Papertown and the Temple of Trophy Doom

[papert0wng1rl]

Welcome to my corner! I started trophy hunting in July 2020, so after a whole year of this madness I thought I'd start a thread to keep track of my platinums, completion, challenges, progress, and other fun things only other trophy hunters find fascinating. I might bust out pie charts and spreadsheets, because stats make me incredibly happy ?. I am a gamer first, so you probably won't see pay to plat games (unless by some chance they have an amazing premise and fun gameplay). I'd rather have a profile full of plats that mean something to me than worrying about the numbers or leaderboards. I am also not concerned about starting really difficult/grindy games - if it looks good, I'll play it and try my best to do as much as I can. My motto is, no game left behind, so even if I haven't touched a certain title in a while, it doesn't mean I'm giving up on it. One day I might get inspired to give it a shot and clean it up.

 

My current goals are:

 

• Reach and maintain an 85% completion rate ✅
• Have less than 100 unearned trophies
• Reach 1 trophy per day average ✅
• Get 50 ultra-rare trophies ✅
• Have all games at or above A rank (excluding current games)

 

Trophy Master List

 

Currently in Progress...

 

 

 

2020

 

Spoiler

 

100% Completion

 

 

Platinum, but not 100%

 

 

2021 
 

Spoiler

 

100% Completion

 

 

Platinum, but not 100%

 

 

 

 

 

2022 
 

Spoiler

 

100% Completion

 

 

 

Platinum, but not 100%

 

 

2023 (So far...)
 

Spoiler

 

100% Completion

 

 

 

Platinum, but not 100%

 

 

 

Limbo

 

Spoiler

 

Here are the games that I have not played in a while and have not platted. I have full intentions of going back to these at some point.

 

 

 

Edited February 6, 2023 by papert0wng1rl

[papert0wng1rl]

Backlog Tracker

 

PS4

 

 

PS5

 

Edited February 6, 2023 by papert0wng1rl

[papert0wng1rl]

Community Events and Challenges Tracker

 

Past

 

2021: Gaming by the Numbers 2021 

2021: The Revenge of 13 Plats of Halloween

2021: Didn't Half-Ass It!

2021/2022: Fall/Winter 2021/2022 Backlog Challenge

2022: Bingo Bonanza 2022

2022: Platinum Difficulty Challenge 2022

2022: Attack on Completion 2022 ( And so It Begins)

2022: Didn't Half-Ass It!

 

Current

 

2022/2023: Fall/Winter 2021/2022 Backlog Challenge

2023: Bingo Bonanza 2023

2023: Didn't Half-Ass It!

 

Badges

 

 

Edited February 6, 2023 by papert0wng1rl

[gruffiiti]

Nice @papert0wng1rl! You are big time now with the trophy checklist.

Great list of completed games and you are in for some fantastic adventures with your backlog!

[kindajustin]

Well you can bet I'll gladly be following you on the journey! Best of luck with all your goals @papert0wng1rl I look forward to seeing the progress

[DrBloodmoney]

Sweet list, and looks like you got some great taste in games right there!

 

Good luck with your goals - I’ll gladly follow along ?

[YaManSmevz]

You're off to a great start! Excellent goals, and my best wishes. When Lisa Simpson becomes a trophy hunter, best believe I'm rootin✊

[papert0wng1rl]

18 hours ago, gruffiiti said:

Nice @papert0wng1rl! You are big time now with the trophy checklist.

Great list of completed games and you are in for some fantastic adventures with your backlog!

Thanks for your support, as always! I am really looking forward to tackling that backlog. So many great games yet to be played.

 

18 hours ago, kindajustin said:

Well you can bet I'll gladly be following you on the journey! Best of luck with all your goals @papert0wng1rl I look forward to seeing the progress

Hey! Thank you for following along! I will make sure to include many game write-ups and final thoughts, so hopefully you like those and post opinions of your own.

 

17 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Sweet list, and looks like you got some great taste in games right there!

 

Good luck with your goals - I’ll gladly follow along 

I appreciate your support! Thank you for your kind wishes. One day I hope to reach your levels of trophy hunting awesomeness. Love your profile!

 

7 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

You're off to a great start! Excellent goals, and my best wishes. When Lisa Simpson becomes a trophy hunter, best believe I'm rootin

Between reading Sylvia Plath and running for president, I bet Lisa is a dedicated gamer! Thank you for your support!

