Those heartbeat sections just kick my butt! At this point, I still couldn’t tell if I was close to the end or not.
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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.
https://www.ign.com/wikis/hellblade/Lorestones
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!
https://twitter.com/juergensmelina?lang=en
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 did put in my prediction that we will get Murdered : Soul Suspect and Inpatient.
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.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan Trophy Guide & Roadmap
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!
https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP1018-CUSA00133_00-DLCSEASONPASS000
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.
For back to back months, I am getting a free digital copy of a game I already own! Also, I’m getting a sequel/follow up to a game that I will need to do the homework for before playing the other game.
Last month, we got Detroit : Become Human, but a much better version than I owned, which is a follow up to Quantic Dream’s Beyond : Two Souls. September brings us . . . Batman : Arkham Knight and Darksiders III!
I already own Batman : Arkham Knight and I got Darksiders II : Deathinitive Edition as one of my first free PS+ games way back in December 2017. I only played it past the first boss and a little bit of The Foundry. If I remember correctly, I was up against some monster (not a boss) who just kept killing me so I will have to figure out how to get pass it or straight murder it.
Forge. So I’m going to have to finish at least my first playthrough of that game before jumping into its sequel.
Darksiders III came out in November 2018 and is already a free game ten months later. OnRush came out in June 2018 and was already a free game by December 2018, so Darksiders III isn’t setting a record but it is something to note.
I had to look up Darksiders 1 Warmastered Edition (as I’m going to own the series, pretty soon). It is typically a $20 game but goes as low as two dollars, so once it gets under five dollars, I’ll snatch it up!
Which I’m hoping it goes on sale in September. I’m also hoping Arkham Knight’s Season Pass goes on sale too. I might have to just spend the $20 and buy it in October if it never goes on sale. So Rocksteady has no incentive now to put it on sale.
Darksiders III is still a $60 game, but has gone as low as $36. There is a Season Pass for $20, which includes the two DLC levels : The Crucible ($7) and Keepers of the Void ($13), as well as a Digital Deluxe Edition that is $80 and a Blades & Whip Edition that is $100. The Digital Deluxe Edition is the game plus the two DLC levels. The Blades & Whip Edition is the Deluxe Edition PLUS 1’s Warmastered Edition and II’s Deathinitive Edition, so three games, plus all DLC for $100.
Batman : Arkham Knight Is now a $20 game that has gone as low as six dollars. The PlayStation store has a slew of avatars that I’ve downloaded all of them. The $20 Season Pass makes all of the DLC available. DLC included a Batgirl level (A Matter of Family) that is seven dollars. I really liked it, it wasn’t too short, plus it gave me the option to do AR Challenges as Batgirl, that I didn’t even attempt but probably should. All of the character DLC levels make it so you can play as the character in the challenges. The other DLC are :
Nightwing’s GCPD Lockdown, two dollars
Catwoman’s Revenge, two dollars
Robin’s Flip of a Coin, two dollars
Red Hood Story Pack, two dollars
Harley Quinn Story Pack, two dollars
Seasons of Infamy, ten dollars
When asked if the DLC is worth purchasing, the general answer is that the Seasons of Infamy DLC is the only one truly worth it but for ten extra dollars, I might as well get everything. Especially if I can wait until the Season Pass is as low as eight dollars, then everything becomes a steal at that price! The story DLCs are already priced at $20 so if you buy the Season Pass for $20, all of the other costumes, maps, and Batmobile variants are just free, in a way.
There’s a Premium Edition for $40.
There are various costume packs as well :
New 52, free
Flashpoint, unavailable
Batman Inc, free
Original Arkham, free
First Appearance, one dollar
Bat-Family Pack, two dollars
Batman Beyond, one dollar
Noel, free
2008 Movie Costume, free
Dark Knight Returns, one dollar
A PS4 Exclusive set of the 66 Batman costume and Batman 3000 costumes that were “free” but not available but are now available and I just purchased theme and have the download already queued to my PS4! That was super exciting! I wasn’t even going to do the Arkham Knight store as I owned the game but I wanted you, dear reader, to have all of the information!
When I try to purchase the Flashpoint costume, I get a message that states I can get it if I buy the Season Pass, which used to be the message I got for the PS4 exclusive sets. I can’t wait to get home and play as 66 Batman in the 66 Batmobile! This is going to be a blast!
There is even variations of the Batmobile!
