Thanks to PlayStation for hosting the trailer for this game!
I’m obsessed with adding all the games I’ve ever wanted onto my wishlist on psprices.com. The other day I was trying to remember two other games I really wanted to play on the PS4 and one of them was modern takes on Chrono Trigger. That game turned out to be I Am Setsuna, which is still roughly a $40 game. As I was looking for that title, I kept seeing people recommend Cosmic Star Heroine. Setsuna gets the emotional weight of Chrono Trigger but Cosmic Star Heroine picks up the game mechanics and such from Chrono Trigger and Phantasy Star. Which I’ve heard of Phantasy Star but never played it but I was tempted by the Chrono Trigger inspiration.
So I am Setsuna was still an expensive game but when I looked up Cosmic Star Heroine, it was only three dollars! Down from $15. Which I’m in a real, buy any three dollar game I come across.
Which I did end up buying Atomic Ninjas for the Vita, as it was also $2.99, it will be a game I can never play but at least I have that peace of mind that I’m getting those six games I foolishly missed out on, so that’s nice.
Cosmic Star Heroine was only three dollars, but I still didn’t want to buy a game I would later regret purchasing. I read several subreddit threads regarding the game and those who loved it, love it (naturally), and those who didn’t like it, didn’t stick with it or liked Chrono Trigger so much that this game was a pale imitation of the older game. So I wasn’t sure so I kept reading more reviews.
I kept reading about how complicated the battle mechanic is. There are moves you can only use once, and once those moves are all used, you have to take a rest action and that restores those moves. Each character gets at least one move which they can keep using, but it is a weaker move.
I read how fun the game can be. So I reached out to someone who I know loves JRPGs, and that was Rob of PlayStation Access.
@rob_pearson86 ever play Cosmic Star Heroine? It is only $3 in the store but I'm reading mixed reviews. I need something to fill the #ChronoTrigger shaped hole in my heart. Thanks!
I was not expecting Robert Boyd to respond to my tweet! Cosmic Star Heroine is created by Zeboyd Games, a two man game creating team. The other man is Bill Stiernberg and they made Cthulhu Saves the World and two Penny Arcade games.
So he reach out, which I feel bad I didn’t hashtag his game like I hashtagged Chrono Trigger. I have to live with that.
I bought it, couldn’t play it for a night and then was able to get to the two hour mark. I did the opening sequence, got to our spaceship, went to the first planet, Rhomu, and now have returned to the spaceship. I have the main character, Alyssa, her buddy, Chahn, and our tech guy, Dave.
I also did a search of the game’s trophies and found this great guide from PlayStationTrophies.org:
So all of those missable trophies bum me out as I’m trying to make sure I don’t look at it too much but I also don’t want to miss a trophy either. Reading the guide’s introduction, I found out there isn’t any post game stuff, so that’s pretty disappointing too. So everything has to be done before the final battle as there is no free roam. At least the game tells you to make a backup file so that’s nice. The game’s hints are very funny and really adds to the overall impression.
The game is roughly 15 hours and that seems to be at the game’s longest. I’m also not playing on the hardest mode but the second one, which seems to be Normal (Heroine) and I’m liking it. Hard mode is Super Spy and then there is the hardest mode.
There is a trophy for doing the first fight on the highest difficulty but the game is nice enough to make it so you can change that setting at any time so I went from the highest of four to the second one, which feels like Normal. There are not any other trophies that involve beating the game on any particular difficulty.
Overall, I’ve been enjoying my short time with the game, I do feel the itch to get back to my other games those games are not going anywhere at the moment.
. . .
I feel pretty satisfied with my time with Peggle 2, I got all of the trophies I figure I was going to get. I attempted some more additional trials but those trophies are an all or nothing situation. I was hoping to get the trophy of beating a level with more than 12 balls but it is complicated to even get that to work much less at the very beginning of the level. I can do it in a trial but the game doesn’t count trails or multiplayer.
I have the game so I can go back and play it whenever I would like. Which I might just make it a game I chill with after a session. I like how it doesn’t take long at all to load before I can start playing. Unlike Lego Movie 2 that has a ridiculous (a word I can never spell on my own), that has a two minute loading sequence, you have to press X to continue the game, press X to accept the notification to not turn off the game when you see Unikitty’s face, and all of that lead another two minute loading sequence as we see Emmet falling into whatever level you want. So before you turn off the game, make sure you are in the world you want to be. A couple times, we will land and realized we were done and had to jump to another planet and another two minute sequence. It just adds up and it kills my buzz when I think about starting the game after playing another one. There is a total of four X presses but I can’t think of what the other two are. X to continue, maybe another X to confirm the save file (of which is there is only one), Unikitty’s face and not to turn off the system, and maybe just another X to confirm we’ve read the message?
Which, we are on our final planet, the Classic Bricksburg from Movie 1, we just started it. We got Movie 1 Lucy so we officially have all of the characters. We just have to get the 25 purple bricks of the world, some are behind quests and others are just floating about. From there, we have to finish the Syspocalypsestar planet, which should be fun to build 20 buildings and do all of those quests. I’m curious to see what it all looks like as we’ll be putting the buildings down ourselves so everyone’s Syspoclypsestar should look different.
We’ve just been so busy that we haven’t had a chance to play in a couple nights.
. . .
I’m excited to find out what the free games in April 2019 are going to be through the PS Plus! We’re getting close to the end of the month!
I’ve given Call of Duty : Modern Warfare Remastered and The Witness a try. I enjoyed MWR more than I did The Witness but I may not have given The Witness its fair due. I got three puzzles in (and did the Easter egg was connecting the Sun and the gate) but then I was lost on what direction to follow. Which I’m glad I never paid for The Witness, but if I had paid for it, I probably be attempting to finish it still and get my monies worth.
What I liked about the first three missions of MWR was how I didn’t need to be the star of the squad, others could do the harder work and the grand standing and I was super happy with being support. Until someone told me to do something, then I was more than happy to do my part. I wanted to redownload Black Ops III and see if I can take a back seat to the action in that game. I can’t remember if I had a squad or not in that game.
I got to the Charlie Don’t Surf mission, and got inside the big office building and just got bombarded by enemy fire. I tried several different strategies but done of them work. I was hiding in back rooms for cover and then I tried to rush the waypoint to trigger the checkpoint, and I tried several times to take it slow but I’m clearly not meant for First Person Shooters. I might still try Black Ops III again, it won’t hurt to download it again. I didn’t get that far my first time around. It was still clearly the first mission and a giant corridor of sorts but I was trying to rush it and shooting away but I need to slow down and see if I can get into a supporting role for the squad.
So not bad for two free games, but I’m not smart enough (or not patient enough) for The Witness and I clearly am not good at FPS. But I had fun, and that’s what matters.
. . .
Walker Dennis and I have become super addicted to Lego Movie 2 The Game. We beat the main storyline, which didn’t take us too long. We figured out how to open relics so he went on a real tear unlocking items, characters, and equipment. He’s mostly after characters. He had the Status of Liberty unlocked but then the game went wonky and I had to download the previous night’s game file and overrode his brief progress when he was in Harmony Town. He had unlocked enough items to earn the trophy for unlocking 100 items and he had a slew of characters. At first, he seemed like he was fine that the three missions he unlocked had to be redone and he seemed like he was fine that we had to unlock the characters again. Until he noticed the Statue was missing. I hadn’t seen it so I wasn’t sure which statue it could have been but then I bought him Emmet’s Thricycle Set.
He started pointing to the Statue of Liberty and that’s when I realized which statue he was talking about this entire time. As a patriot, I feel pretty lousy that I lost him the Statue of Liberty and we still haven’t unlocked her a second time but that’s the only character he really wants. Which I get wanting to reclaim lost progress but it is completely random. At least when we unlock items, if it is a duplicate, we get a piece of gold and if you unlock five pieces, you get a super gold relic that guarantees a new item, character, and piece of equipment.
By buying that set, Walker Dennis now has four Emmets, three of whom are from Lego Movie 2 and one is from Lego Dimensions, essentially from the first movie.
Originally, I wanted to get him the Introduction Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi Lego set from the second movie as he at one point, really wanted the banana guy, Banarnar but Walker wanted a $15 set over the $20 set, so I was fine with that. Maybe after payday, I’ll get him the second set. One gets a lot of value out of the above, as you get Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi in her horse form and extra pieces for her block form, plus a Lucy and Sweet Mayhem and that misdirection princess character.
We also have our eyes on the Ultrakatty & Warrior Lucy set, but that one is $30 (I had originally thought it was also $20) but that might be some time from now. It comes with yet another Emmet so that kills my buzz but Walker loves creating Ultrakatty in the game as his preferred vechile and I think it’ll be nice for him to have it in real life. If he got all of the sets, he would have three Lucys in total (one from the Lego Dimensions starter pack). Which feels like too much.
At one point, we had our hands on a Spider-Man Scorpion set but the idea of him having three Spider-Mans killed my buzz too. It was only $20 and Walker was being a tad naughty at Target, so that just added to reasons for not buying it. I do like the idea of a Lego Scorpion though. We had also just saw that episode of the 90s cartoon that introduced Scorpion to that series.
Thanks to YouTuber Hien Biggerstaff for hosting the series! He’s missing episode nine we’ve been enjoying watching the series this way as part of our bedtime routine. Episode nine is the third part of the Alien Costume trilogy but it seems to be scrubbed from YouTube, which I get, I suppose.
I got pretty used to hearing the voices in a higher pitch and with that weird border. It didn’t take long. We just finished Part One of Hobgoblin which Walker knows The Green Goblin so that has been weird for him to see an Orange Green Goblin (which I tried to get him to at least think of him as simply The Orange Goblin but he wasn’t having it).
Which reminded me of the time I called it the Twelve Person Sinister Six in Mark Millar and the Dodsons’ Marvel Knights Spider-Man storyline from 2003.
