Timeless-Enigma's Enigmatic Checklist

[Timeless-Enigma]

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Command & Conquer Red Alert 3

Game rating: 8.5/10
Platinum difficulty: 8/10

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This is one of the finest strategy games available on the PS3. I have always been a big fan of Command & Conquer, all the way back to the original release on the PS1. I actually completed the co-op missions with my brother which was really helpful to obtain the plat because he is an awesome player at C&C, just like me. We used to team up and play two other random online players and mostly dominate, although there are some decent players playing this game who are exceptional and would have our bases destroyed within minutes. Playing the other players online is pretty decent considering some games can last up to an hour. Occasionally a problem would occur and the connection would be lost but it was quite rare. I went back to the game a while back and I still managed to get a game without any issues. A great game in my opinion and very addictive.

Dead Space

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 6.5/10

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The platinum trophy on Dead Space isn’t too difficult to obtain and I remember playing through the game on the hardest setting without hardly dying at all. The ‘one gun’ gold trophy requires the player to go through the whole game only using the plasma cutter. I personally thought this trophy was the hardest before I actually went ahead and attempted it. The plasma cutter fortunately is a decent weapon and learning to rely on it became second nature to me. As for the game, well it is easily one of my favourite survival horror type games and it can get quite tense at certain moments. The atmosphere works really well in the game and it keeps you on your toes, never knowing what will be around the next corner. Play with the lights off and decent headphones and prepare to see Necromorphs in your sleep.

Assassin‘s Creed II

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 5/10 for plat. 6/10 for 100% completion.

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I absolutely love the Assassin’s creed games and my addiction started when playing Assassins Creed on the xbox 360 many years ago. If trophy support was introduced for Assassins Creed and I had time, I would play it again on the PS3 definitely. As for Assassin’s Creed II, well it, for me is the finest Assassin’s Creed game made and a game that tried to resolve the slight faults of the first game, which was the repetitiveness of doing certain tasks like climbing buildings to unlock all the viewpoints etc. However this was never an issue for me because I enjoyed climbing and checking out all the amazing views in the game and taking in the atmosphere, then jumping off a roof for a double air assassination…awesome. As for the platinum trophy, well it is considered to be an easy platinum to obtain, which it is. However a few trophies in the game did make me work for them and getting all the feathers can take time to achieve. I also have to mention the music in this game, which is something special. I usually find myself listening to the soundtrack to ACII more than any other AC game.

Fallout 3

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 6/10 for plat. 7/10 for 100% completion.

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I was hyped about Fallout 3 from the moment news about the game surfaced. I played ‘The Elder Scrolls IV’ for about 200+ hours and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Bethesda’s next game which is set in a post apocalyptic setting with weapons. The whole concept sounded great to me and so when I finally got the game I couldn’t put it down. This was a game that I wasn’t concerned about the trophies at first because I wanted to get into the game and not be forced to do anything I didn’t want to do. The beauty of this game is that once you exit the vault at the start of the game, you can go anywhere and do any quests in any order. One of my most memorable moments was firing a mini nuke from my fat boy into a group of mutants and watching the corpses literally fly into the sky…epic! As for the earning the platinum, its pretty easy but really time consuming. Especially getting the 100% with all the DLC which was released for the game. This game didn’t have any difficulty completion trophies and the game could be played on the easiest setting right from the start to the end. However I like a challenge and I remember playing the game on hard and then on my second playthrough I played on very hard. In my opinion this game is better than Fallout: New Vegas but I prefer the elder scrolls games over the fallout games.

Killzone 2

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 9/10

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Killzone 2 was the first FPS i played on the PS3. I never played the original Killzone back on the PS2 but i was pretty excited about Killzone 2 before its release because of the epic trailers and the amount of hype the game was getting. I brought this game on it's day of launch and yes i personally thought the game lived up to the hype. In my opinion at the time, this was the best FPS for the PS3. I played this game continuously switching between single and multiplayer for weeks. I like the feel of this game, the sluggish and weighted feel of the weapons adds a sort of vulnerability which makes taking cover so much more important. In single player i felt Guerilla really nailed the cover system. Many will say this is quite a challenging plat to obtain and i will have to agree. Firstly beating the game on its hardest mode in single player is no easy task and secondly getting into the top ranked position for the week for the 'valor grand cross' trophy takes some serious amount of online playtime and skill.

God Of War III

Game rating: 8.1/10
Platinum difficulty: 7/10

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This was the first and only god of war game i have played and i purchased it based on the glowing reviews and because i like these types of games in general. I knew nothing about the back story or the previous characters so i was going into the game blindfolded. However the story was pretty easy to pick up and i found i didn't really need to have played the previous two titles to know what was going on. I personally liked and enjoyed this game. The game had some epic boss battles that took some working out at first and even a few tries to overcome. The platinum wasn't too difficult in my opinion and i found i had the platinum trophy playing the game for just over a week.

Bayonetta

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 8/10

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I pre-ordered this game because i wanted a game that was similar in style to devil may cry and it ticked all my boxes. What i wasn't expecting was how damn right awesome this game would be. The gameplay in this game is something spectacular. I found that playing this game on a harder setting is required to get more enjoyment out of it. I remember that there are secret areas called altheim portals that had some tranquil music and then suddenly things would get intense in there and that is when i enjoyed the game the most. Some of the bosses were completely insane and i remember one part of the game where Bayonetta was standing on a missile and you had to do a sort of afterburner segment, shooting targets and avoiding being killed at the same time trying to traverse this missile. Unfortunately the PS3 version suffered with poor loading times and it wasn't until an update was released, that the game could be installed and enjoyed with better loading times. The platinum trophy for this game wasn't easy and finishing the game on climax difficulty did see me on the game over screen quite a few times.

Uncharted 2

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 6/10 for plat.

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A few have asked me why i don't have the Uncharted platinum but i have the Uncharted 2 plat. Well the answer is simple, i played Uncharted and finished it before trophy support was made available for the PS3. I will one day play the original Uncharted again and get the platinum trophy. I didn't pick this title up until well after the game had been released because at the time i had many other games to play. When i finally got around to playing this game, i couldn't believe how good this game was. I haven't played Uncharted 3 yet but i would imagine it cannot be better than Uncharted 2. Memorable moments include a whole building collapsing with Nathan Drake inside it, the opening scene and climbing the dangling train carriage over the edge of the cliff. Also trying to traverse a moving train while being shot at by a gunship. The platinum trophy was fairly easy and didn't require any real effort to achieve. However my completion percentage for Uncharted 2 is at 86% because of the multiplayer trophies. The multiplayer trophies look like a grind and considering i wasn't too keen on the multiplayer, i decided to ignore the multiplayer trophies.

Bioshock 2

Game rating: 8.5/10
Platinum difficulty: 7/10 for plat.

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One of the biggest changes made to the bioshock series was the multiplayer aspect in bioshock 2. At first i was sceptical and thought the idea was something that shouldn't happen in a bioshock game. However the multiplayer wasn't too bad and is quite fun. I had to play the multiplayer quite a bit to get quite a few of the multiplayer trophies. However I did miss out on getting a few trophies for the DLC. I still think that that multiplayer shouldn’t be a part of a bioshock game and from the looks of the forthcoming bioshock infinite, it won't have multiplayer. The single player in bioshock 2 had a quite a few new elements, including duel wielding weapons and plasmids, complete underwater segments due to subject delta’s suit and the big sisters. Also quite a few other changes were made that improved the gameplay from the first game. Although the story of bioshock 2 wasn’t as strong as the original game. I felt that bioshock 2 was on par with the original game in nearly all aspects and it was great to explore rapture once more. The toughest trophy was the gold ‘choose the impossible’ trophy which required rank 40 on multiplayer. Not only was it quite tough to get to that rank in multiplayer but it was required to earn the platinum trophy. I may get more of the offline DLC trophies in the future but I doubt I will go for the online DLC trophies.

Demon‘s Souls

Game rating: 9.2/10
Platinum difficulty: 9/10

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Demon’s Souls is one tough game that is relentless, unforgiving and rewarding at the same time. Basically killing enemies and collecting souls is great until you die and then you restart at the beginning of the level with lower maximum health and the loss of all the souls you collected. Unless of course you can get back to the last location you died and retrieve your souls from your bloodstain. If you die before getting to your bloodstain, all the souls your collected are lost permanently, which I experienced many times. The trophies in this game require time and skill and some luck. Obtaining all the best weapon trophies took me the longest to achieve, especially trying to get pure greystone which never seemed to drop from the specific enemies that carried them. Also I had to play through the game a few times to change the world tendency, to do specific tasks / quests. One of the craziest things about this game was falling off ledges and dying. I died a lot of times doing this accidentally. The online element of this game was quite addictive and killing an invading phantom was always enjoyable. Although sometimes I would be focused in trying to get through the level and defeat the boss and then sometimes an invading phantom would invade and mess up my day. A tough but very rewarding plat and also a fantastic game that I still have in my collection of PS3 games along with the limited edition of dark souls.

