I never minded much about achievements. I like that they exist, but I won't do anything annoying for them unless it's something annoying that I really like doing. And I agree that there shouldn't be achievements for just progressing through the game, only for maybe finishing it or getting the "good" ending of a level. If they
do, at least they should have interesting names - even though Call of Duty 4 had an achievement just for completing a level
and for doing that above a difficulty level, at least they had interesting name, and I liked how the achievement for just completing the level had the playful punny tone of most achievements and the ones for completing it at a harder difficulty sound serious and foreboding. Much better than, say, Mirror's Edge "Chapter X Completion Thingy" achievements, which really fail at making me think I've achieved something.
Also, why so many punny names? I found it interesting how both The Orange Box and GTAIV had an achievement called "Under the Radar", one involving flying under things but no radars, and other involving radars but nothing about being under them.
Strange that no one mentioned Mass Effect, in which unlocking achievements actually has in-game effects (i.e., killing, um, a gazillion dudes with your shotgun for the Shotgun Mastery achievement allows you to start new characters with the Shotgun ability, etc.). It's something that could work well for some games (or, maybe not).
mym1nd said:
My favourite is in The Darkness. it is called Romantic and only get syou 10 points but is grea. You get to sit down with your girl if you wish and watch tv for a while. Now at anypoint you can get up, walk out, and blow people away. But if you stay there long enough for her to fall asleep on your lap...
I remember that in GameFAQs a guy actually did that for two hours, until the movie they were watching (To Kill a Mockingbird) ended, thinking that there was an achievement for that. I'm not sure there shouldn't be one.