When Microsoft launched the Xbox 360 in 2005, I didn't wait in line because I was going to be hooked on this new achievement trend, I waited in line for the next evolution in gaming. I had no idea what achievements were when I popped in Perfect Dark Zero on launch day, and I slowly started to understand after that game, and slowly built my gamerscore from there.

Now, everyone's got there thing. I personally take achievements pretty seriously, as I have a gamerscore of over 100,000, actually it is approaching almost 130,000 as I write this. I've played some good, and some bad games to get my gamerscore this high, believe me. I had no idea on launch day nearly seven years ago that this would become an addiction that could rival alcohol, or drugs, but it has. And when I approached the milestone of 100,000 last summer, I realized and made a conscious decision to not play anymore crap games simply for gamerscore. No more Terminator Salvation's or Backyard Football's, that's for sure. If it is a game that I want to play, and a foreseeable thousand, I'll pick up the game.

However, something happened this past fall that has angered not only myself, but many fellow gamers out there. That something was Gears of War 3. Well I can't fault Epic Games for making a bad game, because Gears of War 3 is not a bad game, I can fault them for being insanely hardcore on the achievement front of things, hard enough that they have breached the point of becoming insane bastards.

And you know what, when Gears 3 launched, I was ok and accepted the fact that I will never get Seriously 3.0. Legitimately, no one will. The man hours alone would be enough to drive anyone to brink of insanity, that's for sure. But the rest of Gears of War 3 should have been a cakewalk, like the previous installments. Then with the promised "season pass" offer, an offer I actually refused to pick up on, they promised out the gate four stellar dlc packs. None of the downloadable content packs for Gears of War 3 have been stellar, to say the least.

The Horde Command Pack added some great new functionality, maps, weapons, and skins to Horde mode, that's for sure, but was crushed be more seemingly unobtainable achievements. To level up the silverback and get the highest command center and turret, the man hours there are borderline insane. I enjoy horde mode, as does a lot of people, but not to that extreme. However after that dlc, I new the second one should bring things back, as it was the first promised "extensive single-player/co-op story" dlc. However, this only broke my soul even more on this game.

The nearly two hour shitfest that is "RAAM's Shadow" is filled with unimaginative characters, who bicker along like arrogant school children, and have absolutely nothing funny or interesting to say. Instead there inane chatter only made me groan during the entire experience. Then add up to that, yet two more unobtainable achievements (no one will play as the Asian dude in multiplayer, so yeah, that's ruined), and the fact that the only cool part of Raam's shadow, when you play as General Raam, lasts about five minutes, and you have another disappointing entry into the Gears package.

But nothing, absolutely nothing could prepare me for the onslaught of almost an entire unobtainable achievement list with the third dlc. Nearly all of the achievements border on unobtainable, with you requiring to level up to a "prestige" mode-like level, and then do it all over again. Look Epic, artificially trying to make people play your game isn't going to make people play your game, fixing it will. At this point, I'm probably just going to pass on the third dlc, and hope the fourth one adds something cool, but my hope has kind of run out for Gears of War. Nothing is ever going to top what the first one was to me, and Gears of War is a dead franchise at this point.

I know I spent a lot of time picking on Gears of War, because it is the most recent example of this treachery, but there are plenty of other games in the sea of "impossible", that's for sure. The bottom line is that developers should concentrate on making something challenging and fun to play, but obtainable. I would rather spend 100 hours trying to get a full 1000 in any RPG then spend nearly three years of my life playing match after match of Gears multiplayer, that's for sure.

I find it hard to wrap my head around the fact that you can gather up so much distaste for a title based on the difficulty of it's achievements. Also you'll play Backyard Wrestling or Terminator Salvation but you won't play "the asian dood" in multiplayer? I'm generally not a mean person or anything but maybe it's time to check into some sort of achievement rehab man.

lol. I stopped caring about achievements a long time ago. You should try it.

I think you allowed the developer the destroy it for you by caring about their version of "completion."