I’ve been trying not to play Lego Movie 2 without Walker but once we beat the game, I figure it was fine for me to go back to some of the planets to get all of the purple master pieces as those are trophy goals. I have all of them in Apoclypseburg and Asteroid Field with Systarian Jungle being our next goal. He helps when we go back but then I just finish it up as it does get a tad boring searching for floating purple bricks and doing the quests. Well, the quests are boring but searching for the searching ones can be a bit of a grind. So over the past two nights, we do the quests and then I go back to clean up the rest. But if he doesn’t play initially then I don’t do it so I won’t attempt Jungle until he is able to play with him. Which we rarely play on school nights so it might have to wait until the weekend again.
. . .
In the meantime, as it doesn’t take too long to get those bricks, I have finally started playing Batman : The Enemy Within! Which I have been really enjoying. Mostly, I play Lego Movie 2 and then if it isn’t 11pm yet, I’ll try to play TellTale’s second (and last) Batman game. Once it gets to a save point, I check the time and keep playing until the next save point. It isn’t easy being a responsible adult gamer.
I was initially going to try to ship Bruce with Lucius Fox’s daughter, Tiffany. But I missed a chance to lie to the Wayne CEO lady after I wanted to make sure Bruce lied to everyone when it was an option, but then I missed that one and then missed a crucial one later with Tiffany that forever broke their relationship. Then I ran into “John Doe” in the back of the room and I’m still not sure if I want to make John Doe an ally or set him up for his villainous future. The game already took Lucius in a different path than I was expecting.
I do so love that it carried all of my decisions from the first game over, as there are several reminders of the routes I took already during the first season. I really want more Riddler too! I’m sure the game strikes a good balance between Riddler, John Doe, and whatever else the plot requires as I’m sure there will be subplots and more Bruce time as well as more Batman time. We have four full episodes left to see how it all unfolds.
We are getting Call of Duty : Modern Warfare Remastered and The Witness as the free games in March!
They gave us Call of Duty : Black Ops III for free back in June 2018. I tried to play it, I’m not much of a First Person Shooter. Whenever I tried, Walker Dennis really wanted to try as well. We were equally as good but I just didn’t get a hang of it and haven’t gone back to try it.
I’ll definitely be trying these two games as I’m committed to the idea of downloading and playing them.
I’ve been sold on The Witness since PlayStation Access has gone on about it for so long, and I’m all for an open world puzzle game.
Typing of PlayStation Access, here is their breakdown of the free games :
They got Rob to host the video!
Seeing footage from Modern Warfare, reminds me that they have covered it in a few videos so I know at least a few things that happen in the game but that’s okay. I’m way late on every PS Plus free game.
Here is PlayStation Grenade’s video of the two games :
With only two games, it is probably easier and quicker to make these videos.
Here is Platinum Chasers’ video :
Call of Duty : Modern Warfare Remastered is a 5/10 Difficulty and takes around 15 – 20 hours, and no multiplayer trophies, so that’s great! He mentions a veterans mode, which would be the highest difficulty so I’m mostly likely out of the platinum but I’ll be surprised if I can even get three trophies.
The Witness is a 6/10 Difficulty and takes 15+ hours.
Apparently going forward, new Call of Duty games are going to be multiplayer exclusive so I won’t be getting any of those, unless they are free.
. . .
I deleted For Honor as I could not get pass Gudmundr, the level’s boss in Knight Chapter Six. I looked for tips and all of the tips were regarding the second and third stage of the fight and I barely hit him in the first stage. I tried to skip to Vikings but the game wouldn’t let me. So that’s that for the February games. I was tempted to give Hitman Season One a proper chance but the month is over and I got way into Spider-Man again.
I just got to the beginning of Act Three. Took a minute for the first mission to start but everybody has escaped the Raft and I’m heading towards the police station now. Silver Sable’s crew have made me priority target number one. Which was weird when I had to go through Central Park during Act Two and seeing where their base was prior to it becoming a base. I have all of the bases to do, besides the one Kingpin base I had to do for the story. So I have to look at the map and see how much fun that is. I’ve been waiting for Act Three to see what it is like with all of the criminal element still being an option.
I’ve also only completed one Research Lab and that’s all I’m planning on doing unless Walker Dennis wants to see me do another one, or he starts one that I have to finish. He wants to see and play as Miles so those are good stopping breaks for me when I’m playing at night. I haven’t come across one in a while.
I keep meaning to play Batman : Enemy Within but I got side tracked by Spider-Man but I really want to play it as I bought it. It has been a full month and I didn’t even start it. I want to finish a chapter whenever I play it and those are usually two hours but I should try to do at least an hour but I don’t want to rush through it either.
. . .
Someone on reddit posted a link to psprices.com and it took a while but I put all 47 games I want on there to see when is the best time to buy them. Well, 46 games as come March 5, I’ll have The Witness. I can’t believe that even some $40 games go as low as $14.99 so if I see a game under five, I should just buy it.
Currently, Burnout Paradise Remastered is $5.99 as is Brothers : A Tale of Two Sons, and that’s as cheap as those get. But I know I won’t be getting to either of those games anytime soon so that gives me pause. Ms. Pac-Man is $3.99 but it has gone down to $1.99 in the past so I’ll wait for that too. I love the game but I do worry that I’ll be no good at it on the PS4, for whatever dumb reason my brain has made up to stop me from purchasing it. Squares for the VITA is only $4.99 and I do want to get those VITA games I foolishly didn’t download one of these days but buying a game I can never play for five dollars, seems a bit much. Plus, once I buy one of those, I really have to consider buying the rest. These mind games of mine!
I also knew the new free games were going to be announce so I wasn’t really being tempted by anything at GameStop but now I know the March games, I can better prepare. I want to buy games but I’m stopping myself at price points and recognizing I don’t have time but once day, I will have the time. Anyone else have these problems?
Maybe if I treated myself to another $20 PlayStation Card, I’ll feel more comfortable making a decision. I have $30 in my PlayStation wallet and $30 in a GameStop gift card but I can’t commit to buying something. What I want to do is use the GameStop card to pay for half of the LEGO Marvel Collection (Avengers and Marvel Superheroes 1 & 2) which comes out mid-March, as that game is $60 but comes with all of the season passes, so there is high value there. Especially as I was tempted by the $65 version of LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2 that game with all of the season pass content, so this is like getting two free games and all of their content for the price of one!
BUT! We bought Walker Dennis the LEGO Movie 2 game and we don’t really need two active LEGO games. Maybe once we complete that game, the Marvel Trilogy game would have gone down ten dollars and I can justify it then.
GameStop is doing their Tax Refund sale right now and I wanted to be tempted to buy two shirts (a matching large and small shirt for Walker and me) but I couldn’t get excited for the two PlayStation shirts they had at the moment. But buy one and one half off is a good deal. Buy one Pop Vinyl character and get one half off was also a good deal but we couldn’t find two (or one) that we wanted. We are excited about the forthcoming Ghostbusters characters.
So of the four free games I could access on the PS4 for February 2019, I have to say the one I really gotten into is For Honor.
Gunhouse was fun, I’m not sure if I really got into the mechanics of it. I’m sure if I kept updating the weapons, I’ll eventually get better at it. The art style was pretty fun and the game was overall entertaining. I just kept thinking of playing Rogue Aces.
So then I started playing Rogue Aces and the training modules were fun but then came the tutorial for bombing a city and I was doing decently with that. The hardest part was getting back to my base to reload. I was getting the hang of it but it was a bit more work than I was willing to do at that time.
I did all of the work to start Hitman First Season, I downloaded all of the episodes. I went to the demo for Hitman 2 and made sure I had the legacy pack downloaded over there. I went back to the Complete First Season and did the initial story segment (like three minutes) and then I saw the yacht. It looked like more of a time committed than I was willing to give on that day.
Which brings me to For Honor. I did all of the work to make sure I was a member of the Ubisoft Club, which thankfully was one of my six passwords so I didn’t need to click “forgot password” or anything like that. I saw in the club that I could download something for free if I had Steep so then I downloaded that game and was confused by I still couldn’t download the item. So I had to actually play the game and access the club through Steep. I was only slightly disappointed that there wasn’t a free item in Steep for owning For Honor. Steep was a free game in January that I never got around to attempting.
Walker Dennis was a pretty big fan of Steep, he mostly liked seeing the guy fall down. But he also enjoyed snowboarding and hang gliding too but the falling down was pretty rewarding. I need to go back and attempt some of the easier Steep runs. I got Silver in a few and Bronze in a few more but then I went back to For Honor.
For Honor has been a lot of fun! I’m glad the fighting mechanism wasn’t as crushing as people said it was. Or they commented that once you got it, you got it but I’m not sure how anyone would not get it but then again, I didn’t get either Rogue Aces or Gunhouse.
I’ve been doing the Single Player Knight storyline, I have Chapter Six of Six left. Then I’ll do Viking and Samurai after that. I’ve been playing on Normal and having a fun time. I’m not finding all of the Observations or the Breakables, but I do want to make a point and get all of the Observables, as I like learning the story. I haven’t bought anything with silver, but I know one of the trophies is to buy all four heroes in a class, so I will do that. I was tempted just to burn through it with the Knights but I figure I’ll see which of the three classes I like the best.
With real money, I did buy For Honor Dynamic Theme 1, for $2.99. I was just looking forward to my next game session and that’s when I realized I was going to be committing to For Honor for a while and I’m now trying to match my themes with my main game. There was two of them, but I didn’t like the second one that was portraying a giant battle of the three classes. I preferred the simple image above with one from each class.
I turned it to Easy for Walker Dennis to try it as he wasn’t thrilled with Spider-Man’s theme being gone. Either the game wasn’t as bloody as I remembered or they turn it way down. That or he was only hitting them with the light attack and not the heavy attack but he was doing pretty well. Then I got uncomfortable with him playing it and had him stop after two or three minutes.
We’re in the course of moving so I hadn’t had much time to play but For Honor has been a fun game and I’ll probably keep playing it until I’ve gotten through all of the story missions. I think, if my skills carry over to Hard, I’ll attempt Hard but I haven’t really mastered parrying yet, it feels like I do parry but I also miss sometimes too but maybe by the time I have another six chapters in with Vikings, I’ll have it down to a sweet science.
. . .
This past weekend, we took Walker Dennis and his cousin to see Lego Movie 2 and we all had a pretty great time. I keep having the Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi “Not Evil” song stuck in my head.
