Call of Duty Elite : DLC Impressions #1

Playstation users finally get their hands on the much anticipated drip-fed Elite DLC, with the introduction of 2 new maps and 10 new levels of prestige for those who have already reached the end game as far as online levelling is concerned.                                                                                          
We'll start with Liberation, a huge, open map set in an autumn-esque park with plenty of big, sparce areas and sniping opportunities galore.                                                                                                                                                
I'm a little torn on Liberation. The extra room for sniping is something alot of people will appreciate, especially given the more close quarter maps in the core game and the dense woodland setting allows for easy camouflage to surprise enemies.                                                

Liberation is a sniper's heaven, shame it's way too big
to walk around without getting bored.

However, I feel it's just way too big. The one thing I disliked about Creek in Modern Warfare 1 was that it was just TOO open and when you're playing objective based game modes such as Headquarters, where you'll find yourself traipsing around the map as you go from one capture point to the next, trudging around constantly just gets old fast.                                                                                                                                                      
I understand they wanted to cater to a sniper's game more with this map, but the favourable sway is far too great to not cause frustration for those who don't want to just lie there and blend into the environment. If you're a regular sniper, you'll be in your element, with plenty of places to post up and rack up some decent kill-streaks, but the run and gun style of gameplay just won't thrive on Liberation.                                        

Recommended Perks 

Extreme Conditioning is a must, since it will certainly ease the pain of having to constantly run around to get to from point A to B and adding a long range weapon to your loadout with Overkill will help combat the inevitable flux of snipers on the opposite team.                                                    
Marksman gives you the added edge of being able to pinpoint long range targets easily, but I'd also make a case for Stalker, which could be used if you're playing with a run and gun style.     
         
The second map is called Piazza and is definitely my favourite map of the 2. It's a small, close quarters map based on a small Italian village with plenty of tight, narrow paths and passages that restores that fast-paced action that is lost in Liberation.                                                                           

Piazza is a complete contrast to Liberation, with plenty of
narrow streets and potential death around every corner.

It's a map that is much better suited to the natural style of Call of Duty, and the winding roads and  many elevated levels ensure that the action comes thick and fast and you're never walking around without an enemy too far away. There always seems to be a handful of directions the enemy can come from too, which keeps you on your toes and always thinking a few steps ahead.       
                 
Objective based game modes are much more hectic due to the small surroundings, and it instantly makes things more interesting for those like me who prefer the manic atmosphere and run and guns style of gameplay.                                                                                                                            
Even when you're inside, the areas still feel extremely claustrophobic and the action is still as tense as it is in the outside regions. It makes for some intense games of Headquarters and Team Defender and makes you think quickly as you predict enemy movement and try to cover all angles of the map.                                                                                                                                               

Recommended Perks

Sleight of Hand will give you the advantage of being able to react quicker to opponents who might try and surprise you around corners, though you might to ponder over Blind Eye, since the lack of indoor areas gives you little escape from any deadly air support.                                                                       
Blast Shield is a must to increase your chances of surviving the multitude of stray grenades and explosives you'll encounter and Stalker always allows you to be prepared for anybody who might wander around the vast abundance of corners and alleyways.                                                                      
It's a decent start to the DLC season though, with both maps offering something for everyone. Regardless of your play-style, the open-ness of Liberation will become somewhat tiresome, simply for the amount of walking around you have to do, and the amount of times you'll find the surroundings desolate and empty as a consequence of it's size.                                                            
Piazza, on the other hand, doesn't do much wrong, it might be too chaotic for some people, but it compliments the fast-paced style of the game, and certain objective based modes are exhilarating to play on it.

Platinum #38 - Call of Duty : Black Ops

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 8/10

This list is distinctly split into 2 main focus areas, with a typically large offering of Single Player trophies, along with some fairly gruelling trophies tied to the Multi-Player zombies game mode.

The campaign trophies are extremely run of the mill for a Call of Duty title, with a huge selection of progression based trophies for performing certain important actions throughout the main story, along with a handful of silver trophies awarded for beating chunks of the game on Veteran difficulty.

The "BLACK OP MASTER" trophy, awarded for beating the game on hardened or veteran difficulty, provides an often frustrating challenge you'd normally expect from a Call of Duty game, and although the trophy does offer the player to beat the game a lower difficulty than Veteran, it makes no sense to play the game through on any other difficulty level, given the fact there are still a handful of trophies granted for beating every level on Veteran difficulty anyway.

