kingofbattle8174 Posted October 13, 2020 Share Posted October 13, 2020 57 minutes ago, Grotz99 said: Oh man, the swing one really made sad. Not sure if you count SOMA in the same category since it had things you actually had to sneak around and avoid. Would the outlast games be considered walking sims too then? In any case, all three of those options you put up are good games. SOMA would be my favorite from them. The sneaking element is too sporadic to really consider it an adventure game to me. I think it just makes a unique element for the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ_Radio Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 I’m going to miss your trophy progress @jonesey46. Family and real life come first. Don’t let trophies dictate your path. Best of luck for you for whatever you do in the real world in 2021. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted October 14, 2020 Author Share Posted October 14, 2020 (edited) On 10/9/2020 at 4:33 PM, Grotz99 said: I enjoy reading people's thoughts on games, rather than just professional reviewer sites, and their take on getting the platinum. Your posts were always enjoyable to read for me. I started doing more casual trophy hunting a couple years ago and doing it more now, but it's about finding a balance. If you look at my account, it would take me forever to clean it up and a lot of money on DLC that I probably won't care to enjoy, of course if there is a game I enjoy, I'll most likely get the DLC on sale. You should be able to have fun playing games. I found my balance with playing new games that I wanted to play and still going for platinums on them while mixing in a game that is already on my profile every once in a while, the ratio is probably 3 or 2 to 1 new games to old. I think my unearned dropped from 5700 to 5400s, but hey it's still progress and my completion percentage went from 37% to 55%. I hope that you can find that balance you are looking for and can enjoy gaming again. 8 hours ago, Spaz said: I’m going to miss your trophy progress @jonesey46. Family and real life come first. Don’t let trophies dictate your path. Best of luck for you for whatever you do in the real world in 2021. Thanks for the kind words guys. I just need to restore my mind so I can enjoy games and not treat it like a second full time job. One thing I want to do is read more. I love reading but never dedicate any time to it cause I'm always playing games. So next year I plan to read a hell of a lot more. 14 hours ago, kingofbattle8174 said: The sneaking element is too sporadic to really consider it an adventure game to me. I think it just makes a unique element for the game. Yeah you're not wrong but I always consider "walking sims" to be relaxing, where you can just sit on the couch and soak up the story but SOMA was not relaxing at all! I was on the edge of my seat for most of that game cause it was never really clear when you were in a sneaking segment or not, so I was always worried something was going to jump out at me. Also, shout out to SOMA's story cause that ending had me in an existential crisis for a week. Amazing game. Edited October 14, 2020 by jonesey46 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted October 14, 2020 Author Share Posted October 14, 2020 Platinum #158 - BioShock 2 Introduction I first played this game in 2010 not long after it's release. I remember it being 1 of 4 games that I bought with the in-store credit I got from trading in my Wii (it was just collecting dust like all Wii's did). At this point I had never actually played the original game because I was an idiot. Anyway, I remember thinking it was okay, I played and beat the story and then traded it in. Never touched the multiplayer because why would I? Well, here we are 10 years later; lockdown hit and after recently getting the platinum and 100% for the masterpiece that is the first game, I thought why not grind out the MP so I can have the full set? Story Shortly after the downfall of Andrew Ryan and Fontaine in the first game, Rapture is now being controlled by psychiatrist, Dr. Sofia Lamb. Sofia has brainwashed the remaining splicers in Rapture to form 'The Family', a collectivist cult with the goal of turning Rapture into a utopia, much different to that of Andrew Ryan's vision. You play as subject Delta, an Alpha Series Big Daddy who prior to Rapture's downfall, was bound to a little sister known as Eleanor and due to Sofia Lamb's influence, was forced to kill himself. 10 years later, Subject Delta is revived using a Vita-Chamber and is contacted by a grown up Eleanor, instructing him to put an end to Sofia's plans. Gameplay BioShock 2 plays a lot differently to the first game. It's much faster paced which in my opinion, is to its own detriment. You can now equip a weapon and a plasmid at the same time, allowing you to ready weapon/plasmid combos and use them in quick succession. Because of it's faster paced nature, you face much more enemies than you did in the first game, and a lot of them go down very quickly without much of a fight. The combat in the first BioShock was actually strategic, you had to think about how you were going to approach each enemy. In BioShock 2 it's just run and gun, like every other FPS at the time. You play as a Big Daddy so of course, you have access to all of their big bulky weapons such as the Drill and the Rivet Gun. However, none of them feel bulky, there's no weight to any of the weapons in this game and it's a real shame. On top of those there's the chain gun, the double barreled shotgun, the spear gun and the launcher. These weapons did not feature in the first game, but it's hard to ignore that none of these are unique and are instead just 'Big Daddy' versions of the first games arsenal. Aside from weapons you have a couple of gadgets, the most notable being the remote hacking tool. This requires hacking darts which you can shoot at security systems, allowing you to disable them from a distance. This was a nice improvement on the hacking system from the first game, and the hacking mini-game was also updated to be much quicker and simpler. The research camera returns but this time it's a video camera. Instead of taking pictures of your subjects doing different things, you instead record yourself killing them in different ways. I liked this but I don't necessarily think it's better than what the first game did. One thing worth mentioning is the different ammo types; each weapon has 3 ammo types, consisting of standard ammo and then two alternatives such as incendiary or anti-personnel. These different ammo types damaged certain enemies more, encouraging a tactical approach like the first game, but I found the differences to be so inconsequential that I rarely bothered using them the way they were supposed to be used. The plasmids make a triumphant return of course, all of them returning from the first game. No new ones unfortunately aside from a plot related one that you unlock near the end of the game. Multiplayer It's 2010, so of course the game has multiplayer. I feel this is one of the worst offenders of a tacked on MP. Fair enough, they actually put some effort into making a little story out of it, which I never paid any attention to. As far as I'm aware you play as a splicer during the Rapture civil war, and you're testing out plasmids for the various companies. But at the end of the day, it's a fucking deathmatch multiplayer ripping off Call of Duty with various BioShock elements thrown in. Shameful. Platinum Thoughts As far as single player goes, the trophies for BioShock 2 are fairly straight forward. There's collectibles, there's loads relating to the hacking and research mini games and there's trophies for upgrading all the weapons. On top of that you have one for beating the game without harvesting any Little Sisters, and for beating the game on hard. Super simple. What stops most people from getting the platinum though, is of course the multiplayer. There's a few super easy trophies that you'll get in your first few matches but the big time sink is ranking up to level 40 (50 if you want 100%). The online is mostly dead, with a few lifers on there who obviously love the game and have issues letting go. Boosting is really the only way to get this in 2020, and to avoid the lifers you'll need 6 people. Thankfully, during lockdown, I had all the time in the world so once I had a group together, it was just a case of grinding it out. It took me 6 nights to get from rank 1 to 50, with a few hours grinding every night. It's a major time sink. As a word of advice for anyone wanting to do this; hacking is the best method when boosting, everyone knows this. But don't bother with the turrets. Partner up with someone and hack the vending machines using the freeze plasmid. It takes a little getting used to and you will get blown up a few times, but once you get the feel for it, you will be laughing. When I was hacking the vending machines, I was easily pulling in 800-1000xp more than the guys on the turrets (my math may be off a little there, it's been 6 months since I played it but trust me, it's worth it). Summary Stack this up next to the first game and it will lose every time. It's nice walking around Rapture again just for the scenery but ultimately this game fails to do anything better than it's predecessor. Without comparing it to the first though, then it's a decent FPS with an okay story and the world is definitely fun to explore. Best Bit Rapture remains to be one of the best cities in any video game. While not as atmospheric as it was in the first game, it is still a joy to explore and exist in. Worst Bit Inferior combat and everything else compared to the first. Arbitrary Rating 6/10 --- DLC Rapture Metro Pack Unfortunately, BioShock 2 received an add on for it's multiplayer mode, adding several new maps and increasing the level cap from 40 to 50. Grinding from rank 40 to 50 takes about as long as it does to get from rank 1 to 40. I wish I wasn't joking. By this point though, me and my boosting buddies had a rhythm going and nothing was stopping us. Protector Trials The Protector Trials is a survival based mode which was honestly so underwhelming. There's about 10 maps, and the goal is to protect your little sister as she gathers ADAM from a corpse, all the while fending off hordes of splicers. Each map is slightly different, but every one plays out the exact same way. They might send a few different enemies but they're all pretty much identical. I was bored stiff going for these trophies. Minerva's Den Minerva's Den was BioShock 2's only story expansion. And after the first two DLC's being so utterly uninteresting and boring there was only one thing to say; Minerva's Den is set after the events of BioShock 2, and has you playing as Subject Sigma, another Alpha Series Big Daddy. This time you explore Rapture's Central Computing, and it offers more insight into Rapture's world and how it operates. While not essential, it was a nice little story and as I said before, after the first two DLC's, it was a breath of fresh air. --- Maybe I was a little too harsh on BioShock 2 here? I mean it is a decent game but as a main and numbered entry into the series, you expect it to at least improve or innovate on the first, and this does neither. Anyway, Saints Row the Third will be my next post and I should have it up soon. Thanks for reading as always! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted October 16, 2020 Author Share Posted October 16, 2020 Platinum #159 - Saints Row: The Third Introduction I started playing Saints Row: The Third in 2012 and over the course of about 6 months I beat the campaign and then started working on all the other stuff in order to get the platinum. At some point though, I got really fucking bored and stopped playing it. I think I had already done a lot of the extra stuff but still had quite a lot left to do, including all the challenges and I think I just got overwhelmed. Thankfully, my save stayed in tact despite replacing my PS3 twice over the years. So, when I returned to the game in April of this year, I was able to pick up where I left off, instead of starting from scratch. Coming back to the game all this time later was a nice experience. I had already done most of the leg work, meaning I had most of the unlocks and loads of money. Being able to just run around Steelport wreaking havoc like I was in God mode was a lot of fun. Story The Saints are a gang, but now they're massive celebrities with a big company, brand deals and loads of media coverage. A crime syndicate known as The Syndicate want to buy out the Saints, but they refuse and so the Syndicate send their men out to kill them. A war between them starts and they both fight for control of Steelport, the city in which the game is set. I mean, if you're coming in to this game for a gripping story, then you're barking up the wrong tree. Gameplay Obviously, gameplay is king here, the story can definitely be entertaining at times, but it only serves as a vehicle to drive you into crazy gameplay scenarios. Saints Row 3 is an open world sandbox game with absolutely tonnes of stuff to do. The game centers around taking control of Steelport by playing activities, purchasing property or gunning down groups of rival gangs. There's a slew of weapons for which you can wreak havoc with. There's your conventional guns like rifles, shotguns and pistols etc. but then there's also silly weapons like the giant purple dildo bat or the fart in a jar grenade. Having played Saints Row 2 I definitely noticed that this game was much sillier. It seems that the developers realized competing with GTA wasn't going to work, so they leaned really heavy into the silliness. The game can be funny, although sometimes a little try-hard. But, nothing beats somersaulting into a car, driving at ridiculous speeds, jumping out, blasting everyone with a rocket launcher, calling in a fighter jet, flying off then jumping out and parachuting back down to do it all again. Around Steelport you can take part in some ridiculous activities