Briste's Diary of a Madman

[Inuty]

Well dragon age is fun, first part in my opinion the best part and the second the worst   but knowing you, you will still be having fun with it! Inquisition is way more fun after two then.

 

 

[Jens]

9 hours ago, Briste said:

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.

 

Yeeaahh... we might have to find a way to invite you over to a apology-drink for that one.

 

And then give you a wedgie while you're distracted.

[Rally-Vincent---]

On 4.3.2021 at 3:38 AM, Briste said:

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.

 

Ah, Dragon Age... what fun times I had with the first and the third game. Never touched DA 2, though.

[HelixNebula_x]

On 04/03/2021 at 2:38 AM, Briste said:

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.

 

There is actually a way to cheese this one, and I definitely used it when I realised just how long I would be playing this mind numbing game.

 

If you fill in the entire puzzle with the black squares and then 'fix' any mistakes, it completes the puzzle for you by removing all incorrect squares. Will save hours of grinding, but unfortunately won't make the game any more fun. Also likely a fast track to carpal tunnel with how many squares there are to fill.

 

Good luck on the rain day, and the Fill-a-Pix trick is there if you need it. ?

[Briste]

On 3/4/2021 at 2:20 AM, Inuty said:

Well dragon age is fun, first part in my opinion the best part and the second the worst   but knowing you, you will still be having fun with it! Inquisition is way more fun after two then.

I'm hoping! My wife complains that I like everything and don't have a 'distinguished palate'...of course she's referring to food, but it appears to cross over to games as well. I'm sure it'll be something I enjoy...I really haven't played an open worlds style game yet that I haven't enjoyed.

 

On 3/4/2021 at 7:19 AM, Jens said:

Yeeaahh... we might have to find a way to invite you over to a apology-drink for that one.

If I had been playing it on the PS4, I would agree with you, but it truly hasn't been terrible on the Vita. I just wish it didn't take so long to finish a map.

 

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

Ah, Dragon Age... what fun times I had with the first and the third game. Never touched DA 2, though.

I bought them all in a sale a few years ago I think and they've kind of just been sitting there. I try not to 'judge a book by its cover' but I totally bought this game because of its cover lol I've hear DA2 is the KH:CoM of the series....but we'll see.

 

10 hours ago, HelixNebula_x said:

There is actually a way to cheese this one, and I definitely used it when I realised just how long I would be playing this mind numbing game.

 

If you fill in the entire puzzle with the black squares and then 'fix' any mistakes, it completes the puzzle for you by removing all incorrect squares. Will save hours of grinding, but unfortunately won't make the game any more fun. Also likely a fast track to carpal tunnel with how many squares there are to fill.

 

Good luck on the rain day, and the Fill-a-Pix trick is there if you need it.

Brilliant! I actually don't mind doing the puzzles for real on the Vita, but this would have to be used if this is being played on PS4. I did just try this on my last puzzle and it took one that would probably have taken me an hour and twenty minutes down to fifteen. I don't know if I'll use it again, but I completely forgot that you could switch the box to a single box size and I haven't used the 'fix it' function outside the tutorial and this never even occurred to me. Thank you for the tip! If I fall behind and it gets close to rain day, I'll definitely use this little trick.

[Briste]

Well, I was trying to put off ME: A a bit longer....was feeling a little 'Mass Effect'd out' and coupled with the poor reviews, i wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to play it. I even picked up DriveClub VR again to help postpone. I downloaded Jotun and Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark as a last ditch reason to delay ME: A further. I slept on it and decided to just play ME: A and be done with the series....turns out I'm actually really liking it (surprise, surprise lol)

 

It is a bit of an unpolished turd as far as what is happening on screen. The NPC's you talk to seem to like to walk around while talking and phase in and out of furniture, walk completely off-screen so you can't hear them...among other things. I've had enemies shoot me through walls and a bunch of other dumb stuff. The AI seems smarter and dumber at the same time. I find that if you battle in the zone where bad guys pop, I end up getting flanked and destroyed, however if I back up to a previous area, the AI gets confused and it is much easier to pick them off. While the bugginess of what is happening on screen is bad, I'm actually pretty interested in the story. It doesn't feel like a Mass Effect game since there is no Shepard....but I like how this game seems to have started just before the events of ME3 and take place centuries later. The name dropping of some random characters has been kind of neat and I like the premise of the game. I'm only about 10-12 hours in, so we'll see if this enthusiasm sticks....but it's not nearly as bad as I was expecting. This is one of those times where you were expecting something so bad, that it has actually surprised me. If I had been playing this on release, I might have a different feeling about it.

 

I wasn't completely spared in my attempt to not play ME: A....I finished up Phil (two seconds to plat) and downloaded The Bridge for a new Vita game. It's kind of neat so far....an MC Escher style puzzle game. Nothing terribly hard yet, but it's decent enough to play while my wife watches Married at First Sight.....

Edited March 11, 2021 by Briste

[Inuty]

Told you so that it's not as bad as people say it is

 

Jotun is a really good game but really hard to platinum. But i just like Boss rushes and try to get the perfect runs so i'm special in those kind of things.

[James_Tonto]

On 11/03/2021 at 4:04 AM, Briste said:

Well, I was trying to put off ME: A a bit longer....was feeling a little 'Mass Effect'd out' and coupled with the poor reviews, i wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to play it. I even picked up DriveClub VR again to help postpone. I downloaded Jotun and Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark as a last ditch reason to delay ME: A further. I slept on it and decided to just play ME: A and be done with the series....turns out I'm actually really liking it (surprise, surprise lol)

 

It is a bit of an unpolished turd as far as what is happening on screen. The NPC's you talk to seem to like to walk around while talking and phase in and out of furniture, walk completely off-screen so you can't hear them...among other things. I've had enemies shoot me through walls and a bunch of other dumb stuff. The AI seems smarter and dumber at the same time. I find that if you battle in the zone where bad guys pop, I end up getting flanked and destroyed, however if I back up to a previous area, the AI gets confused and it is much easier to pick them off. While the bugginess of what is happening on screen is bad, I'm actually pretty interested in the story. It doesn't feel like a Mass Effect game since there is no Shepard....but I like how this game seems to have started just before the events of ME3 and take place centuries later. The name dropping of some random characters has been kind of neat and I like the premise of the game. I'm only about 10-12 hours in, so we'll see if this enthusiasm sticks....but it's not nearly as bad as I was expecting. This is one of those times where you were expecting something so bad, that it has actually surprised me. If I had been playing this on release, I might have a different feeling about it.

