Briste's Diary of a Madman

[Inuty]

I think they didnt explain it but for me it was just a vampire thing and i was cool with it

 

Btw. Shame on you playing Mass Effect just now and not earlier. I know we had conversations were you wanted to start the game over a Year ago. I thought you will wait until the romoured remaster will come

[Rally-Vincent---]

6 hours ago, Briste said:

 I had heard that the first one in the series was by far the worst, which has me excited for what's to come since this game is pretty good considering how old it is. I'm hoping to be able to play a lot over next week. I'm having my tonsils removed on Friday (apparently I'm entering the 2nd grade) and will have several days off of work to recover by eating ice cream and playing video games. I've heard getting your tonsils out as and adult kind of sucks, so we'll see what I'm actually in the mood to do...but it'll be the first time in quite a while I'll have some day time freedom to play.

 

I liked the first ME game best, because it's the world building game. Best of luck for your tonsil thing.

 

Edited November 3, 2020 by Rally-Vincent---

[Briste]

19 hours ago, Inuty said:

I think they didnt explain it but for me it was just a vampire thing and i was cool with it

 

It took me a little bit to get that was what was happening. At first I thought the sound and the effect was just to let you know you were asking a question that had been a locked clue...it wasn't until you start being super aggressive towards some of the people you're talking to that it dawned on me that it was some sort of mesmerize ability. I was also cool with it once I figured out what was happening...but for a while I was like, this is super easy for him to get this kind of information out of these people.

 

19 hours ago, Inuty said:

Shame on you playing Mass Effect just now and not earlier.

lol it was the shame that caused me to start. Things kept coming up that was delaying the start. I would have started a while ago if I didn't have this thing about them being done in order on my profile...but it's hard to finish events with four long games like that listed...especially if I can't pigeonhole it into a category. I'm going to take the winter off I think from events (unless something very low stress pops up) to just get some longer 'housekeeping' stuff done. Once I finish the ME series and the profile clean up....I'd like to finally tackle the entire souls series as well. We'll see how that goes lol

 

18 hours ago, Rally-Vincent--- said:

I liked the first ME game best, because it's the world building game. Best of luck for your tonsil thing.

 

I've really enjoyed it so far. I've had some frustrating deaths that have caused me redo more than I'd like....check points aren't very forgiving in some areas and I'm not terribly good about saving frequently. My only real complain so far is how ridiculously quick you have to be with the QTE's for unlocking the encrypted lockers and stuff. I swear you have less than half a second do act. I have like a 30% success rate so far. The ones required for story progression are much more forgiving thankfully...but outside of that I've really enjoyed it so far. We'll see if I'm singing the same tune after my third time through the game.

[Briste]

Platinum #128

Mass Effect

It's happened! I did it! The game I've been saying will be my next game for almost two years has finally been done lol This is a game that my best friend had recommended a few years ago and I bought when it was on a decent sale shortly after. I've heard tons of good things about the series and the only real reason it has taken so long to start is the fact that I have been participating in so many events over the past couple of years. A lot of the events require ten games or so to be finished over about a three month span in general. Since I would like to play these consecutively...it never seemed like a good time to start. I've decided to (most likely) take the winter off from events so I can do some general housekeeping of unfinished games/games that I've wanted to play for a while done. All of the on the longer side. I had generally heard that this was the worst game in the series and that it did not age very well. Well, I disagree lol I found this game to be very good....for a 13 year old game, I didn't think anything felt that dated.

 

There were a lot of things I liked about the game. I thought the the story was really interesting and I liked that you could play as a good guy or bad guy. I liked how vast the game was and how much there was to explore. I thought the graphics were pretty good considering how old the game is and once I got used to it...the combat actually wasn't too bad either. I generally like to play as a more virtuous character that 'does the right thing' but it was kind of funny to play the 'renegade' role in this game. There were a lot of quests where you were like, 'yeah I had to do it cause you suck at your job' or you have an opportunity to save the hostages and you're like 'nah, people die sometimes'. I knew I wanted my final playthrough to be of the 'paragon' variety, so I was a dick during my second playthrough

 

I saw that there was a way to cheese Hardcore and Insanity, but I wanted to play them so didn't bother with it. In all honesty, the harder modes weren't that hard. Your gear is so good by then, that so long as you keep moving and shooting....it's really hard to die. The only hard part about the later modes is how freaking long it takes to kill stuff. Everything seems to have immunity and immunity lasts forever so it takes a long time to kill anything....especially the Krogans...I found that switching back and forth between the ammo for +40% damage to organics and synthetics helped speed stuff up...but that was the only thing that made those modes hard. In general I was able to blow through the game once I knew where to go and what could be skipped.

