Most Recent Platinum

[DrBloodmoney]

  556

 696

 

 

 

Twelve Minutes

 

A small, tightly contained Adventure mystery time-loop game developed by Luís António and published by Annapurna Interactive, Twelve Minutes sees the player take the role of a husband, who, upon returning home after a seemingly normal day, spends a short time with his wife in their modest, 3-room apartment... before a violent police officer knocks at the door. Accusing the mans wife of the murder of her father, the police officer proceeds to kill one of both of the characters...
... upon which time, a 12 minute time loop resets, and man finds himself returning to the apartment once again. 
It's up to the player to - through changing the events of the loop, avert the incident, discover the reasons for the events taking place, (as well as the time-loop itself,) and escape the purgatorial repetition.

Time-loop games have been in vogue of late. Between Outer Wilds, The Forgotten City, Returnal, Deathloop, The Sexy Brutale etc, the concept has been tackled in a variety of ways. Within that broad thematic genre, Twelve Minutes is something of an anomaly, however, as it seems to suffer from some real design drawbacks, that are wholly different from the ones other time-loop games either do, or deftly avoid.

The loop in Twelve Minutes is - rather obviously - 12 minutes at most. That is the maximum time available in a loop, assuming the principle character is not either killed or knocked unconscious, thus prematurely resetting the clockwork world. In the majority of time-loop games where real-time is used, the timer actually provides the biggest obstacle to progression, and is, in effect, the real nemesis to the player. Time itself become the antagonist, far more than any characters contained within the game.

 

In Twelve Minutes, however, because of the extremely small available area, and limited interactions available, the 12 minute overall timer is not really an issue. Instead, it is individual little timers within the game that provide the biggest hurdles. Whether the player can, for example, figure out how to incapacitate both his wife, and the cop prior to any attack, and thus discover some clues as to the nature of the mystery is less confined by the 12 minutes, and more by whether he will be able to remove all drinking glasses prior to his wife looking for a glass of water, so he can then offer her one laced with sleeping pills, or whether he can hide in a closet quickly enough that she will be unaware he has even come home.

The game is predicated on many little micro time-critical elements, and it is as much about finessing these little parts and stringing them together to meet an objective, than it is about anything else.

Speaking of "objectives" though - this raises the real issue with the game. Twelve Minutes is a game that is original, clever, and unusual... but it is one that feels fatally flawed in terms of enjoyment. 
Why?
Because it is a game at odds with itself. It is predicated on contradictory gameplay mechanics, in a way that cannot possibly result in anything but frustration. 

It is a game where interacting with objects, picking dialogue choices, and using items on other items is the key to success. As such, fundamentally, it is an Adventure game. Adventure games are an old, well-established genre - and players are well trained in how to play them. Clicking on everything, checking everything, and interacting with everything to see what effects can be set in motion. Experimentation - freeform experimentation - is a key part.

The time-loop elements of Twelve Minutes feeds into this notion well - seemingly at first, at least. Because the world "resets" each loop, the player can experiment, and figure out what things do what, and then compound these, to see what aspects can lead where. It fosters a sense of loose experimentation, and a gives the indication of a free-form, sand-box style of play. 

However, because the game also wants to have a very specific, very tailored narrative through-line - aping something like a filmic narrative structure - it does a rather silly thing... it actively sets traps whereby the player can (and almost assuredly will) end up "stuck" and unable to progress across multiple different iterations of events and multiple different "tracks" of narrative.

Essentially, the game is structured in such a way, that only by doing specific tailored sets of loops, in the prescribed order, can each subsequent one be seen through to its natural conclusion. The narrative requires the player to do things in a very specific order, but makes very little attempt to actually guide them or let them know, not only what that order is... but that there is an order at all.

These concepts - the strict narrative, but free-from time-loop gameplay are simply polar opposite, and not compatible.
If the player who likes to experiment (me, and I dare say most players,) stumbles into, for example multiple pieces of information, by having partially completed what the game considers to be "Loops 5 and 6", before completing what the game considers to be "Loop 3," they are likely to become hopelessly stuck and lost. Not only are they unaware that there even is a prescribed order to the loops, but they will not necessarily know why the actions they are taking do not lead to a conclusion, are given no indication of that, and are unlikely to naturally go back to complete the fundamental steps of "Loop 3"... because they are already ahead of the game narratively, and looking for bigger answers than the ones that previous loop clearly is aiming towards.

 

It is one thing to have a game that appears free-form, but simply gates and guides its players not via "walls" but via "punishment" - that can be done well, (for example, in the FROM Souls games, where the player is free to take multiple paths, but is encouraged through a specific progression via more or less challenging enemies.) However, in an Adventure game, where enemies are not a factor, that "punishment guidance" is absent. In fact, the perceived lack of "punishment" is the real problem in Twelve Minutes - the player is given no indication as to why they cannot progress, but neither are they explicitly "punished" in game for getting off the invisible, un-signposted "correct path".. aside from simply being unable to fathom why they cannot progress.

There is an accusation levelled at some time-loop games, (I have made it myself,) that they can feel over-prescriptive. Deathloop, for example, or The Forgotten City - it has been mused that the mysteries of these games would be made more involving if the game did not essentially guide the player, via filling out overall "time maps" or detailing "progression notes" - essentially showing the player their progress within different narrative tracts. 
There may be some validity to this notion (indeed, Deathloop is, arguably, a little too prescriptive at times,) however, Twelve Minutes is an absolutely sterling example of the need for such player-aiding systems. It has none, yet it's strict narrative through-line makes it the most in need of one. As such, the potential for frustration - for players to simply reach "dead-end" points, and have no notion of where they got off track, or how to course-correct, is virtually 100%.

