Looking through it, I don't see any plot giveaways, although "Cat's in the Cradle" might raise some interesting questions of a character's parentage. Then again, I could be reading too much into that.

Here's the full list, 50 in all for the maximum 1,000 gamerscore. The link at the bottom has the achievement icons.

Missing in Action (5)
Save your crew from an overwhelming attack

Very Elusive (10)
Return to active duty

The Convict (10)
Successfully recruit the biotic Convict

The Krogan (10)
Successfully recruit the krogan

The Archangel (10)
Successfully recruit Archangel

The Professor (10)
Successfully recruit the Professor

The Quarian (10)
Successfully recruit the quarian

The Justicar (10)
Successfully recruit the Justicar

The Assassin (10)
Successfully recruit the Assassin

Friend or Foe (10)
Obtain geth technology

Colony Defense (25)
Defend a human colony from attack

The Prodigal (10)
Gain the loyalty of the Cerberus Officer

Ghost of the Father (10)
Gain the loyalty of the Cerberus Operative

Catharsis (10)
Gain the loyalty of the biotic Convict

Battlemaster (10)
Gain the loyalty of the krogan

Fade Away (10)
Gain the loyalty of Archangel

The Cure (10)
Gain the loyalty of the Professor

Treason (10)
Gain the loyalty of the quarian

Doppelganger (10)
Help the Justicar resolve her mission

Cat's in the Cradle (10)
Gain the loyalty of the Assassin

A House Divided (10)
Hack a geth collective

Ghost Ship (25)
Complete the investigation of a derelict alien vessel

Suicide Mission (50)
Use the Omega 4 Relay

Mission Accomplished (125)
Save humanity throughout the galaxy from certain annihilation

Against All Odds (15)
Survive suicide mission

Insanity (75)
Complete the game on the "Insanity" difficulty level without changing the setting

No One Left Behind (75)
Keep your team alive through the suicide mission

Long Service Medal (75)
Complete Mass Effect 2 twice, or complete it once with a character imported from Mass Effect 1

Paramour (50)
Successfully pursue a relationship with a teammate

Head Hunter (10)
Perform 30 headshot kills with any weapon on humanoid targets

Brawler (10)
Shoot and kill 20 enemies while they're knocked back by a punch

Big Game Hunter (10)
Thresher Maw defeated

Tactician (10)
Hit 20 different targets with multiple biotic powers to combine the effects

Master at Arms (15)
Kill enemies with 5 different heavy weapons during the game

Merciless (10)
Make 20 enemies scream as they fall or are set on fire

Overload Specialist (15)
Disrupt the shields of 25 enemies

Warp Specialist (15)
Warp the barriers of 25 enemies

Incineration Specialist (15)
Incinerate the armor of 25 enemies

Operative (15)
Complete a mission discovered by scanning an unexplored world

Agent (50)
Complete 5 missions discovered by scanning unexplored worlds

Prospector (5)
Retrieve mineral resources by scanning and probing a planet in the galaxy map

Explorer (10)
Visit 100 percent of the planets in an unexplored cluster

Power Gamer (10)
Reach Level 30 with one character

Scholar (15)
Unlock 15 new Mass Effect 2 codex entries

Technician (15)
Obtain (10) technology upgrades

Weapon Specialist (15)
Fully upgrade a weapon

Scientist (10)
Complete any research project in the Normandy's laboratory

Fashionista (5)
Personalize your armor in your quarters on the Normandy

Power Full (15)
Evolve any power

Highly Trained (15)
View all advanced combat training videos at Shepard's private terminal.

Mass Effect 2 Achievement List [Xbox360Achievements.org, thanks Dan B.]

Here's the full list. It rates a standard spoiler-alert warning but, going through this, the descriptions don't seem to give up many details of the singleplayer campaign. Be sure to check the link to see the achievement icon art.

• Bought a Slot (5 points)
Buy one Plasmid or Tonic Slot at a Gatherer's Garden.

• Max Plasmid Slots (10 points)
Fully upgrade to the maximum number of Plasmid Slots.

• Upgraded a Weapon (10 points)
Upgrade any weapon at a Power to the People Station.

• Fully Upgraded a Weapon (10 points)
Install the third and final upgrade to any of your weapons.

• All Weapon Upgrades (20 points)
Find all 14 Power to the People weapon upgrades in the game.

• Prolific Hacker (20 points)
Successfully hack at least one of every type of machine.

• Master Hacker (20 points)
Hack 30 machines at a distance with the Hack Tool.

• First Research (5 points)
Research a Splicer with the Research Camera.

• One Research Track (20 points)
Max out one Research Track.

• Research Master (20 points)
Max out research on all 9 research subjects.

• Grand Daddy (25 points)
Defeat 3 Big Daddies without dying during the fight.

• Master Gatherer (30 points)
Gather 600 ADAM with Little Sisters.

• Fully Upgraded a Plasmid (10 points)
Fully upgrade one of your Plasmids to the level 3 version at a Gatherer's Garden.

• All Plasmids (20 points)
Find or purchase all 11 basic Plasmid types.

• Trap Master (15 points)
Kill 30 enemies using only Traps.

• Master Protector (15 points)
Get through a Gather with no damage and no one getting to the Little Sister.

• Big Spender (15 points)
Spend 2000 dollars at Vending Machines.

• Dealt with Every Little Sister (50 points)
Either Harvest or Save every Little Sister in the game.

• Against All Odds (30 points)
Finish the game on the hardest difficulty level.

• Big Brass Balls (25 points)
Finish the game without using Vita-Chambers.