Thanks to YouTuber Chuyperron 25 for hosting the video.
My beautiful wife keeps getting the Everything’s Not Awesome song stuck in her head.
Thanks to YouTuber ToyBox 23 for hosting the video.
The third song that I really enjoyed was Gotham City Guys.
Thanks to YouTuber aranha verso for hosting the video.
Ironically, Catchy Song was not all that catchy for me.
During the film, there were times when I was thinking about the upcoming game and how would we even “play” the movie as there is a few action sequences but not that many.
We did buy the full game so I’m just waiting for Tuesday,February 26 to come out and then we have to wait for the Easter Bunny to give the game to Walker. We did catch a playthrough of the first level and the game does look fun.
Thanks to Gamer’s Little Playground for hosting the video.
It is a more complicated game than Lego Dimensions but it also seems like instead of having characters with abilities, we’re just making items that do those abilities.
I keep thinking about how I don’t feel like I myself am ready to move onto a new Lego game as I feel like I still have Lego Dimensions goals. So also for Easter, I want to get him the Fantastic Beasts story level, as that’s the last story pack he’s missing and I like the idea of owning all four of the portal variants. Then I want to get him the Beetlejuice fun pack as I still regret not buying it at Walmart that time I could easily have bought it.
So funny how Walker kept talking about Lego Dimensions during the film. During the Gotham City Guys song, Beetlejuice showed up and Walker couldn’t help himself but comment on it. He was just so excited during the film. We are definitely buying that film when it comes out. It will definitely benefit from a second viewing as there are so many references that it is hard to notice them all in one viewing. Also, the story itself needs to be watched again knowing what we know at the end.
Walker’s favorite scene was the one when we learned Rex Dangervest’s proper backstory. Massive Spoilers when you click the video.
Thanks to NATE 28 MeMz for hosting the above video.
But his favorite moment was seeing the Back to the Future DeLorean and the TARDIS. He was so excited that I missed the Terminator reference and the Hot Tub Time Machine reference. At least I got to see Bill and Ted’s Phone Booth. I looked for the above video myself but then I noticed the sequence in another video Walker was watching and that boy knows how to find videos on YouTube.
There was no direct references to Dimensions, which I figured there wasn’t going to be but characters from the game show up in the movie like Gandalf. They do quickly address the Lego Batman Movie in an exchange and we’re back to the film.
. . .
I also committed to not playing Spider-Man on the PS4 during our move. Walker got into the spirit of things and agreed to pack up his Legos, including his Lego Dimensions figures and bases. We kept the game out and the box is accessible but he seems committed at this point.
But Walker has really gotten into Spider-Man these past few weeks. I did buy him that Carnage Lego Set so now he has a Lego Miles Morales. I also bought him the Titans Heroes Miles.
Now I’ve been regretting not treating myself to the Titan Heroes Scarlet Spider but if I come across one, I’ll snatch it up now.
We’ve been wanting to rewatch Spider-Verse for a while now. We’ve been getting by on watching Sunflower by Post Malone and Swae Lee.
Thanks to Post Malone hosting his own video.
Then we added “What’s Up Danger” by Blackway and Black Caviar, to our playlist too.
Thanks to Viral MEDIA for hosting the above video.
Now Walker goes around saying “Hello Danger” all of the time, no matter how many times I correct him about the actual song title.
So he wanted to play Spider-Man PS4 and I didn’t have a problem with that. I had forgotten that we left Spider-Man in his underwear so we laughed about that and then Walker changed the suit to the Infinity War suit.
Sort of nice that we live in this age where I can did a search for “Spider-Man only scenes in Infinity War” and get a supercut of just that.
Thanks to YouTuber Something Something for hosting that video.
Walker was happy to not have to sit through a two hour movie for seven minutes of footage.
I can’t believe Lego Movie 2 was nearly a two hour film, but Walker had a great time and never got fussy. Unlike Aquaman that had him either restless or bored during portions of it in the middle of the second act. He’s excited for the next Spider-Man movie, as I told him we’re getting two this year, Avengers Endgame and Spider-Man : Far From Home.
Thanks to TomScott1703 for hosting a video of all of Spider-Man’s scenes from Civil War. I wished I thought of that two weeks ago when Walker was bored through so much of Civil War just waiting for Spider-Man to show up. But once he does, he’s in that movie for a fair bit.
He didn’t want seem to want to watch Homecoming but did watch Amazing Spider-Man 2 and was with it for most of the time. I’m hoping to get the Toby Maguirefilms for Easter as Amazon has the trilogy on BluRay for $30, and it comes with digital codes!
So it’ll be nice to get both of those and be caught up on our Spider-Man collection. If not, I’ll probably buy it some time later as after Easter, it is safe for me to buy myself inexpensive items until November.
I’ve been thinking of Easter a bunch lately. My wife just wants the second Fantastic Beasts film on BluRay, Crimes of Grindelwald, as she missed out on watching it when it was in theaters. Plus, she has the first one and I think it’ll be cute to get her that one while Walker gets Fantastic Beasts for Lego Dimensions. It will be a theme Easter of Fantastic Beasts and Spider-Man and Legos. I’m sure we can find eggs of all three of those.
. . .
Walker was just swinging around on my New Game Plus file and noticed backpacks on the map.
Thanks to Sick Critic for hosting the above image.
I’m not sure what made him want to find them all, maybe as he has his own backpack and can relate to Spider-Man on that level but he wanted to get catch them all.
He has a Hot Wheels backpack but I can see us buying him a Spider-Man one for Kindergarten. It is odd that a poor high school and then college student could afford to buy 55 backpacks but we just have to go with that.
In 30 minutes, I had found 27 out of 55 of them, but I also had to find the satellite towers too to make it easier. I wasn’t going to activate the satellites and leave the map as hazy as possible but here I am activating them and getting backpacks.
Walker is also taking my phone and taking pictures of the contents, even though the images are not going away anytime within the game. So I’m going to have 55 images pretty soon on my phone.
The very first one we found was the Spider-Plushie one and from there, he wanted to see them all. I had already found the menu from his first date with Mary Jane, as that was a story moment.
Here is Walker’s picture of the plushie. I have 26 other images of various success rates. The clock used to be on the wall until I took all of the nails out of the walls. Now it just sits there.
One fun aspect of this is that Walker knows how far away 27 is from 55 and is appreciating the amount of work it is to get all of these.
One of these days, I have to fight Shocker and change the night mode to day mode, it would make finding the backpacks easier. But instead of doing that, I played For Honor instead. There is a game store a block up from FEAST that has a spider-plushie in it but it is closed at night so we couldn’t see it in the game. Which is super fun to see stores keeping regular hours in the game.
Thanks to redditor TerraFlaeKSFL for taking the selfie and telling us where it is and the name of the store, Gamer’s Paradise in Chinatown.
Which I hadn’t really thought about but it makes total sense that FEAST would also be located in Chinatown with Martin Li owning it.
I did have the thought of just loading the finished file or any of the DLC files so Walker could see all of the contents of the bags but this way is more rewarding and fun.
Walker wanted to see Spider-Man hang upside down so we had to find an overhang to make that possible and then Walker wanted me to hold him upside down and take a picture of him looking at Spider-Man being upside down but I couldn’t both hold him and take the picture. My wife tried her best but by the time she was in a decent position, I was losing my grip and the tv picture didn’t show up well in the photo either. We just have too many boxes but we’ll try it again in our new place. It was sure cute at the time though. Of course, I had him in the position and then he had the thought to have a picture taken. He’s a heavy 38 pounds right now and I’m not getting stronger as he gains weight, which I thought would be the case but I have to start lifting weights as I don’t want these days to be numbered.
Now I really regret not taking the extra 15 minutes just to do the Shocker fight. It was pretty hard the first time around, I died several times, as it took me a while to figure out how to web sections of the wall and throw them back him. The auto-saving was pretty generous but I’m not sure if that holds true for New Game Plus and Ultimate mode. I did do so much better with the Kingpin fight, but Shocker is really the first boss you come across in the game. Then the game takes a break for an hour before the next big showdown. Maybe I’ll try it tonight if I can find those other backpacks.
When I was playing, my main priority was listening to J. Jonah Jameson’s podcasts and barely cared about collecting backpacks or landmarks (public or secret), I just did them for the costumes and moved on. Oh, and I cared about getting the newspapers too. Turns out, you store them so even if you don’t see all of them, they are in your collection, you just have to manually look at all of them to get the credit for all 53 newspapers.
I’m going to try to do at least a heads up post about the free games, I meant to do this much earlier but you still have time to download the free games from the PlayStation Network.
Thanks to redditor, Bocarprowler, for providing the original links and creating a thread with the games.
I haven’t had a chance to play any of these but I’m glad people were able to figure out how to get Amplitude to be cross-buy.
Here are some helpful videos to better explain what the games are like:
Thanks to PlayStationGrenade for hosting their always excellent video summary of the game.
Thanks to Platinum Chasers for reviewing the games with a trophy hunter’s experiences.
. . .
Steep is a snowboarding game.
Portal Knights is a Minecraft inspired game with a storyline.
Amplitude is a Guitar Hero rhythm style game but with space ships instead of a guitar.
Fallen Legion : Flames of Rebellion looks like a fun RPG game. Doesn’t seem like that much information is available about the trophies.
. . .
I’ll probably try Amplitude and Fallen Legion eventually.
We have officially one more month of PS3 and Vita games. PlayStation is going to stop offering these games in March but we’re still not sure if that means March offers PS3/Vita games or if that is the first month that those systems will no longer offer those games. I’m hoping for a stellar March to send those systems off with a proper farewell but I have no idea what games would even fall in that category. If it is Uncharted : Golden Compass, I might have to buy me a Vita that month as I want to play that game so much!
I’ve seen people getting the plat for Steep in r/Trophies
But everyone says how hard it is. I might play Steep just for the fun of it. I was so excited about Spider-Man that I knew I wasn’t going to make time to play any of these free games. Maybe in February I’ll start that goal. I guess the best thing for me would to make this type of post to get the word out on it (not like PlayStation really needs my help with that) and then try to make an end of the month post where I provide my experiences with the games. I supposed I still have time for that with the January games but it doesn’t look like that will ideally work out at this time.