Dead Rising 2

Game rating: 6/10
Platinum difficulty: 8/10

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I have always loved the idea of a zombie game like the original ‘dawn of the dead’ movie. Dead rising 2 takes that idea but puts a little more craziness into it. Dead rising 2 is all about fun and trying unique and wacky ways of dispatching hordes of zombies. The game is completely fun and enjoyable at the start without worrying about the trophies. However the platinum trophy requires the player to stick to the games time limits in order to help survivors, take Zombrex at regular intervals to Chucks daughter and do specific quests at certain times. Although the time limits add a sense of urgency to the game, trying to do everything in one playthrough is very difficult and so i found myself playing though the game a few times. The game does tend to start get frustrating when you are trying to escort 5 or 6 survivors to safety, take care of a psychopath and trying to find Zombrex at the same time. The most challenging trophy of the whole game is the gold ’Zombie Genocide Master’ trophy which requires 72000 zombie kills within the 72 hour in game time limit. This trophy really takes the games difficulty to a new level because the time limit is so tight, I ended up trying for this trophy several times. Also killing the 72000 has to be done precisely and to strict routines. I personally thought this trophy was pointless and unnecessary. I found myself enjoying this game less and less, the more I attempted to earn the platinum trophy. The online part of the game was quite enjoyable, if a little repetitive. A plat I am glad to have but not a game I would play again anytime soon.

Fallout New Vegas

Game rating: 5/10
Platinum difficulty: 5/10

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This has to be the most glitch infested and crash prone game I have ever played. The fact I have given this game a 5/10 is because the game crashed on me so many times, i wonder how i managed to achieve the platinum at all. Patches were released for the game but didn’t help in my opinion. Was I worried about being killed by a deathclaw? No because the worst enemy in the game was the game itself. At any moment the game could freeze and nothing would respond, which then required a hard reset of the PS3. Nothing quite like worrying about the game crashing to put the gamer on the edge of his/her seat. As for the game, well it was pretty enjoyable when it wasn’t lagging in frame rate or crashing. The platinum trophy was easy and offered no real challenge. The hardcore mode trophy is probably the hardest trophy to earn. However the hardcore mode started out very hard at the start of the game but once I started levelling up and getting better equipment and weapons, I found that hardcore mode wasn’t much of a challenge. You could even play hardcore mode on an easier difficulty, so you could select hardcore mode and then move the difficulty slider down. I still haven’t played the DLC for this game because i am assuming that if the game was that buggy, the DLC must be even worse.

Dead Space 2

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 8.5/10

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Dead Space 2 is one of my favourite games released in 2011. Everything about this game is great, except the multiplayer which was ok but unnecessary. This game has all the elements of ‘dead space’ but adds more features and ideas. The platinum trophy for this game is quite a challenge because of the gold trophy ‘hard to the core’, which requires a complete playthrough from start to finish with only three allowed game saves and disabled checkpoints. The enemies are around Survivalist mode in terms of durability and damage output, while ammo drops are the same size as Zealot mode. There is the risk of one hit kills from decompression windows and other environmental factors. I remember dying on a part while in zero-g in space. I was trying to align and focus these floating laser beams and as I was focusing on one beam while another was slowly moving behind me from the momentum of moving it earlier and i got hit and killed
instantly. There are plenty of moments like this in the game and it takes a skilled and focused player to be prepared for what is to come and how to deal with it. This is a challenging plat to obtain but a game that deserves to played.

Resident Evil 5

Game rating: 8/10
Platinum difficulty: 7/10 for platinum trophy. 8/10 for 100% completion rate.

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Resident Evil 5 was another pre-order game for me that was hyped to the max
simply because it was a new ‘resident evil’ release. I was expecting great things from this game after I really enjoyed playing Resident Evil 4. Remembering back to when I first played the game, I wasn’t initially disappointed with Resident Evil 5 but after obtaining the platinum I felt that this game could have been so much more. In my opinion this game had lost it’s sense of survival horror and it’s identity. The single player is much more action orientated that previous releases and there was hardly a moment where I wasn’t firing a weapon. The main story mode could also be played cooperatively with another player offline or online which was enjoyable but another reason why it doesn’t feel like a RE game. Mercenaries mode is also back with lots of modes which are playable online. A DLC entitled ‘Lost In Nightmares’ was released, which was very reminiscent of the first resident evil game and I personally thought is better than most of the story mode on resident evil 5. The mercenaries mode is one of the reasons I played this game so much. Earning the platinum trophy for this game wasn’t too much of a challenge. Completing the game on professional and a few of the trophies for the mercenaries mode had me work for them. Collecting all the BSAA emblems also required some time. However quite a few of the trophies would pop simply by playing the game.

FFXIII

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 8/10

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Being a massive Final Fantasy fan, I simply cannot resist getting any new FF release on its day of launch and the thought of a new Final Fantasy title on the PS3 had me drooling. I have to admit, as soon as I got the game, I couldn’t wait to play it. This was the game I had been waiting for ever since the launch of the PS3 and I was expecting a game that even I think now was a bit unrealistic in my mind. Was I disappointed with FFXIII? Absolutely not! I’m definitely not one of the gamers who complained about the linearity of the game. Although the game is a one direction affair for the first 25+ hours and the battles require very little input from the player (except the Eidolon challenges and boss battles). The story kept me pushing forward until I got to the Archylte steppe which then allowed me to explore more and take a break from the main story. The main side quest in this game consists of 64 missions which are activated by cieth stones and are spread out all across Gran Pulse in different locations which vary in difficulty. Doing all of these missions and getting a five star rating on them all is a requirement for the ‘L’Cie Paragon’ gold trophy and easily piled on the hours I spent playing this game. The platinum trophy actually adds to the games replay value and really brings the battle system to full use. I actually played the game through twice because of the treasure hunter trophy which requires every weapon and accessory in the game to be held. On my first playthrough I sold some items that were needed to be upgraded for the treasure hunter trophy but I decided I was too far into the game to restart from the beginning of the game and continued to earn all the trophies except the treasure hunter trophy which was the only trophy I needed for the plat. Roughly a year later I went back to the game and started a new playthrough to earn the one trophy that had eluded me and on the 6th of May 2011 I finally earned the treasure hunter trophy and the platinum trophy. The treasure hunter trophy is quite a grind and I had to print out a list of all the weapons in the game and check off each weapon I had obtained. Also a huge amount of items and gil are needed for upgrading weapons and accessories. Farming Long Gui’s, adamantoises etc for trapehozedron’s, adamantine and dark matter’s is a massive grind and luck based which can drag out the farming even longer. Anyone who has the platinum for FFXIII will tell you this plat is time consuming and quite difficult to obtain. Fortunately this game was a joy to play and I don’t regret playing it for a single moment. It is a platinum trophy which anyone who owns should be proud to have.

Red Dead Redemption

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 7.5/10 for platinum trophy. 8.5/10 for 100% completion

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This was another game I pre-ordered and received on the games day of release in 2010. I gained the platinum trophy roughly three weeks after I first got the game because I played it so much. I then downloaded a few of the DLC packs released and finished them shortly after in 2010. In 2011 I purchased the RDR undead nightmare game and got the trophies for that as well and I can safely say that RDR is Rockstar’s finest game in my opinion. Playing either offline or online didn’t matter because whatever mode I was playing, I was always enjoying it. I remember playing in free roam mode and I was clearing out a gang hideout with a few other players in my posse and a random other player tried to shoot me from a distance with a rifle. I quickly broke off helping with the gang hideout and went to pursue that damn cocky player. He then jumps on his horse and tries to flee, I quickly mount my horse and pursue him. I decide he is getting away, so I quickly dismount my horse on the tallest point I could find and switch to my rolling rifle. I can just about see him in the distance through my scope and I take a shot and get a headshot which takes him clean out! I’m pretty pleased with myself but moments later he respawns and comes back for more but by now the gang hideout is clear and my posse come over to my location to help me. He then flees again, and my posse and me make chase. This is a small example of how much fun I had playing this game. As for the platinum trophy, it took some time to do everything in single player but there isn’t anything that I found too challenging. The multiplayer trophies are where the trophies start to get a little more difficult. Gaining ‘how the west was won’ and ‘legendary’ trophies took a lot of exp grinding and a considerable amount of time. A few other online trophies I found were quite tricky, which required my patience and perseverance. Also I found these online trophies required some time to earn.

Most Wanted
Become a Public Enemy for 10 minutes and escape alive in a public Free Roam session.

The Quick and Everyone Else...
Be the top scoring player in any three consecutive FFA games in public matches.

Go Team!
Be on the winning team for four consecutive victories in any team based game in public matches.

Fantastic game with a plat that kept me busy for quite some time.

Mirror‘s Edge

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 9/10 for platinum. 9.5/10 for 100% completion.

