Playing Mad Max

Posted by John Klein III on November 14, 2019
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games, Websites. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

I originally got Mad Max for free through PS+ back in April 2018.  That was before I was committing to sampling each game, or I had plans to commit but never got around to it.  If I recall correctly, it was because I was playing another main game and did not not want to start another open world game at that time.

I did play Trackmania Turbo that month and Walker Dennis and I really took to that game.  I eventually got around to playing Q*Bert Rebooted a few months ago.  I have yet to play In Space We Brawl and 99 Vidas, and I sort of forgot I had those games.

Besides knowing Mad Max is a trilogy and the first movie brought Mel Gibson to the world, and the third film gave us the term “Thunderdome,” I do not have any real connection to the film franchise.  I heard the combat was akin to the Batman Arkham games so I knew I could handle that aspect of the game.

I attempted to watch the first movie through the Philo app but Walker Dennis lost interest in it almost immediately so I could not get a proper feel for the movie.  It definitely did not start the way I was expecting but I really need to get a moment to watch the film properly.

.  .  .

Dave from PlayStation Access, with Rob, made this video about the seven things we should do in the game and I have done all of these things!

I was disappointed they did not make more videos regarding the game but while looking for the above video, I found the below video!

So I have to watch this later!

I really like these types of videos that PlayStation Access makes where they take open world games and try to make a complete lap of the map.  That is what I like to do with games like Fallout 3 and 4 and Spider-Man.  Just find the edges and make one full lap and see what happens.  If I ever beat GTAV, I should do it there as well.

.  .  .

While looking over the Double Discount sale that is happening through the PlayStation Store, I saw I already own Mad Max and I was in a mood to start a new game.  Plus, I like to look at the deals and if I see a game I own, but have not played, I like to move that game up the list to play it next.  That is how I rediscovered Q*Bert Rebooted.

Apparently Mad Max is under five dollars, and it is totally worth it at that price!

I simply have been enjoying myself so much during this past weekend where if I could manage it, I was playing the game.  I also was staying up way to late getting side quests and scavenging locations.

I found make a waypoint, and then if I came across anything on my way there, I would allow myself to get crazy distracted and try to eliminate everything on my path.  I would try to at least get one story mission completed more gaming session.

I recently earned the trophy for completing the second act, of five facts, so I am almost half way through the main story.  Trophy wise, I have completed 20% of the game.

As always, I have been using PlayStationTrophies.org when I want to look at trophies :

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/mad-max/guide/

I haven’t gotten stuck until I got to Pink Eye’s stronghold.  I was supposed to expose the barrels of the catapults and I could not figure out how to do that.  It was also past midnight so I might not have been controlling the car’s harpoon well enough.  It kept trying to lock onto people and not the item on the back of the catapult.  So I found out how to do that and spent another 30 minutes liberating the stronghold.

I am playing the game way too much but loving every minute of it!  I had to get the word out on how great the game is!  The characters are great, the driving could be a tad better, but I could also upgrade the tires more too.  I bought one tire upgrade but did not see much improvement but maybe I need to invest in more upgrades.

Speaking of upgrades, I was reminded I read this point months ago (most likely in April 2018) and it did not make as much sense until I started playing it but if you want the V8 as quickly as possible, you should follow CloNe817’s advice here :

The absolute fastest way to get the V-8, within 4 hours of starting the game. A step by step instruction (Spoilers inside) from MadMaxGame

So helpful!  I have already played a bunch before finding my Word document that contained the information but I am going to now do this as roleplaying as Max to get to his car immediately is something I should have already felt compelled to do.  He has been making no secret of his desires so I should be listening to him.

As I have been doing plenty of upgrading, I have decided to do seek out the scrap crew components so that I am earning scrap while not playing the game, so I have to do that for Jeet, Gut Gash, and Pink Eye, then I will start doing the main missions again, while keeping an eye open on side activities to do along the way.

Once I have the scrap crews, I also have to create the Dog and Buggy Project at both Gut Gash and Pink Eye’s strongholds.  I cannot get “Gut Gash” to stick in my head, he is always the other guy in my mind.  I am hoping typing his name so much keeps it a thing in my head.

I want to say I have defeated Rim Jobbie already, as I really wanted a silver or black car, and it was a tough fight but I wish I kept my eye on the actual difficulty of it.  Last night, I realized all of the camps actually have names, as I could not find an insignia at all.

Thanks to YouTuber SporksAreGoodForYou for making such a good video and having a handy time stamp of where the collectibles were.  I needed Insignia # 2 at the Sand Shifter Camp.  I looked everywhere but could not find it over the ledge.  So now I am looking all over the camps now for Insignias that are just off the walking path.

Reading his description, he writes the project piece is for the Survey Crew and not the Scrap Crew, so hopefully he miswrote that as I would have sworn I went to Jeet’s stronghold, found the Scrap Crew table and added all of those locations to my map.  As I rather have the Scrap Crew looking for scrap over having the Survey Crew finding all of the Scavenging locations for me as I am coming across those just find on my own.

I guess I will find out when I grab the third piece tonight.  It needs to be done either way if I want to get the trophy for completing all projects.

There is a glitch trophy, Up to the Task, with the game only registering 190 of the 191 Scavenging locations so I was probably never going to get that trophy anyway, so that frees up my mind of that goal, so I can just play the game.  Looking at the 144 non-repeating challenges (which the 191 is simply one of those), I doubt I would be able to get all of those accomplished so even without the glitch, I would be up against a wall.  The challenges I have done have all been organically achieved by playing the game, and that is my real goal.  I do want enough challenges completed so I can earn the Road Warrior trophy of reaching that rank.  I did waste several Griffa Tokens on other upgrades.  I now know that for every ten challenges, I can upgrade my legend rank, so that is my new focus in terms of leveling.  I would have had to spend all of my tokens before leaving him so the ones I “wasted” would have had to be spent regardless.  So whenever I see that yellow challenge completion bar fill up, I try to stop to see if that was my tenth one or not.

So I am going to create those three scrap crews projects, along with the dog/buggy project, which will count as two projects which is a trophy per stronghold.  Once I have Pink Eye’s scrap crew, I will follow the main mission of going to Deep Friah’s stronghold and progress with the game (and then get their scrap crew up and running).

