Grotz99 Posted September 18, 2023 Share Posted September 18, 2023 On 8/29/2023 at 8:50 AM, jonesey46 said: This reminds me that I have Lego Star Wars the Force Awakens that I need to play through....I like the Lego games but damn do they overstay their welcome if you go for the platinum. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted September 19, 2023 Author Share Posted September 19, 2023 9 hours ago, Grotz99 said: This reminds me that I have Lego Star Wars the Force Awakens that I need to play through....I like the Lego games but damn do they overstay their welcome if you go for the platinum. Admittedly, I haven't played any other Lego games, but I think I can safely say that this is the grindiest one of them all, due to how much content there is and how many films it covers. I have a couple in the backlog thanks to PS+ and I'm not entirely put off from playing them but yeah, this game took a lot out of me 😅 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted September 19, 2023 Author Share Posted September 19, 2023 (edited) 💯 100% Achieved - Minecraft Dungeons 💯 DLC Jungle Awakens and Creeping Winter Howling Peaks Flames of the Nether Hidden Depths Echoing Void Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Original Platinum Date - 7th June 2020 100% Completion Date - 17th September 2023 Gap - 3 years, 3 months, 3 weeks Reason - Look at the amount of fucking DLC this game has, and truth be told, I can't even be sure its done, there might be more to come. Hardest DLC trophy - Alpha Centurion (2.97% Ultra Rare) Main Game Thoughts Back in 2020 I was burning through games at a fast rate due to COVID and its lockdowns. Minecraft Dungeons came out in 2020 and my wife and I were looking for couch co-op experiences to go through. The base game was a nice simple experience with an easy platinum. Since then it has gained a wealth of DLC that has mutated the game beyond what it was in 2020. I wrote about the base game in this thread, which you can read here: My opinions are mostly the same regarding the base game. The DLC has changed a lot so it's not as simple as it once was. But the main story and levels are largely the same as they were. DLC Thoughts When I purchased the base game I bought the 'Hero Edition' which came with access to the first two DLC packs, Jungle Awakens and Creeping Winter. Oddly enough, the first DLC didn't release with trophies and when the second DLC released, a trophy pack was added covering both DLC's. I played both together and posted about it in this thread, and you can read my thoughts here: And that was that, for the time being. 4 DLC packs were released after this and there was a season pass to cover these. After that, they introduced a live service, battle pass thing that revolves around a tower of combat rooms that updates every week. So far they have released three of these battle pass "seasons" with the last one releasing in October last year. It's been almost a year and they've kept quiet when it comes to Minecraft Dungeons so all clues point to this game being dead. However, there is a 'Minecraft Live' event happening soon, so if there's any news regarding this game, I'd expect to hear it there. In any case, I plan to relish my hard earned 100% while it lasts. The game does update every week with a new tower but as far as I can tell, its a rotation of layouts that could very well be handled by a computer. Wishful thinking? Maybe. I like this game but getting the 100% was a pain in the arse and a bit of a mindless grind. I don't fancy any more of it. So anyway, one week after the release of Season 3, I decided to get back into this game and tackle all of its DLC. I picked up that season pass for a decent price on sale and I was all set to go. Loading into the game after all this time was intimidating to say the least. A lot had changed and I had SEVEN DLC packs to tackle. The way DLC works in this game is different to other games I guess? Each DLC added new levels and systems that integrate into the base game, fundamentally changing how it all works. Because of this, deciding which DLC to tackle first was a tricky one. Concentrating on one DLC at a time could potentially increase your total play time cause you might be able to progress one DLC packs trophies whilst working on others. And so, because I was so intimidated and had no idea where to start, I made a very stupid decision. I decided that I would tackle individual trophies based on rarity. Sounds dumb right? It was. Basically, I used the rarities from this website, ordered them by most common and just worked through them. My theory was that the most common ones were the most simple to get and working through them would prepare me better for the rarer ones later on. This didn't fucking work obviously and I dropped the game once my son was born. 10 months go by and I decide, yet again, that I will finish this fucking game even if it kills me. I also decided that I will just tackle these DLCs one by one in order of release. Because, that's how people who were keeping up to date with the game had to do it right? Sure, it might be less efficient, but in my head, it made things simpler to manage. So with that in mind, lets talk about the DLC's in that very order. Howling Peaks Probably the easiest of the 4 DLC packs. It added a few new levels and some new gear. All trophies revolve around completing those levels and using that gear to do specific things. The trickiest trophy for me, was to beat the final level of the base game on Apocalypse +5 difficulty. It seems this DLC increased the difficulty levels up to Apocalypse +25. Difficulty levels are based around your gear level, to increase your gear level you need to be constantly upping the difficulty as you play through the levels. When getting back into this game, my gear level was nowhere near what it needed to be to tackle Apocalypse +5. So I had to grind. Quite a bit actually. It was okay though cause this better prepared me for the later DLCs. Flames of the Nether This pack introduced levels set in the infamous Nether area of Minecraft. The biggest addition to this DLC was the introduction of ancient hunts. These are very obtuse random dungeons that you generate by sacrificing gear and enchantment points. They also introduced a new currency in the way of Gold, which aside from collecting 500 for a trophy, was completely useless to me. By far and away the most awkward trophy in this DLC is the Homecoming trophy. It's heavily reliant on RNG and has you bringing certain animals to certain locations during ancient hunts that may or may not spawn. These are rare spawns too but I managed to get very lucky with them and got this trophy not long after finishing the rest of the DLC. Hidden Depths This level pack focuses on underwater levels and in my opinion are the worst of the lot. You move slower and have to manage your oxygen which just gets in the way. This was a very simple DLC trophy wise with the only pain being to complete 10 levels affected by a raid captains banner. Essentially, raid captains can spawn randomly in levels and when you kill them, they drop a banner, you can pick these up to increase the difficulty of the level and for the trophy you need to do that 10 times. Straight forward but a little grindy. Echoing Void The last of the paid DLCs has you travelling to the End to fight some Endermen and the final boss of the DLCs apparent narrative. A few annoying trophies in this one but actually playing the levels themselves was kind of annoying too as it required some set up. To get to The End, you need to collect several Eyes of Ender from the levels of the main game and place them in The End portal which is in its own level. Trophy wise, I Need Them All was the grindiest one, which has you getting all item drops from every base game and DLC level. So you need to check each level and see what drops you're missing and then play the level until you unlock them. Other annoying trophies include Take The High Road which has you completing a level without getting hit by a shulker which is super annoying, Divers Dozen which requires you to dive attack 12 enemies with an elytra which can be annoying to coordinate and End Run which has you killing 1000 enderling enemies with a specific weapon. It was nice to get these DLCs completed but the worst was yet to come... Season 1 Everyone loves a battle pass right? Minecraft isn't a stranger to dodgy monetization but in my opinion battle passes are some of the worst monetization models in gaming. Gain arbitrary points to get some meagre rewards but if you want the real rewards, give us money. Lame. Thankfully, there is a handy exploit for levelling up the battle pass and you're going to need it too. To get all the trophies in this DLC pack and one trophy in the next one, you need to fully max out the first battle pass all the way to level 50. Because three seasons have released, three battle passes have released. Thankfully, you are able to choose what battle pass you want to level up so nothing is lost to time. As I said before, the battle pass revolves around 'The Tower'. It's a series of combat rooms and you start on floor 1 with nothing. Each floor you complete you're given the choice of a piece of gear and as you climb the tower you build up your character. Towers change every week with different floors, different enemies and different choices of gear. The trophies of Season 1 mainly involve playing through and completing the tower. Like I said though, you need to level the battle pass to level 50 to get all trophies and this takes a LONG time. You can complete challenges that reset every week to get points or you can complete tower runs. The exploit I mentioned earlier involves you completing a tower, but before you walk through the finishing door, you quit out, back up your save and then complete the tower. You get the points which are saved server side and then you can download your backed up save to repeat this process over and over again getting points every time. Boring? Yes! But a hell of a lot quicker than doing it legit. There's something about exploiting something that was made to exploit people out of their money. It's like sticking it to the man! Season 2 Because the tower barely changes due to its nature, a lot of the trophies for the second season revolve around the new battle pass and completing main game levels under certain circumstances. There's also a couple devoted to daily trials which also have nothing to do with the tower. It's like they got to season 2 and already didn't know what to do with this live service element they desperately crammed in. Getting to level 50 on the previous battle pass gets you a cape! And a trophy requires you to beat a level wearing a bunch of shit from the first battle pass. Thankfully, the second battle pass only requires you to reach level 16 this time. Season 3 Almost done. Season 3 comes with a new battle pass which you need to level up to 20 and a new free level in the jungle area. Once again most trophies don't involve the tower except for one very tedious trophy. Really scraping the bottom of the barrel here aren't we Mojang? The tedious trophy involves killing 100 tower guards. Tower guards are unique to the tower and can spawn on certain floors. Spawns aren't random and depend on the current weeks tower. A tower might not have any, might only spawn one, or could spawn over 10 of them. It's completely random and if there aren't any, you need to wait a week and hope for the best. This was my last trophy and the previous two towers didn't have any. This particular weeks tower had ONE spawn on a floor. I didn't fancy running the tower 100 times to get this trophy so I used an exploit that allowed me to kill the guard, quit the game and reload at the start of the floor to kill him again. It still took a while and was tedious but I finally got it done. Final Thoughts Minecraft Dungeons is a fun and casual dungeon crawler with all the charm of the Minecraft world. It's ridiculous amount of DLC has mutated the game beyond what it was at release but it's still a fun time. Trophy wise it can be tedious and at times, unnecessary. My wife and I played the base game together back in 2020 but I did all the DLC by myself. Having another player throughout your entire journey will go a long way towards your enjoyment. My total playtime once I was finished was 108 hours. A lot of time to sink into a game like this. I don't regret it though and I'm glad to have the 100% on my profile. Is the game dead? I can't say for sure. With no updates and no news for almost a year now it seems likely. That Minecraft Live event I mentioned is coming up and could potentially reveal new plans for the games future. Until then, I'll be playing something else. Thanks for reading. Edited September 22, 2023 by jonesey46 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post jonesey46 Posted September 22, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 22, 2023 (edited) Inspired by a recent post by @Copanele on their fantastic trophy checklist, I've decided to take a look at my uncompleted PS3 games and form a plan of action. In this post Copanele mentions a 'PS3 Retirement Party' where, considering the age of this system, it's choppy servers and its 'barely on life support' digital store, it's probably a good idea to finish our old PS3 games before its too late. I was 14 when I first got my PS3 and it was that fat ass 60gb model that had PS2 backwards compatibility. I got it with Resistance: Fall of Man and Splinter Cell: Double Agent, two games that still hold a special place in my heart. I can safely say that the PS3 is my favourite console, I spent most of my formative years playing it and despite losing 4 PS3's to yellow lights of death, I have nothing but good memories of it. I got my first trophy in 2008 when trophies first became a thing, on Super Stardust HD, the first game to ever receive trophies. I still play it to this day and I'm still experiencing new things on it. In 2020 I went through the Mass Effect series for the first time and it quickly became one of my favourite sci-fi series. I also started God of War not too long ago and despite falling off it for various reasons, I plan on playing it through as well as God of War 2 after it. Not to mention all of the amazing games that are yet to be remastered that I will undoubtedly replay in the coming years. Basically, as long as this console works, I'll be playing it. Unfortunately though, time hasn't been kind to the PS3. It's storefront barely works these days and to purchase things on there, you need to pre-load your virtual wallet. A lot of games have deactivated servers these days and it seems every year, more and more of them are being shut down. What I'm saying is, it's days are numbered. So, because of all this I want to make a bit more of an effort to get the uncompleted PS3 games on my profile finished. In this post I plan to look at all of them and identify which games might be a bit of a problem and which will require a decent amount of effort. if you have any experience with any of the games listed here, please do not hesitate to give me some advice on them. I'm going to need all the help I can get. Filtering my profile I can see that I have 44 uncompleted PS3 games on my account. 