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This game was a huge surprise for me because I wasn’t expecting much from it to be honest. I played it about two years after the game was initially released and I purchased the game at a ridiculously low price. There was a drought of games at the time and I decided to play games that I missed or wasn’t initially interested at the time. However this game really completely blew me away. The game is so unique and original and was a game that actually requires gaming skill. For example in the time trails, you could have a ghost faith run any course with you, which would be other players best times on each course. This would give you hints on how to proceed with the course and shave off those all important seconds. However I couldn’t believe how difficult and challenging it was to even keep up with the top players, let alone work out how they did the course so quickly. Even when I worked out how they did the course, I still couldn’t follow the ghost because actually doing it required split second timing, excellent memory and a patience that would be tested to its limits. One small mistake anywhere in the time trial courses and it would usually mean a restart of the course. Don’t get me wrong, I am pretty good at this game and I have a 100% completion rate with the trophies but getting 90 stars in the time trails took me lots of practice, patience and many, many retries. The ‘superstar’ gold trophy for this game is earned by just 91 (2.49%) of 3,653 game owners and that is how difficult getting 90 stars in the time trials actually is.
Getting the platinum trophy without doing the DLC trophies still requires the player to obtain a star rating of 50 which is still very challenging. Not to mention the speed runs which will destroy even the most seasoned of gamers. A pretty tough package all round and a platinum trophy that gets often overlooked for it’s intense difficulty. I would rather get the platinum trophy three times in a row for vanquish than get the platinum trophy once for this game. Which I think gives you an idea of why I am so proud of this plat and why I think Mirror’s Edge 2 should be released.

Mass Effect 2

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 6/10 for platinum. 6.5/10 for 100% completion.

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I actually played and completed the original mass effect on the xbox 360 when it was first released and apart from the games few small minor issues, it was a game that made owning an xbox 360 worthwhile. When the news surfaced that mass effect 2 was to be released for the PS3, I wanted to pre-order the game as soon as possible. Mass effect 2 was only originally available for the xbox 360 and I never played mass effect 2 on the xbox 360, after selling the xbox 360 many years ago. Personally I think mass effect 2 is the best game in the series, even better than mass effect 3. The platinum trophy for this game I would consider to be rather easy and none of the trophies I found to be a challenge. Even the hardest ‘insanity’ gold trophy that requires a complete playthrough on insanity difficulty wasn’t that hard. Yes I did die a few times, especially on the final boss but I still felt it could have been harder. The ‘long service award’ silver trophy required the game to be completed twice or just once by having the cerberus pack DLC. I did have this DLC and this trophy popped after finishing my first playthrough. However I played the game through twice because I wanted to make a new character and make different choices in the game. Another trophy I played the game through twice for was the gold trophy ‘no one left behind’. I couldn’t get this in my first playthrough and on my second playthrough I made sure I was focused on earning this trophy and I used the guide on this site to help me with it (superb guide). Mass effect 2 also has my personal favourite DLC ’Lair of the shadow broker’. Not only is it the biggest DLC released for a mass effect game, it also has the best action, storyline and music in my opinion. The other DLC released was ok but this was definitely worth the purchase.

Assassin‘s Creed Brotherhood

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 8/10 for platinum. 8.5/10 for 100% completion

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ACB is the first assassin’s creed game to introduce multiplayer and also not be a numbered sequel in the series. This game introduced an assassin recruitment system that allowed rescued civilians to train and become assassin’s. They could be sent on missions and return with experience and items. Also trained assassin’s could be used in the actual gameplay by calling them in for support. A parachute, poison darts and a crossbow are new additions to the game as well as new characters and the games new location which is set in Rome. The multiplayer and new single player features really added to the game and I especially enjoy playing the multiplayer. The single player trophies are pretty easy and just require time and patience. There was one mission in which Ezio pilot’s a tank designed by Leonardo Da Vinci and to get full 100% synchronization you need to not get hit once by enemy fire. This tried my patience quite a bit and was the hardest single player moment in the game for me. I must of tried doing it about 10 or 12 times. The multiplayer trophies I found to be incredibly difficult to earn by playing online normally and I had to boost a bronze trophy entitled ‘Abstergo employee of the month’ because it requires 15 individual bonuses to be earned all in one match. Anyone who has played this game will tell you that getting this trophy without boosting is incredibly difficult. I played the multiplayer for hours upon hours without getting the trophy and eventually I decided that I would boost it. The problem here is that the trophy is quite tricky to boost, and I needed a guide and players with mics to co-ordinate with me to get all 15 bonuses within one match. A few of the other multiplayer trophies were difficult to obtain but I eventually earned them without boosting. The silver trophy ‘download complete’ also required some serious amount of playing online to get to level 50. For some gamers, getting the plat for this game is probably considered a grind because of the multiplayer trophies but I couldn’t get enough of it. This is a fantastic game and a great platinum trophy to have

Bioshock

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 6/10 for platinum. 7/10 for 100% completion.

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I played Bioshock just over a year after the game had been initially released and I believe my trophy hunting had a big part to play in why I decided to pick this game up. I brought the game brand new for a very reasonable price and I heard the game was good so I decided to jump right in. After installing the game I started my first playthrough on the hard difficulty because I like a challenge. I wanted to playthrough a second time on survivor without using a vita chamber to earn the games most difficult gold trophy ‘I chose the impossible’. I decided to give the game a 6/10 difficulty rating for earning the platinum trophy. However earning the plat is far from easy and saving the game constantly in survivor mode is essential. The ‘historian’ silver trophy had me backtrack over several locations to find all the elusive audio diaries which are not easy to find. Another silver trophy ‘little sister saviour’ also required to playthrough the game without harvesting any little sisters which made the game slightly harder because you wouldn’t get the ‘Adam’ immediately. A few DLC packs were later released which I purchased roughly two years after I got the plat for the game. The DLC is quite challenging, very enjoyable and was definitely worth the purchase. The bronze trophy ‘world’s of hurt - expert’ I decided i needed a guide for. It seemed impossible without a guide and after many attempts I did it with a few seconds to spare. One of the most important things I found about this game was preparing for battle with the big daddies. They would just walk around carefree and protect the little sisters. So unless attacked, the big daddies could be avoided. However the little sisters are needed for adam, so you have to battle them eventually. Choosing when to fight a big daddy is important because fighting one of these things is momentous and required planning and tactics. Using the environment to your advantage and weapons like mines, tripwire bolts, hacked turrets would always be a good idea. Just randomly opening fire on a big daddy almost always resulted in death. Bioshock is an exceptional game with a gripping story, fantastic gameplay and an immersive world filled with atmosphere.

Killzone 3

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 5/10 for platinum. 6/10 for 100% completion.

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Killzone 3 is my personal favourite FPS, along with Killzone 2. There is just something about the Killzone games that I really like over most other FPS games. Killzone 3 has new weapons, jetpacks and quite a few differences to Killzone 2. The visuals are very impressive, especially during the snow missions. The control and feel of the game was updated to allow a much more responsive and faster combat system, which I found was much better for multiplayer. A few of the multiplayer maps allowed jetpacks to be used, which is way too much fun. Also a few of the maps had environmental factors that would affect the gameplay. A mode called operations features cinematic scenes and supports up to 16 players per map, for each map that supports this mode. In Operations, the ISA and the Helghast battle for control of specific objectives - the ISA on the offensive and the Helghast on defence. The best players are featured throughout the match in cutscenes depicting their successes. This was my favourite mode but it was only featured on three maps. I was quite surprised by how much of a contrast there is between the difficulty in earning the Killzone 2 plat and earning the Killzone 3 plat. I personally thought the Killzone 3 plat was pretty easy, especially earning the single player trophies. The multiplayer trophies are a little more challenging and seemed to take longer to earn. The DLC trophies also were tricky to get but I played the game online a lot, so over time they mostly came naturally. Killzone 3 is still my favourite FPS and the only true FPS platinum I have in my collection, apart from Killzone 2.

Heavy Rain

Game rating: 8/10
Platinum difficulty: 5/10

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Heavy rain is probably the first game I have ever played that literally took the word game out of the word videogame. It is more like an interactive movie with choices that affect outcomes of the story. There are small segments of actual gameplay but it is more to tie the games story together. I really enjoyed Heavy Rain throughout my first playthrough of the game with it’s in-depth storyline, which had my complete attention from start to finish. It is a game that is incredible visually, has believable voice acting and a story that is emotionally memorable. However when I decided to go for the platinum trophy after finishing my first playthrough, the game started to become annoying very quickly. Replaying the same scenes over and over just to get a different outcome or ending was not my idea of fun. It was even worse if a failed quick time event required a restart of a chapter. I got to the point where I just didn’t care about the game towards the end and I just wanted to get the platinum trophy so I could play another game with some good old solid gameplay. Earning the platinum is pretty easy especially since I used the guide on this site to help me but to be honest the guide should have a warning about how earning this plat is tedious and annoying. A great game but going for the plat ruined the game for me personally.

inFAMOUS 2

Game rating: 8.5/10
Platinum difficulty: 6/10 for platinum.

