Platinum #99 - Rocket League

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 2/10

In the spirit of accelerating my progress towards a certain milestone that should be fairly obvious if you read into the numbers closely enough, Rocket League was always due to be an easy catalyst for that, with a very simple trophy list requiring no more than what turns out to be a very basic checkbox exercise.

Incidentally, we're also breaking new ground here, as the first title to ever be awarded lower than a 3/10 in difficulty rating, and the easy ones always tend to be the hardest to write about because there isn't usually much to say about them.

Rocket League, to be brief, which won't exactly help me pad this out, but for the purpose of staying true to the game and it's very simple nature, is football with cars. In all fairness, the game is loaded with content and has been provided with a huge amount of post-launch support, which is well evidenced by a whopping 9 DLC packs containing additional trophies. So, even though, at it's core, the concept is very basic, it is also important to acknowledge how the developers have stuck by the game and consistently added a variety of new game modes, car models, customisation options and trophies.

The trophy list contains a medium-sized offering of 36 trophies, and the vast majority of these are absolute throwaway, for a game that is easy to pick up and play, and very forgiving with it's overall difficulty of challenge.

The "Champion" trophy, awarded for Winning the Season Championship, should be your sole focus straight off the bat, where you can complete (and hopefully win) the Rocket League Championship. This is where you can effectively begin to make proper inroads on this list and leave yourself very little left in the way of clean up.

This format is highly customisable, where you choose between a number of parameters to create the Championship to suit your own preferences. You can make it as short as just 12 games (inclusive of Playoffs) or as long as 39 games. You can also choose the number of cars per side and the difficulty level of the opposition.

Once you've set these parameters out, you then just need to win the lot in order to unlock the trophy. I would strongly recommend setting up the longest season possible, as this will give you greater opportunities to unlock the miscellaneous trophies within the list along the way, and the longest possible season will give you ample opportunity to do this. It's also a good way to fulfill some of the more slightly grindy, albeit still limited in challenge, trophies within the list.

Matches are set at a standard 5 minute length, and there is only additional time to be accounted for in instances where there is a kick off after a goal or if the score is tied after 5 minutes, which triggers sudden-death overtime and will continue for as long as it takes for the next team to score a winning goal. If we keep it simple, and assume 39 matches at 5 minutes each is 3 hours and 15 minutes, we can account for the additional time accrued for the above separately and estimate a full season will take somewhere between 4-5 hours to complete.

Even the difficulty modes you can choose between don't seem to have much of a difference between them all. These are listed as Rookie, Pro and All-Star, and even playing through the Championship in All-Star mode gave me very little problems, and although I did lose a handful of matches, I extended the Playoff bracket to 6 out of 10 teams, so qualification was easy. If you want something to take away as a notable point, this trophy requires you to win the Championship, which does mean you will need to be unbeaten throughout potentially 3 playoff games and if you lose, you'll be restarting the entire season. Thankfully, I did not need to, and won it all on my first attempt.

By my own estimates, I reckon you can easily achieve 19 trophies from this entire list by playing a full season, and you can also make some strong progress towards a few others that you'd effectively just need to "tap in" by loading up a few exhibition games and finishing them off. The list also likes to see you dabble within the customisation and exhibition mode options, which can see you net around another 6/7 trophies, which doesn't exactly leave you much left to do upon completion of these extra-curricular activities on top of the Championship Season.

It would usually be relevant to mention a couple of other trophies, such as the "Stocked" trophy, awarded for Collecting 150 Items and the "Battle-Car Collector" trophy, awarded for Unlocking all Battle-Cars. The former inparticular would require you to play 190 matches. You start with 33 out of 223 in-game items unlocked, with the rest being unlocked every time you complete a game in any game mode. Incidentally, the trophy description was never amended from 150, which was the full collection at initial launch, but you'll need to play 190 matches because they've increased the number of items available throughout the game's lifespan, they just never adjusted the wording of the trophy.

By the same logic used for completing the Championship season of 39 games of 5 minutes being 3 hours and 15 minutes, this would mean 190 games in total would be almost 16 hours of match time, plus any surplus stoppages or restarts in between, so this would make a slight difference to the difficulty rating. The only reason these trophies don't need to be considered further is because they were automatically awarded to me upon booting up the game after a spell away from it. Some research led me to discover that the developers had recently unlocked everything for all players, which subsequently unlocked those trophies at the same time, cutting away huge portions of additional effort required on my part.

I won't list these trophies as notable, even though they would be under normal circumstances, but given the fact I didn't have to actively take any steps to achieve them in the end, I can't speak from my own experiences of having to unlock them, and as such, this actually gives me greater justification to score the game lower than usual. I think it sums things up nicely when justifying the Platinum difficulty rating that some of the more potentially challenging trophies automatically unlocked for me because the game decided to gift out additional items as part of a community favour to it's fanbase.

This actually ends up being a rare occurrence for any game, whereby putting it off for so long actually worked in my favour, and whilst I wouldn't have been adverse to having to fulfil 190 games to grab this Platinum trophy, it wasn't exactly unwelcome. It means I can put pure focus into the host of additional trophies within this title, which are extremely well supported courtesy of a slew of DLC packs released post-launch. Just like FIFA too (a fair comparison), it's the sort of game that is always more entertaining within a Multiplayer setting, and whilst it does look like you could tandem the main list in conjunction with the DLC content quite nicely, achieving the Platinum before applying proper focus to any DLC is much easier to plan and prepare for.

For a game which already, at the very maximum, is hard to see beyond a 3/10, and given the fact I am always conscious about under-rating scores, having the game effectively gift wrap a few of it's challenging trophies made this a much easier conscious decision to make.

Going through a full season within a matter of hours will see you unlock at least half of the entire trophy list, and the clean up process is nothing more than reading down the list, ticking off the requirements and moving onto the next. There's nothing that ever makes you think twice, nor stall your progress, and where there is the potential element for grind that some of the earlier achievers of the Platinum trophy may have experienced, for those of us who were handed the shortcuts, this was a much smoother journey. 

It cuts down the completion time drastically from somewhere within the 20 hour mark, to my estimate of around 7-8 hours, and with no difficulty-sensitive trophies to consider, and with difficulty levels that provide little challenge, this is all about just going through the motions. Just out of pure curiosity born from playing on All-Star difficulty and still finding the game a complete breeze, I played a few exhibition games on the Rookie (lowest) difficulty level, and it was almost offensively easy.

Just make sure you close out the Playoffs within the Championship Season to make sure you don't have to playthrough this again, but even in worst case scenario, you could complete a second season within just 12 games, so it wouldn't exactly be the worst thing in the world to have to re-do. Let the game devs do the rest of some of the harder work for you, and you'll fly through this list in no time, introducing what is now technically, the easiest Platinum trophy within my collection.

Notable Trophies -

Champion - Win the Season Championship.

Hardest Trophy -

Champion
Win the Season Championship

DLC #129 - Grand Theft Auto V - Online Heists

Just to caveat this straight off the bat, the review of this DLC is for the PS3 version of Grand Theft Auto V, and although I will go ahead and assume that this is exactly the same as it's PS4 counterpart, it's probably still a safer bet to mention which console I completed this on, just incase there are any discrepancies that exist between both versions.

This Heists update adds a series of additional co-operative missions, specifically to be completed in groups of 2-4 players, along with an extra 9 trophies.

Each Heist will contain a small collection of preliminary, build up missions, which you'll have to complete before carrying out the final set-piece of the Heist itself, all of which require tight communication and proper co-ordination. Each player takes on a specific role within each mission, which they must fulfill with objectives unique to that role, which are critical to the bigger picture, and must be adhered to strictly in order to reach the conclusion, making Heists a very true co-op experience.

There are 5 Heists in total. The first one you'll beat is purely introductory, and gives you a feel for the new mode. It's the only one of the 5 Heists that only requires 2 players, rather than 4, and only has 2 set-up missions before the finale. The other 4 Heists that follow contain between 4-5 set-up missions before the finale, and must require 4 players to be completed. Out of the 9 trophies on offer, you'll obtain 4 of these by just beating all Heists in their entirety, but the trophy list will encourage a fair amount of replay value too, so you won't see the back of these missions once you beat them for the first time.