• Rapture Historian (40 points)
Find 100 audio diaries.

• Unnatural Selection (10 points)
Score your first kill in a non-private match.

• Welcome to Rapture (10 points)
Complete your first non-private match.

• Disgusting Frankenstein (10 points)
Become a Big Daddy for the first time in a non-private match.

• "Mr. Bubbles– No!" (20 points)
Take down your first Big Daddy in a non-private match.

• Mother Goose (20 points)
Save your first Little Sister in a non-private match.

• Two-Bit Heroics (10 points)
Complete your first trial in a non-private match.

• Parasite (10 points)
Achieve Rank 10.

• Little Moth (20 points)
Achieve Rank 20.

• Skin Job (20 points)
Achieve Rank 30.

• Choose the Impossible (50 points)
Achieve Rank 40.

• Proving Grounds (20 points)
Win your first non-private match.

• Man About Town (10 points)
Play at least one non-private match on each multiplayer map.

• Two Secret Achievements worth 5 points.

• Two Secret Achievements worth 10 points.

• One Secret Achievement worth 15 points.

• Six Secret Achievements worth 20 points.

• One Secret Achievement worth 50 points.

• Two Secret Achievements worth 25 points.

• One Secret Achievement worth 100 points.

BioShock 2 Achievements List [Xbox 360 Achievements via HBG]

The Giant Bomb guys put one of their engineers on the case, having him trawl through data collected by their website. The site tracks Achievements, Trophies and similar accolades that are available through the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the PC's Steam service. The team announced the most common names during a recent podcast, acknowledging a caveat: They would be double or triple-counting for some games that have the same Achievements in different editions or are on multiple platforms.

Here's the list:

1) Untouchable — used in 55 games, according to the Giant Bomb guys. Including in: Aegis Wing, Altered Beast, Beijing 2008, Buzz Jr: Robo Jam, Call of Juarez, Conan, Contra, Defense Grid, Double Dragon, Dreamkiller, Facebreaker, F.E.A.R. 2, Hail To The Chimp and more...

2) Hero — used in 30 games

3) Veteran - used in 28 games

4) Survivor - used in 27 games

5) Treasure Hunter - used in 19 games

Other common ones include: Collector, Legend, Winning Streak, Sniper, Champion, Team Player, Death From Above, Sharpshooter, Collateral Damage, Pack Rat, Completionist, Exterminator, and Perfectionist

Note to developers: If you're really having trouble figuring out unique names for Achievements, try reading more Kotaku for inspiration.

Giant Bombcast: 12/08/09

[PIC]

Heavy Rain will have Trophies. But you won't be told that you earned them until the breaks between the game's chapters.

Quantic Dream co-CEO Guilaume de Fondaumiere told Kotaku in New York that the game's Trophy alerts will operate on a delay. That gets the team around the problem of having the little Trophy alert message and accompanying chime interrupt scenes of tense crime-scene investigation or a father's quiet struggle to get his son to talk to him after a bad day at school. The game will maintain its mood during the important parts by rewarding the gamer with alerts during transitional scenes.

Since their inception, Achievements on the Xbox 360 and the similar service of Trophies on the PlayStation 3 have been widely popular among gamers. But the alerts that signify the winning of an Achievement or Trophy can and do get in the way of subtitle text or otherwise distract players. And while an option to turn the alerts is one solution to this issue that some gamers use, having the Trophies rewarded after the fact is another method that permits a notice of accomplishment without killing a carefully constructed mood.

Heavy Rain ships in early 2010 on the PlayStation 3.

Doctor Professor, the nom de plume of the writer behind Pixel Poppers, assessed his sense of satisfaction in playing RPGs and found it a bit false. Challenges in RPGs could almost always be overcome with a character of a high enough level, and advancement within this genre is almost a given. Action games, however, required skill to complete successfully; either master the tasks or you'll never advance.

What did he do? He retrained his motivation. As a child, he was often praised for his intelligence, not his hard work, which he felt dovetailed with RPGs system of assured success. He quit RPGs and picked up a Sonic Adventure DX, seeking to improve his skills. And now he says, after a long journey with action games, he's a completely different gamer.

While I don't agree with the blanket depiction of all RPGs offering "false achievements," it is his experience with them, and that's what he's writing about, not mine. But it may explain why people can become so easily fixated with grinding and leveling up. And I do find his insight on performance and mastery orientation to be spot-on. I was the same type of student in school and sort of am to this day, delighted by doing something right the first time and quick to give up when I can't. I'd love to also retrain myself to be a better skilled gamer. Right after I make level 50 in Borderlands.

Awesome By Proxy: Addicted to Fake Achievement [Pixel Poppers, Nov. 23]

RPGs are many things, but they are almost never hard. As I realized in childhood, the vast majority of RPG challenges can be defeated simply by putting in time. RPGs reward patience, not skill. Almost never is the player required to work hard - only the characters need improve. Failing to defeat Zeromus might mean your strategy is flawed, but it also might mean your level is too low. Guess which problem is easier to remedy?

Yet while the player is mostly marking time, the characters are accomplishing epic, heroic deeds, saving lives and defeating evil. Even when the player is not explicitly praised for this, the game makes its attitude clear. "You're awesome!" it says, in essence. "You're so strong and noble and heroic!" The player is showered with praise for non-achievements. It's like porn for the performance oriented.

The characters make all the effort, but the player receives all the accolades. The game doesn't have to say "Wow, you must be smart!" to train the player to value impressiveness that was not hard-won - even when the praise is for effort rather than skill, it is a lie. The player has expended only time.