20 of those have shut down servers, 1 has glitched on me leaving its platinum completely unobtainable (Assassin's Creed 3) and another loaded DLC trophies onto the server without ever releasing its DLC (Burn Zombie Burn!). That leaves 22 games still completely obtainable, with varying degrees of effort, and money, required. It's worth mentioning that 14 of the unobtainable games still have some trophies that are achievable, but with their platinum or 100% being impossible. Let's focus on those 22 finishable games going forward. We'll do this in alphabetical order for simplicities sake. Aliens vs. Predator The fact that this game is still alive absolutely baffles me. Who is in charge of these servers? And why haven't they turned them off yet? It seems I did all campaign trophies for this game 12 years ago aside from completing each campaign on Nightmare difficulty. What's holding this one back is its multiplayer mode. A lot of these trophies require a good bit of effort and coordination, including one that requires 6 players. Servers are apparently quite temperamental but have been since release so that isn't an indicator of its potential death. Thankfully, the grindiest of the trophies, one that requires you to get 18060xp in multiplayer, can be cheesed using a slightly dodgy proxy server exploit which is apparently, completely legitimate and not frowned upon here. Batman: Arkham City This game isn't a flight risk although it is known to be very difficult. All of its DLC is pre-loaded onto the GOTY edition of the game which I already own. So, there's nothing to stop me from getting this 100%. Aside from its crushingly difficult combat challenges but that's par for the course in an Arkham game right? Call of Duty: Black Ops I already have the platinum for this game and got it not longer after release. The thing with Call of Duty games, is that they always have simple platinums but then the DLC releases which complicates matters. All of Black Ops' remaining trophies relate to its zombie mode. Zombie mode is fun but the crux of these modes is always its 'Easter Egg' which are always needlessly complicated and have only become more complicated with every release. Not only will I have to coordinate a team to tackle these trophies, preferably a team with some experienced members, but I also need to drop some cash for this DLC as I never purchased them back in the day. Considering nothing goes on sale on the PS3 store anymore, I need to pay full price for this shit and it ain't cheap. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 To get the platinum for this game I need to tackle its grindy survival mode and then it's spec ops mode. Once I've done that it's on to its FIVE DLC packs. Jesus fucking Christ. Again, I didn't buy these back then so it's full price or nothing. According to people who have the 100%, all of the DLC can be done solo, so it's really just a case of dropping the cash. Call of Duty: World at War The last of my uncompleted Call of Duty games on PS3. This one is a bit more straight forward. I already have the platinum and there are only two DLC packs to finish. Both of them are zombies related but back then they didn't have Easter Eggs. I already own the first DLC but need to buy the second one for £7.99. Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood I haven't played this game since 2009! There is a multiplayer mode that will require some coordination but the servers are P2P, so there's no worry of the online shutting down, so long as there's someone else who still needs the trophies. Crash Commando This is a fun arcade game but has some online trophies that require a little coordination and I will need to purchase its DLC. Dead Rising 2 I might do this one sooner rather than later. There's only a handful of online trophies and I think they can all be cleared relatively quickly. Then, the rest of the trophies involve the single player campaign, which can be tricky but nothing that can't be handled. F.E.A.R. 3 Another P2P game I believe. There's only one or two trophies that requires some coordination so again, one I might handle sooner rather than later. Geon Another PSN arcade game, I actually have this one installed and ready to go. Just need someone to boost 50 online wins and the rest is attainable offline. God of War Nothing stopping me from doing this, just need to get round to it. It's not urgent like most of the others on this list. Grand Theft Auto IV How did the GTAV servers go down on PS3 but this is still running? I'll be honest, this is one game that I'm quite happy to leave as is. It's online stuff requires a lot of coordination and I can't be bothered with it. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker After I finish Persona 5, I plan to run through the entire MGS saga and I fully intend to platinum both of these as I go. I actually just boosted the 4 multiplayer trophies for Peace Walker the other day. Need for Speed: Most Wanted A good game but has some annoying online stuff to complete. As well as DLC which I will need to purchase at full price. The NFS games before this one have had servers go down recently so this games days might be numbered. Pain This game is a weird one. I remember playing it very briefly back in 2008 and I remember it being hard as nails. It also has a bunch of DLC which, you guessed it, I need to buy. Not sure I'll ever get round to this one. Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode 1 I just need to buy this one and knock it out. I game shared it back in the day with someone I don't talk to anymore so all I need to do is drop the £12 or whatever it is. PixelJunk Eden A tough arcade game that I own and have installed. I just need to set aside the time to work through it. Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic Is this game racist? I'm not sure. Anyway, I attempted to clean this up back in 2020 but got frustrated trying to get gold on the challenges. I plan to work through this next and hopefully get it done soon. Banger theme tune though right? Red Dead Redemption I bounced off this game hard and as a result, never played the sequel despite the whole world going crazy for it. I'm sure I'll enjoy it when I get back to it but of course it has some grindy online stuff that requires coordination as well as DLC multiplayer stuff for the 100%. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles I also have The Darkside Chronicles which I plan to play also. I bought both of these just to play with the light gun attachment and because I'm obsessed with Resident Evil. Getting the 100% will require some hard work to get all the S ranks but I'm sure I'll get to it eventually. and last but not least, the game that started it all; Super Stardust HD It's installed and I have everything I need to get the 100%. The problem is it's difficulty. I've already tried to get Late Boomer for a few hours with no luck. It'll just require some dedication but I have every intention of doing it. --- And there we have it. By my count, only 8 games that require some form of online boosting. Which isn't too bad, but finding the time to do this after becoming a dad is a little complicated to say the least. And only £60+ worth of DLC! Lucky me! I'm not sure what my plan of action is, I'm going to tackle them one by one and try and focus on them now as much as I can. Whilst still playing the new games that I want to play, for instance, Persona 5 is taking most of my evenings up and I plan to keep it that way . I hope to whittle this list down as much as possible but I'm keeping expectations in check and I fully realise I won't be able to finish all of them. What are your thoughts? Any in there you have some experience with? Or would you like to call me a mental case? Either way, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for reading as always. Edited November 9, 2023 by jonesey46 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Copanele Posted September 22, 2023 Share Posted September 22, 2023 We about to start a true retirement plan here for poor old PS3 😂 Best of luck with the work ahead!! You sure have quite a few to tackle. From that list, what I also played myself: Batman Arkham City - the main game is decent difficulty wise. The problem shows up when you tackle the DLC , especially the Catwoman and Nightwing trials 😆 Fortunately, the game is so damn good you won't have too many "I hate this" moments Call of Juarez Bound in Blood - you need a solid boosting team for the money trophy and some story trophies are a headache to do (one involves shooting rafts with a ye olde cannon, it will take quite a few tries). But just like Batman AC, the game is pretty damn good, you will have a good time with it. God of War - yeah not even a reason to worry for that one 😆 Looking forward to the next updates 😁curious what you will tackle first! (And if the PS3 will hold up lol) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted September 25, 2023 Author Share Posted September 25, 2023 (edited) I've decided to make this whole PS3 thing a personal event, which I will periodically update here every time I make some progress. To legally differentiate my thing from @Copanele's thing, I've decided to call mine 'The PS3's Pension Plan'. The idea being that each of these games is a job and when all the jobs are done, they can finally collect their pension. It may do some part-time work here and there once it's over, but once it's done, it can finally rest. and I'm happy to report that I have already completed the first game off the list! So that's one down! PS3 Pension Plan Update #1 Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic Completion Time: 14 years, 4 months This is a great little 2D brawler party game which unfortunately lives on a dying console. I can't imagine someone breaking out the PS3 and four DualShock 3's during a party to play this obscure game, but if they did, they'd have a great time. I got one trophy in this game in 2009 and then left it until 2020. The only thing stopping me from getting 100% in 2020 was getting gold on all challenges. There are 8 challenges and having now done them over the course of a weekend, they actually aren't too hard. Like with any challenge mode, it just requires patience and practice. The biggest problem this game has is its mandatory inclusion of the DualShock 3's Sixaxis motion controls. Certain moves can only be executed by shaking the controller in different ways. By far the most frustrating of the challenges is the juggling one which requires you to keep an enemy in the air as long as you can. To do this you need to fire energy balls at it to keep it up in the air, to create an energy ball you need to shake the controller. So you need to shake, aim and fire accurately very quickly. My arms were knackered when I finally did it. I'm glad to have this done. A completion time of 14 years is just insane right? Arbitrary Rating 6/10 Edited December 21, 2023 by jonesey46 formatting, added an arbitrary rating 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Copanele Posted September 25, 2023 Share Posted September 25, 2023 2 hours ago, jonesey46 said: To legally differentiate my thing from @Copanele's thing, I've decided to call mine 'The PS3's Pension Plan'. The idea being that each of these games is a job and when all the jobs are done, they can finally collect their pension. My legal team is satisfied with the term 😂 😂 Congrats for this one! I think I also have that game, maybe claimed on PS+, can't remember, but I never had the urge to play it.