The trophies are also not difficulty sensitive, and you can play them on either normal or hard difficulty modes, the latter of which will grant additional monetary rewards which could prove useful for certain trophies within this package, but the real challenge from this list comes from being able to get through these missions with a solid team, and as a general note before discussing a couple of specific trophies, Heists is best played with like-minded individuals, and whilst you don't quite require Destiny levels of co-operation here, you'll be better off with people you can trust. If anyone dies more than once, or quits halfway through a Heist activity, you'll fail the mission and be forced to start over, so I would recommend getting yourself a strong team of 4 together for maximum efficiency.

That's not to say you can't beat these missions in random groups, and that's exactly how I had to do it, but you do certainly feel like you're fumbling through it at times, and due to the fact every mission has bespoke, individual roles, you'll be heavily reliant on other people to fulfill their obligations to the mission, which puts your progress at the mercy of others. There is also a large reliability factor too, where random players can suddenly quit halfway through a mission, and due to the fact it is a mandatory requirement to have 4 players for this, the mission will prematurely end and you'll have to start over from scratch.

These general things to note are certainly the bigger challenges within this DLC, but there are a few other trophies that deserve specific mentions;

Live a Little - GTA Online: Spend a total of $8,000,000 purchasing vehicles included as part of The Heists Update.
Mastermind - GTA Online: Earn 25 platinum medals across Heist Setups and Finales.

The "Live a Little" trophy, awarded for spending a total of $8,000,000 purchasing vehicles included as part of The Heists Update, is where the largest portion of your time spent with this package will come from. Where I previously mentioned above that this list encourages a fair amount of replay value, this is exactly where it comes from, and if $8,000,000 sounds like alot of money, then it does so because it is.

The Heists Update makes money much more accessible to players compared to what was available prior within GTA Online. There are ways you can obtain large masses of money illegally within the PS3 community these days, but if you're playing through this experience above board, it is tough to amass alot of money quickly, and Heists is very profitable.

However, earning as much as you'll need for this trophy is still a big slog, and once you've given every Heist mission the once over, of which there are 26, you still won't have enough to be able reach the total required. There are also tons of mitigating factors within Heists that offset the potential payout and earnings you'll acquire from them, including;

• Only Heist Finales, of which there are 5, pay-out substantially well and the set-up missions prior, of which there are 21, pay out very minimal monetary rewards.
• Within Heist Finales, the host of the Heist has to accrue an expense called a "set-up" cost, which is deducted from the final payment.
• Heist Finale payments are also cut between all 4 players with pre-agreed splits based on percentages, and all players have to confirm their agreement to these splits before the Heist can commence, creating tough negotiation spots where you may have to settle for a lower cut of earnings upon completion.
• Heist missions come with difficulty levels up to "hard", which will influence higher pay-outs for higher difficulties, but will also present greater challenges. The "hard" difficulty gives the entire team just 1 respawn for any death, making it much more challenging than lower difficulty levels which provide multiple lives.
• Performance within Heist missions will also determine final pay-outs, with Heist teams punished for sloppy performance. This will include damage caused to getaway vehicles, failing additional objectives and deaths, all of which are inevitable along the way.

All of the above are relevant points to be aware of, but there is also a golden trick that I would strongly recommend which allows you to fulfill the requirements of this trophy after having amassed just $3,045,000. It's firstly important to note that, this is still alot of money to acquire, and the methodology of just replaying Heist Finales over and over again is still the best way to pursue these totals, but the trick is as follows;

The Armoured Kuruma, worth $525,000, is by far the most expensive Heists exclusive vehicle in the catalogue. You can purchase this vehicle, and immediately sell it back to the game for a total of $315,000, making a loss of $210,000 each time. The concept behind this is that, each time you sell the Kuruma back to the game, you're getting a portion of your money back, which can then be used to fund another Kuruma purchase later down the line. Buying and selling back $3,045,000 worth of Kuruma's will ultimately amount to spending $8,000,000, due to the fact you can regain $315,000 for every $525,000 purchase.

I used this method because $8,000,000 is simply just way too excessive, in my opinion. It was challenging enough to accumulate $3,045,000 for the above method, and Heists can be quite the frustrating experience when you're playing with random players, who have a tendency to either perform badly or quit Heists half-way through when they either can't perform the role they've chosen or don't want to restart from checkpoints when things aren't going so smoothly. I just wasn't sure I had the stomach to reach such a lofty total, and was hugely grateful there was a shortcut available.

It is also important to point out that you need to spend the money on vehicles added as part of the Heists update. The last thing you want to do is start spending your money on vehicles that were either already part of the base game or part of a different DLC package, as these won't count towards your progress for this trophy.

The "Mastermind" trophy, awarded for Earning 25 platinum medals across Heist Setups and Finales, will test your ability to outperform the rest of your team within the Heist. 

Each mission you successfully complete will distribute, in order from bottom to top, a Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum medal based on individual performances of all Heist members. The requirements and determination of what you get aren't clearly defined anywhere, so it makes it hard to gauge on whether you've done enough within a particular mission to be the outstanding player and grab yourself a Platinum medal, but combat roles are probably the best option.

Given the fact there are 26 missions, and you need 25 Platinum medals, you'll more than likely not achieve 25 within 26, so it's just aswell you have some extra replay value courtesy of the "Live a Little" trophy and you should make some relatively strong progress towards this trophy during your quest of gathering $8,000,000. 

If you struggle, the Fleeca Job, which is the introductory Heist, only requires 2 people for the 2 set-up missions and Heist Finale, so it's much easier to get Platinum medals within these circumstances where you're only competing against 1 other person, where only a Gold and Platinum medal is awarded at the end. You can just keep grinding this series, and the set-up costs aren't anywhere near as dear as some of the latter Heists, so it's nice easy alternative if you don't manage to grab 25 Platinum medals during your money accumulation journey.

Just like most things that require co-operation in groups of people, the main challenges from this package come from having to rely hugely on others. I do like the concept behind Heists, and there is a lot of effort and attention to detail in how they're created which deserves much praise, and whilst Rockstar can't be blamed for player behavior within these missions, which did cause huge frustration at times, they definitely overcooked the requirements of the "Live a Little" trophy. The Heists are fun and contain great novelty value, and the missions are built in the classic GTA way, but did I want to keep grinding them over and over again with the same unreliable groups of people? Not at all, but I had to.

The biggest irony of it all it is the fact there may not even be a write up for the main GTA V list, due to some difficulties around one of the trophies I have not yet obtained, with chances of me being able to obtain it seemingly very slim, but that one remains to be seen.

Follow my recommended method which means you'll only need less than half of the accumulated monetary total, and this is just about bearable. It'll still take you a while to reach the revised amount, with the whole package clocking in at around 30-40 hours for full completion, and grab yourself a reliable squad of like-minded individuals if you can, otherwise prepare to face up to the reality of playing with others who might not necessarily be in it for the same reasons.

NOTE : This was the only DLC content released with additional trophies for the PS3 version of Grand Theft Auto V. The PS4 version included 2 further DLC packs inclusive of trophies, which were not released for the PS3 version of the game, and will therefore not be reviewed at a later date.

Platinum #98 - Ratchet and Clank

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 4/10

Whilst researching the archives, I found it hard to believe that I only had one other Ratchet and Clank Platinum in my entire collection prior to this. 

That was Ratchet and Clank : A Crack in Time, achieved back in 2012 as my 25th Platinum Trophy, and this lack of subtitled installment (apparently down to the fact that this is the first, and as of this write up, only release on a new generation of console), is therefore considered a reboot of the series that has seen multiple installments through it's PS3 era. This has included both brand new titles and remasters of the original first 3 games in the entire series.

Ratchet and Clank includes a large trophy list, consisting of 47 trophies in total, and is purely a story-driven, Single Player experience.

Taking control of Ratchet and Clank, the plot revolves around stopping Chairman Alonzo Drek from destroying a series of planets in order to harvest their remains to build his own network and develop a super-army in order to take over the rest of the Universe, so this is pretty run of the mill stuff for a Ratchet and Clank title. This plan turns out to be secretly driven behind the scenes by Dr. Nefarious, an old foe to the Ratchet and Clank series, and the game will take you from planet to planet completing a series of objectives specific to each area, and the varied, vibrant environments and characters within that accompany each of them along the way.

