AJ_Radio's Disappointing Backlog and Wishlist

[AJ_Radio]

Survived and bested the jungle. Far Cry 3 is finished.

 

Platinum #201: Far Cry 3 (July 16th, 2019)

 

 

Difficulty: 5/10

Excitement Rating: 7/10

Estimated Time to Platinum: 20 Hours

 

Hardest Trophy: Late Night Pick-up (Complete "Rush Hour" Co-op map (Online/Offline))

 

After two years of not playing a Far Cry game, I finally went and finished Far Cry 3.

 

This game isn't as polished as the newer titles, but it was still an enjoyable open world first person shooter. Jason Brody however I didn't really care for as a person.

 

The single player portion of this game is easy and didn't get me any real trouble at all. The co-op missions however were a pain, especially considering I did them all by myself with two controllers.

 

The fifth co-op mission was by far the most difficult, and I questioned whether I could really pull this off on my own. Thankfully the enemy AI is rather stupid in co-op and I took advantage of a couple exploits which helped me greatly to beat all six co-op missions.

 

Far Cry 3 looks rather unpolished by today's standards, but it's an easy game and one I recommend to anybody who enjoys first person shooters.

[freddie1989]

52 minutes ago, Spaz said:

Survived and bested the jungle. Far Cry 3 is finished.

 

Platinum #201: Far Cry 3 (July 16th, 2019)

 

 

Difficulty: 5/10

Excitement Rating: 7/10

Estimated Time to Platinum: 20 Hours

 

Hardest Trophy: Late Night Pick-up (Complete "Rush Hour" Co-op map (Online/Offline))

 

After two years of not playing a Far Cry game, I finally went and finished Far Cry 3.

 

This game isn't as polished as the newer titles, but it was still an enjoyable open world first person shooter. Jason Brody however I didn't really care for as a person.

 

The single player portion of this game is easy and didn't get me any real trouble at all. The co-op missions however were a pain, especially considering I did them all by myself with two controllers.

 

The fifth co-op mission was by far the most difficult, and I questioned whether I could really pull this off on my own. Thankfully the enemy AI is rather stupid in co-op and I took advantage of a couple exploits which helped me greatly to beat all six co-op missions.

 

Far Cry 3 looks rather unpolished by today's standards, but it's an easy game and one I recommend to anybody who enjoys first person shooters.

 

I would still argue the best of the series for me so far albeit I haven't played 5 onwards yet.

[Spinosaurus Rex]

On 8.07.2019 at 1:31 AM, Spaz said:

-snip-

 

Platinum #200: Dark Souls (July 7th, 2019)

 

-snip-

 

Simply excellent. If you haven't played it yet, then what are you waiting for?

 

I'm really jealous you guys are able to enjoy Souls series.

 

Bloodborne was one of the first games I played on PS4, because it was included in a bundle with console. It was a rough start to my PS4 experience, but I was determined to reach the credits at least and then see if I want to get more from this game. I got frustrated many, many times.

 

There was something that made me not being able to enjoy this game so much, after every boss fight I felt like the better reward for beating the boss would be possibility to stop playing the game than continuing it and encounter even bigger challenges.

 

I felt bad as atmosphere and world design was incredible, so I was torn between wanting to spend more time with the game and putting it back after seeing credits. I decided to start the game again. And I still had problems with many bosses, so I realized I slipped through them by luck, not thanks to skill.

 

I've decided to never touch any From Software's game anymore if they offer similiar experience. But I really like watching playthroughs of their games on YT, see the great boss fights and amount of work put into creating these worlds. It doesn't surprise me so many people love them and game like Sekiro sits at 28.21% platinum rarity on this site, with game requiring 60 hours and being 7/10 in difficulty according to guide. FS games are the only ones that I can't enjoy AND feel bad about it.

[AJ_Radio]

I think I'm going to pick Back to the Future: The Game as my next platinum. Should be the easiest game I've played in months. Hope I won't run into any bugs and glitches.