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inFAMOUS 2 is one of the most enjoyable games I played in 2011. I never played the first inFAMOUS game, so I didn’t have any idea of the back story to the series. However the story was easy to follow and I had no problem getting into the game. InFAMOUS 2 has a karma based system that changes based on how you play. Do bad things and get negative karma, do good things and get positive karma. Playing the game with full negative karma was just as enjoyable as playing through with full positive karma. Also the electricity Cole shot from his hands would turn from blue to red if going for full negative karma, which is pretty cool. The platinum trophy for this game I got in two playthroughs, however it is possible in one playthrough. I found the most time consuming trophy to be ‘Just One More’. It is a gold trophy that requires all 305 blast shards to be found throughout New Marais. There is an unlockable power called "Blast Shard Sense”, which I found very helpful. Although it is limited to a small radius around your current area, it still helps with this trophy. Completing the game on hard wasn’t too difficult and the only times I struggled a bit were in areas with no power sources. Some of the side missions took me a few tries to get through as well. One of the most interesting features in this game was actually the “user generated content”. You could make your own side missions to upload and let other players play and rate. Some of the user generated missions were really creative and I found myself playing these quite often. Playing the user generated content quite a bit also helped me earn a bronze trophy. This is a really great game and heaps of fun and the soundtrack to this game is a great listen as well.

L.A Noire

Game rating: 8.5/10
Platinum difficulty: 7.5/10 for platinum. 8/10 for 100% completion.

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L.A Noire had my interest as soon as it was announced because the 1940’s setting of the game was a refreshing change for this genre of game. Upon release, the game received wide acclaim for its advances in storytelling and facial animation technology. The facial technology is central to the game's interrogation mechanic, as players must use the suspects' reactions to questioning to judge whether they are lying or not. L.A. Noire is nothing like other games in the genre because it isn't a game about action and firefights all the time. Major parts of the game revolved around gaining clues, asking witnesses questions and interrogating suspects. I had to playthrough this game once and use the cases section to replay any cases I needed five stars for. The most time consuming trophies are ‘Shamus To The Stars’ and ‘The City Of Angels’ gold trophies. To earn both of these I found I needed help with a guide after my first playthrough because there is so much do and finding all 50 film reels, 95 different vehicles, 30 landmark buildings and 13 newspapers is no small task. Especially as the map is huge and these items are well hidden. This game has eight gold trophies and a total of 61 trophies including the DLC trophies. So it certainly took me quite some time to get the plat and the full 100% completion. I purchased the rockstar pass for all the DLC for L.A Noire from the playstation store and played each one while playing the main game. The DLC was definitely worth the purchase and added new cases with unique stories. Everything about this game is excellent and produced to the highest standard. I honestly cannot remember one thing I didn’t like about this game. If I did have to make a negative point about the game, I would say that getting all the collectables in this game can get rather tedious. However this is more to do with earning the platinum rather than the game itself. Overall I really enjoyed this game and I felt I certainly got more than my money’s worth purchasing this game and the DLC.

Borderlands

Game rating: 8.8/10
Platinum difficulty: 6/10 for platinum. 7.5/10 for 100% completion.

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This was another game that I purchased long after it was first released. I brought this game brand new and incredibly cheap but I had no idea if it was going to be any good. I read reviews about the game and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I honestly couldn’t believe how good this game is. I would of purchased this game on it’s day of release if I knew how good this game was going to be. Borderlands can be played alone, but also supports two-player cooperative play through split-screen, and up to four players playing co-operatively online or over LAN. I played a mix of playing alone and with my brother online. Infact we completed the whole game together. The platinum trophy for this game is considered easy to earn which I have to agree with. I had no problem earning the plat for this game. The DLC is more difficult, especially “Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot”. To earn the “big tournament” gold trophy, all three arena’s need to be completed on the larger challenges which consists of 20 rounds each made up of 5 waves of enemies. This is not only very time consuming but if all players die, it needs to be restarted from the beginning of the two rounds previous. Whether you choose to continue from Wave 1 or 5 of Round 3, you will be restarting from Wave 1 of Round 2. Even with a powerful arsenal of weapons and maxed out characters, this is still a very time consuming DLC because all three arenas need to be finished with 60 rounds and 300 waves of monsters in total combined. The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned was my personal favourite DLC pack out of the four DLC packs released for Borderlands. It included new quests, items and enemies - including wereskags and various zombies. It was also quite a large DLC that has a whole outdoor map with several areas branched off the main zone.
Claptrap’s new robot revolution DLC is my second favourite DLC for Borderlands. A silver trophy entitled ‘What a party’ required 3 panties, 5 fish in a bag and 15 pizzas to be collected. To do this required long and tedious farming, by destroying its spawning claptrap enemies repeatedly for the item drops. Not a tough trophy but a very time consuming one. Borderlands has 81 trophies in total including DLC trophies and it took me quite some time to achieve them all. Fortunately the game is
Incredibly playable and addictive. Borderlands 2 here we come…

ICO

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 7.8/10

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Having played ICO and completing the game on the PS2 many years ago I knew how great this game is. I wanted the HD collection for ICO and SOTC as soon it was announced. Obviously I wanted to get the trophies for this classic game and I also wanted to see what they could do with the visuals on this HD remake. I was certainly not disappointed and although the HD upgrade for ICO is impressive, it’s not as good as the HD remake for SOTC in my opinion. Another cool feature in this HD remake is the opening selection screen for choosing either game. You are greeted with a choice to either move left to select ICO or right to select SOTC with the appropriate music playing for either game. As for the platinum trophy, it can be quite tricky because there are nine gold trophies and two of the gold trophies are quite challenging. The “castle guide” trophy requires a complete playthrough of the game in under two hours. This is no easy feat and I had to use a guide along with a few helpful video guides on youtube. After a few playthroughs I eventually perfected my run and did it with not much time to spare. The ‘unscathed escape’ gold trophy requires a complete playthrough without viewing a game over screen. However this could be solved by just reloading your previous save from the main menu rather than continuing. Still dying was not a good idea because it would mean progress loss and a reload. I played through this game several times overall to get all the trophies and eventually earn the platinum trophy. This game is quite minimalist in terms of varied locations and atmosphere. Even the music is sparsely played and is more for background ambience. This all works perfectly in this game because you get a sense of scale and isolation while guiding Yorda around the castle. This may sound strange but this game has a certain feel to it. It’s unlike any other game I have ever played and that unique quality is the games strength. This game is often compared to SOTC but are very different games. Both games have unique differences and should be seen as different games. ICO has a challenging but rewarding plat that was definitely worth my time. Although it is not as difficult to earn as the SOTC plat.

Dark Souls

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 8.5/10

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Dark souls is the spiritual successor to Demon’s souls developed by ‘From Software’. This game, like it’s successor is devilishly difficult and made me play hard to earn this platinum trophy. I personally think demon’s souls is slightly more difficult to earn the platinum trophy than Dark souls but this game has some more hardcore moments over Demon’s souls. Both games are simply fantastic and revitalise gaming in every sense of the word. Where most other games hold your hand, these games will chop your hand off and laugh. The most time consuming trophies are the weapon reinforcement and covenant trophies which certainly extended the amount of time I played the game for. I had to play through the game twice to eventually polish off the platinum trophy but I expected nothing less to be honest. The game becomes harder after starting a second playthrough just to make sure that your over levelled character can still be destroyed by one hit from a single skeleton. The bosses are even harder on a second playthrough and the four kings killed me more times than I care to remember. Sure the game is challenging and some times frustrating because you can lose hours of harvesting souls for something so silly like falling off a cliff. It happened to me a few times and I would turn the game off and hours later just wanted to come back to it even more. I think that is the games addictive quality, the intense difficulty. The online feature of this game was also fun if a little tricky to get into. I found the online system for Demon‘s Souls easier to use but it is still quite addictive. Anor Londo was a good location to take on other online players. I did have to wait sometimes for someone to invade but it was worth it. Word of advice is not to fall off the edge while fighting an online opponent because I did that once and nearly died of embarrassment. Dark Souls is a absolute gem of a game and I hope ’from software’ make a bigger and better sequel to both ’Dark Souls’ and ’Demon Souls’.

Rage

Game rating: 7/10
Platinum difficulty: 5/10

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I am still not sure why I decided to purchase Rage. I think I got the game for a good price on a sale and I also remember seeing some videos and I thought it looked good. Rage is a cross between Borderlands and Fallout but with much better graphics. However it is no where near as large as either of those games. It has excellent gunplay, smooth frame rates and very nice visuals. The story is nothing special but keeps the game pushing forward. The negative points are the game loads where you go, so textures sometimes take time to pop up on the screen. It is pretty small for this type of game and gave me the illusion the world is pretty big. There aren’t that many varied enemies and also the game has tons of backtracking to areas that have already been visited. The platinum trophy just dragged this game out to be honest. Instead of getting more out the game, the platinum trophy does nothing to extend the replay value. Infact the ‘Obsessive Compulsive’ trophy which requires 100% in the main campaign feels exactly like OCD. This game should have been a standard FPS affair to be honest. At least that way they could of taken the game to another level, even if the game lasted 10 hours or less to finish. The platinum trophy is a time consuming but easy plat. A bronze trophy entitled ‘just a flesh wound’ which is a mini game that requires a perfect five round finger fillet to be completed is considered a tricky trophy and it took me quite a few tries to perfect it. I would consider rage to be a easy plat but it is still only earned by 430 gamers out of 2730 game owners. So either this game is harder to plat than I think or many gamers just couldn’t be bothered to get the plat for this game. I don’t regret playing Rage because the game is worth playing. The platinum trophy on the other hand isn’t the most enjoyable plat but at least it’s not difficult to earn.

