Last-_-Judgment Posted August 27, 2020 Share Posted August 27, 2020 (edited) Introduction Greetings, trophy hunters! At the 150th platinum, I thought it be a good idea to join the checklist forums to sort and keep track of everything I have played and aspire to play as I have quite a ridiculous backlog of unfinished/unstarted titles like I'm sure many of you do. Not to mention notepad was getting a little annoying to use. I've always been a big fan of getting 100% completion in games way before trophies existed and despite this account being made in 2013, I didn't truly start platinum hunting until 2017 after finally putting my WoW achievement hunting days behind me. I had around 45% completion rate in mid-2017, so it's great to have improved it by so much and hopefully I can keep it. The inspiration behind my PSN ID came from my love for the Darksiders franchise which I still carry to this day. I'm a pretty big fan of most genres but I'm not too fond of Fighters, Rhythm or Graphic Novels however I will always give them a shot and try to expand my horizons. I happen to do double-ups but only on titles I enjoyed playing or have free access to that I don't mind playing again, however most of the time I'll opt for a fresh title as opposed to something I've already experienced. Many titles from my backlog are games that were free on PS Plus over the years and I don't expect to get round to all of them. But I will always give it a shot. However I mainly want to play the games I do want to play rather than forcing myself to play something I dislike. Currently Playing Tier List I've played some really crappy games but I've also played some excellent ones so I've decided to rate my overall opinion of each title (not based on the trophies) in this tier ranking system as I feel it would be an easier representation. I've included only unique titles as it would obviously be pointless in putting both frames for doubled stacks in the same spot. Tell me what you agree and disagree with, I'm always up for a good ol' debate. Some games keep switching between ranks due to later analysing new games I've played which make me contemplate if it deserves a certain rank etc so any game may not be a final placement. The system: S - Masterpiece. A title that takes my heart and forgets to give it back to me. A - Simply fantastic titles which I enjoyed to the very end. A complete package that's missing that final touch of love. A love package... B - Great titles with many great elements but have some visible flaws too. Like a panda. Super cute yet brain dead stupid. Flawed. C - I wouldn't mind playing these titles again. D - I probably would mind playing these titles again. E - Ugh... Plenty of flaws with a feeling of cringe when thinking about them. Not like a panda. F - Developers who hate gaming had to have made these. Seriously no sane human could have thought this was a good idea. Go to therapy, developers. S A B C D E F Badges These are the badges I've earned from the events that I've participated in on PSNProfiles. Gaming By Numbers 2020 Mental Health Awareness 2021 Fight Cancer 2021 The "Oh god the PS5 is coming out soon and I have so many PS3 games left" Event Edited March 28 by Last-_-Judgment 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Last-_-Judgment Posted August 27, 2020 Author Share Posted August 27, 2020 (edited) Everlasting Backlog Here you will find my ridiculous backlog. There is a section for my unfinished business where you can click on each title to be taken to the trophy list from my own abandoned progression. There is also a section for games I've chosen myself and by others as part of my priority section. I have at least over 300 games and it's almost impossible to play them all so after a long brainstorming session, I noted down everything most important for me to play. So feel free to recommend me anything as I always like hearing what others find enjoyable and it gives me more of reason to play something else. Doesn't matter if I own it or not. Unfinished Spoiler Platinums PS5 (4) PS4 (50) PS3 (38) Incomplete DLCs (with Platinums already obtained) (20) Non-Platinums PS4 (4) PS3 (3) Unobtainables "Hello Darkness My Old Friend..." Platinums and Non-Platinums (6) Backlog Priority/Suggestions Spoiler Current Priority Future Priority Community Suggested Edited March 28 by Last-_-Judgment 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Last-_-Judgment Posted August 27, 2020 Author Share Posted August 27, 2020 (edited) Divine Judgments Here you will find my take on every game I've played. There are only MINOR SPOILERS so you are safe to read anything that you may find intriguing as I will not spoil any major plot points or endings and only touch on the prologues/concept of what you know from the beginning of playing them. I've refrained from making any of them too in-depth too as it can be quite tiresome to read through a full page of text, therefore I've stuck to the point the best that I could while trying to go over as many of the key issues and strengths for each title. Enjoy the reviewing, my trophy obssessing pals! Platinum Judgments Spoiler (Click on the corresponding number to see the judgment) #1 -> #2 -> #3 -> #4 -> #5 -> #6 -> #7 -> #8 -> #9 -> #10 -> #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25 #26 #27 #28 #29 #30 #31 #32 #33 #34 #35 #36 #37 #38 #39 #40 #41 #42 #43 #44 #45 #46 #47 #48 #49 #50 #51 #52 #53 #54 #55 #56 #57 #58 #59 #60 #61 #62 #63 #64 #65 #66 #67 #68 #69 #70 #71 #72 #73 #74 #75 #76 #77 #78 #79 #80 #81 #82 #83 #84 #85 #86 #87 #88 #89 #90 #91 #92 #93 #94 #95 #96 #97 #98 #99 #100 #101 #102 #103 #104 #105 #106 #107 #108 #109 #110 #111 #112 #113 #114 #115 #116 #117 #118 #119 #120 #121 #122 #123 #124 #125 #126 #127 #128 #129 #130 #131 #132 #133 #134 #135 #136 #137 #138 #139 #140 #141 #142 #143 #144 #145 #146 #147 #148 #149 #150 #151 #152 #153 #154 #155 #156 #157 #158 #159 #160 #161 #162 #163 #164 #165 #166 #167 #168 #169 #170 #171 #172 #173 #174 #175 #176 #177 #178 #179 #180 #181 #182 #183 #184 #185 #186 #187 #188 #189 #190 #191 #192 #193 #194 #195 #196 #197 #198 #199 #200 #201 #202 #203 #204 #205 #206 #207 #208 #209 #210 #211 #212 #213 #214 #215 #216 #217 #218 #219 #220 #221 #222 #223 #224 #225 #226 #227 #228 #229 #230 #231 #232 #233 #234 #235 #236 #237 #238 #239 #240 #241 #242 #243 #244 #245 #246 #247 #248 #249 #250 #251 #252 #253 #254 #255 #256 #257 #258 #259 #260 #261 #262 #263 #264 #265 #266 #267 #268 #269 #270 #271 #272 #273 #274 #275 #276 #277 #278 #279 #280 #281 #282 #283 #284 #285 #286 #287 #288 #289 #290 #291 #292 #293 #294 #295 #296 #297 #298 #299 #300 Non-Platinum Judgments Spoiler (Click on the corresponding number to see the judgment) #1 -> Edited March 29 by Last-_-Judgment 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Last-_-Judgment Posted August 27, 2020 Author Share Posted August 27, 2020 (edited) Reserved. Edited March 28 by Last-_-Judgment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Last-_-Judgment Posted August 28, 2020 Author Share Posted August 28, 2020 (edited) Reserved. Edited November 2, 2022 by Last-_-Judgment 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grotz99 Posted August 28, 2020 Share Posted August 28, 2020 On 8/27/2020 at 7:34 AM, Last-_-Judgment said: I've always been a big fan of getting 100% completion in games way before trophies existed and despite this account being 7 years old, I didn't truly start platinum hunting until 2017 after finally putting my WoW achievement hunting days behind me. This was pretty much what i did, but probably a year later. I had over 20k achievement points at the time in WoW. You have a good list going so far, I've had Darksiders on my list for a while so it'd be interesting to see how challenging those trophies were. Welcome and happy hunting! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassylvania Posted August 28, 2020 Share Posted August 28, 2020 (edited) I really like the idea of ranking games using a tier system. I even agree with the placement of most of them. Almost every game in the S and A ranks is extremely popular, so it's nice to see an underrated gem like A Plague Tale make the cut. Some serious shade being thrown the way of the Batman Telltale games. I can tell that you were kinda comparing each Telltale game to the others when you made this list. I think most people would agree with where you've played each of TWD games, even though I've only played the first two. You're already playing one of my favorite games ever, so no recommendations right now! Edited August 28, 2020 by Cassylvania Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Last-_-Judgment Posted August 28, 2020 Author Share Posted August 28, 2020 (edited) On 8/28/2020 at 7:13 PM, Cassylvania said: I really like the idea of ranking games using a tier system. I even agree with the placement of most of them. Almost every game in the S and A ranks is extremely popular, so it's nice to see an underrated gem like A Plague Tale make the cut. Some serious shade being thrown the way of the Batman Telltale games. I can tell that you were kinda comparing each Telltale game to the others when you made this list. I think most people would agree with where you've played each of TWD games, even though I've only played the first two. You're already playing one of my favorite games ever, so no recommendations right now! Yh I find it too difficult to rank games in out of 10 basis based on my own opinion so to have a smaller system makes it easier. ? Im just not a big fan of the batman telltales I guess. But yh I did rank Telltales separately against each other when thinking of the list. Im impressed you picked up on that haha. Im assuming you mean XCOM as XCOM 2 is on your favourite ps4 games section of your checklist. Im current on my 2nd playthrough on Classic starting at N. America. Just gotta finish off the secret bosses in Birth by Sleep first though before continuing. ? On 8/28/2020 at 5:32 PM, Grotz99 said: This was pretty much what i did, but probably a year later. I had over 20k achievement points at the time in WoW. You have a good list going so far, I've had Darksiders on my list for a while so it'd be interesting to see how challenging those trophies were. Welcome and happy hunting! Awesome! Yh I think I also had over 20k achievements too in WoW. Cheers and good luck on the trophy hunting. Darksiders isnt difficult but can be a little frustrating on the trophy mentioned in my review. It's fun though Edited September 7, 2020 by Last-_-Judgment 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Last-_-Judgment Posted September 10, 2020 Author Share Posted September 10, 2020 (edited) Platinum #1 - Assassin's Creed II Master Assassin Tier Ranking - S Difficulty Rating - 3/10 Platform - PS3 The platinum that started everything. Assassin's Creed II is special to me for many reasons. Not only is it a masterpiece but it's actually the game that got me into trophy hunting in the first place and led me to switch to console gaming. I actually plat'd this list on three different accounts back when stacks and autopops didn't exist because I loved it so much. So yeah, it holds a special place in my heart. Nevertheless, lets get on with the review. The sequel picks up exactly where its predecessor left off, Desmond's newly found allies help him escape Abstergo after learning that Vidic is a much bigger villain than you originally thought. Using our friendly neighbourhood Animus 2.0, you follow in the footsteps of another assassin from Desmond's ancestry to find the whereabouts of an ancient artifact before the modern day templars do. And boy does Desmond have a lot to live up to. You notice pretty quickly that not even Nolan North can upstage this very likable 'deuteragonist'. Signore Ezio Auditore da Firenze is truly one of the greatest characters of all time. He is instantly likeable the moment the game begins. A man of honor, family and has quite a way with the ladies - learn to keep it in your pants mate. You'll experience a beautifully executed revenge story which sees Ezio evolve and adapt to his new life. And at this point in time it is only the first of three parts for this wonderfully flawed yet charming character. Renaissance Italy captures everything you'd want from an open world game. The Italian cities such as Venice and Florence look spectacular. They boast a much more immersive experience because unlike its predecessor, Assassin's Creed II pays a lot of love and attention towards interactivity around the Tuscan province and the Floating City. From solving bizarre puzzles to exploring hidden tombs, there's enough variation to keep you busy without it becoming tedious. One of many new features I really enjoyed was the ability to upgrade and improve your main hub which unlocks a variety of advantages to help you on your journey. The combat is much improved too allowing you to chain attacks together and allows you the potential to improve with new weapons and armour. The music in this game also is truly elegant, it's some of the finest we've heard in gaming. You also meet many very distinguished and likable allies who will guide Ezio on his path to seek out the deaths of those who oppose the brotherhood and those who wronged him on a personal level. Requiescat in pace, bastardi. Assassin's Creed II is a fantastic game and I really couldn't think of anything to actually improve it. I actually was trying very hard to think of things that weren't so good about the game like maybe there could have been a way to track collectibles easier. But it's just not relevent enough for it to affect my love for the game. This'll be one of the few times I will praise Ubisoft, they deserve big credit for the steps that they took at this point in time. This is exactly how sequels should be handled. I mean, let's be honest... besides the original bringing a kickass concept and Altair being an iconic badass, who even liked the first game that much. Speaking of which, it's actually a good job it didn't have any trophies, those fucking flags give me PTSD... *shivers*. Trophy Thoughts In terms of trophies, there really wasn't anything difficult about the game, so if we are going to pick the worst trophy, I would have to say