such as trailblazing, which has you driving a quad bike on fire around an assault course. Or Insurance Fraud which is like a hall of meat mode from Skate where you just go about trying to get hit by cars. Then there's also streaking and tank mayhem, and also the Genki stuff which is like a really violent gameshow where you kill people dressed up like furry animals. All the activities are fun, but honestly, the novelty wears off pretty quickly. Platinum Thoughts So I ditched this game 7 years ago cause I got bored going for the platinum, that should tell you enough. It's not that the platinum is difficult, it's just that there is so much stuff to do and to get the platinum, you need to do all of it. Complete all activities, buy every property, kill every gang, do all the challenges, get all the collectibles. It definitely can get overwhelming. But, it's all simple and straight forward, so if you don't mind a little bit of a grind, then you'll be fine. There's a couple of choice based trophies during the campaign, but you can manual save before doing them, allowing you to unlock the trophy for each choice straight away. There's also a somewhat unobtainable trophy now, the online character one, but I think there's an alternate method for getting it so it's not 100% impossible to get. Summary Taking a 7 year break definitely helped me get this platinum. I was so burned out on the game in 2013 but after all these years, I was able to pick it back up and have an absolute blast. It's a really fun sandbox game with loads of stuff to do, but as I say, when cleaning up all the extra activities and stuff, it can get a little tedious. Best Bit The sandbox gameplay is really fun and you have loads of tools to wreak havoc with. Worst Bit Overwhelming amount of side content required for the platinum. Arbitrary Rating 7/10 --- DLC Genki Bowl VII The first DLC for Saints Row 3 has us returning to the Genki gameshow but with some new and even more ridiculous activities. There's Super Ethical PR Opportunity which has you driving the mascot around town running over as many people as possble. There's Panda Sky Blazing which has you free falling through hoops and onto buildings to murder people dressed as bunnies. And there's Yarngasm which has you controlling a large ball of yarn and your goal is to destroy everything in your path. Thankfully the DLC doesn't overstay it's welcome. The modes are fun but like all the activities in the main game, they lose their novelty quite fast. Gangstas in Space This one was definitely weird. So, they're shooting a movie about The Saints fighting off aliens or something and you star in it. There's like 3 or 4 different scenes, all more wackier than the last and you just need to play them out. Kill aliens, defend points, man a turret on a car etc. The best part about this DLC is your characters voice acting. Your characters given lines to read, and when they read them out, they do it in the most unnatural and ham fisted way possible. But the director still praises you for it. It's pretty hilarious. The Trouble With Clones... This DLC almost acts like a prelude to Saints Row 4 (which I haven't played by the way) in that it gives you super powers. So the story goes that one of the Saints who previously died has been cloned by some kid, but the clone is like a big dumb brute. You and another Saint have to go chasing after him around Steelport. As I said before, the main draw with this DLC is that you can drink an energy drink and gain super powers like run at super speed or shoot fireballs. It's pretty fun and I'd say this was my favourite DLC of them all. --- Feel like I'm getting somewhere now. Next up will be a nice small look at the Thermal update for Human Fall Flat. Meanwhile, I've been playing Vampyr pretty much exclusively. I'm having a good time with it, although I can see it has issues. Anyway, see you next time! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted October 19, 2020 Author Share Posted October 19, 2020 (edited) 💯 100% (re)Achieved - Human Fall Flat 💯 DLC Thermal DLC Thoughts This was a free level which was patched in to the game and I love that. I'm under the impression that these levels are actually fan made using the PC version, but the developers are then porting certain levels over into the console versions. I also believe PlayStation is the last platform to get them as there were already achievement guides up for PC and Xbox when it released. Now, annoyingly I had already seen this level get played on YouTube by Hat Films a while ago but I didn't actually realise until I was actually playing it. I got all excited about playing a new level with the girlfriend and then had a moment of "wait a minute, I remember this". It was disappointing but I still had a lot of fun playing it through a couple of times in co-op. As with all Human Fall Flat levels, this one follows a theme and the title pretty much says it all. Your main resource for solving puzzles is heat! And there's also some snow and electricity involved. The level takes place at the top of a mountain where there is a sort of resort and a compound with a big drill in it. I really liked the setting of this level and felt it was more interesting than some of the main games levels. Trophy wise it took 2 run throughs as we just wanted to explore and play the level on our first go, so we missed the two optional trophies. On our second go though, we focused on the two trophies and got them in the same go. Very simple level, and the trophies can be unlocked in around 20 minutes or less. There's one more level that's come out after this which I will post about soon enough, but I really do hope they keep adding these levels in the future cause they are always fun to pick up and play for 20 minutes. --- Ooh, next I get to write about the delight that was Resident Evil 4! See ya. Edited November 8, 2023 by jonesey46 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted November 9, 2020 Author Share Posted November 9, 2020 (edited) I took a little hiatus from this thread but I'm back now. I realise that if I don't get my posts up to date before I quit for 2021 my minor OCD might make me go crazy haha! Ever since I made the decision to take 2021 off trophy hunting, I've noticed a huge difference in my approach to games and trophies. Which is great but I still intend to start in January, so for these two months I'll be making a big push and maybe aim for a nice round number for my completion percentage. That'll give me a nice clean break and might appease my OCD a little. Anyway, lets get on with the post. 💯 100% Achieved - Resident Evil 4 💯 Introduction I've mentioned before my lateness to the Resident Evil franchise. Before 2020 I had only played the fifth one. Well, here we are, I've finally played the entry in the franchise that seems to be most peoples favourite. After playing through the 2 remake, I fancied seeing where Leon ended up and I was not disappointed. The game has definitely aged with it's cheesy jokes and action tropes but it's still a very enjoyable action game. Story Leon S. Kennedy is now a government agent, working directly for the president. It seems the presidents daughter has gone missing and her last known location was a small village somewhere in Spain. Upon Leon's arrival to the village, he notices that the residents have gone a little crazy. It's Leon's job to find out what happened to the village and to save the presidents daughter at any cost. Umbrella are probably involved somehow? They always fucking are. Gameplay Now, as far as I am aware, Resident Evil 4 revolutionised the third person shooter genre. Games like Gears of War, Dead Space and Uncharted probably wouldn't be the same, or even exist for that matter if it wasn't for this game. Now, that might be hyperbole, but I've read it enough times on the internet to believe it's true. This game was also a huge departure for the series, swapping out the fixed camera angles and tension building horror for a behind the shoulder camera and action packed sequences. I have the unfortunate position of playing this game after playing the 2 remake. And while that game isn't perfect, it's design and presentation is just so good, that anything else pales in comparison. I am of course going to judge this game based on the time it came out but just know, it isn't my favourite of the series. Leon controls like a tank, and stops dead when he aims to shoot. This can take a little getting used to, but once you do, it's a non-issue. Resident Evil 4 is an action-adventure game, with emphasis on both. You start your journey in a small rural village but end up exploring a huge castle, underground ruins, operational mines, the series trademark lab area and even a military compound! These variations in environment really make the game feel fresh and exciting, even though I do believe it is a little too long for it's own good. Action wise this game has it all; A wide array of weapons, MGS style boss fights, massive action sequences straight out of a film. It really is a blast to experience and there is something new around every corner. Enemy variety is great here too, although there's soldier 'zombies' near the end and they are a colossal pain in the arse. Like I said, there is something new waiting around every corner, I found myself constantly surprised at each new thing they threw at me. One other thing worth mentioning is the inventory management and the merchant. Leon has a case with him which can carry a certain amount of things, all items and weapons take up so much room and it's up to you to arrange them in the case and prioritise what to take with you. I absolutely love this system and while it has returned in the later games, I just don't think it's as cool as the case. The famous merchant is obviously hilarious with the way he speaks, but I really like having an actual person that you can go to for stuff, rather than an implied merchant in-between missions like in 5. Trophy Thoughts For a Resident Evil game, this one has to be the most simple and straight forward. Most of them are just for playing through the game, with only a couple of boss related ones that could be missable. Then there's one for completing all the hilariously easy shooting range stages. And then all you have to do is complete the game on the hardest difficulty and complete one of the extra chapters involving Ada. I will say that the hardest difficulty one was pretty tough in some areas, most notably towards the end in the military compound, but it's nothing a little trial and error didn't fix. Unfortunately there's no platinum for this game, which is very odd as it is a fairly lengthy game that could have had way more trophies in it. But alas, Capcom obviously didn't see the need. Summary For such a revolutionary game, you might play it today and think 'how?' but it's easy to overlook the influence this had on the genre and the industry. Honestly the cheesy jokes in this had me and my girlfriend rolling with laughter but ultimately, the game is still a blast to play and I think holds up relatively well. If you're not going to play this, then what will you do instead? Go to bingo? If the rumours are true and the remake is coming, I will buy that shit on day one cause I can't wait to see how they've handled it. Best Bit Action set pieces and the hilariously bad jokes. Worst Bit It's a bit long, the tank controls can get in the way and the game gets a little bullshit-hard toward the end (on professional). Arbitrary Rating 7/10 --- I've actually just started playing the first game (the HD remake of course) and I'm loving it so far. Can't believe it took me so long to get on this franchise. Edited November 8, 2023 by jonesey46 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted November 11, 2020 Author Share Posted November 11, 2020 (edited) My completion percentage is going to take a massive dive next week when the PS5 hits. I've got Spider-Man pre-ordered with the console and I will no doubt be playing Astro and Bugsnax. I'm going to try and complete all of them as best I can before 2021 but with Cyberpunk coming out in December and the laundry list of games I've requested for Christmas (RE3 remake and Crash 4 to name a couple) this might be the beginning of the end! But let's not think about that right now, it's time for a another post! This one should be a laugh. 