Achievement Unlocked 08.15.08: The Quick and the Deadly

Posted by Rod Oracheski on 08.15.2008

411mania's Rod Oracheski takes a look at a pair of XBLA titles - one offering a quick 200 Achievement points, while the other offers only frustration, plus a look back at some predictions made and a look ahead to Warhawk's Trophy list. All that, plus a look at his rollercoaster ride through Albion's pubs.



This week we'll look at two upcoming Xbox Live Arcade titles Achievement lists - one is insanely (almost insultingly) easy, while the other is an exercise in frustration. Then a look back at some predictions I made about Achievements in upcoming games, a look at Warhawk's upcoming Trophy list, and my rise and fall in Albion's seedy gambling dens.


Xbox Live Arcade gets things started, with Achievement lists for two upcoming releases hitting the Internet recently - Live Score Tracker and Mega Man 9. I know, you're probably asking the same thing I did - what the hell is Live Score Tracker?

Turns out it's a new EA 'game' that you don't really seem to play at all. It works in conjunction with EA's fantasy football tracker, and...well, here's what EA says about it:

One of the coolest innovations in fantasy football will be the EA SPORTS Fantasy Football Live Score Tracker. Also available for download via Xbox LIVE Arcade and PLAYSTATION Network, the Live Score Tracker will allow you to view up-to-the-minute live scores of your league and teams while you watch the games every week via your TV's Picture in Picture capability. You no longer need to run to the PC every 10 minutes to check the scores!

Want to see other matchups in your league? Simply switch to our full screen version and see the current leaderboards, standings, and scoring for your league. Don't have a television with PIP functionality? No problem, by using your remote control and switching inputs to your game system, you can still view live scoring with the press of a button. Expect more details about the Live Score Tracker soon!

I don't know about you, but to me that sounds incredibly lame.

Almost as lame, it turns out, as the Achievement list for the 'game' in question. You'll get 35 points for logging in on a Monday game day, unlocking the 'Log in on a Monday game day' Achievement. There are also Achievements for logging in on a Sunday, Thursday, or Saturday - and I'll let you guess what they are called.

Inspired stuff.

Aspiring Achievement whores can also get 35 points for changing a setting - the 'Change a setting' Achievement. EA has recycled one - the 'Press START' Achievement that I believe was also found in the most recent Simpsons game. They up the ante by also including one for entering the pause menu. Guess what that one is called?

It's bad enough that they're putting this 'product' out separately from their fantasy football tracker, but at least do somethingwith the Achievements. I don't know if it has Trophy support, but I doubt it.

On the other side of the coin is the upcoming Mega Man 9 Achievement list - an exercise in frustration, from the looks of it. Calling the majority of these Achievements 'hardcore' would be an understatement in the extreme.

Take 'Jitterbug,' for example, which requires you complete the game in an hour. Or 'Invincible,' for clearing without dying. That one makes 'Almost Invincible' kind of funny - earned for clearing the game without continuing. There's 'No Coffee Break' - earned for clearing the game without using Energy or Mystery Tanks.

A couple of vague ones also make an appearance: 'Peacekeeper' and 'Conservationist.' The first is for defeating "the fewest number of enemies possible" while the second is for "using the least amount of Weapon Energy possible" - though they don't say how much that is for either one.

There's an Achievement called 'Trusty Sidearm' for beating all eight bosses with the Mega Buster, while 'Blue Bomber' will unlock if you beat a boss without taking any damage.

All in all, it's a tough list - a damn tough list. You'll probably get the 'Gamer's Day' Achievement while trying to get them all, awarded for clearing the game five times in a single day. Good luck with those - now that's an old-school thinking style of list.

Gamechangers:

In a previous column I put forward the idea that Achievements would be changing this fall, mentioning 10 games that might do something new: TNA iMPACT, Saints Row 2, Fallout 3, MK vs DC, Mercenaries 2, Halo Wars, Too Human, Fable 2, Banjo Kazooie, Left 4 Dead. That's right - I somehow left out Gears of War 2, though it should have been a no-brainer after being mentioned as one of the games that already did something new.