 

While I don't think the game aged as terribly as some seem to think. There were definitely a ton of areas that could use improvement. Things that bothered me was the Immunity ability....I wouldn't have minded it if it lasted for a few seconds....but it literally lasts like 10-15 seconds which is too long. I mean it makes Insanity and Hardcore easier to survive....but it also prolongs battles waaaaaaay too long. The fact you couldn't select multiple things to convert to omni-gel at once was annoying. It would have been nice to check off a bunch of things to convert at once and it ended up being poorly executed as well. It would have also been nice to have a shared inventory screen instead of having everything sorted separately by what it was. With an inventory max of 150 items, you have to spend a lot of time clearing inventory. I didn't love that the button to skip text was also the same button to select text. I didn't skip any text my first playthrough....but once I knew what was going on, I tried to skip more text the next couple of playthroughs and I ended up accidentally selecting a ton of things I didn't want to. I would have liked to have seen them be two different buttons. The final thing that I found pretty annoying was how closely your teammates followed you...I mean they would be right on your ass and would get in the way all the time. I ended up having them hang back quite frequently when I knew I had to be able to move around. These were all relatively minor nuisances...but it left a lot of areas for improvement on an otherwise stellar game.

 

While the game wasn't terribly hard....getting the Platinum is pretty challenging. There is a lot of annoying things with regards to 100% this game. Having to repeat 45-50+ mission/assignments on each playthrough to get all the different teammate trophies was brutal. The counter for them seems somewhat glitched as well. I didn't notice it on my first playthrough where things seemed to pop when they should, however on the next two playthroughs I was nervous the game glitched out on me. My hardcore playthrough I used Wrex and Tali as teammates. I got them both at about the exact same time and only used the two of them on all missions/assignments together (except the first few before you get them) and for some reason Tali's trophy popped on time and I had to do like 10-15 more quests before Wrex's trophy did. I was certain it wasn't going to pop lol They should have popped at the same time or Wrex should have popped first since I think you technically do one mission with him before getting Tali. So those trophies sucked....the other trophies that sucked were the 'use *blank* ability 75 times' trophies. It wouldn't have been as bad if it counted your teammates, since you'd have access to everything if they counted...however the trophy list forces you to play under multiple different job/class types to get. Fortunately they are relatively easy to farm....but I would have rather been able to do them organically by playing the game. The rest of the trophies weren't too bad...but this trophy list was far grindy-er than it needed to be. Based on my complaints, it probably doesn't sound like I liked the game as much as I did, but as I mentioned....it was mostly little things. Overall, this was a great experience and I'm super psyched that I get to carry my character over to the next playthrough On to ME2!

[Rally-Vincent---]

You forgot the most important information - femShep or maleShep? And You won't be disappointed by ME2, I think.

[Tesla_Rules]

Just reading your bio and the games that you have completed blows me away.  You've inspired me to go back and play my games (I must have close to 200 games that aren't loaded on my backlog) instead of wasting my time driving around with friends in GTAV!  Enjoy reading your thoughts and takeaways from the games you've completed!  Keep it up and congrats on all of your accomplishments!

[Inuty]

Glad you could manage to play it now.

[Briste]

On 11/22/2020 at 3:13 PM, Rally-Vincent--- said:

You forgot the most important information - femShep or maleShep? And You won't be disappointed by ME2, I think.

lol maleShep. I did femShep with one of the cleanup runs for the biotic abilities, but I was the dude. I'm looking forward to see the continuation for sure.

 

On 11/22/2020 at 3:29 PM, Tesla_Rules said:

Just reading your bio and the games that you have completed blows me away.  You've inspired me to go back and play my games (I must have close to 200 games that aren't loaded on my backlog) instead of wasting my time driving around with friends in GTAV!  Enjoy reading your thoughts and takeaways from the games you've completed!  Keep it up and congrats on all of your accomplishments!

Thanks! Good luck getting it done! It's hard sometimes to stick with some of the games that aren't as good, but I think it shows character to finish things that are tough. Did you take a break from gaming for a while? I see a pretty large gap in your profile....also congrats on getting a PS5! I struck out every time I tried to snag one. What do you think of it so far?

 

17 hours ago, Inuty said:

Glad you could manage to play it now.

lol me too doing a little bit of a palate cleanser by playing a Chess game a bit. My friend who turned me onto ME has me playing Chess online with him and this one is pretty fun too.

 

 

[Jens]

On 23.11.2020 at 9:12 AM, Inuty said:

Glad you could manage to play it now.

You're only glad because he's one step closer to Yakuza now, and we both know it!

 

But back to the boss of this thread: Is that "I play complete series, back to back and in order!" something that's getting a bit cumbersome for you by now or are you still into it 100%? You seem to be going strong so far while not avoiding bigger series, but it almost makes me think that it starts feeling like work, just gaming-style.

Edited November 27, 2020 by Jens

[Inuty]

24 minutes ago, Jens said:

You're only glad because he's one step closer to Yakuza now, and we both know it!

This was more @Cassylvania we tried to convince to play Yakuza. I guess we never tried to convince Briste, but after the time he needed to start Mass Effect we have another hard cookie to crack  

[Briste]

On 11/27/2020 at 8:11 AM, Jens said:

But back to the boss of this thread: Is that "I play complete series, back to back and in order!" something that's getting a bit cumbersome for you by now or are you still into it 100%? You seem to be going strong so far while not avoiding bigger series, but it almost makes me think that it starts feeling like work, just gaming-style.