To be clear, Twelve Minutes' issues are unlikely to be solved with a simple guidance system - indeed, the fundamental concepts of the game are a little too contradictory for that to be the "be-all-and-end-all" solution - however, some combination of a slackening of the rigid narrative, allowing the savvy player to progress past missed steps providing they are able, and the addition of some kind of "mind-map" element to show the fundamental concept behind specific loops, or even simply to indicate the requirement for a "layered" progression would go a long, long way. 

All that said, its a shame that the gameplay throws up such frustrating, and such fundamental issues with narrative progression, because the actual narrative - if played out in the correct order - is pretty good. There are layers to the mystery of what is going on that are smart and fun - including several "oh shit" moments where the fundamentals of the game are re-contextualised, (one of which is actually an "oh shit... ewww, gross!" moment,) and they mostly work. They would, of course, work far better if the player just happens to stumble into the correct, desired linear path... but unfortunately, the odds against this are staggering. They do work, but I suspect most people will see them as a result of having to consult a guide at least a few times.

The actually "final ending" is smartly drawn, if a little over-the-top. Its not overly forced, and does allow the game to slot well into the "identity crisis, cerebral thriller" type filmic sub-genre - a genre that tends to ask the viewer to accept some leaps as standard - but I do think it works as a capper to the whole mystery pretty well.

Visuals are pretty good - graphically Twelve Minutes is no powerhouse, it is decidedly indie, and small scope - but the visual style is very interesting. The whole game is shown top-down from centre-ceiling, so all 4 walls are visible (think A Link to the Past Dungeons, but more realistic,) and that viewpoint gives an odd, quite narratively appropriate "fly-on-the-wall" feeling. It feels like the characters are rats stuck in a maze, being experimented on by the player - which, in a sense, they very much are!

Audio is one of the highlights - the voice cast are named actors, (James McAvoy and Daisy Ridley provide the protagonist and his "wife". and worlds-greatest-wierdo Willem Dafoe provides the cop,) and they all do good work. The actual visual design of the characters are pretty simplistic, and because of the top-down view, there is little characterisation to be seen visually, but the voices to a good job of "humanising" them, and drawing the narrative out.
Music is pretty good - suitably subtle and eerie - and while not stand-out, does fit the tone well.

Overall, Twelve Minutes is a real shame - it has many building blocks of a really cool, interesting game, but it couples two wildly contradictory elements in a way that very few games could ever combine well, and leans far too rigidly and staunchly into both - failing to take any steps to marry them together for the player.

 

I rarely use my own failure or requirement to resort to a guide as a negative in a review, (Lord knows, I am by no means a great gamer, and what happens to me is not necessarily going to be universal,) however, in the case of Twelve Minutes, the problems are so egregious, that I think the odds of a player happening to stumble through in the right order is minuscule. I'd wager my issues with the game will be damned near universal, in this specific case. 

If a game is as rigid in structure as Twelve Minutes is, yet fails to offer guidance - to the extent that guide use becomes a virtual necessity, that is a real problem - and a particularly harmful one in a game predicated on discovery and unravelling of a mystery.

 

 

(For original review and Scientific  Ranking see HERE)

[DrBloodmoney]

  557

 697

 

 

 

Metrico+

 

An "Analytics and Metrics" themed puzzle platform game from Digital Dreams, Metrico+ is the enhanced, updated version (for PS4) of the original Vita game Metrico, in which an unnamed, simply-drawn protagonist character traverses a bizarre, Microsoft Excel- inspired world of bar-chart, pie-charts, stat graphs and mathematical visualisations, each of which reacts in different ways to the different metrics of the players input.

Essentially, Metrico+ is a series of individual puzzle "rooms" in which the ability to traverse from left to right is gated by obstacles. That is, of course, the broad definition of all puzzle platformers, however, what sets Metrico+ apart, is the manner in which these obstacles act. Each puzzle is different, but in all cases, the movement or action of these obstacles is tied to metrics of the player action. 
In one instance, for example, a "bar chart" might raise up based on how many times the player jumps. In another, a slide-chart might extend, or retract, based on player position. A platform might raise as the player moves left, or lower as they move right, or even more esoteric elements might be involved - an object might raise in increments, based on how many times the player has "shot" a rolling pie-chart, or even how many times they have fallen off a platform.

 

With each new puzzle, the player will not only need to experiment in order to see what actions have what specific consequences, but once established, they must then determine which combination of these action will allow them to progress through the whole puzzle - without blocking themselves.
For example, A puzzle might seem initially simply - say, appear to require jumping across a few simply platforms - however, the player may well find that a bar chart at the exit is slowly closing in discrete increments, based on the number of player jumps made. As such, they must then puzzle their way through what seemed initially simple in a much more curious way - figure out the metrics required to make a solid platform, that can be traversed in fewer jumps than will close the exit before they get there.