Original Arkham, two dollars
Robin and Robin theme Batmobile, two dollars
2008 Tumbler, two dollars
1989 Movie Costume and Batmobile, two dollars (I had to buy this one too!)
Rocksteady Theme, free
Prototype Batmobile, two dollars
Riddler theme, one dollar
70s Batmobile, one dollar
Batman v Superman costume and Batmobile, free
66 Robin and Catwoman, plus Batmobile, two dollars (that I also had to buy)
There are challenge map packs:
WayneTech Track Prack, two dollars
Five Crime Fighter Challenge Pack, two dollars each ($10)
A Locations from the three games Crime Fight Challenge Map, free
Maybe one day we’ll finally get Arkham Origins on the PS4, then I can finally play that game.
So, by my math, all of the DLC came to about $51, so $20 for the season pass seems worth it but I’m not sure about the Premium Pack for $40 being worth it but I’m sure it goes on sale too. It does, it usually goes for $14, which is also a great deal, if you didn’t already have the game or getting the base game for free come Tuesday. The description essentially just says it is the game plus season pass, it that all works out in the end.
There is an Arkham Collection that is on sale that has the three proper games for $24, down from $60.
. . .
I have also been inspired to finally work on those darn Riddler Trophies that I was finally down to eight of them. I am now down to two and I’m not sure I’m going to be able to get them as I just can’t get the Batmobile to work for me. If I could just get ten more seconds, I think I could do both of them.
Thanks to PowerPyx for hosting this video and all of the Riddler Trophies videos that I used to get to this point!
The final two are those dumb races from one platform to the trophy.
7) 2147 x 1492 to roughly 2160 x 1670 at the 3:24 mark.
31) 3258 x 2136 to roughly 3030 x 1155 at the 22:04 mark.
Luckily, but maddening, the two locations are relatively close to each other so I know the route back pretty well, and it doesn’t take that long to attempt again but it just feels so defeating! Especially with the forced Riddler exchange. Like, just let me repeat my attempt with a simple “repeat” option like in a Lego game.
So that’s what I’ll be attempting to do every few days or so!
I was told it is a simple process of ensuring the save files have been uploaded to the cloud, and deleting the game file off of the PS4. Then come Tuesday, I can install the digital copy, download the save file, and it should just work out. So here’s hoping it is that easy! I definitely don’t want to restart that game from scratch!
. . .
The PS4 and PlayStationPlus subreddits seem to be very happy with the game selections.
Which is super nice for a change.
. . .
Here are my YouTube peeps with their thoughts!
Nathan with PlayStation Access
Adam with PlayStation Grenade
Ben with Platinum Chasers
Everyone seems to be very excited!
. . .
Here is the trophy guide for Darksiders III
Thanks to AerisFlowerGirl for making it!
Here is the trophy guide for Arkham Knight
https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/batman-arkham-knight/guide/.
Looking at the list again, I think I’m still pretty much just going for the Riddler trophy, Riddle Me That, which would then get me Knightfall.
. . .
While checking for any deals through the PlayStation store, I saw a few games that were around three dollars that didn’t have a platinum, plus I’m getting Man of Medan soon, so I shouldn’t have been looking for new games anyway. I did come across another live action game like Late Shift and The Bunker.
Thanks to PlayStation for hosting the video!
That game is, The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker, which looks like it could be pretty interesting. There was even a bundle for all three games that if I didn’t already have Late Shift, I may have been tempted to get all three of them. The game is typically $13 but can drop down to $6.49, which would be perfect for me. So one of these days all of these games will go on sale and I’ll start grabbing them.
. . .
Another game that I was reminded I have already is Q*Bert Rebooted. I probably played it for an hour and I really enjoyed aspects of the Original (which I rarely played back in the day) and Rebooted was pretty fun too. A very modern take on the classic game.
I got crushed by the Coily, the snake, 25 times (and more). I got smashed by Ugg exactly 25 times (during another 30 minute gaming session when I realized I could get one more trophy). I died well over 100 times and rode 50 discs. There are other and more proper trophies in the game but I’m not really all that good at Classic and it took over an hour and a half to get maybe 200 gems so getting 5,000 gems seems like a huge time commitment. I only came across maybe two green freeze balls. So I feel like I got my time spent with this game that was free back in April 2018.
. . .
So my gaming rotation is :
Batman : Arkham Knight (for those two dumb Riddler trophies)
Darksiders II
Sniper Elite 4
Late Shift (for one final playthrough)
Lego Marvel Superheroes 2
Beyond : Two Souls (for maybe one big chapter and an epilogue?)
Dead by Daylight (still have to begin watching Stranger Things)
Rocket League (for a few more trophies)
Grand Theft Auto V
My plan is to still replace Beyond : Two Souls with Detroit : Become Human and I’m not going to beat Darksiders II anytime soon but once I do, I’ll be prepared for III.