Not exactly...it's easy enough to delay a platinum until I get the one to pop I want. For example, I started Leisure Suit Larry towards the end of my KH run. I have a few active games now that I'll wait to pop. I've really enjoyed breaking up the ME run with Battle vs Chess. It's actually pretty fun and challenging. Absolutely no one is playing it though so the multiplayer trophies could be a challenge. I have a standing 'Gaming Session' in case anyone new starts to play and wants to play with me. When I pop ME Andromeda...I'll probably end up popping three or four games right after. I'm slowly working on Hollow Knight as I creep closer to my milestone, I'll have BvC ready to pop too most likely...yours and my favorite Phil as well as Gunhouse. It might be cheating a little bit since I'm 'forcing' my completion order...but it's my profile so I want it to look how I want it to look  

 

I'm pretty sure that Trophy Hunting is a mental disease that we're all just feeding anyways lol We each have our own idea of what Trophy Hunting means and our own little idiosyncratic ways to go about doing them...My current short term goal is to finish the ME series....my more longer term goal is to get my trophy percentage stat to less than 40%. It's completely arbitrary and means nothing....but it's something I'm shooting for. I'm currently around 40.5% and your boy Phil is making that a little tougher...but it's fine...I want to be in the cool kids club lol

 

On 11/27/2020 at 8:38 AM, Inuty said:

This was more @Cassylvania we tried to convince to play Yakuza. I guess we never tried to convince Briste, but after the time he needed to start Mass Effect we have another hard cookie to crack  

Jens has been making a push a bit via Discord lol It is a series I would like to play at some point....I think...but that is a mountain of games to climb. I want to finish the UC series and the Soulsbourne series first. After that, I don't have any other series in my backlog so it might be a time I try to squeeze it in....to a year. Maybe I'll make 2023 a Platinum Rain year where I don't pop any Platinums until 12/31 and I'll pop the entire series in order, and then any other game I played throughout the year on top of it. That could be an interesting challenge, but we'll see!

[AJ_Radio]

I don't know if I will ever get around to Mass Effect at this point. Played it back in the day when it came out, loved it for what it was. Then came Mass Effect 3 with it's colossal failure of an ending, so much so Bioware made an attempt to change it.

 

I'm tired of all the rehashes/remakes/re-releases of games that originated on PS3/PS4 that are now on PS4/PS5, but if there was one series I want to see get a proper remaster, it's the Mass Effect franchise. Definitely deserving, and long past due.

[Briste]

Platinum #129

Mass Effect 2

Well it took a while to get going, but now I'm on a roll! Two Months and two ME plats. After how much I enjoyed the first one, I didn't want to wait too long before starting the second one up. After a couple weeks of a few palate cleansing games and setting Hollow Knight up to be ready for my milestone....I was back as John Shepard for my second go-round. I really enjoyed this addition to the series. It might be one of my favorite games of all time to be honest. I thought they improved in virtually every facet of the game and there were only a few things that they didn't.

 

Things I liked...I thought the continuation of the story was really good and I was very interested in how this journey would end up. I could see how people might feel the story was a little cheap, since the majority of the game is finding team members and then earning their loyalty, but I really liked it. I thought it gave valuable back story and made you feel more invested in each of them. I used everyone at least a couple of times. My main team was usually made up of Kasumi and Miranda. Miranda was useful against both organics and synthetics and Kasumi's flash bang and stealth attack's were extremely useful too. I did every mission/assignment possible and tried to talk to everyone as much as possible too to get as much of the story as I could. I'm really looking forward to the 'finale' of the trilogy (even though I've heard the story sucked in the end...trying to make my own opinions).

 

I felt like the combat was improved as well with things like aiming much better. I loved that they got rid of that invincibility ability since that just seemed to drag fights on forever in the first game and I liked that they got rid of the inventory as it was more annoying than helpful in the first one. I also liked the idea of upgrading you weapons as well. I didn't notice much of a difference as far as graphics are concerned, but for a 10 year old game, they were pretty good and there was a lot more detail in each of the zones. The zones felt much smaller, but there was a lot more variety and they weren't nearly as sterile as the first one. I liked how they adjusted 'leveling up' and didn't like it as much at the same time. Every one of my characters (except Shepard) had a wasted stat point since anything past the first point into an ability required more than one point to upgrade. Due to this, every character had one stat point that I couldn't assign. At least in the first one that didn't happen, but the improvement in an ability from level one to level two was much more noticeable. I also felt it created a lot more room for customization. I played the first game as a Soldier however wanted to try something different in this one. I was happy that the story made it so that it was possible to change your main 'job' path if you wanted.

