Popular Post CraigyXO Posted September 17, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted September 17, 2019 (edited) If you're reading this thread, hi, as my rather unimaginative PSN handle would suggest, I'm Craig. I've been a gamer for over 20 years and Playstation has always been my choice of console. My earliest recollections of gameplay consist of endless racing circuits in Codemaster's TOCA World Touring Cars and rescuing scarcely dressed females in Duke Nukem Land of the Babes. Gaming has changed and evolved over the years, I've witnessed awe-inspiring graphics on the PS3 only to have my mind completely blown years later by the sheer graphical quality associated with 4K resolution. Gaming has been more than a hobby, it's been a passion, a lifestyle... and dare I mouth the words, an addiction. 'CraigyXO' was born in the latter stages of May 2014, a rather late account for someone who played through the entire PS3 era. My ability to settle with a PSN handle proved problematic in the PS3 era due to an overarching theme that would emerge again and again throughout my time with this hobby - obsessive compulsive tendencies. My issue with gaming, or anything that I'm wholly passionate about is I hone in on the perfection and anything short of that niggles away at me until it's almost unbearable. I'll save you the psychological analysis but battling with yourself and undermining your own achievements can turn a hobby that's for fun into something quite draining. My most notable account prior to this was CraigyBL2 but I'd eventually become disconnected from the sort of games I'd built the account on and archived it, using it as a 'tester' at the start of the PS4 to try out games like Killzone Shadow Fall. A common question I'm asked by friends, usually those who don't enjoy trophies at all, is why do I focus my enjoyment so heavily on completion. To answer that question I'd say that growing up I learned the value of games and I learned through life not to waste. When I play a game I intend to explore and see everything there is to do and a checklist that confirms I've managed to do that only further reinforces that desire. I'd go as far as to say I struggle to enjoy games without trophies, as a person I generally thrive off routine. There is routine and ritual embedded into my methods of gaming, to expand upon that slightly: I play one game at a time. There are some exceptions to this which primarily focus around DLC. If for instance I'm working on a game and a DLC comes out for another which was previously 100% then there will for some time be more than one game on my account that isn't at 100%. I have often thought about expanding this out and playing a few games but I tend to prefer focusing down one game for some reason. I filter which games I embark upon (Well as best as I can as DLC can be predictable). I have a 'tester' account. There are some games I enjoy playing with my girlfriend or friends but don't necessarily want to go for the trophies on. Blockbuster games with tedious trophy lists also go on this account. A common misconception I've heard is that I miss out on the best games to maintain my perfect account but this isn't the case. Trophy hunters have often remarked 'imagine how many trophies you could have if you merged your other accounts from over the years'. Quantity has never been of importance for me. I could have 40,000 trophies but if they were all 50% of the trophy list or even 99% for that matter, it would drive me insane. I will only go for a game I deem 'respectable'. This is by no means an elitist thing or a dig at people that stack region games or play children's titles for trophies. I want to build a portfolio of games I've enjoyed and can take a positive experience away from. The Telltale Games come with a bit of a reputation as easy-to-earn platinum trophies but I thoroughly enjoy the games so I can look past it. Most importantly and almost self explanatory at this point but the most important requirement is that every game I start must be finished to 100%. This can cause a major headache... grinding, boosting and even on one occasion having to use a trophy service (I'm not proud of that one). My decision to make a new account when I got my PS4 (one which may I add broke the trend of me constantly making new accounts) meant I missed out on the various PS3 platinums I've earned in my time but I hope to make this checklist a comprehensive insight into my pursuit of completion that will hopefully expand into the PS5 lifestyle... unless I make a new account for that. ? If you'd like to follow my progress then please feel free to add my account: CraigyXO Record of Progress 2014 Spoiler Resogun - My first platinum trophy on the PS4 era. A PS Plus free game, Housemarque's siderscrolling shooter was a staple of the indie game genre in the first year of the PS4's launch. Short on cash at the time of purchasing the console I was keen to earn some trophies and Resogun quenched that thirst. It would take me three days to seal the milestone of first platinum. However, it's worth noting I returned to Resogun numerous times up until 2015 when the DLC concluded. Resogun was my first taste of a game that would have me return on numerous intervals to regain my 100% Murdered: Soul Suspect - A bargain bin classic, it didn't take long after this game's launch before it started getting heavily reduced. Whilst slightly on the easy side I thoroughly enjoyed Murdered: Soul Suspect and I had been following the development of the game some time before I purchased it. The list took me just two days, I couldn't help find this a bit jarring for a full retail game but I enjoyed the experience. This was the first retail title I would platinum and other than Killzone Shadow Fall (not featured on this account) it was my first real taste of the PS4's processing power. Watch Dogs - A game that was released for both PS3 and PS4 and a game which like my previous platinum I had followed for quite some time. Watch Dogs had some interesting trophies and thankfully didn't place a ridiculous emphasis on its online trophies like some developers. I'm a proud owner of the 'Social Lubricant' trophy before the patch. For those of you who are unaware one of the games most trickiest trophies was for a tedious button prompt drinking game which amidst many complaints from the trophy community was later patched. This was little consolation for me however as I had already completed it and also helped a few friends who were struggling too (What a saint?). The game had one DLC which was as enjoyable as the base game in my opinion. It wasn't too taxing to go back and obtain my 100% Destiny - In truth, the platinum for this triple A game took me two months but in reality it stole way more of my life than that. Destiny became a ritual and every day I would plug numerous hours into it. The trophy list is a somewhat bizarre one in that as time went on and more DLC was released it become easier and easier. At the time I played trophies such as 'Epic Raider' and 'Flawless Raider' were elite level bragging rights for mastery of raids and team communication. As time went on and DLC and strategies evolved these became incredibly common trophies. I personally never got along well with the PVP of the game so I found these trophies a bit monotonous but overall Destiny will go down as a pleasurable experience that I thoroughly enjoyed with friends. I would return to Destiny on occasion. Most notable for the DLC packs 'The Taken King' and 'Rise of Iron', with challenging raids and a few tedious trophies Destiny continued to challenge me but still remained as one of my favourite gaming experiences of all time. The Wolf Among Us - My first ever Telltale Game. Notoriously easy platinum trophies that usually just require you to finish the story to obtain the platinum. The Wolf Among Us ventured from this formula slightly with its introduction of the 'library' trophies after the completion of each chapter. To unlock all of the 'Book of Fables entries' you'd have perform certain actions within the episodes which meant unlike other TT games, just completing the story was not enough to unlock the platinum. Difficulty wise, this game was still incredibly easy but the story was riveting. Seeing fairy tales I had heard as a child brought to life in a more adult orientated environment was a unique spin. I was engrossed and it took me just 3 days to finish this game, some may say that's on the longer side for a game of this style but I didn't want to rush through and blemish the experience. 2015 Spoiler Fifa 15 - My first Fifa game in years. I'm an avid football fan anf Fifa has always been my go to in regards of football games. I picked Fifa 15 up relatively late into it's life cycle. January sales 2015 saw an offer I couldn't resist and my next project began. For me, Fifa 15 had a better spin on the trophies than later iterations of the game. The notably difficult trophy which was a platinum breaker for some was the 'Extra Effort' trophy which required you to score from the ground. The process to earn this trophy meant numerous difficulty and AI sliders being adjusted and then just relying on pure luck. It took me a considerable amount of time but once that trophy popped the rest was easy from there. This platinum took me a few months because I became ridiculously addicted to Fifa Ultimate Team (I wouldn't advise that unless you're made of money) and stopped trophy hunting for a while Assassin's Creed Unity - My first ever AC game. Unity is regarded by some as one of the worst entries in the AC series so I perhaps didn't choose the best title to start with. I personally enjoyed the game which by all accounts should put me in good stead for enjoying the rest of the series. There was a few multiplayer trophies but thankfully nothing that revolved around PVP. I remember partnering up for the co-op trophies around midway into the sequences so I could get them out of the way and focus on the story. There was one set of DLC trophies but I completed all of these on the same day and following day after obtaining my platinum. Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments - Another game on my list that could very easily sit in list dedicated to easy-to-earn platinum trophies list. C&P appealed to me because a trailer I saw was very reminiscent of LA Noire, a platinum trophy I obtained on an old PS3 account and arguably what I would regard as my favourite game of all time. On that note I really must obtain the LA Noire platinum at some point. C&P was a little on the short side and another game in which I only needed three days to complete. Despite the trophies being easy, the game tested my brain and made me think and I enjoyed working through each investigation and trying to solve them to perfection. Battlefield Hardline - Once again another questionable start to a game series. Hardline wasn't well received by hardened Battlefield fans but it was my first experience of the BF franchise. I enjoyed Hardline a lot and myself and a group of friends played the online religiously. The most time consuming trophy at launch was 'Menz in the Hood' which required multiple steps to be completed to unlock two weapons that you then had to get 25 kills with. It was a bit tedious but I remember thinking since there was so few multiplayer trophies that it wasn't that much of an issue. However, in June 2015 a DLC dropped that ENRAGED the trophy community. 40,000 accumulative kills between 4 classes. As a completionist I was livid, at this point my friends had moved on from the game and the task just seemed absolutely ridiculous. I decided I would go for it. I had similar experience with a tedious kill requirement as back on the PS3 I was among the initial earners of 'Killing Machine', a trophy which required 10,000 online kills, on Resistance 2. I started in July and finished by September. I'm currently ranked number 2 on this site for earning 'Mechanical Trigger Finger' which is the trophy for 10,000 kills with the Mechanic class. Hardline 100% will probably always be my proudest achievement just due to the sheer amount of time I had to dedicate to it. Rocket League - A free PS Plus game, I initially played with friends and liked it so much that I decided I wanted to add it to my portfolio of games at 100%. The base game itself did not take me long to complete, just a little over a week to be precise. One of the more tedious trophies involved rubberbanding my controller though the much higher percentage of the trophy now tells me that this bug has since been rectified. Rocket League was great fun with friends BUT this game added an unheard of amount of DLC. In the space of 2015 and 2018 I returned to this game for 9 DLCs which all varied in difficulty and price. I often wonder if I'm safe now or if there will be yet another DLC. There's been a hiatus of over a year so once would hope I can finally put this game to rest now. Fifa 16 - My second Fifa game of the year but a game which proved problematic to my perfect record. Much like Fifa 15 I got very engrossed in Ultimate Team which this time round was even more required. 