I have two more chapters of Lego Marvel Superheroes 2 of the main story. Then I’ll fully tackle the six DLC chapters, then go back to the main story for the Free Plays and I have characters to unlock to get all ten of the Gwenpool missions, so lots more time with this game. I’m having a blast with it but it is nice to take breaks from it too. Pending on how long it takes to do the DLCs, I might try to knock out two at a time but I’ll figure that out when I get there. I have having a geniune blast with Sniper Elite 4. I usually start and finish the entire mission before going to bed. I completed the third mission and I really should have stopped after one of several checkpoints but I kept going and stayed up way to late. I did have a few moments where I repeatedly thought, this is such a fun game!
Nine games is a bit much but Arkham Knight shouldn’t take too long, just a few more frustrating attempts. Late Shift is practically over, and Beyond : Two Souls is going to get replaced. So that list will come down to seven. Though I do have Man of Medan coming, Amazon told me it got shipped already.
I saw this tweet from Girlfriend Reviews
Shelby and Matt already completed (at least) one playthrough and I’ve been trying to avoid spoilers (so far so good). From her screenshot, I see the game is broken down by Acts and not Chapters (maybe?) so maybe the game is a very management two or three hours? I haven’t been able to find anyone who has written the length of one playthrough.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan review — Save your characters even if they are annoying
Skimming Dean Takahashi’s Venture Beat article, it does read like it is a shorter game, so that’ll be nice. For $30, I’m not expecting a ten hour game but I could see five hours but with a party mode, a management three is probably the way to go. If it is even three, Hidden Agenda was a solid two hours and I felt those hours in long playthroughs.
https://www.polygon.com/reviews/2019/8/28/20835456/man-of-medan-review-pc-xbox-one-ps4
Austen Goslin didn’t write regarding the length of the game in his Polygon article (from what I could skim). I also did a search for “long” and “hour” and didn’t see any results about length of time.
. . .
https://www.polygon.com/2019/8/28/20835854/telltale-games-return-walking-dead-lcg-entertainment
To end on a happy note, TellTale Games got purchased! So hopefully LCG Entertainment’s new ownership will mean a third Batman game! Also, that maybe all of the games will go on sale and I can finally get Guardians of the Galaxy too!
Thanks to Rocket League and Grand Theft Auto V, I finally got to Rank 16!
Sorry the picture isn’t better, I should have changed my theme and then taken a picture and reverted back to the Las Vegas theme that I got for Walker Dennis and his love for Chad Wild Clay.
16 Rank
1929 Total Trophies
21 Platinums
127 Gold
407 Silver
1374 Bronze
Plus a lot of hard work and dedication! No sweat or tears, that I can remember.
That last ten percentage was a slow crawl from 15 to 16.
I was reading this website :
https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/ps4-trophies-everything-you-need-to-know/
Gabe Gurwin writes that: Bronze trophies are worth 15 points, silver are 30 points, gold are 90 points, and platinum trophies are 180 points.
So I knew once I got the platinum for Late Shift (which still hasn’t happened), I was for sure making it to Rank 16 but that was probably going to take a while before I got back to that game and then another round before I beat it.
. . .
I was having a blast playing Rocket League online and just trying different modes. The 4 v 4 match was intense and no wonder they nicknamed it the Chaos Run, as so much is happening at all times. It took a long time to find me a match but once the game paired me, I was pretty worried about making sure my team won the game and we did in overtime! I was fully committed to just selecting the option again until we won but once we won, I ran out of that lobby to try other modes.
I still need to complete my first offline season, and now I wish I had the forethought to have made sure I had used either a Dominus or Takumi for an entire season so then I could have earned Winning is Winning and Champion at the same time. But that’s okay, I’ll play two full seasons and still enjoy the heck out of it. It would have just saved some time, but I’ll be so much better at it the second time around.
I’m still using the Cristiano wheels to try to get 50 km as I got 10 km on them so I just have to keep using them.
I’m still trying to earn items, it just takes a long time to do so. I barely have any rare items but once I get five of them, I have to trade them in to earn a very rare item and then win a match wearing that item. I’m also trying to earn my first painted item too. I haven’t come across Certified Items either.
I’m still not good enough to play against non-rookie bot opponents in handicap matches.
Those are my basic trophy goals for Rocket League but even after I get those and maybe a few other trophies, I’ll probably keep this game in the rotation and just enjoy myself that night. Such fun!
. . .
I started Grand Theft Auto 4 with the pure intentions of just earning trophies. So I cheated and got the Play in First Person Mode for 15 hours as I hate playing in first person mode if I have the option for third person mode. I left the game on all night and used a rubber band to keep the right stick at an angle so the system nor the controller would turn itself off.