 

I ended up playing as an Infiltrator (stealthy type) and found it a ton of fun to play. Since I wanted to do this in one play through, it also ended up being very, very helpful for playing in Insanity. On several occasions, turning invisible and running to cover saved my ass. It was also very helpful getting some of the combat trophies done as well. I thought the Brawler trophy, where you have to punch and then shoot and kill 20 enemies while they are staggered was going to be challenging, especially on Insanity...but I ended up killing all the enemies in an area until one was left and then just went invisible and ran up and smack him then shoot. It only seemed to register about half the time...but It made that trophy much easier and I didn't feel like I would run out of time to do it. Maybe it was because of the job I selected, but I didn't find Insanity to be that hard at all. Only a couple spots took more than two or three tries and most of them I was able to do on my first try. You are basically invulnerable when in cover (unless flanked) so as long as you remain patient....you shouldn't really die much.

 

Things I didn't like....I didn't like that they didn't fix the 'skipping text' button being the same as the choosing an option button. I always play with subtitles since I don't always hear what is being said, and I find reading the lines to be faster and I miss less of the story that way. I hate that several times throughout the story, I'll hit  to skip to the next line of text, and the decision pops up just before I hit the button and I don't even see what conversation selection I've made. It almost always seems to end a conversation too....I would rather it default to something that keeps the options up there...or better yet, I could hit another button to skip text that won't make a decision for me. I liked that they added the ability to fly the Normandy around the star maps, but it really sucked looking for materials. It felt like a major waste of time....select a world, press  to scan, move the scanner up and down the longitude lines while very slowly moving left or right along the latitude lines until your scanner reads a mineral...shoot the probe...get a small amount of materials....rinse repeat. It took like 5 minutes per planet and you could only carry 30 probes in the beginning. I'd spend about 15 probes per planet and have to waste time going back to the system that had the fuel supply ship to buy more, then trek back out to the system I was probing. It was just really annoying. I'm hoping they improve on that in ME3. The last thing I didn't love was them switching from weapons that required no ammo, but could over heat...to weapons requiring ammo. I never really ran out of ammo....but it really limited my ability to use my favorite guns since they didn't have as much ammo. I enjoy using a sniper rifle...but you only get 10 bullets (at least with the starting gun) and I'd run out far too fast.

 

Other than those minor issues, I thought this game was amazing. At this point, I can't tell if I'd play the remaster's or not. I really enjoy the games so it's not that...but I think it'd be a few years before I'd jump back into it since I'm just playing them now. Who knows...maybe it'll be like a game from SE and be in production for 10-15 years after being announced. Whatever they do....I hope they learn from Cyberpunk and don't rush it.

 

Since I'm a glutton for punishment....I'm going to start MLB 20 tonight and play that for a little before jumping back into ME3. Hope everyone has had a nice holiday season!

[Inuty]

I liked Mass Effect 3. Really depends on you. Most of the gaming community just didnt get what they wanted and were really mad about it. In my opinion it is still in the hands of the developers how they want their story to end. 

 

I never heard about a book that Was rewritten because the Fans didnt like the end

[Briste]

4 hours ago, Inuty said:

I liked Mass Effect 3. Really depends on you. Most of the gaming community just didnt get what they wanted and were really mad about it. In my opinion it is still in the hands of the developers how they want their story to end. 

I agree completely. I'm not one that ever wants an artist to change their work to something I would like. I can generally appreciate something for what it is, even if it differs from how I would have liked it to go. I've liked a lot of things that may not have been popular with the masses so I'm not terribly concerned. This is another reason why I try to stay as spoiler free as I can with these kinds of things. 

[Briste]

Well it's been a couple of weeks since it happened, but I hit the 6000 trophy milestone. I had been debating between a couple of trophies and at the end of the day opted for Hollow Knight's Pure Completion trophy:

#6000 Pure Completion

In addition to being a really nice trophy image...I felt it encompasses my gaming goals as well. I may never get back to 100%...SMB may be my block. It's not necessarily that I don't think I could do it if I practiced enough...it's just that every time I've sat down over the past couple of years to get back into the groove of playing...I just get bored after about 30 minutes so I lose focus and do something else. I have so many games that I want to play that it is just so easy to keep putting it off. I'd like to think I'll get back to it...but I may not and that's ok too.

 

As some of you may know, one of my idiosyncratic things about gaming is to try and beat games that are in a series in order and consecutively if I can. I'm currently halfway through my Mass Effect series run and I made a silly mistake in one of my 'in between' games. Having played baseball my whole life and through college, I have a soft spot in my heart for baseball games. I haven't watched much real MLB in recent years since it bores my wife to tears and my kids don't have much of an attention span for it either, but I still love the game. I picked up MLB the Show 20, not expecting to like the game much. I figured it'd be fine like the prior ones I'd played, but it'd scratch my baseball itch and I'd move on. Turns out....I'm really, really enjoying the game a lot. I would like to keep playing it while I play other games, however I left my last trophy as a leveling up trophy instead of one where I have to do some arbitrary task....and I'm about 5 minutes from popping that leveling trophy.

