Finally . . . and finally again!

I"m a completionist at heart.  I know I've mentioned that before but it needs to be repeated.  If I can pick up every item in a game; I'll look for it.  If it mean exploring every nook and cranny; I'll be there.  If it means getting every achievement in a game; by golly I'll do it.

There have been 2 games that have an achievement in them that has alluded me for many months.  The first game was Battlefield 1942.  When the arcade game came out my friends and I played it a bunch.  I wasn't very good and wasn't enjoying the game, but I still played because I enjoyed the time spent with friends.  There's an achievement for playing 100 matches and my friends seemed to get this one pretty easily.  Remember when I said I was a completionist?  That's where the nagging feeling of not having earned everything I could in the game comes in.  I needed to play a bunch of matches but I didn't know how many.

The problem with playing that game is it's not that fun without my friends.  But they had moved on.  I was left to get this achievement on my own.  So, whenever I couldn't concentrate on other games and I had no one else to play with I would start this game and try to play a couple of matches before calling it a night.  I did this for months.  And then FINALLY I finished a match and I hear that wonderful little beep that told me I had a message . . . or a friend just came online . . . or heaven help me AN ACHIEVEMENT!

I think it was almost 4 years after my previous achievement before I finally got the one for playing 100 matches.  Now I can say I've done everything in that game and I could move one.

And what I decided to move on to was Borderlands.

Maybe the feeling of euphoria at having finally completed a game I decided that tackle an achievement (and a mission) that has dogged me for several months.  The Braaaaaaaaaiiiiiinnnnnnnsss achievement (or whatever it's called).

When I started playing Jacob's Cove DLC in Borderlands I was forewarned about this mission and the achievement that goes with it.  Get head shots.  Collect their brains.  I was doing that throughout the area only to find out that I had to accept the mission first in order for all those brains to count.  But silly me I left that mission to the very end before accepting it and going for the head shots.  With no other missions to do I was left to wander around all those dark and dreary places looking for zombies to kill.  Not very exciting.  And not very fun when I discovered how many levels there were to the mission and how many head shots I had to get.

When the final 250count level was unlocked I couldn't do it any more.  I was tired of the game and I never wanted to see Pandora again.  But . . . energized by completing Battlefield 1942 I put this game back in and started roaming the paths of Jacob's Cove.  Grand Theft Auto has nothing on one pissed off vault hunter looking form 250 brains.

I was able to get a lot of brains in fits and spurts.  When I got to 170ish all of a sudden I couldn't get a head shot of there was a string tied from my bullet to their brains.  And I wiped out everybody in so many areas that it was taking forever for zombies to respawn.  So close and yet so far.

I stuck with it and FINALLY got that last head shot, picked up that last squishy brain and made a beeline to turn the mission in.  I thought it was the most tedious mission (partly because I didn't get it right away) but I could finally say I have completed the Jacob's Cove DLC for Borderlands.

I love playing games.  They are an escape from the drudgery of life and a fertile ground for my imagination.  But when trying achieve things in a game turns into something similar to the drudgery of life it ceases to be fun any more.  Unfortunately for me my Completionist Devil rears his ugly head and says "YOU MUST FINISH THIS!"  And who am I to argue with the only real man in my life.