Most Recent Platinum

[Swotam]

#237 - Mafia II: Definitive Edition (PS4)

 

 

Platinum Trophy

20% Uncommon

 

I played this as a follow-up to Mafia: Definitive Edition which I really enjoyed. Originally released in 2010 on PS3, Mafia II was remastered for PS4 in 2020. Due to it being a remaster (as opposed to a remake) it definitely shows its PS3 heritage, but is perfectly playable despite looking a bit dated. The game takes place between 1945 - 1951 and follows the story of WW2 veteran Vito Scaletta who returns home from the war and promptly gets involved with the local mafia thanks to his friend Joe Barbaro. The game follows a similar path to the first entry in the series, with mission-based gameplay combined with driving sections where you can freely roam around the city, exploring the map and hunting down collectibles. Once again the game is very similar to Grand Theft Auto in its gameplay mechanics and storytelling, and the story is again solid and well written, with likeable characters, interesting plot, and an ending that definitely caught me off guard, which I take as a sign of a well-written story.

 

The Platinum is straightforward, with the primary challenge being completion of the game on Hard difficulty, although this isn't particularly difficult, especially compared to Classic difficulty in Mafia 1. There are no car races this time around, so all you need to do is finish the story, obtain a handful of mission-specific and combat-related trophies, and hunt down collectibles in the form of Playboy magazines and Wanted posters. The lack of fast travel and no ability to skip driving means you'll be spending a good amount of time in your car, however the most tedious aspect of the Platinum is definitely the collectibles as there are a lot of them spread out between missions and the open areas of the map. Collectibles all are accessible through mission replay so nothing can be missed and there are good guides on YouTube to help you find everything. All in all there's nothing particularly difficult here, and you should be able to get everything done without much trouble.

 

The game was part of the November 2023 lineup for PS+ Essential so if you subscribe there's a good chance you have it in your library. The Definitive Edition includes the two DLC packs that were originally released for the game, and 100% isn't difficult but can be tedious due to a couple of trophies that ask you to do more than is reasonable. Luckily there's some workarounds that can be used to cut down on the tedium, and the guides for this content cover these in detail.

 

Again, if you enjoy GTA-style games, or enjoyed Mafia: Definitive Edition, then Mafia II: Definitive Edition is definitely worth checking out.

[AK-1138]

Platinum #783: Metal Gear Solid

 

 

Difficulty: 5/10
Playtime: 20-25 hours

 

1998. Being a nigh-unbeatable banner year for the medium on all fronts besides, the history books will show this particular sequence of 360-and-some-odd-days as the one when technology and innovation finally proved capable of moving interactive narrative and immersion in a three-dimensional space forward by quantum leaps... plural. Ocarina of Time, Thief: The Dark Project, Might & Magic VI, Half-Life... just to mention a scant few. 

 

And at the very tippety top of this gargantuan iceberg--one covered in a thick layer of distinctly Alaskan permafrost--lay the one, the only... MEEEEEE TIEEEEE DOOOOOOUGHTY WAAAAAAALKERRRRRRRRRRRR--uhh, I mean, Metal Gear Solid! ...Wow, what the hell was that? And why do I hear weird scratching noises from my fireplace? I don't even have one! Anyway, as you can understand: Visionary pioneer after pissionary vioneer, threedio killed the twodio star... or at the very least finally took its place on the throne, once and for all. Thankfully it was the best kind of succession... like having a Stannis replace a Stannis. Actually, what with how the two idioms peacefully coexist to this day, guess it's more of a joint rule thing. Sometimes things just work out for the best.

 

 

...But as things happen, like a kid born a few years too late for Woodstock, the whole thing passed me by. Then as ever lagging behind the zeitgeist for mundane reasons of practicality, just about my only taste of the Spirit of '98 was Grim Fandango, whose intrinsic significance to the very core of my being is well documented elsewhere. Got an N64 in '99 and Ocarina similarly transmutationated my soul as such a rare game will do (Majora still better tho!)... but ironically, PlayStation would not be a part of my life for years yet (five minute sessions of Crash at the local youth center notwithstanding)... and the triumphs and agonies of Practical Health Decoupage, further still.

 

Even once I fell into the PlayStation bag once and for all at the hands of the singularly irresistible once-in-a-lifetime triple threat of Final Fantasy X, SSX Tricky, and DOUBLE U DOUBLE U EFF SMACKDOWN! JUST BRING IT!!!... the Snake Family and their stealthy shenanigans remained off my Soliton radar for the entirety of that generation as well... my proclivity towards pining for the Old Love rather than find the New is ever both a curse and blessing in my life. And I hadn't yet evolved the AP (Awesomeness Potential) Sensor ability that has served me ever so well since... erm, sometimes, at least. Not to mention my financial independence, socalled, was yet to be attained.

