Popular Post jonesey46 Posted December 13, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 13, 2023 "I'll put you below snakes" Platinum #302 - Weird West Have you ever played a game, made by a developer you love, and part way through thought "something feels off here"? More often than not, it's because the people behind those games you loved have actually left that developer and gone to work somewhere else. And less talented individuals have commandeered your favourite developer and are wearing their name like a skin. What's in a name really, right? A game developed by Bioware these days holds as much meaning as a movie poster saying "from the shareholders that brought you a film that made a lot of money", but I digress. That feeling I mentioned is the exact feeling I had playing Deathloop. Arkane quickly became my favourite developer after the release of Prey. Dishonored 1&2 were already some of my favourite games, but Prey blew me away. The announcement of Deathloop had me deeply excited but of course I played it, and it was a huge disappointment. What happened? Well, like I said, the creative genius behind Arkane's best work no longer worked there. They'd run off and started a new team, WolfEye studios, and their first game is a true return to form for the immersive sim genre. Weird West doesn't have the budget behind it that Dishonored or Prey did but what it does have, is heart. As an immersive sim, it ticks all the boxes. Your actions have consequences in this world, you can kill anyone or no one, things you do in one chapter will come back to bite you in another, the world changes around you and the best part is that it all feels meaningful. Weird West is an isometric immersive sim that kind of plays like a twin stick shooter. It's set in the weird west which is like the wild west, only its full of witches, ghouls, monsters and all other manner of weird shit. You play as five characters, each split into their own chapters. Each character awakens with a strange branding on their neck, and each set out to find out where the brand came from and what it means, but each have their own problems to deal with, and how they deal with those problems is entirely up to you. The world of Weird West functions a bit like a game board, you start at a location and can travel to other locations that you've either visited before or know about from word of mouth or through documents. You don't physically travel between locations, instead your character moves from one location to another on the map and during the travel time, they can be stopped by any number of random encounters. You might encounter wolves or monsters, or bandits might try to rob you. There are a handful of towns in the game and these function as your main hubs. Most quests can be picked up here and there are merchants for you to trade weapons, healing items and other loot with. There's also a classic bounty board in every town where you can accept requests to kill (or capture) people for money. What's interesting about the bounty boards is that they sometimes feature characters you might recognise, which again, goes a long way to making the West feel like a real place. ITS CALLED IMMERSION AND ITS AMAZING, PLEASE DO MORE OF THIS DEVELOPERS. Anyway, how does it play? Gameplay is serviceable at best but not completely uninteresting. While it ain't Doom Eternal, gunplay does have it's moments. There are a handful of weapons that you can use like revolvers, rifles, shotguns and bows and every character has a bullet time dolphin dive ability that is as cool as it sounds. It's serviceable gameplay isn't a black mark against it, the main draw of Weird West is it's world, characters and how you interact with it. Whilst exploring each location there's always something useful to find, whether it be ammo (which can be scarce by the way), character upgrade materials or even just world-building notes and documents. You might even stumble upon something that massively changes your objective and again, this is meaningful because YOU did it. For example, one quest had me going to a small settlement and talking with the mayor, he had the location of something I needed and he was willing to trade for it. He asked me to go to a rival settlement and steal the deeds to their land. I wasn't exactly thrilled about this but I saw no other way. Before I set off, I thought I'd have a look around. I stumbled upon a secret hatch leading to a dungeon and in a jail cell was someone who knew what I was looking for, and he would tell me if I let him out. So I did, meaning I didn't have to engage with any of the mayors bullshit. It was an amazing moment for me, because it gave me that feeling that only Immersive Sims and the best RPGs can give you, the feeling that YOU solved a problem, and not the game doing it for you. The best stories in this game are the ones you make yourself but the actual main plot is pretty engaging too. All five characters are unique and interesting and once you switch, you're able to go and find your old character and recruit them into your posse. You'll find that they no longer have the brand and don't remember anything from the time they had it, desperate for answers they'll happily follow you into any battle. Don't get them killed though cause they'll be dead, like, dead-dead. Anyway, the brand eventually leads all five of our heroes to the same place where the climax of the games story takes place. I highly recommend experiencing this for yourself but I am going to pop a little spoiler section below to voice a slight concern I have with the games ending. Spoiler Only read this if you've played and completed both Weird West and Prey yourself. So, the ending is pretty much the exact same as Prey's isnt it? These immortal witches want to bring about the end of the world so they no longer have to be immortal but before doing so, they decide to conduct an experiment to see if it's possible to become mortal through the actions of a human. The brand is like a transfer of consciousness and based on the decisions you make whilst playing, will determine if the experiment is successful or not. Commit good deeds and the experiment is a success, commit bad deeds and the world ends. In Prey, one of the alien race, the Typhon, is being ran through a simulation of Morgan's time on Talos 1 to see if they can make good decisions and to ultimately find out if the humans and Typhon can coexist. It's the same fucking story! That aside, the story was still enjoyable and your choices impact it in meaningful ways. You also get the old Fallout style ending cards that shows how the West continues after the events of the story. Which again, makes it feel like a real place. A place that exists without your observation, without you being in it. That's what a good ImSim/RPG does. Gushing aside, this game is still quite limited and there's a lot that WolfEye can learn from it when moving on to their next game. In any case, they've shot to the top of my list of developers to watch out for and I'm deeply excited for whatever they release next. Trophy Thoughts Luckily, despite Weird West being quite a complex game with final decisions and branching paths, the platinum is pretty easy to get. Manual saves are allowed at any time and it's recommended to keep a save at both the start and end of each chapter. This allows for easy clean-up once you're done. There are a tonne of missable trophies due to the nature of the game but none that require whole playthroughs, except one, what's in the box? So, keep an eye out for that. It's currently an Ultra-Rare platinum which is insane because this isn't a difficult game at all. Summary Weird West is the perfect game for fans of Arkane's older titles and anyone that was disappointed by Deathloops lack of depth. A true Immersive Sim with engaging action adventure gameplay and great writing to boot. It's a world where your decisions matter, so if that's your jam then do not miss this. Arbitrary Rating 9/10 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 13, 2023 Author Share Posted December 13, 2023 Y'know, it's so easy to be spoiled by good writing. I finished Alan Wake II the other night and I'm currently playing through the DLC of Marvel's Midnight Suns, and yeah, totally different experiences but man, what a world of difference good writing makes huh? Alan Wake II is incredible and I'll do my best to write a good post on it when the time comes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HelixNebula_x Posted December 13, 2023 Share Posted December 13, 2023 11 minutes ago, jonesey46 said: Y'know, it's so easy to be spoiled by good writing. I finished Alan Wake II the other night and I'm currently playing through the DLC of Marvel's Midnight Suns, and yeah, totally different experiences but man, what a world of difference good writing makes huh? Alan Wake II is incredible and I'll do my best to write a good post on it when the time comes. Oh no... I just bought the season pass on sale. Hopefully the gameplay is making up for the lacklustre writing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 13, 2023 Author Share Posted December 13, 2023 3 hours ago, HelixNebula_x said: Oh no... I just bought the season pass on sale. Hopefully the gameplay is making up for the lacklustre writing. Oh, no, don't worry about it. It's a comic game and has suitable writing for what it is and besides that, the new characters are fun and the game in general is just great fun to play anyway. My point was that, it's writing suddenly sticks out to me after playing the incredible Alan Wake II. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 19, 2023 Author Share Posted December 19, 2023 (edited) The Crew was the game that defined my lockdown in 2020. I set out to unlock its elusive platinum during the COVID19 pandemic and from my memory it took the whole of spring and summer to finish. I had a great time with this game and while it is nowhere near the best driving game out there, my time with it made it something special. The novelty of its open-world being the entirety of the US never wore off and it's what makes this game so unique. It's sequel, The Crew 2, also includes the same map but was massively downgraded visually due to the inclusion of boats and planes, its safe to say that it just didn't feel the same. They've forgone the US map for their latest release and if by some miracle they get to make a fourth one, I doubt they'll return to it. This game is 100% online so with its servers shutting down (which happens to be on my 31st birthday) the game will be completely unplayable. Always online games need to die man, this is just unacceptable. Anyway, as you can see from the screenshots above, I've reinstalled the game and plan to drive around the US until the shutdown comes. I will sorely miss this game and hope the preservationists out there find a way to keep this game playable after the shutdown. I know that kind of stuff is only possible on PC but its better than the game being gone forever. If you'd like to read my platinum review which I posted in this thread not too long after completing it (almost three years to the day!), you can find the post here: Edited December 19, 2023 by jonesey46 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 21, 2023 Author Share Posted December 21, 2023 (edited) "Stranger!" Platinum #304 - Save Room Ratalaika games were once the scourge of this website, offering quick and easy platinums to gamers who only wanted to bolster their platinum count and climb the leaderboards. These days, the state of EZPZ games has only gotten worse and despite some efforts by Sony to stop the all the guff getting through, many still slip through the cracks. Although, I am glad to see the back of those jumping food games. Save Room is a game by Ratalaika and it also offers a very easy platinum, unlockable in around an hour BUT, it's also a charming puzzle game that in my opinion, is a must play for any Resident Evil fans. It's based around Resident Evil 4's inventory cache management, you know, everyone's favourite part from Leon's Spanish adventure. It features all the items Leon might carry on his person from firearms to eggs, and it also includes some nice references too, mainly surrounding the various outlandish things the Merchant might say. What starts as a simple game of moving guns and items to fit them into a grid, Tetris style, quickly becomes more complicated as new mechanics are introduced where you need to reduce the inventory you're carrying by combining items, loading ammo into the guns and even hurting yourself to allow you to use a healing item. Some of the puzzles were much more challenging than I was expecting and required a great deal of thought. I was thoroughly impressed by this title and considering I payed less than £2 for it, there's no way I could have been upset with it. Trophy Thoughts Save Room is an EZPZ game through and through. The majority of the list is dedicated to completing the puzzles, of which there are 38, that's providing I'm reading the Roman numerals correctly. There's a few others that might be missable but very quick to unlock by loading relevant puzzles. Summary A charming puzzle game and a must have for any RE fans, particularly RE4. Riddled with references, it's sure to put a smile on any fans of Leon Kennedy's escapades. Arbitrary Rating 7/10 Edited December 21, 2023 by jonesey46 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 21, 2023 Author Share Posted December 21, 2023 PS3 Pension Plan Update #2 PixelJunk Eden Completion Time: 15 years, 4 months FIFTEEN FUCKING YEARS, OH MY GOD, WHERE DID ALL THE TIME GO, WHAT ARE DOING? WHERE ARE WE GOING? OH NO. Ahem. Excuse me. PixelJunk Eden is a strange game. You play as a Grimp. Yes, you read that right. A Grimp. As a Grimp, which is like a little bug thing, you jump from plant to plant, collecting pollen and opening up new seeds to bloom new plants, which opens up more of the level and leading to more difficult (and frustrating) platforming. Your ultimate goal is to collect the five spectra that are placed around each level. It's not enough to just jump into the level and collect all five spectra though, you have to play each level five times. First collecting one spectra, then two, all the way up to five. This elongates the playtime considerably and I'm not sure it's for the best. There's no reason for you not to be able to collect all five from the get go. All five are available from the start, your first spectra can be any of the five, so it's not like they appear sequentially. There are 10 levels in the base game, so that makes 50 spectra, and then an extra 5 levels in the Encore DLC so 75 in total. It's a shame because Eden is a nice game, it's challenging as hell but satisfying to master. Having to continually repeat levels, only making incremental progress is a pain in the arse and a black mark against its name for me. PixelJunk are known for their challenging and arcade like games and as I said, this one packs a punch. You and your grimp will be required to jump from plant to plant, avoiding hazards, making precise jumps and watching your oscalator, which is your time limit bar. Time can be extended by collecting crystals around the level but they don't respawn and it is possible to run out before finishing a level. The earlier levels are straight forward enough but the difficulty escalates drastically, levels 7-10 are hard as nails and can take up to an hour to complete fully. The main menu is playable and you're required to jump to the various portals to transport you to it's designated level. (Screenshot stolen from Steam) A huge part of this game is its music, and its VERY 2008. Someone known as Baiyon composed all the music for the game and it's a series of thumping electronic tracks that are fine for five minutes but when the later levels take almost an hour, they can become really grating. So much so that I actually played the last couple of levels on mute. Thankfully, once the base game was done, Encore was a welcome treat. The five additional levels added with the DLC built on the games core components well and introduced some interesting gameplay modifiers that suddenly felt absent from the main game. The music was much more chilled too which made playing the longer levels much more satisfying. The difficulty didn't scale from level 10 of the base game thankfully and instead started its own difficulty arc which scaled pretty well and with no insane difficulty curves either. Trophy Thoughts The base game has 20 trophies and half of that list is dedicated to opening all seeds on each level. These are by far the most challenging trophies in this game. Some levels can have up to 80 seeds littered around the level and there's no decent way to track them. There's no way to check how many you have left. There is a counter on the level complete screen but by that point, it's too late. Collected pollen will flock to unopen seeds if you're close enough but given the limited perspective of the screen at all times, it can be very challenging to know where those unopen seeds are. Thankfully, someone has graciously made some maps for levels 7-10 that makes these trophies much easier: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/945010-pixeljunk-eden/46715313 Other than that, the rest of the trophies involve collecting all the spectra and doing a few miscellaneous tasks, one of which involves three players (locally, not online). I did this three player trophy by myself frantically moving between three controllers, it was tricky to say the least. The trophies for Encore follow the same rules as the base list. Summary I'm glad to have finished PixelJunk Eden after fifteen years but I can't say I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. It's a unique game and does have its moments, particularly in the Encore DLC, but ultimately I'm not sure it was worth my time. Most of my time was spent in frustration and a lot of the levels just take too long. A sequel was released in 2020, exclusive to Nintendo Switch and PC, but I think I've had more than enough Eden for one lifetime. Arbitrary Rating 5/10 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 21, 2023 Author Share Posted December 21, 2023 "Old pal" Platinum #305 - Call of the Sea I misunderstood Call of the Sea when purchasing it. What I thought I was getting myself into, was a very pretty puzzle game with a 1920's Tarzan type story. What I got, was a not-so-pretty-up-close puzzle game with a story that slots into the Cthulu mythos. I feel silly for not making the Cthulu connection sooner by the way, I mean, the game is literally called Call of the Sea. In Call of the Sea, you play as Norah, who is suffering from a strange disease. Norah's husband sets off to find a cure for this disease but when he doesn't return, Norah attempts to retrace his footsteps to find him. She follows his trail to a remote island where she finds remnants of his expedition. You're required to solve various puzzles to progress the story, leading Norah ever deeper into the island and closer to finding out what happened to her husband. The puzzles were satisfying enough to solve but nothing too challenging. Overall this is a very relaxing experience and something that can be beaten in a few hours. Something closer to a walking simulator rather than an adventure game. When viewing screenshots for this game on the PlayStation store, it looked absolutely gorgeous with a really interesting style but once I got into the game, I found it to be washed out and rather ugly when inspecting things up close. It still has a captivating, almost Disney-esque style but I found the colour scheme to clash constantly, almost giving me a headache. The developers were a fan of Uncharted Drakes Fortune apparently. (Photo stolen from Steam) This game commits two carnal sins that I absolutely cannot forgive. First, is the ladders, which take an absolute age to climb up and down, just absolutely unacceptable. Give me Half Life 2 ass ladders where I speed up them like a fucking rocket or give me nothing at all. The second sin is regarding the games mystery and ending. I won't spoil anything but the game kept me hooked throughout, its central mystery unravels at a nice pace and you feel like what you learn is in tandem with Norah herself. That is, right until the last minute, where Norah suddenly understands everything and explains it all to me through a monologue. The game does nothing to show the player what happened, instead it chooses to tell us, in very specific detail with no explanation of how Norah learns this. Trophy Thoughts A nice and easy platinum with several collectibles to pick up that can be cleaned up nice and easy using chapter select. All collectibles are tracked per chapter so it's easy to know what you missed. Most of the trophies unlock whilst playing through the story and there are miscellaneous tasks which, again, can be unlocked via chapter select. Summary A nice first person puzzle game that won't tax the brain. It has some visual kinks but the style shines through and while I found the ending to be an eye-rolling disappointment, the story itself is interesting and its central mystery got its hooks into me deep. Arbitrary Rating 6/10 --- I am officially all caught up for Christmas! I'll be doing an end of year post here tomorrow with some game of the year talks and an update as to how I'm moving forward with this thread in the new year. Hope everyone is well, see you around! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post jonesey46 Posted December 22, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 22, 2023 jonesey46's Trophy Travels - 2023 Awards & Year End Review 2023 has been a strange year, it's been tough but at the same time, magical. Watching my son grow up this year has been amazing and scary at the same time. This was my first full year as a father and it's changed me quite a bit, as expected. My son has come first at every turn this year, and he will continue to do so. Because of this, gaming wise, this year has been a bit different for me. Every publication out there is shouting about how great this year was for games, so many great titles released and no one has the time to get through them all! For me though, it's been a year of backlog games, cheap as hell indie titles, remasters/remakes, PS+ giveaways and free PS5 upgrades. Anyone who's had a kid knows that your income takes a hit but I didn't think it would be this much! 