The latest patch for MotorStorm: Pacific Rift adds an interesting twist to the traditional achievements and trophies. The new microbadges are a cross between ingame bragging rights and interface clutter. According to this announcement:

The idea is that they should be dedicated to things you'd want other players to know about while you're racing online. Here are some examples:

* Gold Festival - Completed Pacific Rift Festival with all Gold medals
* Immortal - Win an Online Ranked race without wrecking
* Flame and Fortune - 20 Boost explosion wins
* Time Attack Master - Record an impressive Time Attack time on any Leaderboard
* Supreme Victor - Win any Online or Offline race by a margin of 15 seconds

Microbadges are displayed beneath each Online ID, and players can display up to three badges from the get-go. Three more badge slots (there are six slots total) can be earned by working up the online ranks, and players can unlock 40 microbadges total. Players can choose which badges to show off and highlight what they've achieved in the game. Microbadges will also provide retroactive credit, so if you've already put in the hours, you'll be reaping the rewards.

Okay, I'm sold. Maybe not enough to actually play MotorStorm, a racing game with wonderful physics, lovely graphics, solid online support, and only a tenuous understanding of the game part of a racing game. But enough that I hope to see this sort of ingame gimmickry applied to achievements and trophies in other games.