'The Invincibles' a gold trophy caused me immense troubles and put the record at risk. The trophy required you to win all four rounds of a FUT Draft, the issue being that the Draft cost money to enter, real life money. I spent two months chucking my hard earned money at this thing and lost, and lost, and lost again and lost. I managed to get to the final on three occasions, I was one game away from the trophy and I lost each time. Eventually I faced the fact I would not be able to beat it myself and for the sake of saving my record I got to the final and then got my friend to finish the trophy for me. It's something I feel is a blemish on my record and if I had the opportunity would definitely remove. Tales of the Borderlands - After the stresses of Fifa I decided to move away from Ultimate Team and back to my trophies. Tales of the Borderlands was the second telltale game I played on my account and having earned both Borderlands and Borderlands 2 platinums on previous PS3 trophy accounts I was massively excited to revisit Pandora in this game. There's not much to say about this one, in typical TT fashion a completion of the game would award the platinum regardless of what choices you made. Much like The Wolf Among Us this game took me 3 days to complete. Need for Speeds - 2015 proved to be my most difficulty year as a completionist and this next game caused a saga which was only concluded this year! Need for Speed promised a game which was slightly reminiscent of the glory of the Underground series and I was massively sold from the trailers. A week of playing and I earned the platinum. Early criticisms was that it felt a bit easy but in hindsight I wish I had never even opened that train of thought because things were about to get punishing. The first DLC installments were certainly tedious in places but nothing could have prepared me of the Prestige and Speedlists update. One trophy stands out specifically 'Gold Plated'. For this trophy you needed to win Gold on all Prestige events. I'm not ashamed to say I couldn't even manage one. I managed to get bronze on all (with a fair amount of trial and error) for that trophy, and I also managed quite a few at silver. For years this game lingered on my account. Every now and again I would return and give it another shot to of little or no avail. Once again I relied on a PSN friend who runs a paid service to earn these trophies to save my account. It's once again a trophy I'm not particularly proud of but I had no idea when I started this game in 2015 that such a DLC would be in the works, something I'm sure a lot of trophy collectors can relate to in regards of DLC. Until Dawn - I concluded the year with a game I had been looking forward to for some time, the choices and consequences themed game Until Dawn. Eight friends who could live or die depending on your actions. I got Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Soul vibes (two games I got platinum in during the PS3 era... there's a pattern forming here) from this title. The first horror genre game I played on my account and I marked this by playing the game late at night in a pitch black room to amp up the atmosphere. I thought this was a great game with interesting characters and a twisting and suspenseful story. The platinum was mine after four evenings of playtime. 2016 Spoiler inFAMOUS Second Son - A launch day title that I go to much later than I expected. I had earned platinum on the first inFAMOUS game back on the PS3 (I know, I could have so many platinums ?). This game took two playthroughs to obtain the platinum. I liked that a considerable portion of the trophy list was focused around picking either the evil or the good choices. I started with my evil Delsin and concluded my time with the game by playing the good guy role. It's a simplistic feature but I really liked how the trophy images were red or blue dependent on the karma of the action, I thought this was a really nice touch. A great game that took little over a week and started 2016 off with a bang. inFAMOUS First Light - With Second Son completed I turned my attention to the standalone DLC 'First Light' and took control of Fetch, a neon wielding character who made appearances in Second Son. For a standalone First Light was on the shorter side and the platinum took me just a few days. The DLC was lighter on the story elements and there was plenty of challenges and trials to complete. A few of them were a tad tedious but nothing too taxing. I was happy to complete the set, and this was my first full PS4 completed set with Second Son and First Light being the only inFAMOUS installations on this console. PvZ Garden Warfare - What a fun and quirky little game. I had seen some trailers of this game online and once I saw it was in the sale I decided to jump in and see what it had to offer. I played multiple online sessions with friends and we tackled the Garden Ops levels together too. The ultimate goal was to reach level 50 overall and level 10 with one of the many characters. You levelled characters by completing specific challenges unique to them and your overall level went up with every mode you played. This platinum was a thoroughly enjoyable one and took me just over a week. There was one DLC that required me to return but once again it just involved a few days of playing the related modes and I was able to regain my 100% Grand Theft Auto 3 - By February I had already amassed three platinums and the momentum was in full swing. I decided after some deliberation that as a throwback to my childhood I wanted to do something I had never managed as a child and complete the original GTA games. I started with GTA3 which trophy wise I would say is bang in the middle of the three games. Like traditional Rockstar games there was a wealth of side content to complete such as taxi fares, races and collecting all of the hidden packages. Completing 'Playing Doctor' which requires you to complete Paramedic level 12 was on the more difficult side but was overcome by practice and muscle memory. The last trophy I had to earn was 'If You Ain't Cheatin', You Ain't Tryin' which required you to blow up 2,000 cars. It wasn't difficult as such but just required the patience to drive around in a tank for countless hours blowing up cars. Unravel - Announced at E3 I fell in love with the style of the game. I got LittleBIGPlanet vibes (More plugging of my old accounts, I had 1 and 2 platinums) and this encouraged me to make an immediate purchase. Unravel took me about a week to complete. I took my time as I wanted to find every secret for the 'No stone unturned' trophy without the help of a guide. I thoroughly enjoyed the simplistic nature of this game and it was nice to play something against the grain of the what I'd usually play. On an aesthetic note I thought the trophies were really well done and really complimented the art style of the game. Grand Theft Auto Vice City - In terms of what's required this is the most tedious of the GTA games. As a child this is the GTA game I made the least progress in as I could not get past the 'Guardian Angels' mission which was quite early into the story of the game. The 'Take the Cannoli' trophy is the real platinum breaker for most here as it requires a ridiculous amount of monotony to obtain Godfather criminal rating. My memory is a little jaded but I remember collecting all the hidden packages, driving around a car pack garage for numerous hours, obtaining a load of cash and then rubberbanding my controller for almost an entire day. With that annoyance out of the way the game was great and it was an amazing experience to relive my childhood and beat the mission that had tortured me. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas - As I was preparing to start a new job my conclusion of the GTA trilogy reached a climax. San Andreas would be the last stop and in my personal opinion the easiest of the three. However, it's worth nothing that San Andreas is longer in length than the other two games and there's a lot more to do so it does balance itself out in that regard. Of the three titles San Andreas was my favourite so in many ways I left the best to last. Upon completion I had the trilogy I remembered so fondly from my childhood added to my collection thanks to the modern addition of trophies. Sleeping Dogs - Sleeping Dogs was a game I had monitored on PS3 but had never got around to purchasing. When it was announced it was coming to PS4 with a Definitive Edition I decided it was time to finally check out the game and see what it was all about. I really enjoyed the combat of this game and I also thought the story in which the protagonist Wei balances his life as an undercover cop and a member of the Sun On Yee Triad gang was well presented. This edition of the game came with both 'Nightmare in North Point' and 'Year of the Snake' and these two DLC's were easily completed after the conclusion of the game. Battleborn - One of my rarest platinums in a game that never reached the heights it would have liked. The release of Battleborn and Overwatch a few months apart saw one hero-shooter take the crown and it certainly wasn't Battleborn. I liked the concept of this game and hadn't even heard of Overwatch at the time of purchasing this game, I guess I was a unique case. With a group of friends this game was very enjoyable. Some of the trophies were a bit taxing as a lot of them were focused around completing excessively grindy challenges with specific characters. The game took me a couple of months to platinum but I was very invested in the multiplayer so I knew eventually it would come. The game continued with post launch content including new characters (with a new set of challenges) and character scenario packs. 'Collect all 5!' the trophy tied to completing Kid Ultra's lore challenges was particularly irritating. This War of Mine: The Little Ones - I discovered this game through a YouTube playthrough and the concept of trying to fend for survival coupled with resource management really appealed to me. I had not played a game of this genre on my account but I was sure I'd thoroughly enjoy the challenge. The trophy list was pretty cryptic and definitely involved a fair bit of research to pop some of them but it never felt like too much of a burden because the game was so enjoyable. It was quite rewarding to go out on a haul in the evening and bring back much needed resources for my slowly growing group of survivors. I found myself playing the game and watching others playthroughs of it at the same time. Overwatch: Origins Edition - I refer to Overwatch as the gift that keeps on giving. Though I started and received platinum in the game back in 2016 I still continuously find myself returning to this hero-shooter. At the time, the direct competitor to other hero shooters such as Battleborn, Overwatch shot to critical acclaim and is still very popular in the eSports community today. Overwatch has a trophy list which is infamously difficulty and luck dependent. Of the base set 'The Floor is Lava' and 'Rapid Discord' became the first two trophies I would use a boosting lobby for (effectively cheating to earn a trophy). Much like Destiny, Overwatch consumed months of my life and I became very addicted to the game. Blizzard's support for Overwatch mean every few months a new character has been released with a new set of trophies to earn. Some of these such as 'Cratered' are infamously difficult and once again mean I have had to rely on boosting to obtain the trophy. My only bragging right is the sheer amount of Overwatch trophies I've managed legit (I'd say about 95% of them) but I can't help but feel the few I've had to boost sort of blemish that achievement. Fifa 17 - The last Fifa game I played on my account. I entered into Fifa 17 despite the difficulties I'd experienced with the FUT draft on the previous iteration. This time was no different and once again I found myself squandering money as I constantly fell short of winning the draft. However, this time round a glitch surfaced (I'm presuming it's probably been fixed now) where you could exploit the system into putting you into the next round via a dashboard. I used this method and vowed after the fiasco with Need for Speed and Fifa games that I was done with EA games. This was a tad drastic as I have since returned to their games but I haven't touched a Fifa game on my account since and should the feature ever become available I'd happily delete them off my record. Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter - I decided to end the year with the conclusion of another series on my record, the Sherlock Holmes series. Of the two detective games I must admit I was less impressed with this one. By no means did I dislike this game, it was enjoyable for what it was but it's occasional unwarranted delve into the supernatural just didn't fit my notions of what a Sherlock Holmes game should be. In regards to trophies it was very simple yet again and by the close of the year I had finished my last project for 2016. 