The actual puzzles are generally very good, and quite well implemented, with a pretty laudable variety on show, given what would appear to be a rather thematically invariable design concept. 
The game features 6 discreet "worlds" each introducing a new method of input around which the world is broadly themed, and the progression of complexity is well honed, and a smooth curve. If the player knows the solutions, each of these worlds is very quick to traverse, (indeed, a series of the games most devilish trophies require each world to be completed in a speed-run time, which vary between 3 and 7 minutes,) however, the nature of the game as essentially a 3-factor puzzle, (first figure out the metrics involved, then establish the solution via trial-and-error, then enact it correctly,)  means the first time through the game can take quite a bit of time.

There is also a series of collectibles added to many of the puzzles, requiring the player to establish a complete set of defined metrics, in order to make a "full pie-chart" appear, that adds a secondary element to them - as well as the obvious finessing and tightening of the solutions, and the establishment of smarter, more streamlined solutions required to meet the (extremely strict, and supremely unforgiving!) speed run parameters.

Visually, the game is simple, but the theme of "metrics and analytics" is well adhered to, smooth, and curiously aesthetically pleasing. The character (selected as male or female at the outset,) is simply a silhouette, and the world made entirely of geometric shapes, but some flourishes in the camera movement between puzzles, and in the end-of-world animations make that visual style really shine. 
The mathematical theme of the game actually serves a duel purpose too - it allows the game to be quite unique looking, as well as affording the developer the freedom to actually put genuinely helpful indications and what would usually be "behind-the-scenes" percentage values and indicators on the screen. These help the player to understand the nuance of what is happening, and the specific requirements for each metric, but also seamlessly blend into the overall aesthetic, and in most cases, actively enhance it. 
Conceptually, the game's visual design is such that it creates a situation where the art designers do not need to disguise the gameplay designers elements. They have total freedom to "show the working", because doing so only enhances the artistic design of the game.

Audio is fairly nondescript - the music is ambient background, and there is no voice work (or narrative to speak of to apply it to,) but sound effects are well done, and appropriately "mathematical" in nature - they sound right out of a soundboard of key-stroke indicators for a business learning tool. 

Narrative is essentially non-existent here - Metrico+ is a "pure puzzler" at heart - and while there is a very broad, lose conceptual metaphor at play, shown entirely as visual design, as the character progresses through the game, it is pretty minimal. Realistically, it allows for some slight visual stylings, but not much more - though the game doesn't feel wanting for the lack of narrative.

Actually, the ending sections are retained from the previous Vita version, and as such have one of the more strange elements of the game. Each world ends with a choice of two doors - the choice between which is immaterial to the progression of the game - but which - in its original, Vita incarnation - incorporated an odd, online "how many people chose each door" mechanic. 
It was not a gameplay critical thing, even then, and really just served as another "metric" to add to the theme... but since that online element does not exist on the PS4 version, the retention of the "two-door" endings is slightly bizarre here - as the only purpose it serves, is to mildly confuse the player as to why there are two apparent paths at all!

Overall, Metrico+ is a pretty neat puzzle game, with a cool, fairly unique look, and interesting core theme and set of mechanics, and a pretty good upgrade of the original Vita game, accessible to a much wider audience. 

It's not a game that will challenge the player too much in the initial playthrough, however, the puzzles are smart and satisfying to solve - and there is certainly scope to offer much more, if the player decides to go for the full platinum, as a wealth of fun, smart collectibles, and a set of extremely tricky speed-runs will add considerable additional gameplay to the mix!

 

 

(For original review and Scientific  Ranking see HERE)

 

[percy547389126yv]

#1,959 PS4 version of Super Stardust Portable

[DrBloodmoney]

  559

 699

 

Norco

 

There is a particular brand of "heightened reality" fiction. Arguably, even 30-odd years later, Twin Peaks remains probably the most notable example of it, though an argument could be made for Wes Anderson's filmic output, Terry Gilliam's work, Charlie Kaufmann's writing and certainly David Lynch's wider filmic output. 

 

It's a peculiarly difficult genre needle to thread - and a particularly dangerous one to attempt, given that when not done right, it can easily become insufferable - but essentially it is the broad genre equivalent of "eclectic". Essentially, it is a genre where many, many different bizarre, strange, oddball and unusual elements are woven together - multiple elements, each of which in any other fiction would be "the one oddball character" or the "one really strange situation", each of which should, by rights, threaten to over-tip the entire narrative - but due to a combination of an intricate balancing act, an incredibly solid and well grounded core foundation, (and the creator's ability to discern the "unusual-and-fascinating" from the "strange-for-the-sake-of-it",) they all congeal not into a mishmash of nonsense (as they, perhaps, should do, when really considered,) but instead, balance together, and work in tandem just perfectly. The peculiarity of all the elements remains, but the ways in which such peculiar elements would normally topple any other narrative by their oddness are somehow nullified by one another in a delicate balancing act. 
It's rarely done well, but when it is, it allows all the desirable traits of peculiarity to remain in each element - the awe, the originality and the inspiring or fascinating qualities, but all the negative ones are eschewed - the off-puttingness, the distancing of the viewer from the material, and the scoffing. 
Rather than an abject mess, the art in question instead is coalesced into a coherent, fascinating and textured world into which the viewer can only sink into and marvel... because it is unlike anything else.

If one were to, for example, list out all the odd characters, strange situations and, (in theory,) ridiculous elements that make up Twin Peaks, the show would sound, to the un-initiated lay-person, like a complete mess. watching the show, however, despite the continual rotoscope of bizarre and unusual elements, the bought-in viewer never really bumps on any particular one, because the whole show is crafted together so well. It just... works. The continual kaleidoscope of the unusual makes not for confusion, pushing away the viewer... but for fascination, drawing them further in.

