jonesey46's Trophy Travels

[jonesey46]

March 2024 Update

 

Happy April everyone! Did you get fooled? and if you're from the UK, did you get fooled by our awful daylight savings system? Cause I certainly did! I forgot to change the clock in my car and somehow lost an entire hour on Monday. Anyway... Another month passes us by and I am now another year older. I celebrated my 31st birthday on the 31st of March which I was later informed was my champagne birthday, where you turn the age the date your birthday is on. Nothing changes, you just have some champagne at some point during the day. Which sucks if your birthday is any date below the 18th (or 21st in America).

 

It's been a great month for me trophy wise. As per my previous post, my profile finally reached 90% completion, which is DEFINITELY the first time that has ever happened. I recently set myself a personal goal, to get my unearned trophies down to my lowest point since starting this trophy tracker spreadsheet, which was 1670 back in 2020. And, at time of writing, I'm only 71 trophies off.

 

As I've said before, my free time to game is dwindling by the day, and so despite having quite a large backlog of unstarted games, most of them I REALLY want to play, I'm opting to finish off older games and clear them from my profile, to see some form of progress. There are some absolute bangers (or so I've heard) in this backlog though, so I'm desperate to start some new adventures soon!

 

So, let's roll on the update! Starting with...

 

 Overcooked! All You Can Eat ( #317) 

Started the month of March off by finishing the campaign of Overcooked 2! and then I managed to convince my wife to do a load of pointless tasks with me so we could unlock the platinum! There are various trophies requiring 4 people but you can split your controller in half and control a character on either side, Brothers style. This was a bit of a mindfuck but we got used to it eventually. A pretty fun game in co-op and my wife and I had a great time, although, it does get a bit repetitive towards the end.

 

 Rollerdrome ( #314)

I really wanted to like this game, but something about it just didn't gel with me. It's an arena shooter on roller skates with an emphasis on combos and points, you rack these up by killing dudes and looking stylish whilst doing it. It's a challenging game but I felt it's challenge was artificial. The game doesn't really offer much in the way of options. There are 4 weapons but all of them are perfectly capable of killing each type of enemy and the tricks you perform are all done by pressing one button and pointing the analog stick in one of eight directions. Once you've finished the first level, you've pretty much seen them all. Because of this, I gladly whacked on all of this games generous assist modes to quickly rush the platinum. No ragrets.

 

 Lies of P ( #315)

Ah yes, this game. I'm still due to put a post up about this game and I promise it'll be my next post after this one. Basically, I loved this game and in early March I started my second playthrough on NG+ to clean up everything I had missed. I unlocked the platinum at the end of this playthrough and honestly? I could have quite happily done a third playthrough immediately.

 

 Rise of the Tomb Raider ( #318)

With that personal goal I mentioned earlier in mind, I was looking through my profile to find a game I could work on that would make a pretty nice dent in those unearned trophies. This game has a total of 125 trophies because of its DLC which is utterly insane for a Lara Croft game. After finishing the story back in 2021 I had about 90+ trophies to unlock to get this to 100%. This involved me playing through the campaign again on Survivor difficulty, collecting all the guff in the open world post story, tackling this games horrendously boring score attack mode and then finishing each of its five DLCs. This pretty much took the entire month to finish, but it felt more like three. Since this was started before this year, I plan to do a full post on this soon and though there isn't yet an event for my PS4 backlog, akin to the PS3 Pension Plan, I've preemptively come up with the title PS401K for it. I don't know if that's clever or not, but I fucking love it.

 

 Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One

Knocked this off the PS3 Pension Plan for two reasons; 1. I'm doing everything I can to avoid playing Pain, and 2. I wanted that stupidly long title off the list. This was another game-shared title from way back in the early days of PSN when I used to hand out my e-mail address and password to strangers on the internet, and they'd do the same. I downloaded this off someone's account, played the intro and then never went back to it. I purchased it all for myself recently and completed the entire thing over two sessions. A very short game but you know what? It's actually pretty fun, although it's humour is pretty out-dated. It's a turn based RPG, based on the titular internet comic (which I've never read by the way). There's only two main areas in the game for you to explore and fight enemies, so even keeping the trophies in mind, this game does not have a lot of content. I am NOT complaining though because a quick completion for the Pension Plan is a welcome boon. This will be the next post after Lies of P.

 

 S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chornobyl ( #316)

The Stalker games are ones I've always wanted to play, being a big fan of the Metro series. And would you know it, the whole trilogy shadow dropped on PSN after some Microsoft press conference. They made a mistake though and put the whole trilogy up for the price of one game. This was quickly corrected but I managed to snatch the trilogy up at the discounted price. Intrigued, I jumped in to the first game straight away and had an absolute blast. Visually, these games are very dated but mechanically? So ahead of their time and still hold up to this day. Despite some frequent crashes towards the end of my playthrough, I would whole-heartedly recommend these games to anyone. I'm almost certainly going to play the other two soon.

 

 Pain

Holy shit! I actually played it and made some progress. You know what? I don't even dislike this game, I'm just finding it very intimidating. I've set some time aside this month to play it at least once a week. I'm getting there, but VERY slowly. I got one of the grindier trophies out of the way and tackled two trophies from the Clown Toss mini game where, you guessed it, you toss a clown.

 

 Crash Commando

This game is the next in line on the Pension Plan after Pain. I installed it to have it ready to go and just thought I'd refresh my memory on it, I mean, it has been fifteen years. Doing this unlocked three simple trophies and I have no plan to return to this before Pain is finished. A lot of this will need to be self boosted using my two PS3s. It's one of those side-scroller party games where you kill people and capture objectives. The best way to describe it, is 2D Team Fortress 2 without the classes. This was another game-sharer.

