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The Quest for 1000Gs!!

I know that the Xbox community is split when it comes to gamer points and I am sure the Playstation fanboys are the same about trophies. I read forums all the time with people who have one thousand G on a list of games longer than Jack the Ripper’s hit list and I often wonder what sort of person it takes to get the maximum score on an Xbox release.

When I talk about a thousand points I am not interested in the Avatar style thousand where you just spam that ‘X’ key until you get five achievements. I am talking about the games where you need to spend some time and have some skill to be able to max out. The sort of achievements that are worth mentioning like the single bullet Half Life achievement or the Mile High Club in Call of Duty 4.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is one of the titles where I would like to get all the points available. The game is really challenging on veteran mode and there are a few, what I would term as silly, achievements. I am sitting with 31 out of 37 achievements and a gamer score of 770. Two of those six achievements are for gathering intelligence and the other ones are for completing levels on veteran mode. I am really struggling on this now.

I need to master headshots to get more achievements!

Another game that I really enjoy and would like to max out on is Mirrors Edge. This isn’t as challenging as Call of Duty 4 but it has a certain something that makes me want to beat my best times and run around climbing walls and fences until I really have to go to bed.

What is it that makes you (or me) want to make the climb to 1000Gs? For me it is a mixture of both challenge and fun. I am not the sort of person who must have all the points, I really have to enjoy the game and at the same time find it difficult. I have tried to get full points in Grand Theft Auto IV and it backfired on me by making me really fed up with a game that I loved. There is an achievement in there for ridding Liberty City of well over 200 pigeons and when I started on that I ended up shelving the game.

I seem to sit in the middle somewhere when it comes to achievements. I do not hate them but I do like to gain them because it makes me better than you… kidding.

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19 responses to “The Quest for 1000Gs!!”

  1. Andy Turner avatar
    Andy Turner

    I quite enjoy achievements and they do probably give me the incentive to strive for better scores or bother to go back and play games on that unlocked harder difficulty that in none achievement days I may not have bothered with…it’s certainly always my aim to get 1000 out of every game but rarely actually do as I tend to draw the line at anything that sounds hideously un-fun such as searching huge epic DVD filling cities for 8.6 trillion tiny items to net myself the last 10, and as much fun as gears is I’m really not sure I’m going to play enough to kill 100,00 is it?

    But if I ever do get 1000 or close to that magic number I do always sit back with a sense of satisfaction knowing that I beat all of the challenges the games developers set for me and can put it away on my shelf without feeling guilty…

    PS

    Mercenaries 2 I’m really sorry I promise I’ll finish you one day.

    PPS : Bullet Witch I’m NOT sorry you just count yourself lucky you were £5 or you’d still be in that pre-owned bin or worse

  2. Garvaos avatar
    Garvaos

    When it comes to me and achievement points i fall in between 2 categories. The achievement whore who tries to milk every game or the casual achievement getter. I haven’t managed to max out 1000/1000 out of a game yet, and like yourself I’m trying to do so on mirrors edge.

    If i see that the achievements in a game are stupid like kill 1 million enemies in 3.3 seconds then i know I won’t have a chance

  3. lordstar avatar
    lordstar

    its funny how back in the day of pac man and right up until Street fighter 2 was pretty much point driven. Then it was about completing the game and also beating your mates to a pulp with your skills over your score. Now its back to the start again with people bragging overe there 100% complet scores.

  4. Tony avatar
    Tony

    re: Andy

    Good luck getting all the achievement points on Mercenaries 2. Mine glitched quite badly (what a surprise on Mercs 2, eh?) and I didn’t get one or two of them that I should have.

    I suppose I could start a new game but who’s to say it wouldn’t happen again?

    I don’t think I’ve ever got 1000 points from a game and I doubt I ever will. I’d rather move on to a new game than keep plugging away at a game that I’m effectively done with. Gaming is supposed to be about fun, not cock waving points, after all!

  5. Dave avatar
    Dave

    I try to get achievements if there is a reasonable challenge behind it. Veteran mode on CoD4 is a good one as you said.

    Stuff like Bioshock’s achievement for completing the game on hard without ever using a vita-chamber are just mental.

    The worst one I’ve seen is the Iron Bladder achievement on Rock Band 2: Complete the Endless Setlist without ever pausing the game..that’s all 84 tracks in a row without pausing once or failing.

    One of my friends calculated that it would take about 6 hours to finish – truly mental!

  6. avatar
    Anonymous

    king kong i hear is the easiest 1000 points in any game ever I hear. . . Just a thought.

    but then i pride myself on not having any shit game points on my XBL account.

  7. Andy Turner avatar
    Andy Turner

    King Kong isn’t such a bad game if the price is right…I got it in a sale after the first wave of releases died down…never finished it, but not a bad little game.

    That iron bladder achievement sounds epic…is it one of those awful ones that requires you to almost die and then rewards you 5g?

  8. Lorna avatar
    Lorna

    Great post. I dislike the ‘spam the casual games to cream off easy points approach’, but there is something satisfying about tackling the big 1000g on a proper game. There is a sense of completion, not to mention relief and besides, those bars on your dash look noce and neat all full up 🙂

    I will always attempt to get a 1000g, though some games make my head sink into my hands…Dark Sector is one of them. I’ll have to attempt an unnecessary online mode, not to mention playing it more than once if I want to get the full 1000g. This is where 100% completion can bite you in there arse. If it’s a game that is glitched or flawed or just boring, you are left to either let it go and walk away muttering, knowing that you won’t have hit the 100% for it, or you have to knuckle down and persist with a game that is a pain in the arse. And yet, we do it to ourselves…

    @Dave…you’ve almost put me off starting Bioshock now! I have a feeling that I’ll never 100% it…off with it’s head.

