Tag: platinum

Road to 300 – Blogmas 2021

~ Liz Harrison ~ 1 Comment

But I noticed a few weeks ago that I was getting very close to 300 Platinum trophies, so that has been my current goal (among everything else I’ve been doing. But let me break down where I started this year, and how I finally got here.

For the most part, I played a lot of the same types of games. There were trophy-bait games, hidden picture games, puzzle games, some Lego games, and a game that blew my mind when I played it.

All told, I think I only had 48 Platinumed games this year. Which isn’t a lot, as one year I got 100. But considering that a majority of them were one sitting games, I can’t really complain.

I won’t go into the trophy bait games, but that would be at least half of what I played to full completion. I also played all but one of the Artefix Mundi games, the last one to be played soon. I caught up on every POWGI game (puzzle games), including the European versions, because trophies.

Bar none, my favorite game this year was Concrete Genie, which I had been sitting on for years. It’s a beautiful story game that broke my heart. It deals with bullying, but also finding common ground and building something. I played it twice, even if it only counted one, because I loved it that much. I’m keeping an eye out on this studio, because I really want to see what they end up doing next.

(I also replayed Bugsnax during the beginning of the year, but that didn’t count. If I’d played it three days later, it would have been a massive contender for GOTY for me)

The game that surprised me would be LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean. All told, it took me SIX YEARS and three months to complete this game. Yes, you read that right, six years. Technically. See, my PS3 decided it didn’t want to work for awhile, then my data was corrupted… In actual playtime, since I did end up restarting it, I think it was a week? Maybe a few days more? I didn’t play every day, but I played pretty quickly. Having the last level, the bonus level if you will, be based on the ride that the films were based on just about did me in. 

I also finally can say that I have completed every copy of Lego Dimensions that I possibly can currently. During the summer, I finally went back and did all of the DLC on the PS3, which means that I now have 100% completion on PS3, PS4, and Xbox One. I don’t own a WiiU or a XBox 360 (though I am looking for the latter), so I can’t be completely done yet. But this win didn’t come without a cost. Right after I finished playing, I tried to play again, but my Supergirl figure wouldn’t register with the game pad. Switching it out didn’t work. The game disc is dead, which is something that can happen. Considering she’s the rarest character, I probably won’t be able to get another for a long, long time.

I only played two other Lego games this year (well… you’ll see). I finally played and finished Lego Lord of the Rings, which earns the distinction of the first Lego game where I’ve gotten so frustrated that I’ve actually thrown my controller across the room. But it also wasn’t a terrible adaptation, though I did have some glitches.

I also finished Lego Hobbit for the third time. I was less annoyed with this one this time around, though I did have some graphical issues. Actually, I have a couple of those over on my tiktok, if you ever happen to find them…

And now that I think about it, I didn’t really play any big games that came out this year. Yes, I’m waiting for some to drop in price, but still. Nothing from this year at all. Not on Xbox, and especially not on Switch. Wow, I suck.

But as of now I’m sitting at 299, with about 18 days left until 2022 comes knocking. And I for one don’t want to end the year on an odd number. So back when I decided to try to get to 300 by the end of the year, I made a list of all the games I haven’t completed on my profile, and picked a few to focus on to get to that final Platinum.

And the one I picked isn’t on that list.

Okay, technically, I’d actually picked Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales to be my 300th. And I was working towards it, until I realized that I was going to have trouble. There are a few trophies that I’m already having issues with. I know that if I put in the time, I might make it, but I didn’t didn’t want to stress on a might. I debated also trying to finish Rime or Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, two games that I have been itching to finally pick up and finish… but it’s been so long since I’ve touched either one, I’d have to restart to be able to play them.

So… I kinda sat back and debated. I wanted to end on something special, like I said. I tossed around Lego Star Wars III or Lego Indiana Jones 2, but I wasn’t in love with the idea. Then I took a good, hard look at what I owned.

I hadn’t considered my Vita.

So I flipped through my games and picked one from a series I liked. My 300th Platinum will be in Lego Jurassic World.

I’ve been playing a bit every night. I finished the first film, which is nine very short levels (as it is the other three films). I’m hoping to take some time this evening to finish at least through the second film, if not start the third. It’s the first playthrough that always takes the longest, but I think I can be done with it by Wednesday. Then it’s the clean up, which won’t take long.