 

 Titan Souls

Alright, I'm out of control, I'm digging up so many old games on my profile and compelling myself to finish them off, with barely any time to do so. Though, I was feeling so burned out with Tomb Raider at this point that I just needed something else to play. Why this? I have no idea. I started it in 2021 on my Vita but dropped it because of its AWFUL loading times. I've always wanted to go back to it though because last year, I played and loved Death's Door, and Titan Souls is that studios first game. This time I was playing on PS5 and the load screens were much more bearable. Titan Souls is a boss rush game where both you and the bosses die in one hit. An interesting concept but not all that great in practice. It requires a lot of trial and error and I guess that's the point but it felt more frustrating than rewarding. I beat the story mode over two sessions and plan to go back to get the platinum soon.

 

 Fallout 76

And finally, the best birthday present a man could ever hope for, new content for a game I love. I am not being sarcastic, I actually love this game. Three new trophies were added to the ongoing Atlantic City DLC and I had a blast jumping back into this game. I'm honestly so down for whatever content gets released for this.

 

And that's March!

 

I hope you all had a great month! And I look forward to returning here soon with my Lies of P post. Thanks for reading as always!

Edited April 3 by jonesey46

[YaManSmevz]

12 hours ago, jonesey46 said:

It's been a great month for me trophy wise. As per my previous post, my profile finally reached 90% completion, which is DEFINITELY the first time that has ever happened. I recently set myself a personal goal, to get my unearned trophies down to my lowest point since starting this trophy tracker spreadsheet, which was 1670 back in 2020. And, at time of writing, I'm only 71 trophies off.

 

I know the feeling man... you hit a percentage you feel proud of, then you start playing new games and before you know it you're back down a few rungs😂 Also 71 trophies away from the current goal? You're gonna do some serious damage this month homie, I can feel it👊

 

12 hours ago, jonesey46 said:

 Rollerdrome ( #314)

I really wanted to like this game, but something about it just didn't gel with me. It's an arena shooter on roller skates with an emphasis on combos and points, you rack these up by killing dudes and looking stylish whilst doing it. It's a challenging game but I felt it's challenge was artificial. The game doesn't really offer much in the way of options. There are 4 weapons but all of them are perfectly capable of killing each type of enemy and the tricks you perform are all done by pressing one button and pointing the analog stick in one of eight directions. Once you've finished the first level, you've pretty much seen them all. Because of this, I gladly whacked on all of this games generous assist modes to quickly rush the platinum. No ragrets.

 

Noooooo this game looked so cool, I've been so excited to play it but this is the second "meh" reception I've come across. And to think I bought it before it went for free like a sucker😂😭

 

12 hours ago, jonesey46 said:

 Lies of P ( #315)

Ah yes, this game. I'm still due to put a post up about this game and I promise it'll be my next post after this one. Basically, I loved this game and in early March I started my second playthrough on NG+ to clean up everything I had missed. I unlocked the platinum at the end of this playthrough and honestly? I could have quite happily done a third playthrough immediately.

 

I think this one may have to go onto my wishlist... between you and Copa, I've been getting mad fomo for this one!

 

12 hours ago, jonesey46 said:

I hope you all had a great month! And I look forward to returning here soon with my Lies of P post. Thanks for reading as always!

 

Looks like the fomo is only gonna get wirse🤣

 

Great post, my dude👊

[jonesey46]

"🎵 Close your eyes..."

 

 Platinum #315 - Lies of P

 

 

Pinnochio! You know... the story about the wooden puppet who wants to become a real boy! If you haven't read it, you've at least seen the Disney adaptation. It's a great and timeless story that will be retold again and again long after we are all gone. But who would have thought this story would be retold through the medium of videogames? Especially a videogame that follows in the footsteps of Fromsoftware's incredible Souls series. Well, no one I imagine, but gosh darnit Korean developers Neowiz and Round8 pulled it off with flying colours.

 

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Fromsoftware's Souls series and its various spin offs, especially Bloodborne. Many developers have tried and failed to ape these games' success but they all seem to misunderstand what makes those games so good. Hell, even I'd struggle to tell you what it is, all I know is that From's games feel good to play and all have multiple moving parts that come together to make an unforgettable experience, and most of these Souls likes just don't have that.

 

Enter Lies of P, a game developed by a complete newcomer to the genre. Aside from a few free to play MMO's and mobile games, these developers have barely done much of anything, until this game. Now, you might think it a little strange that a new developer takes on the Souls formula and does it with the story of Pinnochio. I mean, I thought it was weird as hell. When the game got announced and showed off at various shows, I was super skeptical. Firstly, why Pinnochio? And secondly, it's a souls like not made by From, so it'll probably be garbage.

 

Well, I'm happy to announce that this game is not garbage at all, in fact I'd go as far to say... that it's a masterpiece.

 

Our boy, standing in front of the main hub of the game.

 

So what makes Lies of P so good? Well, most of From's Souls games tend to be greater than the sum of their parts, those multiple moving parts I mentioned earlier never fail to be ever present in their titles and they always come together amazingly well. The thing is, Lies of P has all those moving parts too, and they're all fantastic, but only one of them really elevates it up to the level of From's quality, and that's the combat. Don't get me wrong, the world, story, characters and level design are all great, and the Pinnochio connection works surprisingly well. It's just none of those things really stack up against what Bloodborne or Elden Ring has on offer. The combat though? I'd argue it's better than all of From's Souls games, not including Sekiro.

 

Firstly, Lies of P's combat is much more akin to Bloodborne than Dark Souls, but it borrows heavily from Sekiro too. Pinnochio, or P we'll call him (he never actually gets called Pinnochio in the game), carries a melee weapon in one hand and has a modified arm on the other, which is capable of various feats like handing out shock or fire damage, or using a grapple hook to close the gap between enemies. The weapons of Lies of P are all standard affair for a Souls-like, however, there is one key difference here. Every standard weapon can be split into two parts, it's handle and it's head. The handle determines a weapons move set and the head determines its damage and scaling.. So, say you like a certain weapons move set, but it's damage scaling doesn't work for your build, you can pop the handle off, stick it on a more favourable weapon and voila! Now you have both the damage and the move set that works for you. This level of customisation is incredible and really opens up the game in terms of options. It also diversifies builds in a way that Souls games just don't allow for. How often did you find a really cool but utterly pointless weapon in the later stages Elden Ring? Too many.

