When i first purchased a XBOX 360 i wondered to myself what the hell the "Achievement
Unlocked" pop up was all about. I was still used to the old fashion way of gaming, complete
a game up to the point of satisfaction and then move on. Up until the point of getting XBOX
Live i didn't pay any attention to this score. Games would pretty much give you the full
1000GP at the moment you purchased it (Fight Night Round 3?). As time progressed and
my Gamerscore rose into the thousands i begun to be more and more inclined towards
increasing my points. Knowing full well that they had no functional use other then bragging
rights.

I recently completed all the Call of Duty 4 achievements and i was over the moon. Being
one of the hardest challenges since completing Vegas 1 on Realistic. I had no intention of
getting all the achievements for COD4 but seeing as i love the game so much. I wanted to
get the most out of it as possible and wanted to kill some time before the new maps were
released.

There is certain games that i personally think are made better by achievements, GTAIV is
one of them. Although it has some MULTIPLAYER based achievements (which i don't tend to
get on with) i have enjoyed doing what is asked of you. Outrunning 4 Stars, Landing the
Stunt Jumps, Finding the Packages, Delivering the Cars, Killing the Police's Most Wanted and
the various others have probably added another 20+ hours to the game. Normally i
wouldn't be bothered with the Stunt Jumps and even less with the Pigeons but i enjoy
exploring GTAIV that doing said challenges is good fun. Even if my GTAIV disc is constantly
crashing!

Now i don't buy into the whole getting 1000/1000GP for every game because i personally
think that is a bit sad. I would never play a game just for this reason. I see a lot of sites
lately that consist of aiding you to get more points out of your games. I can imagine there
is a fair few people out there who will spend hours of there time just getting mediocre
achievements for the sake of it.

Microsoft have probably came up with a idea that will be implemented into consoles for
years to come. The chance to show how amazing or obsessed you are/with at games. I
know PS3 has some kind of Trophy Room and that sounds pretty cool as well.

So in saying all that i wondered what most people thought about achievements. Do they
spend too much time searching for the elusive points? or do they just feel content when
they get a surprise pop up on screen?

Maybe you could post your Gamercard if you have a massive score and want to show off
how big it is...