maybe In Memory of Petruccio is the one to cause any sort of annoyance. It requires you to collect 100 feathers scattered around the different regions and while it's not the most exciting collectible, it does have backstory at least for why you're collecting them in the first place. There's also a couple finnicky combat trophies but nothing too frustrating. Edited March 21 by Last-_-Judgment 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Last-_-Judgment Posted September 18, 2020 Author Share Posted September 18, 2020 (edited) Platinum #2 - Darksiders BFA Tier Ranking - A Difficulty Rating - 4/10 Platform - PS3 I actually had never heard of Darksiders until my dad bought me Darksiders II for christmas. I fell in love with everything about the game, so of course I went on the search for the reason it deserved a sequel in the first place. Darksiders has to be one of coolest titles I've played on PS3. I love everything about this little gem from beginning to finish. This is one of my first controversial reviews as it will probably surprise many on why I gave it a fairly high rank, but I just think there is enough in the game as a whole to warrant an A-rank especially because everything about it appeals to me, not to mention that it is just simply wicked. I've always enjoyed the different ideas that writers and developers implement into gaming when it comes to mythology and folklore. Darksiders is no exception to this. Based on the Christian Mythology of The Four Horseman of Apocalypse, you play as War. As War, you are falsely accused of causing the inevitable apocalypse to happen prematurely after being solely summoned without reason. War is stripped of his powers by his boss and is tasked to find the turd that got him into this mess. There is negative critique for Darksiders being average in story, but I can only disagree with that. War himself is a sick character. He might seem like an asshole when he's ripping demons apart but there's more about him than meets the eye. He's honourable in his ways and he's more the likable for it. Throughout the story you will be battling both heaven and hell in his quest tackling some twists along the way. There is so much action, drama and tension throughout each chapter leading to a very satisfying ending with final scenes which still give me goosebumps to this day. Earth as expected is a visually splendid place to explore albeit being apocalyptic. Settings range from golden deserts to morbid graveyards making you more eager to search every nook and cranny for loot and goodies. Each location has it's linearity but you'll still be met with wonderful puzzles to solve using abilities you gain over the course of this semi-platformer. As mentioned before, you battle the likes of Angels and Demons in your adventure and boy do you topple some beastly looking foes... The combat in this game never gets old as you take on a vast amount of different enemies in epic battles using a variety of attacks. When enemies are fatally injured, you can brutally execute them with some truly gruesome finishers making each fight as fulfilling as the last. Boss fights are rather unchallenging even on the hardest difficulty but are always a joy when seeing War finish them off in the most bad*ss way possible. [Insert 'Are you not entertained?' GIF]. I'm just gonna talk about the elephant in the room. I understand that Darksiders feels like it took many of it's ideas from God of War or Zelda due to its fairly similar game mechanics. I honestly never played either before playing this game so it's hard for me to acknowledge. But at the point of me writing this review 6 years later, I had played the entire God of War franchise. To be honest and this is a controversial take, I just can't help but enjoy this franchise more due to its awesome art style, much more likeable protagonist and kickass concept. It feels fresh and brings something new to the genre by feasting on a rather unexplored concept in the gaming industry. I know Darksiders isn't a masterpiece which is why it doesn't get an S-Rank but I think it deserves a lot more love than it gets. Trophy Thoughts Darksiders has a difficulty-based trophy but honestly it's really not that hard. The hardest trophy is probably Aerial Predator which is a sort of rail shooter section which can be rather frustrating. The only other problematic ones are the missable trophies and a couple of annoying grinds. Most missable trophies are easy to come by but specifically you'll want to get Improvised Kills out the way as soon as you can. Unlocking all abilities for Battle Hardened can take a bit of time but Dark Rider takes the cake, it is simply ridiculous. You barely travel 20 mile on horse throughout the entire game, nevermind 100 mile. Luckily, you can rubber band this sack of shit trophy. I don't know why developers put these types of trophies in games. It's simply absurd. Edited March 21 by Last-_-Judgment 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Last-_-Judgment Posted October 22, 2020 Author Share Posted October 22, 2020 (edited) Platinum #3 - Damnation Master Of All Tier Ranking - F Difficulty Rating - 4/10 Platform - PS3 With every great game, you'll encounter a state-of-the-fart game. I was in the early stages of trophy hunting and just looked in my collection for an easy platinum. Truth is that it was only in my collection because my dad bought it in a sale (and I realise now why it was on sale). Never did I contemplate the idea that it could be a clunkfest. It was a long time ago now but I wish that I instead just snapped the disc in half to save myself the pain. Had he not sniped it, I probably would never have known about this game. It's still an extra platinum at the end of the day and least I can say I've experienced its monstrosity although I'm sure a video would have sufficed. I will start with the good parts about the game... Ok great, now the bad parts... Seriously, I'm not gonna bother going too much into the story, it's a very basic 'stop the dictator' from destroying everything concept. It actually sounds interesting on paper of being set in an alternate history of American history but it just doesn't get executed well in any form. There's no depth or personality to any of the characters in this game. The voice acting is simply dreadful with some obvious stereotypical performances for targetted ethnicities portrayed in this game. Who's the protagonist might you ask? It's honestly not that important. You can have a crash test dummy as the protagonist, it won't make a difference. Damnation has some of the worst AI I've ever experienced. First of all, they are that brain dead you may as well just be shooting bottles off your garden wall because that's how useless they are. Then for the full experience, shoot the same bottles for 20 more god damn hours! The graphics too look horrendous honestly, even for a game from 2009. It really only makes the journey more painful. The sound effects will make your ears bleed. The special effects are disgraceful - you can actually blow people's heads off and see them explode then see their head