Crackup

So here's the story. I've beaten ODST. I just need a couple more achivements and then I'm gonna sit on it 'til the Reach beta. I beat Crackdown and I was trying to get a couple more achievements for that before I returned it. But then Final Fantasy XIII came out and I was like "fuck Crackdown". I played through the story and now I'm ready for the side-quests. But then I think maybe I should finish off Crackdown first.

I'm trying to finish the "Ring Leader" achievement and I go to where the stunt marker is supposed to be but I can't find it because it won't turn on. I would just like to point out that I hate achievements where you have to find huge lists of hidden things, especially identical unnumbered things. You basically have to plan before you even start the game because if you grab a couple and you didn't write down where they were you're pretty much screwed. Even if you have a map and know where all of them are, you don't know which ones are missing. The orb achievements in Crackdown are kind of interesting because the more you collect the easier it is to find the others. It's pretty cool until you have about ten left and you don't know where to look.

"Ring Leader" is by far the worst example of this type of achievement I have ever come across. Sure there's not 500 of the like the agility orbs and they're not as hidden as the 300 hidden orbs, but the smaller number spread out in one huge area makes them pretty hard to find. A problem that can easily be solved with a map. Except for the fact that they are FUCKING INVISIBLE. Which means you can be standing right under one and be unable to see it. And even if you know exactly where it is you can't collect it while invisible. To make them visible you have to be coming from a certain angle a certain distance away. The marker becomes visible for a few moments so you can drive through it. And some of these location are very difficult to get a car to. If after the time has passed you have not driven through it, it will become invisible again. So you might be thinking you can just go to the place and where you turned it on the first time and it will come back on. WRONG. Once a marker becomes invisible again you need to leave the area and then drive back to the "turn-on" spot. Did I mention that sometimes this spot doesn't work even If you have just loaded the game. Did I also mention that you need a specific car two specific cars to reach these markers. You need to drive these two cars to almost every marker. One car that jumps that you can only get in one place and a car carrying truck to use as a ramp hidden in different places around the city. You need to take this truck and place it in the middle of traffic and pray that another car doesn't push it out of it's exact alignment while you go to the other car. If either car gets damaged you need to go find another one.

So after about ten minutes of trying to get a marker to even turn on for me I said "fuck Crackdown" and I have decided to return it. I can't wait until Crackdown 2 comes out. ODST, Final Fantasy XIII, and Splosion Man blogs to come. 790/1250g