Most Recent Platinum

[Mr_Wright95]

Platinum Number: 85

Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order

Difficulty: 3/10

Fun: 8/10

Review:

This game was my first step back into the Star Wars Universe since the PS2 Games. Having never watched any of the movies, the games hold a unique nostalgia as my only way of having experienced this universe. I must say this game felt very polished and overall I had a great time working my way through the story. The story was engaging and the gameplay was very rewarding and enjoyable. My only gripe with the game was completing the BD1 Holomaps which was quite tiresome and frustrating when certain areas would not tick over to 100%. Nevertheless aside from that, the game was a great game and the Platinum felt overall very fun to work toward.

 

I own the PS4 Physical copy of this game so someday I will play that through as well (I do not plan to Autopop) so one day I will be back playing this again, but not for a little while.

 

What's Next?

AFL Live (PS3): Continuing to chip away at the 5k Goals Trophy, about 850 Goals off platinum.

Borderlands (PS3): About 1/3 of the way through this game, been enjoying this one and enjoying knocking down my PS3 backlog

Need for Speed Heat (PS4): Early Days with this game, but I have Knocked out the Online Trophies

Scratts Nutty Adventure (PS4): Got this game as a Joke with my Game Store Manager - Will Platinum and Return it Soon

Edited September 29, 2021 by Mr_Wright95
Added Information

[MooseSketts]

Platinum #172

Hades

 

It's great to finally play a game again that captivates me for months (played this on Steam for about 2 months prior to the release of it on the PS4).

[V-Trigger]

#62 - Yakuza Zero

 

 

 

[Mirrors1118]

 #228 Death Stranding: Director's Cut

 

Glad to be back to this game. Lost some of the ziplines that I built but it's very satisfying to rebuild the zipline network and the road connecting Mountain Knot City and Distribution Centre South of Lake Knot City. The new gadgets are all pretty fun to use. Only nitpick about this game is I wish I can delete individual save files. By the time I got the platinum(~10 hours) I got over 600mb of save file and more than 50 individual save files which is gonna take a lot of space in my psn cloud storage.?

 

Edited September 29, 2021 by Mirrors1118

[TheArcadeKid]

 #233 - Gunducky Industries++

 

 

At 1.05% (or rather, it will be when it updates), the plat for this bizarre game is now my rarest. It's a 3D shoot 'em up best described as "zero budget," and it seems virtually unplayable at first. Left stick controls the nose of your fighter jet - so far, so normal - but the right stick allows you to move the entire plane up, down, left, right, wherever, without any delay or animation. It's a little hard to explain, and it definitely doesn't feel right at first. Projectiles seem to travel incredibly slowly, too.

 

Still, I stuck with it, and it turned out to be an increasingly rewarding experience. The game's unconventional, but it is functional. It's not poorly designed either (well, for the most part) - it's just very evidently been made by an inexperienced one-man team, with extremely limited playtesting. But it's consistent. I genuinely enjoyed learning how the plane controls, how to shoot accurately, and how to master each level. Bullet hell nirvana? Definitely not, but it still scratched my shoot 'em up itch.

 

The plat mostly involves shooting specific enemies without dying, and getting through every level without taking any damage. Some of these are extremely daunting, but again, the game's consistent. Focus on problem areas until you find a way to do it consistently - and there almost always is a way - and you'll get there eventually. That said, I expect this plat to remain my rarest for some time - this just isn't the kind of game to inspire people to earn it.

[DrBloodmoney]

 - 473

? - 605

 

Deathloop

 

Immersive Sims have something of a difficult time on the consumer end, when it comes to selling the tremendous variety of their games, particularly in the age of trophies and in-game achievements. 
While a game like Prey, or Dishonoured, or Deus Ex has a huge amount of variety built in, and myriad method of play and tools available for use at the players disposal, (that is, after all, the hallmark of a good Immersive Sim - one of the rarest, most difficult to craft, yet best genres out there,) the format of the games, and in particular the achievements / trophies, can often run counter to that very experimentation that the genre affords. While the player has scores of possible ways to approach any given scenario, and a plethora of interesting ways to deal with any given enemy or target, the actual loop of the game has a tendency to discourage experimentation, in favour the player 'locking' themselves into one particular path for entire playthroughs. 

 

Trying for a 'clean hands' run in Dishonoured? 
Then you best only use your stealth tactics. Those fun killing abilities are useless for this entire run.

 

Not specced for hacking in this run of Deus Ex? 
Then I guess that air duct is your only option.

 

On a 'No-Powers' run in Prey? 
Then sorry, as fun as it might be to mimic that coffee cup and blast yourself through that hole in the glass - you need to find another way in.

 

It is a problem that is, of course, alleviated over a long enough timescale. While something like Prey may feel like it is limiting itself with these kind of achievements, by the time a player has completed several full runs, and seen the variation of play-style, they can grasp the full spectrum of design, and appreciate the craftsmanship involved in supporting it. However, that is a big ask. Outside of our little circles, it can be east to forget that most players don't play games multiple times - and even for those who so, full 'specific power' playthroughs can still be a burden. In some sense, asking the player to commit to a singular play-style for a full run is jarring - and overtly limiting. 
There are some immersive sims that have managed to get around that - the recent Hitman trilogy, for example (which for some reason does not seem to be commonly categorised as an Immersive Sim, despite quite clearly being just that) - does side-step the issue by having each level be discrete, and never asking the player to complete entire 'runs' of the game a single way; but, for the most part, the genre is addicted to a strange, counter-intuitive practice:
Offer choice via design, then actively discourage it via reward.

 

Deathloop, Arkane's latest creation, seems, in some sense, to be very deliberately crafted to address this problem specifically. 