 

The Sekiro of it all comes from Lies of P's deflection system. Much like Sekiro, P is able to deflect almost every attack that comes at him. This is how you wear enemies down and make them vulnerable for visceral attacks, which do a huge amount of damage. The deflection system is what makes this games combat so much fun. There's a complicated risk/reward system at play here, perfect parries are hard to get and leave you open to damage but if you pull it off, it can be the most rewarding way of dealing damage. If you opt to just block attacks instead of deflecting, you can still wear enemies down but you will lose health for each hit, which you can then gain back by hitting the enemy, much like Bloodborne's rally system. Bloodborne is a great example here, because that game is famous for encouraging the player to be constantly aggressive and to never back away, although the option is still there. Lies of P does the exact same thing by locking you in place with its mechanics and giving you no other option but to engage with the enemy head on, or die. See, a lot of people like Souls games for their wide array of options. Sekiro is the outlier by only giving the player one way to deal with enemies. Lies of P brings the best of both worlds by offering a good range of weapons and move sets, but also locking you in to it's brutal core combat loop. I really vibe with this gameplay, it's why I love Doom Eternal so much. Sure, it's great to cheese bosses in Elden Ring and what not, but being given a set of tools and complicated problems to solve with said tools, often requiring complete mastery, is just so satisfying.

 

At the start of the game, P wakes up in a train carriage and is contacted by the blue fairy, she encourages P to make his way to Hotel Krat, the grand hotel at the centre of the games setting, Krat. She claims it's the only safe place in the city from the puppet frenzy. Krat is a city that runs on automation, puppets handle all the manual labour leaving it's citizens to live in luxury and leisure. However, the puppets have gone crazy and started to kill people. P is a special puppet, created by Gepetto, he looks like a real boy, and not at all like an automaton. He also has the unique ability to lie, a trait specific to humans. What follows is a standard Souls adventure through various environments, killing enemies, gathering Ergo (this games version of souls), levelling up and taking down bosses, all with the goal of finding out what the hell is going on and how you can stop it. Lies of P is much more linear than the Souls series and has more of a level structure rather than a world structure. Every level has a start and end point, usually ending with a boss, and then its onto the next one. There are shortcuts, but they tend to stay within their levels and only serve to loop back to the checkpoint as you progress further into the level. You can revisit earlier areas but you can't seamlessly walk from one place to the next as most areas are split up with loading screens. The exploration aspect is generally this games weakest point and it's something I hope they can improve upon with a sequel.

 

Fighting bosses in Lies of P is when the game is at its best. Every single boss in this game, with the exception of a couple in the early hours, is a feat in game design, visual design, animation, complexity and challenge. In particular, the final rush of three bosses at the end are some of the best bosses in gaming, period. I think one of this games best qualities, is that when you get hit or die, it's always your fault. So many times whilst playing the Souls games have I shouted "BULLSHIT" straight at the screen because lets face it, these games can be kind of bullshit.

 

 

This does not happen in Lies of P. These bosses have been play tested and animated within an inch of their life. It takes a lot for a man to look inward and realise that yes, it is a skill issue, and the only solution, is to get gud. And get gud is exactly what you have to do! You will not see my nose grow when I say; this game is really hard. Most of the later bosses took me at minimum, two hours each. Most of that time is spent learning attack patterns and how to appropriately deal with them. By the time I'd learnt the bosses, I was finishing them off with very little mistakes. The crazy thing is, I never got frustrated. Okay, maybe I got a little frustrated here and there, but it was with myself, not the game. The game's challenge is so engaging that I spent all those failed attempts being utterly engrossed with the boss and it's mechanics.

 

I've covered the basics without spoiling too much although I will say one more thing, Pinnochio is an incredible story and though this games story is not its strongest point, it still had somewhat of a profound effect on me. After finishing the game I watched both the Disney and Guillermo Del Toro adaptation, both of which have their merits, although the Disney version is a little yikes these days (why is everyone smoking!?, oh right, it was the 40's), with Guillermo's version being the obvious standout. If you have any interest in this story at all, I wholeheartedly recommend Jacob Gellar's video which touches on multiple adaptations as well as Lies of P itself, it really is a great video;

 

As far as trophies go, it's pretty much what you'd come to expect from a standard Souls game. There are three endings but a handy save back up can allow you to get at least two, if not all three with some extra work, in one go. And then it's the ol' upgrade a weapon to it's max, defeat each boss etc. Nothing you've not seen before. I finished off the platinum in two playthroughs, and as I've mentioned before, if not for the mountain of games I need to get through, I could have happily gone straight back in for a third.

 

I'm happily going to revisit this game in the future, along with the regular rotation of Souls playthrough's I do periodically. I just hope that my muscle memory kicks back in and I don't need to learn the bosses all over again!

 

Arbitrary Rating

10/10

 

---

 

I almost gave it a 9 but honestly, I think it deserves the 10. Sure, it isn't perfect, but no game is. The 10, for me, represents a game that I can replay indefinitely and love, despite any flaws it may have.

 

Thank you for reading.

Edited April 9 by jonesey46

[Copanele]

1 hour ago, jonesey46 said:

 Platinum #315 - Lies of P

 

 

Yeeees, finally!!!! Congrats for this one! 

I've been expecting for your review and I am SO glad it was just as enjoyable for you  How ironic is that an unexperienced Korean company managed to nail from the first try what others failed with their Soulslikes   (looking at you Lords of the Fallen...either version)!