 

So years later, when I was still busy pissing away innumerable hours of my life creating wiki content we should have known even then would be discarded in seconds once corporate interests inevitably co-opted the platform (this is my gently advising Fandom to go choke on a sackful of sloth dicks), a colleague of mine--some everyday guy named Joe--gently prodded me, by way of INCESSANT GODDAMN NAGGING JUST SHUT UP ALREADY WILL YA, to give it a go... as is my luck, I unknowingly went for the inferior PC version. And it didn't matter half a shit because the Metal Gear is, indeed, Solid, and infinitely more. An enduring love of cardboard-based sneaky subterfuge, technology porn, overblown boss fights, and philosophical RL underpinnings was born... sometimes for richer, and sometimes for poorer. Even the worst of Kojima's ever-increasing excess could not hope to snuff out this blazing passion.

 

Yet still, my history with my "first love" is a chequered one. Yep, full disclosure here: I'm a Twin Snakes Boy. You can say what you want about the tone and tenor of the reimagined story elements... it borders on being an objectively better game because despite all the amazeballstastictivitudeiness it recursively imported from MGS2, you can still choose to play it almost exactly like the original anyway. Complaining about choice is just one aspect of the "pUrIsT" gamer hivemindset that I eschew. Ain't hardly played the OG since. At best, a run died aborning here and there brought about by games deemed more immediately interesting at the time.

 

So, were it not for whatever caused Konami to get the bright idea into their greedy pachinko-addled minds to finally release the Metal Gears from their cruel purgatorical bondage to The Worst PlayStation Console, I don't know what could have persuaded me to go back quite honestly. Yet here we are, on that bright and shining day... and I couldn't be happier. Not only because now I finally have the complete MGSaga (fake spin-offs made by losers will never count) on my profile... but it gave me a chance to appreciate the original with fresh eyes.

 

Yep, what can I really say that everyone else hasn't said already? It is as near-perfect a game as the ol' PSX would ever manage. And while I can't with a clean conscience say that age--not to mention those gentle touches of obsolescence that sequels almost invariably bestow--hasn't slowed it down one bit or two or even three... the ways in which it has withstood the accelerated aging that has come to claim a fair few of its "stone age" 3D contemporaries is nothing short of staggering even more than a quarter century on. So here I go saying what everyone else has said already... with a tiny smattering of things I somehow doubt they have.

 

As is my wont, I shall leave more practical descriptions of the proceedings to... more interested parties. Building upon the better parts of its 2D brethren (the borderline sacrificial way in which it subsumes them is not dissimilar to the SUPER BABY METHOD of legend), the creative possibilities of three-dimensional space proves a match made in Outer Heaven for Kojima's ambitions... wait, maybe that's not the most cogent parodic simile in what it connotes? Meh, too late now. So anyway, through skillful direction while still operating under limitations, Kojima's meticulous array of gadgets and setpieces congeal beautifully... in ways that are really brought to the fore while speedrunning, which I had never before done. More on that later.

 

Another point of superlativity is what is, in all likelihood, the finest example of ensemble voice acting up to this point, and even now, it withstands the heavy lifting demanded by the fact that a lot of the story is delivered by not-always-super-engaging Codec... and y'know, how the character models can only be described as possessing faces in the academical sense, and how their blocky bodies move like they got the Diabetic Foundryman's Lurgy.

 

 

That, gang, takes power... and the linchpin of it all is of course one David Hayter, who inundates what could have easily been a one-note Snake Plissken ripoff (Kojima should be thankful Carpenter ain't the litigious kind) with a masterful range of moods and expression that always subtly bespeaks the incorruptible goodness behind Snake's gruff exterior. We should have seen the writing on the disappointing unfinished Blandbox wall when they heartlessly ditched him for MGSV... guy had earned the right to be set for life! Instant karma right there.

 

I think on a subsconscious level I was always a little timid about returning to the original... but being required to more or less master the game for the sake of the ol' Platinum Trophy Solid resulted in my appreciating it more than ever. While getting the job done required some creative fineagling to offset the odd janky mechanic (not to mention patience in dealing with some ill-executed backtracking), I was impressed by just how well the game flows even under time pressure.

 

Hell, I could have probably gotten the plat using the OG version if the boss battles weren't just that one smidge too unforgiving regardless of difficulty. The VR missions revealed some mechanical creakiness not otherwise extant in the main game, but was still doable enough. Even while missing some favourite mechanics from later titles, it still largely plays with all the winsome charm of some cute galoot from the Isle of Bute on the feast day of... St. Toot?

 

Hold on now, the dainty(?), dazzling(?), and just plain delightful(?) Mmle. Toot Braunstein may indeed be a whole host of things, but a saint? Beatification is some tricky ass business we mere mortals were clearly not meant to comprehend. Of course, knowing her ways, she may well have blackmailed the Church... but exactly what kind of leverage she would have on such a pious and chaste flock I haven't the foggiest of Scooby-Doos. 

 

 

Alright, BROTHER... cease this ceaseless gushing, and kindly do try to balance things out with some ultimately forgivable complaints of a decidedly nitpicky persuasion because some people throw a strop if you don't tacitly admit to some flaws in a game, no matter how miniscule or contrived! Have at you, game!

 

Yepsi, so there ain't too much. Fiddling around with the weapon/item menus can be a pain... given that a fair few items demand basically one story-mandated use rarely to prove useful again, it would have been nice to have the option to "hide" them so one didn't have to scroll past them again and again in Snake's ever-expanding inventory.