💯 100% Achieved - Magic Orbz 💯 Introduction Fun fact: This game was originally called Magic Balls and got changed sometime after release. I'm not sure if it's a copyright issue or just the fact that Magic Balls is an awful fucking name. So this is one of those games that I definitely regret playing. I used to game-share with this American guy (shout out to Matt, hope you're well) and he used to buy pretty much every PSN game that released back in the early days of PS3. I actually got my first ever trophy from a game I game-shared with him, Super Stardust HD. Anyway, as you can imagine a lot of these PSN games were hit or miss. Unfortunately, this one was a miss. 11 and a half years later, I bought the game for myself along with its DLC and set out to 100% this black mark at the bottom of my profile. Story Right, first off, for those not in the know, this game is a block breaking game. The ones where you have a ball and a bat, and you need to send the ball out to break blocks and make sure it doesn't go past your line of defense. So, of course you would think this game didn't have a story, but you know what? I think it actually does. Each world has a theme and each level seems to progress a little story through the blocks you need to break about a princess needing to be saved or some evil witch needing to be defeated. It's subtle, and to be honest I didn't even notice until I was almost done with the game, but it's there if you want it. Gameplay I mean what is there to say? It's a block breaking game. Send the ball out and bat it around until all the blocks break. I tell you what though, this game isn't easy. And that's mostly down to RNG. See it's all well and good breaking regular blocks with your regular balls but if you really want to win, it's all about the power ups. When you break a block there's a chance a power up will drop and come hurtling towards you, catch it with your bat and you can suddenly be batting a bomb that explodes on its next impact, or you could all of a sudden have a bigger bat, or even a smaller one! You get the idea. These power ups are random, and if you don't get good ones, then fuck you, you lose. I could struggle on a level for half an hour, constantly failing, but on my next try I could get an iron ball, which destroys all blocks it touches in one hit and doesn't bounce back, it just plows through everything, truly OP. And that would be the level complete in under a minute. It's horrendously unbalanced but fucking hell, it's a shite block breaker game from 2008. What do you expect? There's like 5 or 6 worlds, each one following a different theme like pirates, jungle, witches, fantasy and even a Christmas one. They only differ in style though, each level is the same as the last just with more or less blocks. There's a few absolutely rage inducing, piece of shit blocks that get introduced in the later levels like iron fences that need to be bombed, teleporters that yeet your ball towards you with ridiculous speed or the crazy ball fountain, which turns your ball into a total dickhead that just whirls around with no physics logic and usually makes its way towards the exit so you lose (don't even get me fucking started on these fountains). Trophy Thoughts Thankfully, most of the trophies just require you to complete the levels, but that is a feat itself and like I said, the later ones will make you tear your hair out. There's a couple for doing specific things during a level, like destroying certain blocks or characters in a unique way but they pretty much line themselves up most of the time. There's one for having 9 lives, which is pure RNG, but it seems once you find the sweet spot of RNG where extra lives start to drop, more usually follow it and then it's just a case of not losing them long enough to collect 9 of them. Summary Don't buy this game, it's fun for 5 minutes and then it just gets either boring and tedious or just straight up frustrating. If you want a block breaker game, I'm sure a better one has been made in the 11 years it took me to beat this one. Best Bit The feeling you get when you delete it off your system? Worst Bit < These fucking dickheads Arbitrary Rating 4/10 --- DLC Wicked Witches Pack Winter Pack Jungle Pack Fucking hell this game has DLC! All of them are just new sets of levels following the themes of their respective titles. One thing that is worth mentioning is that the DLC packs were considerably easier than the main games levels. I found that I was moderately enjoying myself playing these levels as they weren't causing me heart palpitations. Edited November 8, 2023 by jonesey46 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted November 12, 2020 Author Share Posted November 12, 2020 (edited) So I picked up my copy of Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PS5 today. But I'm in the UK, so I've no way to play it until next week when the PS5 releases. No idea why retailers are releasing games and accessories for a console that isn't even fucking out yet. I'm not annoyed that I don't get to play it for a week, I'm annoyed because I've had to take an extra trip to my retailer when I was supposed to pick up both the game and the console at the same time. They only hold pre-orders for 2 days so I HAD to go and get it. It's just extra messing about. Anyway, rant over. Now to talk about a game that I'll never forget. 💯 100% Achieved - Inside 💯 Introduction What a fucking game. I'm a fan of PlayDead's other game Limbo, but it never resonated with me as it did for other people. Inside though, holy shit. This game wrecked me. Let's get into it. Story You play as a young boy and the game starts you off in a forest. There's no text or dialogue telling you why you're here or what you are doing. Your goal is to move forward and as you play you realise that you, as the player are not important. You are just here along for the ride. The boys goal is never communicated to the player, you just need to get him from one part of the world to the next. As mentioned before, there is no dialogue and no text. The entire story is told through the environment and what the boy experiences as you play him. It truly is a work of art. I found myself absolutely glued to the screen the entire way through it. I beat the thing in two sessions, which would have been one if it hadn't gotten so late the night before. I don't want to go into spoilers so regarding the ending I'll just say this; The ending absolutely floored me, I had so many questions whilst playing the final segment, it struck me with both shock and awe and I never saw it coming. Shortly after I finished the game I went to YouTube and watch a couple of hours worth of analysis videos, all of which were absolutely fascinating. Seriously. Play this game. Gameplay Inside is a 2.5D puzzle platformer. Each puzzle is an environmental hurdle the boy needs to overcome to move forward. There is amazing diversity in its puzzles. There's simple push and pull object puzzles, underwater vehicle segments, gravity anomalies, using other people to weigh down pressure plates, mind control puzzles. It's all very similar to Limbo but I found the puzzles much more engaging in this. The puzzles are also fairly challenging, but not frustratingly so. It's always clear what you need to do, it just might take a few tries to figure it out. Gameplay wise, there's not much more to say. The story and the journey are the real reason to play this game and the gameplay purely drives this forward. It is by no means boring though, and it keeps you engaged enough whilst desperately trying to get to the next part where you might understand what the hell is going on. Trophy Thoughts Inside is a lot more forgiving than Limbo. Purely because of the lack of any permadeath trophy. Otherwise the trophy list is almost identical. All trophies relate to collectibles and then one final one for unlocking the 'secret' ending. Easy peasy. I had missed a couple of collectibles on my first run through, but I was able to clean up the ones I missed using a very extensive and generous chapter select. Summary Play this game. Just play it. Best Bit Engaging story with an ending that will stick with you. Worst Bit The underwater bits can get tense and might give you a slight heart attack. Arbitrary Rating 10/10 I have a rule about not giving out 10's because nothing is truly perfect. But as I thought about this game, there is not a single thing about it that I would change. Which is as close to perfect as it gets right? Fuck it, the 10 stays. Thanks for reading as always Edited November 8, 2023 by jonesey46 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted November 13, 2020 Author Share Posted November 13, 2020 (edited) 💯 100% Achieved - Resident Evil 5 💯 Introuduction This was my first Resident Evil game. I bought it not long after it came out because I was a student and had disposable income, and I liked to keep up with big new releases at the time. Having never played a Resident Evil game before I had no idea what I was getting myself into and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. If all the previous titles were available on PS3 at the time I probably would have delved deeper into the series, but they weren't. By the time 6 came out I had already moved on, so this is why it has taken me so long to get into this series! Anyway, I got the platinum for Resident Evil 5 way back in 2009 and I remember being quite proud of myself, cause I had never completed a game like it at the time and it did pose a fair challenge. Fast forward to 2020 and during lockdown I finally decided to get the DLC done and that is what we are here to talk about today! DLC Versus Pack Not starting off strong... This is probably the most bored I've ever been boosting for trophies. I had just recently done BioShock 2 and that was a laugh compared to this. The Versus Pack is a multplayer component that was added as DLC to Resident Evil 5. It has 4 modes, Slayers and Survivors, and then a team version of each of those. To get all trophies you need to win, yes that's right WIN, 30 matches of each, so 120 total. Boosting this obviously means taking turns, so I had to play 240 matches. Each survivors match lasts 5 minutes and a slayers match lasts 3 minutes. Slayers has you killing other players and survivors has you killing as many zombies as possible. There's a bunch of maps, all straight from the campaign levels. And there are also costumes to collect for the characters. You can play as Chris, Sheva, Jill or Wesker. Sheva and Jill obviously have unlockable costumes which are revealing cause this is a Resident Evil game. Not much more to say on this one. Boosting this was really boring and I'm glad it's behind me. Lost in Nightmares Lost in Nightmares is a story DLC and it takes place before the main game. It gives insight into what happened to Jill Valentine and why she is absent for most of the main campaign. The DLC takes place in a mansion very similar to the mansion from Resident Evil 1. It has the classic puzzle design that is obviously absent from Resident Evil 5 and is generally a good time for fans of the series. I really enjoyed my time with this DLC, as I said, it harkens back to the original games and their design, which is obviously leagues ahead of the action oriented stuff from 5 and 6. It's pretty short, lasting only an hour. However if you want all the trophies, you're going to be in for a few playthroughs. Speaking of trophies, there's one for completing it on any difficulty, and one for completing it on the hardest. There's also one for getting an S rank. The hardest difficulty one wasn't overly tough, but there's a section in the basement that can cause some trouble. Depending on your difficulty, the basement section plays out differently too, which was a nice surprising challenge. Other than that, there's one for collecting some emblems and one for hitting Wesker (the boss of the DLC) a certain amount of times. Nothing too strenuous. Desperate Escape And finally, another story DLC but one with a lot more action! This one takes place simultaneously with the end of the main campaign and it follows Jill and Josh as they escape the Umbrella compound. Josh has a mate that can pick them up in a helicopter, but they need to make it to where the helicopter can land, and there's a shit ton of zombies (sorry, Majini) between them. Overall this DLC was OK. It didn't blow my mind, and it was actually pretty tough. You're on a bit of a timer in some sections and there can be so many enemies coming at you it can all just get a little overwhelming. Trophy wise it's similar to the previous DLC; beat it once, on the hardest difficulty and get an S rank. Also kill 150 enemies in one go, and 3 of one (rare) type. A lot of the time it's easier to just run past enemies, but if they catch you, they really can fuck your shit up and this is where I started to get frustrated. The final part of the DLC sees you holding out on a rooftop for a set amount of time before the helicopter can pick you up. During this time everything gets thrown at you, including boss type enemies like the chainsaw guys that take about a thousand bullets before they go down. I was pretty lucky on my hardest difficulty run because I hit a glitch where enemies just stopped spawning after the first minute, so all I had to do was just wait for the timer to run out. I spent a long time gearing up for that fight too and I didn't even need to! Anyway, Desperate Escape can be fun once you get the hang of it, but as I say, it can get frustrating. I was just glad to be playing this and not another Versus mode! --- 11 years and it's finally done! I've got a few of this series under my belt now and I'm so glad I finally got round to it! I'm currently playing RE1, and I know I'm getting RE3 Remake for Christmas. After that I might play RE0 but other than that I think I'll be done. I have no interest in playing 6 or any of the spin offs. Unless I can be convinced otherwise. As for RE8, that will be a day one buy for sure! I loved 7 and can't wait to see what happens to Ethan and Chris next. Edited November 8, 2023 by jonesey46 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted November 17, 2020 Author Share Posted November 17, 2020 Platinum #160 - Mass Effect Introduction I started this game in 2014. I bought it because I didn't have a lot to play at the time and I wanted a big meaty game to sink my teeth into. However, after completing the first mission I totally lost all motivation because it was all so overwhelming. The game seemed huge and I just couldn't wrap my head around it, so I left it. I attempted to go back to it 6 months later in 2015 but again, the game intimidated me with its complicated menus and ridiculous amount of people you could have proper conversations with that I just left it, and this time it was for good, or was it? After 5 years of hearing how great this series was I just thought "fuck it", and delved into it. Still a little intimidated by it, I jumped in head first and was determined to work this game out for better or worse. And I'm so glad I did. Story Mass Effect follows the story of Commander Shepard. During a mission on Eden Prime, Shepard uncovers a rogue Spectre, known as Saren, and his plot to command an army of machines known as the Geth, to take over the galaxy. Spectres are like these council appointed badasses that operate throughout the galaxy without restrictions. Whilst on Eden Prime, Shepard also finds an ancient artifact which gives him a disturbing vision. After taking all of this information to the council, Shepard is assigned as the first human Spectre, and is given free reign to do whatever it takes to stop Saren and his plan. Gameplay Mass Effect is a third-person RPG with action elements. The combat is a little weird as it's almost