It's tough to draw on comparisons to previous lists in the series, and how they all line up against one another, purely down to the fact I've only ever had first hand experience of one other Ratchet and Clank title. However, there are a lot of obvious similarities here that seem to have been carried through, including a large focus on story-related progression-based trophies, rewards for miscellaneous activities and a return for Challenge Mode.

"The End Of The Beginning" trophy, awarded for Defeating Dr. Nefarious on the Deplanetiser, caps off the story as the final boss fight, and the list will throw a sizable amount of progression-based trophies at you as you go through the relatively short campaign, which clocks in at around 8-10 hours in length.

Along the way, you'll unlock an additional 14 unmissable trophies relating to hitting various points within the story, and given the short length, these pop at pretty regular intervals. On top of this, there are a host of other trophies you'll no doubt unlock subconsciously along the way, including trophies awarded for completing Planet-specific tasks and performing certain actions with some of the games host of weapons.

Speaking of which, the weapons are given a big focus within this trophy list, and the game does put alot of care and attention into the weapons system, and the trophies reflect and ensure that the player gets the fullest usage out of them all in the quest for the Platinum trophy. Ratchet and Clank games have historically always placed a large emphasis on their weapons system, and the trophy list is certainly used to provide exposure to this with maximum effect.

The "Master of War" trophy, awarded for Upgrading every weapon to maximum level, is one of the last trophies you'll unlock, and this is down to the amount of work required in order to max out every weapon in your arsenal. The list dedicates a large portion of itself towards the games vast array of weaponry, so be prepared to become very comfortable with every single weapon you'll handle, even if you don't like them.

There are 15 weapons that apply to this trophy (we shall exclude the wrench in this instance), and each one needs to be purchased, which is step one. The first important thing to note about this trophy is that you'll need around 3.5 Million bolts in order to purchase every single weapon in the game, so this contains an element of grinding to be expected. You will need to beat the game twice as a minimum though, reasons for which will be detailed later, so it's not just mindless end-game grinding, though that has the potential to massively become a factor into things if you're not conscious to switching up and using different weapons regularly enough. This point is fundamental, and the games willingness for the player to experiment with every weapon will work in your favour here, so don't be stubborn about it, or it will work against you.

When you initially purchase a weapon, you'll only be able to level it up to level 5, then you'll need to purchase the advanced version of the weapon, which will allow you to reach level 10, so this is effectively a two step process, and hence why you'll need so many bolts. It also effectively means the game actually has 30 weapons, rather than 15, since you're purchasing 2 different versions of each weapon. The advanced version of the RYNO alone will cost 1 Million bolts, and the multiplier within Challenge mode is THE key factor to accumulation of bolts which will minimise the amount of grinding you'll have to do when it comes down to progressing with this trophy. 

The very short length of the story, and the vast amount of bolts you'll need to accumulate in comparison, is why it's important to maximise the bolt multiplier within Challenge mode, as this will allow you to earn greater volumes of bolts at a much quicker rate, meaning you can effectively chase this trophy, and ensure you're not leaving yourself too much to do once you've wrapped up 2 full play-throughs.

It's also relevant to point out that, on top of all this, you will also need to fully upgrade each weapon via Raritanium, a mineral found scattered around the various planets you'll visit on your journey. Each weapon has a corresponding skill tree where you can use Raritanium to unlock more and more perks until full completion. I'm not sure of how much you'll need in total, but some Raritanium is very well hidden and you'll need to go out of way within levels to find it, so I would personally encourage this to make sure you adequately keep up with this aspect of the task. Raritanium, no matter how well hidden, always shows up on the menu map, so there's no excuse not to explore in most instances.

Speaking of the aforementioned, the "Challenging" trophy, awarded for Completing the game in Challenge Mode, requires you to beat the game a second time, within a mode that is only unlocked after completing the game once on any difficulty, so the relevant point here is, of course, the fact that this game is a minimum 2 play-through adventure, regardless of anything else.

Challenge mode provides the previously mentioned bolt multiplier modifier, which can reach up to x20, and can be used to accumulate alot of bolts very quickly. This will increase the longer you kill enemies without getting hit, and once you move towards the x20 multiplier, you'll be earning generous volumes of bolts, which will allow you purchase weapons quicker, and therefore, minimise the amount of grinding you'll have to do beyond the minimum required 2 play-throughs of the game. Simple stuff really, though you do lose your multiplier whenever you get hit, and the hectic nature of battles within this game at times makes that a very real thing.

Challenge mode also allows you to carry over weapons and bolts to the next Playthrough, so this allows you to take advantage of the accelerated bolt accumulation to use towards purchasing and upgrading weapons, so it compliments the above well too.

This list also has a small handful of trophies which are technically deemed missable for varying reasons, and whilst none of the requirements for these are overly difficult, they will require a certain degree of diligence when playing through the game, mainly down to the fact these trophies will require you to perform certain actions on enemies that are either limited in their appearances throughout the game, or only appear once, which is mostly applicable to the handful of boss fights during the story. You'll get 2 chances to ensure you grab what you may have missed first time round when you tackle Challenge mode, but if you're still missing any of these (I count 5 trophies that could be deemed missable), then you'll need to play-through on a fresh run, which will add extra completion time on, so it's sound advice to be aware, especially given the fact they're mostly small tasks.

The "Death By Disco" trophy, awarded for Using the Groovitron on every enemy type, is a standout trophy though, requiring you to use the Groovitron weapon, which is a disco ball that forces the enemy into a dance-trance, on every available enemy at least once, of which there are 48 in total. These do accumulate between play-throughs, so again, it's no bother if you've missed anything on the first run, but there is alot to keep track of, and it's easier just to go through the game in Challenge mode and make sure you tick them all off in one fell swoop. It's also a great way to level up the Groovitron weapon at the same time. 

Included within these 48 enemies will be bosses and "passive" characters that don't technically count as enemies, such as the Glowing Slug and the Non-swimming Pool Shark, and therefore could be easily missed, so just make sure you have a checklist available to mark your progress, and so you can understand which enemies count towards this trophy. Ultimately, you don't want to be adding on any extra play-throughs unnecessarily because you missed a few on your mandatory play-throughs.

Via the application of my own logic of using 4/10 as the starting benchmark for every game, and only considering anything lower in exceptional circumstances, Ratchet and Clank is about as 4/10 as any game can be. The game does have 3 difficulty levels, but the trophy list does not require you to play on anything higher then easy difficulty, should you chose to do so, and even the most challenging difficulty level (hard), really isn't anything to write home about. The gameplay is very casual, pick up and play, like every Ratchet and Clank game that has ever existed, which is a consistent parallel to the general low difficulty.

However, you will need to beat the game twice at the very least, and there is a moderate grind element present in order to max out all weapons, which saw me farm the end-game of my Challenge mode play-through, and also begin a third play-through of the story to be able to level up the remaining weapons I had with refreshed enemies available to kill. The missable trophies also have the potential to present further challenges if you're not paying adequate levels of attention too.

These are the key factors which stop the game dropping below 4/10, and time-wise, this is still around a 30-40 hour experience, but there isn't enough on the whole to increase this rating much higher, and you can bag yourself a nice easy Platinum, providing you haven't already seen enough of Ratchet and Clank trophy lists up to this point.

Notable Trophies -

The End Of The Beginning - Defeat Dr. Nefarious on the Deplanetiser.
Challenging - Complete the game in Challenge Mode.
Master of War - Upgrade every weapon to maximum level.
Death By Disco - Use the Groovitron on every type of enemy.

Hardest Trophy -

Master of War 

Upgrade every weapon to maximum level

DLC #128 - Destiny - The Taken King

The Taken King is the first of two DLC packs released for Destiny, and also, without question, the most challenging element of the entire game, inclusive of the main list.

The package comes with 10 additional trophies, focused around Oryx (The Taken King), and his plot for revenge for the death of his son Crota, who is slain in a previous portion of the Destiny story.

This content also unlocks a new area of the game, a huge ship called the Dreadnaught, where most of the requirements of this trophy list are fulfilled through a variety of quests, Strikes and a new Raid, as well as a tough set of collectibles which turn out to provide one of the more difficult challenges within this selection of trophies.