It's also the first title (not) on the list to have proved the idea correct - introducing 'linked' Achievements. Such is life.

Achievement lists are now available for a few games that I did list, however, so let's take a look and see how I did.

TNA Impact: OK, I'll go ahead and call this one a miss at this point. The list is decent, with a few that are good and a slew of good names - including some that wrestling fans will 'get' in an otherwise standard Achievement list. The 'played a TNA star' Achievement is nice - and it's great to see those guys getting involved. It's even nicer to see that this Achievement is a viral one - you can get it by playing someone who played a TNA star.

Overall, the list is better than Smackdown versus Raw 08's, which will hopefully make them step up their game. The list is incomplete at this point, with a half-dozen or so that are yet unknown - so there's still hope for this one.

Mercenaries 2: Once again, looks like a miss. It's a fairly decent list, but there's nothing crazy here. There's a 'play the developer' Achievement, and it once again appears to be viral - hopefully a trend that will continue for those kind of Achievements. There are a slew of good Achievement names, and the 17 secret Achievements could redeem the list.

Too Human: Swing and a miss once more. The game has a largely standard list, though there are 21 listed as secret. The ones revealed have a mix of good and generic names, with more of the former than the latter. I have hopes the secret Achievements will hold one or two good ones, but we'll see in a week or so.

Fable 2: Finally a hit - maybe. There's a list floating around that's supposedly real, and it looks really good with a ton of humour to it so hopefully it's the real deal. One of the designers working on the game's list weighed in without saying anything at all, so maybe it is. You might also want to check out this posting where they talk about factors that weigh into the development of their Achievement list.



I caught sight of the Trophy list for Warhawk and it's a bad one. There are a lot of random-luck ones, and a good deal that seem destined to inspire boosting. Boosting, for those new to the concept of whoring yourself out for a Trophy, is where you and some friends conspire to get Trophies, throwing the notion of playing the game 'properly' out the window in order to fulfill objectives to get your Trophy.

Even with boosting, it's a list that will take a considerable amount of time grinding to complete. I had expected a better list from a team that's done pretty well at supporting their title.

In other Trophy news, Bionic Commando: Rearmed shipped without Trophy support, but will see them patched in at some point. The list will most likely be identical to that for Achievements, as one Trophy that was revealed has a match on the Achievement list.



Speaking of Fable 2, the Pub Games hit Xbox Live Marketplace this week. I checked them out and can't see how this is going to leave me any richer going into the game. If anything I'll owe loan sharks a hundred thousand gold by that point, if my luck keeps running cold. There's no word on what affect your debt will have, should you choose to carry it into Fable 2.

Starting the game with broken legs doesn't seem an appealing notion...

I was up by 54,000 gold at one point, shortly after hitting the high-stakes tables in the spinner game. I hit a big win early and, much like the brainless zombies that sit at the one-armed bandits in Vegas, that win convinced me it would pay out again - at some point.

Some time later, all my initial winnings were gone and I found myself 15,000 in debt. I poured more money into the table - 18k in debt, 20k, 24k... At my low, I was 31k in debt to these imaginary gangsters and had visions of being forced to sell myself on Albion's street corners to pay off the gold I owed...but then I hit the jackpot again!

Now I'm 15,000 to the good. Will that last until Fable 2 ships? Somehow I doubt it.

Spent more time with the Too Human demo this week. The more I play it, the more things I discover - including linking combo chains together. I destroyed one of the shielded bosses with a single attack string - using a Bio Engineer, one of the weakest melee classes. The game really does have a surprising amount of depth, especially in the customization side of things - something the Prima Guide preview for the game, available at the game's leading fansite, really shows.

Here's some videos - the game hits on August 19th.







Until next week, I'm out.