 

2 hours ago, freddie1989 said:

 

I would still argue the best of the series for me so far albeit I haven't played 5 onwards yet.

 

Far Cry 3 is probably the first "popular" Far Cry game in the series.

 

Far Cry 2 on the other hand looks pretty dated and I will be avoiding that entirely because of it's multiplayer requirements. Far Cry: Blood Dragon and Far Cry 4 I still need to play. Far Cry 5 and Far Cry: New Dawn are a pretty long ways off at this point.

 

4 minutes ago, Spinosaurus Rex said:

 

I'm really jealous you guys are able to enjoy Souls series.

 

Bloodborne was one of the first games I played on PS4, because it was included in a bundle with console. It was a rough start to my PS4 experience, but I was determined to reach the credits at least and then see if I want to get more from this game. I got frustrated many, many times.

 

There was something that made me not being able to enjoy this game so much, after every boss fight I felt like the better reward for beating the boss would be possibility to stop playing the game than continuing it and encounter even bigger challenges.

 

I felt bad as atmosphere and world design was incredible, so I was torn between wanting to spend more time with the game and putting it back after seeing credits. I decided to start the game again. And I still had problems with many bosses, so I realized I slipped through them by luck, not thanks to skill.

 

I've decided to never touch any From Software's game anymore if they offer similiar experience. But I really like watching playthroughs of their games on YT, see the great boss fights and amount of work put into creating these worlds. It doesn't surprise me so many people love them and game like Sekiro sits at 28.21% platinum rarity on this site, with game requiring 60 hours and being 7/10 in difficulty according to guide. FS games are the only ones that I can't enjoy AND feel bad about it.

 

The thing about the Souls series is it can take an incredibly long time to get adjusted to the controls, the style and the game mechanics. They are not games you can just pick up and play, because that steep learning curve can throw a lot of people off.

 

I remember playing Demon's Souls several years back at a friends house. I could never get past the first section and it just never seemed to click. I died a buttload of times in the first area in Bloodborne. But I finally decided to force myself to get through it and suddenly everything felt a lot easier. The bosses didn't seem as much of a challenge, although there is no question that they are tops when it comes to creativity and just having that luster.

 

All of the Souls games have incredibly high percentages despite their difficulty because the community is one of the most fanatical and dedicated fanbases out there. Countless people bought a PS4 JUST to play Bloodborne. That is a testament to how good that game is.

 

You've done a series of difficult platformers. I will just tell you right now that the Soulsborne games are an absolute cakewalk compared to those.

 

Give them another chance.

[freddie1989]

24 minutes ago, Spaz said:

Far Cry 3 is probably the first "popular" Far Cry game in the series.

 

Far Cry 2 on the other hand looks pretty dated and I will be avoiding that entirely because of it's multiplayer requirements. Far Cry: Blood Dragon and Far Cry 4 I still need to play. Far Cry 5 and Far Cry: New Dawn are a pretty long ways off at this point.

 

I think it was the villain for me, he is just so good it draws you in and makes you want to go back to it.

 

I feel your pain on that, I have just gone back to Thief which I started 4 years ago. Having sold my PS3 to reduce the backlog in a bold move I am now shopping around to pick one up again and complete what I started.

[Copanele]

26 minutes ago, Spaz said:

 

All of the Souls games have incredibly high percentages despite their difficulty because the community is one of the most fanatical and dedicated fanbases out there. Countless people bought a PS4 JUST to play Bloodborne. That is a testament to how good that game is.

Bought PS3 for Demon's Souls and PS4 for Bloodborne so I can confirm that  if it wasn't to those games I would have never touched a playstation. Yep, fanatical it is!

[AJ_Radio]

8 hours ago, freddie1989 said:

 

I think it was the villain for me, he is just so good it draws you in and makes you want to go back to it.

 

I feel your pain on that, I have just gone back to Thief which I started 4 years ago. Having sold my PS3 to reduce the backlog in a bold move I am now shopping around to pick one up again and complete what I started.