 

I wasn't completely spared in my attempt to not play ME: A....I finished up Phil (two seconds to plat) and downloaded The Bridge for a new Vita game. It's kind of neat so far....an MC Escher style puzzle game. Nothing terribly hard yet, but it's decent enough to play while my wife watches Married at First Sight.....

 

Good luck with Mass Effect Andromeda, it's the only Mass Effect game I intend to skip. And Judging from the description you've given for the game, I have spared myself a bad experience. ^^:

 

I saw on the "Oh god the PS5 is coming out soon and I have so many PS3 games left" Event that you have Castlevania: Lords of Shadow on your to-do list. It took me 1 week to earn the platinum and 3 more days for 100% completion with the two DLC expansions. Focus on getting Gabriel as strong as you can and use a guide, and you should be able to get everything. This is a game you're gonna need to backtrack on to collect everything. Some of the stuff is hidden really well, while other power ups require you to have unlocked certain abilities to acquire them.

[Briste]

13 hours ago, James_Tonto said:

Good luck with Mass Effect Andromeda, it's the only Mass Effect game I intend to skip. And Judging from the description you've given for the game, I have spared myself a bad experience. ^^:

Rereading what I wrote, I used a saying I've heard before, but in the wrong context. This game isn't an unpolished turd lol It's more an unpolished gem....which in hindsight is very different. There are a ton of cosmetic, stupid things that make the game not be great....but it is actually really fun. I'm pretty invested in the story at this point. Some of the voice acting is atrocious...Kesh, the female Krogan may be the worst voice acted character I've ever seen in a game. Some of the other ancillary characters are also poorly done...I'm playing the male Ryder character and he seems fine. A lot of the teammates are actually decent. I've been playing with Peebee and either Jaal or Drack and the banter has been pretty entertaining. I really like the concept and it's honestly way better than I was expecting. If you're a person that can't look past some cosmetic bugs, then this game will probably drive you nuts since there are quite a bit. QC on this game wasn't very good....but it's definitely worth playing I think. As per usual, I'm doing all side quests and tasks as I can before progressing in the main story and there is actually quite a bit of depth to the characters.

 

13 hours ago, James_Tonto said:

I saw on the "Oh god the PS5 is coming out soon and I have so many PS3 games left" Event that you have Castlevania: Lords of Shadow on your to-do list. It took me 1 week to earn the platinum and 3 more days for 100% completion with the two DLC expansions. Focus on getting Gabriel as strong as you can and use a guide, and you should be able to get everything. This is a game you're gonna need to backtrack on to collect everything. Some of the stuff is hidden really well, while other power ups require you to have unlocked certain abilities to acquire them.

Thanks for the tip! I bought the game a while ago and the disc has just been sitting on my shelf for like 4 years. I'm looking forward to playing the rest of my PS3 backlog. It's funny, I was in a rush to get a PS5 (still haven't gotten one) but I honestly don't need one probably for a year or so since I plan on finishing up my PS3 library. Once I finish those, I'll be ready for one though...

[Rally-Vincent---]

3 hours ago, Briste said:

As per usual, I'm doing all side quests and tasks as I can before progressing in the main story and there is actually quite a bit of depth to the characters.

 

Behavior of an experienced gamer. We do this because we know that continuing the main story might cut off side content... and often it's unnatural. "Hey, you have to save character X from being sacrificed to God of Destruction." - "I know, but first I have to hunt 50 frog skins to get my unique frog hat."

 

I just had this with Cyberpunk 2077. There is a bit of urgency to the main story, but all I did was driving around, checking off marker after marker on the map - because you never know.

[AJ_Radio]

I would of preferred a new Dead Space over Mass Effect Andromeda. EA already sealed the nail in the coffin shortly after Dead Space 3, and that is something I cannot forgive them for.

[Together_Comic]

On 3/10/2021 at 10:04 PM, Briste said:

Well, I was trying to put off ME: A a bit longer....was feeling a little 'Mass Effect'd out' and coupled with the poor reviews, i wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to play it. I even picked up DriveClub VR again to help postpone. I downloaded Jotun and Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark as a last ditch reason to delay ME: A further. I slept on it and decided to just play ME: A and be done with the series....turns out I'm actually really liking it (surprise, surprise lol)

 

It is a bit of an unpolished turd as far as what is happening on screen. The NPC's you talk to seem to like to walk around while talking and phase in and out of furniture, walk completely off-screen so you can't hear them...among other things. I've had enemies shoot me through walls and a bunch of other dumb stuff. The AI seems smarter and dumber at the same time. I find that if you battle in the zone where bad guys pop, I end up getting flanked and destroyed, however if I back up to a previous area, the AI gets confused and it is much easier to pick them off. While the bugginess of what is happening on screen is bad, I'm actually pretty interested in the story. It doesn't feel like a Mass Effect game since there is no Shepard....but I like how this game seems to have started just before the events of ME3 and take place centuries later. The name dropping of some random characters has been kind of neat and I like the premise of the game. I'm only about 10-12 hours in, so we'll see if this enthusiasm sticks....but it's not nearly as bad as I was expecting. This is one of those times where you were expecting something so bad, that it has actually surprised me. If I had been playing this on release, I might have a different feeling about it.

 

I wasn't completely spared in my attempt to not play ME: A....I finished up Phil (two seconds to plat) and downloaded The Bridge for a new Vita game. It's kind of neat so far....an MC Escher style puzzle game. Nothing terribly hard yet, but it's decent enough to play while my wife watches Married at First Sight.....

 

 I have also been putting this off, basically since I started trophy hunting because I have heard just how rough it was.  I did eventually plan to get to it, but I always put it off because I didn't want to tarnish the ME experience for myself. Hearing that it isn't all that bad and in fact is good if a bit unpolished is encouraging.  

[Briste]

On 3/15/2021 at 3:51 PM, Rally-Vincent--- said:

Behavior of an experienced gamer. We do this because we know that continuing the main story might cut off side content... and often it's unnatural. "Hey, you have to save character X from being sacrificed to God of Destruction." - "I know, but first I have to hunt 50 frog skins to get my unique frog hat."

 

lol if this ain't the truth. I always want to complete the story in as straight a shot as I can for continuity. Since games are usually packed with hours of side quests and random tasks, I find if I do them as I go I may forget the story...plus sometimes the game is much harder that way. Now, I try to frontload all of the grinding so that I can just enjoy the story when I've finished everything else. Nothing pisses me off more then content being locked because I got too far through the 'main quest' line lol I know a handful of times I've gone back to a previous save because I accidentally progressed the story before I was ready. I love your example btw lol pretty much every Final Fantasy game ever has some situation like that.