. . .
One of the things that is getting in my way of games is my current obsession with PlayStation Access.
Here is their video for the January games:
Thanks to PlayStation Access for hosting their video.
I went through a spell of watching WatchMojo videos and I kept being shown videos for PlayStation Access but I ignored them until I finally decided to give it a chance. My favorite is Rob as he’s the one that makes a Top Seven list as the Friday Feature.
There is a playlist of 199 videos, so he has been making them for at least three years and I’m slowly making my way through them. There is just so much content and with only ten to fourteen minutes per one, one would think I could knock them out easily but it isn’t easy to navigate through the 199 video link as my phone isn’t keeping track of where I left off. It does help that some weeks, I feel I could skip them or I just take the suggested next video but I’ve been enjoying my time with the backlog.
Rob makes me wish that I enjoyed Metal Gear IV more, as I just felt lost while playing the game. I do want to pick up Ni No Kuni II one of these days, as that game looks like it will scratch my itch for a good RPG and Persona 5 seems a tad intense for me.
He’s also a huge Final Fantasy fan and back in the 90s, I chose Chrono Trigger (I have no regrets) but it made Final Fantasy the other title and I never got around to playing any of them besides a copy of the first game that I bought at a yard sale. Even that game, I felt lost with but I was young and dumb. I also tried Final Fantasy IV that came in the Final Fantasy Chronicles (that also included Chrono Trigger for the PSOne). I told myself, once I was done with Chrono Trigger, I’ll commit time to play FFIV but I never did. I started it but then I just wanted to play more Chrono Trigger.
Rob reminds me of myself, an older game (but he’s younger than me by at least three years), has a young child at home, a wife, and a full time job. He’s usually committing on how he doesn’t have much time to commit to video games but he still plays open world games but he also has an appreciation for shorter more narrative driven games, so we share that in common too.
I like how I’ve gotten to know the other hosts as well through Rob’s videos. I still haven’t learned their names but I like them when they show up.
They have an app you can download if you are in the UK but it isn’t available in North America, which is a lost opportunity, I think.
I was reminded they have a PlayStation theme that I downloaded forever ago as it was free and it had “PlayStation” in the title.
That’s Hollie (who just left the show, being replaced by Rosie), Rob, Dave, and Nathan. Dave seems to be the main supporting player in Rob’s videos. I’ve named them as per the bottom image, odd how they flipped Dave and Nathan there.
I tried to add Rob as a friend through the PS4 but he’s not accepting friends but I can follow him and that’s good enough, I also follow him on Twitter too.
While trying to struggle to find the Access app and to befriend Rob, Walker Dennis thought Rob and I were friends already so when I commented to myself but aloud, about how the friendship was block, Walker was quick to say “Look, Daddy, best friend who block you.” And whenever I am watching one of the videos, he still comments on it, so that’s been fun.
I don’t use the theme, of course, but it is nice that it is there if I want to use it.
. . .
I’m in the end game of Spider-Man, I’ve defeated Electro and Vulture and I’m moving onto Rhino and Scorpion next.
We got Walker Dennis the Lego Batman Story Pack for Lego Dimensions so we’ve been playing that too. I also just bought him the Back to the Future level pack through eBay so I’m waiting for that to come in as well, should be next week. I’m also bidding on a Green Arrow for $15 (currently) and I’m willing to go to $20 but $30 is asking too much. Supergirl goes for $50 usually and that’s even way more than I’m willing to pay for a single character.
I’m thinking of buying one a pack a month but we’ll see if I stick with that or not. We are so close to getting all of the DLC trophies and I really have my sights on Fantastic Beasts as it is the final story pack we don’t own so that one I’m committed too.
Walker really wants Beetlejuice too, as Powerpuff Girls’ red brick provides a big head mode and Bettlejuice offers a Tiny Head mode. Plus, I still regret not just buying it when I had it in my hands at Wal-Mart. So I refuse to buy it for more than ten dollars and I’ve seen it for that much on eBay so it is a matter of time now. Maybe in March. As long as he has the gold bricks to instantly upgrade the vehicles, I’m tempted to buy him a new pack. He has 52 currently, so that’s five vehicles or items so we have time. Plus, each pack essentially offers more gold brick opportunities so it all works out. He had 104 gold bricks at one point but after Christmas, he had seven until we started actually playing the levels. It is so satisfying getting all of the minikits from levels and rescuing characters. Besides the trophies from level and story packs, it pretty much is only for bragging rights at this point.
We still need the following level packs:
Midway Arcade
Adventure Time
Sonic
We are at 86% completion rate though, which is cool. But we’re so close but these last three are usually $40 each and that’s way too much but if I can bid on something low, that’ll be nicer on the wallet and my mind.
Walker really wants Emmett, who also goes for like $20 and we don’t really need him with how Chase McCain does everything Emmett does and so much more, but with Lego Movie 2 coming out, it makes sense that Emmett is in demand.
Walker is obsessed with Lego Batman right now, watching the movie on VUDU whenever he gets the chance, so he really wants the Joker and Harley Quinn back and Bane too. He also wants Excalibur Batman, who isn’t even in that movie!, but he comes with the Sword ability that Finn also has, so that’s at least one benefit to Excalibur Batman. Well, until we buy the Adventure Time pack.
Once I finish the Story Packs and get the three Level packs, I’ll concentrate on opening up on the worlds we don’t have access to such as
Jurassic World
Scooby Doo
Harry Potter
Gremlins
Teen Titans Go
Wizard of Oz
ET
I just completed my first playthrough for Heavy Rain! There are so many twists and turns with the game. I did foolishly take five months off from my previous attempt at the game, which really hurt me when it came time for Ethan to explain what Shaun was wearing the day the Origami Killer took him. Since there is a trophy for providing the right information, I clearly didn’t get it right.
I will go back and get all of the other trophies but Beyond : Two Souls is demanding that I at least get one playthrough of that game done as well.
I did start a second one and I’m at the part where Ethan is trying to give Shaun a snack. I was able to successfully stay on his schedule so this time, I can be a little more actual about it.
Heavy Rain is very similar to Until Dawn in that the decisions you make effect the rest of the game. Heavy Rain came first, just to be clear, as it was a PS3 game.
We play as four characters. Ethan, the father of Shaun. Norman Jayden, an FBI agent assigned to the case that is working with the local police. Jayden has a fancy pair of sunglasses that helps him at crime scenes, like a very mobile CSI lab. It is the only real story element that isn’t realistic. There is Scott Shelby, a retired cop turned Private Investigator who is working the case. Then there is Madison Paige, a journalist who suffers from insomnia who gets involved with the case.
I really enjoyed all of the characters except maybe Jayden. I liked him at first and then I sort of lost interest with him and his attitude while waiting at the police station and wanting to play a ball game using ARI. Like, he wasn’t taking the case seriously enough for my taste. He eventually got there but I would rank him low on the character list. He gets paired with a police detective Blake who has been on the job too long.
Shelby is super lovable guy. There is this one sequence where he has to change a baby’s diaper that he lost some points with me. He just left a used diaper on a side of a counter! What a monster! I did spend an extra minute or two trying to throw it away in a proper trash container but the game wouldn’t let me.
Shelby also gets a partner at one point, Lauren, a mother of one of the previous Origami Killer’s victims. I liked her too.
The voice and motion capture was pretty top notch, especially knowing it was a game that originally came out in 2010. There is a kissing scene that was very uncomfortable to watch. Like, I wanted to ship those two but there was a quick price to pay. I mean, I get it, sometimes when passionately making out, sometimes lips don’t connect but I don’t think that was what was happening here.
Ethan is played by Pascal Langdale. He’s been in some shows but I haven’t personally seen any of them.
Madison is portrayed by two actresses. Judi Beecher is Madison’s voice and facial actress and Jacqui Ainsley is her body. Which makes me feel bad for Beecher but then Ainsley’s Wikipedia page gets redirected to Guy Ritchie’s page so neither of them is the clear winner.
I wished this version of the game came with the Taxidermist DLC so that we could have gotten more time with Madison. Also it is a shame that the other characters’ planned DLC never got developed.
Sam Douglas is Scott Shelby. Apparently he was King Herod on The History Channel’s The Bible miniseries which I really enjoyed but don’t have an image in my mind.
Which I typed and realized I live in a time when I can just see an image whenever I want. That’s definitely Sam Douglas dressed as King Herod but that’s all I’m getting. Douglas has bit parts in some pretty popular movies. He was a cab driver in Eyes Wide Shut. He was a Chief NY Cop in The Fifth Element. He was a Kiev Room Agent in the first Mission : Impossible film. He was also a lawyer in the 1989 Batman, but I can’t recall when a lawyer would be needed in that film.
He’s aged so well! I bet he’s one of the outside peeps when Harvey Dent is giving a speech or . . . oh! I bet he’s in the scene where Joker comes out stating he’s the new boss in town and Bruce Wayne is there and Vicki Vale is taking pictures in the distance. That scene is discussing the change in power so lawyers would be there for that. Next time I see the film, I’ll try to pay more attention.
Leon Ockenden is Norman Jayden. Ockenden must have been the big get as he’s been in various television series that I think I recognize their names but he’s constantly working.
. . .
Like Until Dawn, there is a load of Quick Time Events (QTE). This game has a lot more of them. For the most part, I did okay with them and the game is pretty generous with allowing you to miss a few of them and still get the end result you wanted. Well, except for twice with Norman. One, I didn’t know R1 meant he would shoot a guy and he totally did! Another, he was fighting the Origami Killer on top of a roof and I missed a few of the QTE but I must have missed more than two of them as Norman didn’t make it to the end of the game.
I got Norman killed and I also failed to save Lauren. Lauren died to another QTE that I didn’t realize meant saving her or kicking a door open and I kicked the door open instead.
There was also a time with Norman when I was trying to read the two options, take the drug and don’t take the drug, but I had to read the options twice as they were swirling around the screen in a fast manner. By not clicking either option, he ended up taking the drug, which I didn’t want him to do.
I did end up saving Shaun. Ethan and Madison got together and the three of them live in a house together. The Origami Killer did get away and is just walking the streets.
