I completed the ending in 20 minutes so there is a few bonus minutes at the end.
My next playthrough is going to be the party mode where I try to complete only heart choices or no choices at all!
. . .
I spent so much time playing Murdered Soul Suspect this weekend! It isn’t a bad game at all, I am not sure what all of the reviews got wrong. I even figured out if you go to a previous location, the game does save, so that was one of my biggest gripes and it has been resolved already.
The demons could still have an extra second or two for me to recognize the key button combination to defeat them, or just be the same key every time, that would be nice. Even if each individual demon had its own combination, make it so it is the same one for that demon, so on repeated attempts, I could defeat it without failing so many times! I still want to type that I have only killed ten so far?
I just got to the Museum and I am all types of worried about getting all of the rocks for The Terror on the Tracks trophy as once we leave the Museum, we can not go back into it. My main concern is that I have had to go back to every location at least once, so I am trying to prevent that. My main issues have been getting all of the collectibles for the ghost stories as well as the graffiti from the ghost girl messages. All of the other collectibles have been pretty easy to stumble across.
I also had to look up the badge system as I was noticing some items have three badges and others only one or two. Turns out, those are how many attempts I needed to get the investigation completed. I was thinking it was related to how I missed one or two secondary clues but that is not the case.
From the collectible guide, I am in the final stretch of the game. I have the second and third floors of the Museum, a return trip to the Church (which I can never find on my own), and finally, the Judgment House.
If the game did not close off the Museum and if there was not so many collectibles, I would have been more casual about seeking out the collectibles and not hugging the guide so much and explore the game more freely. Like I would do for an Uncharted game, for an example.
My main gripe now, is that the game could really use a map as I can never find the church on my own and I am just now getting the central Salem hub connecting in my brain. The next objective is always marked for us, which is nice, but I could really use a map and a system to get me to where I want to go that is off of the main story path.
Today is the last day to get the game for three dollars and I would definitely encourage it!
Even if you are not going for the platinum (I would not blame you if you decided against it), the game is very enjoyable and does not ask too much of your time or skill, besides killing the demons but they are avoidable and I am fairly certain I could have gotten collectibles without killing the demons but I am not completely sure about that either.
I also have no idea who the killer is, I am really hoping it is not the brother-in-law, Rex, of Detective Baxter, as those are the only characters that have been established and they have barely been established. We mostly just know our main character and the witness to Ronan’s death, plus a ghost or five that we have helped.
On September 24, 2019, we had our third State of Play :
Thanks for PlayStation for hosting their own video.
The second to last item they cover was the free October 2019 PS+ Games. They really did a great job with presenting the information as it transitioned beautifully.
We are getting MLB 2019 The Show as one of the free games. Then they revealed we were getting . . . The Last of Us Remastered as well! Which then took us to a new trailer for The Last of Us 2, now scheduled for February 21, 2020. It all just came together very nicely.
I like baseball enough, so I’m looking forward to playing the game. Like NBA 2k19, my main goal will be to join my favorite team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, and probably like NBA 2k19, once that goal has been met, I’ll put the game away.
and there looks to be some easy enough trophies for a guy like me to get.
The ones I will earn for sure will be :
Patience is a Virtue – Finish a game without skipping a presentation
Simon Says – In Road to the Show, reach a score of 40 in the pitch memory mini-game
Hi, Dee – Have your first encounter with Heidi Watney
Pump It – In Road to the Show, reach 10 reps in teh bench press mini-game
Hello, World – In Road to the Show, complete the new player creation
None Shall Pass – In Road to the Show, fail a challenge
Something to Talk About – In Diamond Dynasty, equip any unlocked audio
The More You Know – Complete the onboarding tutorial
Walk This Way – Record a walk in your first at-bat of the game
Yyyaarrrrgghh! – In Road to the Show, create a player who was born “At Sea”
Do It Like This – Equip an unlockable no doubt home run animation
I will attempt at least :
Big Fly Ohtani Son – Hit a home run with Ohtani on All-Star or above difficulty
Father Son Picnic – Win the Home Run Derby(R) with Bryce Harper
Lock Him Up – In Franchise Mode, extend a player contract during the season
Velociraptor, HIt the ball over 115+ mph
So not a bad list at all! I will create a batter that can bat with both hands (though I will probably never try for the A Chip Off the Ol’ Block trophy.
Plenty there to strive for and to get the zero percent to one percent (and more!). Looks like a slew of trophies that I would be earning within the first 20 minutes, unlike NBA 2k19 that it took a while to earn my first trophy (immediately after the Pre-Season) and then I earned the bulk of the trophies I did earn within the next hour or so.
