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"The Biggest Leap Forward in Gaming this Generation is..."

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Tue 04/11/08 at 12:29
Regular
"Copyright: FM Inc."
Posts: 10,338
Achievements/Trophies!

We've had analogue sticks, 3D environments, rumble and online functionality over the previous generations, which all enhanced our gameplay.

So this generation I figure the achievement/trophy system is the big leap forward. The way I see it you can play through a game in 5-10 hours, but if they're planned out by the developers the achievements give you incentive to find out what else the game has to offer.

I remember Blue Dragon being a great example of well-designed achievements, you could literally play all the way through the storyline in around 40 hours and end up with a 5/1000 achievement score, which made you think... what else is there? And then you'd go hunting for all the extra fun stuff that, had you gone looking for it earlier, would have really enhanced your main gameplay.

On top of that, achievements provide longevity to your games (arguably more than downloadable content does, but nowadays you can get DLC complete with extra achievements bundled which makes it a moot discussion).

Personally, being a biased 360 user, I think they really did a good job on the Achievements system by designing from the ground up a system that gives you bragging rights, extra incentive to explore your games more thoroughly, an extra challenge (anyone who got 1000/1000 in Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat will know what I mean); Achievements are to all intents and purposes a free minigame tacked onto the game you just bought.

I don't know much about the PS3 Trophy system but from what I've seen they've gone about it the right way, the incentive is there, they've got different Tiers of achievements grading them by difficulty (which is neat, on the 360 there's no real indicator on how difficult an achievement is to get) and the RPG fan in me likes the 'level up' system they've introduced, just annoying that it's not currently implemented in every title, which to me reminds me that Sony always did do things their way rather than the way I want them to.

Hippyman summed it up in another thread by saying:

"...it's the achievement hunter in me that is causing the trouble...no longer play games for the fun of them - just to get the points".

For me it's sort of the same, I choose my games carefully based on how much fun they're going to be, and if I really enjoy them I'll then 'work' for the achievements, which I wouldn't do if that wasn't in itself a fun pasttime. I don't think I'd go so far as to buy a naff game just for the achievements though, although it seems to me to be a great way to market a naff game. :)

I have absolutely no idea what the next big leap forward in gaming will be. In the same way that I can't imagine current games without analogue sticks, 3D environments, rumble, online functionality and achievements, I just can't for the life of me think what the next big advance will be.

Probably something to do with 'discless' media combined with electronic distribution. No more disc read errors, no more scratched discs, no more lost in the post.
Fri 07/11/08 at 03:05
Regular
"no,not a sandwich!"
Posts: 27
wow
Wed 05/11/08 at 09:19
Regular
"THFC"
Posts: 4,488
pete_21 wrote:
> Motion sensors that attach to your wrists and ankles would be
> cool.Imagine the neighbour's peering through your front window as
> you attempt to perform Ken's whirlwind kicks playing
> Streetfighter !.

But imagine how funny it would be as you go to perform it an unsuspecting guest walks in and takes it full blow to the head. That would be great, or if you had the family playing it at Christmas lol
Wed 05/11/08 at 08:37
Regular
"I like turtles"
Posts: 5,368
Motion sensors that attach to your wrists and ankles would be cool.Imagine the neighbour's peering through your front window as you attempt to perform Ken's whirlwind kicks playing Streetfighter !.
Tue 04/11/08 at 13:48
Moderator
"possibly impossible"
Posts: 24,985
MS did get it incredibly right with Achievements. i personally see them as an enhancement to a game and don't go out of my way to get them (as you can see from my fairly low Achievements), but they're great to have, especially when they pop up on your screen to surprise you!

The PS3 system was slow coming because, apparently, they were trying to plan for it to be in home originally and then saw that Home would take too long so patched it in before hand. This was after many Sony users complained they didn't have them and were missing out. It does mean that when the open Beta of Home comes out this month we'll have some trophy cabinets full of 3D trophies.
Tue 04/11/08 at 12:56
Regular
"THFC"
Posts: 4,488
I love the achievement aspect on the Xbox, not seen the trophies on the ps3 as i have not played it for some time, but it keeps games alive for longer and keeps people like me interested in doing it, the bragging rights for the fact i got this achievement and you ain't is great. Really like them and am working hard on getting that Gamerscore as high as possible lol
Tue 04/11/08 at 12:48
Regular
"@optometrytweet"
Posts: 4,686
FantasyMeister wrote:
> Hippyman summed it up in another thread by saying:
>
> "...it's the achievement hunter in me that is causing the
> trouble...no longer play games for the fun of them - just to get
> the points".