It takes a while to get even a thousand scraps and there is a trophy for maintaining 5,000 scrap and another for having 10,000 scrap on my person.

I have to upgrade my Thunderpoon as that seems like a super useful car cannon and would help with dealing with the convoys.

I just looked at a picture of Rim Jobbie and I definitely defeated him.

It does appear I will have to get the Wild Hunt car body in Reek Hills in Gut Gash’s stronghold so I will do that before I get back into the main mission.

I imagine the Speed Demon is something I unlock through a race of the main story so that should be all of the prep work I will require.  I have definitely played more than four hours but the trophy guide implies the platinum is 50-75 hours so I have plenty of time to drive in the official Mad Max V8 Interceptor, which I am sure for legal reasons, they had to call it, Wild Hunt.

At some point, I have to build two items for Deep Friah, which one will be the dog/buggy project and the other will be the scrap crew, so once I have access to that stronghold, I will stop the game again to overthrow those three bases to get the parts.

I have already successfully completed two wasteland missions, so I can complete a third one before going back into the main mission.  CloNe817 recommends Hope’s “In the Buzzard’s Belly” and Chum’s “As the Wrench Turns” so I could do those two.

I like that Hope character, she has a kid, and Max seems to like her too.  Hopefully that can end well for everyone involved.

I should probably take steps to upgrade the Thunderpoon as it sounds pretty handy to have, and a few challenges are connected to it as well.

Then as it reads in the V8 guide, it sounds like the game is close to over as well which seems fast with just starting Act III but that could be possible with a slow burn of the first two acts, to then the last three move rapid style.  Though I would not really categorize the story as being slow, at all, it really is moving at a great pace.

I am excited to read about the game, and writing about the game, and it is just an overall great game and it is currently only five dollars and it is definitely worth that price.

I was reading that Mafia III has a similar style and I might just add as my next game to play, or at the very least, sample it.

Just so I have a handy personal guide for my own reference (and to cross off!)

Collect Parts and Build Scrap Crews for : Jeet, Gut Gash, Pink Eye, and eventually, Deep Friah
Build Dog/Buggy projects for Gut Gash and Pink Eye, and eventually Deep Friah
Before moving back to Pink Eye, get the Wild Hunt body out of Gut Gash’s territory
Complete Wasteland Mission : In the Buzzards Belly (Hope)
Complete Wasteland Mission : As the Wrench Turns (Chumbucket)
Upgrade the Thunderpoon to 50%
Start Main Missions Again

Which seems super possible and should not take more than a few hours of prep time.

I keep forgetting to write about how adorable Dinki-Di is in this game!  I think he so named as that is the name of the dog food found in the game and he is the same breed of dog.  I do wish there was a way to pet Dinki-Di in the game, that would be nice, so I have to pretend like rolling into him is petting him with R1.  I also feel super horrible when the buggy gets damaged or rolls over a mine and I have to quick repair the buggy to get rid of all of the fire.

We get him pretty early on, and I wanted to make sure he was okay.  Also early on, something bad happens and I thought we lost him but it turns out he was fine as he is one tough pup.

.  .  .

Quick update and then I will post this article!

Turns out, I have not fought Rim Jobbie, he is a four out of five difficulty, so hopefully I can beat him but he is next on my list.

Also, I did have Dog’s bed already made at Gut Gash’s stronghold, I just overlooked him.  I was only one item away from completing the Scrap Crew so I was able to accomplish that.

I had to float up in three different hot air balloons before finally coming across Rim Jobbie’s base, but I saved my game right at the entrance so this should be a fight!

SporksAreGoodForYou’s video description is completely correct, that was a third of the piece for Jeet’s Scavanger Project as I had already built the Scrap Crew project and did not remember it.

I also spent the 900 scrap to upgrade the Thunderpoon to 25% damage, and I will have to knock down the threat level in Deep Friah’s territory (I believe) before I can upgrade it to 50%.

Turns out, I already owned the Wild Hunt as I let Walker Dennis pick the first car body and it was the one that looked the most like KITT, so that saved me a step.

So I have to successfully beat Rim Jobbie, go to Pink Eye’s stronghold, learn the location of all three of her Scrap Crew components, obtain those components – probably have to take out some camps, I am imagining, complete those two Wasteland Missions, and then I get back into the Main Story again!  Should be great time!

From what I saw on the Speed Demon archangel tab (the name of the fancy cars Chum can make), I have the Jack and I am the majority of the way to the various other cars.  The Speed Demon upgrades all seemed to be scrap that I could afford but the one missing element was Rim Jobbie’s paint job so once I have that, I might be able to drive around with a V6 version of the official Mad Max car!

If all I have to do is take out all of the scarecrows and snipers in The Dump territory, that should not take that long, like 15 minutes tops, so I might as well do that too.

Plus, anything else that comes along like minefield missions and things to destroy.  I need to take on another convoy to see how I fare now that I have a supped up cannon.  I still am not sure how I get additional ammo for it as I started with ten and currently down to six with no idea how I even started with ten.  From what I found through some Steam community forums, ammo for the Thunderpoon is located in scavenging locations and from the armory in strongholds.

I also completed a few more challenges.  Something else I am doing is loading up the Legends tab with each new game session and see what my next five challenges are and be aware of those as I play that night.  I gained two additional levels so I believe I just need one more before I reached another tenth rank and I can find Griffa and unlock the next legend rank and upgrade a slew of other abilities.

No additional trophies for me but I am also pausing the momentum of the game to better prep myself going forward, so I am not expecting to earn any for a few nights as well.

.  .  .

Walker Dennis finally convinced me to play Roblox with him and one of the levels I sought out was a Mad Max one, so now whenever he sees me playing my game, he wants me to play Roblox with him.  Philo finally got the 11th season of Doctor Who again, and our connection to the app works like a dream again, so we have been catching up with the 13th Doctor and I have been really enjoying Jodie Whittaker’s portrayal of the Doctor.  We have two more proper episodes before the New Years Special so I am really looking forward to that special as I heard they finally leaned into the history of the show again.  I have enjoyed how they seem to like filming in actual locations but every other episode is a clear set or enclosed location, like I can feel Production trying to stretch the budget.

