http://www.datassette.net/content/datashat-at-plex-london-september-4th-2009.mp3
 
I can not recommend this enough. This guy is a fucking hero.

So my second warranty-less 360 died a week ago, and since my economy is currently shot for a couple of months, i've returned to my other systems for gaming sustenance. The Wii has gotten a lot more play (though mostly through VC stuff), but also my PC, my Dreamcast and bizarrely my Xbox classic (got to play Oddworld Stranger again, woo!).
 
I'm struck with some really odd emotions that have taken me a couple days to process fully. The first while i actually felt sort of desperate to pick up another 360, in spite of not having money for things like, you know, food. Getting to a point where i realized i had other gaming media was immensely liberating, and i got back to playing games i haven't had time for in the longest while. I've finally finished Metroid Prime 3, i've been playing more Super Mario Galaxy, i finished Zelda 3 again, i've been getting into tournaments of Blood Bowl on the PC (which despite its bullshit frontend is really enjoyable if you're a board game kind of person), and i started replaying Freedom Force and its sequel. I even got time to plan a weekend co-op session of System Shock 2 with a friend who never played it but loved Bioshock. 
Got around to addicting my girlfriend to Rez on the PS2 as well, which is still a killer game.
 
I'm absolutely loving it. It feels.. free?

The feeling i've got is that games used to be more about plain fun for me, and the fun of playing the games themselves. I look back on the past year(s) of 360-centric gaming, and i realize how much time i've spent playing for achievements, and the sense of gentle failure at loading up a game to play and seeing how few of the 1000 points i've got. I realize for some, that adds a kind of meta-game to their hobby, but for me i have to say it mounted to kind of a painful addiction, where i'd play games almost out of spite to clear achievements and "clean up my life". I'm not even any kind of weird neat-freak (hardly), but there's a bizarre element of guilt or shame to those missing points that make me think i paid for a product that i'm not fully making use of. Games like Shadow Complex for instance wear this achievement meta-game proudly on their sleeve, and seeing there are achievements i haven't got in a game that's essentially all about completion in its purest sense makes me feel, well, shit at the game.
 
Sometimes this sensation will even make less of games i truly love. Bioshock for instance, and Bionic Commando Rearmed, both games i have played and replayed to the point where i really can't go back to them, but still there are those mother fucking achievements i didn't get. So how can i say i really finished them?
 
Frankly, the more i think about it, the more i'm certain that (for me at least) this meta-game high-score list is bullshit that brings the experience down to a really basic level. I don't feel any need to be matched up against my "peers". The gamer term is bullshit anyway; why do i want more "gamer points"? How is collecting gamer points supposed to make something i *already love* better? Can't point-centric games have their own leaderboards and lets be done with it? Should i be RATED on how i play my immersive RPGs? Having played Mass Effect twice over, have i not played it enough? Am i somehow LESS of a player for not grinding out the remaining achievements?
 
Worse yet, in some games i'm pretty sure achievements are effectively breaking some of the immersion for me. Not necessarily because they exist, but because they intrude in the gameplay experience. Again, if the game i'm playing is an emotional revenge story like The Darkness, why the fuck should i care about that achievement dialog popping up?  

The paradox of course is that i really do enjoy getting achievements. It's a reassuring little pop of success, and it always feels good. But on the whole i'm not sure they amount to anything worth caring about. Much like a cola addiction really. I love coke, but man, on the whole i'm not sure it's good to keep it a cornerstone of my life.
 
I remember reading or hearing some Nintendo quote that playing games shouldn't be incentivised, simply because playing the games should be reward enough. Considering the sense of reward i'm getting from playing achievement-free games, and replaying games from before achievements became cool beans, i'm pretty sure i agree. To be perfectly honest, at this point i wish the achievement system was opt-in. I'd love to not have that number there at all.
 
So, fair folk, take a few steps back; how do you really feel about achievements? Do you feel they have shaped or altered the way you play games?

That's my second 330 to RROD on me. I suppose we're all used to this kind of stuff now? When it stutters to a halt and refuses to restart, the feeling i'm getting at this point isn't the HOLY SHIT WHAT THE HELL IS THIS i felt when my Dreamcast's disc drive died, but more a deep sigh of disappointment; It's just what 360s do.
 They have this wonderful machine that gives so much joy, but then it goes and just up and dies no matter how well you've treated it. It's a profoundly saddening experience, mostly because of how MS seem to have resigned to this simply being a facet of their platform. I get the feeling that they fully expect 360s to die, so, y'know, send us your box and we'll give you a quick fix!
 
Oh Xbox 360.. You're like an adorable wonderful heartwarming kitten most of the time. A loud growly one sometimes but lovable nonetheless. Why'd you have to go and poop in my bed huh? Why do you do that? I love you!
 
The worst thing now is i've been eagerly expecting Arkham Asylum, and now i can't play it for a long time. Can't afford buying a new box, and getting it fixed will take forever.
 
Interesting sidenote; The stutter and crashing started after a couple of length Shadow Complex sessions. My first 360 died after a few lengthy Gears of War sessions. So far, UnrealEngine3 seems to be the #1 way to go if RROD is how you wanna roll. Hello paranoia!

Been chatting it up over at Relicnews recently about Dawn of war 2 and its lackluster multiplayer mode suite. Basically it's all down to holding map points to whittle down tickets. It's the most boring way to win, ever. So we've been brainstorming and thinking about new modes that could work well within the framework.
Some Relic guy pops in and says "they have something in the works", and we all get stoked. Whoa, what are they up to? Turns out Relic's new amazing fix for this problem is a cooperative survival mode, which is neither a fix for boring VS mode, but also a pretty shitty type of co-op play.
 
Seriously, i can't remember a single time survival mode felt like any fun to play. Horde in Gears 2 came close, but mostly because you can feasibly win that mode. A mode about simply staying alive for the longest, do anyone REALLY find this kind of play entertaining?
 
I would love to hear some stories or examples. I just can't fathom why this mode keeps showing up in multiplayer games.