2017 Spoiler Batman - As a new year began another Telltale game would enter the fold. Much like the previous Telltale games this installment took me just three days to complete, a trend that was becoming apparent with the Telltale games I played on my record. As a fan of Batman in general I found this game really enjoyable and at this point was becoming quite a fan of Telltale Games and their episodic releases. The story was intriguing and the typical cliffhanger at the end of each episode kept me intrigued. I had always waited to purchase every chapter before starting the game, that's just my preference, I know others prefer to play them weeks or months apart. PvZ Garden Warfare 2 - Another completed series of games, this time the Garden Warfare series. PvZ1 gave me countless hours of enjoyment so once I got the chance I was always going to complete PvZ GW2. This game introduced a few more time consuming trophies as opposed to it's former. Trophies such as 'Rinsed 'Em' and 'Gramma Z Says...' which required you to vanquish 5000 zombies and 5000 plants certainly meant you'd be playing the game for some time. The DLC meant a few return visits for the Trials of Gnomus and some of these trophies were a bit of a step up in difficulty from the base game but ultimately achievable. WATCH_DOGS 2 - Watch Dogs 2 offered a much more flamboyant approach to its storytelling with colourful characters and a world which didn't take itself as serious as the first installment. Whereas the first game had a dark undertone centred around the protagonist losing his daughter this game explored the lives of quirky protagonists enriched in internet culture. It was an enjoyable game and Ubisoft learned from their mistakes with the drinking game as that was quashed. The list was a relatively simple one, the one standout annoying one was 'Hold My Hair' which required you to take a photo of an NPC vomiting. This took some wandering and luck to finally trigger but even this trophy was nothing too difficult. Over the next two months I returned a handful of times for DLC trophies but they were refreshingly easy and mainly associated to just finishing the DLC. The Order: 1886 - A game that ultimately did not live up to it's hype. In terms of graphics The Order was a masterpiece but the lackluster content and short campaign left absolutely no replay-ability. Stripping away my expectations the game was good for what it was, a six hour campaign. The trophies didn't do much to extend out the experience and all of them were more or less achievable in the one playthrough. The Order was a game I felt I needed to experience, especially due to it being a PS4 exclusive, but it certainly wasn't all that memorable. I stretched the platinum out over four days (It can be done considerably quicker than this) and then I was finished with this rather pricey retail title. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands - Wildlands was my first Tom Clancy game, coming from a Call of Duty gaming background I wasn't particularly acquainted with tactical shooters so this was a very new experience to me. What I loved about this game was teaming up with my like-minded stealthy friend and formulating a plan to stealthily take on each portion of the game. My friend and I had already teamed up on Overwatch to work on those trophies and this was the second time we had embarked on a platinum together. Maybe it's the nostalgia but that teamwork made this platinum a pleasure to earn. It took us a couple of months due to us really taking our time with the game but I have very fond memories of tackling this together. In my opinion the DLC that was released at a later date paled in comparison to the base game and I didn't really feel it added anything. The 'Narco Road' DLC felt very out of place in the game and 'Fallen Ghosts', whilst more lore friendly, wasn't overly captivating either. Horizon Zero Dawn - Horizon is by far one of my favourite games of this console generation. It's a game that uses the elements of numerous other titles but has enough about it that makes it a fresh unique experience. You play as Aloy, a female protagonist in a post apocalyptic world overly inhabited by machines that have become hostile. This platinum was my first of a few exclusive PS4 titles. On a side note I thought it was really cool that Sony awarded earners of the platinum with a trophy avatar and theme. I've always felt there should be more reward for completion of a game and this sat very nicely with me. It's a pretty simple list with a high completion rate, there is a slight challenge to earning the Blazing Suns at the Hunting Grounds but nothing a seasoned trophy hunter should find much difficulty with. This game will also hold sentimental value to me as it's the game I launched my YouTube channel with when the Frozen Wilds DLC launched. Sadly I did not continue with my channel but I definitely have fond memories of it. New Game+ and the aforementioned Frozen Wilds were added in a later date and I happily recorded a lot of this footage for my YouTube. Fallout 4 - My last platinum of 2017 was one which took me many months due to how engrossed I was with the game. I've always been a big fan of the Fallout series but for whatever reason Fallout 4 spent an undocumented time in my backlog. I decided to take up the challenge with the Game of the Year edition which featured all of the various DLCs that Bethesda had released. Though it consumed an exorbitant amount of time building my character and taking him on this vast quest was such a fun experience. I got really engrossed in the building mechanics and built a massive base in HUB of Sanctuary that homed all of my settlers etc. Benevolent Leader was the only slightly annoying trophy but YouTube guides helped greatly with achieving this. I really enjoyed experiencing all of the DLC and this project took me from June to November. 2018 Spoiler Late Shift - A primary focus on my Horizon Zero Dawn Frozen Wilds playthrough on my YouTube channel meant my trophy hunting got neglected quite a bit. Though I was still making some trophy progress it wasn't until February that I earned my first platinum of the year. Late Shift was another game I discovered via a small YouTuber and I decided I'd like to try out. A very easy platinum, Late Shift is a choice and consequences interactive movie that can be completed with just one one hour playthrough. I personally played through multiple times for the guide on my channel. There's not much to say about this one, it was interesting enough and not a bad purchase if you enjoy the choices and consequences genre. A Way Out - From the moment this game was revealed at E3 I wanted it. I love the concept of playing through the game with a friend, solving the puzzles. I completed this game on an alternative account with my best friend and we had a lot of fun working out the meanings of the cryptic trophies all by ourselves. It was a proud achievement to earn every trophy without ever consulting a guide. Once we finished our playthrough I embarked on multiple others with my girlfriend and then with another friend for YouTube and this account. This is a platinum I've earned three of four times over now and I thoroughly enjoyed it every time. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice - This game was a weird one for me. I initially started it as a YouTube playthrough but couldn't get along with it. It went on the backburner for a while before I decided to play through it and platinum it off camera. The concept of the game was refreshing and the first time I heard the multitude of voices echoing through my headphones was a jarring experience I won't forget. However, for some reason I just never really connected with the game. I really like Norse mythology and mental health is rarely explored in such a way in video, on paper this game should have been one of my favourites but I couldn't help but feel relieved when I was done with it. It took me two months to finish a game that isn't particularly long by today's standards. Burnout Paradise Remastered - Few remastered games excited me as much as the release of Burnout Paradise. I had earned the Burnout Paradise platinum on a previous PS3 account and any chance to revisit old territory, especially in games I hold in such high regard, is always welcome. I done extensive video guides for my YouTube channel and to this day my Burnout videos are some of my most proudest work and most viewed. Burnout Paradise, is for me, what an arcade racer should be. It captures the speed perfectly, the takedown system is fun, it's pick up and play goodness. It consumed multiple months of my life due to my YouTube upload schedule but it was an enjoyable time at a time where I was very indulged in video creation. Batman: The Enemy Within - Well over a year since my last Telltale installment I was back and ready to enjoy another episodic treat. Would you believe that once again it took me 3 days to obtain the platinum. The theme continued and it must be said so did my continued respect of Telltale as this was a thoroughly enjoyable series. The choices led to a bit of replay value too which is always nice with the shorter games. This may be the last Telltale game I ever play due to their collapse but if it is I'm glad I was able to leave the series on a respectable high note. Fallout Shelter - Originally a mobile game, this game became free to play on the PS4 after a Bethesda announcement at E3. With a few time adjustments on the PS4 the game can be easily manipulated and becomes a trophy hunter's dream. However, I enjoyed this game so much that I refused to do this. I spent a small amount of money on microtransactions, mainly because I wanted a legendary vault dweller to start the game but after this I played it day in day out for a few months and earned the platinum trophy organically. In hindsight I could have saved myself a lot of time with some time exploits but I don't have any regrets on how I earned this platinum. Marvel's Spider-Man - As I prepared to start a course that would consume a lot of my time I started my journey in my first ever Spider-Man game. Spider-Man was a brilliant PS4 exclusive and one of the best games I played in 2018. Despite not much knowledge of the Spider-Man universe prior to this game (I know shocking) I had a great time traversing New York. PS4 exclusive lists seem to follow the trend that their platinum trophies are reasonably attainable and this was no different. Any seasoned trophy hunter knows the deal collectibles etc. On this game collectibles are marked and the side content is varied enough that it doesn't become tedious (with the exception of the district crimes which did get a tad boring). In 2019 after some time I returned to this game to start New Game+ and do all of the DLC content on my new PS4 Pro. The graphics blew me away and I enjoyed this wonderful game just as much on the second time round. 2019 Spoiler Red Dead Redemption 2 - Destiny, Overwatch, Fallout 4, Battlefield Hardline... I had showed I wasn't afraid to shy away from a monstrous task and that's exactly what Red Dead Redemption 2 was. 70 Gold medals in story missions (I actually did all 103, the joys of OCD's) All animals studied and skinned, rank 50 in multiplayer, and 100% completion are the real time consumers here. Red Dead saw out a TV and a console in an 8 month (I'm aware that is considerably long but I was also very busy with my course and had incredibly limited gaming time) project that is one of my proudest. What can I say about Red Dead Redemption 2? It's arguably a game of the generation and an absolute masterpiece. I enjoyed every moment with this game and despite it's mixed reception I still occasionally revisit the online. P.s I also had the first Red Dead Redemption platinum on another account ? God of War - My first ever God of War game. This was a game which broke all the conventions of how I run my account. Initially started in April 2018... this game stayed at 1% until mid 2019. I initially planned to do a YouTube playthrough of the game but I quickly lost interest and never picked the game up again. I decided to finally address the 1% when I got my new PS4 Pro as I had heard this game was breathtaking in 4K. God of War is yet another game that's absolutely incredible. Fighting the valkyries and learning their patterns felt rewarding and adjusting gear level for fights put the difficulty in my hands on the fly... I'd often find myself challenging myself by taking on fights and trying to not take any damage etc. Muspelheim offered me challenges that took these extremes a step further and I always felt accomplished whilst going for trophies on this game. ONRUSH - Codemaster's ONRUSH was one of the monthly PSN Plus free games in the month of December and had since found itself in the dark abyss of my downloaded games. I must be honest, I had disregarded this game as just another indie racer that I would probably never get to, not realising that it was a full cost retail title. Having finally returned my backlog to 100% I found myself browsing my downloads and it jumped out at me. A bit of research told me that it had no DLC and a quick browse on YouTube reaffirmed my interest in going for this platinum. ONRUSH provided a welcome change of pace from the combat focused games I've found myself playing for the last few months. That being said it's still possible to push and shove your way to finish the line, crushing and obliterating helpless fodder and drivers alike. ONRUSH encourages you to play aggressively and in one of the modes 'Switch' it's a an absolute requirement to help your AI buddies out by thinning the enemy team. I went into this title hoping to recapture the nostalgia of the original Motorstorm game which was an incredibly high expectation to set. ONRUSH is a game that fizzles out in regards of excitement. Your first few races and introduction to each of the four modes is entertaining enough but by the third event card things get boring fast. The difficulty of the challenges also ramps up from 'get 10 fodder takedowns' which you'd most likely do without noticing to 'get 30 air time callouts'. The latter took me a few attempts as my AI teammates would win the event before I could get all the callouts, I finished in the high twenties a few times. The system isn't broken and it makes sense that events progressively evolve in difficulty but some of the very end-game challenges are infuriating without calling upon the help of a friend. Thankfully I was able to use this forum to connect with someone who wanted