[papert0wng1rl]

Progress - Road to Cat Call

 

 

As some of you might know, Injustice 2 is notorious for that one trophy that requires you to obtain a special ability (Cat Call) for Catwoman out of a loot crate. The problem is that you  might outfit yourself with all the rabbit feet and horseshoes in the world, but the ability is incredibly rare to come across naturally. While there are a few methods out there for farming the ability, I didn't want to mess with the save files and the network connection, so I went for one guaranteed but grindy path - through the Catwoman Legendary Multiverse. The multiverse has fours stages, each having a laundry list of requirements to complete, and it demands at least 50 hours of commitment. Yes, I too question my life choices. However, completing Just Kitten will guarantee a Catwoman ability as a reward. As she only has a handful of abilities to earn, there is a very good chance of getting Cat Call right away. You can also replay Just Kitten by paying with Guild Credits in case you don't get it first try. I am about halfway through the grind and thought I'd post my progress as of last night.

 

Green = Complete

Red = In Progress

 

Super Suspicious

• Level 20 Catwoman required
• 1,000,000/1,000,000 credits spent
• 150/150 damaging environmental interactions used with Catwoman
• 200/200 villains defeated as Catwoman
• 50/50 boss events completed with Catwoman
• Complete Survivor Battle Simulator multiverse event with Catwoman

Hidden Treasure

• Level 20 Catwoman required
• 100/100 regen tokens sacrificed
• 137/150 arena transitions used with Catwoman
• 3,000,000/3,000,000 damage dealt with Catwoman
• 100/100 multiverse events completed with Catwoman
• Super Suspicious must be completed

Scratching Post

• Level 20 Catwoman Required
• 196/250 rare or better gear sacrificed for Catwoman 
• 1,000/1,000 match victories with Catwoman
• 91/100 Pounce as the final hit
• 1,470/3,000 minutes played with Catwoman 
• Hidden Treasure must be completed

Just Kitten 

• Level 20 Catwoman Required
• 50,000/50,000 Guild Credits spent per attempt
• Scratching Post must be completed

[papert0wng1rl]

Progress - Road to Cat Call #2 (DONE)

 

 

 

Cat Fight -  3.21% Ultra Rare

Catwoman must defeat Cheetah with the final hit coming from Cat Call

 

Fifty hours in the making, all for a bronze trophy, but I finally got that elusive Cat Call ability. Yesterday I clocked in the last few hundred minutes required to start the Scratching Post event in order to advance to Just Kitten. That last little bit is practically in the bag, right?

 

So here I am, firing up the Just Kitten. The fight goes smooth - not even a hiccup. Not a word of a lie, my heart is pounding when the rewards begin to load. Four diamond mother boxes and... I get the Chaotic Cat. ? Alright, not all is lost, because I have enough guild credits to try one more time. I load the fight once again, my Catwoman smashes it with one hand tied behind her back, and the moment of truth comes! ...Cat Claws! ? What is happening?!! I know I've never been lucky in cards but, statistically speaking, I should have gotten the Cat Call by now. There are only seven abilities to unlock, and I have four of them already! 

 

At this point I am missing about 15,000 guild credits to do anything else, so I head to the guild multiverse to farm those. Thankfully, there are some high yielding battles happening at the moment, and it takes me no more than an hour to earn the remainder. Rinse and repeat. You know how they always say, third time is the charm? I will sign under every word of that, because my third dice roll finally... and I mean, FINALLY... popped the Cat Call on my screen. You bet I took that screenshot!

 

After that, it was only a matter of equipping the ability and launching a match against an AI controlled Cheetah. Two minutes and the sweet sound of that trophy *Bing!* blessed my tired ears. Whoever invented turbo controllers, may your toilet paper roll never empty. 

[papert0wng1rl]

#36 - Uncharted: Golden Abyss

(the one where it almost cost me my Vita)

 

 

It was a year ago (to the day) when I started Uncharted: Golden Abyss. As a huge fan of the series, I simply had to have the only platinum unavailable on PS4. I even bought a Vita just for this occasion. It's too bad that the game itself, in spite of its charm, does not stand up to its far superior predecessors. I mean, in what world does it take me this long to finish an Uncharted game?

 

First of all, I must talk about the mechanics of the game, which are probably the number one reason that made the game so annoying at times. I'm not sure if it were the awkward, sluggish thumb sticks or the constantly dropping R1/L1 buttons that made aiming and shooting such a chore. Considering that this is an action/adventure shooter, it's too bad that the hardware was simply not responsive enough to support such ambitious title. That's Sony's issue though. Where I do put some fault on the developer is Drake's insistence to have a mind of his own. Too often he would simply start walking by himself while you have him positioned by a cliff or the edge of a building, resulting in him simply plunging to his death. Is that what he thinks of my executive decisions? There is no reason for him to slip in-between the cliff and the fallen tree trunk while trying to cross the precipice. There is no reason he should decide to shuffle into the open fire instead of staying put in cover and waiting for me to direct him. Anyone who's played chapter 17 will know what I'm talking about.

