The Hot Topic Returns

[Nag]

Tallying it up I'd say I average 15 to 20 hours a week depending on commitments, Sunday is my best day I can easily play for a good 6 hour stretch.

[DANGERMAN]

hmm, not as much as I should really. I used to, I remember a job where I finished at 4, then would be home by 5 and was playing through (I think) Skyrim, and would play for like 4 hours a night. I never seem to do that now, despite the fact most of the week I finish at 4 and I'm at home, although maybe that's the problem, sat in front of my pc all day I tend to go off and do something else for a bit rather than straight back on to the computer

 

It varies as to how invested I am in to whatever I'm playing, like this weekend I've probably played about an hour so far, but then, when I played through the Ascent the other week, I was putting at least an hour in a night, more over the weekend, despite not exactly loving it

 

So yeah, nowadays, maybe about 10 hours? A lot more last week though as I was off and got through Neo The World Ends With You

[OCH]

I wish I played more. When I'm in the mindset to play, usually 3-7 hours a week. It used to be a lot more, I could spend 5-7 hours a day on Isaac. But considering I have typically more "free time" than most, as my work day finishes around 2pm. I never seem to have the time anymore?

[Sly Reflex]

Minimum 8 hours just from streams. I do this even if I don't feel like it.

 

After this it can range anywhere from and extra 2 hours spread across the week right up to a total of 60 hours if time is permitting and the mind is willing.

[radiofloyd]

I’m all over the place these days, sometimes zero. I would say my upper ceiling if I’m really into a game is 30 hours, it would be rare for me to go over that in one week now. When I’m gaming every day, maybe 10-15 hours a week is normal.

[mfnick]

Mine varies wildly depending on work & the mrs - if she’s out at the weekend I’ll do a mammoth session. If not I don’t play much at all.

 

On average I’d say it’s 10 hours a week. 

[DisturbedSwan]

All depends on the missus really, if she falls asleep early I can sometimes get in 1-2 hours on weekdays but usually almost all my gaming time now is at weekends so I have to do long sessions (for me anyway) to get a decent amount of time in.

 

So usually 10 or so hours a week.

[Jimboxy]

Probably 1 - 2 hours a week average, which is a shame. It dropped off during lockdown and home working as most of my recent playing time had been on my train commute. Now that has gone, so has my window to sit and play anything. Most of the time when I do have time to sit and play something, I get choice anxiety and end up watching YouTube instead.

[shinymcshine]

I tend to wake early, around 0500, so can get in 2 hrs gaming before work on weekdays, then 4 hrs on each weekend day (still usually up at 0500 on Sat & Sun).

 

What I find now is I need a break, of a week or so, between finishing one game & starting the next. I'll still play the occasional pick up & play game in-between, e.g. Dicey Dungeons, Slay the Spire, Puyo v Tetris etc, but can't go straight from a long enduring title straight to another without some downtime - so fill that 'gaming' time catching up on TV, reading or solo boardgaming.

[Whiskey_chaser]

I reckon about 10-14 hours a week for me (though now the post covid social life is kicking into gear I can see that dropping substantially), though it's mostly multiplayer stuff these days as I can dip in and out of it a bit if I don't get a chance to play. I find myself bouncing out of single player stuff if I have a prolonged break from it.

[Nag]

 

Quote

Readers discuss the Achievement or Trophy they most enjoyed getting and what separates the satisfying achievement from the tiresome ones.

 

The subject for this week’s Hot Topic was suggested by reader Cubby and wasn’t concerned with whether the achievement was difficult or not, but whether you enjoyed getting it and how much effort you had to expend to unlock it.

 

Most people did have a favourite but, surprisingly, it wasn’t always in a game they particularly liked, with even bad games having good achievements.

 

[bellow]

I'll take a powder on this. I find nothing more annoying than that green animation on the Xbox ruining my immersion. I keep meaning to look for a way to turn it off. 

 

Achievements, achmeevments, I say.

 

[Maryokutai]

You can turn them off, it's the first thing I did back when they added that feature on Xbox360.

 

Outside of fighting games I really don't care about them at all either. But to not be all off-topic, I'm just going to mention Fantasy Strike and the character-bound achievements (either play or win 10 matches with character X). I liked those because it encouraged me to play more than just my favourites for a bit of time and due to the game's simple nature it's not even a big hurdle because everyone's easy to pick up.

[Maf]

I don’t mind achievement pop ups, the thing I dislike are the Gamepass pop ups. Welcome back to Gamepass! Cash in your Gamepass points! Piss off.

 

My two favourite achievements/trophies ever is completing the 1 life mode in Ori. I love that game so much that grinding it out and learning it so specifically was really fun. I’m glad I don’t have to do it again as it gets really intense, but one of the few achievements that actually felt like a true gaming achievement. It’s a real test of memory and nerves.

 

The other is also recent and that’s the win 5 games in a row at Fall Guys. I think now there’s a save scum way of doing it but to unlock it for real? Man. Genuinely can’t even describe what that was like. After winning 3 games in a row and losing the 4th, after losing multiple games in a row and getting nowhere, to actually win 4 and get to the 5th. I’ve never been so calm and heightened at the same time. The whole 5th game I was thinking to myself stay calm, don’t think about it, you know these maps just run the game.

 

Then in my 5th game there were 2 team games I was like oh no not like this. I’ll never get this close again. Then the final round being Hex-a-gon. Fffffffff. It’s the closest the final round ever gets to ‘skill based’. Then somehow winning it, the whole 10 seconds of holding my breath and waiting got the trophy to pop. 
 