 

16 hours ago, AJ_Radio said:

I would of preferred a new Dead Space over Mass Effect Andromeda. EA already sealed the nail in the coffin shortly after Dead Space 3, and that is something I cannot forgive them for.

I've never played a Dead Space game so I'm not sure what they are about. ME: A truly isn't that bad. I know you've said you have some OCD tendencies so this game may bother you more than me....but it's really not bad at all.

 

7 hours ago, Together_Comic said:

 I have also been putting this off, basically since I started trophy hunting because I have heard just how rough it was.  I did eventually plan to get to it, but I always put it off because I didn't want to tarnish the ME experience for myself. Hearing that it isn't all that bad and in fact is good if a bit unpolished is encouraging.  

I'm trying not to look at it as an 'ME' game...however there is enough 'easter egg' style things that make it kind of neat. I believe this game is supposed to take place sometime after ME1, but before the event's of ME3. The characters in this game seem to know of the attack on the Citadel, but (at least so far) haven't mentioned anything from other two games that I've noticed. The tag line is it takes place 600 years in the future....but all the characters come from the ME timeline so it's kind of an interesting angle.

 

I did hit my first real annoying glitch. On some of the planets, there is a Thresher Maw style enemy that needs to be killed for a mission. It's a pretty challenging fight and I wasn't ready for it the first time I faced it (I was level 10 or so). So in a cowardly fashion, I ran away and figured I'd come back and try again after I leveled up a bit. I went back to fight it around level 25 and was moving right along when the fight glitched. The enemy has three 'legs' and each time you destroy one, it takes off and flies a bit. You have to follow it and resume fighting when it lands....after you take out the second leg....it is supposed to do it one more time. Well I took out the first two legs and when it took off the second time, it just never landed. It was flying in the sky like it wanted to go somewhere, but just wasn't moving. I waited twenty minutes, trying to shoot it down or look for a button to push. After twenty minutes, I Googled it and it seems to be a common glitch. I don't know if it happened because I started the battle and then left and tried again quite a bit later....but I haven't tried it again yet. Fortunately, no trophies are locked behind beating this thing (there is one for having your VI target it, but you don't have to beat it). So if the worst case scenario is I can't beat that one mission, it'll be frustrating, but I can live with it. That's the first glitch I've encountered so far that impacted the gameplay though....the rest has just been the lazy QC stuff. If you do play this game though, play with the subtitles on (if you don't already) because people who talk during a cutscene may be very far away and you can't really hear them. The combat seems more fluid and there is a lot of customizability to your character so it's fun from that perspective.

[Briste]

Platinum #131

Platinum #132

Mass Effect: Andromeda

I'm not going to lie to you...I was dragging my feet with this game due to the negative feedback it had received. Since I had enjoyed the original trilogy so much, I was afraid that this game would leave a sour taste in my mouth. Is this game perfect? No. But is this the worst game ever? Not even close. People who think this is a bad game clearly didn't grow up playing things like Karnov, Bad Dudes and Hydlide and it shows. This game definitely suffers from some Quality Control issues which do cause some eye rolling moments, however the story is a pretty good one and there is a ton of content. My save file says 90 hours, however I spent quite a bit of time in the pause menu since I would play from time to time during my work day. I'd say I probably got a good 65-70 hours. While I technically haven't popped the Platinum yet, this will be the first game I pop on my rain day to keep it with the rest of the ME series.

 

This game fixed my biggest issue with the first three games...that skipping text and making a choice were the same button. It caused a ton of accidental choices in the original series and this game made the switch to skipping text being the button and selecting a choice the . It was a small and extremely easy fix, but was an excellent quality of life improvement. I wasn't sure I liked the combat at first. I had a hard time targeting and just didn't feel as comfortable as the original trilogy, however once I got used to it, I found it was quite enjoyable. I liked the addition of the jetpack thrusters for jumping and they really helped expand where you could explore. The other good thing about the combat was the sheer amount of variety you could have with regards to skills. There are three main skill trees (combat, biotic and tech) with about 10 different options in each tree. You can only ever have three options equipped at once, but it opens up tons of different ways to play your character. In addition to the skills you can equip, there are 'profiles' which mirror the jobs you could select from the original trilogy. When you invest a certain amount of points into the three trees, it'll level up a profile, which in turn gives you additional bonuses. It really does create a ton of flexibility with your character. You can also change your profile and/or your active skills whenever. There is also a way to respec (for a cost), so you have the ability to try different things in the same playthrough, unlike the previous games where you were locked into the job you selected at the start.

 

While the abilities and leveling was improved in my opinion, gearing up was a little overly convoluted. You have a research station where you can research blueprints for new gear, which cost research points (which you gain by scanning things in the field or from Nexus benefits). With the blueprint, you use the materials you find in your travels to develop the gear. Every 5 levels you gain, the next level up of equipment becomes available and needs to be researched. The benefit to crafting your own gear is that you can add augmentations to make the gear stronger than what you find in the field. Whether the gear is found or crafted, they all can receive mods that you find (similar to the original trilogy). It is not very intuitive when you're starting and takes a while to understand. Once I did, it wasn't bad...but it was just really unnecessarily complicated.

 

My biggest issue with the combat is that while there is a lot of variety and possibilities when it comes to your character, there isn't a lot when it comes to enemies. You pretty much see every enemy you're going to fight within the first 20 hours or so and then it's more of the same with just more enemies thrown at you. The main enemies you'll fight are Kett, Roekaar, Outcasts and Remnant. All of them only have about six or seven different enemy types and the strategy to take them out doesn't change all that much as the game progresses. There also aren't many 'boss' style fights and most of them end up being repeated there as well. In this area, I do understand some of the criticism (still not enough to say this game ruined the series). It's also not terribly hard. I played on Insanity and it was really hard in the beginning. No good gear and a lot of unfamiliarity with what you're walking into...however by the time I got to level 15 or 20, the game seemed to get a lot easier. There was only one fight in the whole game that took me a while to get by. There is one section where you fight a 'boss' style Remnant that keeps summoning minions (only time this happens in the game) and the other enemies that are there with it, keep respawning immediately after being killed. My general strategy throughout was to pick off the peons before focusing on the hardest one, but that wasn't possible here. Probably took me a good 45 minutes to an hour to get past that part. I actually had to backtrack from that fight to get an RPG consumable item. Once I got that though, I beat it on my first try. I didn't really use consumables at all other than that one fight.

