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Smevin's Regular, Every Day, Normal Ass Gamer Attempts at Trophy Hunting


YaManSmevz

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I promise, this is a warmer welcome than that video might lead you to believe... It's just the first thing that came into my head...

 

Nice to see you've started one of these! Awesome stuff!! hope everything goes well. I look forward to reading about your progress, as I'm sure plenty of others will too.

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46 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said:

Oh my god, @DrBloodmoney is following my thread!!!

 

...ahem, I apologize. I am a longtime admirer of your output, so I'm quite happy to hear that! All love, my dude1f44a.png

 

Yo @popnheart, thank you for that! My goal is to remember my limited skills while aiming above them. Eyes on the prize, and all that!

 

@rjkclarke... dude, you're awesome. The video cracked me the hell up.

 

I wish I had more eloquence on me at the moment, but I'm quite startled that already there are people whose threads I follow religiously who joyously inform me that they'd like to hear what I have to say about finishing games. It's crazy! And encouraging1f608.png

 

Same here. I LOVE reading the progress of other members here. Like DrBloodmoney, Yuber, Copanele, Aj, Emma etc. And the guys in the Ultra rare clean up thread are very interesting too. Happy hunting!

Edited by ShadyWARcotix
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6 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

 

Rocket League

A fun-as-shit game that I never really got good at, I was recently recommended this as the next game to finish and it's hard to argue with that one. Seems the item collecting trophies though, are they encouraging spending money? That's kinda wack.

 

Man, that game is such a great time!

 

I platted that game back when it launched(ish) and I know it has changed a little bit since it went free to play, but I'm pretty sure it's still totally feasible to plat the game without spending anything on our old friend Michael Transaction - it might be worth asking @LancashireLad87 - as I recall, he did the full 0-100% fairly recently, so he'd be best placed to confirm, but as I recall, it's still totally doable sans-additional expenditure.

 

Quote

 I am confident I'll be able to keep it reasonably concise from here on out.

 

Ah yes - well, being such a king of brevity myself, I totally understand... ?

You don't want to end up breaking the forum software and making it impossible to edit your own posts through writing too much... only a fool would do that...?:awesome:

 

 

Edited by DrBloodmoney
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16 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Ah yes - well, being such a king of brevity myself, I totally understand... 1f61d.png

You don't want to end up breaking the forum software and making it impossible to edit your own posts through writing too much... only a fool would do that...1f633.png:awesome:

 

I'm reminded of that Simpsons gag at the Readers' Digest writing contest, the banner that reads "Brevity Is... Wit."

You're fortunate enough that as long as you may go on about any given thing, you're still exceptionally eloquent and good at getting your point across. Here is an artist's rendition of me trying to give reviews the Dr.Bloodmoney treatment:

 

20210730-164617.jpg

Edited by YaManSmevz
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22 hours ago, ShadyWARcotix said:

 

Same here. I LOVE reading the progress of other members here. Like DrBloodmoney, Yuber, Copanele, Aj, Emma etc. And the guys in the Ultra rare clean up thread are very interesting too. Happy hunting!

 

Thanks man, I appreciate that! Glad you've been enjoying it.

 

@YaManSmevz Congrats on starting your checklist; it's good motivation to get some of the harder stuff done. Good luck with UFC 3. I had a rough time with UFC 4 and I heard 3 was far worse.

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Going from 23% to 75% in what feels like no time at all is a pretty nice accomplishment :) Congrats on getting this far! There are quite a few games on your profile that I know literally nothing about, so I'll be eagerly awaiting news on your progress! 

 

Good luck with your goals! :) 

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First off... That was a really good read. So thanks for that. I've been on the fence with Titanfall 2 for ages. that's a me problem obviously :D -  because I watched a friend of mine play the original, and whilst it's got plenty of good gameplay quirks the fact it was essentially a multiplayer only experience put me off it a bit. Doesn't look like I'd particularly have to worry about not having an enjoyable time with the sequel though  from reading that. I guess that's another one to go on the list in the future. 