Though some people do have some legit problems with MLB 19 The Show being one of the games.
The main issue being . . . We were supposed to get PES 2019 as a free game, there was a major outcry as most people do not care about soccer, and now we are getting MLB 19 The Show, when most people do not care about baseball.
Which I am not really into either sport, but I was super looking forward to PES 2019 and I am looking forward to MLB 19 The Show. I still maintain that once PES 2019 drops to under five dollars, I will buy that game and see what all of the buzz is about.
But all of this goes away as people are very very happy to get The Last of Us Remastered.
Which I started playing a week ago and really enjoyed it. I was not as blown away as everyone else was but I really enjoyed myself. I think I am just more of an Uncharted type of guy but The Last of Us really started clicking with me once The Suburbs chapter started. The environmental storytelling in the sewers was amazing and I eagerly looked forward to the next section of the sewer to get more information. From there, the game is amazing and I will commit to playing a Normal+ playthrough in October after I complete Left Behind.
Here is PlayStationTrophies.org’s trophy guide for The Last of Us.
The multiplayer trophies are not as simple as Uncharted 2’s multiplayer so I will probably pass on those.
I have also stopped being a big collector guy, if I come across collectibles, I will get them, or if there are not too many of them, I will get them, heck, if all I need for the Platinum is the collectibles, I will get them. That’s what made me commit to Until Dawn, as all I needed was the collectibles.
For the second month in a row, I am getting a free digital copy of a game I already own physically. Batman Arkham Knight and now The Last of Us. So Uncharted 4 should be next or Hellblade.
So once GameStop has another trade-in deal with extra money earned, I will be taking those two games for more store credit.
. . .
MLB The Show 2019 is usually a $40 game, it is on sale right now for $30, and has been as low as $23.99.
The Last of Us is a $20 game, as part of the PlayStation Hits line, and has gone as low as $5.99.
So best case, the games are $60 or at their lowest, $30, which is nearly the cost of the service, so once again, the games pay for themselves really. Not a bad first month if October 2019 is going to be the beginning of your subscription service.
. . .
Here are my peeps talking about the free games.
Rob of PlayStation Access
Adam of PlayStation Grenade
I will have to update this if Ben of Platinum Chasers uploads his video.
UPDATE – 10/2/2019 –
Ben of Platinum Chasers uploaded his review!
Always worth the wait! (but usually there is not a wait)
. . .
It was pretty nice being surprised on Tuesday that the announcement came a day early. It made sense the State of Play would reveal the games as they had everyone’s attention. I figured The Last of Us was going to be a free game either in October (for the zombie content), November (for the free game new PS4 owners would get for taking advantage of some Black Friday deals), or December (as a Christmas present to us all).
So once those games were announced though, I immediately bought Murdered : Soul Suspect for two dollars.
The game is pretty fun, I recently completed the first section involving the Apartments. I have a slew of trophies already which feels pretty great. I am already at 29% of the list.
This game as a slew of collectibles (242 of them!) that I am going to attempt to get as all of the other trophies seem super doable. Most of them are simply, play the game, solve some extra side mysteries, collect the artifacts.
Sounds like everything is feasible to do except for the Museum, that gets locked after we exit so I will be spending a lot of time there and with the collectible list in front of me.
The organization took a minute for me to get used to (it makes sense from the in-game checklist) but the more I cross off, the easier it is to read.
I am really enjoying the investigations and the overall game mechanics.
The only real gripe I have thus far, is having to kill demons. The way it is done is pretty irriating, but I am hoping I get better at it. It is not as simple as sneaking behind a demon – which takes timing – but then there is not that much time behind holding R2 to choose to kill the demon, then there are four options for button prompts that could be an option, a direction with the left stick and then one of the four symbol buttons. But the kill prompt will be different each new attempt. It can be frustrating with the fifth attempt and then having to run and hide and then attempt it again. I will get better at it but I am also hoping there are not that many demons in the game. There is no trophy for killing all of the demons (just the first one) but if the demon is in the room, we cannot investigate it fully. At least, that is the impression I am under.
So I will probably main this game until I have it completed. Or by the time October 1 comes and we get the two new free games. Whichever one happens first.
. . .
I have successfully completed The Season of Infamy additional missions in Arkham Knight in my Normal playthrough. I saved Mister Freeze for last so instead of it raining everywhere, it is snowing. It looks amazing but it is surprising how different everything looks with the snow. It is a thick snow too, so I have a hard time navigating around so I do not think I will keep to this plan on my Knightmare playthrough. Which I will eventually do everything in that but not anytime soon. The only advantage of doing all of the missions there is to unlock a new costume but not having it unlocked is not bothering me like it sometimes would.
