Xbox LIVE and Xbox LIVE Arcade Games and Achievements

If you’re an avid game player, one of the best reasons to join Xbox LIVE is, well, the games. And among the cream of the crop are those games that get people together so they can compete against each other online.

On the Xbox 360, the most common of these types of games, the multiplayer games, are online shooters, such as those in the Call of Duty , Gears of War , and Halo series. But there are many other wildly popular online game types on Xbox LIVE as well, including real‑time strategy, racing, and, Kinect titles, the latter of which use that device’s motion‑sensing and voice technologies to provide unique experiences.

Aside from facing off against your friends and others, Xbox LIVE also offers an achievements system in which games can offer between 200 and 1,000 achievement points, usually via a large number of individual achievements. When you do trigger an achievement–perhaps by completing an in‑game level or other task– the console displays the ever‑popular Achievement Unlocked notification, providing the name of the achievement. You can tap a button on the Xbox 360 controller to learn more, including how many achievement points you’ve earned and the description of the achievement. You can also view your overall Gamerscore to see how the achievement points affected things.