GAMURSCOARRR

[mechanixis]

So. Achievements. We've all heard of them, and felt that powerful siren call of performing inanities on scales large and small for the accumulation of useless points.

Before I bought an Xbox, the whole concept baffled me. "I'm playing through it for achievements," said my friend to me as he died (again) in Halo 3 on Legendary, overtly not having fun. "Why?" I asked, "Do you buy something with the points?" "No," he responded. "You just...need them." Inside I felt a sense of self-satisfied smugness, telling myself that, if I ever became the owner of a 360, I would not fall prey to the same strange addictions.

I've carefully reloaded save files in Fallout to hit certain levels with certain Karma levels, I've limited myself to certain playstyles and playlists in Halo in the vain hope of snatching up 5 little points for my card, and I'm slogging through Mass Effect one planet at a time to finish the nebulous "majority of the game" with each and every crewmember. I think Prototype has some of the most brutal achievements I've ever personally encountered. Complete the entire game without dying? Even on easy that seems like a tall order.

So what's the most you've debased yourself for an achievement? And what are some of the absurdities to which you wouldn't stoop?

 

[squid5580]

Fear 2. A month of just trading control points. For 8 hours a day easy that is all me and 8-10 others did. Got my 1000 in Fear 2 though. Last I checked only 80 others had it.

 

[Sassafrass]

Nothing. Nothing at all.
... ... ...
Alright, getting all the skulls in Halo 3 and it's DLC.

 

[ae86gamer]

Right now its DA:O. I have about 8 different saves for the same game. All of them are just to help me get the multiple story achievements.

 

[Steve Dark]

Assassin's Creed.
I found ALL the flags.

All of them.

 

[Inco]

I think Prototype has some of the most brutal achievements I've ever personally encountered. Complete the entire game without dying? Even on easy that seems like a tall order.

I did that first try actually. On Normal. I could call it a fluke to say the least. The orb ones though and the minigame ones are annoying though.

I get achievements, but from games that i enjoy and the challenges associated with them. If i did debase myself for them, i would have all the story achievements for RE5, Mirrors edge,DMC4 and so forth. So yea, the games i got a majority (or at least some of the harder ones) for are the games i specifically enjoy, while the ones that are basically the first few, i did not.

 

[Mr.Black]

I don't bother with that stuff.

 

[Poomanchu745]

I own a 360 and never understood the point. Every now and again Ill try and get an interesting achievement (5 second hangtime in Borderlands) but I still think its dumb to waste your life trying to get achievements, especially if you are not having fun doing so.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

Crackdown. I needed to find 30 more of the Hidden orbs and 10 more of the Agility orbs, then my save gets corrupted and I have to start all over. I got about half of each,but then I just threw my controller down in frustration and walked away. I never went back to that game.

 

[Pyotr Romanov]

Meh, I do them only when I think it'd be a fun challenge.
Oh wait, something on-topic: Playing MW2 on veteran, probably.

 

[tomvw]

Two words, Crackdown Orbs, and I STILL haven't found all the damn things. Just need some 10 or 20, and it's starting to get on my nerves!

 

[Shurikens and Lightning]

I got all 1250 in oblivion. That was not a waste of 2 weeks of gaming straight.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

Playing through Bulletwitch 3 times on increasing difficulty levels for a 1G achievement.

Then I played through on Normal and Easy in about 3 hours total.

 

[VanQ]

I stooped so low that I played that free Doritos Dinosaur game on the arcade... it literally was a massive Doritos ad that sold itself on having cars, dinosaurs and a "side helping" of easy achievements.

 

[DrDeath3191]

I currently game on the Wii, the 'achievementless' console. But when I did game on the 360, I only went after achievements that seemed fun or interesting to achieve.

 

[Tharwen]

Several pointless WoW achievements, such as my stock pointless achievement, [a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?achievement=1428"]Minesweeper[/a]. It's harder than it looks, since the description misses out the vital part: 'or dying.'

Assassin's Creed.
I found ALL the flags.

All of them.

For that, you get the triple dot:

...

Behold and know true fear!

 

[SonicKoala]

Well, I own a PS3, but the trophies are the same thing (and they're prettier). I don't think I've ever cursed so much or punched as many walls as I have while struggling through Call of Duty: World at War on veteran. Or maybe my spending countless hours playing "Hangman's Noose" in GTA 4 over and over and over and over again trying to reach level 10 in multiplayer was even more of a challenge and ultimate waste of time....but the platinums are SO WORTH IT!!

 

[WindKnight]

In short, I'm currently helping anybody I encounter in Universe at war get any and all online achievements they want.

Why?

Its a dead game, and the only one I have left to get is 'my virtual life' which requires I play the game online for 75 hours. unfortunately, the technique for getting a glitched skirmish achievement required uninstalling, reinstalling the game, manually patch it it with a certain patch, and stopping live auto-updating it, which for some stupid reason wiped all my online stats - all 21 hours I had originally logged.

Plus, hey, its not hurting me helping others out. I really don't care where I place on a leaderboard.

Also, with Gears of War - Windows, a glitch that kept wiping my save files, I had to play through the game nearly six times to get all the insane acheivements.

 

[Ciarang]

Achievements for the 360 version of The Orange Box. I still need about 6 more.