Beating the game on it's hardest difficulty setting is tough in spots, but compared to previous titles in the series, it's not overly hard, and all trophies related to the single player campaign, including the chapter specific ones, can easily be picked up within 10-15 hours, depending on how much you need to clean up at the end, but thankfully, you can afford to miss any of the chapter specific trophies, since chapter select allows you to reload any relevant points in the campaign and collect any that you might have missed.

The "Closer Analysis" trophy, awarded for finding all hidden intel, provides the collectibles angle for the game, but thankfully, you don't need to collect everything in a single playthrough, and any intel you may have missed along the way can be gathered up through the chapter select option, and it will still count towards trophy progress.

The Multi-Player trophies come in 2 forms, with 3 trophies allocated to the online Multi-Player game, and a further 4 attached to the games zombies mode.

The online trophies are easy, though the "In the Money" trophy, awarded for finishing 5 wager matches in the money, requires you to finish within the top 3 on 5 different occassions, which will require at least a moderate level of skill at the game if you want to be able to finish in the top 3 places 5 times.
                                                                                                         
Most of the difficulty with this Platinum comes from the trophies related to zombies mode, with a small clutch of trophies that are incredibly difficulty to achieve.
                                                     
The "Sacrifical Lamb" trophy is the stand-out trophy in this list, awarded for shooting an ally with a Pack-A-Punched crossbow and killing 6 zombies with the explosion, and will require good co-operation, strong advancement during the games rounds and a bit of luck.

First of all, you'll need to need to get the Crossbow out of the mystery box, which is totally dependant on luck, and then it'll cost you 5000 points in order to upgrade it at the Pack-A-Punch machine, both of which are hard enough to do without actually achieving the trophy itself.

Thankfully, the trophy allows you to either be the shooter, or the recipient of the arrow, but by the time you've managed to get a crossbow, and fully upgrade it, you'll be deep into the game and it can get incredibly easy to be swamped by a horde of zombies quickly, so it's important to react fast and make sure you have a solid plan. It isn't difficult to actually kill 6 zombies, since the special power of the upgraded crossbow attracts zombies to the arrow, but the process and build-up leading to the final stage will most likely take numerous attempts, so you need to be committed to this trophy in order to achieve.

The "See Me, Stab Me, Heal Me" trophy, awarded for reviving a downed ally with a Pack-A-Punched Ballistic Knife from a distance, also deserves a mention.

Again, as is the same with the crossbow, the ballistic knife can only be achieved through the mystery box, and also requires 5000 points to upgrade at the Pack-A-Punch machine. Thankfully, once you've completed both of those steps, you can leave 1 zombie alive at the end of the round, and allow him to down your team-mate, at which point you can revive him without having to worry about a swarm of zombies being after you at the same time.

It does also specify, albeit loosely, that the knife has to be fired "from a distance", which is completely open in regards to how far away that has to be in order to meet the requirements that will unlock the trophy, and you will need some solid aim to hit your partner from a considerable distance away, so it's better to start shorter and go longer until you find you've gone far enough for the trophy to unlock.
                                                          
You'll need to patient, and willing to try multiple times in order to unlock the zombie related trophies, and it can become an arduous and frustrating venture, depending on how many attempts you need to fulfil the requirements of both of these trophies.

Overall, this is a tough Platinum to achieve when you take everything into account. The Single Player portion of the game is tough in parts, especially on Veteran difficulty, but generally a relaxed journey, and being able to use chapter select to clean up trophies and collect any remaining intelligence makes it much easier. You will need to beat every level on veteran difficulty, which bumps the rating up slightly, but you can still unlock every Single Player trophy within 15 hours or so.

However, it's the zombies trophies that provide the toughest challenge in this list, with the 2 aforementioned carrying the bulk of the difficulty rating. You need good co-operation and a solid plan in order to achieve them both, and you should definitely prepare yourself for commitment towards numerous attempts in order to knock off the zombies mode altogether.

It's difficult to put an overall timescale on completion, simply for the reason that it will depend on how many attempts you need at the zombies mode trophies, but if you have the right tactics and an equally dedicated partner, you shouldn't really need too many attempts, and the overall Platinum completion time should fall somewhere into the 20-30 hour mark.
                                                                                            
I guess World at War is now officially the co-owner of the hardest Call of Duty Platinum crown. Never saw that one coming.