to do these challenges too and we knocked them out with very little effort as a pair who were both competent with the game. The last trophy I had to earn was 'Geared Up' which required you to unlock 250 unique items via loot crates that you earn for each rank you progress. This was a bit of a grind and I still had to play upwards of 20 more matches after finishing all the Superstar trophies to unlock this. The issue was I kept getting duplicates which only reward a minuscule amount of gold that can be used to buy loot box contents. Earlier in my playthrough I squandered a lot of my in game currency on green items but in hindsight if I had waited until I was on say 240 items I could have just purchased them then and maybe saved myself a bit of time. This platinum was enjoyable for the most part but nothing overly memorable. Life if Strange - Since its release in 2015, Life is Strange was a game I had looked at and was very keen to play. Initially I watched a small portion of the first episode on YouTube and deduced it was the style of game I'd enjoy. Eventually this game would become free on PS Plus but it still sat in my backlog waiting for me to find a time to get to it. After the initial hour or so I went into this game completely blind and I have to say I found myself very engrossed with this game. Life is Strange has something of a reputation as an easy platinum and I have to admit I had a lot of fun going after the optional photos. I felt this game did collectibles right, the little hints made traversing areas fun but I must also add that at times it stripped away from the immersion when delaying the plot as not to risk missing a photo. I understand you could just use a guide but I wanted to avoid as many story spoilers as possible. Ironically one of the few times I did consult a guide I accidentally read a MAJOR spoiler, further emphasising why I had attempted to play the game blind. Life is Strange has a story that takes plenty of turns and some of the major moments of the game will take you by complete surprise. Trophy wise there isn't really a lot to say. You need to take 10 optional photos per level, most of which will come naturally with just a few that are a bit of a pain to find without a guide (I'm looking at you double moon in chapter 4). The American college/University centred plot certainly won't be for everyone and the game uses mean girls, jock and hipsteresque stereotypes for it's characters that are perhaps a little cliche. Having recently finished a University course myself I thoroughly enjoyed this game so maybe I'm the intended demographic, alongside rebelling teenage girls. Alienation - Housemarque's Resogun was my first platinum way back in 2014 but in truth their title Alienation had completely flew under my radar. In my recent culling of my backlog I discovered the title and after a little research realised it was a title by the developer whom had provided me with countless hours of entertainment with Resogun. I set foot into space and picked the 'Saboteur' as my class, ultimately I'd shed over 24 hours on this character on my journey to platinum. I went from level 1 to 30 with him, completing the story missions two times over in the process. My purchase of the season pass came in handy for shredding some time on both my 'Tank' and Bio-Specialist' playthroughs, though I still spent a considerable amount of time with this game. Running the three alongside each other I managed to get my Tank from level 15 (season pass allows you to start after a first playthrough) to 30 and unlock both of his trophies (reaching level 30 and completing all story locations) and I managed to get my Bio-Specialist from 15 to 30 in Hardcore mode earning his two respective trophies as well as the trophy for reaching level 30 in hardcore mode. I was able to utilise the help of my girlfriend for the two co-op trophies, which are part of the DLC, we fought against restrictive camera angles in a challenging experience aboard two xeno spacecraft missions. I spent the latter stages of the game levelling up my Saboteur to level 100 and also completing weekly missions for a DLC trophy. Alienation took a little longer than I anticipated, mainly due to the aforementioned 'DetermiNation' trophy which, if done without using exploits, takes three individual weeks. I enjoyed the game and it's blend of gameplay features inspired by other titles. I heard anticipated that the 'By the Power of Weird Alien Artifacts, I have the Power!' would be the most tedious of the trophies as it relies heavily on RNG but thankfully on this occasion my luck was in and despite it being my last trophy, this was a choice I took as I had the cores and gun required long before I decided to pop it. I was thoroughly pleased with my decision to platinum this game, it was a little gem of an indie title and I will hopefully check out Nex Machina (another title of theirs I had not heard about) in the near future. Life is Strange: Before the Storm - Having completed Life is Strange when I saw this game in the Halloween sale for just £3.99 I couldn't resist. Before the Storm is a prequel to Life is Strange and focuses on one of the games main protagonists Chloe Price. I knew what I was getting into in regards of platinum difficulty as it's a very similar list to the first game. There's a trophy for completing each episode and within each episode there are 10 collectibles, this time in the form of graffiti instead of photograph opportunities. I found the graffiti refreshing and I especially liked that you could pick between two options with your pen. In reality this doesn't add too much replayablity but was a nice touch regardless. In terms of the game itself I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Before the Storm was made by a separate developer from the original Life is Strange and I couldn't help but pick out plot inconsistencies, some awful voice acting in places and just general weak writing. A large portion of what made LiS so enjoyable was the ability to rewind time and alter you choices but with this functionality missing I felt something was missing. Chloe's 'power', if you can call it that, to argue with and manipulate adults caused me to cringe a lot. A saving grace for me is that I grew very fond of this Universe and it's characters but couldn't help but feel disheartened when I realised the lack of original voice actors who reprised their roles were few and far between. I didn't hate this game and I still have ambitions to play Life is Strange 2 once all the episodes have released, I just think I fell victim to my own expectations of this title. I'm still glad I played this game and it was really cool to get some insight into who Rachel Amber was, a girl the plot of the first game so heavily revolved around. I just found myself wanting a few more answers to key plot points in the first game such as Rachel and Frank's relationship which was completely glossed over and avoided. Mafia 3 - Mafia 3 is a game which reserved it's place in my backlog for the longest time, so much so that the DLC codes for the game had expired back in 2017! Thankfully despite the code leaflet stating this I was still able to redeem my codes. The predecessor to this game was my first taste of a Mafia themed game and I fell in love with it's atmosphere, characters and setting. Games like Mafia 2 and Fallout 3 diversified my musical tastes and gave me a real appreciation for the 50's era. Mafia 3 isn't a direct sequel to Mafia 2 as such, it picks up in 1968, some years after its predecessor. The main protagonist from the first game, Vito, is present in this title as a supporting character which was a nice nod to the previous game's lore. Mafia 3 is less of a linear story and more heavily focused around open world 'district takeover' elements similar to that of a number of other open world games. These tasks often feel padded and as mindless filler to get you from story point A to story point B. Each district cleared will unlock a tad more story and each two will lead to a showdown with a lieutenant or capo. These showdown missions are by far some of the best in the game and I can't help but feel a game like this would have certainly lent itself more towards a linear storyline. Trophy wise Mafia 3 can be a bit on the buggy side. Three DLC trophies are infamous for being buggy and the trophy community has had to come up with elaborate workarounds to get them to unlock. I went for these trophies as soon as I could but thankfully I was among the lucky few who had no issues. The trophy list itself isn't too taxing at all, two playthroughs were required and though the second run felt a bit tedious and more of a speedrun, the initial playthrough kept me gripped with it's fantastic story. Mafia 3 is by no means a game of the year contender but it's revenge driven plot and fantastic music choices make it an incredibly memorable experience. I'm glad I finally found some time to add this game to my list and it felt nice to return to a Triple A game after playing three indie games recently. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor - Game of the Year Edition - Talion's tale of redemption in the land of Mordor would be the penultimate platinum before the 50 milestone. Shadow of Mordor, like a lot of my recent platinums, was a game that had sat in my game collection for some time before I finally played it for the first time. I played the first hour or so on an alternative account and off my initial impressions I wasn't overly impressed but a return visit some days later proved more enjoyable and I therefore decided to start the game on my XO account. As a large open world game I enjoyed balancing a variety of side content such as quests, collectibles and lore with the main missions. What I especially enjoyed about the game was the Orc hierarchy system and in particular pinpointing Orc weaknesses. Reoccurring nemesis characters provided some tense battles and a later ability that allows you to possess captains meant you could build an army in your own vision which was also a very nice feature. The difficulty in this 100% comes in the form of two DLC trophies, 'The Hunt is my Mistress' and 'Lord of the Ring'. The trophies are tied to two time trials which test all the skills you've learned in Mordor and stick you under unforgiving time restraints and specific requirements. I could not detail these experiences without giving a large thanks to SpaghettiGrabsy whose recommendations and detailed explanation, complete with map, made my time with these trophies considerably less stressful. 'The Hunt is my Mistress' trial 'Test of the Wild' required you to kill 5 warchiefs and 20 captains whilst earning 13000 points, killing 10 of the captains with a monster and all within the time frame of 40 minutes. This was the trophy I had heard the most about in regards of difficulty but with Spaghetti's advice I was able to complete this on my first attempt with a time of 38:19. I also was able to do this without using any back up saves, which I was personally quite proud of as I imagined I would not be able to achieve this feat. 'Lord of the Ring' was not as straight forward. The requirements for the 'Test of the Ring' were to kill 5 warchiefs plus 12 captains, with 8 of those captains or warchiefs branded, 50 grunts branded and all within the time frame of 60 minutes. On paper this may seem considerably easier as it's 8 less captains than the previous trial and with a much more generous time frame. However, the removal of the command feature when branding makes things a lot trickier as you can't use the riot feature which saved so much valuable time in the previous trial. My first attempt at this trial was going really well, almost too well. Then I realised at the 40 minute mark that I had made a fatal mistake, I had branded four of the warchiefs. The requirement states you must kill 5 warchiefs and four of those were owned by myself. Unlike the previous trial, just pressing down on the d pad was not enough to kill owned units so I had to waste valuable time killing them. This would not have been a problem if I wasn't required to have had all 8 branded units alive by the end of the trial as at the time of realising I had already completed the objective of branding the 8 captains or warchiefs. With each branded enemy I dispatched I was one further away from my target and I soon realised I was not going to be able to complete within time. I decided to start a fresh with a clearer indication of what I needed to do but yet again a number of smaller less significant mistakes threatened to ruin my run. The most significant of those was a mistake I made in the last 10 minutes where I accidentally advanced time as opposed to fast travelling. One of my branded captains was killed in his trial which left me one short on the 8 branded captains or warchief requirement. I then had to get myself killed so an uruk would become a captain, and then brand him which set me back more time leaving me with under five minutes as I went in to the fight with the final captain. Comically I got more and more frustrated as I could not climb a piece of terrain to get to him and kept falling off or jumping to the wrong level. Once I engaged in combat with him he had the dreaded 'combat master' strength which rendered most of my attacks against him useless, thankfully some quick thinking meant I was able to charge up the ring and eliminate him for a rather tight 58:19 finish. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this game, a critically acclaimed title that I had just never found the time to start but I am very glad I did. Somewhere in the future I'd love to play the sequel to this title but for now it's the milestone of my 50th platinum and I'd also ideally like to hit 10 platinums for the year. Call of Duty Mordern Warfare Remastered - For a little while I've held the belief that platinum 50 would be my first noteworthy milestone on this account. I debated what game would mark the occasion best and for some weeks now I've known that Call of Duty Modern Warfare Remastered would be that 50th platinum. The original Call of Duty Modern Warfare surprisingly my first taste of the COD series and my first real experience with an online fps game. After finishing college I would race home, boot up my Playstation and play with friends for multiple hours, indulged in the multiplayer. When I think of Call of Duty MW I think of Chernobyl and silently sneaking alongside a Scottish ally whilst synchronising the perfect headshots. The remastered edition remains true to everything that made this game a standout in the FPS genre and made a trophy run unavoidable. The fact that trophies were not yet implemented into games at the original launch of MW and coupled with the fact that I had never managed to get past the 'One Shot One Kill' mission on the original made a redemption run for this game even more alluring. So the trophy run, first and foremost as a little disclaimer I did not use the veteran difficulty glitch. There is an exploit that enables you to complete the game on any difficulty and so long as you switch the difficulty by the final checkpoint it registers that you completed an entire mission on veteran. I do not stand in judgement of those who use such methods but for me I wanted this one to be a grueling challenge and mark the milestone in fashion. As someone who has completed Call of Duty games on veteran in the past I was no stranger to the grenade spam, heavy flinching and immediate deaths. On Veteran there are five notable difficult encounters or challenges to overcome. Right at the start of the game there is a FNG training course that requires you to run an obstacle course in under 15.1 seconds, this is number 1 of the aforementioned 5. This challenge took me under 10 minutes to do and I was incredibly surprised by this, I ended up setting a time of 14 seconds to top my friends list and I was really proud of this. Challenge number 2 came some way into the story, I had plodded through up until this point knocking out a few miscellaneous, gathering intel and using a variety of different guns for another trophy. Redemption mode was active because I was on the mission 'One Shot One Kill' the mission that had ended my run all those years ago as a teenager. I held down the ticket box and joyfully sniped numerous approaching enemies (I absolutely adore sniping in Call of Duty) I got a checkpoint and within a few attempts I was able to flee with Macmillan... one again pleasantly surprised at my progress with such a notoriously tricky level. There would be little respite as the very next level, 'Heat' is the the next challenging sequence of the 5. Once again, a mission I expected to be stuck on for hours took me no more than a few attempts. As I rushed to the extraction point I made use of my flash bangs and air support and found myself running through the fields unchallenged. I got a checkpoint just before the helicopter arrived and once again questioned how everything was going so smoothly. I progressed with the game some more, making incredible progress for the day, three of the most difficult sections beaten within three days... I was feeling good. 'No Fighting in the War Room', I'd heard a lot about this one. An unforgiving timer that granted checkpoints only if it deemed you as going fast enough to be able to beat the mission. Unlike the previous sections I was stuck here for a while but I blitzed through the earlier sections and my checkpoints were very flexible. One section in particular was in close quarters corridors with one-shot enemies that made the whole section an absolute nightmare. By the time I got through to the war room I had a few minutes left on the clock and just one difficult section remained. In a single day I had knocked out 'One Shot One Kill', 'Heat' and 'No Fighting in the War Room' and at this point I was feeling overly confident and surprised at how easy I was finding the platinum but all of that was going to change. Mile High Club.. where do I start. My first attempt was at 11pm on the 12th and I would not get the platinum until two days later. There were times where I thought I would never be able to do this, I had convinced myself as someone nearing their 30s my reflexes just aren't what they once were. I tried and tried and tried and tried, I invited a close mate in to watch via share play, I invited my girlfriend in to watch... I still kept failing. I'd say a good 75% of the time I wouldn't even clear the first room and then there were the agonising moments I'd get to that final corridor and run out of the time (that happened a fair bit) and the even more agonising moments where I'd made good time but the very last enemy would down me as I neared the doors. The break finally came and what happened I can only describe as the most unfortunate moment of my entire playthrough... I clear the mission, I jump the plane and decide I want to share the moment so hit the share button... the game freezes. I start panicking because this thing has brought my to the brink of insanity. I know from research that the trophy pops once you go back to the menu but I have no choice but to reboot the game. I assure myself the checkpoint system has my back here, but it didn't. No trophy but to add insult to injury I have video proof of me earning the thing. At this point I strongly contemplated the veteran glitch as I knew I had earned it but pride got in the way and I started running this thing again, by now my strategy was pretty concrete at every portion but the final corridor but thankfully within about ten minutes I finally jumped from that plane one last time and the platinum popped. You can bet anything I didn't try capturing that final run on share play! All in all, what an incredible game that holds a special place in my heart and what an experience to be able to say I've truly mastered this title. 2020 Spoiler This is the Police 2 - Platinum 51 was initially planned to be squeezed in just before the end of the year but some miscalculations on time frame, personal life commitments and the general festive period meant that This is the Police 2 would become my first platinum of 2020. I have owned this game for some time and I completed an initial 'play-test' run of the game some months ago (back in July). I was drawn to this game through YouTube playthroughs but was quickly sceptical about the game when I read online criticism of the game being borderline unplayable at times. I ran into a game breaking bug on my previous run that corrupted my save and rendered me unable to finish the game. In truth I have hummed and hawed about risking this infamously buggy and glitchy game on my account for some time but I couldn't shake the fact that despite its shortcomings I absolutely adore the art style and micromanagement nature of this game. I've been living out of my backlog for some time now but I've started to approach the stage where my options are limited and upon finishing platinum 50 this was the only title I had a real desire to actually play. I took the risk and I don't regret it. The game is set in Sharpwood and you take control of a police department in this police micromanagement simulator. You'll command a bunch of arguably the most unprofessional police officers you'll ever meet and allocate them to crimes, investigations and much more. Primarily one of the reasons I started this game on my main account was I wanted to give back to a community that I've thoroughly enjoyed being a part of. When doing initial research for this game I noticed none of the trophy websites had a guide for it so my intention was to put one together, essentially providing a guide for anyone who wants to juggle the many glitches and bugs in this game to experience a flawed but enjoyable game. Being my second playthrough of the game and my extensive amount of hours now logged into this title, the game wasn't overly challenging but approaching scenarios in different ways and gathering research for the guide was surprisingly enjoyable. To me, This is the Police 2 feels like a mobile game, but this isn't a bad thing. Both the original and this title have mobile releases though the series originally started on the PC. I'm a sucker for some micromanagement and I really enjoyed the way I'd bond with my officers and develop favourites as well as detest others. In some ways it felt reminiscent of one of my other recent platinums: Shadow of Mordor in that I found myself commanding characters I cared about. I found myself sending certain officers on calls and trying to build them up to be the best my department could offer and this enhanced my interest of the game. This is the Police 2 is a great game if you can overlook its plethora of glitches and shortcomings. It was a unique experience to create a guide and also nice to be one of a small minority of members on this site who has played the game and one of a handful who have obtained the platinum. Edited February 4, 2020 by CraigyXO Update 04/02/2020 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigyXO Posted September 19, 2019 Author Share Posted September 19, 2019 <reserved> <reserved for later use> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigyXO Posted September 21, 2019 Author Share Posted September 21, 2019 Platinum 44 Codemaster's ONRUSH was one of the monthly PSN Plus free games in the month of December and had since found itself in the dark abyss of my downloaded games. I must be honest, I had disregarded this game as just another indie racer that I would probably never get to, not realising that it was a full cost retail title. Having finally returned my backlog to 100% I found myself browsing my downloads and it jumped out at me. A bit of research told me that it had no DLC and a quick browse on YouTube reaffirmed my interest in going for this platinum. ONRUSH provided a welcome change of pace from the combat focused games I've found myself playing for the last few months. That being said it's still possible to push and shove your way to finish the line, crushing and obliterating helpless fodder and drivers alike. ONRUSH encourages you to play aggressively and in one of the modes 'Switch' it's a an absolute requirement to help your AI buddies out by thinning the enemy team. I went into this title hoping to recapture the nostalgia of the original Motorstorm game which was an incredibly high expectation to set. ONRUSH is a game that fizzles out in regards of excitement. Your first few races and introduction to each of the four modes is entertaining enough but by the third event card things get boring fast. The difficulty of the challenges also ramps up from 'get 10 fodder takedowns' which you'd most likely do without noticing to 'get 30 air time callouts'. The latter took me a few attempts as my AI teammates would win the event before I could get all the callouts, I finished in the high twenties a few times. The system isn't broken and it makes sense that events progressively evolve in difficulty but some of the very end-game challenges are infuriating without calling upon the help of a friend. Thankfully I was able to use this forum to connect with someone who wanted to do these challenges too and we knocked them out with very little effort as a pair who were both competent with the game. The last trophy I had to earn was 'Geared Up' which required you to unlock 250 unique items via loot crates that you earn for each rank you progress. This was a bit of a grind and I still had to play upwards of 20 more matches after finishing all the Superstar trophies to unlock this. The issue was I kept getting duplicates which only reward a minuscule amount of gold that can be used to buy loot box contents. Earlier in my playthrough I squandered a lot of my in game currency on green items but in hindsight if I had waited until I was on say 240 items I could have just purchased them then and maybe saved myself a bit of time. This platinum was enjoyable for the most part but nothing overly memorable. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigyXO Posted September 26, 2019 Author Share Posted September 26, 2019 Platinum 45 Since it's release in 2015, Life is Strange was a game I had looked at and was very keen to play. Initially I watched a small portion of the first episode on YouTube and deduced it was the style of game I'd enjoy. Eventually this game would become free on PS Plus but it still sat in my backlog waiting for me to find a time to get to it. After the initial hour or so I went into this game completely blind and I have to say I found myself very engrossed with this game. Life is Strange has something of a reputation as an easy platinum and I have to admit I had a lot of fun going after the optional photos. I felt this game did collectibles right, the little hints made traversing areas fun but I must also add that at times it stripped away from the immersion when delaying the plot as not to risk missing a photo. I understand you could just use a guide but I wanted to avoid as many story spoilers as possible. Ironically one of the few times I did consult a guide I accidentally read a MAJOR spoiler, further emphasising why I had attempted to play the game blind. Life is Strange has a story that takes plenty of turns and some of the major moments of the game will take you by complete surprise. Trophy wise there isn't really a lot to say. You need to take 10 optional photos per level, most of which will come naturally with just a few that are a bit of a pain to find without a guide (I'm looking at you double moon in chapter 4). The American college/University centred plot certainly won't be for everyone and the game uses mean girls, jock and hipsteresque stereotypes for it's characters that are perhaps a little cliche. Having recently finished a University course myself I thoroughly enjoyed this game so maybe I'm the intended demographic, alongside rebelling teenage girls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigyXO Posted October 28, 2019 Author Share Posted October 28, 2019 Platinum 46 Housemarque's Resogun was my first platinum way back in 2014 but in truth their title Alienation had completely flew under my radar. In my recent culling of my backlog I discovered the title and after a little research realised it was a title by the developer whom had provided me with countless hours of entertainment with Resogun. I set foot into space and picked the 'Saboteur' as my class, ultimately I'd shed over 24 hours on this character on my journey to platinum. I went from level 1 to 30 with him, completing the story missions two times over in the process. My purchase of the season pass came in handy for shredding some time on both my 'Tank' and Bio-Specialist' playthroughs, though I still spent a considerable amount of time with this game. Running the three alongside each other I managed to get my Tank from level 15 (season pass allows you to start after a first playthrough) to 30 and unlock both of his trophies (reaching level 30 and completing all story locations) and I managed to get my Bio-Specialist from 15 to 30 in Hardcore mode earning his two respective trophies as well as the trophy for reaching level 30 in hardcore mode. I was able to utilise the help of my girlfriend for the two co-op trophies, which are part of the DLC, we fought against restrictive camera angles in a challenging experience aboard two xeno spacecraft missions. I spent the latter stages of the game levelling up my Saboteur to level 100 and also completing weekly missions for a DLC trophy. Alienation took a little longer than I anticipated, mainly due to the aforementioned 'DetermiNation' trophy which, if done without using exploits, takes three individual weeks. I enjoyed the game and it's blend of gameplay features inspired by other titles. I heard anticipated that the 'By the Power of Weird Alien Artifacts, I have the Power!' would be the most tedious of the trophies as it relies heavily on RNG but thankfully on this occasion my luck was in and despite it being my last trophy, this was a choice I took as I had the cores and gun required long before I decided to pop it. I was thoroughly pleased with my decision to platinum this game, it was a little gem of an indie title and I will hopefully check out Nex Machina (another title of theirs I had not heard about) in the near future. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigyXO Posted November 2, 2019 Author Share Posted November 2, 2019 (edited) Platinum 47 Having completed Life is Strange when I saw this game in the Halloween sale for just £3.99 I couldn't resist. Before the Storm is a prequel to Life is Strange and focuses on one of the games main protagonists Chloe Price. I knew what I was getting into in regards of platinum difficulty as it's a very similar list to the first game. There's a trophy for completing each episode and within each episode there are 10 collectibles, this time in the form of graffiti instead of photograph opportunities. I found the graffiti refreshing and I especially liked that you could pick between two options with your pen. In reality this doesn't add too much replayablity but was a nice touch regardless. In terms of the game itself I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Before the Storm was made by a separate developer from the original Life is Strange and I couldn't help but pick out plot inconsistencies, some awful voice acting in places and just general weak writing. A large portion of what made LiS so enjoyable was the ability to rewind time and alter you choices but with this functionality missing I felt something was missing. Chloe's 'power', if you can call it that, to argue with and manipulate adults caused me to cringe a lot. A saving grace for me is that I grew very fond of this Universe and it's characters but couldn't help but feel disheartened when I realised the lack of original voice actors who reprised their roles were few and far between. I didn't hate this game and I still have ambitions to play Life is Strange 2 once all the episodes have released, I just think I fell victim to my own expectations of this title. I'm still glad I played this game and it was really cool to get some insight into who Rachel Amber was, a girl the plot of the first game so heavily revolved around. I just found myself wanting a few more answers to key plot points in the first game such as Rachel and Frank's relationship which was completely glossed over and avoided. Edited November 25, 2019 by CraigyXO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigyXO Posted November 25, 2019 Author Share Posted November 25, 2019 (edited) Platinum 48 Mafia 3 is a game which reserved it's place in my backlog for the longest time, so much so that the DLC codes for the game had expired back in 2017! Thankfully despite the code leaflet stating this I was still able to redeem my codes. The predecessor to this game was my first taste of a Mafia themed game and I fell in love with it's atmosphere, characters and setting. Games like Mafia 2 and Fallout 3 diversified my musical tastes and gave me a real appreciation for the 50's era. Mafia 3 isn't a direct sequel to Mafia 2 as such, it picks up in 1968, some years after its predecessor. The main protagonist from the first game, Vito, is present in this title as a supporting character which was a nice nod to the previous game's lore. Mafia 3 is less of a linear story and more heavily focused around open world 'district takeover' elements similar to that of a number of other open world games. These tasks often feel padded and as mindless filler to get you from story point A to story point B. Each district cleared will unlock a tad more story and each two will lead to a showdown with a lieutenant or capo. These showdown missions are by far some of the best in the game and I can't help but feel a game like this would have certainly lent itself more towards a linear storyline. Trophy wise Mafia 3 can be a bit on the buggy side. Three DLC trophies are infamous for being buggy and the trophy community has had to come up with elaborate workarounds to get them to unlock. I went for these trophies as soon as I could but thankfully I was among the lucky few who had no issues. The trophy list itself isn't too taxing at all, two playthroughs were required and though the second run felt a bit tedious and more of a speedrun, the initial playthrough kept me gripped with it's fantastic story. Mafia 3 is by no means a game of the year contender but it's revenge driven plot and fantastic music choices make it an incredibly memorable experience. I'm glad I finally found some time to add this game to my list and it felt nice to return to a Triple A game after playing three indie games recently. Edited November 25, 2019 by CraigyXO 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZoutjeNL Posted December 2, 2019 Share Posted December 2, 2019 I am very similar when it comes to completing games and going for 100%. I am a completionist too and I avoid games like POWGI like the plague. Quality over quantity for sure for me. I will be following you for sure. I saw you don't mind adding people so I will add you up on PSN. Great to have completionists on my friendlist with the same kind of mindset. Really nice platinum collecting you have, Overwatch, Destiny, Battlefield Hardline, a couple Fifa and Red Dead Redemption 2 don't seem like an easy task. Good luck with middle-earth shadow of Mordor I haven't played this game myself but I heard good things about it. What was your favourite plat you obtained so far? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigyXO Posted December 4, 2019 Author Share Posted December 4, 2019 On 02/12/2019 at 8:56 AM, ZoutjeNL said: I am very similar when it comes to completing games and going for 100%. I am a completionist too and I avoid games like POWGI like the plague. Quality over quantity for sure for me. I will be following you for sure. I saw you don't mind adding people so I will add you up on PSN. Great to have completionists on my friendlist with the same kind of mindset. Really nice platinum collecting you have, Overwatch, Destiny, Battlefield Hardline, a couple Fifa and Red Dead Redemption 2 don't seem like an easy task. Good luck with middle-earth shadow of Mordor I haven't played this game myself but I heard good things about it. What was your favourite plat you obtained so far? Hey dude, sorry for the delay in reply I haven’t been on the forum in a few days. Pleasure to have you on my friends list and your account is also very impressive. To answer that rather difficult question I would have to say it’s Battlefield Hardline. Not the platinum as such, as that wasn’t too taxing but rather the 10,000 kills with each class. Being amongst some of the first people to do it was such an amazing feeling. I felt reminiscent of a time where I was one of the only people on an old trophy forum I used that had the Resistance 2 platinum. (not an account I use any more). It’s always nice to have an achievement you’re proud of and as I don’t have many infamously difficult platinums at the time of writing, this I tend to find pride in my more time demanding platinums. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Froobix Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 I'm also guilty of restarting accounts and also prefer 100% to the amount of trophies, I know it's not about impressing people, it's just a horrid OCD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ_Radio Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 Need for Speed DLC and Battlefield: Hardline DLC would of killed my continuation of a 100 percent profile. I have an alt account that is a 100 percent completionist profile if I really feel like playing something I've already done, such as Uncharted. I didn't find Middle Earth to be that hard or frustrating. The Hunt is My Mistress requires a bit of preparation, and after watching a couple YouTube videos I had a pretty sound idea how to get the trophy. I did a lot of Cloud/USB saving and I ended up using it a number of times for both that trophy and the trophy for earning a Level 25 Rune in the base game. The second DLC pack has a trophy for earning a Level 30 Rune and it has the Test of the Ring, which is thankfully not as difficult. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigyXO Posted December 4, 2019 Author Share Posted December 4, 2019 (edited) 24 minutes ago, Froobix said: I'm also guilty of restarting accounts and also prefer 100% to the amount of trophies, I know it's not about impressing people, it's just a horrid OCD Thankfully I seem to have kicked the habit and CraigyXO has been my only account since I got my PS4. Before then there was a whole army of Craigy accounts ? it got a little bit out of hand. I can completely relate on the whole OCD thing though, I’ve got it pretty bad and it can make getting platinum really tough sometimes. 