I've discussed the Xbox 360's achievements system before, but tonight it's not until tonight that I was able to fully appreciate the what it could truly do. Crackdown has been on my mind lately. Not because the game I can't stop playing the game -- the new DLC really is needed -- but because I finally got 2 important achievements. Master Agent and, most of all, Free Runner, the one where you need to get all 500 Agility Orbs.
I was really pissed of at that thing and had actually stopped playing and had migrated to the PS3 to play Motorstorm and God Of War. Tonight, while trying to finally get Master Agent status, I happened upon the last orb. I had been at 499 for a few weeks now, been around the tallest building in the game at least 10 times and I finally found it tonight. It just happened to be located in Lost Muertos, 2 feets above the ground, in the middle of the starting island.
While I'm kinda pissed about having missed it the first 30 times I went around that island, it really made me appreciate the concept of achievements. It's not really about the total gamerscore, it's about what it can do to push yourself to play further and to do more. I never would have attempted to do this on any other system.
Can't wait to see what Sony does with the Trophies system in Home. Hopefully that accomplishes the same thing and if it can do that without computing a final score, it might just end up even better. Now if only Nintendo would do the same please.