He is currently obsess with this Granny mission so if you ever play that mission, you will probably find us in there.  JackalsIII is my name there if you want to add me as a friend.

.  .  .

We also started our subscription to Disney+ as it was only seven dollars and I feel like we already got our moneys worth with all that is already on there.  The Captain America films were there, all three X-Men cartoons are there (The Animated Series, Evolution, and Wolverine and the X-Men), Black Cauldron and Bambi are also on there, and I have been wanting to watch Bambi since finishing those two episodes of Disney Story Origins Podcast.

http://www.disneystoryoriginspodcast.com/

I wanted to listen to the Black Cauldron episodes, as well, but I have not seen the film so once I see that, I can listen to those episodes.  Then I would have heard all of the episodes and it seems he is on another hiatus so that should time out perfectly.

Captain Marvel is also on there, as well as the live action Dumbo (and proper Dumbo), so we have plans galore for watching the heck out of this service.

101 Dalmatians is on there as well, which we wanted to show that film to Walker Dennis when we came across a dalmatian and realized he has not seen so many Disney animated films.  So that is going to change real soon!

The Great Mouse Detective is up there as well!

I was going to choose Captain America or his shield as my profile picture but they did not have Cap, so I had to go with Eeyore and I am pretty happy with the choice.  My wife went with Ariel and Walker Dennis, of course, picked Spider-Man.

I had to go pretty down the list for Eeyore but once I found him, I was so happy to pick him but I am sure the path to get to him would not go unnoticed by him.

oh, and Darkwing Duck is on there as well, so I am pretty happy about this entire investment!

I am glad we did not wait until Falcon and the Winter Soldier debuted, as it is still scheduled for Fall 2020.

Playing Outlast 2 and Nioh

Posted by John Klein III on November 8, 2019
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Thanks to Pac-Man 256 and Burnout Paradise Remastered, I got to PSN Level 17!

Thanks to PlayStation for hosting the trailer!

Pac-Man 256 was a fun game, I got obsessed with it over a course of two nights.  I am committed to the idea that I will never eat 16 ghosts, my record is 12 and that took a lot of work.  Such a fun game though!  It is usually around two dollars but I am sure it will be a dollar again.

I will probably also never get the east 256 dots in a row as there are small empty spaces that really mess up the flow.

.  .  .

Burnout Paradise Remastered was a lot of run.  I have no idea how to access the Cagney DLC and it seems to be overly confusing to me.  I can create races but I cannot create challenges or any other side content.

Thanks to DerfsonicGaming for having such a nice video showcasing the Legendary Cars.

I got the trophies for the legendary cars but along the way, got a slew of other trophies as well.  I will go back to it but I wanted to give the new November games a try.  I do like how the Dukes of Hazard car default is not orange but orange is the very next color option in the customization wheel.

As much as it bugs me that it looks more like the 2008 KITT from that reboot, there is no denying how great that car is in the game.  The DeLorean is amazing with its hover mode and Ecto-1 is a lot of fun too!

I need to get better at the main game or concentrate on the Big Surf Island and have those skills translate to the main game.  Or do a little bit of both.

I really wish there was a way point system in the game as I am having a bit of a problem memorizing the map but I eventually get to where I want to go.

Looking at the trophies, I should be able to earn my B Class License by winning 24 races.  I can start a Road Rage with the pure intentions of going through a repair shop.  I can start a race with the intentions of driving through a gas station (which I thought I have done but must not have) for another trophy.  I should try to get a 180 degree Flatspin but I do not know how to spin while still in the air.  The game could be more clear on the directions as I still have not found a control scheme to figure out any tricks or button layouts.  I should be able to do 10 Road Rules as well and it looks like we get two different trophies for that?  That is pretty nice.

I believe I have unlocked at least three cars so I should do each of those cars’ Burning Routes.  I also need to drive one of these cars through a paint shop to change the color.

Winning 51 total races unlocks the Carson Inferno Van, so that could be another goal.  Then I have to do a Road Rage with the van.

Gosh, there is a trophy for simply inviting a friend to Burnout Paradise that I really should get on top of.  There was a trophy for playing a Freeburn Challenge but there is one for completing it and I am not sure why I did not complete it.  I think I was trying for the Ecto-1 (Manhattan Spirit) trophy of blaring the siren during a challenge but maybe the other person stopped the challenge?  Or I messed up and dropped out of online mode, which is probably what actually happened.  Then there is a trophy for completing 10 Freeburn Challenges.

The game is so open ended that I could just play for hours and enjoy the map or I can have some direction as I go about it.  I will probably take the advice of finishing a race and looking at the map for the next closest race.

I need to find all of the events Paradise City has to offer and find all of the car parks, I believe I have found at least five of the 11.

There are some obvious trophies I should go for like driving 750 miles, that once I have, I can reevaluate where I am in the game.  I also have to ride for 50 miles on a bike, so that should be easy enough to do.

Oh, I see what the problem with the Cagney Update is.  I have to be the room creator to create an Online Stunt Run and I am trying to create the mode when no one else is in my lobby.  That must be what is happening.  I will definitely try again.  I just need to trick someone into joining my lobby.

I am probably never going to get the “meet at the stadium” trophy as I do not even know where that is!

The Party Round DLC is probably also beyond me.

I will also have to play around with the online Cops and Robbers DLC to see if I can even do any of those.

I simply like having trophy goals for the sheer direction it provides.

Finally, there are the Big Surf Island Trophies.

I should still be able to smash 15 total billboards (of the 45) and land 5 mega jumps (though I am sure I have failed most that I have attempted thus far).  At the very least, I should be able to find all of the events on the big island.

.  .  .

Thanks to Markiplier for hosting the video.

I am embarrass to write this but I only made it to the 23 minute segment of Mark’s video.  Now that I see I am close to finishing the chapter, I should try again but I wanted to play until I died.