 

Secondly... I guess this is more of a here's how to, for centralising pictures and text, if that's what you were looking for. I don't know if this is the same for mobile, as I pretty much never use my phone for anything other than calls or texts. In fact, I'm about 90% sure, that if it existed, the phone that E.T constructs in the film would probably do a better job of writing a forum post than my own would ?.

 

Oh look.. I got distracted writing some nonsense again... Anyway... *cough* centralising text and pictures *shuffles papers.* So where you have the spoiler icon and all of those things on that row, as you are composing your post, just right of the bit that lets you insert a numbered list, is a thing that let's you align left (which should be on by default) further right next to that is one that aligns centrally, so you can toggle that on for your titles and platinum numbers, and also use it to centralise pictures too if you wanted to do that.  If you really wanted to you could align it right if you wanted. Up to you obviously, it's whatever you think looks better. I hope that helps.

 

2 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

While the actual work I put into this trophy was probably a total of eight hours or so, the week and a half after I got all the other trophies was mostly procrastinating.

"Time to do Becomes the Master today.. oh shit, there's a sale in the ps store!"

"Alright, TODAY I'm gonna knock this out. ..but y'know, I haven't played UFC 3 in a while.."

"DEFINITELY gonna do it today. Oh wait, what's that honey? Sorry Titanfall, my wife asked me to kill a spider, and that's definitely gonna be an all day thing. Next time!"

 

It took three 2-3 hour sessions of just grinding, whittling my shit down from 53 seconds or whatever it was. When I finally made it into the 30s, I smelled blood in the water and knew it was only a matter of time. That's such a great feeling, almost as good as actually popping the trophy itself, when you're still getting your ass beat but you can sense that you're in the final stretch. I hovered around 35 seconds for a while, and when I finally hit that 33.40, I did the whole Breakfast Club fist in the air like a total dork. And that shit felt good

 

I loved reading this bit particularly.. I can identify with that feeling so much. Especially recently after my jump rope experiences  with final Fantasy IX. It's just such an exhilarating feeling isn't it, chasing that illusive trophy, then that sudden belief starts to kick into your brain and you just know "I've got this" . It's tough to easily put that it into words, but you did a great job I thought. That procrastination part put a smile on my face, because I was doing the exact same thing, it was always " right let's get those 1000 jumps.. Oh no... How come  2 hours later I've done all the washing up and seen how many clothes pegs I can fit on my face and painted it to look like a tiger,NOW I'm ready"..... Well..... Something like that anyway.

 

2 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

being concise is hard! We'll get into that next time. As always, thanks for reading!

 

It sure is... Well for me it is  anyway ?.... I don't presume to be able to speak for other people, but I'm fairly sure -@DrBloodmoney would probably tell you something similar.. That if being concise is hard, don't worry about it. Or at the very least try not to. That's easier said than done, I know, because I constantly worry that my very long write ups and posts will bore people to tears, but it just doesn't feel organic for me if I deliberately try and shorten things - I'm trying to just accept that that's kind of my posting style now. So if that's how you enjoy writing and feels natural to you, then I think that's exactly what you should continue to do.

 

I'll tell you now though, you definitely don't need to be more concise in any way I don't think. At least I don't think so anyway. That write up was engaging and interesting the whole way through.

 

I keep forgetting I haven't slapped a follow on your thread yet. So I guess I'd better get to that now.

Edited by rjkclarke
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What's up, @rjkclarke! Thanks so much for the kind words, it means a lot!

 

I exclusively post on my phone, and it's funny how easily I've forgotten (HOW QUICKLY WE FORGET) that many websites are different based on whether you access them on your phone or computer. I don't think I've ever even been on this site on my computer, I should change that! This actually does help tremendously, thank you.