There are a few important details to mention straight off the bat. You'll need to be level 25 in order to access this content with any given character, which is just simply a standard requirement of the game. Further to this, out of the 10 trophies within this list, 3 of them are awarded for unlocking the Taken King exclusive sub-class for each of the 3 character types, and you'll need to be level 25 for each of these characters in order to beat the first Taken King quest, unlock the sub-class, and therefore trigger the trophy. It's also important to make sure the first thing you do above anything else, is defeat the Taken King and beat the main story. This will net you "The Taken King" trophy, and most importantly, fulfills a pre-requisite that a handful of steps to various side missions have which require you to have defeated the Taken King before being able to proceed further.

The biggest thing to note about this DLC pack, is how confusing the trophy list is to get your head around, and that the majority of the trophies require a series of different steps to be completed prior to the final step towards unlocking the trophy. It also isn't always clear what you need to do in order to reach the final step, for example, the "Second Wind" trophy, requires you to complete the "Echoes of Oryx" quest, however when you work backwards from step 1, you eventually discover that you'll need to complete the entire Taken King questline, complete 1 additional side quest, which in turn unlocks 3 extra side quests which you must also complete, which then in turn allows you to accept another main quest.

At this point, you think you may be at the end, but then you realise this quest has further pre-requisites, which require you to complete another mission on the Dreadnaught, in order to access the King's Fall Raid, and then to finally complete the questline, you'll have to defeat 3 DLC bosses, all of which can only be defeated from within the Raid itself, which already has separate trophies accounted for it within the trophy list. This is probably the most obvious example, but more subtle ones exist within other areas of this list.

On top of all this, there is still some room to discuss a few stand-out trophies;

Hunger Pangs - Complete the "Old Hunger" quest.
Long Live the King - Complete the King's Fall Raid (Heroic).

The "Hunger Pangs" trophy, awarded for completing the "Old Hunger" quest, also falls into the above example of how trophy requirements can be more convoluted than initially led to be. In order to do this full justice, I'll pick out the most relevant parts of the questline;

• Firstly, you'll need to have beaten the main Taken King story arc.
• In order to officially trigger the quest to begin, you'll need to find just 1 Calcified Fragment either on the Dreadnaught via free roam patrol, or on any Dreadnaught related activity. This will unlock 3 different questlines you'll need to be complete as part of the bigger picture to this quest.
• Within one of these questlines, called "The Old Hunger", there is a step which requires you to collect 3 items, which correspond to beating the 3 bosses within the Taken King Raid, so you'll only progress further with this trophy once you beat the most difficult Raid in the entire game, so this is already a stumbling block. You can argue the point that you'll need to beat the Raid anyway if you want 100% completion, but you could in theory get so far down the line with this trophy before actually realising this, so it's still important to point out. The items also do not have a 100% drop-rate, so you could also be required to complete the Raid more than once, which is a pain, because if you beat the Raid on Heroic in your first attempt, that would mean you only need to visit it once if it wasn't for this questline.
• Within another questline called "Hunger Pangs", you'll need to collect 45/50 Calcified Fragments, which are obtained in a variety of different ways. These include being randomly scattered across the Dreadnaught to be found within free roam patrol mode, rewards as part of the Court of Oryx, beating King's Fall Raid bosses under specific challenge perimeters and other things. It's relatively plain sailing for around 35-40 of these, but then it becomes a struggle to get the remainder, and becomes an exercise of likeliness. King's Fall Challenge mode is best avoided for the purpose of this exercise, but you can only afford a margin of error of 5 Calcified Fragments, and challenge mode has 3 up for grabs, so you're already pushing the limits. It makes it tough to work out which ones you're best off leaving out, and the whole exercise is very time consuming.
• Still within the "Hunger Pangs" questline, once you've collected 45 fragments, there is a final quest to defeat a Wizard within a mission which will require a strong team to beat. It would be nice to be able to do it solo, but it's simply not possible, and getting to this point and still not being able to finish things off yourself is frustrating, and bearing in mind other players only ever really want to Raid, it can be hard to find partners both strong enough and willing enough. 

To summarise, you'll need to collect 45 out of the 50 Calcified Fragments, the requirements of which gradually become more and more challenging, beat every boss within the King's Fall Raid, and hope they drop the item you're after for the quest checklist (Which is effectively just beating the Raid anyway) and complete a final mission which will require support from fellow strong players, leaning on the game's constant insistence to have to play with others in order to beat it. This is by far the most challenging quest in the entire game, and that includes the main list and other DLC pack.

The "Long Live the King" trophy, awarded for Completing the King's Fall Raid (Heroic), requires you to beat the newly added Raid exclusive to this content, and where I would normally be discussing the concept of Raids as part of the main trophy list, it wouldn't feel right to leave the detail out during the first instance of discussing them, so here we go;

Raids are co-operative missions, specifically designed to be tackled in large fireteams, and require high levels of co-operation and strength in order to clear and succeed. They contain sub-sections which will either involve co-operative activities or big boss battles which always require everyone to be on the same page in order to emerge victorious.

The King's Fall Raid is the toughest raid in Destiny, and the Heroic modifier only serves to amplify that challenge. There is a trophy available within this list for beating the Raid on any difficulty, and it wouldn't be the worst idea to suggest running this Raid on a lower difficulty first, just to be able to get to grips with how each sub-section plays out and also earn some exceptional loot to increase the strength of your character, and subsequently better equip yourself for the Heroic version of the Raid.

There are 2 things that are of essential importance to understand about Raiding in Destiny;

Firstly, you have to know the Raid inside out. This includes knowing how to beat each sub-section and the various roles each player could be tasked with throughout the Raid. Whether you do this via playing through on a lower difficulty first for the experience or studying walkthrough videos to take it all in doesn't really matter, but if you approach any Raid unprepared, you'll be in serious danger of letting the side down, and the margin of error for lapses in co-operation is small, and it's very easy for one person to become the single point of failure. If one person dies, the entire effort will fail and you'll find yourself restarting from checkpoints way too often if you don't truly know what you're doing, or if you're not strong enough in light level and die too easily. You'll need to be around light level 340 out of a possible 400 to stand a reasonable chance within the King's Fall Heroic Raid, just for added context.

Secondly, Raid's are not quick exercises, and King's Fall on Heroic difficulty took around 3 to 3.5 hours alone to beat, so make sure you've got the free time if you want to tackle this trophy. Even the strongest fireteams (and it is important to note, you will definitely need at least 5 people, maybe even a full 6 to beat this Raid), will be susceptible to deaths and restarts caused by failures in communication and being overpowered by enemies, so be prepared for worst case scenarios and having to stick it out to the end in order to make sure you trigger the trophy.

For what it's worth. I jumped straight in and went for the Heroic Raid on my first go, though I did ensure I researched the Raid before hand, and also leveled up my character to a reasonable enough point where I didn't need to be carried through by my teammates and wasn't deemed a weak link. Most parties will reject you if you're not of a high enough light level anyway, so it's important to make sure you're strong enough to compete within the Raid, if not out of respect for the rest of the team if nothing else.

There is always the very slight off-chance you could get lucky and jump in with a group who will be willing to carry you through, but most people, from my own experiences, only want to raid with players who are confident in their understanding of the level, able to physically communicate via a headset and have a strong character, and this should be considered the absolute minimum anyway, as success relies heavily on all of the above.

Here's the thing about Destiny;

It's not a game built with the intentions of getting by yourself, and large parts of your success with these trophy lists will be down to how well you play with others. Even if you're looking to just get by, and have fireteams carry you through Raids, there seems to be a reluctance for players to accept you into raiding parties if you're not up an adequate level of strength, so you'll more than likely end up spending loads of time grinding quests on your own or playing against others within Crucible mode in order to increase your light level, obtain better weapons and gain acceptance into raiding with other players.

That's more down to player behavior, than any actual faults with the game, but as someone who's here to just simply finish the trophy list and move on, it was very frustrating to have to grind my light level with extra-curricular activities, just to be able to become deemed relevant enough within the community to be welcome to raid with others, when all I wanted to do was finish the trophy list and move on. For the benefit of a balanced argument, I do get the importance of not being a passenger if you're wanting to raid, given the fact that Raids are designed in such intricate ways that, you can ill afford to have cannon-fodder team-mates, especially for Heroic Raids, which are the peak of this games difficulty levels, otherwise it hinders the experience for those who have put the extra effort in and want to raid to their own high standards.