When I learned about performance and mastery orientations, I realized with growing horror just what I'd been doing for most of my life. Going through school as a "gifted" kid, most of the praise I'd received had been of the "Wow, you must be smart!" variety. I had very little ability to follow through or persevere, and my grades tended to be either A's or F's, as I either understood things right away (such as, say, calculus) or gave up on them completely (trigonometry). I had a serious performance orientation. And I was reinforcing it every time I played an RPG.

I could point to characters and story as much as I liked. But I couldn't lie to myself - not anymore. Most of my enjoyment of Super Mario RPG, of Skies of Arcadia, of Kingdom Hearts - came from illegitimate sources. It came from overidentifying with the heroes and claiming their accomplishments as my own. It came from abusing them for fake achievement. I felt sick.

After panicking for a while, I came up with a plan. There was no point blaming anyone else for the state of things - I was the only one who could turn it around. So I would do so. I would instill a mastery orientation in myself.

The first thing I did was stop playing RPGs. I was addicted and I had to quit. Then, it was time to retrain myself. I started small: I began playing action games. If RPGs had reinforced my bad habits, then action games could reinforce good ones.

Sonic AdventureSonic Adventure DX didn't take long to beat, but I didn't let myself stop there: the game had an achievement system, in which the player was awarded with "emblems" for reaching various goals - like speeding Sonic through stages with impressively quick times. Many of them were very difficult, and I couldn't accomplish them on the first, second, fifth, or tenth attempt. But I kept trying. And when I finally had all 160 emblems the game offered, I knew I'd crossed a milestone. I, not Sonic, had improved until I could pass these challenges. I had developed actual skills, even if they were objectively useless ones. I had done something I could actually be proud of: I had built a habit of not giving up.

It's been a long road since then - it's not easy to reverse a way of thinking so deeply ingrained for so long. And I still have to watch myself, and not let myself be too proud or self-congratulatory when I accomplish something quickly and easily. But I feel good about how far I've come. And Sonic will always have a special place in my heart for the role he played in starting me down the road to recovery.

- Doctor Professor

Weekend Reader is Kotaku's look at the critical thinking in, and of video games. It appears Saturdays at noon. Please take the time to read the full article cited before getting involved in the debate here.

"I hate sports games," Kristen says with a weary laugh, reminding me for about the fifth time this Thursday night "I had to ask someone what a sack was. They said it's when you tackle the quarterback. I said, 'Which one is the quarterback?'"

Only in name are Kristen and I playing Madden NFL Arcade. Instead we are "boosting," - throwing games to each other, more or less, to rack up multiplayer achievements. I've already gotten 50 points the easy way. Now it's her turn.

It is a substantial part of how Kristen, whose last name I'm withholding out of concern for her privacy, has become, according to one leading compilation, the No. 4 ranking woman, worldwide, in Gamerscore. Her tag is CRU x360a - go ahead, look it up. Kristen - CRU or Crubie to some online - is a 24-year-old stay-at-home mom in northwest Indiana. You call her extremely motivated. You can call her obsessed. You can also call her an achievement whore, like she hasn't heard that from every piss-ant with a 5,000 gamerscore in the underground zone.

Bottom line, she's is really effective at piling up her gamerscore. But she's not sure when, or if, she will stop.

A Race to the Top

"It was a friendly race at the time," Kristen says of the beginning, three years ago, when she got serious about her Gamerscore. "It was to 20,000. My buddy was at 15,000 and I was at 13, I was 2,000 behind him. I said, 'OK, this might take years.'

Kristen had bought an Xbox 360 in early 2007 and, like most, it wasn't because it offered achievements. She was a multiplayer gamer on a few titles she enjoyed - shooters mostly. Then she joined a Gamerscore league. And then she got into this side bet.

"Once I found sites that had guides on which were the easy games, I beat (20,000) in like a month and a half," she says. "It got me hooked and it was like a drug. A bad drug. A bad habit."

Soon enough Kristen managed to fall in with some elite players in the achievement grinding world. One, named Smrnov, who is the global No. 10 on MyGamerCard, praises Kristen's team-spirited achievement hunting. "CRU was unselfish in the help she offered our team, and has always been reliable for getting the game time in, which is a very hard trait to find for spanning so many different games, versus a single one," he says.

Stallion83, the global No. 2 on that list, played with Kristen in those early days, and was most recently her boosting partner on Damnation - a terribly received game. ("We managed to have fun talking about The Leprechaun movies," he says. "Party chat has made some of these games less painful.")

"She was just a nice person," Stallion83 recalls,"like one of the dudes. Most girls cause drama and try to get attention. I didn't see that with CRU." Both he and Smrnov heap praise on Kristen's FPS skill. "A great FPS player," says Smrnov. "In addition, she's very good about figuring out the best strategy for completing a game quickly and doing all associated research. She has both gaming skills and gamerscore skills."

But that doesn't keep Kristen from going after the kids' stuff, too. Last week, Spongebob: Truth or Square put her over 165,000. It's a cute detail but it barely scratches the surface of Kristen's performance over the past three years. Nor does the four-game Gamefly subscription, in constant rotation. That's to be expected. And the shelf full of games, many of them years old and still waiting to be played, well, what would you consider impressive? A hundred and sixty?

She bought Jumper: Griffin's Story - one of the worst reviewed games ever in Xbox 360 history. The day Modern Warfare 2 was released, she spent all her time on Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. American Idol? She put the microphone in front of a speaker and played songs into it to ace the performances that much faster. It didn't work for Sing It: High School Musical or Hannah Montana, so, she had to belt those out herself.