Please don’t glitch, please don’t glitch.

 

It’s not a skill based thing, or something that can be planned or done reliably. But I’m still proud of it either way. So crazy. I love Fall Guys Season 1. I really should of kept up and played more of it. 

[DANGERMAN]

I'm not a fan of achievements or trophies at all, I think their only really useful feature is to act as a guide for how far in to a game you are. That said there's definitely a few that have made me laugh when they've popped up. I can't think of an example, but I'm sure there's been a couple.

[Nag]

It's no secret that I love a good achievement or trophy, getting that virtual backslap feels really nice to me... saying that though I've definitely changed how much I'll chase them nowadays, my tolerance for stupid difficulties and grinds is pretty much spent now.

 

I don't think there's anything I'm particularly proud of in regards to what I've earned in game, i guess beating Grounded mode in The Last of Us Remastered felt good because that was bastard hard in places, getting the final 1g in Bulletwitch on the 360 is also pretty daft (playing through the whole game on it's hardest difficulty)

 

In regards to what I hate with chieves/trophies it's probably making you play tacked on multiplayer parts to predominantly single player games, massive grindfests or achievements that force you to play games wrong.

[mfnick]

I love achievements and trophies. Particular trophies because I like the different gradings for them & going for a platinum trophy is more satisfying than just getting 1000 points. Plus DLC doesn’t ruin the trophy count & I can easily see how many games I’ve fully completed. Achievements are still cool though & the sound you get for rare ones is so satisfying. I really miss them when I’m playing on Switch, gutted they’re not in NMH3. It may have pushed me to go for all the moons in Mario Odyssey of it had them too. 
 

As for coolest or most enjoyable one. Struggling to think of specifics for them, but satisfying ones, I’ve got loads of.

 

Mile High Club in CoD4,

The Marathon one in Trials HD

Golden Boy in Super Meat Boy

All challenge rooms in God of War 1 Remaster

God of War 3 on Hard

Platinum Plus in PGR4

Demolition Man in Bad Company 2 (enemy kills by making buildings fall on them) 

Bucket List in Forza Motorsport 4

FFVII Remake on Hard

View of The Valley in Asuras Wrath 😍

 

Theyre just some of the ones I can think of immediately. There’s loads I’m forgetting. Basically any challenging but possible achievement in a game I love will basically make the cut. Sure some are simple like just doing a game on hard, but sometimes that hard mode makes me appreciate the game even more like in FFVIIR and God of War 3 and Im positive I wouldn’t have played them on hard if it wasn’t for achievements. 

 

As for irritating and tiresome - 99.9% of online ones. Especially “kill X number of people” fuck them. Especially if it’s in thousands.

Ones that encourage team kills - BC2 had one to knife 5 team mates. They’re bullshit. 

Online ones in predominantly SP games can fuck off if they’re more than just play 5 matches or something easy like that they can do one. Don’t mind having the play a small number of matches type as they’ll make me at least try it out and it may be better than expected. Uncharted 4 for example, far better than expected I ended up playing it a lot and I wouldn’t have even touched it if it wasn’t for the trophy. But it shouldnt have any more than a couple just to make you try them out. 

And difficulty achievements that don’t stack the ones below, those games can get fucked too. If I complete a game on hard it should unlock easy, normal etc. 

[Nag]

2 hours ago, mfnick said:

If I complete a game on hard it should unlock easy, normal etc

 

QFT.

 

Achievements that glitch suck shit too, I spent some time collecting all of the Intel in Aliens Fireteam Elite through this week, collected my last few this morning and nothing... tracker stuck on 89%... fuck off!

Unfortunately since Microsoft took their system server based that happens far too often.

[one-armed dwarf]

I think they haven't been that interesting since like the late 00s during early 360 years. Back then I think you would see more creative and cool trophies/achievements. Like the gnome one in Half Life, or a lot of the Half Life ones in general like beating all of Episode 1 and only spending one bullet (so using just the crowbar and gravity gun)

 

Nowadays it feels like most trophies are very checklist oriented, like collectibles and stuff. Not too sound too hardcore or anything but I think getting all the achievements in a game should be really hard and require something other than just 'do everything'. I was really disappointed with the dmc5 ones cause it was 's rank every mission, even on easy mode'. A horribly boring grind that I did for some reason, that game in particular could have had cool ones like 'beat a boss without touching the ground' considering that at higher levels the games are about exploring your toolset and being creative. But no, just kill the monsters and mash your way through. yawn

 

I think that community created achievements would be a great idea. Maybe it would attach to something other than your public gamerscore or trophy level

[Maryokutai]

10 hours ago, Nag said:

Achievements that glitch suck shit too,

 

Ugh, that reminds me one of those I did try to get because I liked the game so much which was collecting all the experience in Trine (1). That took quite a bit of time and running around and I think for one stage I even had to look up the guide just for the game to fail to register it as collecting but still adding it to my XP total, meaning it disappeared from the world but I didn't get the Trophy. That was the point where I decided not to do something like that ever again.

 

Also, for some reason I just remembered there was an achievement in Lollipop Chainsaw for moving the camera and looking under her skirt. That game got away with murder and the fact that a big company like Warner published it still blows my mind (it was really fun though, basically Suda's turning point when it comes to functional melee combat systems).