When that "heightened reality" fiction works, it is virtually impossible to articulate exactly why it works, (or, conversely, why other art, with seemingly all the same aspects, but lacking the magic, doesn't)... 
...it just does.

This "heightened reality fiction" is exactly the difficult genre Geography for Robots aimed at when they decided to make their first game - Norco. 
And in the first swing, they absolutely nailed it.

The narrative of Norco is, on paper, quite bizarre. 
I will not delve into spoilers in this review, but the world Norco takes place in is a sort of alternate-present reality of the (real) Norco area of Louisiana. 

Like the real Norco, it is an area dominated by the presence of an enormous oil refinery. 
Like the real Norco, it is a relatively impoverished place, and one where the love-hate relationship with the refinery is very real. (The real Norco refinery, while supporting the entire area economy, has been the scene of not one, but two major, explosions, both resulting in civilian loss of life, and both resulting in blanketing the area with toxic gasses.)  
Unlike the real Norco, however, this one exists in a world where bipedal robots are commonplace, human download of memories is a thriving industry, mysterious data-gathering apps are running rampant, the oil bosses are obsessed with aliens that may or may not exist in the swamps, cults of former Walmart employees worship an alt-right YouTube personality within an abandoned mall, men who live in drainage ditches are convinced you are a direct descendant of Jesus Christ... and one where he may or may not be right.

It's a world of seedy private detectives who wear clown make-up... just 'cause. 
Of mercenary hustlers who only listen to Christmas music. 
Of street puppet shows, and Pig Men in swamps, and possibly psychic teddy bears, and rampant AI learning machines that can turn the very roots and tendrils of the bayou tupelo trees into a giant, living brain. Maybe.

Now - I'm perfectly aware that what I am doing right now is exactly the thing I said one shouldn't do with Twin Peaks - I'm listing many of the oddest qualities to the uninitiated, and, on paper, they probably seem like a complete mishmash of ideas. 
I realise that. It's for a good reason.
It's specifically to lend gravitas to my words, when I say the following:

 

I think Norco may potentially be the best written videogame I have ever played. 

 

It just... works.

 

For all the bizarre elements that make up the weird, double-pronged narrative of Norco - whether during the sections where the player takes the role of Kay, the elder of two siblings, returning to Norco after a long absence to deal with the death of her mother, or the sections where you play several weeks earlier, as her mother, the game is plotted, paced, textured and dialogued to an ABSURDLY high level. There was simply not one moment of playing the game, where I was not both fascinated, fully bought-in, and chomping at the bit to explore more of this world.

It is a bizarre tale, filled with strange and unusual elements, yet nothing every feels strange, because everything is strange... and because as strange as everything is, the solid foundation of stellar, literate and borderline poetic writing, and the fundamental realism of the world created by all this strangeness is so strong. No matter how oddball or quirky or peculiar some elements might seem, within the fiction, it not only all makes sense, but it all feels real. 
Loading up the game, you are stepping into a world - and while it might not exactly resemble the one in which you purchased the game, it feels completely coherent and completely plausible within its own boundaries. The extreme quality of the writing, the music, the visuals and the thematic web is has a strength and such a grounded, solid tapestry that every new strange element that is introduced sheds its ridiculousness, and retains only its fascination. Exploring Norco feels amazing, not because the elements feel weird, but because the world feels weird, and the elements feel real within it.

On that writing: there are a lot of games that use flowery, literate writing, heaped with metaphor and simile, and seem to try to ape genuine literature. Sometimes it works to some degree, but a lot of these tend to diminish by over-egging. They are trying to seem explicitly literate - and they can often be good enough - but what tends to shine through is the trying. They often feel like games doing an approximation of great writing.

Norco feels a cut above most, because while the writing is tantamount to a literary work, it is so by being so, not by trying to be so. 
The sense of place, and of tone is absolutely set from the very outset, simply by the quality of the writing. It's not overly flowery, and not overly wordy, but has the brevity and specificity of a serious novel. The ways in which situations, places, people and things are described are with such careful use of language and such specific analogy and description, is such that the player can practically smell, touch and taste the fabric of this Norco - and of the greater alternate America in which this version of it resides.

It is a game without any vocals, yet with the simple, text-based scroll on the right had side of the screen, the personalities, traits, mood and tenor of each character positively drips from every word. There is no acting involved, but more than any other voiceless game I have played, I could still hear the characters. I could hear the accents. I could hear the tone. I could hear the timbre and the gravitas, the cracks of their voices and the sombreness, the madness and the hysteria and the fear and the sadness - the voices were there, albeit in my head... and that is something only novels can usually do.

Visually, Norco is, of course, not a graphical powerhouse. It is pixel-art, and simplistic in nature, given that it is a largely static-screen Adventure game. However, that is not to say the visuals are anything short of fantastic. 
It would be naive to posit that Norco, as the debut game from a small indie studio, chose its pixel-art visual style purely for artistic reasons - of course the budget of the game necessitated such, and the idea that a studio of that size and scope would ever have had the option of rendering Norco in full 3D is flimsy at best. However, Geography for Robots have clearly crafted the best possible game using the tools available to them, and have been keenly aware of the strengths and weaknesses of those tools from the very outset. Rather than be limited by those drawbacks, they simply lean into the strengths of them - and the result is a game that not only feels confident, accomplished and perfectly at home within the medium in which it is presented, but is one that I can honestly say could not possibly work better than it does with any other art-style. 

