PS3Trophies.org - Call of Duty 4 Game Night

PS3Trophies.org celebrates the websites 4th birthday with a Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare event!

It's been a while since I last played this game, but I still have extremely fond memories of it. 30 days of play-time (Jesus...), every challenge completed, all golden guns collected and the maximum level and prestige (Which I believe was 10 back then).

I actually haven't played this game properly since I finished it all those years ago, but I'm still an avid Call of Duty regular so I'm hoping my skills aren't too rusty. Anyway, my group seems about ready to go, so let's do this...

Well, apparently we started a game of Team Deathmatch on Chinatown, but I got kicked and didn't manage to play through it, so, yeah, take 2...

We clearly don't fuck about in this group. We dive straight into a game of HQ on Shipment, renowned for it's completely mental atmosphere and fast-paced action. Ironically enough, the controls feel somewhat sluggish compared to the more modern versions of Call of Duty, but I quickly manage to adapt and go a steady 48-40. I was finding the business end of Kill-MC-Mildred's RPG way too often for my liking, and we ended up losing 85-60, but we definitely got the blood going with that game.

Next up, some Search and Destory on Wetwork. Very linear map, makes it hard to play a game mode like Search and Destroy, especially when you're attacking. Eddy2k8 racks up a nice lobby high scored of 700 points, including 10 kills as our side wins 4-2. I wasn't too shabby with 475, including 3 kills and 5 assists though.

Bit of a gimmick match next with some Knife-only Free-For-All on Killswitch. I managed to get 6 kill streaks on 2 occasions, which I thought was impressive until both Rawra09 and GForce9x pulled Choppers out of nowhere. GForce9x took the spoils being the first to 25 kills, though I led for practically the whole game until his chopper came in and wiped out everyone!

Into some sabotage next, and we get finished off pretty quickly in a game that only lasts a few minutes, despite my teams best efforts to diffuse the bomb.

Back into some more Search and Destroy, this time on Broadcast. Not one of my favourite maps, but still managed to post the lobby high score of 400, along with a tidy 4-0 win. Managed to get a quality double grenade kill at the start of the game, much to the disbelief of mikmakmok and Kill-MC-Hildred, which is always pleasing to see.

Seems like Search and Destroy is the order of the day, as we jump into another round on Creek. Always did enjoy this map, and this time was no exception. Slightly amusing watching Eddy2k8 forget how to defuse a bomb with 15 seconds left, but that amusement was somewhat short lived when I found out it had cost us the round. Proved to be quite costly as we lost 4-3, with Kill-MC-Hildred putting in a 7 kill haul for the winning team.

Another gimmicky match is thrown up next, with some Sniper-only Team Deathmatch. Needless to say, I'm not great at sniping, but we won nonetheless, scoring 75 kills to 49. Rawra09 dominated the leaderboard with 350 points, a whole 80 points ahead of Kill-MC-Mildred who scored 270 on the other side.

More Search and Destroy, on Crash. Seems like were ticking the maps off 1 by 1 at this point. Wooden Spoon award goes to GForce9x, who ends a round by twatting a grenade off the large building occupying bomb stack A, only to watch it come straight at him and explode off his face. Or maybe that should be Kill-MC-Mildred for going 0 kills and 5 deaths? Regardless, we ended up losing 4-2, but I held my own nicely with 400 points including 6 kills. It didn't match Rawra09 though, who went two better with 8 kills to take the lobby. Again.

Changing the pace with some Domination on Downpour, probably my favourite map in the game. Typically, my best scoring game of the night, equipped with my first Chopper kill-streak, ends in a draw, 200-200. All of that just to effectively be exactly where we were before the game started!

After a quick lobby merge, we jump into some Team Deathmatch on Backlot. Manage to knock up a decent score of 28-12, but couldn't drive us to victory as A_Rabid_Pigeon goes 4 better and notches up 32 kills for his team. We actually end up falling considerably short of the other team, which is disappointing from a personal performance point of view, but anyway, onwards!

Ending the night with Domination, where we easily cruise to victory. Notable mention for Brrnout, who rises above everyone to post a very decent 38-17, and top the lobby leaderboard. Nice to end on a winning note though!

Really successful game night, and I'm glad I had an excellent reason to go back to such a ground-breaking game with this event. Happy Birthday, PS3trophies.org, an excellent site with excellent people, and long may the years roll on!

DLC #48 - Modern Warfare 3 Content Collection 2

Take out some choppers in Kill Switch.