"They're easy enough songs; It's not bad, there's no one looking at me while I'm playing it," Kristen says, "but my friends (on Xbox Live) see it, and all the guys can't believe I'm playing that game."

Remember that deal a few months back, when a someone tried to round up a 1,000 players to log in to NBA Live 07 and get the 100 gamerscore achievement for 1,000 players being online at the same time? Kristen was a part of that, with two versions of the game, one she had to go out and find for $3 at a game store, and the other playing on her Japanese 360.

Yes, she has an NTSC: J console. Kristen got that to play BioShock's Korean version, which has a separate achievement list. She's gotten 1,000 gamerscore in 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand. She's gotten 1,000 gamerscore in 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand in Japanese. "I haven't even opened the Saint's Row 2 Japanese version, or the Saint's Row 1 for that matter," Kristen says. She's eyeballing a PAL console, but even an Arcade will be close to $300 with shipping and, "Do I really need to play BioShock again?"

Some of the region-locked Japanese games she plays are bought by pooling money with Stallion83, Smrnov and others in the ultra-gamerscore crowd, and the group then trades the discs around by mail. One game, Clannad, was picked for its low-hanging fruit. It's a "visual novel," sometimes called a dating sim, but as the choices are all text-based the gameplay should be pretty easy, right?

"It's a text game, and you have to choose A or B, you only have these text options," Kristen said. "But I'm sitting there on Google Translate trying to translate these strategy guides and match up (Japanese) characters to make my choices. And I'm thinking 'Why the hell did I buy a Japanese Xbox and this game, this is just retarded.' It's so embarrassing trying to match characters to a language I don't even know. I've spent $400 on a game I can't even read."

It makes me wonder. These are called games. And technically, she's playing them. But is this even fun? Is this ever fun?

"I definitely play more games I don't enjoy than games I do," she says. "Like, maybe 65 percent of the games I play I don't enjoy."

Kristen's husband doesn't even know why she sticks with it, if something like CSI: Hard Evidence is so unfulfilling for her to play.

"Sometimes I'll be playing, and he'll ask, 'Did I have to buy that or did someone else buy it?'" Kristen says. "And I'm like, 'Do you want the truth or do you want me to lie to you?' And he walks away, saying 'I can't believe you're playing that.' To me that's more embarrassing than playing Disney: Sing It."

A Mother's Work

Kristen is careful to remind me that she does have a life outside of gaming. "I'm an avid paintball player; I have my own gun, although that's also another expensive hobby," she says. "But yeah, I'd much rather go out to a bar, go bowling, play darts or pool than sit at home and boost games all night. I'm still young."

She's also the mother of a six-year-old girl. You can do the math there, it means Kristen became a mom at age 18. Before then, she was a rather typical kid, if a little tomboyish, and absolutely delighted by video games. Kristen says she's played them since she was five. When she lived with her parents, new games and new consoles were common, especially around the holidays. When she had her daughter and moved out of the home, her original Xbox and her beloved NES - which she still has even though it won't work - stayed behind. The Xbox 360 she bought a little more than three years ago marked her re-entry to games since having her daughter.

Sometimes mother and daughter play - Spongebob was one such example. But Kristen had to load up one of the five other gamertags she keeps on the console for family and friends to play. Boosting games might sound out of bounds to some gamers, but it's entirely within the ultra-gamerscore ethos. What isn't, however, is having anyone get an achievement for you. Even your six-year-old girl.

"She climbed up and said, 'Let me play,' so I said, 'Just a second,' and put her up with another (gamertag) and let her play," Kristen says. "Sometimes she'll say 'Look, Mom, I got an achievement too!' She gets excited."

This isn't something Kristen wants to encourage. "I don't want her to get addicted like I am though," Kristen says. "She doesn't really see me play too much, actually."

Her husband, Jeff, doesn't game much at all himself. He owns a towing business that provides a comfortable lifestyle and accommodates both his interests and Kristen's gaming. He's rather mellow about all the time she spends with games, if not the money, and keeps both in perspective. Some guys have wives who spend a ton of money on clothes, or dislike spending as much time around the house as she does.

"I have some hobbies myself that are fairly pricey and I can't really blame her for that," Jeff says. "However, occasionally a string of new games will come out within a two day span and magically a few hundred dollars will be missing from the bank account. With as much time as she has allotted for video games and the kid I can account for her whereabouts at any given moment so I'm certain that she isn't cheating on me."

Even pressed for a ballpark estimate, Kristen doesn't know how much her obsession with Gamerscore has cost in the preceding three years. "My pro system is $250, my Japanese console cost $400, the hard drive I put on it was $50 - I don't want to see the number, and I'm sure Jeff doesn't want to see it," she says. "But I think it would be cool to know."

There's another number about which she seems even less enthusiastic, though. And that's the next big milestone for her gamerscore.

Calling It a Career

Two hundred thousand. According to MyGamerCard, only one other woman has a total that high (with a second very close to reaching it.) And yet when Kristen brings it up, it's with a tone of voice that ponders what she will do then. It's almost like she doesn't want to get there, for what it will force her to consider.

The simplest answer is by far easier said than done: Just quit. "I keep saying when I get 200,000 gamerscore, I'm going to retire," Kristen says. "There are people who do that. I say it now, but I don't think you can ever actually quit. It's like a drug. It is addicting."

And she uses that word often enough that I figure I should bring up the subject. Carefully. I would never say video game addiction isn't real, knowing that real people do indeed battle it. I also believe it's a topic given to alarmism. And I'm not a psychiatrist, so it's not my place to go diagnosing other people's behavior. But I ask Kristen anyway. Maybe, has she ever considered talking to someone about her gaming?