😅. Disposable income has become a thing of the past and because of this, I haven't actually played a lot of releases from 2023. I got Resident Evil 4 for my birthday in March, which I specifically requested. My wife received a free copy of Dead Island 2 from Plaion in the Summer through her Instagram shenanigans, and only recently did I have some actual spare income to treat myself to Alan Wake 2. It's not just money though, it's time! I only get the chance to play something once the kid goes to bed and some nights I'm so exhausted, I can barely push the on button on the PS5. Despite that though, I still managed to play a lot of games and although it's not been as great a year for gaming as 2022 or 2021 was for me, I've still experienced some wonderful titles in 2023. So, let's hand out some meaningless awards! Each award will have a winner and runner up. 🎆jonesey46's Trophy Travels Awards 🎆 Lets fucking gooooooo! --- Game of the Year I know usually award ceremonies leave GOTY til' last but fuck it, this is how we do things on Trophy Travels. It's the best game I played this year! Alan Wake II I have not been able to get this game out of my head since completing it. It has infected my soul. Every day I listen to both the Chapter Songs and The Old Gods of Asgard Greatest Hits on Spotify and every waking minute I'm thinking about the story of this game and working it all out in my head. What an incredible experience this was. Alan Wake II is a black swan in videogames, it shouldn't exist, and yet here it is. Every single faucet of this game is a masterpiece in art, design, direction and delivery, I am so impressed by this game and I am 100% on board for whatever Remedy are cooking next. A full review will follow in this thread in due course and I hope I'm able to do it justice. Runner Up Death's Door This was a surprise hit for me, I had fallen head over heels for Tunic in the previous year and this game scratched the same itch for me. Death's Door is an overwhelmingly charming Zelda-like that I have thought about constantly since finishing it. It's style, themes, music and boss fights all come together to make a fantastic indie adventure and one that I will surely be revisiting soon enough. --- Best Remake Remakes need to have their own category in the proper game awards I think, so I'm doing my own! Resident Evil 4 Alright, so this remake doesn't hold a candle to the original, I've said it before. But it doesn't have to. Despite looking a lot more familiar than the series previous remakes, RE4 Remake sets itself apart by completely overhauling its combat system to make it much more visceral. Doom Eternal came to mind a lot when stuck in the heat of combat. As Leon, you're forced to juggle enemies, stay on the move and use most of your arsenal to deal with the deadly threat of Las Plagas. While I feel the remake loses the charm of the original drastically, the combat system was a definite improvement overall and it's what makes the game worth playing. Runner Up The Last of Us Part I While I still believe this remake was completely unnecessary (Less unnecessary than the upcoming remaster of Part II I might say) it still makes sense as a product. For newcomers to the series who, I imagine, will be coming fresh from the TV show, it is the definitive version of the game. Everything you remember is still intact but it still manages to bring certain minor things in line with its sequel. It looks great and plays even better. If you love this game, then the remake will not disappoint, because it's exactly the same, just shinier (There's no factions though which will piss off about 3 people). --- Sleeper Hit of the Year Why aren't more people talking about this? Aliens: Dark Descent Admittedly, I am VERY early on in this game but it has already won me over. The original Alien is my favourite film of all time and while I think it's sequel Aliens went too far into action territory instead of keeping the spirit of the original, which is a horror film, it's still a fantastic movie. Aliens: Dark Descent draws directly from Aliens and perfectly captures its vibe. It's a top down tactical management game. You control a team of 4 marines being sent into Xenomorph infested territory. You're given a laundry list of objectives and you need to complete them whilst managing your teams resources and health. It's a perfect horror game as it requires you to manage all of this shit under extreme pressure. Just one Xeno can ruin your day and often the game will throw entire hoards at you. The story seems interesting so far and I look forward to playing more. Runner Up Marvel's Midnight Suns These two games show that if it ain't a third person action adventure game then the general mass of gamers won't care. Midnight Suns is the definition of underrated. It's based on a huge property, probably the most profitable property going and yet it rarely gets talked about. Using the heroes of Marvel in a card-based, turn-based, tactical game like XCOM is a stroke of genius and works surprisingly well. Couple it with the social elements allowing you to live, hang out with and wax philosophically with some of the most high profile superheroes going, it makes for a wonderfully unique experience. --- The Best PS5 Upgrade Why play new game when old game do trick? The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt I was blown away by how much effort went into this upgrade. I bought this fucking game in 2015 and got a free upgrade in 2022. Amazing. Now, I still haven't forgiven CDPR for the debacle that was Cyberpunk 2027 but they're definitely on the right track, I'd like to think they learned their lesson but only time will tell. Anyway, The Witcher 3 is undoubtedly the game of a generation and this version breathes so much new life into it that you'd think you were playing a new game. It still looks gorgeous to this day and the various improvements to the combat system made this a joy to play. Runner Up Doom Eternal It runs at 60FPS with ray tracing ON. What the actual fuck? Every other developer say's it isn't possible but ID are like "nah fuck that". --- The Worst Game I Played This Year Time to get toxic. Kentucky Route Zero Aw man I hated this game so much. The biggest piece of pretentious nonsense I've ever played. I genuinely have nothing more to say. Fuck this game. Runner Up Quake II I'm sorry to do this but I did not get on with this game at all. A huge departure from what made the first so memorable in favour of turning it into a military shooter. It was boring as hell, I had to force myself to finish it. The remaster itself is impressive though, Nightdive always deliver, but the game itself was beyond salvation. --- Biggest Disappointment of the Year It had so much potential! Bluey What happened guys? You've got arguably the best kids TV show on your hands and this is what you make? Four basic levels with very little to do within them? There was so much potential here and it felt like a quick cash grab to benefit from the rising popularity of the show. Such a shame. Runner Up Exit the Gungeon This isn't a bad game per se, it's just a wasted sequel to one of the best roguelikes ever made. It functions like a mobile game because that's what it is. It has some interesting ideas but the repetition of a roguelike is meant to make you want more, not wish for it to be over. --- The Funnest Platinum The most fun I had unlocking that sweet, elusive platinum. Enter the Gungeon It's safe to say that Enter the Gungeon has become one of my favourite games of all time. Unlocking it's platinum was no easy feat but I loved every minute of it. It's a long journey but so, so worth it. Runner Up Carrion I didn't expect to enjoy this game as much as I did. A short game but fun for every ounce of it. There's just something so enjoyable about chomping people to bits and turning them into red paste. --- Grindiest Platinum The kind that make you think "why am I doing this again?" LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga A fun game and a must have for any fans of the franchise but fuck me, there just did not need to be this many collectibles! Over 1000 Kyber Bricks? Fuck off. Runner Up Persona 5 Royal Look, I loved this game alright? It was just a little too long. --- Easiest Platinum Low hanging fruit Hindsight I really didn't have to do much to unlock this platinum. Just see the story through, I'm thankful it was such an enjoyable and poignant story. Runner Up Bluey Glitches aside, this platinum was a walk in the park. It was so easy, even a baby could do it! (My baby actually hit the last button required to unlock the platinum) --- Hardest Platinum Tough as nails Enter the Gungeon It was the funnest, but also the hardest, I wonder if there's a connection? Looking back I didn't play many hard games this year but this definitely challenged me. It's the perfect example of practice makes perfect. I was absolutely dogshit at this game when I first started it but now I can confidently finish runs with hearts to spare. I still get the odd run where I get absolutely decimated though, always keeping me in check. Runner Up Resident Evil 4 Not tear your hair out difficult but the professional run on NG was a doozy. That fucking cabin man, took me a long time to get through that. --- Best Game from the Backlog Where does the time go? Limbo Completion Time: 7 years, 11 months I am so glad to finally have this game done. No Point in Dying, which is to complete the game in five deaths or less is a real challenge but a satisfying one to overcome. If you make a silly mistake and throw it all away then it can be super frustrating but the game isn't too long. I much prefer Playdead's follow up, Inside, but Limbo is still a special game and one I enjoyed very much. Runner Up Need for Speed: Most Wanted Platinum in: 9 years, 7 months Decent driving games are hard to come by these days in my experience and despite being locked away on PS3, this game is a blast to play. Developed by Criterion, it has all the makings of a Burnout game but with an NFS coat of paint. I still have all the DLC to do but getting the platinum was a highlight of my year. --- Best Soundtrack You'll never see it coming! Persona 5 Royal This soundtrack dominated my Autumn, I pretty much had it on repeat in and out of game. The funky jazz infused pop songs get into your bloodstream and make you want to dance and sing. Utterly captivating soundtrack from the big numbers with Lyn's incredible vocals, to the more low key instrumental tracks that play as you explore Tokyo. I will be listening to this shit well into old age. Atlus actually feature as my number two most listened to artist on Spotify Wrapped. Runner(s) Up Alan Wake II & Sayonara Wild Hearts I couldn't just pick one. Both of these have been on rotation since I played the games. Incredible soundtracks that add so much to the experience. --- Best Character Cream of the crop Saga Anderson - Alan Wake II In my opinion, Saga is one of the best written characters in videogame history. She is consistent from the moment you meet her right until the end. She is focused, determined and does not back down. I am so impressed with her and cannot wait to see where the story takes her next. Runner Up Luis Serra - Resident Evil 4 Talk about redeeming a