Content Collection 2 is more of the same from Modern Warfare 3, with 6 new trophies spread over 2 new Special Ops missions.                                    
Trophy structure follows the exact same pattern as the first content collection, with 4 trophies awarded for beating the missions on veteran, and then 2 further trophies for pulling off specific in-level tasks in each mission as well.                                                                        
The Kill-Switch mission, which tasks you with detonating an EMP in a Russian factory, is definitely the easier of the 2 missions, and shouldn't take more than a few attempts to beat, even on Veteran difficulty (Though there is a slightly tough part around the middle portion where you have to cover your team-mate with sniper fire which may cause a few re-tries). The sub-task for destroying all 6 helicopters in the level is a breeze.
                
The Iron Clad mission, which sees you guide a tank to an extraction point, is much harder, especially the sub-task of escorting the tank without losing any of it's health. The trick is to make sure the tank is always as far back as possible (aside making sure you go for this trophy on regular difficulty, of course), since there are multiple dangers to the tank, including suicide bombers, RPG experts, choppers and other tanks. Make sure you take advantage of the tanks missiles to destroy air support as quick as possible, everything else should be killed/destroyed by yourself.                                                                                                                             
As far as beating the level on veteran goes, it really isn't too hard if you make sure you take your time and advance forward at a steady pace, but cover areas are quite sparse so just make sure you're extra careful.                                                                                                                                  
When all is said and done, it's no longer than a few hour package, very similar to the first content collection. As seems to be the case with most Call of Duty levels on veteran difficulty, as long as you take your time and are willing to persevere, it's easy enough.

Call of Duty Elite : DLC Impressions #5

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The fifth dosage of Call of Duty Elite introduces 1 map, 2 new Special Ops missions (which will be covered in their own post as before) and a completely new game mode in the form of Face Off.
        
Starting with the single map, Oasis is a pristine hotel, surrounded by palaces in the baking sun-lit setting of the United Arab Emirates. The map is medium in size, with a nice balance of open areas and confined indoor areas, corridors and staircases.

Oasis is a definite change in scenery from the general gloom and war
torn maps of most of the game.

The striking difference between this map and the rest is purely visual. From a gameplay point of view, it doesn't really have any defining features or major focal points. There are a fair amount of ledges and towers that make for ideal sniping oppurtunties, but the mixture of enclosed and open spaces can be said for many other maps in the game.                                                                                     
Aesthetically, the map diverts away from the gloom and dark trend of most maps, and is by far the most visually appealing map in the whole game by a mile. There's even a beautiful but deadly water feature that hugs the perimeter of the map.                                                                                  
It doesn't exactly bring anything different to the gameplay, but the large amount of visual appeal keeps it fresh and exciting to play on, and the nice mixture of open and enclosed areas will always have you changing your approach depending on where you are.

Recommended Perks

Recon will give you a nice advantage on this map, especially on objective based modes where the bomb stacks and flags are positioned in very open areas, allowing you to easily pick out enemies across the larger areas.                                                                                                                                   
Despite the map being medium in size, it also fairly narrow, so Assassin will allow you the advantage on what is a fairly linear map. Stalker allows you to move faster given the fact you'll be weaving in and out of corridors very frequently, but SitRep might be useful because of the many opportunities of planted explosives lurking around the numerous corners and turns inside. 
               
The other part of this DLC relates to the new Face Off mode, essentially small team based matches on specifically crafted maps involving 2v2 or 3v3 matches (though you can actually still play 1v1, which gets boring quickly anyway...).                                                                                               
This is a decent game mode, mainly because it actually fixes a big problem with the regular team tactical mode (which I'll go into further down).                                                                                        
The first 2 maps, Aground and Erosion, come free with the package, and even though they're really too small to review properly, they compliment the mode well and the scale of the maps fits nicely with the scale of players actually participating within the game.                                                           
The big problem with team tactical has always been that you were playing on the maps within the main game, which are catered towards 6v6 combat. It always meant that you were running around empty space far too often and matches lost that fast and frenetic nature that Call of Duty is known for.                                                                                                                                                              
Face Off mode addresses this issue with the inclusion of maps specifically built to suit the smaller team game modes. As a result, matches have a huge emphasis on tactical awareness, and are naturally slower paced, but the size of the maps keep action frequent and never stagnates the game to large extents like team tactical does.                                                                                                
It makes Face Off mode a nice addition to the game, and the fact more maps are due to be released will flesh out the mode nicely. It's completely free aswell, which is an excellent bonus, so definitely download it and give it a try.