Outlast 2 is not for me, I am pretty sure of this.  I was enjoying it until I got hit for the very first time.  I thought for sure there would be some dialogue or something between me and the town folk, to set up the threat but that did not happen.  There was a tall cloaked figure and the just hit me and kept on moving.  Then I got to the segment with two guys citing religious dialogue and got straight murdered.  At least I got respawned closed by.

I probably played for 45 minutes, I wanted to earn some trophies so I ran the microphone feature on the camera as I crawled around and got two trophies from that and felt like I experienced the game.

.  .  .

Nioh, on the other hand, is more my type of game.  I was no good at Bloodborne, and felt like I was just being punished for being no good at it.  Nioh is very similar but has one important difference.  The stuff you die with, you keep when you respawn.  Which is really all I need.  I would die and then just learn to parry and to wait for their attack and then swoop in and attack them.  I went with the dual swords (like Leonardo!) and battle axe (mostly for Elle from PlayStation Access) and I am really enjoying my time in the game.  I escaped the Tower of London, and completed the tutorial.  I am currently in the first area and I am learning to appreciate the prayer shrine but I do not have to keep going back to it in order to secure my items.  I am currently at level 6, and I know there is a trophy for getting to level 10.  I already got my first trophy for escaping the Tower of London but I think I will keep playing until I hit a real wall.

That wall may just be Onryoki, the game’s second boss.

Thanks to PrimaGamesVideo for hosting the tutorial.

I could get to the second stage of the fight but then nerves got the better of me, plus it was thirty minutes pass midnight, so that was not helping.  I am currently level eight so my plan is to run around, build up my spirit animal (Kato, the fire fox), level up to nine, and then take him on again.  If that does not work, level up to ten, and try again.  I am hoping the two stat increases help with the boss fight but worst case, I earn a second trophy and I realize I am not quite ready for Nioh.

I have been thinking of picking Bloodborne up again, now that I think I understand the game play mechanics.  I know I was giving the 100% run way too much thought and I should just play the game.

.  .  .

Walker Dennis has been really wanting to play Lego Movie 2 again, and he bounces between that game and Lego Dimensions.  Watching him playing made me want to play Lego Marvel Superheroes 2 again and we were so close to beating the main story that it was silly to keep putting it off.  So I essentially abandoned my goal to keep playing Rocket League for the Strangers Things event, and dedicated last weekend to playing LMSH2.

We finished the main storyline, completed another Gwenpool mission, and the Guardians of the Galaxy DLC, along with several races and side adventures.  I keep thinking of not going for the platinum but we have the platinum for the other two games but it seems like so much work!  I am committed to earning all of the DLC trophies and I will see how I feel about the grind at that point.  I will also commit to getting the Gwenpool missions completed as well.  Those side activities can be a bit of a pain but that is why I am trying to space those out between bigger tasks but looking for small statues can feel pretty defeating when I cannot find them easily but there are not that many of those types of collectibles.  I will eventually get everything.  In fact, I am pretty sure that is what inspired me to create a rotation system to begin with, it break up all of those small activities.

I think Walker Dennis is trying to tell me he wants to play a new Lego game and we really should look into Lego DC Super Villains now that the deluxe version has come way down in price and is usually $40 instead of $75.

.  .  .

I still have plans of starting Uncharted 4 and this all might time out nicely towards the end of the month, pending on how LMSH2 goes.  I have to give some thought to a new game rotation and see what excites me.  Here is what I am thinking now :

Nioh, but probably not for much longer
LMSH2, for the DLC and Gwenpool missions, for sure.
Pac-Man 256, I sort of do want to unlock all of the powerups and I can catch up on all of my podcasts while doing it, which could be a nice relaxing game night.
Burnout Paradise Remastered, I am glad I was making this list as I had already moved on in my mind but I would not mind trying to get a few more trophies with this game too.  I think, besides the Cagney trophies, I have all of the DLC ones I am going to get but maybe the more I play, the more the game opens up as well.
Uncharted 4, maybe?
I would not mind starting Sniper Elite 4 as I do enjoy my time with the game, every single time.  My last mission I failed to do one of the main objectives as I should have read the description for the airplane bombing better as the mission was over after that.  I thought I could lay waste to the place and then do the final objective but it makes sense that was not an option.  So I sort of want to redo that mission.

So five games, that could really work.  Two of those games will be fun relaxing games, which is something to look forward too.  Sniper Elite 4, I have a personal problem stopping the game at a reasonable time and splitting the gameplay into two night sessions, but that is completely on me.

November 2019 Free PS Plus Games

Posted by John Klein III on October 31, 2019
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games, Websites. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

The November 2019 Free PS Plus Games are : Nioh and Outlast 2!

Nioh 2 is coming out sometime next year so it makes sense to put the first game out for free to build interest.

Outlast 3 has been confirmed.  This probably makes sense coming out of Halloween and is more of a horror game than The Last of Us.

I have not heard much about Nioh besides it being an amazing game in the same genre as the Soulbourne games.  Outlast is a very scary game series.  I like how Outlast 2 takes place in Arizona, I wonder if it is a fake Arizona town.  I will find out on November 5th.  I might start with Outlast 2 over Nioh but I am not sure how far I will get in either game.

.  .  .

Reddit seems pretty happy with the selections :

[Video] PlayStation Plus Games for November 2019: Ni-Oh and Outlast 2 from PS4

PS+ Games for November 2019: Nioh & Outlast 2 from PlayStationPlus

.  .  .

Nioh is a $20 game now that it is part of the PlayStation Hits line.

Nioh 2 is going to be $60 and can be preordered now through the PlayStation Store.  The game will come out in 132 days.  There is also a DIgital Deluxe Edition for $80.

There are three avatars, each for 49 cents.  Okatsu, William (the main character), and Hanzo.

There is a static theme for three dollars.

A Season Pass for $25 and a Complete Edition of the game for $50.

I have the SHAREfactory theme which is free and the Yokai Static Theme that is also free that I will be using as my theme while playing the game.

There are three DLC Chapters.

Dragon of the North ($10)
Defiant Honor ($10)
Bloodshed’s End ($10)

So the Season Pass seems to be a pretty good deal at a savings of five dollars.

PSPrices states Nioh has gone as low as $15.99.