Not sure what the problem with any of these achievements you listed are. They kind of make sense for the devoted crowd that Gears tends to draw. Why not reward those who will play that game for more then a few months and reach max rank? Or reward those who play a lot of horde.There not impossible, they just take a lot of time and dedication for those who will actually stick with the game.

I see this guy crying in a room when he starts to read the achievement list for certain games.

@Humanity said:

I find it hard to wrap my head around the fact that you can gather up so much distaste for a title based on the difficulty of it's achievements. Also you'll play Backyard Wrestling or Terminator Salvation but you won't play "the asian dood" in multiplayer? I'm generally not a mean person or anything but maybe it's time to check into some sort of achievement rehab man.

You're one of those people who care way too much about achivements, aren't you? 
 
 
"This game was fucking amazing! Oh my god! 'looks at the last achivement that seems impossible to get' ... oh god, this game is shit" 
 
what?

I don't care so much about getting all the achievements in a game. I like to, sure, but if I see something that will take the fun out of it or I just don't care to play a game anymore then I won't bother. I'm not sure how hardcore you are into Gears but it seems like those achievements are made for people who pretty much only play Gears and want some bragging rights. I get what you are saying... kinda, I'm not as serious about achievements but I have earned some in the past that have on their own burned me out on a game, but also I feel like, good on Epic for making achievements that you could brag about.

Is this real life?

@ccampb89 said:

@Humanity said:

I find it hard to wrap my head around the fact that you can gather up so much distaste for a title based on the difficulty of it's achievements. Also you'll play Backyard Wrestling or Terminator Salvation but you won't play "the asian dood" in multiplayer? I'm generally not a mean person or anything but maybe it's time to check into some sort of achievement rehab man.

@ZeForgotten: Pretty much this.

I don't care much for achievements, but I do hate it when I've s-ranked a game, all except for the one achievement that requires me to complete 40 procedurally generated quests.

With cheevos/tro tros I take a look at the tide breaker and figure weather or not I can overcome it. If I figure I can't, like in the case of Seriously 3.0 or most high end multiplayer achievements, then I stop caring about all of the achievements. Because, personally, I don't care about my trophy level or my gamerscore, but about the list of S Ranks I have on this site. And if I figure I can't S-Rank, then I stop caring about if I can A or B or D-Rank it. So I don't hold excessively difficult achievements against a developers. From a navel-gazey point of view, those are probably the best kinds anyway.

Now, if I figure I can S-Rank a game, a whole new door of pain opens for me.

Man, Im glad I stopped caring about achievements a while back.

The only reason I look at them is to see how far a friend has progressed, and for this use they are actually very good.

The silverback achievement is pretty easy to boost, and I got the Kim execution after the second day of MP and for the record I always play as him in MP because he's my favourite. Those are far from impossible, but yeah, seriously is kind of insane, but that is the entire point of it, just as it was in the previous two games and Gears 3 is anything but dead online, I can always find a match no matter playlist I'm in, is your nat moderate or strict? That has a severe impact on Gears.

@Master_Prophet: You should really stop caring so much about achievements before something bad happens to you. They don't matter. They're worth nothing. Let it go.

I don't really care so much about achievements these days...moderately interested maybe, whatevs, but the achievements in the DLC are something I'd noticed about also. I feel more inclined to get as many points as possible in games I really, really like, but the achievements in these DLC packs are fucking ridiculous. All of the team up ones and kill a certain character do nothing but force people to boost them not really making them an achievement at all. I don't ever want to get to level 100 and most people will only hit it when Epic start doing X3billion EXP weekends in a couple of years time making the non-achievements even less of an achievement and completely undermining the really dedicated/insane people that got them legitimately.

It's not the developers fault you take achievements so seriously for whatever reason. The upgrading silverbacks and command post ones are super easy especially if you have the friendly fire mutatof.

@Beforet said:

With cheevos/tro tros I...

You son of a bitch.

This guy is actually serious. Wow.

Orcs Must Die is the first game I am trying to get every achievement for.

Other than that I think its stupid to get them.

@Trilogy said:

@Beforet said:

With cheevos/tro tros I...

You son of a bitch.

Yeah, I love me too.