 

Then there is the problem of Golden Abyss being the flagship title for Vita. It's chock full gimmicky moments designed to showcase the hardware's features. You can't make a step without swiping the screen, tilting the Vita, doing the billionth charcoal rubbing, or looking like a crazy person while running around and squishing the thing into every lamp in an attempt to find light bright enough to reveal a hidden writing. It's pretty cool at first but ends up super annoying very fast. I'm surprised it hasn't sent me on a real-life scavenger hunt yet. 

 

Then, of course, we must talk about the story. I would say it's on the level of Drake's Fortune, if I had to compare. All the events take place in one location, with slightly varying sets as you progress through chapters. GA even follows the same formula: jungle-like wilderness first, then labyrinthine ruins, and finally underground caves. The narrative is straight-forward: find the long lost artifact, save the girl, and stop a megalomaniac villain bent on power. But where Drake's Fortune succeeds with its novelty, Golden Abyss falls into the trap of many prequels - the stakes are low and secondary characters are inconsequential. We know that Drake and Sully are going to be just fine, and that Marissa Chase is going to fade into obscurity the moment the credits roll, because we already have an established timeline in the Nathan Drake collection. There isn't anything groundbreaking going on, but it's a cozy action adventure if you are just looking to escape into a familiar and uncomplicated world. 

 

Finally, let's mention the trophy list. Am I going to exaggerate if I say that something like half of the trophies are collectibles? Maybe just a little bit. Seriously, this game has way too many collectibles, some of which are purely RNG. Besides your standard treasures (which are now divided into sets) and one relic, there are also multiple mystery sets, charcoal rubbings, puzzles, photographs, and of course bounties. There are hundreds upon hundreds of items to find overall. Nathan Drake has endless pockets to carry all this crap around. There are also your standard kill related trophies, but some of them are a bit unbalanced. For example, there is no way anyone would actually secure GAU-19 and SAS-12 trophies naturally, because there are simply not enough opportunities to use these weapons in the game. If you do come across one of those, there is either only enough ammo for a few kills, or the game forces you to abandon the weapon right away. Farming those is just too tedious, but farming them to the required amounts is simply ridiculous. I feel like the trophy list was designed for many-many playthroughs, and as all trophy hunters would agree, ain't nobody got time for that.

 

Looking through all of my comments, it might appear that Golden Abyss is a bad game. It's not bad by any means, and can be quite fun in places. I really enjoyed the banter between Drake and Sully, the Mesoamerican setting, the laid-back pace on lower difficulties, and the bittersweet last chance (at least for now) to play this amazing franchise. Of course, it could be better. It's not Naughty Dog level of greatness, and I could do without the constant marketing push for Vita while I simply wanted to play a game. Sure, it almost cost me a handheld every time it frustrated me with its clunkiness, but I can overlook these transgressions in favor of the charm of setting on another adventure with Nathan Drake. 

[papert0wng1rl]

#37 - Afterparty

(the one where I out-partied Satan)

 

 

This game is part of my Halloween celebration and The Revenge of 13 Plats of Halloween challenge. When trying to explain the gist of the game, I describe Afterparty as a walking sim with pick-your-dialogue branching narrative and mini-games centered around drinking copious amounts of dubiously named cocktails. You play as two recent college graduates who end up in hell after dying under yet unknown circumstances. Convinced that they don't deserve to be tortured for all eternity (after getting sifted through a lengthy bureaucratic process), they clutch to the only hope they have - out-drinking Satan (aka The Prince of Partying) in attempt to earn their freedom. But first, they have just one night to challenge the Monarchs for their seals of approval, assist various demons and recently departed on their bizarre quests, and gain new friends in the afterlife. After all, you can't take on Satan himself alone. 

 

I thought Afterparty to be a great distraction from some of the more time-consuming games I am currently trying to clean up. It's also a wonderful way to celebrate the season with a plat that is not too demanding, but that doesn't feel cheap either. The branching out storyline will depend on a couple of choices you make, which will force you to do two complete playthroughs. There is also a third ending to unlock, but that can be exploited easily with a save back-up. I did think that the second playthrough was not different enough to offer a rewarding experience, especially since you can't really skip any repeating scenes or dialogue, but it was quick enough for me not to get too tired of it. 

 

I loved the graphics and the art design, and the voice work was on-point. The writing was pretty strong with some great mature humor, and it explored family expectations and friendship vs individuality in a non-preachy way. Some segments made me laugh out loud. Combine all of that and you get some memorable characters. The only time I thought the story stumbled a bit was the...