 

The last trophy I need is for getting to the Silver rank (level 100). It's like a prestige trophy in some FPS games where you reset back to level one at a higher rank. MLB did something brilliant this time around, which really pulls at my collecting/trophy hunting ways...they added a 'Collection' part to the game. You always collected cards in the prior games, that's how you build your team...but now you have like a baseball card book where you keep your cards and if you put them in that book, they are in your inventory forever and can no longer be sold. Normally, it'd be a 'big woop' kind of thing, except by collecting specific sets of cards, you can unlock better, unique cards and so on. To unlock some cards, you need to finish up different game modes etc to earn points that unlock even better cards. You win baseball card packs in most of the different games you can play....it's just been a lot of fun and very addicting. The best part is, you can get a really good lineup without paying a dime. You can buy stubs to buy card packs if you want....but it's really easy to get card packs, especially in the Conquest mode. I've been targeting specific cards and stuff and it's just been a lot of fun. I might play this game well past the platinum to try and collect as much as I can. But, my dumbass left the leveling up trophy for last and I'm currently at level 99 1/2 and am stuck since that'd mess up my game order and....you see my dilemma  I know it's a self-imposed thing....but knowing myself, I should have been smarter about the trophy I left to get the Platinum.

 

So part of my plan is a personal 'Platinum Rain'. This plan started because I got the Plat for ME1 and wanted the order, but also wanted to play some stuff in between. I also turn 40 in May and thought it'd be kind of neat to have a mini-rain event for myself. I'm not sure yet how many games I'm going to save to platinum on that day...maybe just four...one for each decade, but we'll see as it approaches. If I didn't want to play MLB, I would have saved all of my Platinums in 2021 until then....but I'll probably get ME3 and Andromeda done back to back so I can work on MLB again and maybe some of my non-100% games that are due to DLC (looking at you KH3 and TLOU2). I figure I'm also going to give Hollow Knight the old college try as far as doing the final Pantheon without the glitch. I played the main game without it, however I figure I'll practice and try up until my birthday....If I can't do it legit by then, I'll probably beat it using the glitch on my Bday. It's pretty freaking hard though lol

 

Anyway...figured I'd check in with the milestone. 

Edited January 12, 2021 by Briste

[Rally-Vincent---]

15 hours ago, Briste said:

As some of you may know, one of my idiosyncratic things about gaming is to try and beat games that are in a series in order and consecutively if I can.

 

Not that I am one to talk, leaving TLOU II open for a milestone myself, but... aren't those self-imposed rules a chain-and-ball on some parts of fun?

[Briste]

5 hours ago, Rally-Vincent--- said:

Not that I am one to talk, leaving TLOU II open for a milestone myself, but... aren't those self-imposed rules a chain-and-ball on some parts of fun?

No, not usually. I generally like to see the story continuity so playing them in close succession is good for that. Sometimes I have a hard time remembering what happened in which game since they can all blur together...but since I can delay a platinum pop as long as I like...it generally is never an issue. For example, in between ME1 and ME2 I was playing Battle vs. Chess, which I didn't anticipate liking as much as I did there either, but I have a relatively easy (I think anyways) trophy left to pop for the platinum. MLB 20 was supposed to be the same idea between ME2 and ME3. I was expecting the same kind of game as last year and was fully expecting the Silver rank to be a grind and left it for my last trophy. I was pleasantly surprised by the additions to the game and in the future I'll make sure I'll leave a more random trophy in this situation instead of one I'll have to hit if I play enough.

 

While I suppose the self-imposed rules could be a ball-and-chain at some point, I think it's one of those things that can make a profile more unique....not that that is my goal either...but when I check out other people's profiles...I'll try to look and see what their 'thing' is. Some people have none...some plan milestones a certain way or stack their trophy cabinet a certain way...I feel this rule of mine is one of the things that makes my profile mine.

Edited January 13, 2021 by Briste

[realm722]

On 1/11/2021 at 11:11 PM, Briste said:

I picked up MLB the Show 20, not expecting to like the game much. I figured it'd be fine like the prior ones I'd played, but it'd scratch my baseball itch and I'd move on. Turns out....I'm really, really enjoying the game a lot. I would like to keep playing it while I play other games, however I left my last trophy as a leveling up trophy instead of one where I have to do some arbitrary task....and I'm about 5 minutes from popping that leveling trophy.

 

Hahaha yooooo! You and I were in the exact same predicament with this man. I picked it up for $10 on the recent Holiday Sale expecting it to just be a distant "turn my brain off, just enjoy baseball while I play other games" and it ended up being the only game I wanted to keep playing for a week straight. Hell, I could play for hours in the evenings just listening to other shows/music due to how fun the gameplay is. You are 1000% on the money with how fun collections are - especially as someone who grew up collecting baseball cards. They really did an outstanding job making a fun sports Ultimate Team that isn't predator in the sense of forcing you to buy stubs. Sure, if you wanna pay 1-2 million stubs for some absurd 99 rated card you can, but you can easily manage a full diamond squad with borderline maxed stats without resorting to that. 

 

I also 100% feel your pain with self-imposed "limits". I personally try to ensure certain milestones are met (have to line up trophy points just right so it's the level up platinum icon, have 4 blues for plats before 1 green in a 100%, or as you put it - have a trilogy line up one after another). It's a pure curation of your profile for aesthetics but that's part of the fun of making it - and given how beautifully the Kingdom Hearts series looks on your profile I can't blame you for wanting to hold onto it. 

