Hitting 250 Platinums on Playstation

November 25, 2020November 25, 2020 ~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

At the beginning of 2020, I told myself that I would not force myself to play through stack of vaperware games so that I could meet an arbitrary goal of 300 Platinum Trophies by October/November. If it hit a milestone, I would hit it, no pressure. I still played through different vaperware games, but I also was playing more quality games and basically just having fun on my Playstation. I also have been playing though I don’t even know how many Lego games on Xbox One, so I didn’t want to pick a major goal and burn myself out (which I did anyway, so…)

Well. I hit 250 platinums on November 21st, 2020. Whoops.

I really didn’t push until like three days before, when I realized I was at 240, and I had a pile of vaperware games that would get me to 249. I’d spent the past year playing through a bunch of Artifex Mundi hidden pictures games and puzzle games from POWGI. Honestly, I really wasn’t keeping track. Heck , I hadn’t opened my trophy list in so long, I forgot where it was on my PS4.

I actually noticed because I was messing around on my Vita, and wanted to see how many trophies I needed to complete my latest Lego game (I’ll name it later on). I’ll be totally honest, I was pretty stoked,

It got me thinking, what were some of my big Platinum milestones? So I hopped onto PSNProfiles, which keeps track of a player’s trophy list and made some notes, and walked down memory lane.

August 1, 2015. I got my first Platinum in LEGO Marvel Super Heroes. I was so absolutely over the moon… actually, I didn’t really get it. I wasn’t really into trophy hunting yet, obviously. But I’d 100%’ed a Marvel game. It also was the game I picked to get back at my ex, but that is a story for when I’m bored and annoyed and totally not aware I’m talking about it. If you haven’t played a LEGO game, this is a good one to start. It came out towards the beginning of TT Games adding voices to their games, and it’s actually a lot of fun. It’s also humongous, but not the largest game ever.

October 30, 2017. My 50th Platinum is also the only LEGO game that I technically haven’t completed to 100%. It’s also the largest LEGO game (screw you LEGO Worlds, you can burn). Lego Dimensions. One of my all time favorite LEGO games. I blasted through over the course of a few months, because it took a while to get enough characters get through some of the more… annoying trophies. I actually don’t have 100% on either PS3 or PS4… Maybe once I finish that Lego Xbox challenge I set myself, I’ll blast through at least the PS4 version… Or just do both. Have to find that console.

October 31, 2018. This Platinum milestone actually hit me hard. I got my 100th Platinum with the newest LEGO on one of my favorite holidays. LEGO DC Super-Villains is on my top five list, where it will never leave. Though I am a Marvel fan, I grew up watching the DC Animated Universe with my dad every weekend. It was something we shared. Playing this game, playing as some of his favorite characters… it was wonderful and bittersweet and heartbreaking and I love it. Oh, and one other little tidbit. This was my last milestone that I got in Florida before moving to California. And yes, I was playing on Halloween, while throwing candy at small children. It’s a thing. (Also, are you noticing the pattern yet?)

July 13, 2019. By this point, I was majorly into getting Platinum trophies. I was actively getting my hands onto cheap, quick platinum vaperware games. I actually set up my PSEU account just for my 150th platinum in LEGO DC Super-Villains (yes again. This was an an enjoyable replay, and it was what sparked my idea to play all the LEGO games on Xbox One. From that day, I started collecting all the games for Xbox, which took… a bit.

November 2, 2019. Welcome to my frustration. I switched over to playing LEGO games only on my PS4 as soon as I started really playing with that console. Since this was going to be a big milestone (Number 200), I wanted it to be special. But since I couldn’t get my PSJPN account to work, I decided to step back to my PS3 and give LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes some love, which I had started years prior. I actually beat the majority of the game in a matter of days… then spent three days looking for the last item. Finally found it, and #200 was secured. I was trying to hit that milestone on Halloween, but… circumstances and me being blind.

