Achievement Arcade How-Tos

How To: Get the 'Overachiever' Achievement in Modern Warfare 3

Modern Warfare 3's Spec-Ops mode is what's keeping me coming back every other day, and I'd imagine that's the same situation for everyone that owns the game. Today, the Achievement Hunters are going for all 48 stars in the Spec-Ops missions. This is pretty tough, because you have to play on the hardest difficulty. Because I'm a sissy-man, I can only imagine that it'll take me a long time to complete this one.

How To: Get Three More Achievements in the RAAM's Shadow DLC for Gears of War 3

Hopefully by now, you've played a good chunk of RAAM's Shadow for Gears of War 3. I've just now started to get to it, as my buddy and I have just completed the main campaign on co-op. For today, we've got three achievements for the newly released DLC. Just make sure you have this downloaded before diving in, okay?

How To: Get the 'Threesome' and 'Scientits' Achievements in Duke Nukem Forever

After the most troubled development in gaming history, Duke is back. And it's...certainly a game that's been in development for fourteen years. Quality aside, there's still some good achievements in the game. In the latest DLC for the game, "The Doctor Who Cloned Me", released this past week. Along with new multiplayer maps, the DLC brought with it a brand new singleplayer campaign. Which means more achievements!

Find 343 Guilty Spark in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary's Firefight Mode

343 Guilty Spark is one of the most recognizable characters from the Halo universe. And how could you not love that little sphere of questionable moral standards? While he plays a major part in the campaign in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, he never showed up in multiplayer. Well, until now, that is.

How To: Find a Dinosaur in Battlefield 3

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.

How To: Get the 'Sandstorm' Achievement in Batman: Arkham City

I'm pretty sure every villain Batman has put away over the years makes an appearance in Batman: Arkham City. If that fact weren't so awesome, it'd be freaking ridiculous. To get the 'Sandstorm' achievement, you have to defeat Ra's al Ghul in some sort of magical sand land.

How To: Survive the RAAM's Shadow DLC in Gears of War 3

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...

How To: Get the 'Turbo Deflation' Achievement in The Gunstringer

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.

How To: Get the 'But How?' and 'Cheney?' Trophies in Payday: The Heist

The easiest way to get these two trophies in Payday: The Heist is to load up the map Slaughterhouse. Now, to get the 'But How?' trophy, you have to let the armored car fall into the building by itself. But how? Well, after the armored car gets knocked onto the roof the building, just let it sit there. Do not shoot the support cables. If you survive two waves of enemies coming in to get you, the car will fall by itself.

How To: Get the 'No Photos' Trophy in Payday: The Heist

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.

How To: Get the 'You Can Run, But You Can't Hide' Trophy in Payday: The Heist

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?

How To: Get the 'Vamp Eyer' Achievement in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty HD

I've played through Metal Gear Solid 2 at least fifteen times now. Easily. But I have never seen or heard about this Easter egg. So consider my mind blown when I tell you that Vamp (who should be dead three times at this point) is in the final cutscene of the game.

How To: Get the 'Hideo Kojima' Achievement in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD

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.

How To: Get the 'Holy Wisdom' Achievement in Assassin's Creed: Revelations

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.

How To: Find an Invisible Chest in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

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.

How To: Get the 'Third Tour' Achievement in Battlefield 3

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.

How To: Get the 'Complete Warior' Achievement in Battlefield 3

Today marks the release of the first piece of Battlefield 3 DLC, Back to Karkand. If you preordered the game, you got this for free. But for those of us who didn't manage to preorder it, we'll need to shell out $15 for this.

How To: Get the 'Genius' Achievement in Batman: Arkham City

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.

How To: Get the 'Dial Z for Murder' Achievement in Batman: Arkham City

Victor Zsasz is one seriously messed up dude. Since I don't read too many Batman comics, I'm not that familiar with the character. But after experiencing him in Batman: Arkham City, I'm ready to read up more about him.

How To: Get the 'Broken Toys' Achievement in Batman: Arkham City

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.

How To: Get the 'Contract Terminated' Achievement in Batman: Arkham City

Deadshot is one of my all-time favorite Batman villains. So when I saw that he was in Batman: Arkham City, I jumped on this sidequest faster than I jump on a fresh batch of cornbread. Don't judge me, I'm from Indiana.

How To: Get the 'Bargaining Chip' Achievement in Batman: Arkham City

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.

How To: Get the 'Serial Killer' Achievement in Batman: Arkham City

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.

How To: Get the 'Catch' Achievement in Batman: Arkham City

This is probably the weirdest, most vague achievement in all of Batman: Arkham City. So don't feel bad consulting a guide to find it, I did. In order to get the 'Catch' achievement, you have to play a game of catch with your remote controlled Batarang.

How To: Get the 'Like a Boss' Achievement in Battlefield 3

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.

How To: Get the 'Jaws' Achievement in Battlefield 3

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.

How To: Get the 'Storyteller' Achievement in Batman: Arkham City

This is one of the coolest achievements/easter eggs I've seen in a while. Batman's foe Calendar Man has a disposition for, you guessed it, calendars. And with that comes an unnatural fascination with the major holidays, which is the basis of the achievement 'Storyteller'.

How To: Get the 'Cardiac Arrest' Achievement in Fallout: New Vegas

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.

How To: Get the 'Army of Darkness' Achievement in Battlefield 3

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.

How To: Get the 'In the Nick of Time' Achievement in Battlefield 3

Here's a good achievement for Battlefield 3 players who are tackling the co-op campaign. In the last level of the campaign, "The Eleventh Hour", you're tasked with diffusing a bomb before it blows up a subway station.

How To: Get the 'Scout Leader' Achievement in Modern Warfare 3

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.

How To: Get the 'Who You Gonna Call?' Achievement in Metal Gear Solid 2 HD

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.

How To: Get the '50x Combo' Achievement in Batman: Arkham City

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.

How To: Get the 'Pay Your Respects' Achievement in Batman: Arkham City

This has to be one of the most heartbreaking achievements to get in any game. In Batman: Arkham City, there's an area of the city where you can visit the place where Bruce Wayne's parents died. Not only do you have to go to the alleyway and see the chalk outline, but to get the achievement, you have to watch Batman bend over and mourn for a full minute. During that time, you get a real sense of who this dude is: a lonely guy trying to do the right thing.

How To: Get the 'Hide and Seek' Achievement in Batman: Arkham City

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?).

How To: Get the 'Gotham Base Jumper' Achievement in Batman: Arkham City

Look, Batman: Arkham City is a wonderful game. I mean, you really feel like Batman when you play it, and that alone makes it the best superhero game I've ever played. But you're not here for my rambling thoughts on video games! Let's talk achievements.

How To: Find a Bunch of Easter Eggs for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

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.

How To: Get the 'The Eye of Magnus' Achievement in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Further proving I need to start the College of Winterhold quest line already, here comes this achievement tutorial for 'The Eye of Magnus'. This is the last main quest for the College of Winterhold, and the coolest looking quest in the storyline. In true fantasy fashion, there's a really evil wizard looking to uproot all of reality, and you're tasked with taking him down for good. Here's a tip, though: shoot The Eye of Magnus with The Staff of Magnus so you're able to directly attack Ancano.

How To: Get the 'Master Criminal' Achievement in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

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.

How To: Get the 'One with the Shadows' Achievement in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

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.