 

My favorite part of the game was the story. I don't know how most people felt about the story, but I thought the premise was a really intriguing idea. There were several worlds to explore and a lot of the Remnant puzzles were pretty challenging. I thought the bad guys were compelling (maybe not terribly original, but whatever) and I thought that the main character was good enough. Overall, the voice acting was pretty average...some good efforts (I thought Peebee, Drack and Jaal were done well), some decent (male Ryder, Liam, Kallo), some ok (Cora, Gil) and some inexcusable (Tann and Kesh). Pretty much all of the female Krogan voice's they used were pretty bad. I thought they did a good job with normal conversation and some of the humor but did the scenes where you'd expect the characters to be upset or angry pretty poorly. I completed every possible side-quest and task that was available. in doing so, I got a ton of backstory and it really helped flesh out some of the story lines. To that end, you can tell they planned on doing a sequel since several of the more compelling story lines were left unfinished (and it's a bummer the game got such a poor reception and seems unlikely to get a sequel since I want to know what happened lol). The 'main' story seemed relatively short, however there was so much secondary content that the game still ended up providing a ton stuff to do. If you do play this game, I highly recommend doing all the quests. It's not needed for the plat, but definitely makes the game more enjoyable. Some of the quests can be pretty fetch-y, however I had fun driving around on the Nomad.

 

As far as trophies go, there were too many combat related ones for my liking. They aren't terribly hard, and some of them actually made me play with different skills more than I anticipated. I didn't like pull or throw much in the original trilogy, but it was a lot of fun in this game. By holding down the button when using pull, you actually pull the enemy towards you and hold it suspended in air. If you then use the throw ability, you can actually throw an enemy at another enemy. That got to be fun. It also helped when going for the melee trophies. I tended to use Pull and Throw or Incinerate and Concussive Shot and I always had my VI friend in tow. I thought the idea of hovering with the Jet Pack and shooting to be a cool one, however in practice, you make yourself a wide open target and get smoked pretty quickly. I ended up getting that trophy by shooting wildlife. I found a sniper rifle and bugs to be the most effective way to get that trophy. I started targeting them early, so had them all done by about halfway through my run and didn't have to worry about them thereafter. My biggest concern for a trophy was the Romance trophy for having three romances. I read that it could be done in a single playthrough, but there seems to be a lot of misinformation out there about how to do it. I basically chose the romance option every chance I could and was fortunate to get it in one playthrough. I had two flings with Reyes and Avela and ended up with Cora as my 'exclusive' romance option. I was genuinely surprised at how steamy the romance scene ended up being. If I could have chosen someone if trophies weren't a thing, I would have gone with Peebee. She was much more fun and interesting....but you had to lock into her too early on I felt and I was nervous I'd miss out on the trophy so only had a mini-fling with her (which turns out doesn't count towards the trophy). I played most of the game with Drack and Jaal or Peebee. Drack was highly entertaining and Jaal was also interesting since it gave a lot of insight into Andromeda. Peebee was fun and I felt that any group made up of these three provided fun banter while exploring.

 

Overall, I feel like this game gets a bad rap unfairly. The original trilogy was an amazing experience and is tough to live up to. Honestly, if this game was just titled Andromeda without the Mass Effect in front of it, I bet it would have been received much better. I personally enjoyed when ME: A made allusions to the original trilogy and they ended up providing a great deal of context for what was going on in this game. Other than the conversation cutscenes being a little sloppy and there not being a ton of enemy/combat variety...this game was actually really good. I had a hard time putting the game down because I was enjoying my time with it. I ended up liking Ryder quite a bit (he's no Shepard, but who is?). If you haven't played this game because of the reviews, I think you should honestly give it a chance. It's not my favorite game of all time or anything, but it's a solid 7.5-8/10 for me and I do not regret playing it.

 

In other news, I was able to order a PS5 off of Walmart a couple of weeks ago. It says it will be delivered by April 9th, so we'll see. I got pretty lucky I think and I really should have waited....but I just wanted it so I couldn't help myself lol. I'll still be mostly playing PS4 games, but if it cuts down on loading times, etc then it'll be worth jumping the gun for when I'd actually need it. Eight games down with my rain day and two to go!

Edited April 5, 2021 by Briste
Popped another plat in error....

[faint-magician2]

On 5/24/2019 at 4:18 PM, Briste said:

6. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

Wow, this was your sixth platinum? Considering the levequests trophy for a thousand completions, I am surprised you got it this fast. I like the MMO but that trophy...

 

Also, The Seeker of Truth is misleading - you only need to complete Twintania, you don't have to do the other four turns because when they introduced them, they stupidly put all of the turns in at once, so you can just go to Turn 5 without doing the first four Turns. Even so, Turn 5 is a brutal fight. The way I did it was beg in the Party Finder until two Level 80s helped me cheeze it. Yes, you can get the trophy for doing Turn 5 unsynced, which means you aren't downsized to Level 50, so having two Level 80 friends who have all their uber skills and damage that can do a ton of damage to Twintania means they zerg the boss and it never gets to attack. You get no EXP but you don't really get much EXP for Binding Coils and raids anyways so it's not really that much of a loss.

 

FFXIV is a game I'd play way after the platinum. In fact, the reason I bought time was for the levequests, but while waiting for the levequests on one character, I played another and enjoyed the stories. I just got to Stormblood and love it.

Edited March 28, 2021 by faint-magician2

[Rally-Vincent---]

18 hours ago, Briste said:

Overall, I feel like this game gets a bad rap unfairly. The original trilogy was an amazing experience and is tough to live up to. Honestly, if this game was just titled Andromeda without the Mass Effect in front of it, I bet it would have been received much better. I personally enjoyed when ME: A made allusions to the original trilogy and they ended up providing a great deal of context for what was going on in this game. Other than the conversation cutscenes being a little sloppy and there not being a ton of enemy/combat variety...this game was actually really good. I had a hard time putting the game down because I was enjoying my time with it. I ended up liking Ryder quite a bit (he's no Shepard, but who is?). If you haven't played this game because of the reviews, I think you should honestly give it a chance. It's not my favorite game of all time or anything, but it's a solid 7.5-8/10 for me and I do not regret playing it.