9 minutes ago, Spaz said: Need for Speed DLC and Battlefield: Hardline DLC would of killed my continuation of a 100 percent profile. I have an alt account that is a 100 percent completionist profile if I really feel like playing something I've already done, such as Uncharted. I didn't find Middle Earth to be that hard or frustrating. The Hunt is My Mistress requires a bit of preparation, and after watching a couple YouTube videos I had a pretty sound idea how to get the trophy. I did a lot of Cloud/USB saving and I ended up using it a number of times for both that trophy and the trophy for earning a Level 25 Rune in the base game. The second DLC pack has a trophy for earning a Level 30 Rune and it has the Test of the Ring, which is thankfully not as difficult. That’s a really cool idea with the alternative account. I have a play test account to check if I like a game before starting which helps me with deciding what titles to pursue. I’m a tad worried about Shadow of Mordor because a DLC trophy hasn’t popped despite me completing the action three times but I’m not at the panic stage yet. I’ve heard the Hunt is my Mistress is a pain. I think I’ll give it a few tries before resorting to cloud saves but most likely I’ll end up using a guide of some sort. Edited December 4, 2019 by CraigyXO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keen_Chriss Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 Felt like I was reading a biography of myself the entire time. It’s a relief to sometimes know you’re not the only one in certain situations, but yea it can get really draining. Take RDR2 for example, the grind and time it took to get to level 50 was more than a sane human can bear, but not us! Or another perfect example is Resident Evil 7, this ridiculous trophy is a card game similar to 21, you essentially have 10 tries to beat 10 opponents in a row all while being totally RNG and luck based. Couldn’t tell you how many hours I wasted getting this. Moral of the story: dont be a completionist kids! lol 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigyXO Posted December 5, 2019 Author Share Posted December 5, 2019 On 04/12/2019 at 4:02 PM, Keen_Chriss said: Felt like I was reading a biography of myself the entire time. It’s a relief to sometimes know you’re not the only one in certain situations, but yea it can get really draining. Take RDR2 for example, the grind and time it took to get to level 50 was more than a sane human can bear, but not us! Or another perfect example is Resident Evil 7, this ridiculous trophy is a card game similar to 21, you essentially have 10 tries to beat 10 opponents in a row all while being totally RNG and luck based. Couldn’t tell you how many hours I wasted getting this. Moral of the story: dont be a completionist kids! lol Not just that but what about those annoying RNG gambling challenges in Red Dead also. That feeling of nailing the 100% is just too rewarding though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Litha Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 On 12/5/2019 at 2:10 AM, CraigyXO said: I’ve heard the Hunt is my Mistress is a pain. I think I’ll give it a few tries before resorting to cloud saves but most likely I’ll end up using a guide of some sort. You can absolutely do it without cloud saves, it just requires some pre-planning. I'll list what I did below if you want to try it on your own first. Spoiler Here's a map of graug bait locations I nicked from Steam. You'll be using graugs pretty frequently as they're basically a guaranteed one-shot kill with their eat attack. This saves a lot of time. 1. Shoot the graug bait west of the starting point, then hop on, head to each stronghold and nosh on the captains there (if there are any there, RNG hooray!). This is to reduce the amount of beast kills you'll need to worry about later. Plus it's a good morale booster to go into the meat of the challenge with around half of the required beast kills done. On your way be sure to collect intel on the Warchiefs. [REMEMBER TO KILL YOUR GRAUG AFTER YOU'RE DONE WITH IT. The more points you get the better.] 2. Once you have intel on Ugakuga Graug-Rider you'll want to brand him, as he's the tankiest and will act as your bait helpful volunteer. Do what you need to do to draw him out and wail on him till you get his health low (if you can draw him out of the stronghold, that's better). Once his health is low you should try to combat brand him, as trying to brand him conventionally will get you ganked by dickheads. Once you brand him his captains and everyone else will cack their trousers and split. If you feel like you can kill one or two captains, go for it, but keep in mind if you get to far from Ugakuga he'll likely piss of somewhere else and you'll have to waste time finding him again. 3. Command Ugakuga to Riot with the other Warchiefs (later Captains) in turn, this will create a mission that you can go to and eliminates the need to draw them out individually. Every Riot mission will be close to a graug bait location (see above) save one; the location a tad east from the westernmost tower, keep that in mind. You need to prioritise killing Zugor Beast Butcher, he has explosive arrows and can ruin your run in an instant. He is damaged only by ranged attacks, so as soon as the fight starts disregard everyone else and plug his head full of charged arrows till you get your combo and let loose some fire arrows. While he's rolling on the ground you should be able to finish him with a shadow strike or two. 4. Summon a graug as soon as each fight starts, munch on the Warchief's Captains (the stipulation specifies Captains, not Warchiefs), then munch on the Warchief to finish it up. [VERY IMPORTANT. The grab controls on the graug are a bit shite, and you may end up eating Ugakuga instead, making your run go tits up. If he's too close to the guy you want to eat I'd recommend charging through the middle of them to separate them a bit.] After the fight is over, kill your graug, send Ugakuga to fight someone else and dispatch the rest of your orcs for the points. Rinse and repeat till you work your way through all the captains. DO NOT dispatch Ugakuga until you're sure you will end over the 13,000 point threshold, because if you kill him the trial will end. This is what got me the first time. If nothing has cocked up (I accidentally ate Ugakuga and had to find the last three Captains on my own, ending the trial with 29 seconds to spare. Definitely a sphincter clenching moment.) you should be done. Hope this helps. Unless you did it on your own, then feel free to disregard all this. Again, this can be done without relying on cloud saves. I don't mean to be elitist, but there's definitely a sense of pride attached to doing something like this legitimately. On 12/5/2019 at 2:10 AM, CraigyXO said: I’m a tad worried about Shadow of Mordor because a DLC trophy hasn’t popped despite me completing the action three times but I’m not at the panic stage yet. Are you still having trouble with it? I might be able to help. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigyXO Posted December 6, 2019 Author Share Posted December 6, 2019 16 hours ago, SpaghettiGrabsy said: You can absolutely do it without cloud saves, it just requires some pre-planning. I'll list what I did below if you want to try it on your own first. Reveal hidden contents Here's a map of graug bait locations I nicked from Steam. You'll be using graugs pretty frequently as they're basically a guaranteed one-shot kill with their eat attack. This saves a lot of time. 1. Shoot the graug bait west of the starting point, then hop on, head to each stronghold and nosh on the captains there (if there are any there, RNG hooray!). This is to reduce the amount of beast kills you'll need to worry about later. Plus it's a good morale booster to go into the meat of the challenge with around half of the required beast kills done. On your way be sure to collect intel on the Warchiefs. [REMEMBER TO KILL YOUR GRAUG AFTER YOU'RE DONE WITH IT. The more points you get the better.] 2. Once you have intel on Ugakuga Graug-Rider you'll want to brand him, as he's the tankiest and will act as your bait helpful volunteer. Do what you need to do to draw him out and wail on him till you get his health low (if you can draw him out of the stronghold, that's better). Once his health is low you should try to combat brand him, as trying to brand him conventionally will get you ganked by dickheads. Once you brand him his captains and everyone else will cack their trousers and split. If you feel like you can kill one or two captains, go for it, but keep in mind if you get to far from Ugakuga he'll likely piss of somewhere else and you'll have to waste time finding him again. 3. Command Ugakuga to Riot with the other Warchiefs (later Captains) in turn, this will create a mission that you can go to and eliminates the need to draw them out individually. Every Riot mission will be close to a graug bait location (see above) save one; the location a tad east from the westernmost tower, keep that in mind. You need to prioritise killing Zugor Beast Butcher, he has explosive arrows and can ruin your run in an instant. He is damaged only by ranged attacks, so as soon as the fight starts disregard everyone else and plug his head full of charged arrows till you get your combo and let loose some fire arrows. While he's rolling on the ground you should be able to finish him with a shadow strike or two. 4. Summon a graug as soon as each fight starts, munch on the Warchief's Captains (the stipulation specifies Captains, not Warchiefs), then munch on the Warchief to finish it up. [VERY IMPORTANT. The grab controls on the graug are a bit shite, and you may end up eating Ugakuga instead, making your run go tits up. If he's too close to the guy you want to eat I'd recommend charging through the middle of them to separate them a bit.] After the fight is over, kill your graug, send Ugakuga to fight someone else and dispatch the rest of your orcs for the points. Rinse and repeat till you work your way through all the captains. DO NOT dispatch Ugakuga until you're sure you will end over the 13,000 point threshold, because if you kill him the trial will end. This is what got me the first time. If nothing has cocked up (I accidentally ate Ugakuga and had to find the last three Captains on my own, ending the trial with 29 seconds to spare. Definitely a sphincter clenching moment.) you should be done. Hope this helps. Unless you did it on your own, then feel free to disregard all this. Again, this can be done without relying on cloud saves. I don't mean to be elitist, but there's definitely a sense of pride attached to doing something like this legitimately. Are you still having trouble with it? I might be able to help. Thank you so much for this dude. That was an unbelievably helpful explanation and I am 100% going to give that method a go next time I get on the PS4. In relation to the buggy trophy I was just doing the prompt wrong. All that stands between me and platinum now is those two trials. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Litha Posted December 6, 2019 Share Posted December 6, 2019 (edited) 7 hours ago, CraigyXO said: All that stands between me and platinum now is those two trials. Lord of the Ring is much easier, but there's a couple of things to keep in mind. You need to kill the 5 initial Warchiefs and 12 Captains, while having 8 Captains or Warchiefs (not the initial ones) branded. That's 20 Captains total and all the game will give you, as advancing time will not spawn any more Captains. If you find yourself short for any reason (my run went pretty solidly, so I can't validate this) I heard having a grunt kill you will still have him promoted and will give you another Captain to work with. Also, you won't be able to issue orders to branded Captains, so you'll need to find everyone yourself (interrogating summoned grunts with the left directional button is a quick way to get their locations). I've found that the Warchiefs start with no bodyguards, so it's a good idea to go after them first. [EDIT] Make sure to have a fully charged ring (I can't remember the proper term) in group situations. It makes it much easier to focus in on one guy and you can get rid of a good chunk of his health (if not all) by the time it's run out. All the best my man. Edited December 6, 2019 by SpaghettiGrabsy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigyXO Posted December 10, 2019 Author Share Posted December 10, 2019 Platinum 49 Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - Game of the Year Edition would be the penultimate platinum before the 50 milestone. Shadow of Mordor, like a lot of my recent platinums, was a game that had sat in my game collection for some time before I finally played it for the first time. I played the first hour or so on an alternative account and off my initial impressions I wasn't overly impressed but a return visit some days later proved more enjoyable and I therefore decided to start the game on my XO account. As a large open world game I enjoyed balancing a variety of side content such as quests, collectibles and lore with the main missions. What I especially enjoyed about the game was the Orc hierarchy system and in particular pinpointing Orc weaknesses. Reoccurring nemesis characters provided some tense battles and a later ability that allows you to possess captains meant you could build an army in your own vision which was also a very nice feature. The difficulty in this 100% comes in the form of two DLC trophies, 'The Hunt is my Mistress' and 'Lord of the Ring'. The trophies are tied to two time trials which test all the skills you've learned in Mordor and stick you under unforgiving time restraints and specific requirements. I could not detail these experiences without giving a large thanks to SpaghettiGrabsy whose recommendations and detailed explanation, complete with map, made my time with these trophies considerably less stressful. 'The Hunt is my Mistress' trial 'Test of the Wild' required you to kill 5 warchiefs and 20 captains whilst earning 13000 points, killing 10 of the captains with a monster and all within the time frame of 40 minutes. This was the trophy I had heard the most about in regards of difficulty but with Spaghetti's advice I was able to complete this on my first attempt with a time of 38:19. I also was able to do this without using any back up saves, which I was personally quite proud of as I imagined I would not be able to achieve this feat. 