I did not see the twist of who the Origami Killer was. At one point, Ethan suspects he has a split personality, and I had made my peace with that as Madison seemed cool with it.
The Origami Killer has poor Ethan go through five trials, and I only succeeded in two of them! I did so horrible in the driving against traffic trial, I didn’t know which direction was a better one.
Also, the QTE that I did the worst with were the ones where I had to tilt the controller in a certain way. At one point, Madison had to pick a lock and it took me forever to tilt the controller in all of the right directions. I could have used less of those.
Ethan then had to crawl over glass and through an electrical maze. I thought I did pretty well until I had to press several buttons that didn’t make sense. Like, I had to hold Triangle, Square, X, and R1 and L2 but not in that sequence and I couldn’t get my fingers to go to each button faster enough or hold it in place long enough. So Ethan had to go out the Coward! door.
Next, he had to cut off his finger and I could do that one, then he had to kill a drug dealer and I knew I was going to have him do that one as well. The final one was to drink some poison and so I did that one like a champ as well.
That poor Ethan was put through the ringer in this game. I started the game with Walker Dennis in the room and the game opens up two years ago with Ethan and I let Walker control the game. Everything looked so peaceful. Ethan took a shower, he walked around, and then his family came home. Ethan played with Shaun and Jason (Jason!) outside for a time.
Then we got to the mall and I have to be real with you. One of my biggest fears is Walker getting hit and being killed by a car. I’m in a constant state of yelling at him to stay to a certain side of the van or to not run directing away from the van. He’s horrible about looking both ways and also for listening while in a parking lot. The whole thing isn’t ideal.
So there’s this moment when Ethan loses Jason! and both he and Jason! get hit by a car. For a little bit after that, Walker Dennis listen pretty well in parking lots but that has since gone away.
When I started my second playthrough, Walker really didn’t want me to play the mall scene again so I turned it off and had to get pass that sequence later that night. Which didn’t make me feel any better but at least that part of the game is over.
I didn’t get Lauren to open up to Shelby about her son the first time they meet.
I didn’t play two games with Shaun in the park or buy him candy. I think I was still catching on to the game at that point. I did play on the see saw but then went to the merry go round and then it all went to heck.
When Blake and Norman meet up with Ethan’s therapist, Norman put a stop to the beat down.
I failed to get Madison to help Ethan escape from the police.
I knew not to let Madison take the drink but I had her not drink earlier at the club so I figured I should play along this time but of course, that was the wrong decision to make. Poor Madison, because she’s the female character, she gets some truly horrible sequences like her opening action sequence was super intense and I was legit concern about failing it at every turn. So when I did miss a few QTE, I was super worried about what I was about to witness.
Shelby did not make a good omelet for Lauren. It didn’t look good but I also was being confused by the QTE, so I kept turning off the stove instead of continuing cooking the eggs. I could have really used a Triangle leads to Cooking, R1 leads to stopping, dialogue boxes on the screen. I wouldn’t have mind that at all. And if those words could be static on the screen too, that would be nice.
At the beginning of each new scene, you can listen to the characters’ thoughts and I would take advantage of it every time but too keep it interesting, the words/thought options kept bouncing around the screen. So I spent more time thinking about reading the text or processing the text and movements and I would if it was just listed on a list that I could choose from. I get that the thoughts are supposed to be hurried or jumbled but it would have been nice to not have been so busy.
In Beyond : Two Souls, I just got done with the birthday party and David Cage and Quantic Dream really perfected the interactions, QTE, and general movements. PS Plus gave Beyond : Two Souls for free in May 2018 and then Heavy Rain was given for free two months later in July 2018. I hadn’t really started playing Beyond at that point but when we got Heavy Rain, I knew I wanted to go in release order. I had a hard enough time adjusting to the first Uncharted game after playing and loving Uncharted 2 so I knew to hold off until I played Heavy Rain. I was also looking into just buying and downloading the digital copy of Heavy Rain and I no longer needed the combo disc that had both Heavy Rain and Beyond : Two Souls on it.
I’m reminded that my friend Jay attempted Fahrenheit, the game that came out before Heavy Rain. It looked interesting and from what I read, it definitely sounds interesting but we were pretty lost in the opening scene, just trying to get out of the room. I never really had that problem in Heavy Rain and these things are a bit of a process to figure out what works and what needs to be improved upon.
I, of course, had Ethan forgive Madison as I really liked them together. I can already tell that my second playthrough is going to be a completely different game. Which was how different my second and third playthroughs were like with Until Dawn. I had did my blind playthrough and then I was determined to see what it was like to keep everyone alive, as I had foolishly let Jessica die due to me not having Mike take shortcuts. I knew it was going to be essentially the same game up to Chapter Ten where I made sure Josh was going to live and Sam wasn’t going to flip the switch. So my third playthrough, They All Died, was such a different experience. Then I’ve done some other playthroughs were I wanted to see certain people make it or just chose all of the lesser options. That’s where the real fun of these types of interactive games comes from, making different choices and seeing how it effects the overall game. Sure, there will be a very noticeable spine to the game but not everything can be a Choose Your Own Adventure type of book that has 15 different options and endings.
Shelby’s investigation leads him to this big wig and his son. At one point, there is this giant shoot out and I was doing so good but did get shot like three times. It was pretty fun. The main problem is that I never could predict the next button prompt. It isn’t like Square is always a left hand motion or something like that. This sequence was mostly R1 and L1 but then I start overthinking it. Is the game just making me think it is these two buttons and then we have to start getting complicated? I want to say there were R2 and L2 prompts too. I was just in a mode of seeing the prompt, repeating it in my head, pressing the button. I tried to slow myself down to ensure no mistakes but the game doesn’t really provide all that much time to process everything. But then it doesn’t have a uniform prompt for items either so it is random every time, or that’s how it felt for me.
Then we finally get to the big wig’s office and he has a heart attack. I so hated that guy that I grabbed his medicine and just walked out of the room. I wasn’t going to risk him making his way over to the desk and getting his medicine.
I’m not sure if I’m good enough at this game to successfully complete all of Ethan’s trials. I’ll definitely try my best but maybe I can do it.
There is also a sequence where Shelby has to dust all his and Lauren’s fingerprints and I completely forgot her touching the ballerina music box. The scene has this intense music and sense of pending doom to get out of there quickly but now I wonder if I did have time to go around and be slow and get everything.
I just remembered another sequence with Shelby in a convenience store and I was surprised by a QTE and completely missed it. So the robber noticed Shelby as we approached him. We were able to talk the robber out of robbing the store and the clerk gave us a box that the Origami Killer gave to the clerk when he took the clerk’s son.
I will have to pay more attention to see how many origami pieces were in the box and how many fingers the clerk had. I suspect that all five were in the box and he still had all ten fingers. Ethan was clearly the stand out father. Lauren’s husband isn’t in the picture anymore but I don’t recall if he just left or disappeared during the time. The baby’s father definitely left after the older son was killed, leaving a cell phone behind. I forget how many sons the Origami Killer has claimed but that’s at least four that we’re aware of and meet. Lauren was part of the game I played during July so my horrible memory has lost part of the sense memory.
Overall, I really enjoyed myself and I can’t wait to get to my second playthrough again. I just want a brief pause from the game. So, I guess I can wait to get to my second playthrough but I’m excited by the prospect.
I finally beat Uncharted 3 on Normal! I had such a great time with the game. I was a little concern when Elena wasn’t showing up but then she showed up and all was right with the world!
I attempted a Crushing playthrough and got to the fifth chapter when I wasn’t in the mood to continue doing so.
After I beat the game, I went back and got all of the treasures and the Strange Relic. I was pretty proud of myself for only missing 29 out of the 101 treasures, so that’s not a bad percentage.
While hunting for the treasures, I was attempting to get a couple trophies. I was attempting to kill 75 enemies in a row without dying, kill 30 enemies in a row with only my side arm, and defeat 50 enemies in a row without auto-reloading. I must have killed 100 enemies without dying or if I did die, I exited to main menu as soon as I was dead, and selected Continue so that the death didn’t count. I figure, once I get back to the game, whenever that day will be, and I’ll choose a later chapter and continue on from there. I was doing pretty well for myself and then at one point, I had to use grenades for a tutorial and I knew that reset both my side arm kill and my reload, so I’ve attempted to do get these trophies twice now. I bet I was pretty close to the 75th kill but it felt like I had killed at least 100 foes. From the stats page, it looks like I’ve killed 64 people in a row so that’s either my current number or the highest I’ve gotten before.
So while attempting that, I couldn’t try the kill 10 enemies in a row, alternating with melee attack then kill with a gun.
This has been my main guide during my post game adventures.
I also committed to the idea of not getting the platinum. I don’t have the platinum for the first game but I do have the platinum for the second game. Maybe I’ll do better during the fourth game.
I figure I’m close to killing 50 enemies by melee attacking from behind. Then again, I would have thought I was close to killing a number of people with specific weapons at least 30 times but turns out, I wasn’t as close to those numbers as I thought. I have 25 stealth kills so I just need to do that twice more and I’ll get the trophy.
I must be close to killing 20 enemies by blind firing while in cover too. I was worried about reloading and losing track so I wasn’t attempting it during my treasure hunting. I just have to kill one more people using this technique as I have killed 19. Which makes me want to really turn on the game tonight and just get it done.
I have no idea of how many dumb people I’ve killed by throwing their grenades back at them. I would have sworn I’ve killed at least 10 but according to the trophy, I haven’t. Also, I haven’t killed two people with the same thrown back grenade as well. The game doesn’t keep track of that, or at least, it won’t tell me that number but it clearly keeps track of it somewhere for the trophy management.
I’ve attempted to kill four enemies with one explosion but I didn’t get all four of them in the explosion during Chapter 16.
When I’m hanging off of a ledge, I either don’t think about grenades or I don’t have them. I just need to kill one more person doing so as I’m at nine of the required ten. The guide recommends Chapter 12 or Chapter 7 when we first learn the technique.
I know I have killed at least three riot shield enemies so I just need two more for the trophy. It could be one more as well. The game doesn’t keep track of this either. The guide recommends the beginning of Chapter 15 so I might just replay the beginning until that is done.
