LancashireLad87

Hey man I was thinking of starting MK11 soon, do you have any thoughts on how I should tackle this game since the guide estimates a 90 hour journey which is a LOT. Cheers!

Mastery of your craft

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Disclaimer: This is an opinionated article, if you don't agree that's fine just be respectful 

How does a gamer truly master their domain? A few decades ago, gamers were compared by a single metric which would be used to gauge or quantify a players ability or proficiency in their chosen game, I'm referring to 'high scores'. Therefore whoever could rack up the highest score within a specific category were considered the best player. 

As time passed and games became more technologically advanced, high scores took a backseat as a new metric was predominantly used 'time'. Players who could clear a game in the fastest possible time (speed running) were considered more skilled or proficient than people who played for score.

Naturally the art of speed-running became more complex and evolved into various sub categories such as no damage and handicapped challenges to make the game more difficult to run. Handicapped runs would consist of a wide range of player imposed restrictions such as no levelling and no skips or major glitches.

Finally you have arguably the most accepted method of evaluating game mastery in the shape of 'tournaments' where players from all over the world compete in person for the chance to win life-changing money. 

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It goes without saying that in the grand scheme of things there are very few games that have tournament representation due to a games popularity or cult following such as FIFA, League of Legends, DOTA and Street Fighter to name a few.

I'm curious how would you quantify game mastery?

The nominees would be trophy, rank 1 on the global leaderboards, speed-runners or players who compete on the global stage for vast sums of cash.

Trophies - Of the 4 categories of mastery, I personally would rate trophies the lowest of the 4 in terms of game mastery. Perhaps there are a few games where earning either the platinum trophy or the 100% would elevate their achievement to the next level but more often than not it doesn't mean a whole lot. 

High Scores - In my younger years I competed in this category for Timesplitters 2, specifically the Behead the Undead challenges. My only experience at speed running for T2 was for the platinum medals for completing challenges much quicker than the gold. Back in the day I had quick reflexes, spatial awareness, map knowledge and pinpoint accuracy.

Speed runners - I feel that speed running can be a double edged sword when it comes to quantifying player proficiency. Playing through a game with unintentional glitches to make you go out of bounds (OOB) to bypass the majority of the game isn't as impressive to me. Of course there are people who speed run under much harder restrictions such as without taking damage which is an impressive feat. 

Tournaments - Tournaments are definitely the best way of separating the men from the boys. Playing in person against your opponent requires mental fortitude and self confidence to play at your best when the heat is on you. 

Hypothetically if a game had all these elements and a player was drafted or represented for each of these disciplines who would you back to win?

Breaking News!!! Hours ago a lad from Lancashire achieved his 32nd platinum trophy (Doom 2016) we asked lad87 for his thoughts on the game, 'Doom 2016 is a fantastic first-person shooter (FPS), created by ID Software who pioneered/created the genre and perfected it!' We'll have more details as it develops!

(PSNP Rarity 11.31%/Sony Rarity 1.30%)

Playtime - Around 25 hours (About 20 for the base game)

Hardest trophy - A toe into Madness

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Now on to the DLC! Expect a review for the game over the next few days while the information is fresh in my mind ^^

Whenever I look at a PSNProfiles guide and I see the writers suggested difficulty rating I always have to add 1-2 points more because the writer based the difficulty from personal experience instead of an average players perspective. To be fair this is partly due to the current 1-10 rating scale as I haven't seen many guides I agree with. 

I've recently been playing Doom 2016 which I'm thoroughly enjoying! The guide rates the difficulty a 3/10 which is grossly inaccurate. Titanfall 2's platinum is rated a 6/10 by the guide writer, there's no way Doom 2016 is 3 points lower.

Doom 2016: Arcade Mode (Completed 27 Minutes)

Doom 2016 features a classic arcade mode with a twist. Enemies are worth a certain amount of points which can be amplified by increasing your combo multiplier. If you take damage or fail to shoot another target within the time window, your multiplier will begin to fall. If you destroy a proximity mine, an artefact will be sent flying across the screen.

The artefact will decrease in value over time so it's paramount to collect them as soon as possible. For one of the trophies your goal is simple, earn a Gold rating on a single map of arcade mode. Naturally it's much easier to clear them on the lowest difficulty setting because the threshold is much lower. I completed this challenge on the first map UAV, earning me the trophy 'Go for the Gold'.

Trophy: Go for the Gold

PSNP Rarity 12.75% Sony Rarity 0.60%

My next task was to earn in a single run of arcade mode on any map the trophy 'Filling in the cabinet' which on paper is a daunting achievement, thankfully games aren't played on paper! For the trophy you need to earn the following medals without dying, so playing on the lowest difficult helps. The map I played on was the Advanced Research.

(Direct kill, Head Shot, Glory kill, Stun kill, Super kill, Triple hit, Multi-kill, Bronze relic, Silver relic, Gold relic, Barrel kill, Extra life, Death from above and Mid-air kill.)