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted September 25, 2023 Author Share Posted September 25, 2023 5 minutes ago, Copanele said: My legal team is satisfied with the term 😂 😂 Congrats for this one! I think I also have that game, maybe claimed on PS+, can't remember, but I never had the urge to play it.. I believe it was free once upon a time. Honestly it's a fun game with a low key banger soundtrack. The motion controls are the biggest ask though, so if you don't feel like acting like you're having an epileptic seizure then give it a miss. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted October 12, 2023 Author Share Posted October 12, 2023 🎃 Spooktober Update 🎃 Hey everyone! Happy Spooktober! A couple of years ago I wanted to make it tradition to always play some spooky games every October. The tradition I set, was to play a new spooky game and replay the Resident Evil remake. The first because, well, playing a spooky game you've already played doesn't have the same effect does it? To experience true horror, it needs to be a new experience. And the second, because, well, Resident Evil is just infinitely replayable isn't it? At least for me anyway. God I love that game so much. Outside of those two traditions, any other spook-relevant games that I may want to play are fair game. This years goals were as follows; - New experience; Amnesia Rebirth - 100% Limbo - Semi auto-pop and finish the PS5 version of Resident Evil 7 - The annual Resident Evil run Amnesia: Rebirth Last October, I played both Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, as part of the Amnesia Collection, for the first time. I really enjoyed The Dark Descent and Frictional Games' other game, SOMA, is one of my all time favourites. A Machine for Pigs was developed by another team and it shows, it's a very weak game in my opinion. Frictional Games returned to the Amnesia franchise in 2020 with Amnesia Rebirth and thankfully, it's a full return to form. At time of writing I have already finished my first playthrough of Amnesia Rebirth and while I will be doing a full review in this thread once I get the platinum, I can safely say now, I really like this game. It isn't as good as TDD but it's a great entry into the franchise. Money is a little tight at the moment and as much as I would love to play this years Amnesia: The Bunker, I can't justify the cost. Hopefully it hits a deep sale sooner rather than later, or it might end up being next Spooktobers game 😅. Anyway, Rebirth accomplished it's mission of making me pretty scared. The first few hours of this game had me on edge but like with all horror games, after a few hours, you ease into it and get used to its vibe. Frictional Games are masters at building an oppressive atmosphere and creating tension, and Rebirth is no exception. Limbo Limbo is a black and white 2D side scrolling platformer about a small boy in a very scary and oppressive world. Whilst I do prefer Playdead's other game, Inside, Limbo is still a fantastic experience. I first played this game a few days before Halloween in 2015. It's trophies almost all revolve around collectibles and it has no platinum. You can get one participation trophy for completing the game once and there's another much more challenging trophy for beating the game with only 5 deaths or less. I attempted to clean this game up in 2020 leaving only the 5 death trophy to get, which I tried to unlock a few times but I ended up getting frustrated and ditching it. So, three years later I returned to the game and got the trophy done in one night. I'm not sure what I was so worried about, its a short game and while it does have a few 'gotcha' moments, as long as you know they're coming they aren't a problem. I did a normal playthrough to remember the game and its puzzles, one failed attempt which ended about 75% through and then a final run which got me the trophy. Resident Evil 7 Capcom released a free PS5 upgrade to Resident Evil 7 last year, as well as upgrades to both Resident Evil 2 & 3. Resident Evil 2 & 3 allowed you to auto-pop it's platinum trophies provided you got them on the PS4 (which I did) but RE7 worked a little differently. It auto-popped "some" of the trophies, but not all, requiring a little extra effort to attain the platinum and 100%. I held off doing RE7 because of this, when these versions released, I didn't have the time. Well, what better time to do it than Spooktober? I plan to go over this in a dedicated post soon enough. Resident Evil In years past I would replay the entirety of Resident Evil on Halloween. Well, I just don't have the time to do that anymore. Being a dad leaves me about 2 hours of game time a night once the kid goes to bed. So, I'm tweaking it a little and giving myself three days to finish a run of RE. With the third day being on Halloween itself. So I'll be replaying one of my favourite games on the night of the 29th and I'll be loving every minute. So, what's everyone else playing this Spooktober? Do you have any horror recommendations for me? Let me know, and as always, thank you for reading 😊. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post jonesey46 Posted October 13, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 13, 2023 This platinum review doubles up as a bit of a #PPPUpdate (PS3 Pension Plan Update). Another platinum down from the PS3 backlog but it isn't quite a home run. There's still 4 DLC packs to finish which will cost me no less than £20 and will take several hours of grinding ONLINE, with some trophies requiring boosting sessions. I'll get round to it, but not yet. --- "B-B-B-B-BONKERS" Platinum #292 - Need for Speed: Most Wanted Introduction So, what actually is Need for Speed: Most Wanted? Is it a remake of the 2005 game? Is it a reboot? Is it a sequel? Sequel to the original? Or a sequel to the last Burnout game? Well, it's all of them, kinda. Most Wanted released in 2012 and was developed by Criterion. As far as I can tell, the only similarities between this game and the 2005 game, is it's name and the inclusion of the police. It's pretty shameless if you ask me. And like I said, it feels like way more of a sequel to Burnout Paradise than an entry into the NFS franchise. Fine by me, I love Burnout Paradise, but it really does beg the question, why the name? I bought this game second hand in 2014 and the decision was based purely on this cutscene: Someone posted this as a GIF to Reddit and after watching it, I immediately wanted to play this game. There's a bunch of these oddball cutscenes that play right before the police chase missions and you can tell the team had fun making them. Instead of doing generic cops and robbers scenes, they chose to get a bit weird and creative with it. In 2014 I played around half of the campaign and for some reason or another, I dropped the game. I returned to it in January of this year and completed the campaign as well as doing some extra stuff like unlocking all the cars. I wanted to get back to it but the online stuff and DLC was putting me off. Well, I saw a boosting session on here and thought "why not?". The main game only has 4 online trophies and they're all pretty simple and easy to get. Once I got them I found that I was actually pretty close to the platinum so I may as well go for it. The DLC still taunts me but at least I got the platinum out of the way. Story There isn't one. Car go vroom. Visuals It was 2012 and this game looks exactly liked you'd imagine. It looks like a PS3 game. It has that blurry bloom effect that washes the game out and gives it a bluey overtone (which is better than the usual brown, I'll admit). Truth be told, it looks bad, but hey, it was a product of its time and we dealt with it. The newer NFS games look like real life so the franchise has come a long way. Gameplay Need for Speed Most Wanted is an open world racing game with an emphasis on police chases and social elements. You do not own a car and customise it like in the original, instead you find cars littered around the map and once collected, you are able to swap to it at any time. The main campaign has you working your way through a 'Most Wanted' list of NPC racers to ultimately become the best and... the Most Wanted. Core aspects Open World · Events · Cars Open World Most Wanted takes place in the city of Fairhaven which has multiple districts. It has a main city centre, an industrial section, a beach area, and a mountainous area. All of these areas are connected by a huge freeway that circuits the entire map. Whilst driving around, there are several things to collect or drive through. Like Burnout Paradise, billboards and security gates litter the map and driving through them is counted as a collectible. Because of the focus on police in this game, police cars patrol the map and if you're naughty in front of one, this will start a police chase. There are also speed cameras around the map and they will snap you whenever you drive past. This can also alert any nearby police to your wrongdoings. Police chases often end up being annoying rather than fun. When a chase starts it starts at level 1, the longer the chase goes on and the more destruction you cause, the level will increase, to a maximum level of 6. Each level brings more police and roadblocks, increasing its challenge. If you have a fast enough car, the police are never a problem. If they manage to stop you, there's a brief period where they pin you and if you can't get away you get busted. This happened to me a few times during my playthrough, but I honestly cannot tell you what the penalty was. There's no money in the game and therefore, nothing to buy. Everything you do rewards you with SP, which are like points. You need certain levels of SP to tackle the Most Wanted list. Absolutely everything you do in this game has a competitive and social element. Every time you finish a race, drive through a billboard, or drive on the wrong side of the road, a small pop up will appear on the left side of the screen showing you how you're faring against people on your friends list. It's annoying but it's a core part of the game and you get used to it. Booting up the game will place you in the single player version of the world, but if you navigate over to the multiplayer menu, you can load into either a public or friends world. A public world will matchmake you with random players and a friends world allows you to be in a private game and invite whoever you want. The world is the same and any collectibles you get in the multiplayer world will still count and is consistent across to the single player world. Fairhaven is a nice playground for a driving game but, aside from it's collectibles, it isn't worth exploring, it's just a collection of race locations. Events Events are what describes this games races. There are three main types of races: Spring, Circuit and Speed. Sprints are dashes from one point to another, Circuits are races that lap around a circuit and Speed races have you going as fast as possible to reach an average speed. All races have Gold, Silver and Bronze requirements. There are also ambush events which is where those weird cutscenes play. These events has you getting ambushed by police and your only goal is to escape them. Events are dotted around the map and you can drive to them in the open world and spin your wheels on the spot to start them. You can also start events at anytime through the Auto-Log menu, which is like the social hub. Events aren't free to play with any car however. Instead, each event is limited to a small number of cars and you need to be driving one of those cars to be able to access the events. It facilitates finding cars in the open world instead of just finding a car you like and sticking with it all the way through. The multiplayer has other events you can participate in which are like little competitive challenges. These challenges range from drifting the most, getting the most height on a certain jump, or sitting on a roof for as long as possible. The 'Most Wanted' races are the boss-like events. These have you racing against a formidable opponent and once you win the race, you have to take them down by smashing into them. Often times, police will join in on these events which adds an extra layer of challenge. Winning the Most Wanted events rewards you with the opponents car. These are usually the best cars in the game. Cars Unlike Burnout Paradise, NFS Most Wanted uses real world cars. As I said earlier, you collect these cars out in the open world by finding them parked somewhere, and you unlock the best cars by completing Most Wanted events. You can't customise your cars although you can unlock new parts for your car that can improve its performance. These parts are essential to winning its events. A stock car wont get you far. You can also unlock 'pro' versions of these parts by completing various tasks but these are just extras and not entirely necessary. You can't even choose the colour of your car. Instead, there's around 3-4 different colours a specific car can be and it changes to one of these anytime you drive through a garage which fixes any damage done to your car. --- Music Like many driving games, NFS Most Wanted uses a licensed soundtrack using a lot of alternative rock music and some EDM/Drum & Bass/Dubstep, y'know, all the stuff that was popular in 2012. It's a decent soundtrack, not as good as Burnout Paradise, but it's too limited. You will hear every song on this playlist SEVERAL times and it gets a little tiring. One song in particular that I liked before I played this game and enjoyed hearing on the sound track is a song by, sadly now disbanded, We Are the Ocean. Beware, it's VERY 2010. Platinum Thoughts This platinum is a bit of a goldilocks platinum, it's not too hard but it's not too easy either. A good place to start is just doing events and working your way up the Most Wanted ladder. Doing this will give you 11 trophies related to the Most Wanted events and bunch of other miscellaneous trophies that you will easily unlock just by playing the game. There's collectibles which are a bit of a pain because the in game map is god awful. You can use either maps that are included in trophy guides and manually check them off or follow a video which might be the easier option. Smashing all gates is the worst trophy because there's no way to track what you've done, like I said, following a video is your best bet. There's a few trophies relating to the multiplayer and none of them are tricky but require a little coordination. Unlocking three pro mods is a little tricky because it has to be done during events and not in the open world. If you're doing events, you can't really grind the tasks you need to unlock the pro mod without pissing people off. As long as you boost it, you'll be fine. By the way, servers are still populated. I had no trouble finding a game when random matchmaking. The DLC seems to be the biggest issue when it comes to trophies, but if you only want the platinum, you shouldn't struggle. Easiest trophy Fix Me Up - Use a bodyshop to paint or repair your car for the first time. These bodyshops are all over the map, you'll probably drive through one in your first hour with the game. Hardest trophy The Gatecrasher - Break through every security gate. Like I said, there's no way to track this in game so it can be a bit of a pain when you're cleaning this up. You drive through these all the time so when you go to tackle this trophy you'll likely have close to all of them. Finding the ones you don't have is just a case of driving around and looking for them. DLC Ultimate Speed Pack Terminal Velocity Pack Movie Legends Pack NFS Heroes Pack All of this games DLC adds new cars with their own events. They also add a bunch of 'license plates' which are collectibles exclusive to multiplayer, which are unlocked by achieving certain feats in multiplayer. None of these DLC packs seem all that interesting. Some new cars? Yay! All of the trophies in each DLC require you to complete all events and unlock a certain grindy license plate. It's just more content but none of it is new or interesting. It's the same stuff you've already been doing. Like I said, I haven't done any of this yet but I will get round to it. I don't have high hopes for it though. Summary Most Wanted is a great driving game and still holds up. I'm not a huge driving game guy but I do get the itch to play one every now and then and this certainly scratched that itch for me. If you're looking for some great arcadey smashy driving fun akin to Burnout, then this won't let you down. If you like more customisation in your driving games, give it a miss. Best Bit Fun driving, real life cars, spiritual successor to Burnout Paradise. Worst Bit No customisation, police chases can be annoying, it really wants you to play it with your friends. Arbitrary Rating 7/10 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grotz99 Posted October 13, 2023 Share Posted October 13, 2023 On 10/12/2023 at 3:55 AM, jonesey46 said: So, what's everyone else playing this Spooktober? Do you have any horror recommendations for me? Let me know, and as always, thank you for reading 😊. I'm not sure if it's technically a scary game, but I've had Prey on my play list for years and decided I should give it a go finally. I eyed The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan, but not sure I feel like jumping into that type of game at the moment, requires you beating it at least 3 different times. I couldn't do the last 2 playthroughs of the Quarry. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted October 15, 2023 Author Share Posted October 15, 2023 On 10/13/2023 at 11:04 PM, Grotz99 said: I'm not sure if it's technically a scary game, but I've had Prey on my play list for years and decided I should give it a go finally. I eyed The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan, but not sure I feel like jumping into that type of game at the moment, requires you beating it at least 3 different times. I couldn't do the last 2 playthroughs of the Quarry. Prey definitely counts. The atmosphere of Talos 1 is definitely spooky. Love that game, I really hope you enjoy it too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted October 17, 2023 Author Share Posted October 17, 2023 "That's not groovy!" Platinum #293 - Resident Evil 7: Biohazard I reviewed the PS4 version of this game back in 2020, which you can read below. I covered the game and all of its DLC, so I don't intend to repeat myself here. This post will serve as a small review of the PS5 version specifically, and go into the journey I took to getting this platinum and 100% again. As you may already know, the PS5 version of RE7 released alongside the PS5 versions of both RE2 and RE3. All three of them were free upgrades to everyone who already owned the games on PS4. Both RE2 and RE3 allowed you to upload your old saves and auto-pop every trophy you already unlocked on the PS4 versions. RE7 also allows you to do this but it does not auto-pop every trophy. I'm not really sure why, it seems to handle the old saves differently. If you don't like auto-pops, I don't care. Go gatekeep somewhere else. Anyway, the trophies it DIDN'T auto-pop were a bunch from the main game including some story and ending related ones, and then a bunch from the DLC including the painful trophies for completing both Ethan Must Die and Night Terror. Thankfully, it did auto-pop the 21 related trophies because fuck doing that again. So, I played the PS5 version because I wanted to play through the main campaign again. But I wanted to secure the 100% before doing so. So I tackled all the unpopped trophies in the DLC first and, by utlising old saves, got as many of the campaign ones I could too. Once all that was done, I did a normal playthrough to clean up the rest. Despite not auto-popping some trophies, the game still recognizes that you've completed certain modes so all of your unlocks are available to you, making the game much easier than the first time round. The first thing I wanted to get out of the way was Joe Must Die. This was for completing the End of Zoe DLC on the hardest difficulty and from my memory, this mode was pretty tough. I had an auto-save from right before the final fight so I only had to beat the boss to get the trophy. I had access to the dual gauntlet making the boss a cake walk. Right after this, I loaded a different save from my old 'no weapons' run, in the same spot right before the final boss. Again, the dual gauntlet (which doesn't count as a weapon) made the boss super easy. Next up was Jacks Birthday DLC. The trophy was to get S rank in all stages. Thankfully, I only had to complete one stage at S rank for the game to recognise that I'd already done them. Then it was just another quick run to get the 10 minute time bonus trophy. I couldn't remember how to do this so I had to look up a YT video to help me out. Probably the same video I used 3 years ago. Next up was Bedroom, the short 'escape room' chapter starring everyone's favourite camera man, Clancy. This is very easy and quick to complete but it took me several tries because I kept forgetting to take out the fucking knife before the final encounter, if you don't, you die instantly. I was being very dumb when I did this. After this, I jumped back into the main game and dug out my old save from the 'use item box and heal 3 times or less' run. Thankfully I found it and did the last boss Eveline which unlocked both of those gold trophies as well as the trophy for getting Ending 1 (the canon one). Then it was time to tackle Night Terror, the Call of Duty Zombies inspired mode. I was extremely out of practice so it took a few attempts but I got it fairly quickly. In all honesty, this mode isn't as hard as it seems. At this point, there were only 3 DLC trophies left. Two misc ones in End of Zoe and Ethan Must Die. The two End of Zoe ones can be unlocked in the first 15 minutes of that mode. I left the best for last. Ethan Must Die is super tricky but if you know what you're doing and get decent RNG then it isn't too bad. I cannot recommend this video enough: It's such a great and comprehensive guide that will trivialise this mode. After that it was just a case of replaying the main campaign, which is what I wanted to do in the first place. I just had to make sure to beat the video tapes under certain circumstances and to save Zoe instead of Mia to get Ending 2 (the dumb ending). After that, the platinum and 100% was mine! I had a great time revisiting this game and it remains my second favourite in the franchise (RE1 remake is still king). The PS5 version is the better version but it won't blow you away. The haptic feedback is pretty basic and the game looks great but it always did anyway. The increased framerate is probably the best improvement overall. Arbitrary Rating Back in 2020 I gave this game a 9/10 and my opinion has not changed. This game is fantastic and one of the best in not only the franchise, but the whole god damn genre. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted October 24, 2023 Author Share Posted October 24, 2023 It is done. Post coming soon. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post jonesey46 Posted October 27, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 27, 2023 (edited) “You’ll never see it coming!” Platinum #294 – Persona 5 Royal Introduction With my left hand on the bible and my right hand, elevated and open palmed, I would like to say clearly and concisely that I am NOT a weab. Persona 5 Royal is my first proper Japanese game. I’ve played Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid but those are so heavily inspired by western media that they don’t “really” count. So yeah, I’m really not an anime guy, I’m sure a lot of it is very good, it just ain’t my thing. I mean, I watched Pokémon as a kid, but what kid born in the 90’s didn’t? So why did I play this? Well, I have a confession. This isn’t my first experience of Persona 5. I’m a huge fan of YouTube video game critic and professional streamer, Joseph Anderson. Once you become a fan of his you’ll quickly learn that his streams of Persona 5 are essential viewing. Last year I watched his entire playthrough and thoroughly enjoyed it. For some reason, a month or so ago I was feeling nostalgic for it and decided to re-experience the game for myself. But this time, it would be the Royal version so at least some of it would be fresh. I managed to get my hands on a physical copy, on PS5, for around £20. Story You play as Joker, a teenager who after interfering with a public assault, is branded a criminal, and expelled from his school. In response, Joker is placed on probation and sent to a new school in Tokyo, under the guardianship of a family friend. On his first day of school, Joker happens upon a different reality known as the meta-verse. Here, he awakens to a hidden power and has access to something known as a persona. He also learns that he is able to steal the hearts of evil-doers and change their desires and actions for the better. Soon he befriends a gang of misfits who all learn the same power and they start a group known as the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. They vow to change the hearts of all the rotten adults trying to control their lives and in so doing, The Phantom Thieves become world famous. Full story discussion Spoilers ahead Spoiler The story of P5 is a mixed bag, it’s full of clichés, scenes that treat you like an idiot and overly explanative writing. What makes its story so compelling is its core themes and its characters. Once you establish the Phantom Thieves, the gang grows as the game progresses eventually reaching a total member count of 9 (11 in the final chapter of Royal). The core themes are based in its villains. Each target The Phantom Thieves takes down is steeped in corruption based around one of the seven deadly sins. Some of these targets are despicable and their stories are great. The first target is an athletic teacher whose power and popularity goes to his head, and he uses this to abuse his students. Another target is a CEO of a company, and he plans to marry off his daughter to a partnering company to only further the reputation and profits of his company. These are really well done, and the stories can be quite affecting. Others, not so much. Like the second target, Madarame, who steals his student’s art and claims it as his own. Is it wrong? Sure. Do I care? Not a bit. Like I said, the games strong point is its characters. They’re not amazingly written or anything, but each are given their own unique personalities and those