like it's turn based, but in real time. If that makes any sense what so ever? But combat is not overly important in this game as it is in the sequels. In true RPG fashion, you start the game by creating your character, your Shepard. Shepard can be male or female, with dedicated voice actors for both. You can choose from three options what kind of upbringing your Shepard had and most importantly, you can choose your class. I only played Infiltrator, and this is the case for all 3 games. But there's plenty of different options which give you different abilities. Some classes favour firearms, some favour tech abilities, some favour biotic abilities etc. My class, the infiltrator, uses sniper rifles and tech abilities. You can change the look of your character too and the creator can be quite in depth, or you can just go for the default look which is what is on all the covers and promo stuff. My character looked a bit like the actor Tim Allen. This became a bit of a joke in our household. The aim of Mass Effect is to bring down Saren and stop his plan, as I mentioned above. But how you do this is completely up to you. There are a number of planets with main missions that are required to push the story forward, but for the most part these can be done in any order. There are also a ton of other planets with side missions or even collectible stuff like minerals or artifacts. Each planet is its own open map area and when you deploy to a planet, you take your car the Mako, and drive around the planet looking for points of interest. The Mako controls like shit by the way, but that's another story. This gave the world a real sense of exploration. Once you've seen one planet, you've pretty much seen them all as architecture and buildings are just repeated no matter where you are, however, that feeling of exploration never really goes away. This is something the sequels lack, but we'll get to that in their own respective posts. So how do you travel the galaxy? In style, with the Normandy SR1. The Normandy is Commander Shepard's ship, and serves as the main hub between missions. You can navigate the ship to what ever planet you want to go to, you can walk around and talk to your crew mates, or you could trade with the requisition officer to get your gear up to date. The game is definitely technically limited, I mean it came out in 2007, but every part of it feels like a real world that you exist in. The crew is a very important part of Mass Effect. You can recruit 6 crew members that can then assist you out in the field. The relationships you build with these characters are meaningful and can impact story moments later in this game, and even the sequels (providing you carry your save over). Each team mate has their strengths and weaknesses, and these need to be considered when taking them out on missions. You can also pursue a romance with your team mates. Your Shepard has 2 options, whether you choose male or female, and going through with it can lead to weirdly animated sexy times. Another major feature of Mass Effect is the dialogue, and the Paragon/Renegade system. Honestly, most of your time spent with this game will be talking to people. Every conversation you have gives you options on what you want your Shepard to say. How you carry out conversations, and indeed who you conversate with can impact the game and certain choices later on. There's a shit ton of dialogue in this game so I hope you like listening. The Paragon/Renegade system is there to offer you the choice of being a true hero goody two-shoes, or a complete and utter dickhead. Again, choosing one path or the other greatly influences the story and your choices later in the game. Finally, the combat. Shepard can wield sniper rifles, assault rifles, pistols and shotguns. But your class determines which ones you can actually use. As an infiltrator I was only trained in using snipers and pistols. I was able to use both assault rifles and shotguns, but they didn't do me any favours. Over the course of the game you can collect different variations of these weapons that may have better or worse stats than your current weapon. Outside of ballistics, you can use tech or biotic powers. These range from hacking synthetic enemies to lifting enemies off the ground. Platinum Thoughts Mass Effect is a bit of a complicated platinum. It requires 3 full playthroughs and a couple of partial playthroughs, and there's no getting round it. The three full playthroughs consist of playing through the entirety of the game, including almost all of the side missions with each of the team mates. Now, you can have two team mates with you at a time and you pretty much need to stick with those two for the whole game in order to get their respective trophies. And then you need to do that two more times to cover the other four team mates. This is a colossal pain in the arse, as one team mate can only be recruited after you've already done 4 or 5 missions, which leaves unlocking their trophy pretty close at the end of the game. Outside of those, there's several for using each ability on enemies so many times. Now again, this is a pain in the arse because certain classes don't have access to certain abilities, and if you want to give yourself an easier time, you're going to want to play your subsequent playthroughs on NG+ which means you can't select a new class. Thankfully, there is an exploit which has you completing the first few missions and then just unloading on an object over and over again until the respective trophy pops. And finally, there are difficulty trophies, with one requiring you to beat it on the hardest difficulty, Insanity. Insanity isn't as bad as it sounds, but if you struggle then you can always use an exploit which allows you to just beat the final boss on that difficulty and still get the trophy. Summary Mass Effect has now become one of my favourite games of all time, and one of my favourite series of all time. A lot of people hype these games up and for good reason. I was glad that I waited to play them as I was able to play all 3 in order with no extended wait times in between. The vast array of options you have make it so that your story and your Shepard is unique to you and it really does feel like a tailor made experience. Especially when you get to the sequels and you're able to carry over your character and all your decisions. A novelty that never wore off once for me. It's a prime example of a game where your actions define the experience. You really care for the characters you come across as they're all fleshed out and seem real. What an amazing experience. Best Bit Vast galaxy to explore, wide array of choices. Your Shepard, your story. Worst Bit Some of the gameplay elements haven't aged well like the combat and driving the Mako. Arbitrary Rating 9/10 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted November 18, 2020 Author Share Posted November 18, 2020 Platinum #161 - Minecraft Dungeons Introduction This game came out of nowhere for me, up until a couple of days before it came out I didn't even know it existed. My girlfriend and I were off work at the time due to lockdown so we were looking for a game we could play together. We both like Minecraft so why not? We ended up playing the entire game in co-op and had a lot of fun doing so! Story Oh no! The Arch-Illager has unleashed his army upon the lands to find the pieces of a powerful cube! You are the only one who can stop him! Gameplay Minecraft Dungeons is an isometric dungeon crawler game, similar to Diablo (or so I'm told, I've never played Diablo). The game consists of 9 levels and as you play through them you collect different gear. Gear you collect has levels and all your gear calculated together gives you your power level. All the levels have a difficulty slider so as you level up, the enemies also level up, and thus drop better gear. Once you complete the game on the base difficulty you're encouraged to go through it again on the next difficulty, and once you've done that, go through it again on Apocalypse difficulty. This way you're always levelling up your gear and by the end of Apocalypse you should technically have the best stuff in the game. It sounds grindy, but it never felt that way. I suppose you could grind at the very end for the best possible gear imaginable, but the game isn't packed with content and it isn't particularly interesting after 3 run throughs, so I doubt many people will do that. Having said that though, grinding isn't really my thing so there may well be people willing to grind in this game. When you're not slashing mobs in the various levels you'll be back at the homestead. Here you can trade with wandering merchants and go through the gear you've collected. Merchants trade with emeralds and you gather these naturally whilst playing. There's also a secret level located in the homestead and to access it you need to collect a glyph from each of the main levels. The secret mission is a reference to a Diablo game and it completely consists of Mooshroom cow mobs. The gear is obviously the most important thing in a game like this and I found it pretty varied. There's enough unique legendries dropping to keep things interesting. Your character can equip a sword, a bow, an armour set and 3 artifacts. Artifacts allow you to perform special abilities like summon a wolf, fire a firework arrow or buff you defenses. As for the levels, I was quite impressed by how diverse and how scenic they were. Talented builders can do a lot in the OG Minecraft and the levels in this feel like you're making your way through one of those talented builds. There's a level based in a forest, a swamp, a mine, a castle and more. All of them are quite beautiful in their own blocky way. Platinum Thoughts The platinum in Minecraft Dungeons is fairly easy, with the only slightly challenging aspect of beating the final boss on Apocalypse difficulty. Most trophies revolve around levelling up your character, killing a certain amount of mobs and collecting emeralds. Beating the final boss was no easy feat on the default difficulty. It took me and my girlfriend a fair few tries to take him down but honestly, it isn't that bad as long as you keep your gear up to date and always make sure you're a few levels over the recommended power level. Beating him on Apocalypse was easier cause we had the strat down and we made sure our gear was top notch (heh). Summary As far as dungeon crawlers go, I couldn't say if this stacks up against them cause this was my first experience. But as a fan of the original Minecraft, I had a bloody good time with this game and it served us well during the pandemic. Its diverse and scenic levels are a joy to explore and the loot system seemed rewarding enough without warranting excessive grind. All in all, I would definitely recommend, especially for couch co-op. Best Bit Diverse levels and fun co-op gameplay Worst Bit Repetitive towards the end, no need to play it once we unlocked the platinum Arbitrary Rating 8/10 --- Managed to finish up the PS3 game I was working on, Wet, before the PS5 drops tomorrow. Was pretty happy to get it finished after 10 years and also happy that I won't have any 'in progress' PS3 titles on the go whilst I'm gaming on the 5. It might just be my last PS3 platinum for a while as I don't think I'll be starting any before the end of the year and I certainly won't during 2021. I'll definitely still play the PS3 though cause a bunch of my favourite games are on that system and I'm sure I'll replay a few over the next year. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ_Radio Posted November 18, 2020 Share Posted November 18, 2020 On 11/11/2020 at 3:59 AM, jonesey46 said: It's horrendously unbalanced but fucking hell, it's a shite block breaker game from 2008. What do you expect? I think video games nowadays are too easy in general. I cannot help but feel people from the 80s and 90s were made of a tougher cloth. In other words, they had to actually work hard and achieve something in order to get it. Gamers today pretty much get shit handed to them on a silver platter, with hardly any effort to show for it. Hence forth, that is why stuff like My Name is Mayo 2 is made because hey.... let me click on a stupid mayonnaise jar 10,000 times for a platinum trophy. Magic Orbz has sort of been on and off my wishlist for quite some time now. Considering that other PSN games of its time like Super Stardust HD and Shatter were both challenging, they were sort of the norm. I can literally pick out several hundred games that I could finish in a few short hours with absurdly high completion rate. That's bland. That's boring. As dated as Magic Orbz is, at least it offers a bit of challenging gameplay. And let's face it, video games from over a decade ago were horrendously unbalanced to begin with. Video games from the 1980s and 1990s were even more horrendously unbalanced. Now video games basically hold your hand the entire way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted November 19, 2020 Author Share Posted November 19, 2020 18 hours ago, Spaz said: I think video games nowadays are too easy in general. I cannot help but feel people from the 80s and 90s were made of a tougher cloth. In other words, they had to actually work hard and achieve something in order to get it. Gamers today pretty much get shit handed to them on a silver platter, with hardly any effort to show for it. Hence forth, that is why stuff like My Name is Mayo 2 is made because hey.... let me click on a stupid mayonnaise jar 10,000 times for a platinum trophy. Magic Orbz has sort of been on and off my wishlist for quite some time now. Considering that other PSN games of its time like Super Stardust HD and Shatter were both challenging, they were sort of the norm. I can literally pick out several hundred games that I could finish in a few short hours with absurdly high completion rate. That's bland. That's boring. As dated as Magic Orbz is, at least it offers a bit of challenging gameplay. And let's face it, video games from over a decade ago were horrendously unbalanced to begin with. Video games from the 1980s and 1990s were even more horrendously unbalanced. Now video games basically hold your hand the entire way. Hmm, I disagree. Yeah sure there's easy games nowadays, but if you don't like it, don't play them? It's as simple as that. There's plenty of challenging games being released today if that's what floats your boat. For instance I'm currently playing Hollow Knight and it is kicking my ass. But it's a lot of fun. Magic Orbz isn't fun, it's just challenge. Which is boring and unrewarding. No one loses when games of all different difficulties come out. The more people that get to play games, the better. There's something for everyone and it is no skin off your nose if people want to play My Name is Mayo 2. Likewise, you couldn't pay me to play Surgeon Simulator, but you playing it doesn't affect my life at all. I mean it's up to you if want to play Magic Orbz or not, and if you do, you'll probably think I'm being dramatic here. But at the end of the day, I played it and didn't have fun, I was mostly frustrated and glad to put it behind me. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ_Radio Posted November 19, 2020 Share Posted November 19, 2020 3 minutes ago, jonesey46 said: Hmm, I disagree. Yeah sure there's easy games nowadays, but if you don't like it, don't play them? It's as simple as that. There's plenty of challenging games being released today if that's what floats your boat. For instance I'm currently playing Hollow Knight and it is kicking my ass. But it's a lot of fun. Magic Orbz isn't fun, it's just challenge. Which is boring and unrewarding. No one loses when games of all different difficulties come out. The more people that get to play games, the better. There's something for everyone and it is no skin off your nose if people want to play My Name is Mayo 2. Likewise, you couldn't pay me to play Surgeon Simulator, but you playing it doesn't affect my life at all. I mean it's up to you if want to play Magic Orbz or not, and if you do, you'll probably think I'm being dramatic here. But at the end of the day, I played it and didn't have fun, I was mostly frustrated and glad to put it behind me. Well sure, but I'm speaking more on AAA games that have constantly been made easier. You try playing Assassin's Creed 2 today and I'm willing to bet most people would give up simply because of the dated game mechanics. It's still easy, it's still my favorite game in the franchise for reasons pretty much everyone else has. But people will generally say Odyssey and Valhalla are their favorite, of which I have to disagree. Outside of a few select indies, those that offer a hard challenge are actually pretty niche. I commented a few times on the Crash Bandicoot 4 sub-forums because I was relieved to see a game that popular on this website actually offer up a challenge. Now granted, I don't exactly have a lot of hard games on my profile as I tend to prefer a mixture. But I feel the leaderboards and doing any sort of speedrun is pretty much pointless. It wouldn't change my mood much if the leaderboards were gone completely, it would probably make me feel a little happier. Then again, if I get fed up with trophy hunting I can just abandon this hobby and move to Steam. Or try my hand at the Nintendo Switch. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted November 19, 2020 Author Share Posted November 19, 2020 1 hour ago, Spaz said: Well sure, but I'm speaking more on AAA games that have constantly been made easier. You try playing Assassin's Creed 2 today and I'm willing to bet most people would give up simply because of the dated game mechanics. It's still easy, it's still my favorite game in the franchise for reasons pretty much everyone else has. But people will generally say Odyssey and Valhalla are their favorite, of which I have to disagree. Outside of a few select indies, those that offer a hard challenge are actually pretty niche. I commented a few times on the Crash Bandicoot 4 sub-forums because I was relieved to see a game that popular on this website actually offer up a challenge. Now granted, I don't exactly have a lot of hard games on my profile as I tend to prefer a mixture. But I feel the leaderboards and doing any sort of speedrun is pretty much pointless. It wouldn't change my mood much if the leaderboards were gone completely, it would probably make me feel a little happier. Then again, if I get fed up with trophy hunting I can just abandon this hobby and move to Steam. Or try my hand at the Nintendo Switch. Sure, but whether someone says AC2 or Valhalla is their favourite, both opinions are correct and valid. It's all subjective. Crash Bandicoot 4 is an amazing example. A lot of people on here were upset to find it was so punishingly difficult. But that's the thing that annoys me about people on here, they spend too much time complaining about things that aren't for them. Take the new Avengers game for example. I'm a big fan of the MCU, I've watched most of the films twice and some of my favourite ones several times more. I also got into reading comics in the last few years and I've been a fan of Spider-Man since I was little. And yet, the Avengers game comes out, and in my opinion it looks like trash, you couldn't pay me to play it. But I'm not going to complain about it, I just choose not to buy it and move on. The game wasn't made for someone like me, and that is absolutely fine. Not every game that comes out can cater to every single person on the planet. If you like difficult games, play difficult games and don't complain about the ones that aren't difficult, cause they weren't made for you. And likewise the other way around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ_Radio Posted November 19, 2020 Share Posted November 19, 2020 (edited) 5 hours ago, jonesey46 said: Take the new Avengers game for example. I'm a big fan of the MCU, I've watched most of the films twice and some of my favourite ones several times more. I also got into reading comics in the last few years and I've been a fan of Spider-Man since I was little. And yet, the Avengers game comes out, and in my opinion it looks like trash, you couldn't pay me to play it. But I'm not going to complain about it, I just choose not to buy it and move on. The game wasn't made for someone like me, and that is absolutely fine. Not every game that comes out can cater to every single person on the planet. If you like difficult games, play difficult games and don't complain about the ones that aren't difficult, cause they weren't made for you. And likewise the other way around. This pretty much speaks out that we should of been taught this when we were 10 years old, yet we still act like manchildren about it here on the forums. That thread in the My Name is Mayo 2 subforums is cancer. As for superhero flicks, I'm not interested. The last movie I cared about was The Iron Man 3, and I was disappointed. I gave up on superhero movies after Batman vs Superman, because all Hollywood seems to care about is superhero movies, because everything else has been tapped out. I'm not a superhero guy at all. While you feel others shouldn't complain about games, movies, music or whatever that wasn't made for them, that doesn't mean they will stop complaining. I think too many people don't quite understand what a rant is. I don't associate rants with constructive criticism. A fact about me is I hate a lot of modern music. Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Justin Beiber, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Drake, Chris Brown, I can't stand any of them. Obviously, since I've followed them in the music industry for over a decade, they don't cater to me and they weren't made for me. Doesn't mean I shouldn't stop complaining about them, especially if someone gives good pointers as to why. But whenever I do make a complaint, people will go out of their way to criticize me for being an asshole. Would I pelt these famous music artists? Of course not. But I'd be damned if I make a rant on them without some fanboys attacking me. Edited November 19, 2020 by Spaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grotz99 Posted November 19, 2020 Share Posted November 19, 2020 21 minutes ago, Spaz said: As for superhero flicks, I'm not interested. The last movie I cared about was The Iron Man 3, and I was disappointed. I gave up on superhero movies after Batman vs Superman, because all Hollywood seems to care about is superhero movies, because everything else has been tapped out. I'm not a superhero guy at all. I've watched them all and do enjoy certain ones more than others, but I will say this, other than the Batman Trilogy with Christian Bale, the DC comic movies aren't as good. Randomly my wife and I's favorites are the Deadpool movies, probably followed by Guardians of the Galaxy. 6 hours ago, jonesey46 said: Sure, but whether someone says AC2 or Valhalla is their favourite, both opinions are correct and valid. It's all subjective. This right here, it's really all subjective. There is also just a plethora more of games in today's world than the past. Some are still very challenging and some are still very easy. I remember playing the Barney game on Sega Genisis back when my little brother got it and it was like playing a rat game in today's standards. If it wasn't for trophies, those games would be made for kids around 4-7 years old. Blizzard learned all about accessibility to get more players to play World of Warcraft and that's what game companies want, more people to play and more sales to happen. Sure they lose the hardcore fans, but at the end of the day it's all about $$$, especially since the cost of developing games in today's standards is millions of dollars compared to 6 people in a garage spending 2 months to make a NES/SNES platformer. As long as there is an internet for people to complain on anonymously, people will always be complaining. People's minds won't sway so easily but look at what complaining has done to the game development community, companies cave so easily to little snowflake twitter posts.(there's a sad example recently for Valhalla) There's a pretty interesting Netflix documentary series about how old style games came about called "High Score", it's pretty neat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ_Radio Posted November 19, 2020 Share Posted November 19, 2020 (edited) 15 minutes ago, Grotz99 said: This right here, it's really all subjective. There is also just a plethora more of games in today's world than the past. Some are still very challenging and some are still very easy. I remember playing the Barney game on Sega Genisis back when my little brother got it and it was like playing a rat game in today's standards. If it wasn't for trophies, those games would be made for kids around 4-7 years old. Technology evolved. Trophies had nothing to do with that, they're just icing on the cake at the very most. The video game industry would of died decades ago if they didn't go past the limited lives/continues along with the horribly dated game mechanics many SNES/Genesis games had. Despite what is offered today, Super Mario World and Legend of Zelda: A Link in Time are still two of my all time favorites. I don't think I'd be here today were it not for those games defining my childhood. 15 minutes ago, Grotz99 said: Blizzard learned all about accessibility to get more players to play World of Warcraft and that's what game companies want, more people to play and more sales to happen. Sure they lose the hardcore fans, but at the end of the day it's all about $$$, especially since the cost of developing games in today's standards is millions of dollars compared to 6 people in a garage spending 2 months to make a NES/SNES platformer. They dumbed down the skill tree for all classes in World of Warcraft so they would gain a bigger audience. In both Vanilla and in Burning Crusade, people had to do some research for their given class and how those abilities worked in conjunction with the points they assigned in their skill trees. You could be a Frost Mage, a Fire Mage or an Arcane Mage. The Mage of course was purely DPS but Arcane and Frost worked completely different. No two Mages were alike. That was part of what made the game so interesting. World of Warcraft was perhaps the first enormously popular 3-D MMO you had to pay for like a normal game, then pay the $15 a month subscription Blizzard asked of you. You used to have to get a guild together to form a raid, which meant getting several people to all join in, and that wasn't easy. Even dungeons had to be set up with a proper time and date so your fellow guild members can go in and tackle the bosses. Then Blizzard added the Dungeon Finder tool, why? To attract more people to play their game. The Raid Finder tool, to attract more people. Why did Blizzard dumb down the skill tree over time? To attract more people. Turned out it was the hardcore fanbase that was really the only group concerned about doing mathematics and using formulas to determine how to maximize DPS. Of course there were bot and macro programs to help the user, but many people didn't like doing this, so Blizzard catered to the casuals and the result was World of Warcraft got a lot easier over time. Edited November 19, 2020 by Spaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted November 24, 2020 Author Share Posted November 24, 2020 Platinum #162 - The Outer Worlds Introduction So, I'm a big fan of the Fallout series, particularly the Bethesda ones like 3, New Vegas and 4. 