Notable Trophies -

BLACK OP MASTER - Complete the campaign on Hardened or Veteran difficulty
Sacrificial Lamb - Shoot or be shot at by an all with a Pack-A-Punch crossbow and kill 6 zombies with the explosion
See Me, Stab Me, Heal Me - Fire a Pack-A-Punched Ballistic Knife at a downed ally to revive them from a distance                                                                                             

Hardest Trophy -                                                                                                                                            


Sacrificial Lamb
Shoot at, or be shot at by an ally with a Pack-A-Punch crossbow, and kill 6 zombies with the explosion.

DLC #43 - LA Noire - Reefer Madness

Time for a classic drug bust.

Yet more LA Noire DLC in the form of an additional stand alone case, with a very familiar feel and set of trophies to go with it.

You obviously know the drill by now. 1 gold for finishing the case and then 4 other hidden trophies scattered throughout relating to specific in-case actions. 

The secret trophies are, as always, missable, but they're extremely hard to miss in this particular case and as long as you explore all possible clues and locations, you'll pick them up without the need for a second playthrough.

Easy. Easy. Easy.

Luck Based Trophies - Yes or No?

I've recently been playing Assassin's Creed : Revelations, and after polishing off the single player portion of the game, I've run into a trophy that I cannot seem to unlock.

Tax doesn't have to be taxing, but sadly, it is.

Without going into great detail about it, simply for the reasons that I've spent way too much time doing just that elsewhere, the trophy requires you to "Get your money back from a Templar Tax collector", a completely random occurrence within the game world.                                      
There are various theories floating around about where/when he shows up, but the bottom line is, it's all down to luck.                                                                                            
So, do luck based trophies have a place in our digital lists? I want to say yes. After all, they add an extra dimension to trophy collecting, and can always add a sense of excitement and tension that rivals that of gambling and chance.                                                                     
However, the lack of control over unlocking the trophy is a slightly uncomfortable thought, and people will always be at least slightly apprehensive about trophies aren't dictated by themselves when it comes to unlocking them.            
                                 
I can see both sides of the argument, but the sure thing is that they seem to be creeping into games more and more. Every single zombie retail list/map pack released from World at War and Black Ops has trophies with an emphasis on the mystery box, with the "Acquire Waffle Weapons" and "Sacrificial Lamb" trophies being 2 of the more notably tougher luck-based trophies in the vast PS3 trophy catalogue.                                                                                              

Call of Duty zombies mode is packed with Luck-based trophies,
but it isn't called the "Mystery Box" without reason.

FIFA 12 presents the "How Great is That?" trophy and The Borderlands Claptrap's New Robot Revolution DLC has a handful of painstaking collectible trophies, just to throw out a few more examples of personal experience.     
            
With enough perseverance though, you'll eventually get them, but when, is down to the mechanics of the game, rather than the player. It could unlock first time, just in the same way it could theoretically be never, (even though most trophy hunters I know of would walk the depths of hell to earn a Platinum trophy), but the point stands.                                                            
I've always believed trophies are better when you know when to expect the end-goal. If a trophy requires you to reach a certain rank online, you can work out an average expected time. It'll be different for everyone, sure, but if you put the time in, you're guaranteed to get it.    
                                                                                         
I understand the "Tax Evasion"trophy from Assassin's Creed : Revelations probably isn't in the same league as some of the aforementioned examples in this post, but It's frustrating to be at a dead end for 5/6 hours (and counting), having finished everything else in the game, and simply waiting for a random event to happen for the Platinum trophy, that just doesn't seem to want to happen.                                                                                                                                                      
"Give Luck a chance to happen, and it eventually will." Some people will just say, "Luck Off!"

DLC #42 - Dead Space 2 Severed

The trophy picture tells you why this is
 called "Severed". Gruesome.

The Severed DLC follows the short journey of Gabe Wellar, who is cut off (no pun intended) from the main story, but still on a quest to escape the same ship as main protagonist, Isaac Clarke.                                                     
There's a few progression based trophies for completing the 2 Chapters within the package, and 1 for beating the game on Zealot.                                                                                         
Half of the trophies are missable, but the DLC can be easily be completed within a few hours, so it isn't exactly imperative that you pick them up all in 1 go.                                                                          
That being said, if you jump straight into Zealot difficulty, then you can easily pick up all 8 trophies in 1 fell swoop, providing you keep relevant tabs on the missable stuff.                                                                                                                                                                           There may have been a small challenge to be had here if it wasn't for the fact you get handed a war-chest at the start of the DLC, to stock up on ammunition and health (Not to mention already having access to a few souped up guns, upgrade-wise). It makes the notion of beating the DLC on Zealot completely irrelevant, given the fact it emphasises that ammunition is short and health is low, when the DLC starts you off with the potential to buy both in abunndace....   
                                         
However, as it is, it's easy and will take a mere few hours to get through.

