Xbox 360 achievements are simultaneously a dream and a nightmare for hardcore completionists, offering replay value after finishing a game and portending a massive drain upon available gaming time as the dedicated gamer fights to jump through the last few hoops (sometimes literally) in order to win the most tricky achievements.

Here to separate the men and women from the boys and girls are lists of all the achievements available for Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, LEGO Marvel, Batman: Arkham Origins and Call of Duty: Ghosts. Aside from a few achievements that are being kept secret, this is what it takes to become an elite gamer, or at least the kind of gamer who is really good at finding collectibles.

First up is Arkham Origins, with the achievements listed over at Exophase. One of the questions that has so far remained ambiguous is what role Joker will play in a game where Batman is facing off against a whole band of deadly assassins, all fighting over a bounty offered by Black Mask. Based on an achievement titled "Perhaps sooner, Perhaps later," which requires the player to defeat Joker, it looks like the clown might be getting his own boss battle in Arkham Origins.

The Call of Duty: Ghosts achievements from XBox 360 Achievements run the usual gamut from the relatively simple task of killing your first enemy in the singleplayer campaign (which is hard to avoid unless you're a hardcore conscientious objector), to collectible achievements like finding a certain number of hidden files or destroying 80 fuel containers. There's also an intriguing achievement called "Carbon Faceprint", which requires the player to "Catch the photocopier with your face." It's hard to imagine any scenario where this would be a good idea, but that probably won't stop serious achievement hunters.

The list of Assassin's Creed 4 achievements from Exophase reveal something very interesting about the game, which somewhat contradicts what we've heard before. Since the protagonist for the five previous games, Desmond Miles, is not in Assassin's Creed 4, the player will instead take on the role of a nameless Abstergo employee sifting through Desmond's memories, and it's been indicated that the modern storyline would be heavily downplayed in order to keep the focus on notorious pirate Edward Kenway. However, it's possible to get achievements for completing five "present day" missions in Assassin's Creed 4 which, based on the titles, will probably hinge on uncovering strange activity at Abstergo.

Finally, the achievements for LEGO Marvel, also listed at XBox 360 Achievements, hint that there's a lot of fun to be had on levels like "Red Head Detention" and "Bifrosty Reception". Stan Lee appears as a character in the game who can adopt the powers of a number of his creations, but there's also an achievement for rescuing him from "every peril," so perhaps he takes time out to be a Stan Lee in distress as well.

Tell us in the comments if you're the kind of player who just has to get every achievement (if so there's a fun flash game called Achievement Unlocked that you might enjoy) or if you're just happy with whatever you can pick up by accident.

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes will be hitting the shelves on October 18th for PC, Wii U, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo 3DS, DS, and PlayStation Vita. The game will arrive in November for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Batman: Arkham Origins is available on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U & PC from October 25th, 2013.

Call of Duty: Ghosts releases November 5, 2013 for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360; November 15th for the PS4; and November 22nd for the Xbox One.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is set to sail onto Xbox 360, PS3, PS4, Wii U, and PC on October 29, 2013.

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Source: Exophase & XBox 360 Achievements