It does look pretty cool though. We have to have 240% of the game completed to earn it.
. . .
Overall October is looking pretty fun!
Walker Dennis has been really into playing Lego Dimensions again so I have been on my guard to make sure my games are being saved. Especially as I am not home when he first gets there. So he had removed The Last of Us but I had made sure I was at the beginning of the third chapter of Left Behind. I would say that another gripe with Murdered Soul Suspect is that the saving could be more on-demand. It auto-saves but I do not get the symbol / notification as much as I would like. Especially after I have uncovered a collectible or completed a side quest, it would be nice to get that auto saved but now I just make sure I get it then look at the clock to see if I should go to bed.
I really wish the characters had shoes on while they are running around that abandon ship! So gross! At least Alex and Julia have shoes on but Brad and Fliss really should have shoes on.
. . .
So after really trying, I think I am done with Hellblade after the second chapter.
First of all, I had the hardest time understanding how to get the sixth Lorestone.
So special shout out for PowerPyx and their most excellent walkthrough that just made it simple for me.
I also got super stuck on the second Raven door in Valravyn’s Keep.
So also big thank you to Illumi Nati for their terrific walkthrough as I am sure I would never have made it out of the chapter without their two videos as I also had a hard time figuring out how to get through the fourth door.
It might have been that I was playing way too late at night to really figure out the rooms but also, I know myself enough to know this, I am no good at environment puzzles. This has been true for both RiME and SOMA in the past. And like those two games, I am going to pause on Hellblade as I was trying to go from Valravyn’s Keep to Surtr’s Domain and set my future self up at that region’s first Lorestone but I was getting lost on my way to where that path separates or something dumb on my part and I am only fairly certain that I am out of Valravyn’s Keep and actually in Surtr’s Domain but I will come back to this game.
I just know once I am solely relying on a walkthrough video and playing along with the video, the game is not meant for me at that time. I will come back to it eventually, especially as I own the disc but now is not that time. Maybe if it becomes one of the free games through PS+, that might take some pressure off of wanting to complete it.
Hellblade has eleven chapters and I got to three and earned two trophies so I feel like I got a good enough exposure to the game.
All of a sudden I had the thought that I should eject Hellblade and put Uncharted 4 in but what I need to do is the Arkham Episodes I just bought (picking back up with Red Hood’s story pack) and then finish The Last of Us’ Left Behind. I would like to do a New Game Plus on both The Last of Us and Left Behind but still on the Normal Plus difficulty (I think I am ready to admit that anything more difficult than that is not for me).
I did like the fighting in Hellblade, I could be better at the blocking but I was getting the hang of it. It is not that complicated really, there is plenty of warning of when to block, it was mostly a matter of getting the timing down.
I am also thinking of doing a fun October gaming series of posts where I look at my horror games and try to play a different game a night and uploading a video of my gameplay and see how that all goes for me.
The games I know I have that are horror or suspense centric are :
Dead by Daylight
The Last of Us
Friday the 13th
SOMA
Man of Medan
Darksiders II
Beyond : Two Souls
Bloodborne
Claire
Uncanny Valley
LIMBO / Inside
forma.8
Which is a lot more games than I was expecting when I was having the thought last night. I was mostly thinking of playing Dead by Daylight, Friday the 13th, Man of Medan, and finishing Beyond : Two Souls. Which Beyond : Two Souls, like SOMA, is more in the science fiction slash horror genre.
I wonder if that is why I did not take to Bloodborne either, as that game is very much about letting the environment guide us to our next location. I might just be at a place where I need a tad more linear route.
I do like making lists and trying to organize things (like into a list) so I will have to see if my PS4 can even handle all of these games being loaded onto it. Though, once I try to tackle Man of Medan, like The Last of Us, I will just start and finish the entire game and not bounce in and out. I have really been missing Dead by Daylight, so that is why I thought playing it in October would be a perfect fit. Plus, I bought Ghostface and the Head Case DLC and have not even started the game to see those additions. I have been told the Stranger Things DLC is out and it is twelve dollars and that is before the different outfits for Steve and Nancy, and I have not looked into how much those are.
We are on the sixth episode of Season Three and Nancy has yet to wear her stripe shirt but Steve has not been seen out of his Ahoy outfit so I will definitely want that outfit as that’s Steve for me right now.