DLC #41 - Borderlands - Claptrap's New Robot Revolution

The Borderlands DLC goes out on a bit of a whimper, unfortunately, mainly plagued by too much repetition and exhausted ideas from the rest of the game and it's add on's. Oh, and the trophies are REALLY tedious, too.                                                                                                                       
If you were to devise your trophy list from hell, it wouldn't look too dissimilar to what's thrown up here. Ironically enough, it starts off promisingly, with a handful of progression based trophies attached to the story in the DLC, but the rest are the fundamentals for a passage of hell devised entirely of randomised collectibles.                                                                                                                              
Why throw in something fun and interesting, when you can do something like this;                                                                            

The Lubricator - Found 25 Oil Cans
Bobble-trap - Collected 15 Claptrap Bobbleheads
What a Party! - Collected 3 Panties, 5 Fish in a Bag and 15 Pizzas

There are a handful of methods available for attaining these collectibles, but it still comes down to random chance and probability. One of these tactics does allow you to set your controller down if the repetitive grinding gets the better of you, which will be a Godsend for many people, given the fact you'll be grinding for anywhere between 6-8 hours, possibly a bit longer depending on how kind the drop rates are for you.                         
                 
The biggest issue with these trophies is how disproportionate the quantity of each item needed in relation to their drop-rate seemed to be. The general consensus on the forum is that Bobbleheads and Oil Cans seem to drop the least, and I can personally testify to that experience too, yet you need 25 Oil Cans and 15 Bobbleheads to unlock the respective trophies. Go figure that one out.                
                          
It just means you end spending too much unnecessary time farming Claptraps for parts, and constantly picking up things you don't need. It really does put on a dampener on the game for trophy hunters. Definitely one to forget.

Platinum #37 - Saints Row : The Third

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 4/10                                                                           
The challenge the game presents is extremely minimal, and the only difficulty to overcome is the somewhat grindy barrier contained within the trophy list.

As always seems to be the case with games with a story driven element, there are a bunch of trophies related to natural progression, for beating missions at certain stages throughout the story.

However, these trophies are designed in such a way that they encourage multiple playthroughs, with 4 branched trophies that are awarded for completing acts 1 and 3 in different ways.

If you want to negate the need for a second playthrough, just for these trophies, then you can always save just before the start of the mission, and reload it in order to grab whichever trophy you didn't get first time round, but if you're not aware and miss either of them, you'll be playing the game through for a second time right up until the necessary point.

Although there isn't a trophy awarded for beating the game to 100% completion, there are a ton of other trophies awarded for indulging in the games various side activities and fully taking over every district.

Taking over every district requires you to beat every instance of side activity within that area, and these are all highlighted on the in-game map aswell as carrying individual trophies, so it's extremely easy to monitor progression and keep track of what you need to complete in order to lock down the area.

None of the 10 different instances are particularly challenging, aside a couple of the later instances of Heli Assault and Mr Genki's Super Ethical Reality Climax, and they generally fit in line with the easy nature of the game.

Being a sandbox game though, it wouldn't be complete with some good, old fashioned collectibles, and there are plenty to be had within this list. The "Life of the Party" trophy, awarded for finding 100% of collectibles, requires you to pick up all 80 hidden items scattered around the game, in the form of Drug packages, Money pallets, Sex dolls and Photo Opportunities.

You can purchase the collectible finder from stores, which will reveal the location of every single one of these items on the in-game map, and though it isn't terribly expensive, it is only available from shops late on in the game, so you might have to wait to grab most of them. However, even if you pick up a collectible, it is still shown on the map with a greyed out icon, whereas the items you still need to collect are coloured it, so an obvious difference is made between the two that makes it much easier for the player when it comes to hunting all 80 items down.