November 21, 2020. Remember what I said at the top? I really wasn’t trying this time. Around my birthday, I happened to check PSNProfiles and discovered I was at 240. After spending two and a half days with some pretty bad games (and one that should have been good, but sucked, thanks Artifex Mundi), I was at 249. The problem is, I was out of Batman games, except for one on Vita that I was warned away from. And then I was reminded that I had been working on a LEGO Vita game a few years ago, and it would probably only take about five hours to finally complete it…

So, for Platinum 250, I finished off LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens on the PS Vita. It’s not the best game on Vita, especially since so many Stormtroopers look the same on the small Vita screen, which makes so many missions impossible to complete… Anyways, I really enjoyed blasting through it, especially because it got me out of my rut, and now I’m blasting through the Xbox One version right now.

Looking back, I’m glad that I’m not obsessed with getting Platinum trophies anymore. I still like seeing the milestones, but I was only playing games to complete until I got that final prize, taking no enjoyment for the story or anything in the game proper. I held off on playing Marvel’s Avengers because of that (though I’m slowing playing through the story now, and I’m not going for the Platinum, unless it comes naturally). My relationship with gaming has changed for the better. The only series that I still play to 100% is Lego games, but that’s because I want to finish them all.

Anyway, that’s me, hitting 250 after five years. Let’s see how long it takes to get to 300 (I bet a year. I think.)

Until next time!

Breaking Out the Comfort Media – Blogtober!

October 12, 2020 ~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

With everything going on, I’ve realized that I’ve gravitated towards what I call my comfort media, especially in the last few months (before the current RT nightmare which has overtaken my thoughts).

When I talk about “comfort media”, I specifically mean the pieces of entertainment that bring me comfort in some way. Now I’ll be the first to admit that some of my… choices (for lack of a better term) are quite odd. But there are reasons I come back to them, time and again.

For video games, it’s easy. I’ll turn on a Kingdom Hearts game, usually KHII. I have been slowly replaying KHIII so that I can blast through the DLC, but I’m not rushing through this time. I’m trying to enjoy every minute. But when I play KHII, I’m taken back to high school, where I spent three days in the middle of the week blasting through the entire game, sobbing in the finale. (Not unlike KHIII, as it were.) Remembering how I used to play with some of my friends, how my first collaborative fiction was a KH/anime fusion with an old friend. It brings back memories that I love.

Books are different. There are certain books that I will reread every year, such as Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. I shouldn’t like this book, simply for the content (38 students battle for survival). But there’s something in the fact that all but a few of the characters get a chance to have their own voice, with distinct personalities, that just catch me. (And please don’t get on the “Hunger Games copied it” train. It’s totally possible to have two pieces of media with similar plotlines. So hush.)

Another book, or rather, book series that I consider “comfort media” is the Illuminae Files by Jay Kristoff and Aime Kaufman. I really love how these two authors used different styles of media to bring the story to life, from emails to audio transcripts and so on.

The final books I come back to often are Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia (thanks to an early Owlcrate box) and Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Both books feature strong female voices, and they empower me to keep moving forward.

(As an aside, the Harry Potter series would have been on this list at one time, but then the author announced herself as a transphobic sub-human, so I cannot in good conscious touch that series right now. So, yeah.)

When it comes to movies, it’s different. I can watch the Battle of New York in Avengers any day of the week, but I have to be in the mood to watch the whole movie. I can (and have, lately, ~~THANKS RYAN~~) watch The Old Guard in it’s entirety, as well as The Italian Job (studied to this in college) and Now You See Me (before the sequel killed the franchise). If I need an immediate pick me up, I’ll through on the President’s speech from Independence Day, but if I have hours, it calls for Galaxy Quest, The Princess Bride, and/or Push.

Comfort media in film is so odd to me, as it just depends on what I need. Lately, it;s been a mixture of epics (Inception) and not-so-epics (I have a quiet love for Valerian. Shut up about it. It sucks and I love it.) And if I’m in the mode to mentally debate a film that is better than the book, I’ll throw on Nerve and spam text my mom that I’m gonna be loudly comparing the two again. (It’s a thing. She just mutes her phone and goes back to work.)