I played as Franklin got a slew of trophies. I already had 200,000 for the cab company but I saw there was a side quest where I could pick a guy up and he’ll give me a good stock tip. I only earned like $80,000 more dollars when I thought I was going to get into the millions but it was enough of a bump to earn me a trophy for using the stock exchange. Plus, I was able to fully modify Franklin’s pistol and his personal car. He bought the cab company and then did a private ride and maybe got a girlfriend out of it? I don’t know, they were flirting but then the next night, she was too busy so I’m not sure what is happening there. It was late though so I didn’t blame her.
I got the team together to do a FIB mission. Then I thought I’ll quickly play as Trevor and get a few of his trophies but instead I did the prep work for The Merryweather Heist, which will be the next thing I do in the game. Oh, that was after I tortured a guy as Trevor so Michael could snipe a chain smoker.
I’ll probably still try to knock out a few of Trevor’s trophies but at this point, I’m just committed to just beating the main story and I’ll see where I go from there.
. . .
A game I am done with for the meantime is Yakuza Kiwami. I was having a great time escaping from the funeral until I came up against Futoshi Shimano.
From what I’ve read, he’s by far the hardest boss in the game, and the other ones are more fair. I also read the game has 15 chapters which I was looking forward to playing through all of them but I spent like 30 minutes dying to Futoshi Shimano and that wasn’t even a fun 30 minutes.
I read that the match does essentially take 20 minutes of the most boring fighting there is. Essentially, we have to hit him, run away, and repeat. Which is not great and I clearly didn’t have the patience to do keep trying last night. I’m hoping the game autosaved my progress as I really don’t want to do the 20 minutes of fights that led up to Shimano but if I have to do it, then that’s just what I have to do but, for now, the game is out of my rotation. Be more fun game!
. . .
The PlayStation Plus subreddit just started accepting guesses for what the free September games are going to be. Someone on the Trophies subreddit mentioned how they got the plat for Grand Theft Auto III and now I really want to play that game again. It would be nice to get it free of course but I added it to my PSPrices wishlist.
There is two ways about getting the game for the PS4. One is to buy the trilogy pack that comes with Vice City and San Andreas. Which I really liked Vice City but I didn’t quite get into San Andreas. Vice City, I went back too later to see if I could goof around in the world but too much time had passed and it just felt like a foreign city to me. San Andreas had a mission very early on where I had to chase a guy on a bike while I was also on a bike (which is fair) but I just never got good enough to complete it and that left me feeling defeated. I even tried to keep CJ on a bike to increase his speed abilities but it was never enough.
The trilogy is usually $35 but goes as low as $17.49, which seems pretty generous. Especially as III by itself is $15 but goes as low as $7.49. Which I wouldn’t mind getting the trilogy for $18, as three full games for $18 is an amazing price! But if III goes on sale prior to the trilogy, eight dollars for a game I really want, is a great price too! I can only imagine if one is on sale, the other would be too. So it is a race to see which goes on sale first!
I would feel compelled to play Vice City and San Andreas too, and I’m way better at games now, so I’ll probably have a great time but I’m also older and don’t have all the time in the world, so these games would hold me over for quite some time. Plus, I own them, so I can play them whenever.
Looking at the trophy guide for III :
https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/grand-theft-auto-3/guide/
I bet I don’t get the platinum for it but I just remember loving III so much and having a great time in Liberty City.
. . .
We really need to move Stranger Things Season Three up our watch list as :
Thanks to Dead by Daylight for hosting their own video!
Nancy and Steve are coming to Dead by Daylight! They are bringing a demogorgon with them and a new map too!
I can only imagine this is going to be upwards of seven dollars with two new survivors and a new killer. If we can finish the series in time, I’m buying this day one, if not, I’ll be buying it once we finish it. I still want Ghostface which I’ve been tempted to just buy right now but I imagine once this gets released, all of the other DLC will get discounted. That’s what I’m hoping happens.
The Dead by Daylight subreddit is getting hyped for it too!
So nice to see the community come together for great news!
People are posting that they are coming back to the game for this, which sounds pretty legit. Possibly, too legit!
People are hyped for Steve but of the two characters, I’ll be playing as Nancy.
I would also be okay if Alien and Ripley join Dead by Daylight, let’s get nuts!
They have also announced the nine new perks too!
Which sounds pretty cool, especially once redditors were explaining the actual benefits.
. . .
During the latest PlayStation Store update video, Rob mentions new game, Erica, that I really want to get. It is only ten dollars but I think I will still wait for a deal on it.
Thanks to PlayStation for hosting the trailer.