Shadow Of The Colossus

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 8/10

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Shadow Of The Colossus is testament to what the playstation 2 has to offer and is an exceptional game. Games like this are a rejuvenation of gaming and shows that originality can still be achieved in gaming. When I first played this game on the playstation 2 I didn’t know what to expect, even though I had played ICO. When I encountered the first colossus and I could see it walking around in the background I just didn’t know what to do. Then it starts walking towards you and the powerful music kicks in. This game certainly doesn’t hold your hand and I remember dying quite a few times before I worked out what to do. Taking down the first colossus was epic and at the same time confusing. Did I accidentally miss a part of the game? Obviously once I worked out what I had to do and I realized that I had to destroy all the colossus, things became clear. However the game kept surprising me all the time. Each colossus is completely different in size, type and even what it does and how you have to take it down. Not only that but riding Agro, you go on a journey before you get to the next colossus. On my first playthrough of the game on the PS2, it took me just as much time to work out how to get to the next colossus as it did working out how to take it down. Playing the HD collection of this game on PS3 is fantastic and it’s just as epic now and it was when I first played it on the PS2. The trophies actually made me do many things I missed on playing it on the PS2. Firstly I never climbed to the top of the tower and explored that. Secondly I never maxed out the health and stamina bars and thirdly I never did any of the time attacks on the PS2. So the platinum actually adds to the game in my opinion, although I did have to play through the game roughly two and a half times to earn it. The guide on this site recommends 4 to 5 playthroughs but I was collecting lizards and fruit all the time throughout all of my playthroughs. So my stamina bar was maxed out quicker. Two of the most challenging trophies required for the plat are:

Mighty Wander Max out stamina bar - It requires a minimum of two playthroughs to kill all the colossus across playthroughs while collecting shiny lizards.

Meticulous Collector Acquire all items available in hard time attack - This is the toughest trophy to earn because some of the time attacks are very difficult and also you have to clear the dreaded time attack 3 which is a real bitch of a time attack with a very tight time limit and a colossus that just won’t stay still.

The platinum trophy is pretty tough but very rewarding. Shadow of the colossus is an absolute classic and one of my favourite HD remakes for the PS3.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 6/10

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I played all the previous elder scrolls games and couldn’t wait for Skyrim. I had this game pre-ordered way before the games release date. When I received the game on it’s release, installing the game seemed like it was taking forever because of the anticipation to play it. I selected ‘new game’ and I was blown away with the epic intro and the visuals. I was however slightly concerned with the framerate issues during the first part of the game. However once I was free to choose my own path after the opening part of the game, it was smooth, huge and unbelievable. It has so many vast improvements over oblivion and the first thing I noticed was the improved combat system. The combat feels more fluid and responsive. Shield hits take a recoil and enemies get hit the way you strike them. I knew that I would be playing this game for a long time to come and now that I look back after playing the game for 150+ hours, I can say this is probably the biggest game you can get for the sheer amount of content and size of the game. I still could of carried on playing for another 100 hours quite easily if the game didn’t have framerate issues once the save file gets over a specific size. This was an issue with the game that Bethesda was trying to fix with patches. I don’t think they managed to rectify the problem with the patches I downloaded. However there many have been more patches since I stopped playing it, that may have rectified the issue. It wasn’t a game breaking issue but it still affected the amount of time I played for in one session. Occasionally I did experience a game crash but in 150 hours of gameplay it only happened roughly three or four times for me and for a game this complex, I expected as much. Technical issues aside, this game is a sheer masterpiece and is one of the finest games I have ever played. The platinum trophy for this game requires nothing more than time and a dedication to play the game for a considerable amount of time. None of the trophies are really difficult and I found myself earning a lot of the trophies in my first playthrough. My second playthrough was more of a personal choice but I used it as well to clean up any trophies I missed on my first playthrough. I also played through the game twice because I sold my thieves guild armour on my first playthrough and I couldn’t complete the thieves guild quest. This game is an absolute joy to play, only held back by the few technical issues I mentioned.

“I used to be an adventurer like yourself, until I took an arrow to the knee”

Deus Ex Human Revolution

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 8/10

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution I brought brand new with the game Rage on a sale and got both for a really great price. It was another game that slipped off my gaming radar because I was playing other games at the time it was released. Out of both games, this game was the real gem and a game that I still have in my PS3 game collection. I really like these kind of games set in the future with a gritty atmosphere and advanced technology. Deus Ex gives the player choice in how they want to play. You can be stealthy throughout the whole game or go all out guns blazing and blow shit up. The platinum trophy requires the use of the stealthy option throughout the game which I personally think is better. Three gold trophies require that the game be played from start to finish without any alarms being set off. Not one kill must be made (stuns only) and also the game must be played from start to finish on the hardest difficulty. Obviously I earned these trophies and the platinum trophy via two playthroughs because that is what I usually do with most games. One of the things I liked most about Deus Ex was the choice in how you could approach a certain mission. On my second playthrough I found even more ways to tackle certain situations and tasks. For example if I stunned a guard and left the unconscious body in view of another patrolling guard, he would investigate and usually go to nearest alarm. Or if the body was left in view of a security camera, the alarm would sound. The alarm panels could be hacked and disabled but this was usually a risky tactic. The hacking element of the game is pretty decent and made some situations pretty tense. For example im in an office crouching down behind a desk and a patrolling guard walks past the offices huge window in specific intervals. I only have a certain amount of time hacking the computer before the guard sees me at the computer. I could try and stun the guard but I could be spotted by another guard or security camera. Some of the best ways to get around are through air ventilation shafts. You could also pull dead or unconscious bodies into the shafts to hide them. I often did this quite often just to make sure nobody saw the bodies. These are just a few of the things really cool about this game. The gun fights were also just as fun but ammo is usually quite scarce and enemies won’t hesitate to put Adam Jensen in a body bag. The platinum trophy for this game is no cake walk and certainly put up a challenge. Earning the gold trophy ‘Foxiest of the hounds’ required that no alarms be set off throughout the whole game. That means no alarm can be set off by enemies, cameras, security systems or failed hacking attempts. I got really paranoid with this trophy, always making sure that I was certain that no alarms had been set off. It did make me play like a ghost however, making sure that I wasn’t seen at all. Adam’s augmentation gives him many abilities like a temporary optic camouflage and the ability to fall from a height and land safely. I found these abilities to be very helpful and gave me more choice in how to deal with specific situations. The story, atmosphere, gameplay and music are fantastic in this game and it is definitely a game worth playing.

Assassin‘s Creed Revelations

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 5.5/10

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Assassin’s Creed Revelations is considered by some to be Assassin’s Creed 4 but it is actually part two of Assassin Creed II, now that ACIII has been confirmed. Assassin’s Creed Revelations takes everything that made ACII and ACB great and continues it. I wouldn’t necessarily say that ACR improves on ACB but it does have some new features and a better multiplayer. Along with a new location and a continued storyline. ACR does have a few new elements that I personally thought didn’t really work or add to the game. Firstly the bombs and bomb making made the game way too easy and secondly the tower defence mini game was a complete mess. ACR is also the first AC game not to focus DLC on single-player and more on multiplayer DLC. The platinum trophy for ACR is centered around the singleplayer with only a few multiplayer trophies that aren’t as tough to achieve as the ACB multiplayer trophies. The multiplayer mode expands the basics of online modes from ACB with new characters and locations. Players are able to customize their characters' appearance and weapons, as well as start a guild and create its unique coat of arms. The matchmaking and game interface are also improved. The 100% synchronization silver trophy was the trophy that took me the longest amount of time to earn. Trying to get 100% synchronization on all of the sequences and other area’s of the game certainly pushed up the playtime. The multiplayer trophy to get to level 20 took quite a few games of playing online to achieve. I found myself playing the multiplayer for a longer amount of time than the single-player. Mostly because I really do like the multiplayer. Nothing quite like blending into a crowd and waiting for your target to get near so I can use poison and get a decent kill while calmly walking away. For me ACR is on par with ACB, however I don’t think I put as many hours into ACR as I did ACB. The Assassin’s creed series definitely needed a new sequel and ACIII hopefully will be as good, if not better than ACII.

Final Fantasy XIII-2

Game rating: 8.5/10
Platinum difficulty: 6/10

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When I first learned about FFXIII-2 it was exciting news but at the same time I was sceptical about it. This was the first Final Fantasy game that I had my doubts about if im honest. However I still went ahead and got the game on it’s day of release because it is Final Fantasy and it’s one of my all time favourite series of games. The opening scenes in Valhalla are jaw dropping and the whole quick time event with Lightning battling Caius is simply awesome. The game centers around Lightning’s sister Serah and Noel who is a new main character. I quite liked Noel because of his personality and attitude. Serah is also an ok character just nothing special when compared to the back catalogue of FF characters. I just wish the story would of allowed Lightning to be more of a playable character. FFXIII-2 isn’t your typical Final Fantasy game. It is the first FF game to have DLC which just feels completely wrong in my opinion. It also only has two playable main characters for use in the field and in battle. Your third party member is a captured monster which can be switched between three monsters in battle and chosen from 100’s of different monsters which have to be caught first. FFXIII-2 uses time travel for the story but also as way to traverse different locations in the game via the historia crux. The music is also a huge step in a different direction with all kinds of different genres. Most of the music is FF standard amazing but there is quite a lot of music that I didn‘t enjoy so much which is a first in the series for me. The platinum trophy is a far cry from FFXIII in terms of difficulty and length of time to earn it. I earned this plat within three weeks where as the FFXIII plat took me much longer to earn. However the FFXIII-2 platinum still requires some solid playtime and also has some tricky trophies.

