Achievement Arcade: Hot

This week saw the release of Gears of War 3's most extensive DLC to date: RAAM's Shadow. Having played the first hour or so of the single-player component, I have to say that it is very good. The story serves as a prequel to the first game in the series, taking place right after Emergence Day. While it's a little pricey at 1200 MSP (or $15 in actual money), the amount of content you get in RAAM's Shadow makes up for the initial investment. It's also one of the best Xbox 360-exclusive DLCs out...

What started off as a meme, has turned into a near reality. When the E3 trailer for Battlefield 3 was released this summer, it started off with a soldier holding up a dinosaur statue. Obviously, this means that DICE (the developers) should release a DLC pack where you're fighting dinosaurs. This is the next best thing, I guess. DICE, if you're listening, I've got loads of ideas for the dinosaur DLC.

Redditor Liktwo is a genius. It only took him a month after the release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to realize that making the Dragonborn's helmet out of bacon was the best idea since...Jeeze, maybe of all time.

Twisted Pixel Games' The Gunstringer is easily the most ridiculous game of the year. I mean, you play as an undead cowboy marionette, legendary director Lloyd Kaufman is in it, and at the end of the game, you shoot the developers. Oh, and the first boss in the game is an inflatable wavy tube man.

Here's a trophy guide for Payday: The Heist that requires excellent teamwork. To get the 'No Photos' trophy, you'll need to take out all of the security cameras in the level First World Bank within ten seconds of drawing your weapon.

Payday: The Heist is probably my favorite multiplayer game this year. I mean, what's cooler than joining up with three of your buddies and robbing banks in a videogame?

The Metal Gear series is pretty famous for being gonzo-meta with it's easter eggs and extras. Take this one for instance. To get the 'Hideo Kojima' achievement in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD, you have to recruit Hideo Kojima, the lead designer of the entire Metal Gear series.

Here's a nice challenge for you completionists out there. In Assassin's Creed: Revelations, after you collect all 10 of the memoir pages, load up Sequence 5 - Memory 3 and head over to the Hagia Sofia. Once you're inside, I hope you're wearing your platforming hat, because you will need to jump, climb, slide and glide your way to the very end of the challenge course.

Here's your Tuesday afternoon "How the...". In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, if you head to Dawnstar, there exists an invisible chest filled with a lot of good stuff. Yeah, I had no idea about this either. And the coolest part about this? If you follow the video guide to the T, the chest will refill every 48 hours, sometimes with new stuff in it.

Here's another Back to Karkand achievement guide for Battlefield 3. This one is for 'Third Tour', which requires you to get a kill using only the BTR-90, DPV, and F-35. Oh, these are all vehicles by the way, so you know this is going to be a fun one.

Here's yet another one of those pesky multi-step time sink achievements, but the reward is great. To get the 'Genius' achievement in Batman: Arkham City, you have to rescue all five hostages The Riddler has taken. It should be noted though that you'll need a certain amount of Riddler trophies to activate the hostage rescue missions.

Talk about your plot twists! This article may contain some spoilers for the Batman: Arkham City sidequest Fragile Alliance. Read on if you dare, or don't care about cool things being spoiled for you.

Batman: Arkham City is full of really humanizing moments. From paying your respects to Mr. and Mrs. Wayne, to this one where you find Mr. Freeze's wife. This one little side quest goes a long way to show that Mr. Freeze is actually a dude beneath all of the armor and ice.

I've been pretty straight forward with my praise for Batman: Arkham City. But the thing I like most of all are all of the side missions in the game. One of the cooler, and darker, ones is entitled Identity Thief. No, you don't go after some nerd that hacks people's credit card information. You go after a psychopathic serial killer.

Here's another Battlefield 3 Back to Karkand achievement for you. Remember, only try this if you have the Back to Karkand DLC, otherwise you won't have access to the maps required.

A quick note before we get to any achievement talk. To get the 'Jaws' achievement in Battlefield 3, you'll need the Back to Karkand DLC. There are two ways to get it, though. Either you payed for it, or you got it for free because you pre-ordered the game.

Okay, a bit of a disclaimer before we get to the achievement talk. To do this one, you'll have to have bought the Old World Blues DLC for Fallout: New Vegas.

One of the achievements you can get in Battlefield 3 is called 'Army of Darkness', and it doesn't feature Ash from the Evil Dead series. Obviously this is a wasted opportunity, as any game that could have Ash in it, should have Ash in it. But I digress.

Every Modern Warfare game has had bits of enemy intel for you to recover, and they're always hidden within the level. The few pieces I've uncovered across the series has always been through dumb luck. But if you want that 'Scout Leader' achievement, you'll have to find all 46 pieces of intel throughout the entire single player campaign.