 

That’s the ONLY reason I still have a PS3.

 

8 hours ago, Copanele said:

Bought PS3 for Demon's Souls and PS4 for Bloodborne so I can confirm that  if it wasn't to those games I would have never touched a playstation. Yep, fanatical it is!

 

Definitely a fan. 

 

Do you know where I can find a Chinese copy of Demon’s Souls? I would rather not have to read Japanese.

[Copanele]

51 minutes ago, Spaz said:

Do you know where I can find a Chinese copy of Demon’s Souls? I would rather not have to read Japanese.

Unusual request, but I found several on eBay honestly. It's in United States and it's $40-$45. There is even an extra rare sealed item that costs $400 O_o

 

 

[AJ_Radio]

 The mishandling done in the past has been reversed to make Back to the Future: The Game possible. 

 

Platinum #202: Back to the Future: The Game (July 25th, 2019)

 

 

Difficulty: 1.5/10

Excitement Rating: 6/10

Estimated Time to Platinum: 7 - 8 Hours

 

Hardest Trophy:   Fuel Master (Flawlessly mixed up a batch of Emmett's Rocket Fuel)

 

An alright adventure game from TellTale Games. Based on the famous Back to the Future movies.

 

The only 'challenge' throughout the entire game was the trophy listed above plus a couple situations where I was timed. Otherwise this was a very easy point and click, although not the best of TellTale's efforts.

 

There were a lot of missable trophies I had to look out for and thus I consorted a guide from the start. Overall this was simply okay, not terrible but not great. Christopher Lloyd reprises his role as Doc, and Michael J Fox even makes a little cameo voice acting in one part.

 

Happy to be done with it.

Edited July 25, 2019 by Spaz

[AJ_Radio]

Mega Man 10 is finished.

 

 

Definitely a tough one. Obviously the hardest trophy is Mr Perfect, which requires you to beat the entire game without taking damage. In fact it was so aggravating it made Hard difficulty (Superhero trophy) a cakewalk in comparison.

 

I spent over half of my 10+ hours on this game doing Mr Perfect, because I kept fucking up in stupid locations due to mistakes. The fourth Wily stage was a pain in the ass, eight Robot Masters plus two forms of Wily, all without taking a single hit.

 

My proudest 100 percent game. Definitely one to be happy about.

[KaKrackle]

Nice. Now go check out Hard corps uprising.

[GravityQueeen]

59 minutes ago, Spaz said:

Mega Man 10 is finished.

 

 

 

 

My proudest 100 percent game. Definitely one to be happy about.

 

Congrats! This particular trophy list is the hardest one of any other Mega Man, no doubt.

 

You have an amazing Mega Man set! I still remember watching your account review on Rustic's channel and being impressed by it 

 

I am really excited to start my Mega Man marathon on ps4 in the near future. Are you a physical copies addicted as well? I recently completed my Mega Man collection and, damn, it felt so good!

[AJ_Radio]

4 hours ago, KaKrackle said:

Nice. Now go check out Hard corps uprising.

 

I have Capcom Arcade Cabinet and that’s good enough for me at the moment...

 

4 hours ago, GravityQueeen said:

 

Congrats! This particular trophy list is the hardest one of any other Mega Man, no doubt.

 

You have an amazing Mega Man set! I still remember watching your account review on Rustic's channel and being impressed by it 

 

I am really excited to start my Mega Man marathon on ps4 in the near future. Are you a physical copies addicted as well? I recently completed my Mega Man collection and, damn, it felt so good!

 

Oh definitely. 

 

I haven’t done the second part of the Mega Man X Legacy Collection, and I still need to buy Mega Man 11. 

 

Unfortunately Rustic along with all the other guys have slowed down terribly with their trophy reviews. He gave me a good review no doubt however. 

 

I buy physical as much as I can. This particular game is digital only, however the Legacy Collections can all be bought physically. 

 

Thanks for the compliment. 