character right? Luis goes from being almost meaningless in the original to being a fully blown character with a proper arc in the remake. His story is a tragic one but so much more satisfying than his PS2 counterpart. Easily the best character in the remake and I'm glad Capcom took the time to flesh him out more. --- And that's all I've got! I tried to avoid using the same game twice in these awards, it's why there wasn't a worst platinum award, cause it would have just been Kentucky Route Zero again. It also took a lot for me not to squeeze Alan Wake II into all the 'best of' awards cause holy shit that game is amazing! Anyway... At the start of the year I said this: Quote Could I retroactively make it my New Years resolution to review all my platinum games in this thread? We'll see how it goes. and I kept it up! Every single game I platinum'd in 2023 got a review in this thread as well as some other 100% games and DLCs. And I had a lot of fun doing it but I'm not going to keep it up in 2024. I still plan on posting regularly but not about every single game I play. So, I'm going to draw a line; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Beyond this line, my plan is to only review the games I complete that I started prior to this date. So that includes everything on the PS3 Pension Plan, some of the newer games I've started but not finished yet, and all the other guff in the gutter of my profile. I want to focus more on the backlog rather than all the new shit I play. However, I'll still pop in with a review for a new game, if I feel I just HAVE to talk about it, these will mostly be reserved for the Alan Wake II's and Sekiro's of gaming. My last couple of posts have been a bit more free flowing as I threw my format out the window. I got bored of the constraints and feel like I need to exercise more with free form writing. Plus some of those formatted posts were just too long for their own good. Anyway, thanks for reading this as always. There's a few of you that always come back and like my posts and I appreciate you much more than you know, you know who you are. Here's to 2024 and many more trophies! May your completion percentages rise and rise my friends. All the best, jonesey46. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Copanele Posted December 23, 2023 Share Posted December 23, 2023 A great writeup! You sure had a good 2023 year in terms of gaming there No shock when it comes to Witcher 3 and dear god do I have to play Alan Wake!! I also need to re-read the Kentucky Road Zero, I do remember you truly hated it Best of luck with 2024, all the good wishes and happy holidays and may we finally complete the PS3 Pension Plan! That console really deserves some rest! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grotz99 Posted December 27, 2023 Share Posted December 27, 2023 On 12/22/2023 at 4:15 AM, jonesey46 said: Runner Up Death's Door This was a surprise hit for me, I had fallen head over heels for Tunic in the previous year and this game scratched the same itch for me. Death's Door is an overwhelmingly charming Zelda-like that I have thought about constantly since finishing it. It's style, themes, music and boss fights all come together to make a fantastic indie adventure and one that I will surely be revisiting soon enough. I just finished this game and it was surprisingly good. The combat was pretty smooth and even if it was simple, it still added a good challenge for the boss fights. I didn't like the umbrella only run as I felt that forcing you to use 1 weapon is kinda boring, but I just built magic and used it to generate magic. Was especially a nice surprise since I got it through PS Plus. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 28, 2023 Author Share Posted December 28, 2023 9 hours ago, Grotz99 said: I just finished this game and it was surprisingly good. The combat was pretty smooth and even if it was simple, it still added a good challenge for the boss fights. I didn't like the umbrella only run as I felt that forcing you to use 1 weapon is kinda boring, but I just built magic and used it to generate magic. Was especially a nice surprise since I got it through PS Plus. Yeah it was a really nice surprise for me too. I just loved the vibe and especially the music. I was surprised to find that the developers made Titan Souls which is a game I started but never finished, I need to get back to it actually. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I would recommend Tunic if you haven't already played it. It's similar but much more focused on mystery as all the text in the game is an unrecognizable language and you have to decipher it. It was almost my game of the year of 2022 if not for Elden Ring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted January 10 Author Share Posted January 10 Happy new year everyone! For all who celebrate, I hope you enjoyed the festive holiday period and you all got plenty of new games to play and time to play them! I know I certainly did! We're kicking the new year off with another PS3 Pension Plan update but it's not all the PS3 has been up to. As promised, my first platinum of the year was Demon's Souls! This time it was the NA version. Next January I will platinum the AS version making Demon's Souls my first platinum of the year, four years running. Hopefully Demon's Souls 2 or something comes out by January 2026 so I can keep this weird tradition going. Also, I finally treated myself to a second PS3. Self boosting games was definitely a motivator but it wasn't the main reason. Last summer I got somewhat of a promotion at work which requires me to stay away from home for a night or two here or there. So, being able to work on the Pension Plan and saving me from boredom in hotel rooms were the main motivators. I even got a super slim model for ease of travel too. In fact, self boosting was exactly how I completed today's game. I had a boosting session posted for about 2 months with not even a single bite, so I had to take matters into my own hands. For a 15 year old game with less than 5,000 owners though, I'm not surprised no one joined. Anyway, let's talk about the game! --- PS3 Pension Plan Update #3 Geon Completion Time: 15 years, 2 months The way that I've approached this challenge is by starting with the games at the very bottom of my list, which is why the past three knock outs for the Pension Plan have had completion times of 14 and 15 years. It feels good to clear out some old guff from the depths of my profile, like finding a really old penny down the back of your couch during spring cleaning. So, what's Geon like? Kind of bad, actually. In Geon, you play as a cube facing off against another cube in variously shaped arenas. You are on one side of the arena and your opponent is on the underside. Your goal is to collect balls that litter the arena and once you've collected enough, you need to flip over to your opponents side and score a goal by reaching the middle of their arena. The first to score five goals wins the game. Your cube can have various offensive and defensive abilities such as coating an area in electricity to guard your goal or gaining a speed boost. That's it. That's the game. There are different game modes as well as time trials and challenges, but all of them boil down to these basic concepts. Trophy Thoughts Geon's trophies were a bit of a pain in the ass, mostly due to it's multiplayer stuff. There's no way these servers are still being maintained by whoever made this game so I strongly suspect its all P2P, which, if my assumption is correct, means these trophies will never be unobtainable. Still it was great to get this game finally finished. Winning 50 online games is the most annoying trophy but if you happen to find a boosting partner then it shouldn't be too difficult. Either that or you can buy a whole ass console to do it yourself, like me 😅. There's also a trophy for playing online once and playing one of each type of game mode, which includes one multiplayer match. Everything else is obtainable offline, against AI. You'll need to beat the division mode and then win the top division three times in a row, you'll also need to beat the time trial mode, of which there are 32 time trials. This game isn't hard at all but takes a moment to get used to the controls and how it works, also the AI straight up reads your inputs on the harder difficulties and that can be frustrating. My two pieces of advice are to always use the Greed cube when available, which allows you to hoover up all the surrounding pellets, making scoring goals super fast. And the other is to use the D-Pad to move and NOT the analog stick, I found I was always overshooting my movements when using the stick, the D-Pad allows for more precise movement. Summary It's interesting to see how basic these old PS3 PSN games were but if I'm being honest, this game has nothing to offer. If you have a dedicated partner to play with then it might be a fun party game for half an hour but otherwise, I'd avoid this at all costs. If a cube collecting pellets sounds boring, it's because it is. Arbitrary Rating 4/10 --- What's left on the PS3 Pension Plan: 1. Aliens vs Predator 2. Batman: Arkham City 3. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 5. Call of Duty: World at War 6. Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood 7. Crash Commando 8. Dead Rising 2 9. F.E.A.R. 3 10. Grand Theft Auto IV 11. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty 12. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker 13. Need for Speed: Most Wanted 14. Pain 15. Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One 16. Red Dead Redemption 17. Super Stardust HD That's three games completed off the list now and I've chosen to remove both God of War and Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles from the challenge. The reason being is I believe these games don't fit the spirit of the challenge. Both are games that I started not long ago and I have every intention of beating and finishing them, I've just gotten distracted by other shit. Every other game on that list was started 10-15 years ago and they're what the challenge is all about. Next up I plan to start Pain which is an intimidating game to say the least. It has an average completion percentage of 2% and it's rarest trophy is at 0.60%, which, once obtained, will become my rarest earned trophy. I have a habit of avoiding intimidating games so I might try to knock out another quicker game off the list before dedicating myself to Pain. We'll see, I've got plenty to play on the PS5 too so it might be a while before my next update. Anyway, sorry for the long post, I had a lot of admin to get through as well as the regular post. Thanks for reading and I'll see you around! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Copanele Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 11 hours ago, jonesey46 said: We're kicking the new year off with another PS3 Pension Plan update but it's not all the PS3 has been up to. As promised, my first platinum of the year was Demon's Souls! This time it was the NA version. Next January I will platinum the AS version making Demon's Souls my first platinum of the year, four years running. Hopefully Demon's Souls 2 or something comes out by January 2026 so I can keep this weird tradition going. The perfect way to start the year 😂I went with Elden Ring, guess we activated the luck buff for 2024. If Demon's Souls 2 or Dark Souls 2 2 still won't come out by the end of 2026, I guess you can use a Soulslike 11 hours ago, jonesey46 said: Also, I finally treated myself to a second PS3. Self boosting games was definitely a motivator but it wasn't the main reason. Last summer I got somewhat of a promotion at work which requires me to stay away from home for a night or two here or there. So, being able to work on the Pension Plan and saving me from boredom in hotel rooms were the main motivators. I even got a super slim model for ease of travel too. Definitely a good purchase if you want to get that PS3 Pension Plan going I use a second one myself, although I can't carry it with me that often unfortunately 11 hours ago, jonesey46 said: Geon Completion Time: 15 years, 2 months Congrats for uh...completion time I checked the game and yeah...doesn't look too fun. But hey you got it done! Also that PS3 list still looks dope, best of luck with it, may the framerates be in your favor! If you need help with CoJ, I can be of assistance, got one copy of the game resting on the shelf still 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted January 10 Author Share Posted January 10 18 minutes ago, Copanele said: The perfect way to start the year 😂I went with Elden Ring, guess we activated the luck buff for 2024. If Demon's Souls 2 or Dark Souls 2 2 still won't come out by the end of 2026, I guess you can use a Soulslike Surely Elden Ring 2, or even a remake of Dark Souls, OR EVEN BLOODBORNE REMASTERED!!?? will be out by then so I'm sure we'll both have plenty to go with. As for Souls stacks, aside from the AS version of Demon's Souls, I still have the PS3 version of Dark Souls 2 and the PS4 version of Elden Ring to do. Not sure what I'll do once I have them all 😰. 21 minutes ago, Copanele said: If you need help with CoJ, I can be of assistance, got one copy of the game resting on the shelf still You may regret these words because I will almost certainly take you up on this. Thanks friend! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted January 31 Author Share Posted January 31 (edited) "🎵 Show me the champion of light..." Platinum #308 - Alan Wake II Alan Wake II, from start to finish, is art. It combines great writing and storytelling, fun and engaging gameplay, cutting edge graphics, live action drama with fantastic acting and direction and beautiful, original music, including a musical performance, the likes of which has never been done in games before, and it all comes together beautifully, making Alan Wake II feel like a theme park of art installations. I was so blown away by this game, every chapter unravels its story masterfully, which culminates into a satisfying ending that leaves you wanting more, eager for the next installment. 2010's Alan Wake was by no means a masterpiece. It was a fairly run-of-the-mill third person action adventure, but since its release in 2010, it has gained cult status. Mainly due to its mind-bending, Twin Peak-esque narrative. Developers Remedy are clearly very passionate about the story of Alan Wake, because for all this time, they've been trying to get Alan Wake 2 made. 13 years pass by and Remedy finally achieved what they wanted, but thankful for the time that has passed. This allowed them to make Alan Wake II exactly what they wanted, using the knowledge they'd gained in that time, on their various other projects. I think its safe to say that Alan Wake II is a masterpiece, whether you like it or not. Much like 2019's Death Stranding, these games set out to do something completely different by going against modern gaming conventions and telling a story that can be considered "out there" but all the while being hugely compelling. Don't get me wrong, Alan Wake II's gameplay doesn't push the boundaries by any means. Most of AW2's gameplay can be likened to the Resident Evil remakes, including their cumbersome inventory management. But where that gameplay takes place is what makes Alan Wake II so special. It's setting, the fictional Mid-Western town of Bright Falls, Washington returns from the first game but made much more interesting. Mostly by allowing our characters to explore these locations at times of day that aren't limited to when the sun goes down. Technological advancements have allowed games to look better than ever, and Alan Wake II benefits greatly from this. This game is drop dead gorgeous and no matter what area you're in, whether its the rainy seaside town of Watery or the dark, neon lined caricature of New York located deep in the heart of The Dark Place, it's simply breath taking. Alan Wake in the rain drenched manifestation of New York City. (image stolen from Google Images) In Alan Wake II, we control both the titular Alan and FBI agent Saga Anderson. For fear of spoiling either game, I'm going to try and be careful so as not to ruin either experience. In the first game, we only play as Alan and as such, its narrative unfolds solely through his perspective. Alan isn't a typical unreliable narrator but you can't help but get the feeling that you're out of the loop a little as you follow him on his first journey through Bright Falls. Introduce Saga Anderson, an outsider, someone who currently has no stakes in this story and therefore, everything you learn is in tandem with her. It makes Alan Wake II a special case in media, where it simultaneously has 20 years worth of required reading but is also completely accessible by people for whom this is their first Remedy game. I picked up on all the references and it enhanced my enjoyment but I know someone who played this game having never played anything made by Remedy before and they followed it's complex narrative from start to finish, never feeling lost. It's the mark of good writing if you ask me, and in my opinion, Alan Wake II has some of the best writing seen in a videogame to date. Characters are complex, consistent and they talk like normal people. Their motivations are clear and they never lose sight. The world has internal logic and it sticks to it, despite it becoming more fantastical as the game progresses. It also manages to have serious moments, immediately followed by absurd humour, and it works. Alan Wake II fosters a world where parental trauma and a ridiculous live-action commercial for beer can exist a few scenes from each other and neither feel out of place. Saga Anderson arrives in bright falls with her partner, Alex Casey, to investigate a string of gruesome murders performed by an organised cult. Shortly after arriving, she finds herself in the centre of a horror story, being written by Alan Wake, a writer who has been missing for 13 years. Meanwhile, Alan is trapped in the dark place, a never ending ocean of darkness that has taken the form of New York City. He explores the dark place and desperately attempts to write a story, in order to manifest his escape. I likened the gameplay to the Resident Evil remakes earlier, and while that is a fair assessment of what the gameplay has to offer, there are some mechanical variations that set Alan Wake II apart. Namely, it's focus on light and dark. Enemies corrupted by the dark presence form a shield of darkness around them that must be stripped away using a flashlight or any other source of bright light. Once the shield of darkness is gone, conventional firearms take care of the rest. This introduces a tactical element as flashlight batteries are a limited resource. You can also use flares and flashbangs to drive away the darkness. When playing as Alan, moving through areas isn't always as simple as walking from A to B. Sometimes, Alan needs to use his writing based superpowers to change reality around him by literally writing a new path for him to take. These changes happen instantly and are super impressive from a technical standpoint, but also very cool visually. At any time, when playing as Saga, you can immediately access her mind palace. This palace takes the form of a lodge room where Saga and her partner have based their investigation. In Saga's mind palace, you can review the case notes and craft a vision board which helps Saga work out the kinks of the case, and most of the time, figure out her next move. Saga can also profile suspects in her mind palace, allowing her to intuit what the suspect is thinking, and again, often times work out her next lead. Alan has a similar room which takes the form of his writers room, where he makes fiction reality using an old school typewriter. Both of these in game places can be accessed immediately upon pushing the touch pad, and again, it's really impressive technically. The first Alan Wake focused heavily on combat, and to its detriment in my opinion. It's not that the combat was bad, its just that there was so much of it. Alan Wake II not only improves its combat systems, but also heavily reduces them. From the games opening title screen, it takes a few chapters before you even face an enemy. This shows how confident Remedy were with Alan Wake II's design. It has no interest in dangling a carrot in front of you in the form of mindless action, instead, it invites you onto its journey and trusts that, once it gets going, you won't want to get off. In almost all cases, gameplay is king in my opinion but for a game like Alan Wake II, you have to let the Queen reign, and that's its atmosphere, world and storytelling. In my opinion, this is where Remedy shine in all of their games, but Alan Wake II in particular. The only studio that comes close is Naughty Dog in my opinion, and even then, they go for a much more conventional style of story telling, made spectacular by their fantastic writing. Almost every day since finishing Alan Wake II, I have listened to both the Chapter Songs and the 'Greatest Hits' album by in-universe band The Old Gods of Asgard. I even bought this album on vinyl from here and spin it daily. I'm not sure how enjoyable this music is to people who haven't played this game, but I recommend it anyway. If you have played it, you'll know how much this music does to elevate the experience. Trophy Thoughts It seems reductive to write all that about how amazing this experience is, to then move on to virtual collectibles but, we are on PSNProfiles after all. Alan Wake II is one of the only games I can think of where, upon completion of its main story, I had such a high completion percentage. I believe it was above 70%. This makes Alan Wake II a very simple platinum as all I was missing was its various collectibles. Thankfully, collectibles can be cleaned up right before the point of no return, and when reaching that point, the game encourages you to make a hard save which you can go back to. Once I returned to the game to clean up those collectibles, Remedy had released Alan Wake II's NG+ mode which goes by the name of 'The Final Draft'. This mode not only allows you to replay the game with all your weapons and upgrades, but also adds new story elements as well as an extended ending. I wanted to experience this mode fully so I opted to clean up all my collectibles on this run instead. Summary Alan Wake