Similiar logic applies to Nightfall Strikes and other high-level missions, and although these are more about total strength of the party, rather than co-operative logic puzzles like Raids are, the same guidelines above are applicable in the sense that you'll need to grind and invest in your character to be able to beat them, and other players won't be able to carry you through.

All of this combined makes for a strong challenge, and the overall completion time is somewhat hard to gauge, as I was completing parts of the main Destiny list in tandem with the Taken King, but it isn't a quick one by any means, and you'll absolutely need to plug the hours in if you want to complete it in full. 

There are some genuine challenges of skill along with some grinding and confusing questlines, with the added burden of some extra-curricular grinding in order to make sure you're up to certain lofty standards to complete some specific tasks. 

This is a good completion to have within the collection, but I'm not sure I'd ever do it again at the loosely estimated completion time of around 60-70 hours.

Platinum #97 - Resident Evil 6

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 5/10

Resident Evil 6 draws alot of parallels from Uncharted 3 (the most recent Platinum in my collection prior to this one).

Just like Uncharted 3, it is purely a Single Player Platinum, with the dedication towards its Multiplayer component spread across a variety of DLC packs, all of which are much more challenging than anything in the main list, and all of which were completed before tackling the main trophy list properly.

The main list itself is 51 trophies strong, and follows a very similar blueprint to that of Resident Evil 5 (which was my 6th ever Platinum trophy 8 years ago).

The most notable thing about this list is the amount of progression based trophies on offer here, for completing each chapter contained within the main story campaign. Along with 4 difficulty based trophies, the combined total of all progression based trophies in this list is 25, which makes up exactly half of the entire list, if you discount the Platinum trophy itself. This was exactly how Resident Evil 5 was structured, with trophies awarded for completion of each chapter along with beating the game on varying difficulty levels.

The campaign is structured slightly differently this time round though. Where Resident Evil 5 purely followed Chris Redfield through the entire game, Resident Evil 6 contains 4 sub-stories, focusing on 4 different main characters (each of which also has a sidekick you can play through with too, which lends itself well to the co-op element of the game). These are all interwoven to piece together the larger story, and there is alot of clever link up as you progress through each characters campaign, though this can lead to some repetition in terms of the environments you'll work your way through, and some of the enemies you'll face. The game generally does well to keep things fresh enough, especially given how lengthy the story is compared to alot of Single Player adventures in this era of gaming.

This culminates into the "Leave It to the Pro" trophy, awarded for Completing the entire game on Professional, and with each sub-story being split into 5 chapters, a trophy is awarded upon completion of each of the games 20 chapters. The other 4 trophies will be automatically unlocked whilst playing through the game on Professional mode, which stack upon completion, and are awarded for Amateur, Normal, Veteran and Professional levels. (The 25th trophy is awarded for completing the prelude to the entire game).

This game is not hard and whilst you don't need to go as far as the "No Hope" difficulty level in order to fulfil the requirements of this trophy list, it's hard to see how that would suddenly be such a big step from up from Professional bearing in mind "No Hope" is directly subsequent to Professional difficulty. Some boss fights can be problematic, and if you're at the peril of computer AI controlling your sidekick, you will be at a numerical disadvantage, but there isn't anything this game throws at you that can't be handled on your own. The one notable sticking point was the end boss within Chris and Piers campaign, which was not only tough to beat, but also took ages to actually figure out what you needed to do to do beat it. The rest was relatively plain sailing.

However, what this list lacks in difficulty, it does make up for in length, with 20 chapters that take anywhere between 1 to 2 and a half hours each to finish. The game will track the total amount of time it takes for you to complete each chapter too, so you can get an exact total right down to the minute in terms of precision. My completion time came in at a total of 27 hours and 14 minutes, going through the game just once on Professional difficulty, which is a very generous run-time by the standard of Single Player games these days. The only slight disclaimer to add is that I played almost 2 full sub-stories before leaving the game behind, and opted to restart from scratch when I returned to the game, which I suppose would technically add to the completion time, but for the sake of recognising that this was completely an optional choice, I won't consider it for my overall rating, or whilst determining overall timescales for full completion.

The longevity of this list extends beyond the campaign mode, with a couple of other trophies worth mentioning;

The "Mad Skillz" trophy, awarded for Maxing out all the skills that allow you to level up, applies some focus to the games character development system, and will require some degree of post-game grind in order to unlock.

There are a host of skills which can be leveled up in order to improve your character, and these are upgraded via skill points, which are acquired as item drops from enemies or found in boxes/treasure chests throughout the game. You will require 954,000 skill points spread across the 12 skills to which this trophy applies to in order to eventually unlock this trophy.

This amount of skill points cannot be achieved in one full playthrough of the game, and the extent to which you'll need to grind this out will be dependent on how many skill points you manage to acquire, and what you spend these on. The latter point is very poignant because the skill tree contains alot of skills that you do not need to purchase for this trophy, so unless you're actually wanting to buy them, you're only wasting points in pursuit of this goal, increasing the amount of time you'll need to dedicate to the post-game grind.

I finished this game still requiring around 450,000 skill points, which should add the context into how big the required total of almost 1,000,000 actually is. There is a popular skill point farming method which requires you to use chapter select to playthrough a segment of the game which will award around 20,000 skill points for around 10-15 minutes worth of work, which isn't too bad, but when you equate that to what was required for me, this still works out to around an additional 6-7 hours of grinding.

On the subject of grinding, the "Heirlooms" trophy, awarded for Collecting all the serpent emblems, fulfills the collectible aspect of this list (which every game seems to have these days), and requires you to destroy every emblem across the entire game.

In fairness, this isn't one of the most arduous or tasking collectible trophies you'll ever have to go through, and it is recommended to try and grab these as you go through the game, rather than have to come back and grab them via chapter select instead. Some of them are very well hidden, and chances are you'll need a guide to obtain at least a strong handful of them, but locating them as you go will minimise the amount of post-game rework you'll need to do. 

There are 20 to find throughout each characters campaign, so this leads to a grand total of 80 to collect in order to trigger the trophy. One huge gameplay mechanic that works in the favour of the player is the fact you select checkpoints within each chapter via the chapter select option, and once you collect an emblem, you can exit the game immediately without losing your progress, which potentially cuts hours off this trophy. It means you don't have to play through chapters in their entirety, and it also minimises the amount of backtracking you need to do due to the ability to be very specific when pinpointing the starting area of a chapter.

It will still require some solid re-work though, if you choose to not grab them all in 1 fell swoop as you complete the game, and I still needed 32 emblems by the time I was ready to go after the rest of this list, which took me longer than grinding out the skill points I needed for the "Mad Skillz" trophy.

The rest of the list will come naturally as you go through the game. There's a sizable portion of accumulation trophies, and the rest may require you to go outside your normal remits of gameplay in order to achieve, but with a list that is literally half full of progression-based trophies, there naturally isn't much left to point out, and the list overall is definitely more about time required than it is about difficulty.

With a 30 hour campaign, which is strong as far as story-driven games go, along with some additional grinding which, although subject to individual circumstances, will add some reasonable amount of extra length on top, this is a list which requires a solid time commitment, and probably sits somewhere within the 40-50 hour timeframe. The actual challenge is minimal, and it's even easier when played in Co-op mode with a friend, meaning it sits practically near the middle of the rating scale.

Notable Trophies - 

Leave It to the Pro - Complete the entire game on Professional.
Mad Skillz - Max out all the skills that allow you to level up.
Heirlooms - Collect all the serpent emblems.

Hardest Trophy -

Mad Skills
Max out all the sklls that allow you to level up

DLC #127 - Grid Autosport - Touring Legends Pack

This final DLC pack for Grid Autosport, which focuses on a series favorite for Grid (Touring Cars), adds a handful of new cars, a couple of new tracks and 3 new Touring Car Championships to take on.

The 3 new trophies included within are all each awarded for completion of the 3 new Championships added as part of this pack. 

The Championships include British, European and International flavours, with the tracks used in each being relevant to their locations, and you can use any of the 5 new Touring cars to tackle them. They all consist of 5 events, with 2 races per event,totaling 10 races per Championship, and these will take anywhere between 1-2 hours to beat each.

You will see the new tracks make an appearance throughout each of the new Championships, and the selection of cars will be readily available to choose from the outset too, but the sole focus for this package is to simply win them and nothing more.