 

Similarly, equipping the card(s) every time a locked door needs opening quickly proves tiresome. The MG duology and their infinitely worse keycard implementation has proven oddly mitigating, though. Which is not to mention how Twin Snakes resolved that issue... nor the ingenious way in which it cut down on the backtracking. Wow, how nice be it not that one of the best MGS games appears to be forever tethered to an underpowered purple lunchbox? Ain't life just a chowl of berries, friends?!?

 

Minor quibbles aside, Metal Gear Solid remains an expertly executed action-packed thrill ride, given additional depth by the series' signature ruminations on the nature of humanity... the best of two worlds one mightn't immediately deem compatible, especially subsequent to Verhoeven's demotion from mainstream cinema. The totality of scope and vision, especially when compared to the noted limitations of the platform, is staggering even by today's standards. Even the odd moment of ill-advised goofy Kojimaness comes off as strangely refreshing amidst our world's increasing commonality of rote, self-involved, and humourless gaming narratives. Any gaming historian worth their strange door-opening bodily salts owes it to themselves to take the trip to Shadow Moses Island, and luxuriate in the serenity of having their box pissed on by a li'l wolf pupperoni! It makes sense in context... barely. Trust me bro! Now then...

 

THE BEST IS YET TO COME

 

Final Score: 9/10

[Whyfire]

#50 - Tekken 8

 

A fight is about survival.
Acquired all trophies.

 

Story was never a highlight in Tekken series imo, but it's gotten a lot better since previous installments.

The new fighters are good and each one of the is a good choice. Trophy list is very simplistic which is about the same level of difficulty as previous game, if not even easier.

Most of the trophies can be earned by simply playing the game naturally without paying too much attention to the list.

There are some online trophies and you need to win a few matches but they can be achieved easily and no boosting is required.

I used Nina as my main this time.

 

Difficulty 3/10

Enjoyment 9/10

[zafira1290]

#1083

Bus Simulator 21

Connecting Worlds
Obtain all other trophies

[Juzota]

#199 - Maquette

 

All Done!
You've unlocked all the trophies!

 

I don't think this game is meant to be played with a guide, but I do suck at puzzle games. And it did get me closer to 200 Plats, so there's that. Quick and easy Platinum, there's nothing wrong with that. Don't judge me.

 

Enjoyment: 6/10

Difficulty: 2/10

[GravityQueeen]

 # 202: Steelrising 

 

 

"Vive la Révolution"

 

I always knew I would really enjoy this soulslike that takes place in an alternate France where Revolution meets dark themed steampunk fiction, Paris is filled with souls-powered, threatening machines, you play as the self-conscious automat Aegis sent by the queen to stop the king's rampage, helping historical characters from the General States, what's not to love about this incredible premise?

 

I must confess that this is not the first time I played a Spiders game and thought it could have a better performance, though; reinstalling the game didn't prevent frame drops and more severe hiccups even playing on performance mode, so c'mon... Not to mention the sheer number of invisible walls in a soulslike with jump and airdash! Not a fan of the metroidvania (upgrades) aspects of the exploration neither. Complaints end here. 'Cause...

 

Man, Steelrising is fun! And the story is great. The enemies are plenty and versatile, titan bosses are very original and fun to mess up with, combat always felt satisfying and I'm glad my strenght build just breezed through the whole game and DLC, because the talking around is all about agility/dex builds, and even though I realized how good agility weapons are, I was more interested in taking advantage of this awkward mechanic which I don't remember seeing before: while you are charging your strong attack, your stamina regenerates! That means unlimited attacks with enough poise. And I went for that! And as I started with the Bodyguard (strenght) class, my stamina is at zero up to date, so hell yeah, a new feat in my gaming career.

 

The lock-on in this game is superb. The jump attacks work very well and, dude, if you attack while jumping, if your weapon technically has the reach, I promise the attack is gonna land no matter what. No escape for them: your camera will do some insane maneuvers, but it will always land. There's a nice variety of weapons to choose and they are fun to play. Throwables rock. There are modules that work like rings in Dark Souls and help you make your own build: mine were damage up, charged attack damage up, poise up and poise up while charging. I felt like a wrecking ball!

 

Trophy-wise I would say it's easy as beating the game, which is easy-peasy, just a bit tricky regarding sidequests and the two endings because those and a couple sidequests excludes each other, but hey, the guides are there to get you covered if you don't want to do a new game plus run, which I also heard makes the game even easier.

 

 

 

Edited March 17 by GravityQueeen

[TenebraZero]

#136 

 

 

Enjoyment 9/10

Difficulty 4/10

Time to plat 157 hours

 

 

 #137

 

 

Enjoyment 7/10

Difficulty 3/10

Time to plat 87 hours

[DesmaBR]

#236

 

 

Legend of Mana
Earned all other trophies.

 

... who let Square cook? This is straight up the weirdest game I've ever played.

Why did they make it like that?