 

The only thing I can say is that I totally agree with everything there, damn, the experience was pretty much similar! Bosses especially, damn they were some tough customers! Especially the Green Monster, I had to use some items (cannon balls) to get him off my back.

1 hour ago, jonesey46 said:

After finishing the game I watched both the Disney and Guillermo Del Toro adaptation, both of which have their merits, although the Disney version is a little yikes these days (why is everyone smoking!?, oh right, it was the 40's)

He is Pinocchio FROM THE STREETS 😂

 

But yes, a fantastic game, I can't wait for the DLC/part 2/whatever will come next, because I really want more Lies of P! 

P.S. The bad ending really upset me more than it should've. Damn Koreans hitting all the strings in the P-Organ with that brutality.

[jonesey46]

39 minutes ago, Copanele said:

Yeeees, finally!!!! Congrats for this one! 

I've been expecting for your review and I am SO glad it was just as enjoyable for you  How ironic is that an unexperienced Korean company managed to nail from the first try what others failed with their Soulslikes   (looking at you Lords of the Fallen...either version)!

 

The only thing I can say is that I totally agree with everything there, damn, the experience was pretty much similar! Bosses especially, damn they were some tough customers! Especially the Green Monster, I had to use some items (cannon balls) to get him off my back.

He is Pinocchio FROM THE STREETS 😂

 

But yes, a fantastic game, I can't wait for the DLC/part 2/whatever will come next, because I really want more Lies of P! 

P.S. The bad ending really upset me more than it should've. Damn Koreans hitting all the strings in the P-Organ with that brutality.

Thanks man! Yeah the first Lords of the Fallen was pretty bad huh? Have you played the newer one? I'm not expecting P quality or anything but I thought it looked a little interesting at least.

 

The swamp monster was a tough one for me, I found its second phase really challenging but I forgot to mention in my post how on my NG+ run I got through most of the bosses pretty quickly, some of them even first try. I guess the muscle memory was ingrained at that point. I think either the King of Puppets or Laxasia were the hardest for me and they just happen to by my faves! As well as Nameless of course. Although, Simon kicked my ass on NG+ big time and that ended up being the only time I summoned. I must have spent about 2 hours doing it, finally caved and summoned the spirit and did it first try 😅

 

Yeah the bad ending kind of threw me a little. At first I was like, "oh this actually doesn't seem so bad" and then it zoomed out and I was like "Oh..." 😂

 

So excited for the confirmed DLC and then I really hope they get to make the 'O' game they teased at the end. That would be so fucking sick dude.

Edited April 9 by jonesey46

[Copanele]

2 hours ago, jonesey46 said:

Thanks man! Yeah the first Lords of the Fallen was pretty bad huh? Have you played the newer one? I'm not expecting P quality or anything but I thought it looked a little interesting at least.

The first one gets a DO NOT TOUCH stamp of disapproval from me  the second one tried, it's way better but it still missed the mark from what I saw. I will play it at some point when it's discounted/offered via PS+

 

2 hours ago, jonesey46 said:

The swamp monster was a tough one for me, I found its second phase really challenging but I forgot to mention in my post how on my NG+ run I got through most of the bosses pretty quickly, some of them even first try. I guess the muscle memory was ingrained at that point. I think either the King of Puppets or Laxasia were the hardest for me and they just happen to by my faves! As well as Nameless of course. Although, Simon kicked my ass on NG+ big time and that ended up being the only time I summoned. I must have spent about 2 hours doing it, finally caved and summoned the spirit and did it first try 😅

Ok so I wasn't the only one who had issues with Simon 😂 I think it's because him having Elden Ring level of windups then a sudden SLAM, that gave me headaches in timing his parries. Laxasia was my bane though, took me too many tries in that stupid second phase.

 

2 hours ago, jonesey46 said:

So excited for the confirmed DLC and then I really hope they get to make the 'O' game they teased at the end. That would be so fucking sick dude.

YES! God that ending got me so hyped! I like how we're promised the sickest crossover ever.

That ending really reminded me of American McGee's Alice for some reason  

[jonesey46]

19 minutes ago, Copanele said:

Ok so I wasn't the only one who had issues with Simon 😂 I think it's because him having Elden Ring level of windups then a sudden SLAM, that gave me headaches in timing his parries. Laxasia was my bane though, took me too many tries in that stupid second phase.

Simon wasnt that much of an issue for me on NG but on NG+ I was getting nowhere trying to deflect his attacks so I eventually resorted to dodging all of his attacks and that worked fine for his first phase but goddamn his second phase is so unforgiving. Until I summoned that is😅.

 

Gotta love getting to Laxasia's second phase for the first time and dying in 0.3 seconds.

 

 

[jonesey46]

PS3 Pension Plan Update #6

 

 

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One

 

Completion Time: 15 years, 1 month

 

That title is a real mouthful isn't it? It's one of the main reasons I wanted to finish this game off and get it off the list.

 

Right, 15 years ago I game-shared this title with a random stranger on the internet. I played the intro, unlocked one trophy for petting a cat, didn't think much of it, and abandoned it. I've never once read a Penny Arcade comic in my life, I have no attachment to this brand whatsoever. In order to play this game, I had to buy the bundle that includes Episode One and Two, because they are no longer listed individually. I have ZERO intention of playing Episode Two. That's not to say I didn't enjoy my time with this game. It's very short and has no way of outstaying its welcome. The only reason I played this was to clear the trophies as the game was already on my profile. Episode Two isn't, so I won't bother with it.

 

Penny Arcade Adven... yada yada yada is an old school RPG using characters from the Penny Arcade web-comic. It follows you, a self-insert character which you can customise to your liking, after a giant robot destroys your home. Desperate for revenge, you team up with Penny Arcade legends Tycho and Gabe to take down the robot threat taking over the city.