Spoiler

awkward intervention scene at the end that outstayed its welcome long past the punchline

 

As for the trophy list, I liked the goofy trophies for intentionally picking dialogue with curse words, trying at least 20 different drinks, or petting Satan's dog. The list is not very hard, and as long as you pay attention to the requirements, you will not have a hard time completing everything in two rounds. Playing a perfect game of beer pong and winning the final drink-off with Satan will probably require trial and error and several attempts. Otherwise, it's a perfectly manageable bunch of trophies.  

[papert0wng1rl]

#38 - Injustice 2

(the one where Catwoman gave me nightmares)

 

 

Fighting games are its own breed of headache. Usually long and tedious, they also often feature trophies that force you to be the best player in the world. I am yet to summon courage to face Street Fighter that's been sitting on my account for over a year. Injustice, however, is a more manageable kind of fighting game. It asks you to put some effort in, but it's not as punishing and unfriendly to newcomers as some others. That said, the guide's 40-hour platinum estimate is a joke, because the plat is locked behind a completely RNG-dependent trophy, and nobody is that lucky. Cat Fight trophy alone will cost you at least 50-60 hours of continuous grinding if you are going for a guaranteed method though the Legendary Multiverse. Thankfully, the game also supports AI battle simulations to assist with racking up the hours, and while not completely AFK, this method significantly reduces the burden. In all of its entirety it took me around 250 hours to get this platinum.

 

So you see, I don't mind the grind with the goal in sight. Where the game was becoming rather hard for me was the combos. They are nearly impossible to pull off flawlessly - I'm just too much of a noob. Majority of the trophies are related to character exclusive finishing moves. Some are pretty straight-forward, like performing a supermove by pressing L2 and R2 together. But some require a string combo using a meter burn and fancy finger work that I just can't pull off without sweating a bucket and a half. Since I was going for 100% completion, the DLC also proved to be a challenge with combo-dependent Push Yourself Harder trophy, which needs you to finish a number of Advanced and Strategy training modules. Persistence was definitely the key. 

 

From the cosmetic perspective, Injustice 2 looks and feels good. I already enjoy DC characters, but they came to life for me with moves that speak to their personality, hilarious taunts, and fantastic facial/body animation. The story mode is pretty surface, as it's the case with any other game in the genre, but it is still head and shoulders above the cheesy/cringe nonsense of Street Fighter. Besides the really hard combos, the mechanics feel smooth and easy to handle. It's a joy to learn and try to be better once you pick a favorite fighter (mine was Harley, of course). The lack of ranking in online matches might be a pro and a con for different people. I don't mind being matched against more advanced fighters so that I can learn and challenge myself, but it can also become very discouraging to have your butt kicked over and over. Winning ten online ranked matches (each being best 3 out of 5) was a tough challenge. 

 

Now that I am done with Injustice 2, I am thinking about my future plans for fighting games. I should probably go back and clean-up Street Fighter, but I am also pretty impressed with the quality offered by the NetherRealm Studios. I am tempted to give Mortal Combat 11 a shot and see how far I can get. I started Injustice without knowing if I had it in me to get the plat. Now I want to keep the momentum rolling. 

[papert0wng1rl]

#39 - Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020

(the one where I won gold while wearing a pirate outfit)

 

 

I'm a little late to the party. Tokyo 2020 games are long over now, but the prospect of playing a stylized sports medley that doesn't take itself too seriously slowly won me over. I was at the library, browsing for something to borrow, when Olympic Games jumped out at me. Seems like everyone was playing it just a few months ago, so why not give it a shot? I wouldn't personally buy it, but borrowing it seemed like a perfect compromise. Turns out this colorful, silly title is actually pretty fun, especially in co-op. As a party game, I bet it would be a hit. To be honest, it really reminded of Nintendo Wii's glory days. 

 

I think the most challenging trophy for me was the Olympic Event Master, where you have to win 10 gold medals in matches with the AI. The finals are brutal, and AI manages to kick your butt in everything from speed to reaction challenges. It left me in the dust for the 100m dash and the climbing, and it hit me hard with team sports. I barely squeezed by in a Judo match, miraculously out-Ippon-ing the opponents to a tight victory. One event I found I had the best chance was the Hammer Throw. As long as I did at least one "perfect" in the finals, I was guaranteed a gold medal. Throwing a perfect is tricky but not impossible, to a point where I managed to win about 50% of finals. It felt good to finally pop the trophy. Coincidentally, it also became the trophy to push me over level 300. 