"I wouldn't say I need to talk to someone," Kristen says after considering the question for a long moment. "I'm not hurting someone by doing this. My family life is not being hurt. Granted, it's like an addiction, but I'm not hurting anyone. Well, I'm getting little sleep sometimes, but that's on me.

"Besides, I saw where someone had gone to be treated at a rehab center for video games, and it was something like $30,000 a year, and I thought, 'Do you know how many Xboxes and games I could buy with this?'" she says, without a trace of irony. "I don't think so."

When Kristen is most at ease with her gamerscore is when it describes how she's good at something. How she's figured out a way to beat the system; or how she's actually put in the time to get the "General" achievement in Call of Duty 3 - getting 40,000 points in ranked matches - to collect a rare 100+ gamerscore achievement.

"It's very much a personal pride thing, being ranked in the top five in the world in something, whether it's gaming or the fact I'm a female gamer," Kristen says. "I'm never going to be in the Olympics, so I'll be a great gamer. It's something I know I'm good at."

But I hope when she breaks 200,000 she can put the controller down. She spent the first three years of her adulthood being a mom. I suggest to Kristen that, maybe, she's spent the last three in front of a console, trying to get some of that lost time back.

Kristen ponders this, and seems to agree. "Maybe," she says.

Maybe then she can call it even.

Avatar item unlocks.... Awards given for people who get Achievements pulled from a series of related games... what do you think?

This is a warning or maybe it's a helpful hint for those striving for just one ... more... point.

Me? I didn't notice until someone sent me a message over Xbox Live to remark that the DJ Hero developers had included a one-point Achievement.

You get it for playing your first mix of songs, which is the first thing you'll accomplish outside of the game's tutorial.

My gamerscore now ends in a 1, not that I could even tell you what it is. Looking it up, it is... 18,521.

I've got a request in to the DJ Hero developers to find out what they were thinking.

The achievements are worth 200 points in total and not one of them is offered for multiplayer performance. Here's the list:

• First Termer (10): Complete Training.

• Old Glory (20): Complete the American missions.

• Union Jack (20): Complete the British missions.

• Victory Banner (20): Complete the Russian missions.

• Tank Breaker (15): Finish Hurtgen.

• Rocket's Red Glare (15): Finish Rocket.

• Flag over the Reichstag (15): Finish Berlin.

• War Hero (30): Complete the game on the hardest difficulty.

• Gunslinger (10): Get kills using a pistol, rifle, submachine gun, and grenade in a mission without dying.

• Pea Shooter (20): Complete a mission using only a pistol and no melee attacks.

• Survivor (15): Complete a mission without dying or loading a checkpoint.

• Won The War (10): Complete the game.

Call of Duty Achievement List [Xbox 360 Achievements.org via Joystiq]

However, there are six "secret" Achievements/Trophies and a whole slew of "kill xx enemies this way" awards that suggest the game hasn't been watered down at all. My personal favorite will probably be "Whoooaaaa!" and "Wheeeeeee!" because it involves excessive blood-sliding.

A Playlogic representative declined to confirm or deny the inclusion of the child-killing Achievement/Trophy, but they did supply us with this list:

Gamerscore / Trophy level / Name / Description
15 / Bronze / Closed "The Lumberjack Lands" / Complete all the chapters in "The Lumberjack Lands"

15 / Bronze / Closed "The Candy Castle" / Complete all the chapters in "The Candy Castle"

15 / Bronze / Closed "The Little Kingdoms" / Complete all the chapters in "The Little Kingdoms"

15 / Bronze / Closed "The House in the Clouds" / Complete all the chapters in "The House in the Clouds"

15 / Bronze / Closed "Who's Famous Now!" / Complete the "Who's Famous Now!" chapter

15 / Bronze / Incredible Combo! / Perform a 50 hit combo

15 / Bronze / The Sky is the Limit / Perform an aerial combo

15 / Bronze / King for a Day / Win an Arena chapter without dying

15 / Bronze / Pacifists Finish Last / Lose an Arena chapter without killing

15 / Bronze / King Pushy / Win an Arena chapter by using push only

15 / Bronze / Unstoppable / Win 5 Arena chapters in a row in 1 play session

15 / Silver / Notorious / Win 100 Arena chapters

50 / Silver / Variety is the Spice of Life / Complete Stuffy the Taxidermist's collection by defeating all enemies

100 / Gold / Mine! / Collect all weapons

15 / Bronze / Beaver Killer / Defeat The Log Champion

15 / Bronze / Real Beaver Killer / Defeat The Log Champion again

15 / Bronze / Puppet Master / Defeat Pinocchio

15 / Bronze / Go Eat Your Own House / Defeat Hansel and Gretel

15 / Bronze / And All is Quiet Again / Defeat The Pied Piper

15 / Bronze / The Witch is Burned / Defeat The Candy Witch

15 / Bronze / I Didn't Want Her Anyway / Defeat The Little Giant

15 / Bronze / Beat up the Bully / Defeat The Little Giant again

15 / Bronze / Turning a Blind Eye / Defeat Father Giant

15 / Bronze / Left the Tailor in Stitches / Defeat The Little Tailor

15 / Bronze / "Fairytale Land" is Painted Red / Spill 10 000 gallons of blood

15 / Bronze / "Fairytale Land" is Sucked Dry / Collect 1 000 000 riches

15 / Bronze / Hand Holder / Complete game on easy mode with multiple players

15 / Silver / Sharing Celebrity / Complete game on medium mode with multiple players