 

6 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I loved reading this bit particularly.. I can identify with that feeling so much. Especially recently after my jump rope experiences  with final Fantasy IX. It's just such an exhilarating feeling isn't it, chasing that illusive trophy, then that sudden belief starts to kick into your brain and you just know "I've got this" . It's tough to easily put that it into words, but you did a great job I thought. That procrastination part put a smile on my face, because I was doing the exact same thing, it was always " right let's get those 1000 jumps.. Oh no... How come  2 hours later I've done all the washing up and seen how many clothes pegs I can fit on my face and painted it to look like a tiger,NOW I'm ready"..... Well..... Something like that anyway.

 

That's right, I thought I remembered reading about that on your thread! Congratulations!! Whenever you can slay the platinum blocker, it's a good day. Yeah dude, it's a trip how you won't even notice at first how you're procrastinating, and you're like "Oh crap, I haven't vacuumed for a half hour, I'd better get on that!" or whatever else til it eventually becomes so absurd that you realize you're just making up shit to do. Except for the tiger face painting, honestly that sounds like it could be a legit ritual.

 

7 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

It sure is... Well for me it is  anyway 1f605.png.... I don't presume to be able to speak for other people, but I'm fairly sure -@DrBloodmoney would probably tell you something similar.. That if being concise is hard, don't worry about it. Or at the very least try not to. That's easier said than done, I know, because I constantly worry that my very long write ups and posts will bore people to tears, but it just doesn't feel organic for me if I deliberately try and shorten things - I'm trying to just accept that that's kind of my posting style now. So if that's how you enjoy writing and feels natural to you, then I think that's exactly what you should continue to do.

 

THIS. I have the very same concern, I just picture people reading like "what the crap is this loser rambling on about?? Can I report him for being too boring? Blechhh!!"

 

But you're absolutely right, keeping it organic is most important. As many different styles as people have in this forum, one commonality I've found is that everybody writes pretty genuinely and enthusiastically, and that's a huge part of what drew me to reading these threads in the first place!

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8 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

I have the very same concern, I just picture people reading like "what the crap is this loser rambling on about?? Can I report him for being too boring? Blechhh!!"

 

But you're absolutely right, keeping it organic is most important. As many different styles as people have in this forum, one commonality I've found is that everybody writes pretty genuinely and enthusiastically, and that's a huge part of what drew me to reading these threads in the first place!

 

Don't worry about that - I don't know about others who frequent these checklist threads, but without a doubt, one of my favourite things to have happen, is when someone clearly hates a game I like, or loves a game I didn't, and get ready to counter all their points, then actually read the full post, and come away with just "Huh - okay, I guess I get it..."

 

I might not actually change my mind myself, but I do find it fascinating to read why a game that totally connected with me didn't for someone else, or vice-verca!

 

@Arcesius's Trine reviews are a perfect example - games I absolutely love - yet at no point can I actually articulate any kind of genuine rebuttal of his points, as they are all sound - they just aren't the same factors that had the same effect on me. Always fascinating to read that kind of opinion piece though - and that only comes with long-form posts - the kind that these threads are ideally suited to!

Edited by DrBloodmoney
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14 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

What's up, @rjkclarke! Thanks so much for the kind words, it means a lot!

 

I exclusively post on my phone, and it's funny how easily I've forgotten (HOW QUICKLY WE FORGET) that many websites are different based on whether you access them on your phone or computer. I don't think I've ever even been on this site on my computer, I should change that! This actually does help tremendously, thank you.

 

Glad to have helped in some way.. I've never used this site on my phone myself so perhaps I should try it out and see what it's like. That's a funny one. I expect using a phone would make it easier for shorter posts.. But that seems to be something I clearly struggle with. So I'll stick to a PC. That's also why I sometimes take forever to reply (like now) because unless I'm on my PC I wouldn't have had a chance to reply yet.

