More Achievement Talk

So as I mentioned, I am an Xbox 360 achievement hunter. I love playing video games, and I love the extra layer of playability and gamerscore aspect of the achievements. As such, I have recently been going through games in which I have gained at least one achievement to see what I need to look into completing or playing more of. But like most gamers out there who played before they understood the far-reaching consequences, I have a few games in my list that I really wish I could get rid of. I am not going to create a new gamertag and start over though. I will live with my game choices and move onward.

Most of these games came out of renting games to see if I would like them or not (such as with the aforementioned Child of Eden). This is why I have games like this:

I'll admit that it was fun.

And this:

I've mentioned the princesses before, right?

The Kinect is tailor made to do these dance games that read the movement of the entire body and evaluate it to see if it matches what the pros are doing on screen. However, the prospect of dancing 1,000 kid songs in every language available on the disk to get all those achievements is not appealing to me. Yet, it is in my list, so I am stuck with it. If you don't play a game, and therefore, have 0 achievements, you can delete it. If you so much as grab one single achievement, you must continue to live with the shame of a single cheevo on that game in your game list. This versus the other shame of having that game in your list with a 100% completion on it. I'm not sure which is worse. That you can blame the kids for playing it on your profile or confirming that you committed the time to complete it.

Then there are games like this:

Tragically, the stare-off mini-game was cut from the final product.

I know what you're thinking: "But that's Transformers! It's gotta be awesome." That's exactly what I thought. I played this game on the Wii, and hated it. The controls were a nightmare. Then I got an Xbox, and figured that since I'd be using a controller, the issues I had with the Wii controls would be a thing of the past, and they were. However, the general play controls were still hideous, but that could just be me on car games since that's where I noticed most of my woes.

However, that game now has 2 achievements unlocked on my profile, so at some point (after what will likely be a sanity break after surviving Just Dance Kids 2), I will rent (or buy, if it is cheaper than renting) this game and try to get myself to 80%, which is my overall completion goal. Its problems are similar to this one:

Only the cover looks fun. Inside
this box is only tears.

When you say play control, you assume control is part of that equation. 2 achievements later, we decided this game was for the birds. Now it has its place of shame on my game list as well, waiting to be brought back to life (probably after one imbibes enough alcohol to not care how bad the controls are).

But beyond games that can actually be finished, there is this one:

I will credit it for the princesses' love of tribbles
before they saw Star Trek.

I've written before about the woes of this one. The game contains 10 (yes, 10) unobtainable achievements. An unobtainable achievement is a completionist's worst nightmare because that means that no matter what you do in this game, there are 10 achievements that you will never be able to get. I can get my 80% because I can get 40 out of 50 when I get to it, but 100% is impossible because the game's servers were taken down and haven't come back.

To my credit, I will revisit every one of these eventually to try and bring them to at least 80%, but I wish each and every one of these were gone from my list of games. Unfortunately, Microsoft has no intention of allowing people to do this at any time. Bummer.

Easily Offended

Every get offended over something? Did you ever stop to ask yourself why you got offended? Most people don't because they're too busy trying to think of something to do about the offense, but it is actually worth considering because believe it or not, you don't have to be offended at anything.

Really, there are two kinds of things that offend people. The more justifiable variety concerns insults (subtle or otherwise) that are directed specifically at you or someone close to you and done for the sole purpose of pissing you off. No, the person didn't touch you, but they sure wanted to push your buttons for some reason. I can understand that sort of offense. We should be nice to each other.

The other kind of offense is kind of stupid in my opinion, but more common than the first. I also find it unjustifiable in most cases. This is where you are offended by something that someone else did or said, but not only was it not directed at you or said about you, but you were neither part of the conversation nor in this person's sphere of influence at the time it occurred. Similarly, perhaps you were part of the conversation, but whatever was said was simply part of that person's demeanor and not intended to be offensive in the least (yeah, this one is where I run afoul of offense 99% of the time).

