Achievements and Trophies

The PS3 has Trophies now, which are like XBox 360 Achievements. Things you can do in the game that are a challenge, and they show up to other users so they can see how good you are. In principle, it's a good idea.

In practice, however, I'm not so sure. I just spent 1.5 hours in Super Stardust HD trying to get the 15-tokens-in-one-boost trophy. I got 14 of them in one shot once, but never 15. The problem is that the developers need to find something in their game you can do to get a trophy which is both clear in its execution and challenging. But in this case, it's not challenging; it's just frustrating. Maybe I'm not good enough, but I'm a pretty decent Stardust player: I've completed the Arcade mode twice in one game, meaning I was able to survive it on Hard (the second playthrough).

If someone out there can consistently get 15 tokens in one boost, then I'm wrong. But it really seems to me that it requires luck; and going through attempt after attempt of doing the same thing waiting for that luck is dull. I have the same feeling about the get-15-bombs-in-bomber-mode trophy.

Maybe it's the design of these particular trophies. But I've heard about the Halo games where people get together and have 15 people stand on a grenade to get one player an achievement related to grenade frags. Clearly something is broken here.

The bottom line is, I'm just not sure trophies/achievements add to the fun of gaming.

The Happening

So we went to see The Happening. After Lady in the Water, I was hoping Mr. Shyamalan would get back into form. But, apparently not. It's an improvement, but not by a whole lot.

I disliked the Science diatribes. I can't determine if Shyamalan or his characters have a fundamental misunderstanding of evolution.

But, there were many scenes that I liked. The general creepiness of what "happens," the curve of how it progresses, and some of the characters are interesting. Mark Wahlberg was well-cast. I get a feeling his scene with the plastic plant got him the role, or it was the bit of the script that brough Mark to mind. The Mrs. Jones stuff was really good.

I find that as the film fades in my memory, I remember the bits I liked, not the bits I didn't. I have a feeling Night thinks of Signs as a movie that deals with religion, and Happening as one the deals with Science. Unfortunately, it didn't handle the science at all well, whereas I liked the way Signs handled religion (that it could be interpreted either way).

So for me, in order of enjoyability:

Sixth Sense/Unbreakable
The Village
Signs
The Happening
Lady in the Water

With a rather large gap between TH and LitW.

If his next film disappoints, I'm giving up. I liked both Signs and The Village, so for me it's only 2 real klunkers since Unbreakable. And I gotta say, The Happening could have been much worse.