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How to make Revolut'nary changes to your Gamerscore
I'm not saying I'm an achievement whore. I love the little challenges and rewards that come from playing a game on the Xbox 360, but frankly, I don't have the Gamerscore to qualify as an achievement whore. And I never got around to renting Avatar: The Last Airbender for the easy 1000 points. But I can't deny that I love those little pop-up messages. It's like someone coming out of my Xbox and patting me on the back.
The good news – or bad news, depending on how you roll – is that there are no multiplayer achievements for Civilization Revolution (called Civilization Revolut'n on your games list for exceeding the character limit by one lousy letter). It's single-player all the way. And here's what you get to do:
The first 50 points you get just for showing up. There are a variety of achievements you're bound to get playing through your first game. It's stuff like defeating a unit, contacting another city, or researching a tech. Then there's a 15-point achievement for winning as each of the 16 different civilizations in the game. If you win as all 16 civilizations, that's another 30-pointer waiting for you. There are 20-point achievements for each of the four victory conditions, and a 30-pointer for winning all four. There's a separate 30-point achievement for winning each victory condition at the next to highest difficulty level, and a 45-point achievement for winning each victory condition at the highest difficulty level.
Then there are a series of clever 25-pointers. Win by the year 1000AD. Win by playing through the entire game as a despot (called "Absolute Power is Kind of Neat"). Win with only one city. Win 20 battles with one unit (which should be pretty easy given the AI's tendency to attack at suicidal odds). Grow a city to size 20. Finally, there are separate achievements for developing a city to make 200 science, 200 gold, 200 hammers, and 200 culture per turn.
Needless to say, this is only on the Xbox 360. There are currently no plans to support Sony's Playstation 3 trophies. Did your choice of platform just get a little easier? Man, are we superficial or what?
By Deadbuffalo at 3:26 PM ON 07/08/08
I don't think achievement whorieness, is necessarily reflected by gamerscore. Much like a crack addict becomes a crack whore after turning their first trick, a gamer becomes an achievement whore when they do something in a game they wouldn't do without the duress of cold hard gamer points.
For instance, take the win 20 races achievement in GTA IV. After doing all 9 races, no one would subject themselves to them again because they're not challenging nor have interesting course design. If you have this achievement, you are an achievement whore!
Civ Rev's achievements have me excited in part because they seem like they'll be a natural progression in playing the game. I have to try all the civilizations at least once in principle, and with relatively short Civ games I imagine the rest will come somewhat quickly. I'm looking forward to getting started tomorrow.
By Tom Chick at 8:05 PM ON 07/08/08
You might have a point about achievement whoring, Mr. Buffalo, but I have to take issue with the GTA4 example. I loved the world of Liberty City and welcomed any excuse to spend time in it after finishing the storyline. The achievements served as a *guide* for spending that time rather than an *incentive*.
Oh, who am I kidding? There's no denying why I did those 11 additional races...
By edk at 6:47 AM ON 07/09/08
Having just scored a new 80gig MGS4 bundle I was torn between the 360 and the PS3 for Civ, thinking the PS3 would give me a graphical boost. I'm not anymore ;-)
By Tom Chick at 7:41 PM ON 07/09/08
Congrats on the new PS3, EDK. Now get thee to a copy of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune!
Tom Chick:
Congrats on the new PS3, EDK. Now get thee to a copy of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune!...More »