 

I also had a good time in the game, but they wasted a lot of potential. There was much missing of what one expects of a first in a series. There wasn't much to discover that was different to the "old" galaxy.

[Briste]

4 hours ago, faint-magician2 said:

Wow, this was your sixth platinum? Considering the levequests trophy for a thousand completions, I am surprised you got it this fast. I like the MMO but that trophy...

 

I played this game for a very long time. I had played FFXI for about 8 years and then I played the original FFXIV before they scrapped it since it was so bad. I played FFXIV: AR from when it was released. I think I was able to start playing in advance of the initial release actually since I had paid for the first version they spit out. While it being my 6th plat may seem like I got it fast...I assure you it took me a couple years lol. This was the game where I decided I was going to be a completionist. I had 100% the games prior and told myself that I couldn't call myself a completionist if I was leaving this game out there dangling and ended up playing nothing but this until I finished it. I used to do the levequests for easy xp everyday so it wasn't so bad. it wasn't even my last trophy in this game. I really enjoyed this game, but I hated that they would lock content out to PUGs when it was first released. I got to Alexander Extreme and decided to call it quits since I wasn't in a free company and didn't want to wait for PUGs to be allowed to try it.

 

4 hours ago, faint-magician2 said:

Also, The Seeker of Truth is misleading - you only need to complete Twintania, you don't have to do the other four turns because when they introduced them, they stupidly put all of the turns in at once, so you can just go to Turn 5 without doing the first four Turns. Even so, Turn 5 is a brutal fight. The way I did it was beg in the Party Finder until two Level 80s helped me cheeze it. Yes, you can get the trophy for doing Turn 5 unsynced, which means you aren't downsized to Level 50, so having two Level 80 friends who have all their uber skills and damage that can do a ton of damage to Twintania means they zerg the boss and it never gets to attack. You get no EXP but you don't really get much EXP for Binding Coils and raids anyways so it's not really that much of a loss.

 

I'm not sure how much that has changed since I did it. I got The Seeker of Truth before they raised the level cap and before you could battle it uncapped. I want to say I remember you had to do each turn to unlock the next turn back when I did it, but I really don't remember. I just know that is probably my proudest trophy. It took me weeks of trying with PUGs before we got it. Most of the tries I did had people that were severely underequipped or completely unaware of the mechanics of the fight and we'd wipe during phase 1. I didn't mind trying over and over, but there were some really toxic people on there. I was in a few groups that I thought would be able to do it, but it was inevitable that someone would call someone a noob or an elitist or some BS and the party would break up before we really got into a rhythm. I was a PLD so had some control over how the fight flowed, but it was a tricky fight to learn and you needed a lot of luck.  This phase you need to stand here, that phase run here, avoid the fireball there, god help you if a tornado hits you....it was absolute chaos lol It was about as happy as I've ever been getting a trophy when that finally popped. I think it can be brute forced now and I don't blame anyone for doing it that way, but this fight was one of the hardest I've been a part of in any MMO. Some of the extreme primal battles were very hard as well. I want to say that Titan (extreme) was the most challenging one that I remember.

 

I'm glad you're enjoying it. It really is a fun game!

 

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

I also had a good time in the game, but they wasted a lot of potential. There was much missing of what one expects of a first in a series. There wasn't much to discover that was different to the "old" galaxy.

I agree on some wasted potential. They did allude to physics being constant throughout the universe, so there were some things that wouldn't change...but they left a lot of things unanswered in anticipation of a sequel or DLC I think. Unfortunately it was most of the 'new' things that were left unanswered...no answers to the scourge or the benefactor or several other intriguing story lines that seemed to end abruptly. I thought it had a bit of a feel like ME1 in the exploration of the different clusters and use of the Nomad again to explore on the planets. I'm not sure I'd consider this the a first in a series...it felt more like a spinoff like what Rogue One was to Star Wars. If they did want a trilogy, it be like episodes VII, VIII and IX. I know I read somewhere that they never wanted this to be another trilogy...but the amount of loose ends would suggest otherwise....that or they just put out an incomplete game which is also possible lol

[faint-magician2]

20 minutes ago, Briste said:

I played this game for a very long time. I had played FFXI for about 8 years and then I played the original FFXIV before they scrapped it since it was so bad.

 

Oh, did you get called out for being an original Warrior of Light? (If you had a Square-Enix account during the original 1.0, certain characters in the game recall you being one of the original Warriors of Light from 1.0. Can't do that myself as I never played the original FFXIV.) You're really amazing if you managed to do all of the Binding Coils back before the expansions came. I've heard that it was the ultimate content for players back then. Of course, I came in when Shadowbringers was old news so that didn't happen for me, but kudos to you.

 

Yeah, also Titan Extreme was challenging for me too even when uncapped due to the fact that he could knock you off the arena and you'd be out of the fight. All Titans do that but Extreme is more dangerous due to more powerful mechanics near the end of the fight like him summoning adds. Of course, the Warring Triad is far worse.

Edited March 29, 2021 by faint-magician2

[Briste]

2 minutes ago, faint-magician2 said:

Oh, did you get called out for being an original Warrior of Light? (If you had a Square-Enix account during the original 1.0, certain characters in the game recall you being one of the original Warriors of Light from 1.0. Can't do that myself as I never played the original FFXIV.) You're really amazing if you managed to do all of the Binding Coils back before the expansions came. I've heard that it was the ultimate content for players back then. Of course, I came in when Shadowbringers was old news so that didn't happen for me, but kudos to you.

I have no idea to be honest lol I really didn't pay attention to things like that at the time. My character was Briste in FFXI and I was going to be the same in FFXIV, however you also had to add a last name. I was Briste Wayne (play on Bruce Wayne) for the original release. I honestly didn't hate it when it first came out, but I was only scratching the surface so I never got to how terrible it really was. When it came back out, I knew I wanted to be a PLD and made my character as Briste Meridius (play on Maximus). If the only qualification was to have played the original XIV, then I would be.

 

I was carried a bit through the first few turns of the Binding Coils. My brother also played and was part of an FC and he let me tag along on some of the early turns. I wasn't ready to tackle them with my character at the time, but I spent a lot of time leveling and doing all of the raids. My gear was pretty decent and I had a good cycle for tanking by the time I was able to face Twintania. Like I said though, it was a lot of tries before I got it, but thank you for the compliment. I think they raised the level cap within a few months after I beat it I was happy to have beaten it before the nerf, but I was also happy to see that it wouldn't be a sticking point for people trying to platinum the game. With a good FC, I'm sure the battle wasn't so bad...but with PUGs it was extra hard.