Deathloop, is, like all recent Arkane games, an Immersive Sim. It is a narrative Immersive Sim, in fact, and borrows liberally from Arkane's previous output. The powers available are, for the most part, directly lifted from Dishonoured, along with a good portion of its aesthetic and its extremely variable gameplay and play-style.  However, unlike any of their other fare, Deathloop's narrative is not linear. 
Nor is its level structure. 
Nor, in fact, is its gameplay loop. 
Were Dishonoured, Dishonoured 2 or Prey's gameplay represented diagrammatically as long, straight lines, Deathloop's would be a small, tight circle. 
If Dishonoured and Prey are point to point rally races, Deathloop is a cyclical Nascar track.

 

In Deathloop, the player takes the role of Cole - a guy full of attitude, one liners, style, booze, and confusion. Waking up on a beach with a hangover and a happy-go-lucky sociopathic killer named Juliana snapping adversarial death threats in his ears, he becomes quickly aware that he has been on the island for a very, very long time... as has everyone else. 
The Island is caught in a time loop, with the day resetting every 24 hours. 
Without getting into to much detail on the plot here (which is wild, interesting, clever and fleshed out enough to support constant discovery and fractured puzzle-solving over the 30-odd hour completion time), let's just cover the basic broad strokes: 
The time loop is tied to 8 targets, known as "Visionaries". In order to break the loop, Cole needs to kill them all, but theres a catch. Well, two catches.

Firstly, he doesn't have time to kill them all in one day, and if he fails, any dead ones will simply revive in the next loop. 
Secondly, Julianna. She, unlike everyone else besides Cole himself, remembers what has gone on in previous loops, and has a hard on the size of Manhattan for two things - killing Cole, and preserving the loop. 

 

Essentially, this is all the setup required to understand the crux of the game. The island has 4 distinct areas - and 4 distinct times of day, equating to 16 different possible 'levels'. Each Visionary has their own set paths ands story throughout the full day, moving them around the island at different times, and the player's job is to poke and prod at the clockwork nature of the world in such a way as to have different combinations of them intersect. Do this in the appropriate ways, and it will allow all eight to be killed in one loop, ending the cycle once and for all.

 

The nature of the game may sound like it lends itself to being something of a rogue-like - and truth be told, I believe there is the germ of rogue-like in here somewhere in the genesis of the design document, however, functionally, it doesn't really operate as one. 
While the loop does restart each day, with the chessboard and all its pieces reset, a huge part of the game actually revolves around Cole adding to his ever-expanding arsenal of powers and weapons. An in-game currency called 'Residuum' allows him to 'infuse' different weapons and powers, essentially making them 'permanent' and allowing him to start a loop with them. 
Each visionary is associated with a specific power and each one can be collected by killing that visionary once. Infuse it, and it is Coles in perpetuity and can then be upgraded by collecting additional items from subsequent kills of the same visionary. This means the early game is less about simple discovery, and more about filling out Coles inventory and methods of attack. 

What the loop mechanic does incredibly well, is alleviate the problem I mentioned before. Because each loop allows for experimentation, and the player knows that it will reset each time, there is no feeling of being 'trapped' in a play-style. Saving within an environment is not possible, and so the tendency to 'save-scum' ones way through a level in order to remain unseen is negated. Conversely though, given that the player knows the loop will reset every 4 levels, they are absolutely free to experiment to their hearts desire, free of consequence. It cures the Immersive Sim of its biggest issue, by removing long-term consequence from the equation.

 

The game may sound, also, like it is overly complex. Truth be told, the narrative is convoluted, and at times hard to grasp the overall machinations of - particularly early on - however, for all its eccentricities, the game does not really force the player to work out the final method of attack by themselves. A fairly well implemented - if a little prescriptive /hand-hold-y -  mission structure is built in, meaning there is always a variety of different objectives available for whatever time of day Cole finds himself in. The player is not required to really have the long-term goals in mind during the early, loop-to-loop machinations. 
Whether that is positive or not will lie in the eye of the beholder - personally, I would have liked to see a little less beat-by-beat prescription in the method (Hitman, for example, allows the 'mission stories' to be simply switched off in the main menu,) - however, the final goal of Deathloop is, frankly, fucking complicated. I very much doubt that I would have been able to solve it without any guidance at all, so really, it comes down to personal preference how much the player feels overly 'hand-held' or not.

 

The game adds one more wrinkle into its already pretty original gameplay structure - in the form of Julianna herself. Unlike other visionaries, Julianna can turn up anywhere - at any time - and armed with whatever powers or weapons she pleases. This can be an irritation at times, it must be said - it can be galling during a particularly good 'quiet' run to suddenly have her turn up and start firing a shotgun and fucking the whole thing up - but it does also add a layer of chaos and randomness to the game that can be genuinely tense and exciting. 
Julianna will sometimes be AI controlled, but often will be controlled by another human player, invading Dark Souls style, to fuck up Cole's day - and those instances can be very fun. Suddenly, a perfectly ordinary run morphs into a sweaty, tense, one-on-one game of cat and mouse, with Cole trapped until he can hack his way back to his tunnels, or take Julianna out. 
Playing as Julianna is fun also - she has access to a lot of weaponry early on that the player has likely not seen in Cole's playthrough yet -, though, much like in Dark Souls - I did feel rather guilty any time I succeeded as Julianna, knowing full well how annoying it could be for me when the shoe was on the other foot!

 

Visually, the game looks great - this is a PS5 exclusive, and it makes good use of that - though artistically it is something of a mishmash. While there is certainly a huge amount of detail and careful work has gone in to showing the different architectures of the island - it is an old, traditional fort and fishing village, used as a bunker and facility during the war, then added to by early scientists studying the time phenomena, and then added to further by the visionaries (and their "Eternalist" acolytes, and each layer is deliberately distinct and jarringly dissimilar. The overall effect is a deliberately confusing, stylistically dissonant environment that contains everything from ancient stone walls to Plastic 60's neon and everything in-between. While this effect is absolutely deliberate, and certainly makes the game stand out visually, I cannot deny that the aesthetically cohesive environments of Dishonoured's Dunwall and Karnaka, or Prey's Talos 1, did offer more appeal. I had more desire to investigate those than Deathloop's environments, in the long run. Deathloop was more visually striking early on, but lost its lustre quicker.