I have the following weapons that I have to get 30 kills with:
So that’s not bad. The Dragon Sniper is a weapon I can call upon whenever I want now that I beat the game, so I’ll get that one easily. RPG-7 is hard to come by and we don’t get too much ammo with it either. I do enjoy using the Mag 5 when I get my hands on it. PAK-80 is also a hard one to come by and then I usually only had the guy who was holding it left on the field so I bet I only have three kills with it.
The Dragon Sniper can be found in both Chapter 8 and 12.
The RPG-7 can be found in Chapters 12, 13, 19, and 21. So that’s two 12s.
The Mag 5 can be found during Chapter 16 and 19. I know I’ve gotten it in an early chapter as well but jumping in and out of chapters for the treasures might be tripping me up.
The PAK-80 can be found during Chapters 14 and 20.
I attempted the speed run for Chapter 7 and the nine and a half minute mark came and went and I’m not sure I’m good enough to shave three minutes off of my speed. I should attempt Chapter 16 and 20 as those have 12 and 15 minutes respectfully. On Easy, it should be a tad better to do. 16 has a long fight in the middle that I’m already anticipating taking forever as it felt like that on Normal. 20 feels doable as it is just racing to the front of a caravan and only killing a few people along the way.
That makes up the normal trophies, the disc came with additional DLC related trophies. I’m never going to beat the game on Brutal, and from what I’ve read, few have.
I probably can defeat 5 Djinn with a sniper rifle during Chapter 21. That would work towards my Dragon Sniper goal too. I’ll probably will try Chapter 21 first to get the Dragon Sniper trophy and this one at the same time. That’ll be working smarter and harder, which is usually the Klein way.
I’m not sure about completing a speed run as Doughnut Drake in less than 4 hours and 15 minutes. From what I’ve read, if you don’t do it in one go, the trophies can be a tad glitchy. Also, how horrible would it be recognize it isn’t going to happen when you are at the three hour mark. I guess to take full advantage of the opportunity, I should attempt the speed run and the other trophies at the same time.
Now I just have to try to get some of these trophies above and jump into Uncharted 4.
I’ve heard so many great things about Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy (that I will play after 4, eventually). My only grip is how different Nathan looks from the original trilogy.
I get that 4 was the first game for the franchise on the PS4 so Naughty Dog took advantage of the more powerful console but he just looks like a completely different person.
I just have a hard time seeing how we got from 3 to 4 and I’ve stared at these faces for a very long time.
Whereas Elena pretty much looks the same, but in higher definition.
But she’s looked great throughout the entire original trilogy for that matter.
. . .
I’ve attempted SOMA and was having a good time, if not an overly challenging time. The game is fine but there are times where I just feel like I’m missing direction on where to go and the locations are a tad confusing. I just got to the Theta station. The story is super interesting but I’m doing that thing I hate and I’m resorting to walkthroughs to get me to the next point. Once I’ve done that a third time, it kills my buzz for a game. IGN has a great guide as does Game Pressure. I’m just disconnected from the game. I’ll come back to it eventually.
. . .
I’m going to make Heavy Rain my next game I’m going to tackle.
My Twitter app did right and told me three separate times that the above Dev Diary had been released. I accounts I’m following are : @SuperMGames, @TheDarkPictures, and @PlayStation. Which I didn’t mind at all getting these notification blasts.
The video is Part One of Designing the Ghost Ship and I really enjoyed the interviews. The video is barely two minutes and twenty five seconds. Production Designer Lee Robinson, Audio Director Barney Pratt, and Art Director Robert Craig were interviewed. I’m very eager to see what Part Two looks like.
I’m already committed that when I buy my wife’s Amazon Christmas presents, I’m throwing in my preorder to the game. I’ll try to caution myself to not get too deep in the weeds but I’m sure they won’t spoil anything in these interviews and teases.
. . .
PlayStation announced the free games for December 2018 –
Arcade_Master22 made a great thread for it over at the PS4 subreddit:
I hadn’t heard of any of these prior to the announcement but they sound like pretty fun games.
SOMA is a horror game that I’m pretty excited about. OnRush came out in June of this year and looks like a racing game that you try to damage the other cars more than try to come into first place, so Walker Dennis should be a big fan of that game. Iconoclasts is a crossbuy Vita game that can be played on the PS4, it looks like a fun medieval platformer.
I’ve been told Papers, Please is super fun on the Vita and now I regret not making a point of going to the online store and making sure I downloaded all of the pure Vita and PS3 games, I have three months left before the PSN Plus no longer offers PS3 and Vita games to correct that. I’ve heard great things about the visual novel, SteinsGate, so I’ll download that and while I’m there, I’ll get Steredenn too.
Nice when I copy and pasted his list of the games, it copied over the links, that’s pretty handy for my purposes.
I’m starting to try to start speculation about what PlayStation is going to do about the lack of six free games come March 2019. I think what they should do is offer four PS4 games, one from each year : 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. I’m sure, like OnRush, that there might be some games they can offer from 2018 but I figure they can definitely find gems that are popular but interest has started to wane. It’ll be nice if they could throw in a free VR game every four months, but I’m not sure if there are enough of those to just toss about. I think it’ll be a truly wonderful idea if, whenever Man of Medan comes out, that month PlayStation offers Inpatient. They already made Until Dawn : Blood Rush a free game back in December 2017. Which is nice as whenever we buy a PlayStation VR, we would have all of these games already. Inpatient is the only Supermassive Game I don’t own but it is hard to justify buying a game for a system I don’t have.
Which is true for these Vita games but since I only downloaded the crossbuy ones, I’ve already played them. At least I only missed out on a years worth, I guess I could create a list of which ones I missed out on and if I ever get a Vita, I’ll know which games were the free ones.
According to this great website, here are the games I missed out on :
Wanted Corp (December 2017)
Furmins (May 2018)
Squares (June 2018)
Atomic Ninjas (June 2018)
Zero Escape : Zero Time Dilemma (September 2018)
Draw Slasher (August 2018)
Space Hulk (August 2018)
So only seven games, that isn’t too bad. PlayStation was wise enough to offer several cross buy games and then I was dumb enough not to take the extra step to purchase them through the online store. It would be nice if the PS4 store would just offer me handy links to download all of the free PSN Plus games and not make me go through a different route to get the other games but it is only one additional step and the problem is fixing itself soon.
Wanted Corp is $11.99
Furmins is $6.49 right now and comes with a bonus world.
Squares is $4.99
Atomic Ninjas is $9.99
Zero Escape : Zero Time Dilemma is $39.99 and that’s heart breaking!
Draw Slasher is $5.99 and I see there is a Bundle for $5.99 but I can’t tell if the Bundle includes game and whatever else or just added content. The website could be a tad more informative.
Space Hulk is typically $19.99 but there is a 40% off right now and is only $11.99.
So over all, I’m an idiot to the tune of one hundred dollars! That Zero Escape game being a full price game upsets me. That’s why you always add everything to your library. You don’t need to download everything, just add it to your library and you can download it whenever you like, as long as your membership is active. If it goes inactive, you are just blocked from the games until your membership is renewed and then you pick right up again with your progress. Also, membership stacks, so if you buy a 12 month membership and then see a three month membership discounted, those three months just tack on to your 12 months. Which might be obvious but I didn’t know any of this up to like six months ago.
People complain about the quality of games that are given away but just Vita games alone in 2018, half of the ones that were given away for free, are a hundred dollar value right there and we only pay $60. Well, during Black Friday, there was a deal for $40 and that was incredible! Some people bought two and I hope we can be that lucky going forward. Just never worry about it.
Which is why I’m trying to speculate on what they are going to do come March when the six free games (two for each system, PS4, PS3, and the Vita) go down to two guarantee games. To justify the $60 membership, I think they should offer two older games (2014/2015) and two newish games (2016/2017/2018) as I’m sure asking for six PS4 games might be asking too much but four seems reasonable. I started with just three but then I remember 2014 was almost five years ago so there has to be a slew of games that can be given away.
Membership to PSN Plus also gets you the ability to play multiplayer and access to 10 GB worth of cloud storage space. I use it for the free games and the cloud storage space. I’ll restate, by March, I felt like I had gotten my $60 worth.
If you are interested in a nice summary of the games, here are two great videos!
Thanks to PlayStationGernade for hosting his video.
I really like how he discusses the reviews and his own experience with the games, if he has any. Also a nice benefit is that he plays the trailers and game footage too.
Thanks to Platinum Chasers for hosting his video.
What I like about Platinum Chasers, and I only discovered his video for the November 2018 games, is that he strictly talks about the trophies. I now know SOMA doesn’t offer a platinum and has one missable story trophy. That’s good to know before launching into the game. Apparently it is one where you have to talk to someone and if you don’t follow the blue lights to green lights to blue lights once you are outside again (I hope it makes sense within the game). I usually like to wait until I earned my first trophy in the game, and then I will go check the trophy list on the PS4. I look at the top one, the two surrounding the first one I earned, and the last one and I try to memorize those ones. Then usually at some point later that night or in the morning, I’ll check to see if there are any missable ones.
I don’t usually care about if a game has one or not, it is disappointing but turns out, I have several games that don’t offer a platinum. I’m not even that crazy about getting the platinum or all of the trophies, some games, I just know I’m not going to be able to get several of the trophies and that relieves some stress.
OnRush has some multiplayer trophies so that’s nice to know ahead of time.
Iconoclasts has a trophy that is pretty grindy, so that’s good to know ahead of time.
. . .
I’m at Chapter 17 of Uncharted 3 and I keep thinking of Golden Abyss, the Uncharted game that is for the Vita. I looked on Amazon and that game is still $70 and it came out in 2012.
I’m not even sure if it comes with a Vita or not. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t but there is a Batman : Arkham Origins : Black Gate that is only $25 and that game came out in 2013. I imagine that boils down to one game being amazing and the other game being Batman Arkham Origins Black Gate. he he he
So if I ever get a Vita, I want to be able to purchase Golden Abyss too.
$210 makes me hesitate, naturally, but maybe a pawn shop would have it for $100 or something. Way too much for me to spend on myself and also too much to ask for it as a present.