 

It's a cute little title that is fun with friends, but the novelty also wears off quickly. Good thing that the platinum journey is a pretty short affair.

Edited October 15, 2021 by papert0wng1rl

[papert0wng1rl]

#40 - Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition

(the one where I could have done the plat years ago)

 

 

Tomb Raider was the first gaming franchise I fell in love with decades ago (has it really been that long?). I also purchased the first title in this new, survival-style trilogy shortly after it was released on PS3. But for some strange reason I just couldn't get through it. I had two false starts with it, and every time I would abandon it an hour into the gameplay. You know, where Lara has to escape the cultist camp for the first time? The one with the awkward rape-y scene? Maybe I was a non-committal gamer back then. Maybe my younger self was too creeped out by the mild survival horror elements. But what I think really happened was that I could barely recognize the game I used to love in this new package. 

 

The old games were full of wonder and exciting action, Lara's sassy remarks, and her palpable love for what she did. The Lara I knew was confident, super cool, able to speak any language and operate any gadget, and most importantly, in love with adventure. Just witness the early moments of Tomb Raider Legend, when Lara chats with Zip - her tech guy - as she scales the cliffs of Bolivia. When she reaches the gates of an ancient temple, she exclaims with all the zest of a true adventurer and an archaeologist:

 

LARA: Isn't she beautiful? I'm falling in love all over again.
ZIP: You say that to all the ruins.
LARA: I'm a terribly lucky girl. 

 

Compare that to the Lara of the reboot trilogy, as she crawls through the next crumbled set and grumbles: "Ugh, I HATE tombs...". I get that the developers were probably aiming for some mild irony here - a little wink to the player all too familiar with Lara's future adventures, - but it feels so out of character and so unfamiliar that I get more irritated than anything. At this point Lara is already a student of archaeology, and she is following in her father's footsteps in search of a long-lost kingdom, but she acts like a prom queen who'd rather be elsewhere. I get that she wasn't counting on crazy cultists trying to murder her, but even the good professor Whitman got all excited about the anthropological possibilities of the island. This is Lara's first major discovery and she pays it no attention. 

 

This sets the tone for the first half of the game, and it feels rough. Lara is constantly subjected to gratuitous violence and gruesome deaths (whenever you mess up), she is stabbed and savagely beaten, and thrown off incredible heights, all in the name of showing how "real" she can be. At least that's what the game's director was claiming back in the day. I don't know, if anything, it made me incredibly uncomfortable. Some parts of it felt almost "fetish-y". I had a hard time connecting to this game and reconciling my previous experiences with something so drastically different. 

 

Where Tomb Raider sort of finds its footing is in the second half, where Lara becomes more determined to survive and fight back, just as she escapes the main compound with Sam. This is where things became more interesting for me: somewhere where the old Lara could take the reigns again and kick ass. From continuity perspective, it makes no sense that she went from helpless bystander to a killing machine in a matter of hours, but I was happy to get out of that self-flagellating slog. I could get on board with some amazing action scenes and fast-pace traversal across varying landscapes. Combat was fun once I upgraded a bit, and the near-death escapes felt satisfying. The running across crumbling buildings, the butt-sliding on muddy hills, the parachute gliding, and platforming across giant sets like the mountain village or the beach were all impressive. I'm sure if I stuck around back in 2014, my mind would have been blown. So, all in all, the game had a rough going but it managed to get there for an overall enjoyable experience.

 

The trophy list turned out to be less scary than I anticipated too. I managed to get all the missable trophies on my first run just by being mindful of them. The infamous multiplayer that has to be boosted turned out to be a pretty quick affair. The group I joined helped me get all but the leveling up trophies in about an hour. Level 60 one I broke down into several sessions where I mindlessly farmed XP while watching Netflix. But even that only took 3-4 days. I definitely subjected myself to tougher grind before. 

 

I want to thank @gruffiiti for giving me a kick in the butt to finally start this one, and for having a friendly competition of who's getting to the plat first (I lost, naturally lol). I am definitely hoping to get to the sequels soon, and perhaps to hear some news on any upcoming games in the franchise (maybe with less emphasis on survival this time ).

[papert0wng1rl]

Little Nightmares

(the one where a plat would have been nice)

 

 

Little Nightmares has been on my radar for a long time: everything from its art style to the spooky premise appealed to me. One problem - no platinum! In itself that should't prevent me from trying out a game, but it sure doesn't push it to the top of my priorities. Thankfully, I did bite the bullet around Halloween and what a little treat it turned out to be: the creepy atmosphere, the claustrophobic setting, nothing but a flashlight to guide you, and grotesque creatures waiting in the shadows to grab you. The story also unfolded gradually, without revealing too much and unafraid to remain ambiguous. I loved how it subverted my expectations with "Kindness will be your undoing!" promise. I expected a certain something to happen, but it happened in a completely unexpected way that left me both shocked and saddened (in a good way). 