 

In terms of character design, I do think the game suffers a little by comparison to Dishonoured. Both Cole and Julianna are wonderfully designed and rendered (and given fantastic vocal performances and a huge amount of genuinely funny dialogue back-and-forth.) They are the sharpest points of a hugely stylish game, playing n a late 60's/ early 70's Blacksploitation, B-Movie vibe that is unusual for videogames, and executed really well.  However, the rest of the visionaries are less memorable - both than Cole and Julianna, but even than the various targets of Dishonoured or the NPCs of Prey. Despite having more actual dialogue, more variety and richer storylines than most Dishonoured targets, in this case, the loop mechanic of Deathloop becomes a double-edged sword. Because the nature of the world is that it is 'disposable', so too become the characters. Aside from Julianna - who actually remembers your actions - everyone else become much harder to invest in or care about, because they reset each day. The inconsequentiality of the world bleeds into the characters somewhat.

 

The general 'fodder' enemies of Deathloop - the Eternalists - are interesting, and fall somewhere between Bioshock's Splicers - in this case driven psychopathic by a lack of consequence, rather than mad by ingestion of plasmids - and the droogs from A Clockwork Orange. They are relatively thick by the standards of enemy AI, certainly more so than the Splicers or even the guards and NPCs of Dishonoured or Prey were, however, this does seem to be a conscious decision on the part of Arkane. Were the enemies smarter, it would encourage stealth far more than other play-styles, and this is another area where I believe their core design tenant - encourage experimentation above all else - has been a factor in the design. Because dealing with the enemies is, for the most part, pretty easy, Cole feels overpowered, and it means trying out new, fun ways to dispatch enemies or to side-step them feels fun, rather than desperate.

Overall, Deathloop is a genuinely interesting take on the genre. It is brimming with ideas - overflowing with them at times, to the extent that the early game can feel pretty confusing, as concept after concept is explained on top of one another - but that doesn't change the fact that these ideas are, for the most part, all well thought out and either cool, clever or both.

While I personally do not think it quite matches up to Dishonoured or Prey in terms of design or gameplay, it cannot be ignored how good some of the choices made are in alleviating what are genuine problems with the Immersive Sim genre as a whole. Those 'problems' are not ones I personally take issue with - I love the stress and care required for a full, 'clean hands' playthrough - but I fully accept that where I see a fun challenge, others could see a detrimental burden, and Deathloop alleviates that in a smart, and well thought out way.
 
While I did not find as much to grasp onto in the narrative elements, or in the tertiary characters, I also feel that is inherent to the concept, and that concept is so sound, and so original, that I was willing to overlook that throughout my time with the game. 
I still had a stonking good time with Deathloop - and frankly, measuring up to previous Arkane fare is the highest of high bars.
In my book, saying "Not quite as good as Dishonoured" is hardly a denigration. It still equates to saying "better than a fuck-ton of other games!"

 

(Review originally posted HERE)

 

[Cellcrash1991]

 #57: Life is Strange: True Colors

 

Haven Maven

Collect all Trophies in Life is Strange: True Colors™

 

As a fan of the series (really, they have all great stories!) I couldn't miss this one. Although the story is yet again great, I disagree with some reviews that say this is the best game in the series. 

Personally, I think the previous game had a stronger story and better dilemmas (in an emotional way) - but maybe I'm thinking that way because I can relate more to that one. 

 

I liked the story, I was hooked, but I disliked the last chapter and it felt kinda rushed. A good plot twist tho. 

Oh, and I really enjoyed the LARP part! ? 

 

 

 

 

[DrBloodmoney]

 - 474

? - 606

 

Through the Darkest of Times

 

Set across 4 chapters, each taking place during a significant point in the rise and fall of the Nazi party and the Third Reich in Germany, Through the Darkest of Times is a game that does not approach history with any flights of fancy. The player is not going to have any opportunity to change or improve the course of history. 
They guide their small band of randomly generated resistance members through 1933, with the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor and the burning of the Reichstag, then 1936, through the German Olympic games and Hitlers (largely successful) masking of the true state of Germany to the outside world, then 1941, with the war in full effect, then through 1945, during the downfall of the Third Reich and the implementation of the final solution.

 

The purpose of this game - it should be stated clearly - is not to have fun. It is to educate. In that regard, it succeeds, and does it in a way that is fairly stylish in its minimalistic, signature visuals, and deft in its use of overbearing odds and difficulty as both a gameplay and narrative mechanic.

The game treats history as set in stone. The nuance of success and failure within the context of the game is, in the grand scheme, small. A wholly successful playthrough of the game is measured by the ability of the group to stay alive, out of prison, and without descending into abject despair and dissolution in the face of overwhelming odds. If they are able to help some people along the way, that is great, but even the most successful playthrough will likely do one of a few key things. Perhaps destroy a few weapons stashes. Maybe help smuggle a few people (10-15 maximum) across the border to some relative safety. Possibly even broadcast some information about the internal atrocities to the outside world - but never more than that. 

Even those modest successes are tricky to achieve, and fraught with potential disaster for the members of the group. Most likely, the first few playthroughs of the game will not even manage these outcomes. Either the group will simply manage to survive, achieving little else, or will end up disbanded, arrested, in a concentration camp, or dead.

Where the game excels, is in these early playthroughs. 