I am also been loving Season Three of Stranger Things since episode four. The kids and teenagers are coming together and the adults are making progress and nothing feels wasted or like filler.
If those costume packs for Friday the 13th would drop to a dollar, I will buy those and probably play that game during October. I might start off with Dead by Daylight, play that a bunch and then settle in for some Man of Medan and maybe SOMA, at least figure out where i left off and make it to the next base in that game.
Making that list and sort of intimidated me and now I want to be more realistic with my goals. Especially as I need to consider the free October games (which I can only imagine one of them will be horror specific) and, oh yeah, my desire to buy Murdered : Soul Suspect too. Which I really like that title, it seems like the right amount of silly.
So maybe a week’s worth of Dead by Daylight, Murdered : Soul Suspect, then into Man of Medan for my second playthrough, where I play the party mode (but by myself like a sad person) and choosing either all hearts or all brain options. The heart options is listed before the brain one so that decision has been made.
I strive on direction and over-planning so this all feels very satisfying, if not very nerdy.
. . .
I have to write these thoughts down as this is irritating me so much.
Big Brother 21.
Nicole, Cliff, Michie, and Holly were our Final Four. Nicole and Cliff had the opportunity to vote out Holly or Tommy. With some nonsense they made crazy deals to keep Holly to maintain their final four deal. But they did it in such a way to insult and to make Michie and Holly work hard to be in the Final Four.
All of this work just so Cliff could maybe possibly be in Final Three, in the hardest way possible?
None of this being neccessary if they just voted Holly out, and kept Tommy so that those three could work together to take out Michie. Instead, Cliff really thought Michie was going to vote out his showmance of the summer to keep an old man around. Like, no amount of handshakes would convince me to vote out my in-house make out buddy to keep an old father figure type in the house. In what world does that make sense?
Nicole’s disbelief that the showmance decided to stick together is also ridiculous. She knew this would happen and Cliff voting to keep Holly and her voting to keep Tommy and forcing Michie to break the tie, that would have been good Big Brother TV. Or just voting Holly out would have been an amazing Big Brother move. Instead, they allowed Michie and Holly the honor of being the showmance that has gone further in Big Brother history than anyone else.
That is, if you are being generous that Danielle and Shane from BB14 (Dan’s second season with Britney) were a showmance while in the house, but they did date after the show but it always felt one sided to me.
Like, I get not wanting to ruin a Final Four deal. But I also get that there is only seven more days in the house and if they kept Tommy, Michie would have been mad for four days, they would have voted him out and then boom, no more hurt feelings in the house.
Cliff was super smart to tell Michie that Cliff was going to taint the jury against Michie. Though once Tommy showed up at the Jury House, the jury would have been tainted already but the jury seems to understand Michie is playing a dirty game and respecting his commitment to it.
Michie is definitely not going to go down in Big Brother history has one of the best players but he’ll be on a list to be considered for most winning player but his legacy is not going to last.
Once again, if Michie wins, and I think anyone sitting against him, will win, his tactics would not work in any other season, like most winners could not repeat their tactics to win another season of the show.
Now poor Nicole has to keep moving rooms so that the showmance and bone in every room now as she feels like a complete idiot.
Which would not have happened if they just voted to keep Tommy.
I am still hoping for a Nicole / Holly finale as that is what Jackson Michie deserves.
Here is my second hour of Man of Medan for your viewing pleasure! I should look into seeing if I can add audio to these but then I run the risk of waking up my sleeping wife and son but it might still be nice.
I never did get good at the calm heartbreak mechanic.
. . .
In my tour to avoid playing any of my current games, I started playing Hellblade : Senua’s Sacrifice.
I’m using IGN’s Lorestones Location guide to find all 44 of those so I don’t have to do a second playthrough just to find one or two that I missed.
They are giant rocks so I imagine they are hard to miss. From reading ahead, it seems like only one of them is off the beating path so that’s good to know.
I only played for an hour so I got to Valravyn’s Keep.
The game is very interesting and looks stunning!
Melina Juergens, who portrays Senua, really put in a lot of work!
I decided I will start following her through Twitter.
I am not playing with headphones but I will find a pair to get the full experience.
A fair warning though, the subtitles only really do the main story script and a few of the other voices, so if you are hard of hearing, you might be missing out on some of the atmosphere the game developers were creating. My family is sleeping when I game so I have to have the subtitles on but I played with the volume at ten and got most of the experience.
I kept getting creepy vibes from the game, and I’m sure that is all due to the outstanding audio work that went into the game, plus the visuals.
. . .