 

The only annoying part of the game was, naturally, the speedrun. On top of the tight time limit it added a permadeath of sorts, where dying would void your speedrun trophy. And dying accidentally is so easy in this game thanks to the weird camera angles and awkward platforming. I struggled a lot in the first two chapters that have most of said platforming, but it got easier in the subsequent chapters. That said, I totally savescum-ed it in between chapters, just so I didn't have to spend obscene amount of time going through the motions. This trophy alone should have earned Little Nightmares a platinum, but alas, it was overlooked. 

 

I do want to pause here and pose a question to myself that nagged me the whole time I was playing Little Nightmares: how much enjoyment of the game am I normally willing to sacrifice in order to save time on the road to completion? Is trophy hunting negatively impacting my gaming experience? I normally play all my games blind on the first playthrough. I look through the trophy list to make sure I am aware of things I need to look out for, but that's pretty much all the prep I do. I like to avoid spoilers and the pressure of doing a set number of things in one go. I never start a game on the highest of difficulties or open a collectibles guide until I finish it at least once. That's why I love open world games, where usually nothing is locked behind a plot-sensitive timeline. Little Nightmares, however, was an exception. I did open a walkthrough right away to collect all the lanterns and hug all the gnomes, but I wonder if it ultimately lessened my experience. The point of this game is to explore and to be wary of the things that go bump in the dark, so I can't help but think that I would have loved this game even more if I took my time with it and earned its accolades on my own. Sometimes I have to remind myself not to let trophy hunting get the best of me. Does anyone ever feel this way, or am I overthinking it? 

[Inuty]

Nice to see your progress here! If you have trouble with the UR trophies, i can give you some advice which games are enjoyable and doable for this keep up the good work! (And add Our event in your tracker, DLCs are good for your 85%

 

Edit: i think you overthinking it with your Statement to use a guide or not. I use a guide for long games to minimize the time. A short game like little nightmare can be done really fast, so if you want take your time you cna Do it. Try to love gaming and if you see guides makes it less enjoyable for you then skip them for the first run i have too much i want to play so i look out for missable as good i can. But i have still fun with those games, if they are easy or hard as nails. 

Edited November 18, 2021 by Inuty

[DrBloodmoney]

First off - congrats, and nice write up! ?

 

I know what you mean about that speedrun trophy - I ended up writing a whole missive about it ? - it feels a little out of place in a game like Little Nightmares.

 

On this:

4 minutes ago, papert0wng1rl said:

The point of this game is to explore and to be wary of the things that go bump in the dark, so I can't help but think that I would have loved this game even more if I took my time with it and earned its accolades on my own. Sometimes I have to remind myself not to let trophy hunting get the best of me. Does anyone ever feel this way, or am I overthinking it?

I certainly do try to always play blind first time - and it does always feel better that way in the long run - though I’d be lying if I said there haven’t been games out there that have felt more of a slog towards the end of the platinum journey as a result… (I actually just finished one, and while I valued that initial, blind playthrough, there was a part of thinking, during my third playthrough, “man, if I had just got all the collectibles the first time…” ?)

 

On the plus side - on both counts actually - Little Nightmares II doesn’t have the same aspects. There is a plat and there isn’t a speed/no death run, and so, since the collectible tracking is per chapter, with chapter select, you really don’t need to consider playing with a guide the first time - a collectible clean up is a pretty swift affair!

 

[papert0wng1rl]

8 minutes ago, Inuty said:

Nice to see your progress here! If you have trouble with the UR trophies, i can give you some advice which games are enjoyable and doable for this keep up the good work! (And add Our event in your tracker, DLCs are good for your 85%

Thanks Inuty! I keep forgetting to edit my challenge post with the DLC event. I will do that today. And yes, I will always appreciate recs for doable UR trophies in enjoyable games. One day I'll get to my goal ? 

 

2 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

First off - congrats, and nice write up! ?

 

I know what you mean about that speedrun trophy - I ended up writing a whole missive about it ? - it feels a little out of place in a game like Little Nightmares.

 

On this:

I certainly do try to always play blind first time - and it does always feel better that way in the long run - though I’d be lying if I said there haven’t been games out there that have felt more of a slog towards the end of the platinum journey as a result… (I actually just finished one, and while I valued that initial, blind playthrough, there was a part of thinking, during my third playthrough, “man, if I had just got all the collectibles the first time…” ?)