 

What job do you play as?

[Briste]

Platinum #131 (for real this time)

Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark

 

Pro Tip for those of you, who for some dumb reason like a platinum rain or milestone, plan on selecting a trophy to save/hold for said rain or milestone....fully read the trophy description lol Learn from my mistake! I was blowing through this game and decided to save the Final Metamorphosis trophy for learning all 19 base Monster Classes with one of the characters. Seemed like a good choice. I could farm the necessary AP to learn the last ability and then just wait to learn it until my rain day. I stupidly assumed that all of the available Monster Classes that you could learn from this character was 19....so if I saved the last job, I would be fine....nope! Turns out there are 20 monster jobs you can learn with this character lol...and the one I saved to pop last was the 'non-base' Monster Class (Mummified ftw). If I had saved any of the other ones for last, my plan would have worked, but since I happened to leave the 'non-base' monster class for last, I was SOL. So, while the plan was to save that last ability in the last monster class to learn on the rain day and pop the platinum....it didn't work out that way. When I learned the last ability in my second to last monster class, the trophy popped....along with the Plat lol.

 

I'd be more annoyed if this wasn't an RPG where I have a top 5 completion time so I get bonus points in the RPG Mania event. The other good news was that since I hadn't finished the DLC yet, I could plat Mass Effect: Andromeda and still have it appear in order with the rest of the series on my profile. The bad news is that this game was supposed to be my 9th out of 10 plats for the rain day and instead I'm back down to 7 lol. So, after I beat Batman: Arkham Asylum (jp) (which is really hard to play not understanding the language fyi), I'll have to find two other games to plat. I do have seven weeks to do it so it should be plenty of time provided no more set backs....but you'll notice I crossed out 131 for ME: A above and it is now 132   

 

So now that I've explained how I messed up saving the last trophy....let me talk about the game a bit. This game was actually great! Well, maybe it's not great but it did hit some nostalgia notes for me which made it seem better than it probably is. It felt a lot like playing Final Fantasy Tactics way back when on the PS One. From the isometric board and combat, to the map and graphics, to the somewhat familiar kind of story....it was just a nice, relaxing experience. Since I wanted to enjoy that experience, and there is no difficulty related trophy, I played it on beginner since I wasn't looking for anything stressful. I bet this game can be really hard though on the harder settings if you do want that challenge. You can set it so that your characters get an injury if they fall during combat and temporarily lost stat points all the way up to permadeath if they fall in battle. If there was a permadeath mode requirement for a trophy, this game would have been a lot harder, but as it stands, it is really quite easy.

 

That's actually one of the coolest things about this game, you can pretty much tailor your experience to whatever you want. There are like 10-15 different settings you can adjust up or down to make the game harder or easier. The best part of this game, was that it can literally play itself 85% of the time if you want. Because of that, it was great for playing during the work day lol. You can set your characters to have the AI be in control. I used that option only when farming AP to level up the jobs...I played the main story missions myself. I died only a couple times on beginner (mostly just because I was being cocky and not respecting the computer lol). None of the trophies are particular challenging and the grind is completely mitigated by the fact you can have the AI farm for you. You have to start the level, place your characters and then assign the AP after the match, but the entire round is controlled by AI. The AI is actually pretty good about not wasting turns either. I might overlook using a random spell or ability for extra XP, but the AI does it right!

 

There are a lot of jobs to choose from and there is quite a bit of variety among them as well. The main characters also get a unique job that you can unlock as you progress through the story. In general, you select a main job and a subjob for your characters. The main job gives you the attack set and passive abilities for that job class. The subjob gives you the attack move set for that job, but then you can pick two extra passive skills and a counter skill from any of the jobs you have learned that particular skill/counter from. Because of this, there is quite a bit of customizability in the game. Some passive's and counters are way better than others, but I found it fun to play around. There is a decent amount of gear you can obtain as well so there really is a lot of different ways to tackle a level. There are some setups that are more OP than others and can help you breeze through stuff, but again I was just looking for something casual to play in between big series. The story is pretty uninspired for the most part. It's not bad, but nothing really new and it's pretty predictable what is going to happen. They try to have some twists, but it pretty much always ends up being the obvious twist. But, if you are looking for a slight nostalgia twang with a laid back turn-based RPG, this is a good choice. I want to say this game is on sale quite a bit and if you see it for $10-$15, it's worth a pick up.

 

If you do intend to play it, do not forget to download the DLC at the same time. I did not do this and had to do a second playthrough to complete the DLC. The DLC adds nothing new to the story and only adds a few extra things to do on the side as your progress. I think the DLC would be much more enjoyable to play during your first play through. I burned through a NG+ in 5-8 hours to clean up the DLC trophies so it wasn't a terrible clean up, but it'd be a better experience to play it while you're playing the main game. Also, unlocking the 'Fell' monster variant in the DLC is extremely not obvious lol so look that one up ahead of time. It's easy to unlock, but nothing you'd necessarily have happen through normal play.

[Briste]

My birthday is about seven weeks away, so I'm going to start to post my game reviews for games that I've finished in the order I plan to pop them. It'll most likely be in the order they are pending, however who knows....I might end up popping all the PS3 games while I have that system on and so forth. The first game I plan to pop is also the game that probably needs the most work to pop and that will be:

 

Platinum #133

Battle Vs. Chess

I had always wanted to learn chess as a kid. It was something my father was really good at and I thought it’d be a fun thing to learn…plus he had this awesome (but highly illegal now) ivory chess set that he had bought when stationed over in Okinawa in the late 1970’s.  It wasn’t shaped like your typical chess pieces, but were shaped in the model of Japanese culture. The knights looked like Samurai and the king piece an Emperor, with traditional Japanese garb. It was really cool. Occasionally, he’d let us take the pieces out to look at. Unfortunately, he didn’t have much patience for teaching…when I was 11 or 12, I asked him to teach me chess. We took out his board, he beat me in three moves and said he wouldn’t play me again until I could prove that I was better. Needless to say, we never played again…that experience also soured me quite a bit on chess and I didn’t end up playing much.

 

Over this past summer, my best friend from high school started to teach himself to play and asked if I wanted to play a bit. I said sure, why not? We played a little bit and it was pretty fun. I randomly decided to see if there were any decent chess games on the PS to play and found this game. I was a little nervous at first since it was an old game with MP trophies, however some people had appeared to have gotten them recently so I figured I’d give it a try.