Outlast 2 is $30, and right now the PlayStation Store is offering it for $7.49, so hopefully no one buys the game at that price this week!

There is DLC for the game.  PSPrices states $7.49 is the lowest it has been.

So best way, the two games are worth $50 together or at their lowest, $24.

Nioh came out on February 7, 2017 and Outlast 2 came out on April 25, 2017 – so both games came out months apart and within 2017.

.  .  .

PlayStationTrophies.org has excellent guides for both games :

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/nioh/guide/

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/outlast-2/guide/

.  .  .

Here are the thoughts from my usual peeps :

Elle with PlayStation Access :

Adam with PlayStation Grenade :

Ben with Platinum Chasers :

.  .  .

So I am pretty excited about these games!  If I take to Outlast, I might look into getting the first game but I imagine the second one will be enough for me as it is a stand alone story.

.  .  .

I finally beat the first boss who is on the 10th floor of Let It Die.  I ran out of my free lives and had to buy ten additional lives for only a dollar, which seemed decent enough, so I bought my first trophy but at least I am done with that game.  I might come back to it one of these days and get the broken equipment trophy.  If I attempt that, I will just start with the first floor and work my way up.  Those dman flying drill robots really kill my buzz as they take so much of my health and I am not good with countering them. Fun game though with lots to do but I was mainly focus on getting that first boss fight under wraps.

.  .  .

I also gave Deus Ex Mankind Divided a proper chance.  I wanted to get pass the helicopter section but I cannot figure out what am I supposed to do there.  Am I supposed to take out all of the enemies and then concentrate on the helicopter?  I need to look it up.  I got the trophy for doing all of the tutorials (which I did not know there was a trophy for) and then got stumped by the helicopter section.  But I stopped so I could jump into Let It Die as I knew that was going to be a longer commitment.  Apparently there is a trophy for inputting 0451 into the very first keypad so whenever I go back to the game, I might as well start over to get that trophy as I am only like 30 minutes into the game and that will go faster now that I am more familiar with the controls.  I really do like how simple the stealth takedowns are done with pressing circle and those can become death takedowns if we hold circle down.  I am going to attempt a non-lethal playthrough.  I do wish there was a simple punch option as I was standing in front of the helicopter with no way to attack it as I was all out of ammo with my stun gun.  I had picked up other guns but I cannot figure out how to switch weapons while avoiding the enemies attacking me.

.  .  .

I had such big plans to end the month with Man of Medan but then I saw Rocket League was doing a Halloween event, Haunted Hallows.

Thanks to Rocket League for hosting their own video.

I have been seeing it advertised but I did not know it was a Stranger Things event.  Finding the above video, I see this is an annual event.

I earned the spider crawling animation and I plan on getting the leaf exhaustion and wood tires so I have to compete in 27 matches to earn those two items and I think I should be able to do that before the end of the event.

Then I will probably put the game away until their next event, if anything catches my eye that time around.  I am sure something will be worth a few games.  I do like how freely they are adding out pumpkins, every match has at least ten pumpkins to go towards the prize items.  I have plenty of time as the event ends on November 11.

.  .  .

Once Burnout Paradise Remastered goes on sale (hopefully prior to the end of November, or I will just wait to see if it becomes the free December game) for six dollars, I am still committed to buying that game.

.  .  .

Have a Happy and Safe Halloween!  Walker Dennis is going to be Spider-Man this year!

Playing Limbo and Inside

Posted by John Klein III on October 28, 2019
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

My quest to continue playing horror games in Spooktober has been continuing quite nicely!

I played PLAYDEAD’s Limbo and Inside.  I 100% Inside thanks to Maka91Productions’ excellent walkthrough!

After my frustrations with my complete reliance on YouTube guides for Limbo (I was quite a few different ones), I found a Complete Guide for Inside and just decided to do the entire thing along side with Maka.  I got stuck on the very first mind control section and in his commentary, he metioned “another secret location” and I had found one on my own but had missed three prior.  So I just started all over and I saw his video was nearly two hours so I spent the bulk of my Sunday playing the game.

Maka made a reference to following him and I figured by that point in the video, I really should.

Inside feels like Limbo’s cool older brother (though I suppose it is Limbo’s younger brother).  The graphics are mutlicolored and the adventure feels very streamlined.  There are puzzles but they did not seem as confusing as Limbo’s.

I just generally liked Inside more, which might explain why the title comes first on the box art.

Limbo, once I started thinking about writing this post, I committed to just using one person’s walkthroughs.

I used KillerSnowTiger’s videos towards the end.  I started with Chapter 32 but I am sure I needed help starting with Chapter 28.  I was just getting frustrated and it was annoying me that I needed as much help as I did.  But I got through it and I am glad I committed to playing Inside as I would have missed out on a very terrific game.

So for my money : Inside > Limbo.

Inside’s ending sequence is something else!

.  .  .

Typing about giving up, I had to stop playing Darksiders Warmastered as I could not defeat, or come close at all, Tiamat.  Most of the advice I read essentially boiled down to, upgrade your sword.  Which I no longer have as an option.  I might try it again once the feeling strikes me but I think I am ready to tackle Darksiders II again as I get the mechanics a little better now.

Here is how MrBooza23 did it.

I see most people did the fight in under 11 minutes so maybe I should try to get gud and attempt it again.  I was having a great time leading up to this fight but I tried for an entire hour and was making no progress so that just felt defeating and I have plenty of games that I can play.

I suppose I could also lower the difficulty (I think?) and get pass it that way too but that doesn’t feel great to do.

.  .  .

I committed to playing Dead by Daylight after seriously thinking of counting the DLCs I have bought as a lost but I had such a great time that I am going to really start playing it more again.  I was actually doing pretty great and was getting matched with very helpful survivors.  Heck, I even earned a trophy!  The Adept Dwight one!  I also made progress in other trophies, so I am here again!  Only a few times did the connection get lost and then it claimed it was continuing to search but it seemed like the game was just frozen as it would not let me cancel out.

PSPrices informed me Dead by Daylight was having a massive sale (excluding the Stranger Things DLC – once this is under ten dollars, I am buying it!) so I bought the Curtain Call DLC.

