Games
You could go down in the gaming record books. But would you want these achievements to your name?
Guinness has been documenting the achievements of gamers in the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition since 2008, recording their feats alongside IRL counterparts. Some of the records tend towards the samey, and even slightly dull, if you aren't a fan of the specific game – fastest glitched completion of GTA: Chinatown Wars, anyone? – but hidden among the high scores and the download numbers are some truly odd achievements. Why on earth did anybody try to set these records? We don't know, but we're glad they did.
Longest videogame dance marathon – 49h 3m 22s – Carrie Swiedecki (USA)
We don't know what kind of food they serve in the schools of Bakersfield, California but we are willing to bet it combines carbs and caffeine. Carrie Swiedecki is a school teacher who decided to lose weight by playing dance games. She quickly developed a knack for 'exergaming' and not only shed 75 pounds to hit her target weight but also racked up a clutch of world records. These included 15 hours on Dance Dance Revolution, 24 straight hours on Dance Central 2 and an incredible, dance-mat-destroying FORTY NINE HOURS, THREE MINUTES AND TWENTY-TWO SECONDS on Just Dance 4.
As well as being a world record holder, Carrie uses her dancing skills and formidable gaming rep to promote fitness, fight childhood obesity and raise money for children's charities. We’re amazed she finds the time in between Just Dance marathons, but kudos.
Greatest aggregate time playing Resident Evil 6 – 2,900h 46m 23s – Xbox 360 gamer Brutaldactyl
What could you do in four months? You could do a Couch to 5K running challenge, travel around the world, build a home... Basically you could achieve a lot. OR you could spend that time solidly playing Resident Evil 6 until the real world is just a distant memory.
That (pretty much) is what Xbox 360 gamer Brutaldactyl did between the release of RE6 in October 2012 and August 2013. He does seem to have allowed himself some time for work/school, sleep and social interaction but 2,900h 46m 23s is an impressive amount of time to commit to any game, let alone the worst installment in the zombie shooter series.
Longest end sequence in a game – 1h 8m – Metal Gear Solid 4
Opinions vary on the epic cut scene that rounds off Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots. Some found it tedious, overlong and pretentious, while others thought it was pretentious, overlong and tedious. Coming after an extended boss battle – in which an elderly Solid Snake and Liquid Ocelot duke it out while jacking each other up with restorative syringes, just to stretch things out even longer – the ending (which, at 68 minutes is longer than some entire films) plays out before you can receive your final score.
The cutscene ties up loose plot threads from the previous MGS games, gives central character Solid Snake some resolution with series antagonist Big Boss and spouts a whole lotta nonsense about clones, nanotech and the military-industrial complex before ending on a fairly positive note for our pal, Solid Snake. Oh, and there is something about fried eggs. Honestly, we have no idea.
Most on-screen enemies – 21,000 – Dead Rising 3
The Dead Rising series is all about excess. Each game prides itself on expanding the number and combinations of weapons that you can use to dispatch zombies. From hockey sticks to chainsaws, golf umbrellas to katanas, your ability to bring the pain to the undead is limited only by your imagination. The other thing that keeps getting bigger in the DR games is the number of those easily-dispatched zombie freaks. Dead Rising 3 earned a spot in the Guinness files by rendering up to 21,000 slavering undead on screen at once.
Highest margin of victory vs CPU in FIFA 13 – 307 goals – Patrick Hadler
Do games console feel embarrassment? We hope not because if they do Patrick Hadler's PS3 must want to go and live on its own in the middle of the desert. The German FIFA 13 fan racked up 307 goals to nil on 16 March 2013, claiming the world record for Highest Margin of Victory vs CPU.
Hadler's winning game pitted current Champions League title holders Real Madrid against plucky English League 2 try hards, York City.
Biggest gaming tournament – 2013 FIFA Interactive World Cup
There are LAN parties and there are gaming contests and then there is the 2013 FIFA Interactive World Cup. A humongous 2.5 million contestants signed up for the biggest tournament in EA Sports' history. These were whittled down to just 21 of the very best FIFA players, who came together for the grand final in Madrid.
In the final game, Bruce Grannec of France beat Mexico’s Andrei Torres Vivero 1-0 to claim the 2013 title. The 2014 competition is underway now and looks set to break the 2013 record when Guinness are able to adjudicate.
Longest Minecraft Tunnel - 10,001 blocks
Minecraft brings out the epic side of many gamers and the open-world sandbox game has led to the creation of some spectacular builds. From replicas of the world of Game Of Thrones, to full-scale models of the USS Enterprise. And then there are guys like Eric McCowan. Eric decided to dig the longest tunnel Minecraft has ever seen. 10,0001 blocks long, by two blocks high – just wide and tall enough to walk down and long enough to keep you walking for a very, very long time.
The tunnel is lit every 10 blocks by torches recessed into the walls – not a requirement of the record, but a necessary precaution to avoid the tunnel filling up with zombies due to their love of dark places. Pointless but epic. Eric McCowan, we salute you. We’d include a picture, but well, it’d just be a blocky tunnel.
Biggest space battle – Eve Online's battle of 6VDT
Last July, 4070 pilots assembled in the Eve Online system 6VDT for an epic battle between the CFC coalition and the TEST Alliance. As massively multiplayer games go, EVE Online tends to put the emphasis on the massive, with the game's internal politics and economic wars often sparking huge battles and invasions as one faction rubs up against another in the game's vast universe.
The Battle of 6VDT took things to another level, however. The fighting pushed the game's servers to the limit and admins were forced to slow down time in the game by 90% just so they could process the inputs from the thousands of participants and ensure that every energy blast hit its intended trajectory without the whole game crashing under the strain.
You can read a full report here but.. well let’s just say it didn't go great for TEST. Over 2,500 ships were destroyed in the battle, amounting to around $24,000 in real-world damage as player were forced to replace their losses with in-game purchases.
Most expensive game – GRID 2 Mono Edition.
'Limited Edition' box sets of games are a bit of a nuisance really, aren't they? The box never fits neatly on your shelf because it is shaped like a space helmet or a dragon's tooth or something and you end up paying over the odds for a soundtrack CD, a T-shirt and some measly DLC.
Not so, GRID 2's Mono Edition. This was a one-off version of the driving game that came with a copy of the game for PS3, a PS3 to play it on and an actual, driveable MAC Mono Supercar. You also got a BAC racing suit and a visit to the BAC factory where they made the car that you now own. Yours for a mere £125,000.
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