Examples of the first type of easy. They're insults. The second variety is just as easy. Her skirt is too short, so I'm offended. He said "poop," so I'm offended. His grass is too tall, so I'm offended (or embarrassed even). The word "embarrass" looks like "bare ass" so I'm offended. You said the word "ass" on your blog, so I'm offended. I saw you work that Rubik's cube while you were walking from point A to point B, and I think you were calling me stupid cause I can't do one, so I'm offended. Be careful what you put in that email because you might offend someone. You were making fun of troglodytes, and my sister is a troglodyte, so I'm offended. I would go on, but I'm afraid I might offend someone.

See what I did there?

At some point in that last paragraph, you might have chuckled at the preposterousness of my examples, but those are some things that might offend someone who is in the area, and that's the only criteria too. You mention someone too stupid to (insert action here), and all of a sudden, someone gets bent out of shape about it. You did say BOB was too stupid to (insert action here), but since Bob actually is too stupid to (insert action here), he raises a fuss.

Here's where it gets really sinister though. Ever heard of sexual harassment? It can be a legitimate problem in some workplaces, but most of the time, the opposite sex enjoys their friendly banter. However, if you look at most company policies surrounding it, all someone has to do is be offended by something you said or did to report you for it. A specific example given in one training video (yeah, they had to go and make training videos to hammer the point home) concerns a male with a calendar that features women. It states that the male in question can be reported for sexual harassment simply for the presence of such an item.

No, I've never owned such an item, nor have I ever been reported for harassment. I give it as an example of extreme offendedness.

Now, why would anyone be offended at something second hand like that? Some just like attention, and raising a fuss gives them that attention. Some are sensitive about certain aspects of their lives, and someone even talking about something similar makes them uncomfortable. A lot of offense I've seen has to do with people who are actually ashamed of something, and if you hit that topic, they get weird about it.

You know what being offended accomplishes? Nothing. Rather than get defensive as a result, you should really examine why it was you felt so offended. After all, if you were not the topic of conversation, the person who just issued the offense did nothing to you. In fact, they probably did not wish to offend anyone. It happened incidentally as a result of your mind interpreting their words to become something offensive. Somehow, this becomes the offender's problem when, in fact, it should be the person who was offended. But in our world, do they ever get the stern taking-to? No. It's the person who innocuously did something to cause the offense.

Everywhere we go, it seems we have to walk on egg shells or risk offending someone we don't even know. Yes, I've managed to offend a lot of people in my day because (honestly) smart people very easily offend stupid people. We manage to do this by being ourselves. Someone asks a question, and we give a very straight, simple answer, and by doing so, now they "feel stupid." Well, they didn't need our help to facilitate that feeling, and while some stupid person out there (don't get offended; just own it) was probably offended by that, don't be. After all, was I talking directly to you, or is this a blog for anyone to read? If you actually were offended by anything here, you should reevaluate your life and determine, psychologically, why you found me so offensive.

In all honesty, I'm just writing. I write to clear my head and share my thoughts. That feeling you get that you turn into offense can be used to your advantage to do a personal introspective. Examine why you feel offended at that moment by that action. After all, someone not talking to you did not issue any kind of insult, so it isn't their fault. It is actually your fault that you are offended. Words are just words. Yes, they can hurt, but at the same time, a sword not aimed at you can't hurt you unless you jump on it. If you jump on a sword, whose fault is it that you were injured? I assure you that the sword bearer will simply be confused, especially if you blame them for simply having the weapon in your presence since you have a tendency to jump on their blades.

Personally, I'm to the point where I can acknowledge what I might find offensive, but I never get "offended" by it. I assure you it isn't as taxing as getting worked up over every little thing that someone says.

Disney Infinity

So a few weeks ago, Disney Infinity hit the shelves. I had a pre-order on the thing, and immediately dropped too much money on it because there were some good sales on its stuff (seriously, the figures and playsets were half off). The expectation of the world was "Disney's Skylanders," but after much playing of the game, I can tell you that it is definitely not Skylanders.