The story of the rise and fall of the Third Reich is well known to virtually every person on the planet at this point. Indeed, it forms part a major part of high-school history curriculums in most European countries, however, what lends Through the Darkest of Times its potency is not in the retelling of historical fact writ large, but by telling, with extreme specificity and careful nuance, how these events felt to those in Germany at the time. The game's best parts are its narrative elements, and these are intercut throughout the strategic gameplay at a steady rate. Every turn (each chapter consists of 19-20 turns) has some form of minor conversation between the members of the residence group themselves, but every second or third turn is also broken up with motion comic images and textual, choice-based narrative storytelling, wherein friends, neighbours and ordinary Germans are interacted with. These sections do an excellent, often chilling job of showing different aspects of how a great country descended into fascism. 
The people who support the Nazi's are not presented as monsters - to do so would be to demean history, and to fail to learn from it. Instead, they are polite, nice people. They share cake. They break bread. They wave hello. They discuss politics and religion and socialism, but the creeping way in which a borderline messianic figure like Adolf Hitler has an effect on different people, and the slow justifications of peoples support of his policies, and the way such politics play into existing fears and biases is handled with care and consideration - making the entire narrative claustrophobic and sobering. 
Because we, as players, have the benefit of historical knowledge, the sometimes, naive, sometimes hopeless, sometimes desperate or misguided indications given by citizens we meet have a gnawing, gut-churning horror to them, and the game knows this. It is a testament to the writers and the game developers that they do not tend towards accenting these instances with overwrought effects or hanging narrative lanterns. That they are unaccented and unassuming is the most horrifying part of all.

 

In terms of mechanics, Through the Darkest of Times states, right in the cover art, what it is - A Historical Residence Strategy Game. That format - a title, and a wordy description - is unusual in the marketing of videogames, but is actually common to another genre - tabletop games. 
That is, I think, no accident. Through the Darkest of Times feels very, very much like a tabletop game, and if it were not for the deeply problematic element that would come from one player having to assume the role that the CPU takes in this case - that of the Nazi regime  - I would imagine the game would completely work as a tabletop venture. 

The actual game elements, aside from the narrative, choice-based sections, is very much a resource management, dice-roll-based game of percentages. The players little band of resistance  members use what little resources they have to complete missions - shown as simple icons on a still map of Berlin - in order to receive other resources in return, with a risk reward structure that works very much on a Dungeons and Dragons +1-style roll system. Each member has various stats (Secrecy / Strength / Empathy / Propaganda etc.) as well an affiliation (Social Democrat / Communist / Catholic Conservative etc,) a job, specific positive and negative traits, and of course, an age and gender - and each of these elements can make them more or less suited to specific tasks. If trying to raise funds from the Christian community, for example, the most efficient method may be to send a fellow Christian, however, a Social Conservative with a higher Propaganda and Empathy skill may be the better option.

 

Those kind of decisions are common, however, there are other factors that are a constant source of issues too. Every task, from the most risky to the most benign, comes with the risk of being seen. Amass too much notoriety, and the gestapo may come calling - unless you are able to go into hiding, or make your records disappear. If arrested morale in the group will plummet. Some other members may be able to break you out, but that's taking them away from other things, and risks their own capture - and every day counts. With every new day, more atrocities happen, and the group is suffering a constant drip-drip-drip of declining morale, declining support, and declining funds, which can only be alleviated with constant, careful action. Simply holding things together is a task, in and of itself.

This can lead the game to feel oppressively crushing and overwhelmingly bleak. And it is. It's meant to be. Living in Germany at that time was. The game does a fascinatingly good job of making simple survival, even without achieving anything else, difficult. It is incredibly easy for one poor decision, or bad roll to start a domino effect that means the group goes from planning a big mission, to simply fire-fighting and struggling to even make it to the end of a chapter. That may make the game sound less than fun, and... well... I can't help that. It's true. That isn't fun. It's desperate, crushing, difficult and not prone to any kind of fist pumping victory. 
Even if everything goes perfectly, and a mission is achieved, there is a good chance some members will be arrested or killed for their efforts. Actually managing to pull off one of the 'special' bigger missions without it tipping the group over the edge of ruin requires a huge amount of planning, luck and the right people, but the game does not treat that as some world-changing event. At best, the group survives to struggle the next chapter, back to square one.

 

In some very real ways, the game put me in mind of This War of Mine. That game also was about normal people simply trying to survive abnormal events out of their control, and in its best moments, Through the Darkest of Times can actually outpace This War of Mine on the educational and narrative front. In both cases, there is a crushing sense of impending doom - indeed, in some sense, Through the Darkest of Times actually succeeds more in this regard also, as, unlike This War of Mine, is is much, much more difficult to ever get to a 'comfortable' place. A minor quibble I had with This War of Mine, was that after a certain number of days, it could become easy to survive, lessening the impact of the game's thesis statement. By 'resetting' the playing field each Chapter, Through the Darkest of Times avoids this. However - there is a catch. Actually three of them.

 

Firstly, the actual gameplay of Through the Darkest of Times, as compared to This War of Mine, is lacking. Yes, there is a lot of nuance to it, and yes, it works in this context, but This War of Mine's gameplay was varied and interesting enough that I believe it would work, even without the Wartime setting and statement. I don't necessarily believe the same could be said of Through the Darkest of Times. The platinum required a large number of replays, and the gameplay did begin the drag a little by the end, in a way This War of Mine's didn't.

 

Secondly, the narrative of This War of Mine was entirely born out of the specific playable characters. Because it was set in a less specific, more broad 'wartime' and did not reference specific historical events, it is lent a repeatability and universality that Through the Darkest of Times lacks. Now, that is not an issue from the educational side - indeed, there is real history to be learned here, and real lessons to be learned and parallels to be drawn, which is admirable - however, it means repeatability is an issue. 
The first time I played, those narrative sections had a genuinely profound, moving or horrifying effect on me. By my 10th playthrough, they had become an irritating distraction. That isn't casting shade on the content, just on the repetition. I had seen them too many times, and they do not change dramatically, so the impact was, unavoidably, lessened. 
Even Schindler's List would get you numb if you watched it 10 times in 4 days!

