8 horrible Achievements only a madman would attempt

Achievement: Obsessive

Above: How to make a WWII game feel like a real tour of duty

Why it’s horrible: You have to play the game, connected to Xbox Live, at least once a day for 100 days. With the multiplayer massively underwhelming and the campaign long completed, by the end of that you'll want to wipe every record of playing the game from your memory, not collect another momento.

Trials HD

Achievement: Marathon (original version)

Above: No further explanation necessary

Why it’s horrible: You had to complete 24 tracks of a really hard game in a really hard row without making a single error, which is really hard. And the track line-up included some from the Hard difficulty bracket. Which are mis-named, because they’re actually really hard. In fact this one was so hard that the devs eventually changed it to take the Hard tracks out. Because seriously, it was really, really, really hard. And still is, but just not as much.

Tiger Woods %26rsquo;06

Achievement: Aren’t you sick of this yet?

Above: Ditto

Why it’s horrible: You had to play 1000 online matches. Which would have had you waking up screaming from nightmares about sandtraps for the rest of your life as it was, but on top of that, EA has killed the game’s servers since it was released, meaning that loads of people probably got halfway through this one before realising that ALL THEIR EFFORTS, HOPES AND DREAMS HAD BEEN FOR NOTHING.

Final Fantasy XI

Achievement: Over half of them

Above: Your eternal soul is ours!

Why it’s horrible: Over half the Achievement Points in MMO FFXI relate to levelling the game’s various job classes up to their maximum cap of lv. 75. Just doing that once will take absolutely bloody months. Doing it 18 times will take absolutely bloody months x 18. If you like grinding that much, there are less painful ways to do it. Like using a disc sander and your face.

David Houghton
Long-time GR+ writer Dave has been gaming with immense dedication ever since he failed dismally at some '80s arcade racer on a childhood day at the seaside (due to being too small to reach the controls without help). These days he's an enigmatic blend of beard-stroking narrative discussion and hard-hitting Psycho Crushers.
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