You can choose to play through on whichever difficulty you like, but even on Hard, there isn't really a great challenge here. After going through a big journey with this entire title, I merely wanted to just go through the motions and get this finished more than anything else, but even maintaining this challenge on Hard difficulty saw me win each Championship and unlock all trophies first time round, so this shouldn't take anyone more than 5-6 hours to complete.

The DLC packs were a radical change in direction compared to the main list, which was a very welcome difference after a long time harboring this title in my backlog.

Platinum #96 - God of War (2018)

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 5/10

Not to be confused by the very first God of War game, released on the Playstation 2 in 2005, God of War indicates a fresh beginning for the series, signified by a title which suggests more of a reboot than a sequel.

It bought with it, a very radical change in direction for a series which has specialised in fast paced, simplistic combat with big boss fight set pieces, to a slightly more tactical combat system, and a story which is less about the big boss fights, and more about puzzles and platforming.

The game also features a variety of new dynamics. The environment is now an open world, rife with exploration opportunities, as opposed to a linear journey with a defined path, and Kratos' son, Atreus, now accompanies him on the journey, and ends up playing a pivotal role in the story, whilst also adding an extra dimension to the game's combat, with options to upgrade skills, fight with and change the appearance of both characters. It does feel like a completely new game, and one that works well.

The trophy list is medium in size, with a total of 37 trophies to earn from this title. Incidentally, out of all 10 God of War titles, spread across both the Playstation consoles and the Playstation Vita, every title has between 35-37 trophies in total, so there seems to be an almost deliberate approach to the volume of the trophy list for every God of War game.

A purely Single Player experience, the story tells the tale of Kratos' journey to fulfil the last wish of his late wife, who is also, incidentally, Atreus' mother, which is to scatter her ashes at the highest peak of the Nine Realms, following her death. This is the beginning of a journey which will see you transverse a variety of different worlds, encounter a wide range of enemies and some interesting characters.

The "Last Wish" trophy, awarded for Spreading the ashes, concludes the story upon completion of the final objective, and is the primary goal of this trophy list. The game has 3 difficulty levels, which include easy, normal and hard, but none of the trophies within this list are difficulty sensitive, so you can choose how you play the game based on your own discretion. I opted for hard, and the game on the whole isn't terribly difficult, though the truest challenge of playing on the hardest difficulty does show through in a few specific parts of this trophy list, which will be mentioned later, but for the most part, it's nothing to write home about.

Although the upgrade system isn't anything new to God of War games, there is a huge level of depth within dedicated towards character development, and not only can you upgrade weapons, like you've been able to in previous God of War games, you can also upgrade a ton of armour, special powers, skills and attributes, which actually makes you incredibly powerful as the game goes on, I would argue the challenge starts to move through a gradual state of decline because, despite the fact enemies also scale in level, they start to become noticeably easier to beat with a fully maxed out armory.

It's also worth mentioning that, up to the point of finishing the game, you'll have unlocked 11 story-based progression trophies, which contributes to almost a third of the entire list, so you can make some pretty good headway by just beating the main story. The remainder of the list from this point onwards is made up of indulging in a select grouping of the game's vast amount of collectibles, side-questing and upgrading Kratos' powers and equipment.

The "Chooser of the Slain" trophy, awarded for Defeating the nine Valkyries, is one of the variety of side quests within the game, and also the toughest trophy in the list.

Throughout Midgard, there are initially eight Valkyries scattered around in variation locations, which are very powerful, heavily armored winged enemies, which you must defeat in a 1 on 1 fight, and take their crown as evidence of their demise once defeated. They come in a variety of forms, each with their own unique fighting style and set of moves, which is one of the things that makes this trophy difficult.

It can be hard to prepare for each new Valkyrie, because you'll have to spend some time with each one in order to learn and understand it's move patterns. These aren't just copy and paste jobs. There's alot of work and effort that's gone into this side quest in order to purposely keep you guessing for each fight, and at least add a slight layer of necessary mastery in order to beat all eight of the initial Valkryies through study. They also have alot of insta-death moves, which, if you fail to time a dodge or block correctly, will swiftly return you to your last checkpoint and make you start all over again. They feel like genuine boss fights.

Once you've beaten the initial eight, and gathered a trophy from each one, you'll need to head to the Council of the Valkyries, and present these eight trophies to their relevant thrones. This will trigger a final fight with the ninth Valkyrie, appropriately named the Queen.

Where I mentioned above about the fact that, even though you may not feel challenged by playing on Hard difficulty, this does come to the fore eventually, and this is exactly what I'm referring to. The Queen Valkyrie is an upgrade on every other Valkyrie up to this point, with faster, stronger attacks which will test your reactions, speed and timing. She has much more health and a larger array of insta-death attacks. I spent multiple sessions attempting to beat the Queen, and even when I felt like I'd reached a point where I'd mastered her entire move set, I would only be one badly timed dodge away from a restart. It's an extremely unforgiving boss fight, and is the peak of difficulty within the entire game. It is wise to upgrade Kratos' skills and weapons to the highest degree possible before you fight her.

The "Darkness and Fog" trophy, awarded for Retrieving all treasure from the Workshop's centre chamber, contributes a slightly grindy element to the list, through another side quest which becomes available later into the game. 

Located in Nilfheim, the Workshop is home to a sort of labyrinth, clouded in poisonous gas and containing a series of chambers with increasingly difficult enemies to surpass into the subsequent chamber. The goal is to collect Mist Echoes, which can then be used to unlock the various treasures contained within the centre chamber. This includes 5 legendary chests and 3 realm tears, for a combined total of 68,500 mist echoes to unlock all of them and along with it, the above trophy.

You start within the main chamber, and can work your way around each chamber in the labyrinth, collecting Mist Echoes from chests along the way. The catch is, if you're either killed in combat by enemies, (which you must clear in each chamber to reap it's rewards from chests first), or you spend too long in the Labyrinth and succumb to the poisonous gas, which will gradually zap your health, you lose all progress and restart from the beginning.

The earlier chambers are filled with easier to deal with enemies, but the rewards are lesser. Each additional chamber you decide to take on will spawn harder to beat enemies, but more Mist Echoes, so it's a challenge of risk and reward and knowing when to cut your losses and get out of the maze to secure the Mist Echoes you've already possessed.

It will take around 5-10 hours for this trophy alone, but is also dependent on which difficulty level you're playing at. Some of the deeper chambers within the Labyrinth include Ogres, Higher Elves and even a Valkyrie (which you'll also need to beat as part of the "Chooser of the Slain" trophy mentioned at the top of this piece). All of these enemies have the capability to beat you very quickly on hard difficulty, and this is where the risk and reward element truly shines through. Do you really want to take on a Valkyrie for a few thousand extra Mist Echoes? Or do you just return to the beginning and protect what you already have? Each failed attempt will add to that original 5-10 hour estimate too, and 68,500 is still alot to collect.

A final thing that's important to note, and this relates to the games boatload of collectibles, which are scattered absolutely everywhere you look. Not all collectibles reward a trophy, but this list still has it's fair share, and whilst not difficult, per se, much like most collectible trophies aren't, there is one thing that this game doesn't do well that has a big knock on effect when it comes to securing these trophies.

The map. The world map is terrible for navigation, and it makes hunting down some of these vast array of collectibles you'll need for certain trophies way more arduous than it should be. There isn't a mini map located on the HUD and the overview map of the world is nice to look at, and pinpoints major locations clearly, but there is no perspective of depth or clarity of route you need to take when navigating through areas and hunting down these collectibles. 

A guide will help to some degree, but it'll be mostly down to your own intuition, and some of the larger areas in the game were so confusing to trace back through, I ended up aimlessly running around trying to find out where I needed to go without adequate guidance from the game, which was extremely frustrating, and drew these out to be way longer than they should have been. Ironically enough, the game actually does a nice job of checklisting the collectibles for each area, so you can always reference what you need from said area, which is really useful when you're down to the final few collectibles, but it's just a shame when you feel like you lose that time from deficiencies elsewhere in the world map.

This list has a mixture of everything, which ultimately strikes a good balance. There is a genuine challenge from the nine Valkyries, a little bit of grind from Ivaldi's workshop, some patience-testing collectibles and, most importantly, a very good story-driven experience.