 

What follows is a short adventure across two large areas, where you fight enemies, look for clues and talk to various characters. The combat is turn based but in real time. What I mean by that is, you attack based on cool-downs, so it isn't strictly turn based but it feels like it, as both you and the enemies tend to attack sequentially, one after the other. Combat is okay, it's not exactly engaging. There are weaknesses and strengths to keep in mind when you fight certain enemies, but a lot of the time you just end up unloading all your attacks one by one anyway, so holding back attacks that enemies aren't weak to doesn't really have any benefits.

 

Exploration is pretty basic. A lot of the time you're wandering around the open areas, walking up to enemies to start combat, opening up boxes and bins to get consumable items or finding characters to conversate with to further the story.

 

The story itself is fine, of course this is only Episode One of a four part series, however they only got to Episode Two before cancelling the rest, probably due to low sales. I will say, the subject matter and humour is pretty outdated. I'm not sure what the web comic is like, and if it still has the same style and humour, but yeah, this game is VERY 2009. One of the biggest yikes for me was that an entire group of enemies are just homeless people. Nothing like beating societies most vulnerable people to death for just existing, am I right? There's some other bits and pieces in there that gave me pause but nothing that actually offended me or anything like that. It's just interesting how these things jump out at me these days and how fast things have changed in such a short period of time.

 

Trophy wise, it's relatively easy but having a guide handy is a must. I had no interest in prolonging my time with this game so I consulted a guide from the start and kept it by my side throughout to make sure I was ticking all the boxes. I finished the game from start to 100% in two sessions. The only trophy that gave me any sort of a hard time was defeating the final boss without healing. There was a rhythm to the boss fight that I had to get used to for getting this trophy, so practice definitely helped, but honestly I felt like RNG did most of the work on that one. The rest are all simple, and they revolve around actions during combat, getting all collectibles and killing all enemies. I didn't need it but I did back up my save right before the final boss, just in case anything failed to unlock upon completion of the game, because there is no going back in once the credits roll.

 

Overall, I did have a decent time with this, but only because it was so short. As I said before, I have no desire to continue the adventure into Episode Two. And I can safely say that it hasn't made me want to check out the web comic, like AT ALL.

 

Arbitrary Rating

6/10

 

---

 

What's left on the PS3 Pension Plan:

1. Aliens vs Predator

2. Batman: Arkham City

3. Call of Duty: Black Ops

4. Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood

5. Crash Commando

6. Dead Rising 2

7. F.E.A.R. 3

8. Grand Theft Auto IV

9. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

10. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

11. Need for Speed: Most Wanted

12. Pain

13. Red Dead Redemption

14. Super Stardust HD

 

And now it's time to knuckle down on Pain once and for all. Having said that though, I have started a new playthrough of Red Dead Redemption. As I mentioned before, my friend became obsessed with RDR2 and desperately wants me to play it, so I agreed but having never finished the first one, I thought I'd at least go through the main story of that first. So yeah, I'm not currently working on it for the Pension Plan or anything but when I do get round to that, I'll be able to jump in post-story and get to work.

 

Outside of that I've been banging out my recent PS5 titles with both Star Wars Jedi Survivor and Ghostrunner 2 both platinum'd and in the bag. I'm currently playing the Valhalla DLC for God of War Ragnarok and after that it's back to the PS5 version of Doom Eternal which I was playing before Christmas and dropped when I got a bunch of new games. I'm excited to finish Doom Eternal again actually, so I can review it on here and completely go back on everything I said about it back in 2020 and rightfully place it in the 10/10 section, where it belongs!

 

Thanks for reading as always!

Edited April 11 by jonesey46

[jonesey46]

"JONAH!"

 

 Platinum #318 - Rise of the Tomb Raider

 

 

Sequels are a great opportunity to expand and improve on everything that came before, unfortunately, a lot of sequels fall into the trap of "bigger is better". Thankfully, Rise of the Tomb Raider doesn't follow that trend and instead, offers a fresh and exciting adventure for gamings most recognisable icon. Although, it does still suffer from poor writing (and that follows into the third one too, seriously, hire better writers! Good writing is super important!), Rise manages to continue Lara's story with a natural progression that lands her in the Siberian wilderness, with only her previous survival experience to keep her alive.

 

Right off the bat, Rise sticks the player in a heavily scripted sequence as Lara scales an icy mountain. I get the impression they wanted to emulate Uncharted 2 a little, as if the whole series wasn't just emulating Uncharted am I right? Although, to be fair, Tomb Raider DID come first. As mechanically boring as this section is, one thing is for sure, this game is absolutely stunning. This icy mountain set piece is a visual treat and for the most part these visuals keep up through out, but none are as impressive as this one here. Like they say, put your best stuff in the window. After Lara's horrendously bad luck catches up with her, we're transported to Syria, two weeks earlier. The story goes that Lara's dad was looking for "The Divine Source", a doo-dad that grants immortality. Before finding it though, he killed himself, or so it seems. Desperate for answers, Lara follows in her fathers footsteps to prove that he father was right. Hot on her tails is the super secret and super ancient organisation known as Trinity, conveniently giving Lara a bunch of dudes to shoot over the course of the game. What follows is an 8-10 hour adventure across the Siberian Wilderness looking for this Divine Source, with Trinity constantly being either 100 yards behind or ahead of Lara at all times.

 

Siberia, the place to be!

 

Like I said, the writing is POOR. The story is as cliche as it gets and if I'm being honest, I find this "new" Lara quite insufferable. Don't get me wrong, I like Lara Croft, and I think Camilla Luddington does a great job playing her, she just doesn't have anything good to work with. Things just happen because they need to, to move the plot along. Aside from the obvious "my dad died for this" I don't really understand her motivations. And this gets even worse in the next game, Shadow. She's Forbidden West Aloy levels of insufferable in that one, Jesus Christ. In fact, Lara reminds me of Ellie in The Last of Us Part II, without the well acted trauma, of course. So many bad things happen in this game that could have been completely avoided if she had just gone home. Anyway, you guessed it, in the end she finds the doo-dad, kills the bad guy, jobs a good'un.

