Sam Hart

We had some discussion last night with a couple of ClanAM people as to which 360 achievements everyone was most proud of getting. It got me thinking a little bit about the question and I decided I'd like to share my top ten.

The ground rules are simple: these have to be achievements which you feel particularly proud of. This means that they have to have been ones that challenged you or somehow required more skill, practice, or even luck than other achievements. They also need to be individual achievements, they can't be general blanket statements including all the achievements for one game.

So, with those ground rules in mind, read on for my list of the top ten 360 achievements I'm most proud of.

• 10) Fallout 3, "Silver-Tongued Devil"
  This was actually a somewhat tricky achievement for me to get. It requires winning 50 speech challenges in Fallout 3, however, there's really not that many opportunities in the entire game to get them. Additionally, getting them requires you put more emphasis into your speechcraft skill, which means neglecting other skills. I'm someone who generally neglects or ignores speechcraft-like skills in games and focuses on others like strength, sneak, etc.
  
  Thus, I didn't get this achievement my first time through the game, and on my second time through I had to really plan for the achievement from the start. So finally getting the achievement made me pretty proud because I put so much more planning into it than I normally do. Ultimately, it's not the most difficult achievement to get, but it certainly did require a lot more foresight on my part to obtain it.
  


• 9) Gears of War, "Commando"
  Many games have special achievements for when you beat them on higher difficulty levels, but few really make you work for those achievements like the Gears of War games. "Commando" is granted when you've beaten the game on "Insane" difficulty, which is the hardest difficulty in the game. I was able to get to the final boss solo on "Insane", but ultimately required the help of a friend to take down RAAM. Even with Raprot helping me, killing RAAM required several tries (possibly even multiple nights trying it, I forget).
  


• 8) Gears of War, "Soldier"
  As proud as I am of beating the game co-op on "Insane", I'm even more proud of beating on "Hardcore". "Hardcore" isn't as difficult as "Insane", but I managed to beat it solo whereas I needed help on "Insane".
  


• 7) Mass Effect, "Distinguished Combat Medal"
  This is given for beating the game on "Hardcore". Honestly, this is a placeholder achievement for when I finally beat it on "Insanity". I've just had so many other games to play that I haven't gone back to play it again on that level.
  


• 6) Half Life 2: Episdoe 1, "The One Free Bullet"
  You get this achievement for beating the game firing only one bullet. It can be a tricky achievement to get because Episode 1 tends to be more combat oriented than the other games in the series.
  


• 5) Saints Row 2, "Partners in Crime"
  I actually just barely got this one last night with Raprot. This achievement requires you to play the entire game with another player in co-op. This is especially difficult because the game is 50-60 hours long, and because the co-op aspect of the game can be quite buggy. We actually had to play through the entire Ronin mission sequence twice because the game didn't register one of us as doing it.
  


• 4) Final Fantasy XI, "Monk Lv.75"
  Okay, I might actually be cheating on this one. Technically, I did get Monk to ~70 before the game even came out for the 360. However, that doesn't change the fact that I'm insanely proud of this achievement.
  
  First of all, it took me around two years to get Monk to 75. This is partly because it wasn't the only job I was playing and it was partly because for much of it I was working three jobs (and eventually going through a divorce and a move).
  
  Second of all, Monk was a highly difficult job to level when I did it. In the old days of FFXI, you required a very specific party structure to survive post 60. You needed a healer, a refresher, a nuker, and a tank at a minimum. Beyond that, you could fill the remaining two slots with whatever melee you wanted. Well, the majority of the other jobs (including Monk) fell into the "whatever melee you wanted" category which meant that competition for those remaining two slots was intense. The end result was that you could sometimes LFP (look for party) for hours without even getting one. So leveling up just about any melee job was rough in my day.
  
  Third, when I got Monk to 75 is was still a job that was greatly misunderstood by most players. This meant that the majority of Monks you'd meet would suck and give us all a bad reputation. This also meant that the majority of parties that you'd join wouldn't know how best to utilize you. Combine this with the difficulty in leveling melee jobs I mentioned above and you can see how leveling up Monk in particular used to be quite a feat.
  
  In the latter years of FFXI, Monks became better known and the ToAU expansion made "TP-burn" parties all the rage, so getting Monk to 75 was no longer such a big deal. But, again, I leveled up to 75 before that :-)
  


• 3) Portal, "Vanilla Crazy Cake"
  You get this achievement for beating all of the advanced portal maps. I'm especially proud of this because I beat them before guides started appearing online telling their secrets. I literally beat these on my own, and that makes me proud for such a difficult sequence of puzzles.
  


• 2) Halo 3, "Campaign Complete: Legendary"
  "Legendary" difficulty on Halo 3 is easily the hardest (and yet, still do-able) difficulty on the 360 (the only exception might be Call of Duty 4's hardest difficulty, which I'm working on). Beating it in co-op with other people is something to be very proud of.
  
  However, I beat it solo :-)
  


• 1) Final Fantasy XI, "Promathia Missions"
  For my #1 achievement, there really was no debate.
  
  Chains of Promathia was the second expansion to come out for FFXI. It brought the longest mission structure to the game, adding 30+ new missions. It introduced the concept of "level capped" areas and missions which required the player to operate in areas where their level was fixed and probably lower than their real level. It also added an incredible storyline to an already incredible game.
  
  However, Chains of Promathia was also the most difficult expansion... ever.
  
  It was so difficult it actually is the main reason why so many FFXI people left the game for the competition (WoW had only recently come out when CoP was released, and previously FFXI had been the most popular MMORPG). It is legendarily difficult, and internet searches will reveal many choice rants on the subject.
  
  That being said, it is easily the most rewarding experience in all of FFXI. Yes, it will require dedication, determination, and ample skill to complete. Yes, it will likely take you a long time to beat it (it took my friends and I two years). But the story is so spectacular, and the battles so epic, that it is completely worth it.
  
  I led many of my fellow ClanAM members through the wild ride that is CoP, and finally completed the sequence a little over a year ago on 1/4/2008. Those of us who were there still talk about it today.
  
  Thus, there really is no debate that this achievement was my greatest moment in all of my 360 gaming, and will likely be one of my greatest gaming moments in my life.