Norco's single screen locations may be pixel art, but they are incredibly detailed, convey the setting, tone and the bleak, unyielding nature of the place - the poverty, the dilapidation, the pollution... and of course, the omnipresence of the oil refinery, forebodingly and menacingly looming overhead in every frame, like the tower of Barad-dûr.
Characters may only have a few images to their names, but each packs so much personality and life into those pixels that make them up, that even weeks after finishing the game, I recall far more distinct characters from Norco than I do from virtually any other game I have played in the past year or two.

There is stylish use of "picture-within-picture" elements to accent different conversations, and these look cool as hell, while also serving their necessary functions, and the framing and shot-composition of areas is never less than perfect.

Audio is brilliant also. There is, as said, no voice work (and to be honest, the inclusion of it is not missed, due to the writing standards,) but what there is, is one of the best soundtracks I have heard in quite some time. It is a dark Jazz-inspired fusion of Vangelis' Bladerunner-esque style and Aphex Twin-style down-beat ambient tonal (provided primarily by Gewgawly I,) on top of which is added several tracks by Louisiana sludge metal band Thou to round out the score. 
It is both excellent to listen to divorced from the game, (and has been on constant rotation in my car since playing the game!) and works perfectly within it, adding to the bleak tone, and working in symbiosis  with the visuals and writing to set the mood of the place, the plot and the game.

Gameplay in Norco is, as said, Adventure game in nature - and to be honest, is relatively minimalistic. The point-and-click nature is relatively basic - there is no roving on-screen character, all screens are from the first-person viewpoint of the character being controlled, and clicking on objects simply reveals the characters thoughts about them, rather than moving an avatar to them. 

The actual gameplay difficulty is pretty slight. Norco is not a "difficult" game, and simply interacting with everything will see the player complete the game with relative ease, and since doing so is the method by which this fascinating world is explored, the player will likely be doing so anyway. 
Indeed, the game includes several "player-assistance" systems - NPC companions can be consulted at any point for a check-in, (a "what should I do now?" conversation,) and an interesting "mind-map" style personal set of memories fills in as Kay explores, which can be consulted for clues as to what o investigate. Truth be told, I never felt like consulting either of these was a requirement - I never felt lost in the plot - but since each of these conversations and mind-map consultations resulted in more writing, and more fleshing out of the world, I still availed myself of every single one!

There are some unusual sections of gameplay - essentially tiny mini-games, involving timing button pushes or sequencing pattern memorisation. These are fine - they do little but add some flavour and variety to the input, and are not exactly winners stand-alone... but it's pretty much immaterial. The game is about the story and the writing, and that is where Norco shines so brightly, that the minimal use of some  mini-games barely warrants comment.

Overall, Norco is a genuinely brilliant game. An Adventure game from a first-time studio, that threatens to not only be one of the best adventure games every made, but is a serious contender for one of the best written videogames of all time. 

It is a world uniquely and singularly fascinating to explore, with a tone, a tenor and a "realness" that should be impossible based on just how many seemingly ludicrous elements are in play, yet not a single one of them feels out of place, because Norco itself is such a strange, wild, downtrodden, eclectic place. 

An absolute triumph from start to finish, and a game that any self-respecting videogame fan needs to experience!

 

 

 

 

(For original review and Scientific  Ranking see HERE)

[Suminya]

#356 - F1 22 (PS4)

(Racing game platinum #99)

 

Completionist
Unlock all of the F1 22 Trophies.

 

 

#355 - Syphon Filter 3 (PS4)

 

To Begin Anew
Unlock all trophies in Syphon Filter 3.

[Nelson_]

 #412 - Dangun Feveron

 

 

 

(Lovely Shooter 10/10 hidden gem lol)

[percy547389126yv]

#1,960 PS5 version of Super Stardust Portable

[Darling Baphomet]

203: Orcs Must Die! 3 (11.14%)

 

After the failure of the free to play installment of the franchise, Orcs Must Die Unchained, the series returns to its roots with OMD3, a very competent tower defense game. The core gameplay is essentially hoarding masses of orcs into traps and, in many cases, juggling multiple lanes to make sure that noone gets through. The entire game can be played co-op, which I took advantage of for all but a few solo endless sessions, and which makes the game a lot more fun as you and your co-op partner can synergize trap selections and manage lanes better, which can be a major pain in the ass solo. Overall it's a fantastic co-op game and kind of makes me want to try Fortnite STW again since that's the only other game I've played (besides previous OMD titles) that has anywhere near the same kind of gameplay.

[PotrikBerger]

Chicory: A Colourful Tale (PS5)

 

Anticipation - 1/5

...well I wasn’t really. Truth be told I started this because it free, because it was short and could plug a gap between games until forspoken released, I knew it had some critical acclaim and had a colourful game tile that gave me options on a challenge event running on this site. So yeah, not exactly eagerly anticipated. 