I just finished my sixth playthrough (second to last) of Late Shift and I’m sort of in the mood for another live action game where I get to make the decisions. Seems like either the game just came out or it just came out and people have already unlocked all seven endings already. Which seems way fast but maybe it is a shorter game but that seems odd for a mystery.
Seems like some good and honest reviews for the game. Seems shorter than 90 minutes so all seven endings might be fast to do. There apparently is an app too that hopefully actually works unlike Beyond : Two Souls app that would not connect to the PS4. Until Dawn had an app but it was mostly a fun novelty to track friendship meters and to do a quiz to see which character you are. I want to say after the quiz, we got a fun fake phone call that I had to uninstall and reinstall each time for someone else to experience it. Pretty fun.
. . .
I got a lot done in Lego Marvel Superheroes 2. I completed the Ego the Living Lego Planet level so I have two more story missions before having to replay them all in Free Play. Before that, I’ve committed to just doing the six DLC levels, once I complete one, I’ll go right back in for the Free Play and trophy cleanup. Then I will tackle all of the story missions again with Free Play. I also got Knowhere unlocked but none of the hub activities were available besides the cartographer monitor. Oh, and those birds showed up so I have the Arial Avenger challenge completed. I also rescued Stan Lee twice and completed maybe five races. I nearly lost my mind doing so, but after completing the Billboard challenge, I earned Black Widow’s motorcycle which made two races much easier to handle. One of those races was a webslinging one that was pretty difficult but now I have the Captain Britain Spider-Man. I also unlocked Vulture too, so that was nice. He’s the version of Spider-Man : Homecoming.
So tonight, I’ll play Beyond : Two Souls and do the briefing chapter, which is a short video and then I’ll do whatever comes afterwards.
. . .
I got to play Sniper Elite 4’s second mission as well. It either seemed shorter or I didn’t have as many tutorials to learn skills with. Mostly, they taught me how to not be spotted by a sniper and then I got spotted anyways as I couldn’t really make out where he was. So I’ll definitely attempt the third mission next. I’m really enjoying myself with the game. I got to rank 6, and I also shot a guy in his foot and then shot him in the nuts for that sweet nutcracker trophy.
I think my rotation plan is working as I envisioned, but it is definitely too many games as I want to play all of the games and it is too long of a rotation before getting through the lap. That’ll become faster now that Yakuza Kiwami is out and Late Shift is one playthrough from being done. I do like taking a break between playthroughs as it would be a bit much watching the same film over and over again. Though I was tempted to just knock it out that night but that isn’t the right mental state to play. Plus, it would have been another two hours.
Man, oh man! I am the absolute worst! Every other year, I’m way off with my own blog’s birthday! This is by far the worst amount of time to have passed. I had the thought a month ago but then I forgot about it as I went up the stairs and now I remembered it, but this time, while in front of the computer.
So I super apologize about my tardiness.
Like always, here’s our latest stats!
All Time Views : 211,195
Visitors 97,029
Posts 1,539
Comments : 347
Review Posts : 815
Categories : 40
Tags : 1,442
Followers (Blog) : 204
Followers (Twitter) : 476
Followers (Facebook) : 31
Followers (Tumblr): 52
Followers (Pinterest): 114
Followers (Total) : 877
At 6,702 views – our most popular post is still my post about Bounce Patrol.
At 1,849 views – our most popular comic review is still Avengers 51.
Best Month : May 2018, with 6,157 views
I’m still a tad obsess with getting my visitors from countries with nine views to ten views so if you know anyone in Cape Verde, Guyana, Laos (still!), plus new countries : Yemen, Mauritius, Cuba, Fiji, and Uzbekistan.
Once again, thank you, all of the visitors who have made all of this possible – I wouldn’t keep doing this if it wasn’t for the constant encouragement of visitors. Thank you.
Thank you again for everyone who has come to the blog, even with the lack of reviews of current comics. People still do seem to be coming for older reviews but I appreciate that the video game posts have been getting love too as that’s mostly all I can write about until I get inspired to tackle a different topic.
Thank you for six amazing years!
https://www.comixology.com/free-comics
Comixology added four new comics to their list for the week! Not only are there four comics but they are all What if…? comics!
What If? Civil War (2007) # 1
What If? Wolverine : Enemy of the State # 1
What If? Spider-Man : The Other # 1
What If? Planet Hulk (2007) # 1
A total savings of $7.96!
I’ve actually read all four of these and they were all pretty good.
Gosh, I thought I wrote a review for What If? Wolverine : Enemy of the State but it doesn’t look like I did. I’m really am the worst! Such a great comic and I reference it a bunch when I think about how much of a villain Kitty could be if she went bad.