Defragmented Completed every fragment category. This is the most time consuming trophy in my opinion because all 160 fragments need to be found across all the time periods and locations.

Fair Fighter Defeated a powerful enemy on equal terms. The powerful monster is called Raspatil. It's rare and only spawn’s in Oerba 400AF at the white beach. What makes this hard is your party need to be pretty well levelled up and you have to play on normal difficulty when going for the trophy. Easy doesn’t count. Raspatil has to be killed within a certain time limit and gets more powerful as the battle goes on. Not only that, he will use all kinds of status changing attacks to debuff your party.

Overall FFXIII-2 is a decent game that I enjoyed playing but compared to all the other FF games, it is the weakest release so far. Possibly even weaker than FFX-2 in my opinion.

Mass Effect 3

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 5/10

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Mass effect 3 is the third game in the mass effect universe and the conclusion to commander Shepherd’s story. It is also the first game in the series to have multiplayer and a massive internet backlash against the games ending. For many gamers, they are disappointed with the games ending because it left more questions than answers. I personally wasn’t disappointed with the ending and I definitely think that it should have not affected review scores of this awesome game and forced Bioware to make a new ending. The multiplayer is a nice new feature and it actually worked pretty well and is enjoyable to play. It does become repetitive incredibly quickly but some DLC has been released with more maps for the multiplayer, which should keep it fresh for a while. Although im not sure if I can see myself going back to the multiplayer anytime soon. The single-player is what this game is all about and Mass Effect 3 certainly delivers on that front. I enjoyed playing it from start to finish and played the game through twice. The insanity difficulty setting on ME3 isn’t as difficult as ME2. In my opinion the insanity difficulty setting should have been the games normal standard difficulty because I just found the game too easy. I used the import feature on my first playthrough to import my ME2 character from my save file, which is a cool feature. ME3 has many variables in regards to who you can romance and form a relationship with, to your choices and how you play the game. The paragon and renegade feature is back and determines your actions throughout the game. The more negative things you do and say, the more the renegade gauge fills up. If you do positive things, the paragon gauge fills up. This affects the game in different ways but isn’t a requirement for trophies. There is a lot of action in ME3 because of the reaper threat and nearly all missions end up in fire fights, which I always like. The game is very big with many locations and plenty to see and do but I still feel that ME2 was the bigger single-player game. Especially with all the DLC content available for it. Judging from the current ending of ME3, I think the mass effect universe isn’t over just yet and we may see another ME title in the future.

Soul Calibur V

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 8.5/10

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I don’t actually play many fighting games but Soul Calibur has always been my favourite series in this genre, right back to Soul Calibur on the dreamcast. Soul Calibur V is the latest instalment of the franchise and it is obvious that the game has been centered around the online modes and multiplayer, rather than focusing too much on the singleplayer modes. The game still has the traditional story and arcade modes while adding a legendary mode and a quick battle mode for singleplayer. These modes are adequate but probably not great for anyone wanting to buy this for the singleplayer experience only. Like its predecessors, Soul calibur V also has a variety of multiplayer modes, allowing players to face each other both online and offline. The character creation mode from previous games has also been retained and updated to allow for a much more customizable character to be created with limitless variety. I really enjoy playing soul calibur v online and I have played it for hours upon hours. I have also spent a lot of time creating characters in the character creation mode. I have about 15 created characters and SCV allows up to 50 to be saved. SCV is all about the online experience and in that respect it is the best game in the series so far. Earning the platinum trophy for this game is quite the task because you need to be good at the game with at least a moderate skill level. Perfecting at least three different characters and learning all the moves, while using blocking and grabs correctly is a basic minimum in my opinion. Button bashing will get you nowhere because most players online can play this game very well. The three hardest trophies are:

Sudden Temptation Quick battle defeated all warriors. - For this trophy you must defeat every possible opponent in Quick Battle, there are a total of 240 opponents which vary in difficulty and style. Just like the online rankings, the opponents of Quick Battle are given a rank which indicate the difficulty of the A.I Opponent. The highest ranked opponents have an unforgiving A.I and this trophy took me ages to achieve. I even had to try various different tactics and techniques to try and defeat some of opponents and if it got too much for me, I would forget it and try again later.

Conqueror of the arena Won fifty times on the playstation network. - This trophy can be tough, especially for those who aren’t particularly good at this game. Basically you need to win 50 online matches in ranked or player matches. This trophy can be boosted but I am pretty good at this game anyway and I like to kick some ass playing online.

Wind of battle Reached over 87,600 m in total movement distance in battle. - This is one of those trophies that is there to prolong the amount of time you spend playing this game before you get the platinum trophy. I would say earning this by playing the game normally could take up to a 100 hours or more.

I still have this game in my collection and I occasionally go back to it to play a few games online.



I am the custom character on the left….. It’s moments like this make the game so enjoyable to play.

Portal 2

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 6/10

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A few words I would use to describe Portal 2 are “clever“, “genius” and “unique“. I never got around to playing this game after it was released because I had so many other games to play. Also if im honest, I just didn’t think it would be a game that would appeal to me. However when I finally decided to get portal 2, I realized the game was nothing like I assumed it would be.
This game is simply brilliant and had me hooked from the moment I used my first portal. I am not going to talk too much about the game because it's hard to put into words how much I recommend trying this game and I don’t want to spoil it for those who haven‘t played it. For those that have played this game, you should know what I mean. The game does have some semi challenging trophies which I will now mention below.

Still Alive Complete course 4 with neither you nor your co-op partner dying. - This requires a partner that knows the course well and can co-operate with you. Course 4 has plenty of ways to die and parts of the course put either you or your partner in each others hands. If either you or your partner dies, the whole course has to be restarted.

Professor Portal After completing co-op, complete calibration course with a friend who hasn’t played before. - This can be tricky trying to find a newbie to go through the calibration course with for two reasons. 1) You need to find a new player that hasn’t played the game before. 2) The player must not quit or leave the calibration course until completed.

Iron Grip Never lose a cube in Chamber 6 of the Mass and Velocity co-op course. - This is a rather difficult trophy because if one cube is lost, you have to restart the test all over again. This is supposed to be achieved by two players in co-op play but I did it on my own using two PS3 controllers via co-op split screen. It took me quite a few tries to finally get this trophy.

Portal 2 is a game that I could of simply missed completely and never played and that would have been my loss.

Vanquish

Game rating: 8/10
Platinum difficulty: 9/10

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I purchased Vanquish because I heard that the game was really good and the platinum was a tough one to obtain. Also I got the game for an insanely low price brand new. Vanquish is all about the gameplay and it certainly delivers in that aspect. The gameplay has lots of elements of other games fused together but in a way that works flawlessly. The graphics are decent enough and the story of the game is good. However the game isn’t really that big and can be finished between 7 - 10 hours or quicker on a normal difficulty. The game also doesn’t really have many varied locations and types of enemies. The music is forgettable but works well in the game. The platinum trophy pushed up the amount of time I was playing this game for considerably. The tactical challenges are the hardest part of trying to earn this platinum trophy.

Challenge 1: This is surprising tough considering it is the first.

Challenge 2: This challenge I found to be the easiest to complete.

Challenge 3: This one also took me a few tries to complete.

Challenge 4: This challenge is the second hardest challenge to complete in my opinion. The areas are small and there are lots of enemies. The last wave of this challenge is brutal and It took me quite a few attempts to finally finish it.

Challenge 5: Probably the second easiest challenge to finish in my opinion. I did it after a few attempts.

Challenge 6: This challenge is absolutely insane. If it wasn’t for this challenge Vanquish wouldn’t be considered a hard plat to achieve. It took me many, many tries to finally complete this challenge. I found the best way to beat this challenge is to learn and adapt to each wave and never let AR mode be activated by taking too much damage.