 

[Golem25]

Platinum #167 & Platinum #168

LEGO 2K Drive [PS4] & LEGO 2K Drive [PS5]

 

 

 Tastes Like Platinum - Earn all trophies in the game [PS4]

 Tastes Like Platinum - Earn all trophies in the game [PS5]

 

6,774 Owners -327 Achievers for a percentage of 4.83% (Ultra Rare) (average completion; 13.69%) [PS4]

25,417 Owners - 859 Achievers for a percentage of 3.38% (Ultra Rare) (average completion; 11.26%) [PS5]

 

 

 

Enjoyment; 5/10

Difficulty; 3/10 across both stacks (the Challenges can go do one)

Trophies; 2/10 (ridiculous amounts of padding + insane AFK grind)

I was probably better off playing with physical bricks; 10/10

 

Man, what to say about this one. One of the PS Plus Essential games for December 2023, initially released across platforms in May 2023. Landing on the Essential tier within the year is typically a sign of a flopped game, and while I don't know how the game performed financially, I can say that there is a decent time to be had with this one. If you can get over a fair few things.

 

 

Forget what you know of conventional LEGO games that feature platforming; LEGO 2K Drive is, at its core, a take on the kart-racing genre that lends you an automatically transforming ride depending on the surface you are driving across - road, off-road, and water. It was developed by Visual Concepts, and published by 2K, hence the game's title. Besides pre-set races, the game also features sandbox gameplay across a small tutorial world and three distinct biomes - one built into a desert, one with a prospecting theme (seen above), and one with a general spooky/horror atmosphere where it's almost night time. None of the biomes are very big, and you can zip right through them with the generous helping of turbo boosts the game gives you, all the while discovering little mini quests, challenges, and collectibles along the way.

 

The story is wafer-thin and mostly just an excuse to funnel you from race to race, although with plenty of level-gating thrown in, forcing you to sample at least some of the side content to meet the XP thresholdst the story races demand. All cutscenes and dialogue are played for laughs with everyone's tongues being firmly in cheek, and it's over in a flash. Driving is pretty smooth, the boost is fun, and you can drift all over the place. All good stuff. That's where the fun ends, though.

 

 

For reasons entirely unclear to me outside of 'the shareholders want more money', this game is a live service. Bad enough on its own until you remember that this game is marketed at relatively young kids. You don't need your kart racing game to be a live service, but here we are. The game features a downright disgusting in-game shop which is constantly forced into your face by the most annoying and ugly minifigures known to man - some ungodly monkey-like creatures - and there are even 'seasons' for you to partake in, with a 'Drive Pass' available for you to buy to get a bunch of pointless cosmetics. I was absolutely shocked by how brazenly your face is slammed into the desk time and time again as 2K thinks you might finally cave in and buy their exploitative microtransactions if they just nag you enough. There's a non-cash form of currency to collect as well, meaning that you get a live-service-cliché-bingo no matter how you've configured your bingo card.

 

 

It's striking how unnecessary, forced, and predatory the whole thing is. There's a really in-depth vehicle editor to make use of which clearly took a lot of time and effort, but it seems like most of the developers' thought had to go into finding ways to bulk players out of more cash. Leaving little time for actual base game content, because after two dozen races, the story is over. Yet the Trophy list requires just about 100% game completion. So, what's there to do outside of the story, then? That's right, billions of bull**** collectibles and dozens of asinine 'challenges', because those are the cheapest ways to pad your game out with "quality" "content".

 

Two of the three biomes have four unique types of collectibles to them, while the third has five, plus two types of collectible that are shared across all three. This adds up to about 140ish useless trinkets per biome, and they don't unlock anything of note upon completion apart from some XP and some in-game bucks to spend on vehicles. And by some bucks, I mean very few bucks compared to what you need to buy most vehicles - forking over real life cash is the devs' prefered way for you to buy stuff in the store with. If the game wasn't predatory enough to be considered a pain to play, this is where it because downright mean-spirited as a fair few of these collectibles are placed in such a way that you can only reach them with trial-and-error, luck, ridiculous skill, or a combination of all of those. The same goes for the 78(!!!!!) challenges, few of which are any fun at all, and all of which require you to beat set times/scores. Most are thankfully not that hard, but at least a few, and Woodland Weave in particular, will require repeat plays. I was lucky to beat the Weave within about 20 minutes, but some people had to try for hours.

 

 

I'd like to give a shout-out here to the Hauntsborough biome, which is genuinely one of the worst-designed 'levels'/worlds/sandboxes/whatever you want to call them in quite some time. It's an absolute pain to traverse compared to the pretty cool earlier biomes of Big Butte County and Prospecto Valley, and it has absolutely nothing going for it whatsoever. But that's still not where you'll spend most of your time playing.

 

No, most of your Plat time will be spent on one thing, and one thing alone - unless you are really bad at or unlucky with the challenges and collectibles. For 6K Drive, which isn't even a Gold Trophy, you have to travel 6,000 miles. 9656 Kilometers. One problem. 100%ing the game won't even get you to a third of that distance. The solution? Yup. Rubber-banding your controller to cover R2, L2, and the left joystick to point either left or right. Doing this in a little tutorial arena with the Wet Widow boat will let you spin the vehicle in circles while going at a reasonable pace, furthering the miles on the counter. Just leave the controller there and your Playstation on for about.... 30 hours. Or maybe 40. I didn't time it. This threw me back, in a very bad way, to Mafia 2's extremely cruel Explorer, which wasn't even a Silver! 6K Drive is marginally less bad because it doesn't require a glitch to be abused like Explorer did (throw your car through a specific shop window to endlessly tumble through the air below the map).

