Achievements Bragging Rights

[Kong Wen]

Did you just earn a particularly difficult achievement? Did you just hit 1000G on a game? Did you pass a Gamerscore milestone that you're really proud of? Post in this thread and sow envy across the community!

I'll also be keeping track of everyone's Gamerscore and achievement progress on a fortnightly basis in a Google doc, which will act as a kind of site achievements leaderboard. This document shows PSN, Steam, and XBLA achievements, so just go to the third sheet (titled "XBLA") to see the stats relevant to this thread.

[Kong Wen]

XBLA Achievement Chart for Friday, 6 June 2014

Highest Gain: 200 (Kong Wen)
Position Gains: N/A

Lots of achievement gains coming from the bottom-dwellers this week, with Kong barely staving off Jelly to stay out of last place. No position gains.

[Kong Wen]

XBLA Achievement Chart for Friday, 6 June 2014

Highest Gain: 200 (Kong Wen)
Position Gains: N/A

Lots of achievement gains coming from the bottom-dwellers this week, with Kong barely staving off Jelly to stay out of last place. No position gains.

XBLA Achievement Chart for Thursday, 3 July 2014

Highest Gain: 155 (Radretrogamer)
Position Gains: N/A

It's the first full update to the charts since moving from VC-F. I've been busy setting up the site, so this update was a month long instead of a fortnight. Unfortunately, there wasn't much action even in that extended time. It might be safe to make this a monthly from now on.

Radretrogamer, who hasn't created an account here yet, led the charge with 155 new achievements.

[Claytone]

It's the first full update to the charts since moving from VC-F. I've been busy setting up the site, so this update was a month long instead of a fortnight. Unfortunately, there wasn't much action even in that extended time. It might be safe to make this a monthly from now on.

Well, out of spite, I might just see if I can rack up a >1000G update for next time.

I've already added 340G since the update between Guac*, MGSV:GZ (which I'm 2 achievements away from 100%ing), and Galaga, so I'm well on my way!

*Bear in mind even smaller downloaded titles like Guac feature the full 1000G on Xbone.

[Kong Wen]

*Bear in mind even smaller downloaded titles like Guac feature the full 1000G on Xbone.

Guacamelee! isn't the best example since it's always been a "full-size title" in terms of trophies—even the previous vanilla and gold editions had a full suite of 50+ trophies and a platinum. Would something like Pac-Man Championship Edition CX DX +++ have a full 1000G?

[Claytone]

Guacamelee! isn't the best example since it's always been a "full-size title" in terms of trophies—even the previous vanilla and gold editions had a full suite of 50+ trophies and a platinum. Would something like Pac-Man Championship Edition CX DX +++ have a full 1000G?

Well, I didn't make it clear, but I was comparing it to the 360, not the PlayStation. For the majority of the 360's lifetime, XBLA games awarded only a meager 200G. In 2012 (I think), they increased this to 400, probably recognizing that some XBLA games were just as hard or harder to earn some achievements in as retail games and thus deserved to be appropriately rewarded.


On Xbone, it seems that ANY game on the platform will have 1000G. Since the Xbone's release, this seems to have been made uniform across 360 and Xbone at some point after the Xbone's release, since I just read that Guac has 1000G on Xbone and 360, despite its digital boxart bearing the "Arcade" banner at the top, implying they do not consider it a retail game but are nevertheless giving it the full 1000G of cheevos (and despite Strider on 360 having 400G and 1000G on Xbone for the same set of achievements). It may seem like a given to you with its plat on PS3/Vita, but there are many games with platinums on PS3 that only feature a small host of achievements on Xbox (HD compilations are particularly guilty of this, typically divvying the 1000 among all of the constituent games rather than giving them 1000 each, which is why they made a big deal about all of the Halos getting 1000 each in the upcoming re-release, because there's precedent for this not being the case).

To answer your question, it seems plausible that games like Pac-Man CE will receive a whopping thousand (possibly developers can choose, who knows). Peggle 2 had 1000, and while it's arguably a bit more substantial than Pac-Man, it's certainly not a big game by any stretch and could have been serviced by the traditional cap of 400G. Worth noting also is that Xbox has dropped the XBLA brand from the Xbone. I can only assume this move is some attempt to make the way they market their games more uniform. Perhaps some analysis revealed that people devalue games marketed as Xbox Live Arcade as being less substantial than regular retail games (even if the latter are acquired by download). I could see that. "Arcade" certainly carries with it some connotations of "old" and possibly even "boring" to what you might consider the traditional Xbox audience. It's a shame, since it always bore positive connotations to me, but I could conjecture that it might not for some. Even aside from that, the name has been passe for far longer than just the release of the Xbone. The "Xbox Live Arcade" used to be a much more fitting title because the service launched with a very arcade heavy focus. Lots of the classic Namco and Midway games were ported early in the service's lifecycle, which was really cool, but as the service evolved to function as a general channel for digital distribution of generally smaller games, the name lost its meaning a bit. Eventually, of course, Games on Demand became the name of the service that offered downloadable versions of retail games, but this name, also, has been done away with in the move to Xbone, with all games seemingly just dumped into the GAMES section of the store. Fine with me.

Also, sorry that the above is a bit of a garbled mess both in terms of flow and grammar. I'm tired and can't be bothered to reword it all into something more pleasant.

[Kong Wen]

...Strider on 360 having 400G and 1000G on Xbone for the same set of achievements). It may seem like a given to you with its plat on PS3/Vita, but there are many games with platinums on PS3 that only feature a small host of achievements on Xbox

Hmm, that's interesting. By contrast, now, I suppose, there will be a lot of games that don't have platinum trophies that nonetheless have 1000G on X1. That'll make the accumulation-of-meaningless-points nerds squeal.