Now, the "buy stuff to play" is totally the Skylanders model that Activision saved its can with a couple years ago, but the game it is attached to is nothing short of genius. I sat down expecting to play a linear, story-driven game that progressed, predictably, through some Disney themed worlds, but instead, I was dropped into an open world where I was free to build and change it however I wished. I dropped on a playset, and while I was initially disappointed that I couldn't bring Sully from Monsters Inc into the Pirates of the Caribbean, I found a very expansive world to play within those playsets.

To clarify the playsets vs. the open world you start with: the base world of Disney Inifinity is whatever you make of it. They have a pre-built world to run around in and collect whatever, but they also have a ton of "toys" to add to it, and you have total control over that initial pre-build as well. Additional toys can be gained by playing the playsets allowing you to add everything that you used or found in the playsets to your overworld (I use the term loosely, since the game actually treats the "toy box" and the "playsets" as mutually exclusive elements that share the "toys").

The playsets that come with the game and that you can purchase are huge. The last two Skylanders games had additional packs with some characters and a special item that gave you an extra level to play. This level usually took about 30 minutes or so to work through, and maybe a little longer if you were really thorough about it. But like most of the Skylanders levels, once you were through it, you were done. The levels are all very linear and story-driven.

Each Disney Infinity playset will take a gamer 4-5 hours to fully complete. They are also open world, meaning that you can freely roam the levels to do side missions for people, play challenges, pick up collectibles that give you more toy box toys to build and play with or work on the storyline. They also had the good sense to package characters with the playset that you can't get individually, so you don't accidentally pick up, say, Lightning McQueen only to find he is also in the playset and end up with two.

The meaning of Infinity, though, comes from that toy box. The princesses got into that and played for hours. Rock girl played on one of the playsets here and there (because it had horses as toys to collect), but primarily played in the toy box just building and creating. I'm pretty much the only one to spend a lot of time in the playsets, though I've had my turn in the toy box as well. In fact, the toy box actually has 4 player support through Xbox Live, and I did play it that way one time.

What did four grown men do one Friday evening on Xbox Live? Why create a row of fans in the toy box and cruise their little cars back and forth to level up after gathering the achievements for playing a 4 player game and stacking four characters on top of each other (it was 4 Jack Sparrows, since you asked). Oh, why did we cruise back and forth over a row of fans? Well, little tip for you, here. Doing car tricks and sticking the landing is worth experience in the game. If you do nothing but tricks over a "bridge" of fans that keep you in the air, you'll gather a ton of experience. Since hitting level 15 with three characters is an achievement, it saves a whole lot of time. The playsets don't give you much in the way of experience for the upper levels. They'll get you to 9 or 10 on a play through, but I played the Monsters University playset for 3 and a half hours with Sully who started and ended on level 13. A few flights back and forth on my fans and ten minutes later, level 15.

My determination on this game? It's incredible. Very fun to play both in the playset and toy box mode, though I would have liked to see a little more freedom to play with any character in the play sets. With a lot of stuff to do in the playsets along with the infinite creative possibilities in the toy box, This game rapidly demonstrated its long-playable value and fun factor in my book. How does it compare to Skylanders? Well, the two only really compare when it comes to the fact that you have to buy the figurines to play the game. Beyond that business model (let's face it; that's what it is), they are very different games to the point of trying to compare Assassin's Creed to Gears of War. They're both third person perspective games, but one is an open world stealth game while the other is a linear, story-driven shooter. That's kind of how Infinity is to Skylanders. One is very open world and encourages free play while the other is very linear and story-driven to get you into the thick of battle ASAP.

What makes a family pick one over the other is where you want to spend all that hard earned cash when it comes to the figures and such since both are very expensive games to play. You can easily spend hundreds to get everything. I suppose it all depends on what you're looking for. I definitely think Infinity will cut into Skylanders' profits this year though, because Infinity isn't just another piece of Disney fluff. It's actually worth playing.