It's a very true point that I wish was not the case. I have gotten better recently, but I have played through some rubbish to get them. Fable 2, Dead Space and a few other titles I have got/planning to get have been entertaining, so your mini-game analogy of the achievement/trophy system is pretty accurate.

I think now that I have climbed to the near top of my Game branch's leaderboard, I will be quite happy to play for the game themselves (in honesty thats where I fell behind...Rock Band and COD4 online...not many achievements to be had)

> I have absolutely no idea what the next big leap forward in
> gaming will be. In the same way that I can't imagine current
> games without analogue sticks, 3D environments, rumble, online
> functionality and achievements, I just can't for the life of me
> think what the next big advance will be.

I often wonder the same...could it be that the next step is virtual reality? I kind of hope that the next interesting thing would be complete integration of games whilst being played online. Kind of a virtual world where you could have an Ace Combat airfight going on over a round of Tiger Woods (whilst watching a Halo deathmatch in the background). I think it could be done, but I guess it never will.

> Probably something to do with 'discless' media combined with
> electronic distribution. No more disc read errors, no more
> scratched discs, no more lost in the post.

Funny you should say that...the update available very soon (3 weeks according to the 360 dashboard) will give the option to copy the game to the harddrive, although you will have to have the disc in the drive to play it to counter piracy... but it is being introduced to lower thhe power consumption of the console, reduce loading times and reduce the noise of the disc in the tray.

And I even believe that the XBLive Arcade has already introduced discless media distribution (small scale, but can be done on a bigger scale I'd imagine in the future -now that high speed broadband is becoming the norm).

But other than what I've heard, I can't imagine what the next big step would be either.
Tue 04/11/08 at 12:29
Regular
"Copyright: FM Inc."
Posts: 10,338
Achievements/Trophies!

We've had analogue sticks, 3D environments, rumble and online functionality over the previous generations, which all enhanced our gameplay.

So this generation I figure the achievement/trophy system is the big leap forward. The way I see it you can play through a game in 5-10 hours, but if they're planned out by the developers the achievements give you incentive to find out what else the game has to offer.

I remember Blue Dragon being a great example of well-designed achievements, you could literally play all the way through the storyline in around 40 hours and end up with a 5/1000 achievement score, which made you think... what else is there? And then you'd go hunting for all the extra fun stuff that, had you gone looking for it earlier, would have really enhanced your main gameplay.

On top of that, achievements provide longevity to your games (arguably more than downloadable content does, but nowadays you can get DLC complete with extra achievements bundled which makes it a moot discussion).

Personally, being a biased 360 user, I think they really did a good job on the Achievements system by designing from the ground up a system that gives you bragging rights, extra incentive to explore your games more thoroughly, an extra challenge (anyone who got 1000/1000 in Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat will know what I mean); Achievements are to all intents and purposes a free minigame tacked onto the game you just bought.

I don't know much about the PS3 Trophy system but from what I've seen they've gone about it the right way, the incentive is there, they've got different Tiers of achievements grading them by difficulty (which is neat, on the 360 there's no real indicator on how difficult an achievement is to get) and the RPG fan in me likes the 'level up' system they've introduced, just annoying that it's not currently implemented in every title, which to me reminds me that Sony always did do things their way rather than the way I want them to.

Hippyman summed it up in another thread by saying:

"...it's the achievement hunter in me that is causing the trouble...no longer play games for the fun of them - just to get the points".

For me it's sort of the same, I choose my games carefully based on how much fun they're going to be, and if I really enjoy them I'll then 'work' for the achievements, which I wouldn't do if that wasn't in itself a fun pasttime. I don't think I'd go so far as to buy a naff game just for the achievements though, although it seems to me to be a great way to market a naff game. :)

I have absolutely no idea what the next big leap forward in gaming will be. In the same way that I can't imagine current games without analogue sticks, 3D environments, rumble, online functionality and achievements, I just can't for the life of me think what the next big advance will be.

Probably something to do with 'discless' media combined with electronic distribution. No more disc read errors, no more scratched discs, no more lost in the post.

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