 

It's the setting and semi-open world that I find the most interesting and fun in Rise. Who doesn't love a bit of snow? Well Siberia's got loads of it. Until you reach the geothermal valley that is, which offers a nice change of scenery whilst still making sense in the setting. Each area of the game is fully explorable at your own leisure, with some areas being locked off in need of specific equipment which you will unlock later in the game, metroidvania style. Exploring these areas was my favourite part of the game, despite the sometimes unresponsive and always frustrating platforming. The peak of this games exploration is finding optional tombs and crypts which are like mini-puzzle dungeons that often require a good bit of problem solving to get through. It's just a shame that these puzzles are so short and are never expanded upon once you leave the dungeon.

 

Rise is very focused on offering a 'survival' experience but doesn't quite commit to the bit. You don't have to keep warm at fires, and you don't have to eat or drink to stay alive. You are required to scavenge resources for crafting, but the world is littered with arrows and ammo for you to find wherever you look, so it never feels necessary. Difficulty doesn't affect this either, cause I was playing on the hardest difficulty called 'Survivor' and all it did was increase the damage enemies do. Combat is pretty weak here, but thankfully, the game isn't constantly throwing combat at you. Don't get me wrong, there are combat heavy missions but when you're exploring, you're rarely bothered by enemies and you're allowed to just explore at your leisure, which like I said, is the games strongest point. Lara's main weapon is her trusty bow which can fire flame, poison and explosive arrows, as well as regular arrows. Lara also has access to a pistol, rifle and shotgun which all have their uses in the throws of combat. Combat feels... floaty, I guess? Hard to explain, I just know it doesn't feel great and it was the games weakest part for me.

 

That covers the campaign and that's all well and good, but you know what this shit needs? A score attack mode! Each mission as well as the optional tombs have a dedicated score attack mode that you're required to get three stars on for the platinum. If you're thinking it sounds tacked on, then you've never been more right in your life. How do you feel about spending hours upon hours, replaying the same mission over and over again, trying to get a better score than last time, and to hopefully climb up the leaderboards to get ahead of all the hackers and cheaters? Amazing right? And guess what? That's not even the best part! Cause there's microtransactions!!!! Need an edge in battle? Why not pop over to the shop and spend a few quid on a random pack of perk cards? Go on... You deserve it!

 

Sarcasm aside, this mode is shockingly bad. But for trophies, you need to trudge through. Thankfully, it isn't that challenging and there isn't a single need for any microtransactions, because completing all the campaign stuff awards you with enough credits and cards to do the whole thing. It's just a bit of a grind, having to play each mission again, trying to keep up a multiplier by shooting enemies or collecting orbs. I didn't enjoy this mode at all, but it is nowhere near as bad as the horrendous Endurance mode which was added as DLC.

 

I believe Rise was actually an Xbox exclusive for its first year. Which was actually a good thing because when it released on PlayStation, it was released as the "20th Anniversary Edition" which included all DLC. There were two story DLCs which were interesting but not entirely worth the effort. Those were the Baba Yaga and Croft Manor DLCs. Both offer a little bit of story and a new area to explore. Nothing to write home about. Another DLC was Cold Darkness, my favourite of the bunch. Essentially, you're dropped into an area with infected zombie-like soldiers and three towers which you need to deactivate. Stealth is heavily encouraged during this mission and it works pretty well, as the enemies are blind (clickers really did a number on zombie media huh?). The three towers all contain a puzzle to complete and these puzzles are randomised from a pool of different variables. Things like, if this valve is red then you need to pull the blue lever etc. This was a pretty fun mission overall.

 

And finally, the piece de resistance, Endurance. Both solo and co-op. Both of which have their own trophy sets, because this mode is SO good, that it needed an entirely separate  set of trophies for each. Fuck me. Why is this mode so bad? Because it feels like the most half-baked, lazy game mode ever introduced into a game. Your goal is to survive as long as you can in the Siberian Wilderness, a seemingly never-ending and procedurally generated land of nothingness. The mode only ends when you die, or you choose to extract out with your goodies. In this mode, warmth and hunger DO matter so you need to make fires and find food. The problem is that warmth isn't an issue if you find a lantern, which you can find almost immediately at the start of every expedition. You know? Those little gas lanterns? Infinite warmth mate. Makes total sense to me. Food however, is a pain in the arse. You cannot store food to eat later and you don't need to actually cook it, so you will take down a bear, and Lara will just eat the bear right there and then. And the gauge runs down so fast, that five minutes later, she can be close to starving again. Lara, you just ate a fucking bear! That would sustain anyone for weeks! What the fuck is wrong with you? Wandering around the wilderness you'll come across Trinity soldiers who will shoot at you. As the days go by, you'll encounter more dangerous animals and enemies but because there aren't actually that many of those in the game, they just increase the quantity. At one point I had three bears and two tigers chasing me. This mode is beyond dumb. Your ultimate goal is to collect artifacts and those can be found out in the wild or in crypts and tombs. Once you're done, you can light a signal fire and a helicopter will come and pick you up in less than a minute. She's stranded in the Siberian Wilderness and she can get a chopper to pick her up in less time than it takes me to phone a taxi. The co-op mode is literally just the same fucking mode with NO other changes, aside from it being in co-op. Unbelievable. The cherry on top of all this shit, is that to get the trophies, you need to select it's respective challenge before embarking on the expedition, up to a maximum of five. So if you happen to meet the requirements of a trophy, but didn't select the challenge, you won't unlock the trophy. Why? Because fuck you, that's why.

