Minesweeper, Now With Achievements

[The Wooster]

Minesweeper, Now With Achievements

Soon, you'll be able to boost your gamerscore with Minesweeper, Solitaire and Mahjong.

In the run up to the release of Windows 8, Microsoft will be updating a handful of the operating system's productivity-butchering inbuilt games, adding achievements in the process.

According to Xbox360Achievements.org, Minesweeper, Solitaire and Mahjong are all going to become vastly more appealing to cheevo hunters. Minesweeper, re-branded as Windows Minesweeper, will sport four achievements. You unlock one completing a game, another for completing a game on each board size, a third for completing a game without using any flags and one for triggering a mine - which is kind of stretching the definition of "achievement," in my humble opinion.

At this point, you might be tempted to make a joke about Microsoft slipping achievements into its office programs, but that's not quite as ludicrous as it sounds. Visual Studio 2012 already has some 48 achievements [http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/C9Team/Announcing-Achievements-For-Visual-Studio-2012-RC] to keep coders motivated.

This won't be the first time Microsoft has added achievements to its legendary time-wasters. Both Minesweeper and Solitaire are available on Windows 7 phones, and both come with a bundle of achievements.

Source: Xbox360Achievements.org [http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game/minesweeper-w8/achievements/] via RockPaperShotgun [http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/08/07/the-end-times-achievements-for-minesweeper/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RockPaperShotgun+%28Rock%2C+Paper%2C+Shotgun%29&utm_content=Google+Reader]



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[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Interesting idea. I do like achievements. As long as Microsoft doesn't charge for the new versions, that's fine by me.

And an achievement for failing isn't that unique. I know that on Dead or Alive 4, you can't get some of the achievements until you lose several online matches, since you start at C rank, and the letters go all the way down to E.

 

[AstylahAthrys]

Solitaire. Achievements.

SOLITAIRE. Achievements.

My mother can get achievements.

Excuse me as I try to come to terms with that idea.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Nope, still not buying Windows 8 Microsoft.

 

[DJ_DEnM]

Omfg. I almost punched the screen at the idea of this.[footnote]I need to control my anger...[/footnote]

This is absolutely ridiculous! The only upside to this is that they aren't making you pay for it. Otherwise I'd lose all faith in Microsoft.

 

[oliver.begg]

you have faith in microsoft... i know some really good shrinks, they can help you

 

[ThePS1Fan]

Ah, good to see they're keeping with modern achievements being more of an insult than anything by making one for opening the game. Maybe Win8 will have a whole set of OS achievements. "You turned on your PC" "You got the achievement for turning on your PC" ect.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Dayum, I want to play me some Visual Studio 2012, see y'all on XboX LIVE.

or GFWL. Or something.


"We are excited to announce a version of Visual Studio Achievements that works on Visual Studio 2012 RC. Running this version of the extension will enable you to unlock a new achievement called Brave New World, which is unlocked when you create or open a project when running Visual Studio 2012 RC on Windows 8 RP. Expect lots more Windows 8 oriented achievements coming soon!"

 

[weirdee]

Wait, the flags are there as a good habit tool...it's a challenge to bother to mark every flag instead of just blitzing through recklessly.

 

[EHKOS]

Whatever happened to Tai-Pei? That game was awesome.

 

[surg3n]

What about Freecell? - that's about the only Windows game that I play.

Myself, well I miss that old WEP (windows entertainment pack), with the Tetris etc - coffee breaks were more entertaining back then, with the Windows95 and the nervous yuppie-remnant managers, more interested in retaining their job than hassling anyone about games .

 

[Eleima]

What about Freecell? - that's about the only Windows game that I play.

Myself, well I miss that old WEP (windows entertainment pack), with the Tetris etc - coffee breaks were more entertaining back then, with the Windows95 and the nervous yuppie-remnant managers, more interested in retaining their job than hassling anyone about games .

I miss the days when the Windows Entertainment Pack included SkiFree [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkiFree].
Achievements for Minesweeper? Sure, why not, I guess... You seem to unlock achievements for just about anything, nowadays... [http://www.splitreason.com/product/622]

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Really?

More than a few X360 games give you the Bleep-Bloop just for starting the game. The very concept of acheivables has been stripped of what little dignity they had left.

 

[SonicWaffle]

You unlock one completing a game, another for completing a game on each board size, a third for completing a game without using any flags and one for triggering a mine - which is kind of stretching the definition of "achievement," in my humble opinion.

I really don't see how that's any worse than some full price games, TBH. Probably the most blatant I've encountered was Godfather 2's 'mob face', which awarded 5G for creating a character. The only way you can fail that achievement is by not turning the game on, though honestly I'd recommend that over the alternative.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Achievements? In Minesweeper? The end is nigh.

Ah, good to see they're keeping with modern achievements being more of an insult than anything by making one for opening the game. Maybe Win8 will have a whole set of OS achievements. "You turned on your PC" "You got the achievement for turning on your PC" ect.

I think this idea would be really funny. I've a few suggestions for possible achievements;

Fired Fox - Have only Internet Explorer as an installed web browser
Pixel Hunt - Spend an hour trying to find where we moved the shut down button
The Big Bing - Use Bing search engine exclusively for a year
Fresh Outlook - Have a outlook account lined to Windows 8
Zune out the world - Defy the mainstream and connect a Zune to your compter
Would like some help? - Find the hidden paper clip easter egg in the OS
This achievement has encountered an illegal operation... - Experience your first system crash
CTRL, ALT, DELETE - Experience over 10 system crashes
The Blues - Get a Blue Screen of Death and reinstall everything. Pray that you kept backups.