@Beforet said:

@Trilogy said:

@Beforet said:

With cheevos/tro tros I...

You son of a bitch.

Yeah, I love me too.

@Humanity: stupidity's an art form.

You lose me at the following:

@Master_Prophet said:

But the rest of Gears of War 3 should have been a cakewalk, like the previous installments.

Why should they be a cakewalk? I think Epic is treating this as the final Gears game on the platform. They want this to have legs and frankly it is good enough to have legs.

There are a few stupid Achievements that would never come up naturally and would require boosting, but for the most part I think their Achievement design is rewarding. Seriously 3.0 already makes it so that you can't really be a completionist about the game unless you are crazy.

The prestiging-twice Achievement is fine. There are people who love playing Gears for the sake of Gears who will surely get that one naturally. Hell, I barely have time to play between work and family and sleep and I'm level 39. It's not inconceivable that a person with more time would have enough XP to hit 100 a few times over the next few years.

@GoofyGoober: Nope, I simply just don't play that game, or play it on the Playstation, where achievements don't matter.

This post was meant to spark debate about achievements, not to spark a feud about how I'm an idiot because I enjoy unlocking achievements. If achievements didn't matter to people websites like True Achievements and Xbox360Acheivements.org wouldn't exist. It's my thing people, calm down.

@Master_Prophet said:

@GoofyGoober: Nope, I simply just don't play that game, or play it on the Playstation, where achievements don't matter.

wut.

@Shuborno: Gears 3 isn't good enough to have serious achievements like this anyway. Yeah they gave the series an ending, but it's ending sucked.

@Master_Prophet said:

@Shuborno: Gears 3 isn't good enough to have serious achievements like this anyway. Yeah they gave the series an ending, but it's ending sucked.

It plays better in every conceivable way than its predecessors, is better supported with patches and DLC, and has always-populated multiplayer. It's exactly the type of game that can have these types of Achievements.

eg. I love Horde, so I expect to get the Silverback and Command Center achievements within the next year. They're crazy if you want to grind them, but if you love the mode, you'll get them eventually.

I got an achievement for reading this thread. High five.

@Master_Prophet: Is this a troll post? Where achievements don't matter. Playstation has an achievement system, it is called trophies. You are letting achievements control how you feel about a game which I find hilarious and sad. "Gears 3 isn't good enough to have serious achievements like this anyway". What the hell does that even mean?

The thing about people who only care about achievements is that they really only care that people know how many achievement points they have. In other words you all read this whole long babbling post just so some random troll could tell you all how many achievement points he has...which I honestly don't even remember (which is really going to make the OP sad).

My personal take on achievements are that they should require you to...well...achieve something. I got an achievement for watching the opening scene of Modern Warfare 3. Granted it was only 5 points, but still. There are plenty of games that you can S-rank without much problem. I've done 4 in my career, and I'm not that big of an achievement hunter. I like the fun and interesting ones. Also some games (like Oblivion) you'll just S-rank by playing it. I was going to do all of that shit with or without the achievements.

"Mile High Club" is an achievement (for most of us. I know some jackass is going to say "LOL TAT WUZ EZ 4 ME").

Pretty much when I see someone with over 100k points I immediately think that they have games like "King Kong" on their list. They always do. It's not about achieving anything. It's not like a High Score on an arcade. It's simply about putting time in. Donkey Kong got harder as you played it. Galaga gets harder as you play it. If you can get 3/4 of the easy points on a game and then switch to a new title with more easy points, avoiding the hard ones what's the difference?

A chimpanzee could play Backyard Football. You don't seem any more of an elite badass for having played it for the points. Games should have far less achievements. One for beating the game. One for beating it on hard. One for not taking any damage vs the end boss, etc. Depending on the game, of course. Things that actually mark an achievement in your game playing. It's too far gone now. As it currently stands, nobody looks at your individual achievements. They look at the number, and assume that you also did the hard ones. Some people have. Many have not.

*EDIT*

Let me add that, in reality, who gives a fuck if you achieve anything. I'm just saying that worshiping the number does no good when those numbers don't represent anything other than time spent.