'Lord of the Ring' was not as straight forward. The requirements for the 'Test of the Ring' were to kill 5 warchiefs plus 12 captains, with 8 of those captains or warchiefs branded, 50 grunts branded and all within the time frame of 60 minutes. On paper this may seem considerably easier as it's 8 less captains than the previous trial and with a much more generous time frame. However, the removal of the command feature when branding makes things a lot trickier as you can't use the riot feature which saved so much valuable time in the previous trial. My first attempt at this trial was going really well, almost too well. Then I realised at the 40 minute mark that I had made a fatal mistake, I had branded four of the warchiefs. The requirement states you must kill 5 warchiefs and four of those were owned by myself. Unlike the previous trial, just pressing down on the d pad was not enough to kill owned units so I had to waste valuable time killing them. This would not have been a problem if I wasn't required to have had all 8 branded units alive by the end of the trial as at the time of realising I had already completed the objective of branding the 8 captains or warchiefs. With each branded enemy I dispatched I was one further away from my target and I soon realised I was not going to be able to complete within time. I decided to start a fresh with a clearer indication of what I needed to do but yet again a number of smaller less significant mistakes threatened to ruin my run. The most significant of those was a mistake I made in the last 10 minutes where I accidentally advanced time as opposed to fast travelling. One of my branded captains was killed in his trial which left me one short on the 8 branded captains or warchief requirement. I then had to get myself killed so an uruk would become a captain, and then brand him which set me back more time leaving me with under five minutes as I went in to the fight with the final captain. Comically I got more and more frustrated as I could not climb a piece of terrain to get to him and kept falling off or jumping to the wrong level. Once I engaged in combat with him he had the dreaded 'combat master' strength which rendered most of my attacks against him useless, thankfully some quick thinking meant I was able to charge up the ring and eliminate him for a rather tight 58:19 finish. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this game, a critically acclaimed title that I had just never found the time to start but I am very glad I did. Somewhere in the future I'd love to play the sequel to this title but for now it's the milestone of my 50th platinum and I'd also ideally like to hit 10 platinums for the year. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig_obviously Posted December 10, 2019 Share Posted December 10, 2019 I find your PSNhandle neither unimaginative or simple... I am also a long time gamer, but I lack the OCD gene... my only profile will never approach 100% nor do I care 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrJAMBA Posted December 10, 2019 Share Posted December 10, 2019 Awesome thread man, I like the short reviews you have of each game! I have a similar approach to my trophies. I also like to concentrate on 1 game at a time (pending DLC). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigyXO Posted December 10, 2019 Author Share Posted December 10, 2019 4 hours ago, craig_obviously said: I find your PSNhandle neither unimaginative or simple... I am also a long time gamer, but I lack the OCD gene... my only profile will never approach 100% nor do I care Haha, always nice to see another Craig around. 4 hours ago, MrJAMBA said: Awesome thread man, I like the short reviews you have of each game! I have a similar approach to my trophies. I also like to concentrate on 1 game at a time (pending DLC). Thanks man, I’m really glad you’re enjoying reading them. It’s got its pros and cons, that’s for sure. I find if I play too many games at once I perform worse and get confused with the controls, probably because I’m not used to playing in that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigyXO Posted December 15, 2019 Author Share Posted December 15, 2019 Platinum 50 For a little while I've held the belief that platinum 50 would be my first noteworthy milestone on this account. I debated what game would mark the occasion best and for some weeks now I've known that Call of Duty Modern Warfare Remastered would be that 50th platinum. The original Call of Duty Modern Warfare surprisingly my first taste of the COD series and my first real experience with an online fps game. After finishing college I would race home, boot up my Playstation and play with friends for multiple hours, indulged in the multiplayer. When I think of Call of Duty MW I think of Chernobyl and silently sneaking alongside a Scottish ally whilst synchronising the perfect headshots. The remastered edition remains true to everything that made this game a standout in the FPS genre and made a trophy run unavoidable. The fact that trophies were not yet implemented into games at the original launch of MW and coupled with the fact that I had never managed to get past the 'One Shot One Kill' mission on the original made a redemption run for this game even more alluring. So the trophy run, first and foremost as a little disclaimer I did not use the veteran difficulty glitch. There is an exploit that enables you to complete the game on any difficulty and so long as you switch the difficulty by the final checkpoint it registers that you completed an entire mission on veteran. I do not stand in judgement of those who use such methods but for me I wanted this one to be a grueling challenge and mark the milestone in fashion. As someone who has completed Call of Duty games on veteran in the past I was no stranger to the grenade spam, heavy flinching and immediate deaths. On Veteran there are five notable difficult encounters or challenges to overcome. Right at the start of the game there is a FNG training course that requires you to run an obstacle course in under 15.1 seconds, this is number 1 of the aforementioned 5. This challenge took me under 10 minutes to do and I was incredibly surprised by this, I ended up setting a time of 14 seconds to top my friends list and I was really proud of this. Challenge number 2 came some way into the story, I had plodded through up until this point knocking out a few miscellaneous, gathering intel and using a variety of different guns for another trophy. Redemption mode was active because I was on the mission 'One Shot One Kill' the mission that had ended my run all those years ago as a teenager. I held down the ticket box and joyfully sniped numerous approaching enemies (I absolutely adore sniping in Call of Duty) I got a checkpoint and within a few attempts I was able to flee with Macmillan... one again pleasantly surprised at my progress with such a notoriously tricky level. There would be little respite as the very next level, 'Heat' is the the next challenging sequence of the 5. Once again, a mission I expected to be stuck on for hours took me no more than a few attempts. As I rushed to the extraction point I made use of my flash bangs and air support and found myself running through the fields unchallenged. I got a checkpoint just before the helicopter arrived and once again questioned how everything was going so smoothly. I progressed with the game some more, making incredible progress for the day, three of the most difficult sections beaten within three days... I was feeling good. 'No Fighting in the War Room', I'd heard a lot about this one. An unforgiving timer that granted checkpoints only if it deemed you as going fast enough to be able to beat the mission. Unlike the previous sections I was stuck here for a while but I blitzed through the earlier sections and my checkpoints were very flexible. One section in particular was in close quarters corridors with one-shot enemies that made the whole section an absolute nightmare. By the time I got through to the war room I had a few minutes left on the clock and just one difficult section remained. In a single day I had knocked out 'One Shot One Kill', 'Heat' and 'No Fighting in the War Room' and at this point I was feeling overly confident and surprised at how easy I was finding the platinum but all of that was going to change. Mile High Club.. where do I start. My first attempt was at 11pm on the 12th and I would not get the platinum until two days later. There were times where I thought I would never be able to do this, I had convinced myself as someone nearing their 30s my reflexes just aren't what they once were. I tried and tried and tried and tried, I invited a close mate in to watch via share play, I invited my girlfriend in to watch... I still kept failing. I'd say a good 75% of the time I wouldn't even clear the first room and then there were the agonising moments I'd get to that final corridor and run out of the time (that happened a fair bit) and the even more agonising moments where I'd made good time but the very last enemy would down me as I neared the doors. The break finally came and what happened I can only describe as the most unfortunate moment of my entire playthrough... I clear the mission, I jump the plane and decide I want to share the moment so hit the share button... the game freezes. I start panicking because this thing has brought my to the brink of insanity. I know from research that the trophy pops once you go back to the menu but I have no choice but to reboot the game. I assure myself the checkpoint system has my back here, but it didn't. No trophy but to add insult to injury I have video proof of me earning the thing. At this point I strongly contemplated the veteran glitch as I knew I had earned it but pride got in the way and I started running this thing again, by now my strategy was pretty concrete at every portion but the final corridor but thankfully within about ten minutes I finally jumped from that plane one last time and the platinum popped. You can bet anything I didn't try capturing that final run on share play! All in all, what an incredible game that holds a special place in my heart and what an experience to be able to say I've truly mastered this title. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Litha Posted December 16, 2019 Share Posted December 16, 2019 Congratulations on getting the two Trials trophies, I'm happy I could lend a hand. I also like read your write-ups (reviews, whatever you'd like to call them) when I have a bit of free time as I really enjoy them. Keep up the good work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigyXO Posted December 16, 2019 Author Share Posted December 16, 2019 11 hours ago, SpaghettiGrabsy said: Congratulations on getting the two Trials trophies, I'm happy I could lend a hand. I also like read your write-ups (reviews, whatever you'd like to call them) when I have a bit of free time as I really enjoy them. Keep up the good work. Thank you man! The tips were so useful and I’m glad you’re enjoying my ramblings. I’m feeling so much more focused on my account and goals since starting this little checklist. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigyXO Posted January 6, 2020 Author Share Posted January 6, 2020 Platinum 51 Platinum 51 was initially planned to be squeezed in just before the end of the year but some miscalculations on time frame, personal life commitments and the general festive period meant that This is the Police 2 would become my first platinum of 2020. I have owned this game for some time and I completed an initial 'play-test' run of the game some months ago (back in July). I was drawn to this game through YouTube playthroughs but was quickly sceptical about the game when I read online criticism of the game being borderline unplayable at times. I ran into a game breaking bug on my previous run that corrupted my save and rendered me unable to finish the game. In truth I have hummed and hawed about risking this infamously buggy and glitchy game on my account for some time but I couldn't shake the fact that despite its shortcomings I absolutely adore the art style and micromanagement nature of this game. I've been living out of my backlog for some time now but I've started to approach the stage where my options are limited and upon finishing platinum 50 this was the only title I had a real desire to actually play. I took the risk and I don't regret it. The game is set in Sharpwood and you take control of a police department in this police micromanagement simulator. You'll command a bunch of arguably the most unprofessional police officers you'll ever meet and allocate them to crimes, investigations and much more. Primarily one of the reasons I started this game on my main account was I wanted to give back to a community that I've thoroughly enjoyed being a part of. When doing initial research for this game I noticed none of the trophy websites had a guide for it so my intention was to put one together, essentially providing a guide for anyone who wants to juggle the many glitches and bugs in this game to experience a flawed but enjoyable game. Being my second playthrough of the game and my extensive amount of hours now logged into this title, the game wasn't overly challenging but approaching scenarios in different ways and gathering research for the guide was surprisingly enjoyable. To me, This is the Police 2 feels like a mobile game, but this isn't a bad thing. Both the original and this title have mobile releases though the series originally started on the PC. I'm a sucker for some micromanagement and I really enjoyed the way I'd bond with my officers and develop favourites as well as detest others. In some ways it felt reminiscent of one of my other recent platinums: Shadow of Mordor in that I found myself commanding characters I cared about. I found myself sending certain officers on calls and trying to build them up to be the best my department could offer and this enhanced my interest of the game. This is the Police 2 is a great game if you can overlook its plethora of glitches and shortcomings. It was a unique experience to create a guide and also nice to be one of a small minority of members on this site who has played the game and one of a handful who have obtained the platinum. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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