I’m not an avid collector of Xbox 360 achievements, in fact, I’m constantly getting into arguments with my friends over the subject of collecting achievements. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against them. They provide incentive to finish games, they make you do useless stuff you’d never dream of doing, and all that solid jazz. Some people like to collect them, others like to avoid them.

I’m horribly apathetic to receiving an achievement, I’ll admit. There are a few achievements where I’ve enjoyed getting them, like “Raining Zombies”, from Dead Rising, which had me knocking aside 30 zombies with a parasol. Others pissed me the hell off, like “Neighborhood Watch” from The Orange Box, which had me trying to save a neighborhood from total destruction, and which I totally got on accident. Other achievements made me laugh, like “Good night sweet prince” from Far Cry 2, the namesake did, not the actual achievement which has you putting a dying buddy out of their misery.

There was only one achievement I really enjoyed getting and that was “Explorer” from Test Drive Unlimited. The “Explorer” achievement has the player discover all roads on the island featured in Test Drive Unlimited. Sounds simple, right? The island featured in Test Drive Unlimited is Oahu, the third largest of the Hawaiian islands and the 20th largest island in the United States. With more than 1000 miles of roads and highways, it takes a good 30 minutes to get from one side of the island to the other.

Think about that for a minute. The achievement has the player driving on all the roads of Oahu, from Honolulu to Kahuku, Waialua, Waianae, and Waimanalo. A complete circle around the island takes a good hour and that is, by driving one of the fastest cars in the game. The achievement counts all roads, onramps, offramps, dead-end streets, one way streets, and boulevards.

Yet, I enjoyed this achievement.

I enjoyed driving for hours around the island knowing I was accomplishing nothing significant… but at least I was enjoying myself and the relaxing island atmosphere. If there is one game that can put me at ease, it’s Test Drive Unlimited. I loaded up a ton of songs, ranging the mix from Tupac’s “To Live and Die in LA”, to Bone Thugs N’ Harmony’s “Foe Tha Love of $” and the accompanying instrumental, “Moe Cheeese” to “The Revealing Science of God” by Yes and “Mr. Blue Sky” by the Electric Light Orchestra and hit the road, driving for almost hours on end.

The next achievement I really want to get is Eagle-Eyed Driver, which has the player cover 8,000 km of land. To put into perspective on how tough that would be, let’s keep in mind that the actual island of Oahu is only 1,545.4 km. It’s been a few years since I bought the game and I’m nowhere near completion.

The enjoyment of getting achievements depends on the achievement itself. If you like playing games just to get achievements and to inflate your gamerscore, then good for you. If you like to play games just because they are meant to be played, then good for you as well.

Nobody is right, nobody is wrong. Everyone be happy.

Except me, my disc drive just died.