Platinum #41 - Bulletstorm

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 5/10                                                                                    
The Bulletstorm trophy list is split into 3 distinctive areas, involving the Single Player campaign, Echoes mode and the Anarchy Multiplayer mode.                                                                                  
Truth be told, the majority of the challenge with this Platinum comes exclusively from the latter section of the list, with some gruelling Multiplayer trophies presented to the player.
                                           
The single player consists of a heavy dose of progression based trophies, but does also include 4 stackable, difficulty based trophies, with the "Blood Symphony" trophy, awarded for completing the campaign on Very Hard difficulty being the peak of these trophies.

The game itself presents a minimal challenge, even on the toughest difficulties, due to it's very arcade nature, and also clocks in at a short 6-8 hour venture, and although you can expect alot of repetition of chapters and play-throughs in the quest for collectibles and executing every possible skillshot, it still makes for a short game on the surface.                                                                                                                       
Speaking of which, there are almost 50 collectibles in total, in the form of Newsbots and Electroflies, strewn around the Single Player campaign , but the ability to view any missing collectibles and replay any relevant sections through the chapter select makes these a complete breeze. They're also very easy to find and associated to a variety of skillshots, which makes things even easier for the player.

The "Golden Idol" trophy, awarded for performing every single skillshot in the game, might seem tough, but the majority of them will come through natural progression throughout the campaign, with only a small handful of them being slightly tougher or involving some form of luck.

Most of the skillshots are chapter specific, and just end up becoming a matter of trial and error as you reload chapters or playthrough the game again if necessary. The tougher skillshots are the ones that fall into the "General" category, and can therefore be achieved anywhere throughout the campaign, but it can be tricky finding the best locations for certain skillshots, however, apart from that, the 135 total skillshots really isn't as daunting of a figure as it might initially seem.
                                                                                                                                             
The Echoes mode trophies are definitely the easiest part of this list, and are mostly based around collecting stars within the 14 original echoes. It's very similar to the main campaign, where levels are re-run with score requirements set for performing strings of skillshots and combos, and even though the mode requires a basic knowledge of skillshots to achieve the relevant points targets, the fact you'll most likely already have tackled the levels in the campaign, and also have a solid understanding of skillshots, there's nothing that will trip you up.

The "Hoarder" trophy, awarded for having a total of at least 150,000 points in one Echo round, is just a simple matter of points accumulation, and you will need to replay a few echoes to breach the 150,000 barrier. It's not extensively grindy by any stretch, but you will need to plug away for a bit, even after obtaining the "Supernova" trophy, awarded for getting 3 stars on each of the 14 original echoes.

The Multiplayer Anarchy mode only has a small handful of trophies allocated to it, but is definitely the toughest part of this Platinum.                                                                                                            
The "Anarchy Master" trophy, awarded for achieving a score of at least 50,000 as a team requires a high level of quality in regards to teamwork and communication. The trophy description is actually very misleading, and the 50,000 points needs to achieved in 1 wave within a single game of Anarchy.

The amount of points required to pass each wave escalates as each round passes, however, the earliest time you can earn 50,000 points is wave 20, which takes a good couple of hours just to reach, meaning any sort of failure will set you back 2-3 hours and require you to retry the whole run, which is beyond frustrating. Once you get to wave 20, it's just a matter of teamwork and solid communication, and although there is a very straight forward tactic available to nail this trophy, it will still require the right execution in order to fulfil the 50,000 points requirement, and definitely makes this the hardest trophy in the entire list.

The "Final Echo" trophy, awarded for achieving level 65 in Anarchy mode, is a standard levelling affair, and although  isn't as gruelling as some online levelling grinds that have gone before it,you're still looking at a good 20-25 hours to achieve level 65. You can go a long way to reaching this milestone with the other online trophies in this list, but this will still be the final trophy you unlock in the Multiplayer portion of this game.

It isn't necessary to play with others either, and there is actually a relatively efficient self-play method that can help you rank up and achieve the trophy slighty quicker than if you were to play with others, but it is extremely mundane and does drain the fun element out of the online mode, so it might be something to consider as a final push, but nothing more.
                                 
All in all, this is a pretty moderate difficulty Platinum with everything taken into account. Most of the trophies make this a pretty straight forward list, but there is a genuine challenge present too in places, albeit a fairly subtle one. There is a sizeable time commitment too, clocking in at around 40-50 hours in total.

Notable Trophies - 

Golden Idol - Perform every Single Player skillshot in the game
Hoarder - Have a total of at least 150,000 points in Echoes Mode's total high score
Anarchy Master - Achieve a score of at least 50,000 as a team in Anarchy mode
Final Echo - Achieve level 65 in Anarchy mode

Hardest Trophy -
                                                                   

Anarchy Master 
Achieve a score of at least 50,000 points as a team in Anarchy Mode