 

 

The LEGO 2K Drive Trophy list is ultimately not as difficult as many people make it out to be, at least in my opinion, but I can 100% see why both Plats are Ultra Rare and why the PS5 stack has a whole bunch of non-Plat UR's; the game has a solid core but is caked in gunk and slime ranging from the microtransactions to poor world design to endless amounts of low effort padding to the absolutely preposterous 6,000 miles driven requirement. I don't want to let my PS5 run for a full extra day, it's a complete waste of electricity and money.

 

As much as I want to like the game, and as much as I want to recommend it, I just cannot. There is too much going against it, and most of it is either the developers' own fault, or something they could have been much more gracious about - the microtransaction sleaze, specifically. I'm sure the focus on nickle-and-diming was thrust upon them by 2K, but to be quite this overt in wanting you to spend and spend and spend just does not fly. I'm sure, though, that like most other live service games, this one got nowhere near the megalomaniacal demands and expectations of the suits that greenlit it, and will thus be mothballed the moment its final contractually-obligated season finishes. And that might just be for the best, for everyone involved here.

 

So here's my word to the wise; if you've got this one in your library thanks to PS Plus Essential, be sure to just leave it there, untouched.

[Feral]

#78 - Deathloop

[Jamescush147]

  Platinum 428 

Platinum Trophy
Acquire all trophies

64.00% Common

 

Platinum in 2 days, 19 hours

 

The last of the Wales Interactive PS5 upgrades that I have to Plat.

[Elvick_]

Platinum #345

Anthem

Grandmaster
Collect all Trophies.

 

Second game in my torture platinums of the year. Palworld took me away from trophies for quite awhile. This is the one I expected to like the most in terms of gameplay and it's a bit early but given the other games are outright bad ones like XIII remake, Gollum, and such I'm sure this is going to remain true. So it's all downhill from here.

 

It has great gameplay, it's just the content is extremely repetitive and dull. Despite not having graphics as good as the fake reveal trailer it still looks absolutely beautiful. Not all the characters do, but Faye looks great and has some good facial animations in the proper cutscenes. But flying around the world I just kept thinking to myself how amazing it looks despite being 5(?) years old. Looks a lot better than some recent releases. 

It's a shame we didn't get Next. Or at least an offline patch, because I could see myself returning to the game. Despite thinking the content is boring, just to fly around awhile and kill stuff, because that can be fun at times. Especially on Grandmaster II. Kind of like how when Killing Floor 2 farts out a new lazy trophy I stick around for awhile despite that also being repetitive.

 

The story is underwhelming, particularly for a Bioware game. The characters are largely forgettable other than Faye and... what's his face, who are probably the highlight as far as characters go. The game starts with a linear, though narratively interesting and engaging sequence which doesn't let you fight anything spectacular to make you feel like you're building up to something. That could have been a nice hook to get you going. Since after that it time skips to you in a dumpy crappy Javelin that's run down. From glory to garbage. But you never get to really be part of the glory you just get to hear about it from NPCs about how awesome Freelancers used to be and all we got to do was walk forward and pew pew a few nonsense enemies. I don't know what they were thinking. A lot of games do this and I don't get it. If you're going to make me farm forever for random loot to get powerful and be able to play the fun difficulties then show me what I can expect after my time is invested at the start. They had the perfect reason to reset your powers/weapons to newb status. But enough on that.

 

Instead of letting us experience the 2 years (iirc) after the intro it just skips so we can be told about stuff instead. I would have rather followed that timeline up to the start of this game. It would have been more interesting. But the bulk of the mid game story is boring until Faye and what's his face show back up (I'm bad with names). Then it gets a bit better and then a plotpoint happens which is kind of predictable but also annoying in how it was handled and set up, and then by the end isn't paid off in anyway what so ever so feels utterly pointless and annoys me. But worse still is the end sequence. The boss sucks and is a massive bullet sponge. But worse than that is the story after it just one of those "that was it?" moments in a game's ending. Obviously it was supposed to be a game's as a service, but the main story should still be fulfilling because how are you going to get people invested in the game if the story is boring? The only thing they had to try to keep you on board was some epilogue about some other enemies or something. And that was kind of interesting but too little too late, and I don't think they did anything with with postlaunch updates so idk. 

I couldn't play any of the raids or whatever because you *need* other players for those and finding players in those specific modes was a no-go. You can find them in Free Play pretty much every time you load up, and even if there aren't any you can just load into an enemy server and play. And the story/side missions can be played solo which I ended up doing as nobody joined *my* games, but it did add a good few minutes to be able to finally play a game. And it seemed more glitchy that way. However I could easily find match made random missions to play pretty quickly. Usually early game stuff though, but sometimes a few later missions. So it's kind of interesting people are still playing the game and clearly a lot for the first time (like me). 

