Keeping me entertained

So it was work night for the Mrs last night, which meant that the wife was busy working on another set of accounts and I had to amuse myself for a few hours. And I found myself, after flicking half-heartedly through the television channels to determine that there was nothing on (well, nothing that we weren't already recording for watching when the work was done anyway), turning my attention to the XBox. And I must admit it struck me that the console really did have very good "staying power" and was really maintaining my interest remarkably well.

And this is quite impressive because I'm not, and never really have been, a "Hardcore Gamer", I like video games, they really do amuse me for a few hours. However, in the past, previous consoles have usually began to gather dust quite rapidly after the initial "wow" factor of getting them home has subsided. So what is it that's keeping me hooked this time around?

Now the games are good, and the graphics are stunning, but I think there is something else which keeps the interest for me, and that's the way that achievements have been worked into every title released for the XBox 360.

For the uninitiated, each full retail game for the XBox 360 has 1000 gamerpoints to "achieve" in it (each arcade release having 200). Gamerpoints are awarded to the player by unlocking certain achievements which are attained by completing some aspect of the game. You may, for instance, unlock an achievement for finishing a level or for killing 1,000 zombies. You get the idea. These gamerpoints are then visible on your gamer profile (cast your eyes upwards).

Now there are definitely achievement obsessives out there on XBox Live who feel they have to get a 1000 points out of every game and basically live and game to maximise their gamerscore. Indeed these people will often rent awful games that they know it's easy to get a 1000 points out of the game, just so they can wob their gamerscore on the table and say "get a load of them points". I am not a gamerscore whore, and have no need to have my ego stroked in that way.

However, some of the achievements are certainly extending the longevity of the games I already own, especially the well crafted ones that hint at something else to discover in the game, or an alternate approach to take. They give re-play value to titles, they raise the bar on the goals of the game beyond merely completing it. There is also often a nice variety of solo and online play in most achievements. Without them, I might have given up on a game or traded it much earlier or, and this is worse, missed out on a whole aspect of a game because the achievement is linked to So it is the achievements idea that I attribute my continued interest in the 360. It's another example of how Microsoft got something really right (and, no, I cannot believe I actually typed that sentence, either) when putting together the XBox, beyond just the hardware of the console but also the supporting online connectivity and community that really does make the gaming experience more rewarding.