magically still there when you approach their corpse... Meanwhile, you'll experience poor frame rate, buggy gameplay and slow texture loading amongst all those things. But wait don't worry, to make it slightly enjoyable they added the ability to jump around like a fool on your quest to 'who gives a fuck'. Maybe I'm being too harsh but I think it would be more fun to eat glass than play Damnation. It was a mistake that I live with and I really don't recommend anyone plays it unless you really have nothing better to do. If this review isn't telling enough though, maybe it's more telling if I told you it was actually developed cooperatively by two companies. Both were defunct soon after its release. So there you go... it ended up being painful for everyone involved in this game. Trophy Thoughts Damnation has a very basic set of trophies. Nothing is especially challenging or complex and the only problematic one is the difficulty-based trophy Revenant for finishing the game on the highest difficulty. Yeah, the human wall bottles might be dumbasses but they have a kick to them. But I actually fucked myself with this because I didn't know until after I got the platinum that you can negate their bullshit using cheats to make it a 1/10 difficulty. Even with cheats though, you'll still gradually lose your sanity and half your brain cells. Edited March 25 by Last-_-Judgment 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 (edited) Hey man - absolutely one hell of a job with all of this! I've glanced at your trophy checklist previously but finally sat down and really analyzed it - you have so many games! In a way it's a good problem to have but lemme ask you a few questions about some things that caught my eye. 1) I noticed based on your tier rankings, and correct me if I'm wrong - you're a experiencing a similar phenomena of being consistently disappointed with each newest edition of FIFA. FIFA 13 was B-tier, FIFA 15/16/17 was D-tier, and now FIFA 18/19 were in F-tier. Despite this you still bought and played through FIFA 20 (which btw that Volta trophy make sure you strap in with a podcast / tv show to watch cuz that is a mindless 700 matches to get through to get to highest OVR). Is it the obsession with Ultimate Team that's turned you off? Sports games used to me thing - and I've platinumed the last 4 FIFAs but man... I didn't even get FIFA 21 at launch this year for the first time in awhile. Maybe I'll get it when it goes down to $20-30 but even then - I understand your perspective. 2) Love the appreciation you showed for the Unravel games, but I noticed you have Apotheon and Rime in D-tier. Those are 2 games I was considering checking out, what's your reasoning for them being so low? 3) If I may make a few suggestions from the games you have on your backlog - here's what I recommend you play. The Entire Batman: Arkham series!!! Each game grows on the next and culminates in the greatest being Batman: Arkham Knight in my mind. That's a somewhat unpopular opinion, but just to get a taste if you enjoy spectacle combat / stories (I dunno how you feel about Uncharted which is another series I'd say focuses highly on spectacle) I think you'll really enjoy them! I personally adore them. Aside from that, Guacamelee is a fun light-hearted metroividvania, and finally The Witness managed to make me enjoy a puzzle game despite the fact it's one of my least favorite genres. Of course always play what tickles your fancy but those are my .02%! Edited October 23, 2020 by realm722 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Last-_-Judgment Posted October 23, 2020 Author Share Posted October 23, 2020 (edited) @realm722 Hey man, thanks for taking the effort to browse my checklist ? 1) Yeah for sure, I'm over FUT. I'd be honestly happy if it never appeared in FIFA ever again tbh. FIFA no doubt is my guilty pleasure and the only reason is because I love career mode so much. It's of course disappointing that EA refused to build upon that but it seems in FIFA 21 they gave quite a few improvements to the career mode which it badly needed. There's still masses that they can improve on but it's a start. I will be getting FIFA 21 and I think I might enjoy it more than FIFA 20 because 20 really was awful in every aspect. But yh, I feel my rankings of the FIFA titles is not purely based on quality but mainly based on improvements from the previous title and EA has been so incredibly lazy over the last decade. It is what it is. 2) Apotheon to me just isn't that interesting. It's a decent play if your bored but it's nothing to scream about. The gameplay can get a bit tedious too. Rime however, I was very hesitant about where to put it. I still may nudge it up a rank. I guess it's because it's designed to be a puzzle game and it's overly simple. Also I predicted the story/ending pretty early on. It's not a bad game, but it's not amazing either. Both games are decent plays and I would advise anyone to play the game from D upwards in my rankings. It's E and F that I'd draw the line lol. But if you enjoyed the first Unravel, you'll probably enjoy Rime. It has that beautiful deep aspect to it. Problem is with rating games is when you take for example my S rank games which are all just simply masterpieces in my eyes, the complete experience. But then you get to the A-rank which I think are all just a notch off of being masterpieces - something being missing. LitteBigPlanet for instance is truly excellent but it doesn't have a strong or heartfelt story but everything else works exceptionally well. Then you get to Unravel like you mentioned which is certainly comparable to LBP. It feels great and looks great and has an beautiful feel about the story even though it isn't as light as it seems but it doesn't have the content package that LBP has. Then you gotta compare say Rime and Apotheon to Unravel. Unravel is just so much more fun to play than both of them. It's all about perspective of course. But I definitely would think about putting Rime in the C bracket because it's actually more fun than Apotheon when I think about it. 3) Regarding Batman. I have played Asylum and City on my old account but it was a WHILE ago. I did really enjoy them. I haven't played the 'spinoff' Origins title nor have I played Arkham Knight though I certainly do have them on my list to play soon. Regarding Uncharted, I love the franchise and have played them countless times but never went back to plat them. Funnily enough I've been playing them now as I'm aiming for Uncharted 4 to be my 150th plat milestone. I left the speedrun trophies unearned too so I could do this 'marathon' with Lost Legacy at the end of it. I actually finished off the plats and 100% for U1 and U2 remasters the last few days funnily enough. I even have the online done for all the DLCs and stuff for the original trilogy on PS3 but probably won't return to them until later. I haven't actually looked at Witness or Guacamelee too much. I will certainly bump them up on my to-do list since you mentioned them though. Thanks for the input. Edited October 23, 2020 by Last-_-Judgment 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Last-_-Judgment Posted November 9, 2020 Author Share Posted November 9, 2020 (edited) Non-Platinum #1 - Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Tier Ranking - C Difficulty Rating - 1/10 Although I 100% this title before getting the platinums for either Kingdom Hearts game, just know that I've farmed every inch and corner of them back on the PS2. It's one of my favourite franchises of all time. Unfortunately though, I never actually knew about some of the spin-offs to the games or I just couldn't play them due to the lack of console options at my disposal. 