So many games these days throw in achievements related to collectibles. And it got me thinking about what games I have enjoyed collecting on and what ones annoyed me.
I think there are a number of factors that contribute to making a worthwhile collectible hunt.
A good collectible is one that can be done without the aid of a guide. This doesn't mean it needs to be easy. Burnout Paradise has a shitload of collectibles and takes a significant amount of time to do so. What Burnout Paradise does well is provide a reasonable tracking system. The map is divided into 6 locations with a counter for each so you at least know where to start your hunt. The collectibles are large and visible although some of them take a little bit to work out how to get them and may involve ramps and jumps to reach.
A good collectible rewards you for collecting. This can be done in a number of ways. On completing the Burnout Paradise collectibles you are rewarded with cars, Crackdown enhanced your stats when collecting orbs. Bioshock 2 provides background story in the form of audio recordings.
A good collectible stacks on subsequent playthroughs. Crackdown on new game+ kept your collectibles and stats from previous playthroughs allowing you to continue your hunt while getting into the game again.
It sort of goes without saying that the opposite of the above points are what makes a horrible collectible game.
Top of the list has to be Spiderman 3, Superman Returns and Assassins Creed. These games combined a huge map with well hidden collectibles. I dare say it would be possible to complete these games with only finding 1% of the collectibles. I would suggest it would be impossible to locate these collectibles without the assistance of a guide. And what do you get if you complete finding them, apart from the achievement, SFA.
This Week Completion Percentage: 69.94%
Last Weeks Completion Percentage: 70.15%
I got 11 out of 71 achievements required to keep me set for 80% at year end. Started Alpha Protocol
Current Focus Games: Battlefield:Bad Company, FEAR 2, Bioshock 2, Burnout Paradise, Alpha Protocol
Games last week:
Monday belonged to real life. Not too much action except on the WP7 and a shitter of a headache saw me head off to bed early.
Tuesdays gaming got a boost as my wife was called into work, the kids went to bed and I was all set from 7pm.
Capricious Kiwi and I managed to knock off another Kameo Time Attack achievement leaving just one more to go. Next a productive coop Burnout Paradise session. On the home stretch as far as BP online challenges go. Just 11 more required.
Wednesday gaming involved joining some random Burnout Paradise lobbies and finally provided me with 250 challenge completions and my last MP achievement in the game. I started doing some more single player racing. I'm gonna complete this soon
Thursday. I had a nice day off on Thursday and put in a couple of hours of FEAR 2. This got me thinking about the statement "Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics". Adding 30K to my XP total represented 3% towards my end goal. A somewhat depressing thought. But if I consider this from the perspective that I had 219K to go then 30K represents a bit over 13% of my remaining XP which cheers me up a bit.
Just as I was getting ready for kids sports Capricious Kiwi popped online so we had a crack at our last Kameo time attack. Stupid glitchy DLC took me an hour to get working leaving us 20 minutes before I had to take the kids to sports practice. We had a quick couple of goes, quick cause we sucked and ran out of time, then our third attempt we rocked! Achievement done! Capricious Kiwi is done with the game and I have finished the coop elements so four more single player achievements to go. Thanks CK! And I got the kids to sports on time
Thursday night came and time for our weekly Battlefield: Bad Company session. We have had great success locking down a server for us to get our awards at our leisure but this night it was too busy and we ended up playing Gold Rush. It was a good laugh and contributed to kills with some minor progress happening on the badge front. But I do hope to finish these sessions off soon. 1am finish is playing havoc with work the next day.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday belonged to real life. Work was super busy which was good, and then kids sports all day Saturday. My son had his first game of rugby for his new club and scored a try set up a couple of others and was denied a 2nd by an incompetent referee. The only fair thing was the ref was equally incompetent for both teams. The end result was our team won 45-20. Yay! Sunday was more work with only snippets of gaming time.
Plans this week.
The next few weeks are going to be interesting. The boss is away for three weeks so I am a one man band for that time. I am hoping that burst of activity we had last week will help keep things under control for the next few weeks so I may either get in a bit of gaming time at work OR I could be flat out busy and have little or no time for gaming.
Happy Gaming
