Achievments in PC Games

[Terbinator]

Do you think its good to include them? Or are you against them, maybe even feel like the PC is taking some of the 360's shine. Discuss

[Grey M@a]

Even on the 360 I couldn't care about achievements. I want to play the game. Needless to say I am not fussed either way. I think L4D was the first game I came across it and then TF2, Dawn of War 2 has them also.

Voted for the GfWL/Live as its the only one that says maybe. L4D I think is the only game where the achievements make the game fun as you get rewarded for setting victims on fire or blowing up 20 dudes at once xD

[directhex]

Achievements, done well, serve as an excellent motivator to keep playing a game past "the end", by presenting formalized post-game challenges to approach & overcome

[jackvdbuk]

Achievements, done well, serve as an excellent motivator to keep playing a game past "the end", by presenting formalized post-game challenges to approach & overcome

agree totally, alot of games i have spent twice as long on just because of achievements.. thought i give up on most as some are incredibly hard!!

[directhex]

agree totally, alot of games i have spent twice as long on just because of achievements.. thought i give up on most as some are incredibly hard!!

Yet rewarding

Dead Rising's a bastard though. At least I 1000'd Viva Pinata!

[funke_munke]

I personally see no harm in them, if they are included and you don't want to do them, then just ignore!

[unreal]

I personally see no harm in them, if they are included and you don't want to do them, then just ignore!

Exactly! They are no harm and wouldn't spoil a game

I agree exactly on what Directhex said - it sets motivational challenges (a bit like the classic thrill of high scores) that extend the life of a game, and really to me adds more fun expecially with really well made achievements (Like on L4D, TF2, etc).

[danroyle]

i find on a good game they wilol amke me play it more to get them but on a crap game less keen.

the ones that get me are the ones to beat EA developer/mods on the ea games i have never managed toi find an EA mod on line to play it bugged me on NFS carbon on the pc as it wasnt an achievement as such you needed it to get an unlock on a part and never could.

i like the steam ones on L4D and such very unintrusive into your game, pop up very quickly and unnoticed alot of the time.

[Grey M@a]

It's a double sided sword though. Yes achievements can extend the life of the game and make you go back to it, but the game should be good enough anyway to make you come back. If the game is only worth going back to for an achievement or two it's missed its mark and not good enough in the first place to warrant a second/third/fourth.... play through.

Let's take Dawn of War 2 for example (as we are talking about achievements in PC games) that has achievements but it was a crap game in comparison to DoW 1 and it's expansions. I have played half of DoW2 and still not felt the urge to go back to it, yet DoW1 I play constantly. The achievements meant nothing to that game and certainly didn't make me go back to play the game again in any hurry, only now I am working through it again. On the flip side of this, STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl, not a single achievement in sight but yet I have played that game through around 12 times now, got all the endings and explored places I never did the previous run through.

If the game is good you will go back to it regardless of achievements, if a game needs an achievement to get the player back to the game then there is something missing in the game itself.

[kalniel]

Well, I admit, Asteroids doesn't have the best gameplay, but I played it again and again to try and get higher on the leaderboard

[Grey M@a]

Well, I admit, Asteroids doesn't have the best gameplay, but I played it again and again to try and get higher on the leaderboard

Exactly

How many times do you go back to the likes of Mario on the NES or Asteroids or Robotron etc. You would spend months going back to them as they are amazing games Back in the day you played a game as it was fun to play, today all you hear is kids talk about graphics. Games have long moved on from the gameplay/story in place of "we must have killer graphics" and people bragging that they nearly have all the achievements in a game. It doesn't make you any better at the game tbh, its a tool for bragging rights in my eyes.

[kalniel]

Well kind of, but my point was that the leaderboard/score was a big driving factor in playing it again. Not the gameplay, which was, frankly, quite dull after a few minutes.

[Grey M@a]

Well kind of, but my point was that the leaderboard/score was a big driving factor in playing it again. Not the gameplay, which was, frankly, quite dull after a few minutes.

I was more a Robotron fan so asteroids was a spare time game here and there for me. Another example, Speed Ball 2 Brutal Deluxe. With friends that game was on constantly on the Mega Drive.

[jim]

It all depends really - some of them are really tempting to achieve. Defense Grid on Steam springs to mind, it just managed to add a bit more to the game - things like only use one type of tower, or complete the level without a single critter escaping. One of my favourite things from old was the idea of completing challenges to unlock extra content, like Heroes of the Pacific, where you had to complete each level on the highest difficulty settings to get upgrade points, which got you later and improved models of whichever plane you wanted to improve - it was great fun.

Other games though are just dreary, like Assassin's Creed with "collect the flags", which was like a treasure hunt with no map and no clues, and "kill these men", which was virtually the same, just with elements of typing of the dead with a bit less structure. And then, at the end of all this, do you get to play Assassin's Creed football? Or Assassin's Creed Assassinate-a-mole? No, you get a poxy e-sticker "achievement" that you can show off to your mates in the vague hope that they bow at the end of your mind-blowing e-penis.

[slugs]

ive ignored them really in pc games and looked at them a little on my xbox 360. ive found that when i do take notice of the achievements they where multiplayer ones and people have given up on the game by then

[Platinum]

Personally I think its a good idea, adds more to the game and when the achievements are thought out well it can add a lot more gameplay to a title.
I think GFWL should be great for the PC gaming if done right, I like the fact that you use the same account as you do on Xbox so you can message ect your Xbox mates when in game.
Also I would like to see the ability on more games for PC gamers to play Xbox gamers online and vice versa on games that dont give a advantage to one platform, Anything bar FPS really.