 

Enjoyment - 4/5

I didn’t really think this would keep interest high before I started, only other kind of colouring in game I had tried before was de blob, and I found that awful. This however was anything but. Shares a lot of it asethics with toem for those that have played that recently, and has similarly simple mechanics. What I wasn’t expecting was the puzzle solving gameplay which was intertwined with traversal around the screens. Was lots of fun working through these, and it was this element which secured my attention being held throughout the game and heightened the experience as a whole. I hadn’t expected problem solving to feature so significantly in the gameplay and I found it really quite fun. Although not difficult by any stretch of the imagination, the boss fights also offered something to think about, with one which involved fighting it with mirrored controls being particularly tricky. Again, very satisfying in this area and not as one dimensional as I perhaps had expected. And although I probably didn’t colour in half of the 200 or so screens in the game, it was still gratifying to throw a splash of colour over things every once in a while. On the whole, an enjoyable time spent on this plat.

 

Retrospect - 2/5

Its probably a tad too collectible heavy. Just a tad. Was wasting time looking for last few bits of rubbish (a collectable) and an outfit so did go consult a guide for these. I have no problems with guides at all nor the use of them, but up until this point it hadn’t been needed. Without it I could have wasted hours trying to work out that one particular character drops one outfit, but this character only shows up randomly, and only in places where you have placed furniture. 

Ultimately it was an enjoyable, but brief excursion from the games I was really looking forward to play. I think once you are in it,  it’s a game most people would get something out of, but if this is something you would never normally be interested in, gap filler or not, then there probably won’t be enough here to change your mind.

 

[NullRay85]

Platinum #63: Syphon Filter (PS4)

 

Excellent work, Agent!  

 

Subscribed to Premium to try out the classics catalogue and gave Syphon Filter a go. It was a pretty fun time despite the controls feeling a bit clunky. It's also my first platinum of 2023 and I'm looking forward to playing the sequels.

[Valzentia]

 #143 - WWE 2K22 (PS4)

Difficulty: 5/10

Fun: 9/10

 

My first annual sports game plat. This is my favorite of 2K's WWE titles (THQ's WWF No Mercy will always reign supreme though) and if you're into wrestling the game is a blast outside of very few irritating MyRise matches as well as the unholy MyFaction grind. Showcase mode did a pretty good job at capturing the highlights of Rey Mysterio's WCW and WWE careers, and MyGM...they tried, but it's a bit lacking compared to the past (hopefully 2K23 adds more features in). Despite the flaws it was an all-around enjoyable experience. Hopefully 2K23 has the same list so I can plat that too.

[s68sc]

#137 - Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

Difficulty 2/10 - Fun 9/10

This game is still fun as I remember, the last time that I played was when I was 7 on my PS2, Now I want to replay and platinum all the Sly Games, I hate that Sly 4 was underwhelming but I still enjoy it.

[percy547389126yv]

#1,961 PS4 Japanese version of Black Wolf

#1,962 PS4 version of The Dino R

[Zuggha]

 

RESIDENT EVIL 5

 

 

 

  RESIDENT EVIL 5 Platinum Trophy
Congratulations! You've overcome all your fears in RESIDENT EVIL 5!

 

 

NOTE: I hated Sheva´s IA  on Professional difficulty.

 

 

[da-Noob123]

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time 

 

At long last I have completed the Sly series! Been a while since I re-played the trilogy collection on the PS3 but was very excited when Sly 4 was announced. Sadly, it took till now for me to actually get around to it. It definitely took me back to my childhood, I still remember my cousins and me struggling to finally beat Clockwerk in the first game. Taking turns rooting for each other (while simultaneously hoping they die so I could be the one to beat Clockwerk). Listening for that clinking sound the bottles make, tip toeing up to guards to pick pocket them, all that just put a smile on my face. The mechanics of the game are still largely enjoyable and unlike most modern day games, it doesn't overstay its welcome by 100+ hours. The trophies were pretty easy but the high scores for the Episode 1 and 2 arcades were annoying and took way too many attempts. I did Bentley's Hackpack previously and I still struggled with those high scores. Navigate Like Drake should have had a tracker as it was annoying to have to replay like 20 jobs to find the map I missed. Sparrow Approves took way too many L3 presses, like who would ever get that naturally? The game is super easy to navigate. (That said I did like references of those trophies, not to mention the others sprinkled throughout the game.)

 

The story was nothing spectacular and I was disappointed that you didn't see Clockwerk while traveling through time. IIRC he was always there in the background of the Cooper Clan's history but the closet thing we get is one of the safe treasures, it's one of his eyes, la-de-da. Also, I had no idea about the ending, I thought this was going to the last one. Perhaps Sly 5 was going to reintroduce Clockwerk given how 4 ends but to my knowledge there has never been an announcement for a 5th game. ?

 

Overall, I am glad I finally got to this one and really do hope we get a 5th entry.

[mr2k_pdh]

#79 - Gran Turismo 7

 

---

Gran Turismo Platinum Trophy
Acquired all Gran Turismo 7 trophies!

10.73% | Rare

[percy547389126yv]

#1,963 Japanese version of Paw Paw Paw

[Night-Shades13]

Tekken 7

[Han_PL]

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom

[matrelli01]

# 21  - Gran Turismo 7

 

 

This is a special platinum for me... it takes me back to my teenage days: as a pc gamer at that time, Grant Turismo made me fall in love with the Playstation.

Despite everything, still today, the best racing game on Playstation!!!