shine through over the course of the games run time. They’re also very well voice acted. I presume the game is originally written and voiced in Japanese and then translated over to English. That would explain some of the strange lines here and there. But the English voice acting is mostly phenomenal, with only a couple of side characters and some of the background voices showing any weaknesses. Whatever they paid Ryuji’s voice actor, it wasn’t enough. So, as the Phantom Thieves, you take down corrupted adults and change their hearts. As the group takes down more targets, they become more famous (or infamous). Eventually leading the police and investigation forces to hunting them down. The story begins with Joker in an interrogation room, and he’s being questioned and made to retell the tale of the Phantom Thieves. So, for the first 60-70% of the game, it’s a flashback. This means, as the player, you know they get caught from the start, you’re just slowly finding out how it happens. Once you reach this point, you have a lot more context and it ends up being the most exciting moment of the game. There’s a particular character that I want to talk about, Akechi. Akechi is a similar age to the player character and doubles as a junior detective. He spends most of the game condemning the actions of the Phantom Thieves and eventually trying to track them down. He eventually joins your team but it’s PAINFULLY obvious that he has an ulterior motive. And then, as predicted, he betrays you all which leads to your arrest. The thing is, I didn’t like this character from the start. But in the Royal version, his character is expanded upon and is a core character of the expanded chapter that takes place at the end of the game. He quickly became my favourite character in the game, and I don’t even know why. It’s why the twist at the end is such a gut punch, which I’ll get into in a bit. The story suffers from a lot of cliches and conveniences. The person who Joker interferes with that gets him arrested, just happens to be a politician running for president and the final target of the Phantom Thieves AND the person behind most of the dodgy stuff going on in Tokyo. He even has ties to every target before him. He ALSO just happens to be Akechi’s dad, although he doesn’t know it. Now, of course, this is anime, so the final villain can only be a god who intends to take over humanity. Yes, once you take down the corrupt politician, for some reason public opinion doesn’t change. It seems that the public have been swayed too much one way and are now believing there is no hope. Because of this, the opportunist god uses this to take control. Thankfully, the connections the player makes over the course of the game are able to snap people out of their stupor which makes everyone believe in the Phantom Thieves, and that ultimately helps the Phantom Thieves win their battle to save the world. Everybody is happy and this is where the main game would wind down and lead to its ending. In Royal though, there is a whole other month to get through. Since we’ve worked through the seven deadly sins the final villain has no constraints and can be as creative as ever. The Royal version of P5 changes the whole game but most of its content lies at the end of the game. However, two new characters are introduced pretty early on and will pop up now and then until they take centre stage in their dedicated chapter. One character is Yoshizawa, a new party member, who is a bit of a damsel in distress through out the main game and then turns into a pretty tragic character by the end. And the other is Dr Maruki who comes to the school after the first villain is taken down, to counsel the students who may have been affected by those events. So, to no one’s surprise, Dr Maruki is the final villain and his main difference to all the other villains, is that he’s sympathetic. Dr Maruki was researching the Meta-verse and its ability to change people. He, like the Phantom Thieves, awakens to a persona and he strikes a deal with them to further his research. This revelation makes Dr Maruki obsessed with changing people and taking away their pain, like a therapist is supposed to do right? When the Phantom Thieves take down the God trying to control the population, Dr Maruki steps into the role and is able to alter reality so that everyone is happy, and all of their losses and pain never happened. This includes all our party members. Of course, we as the player know that something is wrong and so we set out to change Maruki’s heart and set reality back to normal. There’s an interesting philosophical question here, is it wrong to let people have what they want, even if it isn’t real? Well, there is a choice but to get the real ending of P5R, you need to oppose Maruki and take him down. For the entirety of this story, Akechi is by Jokers side and the twist I mentioned earlier, is that Akechi isn’t real. He is a part of Jokers cognition and was brought back because Joker regrets how Akechi dies during the events of the main game. I did not see this coming and like I said, was a total gut punch to me. I ended up really liking Akechi once his true nature was shown and losing him again actually affected me. Once you take down Maruki, the final events of the game take place. You return reality to normal, and everyone is grateful. The Phantom Thieves have finished their work and disband. Joker’s probation is up and is finally returning home. All the other members are leaving high school and going off to chase their own dreams. Emotionally, this whole sequence is bitter-sweet. Everything is great and all your friends are happy and have learned from Dr Maruki. They intend to achieve their own happiness instead of being handed it. Most people have probably had to part with friends in the past, whether it be leaving school, college, a job or even moving away. This whole sequence taps into the sadness of it all and really hits you. These characters are the best part of this game and knowing that they’re all parting ways is upsetting. And soon, you’ll have to part ways with them too because the game is about to end. Not many games have had this effect on me, and I applaud P5 for doing this so effectively. Visuals P5 is dripping with style and has awesome visuals. It’s 3d graphics aren’t the best, it’s attempted to translate anime style into 3D and looks very cartoony and kind of weird, but its environments and enemy design is very creative and cool. The best part of the games visuals is its actual anime cutscenes which are amazingly drawn and directed. Everything from the games UI to its dialogue boxes is amazingly cool and has a lot of flair. Gameplay Persona 5 is a game in two halves. One half is a Pokémon style monster collector with turn-based combats based on elements and weaknesses and the other half is a life sim where you take the role of a teenager living in Tokyo. Both parts are starkly different but complement each other well and make for a compelling experience. Core aspects Palaces · Endless Days · Confidants Palaces Palaces are what the Phantom Thieves infiltrate when they intend to steal someone’s heart. Palaces take the forms of locations based around their targets distorted desires. For instance, the first target’s palace takes the form of a castle and is located at the school. This is because the target believes the school to be their castle where they are king. Most palaces are interesting locations like a casino, a bank and even a spaceport. There is also another palace, known as Mementos, which takes the form of the Tokyo underground rail system. This is the palace of the collective unconscious and is shaped by the desires of the public. This is where the Phantom Thieves can change the hearts of lesser targets and its where all the games side quests take place. When you infiltrate a palace, you are given a time limit to change the targets heart and if you don’t do it before the deadline, the game is over, you have to reload. There is a real sense of urgency to it all, but you’re given plenty of time. You’re also able to do most palaces in one day. Only some of the palaces have roadblocks that require you to return to the real world to clear. Whilst exploring a palace, your main objective is to find the targets treasure, which is a manifestation of their desires. Once you steal that, you also fight the target in a climactic boss fight before they can have a true change of heart. When exploring the palace, you’ll come across small treasures to loot, sometimes a puzzle or two, platforms to move along and of course enemies to fight. The combat in this game is turn based and party based. When exploring a palace, you can choose which members of the Phantom Thieves you want to join you. Party members have one persona, and each has their own special abilities that focus on one element. Joker can carry multiple personas and their abilities can be, for the most part, customisable. It’s in your best interest to carry a suite of personas that all have access to each elemental damage. That way you can always exploit enemies’ weaknesses. Enemies follow the same rules. They carry certain damage types, are strong to some and weak to others. When entering combat for the first time you won’t know an enemy’s weakness, so it’s a case of trial and error until you find it. Exploiting a weakness will down an enemy and from there you can hold it up and talk to it. You can either ask them for money, an item or ask them to join you and become one of your personas. That’s where the Pokémon element comes into it. You collect personas this way, but you can also combine personas to make new ones. The combat and persona systems are very complex and have a lot of avenues for optimisation and player expression. The combat is deep and has lots of hidden abilities as well as combos. I won’t go into it anymore but as far as turn based combat systems go, this one has a lot going for it. Endless Days When you’re not infiltrating palaces, you’re free to spend your time as you wish. At the start of the game, there isn’t much available to you but as you progress, more activities open up and you meet more people. There are multiple people you can talk to and hang out with. There are a lot of activities that can be fun but also reward points towards your social stats. These are charm, guts, knowledge, proficiency, and kindness. You can go to the movies or the gym. You can visit attractions. You can play baseball or visit the bath house. You can even play video games in your room. Because you are a school student you do, unfortunately, have to attend school most days. You don’t have to attend classes and there aren’t any minigames. But occasionally you’ll be in class and your teacher will ask you a question, if you answer it correctly you will gain a point towards knowledge. You can study in the library which also increases your knowledge but for the most part, school acts as a social hub as over half of the Phantom Thieves attend the same school. Every activity will take up a time slot. You get two a day. One in the afternoon and one in the evening. It’s imperative to manage these slots and make sure you’re always spending them wisely. Confidants Confidants is what refers to the friends you make. Confidants link back to your personas and every confidant has a class of persona tied to it. As you level your confidants up, you also level up your ability to create personas of that type. Spending time with a confidant can rank them up but not always. If you have a matching persona type equipped, it will level them up faster. Hang outs come with dialogue options and selecting the right dialogue at each turn will award extra points to levelling them up. If you’re efficient with it, you can level up confidants quickly. There are 12 female confidants and 10 of them can be romanced. Including the one that acts like your little sister AND your teacher. God dammit Japan. Romance doesn’t really affect the game that much and will only give you a couple of extra scenes with those characters. You can romance multiple girls at the same time and doing so holds no consequences aside from a very funny scene near the end of the game. Each time you level up a confidant, it can offer a benefit to Joker for use as a Phantom Thief. Most of these are essential and make the combat much easier and smoother so they are well worth doing. Levelling up party member confidants all the way to level 10 will evolve their persona into a more powerful version. Yet again, making them more useful in combat. Levelling everyone up influences the story and those characters come in clutch at the end of the main story line. --- There’s a lot more to discuss here but in the interest of time and space, lets move on. I’ve covered the basics mostly. Music Right. Hands down, this game has one of the best soundtracks ever to be put in a game. It’s a collection of funky jazz like tracks and every single one is a banger. There are a lot of tracks that play during specific activities or times of day, and they can be comforting cause you can always expect them. There are also several songs performed by the amazing Lyn and these songs never get old. I honestly did not tire of hearing any of them, no matter how many times they repeated. The most famous and the absolute best song, is Last Surprise. Platinum Thoughts Thankfully, Persona 5 Royal