My pick for the greatest Next-Gen feature

Now that the dust has settled, I am absolutely positive what my favorite feature amongst the three new consoles is: achievements. No other element that has been introduced drives me harder to play games. The Xbox 360 has done for games what I have not experienced since the early days of my gaming career. Not since the NES, SNES and Genesis have I gone back and played a game over and over again, looking for every little thing and exploring every nook and cranny. Back then it was mostly due to the fact that I had limited games available to me. Later, when I began to buy my own games, I have also had a limited selection of games, but little reason to replay them. Halo 2 was probably a precursor to the achievements but I was not fully sucked in until I started to earn Gamer Points. I still play only a limited number of games, but it drives me absolutely mad that I do not have 100% of the achievements for each and every game that I have played. Achievements have driven me to rack up about 220 hours in Oblivion (including Shivering Isles) over the last year, as well as play through Tomb Raider and Viva Pinata. Although attempting to acquire all the achievements in LiveArcade titles seems to be an exercise in futility, I am persevering. (Damn you, Hexic!!)

From a design perspective, they have also really encouraged developers to flesh out their games and challenge gamers. Would I have played through every story line in Oblivion if it weren't for achievements? Would I have broken a controller over FIFA World Cup? Would I have even downloaded Texas Hold'Em? The answer is probably not. Still, achievements also allow the developers to be a little lazy. I absolutely loathe collecting achievements. I am sorry: Marcus would not stop to pick up Cog Tags while being bombarded by the Locust and there are not floating, metallic medallions throughout Lara Croft's world. Collecting is dumb, but I'll save that for another post. Online achievements are a personal gripe since I don't seem to have the time or the reflexes to compete with those that do. On the other hand though, they wouldn't be achievements if they were easy or anyone could get them. They are for the most dedicated. In the mean time, I will continue to plug away.