[Nelson_]

 #413 - Battle Garega

 

 

[Riv1404]

Darksiders II

 

 

 

[HansPatat050]

 #81 Grid Legends

 

 

Difficulty: 2/10 on medium. I switched often between medium and hard. It depends on the track and cars how the AI behave. Sometimes they hit the apex perfectly, where in other tracks they seem to be glued to the braking pedal and break on full throttle turns. Also the game has the fun element where tires can blow up or cars can get terminally damaged... which happens every race. I often was sitting in second place, thinking about a nice tight race when all of a sudden the AI in first place crashed out in a very questionable way. There are maybe 1 or 2 races which were very difficult on hard because of the shitty car you'll have to use. I can recommend the game for anyone who wants to start a game and just go driving. Almost all tracks have closed borders and no traffic. 

 

Enjoyment: 7/10 I was looking for another nice racing game with good graphics, solid handling and not too much flashy stuff like NFS. This game got it, but don't expect anything like Driveclub or Gran Tursimo. There is a career mode with videos about some sort of story with racers and mechanics, I didn't follow the story but you'll just have to win all races. After the career mode you'll have to win x amount of races on 'rookie' level, then 'semi-pro' and win all on 'pro' level to finally unlock on 'gauntlet. Then, if you want to go for platinum you'll have to drive at least 80km with quite a few cars. This is a serious grind of just simple racing. I created a topic to check if there was another way to do this effectively, instead of go in blind and start any race to make a +1 on completed races and increase the amount of kilomteres driven.  https://forum.psnprofiles.com/topic/136447-how-to-effectively-go-for-platinum/

 

Time: 50 hours, as effectively as possible after 20 hours in.

[Elvick_]

Platinum #270 

Sonic Frontiers (PS5)

Trophies Completed!
Collected all trophies.

 

Neat trophy icon. Kinda lame name for the plat though.

 

This is a mixed bag. I think I am leaning toward this being an outright bad game. Not egregiously so, maybe exceedingly mediocre is how I'll feel later about it but I'm just so annoyed at so many of the flaws in this game and just thinking about it I'm going back down to bad. As I said it's not egregiously bad as something like Sonic '06, thank the heavens for that... but it does feel incomplete like '06 was, just in a more undercooked way than "wtf is this mess". Granted there's a mess here.

I'll start with the things I do like, the characters look fine. I loved the soundtrack. Some of the minibosses were fun to fight (forget what the game referred to them as). And most of the Titan fights were fun (even if I'm bad at timing the counter in them). And the Titan and some of those miniboss designs were really cool. And despite feeling disjointed, I enjoyed the story and look forward to the new stuff they have coming with the other characters. And I do like some of the tasks that unlock the map.

Many have said it, but it rings [heh] true to me as well that this feels like an alpha or an asset flip. Where they took engine assets from the store, slapped them around the open world and called it a day. At least as far as the open world portion goes. Skill Up's review was a decent summary of some of my issues with the game, though I don't agree with all his conclusions. In that video he mentions how the rails all over each world don't mesh at all with the art style and how it just lacks a unified personality of each world. Usually platformers are good about that and so in say a forest area (not really much forest in this game, but just as an example), the rails could've been vines, or fallen branches or something more fitting to the environment. The plot almost lends itself to why out of place things would be there until you think about why the new alien race would need a bunch of rails to nowhere and bounce pads and all that. It just doesn't work. 

It's unfortunate as well that they didn't stylize the world, because I think if it at least was more vibrantly colored it wouldn't feel so asset flippy. I know this isn't the first game that has done the art style of Sonic in this way. And likely won't be the last, but I personally have never liked realistic textures or styles placed in Sonic games. Especially not humans themselves. When you're taken into the reskinned "cyber" levels (sections of previous Sonic games with new skins), you're reminded of how a Sonic game CAN look. And it's pretty. I wish the game you see for most of the playtime was like that.

The Skill Up review helped me pin down why I felt the story was so disjointed, it's a lack of event cutscenes. Meaning, cutscenes where something actually happens. There are flashback ones where 'things' happen, but aside from the start and finish there aren't a lot of cutscenes where Sonic and Friends actually DO something beyond talking to each other. I thought Tails and Sonic had the best moments together personally, and enjoyed Sage as a character and Robotnik was a bit underused I felt. The game could have used at least one cutscene where your friend of that island helps you finish off the Titan of that area in a grandious cutscene, but I suppose that would conflict a bit 

Spoiler

with the fact that they don't get freed from the cyber prison thing until you do everything.

The game is overwhelming with how many rails are scattered everywhere. Rails that have horrendous pop in and draw distance. For a game where you move through quickly, and given how bland the whole thing looks, you'd think they'd really want to polish that. And I don't know if it's that I played on easy that it was this way, but the game really shits out the progression items at you so you don't even have to do most of the things on the map (the friend token things). And fishing nets you a really quick cheap way to bypass even that. 

Less is more sometimes. Especially if it means increased quality. 

The running on walls is ass, most of the towers for example will have weirdly shaped areas where you can climb (very slowly and stiffly, it's like playing an old RPG where you move one tile at a time), or run up. But it's easy to wobble and then you end up touching a 'brick' of the tower rather than "climbable material" and fall. It's very annoying at times. 

 

The most annoying flaw is that running around in the 3D world free as a hedgehog, you can walk or dash into the 2D plane and get trapped. Meaning you're just trying to, for example, walk under a section of platforming that would otherwise net you a friend token for progress. But it will instead force you into that 2D plane and you have to either finish or backtrack to get out of it. Sometimes even when you hit the open spaces you have to jump beyond the boost pad to get out. It's so fucking annoying. This happened to me numerous times. Then other times it's the opposite problem, where you're trying to do the little sections but the camera doesn't click to 2D and so instead of easily going from a boost pad to another you fling all over the place and fly off because you're moving 3D when it was designed for 2D. It's literally just broken at times. 