[Briste]

22 hours ago, realm722 said:

Sure, if you wanna pay 1-2 million stubs for some absurd 99 rated card you can, but you can easily manage a full diamond squad with borderline maxed stats without resorting to that. 

lol glad to hear I'm not the only one! I was really happy with how quickly you could get a stacked team without paying money. I've only played like 5 online matches so far and everything I've done has been through playing the different game modes. Conquest is so quick and easy for getting tons of card packs. I usually get three or more of the 'Ballin' packs and I've gotten several diamond players through there. Plus there are several other diamond packs I've gotten as well. I was able to get Bob Gibson with a 99 rating by beating that conquest map. It's also a great way to get stubs! i haven't used the auction house much at all yet...every 50k stubs I get I've bought the 50 pack of normal cards to round out my collection of the basic players. I usually get at least one diamond player in all those packs as well.

 

22 hours ago, realm722 said:

I also 100% feel your pain with self-imposed "limits". I personally try to ensure certain milestones are met (have to line up trophy points just right so it's the level up platinum icon, have 4 blues for plats before 1 green in a 100%, or as you put it - have a trilogy line up one after another). It's a pure curation of your profile for aesthetics but that's part of the fun of making it - and given how beautifully the Kingdom Hearts series looks on your profile I can't blame you for wanting to hold onto it. 

I think that is part of the fun of having a profile though. For me, it's almost like having a bedroom wall as a kid again. I used to pick out posters to hang or a shelf to display different things...this kind of reminds me of that. I get to pick which trophy images to display and have a decent amount of control over what appears where. My profile is a mix of a journal of my gaming journey and a bedroom wall to put up pictures. I feel like this site and my profile is big part of the reason why I still have fun gaming. Sure it's 90% about the games....but this does add that 10% element to it. So I guess for me it's not so much a pain point since I choose to do it that way. If it ever got to be too much, I'm not so OCD that I couldn't change...but for now...this is what works  I like your idiosyncratic thing too. I never though about the 'blues vs green' thing. I know I prefer the blue to the green and check mark....but I usually let those fall where they may lol I'll need to be on the lookout if other people do the same thing!

[Briste]

Platinum #130

Mass Effect 3

It's done folks, the original trilogy is in the books. I can safely say that this is a top 3 favorite series ever. The Banner Saga and Final Fantasy's are in that trio as well. FF probably doesn't belong in there since most of the games have nothing to do with one another, but since that series sparked my love affair with gaming...I feel obligated to put them in there. This series had everything...it made me laugh (way more than I expected), made me happy, made me sad....it was just an excellent story and an amazing experience. After reading somewhere that BioWare screwed the pooch with the third game in the series, I went into the game wondering what would make it go south....and for me it never happened. I thought it was a pretty perfect end to a really good story. The character development was fantastic and so was the voice acting. After checking out IMDB, I was surprised at how many famous actors were in the game.

 

In general, I'm a sucker for games that have a continuation from game to game. i love when decisions made in game one have ramifications in games two and three. With my save that I brought over for each game, I played as a male Shepard and was as Paragon as I could be. I did every quest that I was able to and I talked to everyone that I could whenever I could. The side conversations were my favorite part. There was so much humor sprinkled in there and a ton of character development. In game one, Ashley was my romance option, however in ME2, with Ashley not an option...I went with Tali. I was really curious what she looked like under the mask and thought if she was my romance option I'd get to see it...plus she was the most genuine character of the group and felt like the right choice based on how I chose to play Shepard. Much to my disappointment, I didn't get to see her face in ME2, however I continued our romance in ME3 and finally got my wish. Due to our relationship in the game, I tended to have her in my party whenever I could to see the banter. My biggest disappointment in the game was with the Citaldel DLC. I had Tali as a squad member, but since I hadn't gotten far enough in the main story line when I tackled the DLC, she wasn't at the party at the end. It was really kind of stupid, and even though she was in my squad for the missions...she wasn't at the party, but said thank you after the DLC for having the party. The continuity was really off there, and it was the only real time I was disappointed in the story.

 

I played the whole game on Insanity mode...DLC's included. For the most part, the game was pretty easy. Cover wasn't as broken as it was in ME2, but it was still pretty buff. Enemies try to flank you much much more in this game. The Citadel DLC was the hardest part to play in insanity. The last boss in the DLC was really a pain in the ass...he was just relentless in coming after you and really didn't allow me to stay in cover long. The mirror match in the Arena was also pretty hard on Insanity. I could get through the first two rounds pretty consistently, but that third round with all six Shepards out at once was really tough. The Vanguard Shepard was the bane of my existence for a while. After about twenty five to thirty attempts though, I was able to beat it. The only part of the game that really pissed me off, was a game mechanic at the very end. It's a mini-game of sorts where you only have a pistol and the sway is insane...everything is in slow motion, except when you try to move the crosshairs onto the target....then the crosshairs were on ice skates. You have to be quick and accurate or it's game over...and there's no way to skip the cutscene at the beginning of the segment. Fortunately, the cutscene isn't long....but it got really annoying after try 30. Other than that really annoying section....ME3 was amazing. The story was great, the number of ways things could turn out is great. The replayability of this game is exceptionally high and I'll have no problem at all playing the Remasters when they come out. I'll maybe be a renegade and have a different love interest.

