DLC #101 - RAGE : The Scorchers

Definitely a 2 for 1 offer...

The Scorchers DLC adds a new sub-story to the RAGE package, complete with 10 new trophies, mostly geared towards completion of the new plot, which sees you complete a number of new missions as you bring down the Scorchers and their plan to create a weapon of mass destruction through farming feltrite.

The story is quite short, clocking in at around 3-4 hours, and can be tackled on whichever level you wish, since there are no trophy requirements tied to difficulty. (Not for the DLC, at least...)

Exactly half of the trophies in this list are progression based, spread across the 7 new quests on offer, and unlocked en route towards completion of the questline.

It's a relatively easy list, and even the other non-progression related trophies have very relaxed requirements relating to some luck-based, casino dabbling and a few combat tasks using the new featured weapon, the Nailgun. These make up the 4 non-progression trophies in the package.

But that's 9 out of the 10 trophies accounted for;

Night Terrors - Finish the Campaign on Ultra Nightmare difficulty

The "Night Terrors" trophy, awarded for finishing the campaign on Ultra Nightmare difficulty, in an unusual move, requires you to go back over the entire main game and beat it the newly added and increased difficulty level of Ultra Nightmare.

Ultra Nightmare difficulty isn't as bad as it may sound. There are a few tougher areas later on in the game that may require a few attempts to get through and it can take a seemingly infinite amount of time for the health regeneration process to complete, which are the two noticable differences with this new difficulty mode. Enemies don't seem tougher to kill, money doesn't seem to be harder to come across and you can still expect to beat the game in roughly the same amount of time as you did before when chasing down the Platinum trophy. There is also that small issue that previously existed of having to be constantly aware of manually saving your game, and not potentially losing alot of hard work that may set you back some time, but that's more of a something to note, rather than a direct reflection on the difficulty of the trophy itself. It is important to be regulary saving the game though, because the game won't do it for you.

Given the fact this is an entire playthrough of the main story, this will add another 8-10 hours on top of what was just merely 3-4 hours for the rest of the DLC package, and if your circumstances were like mine, this will be the third time you've played through the game in an attempt to fully complete the list.

I do personally question the neccesity of adding such a trophy for a game that already desirably requires a couple of playthroughs in order to achieve the Platinum trophy, especially amongst a majority of trophies attached directly to the DLC and it's questline. However, it is mostly just an extra time-sink, rather than any sort of genuine challenge, turning this package from a couple of passing hours, into a 12-14 hour offering.

NOTE : If you start a new game to access the DLC having already beaten the game previously, you'll have to play up to, and complete, the "Mutant Bash TV" quest in order to advance the plot for the Scorchers DLC too. This is because the latter stages of the Scorchers story require you to earn a ticket to Oasis, which can only be obtained by completing a second episode of Mutant Bash TV.

DLC #100 - LittleBigPlanet 2 - DC Comics Premium Level Pack

The DC Comics Premium Level Pack adds 7 new levels to the LittleBigPlanet 2 Story mode, featuring a variety of characters from the DC Universe, and challenges you to defeat Lux Luthor and restore order within the DC world.

Along with this selection of levels, comes 7 new trophies, with a typical pattern of progressing through each level and completing them in full.

This includes trophies awarded for defeating Lex Luthor and completing the Story path, whilst you'll also earn another trophy for acing each of the 7 levels too. As standard, there are also trophies on offer for collecting 100% of the prize bubbles hidden amongst all the new levels and smaller tasks tied to usage of the new tools in the DLC package, such as the hero cape and the sliding walls.

There isn't anything tasking within this package, and you should be able to complete it within 3-4 hours. The majority of this time will be spent on the Story path, and some of the latter story levels might take a handul of attempts to achieve an ace on, but the prize bubbles are made much easier to obtain thanks to the fact each Multiplayer prize bubble area only requires 2 players, rather than 3 or 4 like the main game's list, and all of these areas can be easily completed solo with 2 controllers if you have a second controller at your disposal.

The non-story related trophies are awarded for perfoming very minor tasks, which can be achieved quickly and easily. Now, I need to move on and purchase some peripherals...

Platinum #76 - LittleBigPlanet 2

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 6/10

LittleBigPlanet returns with the second installment in the main series of the LittleBigPlanet games, equipped with a slighly kinder trophy list than it's predessesor, though not without a couple of hurdles along the way.

The structure of the trophy list in LittleBigPlanet 2 is the same as LittleBigPlanet, with the "Play, Create, Share" emphasis strongly represented in this list all the way through.

There is a brand new story mode, with progression based trophies for completing all 30 story mode levels, spread across 6 different worlds, which is incredibly easy to sail through at leisure whilst collecting a hatful of trophies for other smaller tasks along the way.