I imagine since they wrote (2007) that means there has been additional Civil War and Planet Hulk What If titles which makes sense as those two are ripe for additional stories to be told.
. . .
Just to try to make this a bigger post, I’ll give a few updates on my gaming progress. I’m still at rank 15. I played some Dead by Daylight last night, once as David Cage and I did not accomplish either daily goal. One was to be chased for 120 seconds and I got up to 90 seconds and the other is to open one exit, which I wish I was better at. It took two minutes to match me up and then I was dead within two minutes as Ghostface just found me, I got unhooked and healed and then he found me almost immediately and hooked me again. I really wish I had such luck or skill when I’m the killer. I played as the Nurse so I could teleport and hit a survivor four times and only managed to hit one of them. So I was playing pretty well last week and I picked up the game for the first time in a week and I was complete trash again. But instead of using it as a chill game, I have decided, with this and Rocket League, that I’ll just commit a gaming night to each game instead of trying to do another game and end the night with one of my chill games. That wasn’t doing justice to any of the games, plus it takes so long to match me that I’ve started losing interest or patience with it. Which is crazy as I really do adore Dead by Daylight but I spend so much time waiting and then I get killed so fast, it just stinks all over. I’ll keep playing but not as addictively as I have in the past.
. . .
I’ll be playing Rocket League tonight and I’m hoping to knock out a slew of trophies or at least, make decent progress on them. I think I’m ready to pay online some more, especially in some four on four matches, so that way, there is a higher chance of me not holding the entire team back. I’m looking way forward to it. I have a list of trophies I want to tackle and everything.
. . .
I was playing Beyond : Two Souls before Dead by Daylight and finished up the Old Friends, which turned into the Nora chapter, and then I started Dead by Daylight. I was thinking Old Friends was taking way longer so I did rush through it and that’s when I realized I need to really just mentally commit to one game. I missed two trophy opportunities but not really as we have the option to let a character die or live and if we were killing or saving all characters, this character would be considered the final character to let live or die. Which I’m pretty sure I’m 50/50 on that progress so I was already going to miss out on that trophy. I did choose to let the person die and it wasn’t much of a life they were living.
The next chapter is the Briefing, and it does feel like we’re leading up to the big finale. At this point, I do want to just get to Detroit : Become Human but I’m not trying to rush it but it might be time to put this game down. The Mission chapter was pretty great and worth playing just for that alone, plus the excellent character work, but I’m definitely not going back to the homeless chapter and playing forward like I originally thought of doing. I’ll save that for a second playthrough.
. . .
I completed my fifth playthrough of Late Shift and I even experimented with making a video!
So . . . thanks me for hosting my own video on YouTube!
It looks like I can only post 50 minutes of video so if I want to put my first playthrough of Man of Medan up, I might have to purposely only do it in 45 minute chucks.
So that was a nice experiment to test out ShareFactory.
Anyway, so I wanted to make a video of my all time favorite story beat in Late Shift! I included the part where they call Sebastian’s friend to find his location to set up the hospital scene properly. Then there is the moment with the old man with the magazine that is cute.
But right around the 8:20 minute mark, Mark touches May-Ling’s hand and the moment with the heart monitor is such perfect writing! Joe Sowerbutts and Haruka Abe have such great chemistry and I can’t wait for these final two playthroughs to see what happens with them in the best endings! Hopefully the fifth one was the end of the bad ones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haruka_Abe
I thought I was being a tad racist that the girl from Clean Bandit’s Rather Be looked a lot like Haruka Abe but it turns out they are one and the same! I loved that video before but now it got even better!
I wonder if this is why I’ve been thinking about Clean Bandit so much lately. The other night, I had the hardest time remembering the name of the band and had to look up Kiesza’s Hideaway as I recall the two songs being out at the same time. I’ve been in a 90s music mood as well as a 2014 music mood lately.
Apparently she was Po in that horrible Emerald City show but I don’t recall that and the Wikipedia page for the show doesn’t even list Po so she was probably a minor character. Shame she nor Sowerbutts has gotten more work. He was in a movie, I Capture the Castle that I should check out one of these days.
. . .
I’m getting closer to completing the main story for Lego Marvel Superheroes 2. I believe I just have three more chapters and then I would have all of the hubs unlocked and I can start tackling the DLC and replaying levels for all of the minikits and to save Stan Lee. There are challenges scattered across the world that I will also have to complete as well.
I’ve been waiting to get to Knowhere so I can get the trophy for having Lockjaw and Cosmo in the same team.
. . .