Vanquish is an awesome game. Its just a shame that the singleplayer experience is so short and doesn’t have much replay value or plenty of other modes to play.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 9.5/10

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Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 is the hardest platinum trophy in my platinum collection and one of the hardest platinum trophies to earn. This game is seriously a hardcore challenge in both the single player and online team missions mode. The game needs to be played through a minimum of seven times (yes, seven!!) in various difficulties. Completing story mode on ‘master ninja’ is the first serious hurdle to overcome and once I achieved this trophy, I knew I had half a chance at obtaining the platinum trophy. Master ninja on story mode is so challenging that after every encounter with enemies, I went back and saved at a save point, when possible. The bosses on ‘master ninja’ are insane and require skill, persistence and a level of patience that I didn’t know I had. Once I cleared all the story modes and chapter challenges on all the difficulties, I then had to deal with the team missions. The team missions are easy in the acolyte and warrior missions. The mentor missions require a good partner but nothing to difficult. However it is the master ninja and ultimate ninja team missions that stopped me obtaining this plat for over three years! I played the team missions constantly but I could never fully finish them all. One of the main reasons it took me three years to earn the plat was that I played Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 back in 2009 and completed all the trophies apart from the one last ‘team missions’ trophy. I then got the YLOD on my PS3 and lost the save data for this game, which left me with Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 at 91% completion and no platinum trophy. Obviously because of the difficulty of the game and losing the save data, I put off playing this game again. It wasn’t until this year I decided to go for the plat again and start the game from scratch. I did however have an advantage because I only needed the team missions trophy which only required playing through the game once to unlock all the weapons and unlock the team missions. I have to be honest and say I felt like I was wasting my time trying to complete all the team missions because if I couldn’t do the team missions back in 2009, what chance would I have now? Especially with less people playing online and a server that can be a little temperamental now and again. Still I pushed on and proceed to play the team missions heavily until I had just one team mission left to complete. The last team mission I had to complete was ‘Ultimate Ninja 1’ which is so hard, I just wanted to give up. However my obsession for wanting this game platted was too much and I just kept playing and playing until on the 8th of May 2012, I finally completed ‘ultimate ninja 1’ and the plat popped. This was something of a moment for me and I shouted out at the screen “HELL YEAH”. This platinum trophy is my proudest achievement and a plat that makes me smile every time I see it in my list of platinum trophies.

Dead Space Extraction

Game rating: 6/10
Platinum difficulty: 5/10

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I played this game for about twenty mins after platting dead space 2 and I didn’t like it and shelved it. The game was left at 0% completion for over a year in my trophy collection. I then went back to the game this year because I wanted to clean up my trophy list and get the platinum trophy. I wasn’t looking forward to doing this and I was breaking one of my own rules by playing a game I assumed I wouldn’t enjoy playing just to earn the plat. However after playing the game a lot longer and in depth, I ended up enjoying playing this game. Although the game is specifically designed as a arcade shooter for the PS move, it is still pretty good with a PS3 controller, which is how I played it. The platinum trophy is nothing challenging and I had the plat within a week, playing roughly about three hours a day. Dead space extraction is a pretty solid game and probably better experiencing with the PS move controller but I have to be honest and say the platinum trophy was my sole motivation for playing this game.

Dragon‘s Dogma

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 7/10

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Dragon’s Dogma is probably the most underrated game of 2012. This game easily exceeded what I expected this game was going to deliver and more. The game is an open world fantasy action / adventure role playing game with hack and slash elements. All these elements together work well in the game and add a sense of uniqueness to it. I played through the game about two and a half times, racking up over 100 hours of playtime because I enjoyed it so much. One of the gold trophies actually requires two playthroughs of the game, which is great because on the second playthrough, all the inventory and levels are carried over to a new game. Dragon’s Dogma has actually renewed my faith in Capcom and if they continue to make games like this, they will definitely get my interest in any future releases. The platinum trophy is a time consuming one but nothing that requires too much gaming skill. One of the hardest trophies is actually a silver trophy entitled ‘the hero’ which requires all quests to be completed. I missed quite a few quests on my first playthrough but I managed to complete them all on my second playthrough. Fighting the UR dragon is the hardest battle in the game and it took me quite a few tries to defeat it. The pawn system and the varied vocations keeps the game fresh even after playing through the game twice. The game has plenty to see and do and kept me more than entertained for 100+ hours.

Uncharted 3

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 5/10

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Uncharted 3 is exactly how I expected it would be. Nothing short of fantastic! All areas of the game are of the highest quality and the singleplayer has some truly outstanding and memorable moments. I never once stopped enjoying playing the singleplayer, even after playing through the game twice and replaying the chapters for the platinum trophy. The cruise ship is a particular favourite part of mine. There were many moments in the game when I just had to stop and take it all in. I preferred the ending to Uncharted 3 over Uncharted 2 because the ending of Uncharted 2 was unrealistic. The multiplayer is very enjoyable although many people say that the Uncharted 2 multiplayer is better. I personally didn’t play the Uncharted 2 multiplayer, so I have no frame of reference. The co-op modes are great fun and also a very good way of gaining level’s. I played the co-op arena and co-op adventure quite a lot, which consists of three players. The cool thing about the co-op modes online in this game is that, if a player leaves the game, it will continue with two players until another player is found to enter the game. There are also plenty of other modes to play including team and solo competitive modes. The annoying thing about the platinum trophy for this game is that an online pass is required to get the two online trophies to earn the platinum trophy. Also the DLC trophies make the online pass a necessity if you want a 100% completion rate. Having played both Uncharted and Uncharted 2 I did have a high expectation of what Uncharted 3 should be and after obtaining the platinum trophy I can say without question that Uncharted 3 surpassed my expectations.

Castlevania Lords Of Shadow

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 7/10 for platinum. 7.5/10 for 100% completion.

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This game surpassed my expectations of what I assumed the game would be like. I thought it was just going to be a pretty decent hack and slash game with mechanics of similar games. But this is not just another button masher or devil may cry / god of war rip off. This game has great things which shine right out from the get go - Well known and respected voice actors (Luc Picard aka Patrick Stuart being one worthy of mention among others). The atmosphere is also top notch thanks to the great sound effects, and some very H.R. Tolkien 'esque environments and themes. Story and gameplay are varied and in depth, much more so than games in this genre I felt.

The game has great graphics, great story with great voice acting to boot, great fun combat and challenging puzzles, breathtakingly good boss fights and memorable environments... the list goes on. This is the largest game I have played in this type of genre and I didn’t want the game to end. The DLC added another two new chapters which bumped up the playtime considerably.

The platinum trophy for this game is quite a time consuming and challenging one. Even for a seasoned gamer like myself, I saw the ‘restart from last checkpoint’ screen many times and the puzzles took a while for me to figure out. The trials can be a pain on some of the chapters which I completed through trial and error with a little perseverance. Using the light and shadow magic correctly is essential on the tougher difficulties and learning most of Belmont’s moves helped me overcome the tougher enemies. Trying to complete a trail, find all of the gems and do each chapter on paladin at the same is not something I would recommend. I focused on a particular objective and then replayed a part of a chapter if I needed to achieve something else on it. Each of the 12 chapters requires a 110% completion rate and the completion rate is made up of level difficulty, collectables and completion of the trials. The same applies for the DLC chapters….

I cannot believe I nearly considered not playing this game! This is the first game in a long time where I actually wanted to get the DLC for more content, rather than just for the sake of getting a 100% completion rate trophy wise. The DLC is still pretty expensive, so just keep that in mind if you decide to go ahead and get this game.

Dead Island

Game rating: 8.5/10
Platinum difficulty: 5/10 for platinum. 6/10 for 100% completion.

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Dead Island is one hell of a fun zombie game with plenty of zombie killing goodness. It has a solid singleplayer experience which is spread across several large locations of which can be explored on foot and vehicle most of the time. A fast travel system is used to quickly travel around but also used to transport to completely different locations as well. The game has pretty decent visuals for such a large game. The gameplay is also incredibly fun with a cool feature that lets your character upgrade and modify weapons that are found throughout the game. The story of the game isn’t nothing special but keeps the game going forward. At the start of the game you find basic objects as weapons, like paddles, crowbars and wrenches. Later in the game the weapons get much more interesting and fun to use and with the added bonus of being able to mod every weapon and watch the effects on the zombies. The game also has a cash and EXP system which makes doing side quests that much more satisfying. The atmosphere of the game is done very well which not only adds to the fun but also adds a sense of isolation while exploring the island. The game can be creepy in places and I jumped a few times while playing (i was playing with headphones on). I played the game for about 52 hours in total in singleplayer and about 10 hours in co-op and multiplayer. The singleplayer experience is better with the online options set to ‘singleplayer’ because not only did the game seem smoother but I didn’t get hassled by other players entering my game. I made a single save game for my singleplayer game and another save while playing co-op. Eventually I ended up with about 6 different game saves because one of the trophies requires that each of the four characters be used to complete act one.

The co-op side of the game is fun but isn’t without its problems. I experienced several crashes while playing online co-op on the resort. However I had no issues while playing co-op in the city of Moresby and in the arena. I think the game is more likely to crash when playing online co-op and everyone playing gets into the same vehicle. This is when I experienced the game crashes most and had to do a hard reset of my PS3. I had not one issue while playing the singleplayer game for over 50 hours with the online options turned off in game. So if your concerned about the rumours of the game being buggy, then don’t be. All the trophies are obtainable and getting the co-op related trophies can be achieved in any part of the game. I would recommend earning the co-op trophies in the city of Moresby because I played most of my co-op game there and had no issues.

The dead Island game of the year edition has all the DLC included on the disc with the updates, so I completely recommend that over the original version of dead island. Dead island is my favourite PS3 zombie game so far.

Dead Nation

Game rating: 7.8/10
Platinum difficulty: 7/10 for platinum. 7.5/10 for 100% completion.