has a very streamlined platinum when compared to the original P5. Most trophies revolve around experiencing all the new stuff that was added to the Royal version. As well as experiencing the story and finishing the game. The only two trophies you really need to look out for are levelling up all your social stats to max level and scoring the highest on your exams. You have plenty of time to level all your social stats but if you don’t manage your time slots efficiently, you could miss out. There are three sections of the game where you do exams during school time. If you get all questions right you will get the top score. Its best to use a guide because guessing will get you nowhere and there’s no merit in getting a question wrong. I was a little scared going into this game because it was my first JRPG. As such, I played on Easy and had a guide by my side to make sure I knew what I was doing. This was mostly unnecessary, but it did help keep me right. Easiest trophy I Am Thou – Obtained a Persona through negotiation. You’ll likely do this 1000 times throughout your playthrough. Hardest trophy Pure Perfection – Maxed out all social stats. Not difficult like I said, you just need to make sure you’re diversifying your activities to cover all social stat increases. Summary Persona 5 Royal is a fantastic game and I now see why it got all the praise it did on release. It’s a magical game that can only truly be experienced for the first time. It is VERY long, but that’s to be expected from the genre apparently. Despite liking this game a lot and loving its characters, I think I’m happy to leave it here. I don’t have any interest in playing any of the other games in the series, similar games in the genre, or even it’s quasi-sequel Persona 5 Strikers. It really was a once in a lifetime experience for me and I’m happy to have played it. Thanks for reading. Best Bits Lovable, larger than life characters. A deep combat and power combination system. Incredible soundtrack. Worst Bits It’s long. It’s a weab game. Some parts drag on. You can romance your teacher. Morgana. Arbitrary Rating 9/10 --- The ending to this game made me sad and were going to continue that theme with our next review. Spoilers! Amnesia Rebirth is a fantastic sequel to The Dark Descent but as a new parent, the three available endings completely depressed me. That’ll be my next post and it’s coming soon. Edited October 27, 2023 by jonesey46 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted October 27, 2023 Share Posted October 27, 2023 8 hours ago, jonesey46 said: Worst Bits It’s long. It’s a weab game. Some parts drag on. You can romance your teacher. Morgana. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted November 6, 2023 Author Share Posted November 6, 2023 *In a South African accent* "TASI!" Platinum #295 - Amnesia: Rebirth Introduction Amnesia Rebirth is a direct sequel to YouTube phenomenon, Amnesia The Dark Descent. I played both The Dark Descent and A Machine for Pigs as part of the Amnesia Collection last Halloween and loved The Dark Descent. I wish listed Rebirth soon after but time flew away from me and all of a sudden it was Halloween again. I picked it up for a little over £3 (which is a steal) and made it my Halloween 2023 game. Story Anastasie 'Tasi' Trianon is an archeologist along with her husband Salim. They are flying over Algeria when they crash. During the crash Tasi experiences a vision of another world. She awakes inside the wreckage and quickly finds that some time has passed which she has no memory of. She sets out to find her husband and to recover her lost memories. Full story discussion Spoilers ahead Spoiler Just like the title suggests, our main character is suffering from Amnesia. It's a great system to use in games because when the character learns something for the first time, we're learning along with them. As the game progresses Tasi slowly recovers her memories and they are depressing as fuck. Tasi and Salim lost their child sometime before the game takes place. And Tasi is currently pregnant with another one. Playing as a pregnant woman was definitely not something I saw coming. In the Amnesia world, there is another universe known as The Dark World and it's where the main antagonist comes from. Tasi travels to this world a few times throughout the course of the game and every time she returns to her world, her pregnancy progresses significantly. When the game starts, she doesn't even have a bump and by the end of the game, she gives birth to a healthy baby (despite all the trauma she goes through, I mean god damn, give the woman a break Frictional). So, the main antagonist is a high up person in The Dark World and has been rendered infertile by the use of Vitae. Much like the antagonist of The Dark Descent, they're using Vitae as a means to extend their life. Vitae is a substance that occurs in humans when placed under extreme duress, like torture. She wants Tasi's child and tries to make a deal with her, when Tasi resists, she places a curse on her and her team slowly turning them into ghouls. The ghouls serve as this games spooky monsters that hunt you in the darkness. Eventually, you reach the antagonists tower and converse with her. It is here you are given the choice of three endings. The first ending has you taking your baby and escaping with them through a portal back home, but the curse is still in effect and it's heavily implied Tasi fully turns into a ghoul. The second ending has you handing over your baby to the antagonist knowing that she will be safe but being sentenced to a life within the dark world as a mindless ghoul. The third ending has you infecting the Antagonists Vitae supply to kill her but Tasi and her baby die in the process. All three of these endings suck. They're all depressing as fuck and really put me on a downer. I experienced all three, one after the other, for trophy purposes of course. As some of you may know, I'm a new father (although my boy is 1 next week, so I'm not sure 'new' is apt anymore) and this story really affected me. I don't think it would have had the same effect on me last October, before my son was born. I really like this story, its very well written and performed. But I don't like the endings. Not because they're bad, but because they're so depressing. I'm being unfair here, a story doesn't have to have a happy ending to be good of course, look at The Last of Us. But I don't know man, these endings really affected me and I just couldn't see past it. It's completely a personal thing and I'm aware of that. This is a really good story and it has solid endings but I didn't like them. The developer, Frictional Games, also made SOMA, which is one of my favourite stories in a video game. That game also has a depressing as fuck ending but its more existential than being deeply personal. Anyway, if you haven't played SOMA, play it. Visuals Rebirth is technically an indie game but it has AAA or atleast AA production. Visually its going for a realistic style and much like The Dark Descent, environments look astoundingly beautiful and detailed but character models look pretty bad. You don't see many character models up close though so it won't get in the way. As light and dark play a big part in this game, the lighting is suitably great looking. Gameplay Amnesia Rebirth is a first person, horror game where you explore various areas, solve puzzles, hide from enemies and light your way through the darkness. Core aspects Dark/Light · Puzzles · Enemies Dark and Light play a big part in Amnesia Rebirth. Light areas make you feel safe obviously and serve as safe havens, although monsters can still get you in the light. When in darkness, the screen slightly changes allowing you to see clearly in the dark which is welcome because there's nothing worse than not being able to see a god damn thing in horror games. But when you're in the darkness, you start to gain fear. Gaining too much fear doesn't cause death because there is no death in this game. If you stay in the darkness too long or are caught by a monster, you lose control and the curse takes over, taking you back to a prior 'safe' place and allowing you to continue from there. You can stave off the fear by lighting your way with matches or your lantern. Matches are a consumable item found all over and don't last very long. If you move too quickly with one lit, it will blow out early. Your lantern requires fuel which lasts a little longer than a match, but not by much. You can use matches to light torches and candles which gives you safe havens in the darkness. I will say one thing, the sound effect of your fear raising is gross and a good enough reason to try and avoid it all together. Puzzles in Amnesia Rebirth rely on Amnesias great physics engine. Objects have realistic physics in these games and they operate the same way objects in Half-Life 2 do. Doors and drawers need to be opened and closed realistically rather than them just opening automatically after one button push like many games do. This really adds to the tension of the game when you're being chased by a monster and you need to turn around, grab the door and swing it closed. Anyway, puzzles usually have you collecting various items and combining them either in your inventory or using an in-world machine. Some require you to find symbols and turn valves to match those symbols and others require you to hit buttons or levers in a certain order. There are also some environmental puzzles like stacking boxes or placing planks over gaps. Nothing too taxing on the brain but they're always good because of the realistic physics. Makes solving them really immersive. Enemies take the form of ghouls. Twisted humans who have been afflicted by the curse and given in to their fear. There are areas in the game where these monsters will be hunting you and you need to hide from them. It's typical cat and mouse gameplay. Compared to The Dark Descent there aren't a lot of these areas where you're actually in danger. Near the end of the game, a new enemy is introduced and these were suitably terrifying. They have lanterns and when they shine it on you, you gain fear at an alarming rate. They're really hard to hide from and you have to make sure you don't make any noise. You gain fear when you look at enemies so you have to manage hiding from enemies when not really knowing where they are, glancing at them very quickly to get a read on where they are. The enemies aren't the scary part of this game though, once they catch you, all tension is instantly drained. The tension that the game builds in and out of these sections is what makes the game scary and then a sudden build up in tension when one starts chasing you. A lot of the game is scripted and I'm willing to bet there's a lot of AI manipulation going on in the background but on your first playthrough, you don't know that and it can be really scary. Frictional are absolute masters at atmosphere and tension building. Music The music for Amnesia Rebirth is comprised mainly of atmospheric pieces with nothing that really stands out. It does the job but when you're in the midst of gameplay, you'll be concentrating on staying alive. I will say that this piece was pretty affecting and comes at a heart wrenching point in the story; Platinum Thoughts This took me three playthroughs but can be done in two with prior planning. I opted for a blind playthrough for my first run and that's definitely recommended. Horror games like this can only really be experienced once. Half of the list is awarded for completing chapters and finishing the game. There are some collectibles to get and you need to burn a lot of matches as well as break a lot of objects. There's a speed run trophy where you need to complete the game in under 2 hours and 20 minutes, which is super easy with a good guide and the use of a certain skip. Also, a trophy returned from the Amnesia Collection which I really liked. It requires quitting the game at the first scare. I believe this trophy is also in Amnesia The Bunker and I love reoccurring trophies in series. Hardest trophy Speedster - Complete the game faster than any Frictional developer. Not difficult when using a guide AND using the skip exploit. But if you don't use those then the time is really tight. No one actually knew the time when the game released and it was slowly figured out through testing. As always, @Optinooby goes above and beyond to make trophies easier for us and I cannot recommend his guide enough. Not only is it informative but really entertaining and funny too. Summary This is a great sequel to The Dark Descent and a worthy successor. It has a deeply affecting story that hit me on a personal level and I both love it and hate it for it. The setting is fantastic and quite varied when compared to its predecessor. A must play for horror fans and while it won't have you soiling yourself it builds a great atmosphere with thick tension that no other developer can pull off. Best Bits Great atmosphere and tension building, engaging story with affecting themes, amazing light and dark gameplay. Worst Bits All tension is gone once you actually get caught by a monster. Tasi goes through a lot of shit in this game and I really had to suspend my disbelief to get through it, in real life she would have died several times over. The endings are all depressing. Arbitrary Rating 8/10 