Thanks to DeadByDaylight for hosting their own video!

Of course, I have not played as The Clown nor Kate but I have them so that’s pretty nice.

During those nights I was playing, I only accomplished two of my dailies.  Unhook four survivors as Dwight and mow down four survivors as the Cannibal.  I could not manage to open an exit as Ash.  I was super close but the Spirit took out the gal behind me and then took me out.  I thought I had enough time to at least trigger the exit doors to open but I should have ran off instead and came back but I was obsessed.

My main goal right now, as I keep having to use Ash, is to locate the basement and open the chest down there.  I believe I have done it at least ten times so twenty more and I get a trophy.  Which all leads to the Open 100 Chests trophy so I might as well target the basement first, so then I know I have at least 30.

.  .  .

I completed the first episode of Life is Strange.  I know the series gets more suspenseful but it did not quite feel spooky enough for me so I will attempt it some more later.  It does take place prior to Halloween so it is at least in season.

.  .  .

The game I am currently committed to playing Let It Die, which is a free game.  I am currently at Level 10 but barely made it to the second floor.  I am taking the coward’s way of being notified I have leveled up and then running back to The Waiting Room and using my points to officially level up and take the elevator back to where I was.  Once I get my first trophy, I will probably move on to a different game but it has been pretty fun.

.  .  .

I found an excellent Claire Extended text walkthrough but then I died and I have no idea how to get from where I was to the last save point so I am done with that game.  I had several trophies but I already knew the game was not for me but it pretty interesting.

.  .  .

My plan is to get a trophy in Let It Die and then end the month with Man of Medan and making all Head decisions so that will be my final game.

I was looking through the Halloween Sale and saw Deus Ex : Mankind Divided and I thought I could sneak that in either before Man of Medan or right afterwards.  That is another game that I will commit to getting the first trophy and probably put the game away for a while.

We are only two days away from being told what the November Free Games are!  I am so excited!  If Burnout Paradise Remastered is not one of the games, I am going to buy it as soon as it is six dollars again!

Uncanny Valley

Posted by John Klein III on October 16, 2019
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games, Websites. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I got Uncanny Valley as a free game in January 2018, in my second month with my PS+ subscription.

I meant to play it a few months ago but I did not do that.  I was looking through the deals (prior to the Halloween deal that is currently happening right now, more on that below!) and came across Uncanny Valley and I immediately decided to redownload it to my PS4.

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/forum/uncanny-valley/305296-uncanny-valley-100-trophy-walkthrough.html [playstationtrophies.org

I essentially faithfully followed Velvet’s 100% Walkthrough over at the PlayStationTrophies.org forum.  Essentially as I did foul up the Charm trophy as I completely missed two big steps.

The game is relatively fast, with one playthrough barely taking an hour but I bet it is faster if you have the guide printed out and can cross off as you go.

The game’s plot does seem all over the place and I am not entirely sure I got it and I did it four times but I enjoyed my time with it.

As I was about to start my third playthrough, I realized the game did not have a Platinum attached to it, which killed some of my buzz but I powered through that silliness and kept going.

.  .  .

I got a notification that Darksiders 1 Warmastered Edition was only four dollars so I quickly bought that as I now own all three Darkriders games.  There is a fourth one coming out, like a side sequel from what I understand about it.  II was free my first month of PS+and III was just free in September.

.  .  .

Also on the Halloween Sale is all of the Life is Strange episodes, and I have that game on disc so I gave that a try.  I completed the first chapter, of five, and captured all of the additional photos.  Not a bad game, I liked playing it.  I know the story eventually gets intense and the story itself takes place leading up to Halloween, just like Batman : Arkham Knight, now that I think about it.

I started the game while waiting for Darksiders 1 to load, which again, I had to delete several games off of my PS4 so I really need to start looking into either deleting some of the bigger games on there that I plan to eventually get back to or Walker Dennis really enjoys still goofing around in such as Arkham Knight or Spider-Man.

.  .  .

As I was stumbling into another game rotation, I finally played SOMA enough to earn the Plan B trophy.  That section was pretty intense and I started working towards the Killed the Dream I Dreamed trophy but the game saved and I saw my chance to try other games.  I forgot how intense the game could get.

.  .  .

So from SOMA, I went straight into Man of Medan.  Such a good game!  I liked playing with the direction to make all Heart choices.  I read it was going to be a shorter playthrough but it didn’t play like that.  Everyone lived until Julia died at the end from decompression during the credits.  I played on Party Mode and with the Curator’s Cut, which some things felt different but I am not sure if that was due to the choices I was making or the Curator’s Cut.  I will play again but only making Head choices in my next playthrough.

.  .  .

While trying to figure out if I could get a PS4 controller to sync with my phone, and I cannot, I asked reddit for any game suggestions that works well with the onscreen buttons.  Games that are slow and maybe not require using the sticks.

One game that was recommended was Prominence Poker.  It was a free game and I remember enjoying watching Bravo’s Celebrity Poker, so I am familiar with how to play and some strategies.

It being free was the real selling point, free and with a proper trophy list.

I got a slew of trophies too!  It did not work as great on my phone as it really does require the left stick but there is enough time to make the stick point in the general direction I want it to be.  What ended up happening the most was I was raising the bets too high.  Games also take a long time to complete, which makes sense but at a few different points, I was just going All In so that I could end the games quicker.  I won hands but ended up losing the four games I attempted to play.

I got 20% of the trophies in relative no time.  I completed a Challenge (there are many challenges), I went All In without looking at my cards, I completed the Tutorial, I bought 10 outfits, and I played one Ranked game, and I made a male character based on myself and then a female character based on my lovely wife, and just committed to playing as my wife, which I usually play female characters, if given the choice.

.  .  .

I also attempted playing Dauntless, another free game, but without that many trophies.  I earned the Craft Services trophy, for building a weapon out of a Behemoths – the general name for their giant monsters.  I was pretty committed to playing as my female slayer (again, based off of my wife), until my entire squad died and then I was ready to play some horror games.

It was a pretty fun game, with plenty to do, almost too much to do, but it was all laid out on how to do it all.

.  .  .