PlayStation VR, with two games, is still $300 but you can get it for $275 right now. I’m told it isn’t good for five year olds to use it, much less, it probably wouldn’t fit on his head, so I’m probably a year away from legit being able to buy it. I just know that Walker Dennis is going to want to play with it and it isn’t fair to have it if he can’t just play around with it. Plus, it is three hundred dollars! It is still new technology so that makes sense. People who own it love it though. I wished GameStop could offer a demo of it but someone would probably steal it or break it.
. . .
We had gotten Walker Dennis the Nya from Ninjago set for Lego Dimensions
But the box came in pretty rough shape so we just gave it to him. We don’t have any connection to Ninjago, we tried the first episode of the series on Netflix and it seemed fine enough. I believe he is getting the Lego Ninjago movie for either his birthday or Christmas, so that should be nice and then we’ll have all three Lego movies too.
Thanks to Glenn Builds Bricks for hosting the in game video of how to build the Samurai Mech. We like to build it prior to putting it on the gateway so that Walker can play with it when he isn’t playing the game and I don’t have the pressure of trying to build it while the game is active and he wants to be in the World.
Thanks legogamesguy for writing a nice FAQ of all of the gold bricks.
We are missing two water ones, one needs a Chima person, which Walker is getting, I forget if it is the eagle or the lion. I’m pretty sure it isn’t the crocodile guy but it is probably the crocodile guy. The other water one requires someone to be able to laser gold items underwater, and he isn’t getting the Cyberman so we’re probably not going to be able to get all of the gold bricks. The third gold brick we couldn’t get requires us to get all of the minikits from the Ninjago level of the main game, Elements of Surprise, the third level. We are only missing one minikit and it is in the beginning of the level. We need Chell from Portal 2 which he is getting so that’ll be nice that we’ll be so close to getting all of the gold bricks.
See the Portal wall on the bottom left corner? That’s where Chell will open a portal and then open a second portal under the middle snake head. You can barely make out the minikit behind the bars in the photo. Once we have that minikit, we will quit and save the game, and go back to Ninjago World and activate the mini game there. Is how I imagine it will play itself out.
Because of this discovery, I finally figured out which gold brick we are missing from the DC World, as there is a gold brick behind completing all ten minikits in the DC World level, Paint the Town Black, that we’re missing a couple minikits in. It is a work in progress.
We essentially completed the Ninjago world in two play sessions, which was faster than I thought we were going to do it but we’ve been starved for new content in the game.
I wished we were getting Wonder Woman in December as she has mind control abilities and that is one of the missing abilities we need in the DC World and a couple other locations. Sometimes the game would let us rent characters but not in either of those two situations.
. . .
Happy Tenth Anniversary to my love wife! We made it to ten years!
Thanks to PlayStation for hosting the trailer for this game.
Yesterday, I earned my 13th platinum!
This was a fun game, it has 12 different endings, spread out over three story branches. You get swallowed by a whale, from there, you can either put on barrels, don’t put on barrels, and wait it out with three ladies who were previously swallowed by the whale. Since the game presents it from left to right, that’s the order I went in.
It wasn’t a bad game, and I enjoyed it for the most part.
There is this one segment where you race against Death that I completely didn’t understand what I was doing so I kept holding down the R2 button and nothing was happening. Then I read that I was either supposed to click on one of the men or Death. By then, I was pretty tired and went to bed.
Then I played a few more times and got two or three playthroughs completed. I think that’s the best way to play this game, maybe do all four storylines of a branch and then come back the next day, or just remember you choose the right cave so next time, you will choose the left cave.
The game can become very repetitive, once you finish an ending, you will come across this sea monster who will tell you that you have finished an ending but she hopes to see you again. I was hoping when you finished the very last one, she would say a different line of dialogue but she just repeated the different ending line. That was disappointing.
You will see the sea monster either underwater or above water, pending how you finished an ending, then you will go to a coffee shop and the guy there will essentially say the same thing. But he will show you a bookcase of all of your endings as you progress through the game.
He will say you have completed the shelf, which was nice. I’m not sure why they wrote one character with a conclusion line but not the other.
I didn’t use a guide until the very end, to get my last two trophies.
I was missing Out of the Deepening Darkness and Nice Day.
There is a segment when you are stuck in a maelstrom that I made too much of a game out of, you are supposed to either widen (R2) it so the men go all the way down, or shorten (L2) it and have the men break free of the storm. I was going back and forth and essentially, kept it open so I ended up doing that playthrough twice as I didn’t realize which I one I did originally. If I had thought about it, I should have known I didn’t close the storm but I was just ready to get the Platinum at that point.
For the other trophy, there are two seals that turn the men into seals and they say as long as you stick together, you’ll make it to the surface but I didn’t keep them together so they just got carried up to the surface. It took some doing but I had them stick together and got them to the surface and got the platinum.
It is supposed to take two hours but I was using it mostly as a break from Arkham Knight.
. . .
Last update regarding Arkham Knight, as I’m done with the game. I attempted some additional AR Challenges but I’m not doing anymore of those, knowing I can’t get even 20 of them, kills my buzz. I’m pretty sure I barely got ten or 15.
I did beat the game on New Game Plus, and the fights were not all that bad, including the underground tank vs tank fight and I didn’t even have a harder time with Arkham Knight, I avoided his crew, got underneath him, grappled up and did those quick moments and then took out his goons then. Then repeat that twice more, so all for all, the only real problem I had was the 60 tanks outside of GCPD during the assault. After like 15 tries, I finally wussed out and stuck to the left side of GCPD (where that breakable wall is), and I would come out, attack, and hide out. A few tanks and drones came to me, which was nice but for the most part, I would take out five or six tanks, fire a slew of missiles, and let Barbara do her business. It was a frustrating matter prior to the final time I completed it. Same for the underground tank fight, that third round took forever! I was able to acknowledge that the long load time was for me to strategize and to calm down but I just wanted it to reload immediately. Same for the tank battle, just get me in there, I heard Batman and Oracle counting down from five so many times, it started becoming a tad maddening.
I only got two additional trophies
The Long Halloween, beat New Game Plus
Savage Metal, smash 10 militia transport vehicles off the road without using the immobilizer
I was hoping to get Savage Metal so it was nice to finally get it when I did, it was during one of the AR challenges. At first, I though Long Halloween was a bronze medal but I see now that it is a silver medal. I was expecting a gold medal so when it wasn’t gold, I didn’t note what type it was until typing this. Silver is better, as it does take a lot of time and skill to get through the story. Besides the tank battle, I wouldn’t even say the game was that much harder.
I could do the side missions but there is no real incentive to do it so I’m pretty much done with it.
. . .
I’ve started Roundabout, I’m not sure how many chapters there are but I’m on the third chapter, with the farm. It is a fun game thus far. You play a revolving limousine driver, Georgio Manos, who is a lady. Whenever you pick up passengers, you get a fun live action sequence. The story is fun and the driving mechanics take a minute to get used to them but there is no way I’m going to be able to get everything done in the game.
Especially as one of the trophies is unattainable right now but even if was an option, I probably wouldn’t be able to get it. It is the trophy you receive from completing everything, so of course, that would be the trophy that would be glitched.
The game only has 18 bronze trophies and one silver, so I don’t feel compelled to get everything.
I do want to just go down the list and just get those trophies as it seems pretty doable that way. I’m definitely going to finish the main story first, and then from there, I’ll start checking the list. I have to start pressing L3 for the horn as having to do it literally a thousand times doesn’t sound great and it isn’t like the horn does anything in-game. I’m in the habit now of dying, blasting my horn ten times, and trying again, as I’m not concern at all about the time limit, so I imagine I’ll get that trophy eventually.
There is a trophy where you have to drive for 8 hours without pausing, and I’m not doing that one either so the pressure is off from this game.
. . .
Once I’ve had my fun with Roundabout, I’ll go back to Uncharted 3 Normal play, I’m on the chapter with all of the boats and I need to figure out the proper route through them all.
I was thinking about playing a different game in-between my Normal and Hard mode playthroughs, and I thought Life is Strange would be a wonderful game to put some distance in-between the two games. But now that I’m typing that, I wonder if I shouldn’t waste the muscle memory and just go back to back playthroughs. My problem is that the way I’m planning on doing it, I have to play Uncharted 3 three times, Normal, Hard, and Crushing. Which I’m all for doing (so Crushing doesn’t, well you know, crush my desires), but that is a lot of time to spend with one game. A great game but still. I’m just thinking back on how Crushing was like in Uncharted 2 and having a Hard playthrough would get me even better at the game (I’m hoping), so Crushing will feel doable. I’m all about the self-motivation.
I’m using psnprofiles to check and that is how I did Uncharted 2, Normal (which gave me Easy), Hard, and Crushing. Apparently it only took me six days to beat the game on Hard.
Whenever I see that giant gap in my gaming timeline, I have to realize that was when Fallout 3 killed my PlayStation 3 with the Yellow Light of Death (YLOD). Which I’ve learned that Fallout 3 and New Vegas both killed many PS3s back in the day.
. . .
Proving that Supermassive Games has an awesome PR team, they released another trailer for Man of Medan!
Thanks again to PlayStation for hosting this video as well!
Also, thanks to WordPress for it keeps capitalizing the S for me.
Odd that PlayStation is hosting the video as the game is supposed to be on all systems but who knows, I’m a PlayStation guy so that works for me.
Such an amazing trailer and it gave me real Peter Stormare/Dr. Hill feels from Until Dawn. Which I’m sure is on purpose.
Of course, I didn’t know about the trailer until recently so I changed my Google account to notify me of all news pertaining to Man of Medan so I’ll be even more updated.
Which, also on my own, I found that we can preorder the game through Amazon!
But since it says December 31, 2019, I’m holding off in case my lovely wife wants to buy it for me for either a late Christmas gift or early Birthday present. I love that it is a thirty dollar game, as it is supposed to be half the length of Until Dawn, so a five hour game, and $60 seems a bit much for that. I was willing to spend $60 but $30 makes it even more doable.