15 / Silver / Dream Team / Complete game on hard mode with multiple players

15 / Bronze / Hero / Complete game on easy mode single player

15 / Silver / Legendary / Complete game on medium mode single player

15 / Silver / Heroic Ever After/ Complete single player on hard mode

15 / Bronze / Whoooaaaa! / Slide through blood continuously for 3 minutes

15 / Bronze / Wheeeeeee! / Slide 330 feet continuously through blood

15 / Bronze / Master Slicer / Slice 250 enemies with a sharp weapon

15 / Bronze / KABLAM! / Crush 250 enemies using a blunt weapon

15 / Bronze / Strike a Pose! / Stun 50 players using the love potion or love wand

30 / Silver / Who Wants My Autograph? / Complete all chapters from start till end with at least an A or A+ Grade

125 / Bronze / King Bling / Buy all statue upgrades

15 / Bronze / Treasure Hunter / Open all treasure chests

15 / Bronze / Weapons Are For Babies / Kill 250 enemies without using any weapons

15 / Bronze / Lazy Bastard / Remain in Taleville for more than 15 minutes

0 / Platinum / Victorious! / Unlock all Trophies!

Note: That "King Bling" Gamerscore reading looks like a typo — we've contacted Playlogic for confirmation.

A total of 250 new Gamerscore points can be yours upon the release of Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City or the downloadable episode, which follows the adventures of Luis Lopez, the man employed by the eponymous Gay Tony. If that's all you care to know about the expansion, tread carefully. The full list of Achievements is potentially spoiler-filled.

(Thanks to Philip for the heads up!)

Gone Down - 5
Complete all base jumps.

Diamonds Forever - 5
Complete the Trinity.

Four Play - 10
Hit a flag with a golf ball four times.

Bear Fight - 15
Win the L.C. Cage Fighters championship.

Catch the Bus - 15
Dance perfectly in both Tony's nightclubs.

Snow Queen - 20
Complete 25 drug wars.

Adrenaline Junkie - 25
Freefall for the longest possible time.

Maestro - 30
Finish the Ballad.

Past the Velvet Rope - 45
Score 80% or above in all missions.

Gold Star - 80
Score 100% in all missions.

Update: Doesn't sound like they made it. No word yet if they'll try again.

The game included a 100-point achievement for being signed in at the same time as 1,000 other players. This achievement was not included in later versions. For many completionists, it's the last barrier to getting all 15 achievements and 1,000 score.

So if you have NBA Live 07, log in now and stay online until 2 pm U.S. Mountain Time (40 minutes from now). You might pick up a stupid easy 100 points. You might also waste 40 minutes with a three-year old game, but hey, it's a Saturday. You had plans?

Boosting Gaming Session for NBA Live 07 [TrueAchievements]

Edit: I updated the headline to be something mildly more compelling and less embarrassing than that facepalm-inducing placeholder hed that went out the door. At least it wasn't what I usually type, which is like, "TK TK Headline Here."

It's a standard 50 achievement/100 Gamerscore setup. Have a look. It's a spread of mission completion, star achievements and unusual kills. The full list, as complied by Xbox360Achievements.org:

Back in the Saddle 15
Help train the local militia

Danger Close 15
Get hand picked for Shepherd's elite squad

Cold Shoulder 15
Infiltrate the snowy mountain side base

Tag 'em and bag 'em 15
Find Rojas in the Favelas

Royale with Cheese 15
Defend Burger Town

Soap on a Rope 15
Storm the gulag

Desperate Times 15
Execute the plan to help the Americans

Whiskey Hotel 15
Take back Whiskey Hotel

The Pawn 15
Assault Makarov's safe house

Out of the Frying Pan... 15
Complete the mission in the airplane graveyard

For the Record 35
Complete the Single Player campaign on any difficulty

The Price of War 90
Complete the single player campaign on Hardened or Veteran Difficulty

First Day of School 25
Complete 'S.S.D.D' and 'Team Player' on Veteran Difficulty

Black Diamond 25
Complete 'Cliffhanger' on Veteran Difficulty

Turistas 25
Complete 'Takedown' and 'The Hornet's Nest' on Veteran Difficulty

Red Dawn 25
Complete 'Wolverines!' and 'Exodus' on Veteran Difficulty

Prisoner #627 25
Complete 'The Only Easy Day... Was Yesterday' and 'The Gulag' on Veteran Difficulty

Ends Justify the Means 25
Complete 'Contingency' on Veteran Difficulty

Homecoming 25
Complete 'Of Their Own Accord', 'Second Sun', and 'Whiskey Hotel' on Veteran Difficulty

Queen takes Rook 25
Complete 'Loose Ends' and 'The Enemy of My Enemy' on Veteran Difficulty

Off the Grid 25
Complete 'Just Like Old Times' and 'Endgame' on Veteran Difficulty

Pit Boss 10
Run The Pit in 'S.S.D.D' and finish with a final time under 30 seconds

Ghost 10
Plant the C4 in 'Cliffhanger' without alerting or injuring anyone in the blizzard

Colonel Sanderson 10
Kill 7 chickens in under 10 seconds in 'The Hornet's Nest'

Gold Star 20
Earn 1 star in Special Ops

Hotel Bravo 20
Earn 4 stars in Special Ops

Charlie On Our Six 20
Earn 8 stars in Special Ops

It Goes to Eleven 20
Earn at least 1 star in 11 different Special Op missions

Operational Asset 20
Earn all 3 stars in at least 5 different Special Op missions