  9. Fireclown avatar
    Fireclown

    Yeah, kinda mixed about this myself. Over by on my own site we are setting up the Gamer Tags for who is involved in our Magazine. It’s friendly rivalry between sites of a similar genre. Make a competition from it an all that milarky.

    I have a problem though. I don’t like the idea of playing a game like Guitar Hero for over 50 hours just to get a 20g Acheivement. Although impressive to have: Big ‘Ol Pile of Wins: Win 500 Online Ranked matches, just don’t want to waste my time doing it.

  10. Edd avatar
    Edd

    @Dave – The ES2 in RB2 takes 6h, 15 mins. The achievement name is totally true ;D

    I just play the games that i enjoy. And i often find that the achievements give me a goal, a purpose to be playing. Obviously, if it’s a story-based game, then that takes priority, but i love going through all the achievements i can and getting the most out of a game that i can. The feeling of getting 100% achievements in a game is so rewarding, and it’s just such a great concept that a lot of publishers utilise so well to add more longevity and fun to their games.

  11. James avatar
    James

    I think my obsessive achievement whoring days are in the past. I say think because while I still get a geeky buzz from earning the full points in a game, especially in something as epic as Fallout 3, I no longer have the energy to sit at my Xbox at two in the morning, trading a million headshots or forcing myself through an incredibly frustrating level. I just have no desire to do that anymore.

    However for a good challenge I can wholeheartedly recommend The Orange Box. Not only does it have a daunting ninety-nine separate achievements for the full 1000 points but a lot of them are nicely spread out between the different games and are great fun to achieve. The Rocket Man and One Free Bullet achievements in particular really challenge the way you normally play the game.

  12. Michael avatar
    Michael

    I like to go for achievements that challenge me to play the game differently – The One Free Bullet – or just in terms of skill – any Call of Duty on Veteran mode. If I’m playing a story-heavy game, like Oblivion, I would have reaped all achievements as it can flesh out the world. Maybe.

    That BioShock one is crazy and almost screams that the developers knew Vitachambers would be abused in the way they were.

    Ages ago, I returned to playing Saints Row to gain more achievements/complete side missions only to find my save had been corrupted. Brilliant…

  13. Dave avatar
    Dave

    Lorna, don’t be too disheartened at Bioshock. That mental achievement only comes if you download the mini-expansion, so you can technically max out the gamerpoints without it 😉

    The Rock Band 2 Iron Bladder achievement is truly mental, although it isn’t dependent on your difficulty level.

    I think online achievements are silly. The original Gears is evidence of that. Players goign on and messing about trying to get achievements rather than win matches and play as a team.

    Lost Odyssey’s achievements are great, they give you incentive to max out your characters and make a kick-ass team. Makes the long journey that bit more rewarding.

  14. Lorna avatar
    Lorna

    Thanks Dave, Bioshock is one on my to-play pile and that’s a nice get around ;))

    I think Iron Bladder is damn crazy and I do resent online achievements as someone who doesn’t play often with others..ohh err 😀

  15. Duncan Aird avatar
    Duncan Aird

    I only have one game with 1000Gs (Indiana Jones… I love you Lego), but to me the main appeal is to get as much as I can out of a game I love.

    Gamerscore as a whole doesn’t bother me, but I show pride in playing games I loved to play. 🙂

    But strangely PS3 trophies never bothered me… maybe because they only did it to rip off Microsoft for no reason…

  16. The Rook avatar
    The Rook

    I played alot of games on the original Xbox but it was only when I got to the 360 and achievements and gamerscore started did I ever go back to playing a game a second time on a harder difficulty. I like my achievements and do try to max them out to the full 1000. I ahve done this on quite a few games. If I think I won’t get the full 1000 thought I try to get at least 750, always aiming for 75%.

    With the number of good quality games that came out from Oct – Dec I still have a few games to go back to to try and get more points.

    Whether, you go for the achievements to add to your gamerscore or not, I think the achievements have at least added a bit more life to the games. Sometimes, you just have to get a certain achievement, but 1000 points is nice to get too.

  17. MrCuddleswick avatar
    MrCuddleswick

    Nice article – I agree with what you’ve said, especially about the harder achievements being really tempting.

    I think of some of them as gaming badges of honour. If I see someone else with Mile High Club, or (believe me on this one, I’m trying for it at the moment and it’s no joke) all the diamonds on Far Cry 2, it’s a nice feeling to know you have a shared experience with a stranger.

  18. Matt avatar
    Matt

    Unfortunately I’m one of those sad, sad people who managed to wipe out the entire pigeon population from Liberty City. All two hundred of them, yes.

    I do have a fascination with getting achievements, but only if they’re either reasonably easy or reasonably fun to nab. Mass Effect’s achievements are easy because I love the game so much that I didn’t stop playing for most of last year, and Fable II’s achievements are just hilarious fun – kicking chickens, getting people drunk… all games should have achievements like that.

    That said, I’m only remotely close to getting a full 1000/1000 Gamerscore on Mass Effect and Call of Duty 4, with Fallout 3 following close behind. When it becomes a chore, it’s no longer worth it.

  19. Ben avatar
    Ben

    Crackdown had an awesome achievement set, I thought that was done really well. Good mix of story based ones, then you get the fun ones that you might not get until you go on a crazy rampage and a few multiplayer.

    Currently going for the achievement that I get if I get all Great People to appear in Civilization: Revolution. I’m down to just one appearing and its been that way for at least 10 games now.

    Not got a full 1000/1000 yet, but hope to one day…one day.

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