3 being my favourite of them. So The Outer Worlds is a no brainer for me right? Made by the guys who did New Vegas, none of that new Bethesda bullshit. Just a straight up single-player RPG where your choices have impact on the world. Now, if I'd have reviewed this right after finishing it, which was 5 months ago now, I'd have been pretty positive. But now I've had time to stew on it, I think I'm going to end up being a little critical here. Story You play as a colonist who has been placed in cryo-stasis and sent to a far off galaxy in order to populate it and continue humanities survival. However, the ship you're on never arrives and is stranded out in space. Years pass by until you're finally rescued by Dr. Phineas Wells. He claims that the corporations have completely taken over the galaxy and they're doing a terrible job. There's a food and supply shortage and everyone is either too depressed, or too company loving to do anything about it. Wells insists that you can be the one to save everyone, and so the two of you hatch a plan to bring down the corporation once and for all. How you handle it all though, is entirely up to you. Gameplay The Outer Worlds is a first person RPG. The main thing you'll be doing in this game is talking to people. And that's the one thing that Obsidian absolutely nailed in this game. The dialogue. Every character in this game has their own personality and each conversation you have is unique and interesting. The Outer Worlds has that similar morbid humour that Fallout has, characters are constantly being smarmy and sarcastic which I found to be hilarious. This is also one of those games were talking solves everything providing you have the right skills. You can complete the entire game without killing a single person. Talking of skills I should go into the character creation. So at the start of your game, in true RPG fashion, you create your character. You can make your character look however you want and you can give them a name which turns up in dialogue trees and text documents. You then have to assign your skills. You're given a certain amount of points to spend and then you unlock 10 more every time you level up. It's impossible to be good at everything here so you need to choose wisely and consider what type of person you're going to be. Skills include hacking, lockpicking, long range weapons, short range weapons, melee combat, unarmed combat etc. What you pick will determine how the game plays out as certain quests have skills checks and if you don't have the skills for it, you'll have to find another way. When you create your character you can also choose some personality traits and your job, these give permanent buffs to certain skills. Now let's get into the world. The Outer Worlds is set in Halcyon, a small galaxy consisting of about 6 planets. You start your adventure on Terra 2 in the town of Edgewater. From there you can travel to other locations on Terra 2 such as Roseway and Byzantium, which is where all the rich people live. Outside of Terra 2 there's The Groundbreaker, a large colony ship which has been turned into a citadel. Monarch, the largest area in the game which consists of many small settlements and a wasteland full of things that want to kill you. And also Scylla which is a very small moon with not much to do on it. Other than that there's a few small story places to visit like Phineas' Lab and of course your own ship 'The Unreliable'. Ultimately, the game feels quite small as there really isn't a lot of places to visit. Weirdly when you go on the galaxy map there's various planets on it that end up being completely inaccessible. This was disappointing to me as when I first started the game and saw them, I assumed we would visit them eventually but when I finished the game I found they were just there for show. The world feels rich due to the characters that inhabit it, but unfortunately the world itself leaves a lot to be desired. While you're out and about exploring the world you'll come across some interesting characters that you can recruit to follow you. The follower system in this game is very well done I think. Once you recruit someone they make their way to your ship and every time you disembark your ship to go on a mission a little menu will come up showing your available followers. You can quickly select who you want to take with you, or you can leave them all behind and go it solo. I played the entire game with the first follower you get, Parvati, purely because I found her the most interesting and I love Ashly Burch who voices her. But the other followers were all great too. I found Vicar Max to be very entertaining and Felix to be quite wholesome. Lastly the combat... *sigh* The combat in The Outer Worlds is very lacking. There's various guns like assault rifles and pistols etc. But none of them feel unique or worth using. I pretty much just used the gun with the highest DPS I could find the entire game. Using anything else felt completely pointless. You can also collect these unique science weapons which do interesting things like shrink your enemies or zap them or whatever but they are so laughably weak and a massive waste of time. During combat you can use a special ability which slows down time for a short period, allowing you to make accurate shots on enemies (pretty much this games version of VATS) but again, I found it mostly useless and to be honest I kept forgetting it was there so rarely used it. As I said before combat can be mostly avoided in this game providing you have the right skills however there's no avoiding it when you're out in the wastes. There's your regular bandit type enemies that shoot on sight and then there's a massive array of creature enemies that can fuck your shit up. Mantiqueens being the most annoying. While you're out in the world you can loot containers for ammo and money but don't ever expect to find anything interesting or unique cause it ain't there. This made looting largely a waste of time and at a certain point in the game you don't even need to do it to survive because ammo is in abundance everywhere and I'd be surprised if you ever ran out. All that makes actually exploring the world in The Outer Worlds, kind of boring. When I was unable to use fast travel and actually had to run somewhere, I found myself just bolting past all the enemies to get to the next area. If not for the interesting characters populating this world, The Outer Worlds wouldn't have much going for it. Which is a darn shame. But, I'm willing to let it slide as this is Obsidians first foray into making a game like this all by themselves with little to no outside support. A lot of this games shortcomings can be justified by lack of budget or talent. However what this game does well, it does really well. Hopefully this game was popular enough to justify a sequel, giving Obsidian a chance to learn from their shortcomings and deliver us a fantastic follow up. Platinum Thoughts The Outer Worlds is easy enough and doesn't take long due to how short the game is. There is a little grinding required for the trophies requiring you to kill enemies in a certain way but thankfully you can use a save scum method to make it super easy. There's quite a few missable trophies due to certain choices locking out various paths but as I said, the game is short and if you keep plenty of back up saves you might not need to worry about it. Outside of all that there's trophies for completing various story milestones and of course difficulty trophies. Now, one thing that is worth mentioning, is that you can actually speed run this game in about 30 minutes. There's not even anything complicated about it, literally anyone can do this speed run. Which is exactly what I did for the Supernova difficulty trophy. I watched a 20 minute video and then just replicated it straight away. Super easy. It's not the easiest platinum in the world but it certainly isn't the hardest. Summary The Outer Worlds is definitely a good game. However it's shortcomings are so glaring that it can really get in the way of your experience. For a game that emulates Fallout, it fails to do so many things that Fallout does effortlessly. Having said that though, the writing is stellar and the story itself is fantastic. With the game being so short it's very easy to jump back in with a new character and try it all again but make different choices and see where it takes you. There were various moments in the game where I made a silly decision and it ended up being a fleshed out path with unique dialogue and characters. Showing that Obsidian really did think of everything. As stated before, I really hope Obsidian get a shot at a sequel and they can really show us what they're made of. Best Bit Hilarious dialogue and meaningful character interactions Worst Bit Uninteresting exploration, bad combat and short run time. Arbitrary Rating 7/10 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted November 27, 2020 Author Share Posted November 27, 2020 (edited) 💯 100% (Re)Achieved - Minecraft 💯 DLC Expansion 13 DLC Thoughts Another 6 months pass by and so does another Minecraft Expansion. This time they've added Nether biomes. Which is about freaking time because The Nether has been a boring ass place since it was introduced in 2011 (2010?). Anyway, alongside the new colourful biomes, Zombie Pigmen have been changed to Piglins, who are little pig monsters that love gold. There's also a new material in the Nether called Netherite, which can be used to make strong tools and armor. As for my experience; I didn't really spend much time in this update. I've said it before but I've been playing Minecraft since 2010 and I'm pretty burnt out on it. Every now and then I get an urge to play it but it never lasts long. So for these trophies I used a pre-made achievement world which was available on PC. Using the Bedrock edition I joined the game hosted by my Microsoft account and popped the trophies in a few minutes. December is upon us which means it's been another 6 months. I wonder if we'll see another update soon? I must say that I'm impressed that all this stuff still gets added for free. The game is almost unrecognisable compared to the Alpha version I started on over 10 years ago. Here's to 10 more years hopefully. Edited November 8, 2023 by jonesey46 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted November 27, 2020 Author Share Posted November 27, 2020 Platinum #163 - Doom 3 (BFG Edition) Introduction Doom is one of my most beloved game franchises but as a console gamer, my access to the older titles was pretty limited. Doom 3 BFG Edition squashes all that by finally making Doom 3 and its expansions playable on modern consoles. As well as that they also included the complete edition of the first 2 Doom games from 1993 (the year I was born) and 1994, respectively. I got my hands on this a couple of years after release purely because I was a student at the time and had very limited income. It was nice to finally play Doom 3 but to be honest, at the time I didn't really appreciate it for what it truly was. After the release of Doom Eternal this year when the whole world was trapped indoors, I finally took it upon myself to play the entire series back to back. So that included Doom I & II, Doom 3 and its expansions all on the BFG Edition, then Doom 64, Doom 2016 and finally Doom Eternal. It was a great ride and I plan to run through them again as soon as next year. Having already Platinum'd Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal, and 100% on Doom 64, I just had to clear up the entire BFG Edition to (technically) have the entire series completed on my profile. I say 'technically' cause the BFG Edition has trophies for all 3 games but only one platinum and on here the game is simply called 'Doom 3'. Getting the platinum in this game was no easy feat but I'm glad to finally have it done. Now, because this game is a collection of games I'm going to throw my usual format out the window and do this game by game and then I'll sum up the whole package at the end. Doom The original and classic. The daddy of FPS. This game still holds up after all these years and it's still a joy to play. Consisting of 4 'episodes' that take you across Mars and Hell, you'll be blasting demons left and right with Doomguy's arsenal of firepower. Funnily enough I had actually misremembered this game and thought all the extra demons and the super shotgun from Doom II featured in this one but they of course don't. It's relatively short and repetitive by nature but never overstays its welcome and never gets boring. To get all the trophies for this game in the BFG Edition you are required to beat all episodes on Ultra-Violence difficulty and complete only one level on Nightmare, which is the hardest difficulty. You're also required to collect all items and secrets, and kill all demons in a single level for another trophy and that is your lot. A relatively painless experience compared to Doom II which in my opinion is much harder. Doom II: Hell on Earth Almost identical to the first in how it plays but with the addition of some new demons, the super shotgun and the overall level design being much more complex, this game offers a much greater challenge than the first ever could. The super shotgun is now Doomguy's/The Doom Slayer's signature weapon and this is where it was first introduced. Starting the first level of this game up, getting your hands on this gun and blasting the first demon you see to bits is one of the most satisfying moments in gaming. All the old demons return but they've got new friends. All of the new demons are quite the challenge to take down as almost all of them are equipped with overpowered weaponry and take a ton of hits to kill off. One of the main draws of this game was the Earth levels, according to the thin lore, demons have now escaped Hell and invaded Earth. I'll be honest and say that the earth levels aren't as impressive and don't hold up the same as the Mars and Hell levels. As stated above this game is much harder than its predecessor, purely down to the more complex levels and new demons, not to mention the sheer amount of demons in any given level. Also it's much longer than Doom, as it has much more levels. Trophy wise it's almost identical to the first game, requiring you to complete the game on Ultra-Violence which again, isn't as easy as the first game as this game is just straight up more challenging. Other than that there is also an expansion which was previously exclusive to the Xbox Live Arcade version of Doom II. Thankfully you can complete the expansion on any difficulty