[GravityQueeen]

57 minutes ago, Spaz said:

[...] He gave me a good review no doubt however. 

 With that part I can agree.

 

Good luck with the remaining Mega Man games; great  job so far.

[AJ_Radio]

Hue is done.

 

 

Short game. Good music. Mostly easy platforming. Some aggravating puzzles.

 

The hardest puzzle that most would probably agree with me with is one near the end of the game involving the two moving paint sprayers, a lever and two boxes. Had to look up a YouTube guide for that. Had to look up a guide for the beakers as some are beyond the walls in a few areas. I wasn't able to get a good number of them because I didn't unlock one of the colors needed.

 

The beakers weren't too bad, only I missed one at the University and I was required to beat that moving paint sprayer puzzle again.

[AJ_Radio]

Marvel's Spider-Man is complete.

 

Platinum #203: Marvel's Spider-Man (August 4th, 2019)

 

 

Difficulty: 3/10

Excitement Rating: 9/10

Estimated Time to Platinum: 25 - 30 Hours

 

Hardest Trophy:  Challenge Finder (Complete every Taskmaster Challenge in the city once)

 

Much better than I expected.

 

Marvel's Spider-Man is one of the best looking open world games out there. The sights of New York City are impressive, as was climbing the Empire State Building among many other skyscrapers. Characters never looked so believable and realistic as they do here.

 

Insomniac Games put in a lot of hard work and effort for this game and it shows.

 

My big gripe for this game is much of the content, particularly the side stuff is overly repetitive and at times monotonous. You take down the enemy hideouts in pretty much the same fashion, regardless of what faction you're fighting against (Fisk's henchmen, Martin Li's demons, Sable's hi-tech troopers, savage prisoners, etc). Some of the side missions were interesting but not quite on the same level as what I saw in Batman: Arkham Knight.

 

The DLC was adequate. Not the best I've seen but far from the worst. New Game Plus was a chore from beginning to end, mostly because it does nothing but make the enemies more aggravating to take down.

 

Scratching off the best Spider-Man game of all time off the backlog list.

[AJ_Radio]

Bought and completed Batman: The Enemy Within.

 

Platinum #204: Batman: The Enemy Within (August 17th, 2019)

 

 

 

Difficulty: 1/10

Excitement Rating: 7/10

Estimated Time to Platinum: 8 Hours

 

Hardest Trophy:  

 

After doing the first season of Batman, I was planning to buy the second second right after but never got around to it. Only bought this game last month, finally got around to it.

 

Definitely a bittersweet experience. It's not so much the melodrama style or the visuals, but how the story unfolds.

 

To mention a few spoilers,

 

Spoiler

turns out that the Riddler, who was going to pose a huge threat to the city of Gotham, was killed off rather early. Lucius Fox is also dead. That leaves Bruce Wayne/Batman to pick up on a lead which is soon revealed to be the Pact.

 

Much of the story is based around Bruce Wayne/Batman and his relationship with John Doe/Joker. It just feels very tiring at this point to keep on focusing on the Joker. Why couldn't the Riddler have lasted longer? He seemed like an interesting character only to be killed off quickly.

 

The last episode also leaves some threads hanging. I got the impression that based on the ending I got, there wasn't going to be another Batman game. Alfred leaves Bruce Wayne, his only family left that has stuck with him. You try to train Lucius Fox's daughter to eventually be a proper vigilante hero, but the idea doesn't sit well with me.

 

Not a bad game. But much of what TellTale tries to incorporate has already been done several times before in the Batman universe. In conclusion this was just simply okay.

[AJ_Radio]

Bought and completed DOOM (1993).

 

Platinum #205: DOOM [1993] (August 22nd, 2019)

 

 

 

Difficulty: 6/10

Excitement Rating: 9/10

Estimated Time to Platinum: 6 - 8 Hours

 

Hardest Trophy:   Not So Bad (Beat every level on Nightmare in co-operative mode)

 

The game that started the entire first person shooter genre, and remains as one of the most iconic video games of all time.