So yes, that is my road to 300 Platinums. I will probably do a post towards the end of the month with goals for 2022, which will include games that I want to play through. But that isn’t here nor there right this second.

Until next time!

One A Day In May – Update

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

At the beginning of May, I came up with the idiotic idea to get a platinum trophy every day.

And I succeeded!

And it sucked.

So. Thirty one days of a new game a day. It sounded crazy. But I had a bunch of UK PSN codes burning a hole in my pocket, so I made heavy use of that account.

Due to the fact that I mostly played vaperware, I’m not gonna go through every game. Just some of the highlights. And yes, there were very few highlights. I really didn’t think this idea through very well.

There were three standout games over the course of the month. Yes, you read that right. Three. There were two others that weren’t total trash, but that’s about it. (And by trash, I don’t mean the games were completely awful. They just had easy or exploitable platinums.)

The two games that I would say were at least decent were Heal and Mahjong Adventure. Heal is a puzzle game with an intriguing story, through it was very finicky. I thought it was pretty good, though without a guide, you could get lost in sections, as there were no direction as to what to do. Mahjong Adventure is just your standard Mahjong tile-matching game. I enjoyed playing this one, mostly because I love playing Mahjong on my phone, though there were several times I had to use an in-game powerup, because the puzzle would be unsolvable otherwise.

As for games that I actually think were worth playing…

From studio Artifex Mundi, I played two games. The first was Demon Hunter: Revelation, which is actually the third game, but the first two didn’t make the jump to PS4. I wasn’t impressed with the story in this one, but some of the puzzles were fun. If you play through this one, I really recommend just skipping the cutscenes and using a guide. You’re not missing much.

Also from Artifex Mundi was Skyland: Heart of the Mountain. This one was slightly better, though I still have to suggest skipping cutscenes. There’s a lot of different, AM-stereotypical puzzles, but for the most part they worked well. The collectables were annoying, mostly because once you complete a chapter, you can’t go back if you missed something. Just a heads up, the voice acting is horrible. But then again, it always is horrible.

And then there was one. The only game this month that I can highly recommend (though, I also suggest using a guide for the collectables, because there are a lot). That is Concrete Genie. This is a tale about a young teenager named Ash in a small seaside town, who is heavily bullied by several local teens. Through art, he is able to express his feelings and keep his head up. When the town is overcome with darkness, his art and his courage are what helps drive it back.

This game was actually surprising. I picked it up on launch day in October 2019, but didn’t start playing it until September 2020, where I got through the first part of the game… then stopped. I picked it up again for this challenge, and I am glad I did. It’s a wonderful story wrapped in a tight game that just works. The collectables are plentiful, but they also aren’t a total pain to get. You just have to use the world around you. The only issue I had with the game was that they added a combat element for the back third act, and it just didn’t really fit, in my opinion. But if that’s my only complaint, I really can’t complain.

There are also VR trophies, and the game is entirely playable in PSVR, though it is not a requirement. Which is good, because I can’t play in VR without getting horribly sick.

The rest of the month was spent playing quick puzzle games and platinum bait, as well as a trilogy of games that can only be called horrible, mostly for their writing. There were some walking simulators that were somewhat fun, and a couple of dating sims that I blasted through (thank you, speed exploits), but on the whole, it was a waste.

And really, I didn’t try to do what I had initually set out to do.

One of my goals for May was to try to clear up some of my backlog of games. Instead of doing that, I ended up playing a bunch of horrible games that I’m never going to look at again. And that’s a shame. I have a couple games I’ve been sitting on for such an occasion. I was hoping May would inspire me to take the leap. Instead, they sat on my account unplayed, or still in their boxes on my shelf.

I’ve kinda taken a bit of a break from playing much of anything since May 31st, since I got so burned out. Now that I’m mostly back to normal, I’m probably going to jump into some of the games I didn’t get to over the course of the month. I want to finally finish Erica (so I can finally delete the app from my phone, and yes there is an app to play this game) and blast through Life is Strange 2 (since I accidently loaded it, so it’s on my trophy list). Actually, looking through my downloaded games, there are a lot that I haven’t finished yet. Maybe that should be my goal for the back half of the year.

Regardless, I’m never doing a gaming challenge like this again. Give me Febuwhump forever.

Until next time!

Hitting 250 Platinums on Playstation

~ 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!