 

Combat was a lot of fun in this game. I liked how they changed up the leveling in this game...I liked that you could combo abilities with your squad mates. You really need to also to beat some of those enemies....Banshees suck ass on Insanity. Playing as an Infiltrator wasn't as beneficial in this game as in ME2. It felt like the enemies could see me much better. It was useful in about three different areas, but for the most part...I didn't go invisible much since it can really mess up the timers. I played as an Infiltrator in ME3 again since it was very useful in ME2 in Insanity mode. If I had to do it again, I'd probably try as a Sentinel or an Engineer. It was a little annoying that I had to do another partial playthrough to get the Overload trophy. Fortunately, it only took a few hours to do cleanup in NG+.

 

Without spoilers (I probably shouldn't worry since the game is like 10 years old now, but I'll be nice), I chose to go straight up the middle in the end. I was tempted to go right and choose red...but since I had been playing as the Paragon type, felt choosing the middle option felt like the right way for this particular story to end. I grew attached to all of my squad members based on their backstories, however generally went with Liara since her crowd control abilities were insanely helpful and either Tali or EDI. If I wasn't sure what kind of enemies I'd be facing, I tended to take EDI since her abilities work well against Synthetics and Organics. I'd take Tali if I wanted to see some unique dialogue. Javik was a great addition and really entertaining to talk to as well. I can't say enough good things about this series, and if you're like me and hadn't played it yet....definitely check out the Remaster when it comes out...or if you still have a PS3, it's worth the investment.

 

While I've been told Mass Effect: Andromeda really isn't a part of the ME series....I will most likely play that next. I'll probably start something else first...or maybe finish something I've already started first...but i feel like I should get ME: A done as well. This game will stick with me for a long time, but now it's off to bed!

 

 

 

[Inuty]

Glad you enjoyed it. I had also a bad time with citadel dlc final Boss on insanity. I didnt thought it would be a Problem but got destroyed

 

I played Andromeda after all the patches and i enjoyed the game. It just another Story in the univers and if you are not to salty to not see the characters you loved in the first 3 games, i would recommend to play the game. I had a good time with it and since you liked ME3 after all the bad Reputations on the ending i dont think you will have a bad time with it

[AJ_Radio]

As a big baseball buff I was a little amused to see those ‘Moment in History’ Diamond Dynasty bits in MLB the Show 20.

 

ESPN NFL 2K5 is probably one of my favorite football games of all time, the last NFL game before EA signed an exclusive rights agreement. You could briefly play NFL moments that were in historic NFL games. One had Joe Montana and Jerry Rice on the San Francisco 49ers. 
 

I wonder if MLB got their ‘Moment in History’ Diamond Dynasty in that.

[Briste]

18 hours ago, Inuty said:

Glad you enjoyed it. I had also a bad time with citadel dlc final Boss on insanity. I didnt thought it would be a Problem but got destroyed

 

This was a rare instance where I thought all of the DLC's were actually good. Citadel was just exceptionally hard on Insanity. Even the first part where you only have a hand gun and one block of health was pretty challenging. As an Infiltrator, I tried a few times to sprint that long hallway invisible to get past the enemies, however they would see me instantly, even invisible. I ended up having to move really slowly get through. Citadel DLC was a bit more silly than the other DLC's, but it was still pretty decent. I thought the Leviathan DLC was great and even Omega was pretty good. It was all great for added depth to the story.

 

I forgot to mention it above, but grenades were the bane of my existence throughout lol. I'd say at least half, probably more, of my deaths were due to grenades. To get past the boss in Citadel, I had to get to cover...use a few abilities to try and take out the other guys and then sprint to the other side of the area. Rinse and repeat. It probably took me ten or twelve times before I got it.

 

18 hours ago, Inuty said:

I played Andromeda after all the patches and i enjoyed the game. It just another Story in the univers and if you are not to salty to not see the characters you loved in the first 3 games, i would recommend to play the game. I had a good time with it and since you liked ME3 after all the bad Reputations on the ending i dont think you will have a bad time with it

I'm sure I'll like it just fine...I'm more trying to decide for myself if I need to keep the Platinums consecutive or not...I probably will. I've found that I generally don't agree with the consensus on what is a good game lol

 

15 hours ago, Spaz said:

As a big baseball buff I was a little amused to see those ‘Moment in History’ Diamond Dynasty bits in MLB the Show 20.

 

Those are a lot of fun, however range greatly in difficulty. Some of them are as easy as getting one out to get a save in the 9th to getting 8 hits over 3 games with 3 extra base hits or something. They are a great way to get stubs and cards though, however I found the Conquest items to be the best way to get cards. But yeah, as a baseball fan it is a lot of fun to try and re-live a huge moment in a way. 