I don't see why it has to be online only other than it having a cash shop they want to force you to engage with. Speaking of which they had the audacity to have NPC to talk to that's entire existence is shilling the paid cosmetic store. "Omg the thunder is so important how you look is so important omg please buy something with real cash it's very important to the experience I am very important." It's genuinely one of the most blatant and disgusting things I've ever seen in a video game and I've played FFXV with the Ramen product placement sidequest. Which iirc the first interaction is a forced story progression moment so you cannot avoid it entirely. If executives want to jerk themselves off they should just start an onlyfans. 

I really hated the looter shooter aspect of this game. I would have much preferred being able to craft weapons through finding materials and while the game has crafting (which I didn't interact with). You cannot craft things you have not found yet. Which is very annoying when trying to get the 12 unique gears for the 4 different Javelins that you need to play 4 missions while equipped with to get the platinum in the end. It took me ages to find one for the Collossus. Luckily the others weren't so bad but it's just not a good system, it really prevents you from experimenting since you can't do anything about it other than farm and farm and farm some more and hope that it drops you something you haven't gotten yet and it's likely you'll end up needing to equip a much weaker item to do this just because it won't give you a good one. And the stupid stat bonuses. Whether they made a difference I have no clue but I'm sure half my play time was comparing different stats and figuring out which one was better. It's just such a waste of time.

I'd much rather stuff like that be additive on top of weapon crafting. Just equip the fire stone to increase fire damage, or whatever. I don't want to have to farm for a weapon with it if that's what I wanted out of the stats. I try to engage with games earnestly and it always just wastes so much time in games like this. I should have ignored it. Forspoken had me wasting so much time exploring and trying to find stuff before I could do anything and so it punished me, but neither are as bad as Biomutant was for that. Don't get me started... 

I don't think I have much else to say other than that the platinum wasn't as bad as I was expecting, but it definitely requires many prays and sacrifice for RNGesus to accomplish. In my final run searching for any level of masterwork item I could equip to push me into the next rarity I got two drops of masterworks left to go check (oh yeah that's a huge annoyance; that you can't see what it is until you leave the free play or finish a mission) and they were not only the same item, same level, but I had a legendary of that type of item already. Took like 40 more minutes to FINALLY get something since it didn't even want to give me masterworks after that for awhile it was so frustrating.

But I did think of something else really quick, the world is built so goofy. I'm sure this was all changed in an update, or maybe not, but every store has a location like any game. Obviously, leaving the base to go to mission select does, leaving to go to the little online hub reading area (launch pad? idk) does as well, all this stuff. But you can simply access all of it from your menu anyway. And you can just launch from anywhere with triangle. And I'm not unhappy about this, at all, I just found it very odd and it really takes you out of the world. 

OH speaking of menus. The absolute worst thing in the game and something I didn't get used to in my over 60? (have to check) hours of the game was that there are two different menus for the game. One has your various missions and tasks you have to complete that you'll need to look at a lot for the trohpy grind, the other has your equipment and all that in it. One opens from the options menu one the touch pad. The entire time I was opening the wrong menus when I wanted the other and when trying to figure out which gears I needed to use in missions I had to go back and forth a lot and it's just incredibly annoying and that's probably a good amount of my playtime just fucking up the menus. I couldn't get used to it. I hate when games have menus like that. 

Beautiful environments, particle effects, amazing gameplay, awful content, lame story, mostly awful characters, but so much immense potential. This could have really been a gem. I will say that I like the game a lot despite all it's problems, I really feel bad for those who were hyped for this before release. I can't imagine how disappointing it was. I had no faith being EA. It's why I skipped out on Titanfall 2 initially. But this could have been something, and I can't imagine having played it with the day 1 problems after being hyped and it was just this. And then the promise of a better game and then... not getting that. Devastating. It's retroactively disappointing for me. Given a new generation was coming they should have focused on making Next for PS5/Series X and PC and given free upgrades to owners of the previous versions. And if people didn't have the new consoles, also give out some free skins. I think it would've made some angry, but I think it would've been easier for them to just focus on new consoles for the new version. But oh well. It is what it is. In another universe this game was handled properly.

I really feel bad for the devs who did a great job with a lot of the elements within this game. It reminds me of ME Andromeda in how certain elements were clearly handled realy well by people, like the enviornments again, the water effects, sand and snow on your armor. There were a lot of technical elements that were amazing. It's just they both had tons of problems as games. At least this one has a lot better gameplay. Though I did like the gameplay in ME Andromeda personally it was hardly as smooth or polished as here.

Pretty much every mission is; fly here > fight enemies / do thing to fight enemies > fly this other place > fight enemies / do thing to fight enemies > fly yet another place > fight enemies / do thing to fight enemies > mission over. That's it. And the do thing is sometimes stand in a circle, or find caches with one of those radar things that games love to make. It's just so awful. Even things that could've been hype set pieces are not. Such a shame, but I repeat myself. Happy to have the platinum. 

 

[AttilaThe13th]

 Sweet Dreams! (Rayman Origins - PS3)

Won ALL trophies in the game! SICK!

 

Oh boy, oh boy! What an absolutely amazing game! Playing this again on my trusty old PS3 was such a big nostalgia hit that I didn't even know I needed!