 

It was a blast playing through all the levels all over again. Many happy memories goring an imp with a rocket, using the BFG (big fucking gun) to take down a Baron of Hell, and seeing Doomguy's face turn into a bloody pulp the less health he has.

 

That being said, most of the trophy list is self explanatory and I easily earned most of them through natural progression.

 

The speedrun was much easier than I expected, with most levels taking at most four minutes and that was only due to my incompetence to find the keycards. Nightmare in co-op was definitely aggravating and annoying, not so much difficult but definitely frustrating. Levels with tons of enemies where the keycards were far away from the spawning point were a pain in the ass to deal with. Especially considering that I did it all solo. I seem to be against trophies that force you to do something in co-op.

 

Definitely an all time classic, and at $4.99 it's definitely worth buying.

[AJ_Radio]

Made changes to the Wishlist, dropped some games and added a bunch of new ones.

 

Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection was bought, finished and shelved.

 

Platinum #206: Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection (August 30th, 2019)

 

 

Difficulty: 5/10

Excitement Rating: 8/10

Estimated Time to Platinum: 6 - 7 Hours

 

Hardest Trophy:   Color overload! (Score at least 150,000 points in Scramble)

 

I'll be the first to admit that these arcade games of old were before my time, but because I actually grew up on Konami beat em ups and shooters of the 1990s I wanted to see what they made prior. Also, I wanted to squeeze in one more platinum trophy for this month.

 

This was definitely a mixed bag. A couple games, Life Force and Typhoon, were a lot of fun to play. A few, such as Scramble, were an oddity, I'm not typically a fan of those really old shmups from 40 years ago. Haunted Castle however was just torture. Graphics had shown their age very poorly. Simon Belmont was basically a hulking rectangle who gets hit every several steps forward. Certainly lacking the flair and fluidity of his NES and SNES counterparts. Haunted Castle makes Altered Beast look like a masterpiece in comparison.

 

Is this worth getting? For $19.99, it's a good choice for old school gamers. Obviously, because these games are decades old, they're not going to appeal to the masses, but they're definitely worth experiencing if you grew up on an Atari and played those brutal 1980s arcade games. For me I was rather curious, but overall thanks to the save feature none of the trophies are too difficult. Lots of save scumming is needed but otherwise it's very straightforward.

[AJ_Radio]

Bought and completed Shütshimi.

 

 

Needed a quick 'fix her upper' so I bought this game for $4.99.

 

Mostly quick and easy, with the last few bosses taking a bit of time. The randomness of this game kept me playing for a few hours straight. A neat little shmup, but nothing special.

[AJ_Radio]

Bought and completed Xeodrifter. Tackled and finished Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1.

 

 

Enjoyable little Metroidvania, but rather short. This was definitely done on a low budget, and I think this was specifically made for handhelds although there is a separate list for the PS4. For the trophy addict there are four stacks of this game, two from North America and two from Europe (PS4 and Vita). Speedrun wasn't too hard, although the lack of boss variety was disappointing. Nothing great, but happy I played this game.

 

 

I am rather mixed with this game. There's a lot taking from the old Sonic games, particularly the enemies, the level themes, and the Eggman bosses.

 

There was nothing hard save for one trophy. Untouchable took me over two hours of constant retries before I pulled it off. Everything has to be done in one go and you cannot get hit at all. On the good side it was a very satisfying trophy to go after.

 

This game I'm not too big a fan of. Whether the second episode will be better or not remains to be seen. At least I took one game off the backlog.

[AJ_Radio]

Knocked out Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 from the backlog.

 

 

More difficult than the previous game. There are four trophies you have to watch out for.

 

Three of them, A Golden Wave , All Chaos Emeralds Found! , and Ring Collector were pretty tough. Getting all the rings in Special Stage 1, and simply beating Special Stage 7 were difficult and required many attempts. The final boss for the Super Sonic trophy was a pain to deal with.