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted November 6, 2023 Author Share Posted November 6, 2023 My next post will be a triple feature going over three story heavy games. These are; - A Memoir Blue - Road 96 - Kentucky Route Zero I loved one, liked another and absolutely hated another. I'll let you guess which is which. This will have to wait until I actually platinum Kentucky Route Zero, however. The reason I haven't yet platinum'd it is because I'm currently sitting at 299 platinums and want to do something special for the 300 milestone. I've deliberately left one trophy that I can quickly clean up after getting platinum 300. What's going to be special about 300? Well, I don't want to give too much away but a certain cartoon has dominated my house for most of this year which my son has enjoyed watching. It has a game coming out soon and I plan to play it and do everything for the platinum but have my son actually hit the last button necessary to unlock the platinum. Got to get him inducted into trophy hunting at some point right? This could all go wrong if this fucking game has the difficulty of Crypt of the Necrodancer or something. With like a sub 0.10% platinum. Could you imagine? It's a kids show so I doubt it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted November 8, 2023 Author Share Posted November 8, 2023 Ignore my last post, I still have two platinum reviews to do before the triple feature. Here's the first; "Let me out!" Platinum #296 - Quake II Mini Review Much like the original Quake, the masters over at Nightdive Studios have remastered its sequel, Quake II. I reviewed the original Quake last year and I had a really good time with it Unfortunately, I didn't get on with the sequel... As a remaster, this game is perfect. Nightdive Studios are one of my favourite developers because they really know what they're doing with this stuff and are clearly very passionate about their craft. I can't wait to play the System Shock remake when it eventually makes its way to consoles. So what's wrong with Quake II? Well, Quake had a cosmic horror vibe to it with a large variation of enemies and levels. Quake II forgoes all of that for a military theme. You are a dude with a gun and you are fighting other dudes with guns. I didn't play Quake II back in '97 so I wasn't aware of this. The first level was fine but going into the second level and seeing most of the same dudes, the reality started to set in. It was a bit of a slog to get to the end and the game isn't even that long. Unlike Quake, the sequel doesn't require any special actions to get the platinum. All you have to do is complete the main campaign and finish each of the expansions. I opted to play on normal because there are no difficulty limitations here, unlike with Quake where you had to beat it all on Nightmare mode. The problem I have with Quake II is that normal mode feels harder than Nightmare mode from the previous game. Sure you have more health but every fucking enemy in this game is a massive bullet sponge, because of this, all the weapons feel like water pistols and aren't fun to use. Quake II is a 26 year old game, its clearly a classic so I'm probably way off here and in the minority. But I really didn't enjoy my time with this and as a result I phoned the platinum in. Sure I beat the whole of the main campaign cause I was required to but after that I just wanted the thing to be done. So I only played the final level of each of the expansions to get the trophies quicker. I have no regrets. If you played and were a fan of the original game back in 97 then this remaster is a no brainer, Nightdive did an amazing job here. But if you're a newcomer and liked the first one, maybe give this one a miss because aside from name and style, they aren't all that similar. The platinum is very simple and easy this time around though, so it might be worth it just for that. Thanks for reading. Arbitrary Rating 5/10 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Copanele Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 6 minutes ago, jonesey46 said: Platinum #296 - Quake II Damn congrats for that one! Nightdive again hits the mark with flying colors from what I see If I have to add something...I believe Quake 2 is universally loved because of its multiplayer back in the day. Absolutely nobody that I know ever talked about the story in this game But damn, now we can see what the actual story is like 😂 I have to get and play these games... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted November 8, 2023 Author Share Posted November 8, 2023 8 minutes ago, Copanele said: Damn congrats for that one! Nightdive again hits the mark with flying colors from what I see If I have to add something...I believe Quake 2 is universally loved because of its multiplayer back in the day. Absolutely nobody that I know ever talked about the story in this game But damn, now we can see what the actual story is like 😂 I have to get and play these games... I missed Quake II multiplayer because I was 4 when the game released haha. However, I did play a TON of Quake III multiplayer, particularly when it was playable in browser as Quake Arena. I also got into bunnyhopping for a bit and used to frequent bunnyhop servers. Good times. The story in these games is always the same; close the portal, stop the invasion, blah blah blah. Its the same with Doom. But the enemy and level variety is where the Doom games and Quake I shine, this has none of that. Really disappointing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post jonesey46 Posted November 9, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 9, 2023 " *just a bunch of horrible screams* " Platinum #297 - Carrion Mini Review Carrion was such a pleasant surprise for me. You play as a blob of gore, with teeth, who has escaped containment in a secret lab somewhere. Your goal is to grow stronger, spread your biomass to grow more powerful and ultimately, escape the facility. Carrion is what's known as a reverse horror game. Where instead of playing a human running from a monster, you play as the monster hunting down humans. It's a 2D, pixel art, side-scrolling metroidvania. You explore the facility, gaining access to new areas as you gain more powers and abilities. This is a short game and there is very little challenge, but exploring the facility and destroying every human in your path is so exhilarating. I loved every minute of this game. At the start you'll be chomping down on unarmed scientists, then you'll encounter guards with handguns and it escalates from there, eventually encountering dudes with flamethrowers and guys in mech turrets. When you first escape containment you are a little spindly blob with fast movement but not a lot of health. Eventually you'll grow to a medium size and finally a large size. Each size has unique abilities and you'll need to change between these later in the game to solve certain puzzles. The puzzles in this game aren't mind-boggling but some of them are actually pretty clever and creative, and these put a smile on my face. The platinum is straight forward and won't take long. Most you'll unlock through regular play and there's only a few that you'll need to clean up post-game. There's an auto-save right before the end of the game so once you roll credits, you're able to load back in and do whatever you need to do. A fantastic game that was a nice little surprise for me this Halloween. I paid under a fiver for this and it was worth every penny. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a nice, relaxing but visceral game to quench your bloodlust. Arbitrary Rating 9/10 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted November 22, 2023 Author Share Posted November 22, 2023 Alright, triple whammy time. I've changed the rules a bit though, originally Road 96 was going to be a part of this but since then I have played and completed Hindsight, another Annapurna Interactive game. Because the other two are AI games I've opted to swap Road 96 for Hindsight here. It fits much more nicely in with the rest anyway. Road 96 will have its own review after this one. Platinum's #298, #301, #303 - A Memoir Blue, Kentucky Route Zero, Hindsight A Memoir Blue This game does not need to exist. Right out of the gate there with some toxicity. Alright, let me explain myself. A Memoir Blue is an interactive story that plays a little like a point-and-click adventure, you click on objects to progress the story. This "game" has no dialogue, no proper puzzles, a very strange blend of two incompatible art styles, one of which is ugly as heck, and the game only lasts an hour AT MOST. The story follows a young woman who is a swimmer and has been awarded a silver medal. Her passion for swimming has driven her away from her mother and she has regrets. What follows is six very short chapters that show our protagonist dealing with memories of her childhood which eventually leads her to reconciling with her mother. Okay, I'm not gonna lie, as much as I was NOT impressed by this "game", the climax of the final chapter where the protagonist and her mother embrace brought tears to my eyes. I'm a parent now, these things get to me alright? I'm not ashamed of it. As far as Annapurna Interactive games go, this is one of their weakest, although not offensive in anyway. It just doesn't need to exist. The 3D animations are ugly and the way our protagonist moves is really unsettling. The 2D animations are very nice but like I said, they feel at odds with the 3D stuff which makes for a disjointed and strange experience. Trophy wise, it's a walk in the park. A few specific actions during chapters and that's it. You can replay chapters at the end and while you do have to start from the beginning of the chapter, it's not a hassle as each chapter is so short. Interestingly, this game is VERY similar to Hindsight, which we'll get to shortly. It's amazing how that game manages to do everything this game does infinitely better with much more finesse. BUT FIRST, I have to get some shit off my chest with the next one; Kentucky Route Zero I fucking hated this game. Kentucky Route Zero is a point and click adventure game set in a surreal version of Kentucky, America. You (mostly) play as Conway, a delivery driver for an antiques store. Conway is making his final delivery to 5 Dogwood Drive, but finding this address isn't as simple as looking at a map. He's required to travel on the Zero to find it. A road that defies logic and the universe as we know it. What follows is 5 chapters of looking for 5 Dogwood Drive, whilst meeting interesting people along the way and visiting some odd places. This game was released episodically over the course of 7 years. It was kickstarted and announced in 2011. Its first chapter released in 2013 and its final chapter released in 2020. That's a long time and for fans who were invested in each release, this game will be a big and important part of their lives. I don't like to shit on things without explaining myself. I dislike negativity for negativities sake. I also don't want to diminish what this game has achieved and how important it is to some people. What I say here is completely subjective and based solely on my experience with this game. This is probably one of the most 'arty' games I've played and art is meant to inflame. Well, this game inflamed me, I can tell you that for free. Chapter 1, or 'Act I' as each chapter plays out like a stage performance, had me intrigued. Surrealism isn't something I'm adverse to (Atlanta is one of my favourite shows) and this games world and setting interested me a great deal. The main element of this game I take issue with, is its dialogue, and by extension, its characters. It's dialogue frustrated me to the point of frenzy. Being a point and click adventure, dialogue is not only important, but takes up most of the game time. I'm willing to admit that maybe I'm uncultured or just plain dumb, but the dialogue actually made me angry. Again, art is subjective. Every single character in this game speaks in a way that makes no sense. They speak about things that aren't relevant to the current line of discussion. Each conversation meanders and digresses beyond its initial point. Text is flowery and following what people are saying is incredibly difficult. I'm not saying it isn't poignant because I'm sure some of what the characters say does have meaning, but finding that meaning is a challenge, and probably unique to the players interpretation. Basically, no one says anything of meaning and the point of it all is lost amongst wordy words and lengthy analogies. Playing this game felt like a fever dream. People speak English, but speak like they're talking in a different language. Objects and places seem familiar but behave in odd ways. Know what I mean? Something feels off. And that is all to say, that I think that's the point. The game, at least I think, is one big example of life. Life is complicated, nothing really has order and nothing makes sense. Giving our lives order makes things easier for us but take all that away and what is there? You have to find the meaning for yourself. People live, people experience life and people die. Like I said, art is meant to inflame, and this game certainly got a reaction out of me. I wanted to like it, trust me, but I just couldn't wait for it to be over. I played