OK, here at the top, let's break down what these lists actually mean. There's still some confusion out there. The top ten lists are purely traffic-based, using numbers I'm pulling out of Google Analytics. That's why games that aren't out yet occasionally appear on those lists, much like Dark Void did last week. Interestingly, there's been a real shift in how these pages are viewed. The game pages, which list all of a game's achievements and popular the first top ten list, used to be much bigger than the third list, which is based on traffic going to individual achievement pages. Lately, though, it's shifted. People are spending more time on the individual pages, which is cool, because the comment system we've placed on those pages hopefully means that people are able to find the help they're looking for when it comes to a specific achievement.
So if you've earned a particularly tricky achievement, I invite you to go to that achievement's page and offer up a bit of help for those who may by stuck.
Speaking of achievements, I reactivated my long-dormant GameFly account last week. With the year coming to a close, I've got a bit more free time on my hands, and what better way to totally waste that time than to get a steady stream of games I'm only playing for achievement points in here, right? First up is Backyard Football '10, which I'm told is a very easy thousand. I'm also getting the US version of Raiden IV, mostly because it's a pain to hook up my Japanese 360 every time I want to play it. The rest of my list of games is a murderer's row of easy points and bad-looking games that I want to see for one reason or another, like Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Hannah Montana: The Movie, and Monopoly.
I'm not sure what's worse, doing this or admitting that I'm doing this. Either way, points... and perhaps a Quick Look or two. I imagine a Hannah Montana Quick Look could be OK.
Here's the first list!
Top 10 Sets
- Modern Warfare 2
- Borderlands
- Dragon Age: Origins
- Left 4 Dead 2
- Assassin's Creed II
- 1 vs. 100
- Tony Hawk: RIDE
- Grand Theft Auto IV
- Garry's Mod
- The Beatles: Rock Band
The top three on that list are way, way, way ahead of everything else, and I expect it'll stay that way for at least the rest of November.
Here's what's new.
New Sets
- Star Trek D-A-C (Steam)
- Gyromancer
- Diner Dash
- Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen!
- Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper
- MX vs. ATV: Reflex
- James Cameron's Avatar: The Game
- DIRT 2 (GFWL)
- Karaoke Revolution
That Sherlock Holmes game was announced for US release, but I'm not seeing it on any retail sites. I'm guessing that must be a UK release or something.
And here's this week's list of individual achievements. It's much more varied than last week's.
Top 10 Individual
- Borderlands - You're on a boat!
- Modern Warfare 2 - I'm the Juggernaut...
- Left 4 Dead 2 - GUARDIN' GNOME
- Modern Warfare 2 - Look Ma Two Hands
- Modern Warfare 2 - Downed but Not Out
- Left 4 Dead 2 - GONG SHOW
- Modern Warfare 2 - Star 69
- Assassin's Creed II - Myth Maker
- Modern Warfare 2 - Drive By
- Left 4 Dead 2 - STACHE WHACKER
For some reason, Valve decided to list all of the L4D2 achievements in ALL CAPS. That sure makes them STAND OUT in a LIST LIKE THIS ONE. Also, it's interesting to me that Assassin's Creed II isn't commanding more of a presence on this list. If you go to our rad new homepage and look at Yesterday's Biggest Achievements (which shows what achievements are actually being unlocked on a daily basis), you'll see that AC2 has the whole list locked down. That said, it's all the early game stuff that you get almost automatically--no one's going to need to look those up to figure out how to earn them. Maybe as people complete the game and start going back to squeeze some more points out of the game, we'll see it move up in raw popularity.
Of course, Borderlands will be getting some new achievements for the upcoming DLC pack, so that'll probably be a force to be reckoned with, as well.
Here are some weird stats for you.
You get the Assassin's Creed II achievement "The Birth of an Assassin" within the first, like, two minutes of playing the game. It's unavoidable. Yet of the 2,636 people who have played the 360 version of the game, the percentage of completion on that achievement is 98.94%. So... a little over one percent of the people who bought the game put the disc in, but didn't actually play it? There are two other achievements that you get automatically near the beginning of the game, and you can actually see a little drop-off between them. 98.75% escaped Abstergo, and 98.41% entered the game's new Animus. Again, this is all unavoidable stuff that comprises the first ten minutes of play. Who does that? Who turns it on, gets the birth achievement, then says "oh, man, I better come back to this later" instead of continuing on? If you are one of these people, pipe up and tell us what you've been doing.
Tony Hawk: RIDE currently has 18 players. It shipped the same day as L4D2 and AC2 did, but at twice the price, it's not exactly bringing 'em in. I believe that's an ever slower start than Activision's last $120 release, DJ Hero, which is current at 940 players. Also, that's world's ahead of the other new "Hero" release for 2009. Band Hero has 165 players.
Meanwhile, Modern Warfare 2 will probably break 10,000 players over the next week or two. It currently stands at 9,425. Call of Duty 4, in case you were wondering, has 14,031. The other Activision shooter released this season, Jurassic: The Hunted, has 19 players.
All right, that's it and that's all. We've got a short week ahead of us due to the holidays, but we've still got some good stuff planned, so keep checking back and all that.