I was tempted just to download the game straightly from PSN, but I’m still old fashion and I like to have my disc. I’ve read numerous times that it doesn’t change the download size, and the free games from the PSN has gotten me in the habit and appreciation of just scrolling over and starting a new game. That’s what happened with Arkham Knight, I beat the game, attempted some AR Challenges and didn’t want to make all the noise of ejecting the disc, opening Uncharted 3’s case and inserting that game into the PS4. I wouldn’t think it makes a lot of noise at noon but it is so much more quiet at 11:30pm, that it could wake someone up. So I just went back to Burly Men at Sea and committed to that game. I also learned how to spell “Burly” as I keep wanting to throw an e in there but that isn’t how you spell it.
Another game I have my eye on is Hellblade : Senua’s Sacrifice, which has been strictly a downloadable game, but might be coming to disc. Which I guess I’ve been waiting for a disc copy so then I can add it to my wife’s Amazon account so she can maybe buy it for me. A little harder to do without the hyperlink. I’m having that issue now with the $40 PSN membership (down from $60). She used the link but since it isn’t a physical card, she’s bummed that she’s going to have to print it and give it as a lame presentation of a gift. I told her not to worry about it but I get it too.
Heck, even Batman : Enemy Within, TellTale’s second Batman game (and most likely last), that disc only comes with the first episode and a code for the season pass, so buying the disc is essentially pointless as you are still downloading the rest of the episodes.
Yet, it is another game that I want and it is hard to put aside $30 for a game but these are nice goals to have.
I imagine Man of Medan is more of a placeholder date and it will come out earlier in the year, which is another reason why I don’t want to preorder it now, as I might not have the funds for it when it first comes out. Not like it will surprise me (I hope) but I rather not get ding for it either.
I had such a good time playing as Batgirl, I might even do the AR segments, I won’t get enough for her trophy but I’ll have a good time with it.
There are a couple segments where Batgirl and Robin team up and we get the option to perform duo takedowns, which is fun but then you automatically switch players and I was making a point of switching back to Batgirl immediately. During the proper game, I would do the same thing, switching from Batman to Robin, Nightwing, or Catwoman, as it is nice to take a break from the Bat.
Another relief with this game was that I was able to get the two missable trophies rather early in the process. I got Ambush as soon as I could take down thugs with a scare effect and I was making a point of taking down all thugs with hacking for the Weird War Tales, prior to even getting to the Ghost Ship, so that felt good.
I needed a guide to locate three of the Jack-in-the-Boxes as those were really well hidden. I liked how the teeth moved so I was able to see them from a distance and the balloons were proudly displayed.
The only mini game that gave me any trouble was the strength test as I wasn’t dive bombing well enough to beat it as I was either missing the giant button or not getting enough speed for it. After a handful of tries, I finally got it done.
. . .
I haven’t made any progress on the 23 Batman AR missions but I made a slaying at the Riddler trophies! I’m down to the final 25!
Which means I’ve gotten 91.9% of the trophies!
It took some doing to get a picture of the two I’m missing in the Arkham Knight’s HQ.
But the number of trophies I’m missing being 25 makes it a nice number for me to stop at. At one point, I was pretty proud of how many I got in Founders, thinking I was done when I realized I hadn’t gone back to Miagani and even attempted those.
I have all of the riddles solved, all breakable items, and saved all of the thugs with bombs in their brains. The ones I’m missing are puzzles that even with the assistance of videos, I’m not fast enough to complete, or there are races that I can’t beat the time for.
I was having a pretty fun time searching for Riddler informants to get more information regarding the Stagg Airships and then I was reminded there were items in the Arkham Knight’s HQ and an underground base as well.
I have three Harley Quinn audio tapes and an Arkham Knight audio tape. I should check again to see if I unlocked any more since calling it good.
. . .
I’m pretty proud of myself for going back, it was bugging me when I wrote the previous article and leaving so much undone. I bought some upgrades and I was able to eliminate the watchtowers, I left the one with the four minigun grunts for last and that felt so satisfying taking the last one down. Once I found I could take out a medic and minigun grunt with a hackable device, that sped that section up. I still have some upgrades to get, but I don’t know which ones I want, so I’ll probably concentrate on Batmobile upgrades as I know the sections I’m not looking forward to the most are all Batmobile and Arkham Knight related.
The landmines was what I concentrated on first and those tank battles took a while but I got them all taken care of and I located the few road blocks I was missing and take care of those as well. I saw that aerial drones could be destroyed with the Batmobile so that saved on time having to grapple to tall buildings and hope I landed on all of them. It took some doing to do it with the Batmobiles as you have to sort of aim below the drone but if you stick with it, you’ll knock them all out. Some drones hover near tall buildings so it wasn’t that hard to reach them.
I’ve earned the following trophies:
Streets of Gotham, destroy all militia checkpoints
Gates of Gotham, destroying all watchtowers Dark Allegiances, taking out the Arkham Knight’s replacement, which is what the other three were leading up too.
I attempted what I thought were eight different jumps but I never went further than 100 meters or I only attempted six, as I thought I tried ten of the 16 but clearly I’m not doing it right.
Since I’m going to attempt to get 23 stars in AR Challenges, I’ll attempt to smash 10 militia transport vehicles during the Seek and Destroy AR Challenge.
I took the time to destroy 20 moving cars without using the Batmobile, The Real Deal, which took way longer than I hoped but not as long as I feared. There are a few street corners that gets lots of traffic. My secret was pressing square as soon as I thought I was within range which worked more times than not. When I first attempted it, I was relying on the icon to appear but then I almost missed a few waiting for the icon so I just attempted it. The hardest part is when the cars are driving faster than I’m gliding and there’s no way to catch up to them by that point. The best location is to be perched on a street light and just prey on any and all cars that drive under you.
Since I can’t get to Riddler, I can’t get the official Knightfall Protocol started, I sat through what felt like a 15 minute sequence but the trophy never popped.
I’m going to attempt New Game Plus but only focusing on the main quest and burning through as much of it as possible. I’m imagining the first real hurdle will be the tank battle in front of Ace Chemicals with the Arkham Knight in his helicopter, as that was the first real obstacle I faced in the game, and the first upgrades I had to purchase. I’m really hoping the Knightmare difficulty isn’t the same as Crushing difficulty in an Uncharted game. The quick saving mechanic could be a little more forgiving in Arkham Knight.
I’ve been sort of missing Uncharted 3 and Burly Men at Sea, but I kept thinking of typing this article and that encouraged me to keep trying. I might give this game another week to try the AR missions with both Batman and Batgirl, and I want to do those in the normal game as I can only imagine how much harder those will be in New Game Plus. Turns out, I do have access to Nightwing, Robin, and Catwoman in certain AR missions so that’s pretty nice. I might try the Catwoman ones too, just because she has a different fighting style as well. I’m mostly looking for new experiences before reliving the same experience but facing tougher obstacles.
I was having such a great time, I’m still thinking of getting the Season Pass to get everything but there is talk of me getting the Spider-Man game and I’ll want a PSN card for the additional DLC in that game as those additional DLC packs come with additional costumes and I’ll want all of those when I play. Shame the DLC costumes are so tied with the DLC achievements so you can’t play with them earlier but that’s what New Game Plus is all about.
. . .
Walker Dennis has been home sick the last couple days so I’ve had a chance to play during naps. I’ve gotten past the part with Harley Quinn at Panessa Studios. I’ve been only focusing on the main mission and not doing any of the side missions. Which I like the idea of Batman just being hyper focus, though he does ask for updates from Alfred on other crimes.
So far it hasn’t been bad. The only real obstacles I’ve faced has been large group fights where I haven’t paid the best attention and allowed a few wild punches to occur.
The Arkham Knight fight outside of Ace Chemicals wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, I credit my ability to do well with the tank battles and having better aim against rockets as I didn’t even lose that fight.
Large boss fights and the Cobra Tank fights seem to be my downfall. Those Cobra Tanks, I wish it took half as long to lock in on their weak spot, and I can’t tell if it takes a little longer than in my Normal playthrough or if I have just forgotten how long it takes. I had to fight five of them before I could make Founders save to use the Batmobile.
So now I’m really not looking forward to the Cloudburst fight with five additional Cobra Tanks and the Arkham Knight’s tank, but that has been one of the three fights I have been dreading. The other problem with that fight is that, where it takes place in the game, you have to complete it as you can’t just escape and do side missions. The other two being the Arkham Knight chase sequence and the following fight with him and his goons.
I was only the menu screen and was noticing the WBPlay icon and figured I’ll do whatever little work it was to unlock the Anime Batman costume and the Zurr En Arrah costumes.
The Anime costume came easily and I had to join the WBPlay forum to get the Zurr En Arrah costume, which I keep wanting to type as Zenn.
I don’t care for how broken the Anime ears look, like there is a clear bend in the ears that isn’t great. I thought Walker Dennis was going to get a bigger kick out of the Zurr En Arrah costume but he didn’t even notice it.
It feels good having two additional costumes though.
I also got one more Riddler trophy in the second Stagg Airship, which I thought I was going to be able too. It was the one that is under the floor where we have to move the crates about. For some reason, I can’t move the crates in that same room in my post game but I was hoping to be able to do it during New Game Plus and it totally worked.
Walker Dennis is now finding question marks everywhere, like road signs or whenever he sees a question written out and wants to point out the Riddler has been up to no good again.
I took him to Hallmark to buy my lovely wife a tenth anniversary card (for November 29) and we looked at all of the Hallmark Christmas Ornaments and he wanted pretty much all of them. I’ll be all for a Frank Gorshin Riddler being on our tree.
We also rewatched Lego Batman and that movie holds up like crazy and I just love how much Bat-mythos are introduced to such a young audience. Shame Riddler doesn’t show up more in it.
Another shame is that Batman The Animated Series isn’t available to watch without having to pay $1.99 an episode. I imagine those will be available through the DC Streaming Channel and that might make that worth the investment.
We’re going through a real Batman phase right now. I should have showed him Mark of the Phantasm as we still own that on DVD, such a great film!
Still no progress on the AR Challenges but I figure I’ll hit a roadblock during New Game Plus and that’s when I’ll pick those up again.
I’ve also looked into buying a replica of a Riddler trophy but Amazon didn’t have anything besides action figures. I thought that’ll be a fun thing to own.