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Dead nation is the best PSN game I have ever played and admittedly I haven‘t played many PSN games but I know that dead nation has to be one of the best! Not only is dead nation a addictive game but it is completely fun. The added bonus of course is that it has a platinum trophy which makes playing it even more worthwhile. There are plenty of modes to choose from and the option of playing online with a partner is another great way to play the game. I actually got Dead Nation free in the PS network hacking outage. For some odd reason I had the platinum trophy for dead nation for ages but never added it to my checklist? Anyway I downloaded dead nation recently from my download list on the PS store and purchased the ’road to destruction’ DLC to get some more awesome dead nation action as well as earn the 100% completion rate.

Borderlands 2

Game rating: 9/10
Platinum difficulty: 5/10 for platinum. 6/10 for 100% completion.

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Borderlands 2 is quite easily one of the finest games released in 2012. Nearly all areas of this game are exceptional and the sequel has taken what made the original game great and made it so much better. Playing co-op with Scrunch and my brother was more fun than sliding down a flume made of candy and landing in chocolate sauce. The functionality of the online features are fantastic. It is so easy to jump in and out of games with ease and i never experienced one issue while playing online throughout my whole 80+ of gameplay. The platinum trophy is rather time consuming but far from hard to achieve. Overall borderlands 2 is a game i enjoyed playing from start to finish, regardless if i was playing it on my own or playing it with others. I completely recommend this game!

inFAMOUS

Game rating: 8/10
Platinum difficulty: 6/10 for platinum.

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Well after achieving the platinum trophy for inFAMOUS 2 quite a long time ago, i decided that I should own the platinum trophy for the original inFAMOUS game. I am not sure why I never got around to playing inFAMOUS? I think i must have had many other games to play at the time and just didn‘t get around to playing it. I really enjoyed playing inFAMOUS 2 and so this was another reason why i was interested in playing the original incarnation. After obtaining the platinum trophy for this game, i can safely say that the inFAMOUS series of games are simply awesome!! This game does seem to have darker undertones rather than its sequel and Cole is quite different as well. The story is good and i especially enjoyed the playing the game through on my inFAMOUS run. I think if I had to pick which is the better game, I would say inFAMOUS 2 is slightly better.

The platinum trophy I found to be rather easy and there wasn‘t really too much I struggled with. I found the stunts to be rather easy, except for one or two that were a little more tricky but nothing i couldn‘t handle. The blast shards did start to annoy me towards the end but after searching high and low, i eventually found all 350 shards with a little help from Scrunch. While I was playing and collecting all the shards, Scrunch suggested that i search for the shards using a method that she used and it worked very well. Apart from those few trophies, the game is pretty easy to earn the plat for. Overall I enjoyed playing inFAMOUS and the platinum trophy isn’t anything too challenging provided you don’t mind collectables.

Sleeping Dogs

Game rating: 7.5/10
Platinum difficulty: 4.5/10 for platinum. 5/10 for 100% completion.

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I downloaded Sleeping Dogs free on PS plus and I have to say the game is really good. I didn’t expect much if i am honest but the game easily surprised me. The story kept the game pushing forward if a little clichéd and kind of predictable but the gameplay is where the game shines. For starters the combat in the game is vastly superior to many other sandbox games of this type and it has a slight learning curve as well. Throwing your enemies in trash cans, phone boxes and smashing heads on the bonnet of your car never gets old. The gunplay segments are your usual standard take cover and wait affair but at the same time quite satisfying. The game also has really good driving elements and plenty of cars to steal, purchase and blow up. One thing that did stand out for me is the parkour and free running elements, making the chase parts of the game not only look cool but completely fun. I felt the John Woo style slow down ‘bullet time’ elements were not needed but that is just me.

As for the platinum trophy, it really is rather easy. I had no problem at all obtaining this platinum trophy. There are collectables and some trophies that take up playtime considerably but nothing that requires gameplay skill or any serious concentration. Overall a great game that has a enjoyable and rather easy platinum trophy. As for the DLC, it is pretty much all easy as well. Just a lot of time consuming trophies.

Shadows Of The Damned

Game rating: 6/10
Platinum difficulty: 4/10 for platinum.

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Shadows of the damned is a rather unique game because it has plenty of aspects of other games in multiple genres mixed with a lot of sexual innuendo and hilarity. I was honestly expecting this game to be a resident evil, silent hill type game but it wasn‘t either. The storyline is your usual rescue the damsel in distress affair and lord of demons who takes her away. Nothing new here but at the same time, it is the dialogue between Johnson and Hotspur that makes the game a little different. Instead of your usual type of serious and focused on the task at hand banter. You get a lot of joking around, insults and completely random conversation that i found to be very amusing.

The platinum trophy isn‘t very difficult at all but it did require three playthroughs because the difficulty trophies don‘t stack which is quite annoying but fortunately the game isn‘t too long anyway. What did annoy me slightly was the lack of not being able to skip the cut scenes. On my third playthrough I was using my laptop while waiting for the cutscenes to finish because nobody wants to see the same cutscenes three times through! Overall shadows of the damned is a good game but nothing special.

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I am currently playing all five DLC packs and i am aiming to get a full 100% by getting all 50 DLC trophies.

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I am currently playing this game between other games and I should have the platinum sometime in the future, if I ever get around to it. I am currently aiming to complete the wandering dungeon and defeat the ethereal queen, which is quite the task. I also need to playthrough the game two more times and get all the battle trophies.

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I am not sure if I will even attempt finishing this game for the platinum trophy? I simply don’t have 100’s of hours to put into playing it online.

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[w1n5t0n]

I would never have guessed you are 14 years older than me
I love your set up and your room.
Can't wait to see it finished

[Timeless-Enigma]

This is a work in progress and i would like any pointers, comments or advice about anything that looks odd or wrong. I only have four plats in my list checklist completed so far but i will be updating this thread frequently. Thanks

[Frost425]

Nice checklist so far man!! I am jealous of your gaming room and the cool glowing platforms your system and controllers are on. I'll be sure to check it out when it's finished

[john3007]

So far its looking awesome in here Timeless and im glad to see you started a cl as you have an awesome collection of trophys/plats.I also must say that your gaming set up is the fecking bomb mate,wow That looks like one awesome gaming chair.I also love the effects on the banners too.Best of luck mate

[Chambers35]

Great looking gaming set up

Great looking checklist start too I really like the style of the banners.

[Trunksu25]

good looking checklist so far Timeless! Keep up the great work!

[Timeless-Enigma]

I just updated the banners back to the original style i had them in. I think they look better, simple but better. I can see this is going to take me some time to finish. My fault for having so many plats

[AngeldeLeo]

Glad to c u starting ur checklist i ll keep an eye on it, theres many new checklist lately should every gamer here have 1?

[Scrunch]

Looking really good so far Timeless, you've got a fantastic plat collection which deserves a cl.
I love how organised your games are in that photo, i have slight ocd with things like that so i'm most impressed with your tidiness

[Timeless-Enigma]

I would never have guessed you are 14 years older than me
I love your set up and your room.
Can't wait to see it finished

Your making me feel old . I will put all my effort into getting this checklist completed as quickly as i can.

Nice checklist so far man!! I am jealous of your gaming room and the cool glowing platforms your system and controllers are on. I'll be sure to check it out when it's finished

Thanks

So far its looking awesome in here Timeless and im glad to see you started a cl as you have an awesome collection of trophys/plats.I also must say that your gaming set up is the fecking bomb mate,wow That looks like one awesome gaming chair.I also love the effects on the banners too.Best of luck mate

I like it, plus i use it for my PC as well so its all combined into one. The chair wasn't cheap but i certainly don't regret buying it . I changed the banners, let me know what you think?

Great looking gaming set up

Great looking checklist start too I really like the style of the banners.

Thanks

good looking checklist so far Timeless! Keep up the great work!

Appreciate your comments

Glad to c u starting ur checklist i ll keep an eye on it, theres many new checklist lately should every gamer here have 1?

Well i only decided to make one about two weeks ago and plus im doing it all myself which takes longer of course

Looking really good so far Timeless, you've got a fantastic plat collection which deserves a cl.
I love how organised your games are in that photo, i have slight ocd with things like that so i'm most impressed with your tidiness

Thanks man

[Xx_R3V3LAT1ON_xX]

I'm loving it! Great start man and yes I'm still jealous of your gaming room!

[Achilles_XLII]

This is a treat indeed. You have one of the most impressive collections I've seen and I look forward to popping back in and reading your thoughts about some of the other games in your collection. Great looking checklist so far, keep it up mate.

[DaRe_xLw]

Horray, another rise of a checklist!

Looks good so far Enigma. Keep it up.

[Feral]

Looking really good mate. Btw you are old lol kidding.

Definitely looking forward to seeing the final product

[daftprophet]

Nice job starting your checklist. Looks fantastic man. I'm definitely enjoying your thoughts on each game! Keep up the great work man!

[Admiral_Awesome91]

Very nice timeless I was inactive for a few days and bam you started a checklist. I really like the banners so far , guess its time to read your thoughts about the games

[DeadPool]

Nice one and love your gaming set up. Keep up the great work bud!

[DrJackel666]

checklist is coming along well man ..keep up the good work!

[gamelord-2007]

Nice to see you've now made a checklist TE. You have an impressive collection and I really like your setup too .