To understand how mind-blowing this achievement is for me, it should be known that Metal Gear Solid 2 is one of my favorite games ever made. Like, in the history of video games, this is probably my second favorite game of all time. I know every where secret, item, and Easter egg is in this game. So when I saw the footage for this achievement in the video below, you'll understand why I screamed like a girl.

Another great thing about Batman: Arkham City? The rogues gallery! Every great villain from Batman's history shows up in the game, and it's always awesome when they do turn up. Even Mr. Freeze, my least favorite of Batman's enemies, is kind of cool in the game (see what I did there?).

Talk about a tough challenge with very little reward. The '50x Combo' achievement in Batman: Arkham City is hard to get. Like, stupidly hard. What you have to do to get this achievement is get a 50x combo without taking any damaged.

Are you a member of the Thieves Guild in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim? Then this is the achievement guide for you. After you complete the main Thieves Guild quest-line (which is freaking awesome, by the way), you'll be asked to take on special missions. To initiate those, talk to Melvin or Vex in the Thieves Guild headquarters in Rifiten. These small jobs are scattered across the four main cities of Skyrim: Whiterun, Markarth, Solitude, and Windhelm.

The latest in the Legend of Zelda series, Skyward Sword, released a few short weeks ago to very little fanfare. I have no idea why that is, because the game is absolutely gorgeous and pretty darn good. Maybe it was the fact that Nintendo forced motion controls in to this one, or maybe it was because everyone is busy playing Skyrim/Modern Warfare 3/Battlefield 3. Whatever the reason, if you even remotely like the Zelda series, give this one a whirl.

This was one of the most difficult achievements for me to get in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Mostly because I was never able to do something horrible enough to warrant a 1000 gold bounty. However, pms00 has a great video tutorial showing the easiest way to get the 'Master Criminal' achievement, which requires you to hold a bounty of at least 1000 gold in all nine cities in Skyrim.

In the level "Going Hunting", you take control of the co-pilot of an F-18 Hornet tasked with shooting down enemy planes. To get the 'You Can Be My Wingman Anytime' achievement, you'll need a perfect playthrough of the level. That means you don't get hit, and all the enemy planes are shot down without running out of ammo. Do this, and you'll get 30G on Xbox 360, or a bronze trophy on PlayStation 3. If you need some guidance, check out the video below.

Here's a tougher achievement for you guys to get in Battlefield 3. In the level "Thunder Run", you take control of a big friggin' tank. Use it to take down six enemy tanks before you reach the fort, and you'll get 25G on Xbox 360, or a bronze trophy on PlayStation 3.

This looks like a nice little challenge for any Assassin's Creed: Revelations players out there. To get the 'Lightning Strike' achievement, you need to take out five guards in five seconds or less using your hidden blades.

If you're crafty with a sniper rifle, this achievement is for you. In order to get 'Bullseye', you have to take out all of the bad guys in the level "Drop 'em Like Liquid" without alerting anyone to your presence. Good luck with that, by the way. If you manage to pull this off, you'll be rewarded with 20G on Xbox 360, or a bronze trophy on PlayStation 3.

Once you've obtained a 90 skill ranking in any school of magic in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, you're able to go questing for the master level spells. What are these? Why, some of the best spells in the game! Now, you won't get any achievements for these, but you will have some of the best spells ever.

Here are two pretty quick and easy achievements for Battlefield 3. You're welcome, by the way. To get the story-specific 'Not On My Watch' achievement, load up the level "Operation Swordbreaker". All you do is provide covering fire so that your buddies can get out safely. Do this, and you'll net 20G on Xbox 360, and a bronze trophy on PlayStation 3.

Here's an easy one for you Battlefield 3 fans out there. This is the achievement 'Twofor', and it's the easiest 15G, or bronze trophy you could ever get. Load up the level Night Shift, and you'll see two guards standing right next to each other. All you need to do is take them both out with one shot. It's that easy!

Title says it all, really. How would you prefer your how-to's? Would you rather have something written that's easily accessible from anywhere, or would you prefer video guides that can actually show you what to do? Maybe something that does video and text?

Big fan of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's Spec-Ops mode? Then boy do I have the achievement guide for you. In what looks to be a pretty tough to get achievement to get, 'Serrated Edge' asks of you to take down a Juggernaut with your knife. Luckily, you're allowed to use as many flash grenades and pump him with as much lead as possible, as long as the final blow is with your knife.

As is the case with all of the games in the Uncharted series, trying to find all of the pieces of treasure in the game is an exercise in sudden hair loss and creative use of expletives. At least in my case.

Continuing the theme of "Let's get a bunch of achievements on the 'Halo' level", the 'No Fly Zone' achievement should be cake for seasoned Halo veterans. All you do is destroy three out of four banshees on the level "Halo", as demonstrated by the Achievement Hunters below.