and after the difficult time I had getting to the end of the main campaign, I relished being able to run through this blasting everything with no consequence. Doom 3 Doom was finally given a full 3D sequel in 2004 and it ended up being a bit of a polarizing experience. I think ultimately most people agreed it was a good game, it just wasn't a Doom game. Doom 3 took the series into a survival horror direction. They swapped the large open areas with hundreds of demons swarming you all at once for narrow corridors and a slow tension build up. I myself absolutely adore this game and find its tension and world building second to none. Doom 3 starts with the Doom Marine touching down on the UAC base on Mars. He goes through the motions of checking in and reporting to his senior officer but it doesn't take long for portals of hell to open up and unleash a swath of demons upon the base. It seems the UAC have been up to their old tricks experimenting with dark forces they have no understanding of and have literally let hell loose. You, as the Doom Marine are tasked with making your way through the Mars facility, killing any and all demons in site, and to close the portal between realms to stop the invasion. Doom 3 is very similar to Half Life, and if you know me, you know I fucking love Half Life. You start out at a facility as a regular bloke. Shit goes down and it's up to you to stop it. You start off with a pistol and slowly build up an arsenal of different weapons. You get a shotgun, a submachine gun, a minigun, a rocket launcher and of course the legendary BFG. The shooting mechanics are fantastic in this game and though it is a game from 2004, it still holds up and I thought the guns all felt satisfying to use and had weight to them. As for what you'll be shooting, all the iconic Doom demons return but redesigned to fit the games twisted art style. There's also some new enemies but most of them aren't as interesting as the classic demons. Doom 3 is quite a lengthy campaign, taking you through what seems to be the entirety of the Mars facility. From the front reception, to the depths of Hell. In my opinion Doom 3 has some of the best Hell levels of the entire franchise. Having a boat take you across a river of lava through gothic ruins is honestly the most metal thing ever. Trophy wise, this game isn't a quick fix. You're in for at least 2 playthroughs as the hardest difficulty, nightmare, isn't unlocked from the start. However, going straight into nightmare would honestly be, well, a nightmare. Nightmare difficulty is very unique in that not only do the enemies hit hard, but your health is constantly at 25 (out of 100). If you pick up any health packs, your health will slowly degrade back to 25 so there's no way around it. You'll also have to listen to an excruciating sound effect every time your health does go down. You can pick up armor which is necessary for your survival but even at 25 health and full armor you will go down in a few hits, sometimes even 1. This difficulty is brutal and it holds no punches, however, you can save your game at any point. Allowing you to save scum your way through the game. It's a little frustrating (especially on PS3) but you really need to make a habit of saving every time you clear a room, before you move to the next. It's also worth keeping multiple saves just in case you soft lock yourself in a situation you have no way of getting you out of. Loading a save from 3 saves ago can seriously save your ass. Nightmare is the main challenge with this game, all the other trophies revolve around collectibles and specific kill challenges but they're nothing compared to beating the game on nightmare. Its super satisfying when you finally pull it off! Doom 3: The Lost Mission The Lost Mission was exclusive to the BFG Edition of Doom 3 and as far as I know it's an abandoned expansion that, until this release, had never seen the light of day. In the Lost Mission you play as a marine from Delta team (I think?) that gets ambushed by a bunch of demons during the main campaign. You somehow escaped that scuffle and are now fighting your way through the UAC base. The Lost Mission is honestly really underwhelming. You explore the same areas from the main campaign and there are no new demons or boss fights. The only noteworthy addition is the inclusion of the super shotgun, which for some reason is absent from the main campaign. The super shotgun, although weirdly designed, is as satisfying as ever and blasting demons away with both barrels is the reason why we play Doom right? Just like the main campaign you are required to complete this on nightmare to get all the trophies, however as it is much shorter, its a much easier time. Also the super shotgun definitely helps. Aside from that you'll need to collect some PDAs and that's it. A much easier time than the main game. Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil Finally, we have the expansion that's actually worth your time; Resurrection of Evil. RoE as I'll now call it, is a whole new campaign about half the length of the main campaign. It has new levels, new weapons and new demons. It's set after the main events of Doom 3 and as another Marine, you're exploring the ruins underneath the UAC facility and find a strange artifact. This artefact kills your entire team and you can now wield its power. Cue more demon slaying for the next few hours and you've got yourself a bloody good time. RoE has 3 boss fights and each time you defeat one you gain a new power for the artefact. One allows you to slow down time, one allows you to kill enemies in one hit and the other making you completely invulnerable. This artefact makes beating the game on nightmare an absolute doddle. It's also just a really fun toy to play with and offers new strategic ways of dealing with the remnants of hell. RoE actually ends up tying the story of Doom 3 quite nicely as you deal with the main antagonist from Doom 3 in his demon form, killing him for good. The trophies for this expansion are a little more involved, there's story related ones for killing each of the bosses and kill related ones for using the new weapons and abilities. There's also another collectible PDA trophy and of course beating the game on nightmare. Nightmare is somewhat easier in RoE as you do have the artefact helping you fuck shit up but it still isn't easy and will take a lot of trial and error. Multiplayer I almost forgot this game has a multiplayer mode. It's a standard deathmatch style multiplayer in the style of Quake, and all the trophies can be boosted with 2 other people in less than an hour. Which is exactly what I did. You know its probably a really fun mode but it's absolutely dead these days so there was no chance of getting a proper game going. Which is a shame but this is the curse of multiplayer; one day it will die. Summary Doom 3 BFG Edition is an awesome package and well worth your time. Not only do you get to experience the absolute classics Doom I & II, you also get the complete edition of the revolutionary Doom 3. Nightmare can easily put most people off even attempting this platinum but honestly it really isn't that bad once you get the hang of it. Doom 3 is now available on the PS4 and I honestly think I might stack it one day as I just really love it. Best Bit Experiencing the origin of one of the best FPS franchises in history Worst Bit Nightmare mode can be frustrating and Doom I & II can be a little tough on a PS3 controller but it's nothing you can't handle. Arbitrary Rating 9/10 --- I knew this would be a long one but I'm glad I've got it done now as I had fun writing it. See you next time for the follow up to Mass Effect... Mass Effect 2! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted November 30, 2020 Author Share Posted November 30, 2020 Platinum #164 - Mass Effect 2 Introduction After finally completing Mass Effect I just had to get the sequel and carry on the story of MY Shepard. This game makes a big departure from the first by making it more of an action RPG rather than a traditional RPG, however this game has arguably the best characters and writing of all three. I ordered a used copy for next to nothing off Cex and jumped right in. Story Shortly after the events of Mass Effect, Shepard and the crew of the Normandy get ambushed by an unknown vessel. During the attack Shepard manages to get almost everyone to an escape pod but just before entering, the Normandy gets blown to pieces and Shepard gets yeeted into space. 2 years later Shepard awakes in a Cerberus lab and finds out that they have been rebuilt using state of the art tech by Cerberus and its leader 'The Illusive Man'. Cerberus inform Shepard that colonies all over the galaxy have been disappearing and they want Shepard to find out why. To do this, Shepard is given near unlimited resources including a brand new Normandy and information on the galaxies best operatives to recruit. Cerberus is an organisation that got up to some shady shit during Mass Effect 1 so Shepard is naturally aprehensive about trusting them, but if he's got any hope of saving the galaxy, it's his only option. Gameplay As stated above, Mass Effect 2 is more of an action RPG, so this one has a lot more shooting. The combat in this works a lot like Gears of War, as in its cover based and movement feels quite heavy. They've also now added an ammo system so you now have to collect heat clips, where as in the first game the guns were unlimited but had a cool down after firing. The weapon management system has also been completely changed from the first game. Instead of having access to every type of weapon no matter your class, you now only have access to the weapon types that you're trained in, depending on class. You can also now carry a heavy weapon which does massive damage but the ammo is limited. I found this new system to be much more refined and simple than what was in the first game. Exploration returns however its not quite as open. Instead of touching down on each planet and roaming around in your Mako, you can now only land on select planets, and these planets have linear paths that have a side quest allotted to them. This makes the story-telling aspect of the side missions more cinematic and meaningful but you lose that sense of wonder you got from the first game, despite all the planets and buildings looking the same. It's a trade off and there's pros and cons to each side, nothing is particularly better or worse. Since you can no longer explore the planets the resource gathering mechanic has been completely changed also. Instead of roaming around gathering large veins of ore, you now send out probes from the comfort of the Normandy, you need to manually scan around the planet looking for pockets of resources and once you find one you send out the probe and it deposits the resources into the ship. This is so fucking boring and honestly it's the worst part of the game. Speaking of the Normandy; Cerberus has re-built it from the ground up, keeping it mostly the same with a few minor improvements. You are free to wander around the ship at your leisure and there's also a few more rooms and an extra floor which wasn't accessible in the first game. The operations floor is almost the exact same, you can go up to the cockpit to speak to Joker the pilot and you can guide the Normandy on the galaxy map. You also now have a PA who does your admin and keeps you up to date and a terminal which you can receive emails on. The emails you receive can either be tips on new quests or it can be personal emails from the connections you make throughout the game, including the ones you made in the first game. Enter the lift and you can access the other floors, including your own captains quarters where you can change the look of your armor or look at your trophies/achievements. There's also the canteen and the engineering deck. As you progress through the game and recruit more people, they will inhabit a certain part of the ship that matches their personality. It's best to get into the habit of visiting each of your crew members after a mission as they'll usually have something to say or a quest to give you. Since we're on recruits, lets get into that a little more. When you start the game, Cerberus has taken the liberty of recruiting your old pilot Joker, and providing you with 2 Cerberus recruits to serve on your ship. From there you're handed several dossiers on potential recruits that could be useful in your mission. Most of these are new characters but a couple of them are old team members from the first game, including (and most importantly, I might add) Garrus Vakarian, who is hands down the best character in all 3 games. Once you recruit your team members you can then take them out on missions much like the first game. Do enough for them and they'll give you a loyalty quest, which is a very personal mission for each character. Complete these loyalty missions and that character will follow you to the end of the Earth, which has implications on how the ending plays out. Despite the game not being as open as the first, the galaxy map is much larger, with much more planets to visit and quests to complete. Some planets from the first game can be landed on again however they are often not recognisable as it is usually a different part of the planet. You'll also be able to visit the planets that were mentioned a lot during the first game, for example Tuchanka, the homeland of the Krogan, among others. The Citadel returns but you can only visit one ward, a different one from the ward in the first game. Honestly, the Citadel was the single most underwhelming thing in this entire game as it's laughably small compared to what you could explore in the first. Platinum Thoughts Compared to the first game this one is a little more straight forward however it's still a long haul. This one only requires two playthroughs, one being a complete do-everything playthrough and another on Insanity difficulty, which is the hardest of the three games. There's a lot of trophies dedicated to recruiting every team member and then