 

For the co-op, I booted up my old PS4 Pro and solo'd the whole thing. I had the PS4 showing on the TV and had my wife's PlayStation Portal hooked up to my PS5. I would just hop between them whenever I needed each Lara to do anything. It wasn't tricky to do it this way, but it wasn't exactly enjoyable either.

 

Overall, I enjoyed the main campaign of Rise, but everything else was terrible. The score attack mode and endurance stuff felt ill thought out, lazy and just a vehicle for driving you towards microtransactions. Shadow was definitely a step in the right direction, still including a score attack mode but with dedicated levels instead of just replaying the story ones. Still though, the new Tomb Raider trilogy as a whole felt kind of underwhelming right? I just hope they can pull of this new series they've been teasing because if I'm being honest, Lara deserves a lot better.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Arbitrary Rating

6/10

 

[Platinum_Vice]

39 minutes ago, jonesey46 said:

Like I said, the writing is POOR. The story is as cliche as it gets and if I'm being honest, I find this "new" Lara quite insufferable. Don't get me wrong, I like Lara Croft, and I think Camilla Luddington does a great job playing her, she just doesn't have anything good to work with.

 

My condolences.

I played the first of the reboots... was AWFUL. Very very overrated.

[jonesey46]

45 minutes ago, Platinum_Vice said:

 

My condolences.

I played the first of the reboots... was AWFUL. Very very overrated.

Absolutely, overrated is an understatement. Thankfully the second and third are improvements, but funnily enough, I feel like they came and went and no one cared.

 

For what it's worth, I didn't HATE these games, there was just a load of unnecessary fluff crammed into them. The first one had that god awful multiplayer mode and the other two had the score attack stuff as well as a load of pointless DLC.

[jonesey46]

April 2024 Round-Up

 

I know, it's already May, but I wanted to use this meme okay?

 

Hello once again my friends! How was everyone's April? I did some serious damage to that personal goal I mentioned last month, to get my unearned trophies down to their lowest tracked point on my spreadsheet thing, which was 1670 back in 2020. And I succeeded! I think the lowest I got them down to was 1658 I think? But I started two new games back to back which drove the number back up to 1730, at time of writing.

 

The lord giveth, and the lord taketh awayeth.

 

Anyway, lets get into April and see what I've been up to.

 

 Fallout 76

Spent April Fools Day finishing off the new Atlantic City update and had a great time, seriously, I love this game and the new update they've announced looks like their best yet. It promises to expand the map with a whole new area and considering this games world is its strongest asset, I'm really excited for it. Also, I watched the entire series of the Fallout TV show this month and I thought it was fantastic!

 

 Star Wars Jedi: Survivor ( #319)

Returned to Cal's sophomore adventure to clean up the platinum and I enjoyed myself but still feel like the first game was a better experience. This game is technically better in every way and I really enjoyed the new stances but I don't know, this one just didn't hit the same for me. 

 

 Pain

We're in the endgame now... Kind of...

April saw me unlock a whole ELEVEN trophies for Pain leaving only eight to go before getting the 100%. So I really do mean it when I say I'm in the endgame, problem is, the remaining eight trophies do not fuck around. We'll see what kind of progress I can make in May. At this point I'm happy with any kind of incremental progress I can get.

 

 Ghostrunner 2 ( #320)

Right after finishing Jedi Survivor I jumped back in to this to clean up the platinum. Much like Jedi Survivor I felt like this sequel improved on a lot of things from the original but lost the magic along the way. I think there was something special about the first games simplicity.

 

 God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla

I'm on a roll baby! Booted this up to see what this free DLC was all about and despite being a roguelike (and giving me BIG Returnal vibes) I didn't find it challenging at all. Granted, I played it on normal, but still. I managed to crack this out pretty quickly and I was pretty underwhelmed by it. Don't get me wrong, the direction and voice acting was stellar, just like it was in the main game but the plot and ending just felt pointless to me. I felt like Kratos learned all the same lessons he learned in the main game again, I mean, who does he think he is? Aloy?

 

 Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake ( #321)

This will almost certainly get the award for most pointless remake at the year end awards, but you know what? I still liked it. I really like this game and yeah, the remake kind of ruins the visual design the original had, but it looks great in its own way. It's only a couple of hours long so how can you be offended by it? My wife and I played this in co-op which is new for the remake, and if you've played Brothers, you'll know that kind of defeats the whole point of the game. So, if you're playing this for the first time and haven't played the original, make sure you play it by yourself first.

 

 Doom Eternal ( #322)

Nabbed the free PS5 upgrade pre-Christmas and returned to it this month to finish off the platinum and 100%. I. fucking. love. this. game. I'm going to do a post on this soon to fix the mistake I made when I reviewed it back in 2020.

 

 Dead Island 2

Picked up the season pass for this on sale right in time for the second and last DLC's release. I really liked this game and thankfully, the DLC keeps up the quality. Although short, each DLC offers a new area to explore and new gruesome ways to slaughter zombies. 

 

 Grounded

My wife has wanted to play this game since it went into early access but of course, it was an Xbox exclusive. Well, now Microsoft are releasing their games cross platform, we finally get to play it! We are doing this exclusively in co-op and we are having a blast. It's basically Subnautica crossed with Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. The platinum seems a little daunting but we're enjoying ourselves so it isn't really an issue... yet.

 

 Inscryption

And last but not least, we have many peoples game of the year 2021. To avoid spoilers I won't say much but if you've played it, I'm almost done with act 2, and like, yeah, what the fuck? I love it though and I can't wait to play more. The reason I started this was so I could enter @Abby_TheLastofUs's $20 gift card giveaway because who doesn't want $20 am I right? I had already bought the game and it's one of the only ones on the list that I hadn't already played and finished. I may do a post on this once I'm done, it seems important enough to warrant it but it depends on how I feel on it once I finish it. We'll see.