 

14 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

That's right, I thought I remembered reading about that on your thread! Congratulations!! Whenever you can slay the platinum blocker, it's a good day. Yeah dude, it's a trip how you won't even notice at first how you're procrastinating, and you're like "Oh crap, I haven't vacuumed for a half hour, I'd better get on that!" or whatever else til it eventually becomes so absurd that you realize you're just making up shit to do. Except for the tiger face painting, honestly that sounds like it could be a legit ritual.

 

Thanks.. It was certainly an experience that's for sure. Congrats on your Titanfall trip through the nether nether.. Haha.. ?Well I only usually use the Tiger paint if I'm going for a speedrun trophy.... My logic tells me that the stripes make me go faster...... OBVIOUSLY  ?

 

14 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

THIS. I have the very same concern, I just picture people reading like "what the crap is this loser rambling on about?? Can I report him for being too boring? Blechhh!!"

 

But you're absolutely right, keeping it organic is most important. As many different styles as people have in this forum, one commonality I've found is that everybody writes pretty genuinely and enthusiastically, and that's a huge part of what drew me to reading these threads in the first place!

 

I know what you mean, like I said, it's still something that bothers me a little bit, but I've also had plenty of positivity from people telling me to just keep doing what I'm doing. I'm just trying to accept that what I'm doing is alright - I think you should do the same. Carry on what you are doing, and find what works for you, you've gotten off to a great start. Admittedly, we've never interacted all too much on here, so I can't claim to know exactly the sort of things you are into in your games or anything; but your Titanfall 2 review reads exactly like you or  a distinctly unique voice. If that makes sense? That kind of reflects what you put in your second paragraph above. About people writing genuinely and enthusiastically, if you keep that up you'll be motoring along nicely. 

 

That's one of the the things that draws me to reading these threads too, is everyone else's unique opinions and views. Drbloodmoney's bit from above, is something I enjoy a lot myself, where you sometimes can't help but go "oh, yeah well I guess that makes more sense why they might like/hate that so much now"  after reading paragraphs of justifications for or against something.

Although if someone tells me that WWE 2K Battlegrounds is good in as many paragraphs as it took me to say how much I struggled with it, I might have to put my Tiger Paint on and swim across the sea to have some words ? (unfortunately, the water would probably have washed all the paint away by the time I get there haha ) everyone has a slightly different experience to everything though, so the unique perspectives are the things I like the most I think, it can always lead to some awesome discussions too.

 

Try not to get caught up on whether you think you are being boring or not..  I don't think you are, many other people won't think you are.. Just have a fun time writing it.. I'm seriously trying not to sound too preachy. I'm just trying to send you some positivity more than anything, because I know I needed a bit of it myself starting out, but you might be entirely different.  One of the greatest minds I've ever known, who taught me screenwriting used to have a brilliant motto, which was very simple, but you could apply it to almost any form of writing and that was "don't get it right, get it wrote" (he was paraphrasing something else, and he was Macedonian, so the syntax is a little off too, but I thought it seemed fairly apt here) - that's probably why I go overboard myself sometimes, because it's true, if it's in  your own head and it's something you feel like you need to say about a game, movie, book etc.. then you probably should.

 

One day I'll write a short post I promise... ?

Edited by rjkclarke
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Platinum #32: Oxenfree

1Ldbd696.png

 

I wish I could remember where I read about this and was prompted to buy it in a recent sale. I searched throughout the forums for a post on this that looked familiar to me, but I couldn't find one... so either I'm misremembering, or what I read is the review that I'm about to write in some 12 Monkeys type time loop.

 

Waaaiiit a second, there's time loops in this game!!?

 

I thought Oxenfree was charming. The watercolor look was simple but startlingly gorgeous at times. There was cute stuff like the slapsticky ways the characters would jump up and flail their limbs like Shaggy and Scooby, and darker stuff like the voice modulating and how they handled ghosts actually possessing the characters. And THAT SOUNDTRACK...