VUDU finally got Avengers Endgame and I immediately went to the third act battle sequence which literally starts a bit after the two hour mark with a full hour of the movie left and it was as glorious, if not better, than I remembered! We still need to buy Captain Marvel but I’m going to be spending a bunch of time with this film and its special features which include character spotlights and a commentary track that I’m going to listen the heck out of!
I finally got a chance to play WipEout Omega Collection and Sniper Elite 4!
I’ll start with WipEout, which I did not really enjoy. I was doing the first solo campaign and made it through the finish line for the first three races. I could already tell I was not going to be good at the game. The fourth track had an objective to come in fifth, so I already knew this might it for me. Which it was as I was steadily eighth like I have been. So I lost that race, I didn’t even finish it as we get 30 seconds from first place to cross the finish line.
So then I relooked at the trophy guide as I am super committed to at least getting one trophy per game now. I saw the “Finish 10 online games” and it was already 11:45pm but I figured I would knock out ten in like 20 minutes but it took like a full hour to get the matchmaking systems and to find tracks that I could finish. Someone even set the laps to 20 so I jumped out of that one so quick. I did eventually get into a group of people who kept running four lap races and I finished my ten race and went to bed.
I’m not sure what it is about the game that didn’t click. Maybe it is the speed as we’re definitely racing at top speeds as I kept hitting the walls with nearly every turn or I was not making the most out of the boost pads.
. . .
The next night, I loaded Sniper Elite 4. There is a tutorial that gets us into the game and then it exceeds to the next section but then the game pretty much just lets us play how we want. Which I read is sort of how Hitman works, but SE4 has a limited amount of things to do but more space to do it. So I should probably try to do that first level of Hitman but the trophies made it sound overly complicated but I’ll get it a proper chance again.
It was super fun to run around sniping Nazis. There were secondary objectives, such as break three cameras and kill four Nazi officers, along with the main objective of killing the main Nazi officer.
I really got into the idea of taking the time to carry dead bodies and either throw them into the water or onto a giant stack of other dead bodies. It takes more time but I like the clear message it delivers.
There is only eight missions, so I’ve added the game to my rotation and I’m committed to doing all eight. Or at the very least, the second mission and take it from there.
I’m tempted to try out Sniper Elite 3, as I figured it would be a five dollar game at least point, but it seems to still go for $20 so at that price, I might as well just buy the DLC to 4, but I also will just wait until I’ve completed the main story.
So I really didn’t care for WipEout but really took to Sniper Elite 4 – which really, should be the point of the free games through PlayStation Plus. To expose us to games we may have been tempted to buy, but probably never would.
. . .
Walker Dennis really wanted to play as Lego Batman so I ejected the Lego Marvel Collection and inserted Lego Dimensions. He just had a blast on the Hub world. Once he was done, I took the chance to insert Grand Theft Auto V.
I really wanted that first trophy of online and I made my person and I forgot how much GTA V wants us to really time commit to levels as I did a race, and then the game wanted me and my two new friends to do a drug run. I was a much better driver than the one guy as he had us off the road and into a neighborhood and I had to get us back on track. Then it seemed to finally release us from the crew and we were off to do our own stuff. So I chose to just play the main game, to make sure my file saved. Which it didn’t, I had to redo that level where Michael’s family left him again but it barely took ten minutes.
So now I’m tempted to try to add GTA V to my rotation and get the game finished. And it really doesn’t take long to take a disc out and get a new one placed in.
Now I also have one more trophy in common with most of the players I play with in Dead by Daylight as I’ve seen the Off The Plane trophy on so many player’s trophy lists.
. . .
Girlfriend Reviews did a review of Yakuza 0 which apparently I’m easily convinced by this channel to play games, and I did watch it thinking I might end up playing Yakuza Kiwami. Which it totally did!
For those who don’t know. 0 is the prequel to Yakuza 1 that was remade for the PS4 as Yakuza Kiwami. Kiwami was a free game back in November 2018. The same month we got Burly Men at Sea (which I platinumed) and Roundabout (which I really enjoyed but hit a point of what I could do). Bulletstorm : Full Clip Edition was the other big game but I still haven’t attempted that game.
I finished the Chapter One, which didn’t take too long, and started the first part of Chapter Two. I really enjoy the saving format as it seems I can save whenever. It does an odd thing of saving the game, and then it saves to the system, as two separate steps, which I rather it just did the second step at the same time, behind the scenes. I guess I take it for granted that is how it works when we save games now but who knows. The whole process is done in like ten seconds but I just try not to save too much but I have this habit of saving after every fight.