 

but also...

 Red Dead Redemption

I have played a little bit of this but haven't unlocked any trophies for it yet. I was enjoying it but it wasn't exactly grabbing me. I will get back to it and hopefully make some progress on it but I'm far too busy with Grounded and Inscryption at the moment. The PS3 Pension Plan will eventually call its name and then it'll be all hands on deck. Right now, I just want to play through the campaign. 

 

And that's April!

 

I hope you all had a good month and I'll see you back here soon with that Doom Eternal post I promised. It's time for me to go and catch up on all of your trophy checklists because I have fallen waaaayyy behind.

 

Thanks for reading as always!

Edited 17 hours ago by jonesey46

[Copanele]

If I MAY comment (had to do it 😂)

 

Happy 1st of May here, April was a great month! Nice progress there, you have been busy!!

I only can relate to 2 games there though so...

 

4 hours ago, jonesey46 said:

 Star Wars Jedi: Survivor ( #319)

Returned to Cal's sophomore adventure to clean up the platinum and I enjoyed myself but still feel like the first game was a better experience. This game is technically better in every way and I really enjoyed the new stances but I don't know, this one just didn't hit the same for me. 

I completely forgot about this one... I need to play it too, because eh, played the first one, might as well go for this one. But given how the only remarkable thing about the game was how poorly it ran on PCs at launch...I don't expect it to blow my mind any time soon

 

4 hours ago, jonesey46 said:

 God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla

I'm on a roll baby! Booted this up to see what this free DLC was all about and despite being a roguelike (and giving me BIG Returnal vibes) I didn't find it challenging at all. Granted, I played it on normal, but still. I managed to crack this out pretty quickly and I was pretty underwhelmed by it. Don't get me wrong, the direction and voice acting was stellar, just like it was in the main game but the plot and ending just felt pointless to me. I felt like Kratos learned all the same lessons he learned in the main game again, I mean, who does he think he is? Aloy?

Please don't insult Kratos like this, comparing him with snore-loy there 😂

 

I do agree that the plot was pretty pointless...but I think the fact that it was a free DLC with Kratos and Mimir only where you just go apeshit was a super big advantage 😂 no Yak riding, no trekking through woods, just beatdowns.

[jonesey46]

22 minutes ago, Copanele said:

Please don't insult Kratos like this, comparing him with snore-loy there 😂

 

I do agree that the plot was pretty pointless...but I think the fact that it was a free DLC with Kratos and Mimir only where you just go apeshit was a super big advantage 😂 no Yak riding, no trekking through woods, just beatdowns.

 

I'm sorry! He's infinitely more complex than Aloy but the whole 'relearning everything you already learned in the follow up' trope is so tiresome. You're right, this was a free DLC and the main draw was the beat downs. In Aloy's case, it happens in a fully fledged sequel that launched at full price.

 

If anything, I enjoyed hearing the banter between Kratos and Mimir again, potentially for the last time?

 

For what it's worth I don't dislike Aloy completely btw, I actually really liked Zero Dawn but my god Forbidden West was a boring slog.

[Platinum_Vice]

Fellow Inscryption lover here 🙋‍♂️ 

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it so far and you should expect good things to continue in act 3.

The trophy hunt in the postgame was awesome IMO so I'll be keen to hear your thoughts as you finish.

 

I adore RDR so hopefully it clicks with you soon.

[jonesey46]

1 hour ago, Platinum_Vice said:

Fellow Inscryption lover here 🙋‍♂️ 

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it so far and you should expect good things to continue in act 3.

The trophy hunt in the postgame was awesome IMO so I'll be keen to hear your thoughts as you finish.

 

I adore RDR so hopefully it clicks with you soon.

 

Man, I can't wait to get home and play more so that's a sure sign of a good game right?

 

Yeah, I'm sure it'll click eventually for me, for what it's worth I'm really digging John Marston and the mystery surrounding him.

[YaManSmevz]

8 hours ago, jonesey46 said:

April 2024 Round-Up

 

I know, it's already May, but I wanted to use this meme okay?

 

As you should, sir!

 

8 hours ago, jonesey46 said:

Hello once again my friends! How was everyone's April? I did some serious damage to that personal goal I mentioned last month, to get my unearned trophies down to their lowest tracked point on my spreadsheet thing, which was 1670 back in 2020. And I succeeded! I think the lowest I got them down to was 1658 I think? But I started two new games back to back which drove the number back up to 1730, at time of writing.

 

The lord giveth, and the lord taketh awayeth.

 

But progress!

 

8 hours ago, jonesey46 said:

 Inscryption

And last but not least, we have many peoples game of the year 2021. To avoid spoilers I won't say much but if you've played it, I'm almost done with act 2, and like, yeah, what the fuck? I love it though and I can't wait to play more. The reason I started this was so I could enter @Abby_TheLastofUs's $20 gift card giveaway because who doesn't want $20 am I right? I had already bought the game and it's one of the only ones on the list that I hadn't already played and finished. I may do a post on this once I'm done, it seems important enough to warrant it but it depends on how I feel on it once I finish it. We'll see.

 

Damn, man. I guess this one needs another bump up the backlog line!

 

8 hours ago, jonesey46 said:

 

 Red Dead Redemption

I have played a little bit of this but haven't unlocked any trophies for it yet. I was enjoying it but it wasn't exactly grabbing me. I will get back to it and hopefully make some progress on it but I'm far too busy with Grounded and Inscryption at the moment. The PS3 Pension Plan will eventually call its name and then it'll be all hands on deck. Right now, I just want to play through the campaign. 

 

I'm with Vice on this one. When I very first played it I didn't get super into it either, but honestly I feel safe saying that it will get its hooks in you before long!

 

Great write-up as always, my dude!