 

I tell ya. It sounds like they stole stuff from the vaults of Danny Elfman or Boards of Canada at times, and when you have to fix three tape machines at once it's cool because each track of that faintly haunting song can be heard individually. I'm a big music nerd, so that was a real treat for me.

 

The writing was pretty solid for adults trying to emulate teenagers. Most of it was pretty believable, but there were times it looked like they were winging it and hoping for the best. I picture the writer sitting there thinking "yeah... 'banana bread,' kids TOTALLY say that!" then putting on a pair of sunglasses and bein like "yup... STILL GOT IT."

 

It's okay, man. We can't all be John Hughes.

 

Story wise it was cool. I liked how natural it felt, and there was a real incentive for finding the collectibles because they are instrumental in piecing together what happened, and why these ghosts seem so pissed off. Also, with such a small map, hunting those down isn't very daunting (although a running mechanic would've sped things up nicely).

 

The game is very creative in how it maintains a slightly unsettling atmosphere. We're not talking Silent Hill or anything, but everything just feels the right amount of, for lack of a better word, off. It's too cute to be genuinely off-putting, but there's still an edge to it, and I dug that. A random thing I got a huge kick out of is when you get on that bridge ferry and it makes this really awkward movement when it first starts going across the line. Each time, even though I knew it wouldn't, I thought it would continue moving in that janky way, and I'd immediately think of that gag from the South Park movie when Cartman says "yeah, but the animation's all crappy."

 

THAT Trophy: I'm the Firestarter

 

I thought this would go to The Strong, Silent Type but to be honest, as unnecessary as that playthrough felt, it didn't really bother me. Alex looked like she felt how I did at that point, which really amused me. She's over it and doesn't care to acknowledge what anybody has to say, but she still has to lead them through this shit one more time, and she knows where to go anyway so she may as well. Damn. I hope poor Alex got the platinum for this game too, she deserves it!

 

No, I picked this one because Oxenfree does a great job of making you feel like a total jerk! I did my first time blind, so I had grown to like them as a group, and being deliberately mean to them felt surprisingly terrible! Also I had that air of paranoia you get when playing a multi-playthrough game like this, dreading the possibility of the trophy not popping and having to do it all over again. Which is a hint as to what game I plan on going over next...

 

So yeah. Oxenfree is beautiful visually, sounds great, and doesn't have the best story but it's certainly engaging.  It's a solid game to have on deck for when you want something chill and undemanding, yet still has a bit of substance to it.

 

Lastly, a quick update: I have to get up to level 150 in Ultimate Fighter mode for UFC 3, and I am currently at a desperately sad 38. Since that's gonna take a serious minute, I've decided on Mark of the Ninja and Beholder for the interim. I had my eye on MotN for a while, it just looks so dope (and is already a total blast), and I saw Beholder on sale, it looked cool, and then a glowing review from @realm722 sealed the deal! I've managed at least two platinums a month this year and I'd really like to keep that on track... besides, after Edith Finch, Gris, Rachel Foster, and now Oxenfree, any good lookin indie game can GET. IT.

 

Thanks for reading, y'all! I'll see you real soon?

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3 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

and I saw Beholder on sale, it looked cool, and then a glowing review from @realm722 sealed the deal! I've managed at least two platinums a month this year and I'd really like to keep that on track... besides, after Edith Finch, Gris, Rachel Foster, and now Oxenfree, any good lookin indie game can GET. IT.

 

  Ayyy I've been lurking but let me officially say I'm happy to see you with your own proper thread now to read your reviews. :D I'm glad you enjoyed Oxenfree - it'll always be a very special game for me for the simple fact it was one of my first "variety purchases" when I started switching away from exclusively sports gaming back in mid-2018. I feel like the reason it landed so well with me at least is as you mentioned, they did an extremely good job of making the teenagers sound like teenagers, without making them sound completely ridiculous. An example of the opposite of that is Life is Strange (which I still greatly enjoy) which has them launching "hella's" and "hang 10 shaka bruh's" every few minutes. You may want to wait a while until it goes on sale but if you enjoyed Oxenfree, consider checking out the developers follow-up game Afterparty, it brings back that same glorious dynamic dialogue system but the plot is a bit more unique. 