358/2 Days is labelled as the 5th installment in the franchise so I will reference games before this and I will review this title as if it was the full game as opposed to the novel version. I did play much of 358/2 Days on the Nintendo DS but at the time I was severely bored by repetition. That will be explained later so lets get on with it. 358/2 Days follows the story of Roxas between the events of Sora losing his heart in Kingdom Hearts I and the very beginning of Kingdom Hearts II. Sort of a prequel to Kingdom Hearts II if you will. At this point, we already know plenty about Organisation XIII but not enough about Roxas' past. In the beginning of the game, we see the induction of Roxas to the emo hoody party whilst Axel has been assigned as his mentor. The two obviously become pretty close friends (as Axel stubbornly reminded him in previous games) but we also see the introduction of a completely new character called Xion who joins the two in this story of friendship and discovery. There is plenty of heartfelt moments as you would expect and more complications as we open more of Roxas' dismal past. Xion is the main plot point though as she is heavily impactful on Roxas throughout the game but I'll let you enjoy that one yourself. I love the different characters from Organisation XIII and to have an entire game about them was a great move by Square. Each character is just how you remembered them and you'll have plenty of dialogue with each of them as you proceed through each day. The main underlying issue with this installment though is the excessive repetition in gameplay. Whether it was a calculated move or one that was impossible, it's maybe a good job that this game was re-released as a novel. Each in-game day you'll be tasked to join a fellow member in a mission to batter up some heartless and help towards the commonly known goal of summoning Kingdom Hearts. And that is the extent of it. This will be the script for the entire game. You go on a mission, defeat some heartless, get some juicy story, repeat. I think I lost interest towards the middle somewhere and instead just watched a YT video to finish off the story. It moves and feels like a Kingdom Hearts game but it's just way too repetitive for the sake of telling a story. If the gameplay wasn't so dull, I'd definitely give it a much better score. Unfortunately, while I didn't enjoy the gameplay side so much, I very likely would have still completed the game if it was a side by side remaster but it probably wouldn't have changed my opinion. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad game. It's a good addition to the franchise and it's clear with it being a spin-off they wanted to try new things but not everything worked. The story alone is enough to play it. It's a rich and much needed backstory for Roxas who we were all dying to know more about after the release of Kingdom Hearts II. Trophy Thoughts With this being the novel version of it's former self, there will be no issue in popping all the trophies. It'd be a crime but you can literally just cycle through the stories if you are really that uninterested. Or like me, watch a video or something for a more cinematic experience since I can never be arsed to read anyway. Edited March 29 by Last-_-Judgment 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Last-_-Judgment Posted November 9, 2020 Author Share Posted November 9, 2020 (edited) Platinum #4 - FIFA 13 Football Legend Tier Ranking - C Difficulty Rating - 4/10 Platform - PS3 Ahhh... FIFA... The gaming mascot of football. I'm a big football fan and this has always been my go-to guilty pleasure for football gaming when in between premier league seasons. This is back when it really was still a decent franchise and EA cared (slightly). Although there will be many saying that FIFA 13 is a carbon copy of its predecessor like every FIFA, blah blah blah, it still made improvements from the previous title. When you do look back at the FIFA titles over the course of the last decade however (2010-2020), EA have shown how little they give a fuck. But FIFA 13 was not really a bad game, however EA had already adopted this corporate strategy of abusing one of the game modes and have been continuing this until this day which most certainly ran the franchise down to the ground. Nevertheless though, I don't believe this title needed a lot of change after the hugely successful FIFA 12. It merely improved upon elements which needed to be looked at such as the AI intelligence. The defence of opposition was greatly improved which limited the cheese of running through defenders and forcing you to become more creative with the ball whilst they would also play more unpredictable ways of attacking too. Meanwhile the dribbling system was also changed to be more interactive with the newly added First-Touch control and a more fluid skill-move experience which makes being on the ball feel more realistic and satisfying. In terms of new modes being added, there was a fair lack of new additions, but it was the first title to include skill training. These activities allowed you to practice and perfect various aspects of the gameplay and master them. There were also a few improvements made to career mode and ultimate team which added some minor things to enhance your experience. Career mode added international contract offers, more transfer window freedom and team statistics while Ultimate Team added manager tasks and different seasons to participate in for higher rewards. Other than that, I can't say that it has done enough to warrant a new title. I'm giving it an average ranking because even though FIFA was still fun at this point, most of what was added could have been added in an update although I understand many developers didn't do this a lot on the PS3. Overall though, I enjoyed FIFA at this point in time. Despite it's criticisms, it is still a fun game. The gameplay was fun, the modes were addictive and sometimes less is more. To be honest, knowing how much they destroyed the franchise, it just gives me some nostalgia value too. Little did we know that FIFA would have such a toxic future. Trophy Thoughts (Unobtainable) Boy were a couple of the trophies a stinker in this game though. Wow. While most trophies were rather simple and easy to complete, there was two specific trophies which almost killed me. I Love This Club almost made me give up. It required you to raise your club value to 85million in Ultimate Team. 85million seems like a lot and it bloody