So many memories came back about playing this game back in the day with my brother...We were free, careless children, without a worry about ever day life and all that. I felt like just that as an adult now and it felt amazing! Many would think that this is just because of nostalgia bias, which can be true for an extent, but it's not only that, because the game truly is a masterpiece of a platformer! It has great and easy to learn controls, the platforming elements are just spot on and in true Ubi Art fashion, the art style and design is excellent. As a platformer lover I felt right at home playing this game and I was a bit nervous at first because playing Legends prior to this I thought that it will be inferior to that, but not at all, because there were only a tiny bit of differences and everything else felt the same!

The game has a lot of content that will keep you busy, which is great. If you're good at platformers, you can speed through them in a single day or less, two days if you're going for the 100%, but to enjoy it at its fullest, I suggest to take your time with it.

 

Now about the trophies...To be honest...nothing impossible...Mainly they are tied to completion and some misc. stuff, like distance trophies and such. Very easy trophy list.

Don't be scared by the high difficulty rating of the trophy guide, because its way far from reality. If you're good at platformers, then it's a 2-3/10 at max and if you're bad at them, then it's 5-6/10 at max, but nowhere near an 8, not even close!

I admint that there are a few tricky levels in the time trial and some very annoying ones in the mosquito ones, but nothing impossible. I saw many people complaining about the time trials, saying that those are the hardest bits and some are even impossible...TO this I say that practice makes perfect. For me personally only one level was very close one, leaving me with only 1 second remaining, but every other I managed to do with 20-30 seconds faster than the target. Some of the crystal levels were more tricky than the time trials if you ask me, and for sure some of the mosquito levels were just pure annoyance to get the target score, way worse than any of the time trials.

I don't speak for everyone here, I speak only for myself, because everyone experiences games differently, which is alright. But I speak for everyone, when telling that the difficulty is totally not an 8/10.

 

All in all, I totally recommend this game for everyone! If you want a bit of a challenge, then go for the platinum as well, if you only want a great time to sit back, relax and enjoy some great platformer level design, then just play the game and enjoy it at your own pace.

Great experience and a great game!

 

As of writing this post, this game has a 10.36% Platinum rate.

[voodoo_eyes]

#729

 

 

Solid game overall, but has some chapters are just tedious jogathons. SOund design is pretty good and the game looks good, but not great. Not worth it's launch price though.

 

 

Enjoyment: 7

Difficulty: 2.5

[Han_PL]

One More Dungeon

Just when I thought it would be easy to add platinum to my collection, it turns out it's only easy for the Vita version.

The PS4 version lacks certain glitch that turns a 3/10 game into a 9/10, which makes platinum ultra rare.

Since the game is pure RNG and you need to beat the game with the Curse modifier that constantly ticks your health to 0, and mobs on later levels can shoot you anyway, it was a real test of patience to get this one.

 

[saiyanbloodstyle]

Platinum #302:

 

Sifu 43 of 61 Trophies • 3/10 2x 15h 17th March 2024 • Platinum in 1 week, 5 days

PS5

A RANK

31326 72%

20.55%

 

 

Fun game and loved the combat! Collectibles also weren't too bad like other games, most you find yourself so overall really enjoyed it. 

[sk_lp_him]

#210 - Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter (Re-released)

 

 

Life of a Consulting Detective
Collect all possible in-game trophies

[ddracarys]

13 hours ago, Elvick_ said:

I really feel bad for those who were hyped for this before release. I can't imagine how disappointing it was. I had no faith being EA.

 

Great review - I was one of the fools who, not only purchased day one, but preordered Anthem for over $100.00... You can imagine how gobsmacked I am! Honestly though, like you outlined yourself, I still enjoyed what little the game had to offer, especially around release when the playerbase was peaking and I had a dedicated team to go through content. I haven't returned to the game since I finished it shortly after release, and likely won't. At the time, it was because both Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and the Resident Evil 2 remake were releasing (much better preorders, lol), nowadays though I just don't think there is much of a reason to return to a game that the developers have clearly given up on. I don't think I have the patience to get my remaining trophies, so congratulations to you for bearing through it all.

 

I cannot agree more that Anthem could have become so much more, potentially rivalling even that of other, popular looter shooters such as Destiny, if only it had been given adequate care and attention during development and post-launch. I cannot say entirely whether the fault is at Bioware or EA (my money's on EA), though one thing's for sure: I should have known better myself. This, along with other disappointing day one launches, have made me unsubscribe to the idea of preorders altogether. All in all though, if you can salvage through all of the crap, there's some enjoyment to be had with Anthem's short-lived moments of polish.

[Janire1911]

Diablo IV

 Arise, Champion 

#530

 

FINALLY! After countless attempts and more than 400 total hours played I finally managed to kill Echo of Lilith! I couldn't do it on my Bonespear Necro but all the stars were finally aligned during an attempt with my Frenzy Barb. I could've asked to be carried but this was one plat I wanted to earn completely by myself without any help, this game deserved it.

[willmill97]

 

+MW2 PS5 100%, glad it's over

[shadaik]

Plat #146 - 100% #222

Tera

Arborean Hero

Unlocking all trophies of TERA

PS4

 

 

How about a game I had given up on years ago?