My rule for comfort media is that it has to make me feel. Now, I don’t mean “feel better” because some times I just need a good cry. But it just have to make me feel… something.

I’ve been breaking out my comfort media more and more in recent weeks. If you need to do something like that too, go for it. There’s a reason why it exists.

Until next time!

What’s On My Gaming Backburner – Blogtober!

October 3, 2020 ~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

The other day, I accidentally turned on my Playstation 4.

Okay, that sounds dramatic, but it’s kinda true. Currently, I’ve been putting all my gaming time and effort into my Xbox and my personal Lego Challenge, so I really haven’t touched my Playstation for any really length of time, except to make sure that my copy of Marvel’s Avengers downloaded.

While I was making sure I had enough space for the download, I started poking around my games. I realized that I actually owned a decent amount, yet I haven’t played them, or in the case of a few, haven’t beaten them in any sense of the word. This is what’s on my backburner:

Concrete Genie: I saw the trailer for this game and flat out fell in love. It’s about to have it’s one year anniversary, and I just haven’t gotten around to playing it yet. The art is so beautiful looking, though I have forced myself to not look up any guides or summaries, as to not spoil the game for myself.
Kingdom Hearts III ReMind DLC: So, I sobbed though the end of Kingdom Hearts III last year. I don’t care what anyone says, I loved it. And yet, I just haven’t sat down to play though the DLC yet. Now, I’m not planning on doing everything available in the DLC (I play for the story, not for Critical Mode), but I want to see the epilogue. I just need to sit down and do it.
Marvel’s Avengers: Okay, this is obvious. I’m a massive Marvel fangirl. I loved Spider-man, and it was one of my favorite games to platinum. I’m not planning on going for 100% here, but I really want to sink a good amount of time into this one.
Broken Age: This is a point and click adventure that I’ve had sitting in my gaming queue for years and I just haven’t gotten around to playing it yet. I’ve been told it’s a time suck, and I really should give it a try. Hopefully soon.
Erica: I’ve played a few FMV’s and Erica came decently recommended. I got it on sale and it’s just sitting here waiting for me. Whoops.
Life is Strange 2: Alright, I can explain delaying this one. I loved the original Life is Strange, even if I was decidedly on the side of Bay instead of Bae (save all the people, not just one, sorry Chloe my heart). I played the prequel, Before the Storm, and liked it… but not as much. For some reason, the trailer for LiS2 just didn’t do it for me, nor did the characters and plot. I’m just gonna take a day soon and blast through it to free up some space.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order: I’m actually sad about this one. I played this for about three days last November… than promptly forgot it existed. I really want to blast through this one, so I’m probably going to restart one of these days and play it for like a weekend or so. I think part of the problem is that the Star Wars brand just kinda feels tired for me, and I have my eyes on a different SW licenced game…
Persona 5/Persona 5 Royal: This one I can actually blame my cousins! I’m about half way through P5. I had a wonderful 20-something printout of what to do every day, and was using a highlighter to keep track of everything. Then, my little cousin saw said highlighter and papers the last time he was over (pre-pandemic) and started coloring in every line for like three pages. I just felt defeated, since I had already sunk like 25 hours in, and now I felt lost (I was ahead on some things, behind on others). Now I’m tempted to forget the original and jump right into P5R. I know the story (saw the animation), so it’s not too great a loss… right?
Final Fantasy XV: I am prepared to die for the following statement. I have never beaten a Final Fantasy game in my life. I’ve played half of X-2 and the first couple hours of XII and XIII each. But I’ve never gone the whole way. I really want to with XV, and I even on it and all the DLC…. Convince me?
Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens: On the Xbox One, anyway. I destroyed the game on PS3 and PS4. This is the final game in my Lego challenge, and is actually the reason I haven’t played any of the above. The big problem is, for some reason, if I turn on my Xbox while my Mom is working… I crash her computer. It’s on a different network any everything, so I think I’m just cursed. I can only play on weekends at this point, so it’s slow going.