The list can be completed in full without any necessity to play on a higher difficulty level, though the challenge is there for those that want it, and you can realistically achieve the Platinum trophy within 30-35 hours. You could argue it can be finished in even less time than that, but my estimate also takes into account the fact I opted to play through from start to finish on hard difficulty, which led to some extra padding on time, especially with the amount of replay value involved on the higher difficulty level through death, when killing each of the Valkyries and collecting Mist Echoes especially.

However, on Hard difficulty, the main story, for all it's big battles and boss fights, isn't where the challenge lies. It's within the Valkyrie fights and the grind of Ivaldi's workshop. The poor game design when it comes to maps and navigation through some of the game's vast environments when hunting for collectibles also deserves a mark up, but even then, this is no more than a mid-range Platinum.

Notable Trophies - 

Last Wish - Spread the ashes
Chooser of the Slain - Defeat the nine Valkyries
Darkness and Fog - Retrieve all treasure from the Workshops' centre chamber

Hardest trophy -

Choose of the Slain
Defeat the nine Valkyries

Platinum #95 - Uncharted 3 : Drake's Deception

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 4/10

After a summer mostly dedicated to finishing off one of the most challenging sets of DLC trophies ever experienced, this would have had to have been some offering from the game's main list in order to top it.

Thankfully, that isn't the case, and what is presented is actually the easiest Uncharted game to date instead. I'm always up for a challenge, but if you knew what the DLC trophies would put you through, you would also be more than welcome of a Platinum trophy with more relaxed demands.

The blueprint for this trophy list is what you would consider fairly standard for an Uncharted game by this point, after 3 installments of the series which have all followed the same patterns when it comes to delivering the trophies.

The list is still a predominantly Single Player experience, barring 2 trophies which are awarded for dabbling within the Competitive and Co-operative game modes, which you'll more than likely have done if you're looking to finish the DLC trophies too.

It's also a fairly large list, clocking in at 55 trophies in total, and purely focuses on the game's Single Player Campaign/Adventure mode, which sees you take on a story which tells the tale of a race to locate the lost city of Ubar. Drake's role is to prevent Talbot and Marlow, the game's main protagonists, from reaching the same location and stealing a powerful vessel being used to control the city, for their own ill gotten gains.

The "Charted! - Crushing" trophy, awarded for Finishing the game in Crushing Mode, is, as always is the case with any Uncharted game up to this point in the series, the hardest trophy within the list, but ultimately, doesn't really stack up any sort of greater challenge in comparison to previous titles. To also suggest it's the "hardest" trophy does a bit of a dis-service to such a term. This is a game which is very casual throughout, and that extends to a difficulty mode which has provided a reasonable challenge in the past, but has been somewhat watered down during this installment in the series.

Both prior Uncharted games were given a 6/10 in difficulty, so the challenge provided by Crushing mode in these games was enough to just about tip it over an average difficulty rating, and there is an obvious difference here when going through the story of this game when judging the overall difficulty levels compared to the other Uncharted titles that have preceded it. This story has 22 chapters in total and I didn't notice any sort of challenge provided by Crushing difficulty until around Chapter 18/19, which is very late on into the game, and even then, it was nowhere near any sort of difficulty that made the game feel laboured or slow.

It does provide a few tricky spots between that point on and the endgame, but it is noticeably less problematic than the previous two Uncharted titles, which is ultimately the justification for the lowered rating this time round. Even being able to negotiate these particular portions of the game aren't exactly that tough, and only took a handful of attempts in the worst case scenario. It's certainly the least crushing of all Crushing difficulties.

It is also important to note another constant within Uncharted games, and the fact that, previously, you have been required to beat the story once on any difficulty in order to unlock Crushing mode, which is not the case this time round. Crushing mode is readily available to play from the outset, and beating the game on Crushing mode, unlocks a subsequent mode called "Brutal" mode. This may explain the slightly lesser challenge from Crushing mode this time round, as it is now no longer the hardest difficulty available within the game, but is also not a requirement for the Platinum trophy either. There is a part of me that feels like "Brutal" difficulty could have just been a step up from Crushing, and although I never actually played through any part of this game on "Brutal" difficulty, I don't think it was necessary to make Crushing feel like to had been taken down a few notches as a result of a more challenging difficulty being placed above it. 

If the idea was to add something even harder on top of Crushing difficulty, then it makes sense as to why they would not account for this within the trophy list, but I don't understand why they would detriment the challenge of Crushing difficulty at the same time. That is mostly just a personal gripe, but it makes the game way too easy and is the major reason why the overall difficulty rating is impacted in comparison to previous Uncharted titles.

The fact you don't need to complete the story more than once also means, in theory, you can beat the game and also unlock the slew of other trophies along the way in one fell swoop, though realistically, there will be a clean up operation necessary at the end to grab everything else you may have missed along the way.

There are also 3 other trophies awarded for completing the game on Easy, Normal and Hard, which will appropriately stack and unlock if you complete the game on Crushing difficulty. If you opt not to go straight into Crushing for whatever reason, the trophies will stack up to the highest difficulty you beat the game on.

The "Master Fortune Hunter" trophy, awarded for Finding all 100 treasures, is yet another staple for an Uncharted trophy list, and works under the same premise as previous titles.

Treasures are spread out in random locations throughout the games 22 chapters, and all 100 must be collected to fulfill the requirements of the trophy. You will more than likely need a guide, but the game is very helpful when it comes to accumulating these treasures. They carry over across multiple playthroughs, are very easy to spot against the games vast and colourful environments and are also listed for guidance on the chapter select screens, so you can easily pinpoint which chapters you may have missed any treasures on, and dip back into them accordingly to retrieve whichever ones you may still need. As far as collectible based trophies go, this is certainly not one of the more arduous ones out there, and that is mostly in thanks to the game's helpful disposition.

The trophy list also breaks these down and award trophies at incremental stages of 20, so you'll unlock 5 progressive trophies on the way to 100.

The rest of the list is a very casual checklist exercise. You'll unlock most of the trophies as you progress through the story, and there's a small collection of kill based trophies with specific weapons, combat based trophies awarded for killing enemies in certain ways and even a small grouping of secret chapter specific trophies for performing certain actions within a given chapter.

The game is very generous in it's flexibility for unlocking anything you may have naturally missed throughout the story. All trophies can be obtained through the use of chapter select, so you can either cherry pick the most combat-heavy sections of the game to assist you in obtaining the weapon/combat related trophies, and it also means the chapter specific trophies are not considered missable. Any trophy that relates to kill accumulation, whether that be through weapons or combat, is carried over across playthroughs, and even if you go back into chapter select multiple times post-game, the progress is still carried through even in those circumstances. It feels like the game wants you to succeed and make the Platinum trophy as accessible as possible.

This is definitely the easiest Uncharted Platinum trophy to date, and one of the easiest Platinum trophies to make it's way into the wider collection. Whilst a lot of this is more than likely down to the fact Crushing is no longer the hardest difficulty mode, like it was in prior Uncharted games, the list hasn't changed anything else to elevate the challenge further, and instead, sees a very standardised list with simple requirements presented to the player that you will have already seen before in the past.

The story is around 10-12 hours long, even if you choose to go through on Crushing difficulty from the outset, which is another aspect of this game which makes the list easier this time round, because the game no longer requires multiple playthroughs to unlock Crushing mode via beating the game once prior. Chapter select makes the clean up operation very smooth and none of the trophies are either taxing or grindy, so you should also only require a handful of additional hours to go back though and give the remainder of the list a once over.

It's a nice ending to a game that still looks great at full completion within the collection, purely because of the grueling DLC packs that come as part of the wider package. It was, up until now, the oldest game in my collection for which I still did not have the Platinum trophy for, and caps off a 7 year journey that began with the first trophy unlocked back in 2012, and what a journey it was too.

Notable Trophies -

Charted! - Crushing - Finish the game in Crushing Mode
Master Fortune Hunter - Find all 100 treasures

Hardest Trophy -

Charted! - Crushing
Finish the game in Crushing Mode

Platinum #94 - FIFA 18

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 6/10

Just to get the disclaimer out of the way, this lastest feat also signals the end of FIFA for me. It began in 2009, with a patched version of FIFA 09 introducing trophies to the FIFA series for the first time ever.