 

Tera is a free 2012 MMORPG that made its way to PS4 in 2018. Among the few products of South Korean publisher Bluehole, it is kind of the step child next to its younger brother, PUBG Battlegrounds. And the two couldn't be more different. Tera is very much a typical  action rpg, but with other players joining in and fighting monsters around you. For  a  2012  onlien title, fights are surprisingly deep, with several attacks of different effect and cooldown times providing enough variety keeping the dullness of many other attempts at the genre at bay. Still, the pc servers have long since closed, making this somewhat of a Playstation 4 exclusive.

 

Odd, since its mains elling point should still work, especially for a free game. No, not the stunning vistas, though the game has plenty of those. Not the battle system  and deep lore. Not the imaginative monsters and biomes. It has all these things, butno, it's absolutely, and positively, beefcake. And a leveling system that involves clothes that grow more and more appropriate as you level up, until you reach something like my character here at the level cap:

 

"Appropriate" does mean she can prune her pubes without taking anything off, right?

(You can barely see it, but yes, there are pantis here)

 

So, why did I give up on this game?

 

Well,  I played this back when it came out.  Leveling up and reaching the endgame was quick  for an MMO, but hunting and killing the final few monsters for the trophies for killing the overworld bosses proved an issue. Even if I managed to find one of the remaining ones, other players would join in during the fight and with the kill going to the  mvp, as calculated by damage done, I was never credited the kill. I eventually  left.  About a year later I returned to find out the developers  had comitted a cardinal sin of MMO management:  They had deleted old inactive accounts. My gear, my mounts (including a ridiculous Hyundai car), my progress, all gone. Miffed, I deleted the game to never look at it again.

 

Al that was  left was screenshots of my dearest Naldrielle.

 

Farewell, my fair lady!

 

Fast forward by about five more years and I hear there now is an item that instantly levels a character to the cap  of 65 and that this was given away as a login bonus after six days. So I thought: "Okay, that should get me back to where I was, so I could go for the two  missing trophies". And so I did. I recreated my old character from memory, somehow ending up with a hybrid of her and my Neverwinter character. Given that one is a Tiefling - and male - the two ended up resembling each other in nothing but hair color. They're not even the same species!

 

Either way, the servers are far less populated now and within a few days, I managed to find all boss monsters and kill them without any other players even showing up in the boss  fight areas. Solo, each of the three strongest ones took about 40 minutes to down and that was that  - finally, the last two trophies popped  and once more, I deleted the game.  This time, for good.  Unless I get the idea of going forthe Asian stack. After all, for an MMO, this is relatively short, it's free, and it's actually good.

 

Usually, I would now get to the platinum screenshot, but I just can't without showing you guys the most ridculous fantasy armor I have ever seen outside of an outright parody:

 

Tbf, her head might just be shaped like that...

 

Nothing can withstand my battle dreidel!

 

Game: 7/10

List: 6/10

Difficulty: 3/10

Time: 50 hours

[ggalan__]

THE LAST OF US PART II

 SPOILERS AHEAD

 

Before this game came out I was very excited. I still remember when I was in class with a classmate and we were amazed by the detail that Ellie´s sweatshirt had in one of the trailers, it promised a lot. The first The Last of Us is one of my favorite games of all time so my expectations with this game were very big. 

 

A couple of days before the game came out, one of my favorite streamers got a key to play it, so I decided to watch a little because I couldn´t stand the hype, plus what could happen? Well, we all know what happens in the first 3 hours of the game. I was speechless, I couldn´t believe what I was seeing. One of my favorite protagonists died that way, so quiclky, a man who was ruthless, who had been through so much, who didn´t trust anyone... This completely affected my experience with this game. I hated every second I played with Abby, I couldn´t simpatize with her at all. I just wanted her to die and when I saw the end of the game, I got even more angry. 

 

I have enjoyed it much more now that I have played it again in a more objective way, and trying to feel what happens to each character. The message that this game leaves me is that neither the good is so good nor the bad is so bad. You will always be the bad guy in someone´s story. Joel killed Abby´s father, who was going to kill Ellie without knowing if he was going to get the cure, so, who is the bad guy here? I´m not justifying Joel´s actions, I´m just saying that in a situation like this only the strongest survive, and that all actions have consequences. That´s why I received his death better this time. He knew what he had gotten himself into, so he told Abby to get over with. 

 

I will always love my man Joel, who went through a lot throughout his life and fought and protected his people in a world that is pure chaos. Nobody is perfect. And I fucking love the scene where he tells Ellie that he would do it again. He was just him.

 

Btw, this game is a masterpiece, with one of the best gore sistems I have ever seen and incredible graphics. Impatient to see what the third installment has in the store for us. 

Edited March 17 by ggalan__

[HawaiiGator]

#230 - Jet Moto 2

A nice nostalgia trip which reminded me of my childhood. I love that these classic games are being brought back with trophy support so I can enjoy them once again.

[Stockton572]

#328

Final Fantasy IX (PS4)

Heroes of Gaia

 

Well, there's a check off of my favorite game ever.

[TheDarkKratos]

Platinum #3025 - Venba (PS5)

Edited March 18 by TheDarkKratos