I’ll be totally honest, I actually stopped playing for awhile, mostly because the lovely light from my TV has been giving me headaches… But no more. My goal before 2021 is to finish at least three games on this list. Maybe not to 100% percent completion, but storywise at least. I’m not planning on getting the PS5 or XBox Series X for a while past launch date, so it’s not a problem. (It’s a tradition that I’m always at least six months to a year behind. ALWAYS.)

Oh, and caveat that I just thought of. These are the currently released games that I want/need to blast through that I already own. There are several that I just haven’t bought yet, including some of the Xbox 360 Lego games, as well as getting all the trophies for Lego Dimensions on PS4 (which I’m not entirely looking forward to suffering through. I don’t want to do the story packs again!).

But let’s see where the last three months of 2020 leads me. Who knows what will happen yet.

Until next time!

Lego Dimensions – Year One

August 7, 2020August 7, 2020 ~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

I’ve mentioned before that I’m playing through all of the Lego games in anticipation of the pending release of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. Last night, I was able to complete half of the largest game on the list, Lego Dimensions. For me, this is the turning point to whether or not I complete this challenge.

Let me explain.

Backstory

I didn’t get into Lego Dimensions until very late into the game’s life cycle. It wasn’t intentional. The game just wasn’t on my radar.

I started getting into Lego games in 2016, long after the series got good. I wasn’t really obsessed with them until probably early-2017, if my trophy list on Playstation is any indication. I remember when I started getting all the Lego games from my local GameStop, and the absolute heat I’d get for them (that’s a story for another time). But I played through Lego Harry Potter and Lego Marvel Superheroes and enjoyed them both.

I ended up getting Lego Dimensions on sale at Target of all places. I had seen the game on the shelves for months, but I really didn’t want to get a Toys-for-Life game, especially one that was going to be draining my bank account, like Dimensions would almost end up being. But I picked it up in mid January, because it was on sale, along with a few of the Fun Packs. I didn’t know exactly what characters I would need, so I just grabbed a few. Boy, was I in for it. (Note: I’ll go into detail about Lego Dimensions, the packs, and more, on a post scheduled to go up on Monday, August 10th. It’s just too long to go into here.)

By mid-May, I was all caught up.

All packs, excluding Wave 9. Taken May 28, 2017.

The Story Continutes

Here’s a fun little detail that I don’t care to always admit. I have never actually completely finished Lego Dimensions. I have played and completed the original 14 levels across three devices. On PS3, I also beat some of the level packs. On PS4, I beat all of the Level packs, but I never did the Story Packs, nor did I finish all of the Adventure Worlds.

As a completionist, I want to do everything possible in a game. I’ve beat so many Lego games, to the point I actually had to take a months long break at one point because it was just too much. I actually avoid playing some of the most popular games, simply because seeing incomplete games on my trophy and achievement lists drive me crazy.

Lego Dimensions is one of those games I technically completed, minus 9 DLC trophies (the Story Packs). But I never beat it outright. It’s always bothered me.

Year One

As I said at the opening of this post, last night I officially am half way. I completed all of the levels and Adventure Worlds released during the first part of the game, known as Year One. That’s the fourteen main story levels, six Level packs, and fourteen Adventure Worlds. Oh, and the Mystery Dimension, which is 14 additional gold bricks. That’s a total of 480 gold bricks.

But I’m actually further into getting the game’s total 1016. I ended up beating The Goonies level, which is a Year Two level. I wanted the red brick from the Adventure World, which is a x4 stud multiplier, which made completing the level and jumping into the Adventure World. I actually did that a couple times for Year Two. I ended up completing the Goonies Adventure World, as well as doing several gold bricks for Lego City Undercover Adventure World.

But I digress. Year One.

Year One has fourteen franchises represented. I don’t have a real favorite Adventure World, though I do have several I outright despise.

The Doctor Who level is quite annoying at opening, until you figure out the gimmick. The Portal 2 world gives me a headache, due to the layout and design of one of the gold brick challenges. The Back to the Future world has several issues, to the point that I had to walk away from my TV a few times out of frustration. The Midway Arcade world would be fine, but there are several races that are just too annoying to deal with I swear. Oh, and I absolutely didn’t like the Simpsons World, but that’s because I’m not a fan of the series as a whole

On the flip side, the Jurassic World world is fun and pretty nostalgic to the movie, though I wish there were more references to the original trilogy. I also liked the Wizard of Oz world, especially for how they included Kansas.