 

On the plus side - on both counts actually - Little Nightmares II doesn’t have the same aspects. There is a plat and there isn’t a speed/no death run, and so, since the collectible tracking is per chapter, with chapter select, you really don’t need to consider playing with a guide the first time - a collectible clean up is a pretty swift affair!

 

 

Much appreciated! I don't know what possessed me to finish LN in one sitting, but I think it had something to do with the deadline for the Halloween event. Again, my priorities were skewed, and not in the healthiest of directions. I am very much looking forward to playing the sequel, and I have a chance to borrow it soon. It seems like a much more relaxed kind of game for sure. I think I will stick to my blind playthroughs from now on! (I do relate to the feeling of exhaustion at the end of some platinum runs though ?)

[gruffiiti]

Im glad you did end up playing through Little Nightmares as it really is a fantastic gaming experience and probably one of my favorite games Ive played in the last couple years. I bought LN2 at launch but it has stayed on my shelf ever since. Im not sure why I haven't started it yet except for maybe the thoughts that roll around in my head of "Will it live up to the first one?... Will I end up not liking it as much as the first one?". I really just need to just play it and find out!

[DrBloodmoney]

11 minutes ago, gruffiiti said:

 Im not sure why I haven't started it yet except for maybe the thoughts that roll around in my head of "Will it live up to the first one?... Will I end up not liking it as much as the first one?". I really just need to just play it and find out!

 

I loved Little Nightmares....

 

...and I don't think you have anything to worry about with Little Nightmares II ?

[papert0wng1rl]

15 minutes ago, gruffiiti said:

Im glad you did end up playing through Little Nightmares as it really is a fantastic gaming experience and probably one of my favorite games Ive played in the last couple years. I bought LN2 at launch but it has stayed on my shelf ever since. Im not sure why I haven't started it yet except for maybe the thoughts that roll around in my head of "Will it live up to the first one?... Will I end up not liking it as much as the first one?". I really just need to just play it and find out!

Do it! Once I start it, you'll have no excuse not to beat me to it!!

[papert0wng1rl]

#41 - Maneater

(the one where you get to be a shark, quite possibly with a freakin' laser beam attached to your head)

 

 

So, I am convinced that Maneater was made with me in mind. My love for bad shark movies and over-sensationalized nature documentaries has finally reached mythological proportions, where even the good people at Blindside heard about it and were like, We simply must make this game about sharks and nature documentaries! At least that's the theory I am sticking to. I was eagerly waiting for it to go down in price within my budget, so you can imagine my frustration when PS5 users got it for free as a PS+ offering! Fortunately, I got a chance to borrow it instead. 

 

Maneater is an Ahabian quest for vengeance with a comedic mockumentary backdrop. It's a simple premise with a fun, inventive execution. You take on a role not of a jaded fisherman chasing his white whale, but a shark with an axe to grind. Your goal as a shark is to feed and grow, occasionally consuming trash - ahem, I mean collectibles, - and chomping down on unsuspecting swimmers. If you get carried away with your beach-goer lunch, you start building Infamy, which in turn dispatches various fortune hunters to try and hunt you down. Eventually you get to face your ultimate nemesis - explosions and all. The combat encounters are quite fun, but take a bit of trial and error to master. I found that circling them at a healthy distance and continuously smashing evasive maneuver, while throwing explosive projectiles back at the attacking vessels worked out best for me. The mechanic that didn't work as good for me was lunging out of water - a signature shark move! I had a hard time learning how to effectively gain altitude to get to the peskiest of collectibles and toughest checkpoints in time trials.

 

The gameplay was fun and relaxing. It was a bit tough in the beginning, while you are still a tiny baby shark. The enemies in the Bayou, where you begin your quest, are quite overpowered, so I spent the first hour or so mostly eating/growing and avoiding gators. The rest of the game's difficulty is really up to you, whether you choose to overpower yourself or remain just a few levels behind. The trophy list is aimed at a completionist: do all objectives, upgrade to the max, and kill all apex predators, plus finish the story. Objectives are pretty straight-forward, if predictably repetitive - but made somewhat interesting by the varying nature of each region. Grinding to the Infamy 10 is probably the worst chore in the game, but again, not entirely mind-numbing if you enjoy the combat. 

 

The only definitively negative thing I can mention is the framerate drops plaguing this game. These don't halt Maneater to a stop, but they are constantly present and mildly annoying. I was fine putting up with them for the entirety of the base game, but where it made me almost rage quit was the DLC. The expansion added time trials to the list of objectives, and if that didn't suck already, the framerate issues made it nearly impossible to do some of the more advanced jumps and lunges. Do not use your favorite controller while attempting these. 