was. See at the time of going for the platinum, the game was virtually dead so I couldn't make coins through trading which doubled the difficulty of this game. I basically kept spamming games to earn some coins and only bought bronze packs and a crap load of them too. I eventually made it but it definitely took around a week of grinding. The other trophy was In Form! which fortunately could be earned using the same method but required you to basically get lucky. The final team of the week squad thankfully contained a special bronze player. You had a slim chance that he would pop up in a bronze pack, I thankfully got him slightly before reaching 85million club worth but I genuinely thought I was never going to get this one. I gave it a 4/10 difficulty though because it really wasn't about difficulty so much, mainly grind. Edited March 29 by Last-_-Judgment 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Last-_-Judgment Posted November 11, 2020 Author Share Posted November 11, 2020 (edited) Platinum #5 - Saints Row: The Third Kingpin Tier Ranking - C Difficulty Rating - 3/10 Platform - PS3 I kept hearing the name 'Saints Row' for a while now and I pretty much just went and searched for one that had trophies. I went out and bought the Full Package edition and now we are here! I've played all the GTA games from III onwards but at the point of playing this, I had never actually played a GTA game before *gasp*. However, I knew beforehand that Saints Row was just an outrageous and silly version. Saints Row: The Third doesn't care what you think about it. It is a beautiful combination of comedy and destruction. Unfortunately, I haven't had the pleasure of playing the first two in the series or even had a quick look at what they look like (I don't really care that much to be honest) but I would assume they are similar in concept. The story was expectedly absurd from the beginning. The Saints are trying to promote a film about themselves by executing a bank heist only to end up in prison. A transition from Stillwater to Steelport is played out after being bailed out and you'll be eventually introduced to multiple gangs who run this new city. There's a lot of blah blah blah throughout the story and basically fuels itself into a generic action plot. The protagonist (Playa) isn't all that special either outside of being voiced by Troy Baker. Character depth in general is rather nonexistent and you won't care too much about them. But while the story isn't all that exciting, there is absolutely heaps of content in this crazy new map. Steelport is fortunately a good looking map and you can participate in a variety of activities which will really soak up your time as you try to ace each and every one. While most activities can take a few tries, most of them are fairly easy. There is plenty of rewarding wacky filler content such as assassinations, stunt jumps, barnstorming and vehicle thefts which provide heaps of cash to spend. Use this money to conquer Steelport through buying properties or spend it purely to add to your arsenal of weapons and vehicles which is what makes the game what it is. I specifically enjoyed doing all the plentiful challenges too which require you to rack up a certain number of headshots or would require you to strip naked and run around the city. Yeah, you heard me. There is also plenty of cool customisation options for Playa too which you can experiment with. It's essentially a goofy version of GTA V mixed with the explosive action of Just Cause... on steroids. I feel that it's difficult to rate this type of game where I feel it purposefully humours itself in BEING a generic action story with hilarious undertones. Unfortunately we have already seen much of this type of content from GTA so it doesn't work so well in it's favour. However, I'm looking forward to playing future Saints Row titles. I think the goofiness and humour is perfect, but they could still make a stronger plot which would take it that one step further. Don't get me wrong though, it is a good game and I did enjoy it. DLCs Genki Bowl VII | Gangstas in Space | The Trouble With Clones... The DLCs for the game only add more to the amusement factor. Genki Bowl VII is a small addition with no real story and includes 5 new activities to play for you to enjoy. Gangstas In Space is a hilarious mini story which sees you starring in a sci-fi movie fighting off Killbane and his Luchadores.. on Mars... Meanwhile in The Trouble with Clones you gain superpowers in your attempt to find Johnny 'Tag'. Despite none of these DLCs being particularly strong, they still add some silly moments which you won't mind experiencing. They also reward you with some cool weapons, vehicles and more customisation options which is always a plus. Trophy Thoughts There's nothing specifically difficult about the game, the activities will take you a few tries at best but the main trophy to consider is the grindy You're My Hero! which requires you to complete all challenges in the game. Most challenges will be completed naturally thoroughout the game but some will definitely require you to go out your way and grind out stats which are definitely boring to say the least. It's not too bad though. Also, despite the servers closing, Jumped In can still be earned using a loophole method found here. Edited March 29 by Last-_-Judgment 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 Hey man just wanted to pop in and say great list! I find that we have a lot of similar tastes when it comes to games and I almost completely agree with every tier ranking you've given. I'll definitely check in from time to time and check your progress. Happy hunting. You planning on getting a PS5? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Last-_-Judgment Posted November 11, 2020 Author Share Posted November 11, 2020 Just now, jonesey46 said: Hey man just wanted to pop in and say great list! I find that we have a lot of similar tastes when it comes to games and I almost completely agree with every tier ranking you've given. I'll definitely check in from time to time and check your progress. Happy hunting. You planning on getting a PS5? Cheers man. Glad to hear you agree with most my rankings haha. But yeah, I'll definitely be getting a PS5, but probably not so close to release. I do want to try and narrow down my PS3 backlog first so that I can shelve it for a bit and get the PS5. Really holding myself back though cus I am loving what i'm seeing from the exclusives. Demons Souls remake, Horizon 2, Ratchet and Clank (sequel to remake?), God of War 5 and Sackboy game. Can't wait! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Last-_-Judgment Posted November 13, 2020 Author Share Posted November 13, 2020 (edited) Platinum #6 - Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Platinum Tier Ranking - A Difficulty Rating - 5/10 Platform - PS3 This was one of the two exclusives that ultimately swayed me towards switching to PS3. But much like Darksiders, it has been specifically compared to certain franchises on release though, the obvious one being Tomb Raider. Fortunately though, Uncharted recieved mostly positive accolades. While I haven't played the classic Tomb Raider titles, I feel the Crystal Dynamics developed titles (from the HD Trilogy) are truly inferior. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune brings so much more life and has successfully transitioned the platforming genre to modern gaming. Tomb Raider: Underworld on the other hand just feels a bit too hollow and outdated (too PS2ish). Modern gaming is always expanding. Sticking to what you feel comfortable with is not always the best decision and Naughty Dog is here to teach ancient developers a lesson. In this thrilling tale, we follow in the footsteps of a young treasure hunter, Nathan Drake. Using a family heirloom that was passed down, he finds the coordinates in which his famous ancestor Sir Francis lay rest. We learn quickly that there's more than meets the eye with Sir Francis Drake as Nate knowingly expected. His diary is found instead of a corpse which is basically packed with a vague set of clues to find El Dorado. The story progression never gets boring in your search for El Dorado as you'll overcome spine-tingling twists which form a wonderfully compelling story and an exciting ending all the while being treated to one of the finest soundtracks in gaming history. Without a doubt though, I believe Nathan Drake is the strongest protagonist to ever set foot in a playstation exclusive title. He's a highly charming and intelligent person with a witty sense of humour (even when staring into the face of death) which carries throughout the soul of the game. He's most certainly a much more realistic character than we've seen before in gaming as he reacts to situations in a much more naturalistic manner rather than acting like a cardboard cutout like MANY main characters before. Alongside Drake we have two very likable side characters from the off in Elena and Sully. Both have very noticeably different personalities who you grow to love for different reasons. The various antagonists in the game are less fleshed out but still play an integral part in the grand scheme of things. The dialogue and humour between the characters is simply the icing on the cake. In your adventure, you have to solve fairly entertaining puzzles which sometimes can arguably be a bit too simple depending on how smart you are. Most puzzles will require you to use context from Drake's diary which makes them feel almost cinematic. These are met with super smooth platforming allowing you to scale beautiful locations overflowing with lush scenery which only add to the beauty of this graphically superb game. The combat is truly excellent too and very well will test your limits on higher difficulties. This fast paced action has pretty great AI indeed as they will try to dodge your shots when you're aiming directly at them, or they'll try to ambush you when you are outnumbered. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune has some excellent pacing in general. In many situations, you'll be put in thrilling combat situations where you'll be up against the odds while in between you'll be quietly solving semi-intricate puzzles be it alone or with your partner. The future of the Uncharted series was going to be strong. Naughty Dog boast a series of seriously fantastic games, but this franchise will always hold a great deal of nostalgia for me. Hell I'm still terrified of the 'people' affected by El Dorado and certainly wasn't ballsy enough to complete it until at least 3 years after my first playthrough due to my own pretty rational fears. Nethertheless, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is a classic and was the start of something amazing. You know what they say. Sic Parvis Magna. Trophy Thoughts The Uncharted series in general holds some pretty challenging difficulty trophies which can be unforgiving. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune can be brutal at times with it's Charted! - Crushing which can only be unlocked after finishing the game on Hard first so at least you'll be a bit more prepared for the hardest difficulty. Meanwhile it also requires you to collect the many collectibles in the game for Master Fortune Hunter but luckily there is chapter select so if you do miss one of them, you don't have to go all the way through the game again. There's also various combat trophies which will take you out your way but nothing too frustrating. Edited March 29 by Last-_-Judgment 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Last-_-Judgment Posted November 16, 2020 Author Share Posted November 16, 2020 (edited) Platinum #7 - WWE Legends of Wrestlemania Platinum Tier Ranking - E Difficulty Rating - 2/10 Platform - PS3 I'm no longer a big fan of WWE, however me and my dad watched Smackdown, Raw and ECW almost every week during the peak days of Rey Mysterio, Randy Orton and Jeff Hardy etc. I played a lot of Smackdown vs Raw between 2004 and 2008. More importantly a big shoutout to the PS2's WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw, I played that game to death. Unfortunately, the franchise became more and more stale with each title and this one fell miles off. First of all the concept of being able to play as legendary WWE stars is such a great idea. It brings back the nostalgia for those older WWE fans who didn't have games based on their favourite wrestlers growing up in todays graphics. And although it's fun to play as these legendary superstars, it ultimately becomes fairly tedious after a couple of hours. The actual gameplay itself is ultimately as simple as it can get making every match feel pretty much the same and I do feel this is a recurring problem in almost all WWE titles in the PS3 era. I can't speak for newer titles as I probably will never play them but between 2008 and 2013, all of them pretty much felt like the same game. Sound familiar? Yes I'm looking at you EA. In terms of game modes, there really is a serious lackluster range which most certainly could have been expanded upon. Despite this, Wrestlemania Tour mode is actually a fairly cool mode where you'll be tasked to earn medals by completing tasks during each matchup which are based on real-life happenings of historical WWE matches. Before each match starts, you'll be shown real footage of some highlights from that specific match so you can see for yourself what it looked like which is a really nice feature for nostalgic reasons or to educate degenrates of these vintage beings. Unfortunately this is the only mode that truly matters. The Legend Killer mode feels like a wasted opportunity as you take on 10 wrestlers in a row with a created wrestler of your own. There really is nothing else to it and only results in boredom. Other than that, there's only your traditional exhibition matches. Despite it's many flaws, I didn't necvessarily hate playing it even though I was bored out my mind. It'll probably be the only WWE title on my list as I've left that interest behind. But you never know with trophy hunting. Sometimes, you can get crazy and play stuff you didn't care to play. I'm still recovering my lost brain cells though. Trophy Thoughts Overall, there's really no trophies to worry about. This is a very easy game to platinum with a generic list. You'll be going through each of the two main modes and just completing all challenges for each which takes around 6 hours shared between them. The rest is easily poppable in exhibition matches. That's pretty much it. Edited March 29 by Last-_-Judgment 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted November 16, 2020 Share Posted November 16, 2020 I imagine most people that consider 3 to be the best Far Cry are people who played it when it came out. Which is the case for me. I think gameplay and world wise the franchise has improved, however Vaas has yet to be topped as the best villain. Pagan Min from 4 and Joseph Seed from 5 do a decent job but they don't even come close to Vaas. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Last-_-Judgment Posted November 16, 2020 Author Share Posted November 16, 2020 (edited) 18 hours ago, jonesey46 said: I imagine most people that consider 3 to be the best Far Cry are people who played it when it came out. Which is the case for me. I think gameplay and world wise the franchise has improved, however Vaas has yet to be topped as the best villain. Pagan Min from 4 and Joseph Seed from 5 do a decent job but they don't even come close to Vaas. That's fair. I just feel like so many games did sandbox better around the same time as it's release. Just the FPS genre alone, Borderlands 2 and Fallout 3/NV did it way better and made side content so rewarding and meaningful which was a major issue for me in Far Cry 3. I didn't actually play Borderlands or Fallout on release either. I guess I was just expecting more than what was offered. Edited November 17, 2020 by Last-_-Judgment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grotz99 Posted November 16, 2020 Share Posted November 16, 2020 Far Cry 3 was the first one to go to an open world platform after they experimented with Assassins Creed, which is why it probably is deemed the best of the series at the time. We are pretty spoiled with open world games now so the content they put in at the time isn't anything to brag home about now. It was definitely an improvement over 1 and 2. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Last-_-Judgment Posted November 17, 2020 Author Share Posted November 17, 2020 (edited) 16 hours ago, Grotz99 said: Far Cry 3 was the first one to go to an open world platform after they experimented with Assassins Creed, which is why it probably is deemed the best of the series at the time. We are pretty spoiled with open world games now so the content they put in at the time isn't anything to brag home about now. It was definitely an improvement over 1 and 2. That's a fair statement. Open-world is way too overused nowadays and I understand why but most of the time it's not the most ideal when they struggle to fill that world with memorable and entertaining content. I've yet to play Far Cry 1 and Far Cry 2 yet but I'm definitely going to and I'll probably be wishing I was playing Far Cry 3 as I suffer through them lol. Just dreading the online for FC2, I already started it and did the 16 player trophy but I've yet to properly start the grind. I'll probably end up agreeing that Far Cry 3 is the best of the first 3 games though. I'm intrigued by Primal although I hear it's not that great, I've heard good things about FC4 and FC5 too but all suffer from the same problem that the story and antagonist isn't as strong as FC3's take. I guess we'll see because I wasn't blown away by FC3's story but I really liked Vaas however he wasn't in it long enough honestly. Edited November 17, 2020 by Last-_-Judgment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Last-_-Judgment Posted November 17, 2020 Author Share Posted November 17, 2020 (edited) Platinum #8 - The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest Own Them All Tier Ranking - D Difficulty Rating - 3/10 Platform - PS3 I'm a complete sucker for The Lord of the Rings and anything related to it. While it's not quite to the standards of The Lord of the Rings: Third Age (my god I loved that game), it has evidently been made to target the younger audience and make use of the newly introduced PlayStation Move. It can surprisingly be an enjoyable experience, and it is so great to hear Sean Astin himself narrate the entire story. However, it just doesn't come close to being as strong previous LOTR titles or even newer ones at this point in time. In other words, it's one of the weaker ones in the franchise. Despite the story being set 15 years after the third film, Samwise Gamgee tells a re-imagination of Aragorn's story during the trilogy. In present day you play as Sam's son Frodo (how cute...) and you are tasked to help with preparing the party which is being thrown for King Aragorn on his visit to The Shire. In between each section of the present day story, you'll also play as Aragorn in flashback missions at various locations from the films/books. The Shire itself is filled with quests and collectibles for you to sink your time into. The Shire has a positive and scenic atmosphere giving you more the reason to thoroughly explore this iconic region. Although the graphics aren't very impressive, each famous location in Middle-Earth has clear attention to detail giving you level variety and the true feeling of being in a LOTR game which is really great. The combat is extremely lackluster and doesn't offer anything of value. It is largely simple and understandably just feels way too easy as there are no difficulty options in the first place. The title was made to encourage the use of motion controllers yet ironically it feels worse using this technology due to the frustrating imprecise reading from the camera - I actually ended up playing without it. I understand it's more of a family game but when there is such a lack of challenge, it can create a fairly mind-numbing experience and doesn't make the gameplay feel rewarding. I was close to putting the game in C but these imperfections are far too major in my experience of the game. Wait what? John Rhys-Davies also came back for the role of Gimli?! One does not simply return for a game of sincere average standards! Jokes aside, it's really awesome of them reprise their roles of this legendary franchise even if it's not a spectacular package. It's not a terrible game but if you aren't a massive fan of LOTR, you'll probably hate this game. Take it or leave it. Trophy Thoughts Even though this is not a difficult game, there is one trophy to watch out for which is Child's Play as this is a potentially missable trophy and can force you to restart the game. However, all it requires you to do is complete all the side quests which does make it rather easy to track. There's not many side quests as it's a fairly short game but we hate missables, us trophy hunters. Say it with me "We hate missables! We hate missables!". Edited March 29 by Last-_-Judgment 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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