 

Finally - and this is a big one, and the most sizeable caveat in a game that I do broadly recommend - the game has technical issues. 
Quite a few of them.

There game is a port from PC, and it hasn't been ported perfectly. 

There are a few minor issues, such as grammatical inconsistencies or spelling errors in text, which are silly, but ultimately unimportant. 

 

There are some technical running issues, such as the game crashing around once for every two or three playthroughs which are less so. There is, notably, a mode called 'Resistance Mode' which is basically Iron Man, with no saves - which I never touched. I might have, but the game crashed consistently enough in Story Mode, that I didn't have any confidence in my ability to make it through a full run without saves. That is a bit of a shame.

 

Then, there is the ones that are not at all acceptable - issues with UI not being corrected for controller. 
Inputs can be finicky and unresponsive at times. It can occasionally be difficult, when there are a lot of icons on the map, to select the desired one with the D-Pad, as it is designed for a mouse and keyboard. 
Some menus can have issues, where, for example, if data goes onto a second page, it is not possible to flip to the second page, and so you need to use icons from the first. 

The worst though, is in item management, and this issue actually cost me a full run.
To explain: if you collect more items than you are able to store, an 'overburdened' items slot opens up, and requires you to move some items back and forth from your inventory, to 'trash' before you can continue. This menu simply DOES NOT WORK. 

There is a tutorial video attached, showing you that you need to drag items from one menu to the other to select which items to keep. However, this has never been modified to allow use of the controller. you cannot drag items back and forth. 
As such, whatever is the newest item, MUST be trashed. There is no other option. 

I cannot describe the annoyance of having done a full run, all the way to Chapter 4, doing the not inconsiderable work of setting up one of the big, final missions, sending all my agents to steal 3 pieces of necessary documentation, actually succeeding in all 3, which should be the final preparation needed... then having one of those items overburden me. 
I was forced to trash that mission critical item, in favour of keeping a bunch of useless coal in my inventory, thus destroying any hope of finishing the mission, and essentially wasting the entirety of a 2 hour run.

 

While I fully accept this is a small game from a small dev, that is a serious oversight, and one the game should not have over a year after console release. Yes, I was likely simply the victim of bad fortune - indeed, it is relatively rare to ever get to the point of overburden - but the fact that it hit at such a critical moment was disastrous, and disheartening.

 

Overall, despite the technical issues, it's hard not to have respect for Through the Darkest of Times. It's a simple game, and one that, given its minimalist graphics and niche-genre mechanics, are not going to appeal broadly, however, its overall aim - to show how insidious fascism gets it's hooks in ordinary people, and draws power from that ensorcelled proletariat - is handled extremely well. It has genuine educational value - I could absolutely envision school children being encouraged to play a few games of Through the Darkest of Times as an educational tool in history class, in the vein of something like Oregon Trail.
For the rest of us, education is key too. Education should not stop at graduation, and if one can learn new things while playing in a hobby, all the better. On that front, you could do a lot worse than Through the Darkest of Times.

 

(Review originally posted HERE)

[Leon Castle]

#209 Tales of Arise

28th Sep 2021

4th Tales of plat(but 8th to clear the story) and it was first in the series to be mostly 3D(still has anime cutscenes, OPs).

[AJ_Radio]

Platinum #285: Max Payne 3

 

 

Difficulty: 8/10

Excitement Rating: 9/10

Estimated Time to Platinum: 75+ Hours

 

Hardest Trophy: The Shadows Rushed Me ( Unlock and Complete New York Minute Hardcore )

 

What can I really say about this game? It's one of Rockstar's darlings, a game everybody decided to jump on once they announced the server shutdown. The platinum and therefore the 100% is now unobtainable due to online trophies.

 

Being a bit behind on this thread, and because so many have talked about this game recently, I'm going to keep this shorter than my usual review.

 

Good story, good characters, and some excellent fine tuned game mechanics. This is what third person cover shooters should be. Fun, engaging, challenging without being too overwhelming. The one gripe is Max Payne 3 being stuck on 30 FPS, I think it would of been a huge improvement to have this at 60 FPS, but that would involve having to remaster this game. Unfortunately, Rockstar is too busy being a cashcow to ever go back to their older titles, unless they were record setting franchises like GTA, which they plan to re-release their PS2 trilogy in remastered form.

 

Online was grindy, but not too terrible. A big thanks to @Aodir and @hBLOXs for helping me with the online trophies. The multi kill online trophies were annoying but thankfully didn't take that long. A few trophies stood out from the pack. One for reaching level 10 on the M4 Assault Rifle, which takes about 450 kills to get. Another for getting 100 kills as a member of the SPP, which meant I had to pick a specific character. Last, there is the Rank 50 trophy. You needed over 600,000 XP to reach Rank 50, and by the time I was done with all the other online, I was around 64,000 XP. So, instead of dealing with the hassle of random online players and setting up a boosting session, I decided to grind out the XP using Score Attack on Chapter 4, Part 1. I had to play this around 500 - 550 times total, with each run taking around three and a half minutes on average. In total, this one trophy took me over 30 hours of grinding to get, and combined with the other online trophies, including the DLC (there is a Challenge Mode trophy that required an online connection, even though it was technically single player), I spent around 40 - 45 hours just cleaning up the online. Max Payne 3 was over twice as long as the time I spent grinding out the online trophies in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. Only Red Dead Redemption 1 took me longer to get the online done.

 

So, regarding the single player, you have to play multiple playthroughs. Normal and Hard difficulty speak for themselves. Old School was basically Hard difficulty without Last Man Stand, which is a mode exclusive to Max Payne 3 where you have a chance to kill the enemy who downed you. Hardcore is the hardest difficulty in terms of damage you take from enemies. You get no painkillers from retries, which means you have to manually find the painkillers scattered throughout the levels. Bullet time is massively reduced, which made using the Uncharted cover trick invaluable for this game.