Blackjack 20
Earn 21 stars in Special Ops

Honor Roll 20
Earn at least 1 star in each Special Op mission

Operative 30
Earn all 3 stars in at least 10 different Special Op missions

Specialist 30
Earn 30 stars in Special Ops

Professional 30
Earn all 3 stars in at least 15 different Special Op missions

Star 69 90
Earn 69 stars in Special Ops

Downed but Not Out 10
Kill 4 enemies in a row while downed in Special Ops

I'm the Juggernaut... 10
Kill a Juggernaut in Special Ops

Ten plus foot-mobiles 10
Kill at least 10 enemies with one Predator missile in Single Player or Special Ops

Unnecessary Roughness 10
Use a riot shield to beat down an enemy in Single Player or Special Ops

Knock-knock 10
Kill 4 enemies with 4 shots during a slow-mo breach in Single Player or Special Ops

Some Like it Hot 10
Kill 6 enemies in a row using a thermal weapon in Single Player or Special Ops

Two Birds with One Stone 10
Kill 2 enemies with a single bullet in Single Player or Special Ops

The Road Less Traveled 10
Collect 22 enemy intel items.Leave No Stone Unturned10 Collect 45 enemy intel items

Drive By 10
Kill 20 enemies in a row while driving a vehicle in Single Player or Special Ops

The Harder They Fall 10
Kill 2 rappelling enemies in a row before they land on their feet in Single Player or Special Ops

Desperado 10
Kill 5 enemies in a row using 5 different weapons or attachments in Single Player or Special Ops

Look Ma Two Hands 10
Kill 10 enemies in a row using akimbo weapons in Single Player or Special Ops

No Rest For the Wary 10
Knife an enemy without him ever knowing you were there in Single Player or Special Ops

Three-some 10
Kill at least 3 enemies with a single shot from a grenade launcher in Single Player or Special Ops.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Achievement List [Xbox360Achievements.org Thanks, Octavian111!]

The list points to origin stories for six character classes - Human Noble, Dalish Elf, City Elf, Magi, Dwarf Commoner and Dwarf Noble. Players also will be tasked with either destroying or preserving the "Anvil of the World. Four achievements are also awarded for hooking up with different characters, male and female.

For the record, there is no "Demon Tits" achievement.

Dragon Age: Origins Achievements [Console Monster via Game Stooge]

Take for instance the game's version of Heavy Metal Flu: Six Degrees of Schafer.

"The "Six Degrees of Schafer" Achievement/Trophy is rewarded when you play with or against Tim Schafer in Brutal Legend's epic multiplayer mode. The achievement is also viral, meaning that once you play Tim (or someone who has played Tim), you then have the achievement, and then when you play someone else, they get it, and then when that person plays someone else, they get it, etc etc, rinse, repeat…. Think of it like the flu, a heavy metal flu if you will… "

Note that the Playstation 3 version has one more trophy than the 360 version has achievements. It's called Rock God, earned for collecting all PS3 trophies.

360 PS3 Name
15 Bronze Got a Car and a Date Completed "Welcome to the Age of Metal"
15 Bronze Start a Revolution Completed "Exploited in the Bowels of Hell"
15 Bronze Thick as a Baby's Arm Completed "Lair of the Metal Queen"
15 Bronze Hair Remover Completed "Battle for Bladehenge"
15 Bronze French Kiss Instructor Completed "Pilgrimage of Screams"
15 Bronze Chicks n' Booze n' Stuff Completed "Sanctuary of Sin"
15 Bronze Ran to the Hills Completed "It's Raining Death"
15 Bronze Fistfull of Fog Completed "Dry Ice, Wet Graves"
15 Bronze No More Tears Completed "Sea of Black Tears"
25 Silver Groupie Completed Campaign mode on Easy
25 Silver Roadie Completed Campaign mode on Normal
25 Silver Legend Completed Campaign mode on Brutal
20 Bronze Overkill Completed all hunting secondary missions
20 Bronze Squeal Like a Chicken Completed all racing secondary missions
20 Bronze Protector Completed 20 ambush, outpost defense, or mortar secondary missions
50 Gold Metal God Achieved 100% completion on the stats screen
10 Bronze Serpent Samaritan Freed 40 Bound Serpents
15 Bronze Serpent Spanker Freed 80 Bound Serpents
25 Silver Serpent Savior Freed all 120 Bound Serpents
5 Bronze One Hit Wonder Purchased 1 upgrade in the Motor Forge
25 Silver Loyal Customer Purchased all upgrades in the Motor Forge
20 Bronze Virtuoso Learned all guitar solos
20 Bronze Tourist Viewed all vistas
20 Bronze Now You Must Tell the Tale Viewed all Legends
20 Bronze Voices From Beyond Unlocked all songs in the Mouth of Metal
20 Bronze Flowerslave Summoned all Motor Forges
10 Bronze Practice Bloody Practice Won an AI Stage Battle - any difficulty
20 Bronze Iron Fist Won an AI Stage Battle - Brütal difficulty
10 Bronze Victör Won a ranked multiplayer match
20 Silver Subjügator Won 10 ranked multiplayer matches
50 Gold Cönquerer Won 50 ranked multiplayer matches
20 Bronze Master of the Flame Double Teamed with every Ironheade unit
20 Bronze Master of the Tear Double Teamed with every Drowning Doom unit
20 Bronze Master of the Blood Double Teamed with every Tainted Coil unit
20 Bronze Armchair General Won a Stage Battle by yourself against the AI without attacking
30 Silver Favored Acquired 3,000 Fire Tributes
30 Silver Sellout Spent 250,000 fans - any mode
20 Bronze Some Demon Flesh on your Bumper Slayed 150 enemies with the Deuce - any mode
30 Silver I've never touched an axe before Personally smote 300 enemies - any mode
10 Bronze Silence, groundwalker! Gained 5 or more seconds of hang time in a single jump - any mode
15 Bronze Six Degrees of Schafer*** Played with or against another player who has this Achievement
15 Bronze Ringleader Trapped 15 enemies in one ring of fire with the Fire Baron's Double Team
15 Bronze Painkiller Killed 25 enemies with the grinder of one
Rock Crusher
15 Bronze Dollpocalypse Hit 6 enemies with the explosion from a Brood's Double Team
15 Bronze Euthanasia Hit 15 enemies with one Agony Ball using the Pain Lifter's Double Team
15 Bronze Death From Above Killed 20 enemies with one Bleeding Death
15 Bronze Coolest Thing Ever Jumped over a Hextadon in the Deuce
15 Bronze Beast Master Rode every animal in the world
50 Silver Boar Bather Rode a Razorfire Boar into the Sea of Black Tears and live to tell the tale.
20 Bronze Quill Tosser Killed a Tollusk using only Ground Urchins

