Blasted pigeons!

Is it just me, or have collectable achievements become somewhat pointless these days? So many games just have an obscene number (here's looking at you GTA IV) over such a vast area that actually finding them all through honest discovery is all but impossible. And then developers attach achievements to them, so instead people spend hours and hours trawling Youtube videos and suddenly the whole things has just become a giant timesink, a grind.....

And this is a problem that more and more games seem to have become. We all accept that games like World of Warcraft have no end, but increasingly even our console games seem to have artificially extended lifespans, either by daunting multiplayer levelling systems or obscene grinding achievements that result in us playing the same section over and over for hours on end because it's the most 'efficient' way of playing.

I guess the counter argument is that we don't need to get all the books/gnomes/flowers/keys in Fable 3, but then if we don't tick the developer's boxes will the game ever be truly finished? Will we get our money's worth, or are we just wasting our time in a rather pointless grind towards trophies and gamerscore? Depends on your point of view.

Just as a side note, I've finally started Dragon Age: Origins, after seeing my partner play the sequel. Can't believe I haven't got around to it sooner, but I still think I'm looking forward to Mass Effect 3 more.