[Claytone]

...Strider on 360 having 400G and 1000G on Xbone for the same set of achievements). It may seem like a given to you with its plat on PS3/Vita, but there are many games with platinums on PS3 that only feature a small host of achievements on Xbox

Hmm, that's interesting. By contrast, now, I suppose, there will be a lot of games that don't have platinum trophies that nonetheless have 1000G on X1. That'll make the accumulation-of-meaningless-points nerds squeal.

Indeed. An example already exists in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. It has 1000G on Xbone (and 360, for that matter), but only features the typical PSN downloadable game trophy set of 1 gold, some silvers, and some bronzes. Kojima said that Sony wouldn't allow games launching at budget price to have a platinum trophy (although I feel certain there have been exceptions to that very rule). Xbox has pretty much always allowed any game released on disc to feature the full 1000, as far as I can recall.

I think allowing all new games to feature 1000G is a little goofy. Strider, for example, as fun as it was, ended up having some achievements of disproportionately large value due to the relatively short length of the game. Likewise, Peggle 2 awarded 50G for every character's stages you cleared (if you're unfamiliar with the format of Peggle, you complete several sets of 10 levels hosted by "peggle masters," who bear their own unique ability that makes clearing the pegs easier or more interesting in some way). So that means you got 50G every 10 stages. Meanwhile, it was not uncommon on 360 to award 50G for beating an entire game of several times Peggle's length. Peggle 1 awarded 20 for clearing the entire game, and I amassed a total of 75G from that game playing through it once. Playing through Peggle 2 once earned me 495.

I guess it's not a big deal. Once more and more games move to this inflated standard, it won't matter, but it is a bit puzzling coming from the 360 environment. And it does come with its benefits. Some downloadable titles are more than substantial enough to offer 1000G legitimately, and I know I'd have really liked for the Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie rereleases to have had that option. So I guess its better to have some tiny games offer a handful of massive achievements than to have bigger downloadable games offer only a slice of what their store-bought counterparts can.

Most of all, though, like Who's Line, the points really don't matter. I mostly just see them as a fun way to stretch the value of games I'm not ready to put down.

[Kong Wen]

XBLA Achievement Chart for Thursday, 3 July 2014

Highest Gain: 155 (Radretrogamer)
Position Gains: N/A

It's the first full update to the charts since moving from VC-F. I've been busy setting up the site, so this update was a month long instead of a fortnight. Unfortunately, there wasn't much action even in that extended time. It might be safe to make this a monthly from now on.

Radretrogamer, who hasn't created an account here yet, led the charge with 155 new achievements.

XBLA Achievement Chart for Wednesday, 6 August 2014

Highest Gain: 340 (Claytone)
Position Gains: N/A

Claytone led the charge on the Xbox side, picking up 340 new achievements, closely followed by Yossarian with 335. Microsoft revamped their website within the past month or so, which means I can see completion % again, so I've added it back into the charts. There were no position changes, but there are some close races now.

[Claytone]

Just finished getting 1000/1000 G for Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. That marks the first Xbone game for which I've achieved that feat, and it was a delight. Ground Zeroes is, in many ways, a bit of an inexcusable cash-grab by Konami, perhaps reeling from their recent Castlevania failures, but I suppose it worked since I bought it anyway. I had a lot of fun getting all the achievements in the game, and doing so settled me nicely at 91% completion according to the in-game completion counter. I don't know if I'll make the push to unlock the final 9% (which I think is mostly, maybe entirely reliant on me getting S-rank on all the missions on Hard, which is a difficult but not impossible feat), but I had fun with the game, which is all I wanted from a release as flimsy as it was.

The game takes place in a Guantanamo Bay-inspired stealth sandbox called Camp Omega, and it features the compelling main story mission Ground Zeroes plus 5 extra ops of varying quality. I found the environment very fun to learn and memorize. The reward is in being able to then beat each mission in as little as two or three minutes, despite their normal length of about 2 hours for the story and a half hour for each side op. Naturally, doing so also relies on actually knowing enemy patrol routes and cheesing your way through by sprinting a safe beeline*, but it's nevertheless rewarding. It's the first game I've ever done a speed run in any sense, and it gave me an appreciation for that subculture of gaming. It also makes me want to watch someone play it for the first time to see again the thought processes I went through when I was feeling my way around Camp Omega without prior knowledge of its layout. It's really interesting to me that a mission that took me 108 minutes the first time I've now finished in as few as 7, but obviously, I can never gain back the mental state of not knowing the layout of Camp Omega, so I would like to vicariously enjoy the tension of the first playthrough of the game through someone else one more time.

*S ranks also rely on gratuitous use of the "reflex mode" ability, which was added to the series in Ground Zeroes. With this, upon being spotted by an enemy, you are allowed a slow motion grace period during which you can dispatch them. Now, in theory, I'm okay with this mechanic. I always thought it was annoying that a single enemy spotting me in previous games suddenly made the entire base aware of my precise location. This is without so much as a radio call. So I like the idea that the game now slows down a bit to more realistically represent the amount of time you would have between being spotted and your spotter actually calling reinforcements. On the other hand, it really does make the game too easy. I think the stress and tension that makes Metal Gear fun evaporates a bit when the danger of being seen is so sharply reduced. Fortunately, the game lets you turn it off, so I'm sure that I will leave it off when I play Phantom Pain, and I'll be able to enjoy it the way I want to. And I'm always in favor of allowing as many playstyle options as possible, so for those that aren't bothered by the sharp difficulty decrease (or, in fact, prefer it), I'm glad the option is there. Plus, it did help me get this achievement milestone I'm bragging about, so I suppose it's not all that bad.