X3F Achievements 101: The Way the World Ends

Welcome to another edition of the weekly Gamerscore whoring extravaganza, X3F Achievements 101. As usual, I'll discuss the latest in unlocking Achievements, or discuss any news that's especially pertinent to the Achievement obsessed. This week covers the painful to play, yet easy to complete Fuzion Frenzy 2, the near perfect list for Halo 3, and the just released Orange Box. All that and more is available after the break, so dive in.

So, prior to Halo 3 landing on store shelves everywhere on September 25th, I got my hands dirty with Fuzion Frenzy 2. Now, for those who want the least exposure to this possible, which is a personal recommendation, you're going to want to do the main tournament requiring you to only dominate 2 planets. Doing that with each character should net you most of the Achievements, including unlocking all minigames, and if you try to mix up what planets you play with the six characters, you can almost play all of them when done. The offline Achievements in FF2 are pretty easy, if you set the AI to easy, and most certainly turn the Announcer's voice volume down to zero.

The online Achievements in Fuzion Frenzy 2 are also very straightforward. The only problem is that you need at least one other human to be playing the game at the time, which right now, is impossible. That being said, Geoff from RoosterTeeth, who was the guest on our 35th Fancast, will be playing with myself tonight at 8 PM ET/ 5 PM PT, and you're welcome to message me if you want to join in on the festivities. We'll only be playing for an hour or so, but we should be able to get through the custom games and mini games.

Halo 3 hit, and though the Achievements were discovered back in June, actually playing the game verified how well the Achievements were done for the FPS. The Gamerscore balance was overall well done. Being able to complete the game on Legendary nets you a total of 655 Gamerscore, and that's not including skulls or meta game Achievements. The online ones are nice, and although the requirement for them to be acquired in Lone Wolves matches is slightly frustrating.

Currently I have 4 Achievements yet to unlock with 3 of them being multiplayer only. I need "Two for One" with the Spartan Laser, "Steppin' Razor", a.k.a Triple Kill with the Sword, and an Overkill. "We're in for some Chop" can be acquired in Campaign so I can grab it whenever I want. I personally would have liked to have seen these unlockable in ranked Team games, as it still is challenging, but opportunities to kill two people in a vehicle with the Laser is more likely in Valhalla than in an Oddball game on Snowbound. Either way, I'm at 980 Gamerscore in the game and hopefully I'll get them sooner rather than later.

La Boîte Orange (or The Orange Box for those of you in the States) came out last Wednesday, with an unprecedented 99 Achievements. Still topping out at 1000 Gamerscore, and spreading out across 5 different games, or 3 IPs, depending how you look at it., it does another good job of balancing the Achievements around the titles. Portal and Team Fortress 2 have been getting most of my playtime from the package. TF2 has nice Achievements that can be acquired in Player Matches as well as Ranked, and promote good teamwork to own n00bs on each map. The obligatory "cumulative kills" Achievement is present, though only requires 1000 kills, which in fact requires you to play the game. They also have some for specific classes as well as an overarching Achievement for playing a complete round as one class. I also appreciate the ability to completely customize the controls to make the transition from on FPS to another a little less jarring. You can even give a command multiple inputs, such as reloading with both RB or X, depending on whichever you do by habit at the moment. I still need to work my way through Half Life 2's 3 components.

On October 1st, I was awarded MVP status by Microsoft. At that point, I felt I had accomplished virtually all that I wanted to with this Achievement Streak that I've been plugging away at. Given that, I felt it would actually be a good time to answer the question I posed to myself in late November of 2005. The only problem was that I kept playing games and getting Achievements throughout the week. Once Friday, October 5th, rolled around I got into a game with some friends to play some Co-Op on Halo 3. Now, this included one friend of mine that I've gotten at least 6 of the 9 meta game Achievements with. He asked if I wanted to do one of the levels with scoring on, and after a moment's pause, I decided we should just play for the rest of the night on through midnight. It was a lot of fun, and when 11:55 PM rolled around we had just defeated Guilty Spark, entering the last chapter of Halo 3's campaign: 'The Way the World Ends." I felt that was fitting. We continued to play past 12:01 AM of the 6th, thus bringing my consecutive streak to a close. So, as it stands the record I set was for 681 days, from November 22nd 2005 to October 4th, 2007. Sure, the number isn't anything special, but definitely nothing to scoff at. It feels quite liberating, actually. And I'm grateful that something that started out so simple has gotten the acknowledgement it has.

That all being said, that doesn't mean that I've A) stopped playing games or B) lost interest in getting Achievements. Evidence of this can be seen in the latest Gamerscore Milestone that I hit: 50,000. Next up on the list is 55,000 then 55,555. I may try to pull of 54,321 to mirror my original 12,345, but I'll have to look at what's available to end the score off in a 6 or 1, then find something to bring it back to 5 or 0. Well, that's about it for this edition of Achievements 101, as always, you're welcome to leave your feedback in the comments below or via the means listed below.

Email: david [at] xbox360fanboy [dot] com | Subject: Achievements
MSN: knuckles_dawson@hotmail.com | AIM: Knuckles Dawson
Xbox.com Profile | XBL Message | MGC Profile | 360voice Profile