 

I'm also glad my Beholder praise finally got them a sale! lol, the games are so cheap, so unique, there's nothing else quite like them. I'm very interested to see what you think. I will warn don't be afraid to look up a guide or walk-through as some of the procedures to get certain things done can be a bit obtuse. If you manage to play/plat it before Aug. 18th you can also snag the sequel for super cheap as it's currently apart of the Summer Sale. Radically switches up the gameplay but keeps the same oppressive atmosphere and tries to get even more ambitious with it!

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Going from 23% to 75% is really impressive man, and in less than a year! 

 

Relating to your current goals, Rocket League is something I'm kinda interested in. Always looked like fun but put it off to play other things, and am a little hesistant with all DLC/Microtransaction stuff that possibly is in the game relating to trophies. Will be interested in your thoughts when going for the trophies as it's one I may give a try in the future.

 

Anyways enjoyed reading this so far!

Edited by GloriousFury9414
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17 hours ago, realm722 said:

 

  Ayyy I've been lurking but let me officially say I'm happy to see you with your own proper thread now to read your reviews. :D I'm glad you enjoyed Oxenfree - it'll always be a very special game for me for the simple fact it was one of my first "variety purchases" when I started switching away from exclusively sports gaming back in mid-2018. I feel like the reason it landed so well with me at least is as you mentioned, they did an extremely good job of making the teenagers sound like teenagers, without making them sound completely ridiculous. An example of the opposite of that is Life is Strange (which I still greatly enjoy) which has them launching "hella's" and "hang 10 shaka bruh's" every few minutes. You may want to wait a while until it goes on sale but if you enjoyed Oxenfree, consider checking out the developers follow-up game Afterparty, it brings back that same glorious dynamic dialogue system but the plot is a bit more unique. 

 

I'm also glad my Beholder praise finally got them a sale! lol, the games are so cheap, so unique, there's nothing else quite like them. I'm very interested to see what you think. I will warn don't be afraid to look up a guide or walk-through as some of the procedures to get certain things done can be a bit obtuse. If you manage to play/plat it before Aug. 18th you can also snag the sequel for super cheap as it's currently apart of the Summer Sale. Radically switches up the gameplay but keeps the same oppressive atmosphere and tries to get even more ambitious with it!

 

Nice! Thanks man. Yours is easily one of my favorite checklists, so I'm really glad to hear that. Also glad that I'll know who to ask for pointers when I get to The Show '19??????

 

Definitely making note of Afterparty! And yeah dude, Beholder just looked so unique. Plus it reminded me of that German movie The Lives of Others (which I thought was stunning) and it just kinda lingered in my head. Then when I saw your comments, I was like "That's it! You people have stood in my way for too long, I'M PLAYING BEHOLDER."

 

17 hours ago, GloriousFury9414 said:

Going from 23% to 75% is really impressive man, and in less than a year! 

 

Relating to your current goals, Rocket League is something I'm kinda interested in. Always looked like fun but put it off to play other things, and am a little hesistant with all DLC/Microtransaction stuff that possibly is in the game relating to trophies. Will be interested in your thoughts when going for the trophies as it's one I may give a try in the future.

 

Anyways enjoyed reading this so far!

 

Thanks a lot dude, I appreciate that!?

 

Yeah, microtransactions in general are kind of a turn off for me... but I mean they gotta eat too. Plus I can't remember if I bought Rocket League on sale or got it when it became free to play, so I might not have the right to complain even if I wanted to!

 

It's definitely a lot of fun, I don't remember why I stopped playing (I don't remember much, do I). I'd certainly recommend it! For the most part I felt trophies came about pretty organically, and the ones that didn't were easy enough to set up. And trophies aside, it's just one of those games where when you get the hang of the mechanics, it can get a bit addicting?