completing their respective loyalty mission. Outside of that its mostly combat related trophies which are all accessible no matter the class, unlike the first game. There's a few relating to specific quests and upgrades but those are all really straight forward. The challenge here only relates to insanity difficulty. Thankfully you can do it on NG+ and you can ignore every single side quest and just sprint to the finish. This doesn't make it any easier though, it just decreases your play time. Not doing any side missions results in pretty much every one dying at the end (including yourself) so as long as you're okay with watching your favourite characters get slaughtered then you'll be fine. Summary What I really liked about this game was the premise. Forget all the galaxy ending stuff and the overarching story of the trilogy. I just really enjoyed having a clear mission from the start, and spending all your time recruiting the best people in the galaxy to help you accomplish that one goal. In all honesty, having now completed the trilogy, aside from the massive of number of characters that get introduced in this one, you could actually skip this game and the overarching story involving the reapers would be largely unaffected. I really liked this game for the premise and the characters but it did fill like a bit of a stop gap in-between 1 and 3 in terms of the larger plot. It also causes some avoidable inconsistencies too regarding Cerberus but I'll get into that when I eventually review Mass Effect 3. For now though, I'd like to say that although this isn't my favourite of the trilogy, I really enjoyed my time with it and it is a damn good game. Best Bit The characters, the dialogue between characters and the writing in general. Impeccable. Worst Bit Underwhelming Citadel, not as open as the first and that God awful resource mining mini-game. Arbitrary Rating 9/10 --- DLC Zaeed: The Price of Revenge Zaeed is one of two additional characters that was added as DLC. For some reason the first, Kasumi, is just included with the main game but Zaeed requires a download. As far as I remember this DLC was free and added Zaeed as a recruit, as well as a recruitment mission and a loyalty mission. Zaeed is a pretty cool character and a decent one to have with you when you're out on missions. Arrival This is the flagship DLC of the game and reintroduces the threat of the Reapers from the first game and it also sets the stage for Mass Effect 3. Consisting of a couple of missions with nothing special going on apart from plot. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 2, 2020 Author Share Posted December 2, 2020 Platinum #165 - Ghost of Tsushima Introduction OMG BEST GAME EVER. ONE MILLION TIMES BETTER THAN THAT TRASH GAME THE LAST OF US PART 2. BETTER STORY, BETTER CHARACTERS, BETTER FEMALE REPRESENTATION, BETTER GRAPHICS, BETTER EVERYTHING! Ahem... Excuse me. All joking aside I do believe this game, which is incredible, has been tarnished slightly due to all of The Last of Us Part II haters that can't accept anything and move on, who have clung on to this game as their saving grace. Which is a shame, cause both games should stand up on their own merits and while I think for the most part they do, it's hard not to ignore that loud minority that is still very much active. Now, I'm not much a fan of Japanese culture or history. I don't dislike it, it just doesn't interest me. However when SIE publish a big budget single player game, I'm pretty much sold straight away, no matter the subject. And when that game is being made by Sucker Punch, then I'm double sold. So it's no surprise I pre-ordered this game without hesitation and not much knowledge of the product. Story Set during the late 13th century on the Japanese island of Tsushima, you play as Jin Sakai, leader of the Sakai clan. Jin, along with his uncle Lord Shimura, must protect the island from the Mongol Empire. After a crippling defeat, Lord Shimura is captured by the Mongol leader of Tsushima's invading force, Khotun Khan, descendant of Genghis Khan. Jin must rescue his uncle and banish the Mongols from his home, however to do that, he must abandon the Samurai code and fight the Mongols using any means necessary. Gameplay Ghost of Tsushima is an open world adventure game focused on exploration, stealth combat and sword combat. As Jin, you are free to explore the entire island of Tsushima on foot or on horseback. The island of Tsushima is absolutely gorgeous, with some of the best environmental landscapes I've ever seen. Environments range from dense forests, swampland, scorched villages, snowy mountain tops and sunny beaches. Sucker Punch also went to town with the particle effects with leaves constantly falling, following you in the wind or just being raised by your feet as you walk. The wind actually plays a big role in Ghost of Tsushima as it is essentially your objective marker. This game does not feature a mini map or a compass littered with icons. The wind is always blowing in the direction of your next objective and if you need a bit more help, you can swipe up on the touch pad to summon a huge gust of wind which clearly shows you where you need to go. This is honestly my favourite feature in this game, it's just so innovative and unique, and makes things much more immersive. As you explore Tsushima you'll find a wide range of activities. There's obviously story missions and side missions to do but there's also various small activities that can offer skill points or extra gear etc. Such as following foxes to shrines, bathing in hot springs, bamboo strikes, climbing up to mountain shrines and there's also Far Cry style camps of enemies to clear out. It's a very traditional open world game and follows that same formula you see everywhere. But despite it being a much higher quality game than any of Ubisoft's recent efforts, it is hard to ignore the fact that it is just another open world game, including a map littered with things to do. It's incredibly gorgeous and fun to play, but it can't escape that judgement. Fighting Mongols is what you'll be doing most of the time. You can take them down stealthy or you can walk in sword blazing. As far as stealth goes, it's not revolutionary. There's tall grass to hide in, you have a dagger which you can use for up close takedowns, you can take down enemies from above. You also have a bow for quick long distance kills, just make sure no one else is around to see your enemy go down! Stealth gameplay can be fun and but it's the one on one combat that really shines. When approaching a group of enemies you can do the honorable thing and call out to them, forcing them to face you before you slaughter them. After a short staring match the enemy will lunge toward you giving you the chance to slice them up and kill them in one hit. As you upgrade your abilities you can increase the enemies you kill up to 5 when doing this. Once you've slashed down those first enemies, you're then left to deal with who ever is left. In regular sword combat you have a light attack and a heavy attack. There's also combos you can use to do extra damage or break an enemies defense. There are 4 types of enemies, and as you progress through the game, Jin will learn 4 different stances. These stances help you take down specific enemies, so toward the end of the game when all enemy types are in play, you'll find yourself constantly switching your stance to allow you to slaughter your enemies most efficiently. During combat you build up resolve, once you have enough resolve you can either heal yourself or unleash a powerful attack which often allows you to kill several enemies in one hit. It's pretty damn satisfying. I've seen it said elsewhere but I definitely agree; Ghost of Tsushima's exploration and combat make up for the best Assassin's Creed game Ubisoft never made. Platinum Thoughts As all Sony exclusives go, the platinum is super straight forward. Requiring only one play through with no specific difficulty challenge. Your one play through will consist of absolutely everything though. With the platinum requiring the completion of all side missions and activities, as well as liberating the entire island of Tsushima. A fun experience sure, but clearing a map is clearing a map. Summary Ghost of Tsushima is a beautiful game with a satisfying gameplay loop of exploration and combat. It does resemble a lot of current open world titles but sets itself apart by not being overly bloated and unrewarding. It also adds a handful of innovative ideas to the genre that I can only imagine will be adopted by the Assassin's Creed franchise and implemented in every sequel going forward. Best Bit Stunning world, fun swordplay, guiding wind mechanic. Worst Bit Camera during combat is a pain in the ass. Arbitrary Rating 8/10 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 4, 2020 Author Share Posted December 4, 2020 Platinum #166 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered Introduction Modern Warfare 2 dominated my 2010. Aside from a few outliers like Skate 3 and Heavy Rain, I pretty much exclusively played the multiplayer portion of MW2. I've completely fallen out with Call of Duty over the years but the series will always hold a special place in my heart due to this game and Call of Duty 4. The online multiplayer is now littered with hackers and its impossible to get a decent game in unfortunately. But the campaign still holds up and I've played it several times since it's release in 2009. The remaster was announced and then instantly out, or so it seemed to me and while I did want to get it, I wasn't desperate to play it so I thought I'd wait for a sale, but luckily enough the game was made available for free on PS+, not even that long after release. I was super chuffed about this. Beenox did an amazing job on the first Modern Warfare remaster and they did it again with this one, those guys really know their way around a remaster. Nostalgia hit hard when I booted this up for the first time. Story Those pesky Russians are at it again trying to start trouble. Makarov, who was Zakhaev's protégé (the bloke you kill in the first Modern Warfare) isn't happy, and wants war. You play as Roach, a new recruit in Task Force 141, headed by Soap MacTavish (the guy you play in the first Modern Warfare) and you also play RAMIREZ!, who is apart of the US Army. Russia invades America and it's up to the US armed forces and Task Force 141 to put a stop to their antics. Twists and turns ensue and soon enough you'll find yourself wrapped up in a huge conspiracy. Gameplay You know the score, its Call of Duty. First person shooter. Carry two guns, pick up any weapons you see lying around, kill bad guys. What Modern Warfare 2 brings to the table is interesting locations and set pieces. You start out in Iraq, then end up on a snowy mountain top. Soon enough you're free running on the roofs of a Favela, then you're storming an old Gulag. This game is a rollercoaster ride and it doesn't stop until you see the credits. The campaign is fairly lengthy, probably about 5-10 hours depending on how you play and difficulty, but there's never any time to breath, there's always something happening and it's amazing. It's probably a little cliché but sometimes that's just what you need, like a Fast and Furious film. You're always shooting stuff but this campaign keeps things interesting by giving you variety like all out war segments, stealth segments, sniper segments, etc. It really is like an action movie. Platinum Thoughts The PS3 version of the game had most of its trophies dedicated to the campaign, and only a handful dedicated to the co-op Spec Ops mode. Because Spec Ops mode is absent here, those few trophies have been replaced by new campaign trophies, with some interesting requirements that add a new challenging aspect. So for the returning trophies it's pretty simple, beat the campaign on veteran, collect all the intel collectibles and kill enemies in a specific way during specific missions. New trophies include completing the game without dying, which is an interesting one cause it's actually pretty easy but has weird requirements. You can play it on the easiest difficulty and it doesn't have to be done in one sitting, but if you die or don't complete a mission, you have to restart the mission from the very beginning. If you continue your game it won't count, even from the checkpoint at the very start of the mission, you have to restart, which is just dumb. A lot of people had issues with this trophy, and all those issues would go away if they just added a little icon on the mission select menu to let you know you've done it on that chapter or not. Thankfully, I had no issues with this trophy and unlocked it first time. Other than that there's also a new trophy regarding the training section. During the first mission you run through a training yard shooting targets, once you complete it a difficulty will be recommended to you based on how long you took. In the PS3 version you get a trophy for beating it in under 30 seconds, which is in this one too. But there's also a trophy for beating the best time the developers could get, which is 19.7 seconds. This is incredibly tight, and you pretty much have to run the course perfectly to get it. I know this game inside out from having played it so many times so it didn't take me long to whack this one out, but I understand how it can be a platinum breaker for a lot of people. Summary The game itself is still fantastic and I think still holds up as one of the best, if not the best Call of Duty campaign. Strictly talking about the remaster though, Beenox did an amazing job. The game looks incredible and you'd be fooled into thinking it was a current gen game if you didn't know it was a remaster. Beenox also added a couple of easter eggs for old fans, which is super cool. Best Bit Explosive campaign with amazing remastered visuals. Worst Bit Absence of Spec-Ops and Multiplayer modes. Arbitrary Rating 9/10 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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