The rest of the worlds don’t do too much for me. They all have their high and low points.

As for the levels… well. I like them. But I also don’t. Depends on the franchise. It’s fun to be able to get to relive some moments in different series, but there are some parts that just get tedious. Oh, and the Midway Arcade level is a nightmare. Sorry, but true. It a good thing that you only have to play eight classic games, and not all of them in the game.

Finishing Year One’s content took about two and a half weeks, which is about par for the course. Year Two’s should take about three week or so, considering the size of the Adventure Worlds, as well as my absolute lack of want to play through Ghostbusters 2016 and The Lego Batman Movie.

I’m actually glad that I took my time completing Year One. It really shouldn’t have taken two and a half weeks, but I took a few day in the middle to relax and play Animal Crossing. There’s a lot of good content in Year One, regardless of my complaints.

What’s Next

I’m moving onto Year Two today, though I’m starting with some of the Adventure Worlds instead of jumping right into levels. I’m hoping to finish Lego Dimensions by the end of August, which would give me September to play through Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which won’t take more than maybe 10 days. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to take some time away from Lego games before Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, which I’m still hopeful will release in October, as was rumored. (Will it? Who knows. Just don’t ask on the subreddit. It’s a bloody nightmare.)

I’m off to jump into the game. Have a great day.

Until next time!

July Media Wrap Up

August 3, 2020August 2, 2020 ~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

Hello all! I planned for this to go up on Friday, but unfortunately I just wasn’t happy with the quality of this post until now. Hence, the delay. Hopefully in the coming months this will not become a common occurrence.

July was a weird month for me. I ended up watching a decent amount of shows and movies (ok, like two movies), and my reading was dominated by graphic novels. As for gaming, that was all over the place. Let’s get to the wrap up.

What I Watched

July brought back the amazement that is Sword Art Online Alicization: War of Underworld, the final cour (season) of the third SAO series. It has been a long time coming, as it was delayed from April, with episode 36 airing right before New Years, and episode 37 premiering July 11th. It was well worth the wait. Now we just need vegetable-Kirito to wake up and wreck havoc.

We also were graced with the return of Digimon Adventure:, the reboot to the long running Digimon franchise. I’m a bit behind still, but I’m loving how old characters are being reintroduced, and oh the development. It looks amazing, and I can’t wait to see it stick around for a while longer.

For all my nostalgia feels, one of my favorite series from my childhood (and the first one that I fought with a large company to keep on air for a little while longer). Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! returned to the universe on July 17th on Disney Plus. I may have cried. I watched it to completion in like a weekend. I have no issues with this.

On the movie front, this month started with Hamilton. I don’t think I need to articulate just how much I enjoyed this musical. I’m still singing along to several of the songs. I just cannot help it.

The other film I saw is one that I think I’ve watched about five times since last weekend. I finally watched The Old Guard, and I absolutely loved it. It’s an amazing adaptation, though I didn’t know it until I read the comics as well.

What I Read

I’ll keep a lot of this brief, for a couple reasons. There’s a lot, and I can group a bunch of it together.

On the manga front, I was the most successful. I managed to get through volumes 2-4 of Bloom into You by Nio Nakatani, which I’ve talked about in some of my Reading Rush wrap ups. I also read Sword Art Online Progressive volumes 1-2 by Reki Kawahara (the manga version). This was also good, and also from Reading Rush. Finally, there was Our Wonderful Days volume 1 by Kei Hamuro, which is kinda like Bloom into You, which makes it amazing.