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Platinum #6: Erica

1L896bbc.png

 

Have you ever seen a movie where throughout and maybe even for a brief moment upon finishing it you're like "wow, this is really good" only to really think about it for a while afterwards and it suddenly hits you that it made no damn sense at all? This was my experience with Erica, except I then had to go through it five more times with alternate endings that were equally nonsensical. With Oxenfree (or even Until Dawn or Detroit: Become Human), it took a while for the "I've done this shit already, can we just wrap it up" malaise to set in, if at all. With Erica, for me it came very early in the second playthrough.

 

I copped this game last October courtesy of PS Plus, and it was around this time that I wanted to get serious about completing games, with this being my somewhat misguided attempt at getting started on that. First game where I graduated from referencing those '00s text-based guides and sought a full-on YouTube guide with the aim of tackling the platinum. The video was roughly six hours, if memory serves, and naturally I thought "wow, a free platinum in six hours? Let's do it!" I didn't realize the guy who posted the video had edited out a lot, as he was much, much more considerate than the developers were as far as a player's time was concerned!

 

To be fair, this game has a few things going for it:

 

1. For at least the first time around, Erica will hold your attention. It's reasonably well crafted and feels like a decent made-for-TV movie.

 

2. The actress who plays Erica is fairly attractive.

 

3. ...actually I don't think there's a third thing, my bad.

 

So now, let's get into why I didn't care for this game. I was originally gonna lump Until Dawn in with Erica because Oxenfree's necessary multiple go-arounds made me think of them both buuuuuuut I think I'ma ditch that idea, as I can already tell this will take longer than I thought!

 

Gameplay

Now for an interactive movie, this is a somewhat minimal aspect. The characters do everything for you, and all you have to do is decide what you'd like to see them do. Stands to reason that this should be rather easy to nail, no? What little of this aspect there is, however, they manage to make an issue.

 

You exclusively use the touchpad and swipe in this or that direction, which I'm not sure was the greatest idea as it is, but oftentimes you're required to start your swipe from a very specific part of the touchpad, and anything else will register a response that you aren't intending. Also, on occasion you will have to swipe in the opposite direction of what you want! Now, there are no options for saving or skipping scenes, so if you make a mistake, too bad buddy, you're either stuck with it for the rest of the 90 minutes or you can cut your losses and start all over again. And the trophies don't pop until the story ends! That's right, you have no idea if you did what you were supposed to and will have to wait 90 minutes to see if you did it right. If not, guess what... back to the beginning!

 

They even word it this way with the trophy description, they all end with "and finish."

 

-Slap Tobi, whose best line in the whole game is an indignant "woh??", and finish.

 

-Ring a bell three times at the beginning of the game, and finish.

 

-Unlock all bronze, silver, and gold trophies, and uninstall.

 

Turns out that this game comes with an app that allows you to play it from your phone, which by all accounts I've read is vastly superior. I mean that's great and all, but wouldn't you want your game to be optimally playable on the controller for the console that the game actually comes on? Are the developers those kids from Back to the Future 2?

 

"You mean you have to use a controller? That's like a baby's toy."

 

Story

Now that we've established how little this game values sense, we can move on to the mess of a story, which is supposed to be the bread and butter of this genre. I imagine the idea of a game like this, with multiple endings and a convoluted narrative, is to open up its story and explain what's going on and show you things you may have missed, eventually coming full circle to where you completely understand the story from multiple perspectives.

 

"Fuck that," said the developers. Rather, they just try to continually throw in more weird shit and silly symbolism until it piles on playthrough after playthrough to the point where you only have more questions and the whole story just kind of falls apart. There are several twists that initially feel shocking but upon closer inspection it becomes clear that they're merely there to get the reaction rather than to enrich the storytelling. The mom's dead. OR IS SHE? Yes. BUT MAYBE NOT!

