First there was Avatar, then there was My Horse and Me2. Now there is Disney Sing It with Hannah Montana not too far away.

There is no denying that earning achievements and boosting gamerscore is extremely addictive. There is a huge community of competitive gamers eager to get to the top of leaderboards whether they be worldwide, or just amongst friends.

This led me to wondering, how far will you go to boost your gamerscore? Would you risk the ridicule of friends to get that extra 1000 points?

Those of you who have looked on my Xbox 360 profile will have noticed that I have earned 1000 gamerscore on Avatar and also played my fair share of other “kids games”. I sort of have an excuse as my girlfriend has kids who own an Xbox 360, but that doesn’t really mask the fact that I would still have played the games if she didn’t.

The game I received most comments about from friends was Disney Sing It. I got quite a grilling for having that on my profile eventhough a lot of them are “achievement whores” too. I must say though that I don’t chase after gamerscore as much as I used to. Lately I’ve been playing a lot of games purely for the enjoyment of the gameplay and story, but I am still tempted to go that extra mile sometimes to grab a couple of points.

What I’d like to hear are your stories, the readers of this blog. What games are you most ashamed of playing? Do you only play games that have easy achievements? Have your friends ever mocked you about certain games on your profile?

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As part of increasing gamerscore, I thought I’d list some of the PC games available that allow you to play on Xbox Live and earn more achievements. All you need is your account details, and you can sign in when playing these games much like on your Xbox 360.

PC games which you can increase your gamerscore with:

• Fallout 3
• Quantum of Solace
• Grand Theft Auto IV
• Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2
• Lost Planet Extreme Condition – Colonies Edition
• Universe at War: Earth Assault
• Gears of War
• The Club
• Kane & Lynch – Dead Men
• Halo 2
• Shadowrun
• Viva Pinata

The beauty of playing PC games with achievements is that if you have the same game on your Xbox 360, they count as separate games. Therefore you can achieve 1000 gamerscore on Fallout 3 (Xbox 360) and another 1000 on Fallout 3 (PC).

Another thing worth mentioning is that some of these games are PC exclusives. Dawn of War 2 will only be available on the PC (or so they say). Halo 2, whilst not exactly a PC exclusive, is the only version that contains achievements. So this game is definitely worth playing through again (it also comes with additional multiplayer maps and upgraded graphics. I myself have also played online at various times recently and have always been able to find loads of matches full of other players).

So, if you want yet another way to boost your gamerscore, check out these PC games.

To keep up to date with PC listings, please visit gamesforwindows.com

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I don’t usually like to post links to other blog articles as I like to try and keep everything on here unique (as why else would anyone bother coming here?). Today I came across an article that really struck a chord, and I think it’s important to spread the word/awareness of the topic.

The blog talks about Microsoft raising the cap on downloadable content achievements/gamerscore and it’s potential negative effect on games/gaming through exploitation.

“While it’s nice that every game now has 1000 original points, this DLC policy has undone the “ease of comparison” idea that was part of the original intent of the first policy revision.”

“if asked the question, “Are developers ripping us off on DLC or exploiting achievement whores?” my answer for now would be, not YET, for the most part. 2009 will be a telling year for DLC though, and things could shift in that direction.”

The blog article provides some very good examples of early signs of cracks appearing in the current system, and where it could potentially get out of hand.

To read the full article, please click here.

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