Boo on THQ!

First video game publisher THQ started off the year announcing they wouldn't be continuing the Stuntman or Juiced franchises... and now they're responsible for giving me 1000 embarrassingly easy achievement points.

I had heard that Avatar The Last Airbender: The Burning Earth had easy points... but I presumed that meant the game was short and easy, thus you'd get completion points quickly. I had never imagined someone would release a full retail game where you can get all the points available within the first two minutes of the game by just pressing the B button about fifty times.
But that's what happened.

Now, what's the point in continuing the game? It seems to be nothing more than a cheap, generic licensed game. The three minutes it took to complete Chapter One were quite dull. Even if I were to finish it, I wouldn't have anything to show for it. No one would be able to see that I beat it. I have no record to see when I beat it. As far as I know, I could have beat it and simply forgot.
Thanks a lot, THQ, for being a bunch of lazy jerks and catering to your kind. I'd like to put some effort into being rewarded.

This should not have happened so far into the life of the 360. At launch, sure. Achievement Points were a new concept and developers gave them out for basic tasks. But there's no excuse for that any more.

Points should be given out for completion of each game mode, as well as occassional level rewards to string players along. These points should total no more than 600. The rest should be for completing tasks above and beyond the requirements for completing the game.

Finding hidden items: sure.
Exceeding a certain amount of damage: yeah.
Dying an extraordinary amount of times: why not?

But the only time any achievement should exceed 50 points is the completion of the game award, which should top out at 150. That means... game publishers & developers... it is your responsibility to the gaming public to be creative. Let us see at least a couple dozen of unique and interesting Achievements on every game from here on out, lest your name be mud.

****

An Update on my Completion Quest:

Finished: Rock Band Jan 27, 2008
Actually, I probably should have listed this one before because my requirements were to beat one game mode... Being given the credits counts as the "end"... which happened after I got into the Hall of Fame in World Tour Mode. But I hadn't played the Endless Setlist yet... but now I have. So Achievement Achieved.
(Side Note: I was disappointed that the Endless Setlist did not include any downloaded content. I'm glad it didn't include ALL of the DL content, but I would have liked some to be in there... in place of the "bonus songs" anyway.)

Finished: Mass Effect Jan 30 2008

Total Xbox 360 Games Finished: 25
Total Xbox 360 Games Played: 114
Average Achievement Points per game: 188

Now Playing: Saint's Row (ironically, a THQ game), Tony Hawk Proving Ground & Burnout Paradise

Achievements Achieved!

With the completion of the third stage of Beautiful Katamari, I have completed my quest to have some achievement points for all of my played Xbox 360 games.

Next step: actually finishing the main story modes of these games (where applicable). That could take me a while. Especially while I try to keep up with all the new games. But it is the slow season, so the break is appreciated.

But in the future, I will be sure to make sure I get some points before I quit playing a new game.

Actually, the only two games I have full Achievement points for right now are two games I rented: Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, which is a terrible game, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which is less bad but still dull.

For the Record, these are the only games I've completed the main storyline or equivalent (with one character, in cases of games with multiple character storylines) on the Xbox 360, as of January 25, 2008:

Amped 3
Assassin's Creed
Bioshock
Bulletwitch
Dead or Alive 4
Dead or Alive Xtreme 2
Dead Rising
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Fuzion Frenzy 2
Gears of War
Guitar Hero 2
Gun
Halo 3
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Lego Star Wars 2
Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Ninety-Nine Nights
Perfect Dark Zero
Samurai Warriors 2
Spider-Man: Friend or Foe
Tony Hawk American Wasteland
Tony Hawk Project 8
Virtual Fighter 5

Total to Date: 23
Total Games played (including Live Arcade Games & them Burger King ones): 113
Average Achievement Points per game: 176

I didn't list any of the games with only 200 gamer points, or any sport games without definite stories or such to complete. I'll try to update the blog with a running total every couple weeks when I complete more games.

Oh, and this is the third time in four posts where I mention Dead or Alive Xtreme 2. Just thought I'd point that out.

Whore of a Different Color

When it comes to multi-platform release games, I will go with the Xbox 360 version 95% of the time. Why? For the Achievements, of course. It's just satisfying for the system to keep track of how I'm doing and let me know when I've accomplished something with the familiar little pop-up. And that makes me an official Achievement Whore.

Generally, AWs are classified by their desire to get every single point they can. While I'm not opposed to that, and I will look through the list and see what extra points I can get along the way, I actually have a different standard to my point hording. In fact, the only two games I have yet to achieve maximum points are two rental games, neither of which I really liked.

I feel the need to have some points at all my games. Having that embarrassing 0 point total on my gamercard brings dishonor to my family. So instead, I have a bunch of games with only one achievement, but I still feel satisfaction. In the past I even bought crappy Xbox Live Arcade games because I had played the demo and got saddled with a permanent Zero for the game until I upgraded. Now, presumably, you can erase demos from your gamercard... but I still just avoid demos, because I would still know how I did not get any achievements.

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Hey, Microsoft: How about giving 10 points for completing a demo? Sounds like a marketing plan that could generate a few extra sales, presuming the game is fun enough to buy... which is the point of having a demo, right?
***

I'm happy to say I finally went back and got at least one achievement at all the games I own. Which is a lot. I still have three games I rented which I failed to get points on: Lost Planet (I got from Gamefly, popped the disc in to see if there was local co-op, then took it out and returned it without playing), Virtual Fighter 5 (I got my butt handed to me so many times, I have an attic full of butt now.), and Beautiful Katamari (I'm a terrible stickyball roller). I will have to get those back and find a way to get some points.

Easiest Game to get initial Achievement Points: Tiger Woods 07. All you have to do is create a custom character. While the options for tweaking your golfer is immense, you could just click through it and get the 5 points.

Most Difficult Game to get initial points: Dead Or Alive Xtreme 2. After about 4 or 5 playthroughs with a single character, I finally collected all of her swimsuits. It took me nearly that long to get the timing of the volleyball down, which probably wouldn't have been that hard if there were options for positioning the camera.