I have committed to the idea of buying Murdered : Soul Suspect on Wednesday. I imagine the chances are super small to get it for free as one of the October free games.
I am not exactly sure why I haven’t written in so long, just busy I guess. I have completed Man of Medan and I had a great time with my first playthrough.
I did not look at PowerPyx’s Trophy Guide list until my third night of playing but it was mostly just a curious glance at it. Once it seemed like it was going to spoil anything, I looked away.
It was a very fun game, and I’ll post four more videos of my playthrough. It takes around four and a half hours.
I’m disappointed that I’m not going to get the platinum for this game as I can’t commit to playing five hours with someone else online. So that sort of kills my buzz for the overall game and really makes me want to hesitate before preordering New Hope as I could clearly wait it out until the game drops ten dollars.
I had fun, but I’m distracting myself with other games before attempting a second playthrough.
. . .
In much more fun news, the season pass for Arkham Knight finally went on sale!
So I have to sneak and treat myself to a PSN card as I barely have eight dollars in my PSN Wallet. But buy a card, I will! I am so jazzed to get to play the Arkham Episodes and play with the various costumes and variants of the Batmobile.
I read a tip to save Mr. Freeze for last so that it remains snowing in Arkham, and that sounds like a fun thing to do in my Normal playthrough.
There is a pretty massive sale going on the PlayStation store that is good through October 1. I would caution to wait until the free games are announced on September 25, if you are buying any games over two dollars.
Thanks to PlayStation for hosting the launch trailer.
I type that, as I am tempted to get Murdered : Soul Suspect, as that is two dollars and I was tempted to buy it at Shopko one time when it was ten dollars. It might make for a great October free game, so I am going to hold out. Plus, I have Arkham Knight to keep me occupied.
There are two other two dollar games I was tempted by, Toro and Yasai Ninja, but the reviews for those games are bad. Like, not even playable bad.
. . .
I also started and completed The Last of Us! I was looking over Girlfriend Reviews videos and I sort of do a mini-marathon every weekend, as I wait for the new video to drop. I came across The Last of Us video again and figured I’ll finally play the game.
So now I have played all of the games that Shelby has reviewed that I could. Well, technically, I have not played Detroit : Become Human, but that’ll be nice.
I pretty much played The Last of Us straight through. I played on Normal, so I got the Normal trophy as well as the Easy Trophy. The game as a slew of collectibles but the only one I made a point of collecting were the comic book ones.
I did start Left Behind (on Normal) and did the first chapter but now that Arkham Knight is now on the table, I’m going to take a slight break and do those missions before coming back to Left Behind.
I could, looking back, have taken breaks between the seasons but I was told the game wasn’t horribly long, so I figured I would just play it straight. Plus, I was really getting into the game. I don’t think I love it as much as others clearly do but there were moments like in the sewer when Joel and Ellie were with Sam and Henry, and we come across what should have been a safe zone, and getting all of the lore, that I was recognizing what great the game really is.
I also got the trophy for crafting one of everything, that didn’t include all of the melee weapon types, just one of each of the five categories. Melee Weapon, Shiv, Health Pack, Molotov Cocktail, and Smoke Bomb. I barely threw any bottles or bricks. I also got a lot better with stealth, something I usually don’t tend to be in games.
I’ll commit to playing a New Game Plus on Normal but after Left Behind, and probably do a full rotation of my games as well, just like how I am waiting to do another playthrough of Man of Medan. Like, Late Shift, I want a decent break between playthroughs.
. . .
I did take a slight break inbetween The Last of Us and Left Behind to play The Witness.
Thanks to PS4Trophies for hosting the guide for how to get the Symmetry trophy.
It was bugging me so much that I had The Witness at 0% when I legit gave it a proper go when it was a free game back in March 2019. Which I knew I really didn’t give it a proper go, more like 30 minutes but I had not committed to fully giving the free games a fair chance back then. Then I kept thinking about it and I decided to really look into how long and complicated was earning the first trophy in the game really was. And it wasn’t all that hard at all! I think I just got lost in the game’s world, like a maroon, and with the aid of the above video, within 20 minutes, I had earned the trophy. So that is one less thing on my silly mind.
I was also convinced to play while watching Dave and Rosie play the game during one of their live streams. I’m not really sure why I was so dismissive of their live streams in the past, I’m sure it was mostly how long the videos were, but now that I have an hour lunch break again and realizing I can watch 30 minutes a night, I can commit to watching these. They are so fun and I love the team so it makes sense I’ll love them in a long format too. I can be so silly sometimes.
So that has been what I’ve been doing for a week or so.