I keep getting the feeling to play Dead by Daylight and I am not sure what is really keeping me from doing it.  Mostly, it is not wanting to lose my place in another game, but then I keep getting to great stopping points but then I load another game.

Dave from PlayStation Access, attempted a second round of The Last of Us on Grounded Mode and I am even more convinced to not attempt to try that.  I do want to do a proper Normal + and I think that would transition nicely into an Uncharted 4 playthrough, so I might plan on that closer to the end of the month.

Playing MLB The Show 19 and One Night Stand

Posted by John Klein III on October 11, 2019
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games, Websites. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Plus, a slew of other games!  I have been in a real gaming mood as of late!

I gave MLB The Show 19 a fair shot.  I had a pretty fun time with the few days I decided to play the game.  I finally got decent with hitting the ball but I can’t seem to hit it in a way that causes the outfield to not catch the ball.  The only time I can go to the bases is when I hit a home run which I was able to do twice.  I was going to commit until I made it to the Arizona Diamonds, and I might bounce back to it but I sort of got in the mood to play a slew of other games.  I was able to create a character, and I made him from overseas, so that was two trophies right there.  During training, I played an entire game without skipping anything so that was another trophy.  During my season, I tried my best at a challenge but failed that so I got a trophy for failing which I figured I would do.  So I am currently at 14% progress rate in terms of trophies, so that felt pretty rewarding.  Maybe once I get pass a few other games, I will come back to this.

.  .  .

One of the games I got was flower for the PS4.  Buying it gave me versions for PS3 and the Vita, which was nice.  I bought it has it was under four dollars and I thought it was one of the free games already.  What I was thinking of Journey, also created by Thatgamecompany.  So look forward to flower being one of the free games in November!  I could see that being the case if we were still getting PS3/Vita games but I cannot imagine them giving flower away with only one other game.

I am missing four trophies for the 100% (but not Platinum, so the pressure is off) and those are that I did not bloom 10,000 flowers, I did not brighten all of level 6’s city, I got hurt a bunch in 5 when we cannot get hurt even once, and missed maybe a few names towards the end of the Credits (and bonus level) as I thought I had time to turn around.  I might try to get the credits completed and bloom 10,000 flowers at the same time but I did not care for 5 and 6.  All of the other levels, I could easily go around their maps but 6’s highway forces us to go at high speeds and only once I did accidentally get back to the start of the level and could not recreate it so I am done with those two levels.  71% is not too bad for that game.

.  .  .

https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/8/20904351/sony-ps5-playstation-5-confirmed-haptic-feedback-features-release-date-2020

Earlier in the week, the PS5 got announced for Holiday 2020.  I keep seeing people write that it will be Christmas 2020 but there is no way it is not in stores by Black Friday 2020, so get your calendars ready for November 27, 2020, if you will be one of the Day One owners.  Even if it was only $300, I do not see us owning one until maybe 2021, at the earliest.  I see most people speculating that it will most likely be $400 for the basic model and $500 for whatever the Pro or larger memory drive is.  $500 seems reasonable and I love how they are so forth coming with all PS4 discs and digital copies will work on the PS5 right out of the box, which is nice.  I also like the idea of how the controller is going to be slightly heavier with more tricks to it, such as when driving a racing game, you can tell once you are on a smooth surface and when you move to a more bumpy surface, like dirt and such.

So I am mostly looking forward to getting PS5 games through the PS+ subscription program.  So once we get that system, we would have a slew of (I am sure) basic or indie games for the system.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Instant_Game_Collection_games_(North_America)

Back in October 2013, the first few games for the PS4 through PS+ were : Hotline Miami, Contrast, and Resogun.

People rave about Resogun and Hotline Miami but I do not believe I have heard much about Contrast.

The next three games were : Don’t Starve, Outlast, and Dead Nation : Apocalypse Edition and I’m familiar with Dead Nation and I have heard of great things regarding Don’t Starve and Outlast.

Even the next two games, Thomas Was Alone and Mercenary Kings, well, I have never heard of the second one, but Thomas Was Alone looks interesting.  These have been the games from October 2013 to May 2014.

There are other noteworthy games but we do not get to a blockbuster game until December 2014’s Injustice : Gods Among Us – Ultimate Edition, for the PS4.

I am also looking forward to the big name titles of PS4 to start being free through PS+ as we are already sort of in that era now with Detroit : Become Human, Batman : Arkham Knight, and The Last of Us Remastered (more on that below!).

I have already committed to never buying Horizon Zero Dawn and Witcher III, as those will become free eventually, I imagine.

I have already committed to buying Burnout Paradise Remastered if it is not listed as a free game in November.  I had no idea that game has Ecto-1, the DeLorean, and 2008 KITT!  Plus the Dukes of Hazzard car too but I am not as attach to that one.

I wanted to avoid what happened with Rocket League (where I could not figure out how to change cars) so I asked on reddit, and burninrubber0 was nice enough to explain that, once I can control a car, if I simply turn around and go back into the junkyard, I can swap cars out immediately.  Which is great news!  The game is routinely five dollars through Plus, so once it is not one of the free games (it is often guessed that it will be) in November and is five dollars again, I will buy it immediately.  I just have a few light caveats first.

.  .  .

I would just buy it now but I already bought two games this month.

The second game was also only four dollars and earned me my 25th Platinum!

JazalGoldmane posted in the Trophies subreddit that he earned the platinum for One Night Stand I really took to the art style of the trophy.

Developed by Kinmoku, the game follows a dude who wakes up and tries to piece together the previous night.

It was a fun game and it took me two gaming sessions and two guides to get all 12 endings.

These were the two guides I used :

https://knoef.info/trophy-guides/ps4-guides/one-night-stand-trophy-guide/ [knoef.info

http://ps3imports.org/forum/index.php?/topic/10511-one-night-stand-trophy-guide-walkthrough/ [ps3imports.org

They were written just different enough that I started with knoef and moved to ps3imports

I was going to do a bigger game for my 25th trophy, or at least, make a special effort to make 25 be special to me but I guess I will hold out until Platinum # 50 to try to do it up.  I still cannot believe I have 25!

.   .   .