N/A Platinum Rock God Got all PS3 trophies

Seemingly lost in the shuffle of a busy week, the new achievements, per Xbox.com:

• Undisputed: Complete Ahern's survival mission (50 Gamerscore)

• New Sheriff in Town: Take first place in any combat scenario on Pinnacle Station (50)

• Best of the Best: Take first place in 12 combat scenarios on Pinnacle Station (50)

This raises the overall Gamerscore for Mass Effect to 1,200. No word exactly when the DLC gets here.

New Mass Effect Achievments Hint at DLC, Finally [Joystiq via Eurogamer]

"Acquire Waffle Weapons!" is earned once you pick up the "Ray Gun," "DG-2" and "Monkey Bomb" at the same time. There's also a mention of a teleporter. I haven't played CoD:WaW in a while, but this is the first I've heard of any ray guns. Sounds like the game's getting a little pulp science-fictiony with secret weapons of the Third Reich.

The full list is below. They went up on the official site July 23.

• 40 Knives!:
Kill 40 zombies with the bowie knife.
• Acquire Waffle Weapons!:
Obtain the Ray Gun, DG-2, and the Monkey Bomb at the same time in a game.

• Der electrican!:
Link all teleport pads before round 7.

• Frequent Flyer!:
Use the teleporter 8 times.

• Locksmith!:
Open all doors in the map.

• The Might of the Monkey!:
Use the Monkey Bomb.

• Perkaholics Anonymous!:
Survive untill round 20 without buying a single perk.

• Pack Addict!:
Upgrade 5 weapons at the Pack A Punch Machine.

• Wacker Packer!:
Upgrade any weapon in Pack A Punch.

• Elevate Your Senses!:
???

The 10 New Achievements/Trophies for Map Pack 3 [Call of Duty.com, thanks The Whitedwarf]

The part about bringing games to school is especially true. I think the only time I've ever read a game's instruction manual was in study hall.

Old-School Gamer, New-School Achievements [GameSpy]

Never assume, people say, right?

Revenge of the Fallen's Good Mojo Achievement, according to its official description, is awarded to players who "Make it into the Top 10000 on SP Leaderboards - Either Campaign."

An Activision rep informed me via e-mail that the Achievement is awarded to anyone who achieves a score that is among the 10,000 best scores currently listed. If multiple people have the same score, that score counts as just one of the 10,000 tracked for the Achievement. Therefore, more than 10,000 people can be eligible for this Achievement at any given time.

I had won the Achievement after completing a single level of the game's Autobot campaign a full 10 days after the game was released. That lead me to surmise that I earned the Achievement for barely doing more than having turned the game on. I believed that the fact that I could earn it without having played much of the game meant I was one of the first 10,000 people to connect the 360 version of the game to Xbox Live. So... it must be a sign of meager uptake of the game by consumers, right?

I was wrong.

A check of the Revenge of the Fallen leaderboards this morning — a check I regret not having made yesterday — shows that I am ranked 82,628th in the world. So a lot of us must be sharing the same scores.

Gone is any impression that the game is selling slowly or not being commonly connected to Xbox Live. In its place I have a new understanding about what making it into the Top 10,000 really means. It's not the trophy of high-level performance that I read it to be. Good Mojo may be a more easily achievable accolade than I originally thought, but it is no sign of a flop.

In my story yesterday, I said that my winning of Good Mojo was a sign of "slow sales, low online adoption or some other peculiarity." That third choice was correct.

When does an Achievement reveal too much?

The Transformers Revenge of the Fallen game was released on June 23, but it was 10 days later, on July 4 that I started playing the game. After completing one level, I earned the Good Mojo Achievement.

The description for the Achievement: "Make it into the Top 10000 on SP Leaderboards - Either Campaign."

In the long run, that Achievement will be a badge of accomplishment for people who managed to rack up a lot of points while playing this game. But, by definition, the first 10,000 people to both get the game for the Xbox 360, finish at least one level in single-player and connect to Live will earn the Good Mojo accolade.

So, 10 days after the game was released, 10,000 people had not yet done that. Does that reveal a slow start in sales? A low percentage of active Xbox Live connections among owners and renters of the game? Or an ignoring of the single-player campaign?

I'm not sure and have asked Activision for comment. If anyone out there is getting the game now and earning the Achievement with as little effort as I did, let us know.

[UPDATE 7/8: Activision has updated Kotaku on how this Achievement works. For more details check out our clarification post.]