The "Ace Story Mode" trophy, awarded for Acing every level in the story mode, returns again, and will require you to complete all 30 story stages without dying, which, for the most part isn't actually too difficult, but there are a handful of levels which will test your ability, and subsequently patience, if you're restarting them often. 

However, the user friendly nature of the LittleBigPlanet games ensures the challenge doesn't border into the realms of the outrageous, and you shouldn't have too many issues bar the odd the difficulty spike. The best strategy is to just take your time, as most deaths will occur from silly errors caused by rushing into obstacles or not taking care when approaching dangerous areas.

Sticking with the Story mode, the "Uber Prize Collector" trophy, awarded for collecting 100% of Story prize bubbles, is a LittleBigPlanet franchise favourite, and requires you to collect everything in both the main story levels and the mini-game sub-levels within each world. The story levels will require you to explore every possible part of the stage, with some well hidden bubbles along the way, and the mini-games will require you to achieve target scores which releases all prize bubbles as a reward.

The greater challenge here actually comes from the multiplayer portions of each stage, some of which will require as many as 4 players to work together to trigger the completion of a specific area, consequently unlocking the prize bubbles. In some instances, there isn't actually a need for 4 players, but if you're attempting to tackle this alone, you will need 4 controllers, otherwise you'll have to jump online and acquire the help from others. A few of the 3 and 4 player co-opeartive areas are designed in a such a way that you will need the assistance of other people, and this may have not been too bad in the initial stages of the game, but has become increasingly harder as time, and the online community, has moved on.

Away from the Story mode, and into Create mode, where the "1440 Minutes of Create" trophy, awarded for spending 24 active hours in Create mode, requires you spend an entire days worth of time creating levels. This trophy was present in LittleBigKarting, but was not present in LittleBigPlanet, and where you could idle in LittleBigKarting, you could not do this here.

If you're not actively using the controller buttons, the timer won't fill up, so you have to spend an entire 24 hours making stuff, and you will hit a point where you will feel the grind, depending on when you start to get bored of actually creating levels. There are a handful of create-based trophies which will encourage you to make some decent levels, and compliment this trophy nicely, including the "Crowd Pleaser" trophy, awarded for creating a published level which was played by 50 unique players. These can help with the motivation to spend some quality time on learning how to use all the tools, and consequently create some nice levels, but it can't be underestimated just how big of a time sink this trophy will be, and will actually end up being a dealbreaker for alot of people.

This trophy was the sole reason it took me over 6 years to go from first trophy to Platinum. After creating 2 relatively good levels, one of which earned me the "Crowd Pleaser" trophy, there were still just over 8 hours to clock. A combination of being somewhat bored of creating levels, and realising the Platinum still seemed miles away meant the game was laid to rest for a long while, and there haven't been many games that have done that to me, especially to the point where the total completion timespan range has been over 6 years. This very much has to be taken into account.

The "10 Story Versus Wins" trophy, awarded for winning 10 Story mode Versus games against at least one other player offline, is simply here by virtue of the fact you'll need a second controller to achieve it. Yet another Sony game with perhiphal-based trophies, which we see to a much greater extent within the upcoming DLC trophy lists for this game.

In some respects, this has been a difficult list to judge. LittleBigPlanet definitely had a tougher trophy list, with a wider spread of challenging tasks, whereas LittleBigPlanet 2 possesses a much tougher individual trophy than anything prestented in the original title.

In terms of a timescale, obviously including the minimum 24 hours you'll need to accumulate within Create mode, you can expect to add another 30 hours on top for completion of everything else. This includes the story mode, acing every level and collecting all the prize bubbles. There is a strong showing from the "Play" aspect too, requiring the player to notch up certain totals by playing community levels with others over time, culminating towards a 50+ hour Platinum trophy.

LittleBigPlanet was always going to score higher than LittleBigPlanet 2, with everything taken into consideration. However, having to spend 24 hours actively creating levels is not to be overlooked in terms of how much tougher it made this game compared to the rest of the list. If you can stomach the grind, there really isn't much to scratch for under the surface, though that can be dependant on how easy you find obtaining all the prize bubbles with either multiple controllers or being able to find co-operative partners to assist you.

You could talk about other trophies that require you to play a total amount of co-operative levels, or accumulate a certain amount of plays on any one level, but the bottom line will always be, you have to spend 24 active hours creating levels. An entire day of your life for one trophy amongst an easy list. Just incase it hasn't been emphasised enough already.

Notabale Trophies -

Ace Story Mode - Ace every level in the story mode
Uber Prize Collector - Collect 100% of Story prize bubbles
1440 Minutes of Create - Spend 24 active hours in Create mode
10 Story Versus Wins - Win 10 Story mode Versus games against at least one other player offline

Hardest Trophy -

1440 Minutes of Create
Spend 24 active hours in Create mode