PlayStation Access’ Elle presented a second patch of free games currently available on PS4.

I already played and adored Fallout Shelter but I had no idea of Star Trek Online was a free game!

I created my wife, as I often do when it comes to creating a character (more on that below!), so I made her a Federal officer but not from The Original Series but the newer Trek (but not from the relaunch – so confusing!).

The game takes place 30 years after Star Trek : Nemesis, the last The Next Generation film.

I am never going to spend money on the game but I was tempted to in order to get my wife a TNG style uniform from the series and also to get the classic dress outfit from TOS.  But to get both of those, I will need 2200 in-game dollars and they want ten real dollars for only 1000 in-game dollars which does not seem worth it.  It also killed my buzz over playing more.  The uniform she has now is styled along the lines of Deep Space 9 and the TNG later films with the black body and gray shoulders and color appropriate shirt.

I typed all of that when I realized I could just use a photo.

I also earned my first trophy, Lieutenant, for completing the tutorial and now I am ready to pause this game and try other games again.

.   .   .

One of the other games they recommended was Destiny 2 so I gave that a shot as well.  By creating one character of each class Titan (my wife), (Hunter, Walker Dennis), and Warlock (me), I got a gold trophy for each, which was great.  For completing the opening section the very first time, I got a trophy for that as well.  I might come back to this game at one point but I liked it for the most part.

Another free game is The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, which decisions made here carry over to Life is Strange 2 but I do not own that game (I have 1 and the Prequel) so one I get 2, I will play Captain Spirit.

From the original list, I only played FortNite and Warframe.  Warframe has trophies and FortNite’s battle royal does not.  I actually liked Warframe but I only played for an hour and should spend more time with it.

.  .  .

This is a long way around of me typing that I have not played any scary games thus far in October.

So I made a point of finally finishing The Last of Us’ Left Behind DLC.  That got intense towards the end!  I was right outside of where Ellie was keeping Joel safe, I figured this was the last stand and so I used all of my arrows and pretty much all of my bullets as I was going to go out in style.  There was a pause, Ellie said the coast was clear, and then three more guys showed up.  I took out two of them and then the Infected started showing up.  It was pretty fun earlier making the Infected fight the hunters and then I was on clean up so I did that again here and only had a Clicker and maybe one other Infected but I was pretty nervous.  Then the flashback, I knew was going to be intense on an emotional level but I was still just thinking about the additional battle I was still coming off of.

I played on Normal and how intense that final exchange was and how I am not ready for a Grounded mode just yet.  I was no good at that fighting game, I attempted it three times but that trophy is just beyond me.  I lost the first round of the water gun fight so I thought I was not going to get the Skillz trophy but I want two out of three and that was good enough.  I missed an additional conversation somewhere so I did not get that trophy but I did find all of the collectibles so that was nice.

.  .  .

I keep wanting to play some Dead by Daylight, especially as I bought the Head Case cosmetic DLC and Ghostface and then proceeded to not playing the game for a solid month, but I do not feel like I am done with the game, I just have to get excited enough to start it again.

Maybe once I get myself prepared to attempt SOMA, I think that is what I want to tackle next.  I am pretty much mentally prepared to just start going towards the Plan B trophy (which is also where I am at in the story) while having a YouTube video playing in front of me.  All of SOMA’s trophies are story related except for the one missable trophy.  There is no platinum but I would like to 100% the game and I am nowhere near the place of missing Endangered Species but since it is the one missable trophy, I am hyper aware of not wanting to miss it.  So once I finally earn that, I will probably try to relax to the end of the story.

I also am getting ready to play my second playthrough of Man of Medan.  I will be faking a party mode (which just seems sad but I am ready for it), and making only heart choices, plus playing the Curator’s mode.  Once I start this game, I will just follow it all the way through to the end, so that is why I want to get ready for it.  Play some quicker games before I commit a week to playing a longer game.  So I want to do at least a few nights of Dead by Daylight but that desire might be holding me back to playing other games.

Another thing holding me back is that I keep wanting to play Uncharted 4, so I might make that my November game to tackle.

.  .  .

On October 7, PS4 got Update 7.00 and now Android users can play the PS4 using Remote Play!  Which for One Night Stand, really was pretty nice.  Which is all I have been wanting, well, I have been wanting a Vita but this is pretty close.  I have to play with my phone vertically so it is a nice screen with the phone’s version of the controller.

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/tech/guides/ps4-android-remote-play-how-20552097

I am going to have to use this website’s instructions so I can pair the controller to my phone and then I can play with the phone horizontally and get the most out of the screen and the new app.

So I am very excited as I may no longer need to feel envious of my wife as she gets to play her mobile games while watching TV while I wish I could Remote Play PS4 games while also watching TV.  I might be able to sit through more shows even!

Seems pretty simple to pair the controller to my phone, I just have to wait a couple hours to be able to really sit down and do it.  I can already envision having to charge both my phone and controller a lot more now but I am already doing that so it is not too much of a hassle.

So maybe I can play some other games, I just have to be mindful of which games I play as there are shows like The Voice (that I already gave up on, at least the Blinds portion) and Dancing with the Stars, that I want to be able to look up and watch the actual TV for, plus be mindful of anything my wife says but I will test it out and see how it all works.  I am pretty excited about this!  It is going to be a real Game Changer by Rachel Reid.

Man of Medan Part Five

Posted by John Klein III on September 30, 2019
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

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.

October 2019 Free PS Plus Games

Posted by John Klein III on September 27, 2019
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games, Websites. Tagged: , , , , . 1 Comment

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.

PSN Profiles has a pretty great trophy guide :

https://psnprofiles.com/guide/8798-mlb-the-show-19-trophy-guide

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.

PlayStation Plus Free Games for October: The Last of Us Remastered, MLB The Show 20 from PS4

October Ps Plus Free Games from PlayStationPlus

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.

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/the-last-of-us-remastered/guide/.

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.

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/murdered-soul-suspect-ps4/guide/

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.

I am using this guide from GameFAQs.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/xboxone/761114-murdered-soul-suspect/faqs/69443/collectibles

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.

Man of Medan Part Three

Posted by John Klein III on September 22, 2019
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

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.