 

It’s actually a pretty good game. It took me a little while to get used to what the chess pieces look like, but there are several game modes that make it kind of fun. There is a campaign mode where you play as white or black. The white pieces are like the angelic/good guy pieces and the black are the demonic/bad guy pieces. Each campaign sets up different scenarios that you have to beat and some are pretty challenging. There is kind of a story that goes with it….but it’s nothing memorable. What I liked about the campaign mode is that you can't really cheese it by using a chess move app online. It would work for some of them, but some have weird conditions that an app wouldn't understand so you are forced a bit to figure things out.

 

There is also a puzzle mode where you have to collect a certain amount of points using certain pieces. There are colored circles on different squares and you have to try and 'claim' as many of them as possible using the piece(s) provided. It can be pretty challenging but there is no time limit so you can think out your moves. A chess app doesn't help at all in this mode since you aren't trying to capture chess pieces and there is no other side to make moves.

 

The last mode is just regular chess. If you are just interested in the trophies, you could use a chess app online for most of them and pretty much guarantee you beat the CPU pretty much every time. I tried everything by myself first, but I’m just not that good at chess and needed some help with the move calculator for some of them. It was actually a good teaching tool as well because it helped me see the board in different ways and it ended up improving my game a bit. My friend went from beating me almost every time to now I’m winning two out of three. I never use that move calculator when playing him, but it was useful for some of the trophies.

 

The MP is 100% dead and you will never find anyone by just casually searching. I got very lucky and one of the ‘recent players’ on the PSNP page was interested in boosting. The good news is that it only takes a couple of hours to complete. Since you can win a match in three or four moves depending on which color you are randomly assigned….gaining points happens quickly. If you like chess, the game is definitely worth playing and is a lot of fun…if not, you’re money is probably better spent else where.

 

My PS5 finally arrived the other day and I hooked it up. I played through Maneater as a quick little intro to the system. I'll go into Maneater more when I write my review...but that game isn't very good lol. Anyways, my first impressions of the system...it is much larger than I expected....it's about twice the size of the PS4. It is super quiet though and loading screens were like a second long in Maneater so that was promising. I don't love the design....I like my system to lay horizontally and the wavy shape of the console means it can't lay flat without a stand. They do provide one but it's pretty meh. Setup was pretty easy, however I got nervous I messed something up because when I went to check my profile on PSNP after getting my first trophies in Maneater...it said my profile was hidden. I thought I somehow messed up my security when setting up the PS5 that was blocking my ability to update my profile. I generally keep my settings to Friends or Friends of Friends for most of the privacy stuff. However, once I typed my name in on the main page on PSNP and clicked 'Update' it re-created my page. My ranks said 'soon' so it was a little weird and I'm not sure what causes that.

 

I got super annoyed with the system at first. The setup in my gaming room is I have my TV hooked up to a receiver with my PS3, PS4, PS5, Fire Stick and Blu Ray disc player connected. I use my remote to cycle through the inputs...pretty basic stuff. Well, the first time I turned off my PS5, none of the other things that were hooked up to my receiver were working. I was just getting an error message on the TV that there was no signal and a bunch of snow. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why shutting off the PS5 would prevent my other stuff from working on the TV. When the PS5 was on, all my other things worked connected just fine, when the PS5 was off, they wouldn't. Turns out there's a 'share HDMI' setting on the PS5 that makes it so when you turn on your TV, your PS5 turns on and vice versa or if you turn off your PS5 it turns off your TV and vice versa. It appears that turning off my PS5 was turning off my TV (yet the screen was still on...) and making it so none of my other systems could connect. I still don't quite understand what was going on since I would turn off my TV all the time before and it wouldn't affect the other systems. The PS5 turning off didn't really turn off my TV either, just disable it or something since I could still see the snow on the TV and the no signal warning. Once I disabled that option though, everything went back to normal. It was maddening though until I Googled what was happening and fixed it.

 

Once I fixed that, I started to explore the system a bit. I didn't realize they were giving out a bunch of 'free' PS+ games to PS5 owners (perhaps it's available to anyone on PS4 too, but I didn't notice it before I got the PS5). Apparently it's called 'The PS Plus Collection' and you get Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy, God of War, Mortal Kombat X, Fallout 4, Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition, Monster Hunter World, Resident Evil VII: Biohazard, Persona 5, Battlefield 1, Call of Duty Black Ops III: Zombie Chronicles, Days Gone, Detroit: Become Human, Uncharted 4, Batman: Arkham Knight, inFAMOUS Second Son, Until Dawn, Bloodborne, The Last of Us Remastered, The Last Guardian and Ratchet & Clank. I already own some of those and I know a lot of those were offered for free already at one point or another (maybe all?) but that was still pretty cool to see. Between this and the Play at Home thing, I got like 15 games I didn't have before. I probably won't play them all, but it is still pretty cool.

 

Beyond the games, I like the new controller. It feels comfortable to hold. I'm not a huge fan of the PS Button not really being a button anymore, but it's fine. I also don't love that there is a microphone on the controller that is defaulted to being on. I turned that off right away too. Based on the pictures, I had thought the controller was going to be a lot bigger than it is. I'm glad it's not any bigger. The PS controller is one of my favorite things about the system. I've always thought it was more comfortable to hold and easier to use than the XBox controller.

 

I don't really love the homepage HUD. Going to rest mode isn't as easy, manually uploading/downloading your save the the cloud isn't as easy but shopping on the PS Store is much easier. I'm sure I'll like most of the layout eventually once I get used to it and that it is the newness of it that I don't like more than anything else....but I'm not quite sure I understand why they made it more clumsy to do certain things. I mean, I love on the PS4 that you can press Options on a game and upload/download to the cloud right from there. Having to go through the settings menu is just cumbersome and annoying. The biggest disappointment has to be the trophy sound....if there is one. I got 30 trophies in Maneater and I'm not sure I actually heard the ding! once....I could see the alert...but I liked the sound. I'm hoping they make it so you can pick a trophy sound you hear with a later update. I'm partial to the PS3 sound personally. Another odd thing is apparently it will record 14 seconds of video for each trophy earned...which I guess can be cool if you're making a trophy guide or something perhaps...or if something really cool happens to get the trophy. But apparently it not only records the video, but records your reaction via the mic as well? Seems a bit excessive to me and a huge waste of space. The 30 trophies I have for Maneater take up 1.1G of space. I'll be deleting those shortly and I believe there is a way to stop that from happening, but I haven't really looked into it.