The weapons I used were as follows;

- Rocket Launcher (Default Mod)

- Plasma Rifle (Both Mods)

- Shotgun (Triple Shot)

Trophy: Filling the trophy cabinet

PSNP Rarity 8.32% Sony Rarity 0.10%

This is without question the rarest bronze trophy in my collection as far as Sony is concerned

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Once I had both of those trophies out of the way, all I had left was to collect 20 artefacts/lives in arcade mode which was a piece of piss. I'm happy to add these trophies to my collection and I hope this helps people out in the future.

Trophy Competency Vs Pro Level

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Disclaimer: This is an opinionated article regarding my personal views on this topic, since this is a controversial topic, I would ask everyone to respect each others view-points

As a 90's kid, I grew up playing games from an early age. Throughout the years my skills in specific genres either dwindled through lack of play/experience or became refined through dedication and enjoyment. Back then gaming was simple, a players salt was measured through their online rankings or achieving crazy feats at your mates house and then bragging to your classmates/circle of friends about it.

Since trophies were introduced, this has become the industry standard on measuring a gamers proficiency within a genre or as a whole. There are a lot of famous trophies that are respected within the trophy community whilst others fall under the rader, but this doesn't always equate to player proficiency/natural ability.

~ Famous Trophies ~

Naturally I'm not going to list EVERY famous trophy out there, instead I'm going to provide some examples. Arguably one of the most diverse and skill dependent genres conceived, the racing genre is full of famous trophies renowned for their complexity. The most famous examples are as follows; 

Wipeout HD (Beat Zico)

If I'm not mistaken, Zico was one of the games developers who set a very fast time on Anulpha Pass Forward (FWD) using the Piranha vessel set to Venom speed class. Zico set a lap time of 30.82 seconds a task which became a challenging trophy to answer a very important question, are you faster than Zico?

When compared to the current world record assuming this source is credible the fastest lap time meeting the same pre-requisites of Zico was set by a Japanese player known as Su_Revival who set a 26.64. By comparing the 2, Su_Revival is on a completely different level.

https://www.wipeoutrankings.com/#c=venom&g=wipeout hd&m=speed lap&matrix=ratio&p=all&s=all&t=anulpha pass&v=all

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Gran Turismo 5 (Gold Standard)

Probably the most famous trophy in Sim Racing. Your task is to earn Gold on every event, this means every license test, special event and race series. The games biggest challenge is without question the Sebestian Vettel Red Bull X2010 lap times, one for Monza, one for Nürburgring GP and Suzuka. 

The Red Bull X2010 is a monster, capable of over 400 KPH, lightning fast acceleration and extremely sensitive handling making it very difficult to control. The hardest of the 3 races is without question Sukuza. The main difference with the trophies difficulty is an exploit exists that makes these challenges incredibly easy therefore you have no idea who did this legitimately.

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The point I'm trying to get across is the difference between a trophy level player and a professional player. The easiest game I can provide as an example is Crash Nitro-Fueled because I'm more familiar with the skill ceiling in CTR. If a private race without items was held across multiple tracks, one player has earned the platinum whilst the other has defeated Velo's time trial on every track.

The level of difference across the games tracks is very noticeable. The same would apply if a developer time player raced against them.

I hope you found this update interesting and thanks for reading!    

Breaking News!!! Over the last 3 months I have been chasing the elusive 97% completion rate. I'm proud to announce that we have reached that target thanks to one of the hardest Bronze trophies I've earned thus far. The trophy in question is called 'Basic Bronze', let me tell you there's nothing basic about it! 

Trophy: Basic Bronze

(PSNP Rarity 4.20%/Sony 0.20%)

As far as rarity is concerned, this is the rarest bronze trophy in my collection as far as Sony is concerned. What makes this trophy incredibly challenging is you have to earn at least a bronze in all 41 prestige events. For those of you who have never heard of prestige I will enlighten you. Prestige unlocks once you hit rep level 50, you have to complete 8 events for Spike, Amy, Robyn, Manu and Travis.

These events are MUCH harder than the base game, to put into context how much of a step up in difficulty they are, the gymkhana event 'Mental Block' within the story requires you to hit 130,000 and complete the event within the time limit.

To earn a bronze on that event on prestige requires 400,000! The game cock-blocks you on prestige because if you can't complete the first race you'll never unlock the next one. Once you complete every event with each crew member you'll unlock the final event which is 21 miles long!

If you crash more than once your forced to restart the event. The most stressful race for me was the final one, drifting is difficult but if you practice and you have a good set-up it's more manage-able.

Needless to say I'm very happy to add this trophy to my collection and best of luck to anyone who stills needs this trophy. My gameplay time at the time of posting is just over 28 hours with the game at 98% trophy completion!

#Perfection is temporary  

Breaking News!!! Yesterday afternoon lad87 earned his 31st platinum trophy (Need for Speed 2015), as usual we asked lad what his thoughts of the game were, here is his response 'Considering the game is 6 years old it holds up very well, the drifting mechanic takes a while to get used to but once you get it, there's nothing more satisfying than perfectly drifting around a sharp turn at 150 MPH'. 