II was a clear winner for my GOTY of 2023 and it stands out as a game that pushes the boundaries of story telling in the medium. This was a truly unique experience and I fear that I'll never play anything like it again. Of course we can almost certainly expect an Alan Wake III and probably even Control 2 before it, but this game truly was lightning in a bottle. I apologise for the gushing in this review but this game really struck a chord with me and that's becoming more and more rare these days. I truly believe games like these should be celebrated when they come, to ensure we see more of it in the future. I'm no cynic, but it's plain to see the industry is in a dire state these days. Most games with this kind of production value and budget are too busy chasing the games as a service model, or simply padding their game with Ubisoft style nonsense to increase play time. I commend Remedy for really trying something different with this one and I'm glad to see it paid off. I eagerly await their next project and look forward to seeing what's in store for the inhabitants of the Remedy-verse. Thanks for reading. Arbitrary Rating 10/10 "...I'll show you the herald of darkness🎵" Edited January 31 by jonesey46 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post jonesey46 Posted February 2 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 2 (edited) January 2024 Update Holy shit it's February already. How did that happen? In lieu of doing posts for every game I complete, this year I plan to do monthly updates to go through what I've been up to. January has flown by for me and I feel like I've barely made any progress. I purchased a lot of games from my wish list at the end of December and start of January, so including those, the games I got for Christmas AND the various PS+ titles that I really want to play, I have a lot to get through 😅. All the while, I desperately want to work on the PS3 Pension Plan too, there just aren't enough hours in the day! So, what have I been playing? Demon's Souls ( #307) As promised, Demon's Souls was my first platinum of 2024, making it my first platinum three years running. Only the AS version to go, and you guessed it, that'll be next January. Geon Ticked this off the PS3 Pension Plan and I'm glad to see it go. I did a post on this and yeah, I wasn't too fond of it. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor One of my Christmas games. I finished the campaign and will go back to clear the platinum in due course. I enjoyed it, and for all intents and purposes it's better than its predecessor in every way, but I don't know, I wasn't blown away. Visually it's stunning, they've added loads of moves, powers and gadgets to Cal's loadout, the story production is much higher and it seems much more focused than Fallen Order on the basis of only having one large planet to explore rather than several medium sized planets. Despite all that though, I couldn't help the feeling that I enjoyed the first game more. Maybe the magic just wasn't there for me anymore? I don't know. Tails of Iron A free update arrived for this game recently, adding a new area with some new quests. I had a lot of fun going through that and once I finished it, I said "fuck it, let's go for 100%" and started the main game again on Bloody Whiskers, a difficulty mode that was added as DLC last year. I'm in two minds about this difficulty, it practically removes all margins of error and requires you to beat all bosses without ever missing a beat. Upon completion, I had enjoyed my time with it but in the throws of battle, this shit was frustrating as hell. Difficulties like this only serve to point out every flaw in your combat systems, so are they really worth it? Still, it was a fun game to master and frustration aside, I had a great time with it and I was happy to finally have 100%. Alan Wake II ( #308) Jumped back in to this to go through The Final Draft and clean up the platinum. See my saccharine post above that gushes over every aspect of this game 😅. Grand Theft Auto V I haven't played this game since unlocking the platinum in 2016. I returned to it because the Rockstar Editor is being shut down this month and 10 trophies were potentially going to become unobtainable. I managed to clean up all 10 in a night as I still had my platinum save on the cloud, making things much easier to jump back into. And you know what? I had a lot of fun revisiting Los Santos. All I did was drive around collecting stuff, listening to the in-game radio. I didn't shoot a single person, it was great. Ghostrunner 2 Another Christmas game where I beat the campaign, with an aim to return to get the platinum in the near future. I absolutely love the first Ghostrunner and while I do think the sequel improves on its boss fights and set pieces, as well as adding a really cool Akira style motorbike, I felt it didn't live up to its predecessor. There were just too many things bogging down the experience where as the first game was just constant action from start to finish. I still enjoyed it however and I hope to see an eventual threequel. The Entropy Centre ( #309) Picking this up was a hair trigger decision for me based on a recommendation from @DrBloodmoney and I'm glad I took the plunge. This game is a must have for any fans of the Portal games. A fun and easy platinum too. Pain The current game on the PS3 Pension Plan. I have unlocked 12 trophies so far which took this game from an F rating to an A rating. That goes to show how many people actually stuck with this game over the years. Progress is going well and the difficulty has become a little less intimating, but only a little. Thankfully, I have the amazing @OzaXD on speed dial to help with any queries I have and they have been a massive help in aiding my navigation of this strange game. I really want to get the Pension Plan moving so hopefully I can make some decent progress on this in February. Marvel's Spider-Man 2 I'll be honest, I was a huge cynic going into this. Basically, I've grown tired of Sony's first party games essentially becoming better produced Ubisoft games. And yes, Spidey 2 follows the same trend, it has a large map littered with meaningless repetitive side content, and yes, it has a predictable story with less than stellar writing, BUT, this game is fun as heck. The swinging mechanics are better than ever and the speed at which you can travel around the map is insane. The hours flew by whilst playing this game and despite its short runtime, I don't regret the £60 I spent on it. --- So what's next? Once I platinum Spidey 2 I plan to revisit the Dead Space remake to clean up that platinum and then I'm going to start Lies of P, a game which I cannot wait to start as I've heard nothing but good things from all the Souls veterans I know. Happy gaming and I hope February is good to you! I'll see you next month for another one of these and hopefully a post here and there in between. Thanks for reading as always. Edited February 2 by jonesey46 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted February 13 Author Share Posted February 13 (edited) Took a break from Pain this weekend to play some classic COD Zombies, and in the process, managed to knock another game off the Pension Plan! --- PS3 Pension Plan Update #4 Call of Duty: World at War Platinum Earned: 25th September 2009 Completion Time: 15 years, 2 months So, as you can see, I unlocked the platinum for this 15 years ago. As such, I don't have much to say about the main game as its been so long since I played it. The one thing that sticks out in my memory is the shower of grenades that rain upon you when playing on Veteran difficulty. Average veteran experience (Image stolen from TrueAchievements). After all this time I returned to the game to finish off both the Map Pack 2 and 3 DLCs. For some reason, Map Pack 1 didn't have trophies, no idea why. Each map pack released with a few new maps for the online component and one new zombies map, Shi No Numa and Der Riese respectively. All trophies were tied to the Zombies mode. So, what's Zombie mode in World at War like? Pretty great actually. This was the first iteration of Zombies in Call of Duty and as such, it's completely devoid of all the nonsense that has slowly been added with each iteration. The latest Zombie mode I've played is the one from Infinite Warfare and that has David Hasselhoff in it, which pretty much tells you exactly how stupid this game mode has become. (Interestingly, David Hasselhoff also features in Pain, the other Pension Plan game I'm working on right now, and that game is dumb as hell let me tell you). World at War's zombie mode really is the mode at its most basic and it's super fun because of it. Granted, the Map Packs do get increasingly more complicated, with the third map pack having the first iteration of both the pack-a-punch machine and the 'turn the power on first' gimmick but they're both welcome additions that inject a little more variation into how you play. So, you know gist of it. Endless hordes of zombies spawn in rounds, killing them awards points, points can buy weapons and perks, survive as long as you can. Sometimes games don't need to be complicated to be fun. Interestingly, I had already unlocked a handful of trophies from both of these DLCs in 2009, 2010 and 2011. I don't remember this but I obviously enjoyed the game enough back then to periodically check in and do a few rounds. Each DLC had only 5 trophies each to unlock to gain that almighty 100%. Because World at War doesn't feature any needlessly complicated Easter Eggs (those started with Black Ops), the trophies are actually really simple. For Map Pack 2 I was able to unlock all remaining trophies solo. But Map Pack 3 is much more challenging and required going online to play with randoms. Yeah, the servers are still going and I never struggled to find a game, goes to show that these old games still have their fan bases. Map Pack 2's trophies centre around endurance and getting lots of kills and points. Map Pack 3's trophies focus more on its various new additions and using those features a few times. Both of these have their merits and I had fun unlocking each trophy for what its worth. Summary I had a great time revisiting this old classic and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it even to this day. The zombies mode is a blast and doesn't come with all the baggage the later games do. Whilst I really should have revisited the campaign for old times sake, I just don't really have the time unfortunately. I remember it being a great campaign however, and of course, it's the origin story for the Black Ops series, which makes it an important entry to the franchise. Which begs the question, why didn't this game ever get the remaster treatment? I think it certainly deserves it and a 'COD Zombies Classic' release would go down a storm in my opinion. Arbitrary Rating 8/10 --- What's left on the PS3 Pension Plan: 1. Aliens vs Predator 2. Batman: Arkham City 3. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 5. Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood 6. Crash Commando 7. Dead Rising 2 8. F.E.A.R. 3 9. Grand Theft Auto IV 10. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty 11. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker 12. Need for Speed: Most Wanted 13. Pain 14. Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One 15. Red Dead Redemption 16. Super Stardust HD This was a 'quicker than usual' completion for me and I'm hoping I can pull off a few more of these to really get this thing going. I have continued to make incremental progress on Pain unlocking a couple of the grindier trophies as well as a super finnicky trophy, hilariously named 'Harder Dicks Balls'. Seriously this game is so fucking juvenile. On one hand it's charming because it knows exactly what its trying to be but on the other, it's obnoxious as hell. I also played about half an hour of Super Stardust HD for a change and gave up very quickly, it's a game that requires patience and practice so I'll dedicate myself to it once Pain is finished. Thanks for reading as always and I'll hopefully be back soon with another update. Edited March 12 by jonesey46 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted February 21 Author Share Posted February 21 (edited) I'll be honest, Pain is kind of pissing me off. I know if I had just sat down and dedicated myself to it, I could have been done with it weeks ago but I keep playing other stuff instead. It's like a 100lb monkey on my back, I just want it off. After finishing World at War the other week, I still had a bit of a nostalgic COD feel so I booted up Modern Warfare 3 and managed to finish it off, so, another victory for the Pension Plan! Hoorah! That nostalgic feel I had though? Completely gone now. --- PS3 Pension Plan Update #5 "Plant the beacon!" Platinum #313 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (not to be confused with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III from 2023. This franchise has gotten kind of ridiculous hasn't it?) Completion Time: 12 years, 1 month Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was my fucking jam when I was a teenager. I pretty much spent the entire summer of 2010 playing it. Most of that play time was in the multiplayer mode, desperately trying to get the nuke in every game (It ends the game and is awarded for getting a 25 killstreak). Despite that though, I absolutely loved the campaign. It was basically a really good Michael Bay movie, in videogame form. Explosions everywhere, huge set pieces, melodrama and of course, a sequel hook. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 released in 2011 and it was the last Call of Duty I bought on release. The game didn't piss me off or anything, I thought it was a good conclusion to the Modern Warfare series, I think I had just grown tired of it all. Don't get me wrong, I have picked up other COD's over the years, mainly for the campaigns, but MW3 was definitely a nail in the admittedly loose coffin. I specifically remember working towards the platinum for this back in 2012 and I also specifically remember being utterly exhausted by it. It's platinum can be split into three parts; Campaign, Survival and Spec Ops. The campaign was suitably bombastic, although I remember it being less impressive than it's predecessor. Survival was this games version of Zombies and Spec Ops returned from MW2, offering short, interesting missions playable in co-op. Way back in 2012 I had finished every trophy relating to the campaign. I had also finished most trophies relating to both Survival and Spec Ops mode, leaving only the trophies for getting to wave 15 in each map on Survival and earning 3 stars on each Spec Ops mission. It seems I gave up pretty close to the finish line huh? This game must have really upset me! Thankfully, my save was backed up on the cloud and so I was able to pick up where I left off, twelve years later. Returning to my old save, I found that I'd actually already gotten to wave 15 on 9 out of 16 Survival maps and gotten 3 stars on 11 out of 16 Spec Ops missions. I really didn't have to do that much to unlock this platinum 😂. Of course I was a little rusty to start off with but I managed to get back into the swing of things and unlock the platinum in no time. So, what was I actually doing? Survival mode, as I previously said, is basically this games version of zombie mode. You're dropped into one of the multiplayer maps and you have to fight off endless waves of enemies, getting progressively more difficult as the waves increase. Surviving earns you money and with it, you can buy all manner of weapons and attachments. Equipment such as grenades and claymores. And also support such as predator missiles, air strikes and even a squad of AI allies. The problem with this mode is, it just isn't fun. At least with zombie mode there's interesting stuff to do like trying your luck at the random weapon box, hoping you'll get a ray gun, or saving up enough points to pack-a-punch your weapons. In MW3's Survival, it's just endless waves of Russians and that's it. occasionally they'll drop in a juggernaut or you'll have to shoot down a helicopter, but that's it. I'm so glad past me had already done half the job because by the end of this, I was so bored. Thankfully, Spec Ops mode is much more fun, well, for the most part. There are 16 unique missions, most can be played solo but all of them can be played in co-op, including split screen! A lot of these are just cool scenarios that the Call of Duty games are best at, like rescuing hostages, clearing out camps in stealth, riding a snowmobile or defending a point until extraction. Getting three stars in all missions isn't related to score or time, it's actually tied to difficulty. Beating a mission on regular awards one star, hardened awards two and veteran awards three. The problem with this is, veteran difficulty is utter bullshit. If you've played any of the campaigns on veteran, you'll already know this. A lot of the time its just pure trial and error rather than skill. You tend to go down in two to three hits but even this is inconsistent. Some attempts on missions I could take anywhere between 5 and 10 hits so I think the difficulty is completely fudged related to specific parts of missions. Because I strongly believe, if the difficulty was consistent, the game would be impossible to beat. I did all remaining missions solo bar one, because it had to be done in co-op. I managed to employ my wifes help and thankfully, there wasn't much skill involved (for what its worth, my wife has beaten Demon's Souls so she's not bad at games, she just doesn't get on with first person shooters). She got to pilot an AC130 and reign hellfire down on those pesky Russians whilst I was on the ground running about. She had a blast. And so, the platinum was mine! But we're still not done... MW3 had FIVE DLC updates with trophies. Thankfully, all trophies pertain to Spec Ops missions with none tied to the multiplayer maps or any new Survival maps. Some of these Spec Ops missions were pretty tough on veteran but by far the biggest problem with this DLC, is the cost. To gain access to all these missions, you need to buy three DLC 'collections', at £11.55 each. So a total of £34.65, which is insane. The reason I took the plunge on this was because I had £20 in my PSN wallet from a Valentine's Day gift code and then I redeemed another £20 as I reached 5,000 points on the PS stars program. Since you can only buy things on the PS3 store with wallet funds these days, it made sense to do this rather than spend that money on new and exciting games right? Right? There really wasn't anything special about these extra missions, some were cool but ultimately it was more of the same. I can't really complain about the cost too much though because the DLC's main draw were its extra multiplayer maps, which is what most people would have bought them for. Summary Modern Warfare 3 was the explosive end to the MW series and even though it's been rebooted in recent years, the original trilogy will always be the best. You can't fault this game for it's amount of content especially when the recent MW3 has a campaign with a shorter run time than a TikTok. It's campaign, survival mode, spec ops missions and multiplayer makes it a game that you could play indefinitely and it's a shame Call of Duty doesn't still work to those standards. It's DLC is overpriced and if you're only after the trophies, you will feel the sting, but hey, at least you can do all the DLC solo offline right? Arbitrary Rating 7/10 --- What's left on the PS3 Pension Plan: 1. Aliens vs Predator 2. Batman: Arkham City 3. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood 5. Crash Commando 6. Dead Rising 2 7. F.E.A.R. 3 8. Grand Theft Auto IV 9. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty 10. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker 11. Need for Speed: Most Wanted 12. Pain 13. Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One 14. Red Dead Redemption 15. Super Stardust HD That's 5 down, 15 to go! Pretty good progress so far if you ask me. God damn though, that list is intimidating as heck. Right, I have to crack on with Pain now, no more distractions. HOWEVER, I recently picked up a copy of the GOTY edition of Red Dead Redemption and I fancy getting into that soon. Mostly because my friend has been obsessed with Red Dead 2 recently and he really wants me to play it, but I have to play the first one first. I never even beat the story when I played it back in 2011 so it'll be a fresh experience for me, with an added bonus of potentially knocking it off the Pension Plan. Aside from that I am absolutely LOVING Lies of P at the moment. It's spread of bosses has been impressive so far, hard as nails though. It's level design leaves a little to be desired but it's combat system more than makes up for it. I really hope From takes notes of the deflection system (which is a ridiculous thing to say because they already perfected it in Sekiro), because it's going to be hard to go back to Elden Ring with no defensive options other than rolling. Thanks for reading as always. Edited March 12 by jonesey46 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Copanele Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 Congrats for the platinum! I find a fun parallel here! 20 hours ago, jonesey46 said: 'll be honest, Pain is kind of pissing me off. I know if I had just sat down and dedicated myself to it, I could have been done with it weeks ago but I keep playing other stuff instead. It's like a 100lb monkey on my back, I just want it off. After finishing World at War the other week, I still had a bit of a nostalgic COD feel so I booted up Modern Warfare 3 and managed to finish it off, so, another victory for the Pension Plan! Hoorah! That nostalgic feel I had though? Completely gone now. The exact same feeling that I have with Wet. That game pisses me off to no end so I ended up playing other stuff too 😅 This PS3 retirement party sure gets harder and harder... 