 

Overall, I'm impressed with how the games play and less impressed with the fixes they made to things that weren't broken on the homepage. It's obviously early in the life cycle and I hope they make it more customizable down the road.

[Grotz99]

17 hours ago, Briste said:

I got super annoyed with the system at first. The setup in my gaming room is I have my TV hooked up to a receiver with my PS3, PS4, PS5, Fire Stick and Blu Ray disc player connected. I use my remote to cycle through the inputs...pretty basic stuff. Well, the first time I turned off my PS5, none of the other things that were hooked up to my receiver were working. I was just getting an error message on the TV that there was no signal and a bunch of snow. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why shutting off the PS5 would prevent my other stuff from working on the TV. When the PS5 was on, all my other things worked connected just fine, when the PS5 was off, they wouldn't. Turns out there's a 'share HDMI' setting on the PS5 that makes it so when you turn on your TV, your PS5 turns on and vice versa or if you turn off your PS5 it turns off your TV and vice versa. It appears that turning off my PS5 was turning off my TV (yet the screen was still on...) and making it so none of my other systems could connect. I still don't quite understand what was going on since I would turn off my TV all the time before and it wouldn't affect the other systems. The PS5 turning off didn't really turn off my TV either, just disable it or something since I could still see the snow on the TV and the no signal warning. Once I disabled that option though, everything went back to normal. It was maddening though until I Googled what was happening and fixed it.

This really annoyed me too when I first hooked it up, who thought that would be a good option to have on by default? It just got patched recently and reset that option to on for my PS5 again, so watch out for that and maybe other settings changing during updates.

[realm722]

20 hours ago, Briste said:

 Another odd thing is apparently it will record 14 seconds of video for each trophy earned...which I guess can be cool if you're making a trophy guide or something perhaps...or if something really cool happens to get the trophy. But apparently it not only records the video, but records your reaction via the mic as well? Seems a bit excessive to me and a huge waste of space. The 30 trophies I have for Maneater take up 1.1G of space. I'll be deleting those shortly and I believe there is a way to stop that from happening, but I haven't really looked into it.

 

Wow that's crazy! Like - I could see myself wanting that if I was going for an extremely difficult trophy and was trying to capture the essence of the video + my reaction, but so often you'll be racking up simple bronze trophies it feels like it'd be a gigantic waste of memory. Def something I'll keep in mind when I eventually get mine. Great job on the ultra rare chess platinum! I too have a fondness for the game even though I don't really know it that well - but I had fun platinuming a game called "Chess Ultra" back in 2018 - it's plat requirement was idiotic since you need something like 31 alt accounts or something in order to earn it but another user on here gave me a bunch of his spare emails and I got it done that way.

 

I also wanted to let you know that I picked up Ash of Gods for $6 thanks to the latest Spring Sale. I'm likely not going to play it for quite some time since Banner Saga is still pretty fresh in my mind and I'm not craving it, but just looking at the trailer on the PS Store the similarities were uncanny. I'll mentally prepare myself for A LOT of jank since it's such an obscure title (you're literally one of only 7 platinum holders on PSNProfiles at least) but I couldn't totally bypass your recommendation and hope there's enough of a gem there to unearth it'll be worthwhile. 

[Briste]

8 hours ago, Grotz99 said:

This really annoyed me too when I first hooked it up, who thought that would be a good option to have on by default? It just got patched recently and reset that option to on for my PS5 again, so watch out for that and maybe other settings changing during updates.

lol I completely agree. I think it'd be a fine option for some people, but to make it the default seems bananas to me. I did notice that it was reset. I went to check out some of the changes after doing the update and saw it was switched back. I didn't notice any other changes, but I also didn't change too much from the default other than that HDMI thing.

 

5 hours ago, realm722 said:

Wow that's crazy! Like - I could see myself wanting that if I was going for an extremely difficult trophy and was trying to capture the essence of the video + my reaction, but so often you'll be racking up simple bronze trophies it feels like it'd be a gigantic waste of memory. Def something I'll keep in mind when I eventually get mine. Great job on the ultra rare chess platinum! I too have a fondness for the game even though I don't really know it that well - but I had fun platinuming a game called "Chess Ultra" back in 2018 - it's plat requirement was idiotic since you need something like 31 alt accounts or something in order to earn it but another user on here gave me a bunch of his spare emails and I got it done that way.

 

I think the update they just did made it so you can make it so only specific trophy types will record (only the plat if you wanted). I haven't really looked at it yet since I still have over 500 gig of space and am in no danger of running out anytime soon. 

 

If you end up getting the game for some reason and need help with the MP, I'd be happy to help! If you like chess it really is pretty fun. I'm not very good at all either....I can only see like two or three of my moves ahead and am not very good about anticipating my opponent's moves. I inherently miss something every time lol

 

5 hours ago, realm722 said:

I also wanted to let you know that I picked up Ash of Gods for $6 thanks to the latest Spring Sale. I'm likely not going to play it for quite some time since Banner Saga is still pretty fresh in my mind and I'm not craving it, but just looking at the trailer on the PS Store the similarities were uncanny. I'll mentally prepare myself for A LOT of jank since it's such an obscure title (you're literally one of only 7 platinum holders on PSNProfiles at least) but I couldn't totally bypass your recommendation and hope there's enough of a gem there to unearth it'll be worthwhile. 

Considering how much you enjoyed TBS series, I think there is a good chance you will like this game as well. Do not be too frustrated at the start with the clunky controls. Once you learn them, it's not bad and it truly is a fun game. It's similar enough to TBS where you should get the gist of how to play it pretty quickly, but different enough to make it interesting. The Steam guide is pretty good. I used it for the Heartless trophy where you aren't supposed to help anybody or share your strixes in during the playthrough. Strixes in AoG work like food/supplies do in TBS. I'm curious to hear what you think about it. I ended up doing four playthroughs I think because I did my first one blind and I did enough 'wrong' things that I couldn't just replay certain parts to pop trophies. There was enough variety to the story though that it didn't feel stale during any one of the playthroughs. If you follow a guide though, I think you could probably do it in as few as two playthroughs and a couple of replays of later chapters. Good luck!

[AJ_Radio]

That is a serious setup there @Briste with multiple consoles and a Blu ray player. It's bad enough for me having to swap between PS4 and PS3 on my flatscreen. The Vita of course is on the go, I basically have five games left for the handheld before I'll probably retire it for good.

 

Was never good at chess in my entire lifetime, so will probably skip anything that involves playing chess.