I feel like I’m just hitting square and then triangle, but I’ll learn other combos as I level Kazumi Kiryu up. I figure since I’m adding games to my backlog, I’ll add this one too, but I predict there will be a point where I just can’t get pass and it’ll go back into the backlog but I’ll wait to see what happens. I’ve earned three trophies in that two hour gaming session so that felt pretty good.
I’m currently at Level 15, sitting at 96% completion before level 16! I’m so close but I really need to start earning silvers and gold trophies, or perhaps just one more platinum.
. . .
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2eEGT06FrWFU6VBnPOR9lg/videos
Girlfriend Reviews keeps making a joke about face reveals but I feel like their icon and banner on their YouTube page pretty much shows Shelby’s face but maybe I’m missing the joke.
I looked over the list of 36 videos and there are a few videos where I could be tempted to play the game. I have a goal to play Detroit Become Human. I’ve earned a trophy on Borderlands 2 so I feel good with that and I got stuck on that one level so that will stay in the backlog. I should rewatch the Arkham Asylum video as I don’t quite recall it though I know I’ve seen it. I would love to treat myself to the Return to Arkham combo set but I’m hoping out for Arkham Origins to be added to the collection. I’ll eventually get around to playing Last of Us, and I’ve been tempted, since I’m making a now ridiculous (still a word I can never spell without assistance) game rotation, to just throw Uncharted 4 onto that list so I can go 4, Lost Legacy, to The Last of Us. I read recently Last of Us 2 is slated for February so I should probably make that decision now. Not like it matters, I won’t be getting the sequel anytime close to the game’s release. Plus, now that I got Detroit for free, I’m tempted to wait until they give Last of Us for free so I can return the physical disc to GameStop for credit.
Which, I really am tempted to just get digital copies now. I told Walker Dennis that he can play Lego Movie 1 whenever he wants as we have it digitally and he’s really taken me up on that offer as he’s been playing it for a few nights now. I can’t get him to want to play Lego Marvel Superheroes 2 but I need to get back to that game myself. I did tell him that once we platinum that game, I’ll get him DC Super-Villains, so he’s excited about that. I did tell him it will be a while.
I’ve been sort of regretting now getting Man of Medan digitally but lesson learned.
The only God of War game I own is the remastered III but I really don’t know how I feel about having essentially two games on my trophy list, both of them not platinumed. Though it would be the same case if I ever got Return to Arkham as I already have Asylum and City in my trophy list. Plus, it is a silly reason not to play a game.
. . .
So my game rotation currently looks like this:
Late Shift (three more playthroughs before the Platinum)
Lego Marvel Superheroes 2
Beyond : Two Souls
Sniper Elite 4
Grand Theft Auto V
Yakuza Kiwami
with Dead by Daylight and Rocket League being my chill games that I rotate between. Though lately, I’ve just been playing a full game session with one game. Especially as Dead by Daylight takes so long to match me with other survivors. As a killer, I have no problems getting matched but it be like that sometimes.
Walker and I got a slew of additional trophies in Rocket League but we might be finally getting through all of easily achieved ones and now we’re in the grind. I do want to complete one season to earn three trophies, I just have to commit to doing it.
I tried to get the play online with a friend, after I set up my wife’s account to connect her to the PlayStation Network, but minus Plus. We were able to get one trophy for playing online with a friend on the Championship field but we can’t get the basic play online with a friend, I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong there.
So six games, with one going away in the third round. It is silly and I’m sure two of those will drop off soon too but time will tell.
. . .
Beyond : Two Souls, I got the Master Stealth trophy for completing The Mission without being seen. Such an intense level! It ends very dramatically as well! The next level is Old Friends and I didn’t see any trophies attach, and it might be a short mission too but that is what happens with one mission a round.
Plus, doing it this way, gives me things to write about, so that’s a big win for me!
Seven levels left with maybe an extra level if I have the DLC, I’m not sure if I have it or not.
. . .
For Dead by Daylight, I did get the trophy for Adept Ash and for completing the generator on the steam boat and living to tell about it.
I’m not usually this trophy focus, but I really want to get to rank 16.
So those are the games I’m currently playing. To get GTA V on my PS4, I had to delete Deus Ex : Mankind Divided and Uncanny Valley but that’s okay. I have had those games for a while and I’ll eventually get back to giving them a property play.
East Helena has this great restaurant that we like eating at on Sunday mornings. Our only problem with Main Street Eats is we can’t take home one of their menus nor is there menu on their Facebook page.
https://m.facebook.com/chefwerks/?ref=page_internal&mt_nav=0
So last time we were there, I took these pictures, on the DL.
So not the best quality, sorry about that, but I keep losing these pictures in my phone’s gallery. So I’m making this post for easy access.
If you go, say hello to Linda!
Shadow and Flame with Magik 