I was surprised the game had live action cutscenes which are more engaging than pre-rendered. In a nutshell premise this game is as close to the Fast and the Furious films as your going to get without get arrested. You play a variety of events ranging from; time trials, drifting, circuit, drag and many more. 

As far as the trophy guide is concerned, I don't understand how you can expect an average player to complete the platinum requirements in a mere 15 hours. The guide also mentions a 2/10 difficulty which is grossly inaccurate for a beginner.

Needless to say I'm happy to add this trophy to my collection, now on to the DLC!

Ones to Watch! (Episode 2)

Our next account was featured on a beginner trophy review video so I don't see any reason why they would object to this post. This isn't to single anyone out or put them on a pedestal but to create awareness regarding their achievements thus far. For the purpose of this series, nominees should have less than 2,500 trophies with their profile being no more than 2 years old.

Now you understand the premise, I would like to present @Skills_Keyblade from Australia.

His first trophy was earned on the 29th November 2020. Since then, they have amassed over 2100 trophies and 30 platinums. Their first trophy was 'Open Sez Me' for opening the precursor door in the original Jax and Dexter. When perusing through the account, it's evident to me that this is a gamer who plays what they enjoy  and isn't afraid of a challenge.

At the time of posting they're just shy of 90% completion with 40 games played and 29 games completed. They have finished EVERY Call of Duty to date and Red Dead Redemption 2. This gamer must be an absolute monster on COD and as their name suggests they're obviously a big fan of Kingdom Hearts. I wish them all the best in the years to come and I'm looking forward to seeing their account grow.    

https://psnprofiles.com/Skills_Keyblade

If anyone would like to bring an account to my attention for this series that would be appreciated as I don't know every user

Mini-Review

#13 Final Fantasy X HD (84 Metacritic)

Originally released in the summer of 2001 for the PlayStation 2. Back in the good old days, I remember buying the Official PlayStation magazine out of my pocket money that featured FFX on the cover and had a playable demo of Besaid. I must have played through that demo over 50 times before the games release, I was enthralled by the experience and the attention to detail, I'd never played a game like it as a teenager.

As far as JRPG's are concerned this is the best JRPG I have ever played and would easily take a spot in my top 10 games of all time. When the game was remastered for modern consoles, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to play this amazing game again. I started the Final Fantasy series very late as my first entry to the series was FF8 even to this day I have never played FF7.

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Useful Information

PSNP Trophy Guide: 5/10 difficulty and 110 hours

Personal Experience: 6/10 difficulty and 102 hours

Platinum: PSNP 8.73%/Sony 2.20%

Note: I'm very experienced with the game having sank over 1000 hours into the PS2 version and I only just got the platinum within the guide's requirements. 

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Hardest Trophies (Explained)

• Chocobo Racer (PSNP 25.60%/Sony 15.30%) - How ironic that the 2 hardest trophies in the game are Bronze trophies these should have been a Silver! Both of these trophies are difficult in their own way. To unlock 'Chocobo Racer' you have to defeat the Chocobo trainer in a race across the Calm Lands whilst collecting Red Balloons and avoiding divebombing birds! 

Simply defeating the trainer is not enough, you have to complete the race with a timer under 0.00 seconds to receive both the trophy and the Sun Sigil. This is hard for several reasons, you cannot restart if you have a poor run, the Chocobo is difficult to control and you have a lack of consistency when it comes to the balloon placements.

You need a degree of luck in order to unlock this trophy, I'm sure there are people who have tried this for hours on end and still haven't earned this achievement.

• Lightning Dancer (PSNP 15.92%/Sony 6.70%) - This is without question the most challenging trophy in the game and arguably one of the most annoying trophies I have ever earned! I highly recommend equipping either a weapon or a piece of armour with the 'No Encounters' ability before attempting this trophy. 

Now you should travel to Rin's Agency via the airship. Head south to a specific location with a dip/small crater in the ground next to a lightning tower on the left hand side. You need to walk to the tower, turn around and then run to the crater, as soon as the screen flashes White time your button press, NEVER under any circumstances should you MASH.

Once you successfully evade the lightning strike, walk back to the tower and rinse and repeat until you've successfully evaded 200 lightning strikes consecutively! Don't leave the area or save your game because it will reset the counter. Did I mention the game doesn't track how many you've evaded, I counted in blocks of 10 then paused my game, calmed my nerves and then did the next 10. 

The closer I was to reaching 200 the more nervous I became, thankfully I managed to settle my nerves and earned the trophy on my 3rd or 4th attempt. You need to be calm, collected and concentrated for around 15-20 minutes to get this trophy. Best of luck to anyone who still needs to defeat this challenge!

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Recommendation - If you've never played Final Fantasy X then as far as I'm concerned your doing yourself a disservice. Don't be fooled by the metacritic rating, the original on the PlayStation 2 received a 92/100!