In the early days of gaming, once you beat a game, that was it. If you wanted to get more out of it, you had to come up with your own ways to make it more challenging or entertaining. Nowadays, games are almost too thorough with their achievements, hidden achievements, leaderboards, speedruns, pacifist runs, and whatever other officially recognized activities.
However, some titles go even further by tracking certain elements and actions that you wouldn’t even think were worth monitoring. But then, you get a notification or mess around with the menu to learn just how many small and big triumphs/disasters you’ve accomplished while playing. With that in mind, let’s look at some of the weirder ones.
Hours Waiting – Skyrim
All That Time Actively Doing Nothing
When Skyrim came out, we were all floored. This massive entry in the Elder Scrolls series, where we get the chance to fight dragons and fell even the mightiest creatures by shouting at them. It’s good stuff when things are loaded. When you’re not out fighting, you’re opening a door or going through an entrance that traps you in a loading screen where you have to wait.
Then, you realize some things are time-sensitive, so you have to wait by choice. It’s like fast-travel in time, and we watch the hours tick away without a second thought. Still, the game deemed it necessary enough to elicit thoughts, and here we are.
Money Shots – Fallout 4
Not What You’re Thinking
Before you’re repulsed (or perhaps disappointed), this is not what it appears to be. Ever since Fallout transitioned to 3D in 2008, it has become more detailed and complex. Your character becomes layered with Stats and various actions available to them. With the inclusion of the Perk system, new actions and mechanics are introduced, and there’s one called Fortune Finder in Fallout 4.
All it does is increase the chance of finding a greater number of caps while looting, but it also affects combat. There’s a chance that, upon death, a target can explode in a burst of caps for greater flair and rewards. This is the literal “Money Shot,” and, for some reason, it’s vitally important you know how many you’ve done.
Private Dances – GTA V
Naughty, Naughty
Ever since the third entry, GTA has had a very open and casual attitude to things of an explicit and sexual nature. There are strip clubs to be found scattered among the various cities, but you’re rarely prompted to go into them. Most of the time, if you’re in a GTA strip club, it’s because you want to be there.
Your motivations are your own, and these digital strip clubs have only gotten more… detailed as the years have gone by. In GTA V, Trevor eventually takes one over, and you can see for yourself with the game tracking every time you decide to indulge.
Deathly Smorgasbord – MediEvil
Dying Is Bad, Right?
Although the official series has only two entries, MediEvil has gained a cult following, if only for its strangeness. It follows the fallen, false hero Sir Daniel Fortesque, who fights to become a real hero by defeating the evil forces that led to his resurrection. It’s a 3D action-platforming game with light RPG elements and minimal management.
However, the Deathly Smorgasbord Achievement tracks a particularly grim invisible stat: The horrible ways you’ve died. To earn it, you need to find over seven specific ways for Sir Dan to bite it. It’s much more complicated than it sounds, and you wouldn’t even know how to pursue it without the Achievement tracker.
Excalibur 2 – Final Fantasy 9
Race To A Legendary Reward
Final Fantasy 9 is an oddball in the PlayStation 1 era of the series, with a more chibi-style and a very diverse cast of characters to make up your party. This is also one of the reasons it’s one of the most beloved, with a compelling emotional and heavy story alongside challenging battles to boot. But there’s a clock that tracks your playtime, but one thing it doesn’t tell you is that it’s a countdown.
The character Steiner’s most potent weapon is Excalibur 2, and you have 12 hours to get it. The clock tracks your active playtime through menu visits and cutscenes in the original two-disc game. And since this weapon is near the very end of the game, you’ll have your work cut out for you with this unadvertised timer.
Bladder – The Sims
Clear Eyes, Empty Bladder, Can’t Lose
The Sims is an ant farm, except the ants are simulated humans, and they’re far more demanding than our six-legged friends. It’s a series where you can create your own fun, but if there is a goal, it’s to make your Sims happy, help them lead fulfilling lives, and then have them pass away naturally and contentedly.
This means you’ll be tracking all their needs, such as Hunger, Thirst, Happiness, and Bladder. Yes, a paramount aspect of a well-lived Sim life is to track their bladder status and ensure they always have access to a bathroom whenever they get close to bursting.
Woodcutting – RuneScape
Talking Chop
Thanks to RuneScape, the landscape of RPG games has been changed forever, as they’ve become bigger, more ambitious, and more impressive due to the sheer amount of detail they include. RuneScape itself is still considered one of the most thorough and layered RPG systems out there, covering everything from Alchemy to Cooking and even Herblore.
Yes, many stats wouldn’t be that important, but one that is notable is Woodcutting. It’s surprising how much wood you’ll have to cut for resources and crafting, but the fact that it has a distinct stat is impressive and bizarre.
The Cloud – Braid
The Most Tedious Cloud Watching
Braid is indeed an artsy game in multiple ways, from visuals to writing, and it’s designed to be played numerous times. It’s a relatively short 2D puzzle-platformer with time-manipulation mechanics, and you need to get from one end of the level to the other. There are only two collectibles: puzzle pieces and stars. The stars are very well hidden and require precise and unexpected actions to obtain them.
One is a cloud in the Cloud Bridge level, which is constantly tracked by the game. If you decide to track it yourself, you need to wait at least 90 minutes for the cloud to come into range and then track it for an exact 15 minutes to capture the star. Even though you track it, it’s unclear how you’re supposed to discover it.