 

The biggest hurdle by far was New York Minute Hardcore. New York Minute is another mode exclusive to Max Payne, where you start with a minute on the timer. If that timer runs out, you automatically lose and have to start over. You accumulate time by killing enemies, and you receive bonus time by scoring headshots, doing melee kills, and doing explosive kills. You get no checkpoints on New York Minute, so if you died near the end of a chapter, you have to start from the very beginning. New York Minute Hardcore however is a permadeath mode. If you died near the end of the game, you have to start from the beginning of Chapter 1. This basically means you lost over three hours of progress, which is the usual time it takes for most people to beat the game.

 

I spent a good 14 - 15 hours or so just working on New York Minute Hardcore. In total, I made nine attempts, a few of which I made silly deaths over, a couple where I died from bad luck, and one notable freeze in a particular room in Chapter 13 just before the LMG (light machinegun) dude spawns. It was one of the most stressful modes I've ever done for trophies. Super Meat Boy still takes the cake as being the most stressful due to those Cotton Alley no death runs, which were far more difficult than New York Minute Hardcore. In short, you have to memorize every enemy spawn and remember where painkillers and weapons are found if you're going to succeed at New York Minute Hardcore.

 

All in all, Max Payne 3 was a game I really enjoyed playing. I grew attached to the Max Payne character, and I'm still hoping by some miracle that Rockstar or someone out there is going to revive the Max Payne franchise. This game is unobtainable, and out of my unobtainables on my list, this is the one I cherish the most.

 

I made a bet on myself to start this game, having a little over a month before the servers would shut forever. And I'm very glad I jumped on this when I did.

Edited September 30, 2021 by AJ_Radio

[SerpentSeed]

#94... Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland. Finished the Arland Collection. Going to miss it.

[Undead Wolf]

 #375 - Mirror's Edge

Over the Edge

Unlock all other trophies

 

I remember playing the demo for this game a ton back in like 2009. For whatever reason though, I didn't pick up the full game. I'm glad I finally corrected that. This game was such a breath of fresh air. There aren't many games out there focused purely on parkour, at least that I know. The levels flow really well. It's so satisfying to keep your momentum going and nail these crazy jumps/tricks. The setting is really cool too. With the way the world is these days, the themes resonate even more than they did back then. As good as all that is though, the speedruns and time trials is where this game starts to really shine. It was a lot of fun trying to perfect my runs, even with the bit of frustration here and there. They were in that difficulty sweet spot for me where they were tough, but I knew I could do them with enough practice. The hardest part of the 100% were the time trials, especially some of the DLC levels. Thankfully you don't have to 3-star *all* of them, but there isn't that much room for sub-par performances. It was a fun challenge!

 

 #376 - Monster Monpiece

Monster Monpiece Master
Obtained all the trophies!

 

I feel like everyone who's familiar with the Vita's library knows of Monster Monpiece, but for those who aren't aware, it's a card battle game with anime girls. The art is glorious, and there's even a minigame you can do where you rub the girl to power up the card, removing some of her clothing in the process. ? The core gameplay is super fun too. There are a bunch of different card types and strategies you can employ. The plat was a bit of a grind. Having 2 Vitas and self-boosting helped alleviate it slightly, but there's still a ton of rubbing required to get 500 different cards. A bit tiring, but it wasn't too bad.

 

 #377 - Dead Island Definitive Edition

The Whole World Went Away
Collect all other trophies.

 

It's a bit jarring playing this game after Dying Light because it's very rudimentary in comparison. I definitely missed the parkour mechanics and grappling hook from that one among other things. Not to say this game is bad mind you, quite the opposite! It's a lot of fun to play with friends and I got a kick out of the cheesy dialogue/story. I like that it puts an RPG spin on a zombie game, allowing you to allocate skill points and what not. I played as Xian, who specialises in bladed weapons, and it was satisfying cutting off the limbs of zombies. The trophies were kind of a pain, deceptively so. Like you wouldn't think they would be as annoying just by reading the description. I still enjoyed my time with the game though.

Big thanks to @Sora9427 for helping with some of the co-op trophies and @Redgrave for playing through the game with me! ?

 

 #378 - Zero Strain

Traveller
Unlock all other trophies

 

This one's a top-down arcade shooter. There are a bunch of ships you can control with different strengths/weaknesses and abilities. Levels are split up into full length ones against regular enemies and boss fights, so there's a good bit of variety. I had fun playing through this one, it's just the trophy list that leaves a lot to be desired. Not only do you not need high scores on the levels, but it doesn't even make you beat the game/explore everything the game has to offer. It's always super lame when games do that. I wish the devs/publisher had more faith in the game, because it is rather good, but instead they slap an easy trophy list in the hopes of increasing sales. It's annoying because it looks like the Steam version has a decent achievement list, so they could have quite easily just used that one.

[OmegaRejectz]

Persona 5 Royal #85

 

 

 

 

Edited September 30, 2021 by OmegaRejectz

[No longer here]

#136 - Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

 

Enjoyment: 10/10

Difficulty: 5/10

Time: 600+ Hours

PSNP Rarity: 7.01%

PSN Rarity: 1.2%

 

Man where do I start? This has been one of my favorite games to play on and off and the combat while also playing with friends had intrigued me to go for this platinum. And after about two years playing this game, I finally got it! No doubt I have had so much fun grinding my ideal weapon and gear set (aka Fatalis) and playing along with friends that one day strive to get the platinum. I got the vanilla MHW platinum in 2019, although it was extremely fun I have to say Iceborne took this game to another level in terms of difficulty, longevity, and monster design.I thought I would never get the platinum mainly because of the time it required for me to do everything which included getting the small and large crowns (again) and MR 200. Well here are some of experiences with the game.

