Achievement Unlocked

Lemme just jump right into this one. Achievements have turned into one hell of a cruel mistress. For those of you living under a rock during this "next" generation, the folks behind the Xbox 360 built this whole point system around accomplishing certain goals in the games. What this means is that when you beat Halo 3 on legendary you'll not only get a kind pat on the head from Microsoft in the form of points. Right about now I'm pretty sure your asking: "Why does this mouthy nerd got a hair across his ass about Microsoft and Gamerscores?" especially when he himself has some 20,000 on his own Gamertag. OK it's a multi-part front so allow me to start with the cynical.
1) Exactly what the fuck does a Gamerscore do for anyone. There is absolutely no real purpose for the score save maybe bragging rights which most of the time only show that you have more time on your hands than the next player.
Now here's where I digress:
2) I have a pretty terrible addiction to achievements. I can't help myself, they add a really invaluable sense of replay-ablility. I worked pretty hard to get 1000 points in Bioshock and I can't help but think that it extended the life of the game.
Ah, but there's a rub!
3) These achievements have their own way of ruining a game. When they're not labeled as "Secret" achievements have a way of letting you the player know how far along in a game you are. In other words when you know of lets say a certain number of relics or items. The games achievements let you know generally when that portion of the game is ended. This factor becomes tantamount when this "collecting" design element is apparent as a progression for the game.

Hence the cruel mistress. Anyways I'm more than happy to hear more thoughts on achievements.