 

Also I never did understand what the villains stand to gain. Are they selling research? Are they making these poor girls manufacture perfume that they sell for outlandish prices? Who in their right mind would send their daughter, or what authoritative figure would send a young lady with nowhere else to go, to a place like this where chronic nosebleeds are a thing and in all likelihood she'll never be heard from again? Why would the night manager get that stupid symbol tatted on his arm if he's just going to hide it? WHAT OF DONUTS?? WHAT?? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, TELL ME!!

 

Now I'm aware that there are many people in the forums who enjoy debating what means what, who the real villain is, and so on and so forth. And that's great! I'm glad that others have managed to get enjoyment out of this game, and since I have proven on multiple occasions that my feeble-mindedness is truly something to behold, it's only fair to suggest that I could very well be dead wrong. Regardless, let's get on to the final bullet point.

 

This Game Is Shit

 

This is the most important point of all. I might just have it twisted and this may be par for the course where the genre is concerned, but I really, really didn't care for this. Erica is the lone platinum I own where I ended up genuinely disliking the game, and I hope it stays that way (but who knows). In any case, if you liked it, tell me why! Of course I do not think my opinion is the correct one, but given my experience here I can't in good conscience recommend it.

 

Quick update: Bout to pop the Level 50 trophy on UFC 3, but I'd like to finish Mark of the Ninja first. I don't know why I didn't just go for it when I first saw it, that game is so freakin' fun. Anyway, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk?

Edited by YaManSmevz
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Congratulations on Titanfall 2 I had a difficult time with becoming the master as well. Thankfully I managed to get it after 2 hours of trying, to this day I still don't know how I got it done. The trophy guide definitely under-estimates the difficulty in my opinion, having said that from all the games I have played on my account thus far I don't agree with many trophy guides. Best of luck on your future endeavours and I look forward to your updates!

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48 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said:

"I've done this shit already, can we just wrap it up"

 

That was an enjoyable read... Felt cathartic to read someone else's incessant frustration with that game. I had to do more than one extra playthrough because of those stupid touch screen controls. What were they thinking? If I never have to hear the words " I think... That you are magic too" again I'll be much happier for it.

 

I don't think I dislike it the same amount as you though. Although, when I get around to reviewing it I suspect, you and I will probably end up with quite similar looking write ups, I can appreciate what they were trying, but Wales Interactive usually does a much better job with these kind of games. I have a review already written of one of their titles I ought to post soon actually. Your review of this just reminded me of it. 

 

There are some elements of Erica I do like a lot. I think Holly Earl is pretty good as Erica and the actual cinematography they use in a lot of the scenes is actually very good, especially the way some of the shots themselves are framed. Back to Holly earl though.  I'd seen her before in the TV show Humans, where she's very good, better than in  Erica, I don't think she's actually all that well characterised during the entire game, no matter what route you take... Humans though. is a show which I suspect is where David Cage "borrowed" almost 80% at least of the story ideas he used in Detroit: Become Human. Lazy fella-me-lad.

 

I think you hit the nail on the head about the story - and how in these sorts of games, that is where they truly should shine. The problem is exactly as you say, as you start to delve deeper and deeper into multiple paths, it all starts to become so apparent that a huge amount of it is just nonsense. I think the element of choice is pretty absent too, or at the very least MEANINGFUL choice, because no matter what choices you make, things still happen a certain way - you just get funnelled towards the narrative the developers really wanted to tell, like lab rats in a maze, which to be honest is a little insulting to the player.  

Edited by rjkclarke
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Wow, fantastic progress in such a short period of time!  Always great to see another person with a relatively small trophy library just grinding away at getting those S-ranks!

 

I’ve got about 6 hours into Rocket League, and I haven’t quite gotten the mechanics down yet so I’m in experiencing some level of anxiety diving in to clean up the trophy list I start in (checks notes) 2015…if you ever need a boosting buddy I’d be happy to help!

 

Going to watch this checklist!

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