 

Crowns: Yes, the reason why many people couldn't get the platinum, however the way I tackled these trophies were that I played with some friends who wanted to get their MR level up, so we tackled the 5 monster event and during these times I would get majority of the crowns. If it wasn't for the events, I wouldn't even be close to obtaining this plat at all! For the rest of the crowns, I mainly farmed the guiding lands and slayed mostly tempered versions of monsters because they give a higher chance of gold crowns. While doing this, My MR level rose up quickly since you get more xp for slaying monsters in the guiding lands. The best part of the platinum and crown trophies is that the RNG gods had blessed me. For my last two crowns, I needed a Large Beotodus and small Barioth. So I loaded up this one event quest that had a chance to drop both crowns..... and blessed with rng, I got both crown trophies to pop along with the platinum! (check for yourself ) Overall, yes the crown hunting was grindy and took majority of time, but thank gosh for events and playing it with friends that made the crown grind more tolerable.

 

Endemic Life: Pretty short note on this is that you have to be patient and definitely use zoomaster for more rarer spawns

 

Monsters and Free DLC Monsters: The reason I was able to farm more efficiently was using Fatalis armor while using Alatreon or Raging Brachydios armor/weapons. These are the META in the game so it is recommended to make things quickly. Although I still recommend doing these special quests because they were the best monsters to fight in the game.... the fight, ost and communication of teammates is much needed. I have to admit I was surprised on how epic these fights were, the best part of Iceborne to me.

 

Combat: I am an Insect Glaive user since I love to do air combos ( Thanks DMC), it has been my main weapon from the start and It has never failed me since. Other weapons I have used are the Longsword and hunting horn. The combat has always been fun for me especially when the team is obliterating the monster, making the battle more intense with us carrying the momentum.

 

Conclusion: I am glad the platinum journey is over, but I will miss this game. I will play it with friends sometimes since it is technically the only MMO I played religiously. I hope Monster Hunter Rise may approach to consoles or maybe a new MH for next gen. But yes, I am extremely happy with this addition

 

[damage_6-9]

#1052-

Zippy the Circle: Level 1 & Level 2 •NA

 

#1053-

Rabisco+

 

#1054-

Hentai vs. Evil • NA

 

#1055-

Rabisco+

 

#1056-

Concept Destruction • NA

 

#1057-

C14 Dating

 

#1058- 

Rabisco+ • AS

 

#1059- 

Sakura Succubus 4 • NA

 

#1060-

Sakura Succubus 4 • NA

 

#1061-

Rabisco+ • NA

 

#1062-

Concept Destruction

 

#1063-

Robozarro

 

#1064-

Mine My Mind

 

#1065-

Infestor • AS

 

#1066-

Mina & Michi

 

#1067-

Zippy the Circle: Level 1 & Level 2

 

#1068-

Baseball Bout: Otterrific Arcade

 

#1069-

Gaps by POWGI • NA

 

#1070-

Sakura Succubus 4

 

#1071-

Sakura Succubus 4

 

 

Well, that's September done for me..

2021 trophies, 101 plats for the month

 

[cr1s]

 #573 - Arcana Heart 3: LOVE MAX!!!!! (NA Vita)

 

 

Threads of Fate Bind Us Together
Conquered the beast that is Arcana Heart 3: LOVE MAX!!!!!

 

Enjoyment: 8.5/10

Difficulty: 4/10

 

3 Love Max stacks down, 3 more to go! 

 

That's my first Vita stack of the game done and I gotta say, the game runs very well on Vita and is as much of a joy to play there as it is on PS3. Sure, the loading times are a little longer, but I haven't noticed any slowdown or framerate issues while playing. The lack of trigger buttons on Vita isn't an issue here, as you can still compensate for that with other buttons and there's only one long combo you need to pull off (that 13-move combo in Gold Trial 3, which is still fairly easy to do on Vita). The only thing I don't like about the Vita version is the lack of ad-hoc, which means that the easiest way to do the "Versus" trophies is through online matches. The connection is just as smooth if you self-boost them though, so at least there's that. But yeah, the Vita version is an excellent port of the game overall.

 

Besides that, my streak of excellent luck continues with Time Attack and Parace L'Sia, completing the former within 7 minutes and 27 seconds on my second try and beating the latter within around 15 minutes. Will that luck continue throughout the remaining stacks? I'll find out soon enough.

Edited September 30, 2021 by cr1s

[MakotoKaCun]

Platinum # 104
Control

Director of the FBC

 

Yay At long last I have completed Control ! Really is a game I really enjoy. So many mystery in the game.
Gameplay wise feel like it can be better. It Fun but still got it issue. Other then that i think because I m playing on on my PS4.
Everything i pause or enter the menu, I don't why the game will freeze awhile. This kinda suck if i m fighting a boss or Enemy.
Also the game somewhat still have frame rate drop when there are too much explosion XD.
But I m happy to be able to finally Platinum it. Hopefully can 100% soon.  

[Draps-1337]

#136 Hades

 

Difficulty 5ish/10
Enjoyment 6/10

I had been hanging out for this after all the praise I had seen around the net and knowing how many awards it had received. Sure enough, it was a solid rogue-lite. All said though I'm not sure I had such a great time with it. After the first few attempts to clear a run while I found my footing and unlocked the permanent upgrades which are a necessity. Each run from that point felt very similar. Sure the boons would be random, but you would never be staved of any resources in the game. So a run would either end at the halfway point or it would end with a successful escape.

 

The narrative, writing, and voice acting were on point and were my favorite part of the game and is what ultimately kept me playing in the end. Honestly, this is probably the biggest reason you should recommend this game to a friend. I also really liked some of the heat mechanics, being able to make more difficult boss variants was amazing.
 

[IesuHado]

PLATINUM #166 

NIER AUTOMATA

 

 

Final Words
Thank you for playing.

 

Difficulty: 4/10 (Personal Opinion, I played on normal difficulty)

Enjoyment: 6/10

Would I recommended it: Yes its a very good game, just not for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 30, 2021 by NordicSaiyan

[Eqill5]

 

Crash Bandicoot 2 - Platinum #50 

Wow, wow and wow!!