[Briste]

So, if I follow my usual MO of posting after a 100%, this thread would be dead until the end of May. I have decided to do a mini platinum rain to celebrate my 40th birthday this year. I generally love popping platinums as soon as I am able, however I've also always wanted to have a rain day as well. By and large, turning 40 is no big deal for me....I've never really cared about birthdays in all honesty....but 40 seems like a nice round number and a good excuse for checking a rain day off my trophy hunting bucket list. My goal is to get to 10 games....again just another nice round number. But, having that rain day would mean I have no 'Platinum' updates for here, so I figure I'll post some progress updates on my quest. Originally I was holding off on finishing these games until I finished the ME series....but now that I have a decent number primed, I've decided to add them to the rain day. I'll probably do a mass review day on the largest post ever....but I'm trying to write the reviews as I go, but I'm not sure the order I'll pop yet so I'm not assigning numbers yet.

 

Here's where I'm at towards my 10:

1) Battle vs Chess: I have one trophy to go and it seems to be one in a situation I should be able to manufacture pretty easily...I just need to have to have the computer Stalemate me, which would normally be hard to do, however I can probably force the computer to do that easily enough...it'll probably take me a half hour or so, but it should be easy to do. This will probably be the second game that I pop on rain day.

 

2) Hollow Knight: One trophy to go here as well. It's the big one too for completing the Pantheon. I have tried off and on for the past couple of months to practice, however I know what a huge time sink it will be and having that invincibility glitch in my back pocket has really stifled my motivation to do this legit. There are just so many games I want to play, that it's hard to get psyched up for the tens of hours of practice it may take to get this done. If the glitch wasn't there, I would definitely do it the other way since that's just what I try to do....but I feel like I've done everything the game has to offer and really enjoyed my time with it, no point in souring the experience by hating every second from here on out. I almost wish I didn't know about the glitch so I could do this proper...but I do and I just can't get amped up for it so I'm taking the easy way out.

 

3) MLB The Show 20: Only one trophy here for reaching Level 1 Silver which I'm only about 50xp away from getting. This is another 2 minute platinum waiting for me. I'll play this one past platinum...probably as a break every once in a while, but I want to complete my collection of cards here.

 

4) Slay the Spire: I am about 5 seconds from the platinum here. The trophy for beating Ascension 20 doesn't actually pop until after a mini scene after beating the last boss of Act III. I beat the last boss of Act III the other day and just need to log in and view the additional scene and plat popped here. This is one of the best games I've played. I feel like I've been saying that a lot lately, but my cup have runneth over with great games of late. This is another game I'll probably continue to play after the platinum...after all there are four classes you can bring to A20.

 

5) Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate: I actually need two trophies here, but they will both pop at the same time along with the platinum. I just need to open the last crate and it'll all pop. I'm saved right outside the room with the last crate so this'll be another 15 seconds to pop. I felt like this game played better on the Vita, however I played this for the PS3 event and I also have another mini-goal of beating all of the Arkham games in the 'series' list here on PSNP. All that's left after this is the Arkham Asylum (jp) which I bought off Amazon a month or so ago, so that will be coming soon as well.

 

6) Fill-a-Pix: Phil's Epic Adventure: I'm playing this game so I can be in the 'cool kids' club. @Jens and @Cassylvania bullied me into this one lol While this game is not good, it is not that bad on the vita. I have no idea how anyone could play this on a big screen for the PS4. As far as I can tell, there are no short cuts here and some of these puzzles are giant. They take anywhere from five minutes to an hour and a half to complete and there are a shit-ton of puzzles. I probably have a good 15-20 hours (about 15 puzzles left) of this before being ready to plat, but this will be ready to go in time.

 

7) LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham: I've been playing this with my son for the past several months and we're just about done with it. We beat all the levels together, but he's not quite as interested in completing the random stuff required for all the trophies so in the past couple of weeks, I've been spending some time here and there doing the random cleanup. We still play though since he wants to help unlock all the characters, however he as more fun trying to kick my butt than anything else lol He has LEGO Ninjago lined up next for when we unlock all the characters. If I focused on it, we could probably finish this in about a half an hour, but we'll screw around for a while. This will be ready to pop in seconds though on my birthday. I plan on leaving one of the 'have these two characters together' trophies for last so it'll just be a matter of logging in, switching to those characters and pop! wham! smack! plat!

 

8) Mass Effect: Andromeda: I started this at the beginning of February and then got a little side tracked. I wasn't quite ready to start when I did and only got about 40 minutes in when I stopped for StS. Now that StS is wrapped up though, this will be next up on the docket. This will be the first game I pop so that it is in sequence with the rest of the series.

 

So as you can see, I have a good start on my ten game goal. After ME: A, I'll be starting the Dragon Age series. I think those are pretty long too so finishing ME: A and two of those by the end of May is definitely doable, but not a guarantee either. Ideally, I'd get the entire series done by then, but that might be a tall order so I won't hold my breath. Plus I've had a penchant lately for playing a game in between games within a series lately, so who's to say I play them exactly back to back anyway. Well, that's what I've been up to, hope everyone has been enjoying their games as much as I have been recently.

Edited March 4, 2021 by Briste