have also returned to Rez HD recently and picked up a fair few achievements in that. I have only got two left which are time consuming rather than hard. One is for completing Score Attack 30 times and the other is for finishing a particular version of Direct Assault which doesn't unlock until the other Direct Assaults have been completed (Direct Assault sees you going through the 5 Areas of the game in a row so it's quite a long session each time). The 200/200 is definitely possible for the game though and it is more a case of when rather than if.

Last but not least is of course Grand Theft Auto IV, a game which has given me a fair few achievements. Too many to list here anyway. I think the game's achievements are quite good actually with some easy ones and some more challenging ones. There is the typical collection ones as well for the hidden packages (flying rats) and stunt jumps. I'm sort of annoyed with the idea that there are multiplayer achievements though. I can understand them but the idea of having to rely on other people for achievements seems to misrepresent the idea of the system a little to me but most games have multiplayer achievements so it's something I am used to.

As you can tell I haven't obtained all that many achievements lately (aside from GTA) and that is mostly because I don't really have any new games to play and therefore to obtain achievements in. Still, I am happy with the progress I have made and I should be able to break the 30k barrier in the near future now that I'm playing GTA to death.

Achievement Addiction

As some of my previous posts have indicated, I'm what is known as an "Achievement Whore". I've claimed as such in the past and I won't ever deny it, but being one sees me questioned regularly as to why I take pleasure in obtaining achievements and boosting my Gamerscore. So now I think it's time for an explanation.

First and foremost, I do not go after achievements because of the Gamerscore. An unfortunate misconception that has come with the otherwise very decent addition to gaming is that people only go after the achievements because of the score and unfortunately, in most cases, this is true. One simple browse of a website like MyGamerCard.net will show you many people's Gamertags and a list of games that these people have played purely to boost their score. There is a lot of easy point games out there and these people have purchased or rented them all just to quickly add another thousand points to their score.

Not everyone enjoys obtaining achievements for the score though and I fall under this latter category; I can't speak for anyone else but I personally go after achievements because I am a completionist.

For as long as I have been playing games, I have been trying my utmost hardest to complete each and every game I play to the best of my ability. This is evident through my intentions to return to some older games I have that I am still yet to finish, or haven't played yet for whatever reason.

The same applies to the achievement system for me and is an extension of sorts of what I would already be doing anyway. If the 360 didn't have the achievement system, I would still be trying to finish the games to the best of my ability. Be that through collecting objects (Orbs in Crackdown) or completing a game on various difficulties (Insane in Gears of War, Hard in BioShock) - it's something I would do regardless of whether the achievements were there. Thankfully they are there and it has now added to my gaming as a result.

Achievements have added to the way I play games for a few reasons. It could be that I am returning to a game after finishing it originally because downloadable content has added some more achievements. Or it could be that I'm playing these games differently and doing something I wouldn't otherwise normally do because there's an achievement for doing so, an example being the puzzle achievements in Project Gotham Racing 4 and trying to figure them out. Or it could simply be because of the fact that the achievement system is a public demonstration of the type of gamer that I am and while sure, a Gamerscore that is pushing 30k might suggest that I do it for the score, a simple look through the games I own and have finished would reveal that the reason my score is high is because I have done everything I absolutely can in these games.

It's something I am proud of actually because as I mentioned above, the majority of gamers have obtained high Gamerscores through abusing the easy point games. When I see examples of this and compare them to my own, I can't help but feel proud knowing that I am matching their scores because I took the time and effort to complete and get the most out of my games.

Which brings me to another point, the achievement system and the fact that it is public can certainly bring out a competitive side to gaming as well. That has more to do with obtaining score than it does achievements though and relates back to the days of Tetris and Pac Man in the Arcades where gamers would try and beat their opposition by getting a higher score. This is both a good and bad aspect of the system and the use of it really depends on who you are as a gamer.

Hopefully that explains why I like to obtain achievements. If it doesn't, well just know that Gamerscore is completely irrelevant to me.

Achievement Unlocked

For those that know me (and from a glance of my Gamercard), it is no secret that I am what is now known as an Achievement Whore. The reasons I am one will be explained in the near future but for now, I welcome you to a new series of posts I will be doing here on Raptured Reality.

In 'Achievement Unlocked', I will be talking about the various achievements that I may be trying to obtain, have recently obtained or even what I think on a game's particular achievements as a whole. Basically, it will be a progress report discussing what I have achieved and what I want to achieve and so on. Now that I have explained the series, let's get down to business.

Mass Effect has been taking up the majority of my time lately as I have been working towards all of the achievements for the game. I just recently finished my second playthrough of the game where I picked up the following achievements:

- Asari Ally (finish the majority of the game with Liara)
- Turian Ally (finish majority of the game with Garrus)
- Extreme Power Gamer (level 60)
- Sniper Expert (150 Sniper kills)
- Lift Mastery (Use Lift 75 times)
- Renegade
- Long Service Medal (complete the game twice)
- Distinguished Combat Medal (complete the game on Hardcore)
- Colonial Savior (obtained when finished with the DLC)

I'm now about to start my third and final playthrough of the game where I will be playing through the game on Insanity while working towards the Quarian and Krogan Ally achievements, as well as the many tech achievements that I need. Upon finishing this playthrough the game should be completely finished. I'm pushing 100 hours at the end of my second playthrough so it will be interesting to see how long it does end up taking me.


Another game I have been playing is Battlestar Galactica on the Xbox Live Arcade. I have obtained most of the achievements that I want from the game so now I'm only really working on the one you get for beating Scar. The requirement is to beat him without dying on Medium or Hard difficulty and so far, I have been unsuccessful. It is actually quite hard so I'm not actually sure if I will be able to get it or not just yet but that won't stop me from trying. I have also been slowly playing Team Deathmatch games with a friend to work towards the achievement you get for completing 50 Team Deathmatch games so I should have that soon. One achievement I won't be going for is 5000 kills. That's far too much for an Arcade game I think and I don't think I could play the game for 15 hours or more boosting my kills up until it unlocked.

Last but not least, I'm trying to finish Guitar Hero III's career on the Hard difficulty. I'm actually doing it with the controller (damn chords are a pain in the behind with the controller) so I can also pick up the achievement you get for finishing Hard (or Expert) with it, but as soon as that is done I will start practising Hard using the guitar so that I can finish it with that as well and start 5-starring the songs. Once that is done I will also do the same for Guitar Hero II and then it will be onto Expert...

And that's about it for the moment. Grand Theft Auto IV comes out in a couple of weeks so that game will be added to the list very soon. It will be interesting to see what achievements it has and if it's anything like Crackdown (or indeed the previous GTAs), it will be a game I work on until I get every achievement. I'm fully expecting collectibles to be hidden in Liberty City somewhere and no doubt there will be an achievement for finding them all, so that alone will be quite time consuming. I look forward to it.