 

One of my all time favourites from when I was younger! This was such a joy to play again. I remembered a lot of it but some parts were like reliving them all over again for the first time, which was such a great experience. If I were to ever recommend a Crash game this would be the one!

[Suminya]

#317 - Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal

 

Path of the Shinobi
Obtained all trophies.

[G_J270216]

Concrete Genie

The Artist of Denska

[AJ_Radio]

Platinum #286: The Bunker

 

 

Difficulty: 2/10

Excitement Rating: 7.5/10

Estimated Time to Platinum: 4 Hours (Approximate)

 

 

I decided to do something different aside from the platformer, the AAA open world game, the first person, third person shooter/adventure type genre.

 

FMV, at one time, was generally seen as a fad back in the early 1990s on PC and Sega CD. Those old games had atrocious acting on top of hideous graphics, due to the technological limitations back then. Over 20 years later, a studio in the United Kingdom seems to have brought back the long lost genre, breathing new life into it. This was all for the better. 

 

Full motion video is basically a genre where it is a point and click style format, only you are interacting with a live action movie with live actors. The Bunker is basically a story of survival. Nuclear warheads have threatened life in England and Europe, forcing many to stay sheltered in bunkers to keep themselves away from the deadly radiation. A young woman gives birth to a baby who eventually grows into the man you are in control of. This man, now in his 30s, is the only survivor left, with his mother now passed away. He has to rely on instinct and knowledge of the bunker itself in order to survive. Will he leave the bunker, or will he stay?

 

This was recently on sale on the PS Store for about $4.99 a few weeks ago, so I finally decided to pick it up to try it myself. I recall watching Cornshaq's YouTube review of the game a few years back (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHvVJfgzNzY&t=166s) but didn't think much of it at the time. Much of the gameplay and the game itself will be pushing too much into spoiler territory, so for anybody wishing to hear what happens, you either have to watch a playthrough on YouTube, or play thru the game yourself.

 

I definitely appreciated the acting and the fact that this interactive movie was shot on location. Shooting on location gives the film more authenticity, there isn't as much studio trickery and action polluting the script. The Bunker is a short but well worth while experience. There are some collectibles that are easily missed however, so I relied on Stay Pationt's guide on YouTube to help me find what I needed for the trophies.

 

Cannot agree with the $19.99 price tag, as I feel that is too much especially for a game that is now five years old. If you see this on sale, and want a nice breather to go with the more grindy games you're playing, you can't go wrong with The Bunker.

Edited October 1, 2021 by AJ_Radio

[sephirothdude]

 

 

Plat #27 : KENA: BRIDGE OF SPIRITS

[TheAbyssWalker61]

21 hours ago, Undead Wolf said:

 #375 - Mirror's Edge

Over the Edge

Unlock all other trophies

 

I remember playing the demo for this game a ton back in like 2009. For whatever reason though, I didn't pick up the full game. I'm glad I finally corrected that. This game was such a breath of fresh air. There aren't many games out there focused purely on parkour, at least that I know. The levels flow really well. It's so satisfying to keep your momentum going and nail these crazy jumps/tricks. The setting is really cool too. With the way the world is these days, the themes resonate even more than they did back then. As good as all that is though, the speedruns and time trials is where this game starts to really shine. It was a lot of fun trying to perfect my runs, even with the bit of frustration here and there. They were in that difficulty sweet spot for me where they were tough, but I knew I could do them with enough practice. The hardest part of the 100% were the time trials, especially some of the DLC levels. Thankfully you don't have to 3-star *all* of them, but there isn't that much room for sub-par performances. It was a fun challenge!

 

 #376 - Monster Monpiece

Monster Monpiece Master
Obtained all the trophies!

 

I feel like everyone who's familiar with the Vita's library knows of Monster Monpiece, but for those who aren't aware, it's a card battle game with anime girls. The art is glorious, and there's even a minigame you can do where you rub the girl to power up the card, removing some of her clothing in the process.  The core gameplay is super fun too. There are a bunch of different card types and strategies you can employ. The plat was a bit of a grind. Having 2 Vitas and self-boosting helped alleviate it slightly, but there's still a ton of rubbing required to get 500 different cards. A bit tiring, but it wasn't too bad.

 

 #377 - Dead Island Definitive Edition

The Whole World Went Away
Collect all other trophies.

 

It's a bit jarring playing this game after Dying Light because it's very rudimentary in comparison. I definitely missed the parkour mechanics and grappling hook from that one among other things. Not to say this game is bad mind you, quite the opposite! It's a lot of fun to play with friends and I got a kick out of the cheesy dialogue/story. I like that it puts an RPG spin on a zombie game, allowing you to allocate skill points and what not. I played as Xian, who specialises in bladed weapons, and it was satisfying cutting off the limbs of zombies. The trophies were kind of a pain, deceptively so. Like you wouldn't think they would be as annoying just by reading the description. I still enjoyed my time with the game though.

Big thanks to @Sora9427 for helping with some of the co-op trophies and @Redgrave for playing through the game with me! 

 

 #378 - Zero Strain

Traveller
Unlock all other trophies

 

This one's a top-down arcade shooter. There are a bunch of ships you can control with different strengths/weaknesses and abilities. Levels are split up into full length ones against regular enemies and boss fights, so there's a good bit of variety. I had fun playing through this one, it's just the trophy list that leaves a lot to be desired. Not only do you not need high scores on the levels, but it doesn't even make you beat the game/explore everything the game has to offer. It's always super lame when games do that. I wish the devs/publisher had more faith in the game, because it is rather good, but instead they slap an easy trophy list in the hopes of increasing sales. It's annoying because it looks like the Steam version has a decent achievement list, so they could have quite easily just used that one.

Congrats!! mirror edge has online trophies? the guide doesn't says nothing but someone told me that i need to be connected