Gaming is a competitive business, and whilst some prefer to battle it out on PVP, others enjoy flaunting their skill through amassing a wealth of Gamerscore.

However with a few games like Avatar: The Last Airbender essentially giving up its bountiful 1,000G to gamers, it’s time to explore some of the achievements that will put up a good fight before reinforcing your Gamerscore.

Rock Band 2 – Bladder of Steel Award, 25G

Harmonix’s music video game was a fun excuse to get your friends around to pretend to be a real band for a few hours, covering your favourite songs by hitting colourful buttons, having a few snacks… It makes a fun day!

Unless of course you’re going for the Bladder of Steel Award achievement which requires you to play the Endless Setlist without pausing or failing, that means no toilet breaks, no time to grab a drink, just 7 hours of hitting buttons to keep your virtual overlords from booing you off the stage.

The measly 25G may seem like a reward if you eventually complete the setlist, but it’s more of an insult as there’s an achievement worth double for simply doing the exact same thing with pauses allowed.

Is the 25G worth the hand cramp, dehydration and strained bladder? Only those who have managed the achievement can tell us.

Dark Souls – The Dark Soul, 50G

Remember when you first picked up Dark Souls? Then remember the mass amounts of corpses you left due to the fiery breath of a Wyvern, or accidentally taking a wrong turn and having your head swiftly removed from your shoulders?

Of course you do so an achievement that requires players to collect every other achievement, in a game that makes you realise the sheer amount of self-loathing you have for yourself after accidentally attacking the NPCs required for some of the achievements, is not a fun achievement in our eyes.

The achievement requires you to collect every rare weapon, discover every covenant, defeat every boss and play through the game at least twice. However I can only imagine that the feeling of satisfaction when that 50G pops up is second to none.

For those gamers who have managed this spectacular feat, bravo! You’re a stronger person than I.

Dead Rising – 7 Day Survivor, 20G

The original Dead Rising was a fun game, but it was also pretty difficult and to even have the slightest chance of adding this achievement to your Gamercard you not only had to complete the main story, but then also the increasingly difficult Overtime Mode. However after that had been completed it was time to take on Infinity Mode.

The achievement requires Frank to stay alive for 7 whole days, 168 in-game hours on a game mode that shows no mercy, disabling saves and adding the risk that Frank can starve to death. All this torture had to go on for 7 game days, which equates to around 22 hours of game time, meaning that if you wanted to sleep, this achievement probably wasn’t for you.

As if this wasn’t hard enough, the game also threw all the psychopaths that the game had to offer alongside turning all the once friendly survivors into vengeful NPCs hell-bent on ensuring you don’t make it past day 2.

If you did succeed, the achievement would net you a nice 20G. A whole 20G for 22 hours worth of sweat, sore thumbs and stress induced nose bleeds.

Not only was this achievement tricky, but it was also during a time when Xbox 360’s were fairly new and were prone to freeze mid game… Don’t worry Microsoft; I was only on Day 6…

Gears of War 3 – Seriously 3.0, 100G

The Gears of War trilogy featured one of these achievements in each of its instalments, with each addition becoming more daunting than the last until finally, Gears of War 3 gave us Seriously 3.0.

The achievement sounds innocent enough:

“Reach level 100 and earn every Onyx medal.”

However to put the achievement into perspective, not only do gamers have to reach level 100 (a feat which requires dedication) but they also have to earn the 65 Onyx medals, something which requires more than a little grinding.

To grab just a small few of the Onyx medals a player must get: 6,000 kills with every weapon, capture 1,500 enemy leaders and survive more than 2,000 waves of Horde. That barely even scratches the surface of the achievement. Is it worth all the thousands of kills, rounds and hours for a measly 100G?

If you see any gamer with this achievement to their name, look on with awe as you are in the presence of a true Gears of War veteran… That’s dedication Holmes.

War of the Worlds – I am Arthur Clarke, 50G

Whilst the War of the Worlds videogame didn’t do very well upon its release on the Xbox Live Arcade (It did so badly it doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page) it will go down in history as a game with possibly THE most difficult achievement in the world.

I am Arthur Clarke wanted gamers to make it from start to finish with no deaths and no level restarts all in one sitting.

That doesn’t sound too bad though right? Limbo has one similar and that was pretty attainable. Except War of the Worlds was pretty long, and you died ALOT!

It was expected that 1 in every 148,000 people would get this achievement; the game must not have sold that many copies as not a single person has unlocked the achievement to this date, making the hardest achievement available to Xbox gamers.

What do you think of these 5 juggernauts of the achievement world? What would you change? Let me know in comments or tweet me @JonathonAalders, whilst I bask in my 93,082G