20 hours ago, jonesey46 said: Aside from that I am absolutely LOVING Lies of P at the moment. It's spread of bosses has been impressive so far, hard as nails though. It's level design leaves a little to be desired but it's combat system more than makes up for it. I really hope From takes notes of the deflection system (which is a ridiculous thing to say because they already perfected it in Sekiro), because it's going to be hard to go back to Elden Ring with no defensive options other than rolling. Eyy glad you love this one can't wait to see your full thoughts after you're done with the game! Yeah, level design could have been better...but considering this is the devs' first Souls game, they did a stellar job there. And yeah, the deflection system is so good, Elden Ring will have to compensate somehow might be speaking blasphemy here, but I enjoyed the deflection system here more than in Sekiro You do have a block counter in Elden Ring though so...that might be a thing 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted February 22 Author Share Posted February 22 1 hour ago, Copanele said: And yeah, the deflection system is so good, Elden Ring will have to compensate somehow might be speaking blasphemy here, but I enjoyed the deflection system here more than in Sekiro You do have a block counter in Elden Ring though so...that might be a thing I'm actually going to agree with you here. I love the posture system in Sekiro but there's so much more going on in Lies of P that just makes it so much more interesting. Especially love the mix and match weapon system, it takes Bloodbornes trick weapon system to the next level in my opinion and I love it. I'm currently stuck on the swamp monster. Tried for about 40 minutes last night but had to go to bed cause I was falling asleep haha, hopefully I'll take the fucker down tonight. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted March 12 Author Share Posted March 12 (edited) February 2024 Update Hi everyone, I'm a little late with this update, I mean for fucks sake, it's the middle of March now. I've been really busy with work and to add insult to injury, I've been sick for the last couple of weeks. Excuses, excuses. February was an okay month, I only played a handful of games but I did knock out two Call of Duty games from the Pension Plan and I was pretty happy about that. I'm noticing a downward trend in my gaming time from February and especially coming into March. My son is getting older and I can feel the scales tipping moderately. I'm now at about 1-2 hours a night once he goes to bed but I'll be honest, those 1-2 hours aren't exactly peak performance cause most of the time, I'm absolutely knackered. Not to worry though, I'll still be chipping away and the updates will keep coming, albeit a little late sometimes... Anyway... Marvel's Spider-Man 2 ( #310) Started the month off strong knocking out this platinum on the 2nd. Like I said in my last update, despite being a cynic I had a great time with this. The swinging alone is just too much fun, everything surrounding it though? Less than stellar. I found the story to be cliché and disingenuous and a lot of the side content to be meaningless guff. They've gone and added a NG+ trophy so it looks like I'll be returning to New York at some point, but it won't be any time soon. Dead Space ( #311) This remake came and went huh? Look, I love the original and for all intents and purposes, I love this one too. But, something about it's commitment to the original makes it kind of, forgettable? Let me explain; this remake is gorgeous, BUT, it looks exactly how I remember the game looking in 2008. All the side stuff they added? It just made me feel like I was breaking the game and getting out of bounds. All the story changes they made? They were pretty much perfect and seamlessly fit into the narrative so none of it was jarring or surprising. And of course, Isaac having a voice didn't feel out of place either cause it's the same voice actor from Dead Space 2 and all his dialogue feels natural. I fully believe this remake supersedes the original, much like the remake of the first Resident Evil. But, it didn't feel new, it just felt like I was replaying an old favourite, and so because of this, it didn't stick out as a landmark release for me. Gris ( #312) Snapped up the free PS5 upgrade for this as I wanted a quick palette cleanser between bigger games. I loved this back in 2020 and I loved revisiting it again. Lies of P LIES OF FUCKING P MOTHER FUCKER. WHAT A FUCKING GAME. Man, this game blew me away! I loved every minute of my two playthroughs and after unlocking the platinum I could have easily gone for a third playthrough. I'll do a dedicated post on this soon so I'll talk more about it there. Eyes peeled and all that. Pain Made a little bit of progress on this at the start of February and unfortunately, I haven't returned to it since. I'm struggling to find the time to dedicate to this and all the other shit I'm trying to play. One of the trophies I unlocked in this session was hilariously called "Harder Dick's Balls" which might make you want to roll your eyes, it certainly does for me. But anyway, this trophy was a huge pain in the ass requiring you to accurately get four balls into a dumpster with this games hilarious but frustrating physics system. It pretty much took me an entire night but I was ecstatic once I'd unlocked it. Hopefully I can make some progress on this in March. Call of Duty: World at War I did a Pension Plan update on this above and yeah, I was really chuffed to get this finished. I think I was getting a little frustrated not making much progress on Pain (still am ha!) and so I just looked for a quick completion to get my dopamine levels back up. Despite having to drop £12 or whatever for Map Pack 3, I did manage to knock all this out pretty quickly. I also got a salty message from someone on here that I'd arranged to boost with, they didn't turn up for the agreed time and I'd managed to get all the trophies done with randoms instead. When they saw I'd unlocked all the trophies they must have been pretty raging about it. Turn up for the time you agree to and don't expect people to wait around for you! Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 I was riding high on the Call of Duty train and decided to knock this out soon after finishing World at War. Yeah, the cost of the DLC definitely hurt but I was glad to get it finished. See the Pension Plan update above to see my full thoughts. Rollderdrome Had this one sitting in my wishlist for a long time so imagine my delight when it was offered as part of PS+ Essential. Booted it up to muck around with it and I'll talk more about it when the March update comes, but I'll be upfront now; I didn't like it. Overcooked! All You Can Eat My wife and I were looking for a co-op game to play and whilst browsing my library I found this which had been offered on PS+ a while back. She had just recently watched The Bear so she shouted at me a lot but all in all it was a fun time. We've finished all the campaigns so I just need to convince her to help me with all the misc. trophies (she doesn't care about trophies). --- And that was my February! Again, I apologise for the lateness of this post, I'll try to be more timely next month! By far and away the best game I played this month was Lies of P, it's an early contender for the best game I played this year and I'd have maybe given it my GOTY over Alan Wake 2 last year, if I had played it then. I'm looking forward to any DLC it may have coming and of course anything the developer might do next, something with the letter O? If you know you know 😉. SPEAKING OF DLC, WHO ELSE IS EXCITED FOR SHADOW OF THE ERDTREE? LETS FUCKING GOOOOO. Post wise I'll have a dedicated post for the aforementioned Lies of P and another Pension Plan update that happens to not be about Pain 😅. I'm playing through the recent port of Stalker at the moment but before that dropped I was working on Rise of the Tomb Raider, mostly because it has an insane amount of trophies and I think it'd make a good dent on my profile if I can finish it off. After that? I have no idea, my heads mush guys I can barely think straight. What working 40 hours a week and having a small child does to a man! Anyway, thanks for reading as always and I'll see you next time! Edited March 12 by jonesey46 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Copanele Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 First of all I want to thank the site for not submitting my reply when I press the goddamn "Submit Reply" button. Anyway... 😂 2 days later should do! Pension Plan looks like a blast! On 3/12/2024 at 12:38 PM, jonesey46 said: Lies of P LIES OF FUCKING P MOTHER FUCKER. WHAT A FUCKING GAME. Man, this game blew me away! I loved every minute of my two playthroughs and after unlocking the platinum I could have easily gone for a third playthrough. I'll do a dedicated post on this soon so I'll talk more about it there. Eyes peeled and all that. YOU KNOW I AM WAITING FOR THIS ONE! I can already see that you too enjoyed this! However I can't wait for this post also On 3/12/2024 at 12:38 PM, jonesey46 said: I'm playing through the recent port of Stalker at the moment I played this game like crazy back when it was released and man, it was something else (ignoring the buttload of bugs). Curious if it still holds up and if the hardest difficulty is actually the easiest, just like in the original. Best of luck with getting rest too! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted March 15 Author Share Posted March 15 On 3/14/2024 at 9:08 AM, Copanele said: First of all I want to thank the site for not submitting my reply when I press the goddamn "Submit Reply" button. Anyway... 😂 2 days later should do! Pension Plan looks like a blast! YOU KNOW I AM WAITING FOR THIS ONE! I can already see that you too enjoyed this! However I can't wait for this post also I played this game like crazy back when it was released and man, it was something else (ignoring the buttload of bugs). Curious if it still holds up and if the hardest difficulty is actually the easiest, just like in the original. Best of luck with getting rest too! I look forward to writing my post on Lies of P, I'll probably have it out next week. Busy busy! Stalker was a great time man! A very good port (although I did experience quite a few crashes). The game was incredibly ahead of its time and still holds up in my opinion. I plan to play the other two but going to give it a break for now. I may do a post once I've finished the trilogy. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted March 27 Author Share Posted March 27 Hi everyone, I'm still working on the Lies of P post but have been very busy with work so I'm not sure when I'll get it finished. In other news! I finally reached 90% profile completion the other day. A pretty big milestone if you ask me. This has been a long time coming, back in 2020 over lockdown I was making big strides with my completion percentage but I got burnt out on trophy hunting because of it and killed all my progress in 2021. Well, since then I've been slowly working on it, carefully trying not to burn myself out again. And here we are! I'd be really happy if I could keep it above 90% going forward. Any extra increases on top of this will just be gravy but I can honestly say that reaching 90% is the endgame for me, it'll just be a case of maintaining it. I'll be back next week with the March update and hopefully that pesky Lies of P post. Thanks for reading as always! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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