Within the last 9/10 years, FIFA has produced some strong lists, with some mighty accomplishments to achieve. FIFA 09 and FIFA 11 both scored a difficulty rating of 9/10 and FIFA 10 boasted the full 10/10, and still ranks as one of my toughest Platinum trophies to date. Infact, according to PSN profiles, my top 4 rarest trophies in my entire collection are the FIFA 10, 09, 11 and 13 Platinum trophies, which speaks for itself.

However, there was also the decline. From FIFA 13 onwards, there wasn't a single FIFA game which scored higher than a 6/10 (which, incidentally, includes FIFA 18), and even scored as low as 3/10 in some years in between. The lists got boring, dull and most importantly, stripped of any sort of challenge that made the earlier FIFA titles well worth the purchase.

There were other things too. The game took the wrong direction with monetising Ultimate Team, and all the focus of bringing new modes to the Single Player portion of the game didn't suit me, as someone who is predominantly a Multiplayer gamer. All of which has led to an early retirement. I didn't buy FIFA 19, and will also bypass FIFA 20. I have too many other games to focus on, rather than just plow through the yearly FIFA list which is mostly copy and pasted year on year, and only ever seems to be a token gesture to my overall collection, rather than any sort of genuine challenge.

Now that's out of the way, the FIFA 18 trophy list is pretty much "see as above". Mostly copy and pasted from prior FIFA titles, this list is a mixed spread across a multitude of game modes, including the returning Journey (back for a second installment), Pro Clubs, Ultimate Team and Career Mode. There are also a large portion of trophies within this list dedicated to accomplishing feats within matches which you can easily unlock through natural gameplay.

The "What a comeback" trophy, awarded for Finishing the Journey, is exactly how you remember it from FIFA 17. The Journey is effectively a "part 2" of Alex Hunter's professional career, where progression is simply achieved through making it through each Chapter, of which there are 6 in total. This is the key difference this time round, the fact the Journey is divided into clear chapters which define the beginning, middle and end, rather than just slogging through an undefined story like previously in FIFA 17.

It's not exactly difficult, just a but laborious. I never have been, and never will be, a fan of anything on FIFA that is played through Single Player channels, and the Journey isn't exactly short. It will still take anywhere between 15-20 hours to complete, and whilst the story has at least, to it's credit, been given alot of care and attention to detail, there are still way too many "filler" segments, where you're simply just playing games in order to pad out the mode for the sake of longevity.

It is also important to point out that, the other 3 trophies tied into the Journey mode are all missable, so you want to make sure you achieve these at the relevant stages within the game mode to ensure you're not playing through it in it's entirety again. Out of these 3 other trophies, 2 of them come in Chapters 5 and 6, so you'll be playing through the lot if you miss them first time round, which will add hours onto your completion time. There isn't much point into going into the individual requirements of each one, just know that you're replaying this game mode again if you miss any of them first time around.

The "Pristine victory" trophy, awarded for winning all 4 matches in an FUT Draft session in FIFA Ultimate Team, seems to be a staple experience within any FIFA list of the last handful of years, requiring you to win the draft within FIFA Ultimate Team.

It still requires 15,000 coins per attempt, which can cause some difficulties if you don't knock this trophy off early, because you'll end up accumulating some hefty expenses entering draft mode the longer you play without success.

However, the big difference here this time around, is the fact that, unlike FIFA 16 and 17, you can unlock this trophy within the Single Player Draft, which provides a great "get out" clause to those who don't want to go through the Online Draft for this trophy. I went through the Online alternative, in order to make this list more challenging on the whole, and managed to unlock it on my third attempt, so even though this may not seem like much, this would have still cost me 45,000 coins, which takes time to accumulate, despite the fact it's easier than ever to earn coins on Ultimate Team.

There is also the option to take the shortcut and buy into the Draft at 300 coins per attempt, but the other trophies within Ultimate Team will allow you to accumulate enough points for at least a few attempts at the draft before you consider using real currency, and it is also important to note that progression through the Draft will throw up rewards after winning each game up to the final, so even if you don't win it, you can claw back some of that draft fee through some of the subsequent packs and prizes you'll earn through draft progression, which will help massively, especially if you struggle to win coins in other parts of Ultimate Team.

Expect a challenge if you play through the Online Draft though. You will run into some very good players who will have some very strong squads at their disposal, and to win 4 games in a row within that sort of environment is a genuinely challenging feat to accomplish, and can make this trophy the toughest in the entire list, should you choose to earn it through this method.

"The big league" trophy, awarded for Winning promotion to Division 1 of FIFA Ultimate Team Seasons, is also a nice little challenge. There is flexibility here too, because Ultimate Team features both Online and Single Player seasons, both of which will trigger the achievement of the trophy upon completion.

Initially, I attempted this feat through the Online season, but found it to be way too challenging around the midway point, where overpowered teams were just steamrolling my bronze/silver graded hybrid, so I have to seek out the alternative option of going through the Single Player seasons in order to reach division 1 instead.

This did lessen the challenge, and the reason I chose to go through the Online seasons in the first place, was another personal attempt at trying to inflate the challenge of this trophy list, right up to the point where I discovered my squad needed to be stronger to compete at the upper echelons of Ultimate Team, and given the fact this entire game fast became all about how quickly, and efficiently, I could lock off this Platinum trophy, I just opted for the easier choice in the end, which was to just play the computer in Single Player seasons.

It still took 54 games for me to reach Division 1, and the higher leagues will require you to win 7 games just to earn promotion, so this becomes a slog by the time you reach the end, and Single Player FIFA, at least, in my opinion, is a painfully dull experience.

The "Handyman" trophy, awarded whilst In Pro Clubs, using in matches each of your 3 Play Styles, wouldn't normally be on most people's list for discussion of notable trophies, but cleaning up this list, and having this trophy left, ended up being an apt climax for a series which didn't really need to give me any more reasons to abandon it for good.

The trophy itself requires you to complete 3 Pro Clubs matches, whilst using 3 custom Play Styles, which you can create within the Be A Pro game mode. It doesn't seem like it would create any great difficulties on paper, but in this circumstance, it certainly did, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, I had to find someone still willing to play Pro Clubs, which ended up being a scattergun exercise of firing off messages within the drop-in game mode to anybody hoping the odd person would join my club. Once a willing participant had been found, you had to search for a game and attempt to match with another club, which often bought back no results due to the age of the game. This would put most people off quickly, and I ended up back at step one more times than I care to remember, and if by the odd chance I managed to get beyond step 2, and found a match, the awfully unreliable servers would, most of the time, kick everyone out the lobby before a full game could be completed, which nullified the progress towards this trophy. Managing to complete just 3 matches took me 3 evenings of pure commitment.

In defence of FIFA 18, it's not all the fault of the game. I cannot be expected to still see an active online community for the third installment back in an annual series, so not being able to find willing partners/other teams to match with in a lobby is a standard expectation, but the server stability issues are the signs of a lack of development care, which deserves to be marked down. All of these issues combined made this trophy way more arduous than it should have been, and is a significant pain to be able to contribute to the final rating.

This all makes for much of the same, and the consistency of FIFA over the last 4/5 years has led to a series of Platinum trophies which are roughly on the same par with each other. Some have scored slightly differently to others, mostly due to the situations where new game modes have been introduced for the first time and have some different trophies attached to them, but the same challenges have, for the most part, been presented within FIFA trophy lists for years now. A quick glance at the FIFA 19 and 20 trophy lists backs this up, and provides further evidence that things haven't really changed. It makes it easy to grade the difficulty ratings of FIFA games when the benchmark has barely moved.

Some of the trophies have a sturdy challenge sitting behind them if you wish to seek them, but the backdoor alternatives by allowing the user to unlock them through a Single Player alternative quickly re-aligns this whole list into total mediocrity, so a 6/10 difficulty rating seems fitting. I took on the Ultimate Team Draft Online, which was a nice challenge within this list, but just simply couldn't be bothered to reach division 1 in Ultimate Team Online, so I took up the option of the easier Single Player route, even though it was still a painful slog.

Notable Trophies -

What a comeback - Finish The Journey
Pristine Victory - Win all 4 matches in an FUT Draft session in FIFA Ultimate Team
The big league - Win promotion to Division 1 of FIFA Ultimate Team Seasons
Handyman - In Pro Clubs, use in matches each of your 3 Play Styles

Hardest Trophy -




The big league
Win promotion to Division 1 of FIFA Ultimate Team Seasons