 

I Love Tails is just stupid. A very important thing to note here is you have to play as Tails with Controller 1. I played Tails over 50 times on a second controller that was signed in as guest, did not work because the trophy didn't pop. You have to play as Tails on the controller you signed your PSN account with, despite the fact you have to play local co-op in multiplayer to even play him in the first place. Annoying trophy.

 

Glad this is over and I can remove another PSN game out of the backlog.

[AJ_Radio]

Bought and completed Uncanny Valley.

 

 

Wasn't all that excited for this game.

 

You basically do three playthroughs that only take 20 - 30 minutes each tops if you know what you're doing and you're following a guide. You're a security guard in a remote area out in the middle of nowhere. He has nightmares every time he goes to sleep and mysterious beings known as 'Shadow People' haunt him.

 

I did not find this game scary at all. Maybe it's the inspired 16-bit era visuals or the fact this game is so niche only a few people would be interested in getting it.

 

Lone Survivor did a better job in making a horror 16-bit indie game than Uncanny Valley. You do three playthroughs of what is essentially the same tasks with a few key differences. The 'Androids' which you come across later (the monster shown on the picture) can be easily avoided, although killing one is required for a trophy.

 

Criminally short and overall a disappointment. There are better horror games out there. Only buy this one for easy trophies.

Edited September 28, 2019 by Spaz

[AJ_Radio]

Bought and completed 10 Second Ninja X.

 

 

Toughest 100 percent game I've tacked so far, until I get Woah Dave! and a couple other games done.

 

This is a platformer with an emphasis on speedrunning. You have to beat every level in under 10 seconds, which is basically the big gimmick in this game.

 

There are a total of six worlds with 10 levels each. A bit later you will unlock Legacy Levels, there are five worlds with 8 levels each. That is a grand total of 100 levels.

 

You have to 3 Star all 100 levels. To make matters worse, if you want to 100 percent this game you have to Get 300 Stars and X Rank All Marathons. If you don't know what Marathon Mode is I'll tell you. It's basically a mode where you have to do all 10 levels in succession (or 8 levels if you're doing the Legacy Levels) without exiting out. Exiting out will bring you back to the first level.

 

Getting X rank requires you marathon a world in one successful attempt, doing all 10 or 8 levels without dying or restarting while also obtaining 3 Stars in every level. I cannot stress to you guys how difficult this task is because it requires muscle memory and very good knowledge of the levels you will be doing. A number of levels have very strict times for 3 Stars. It's not uncommon to be 0.02 seconds off from 3 Stars in a given level.

 

A LOT of platforming, a bit of skill and commitment is required to 100 percent this game. Because of these things this is my proudest 100 percent. Everything else pales in comparison to getting X Ranks in all Marathon Modes.

 

Definitely not an easy game and if you lack the skill and dedication, you're better off finding something else.

Edited October 5, 2019 by Spaz

[AJ_Radio]

Sonic races to the finish, Sonic Generations is done.

 

Platinum #207: Sonic Generations (October 13th, 2019)

 

 

Difficulty: 5/10

Excitement Rating: 6/10

Estimated Time to Platinum: 21 - 22 Hours

 

Hardest Trophy:   Red Ring Collector (Get all Red Star Rings)

 

A much longer and tedious game than I was expecting.

 

While I appreciated seeing Green Hill Zone and Chemical Plant Zone, this game was basically a big laundry list of things to do. Too many annoying collectibles and basically replaying the acts over and over, with one trophy that requires you beat all the acts again for Ranking Attack, which is online.

 

Controls were poor and the platforming was something to be desired. Some of the challenges were fun, most notably the Vector challenge where you bounce musical notes to him. But most of them were basically replaying a section of an act, with a few challenges having absolutely no checkpoints despite taking two - three minutes to finish.

 

The Red Rings were awful and required multiple attempts. The last two areas were a pain in the ass because of their length.

 

Not that hard of a game, but not as overly easy and short as some people make it out to be.