chapter 1 with the best of intentions, by chapter 2 I realised a second playthrough wouldn't be fun so I got myself a trophy guide so I can do everything in one go. I then swapped my trophy guide for a full walkthrough so I didn't have to waste time on side stuff and only did the stuff that made progress and by chapter 3, I started to skip all the dialogue. Trophies are simple by the way and a handy guide will ensure you get everything easily enough. If you liked this game, I envy you. If you got it or it enriched you, I envy you. For me? This game was torture. Hindsight Now back to the good part. Hindsight is very similar to A Memoir Blue. It follows a woman who is estranged from her mother, however, in this instance, the mother has died. Mary has returned to her childhood home to pack up her mothers things and through those things, she relives memories of her childhood. What follows is a complete retelling of Mary's life and how her relationship with her mother impacted it. For gameplay, Hindsight is incredibly basic. You click on objects and rotate them to move to the next scene. Objects will become transparent and show a new scene within it, clicking on this moves you through the object and begins the next scene. It's interactivity is its weakest point, requiring you to move the story along, however I feel the story wouldn't have the same impact if you didn't interact with it. So having it be a short film or otherwise wouldn't work. It's story deals with Mary coming to terms with her mothers death and reliving those important and often painful memories. It does what A Memoir Blue does but much better. By having the mother be dead, it shows that the time we have on this planet is all we have. Regrets mean nothing when that person is gone. I think it's important to note that parental relationships are complicated. Mine are complicated and yours probably are too. If your parents abused you, then you have every right to cut off all contact. I don't think this game is trying to get you to reconcile with your mother no matter what. I think it's saying that these relationships are a big part of our lives and no matter what, we have to move on. One day, it will all come to an end and it's important to break the cycle and ensure that what we do, is better than what those who came before us did. I mention it all the fucking time I know, but I am a parent now and these things get to me. My parents aren't the worst in the world but I've got a list as long as your arm of things that they did, that I would never do to my child. We learn from our experiences and those who came before, its up to us what we do with that knowledge. Trophy wise, it's simple. It has chapter select for cleaning up so I highly recommend just playing through blind your first time. I found Hindsight to be incredibly poignant and well told. It helps that the voice actor for Mary, who narrates the whole thing did a fantastic job. It has a beautiful and hopeful ending and I enjoyed it a great deal. --- So what did we learn? Annapurna can be a little hit and miss but as I've said before, no matter what, they always publish an interesting game. Good or bad, subjective or otherwise, they're always interesting. Except for A Memoir Blue, that game really is pointless. Art is subjective and relies heavily on our own experience and interpretation. Both A Memoir Blue and Hindsight spoke to me as a parent. But KR0 lost me completely, I didn't get it, and I'm okay with that. If hell truly exists, and I end up there, I'm sure the devil will make me play Kentucky Route Zero, forever. Arbitrary Ratings 4/10 3/10 7/10 *Remember, my arbitrary ratings are not subject to the games quality. The Last of Us Part II is still in the 5/10 section and even I'll admit that game is at least a 9/10 in terms of quality. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted November 22, 2023 Author Share Posted November 22, 2023 "Homegirl!" Platinum #299 - Road 96 Mini Review Road 96 is a story heavy game with some light survival mechanics. It works in a very interesting way which results in a unique experience. It reminded me a lot of both Life is Strange and Firewatch. You are in Petria, a country vaguely resembling America but with some Russian or European dictatorship vibes. The current government is a tyrannical force that is locking up young people to prevent them from voting for the left-wing opposition. You play as several, nameless teenagers who are trying to escape Petria to get away from its oppressive regimes. To escape, you need to get to Road 96 where the border is. This is a first person adventure game which follows the stories of 7 characters. As each of your playable teenagers are making their way to the border, you encounter one of these characters in a chapter of their story. These chapters appear randomly and so no two playthroughs are the same. A number of the chapters are integral to moving the central story forward and will appear in a specific order, but most of the chapters are random. Typically, you will experience around 6 chapters before making it to the border. Once you get there, you are required to make a decision of how you will cross, you can pay someone to escort you through a tunnel, you can sneak on the back of a truck, you can brave the mountain and go over the border. The choice is yours. Any one of these choices can lead to escape, but also detainment or death. Once you cross the border, you begin the journey again as a new face and continue on to experience more of the central characters stories. We have Zoe, a young girl who has run away from her powerful father. There's Alex, a tech genius who is being radicalized by a terrorist group. John, a former member of said terrorist group who just wants to do the right thing. Fanny, a local police officer who is torn between doing her duty and doing what's right. Stan & Mitch, a couple of idiot criminals who want to protect a newscaster. Sonya, the aforementioned newscaster and a mouthpiece for the oppressive government. And finally, Jarod, a man looking to avenge the death of his daughter. Each chapter will progress their story and the first four of those characters move the central story along. Once you make it to Road 96 with your sixth teenager, the ending of the game will take place. The trouble with this, is that those latter three characters feel unimportant in the grand scheme of things. On every loading screen, a symbol for each of these characters is on the bottom right of the screen, with a percentage indicating how far you are through each story. Those four important characters were at 100% by the end but the other three weren't. Couldn't they have shortened their stories to fit them in? Or prolong the length of the game to make sure every player sees them. You can enter NG+ to see those missing stories, but by that point I wasn't invested anymore and the characters weren't all that interesting anyway. The ending you get is based on decisions you make throughout your playthrough. It's mostly decided by your dialogue and important dialogue options are marked with symbols to let you know that your choice will have consequences. Even though you play as multiple characters throughout the game, you have to keep your choices consistent to get your desired ending. There's no role-playing options for your individual characters. Those survival mechanics I mentioned are basic but can have an impact on each character. Energy is your first resource. Each time you finish a chapter, you have to decide how you'll keep moving towards Road 96. You can walk, hitchhike, catch the bus or even steal a car. Each action has an effect on your energy level. Walking takes up more energy than driving obviously. You can gain energy by sleeping or by eating and drinking. I never once ran out of energy so I'm not sure what happens if you do. Your other resource is money. You can steal money or even earn money during story moments. You can spend money on food and drink to regain energy or you can even give it away to a political cause or a homeless person. One of my teenagers got to Road 96 with very little money because I opted to spend it or give it away. Because of this I had to cross the border with very little resources and ended up getting caught and shot to death. Even though this is a story heavy game, the player actions go a long way to giving you a place in its world which makes the story have more impact. If you're an old man, you probably won't like this game. It's a little zoomer-y and has some pretty cringe dialogue (I mentioned its like Life is Strange right?). But, those four main characters have a lot of heart and are experiencing real and relatable struggles. I found myself rooting for these characters and got really invested in their stories. I actually got one of them killed during the ending and this affected me quite a bit. Trophy wise, this game is a breeze but there are a couple of missables. You can clean them up post game but because the chapters appear randomly, it may take a while to find the right one. A non-spoiler guide by your side might be your best bet. Road 96 is a definite recommend from me. It's story is fantastical enough to be enjoyable but also relatable in a depressing way. The UK is nothing like Petria, but the current government sure look like they're trying to steer it in that direction. Road 96's strong point is its characters though and I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing their stories and having an impact on where they went. Arbitrary Rating 8/10 There is a prequel game called Mile 0 but it doesn't seem to follow the same format of travelling around as a nameless character experiencing other peoples stories. Instead it follows Zoe and her friend in a more linear fashion. I may check it out eventually but I'm in no rush to, due to it's differences to this game. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 1, 2023 Author Share Posted December 1, 2023 (edited) Milestone Post 🚩 "FOR REAL LIFE!" Platinum #300 - Bluey This fucking cartoon has been a mainstay in our household since November last year when our son was born. Now, if you have children, you might think "mate, how can a newborn watch telly?" and you'd be right to ask that, because the answer is, they can't. But that didn't stop my wife and I binging it after being exposed to it through our social media algorithms which very quickly, and scarily I might add, learned we had a child. Bluey is a cartoon about Australian dogs and the one perfect word to describe it would be "wholesome". It's funny as hell but it doesn't shy away from the more serious aspects of having children and family life in general. Several episodes have brought my wife and I to tears. It's an awesome show regardless if you have kids or not, so I promise you, you won't regret watching it. So, the shows awesome, what about the game? Ehhhhhhhh... It's okay. Now my initial plan was to meme hard and say stuff like "GOTY JUST DROPPED" etc. but it would be disingenuous even in jest. Bluey the Videogame is a 2D collectible hunting game with five levels. Except there's only three and a half levels because one is repeated and the fifth doesn't actually have any main content. You can explore the Heeler house, the park, the creek and the beach. The main "missions" has you playing out original episodes of Bluey where the family look to gather pieces of a lost map to find some treasure. These episodes last no longer than 10 minutes and the gameplay has you finding an item and bringing it to a specific spot. Once the missions finishes, you're able to explore these levels for additional collectibles which fills up Blueys sticker book. It does allow for 4 player co-op and while my son is still too young to play videogames I will most certainly dig it out once he's old enough (provided he actually likes Bluey that is). There are 4 mini-games you can also play which are very underwhelming. There's keepy-uppy with a balloon, the floor is lava and the other two are variations of tag. Trophy Thoughts Trophy wise, it's a walk in the park, as expected. Although some trophies were bugged which I had to de-patch the game for (I bought a physical copy). It will take no longer than a couple of hours. Mostly collecting everything and playing all the mini-games. I wanted to make this my 300 milestone because of how important this show has been in our household this year, our first year as a family with our little boy. Although he's too young to know what Bluey is really, it still reminds me of him. The final trophy I needed was to score 3 goals, I handed him the controller and although he thought it was a toy and started flailing it around, I eventually managed to guide him to scoring the three goals needed to unlock the platinum. A nice little moment that will live on my profile forever. Summary Bluey the videogame is a very underwhelming title with a laughable amount of content for the price they're charging. It's a shame too cause the show is so good and easily one of the best kids shows out there. If you're a fan of the show and you pick this up on a DEEP sale and you might have some fun with it, otherwise, give it a miss. Arbitrary Rating The show? 10/10 The game? 4/10 Edited December 13, 2023 by jonesey46 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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