For novels, the best one I read all month was This Coven Won’t Break by Isabel Sterling, which is lesbian witches in modern Salem. Yay! The other novels I read were right before or during the Reading Rush, and all were disappointing in their own right. Those were Girls Save the World in This One by Ash Parsons, Redemption Prep by Samuel Miller, and Lemonade Mouth by Mark Peter Hughes

The final thing I read this month was in response to finally watching The Old Guard on Netflix. I read all the graphic novels for the series, The Old Guard #1-5 and The Old Guard: Force Multiplied by Greg Rucka. While I enjoyed them, and enjoyed the film, I think this is another case of me liking the film more. I did enjoy the graphic novels, no joke. I just liked the film a tad bit more.

What I Played

This month was a very Lego heavy month. I beat Lego Batman 3 (thankfully), started and 100%-ed Lego The Hobbit (UUUUGH), and started Lego Dimensions. Batman just took too long, and the Lantern Planets give me a headache. Hobbit is annoying for it’s nightmare of a red brick system, which makes me scream and cry when things drive me bonkers.

As for Dimensions… it just a humongous game. I have already beat the main 14 levels (Gary Oldman plays the villain, and he’s amazing!). I have 1 of the 28 “extra” levels taken care of, and four out of thirty Adventure Worlds completed. So… that’s about 20% of the game. No seriously, I have 200 gold bricks exactly… out of 1016. This will take me all of August to finish.

Besides Lego, I also played a couple of random, terrible vaporware PSN games that I don’t want to even give a name, except for The Unicorn Princess, because that belongs in the fiery pits of Hell. I swear. Kill this game with acid baths.

Summary

Basically, July was a month that is now over. I read a lot, watched something amazing, and played enough Lego. I’m actively trying to do more with August, which hopefully will be seen more soon. I’ll have more content going up on my Instagram soon, as well as here. Oh, and perhaps Twitch, if my computer decides to stop being annoying with streaming…

Until next time!

Reading Rush 2020: Day Zero

July 19, 2020July 19, 2020 ~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

It’s the eve of the Reading Rush, and all about the house, not a creature was stirring-

Actually, hang on. The only thing that can be heard is the sounds of me trying to frantically beat Lego The Hobbit before Monday at midnight. It’s a challenge that may end up in defeat.

Sarcasm aside, I’m actively prepping for this reading challenge. It’s been a long while since I took part in something remotely close to this. The last time I even took part in a reading anything, I was at my old job, and my supervisor dared us into reading Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis within a week. This was in response to be gushing on The Light Between Worlds by Laura E. Weymouth, a fantasy novel with a Narnia-like premise, discussing what happens after children return from their otherworldly adventures. For the record, this book will be on my Top Ten Books I Read in 2020 list if I have anything to say about it (and I’m writing that damn list).

(For the record, I finished Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe in like two days. I really enjoyed it. The Disney movie adaptation wasn’t half bad either!)

In preparation, I went ahead and got hold of their Digital Journal that the team behind the Reading Rush put out. Since I waiting until the last moment to get into this challenge, I went ahead and just got the digital version instead of the physical version. I printed it out (I weep for my printer ink) and I’ve taken to filling out a bit of the pre-rush items every couple hours. It’s done wonders to get me into the mood to read the week away.

One of the other things I’ve been doing is making a backup plan for one of the books I had planned on reading. With the current shipping delays thanks to the virus, Bloom into You Vol 3 has been sitting in an UPS hub in Reno for like four days, with no sign of movement. I’m really hoping it will make it by like Wednesday, only so that I stop worrying about it.

One thing I was thinking about though, is that I cannot wait to take a break from playing my Lego Challenge for a week. I’ll be honestly, as much as I love my games, I need to take step back. I’ve been feeling really burned out by playing Lego game after Lego game, and I think taking a week away from basically every controller will be a good thing. I’ve even considered switching it up and playing another random game after I finish the Reading Rush, just to break the monotony of Lego game after Lego game. Plus, my next game is Lego Dimensions, which will probably take me all of August to 100% perfect, as it is nearly quadruple the size of any other Lego game currently on the market. I’ll do a separate post about that game’s history once I start playing it.

All in all, I think I’m mostly ready to read the week away. Do I think I’ll get to all seven books and complete every challenge? Absolutely not. But will I attempt to? Of course. I’m crazy for reading like that.

See you all next time!