Speaking of those stupid platforming sections floating in the air looking stupid, I had at least three instances where enemies up in the sky on platforms in those things where I couldn't open my map for fast travel (can't in combat you see), couldn't save my game (can't in combat you see), or talk to an NPC (can't in combat you see). So I had to go find the start of that section and  kill the dumb things when I wasn't even near them to begin with. I could just see a health bar and knew it had fucked me up again. Very frustrating. 

The cyber levels are very short, and as I said earlier they're just reused content. The story does explain why that is, but it's a weak excuse to not have to design new content. I get its' difficult to make games like this where you fly by the levels in a minute or less, but maybe put less detail in them or something idk. Many of these games I feel they're too overdesigned in the backgrounds and foregrounds anyway. 

THE MENU. Good grief. THe whole time playing I was never able to get used to the fact that when you open the menu the menu doesn't do anything until you click 'x' on the section you want. So to retry a level you have to open the menu, click x, then scroll. Rather than just immediately being able to navigate the menu like every other game ever made in modern times. I've never played a game that did this before. I don't understand why they did that. It's really dumb.

Speaking of dumb, the upgrading of coin capacity (health) and speed. My god who thought it was a good idea to only allow you to do ONE at a time? And, the menu takes a good 4-5 presses before it's actually active. SO while you try to mash your way through the utter slog of redeeming your upgrades you are likely to close out and have to go again. The dialog and whole process is just so tedious and it feels like they just didn't polish it or playtest much. Fishing is often similarly a slog. 

Kocos are a big reason I really dislike the design of the worlds. They designed these things to be cute on their own, at least I think they're neat, but they lack anything to make them stand out. So they just blend in with all the rocks because it's the same texture, and are small and not that animated. You'll hear them, but that could also be the ones you collected coming out to taunt you that you haven't actually found any new ones. Again you can just use the fishing to cheese them, so its not a big deal, but I don't get why they didn't make them more colorful and... honestly merchandisable, like Chao. 

 

What else. There's some references to past adventures and characters that are neat. I don't know. I had some fun with it, but that doesn't make it a good game. There's so much wasted potential in there. Oh and my god the slopes. Some slopes you can go up no problem with a boost, or even walking, but others you can't. Other than the snow/ice, I couldn't figure out what the actual restriction was based on. 

Oh that reminds me, I do like that you can kind of cheese a lot of the dumb tokens on the map by just hopping off a cliff and dashing into things, or bypass a section by homing attacking something ahead of the start instead. That's a fun way to explore the open world, but it's made more difficult due to the draw distance. And again, it's just visually unappealing and feels like placeholder stuff strewn about as a proof of concept rather than a full priced game. 

Not a difficult platinum. I didn't outright hate the game, despite being so down on it. I do like the ideas, it's just quite annoying in a lot of ways and needs a lot of TLC to make this work and sadly, as often is the case, Sonic Team did not put in the effort to do it properly. I might platinum it again on PS4, but I'll see how they handle the upcoming dlc/updates and if they add any trophies that may be difficult to them. We'll see. I just hope they don't rush that stuff. This is a slight detour, but it's like with FFXV's DLC. Those got progressively better and by the last one I was able to play (included in Royale Edition), I could actually see a lot of potential in XV where I just hated it before. It's just a shame that it took them so long, and that actually made me bummed that they hadn't finished the planned DLC. I only mention that because I hope that the DLC has a bit more effort into it, and that it can hit that same kind of sweet spot as the later XV DLC did for me despite both being games I'm not that big on. Though I would definitely choose to play this over XV. I think that's enough tired early morning ramblings.

 

Oh yeah, the challenges to unlock the map. Some of these are pretty neat or no brainers. Like 'run through the hoops in the timeframe', 'get to this position in time' or 'step on the lights to turn them all off without stepping off any' (not sure how to describe those ones). Some others are dumb as hell. "run fast with ample time to do so in this hamster wheel"... ? Just have it be a button at that point, what's the point of that? Then there's undercooked ones where if they took it a bit deeper they'd be pretty sweet, like catching a falling ball. But you only do that two times, and there's only one ball each time. And it's close to the starting position. If they had multiple ones that you had to grab as they fall down that took you around the open world instead of three feet in front of you they'd be sweet. As they are htey're just kinda lame. Many of them give you so much time there's no difficult at all. Some are annoying.

The 'ball through a hoop' ones are stupid as the ball makes no sense. There's one on either the first or second island with 3 hoops, and the two on the left and right wouldn't accept the ball clearly going through them. Until I bounced the ball first. Even though at that point the ball looked like it didn't even touch the hoops whereas it was before. It was very annoying. Conceptually fine, just touch the ball and it goes flying in a direction, but it was just so wonky. 

Or the dumb jump rope ones. I think one of those was like 4 seconds to not get hit by the laser. Compelling gameplay. Oh that also reminds me, QTEs need to stop existing. :'3

Edited January 26, 2023 by Elvick_

[insaneeeRob]

 

N7 Elite

Mass Effect 2

I really enjoyed this game because it wasn't as heavy like the first one. The loyalty missions and the weapon upgrades were the only boring trophies to do but nothing too hard. FInally I reached mass effect 3 but that plat won't happen for now, too much mass effect for me lol.