 

I believe the DLC has been patched now, but it was also quite buggy when I played it. The first two trophies - one for reaching the expansion island, and one for defeating the first apex, - did not pop for me, which was a known issue. Fortunately, all I had to do was exit the game and load back into it for both trophies to trigger. I would have hated being forced to redo the entire game to attempt those again. There were some other performance issues, like an apex predator glitching through the map after being hit a certain way, or a collectible not spawning. Both were resolved, once again, with a reload - big relief. The expansion story was fine on its own, and it had some great, much tougher enemies to fight. You also get to become part Godzilla (with the aforementioned laser beams) - super cool. Where it was less than stellar is the addition of extra objectives to the base game's locations, all of which were super boring: eat these people, destroy this communications tower, grab this collectible. Where the base game was a confident 4.5/5 in terms of fun, the DLC gets a lukewarm 3.

 

Don't expect a masterpiece, but I appreciate Maneater for it's originality and humor. And sharks. 

[papert0wng1rl]

#42 - Call of Duty: WWII

(the one where there's no Private Ryan to save)

 

 

WWII is probably the only Call of Duty title that appeals to me at the moment (I might do Modern Warfare at some point, but I'm still debating it). I like the subject matter and the time period a lot, having read many books and watched many movies/documentaries about World War II. While a casual observer might wonder what can possibly be said that's new and innovative in the genre, I see so much that is not being said yet. WWII is a complex historical, geopolitical, and cultural event with many moving parts, characters, and stories within it. Unfortunately, majority of what we see is indeed repetitive, Call of Duty included. This is another Hollywood-like story of American effort, brotherhood, and heroism. The emotions are carefully manipulated with standard scenes from the manuals of cinematic redemptions, last stands, and self-sacrifice. You've probably seen reiterations of each of these scenes in countless other media outlets. They don't really go too deep into character psyche or offer layered narrative, and they don't need to. These scenes serve purely as a vehicle to propel the player from one scripted encounter filled with bombastic action to the next. It's fun gameplay, but that's all there is in terms of a meaningful story. 

 

Where Call of Duty excels is its visuals. The character animations and textures are divine, and I would love to see this level of perfection in an open world game. The characters look and move great from the cutscene to the in-game action, easily distinguishable at every point. Voice and motion-capture acting are really good, besides Daniels - our main protagonist. He is left rather blank (probably on purpose) to allow the player to assume his hollow shell. He's a rather typical, faceless hero - an all-American Texan farm boy, and he has his gal to come back to. His past inaction marks him for life, and the war is his chance to redeem himself. Meh. In comparison, Pierson, Turner, and Zussman come off as very charismatic characters, each with his own motivations and demons to battle. 

 

As for the mechanics, I found shooting to be tuned to perfection - unsurprising, given it's the whole point of the franchise. Each hit feels punchy and satisfying (does that sound morbid?). Where CoD WWII absolutely sucks lollipops, though, is the cover system. Oh, I can rage about the cover system for days! What is the point of cover if the enemy is able to easily shoot through concrete walls and bend bullets to snipe you from most bizarre angles? It's especially painful on veteran difficulty, where each hit can be devastatingly fatal. I can deal with brutal damage and bullet-sponge enemies on the highest of difficulties - that's the goal of the game. That's when you strategically place yourself in cover to take on each enemy one at a time, slowly progressing from point to point. Without cover, though, it's really just a game of Russian roulette. Am I going to get hit randomly today even if I'm flat on the ground behind a wall of sand? The answer is, yes, most definitely. Most of the time it's even impossible to tell where the shot that took you out came from. Gotta hate those Nazi ghosts! 

 

Now, onto the trophy list. You get a trophy for each story mission, plus a challenge within that mission. Then, there are few miscellaneous trophies for doing this and that x number of times, and some collectibles. And of course, the two difficulty-related trophies: your choice and veteran. There is a group of pretty easily achievable trophies for multiplayer, and some really nasty bunch of zombie accolades. I think the list looks scarier than it is, but I could really do without zombies ever again. Too bad I still have to do all of the DLC, which is stubbornly refusing to go down to it's previous sale price. I think my favorite part was to do mission challenges, minus the RNG-riddled mess in D-Day. I also quite enjoyed the multiplayer, especially War and Gun Game modes.

 

Am I glad that I finally got to a CoD title? Yes. Did it exceed my expectations? Again, yes. Would I ever buy a CoD game? No, I'll wait for it to drop on PS+ if I find the subject appealing.