The "You're MY hero" trophy, awarded for completing all challenges, is possibly the most difficult trophy in this list, and requires you to fulfil the criteria of all 41 challenges located within the Saints Book. In reality, none of these are particularly difficult, but a small selection of them are seriously grindy, and will most likely see you playing right through the end-game achieving them all. 500 Multi-kills, competing 26 survival challenges and travelling 2,500,000 feet in distance are a few good examples of the more long winded challenges, and this is definitely the most time consuming aspect of the list.
                                                                       
The "Third and 30" trophy, awarded for spending over 30 hours in Steelport, is only relevant to mention because it means at least a 30 hour completion time, but you'll most likely be looking for well over that amount to Platinum the game anyway. It could be possible to beat everything within less time than 30 hours, but the vast amount of side activities, collectibles and the grindy element of the Saints Book challenges will see the majority of the players taking longer than 30 hours anyway.
                       
The challenge this list contains is practically non-existent and the gameplay is incredibly simplistic and easy going. The main story will take anywhere from around 15-20 hours to beat, and along with the additional side activities, collectibles and challenges to get through, you can probably expect to double that timescale in total.

The hardest this list gets is the grindy element of the Saints Book challenges, but it's an easily tolerable grind in the general context of the word. You know a game has an easy Platinum when you have to choose a "hardest trophy" that probably wouldn't even qualify for contention in most lists out there, but this is one of the easiest lists I've played through, despite an estimated overall completion time of anywhere between 40-50 hours.

Notable Trophies -

You're My Hero - Complete ALL challenges
Third and 30 - Spend over 30 hours in Steelport

Hardest Trophy -                                                                                                                                                   


You're My Hero
Complete ALL challenges

DLC #40 - Assassin's Creed : Brotherhood Da Vinci's Disappearance

OK, before I spew all over this post, I'll get the good bit out of the way first.                                     
The DLC itself is good. The Da Vinci Disappearance storyline is short, but sweet. The selection of 8 missions to complete are varied and interesting enough to keep you hooked, at least for a few hours, and the story is easy to follow, which is important to stress given the complex nature of the hugely interwoven Assassins Creed story.                                                                                              
However...         
                                    


il Principe
Receive 100% synch in ACB and full synch in all missions of the Da Vinci Disappearance.




Let's look at this from 2 schools of thought.            
                                              
Some would argue this trophy pads out a piece of DLC that would probably only bring around 5/6 hours for full completion otherwise, and some would argue why this just wasn't included in the retail list at release towards the Platinum trophy instead.                                                                      
I'm not one to complain about trophies, because they're largely insignificant in terms of what determines the quality of a given game, but you have to feel slightly disappointed on how this trophy was executed.                                                                                                                                
Going through a large selection of missions again, that had already been finished once before the knowledge of a trophy like this, was, to put it bluntly, boring.                                                                
There are plenty of instances where the requirement for 100% synchronisation on a particular mission comes towards the end, and if you fail it, you have to sit through the majority of the mission again, just to get to the point you're trying to perfect. It's extremely dull, and feels like a chore if you've already beaten the mission prior to the DLC.                                                                
The side missions (Assassinations, Thieves and Courtesan) for 100% sync aren't all that interesting either....They all essentially boil down to killing a person(s), so they may aswell have all be filed as assassination missions anyway.                                                                                        
If you can get over the inevitable slog of the "il Principe" trophy, the rest of the trophies are incredibly simple......You get rewarded for fairly small, but cool, tasks like beating up the 5 thirsty harlequins, killing a guard by a dropping a sandbag from a lift and winning the maximum bet on a game of Hazard.                                                                                                                                        
It is a good piece of DLC for the most part, but be warned though, achieving 100% sync could very well sour the experience for you.

Despite the name, Da Vinci isn't really a main character.

DLC #39 - Red Dead Redemption Legends and Killers

Become a Legend...

I can't really say a bad word about the Red Dead Redemption Multiplayer, and the steady flow of post-game DLC kept on adding to the content in superb ways.                                                                        
I still maintain that the Liars and the Cheats pack is the pick of the RDR DLC for me personally, but the Legends and Killers is a worthy addition and brings a number of fun gameplay additions to the fray.

The tomahawk is fun to use (at least in free roam, but you'll most likely get torn to shreds in competitive MP...) and there's a nice emphasis on the Tomahawk with the trophies too, including snagging a kill off someone from 35 yards and a set of single player ambient challenges to muscle through.                                                                                                                                                      
A host of skins are also available from the PS2 classic, Red Dead Revolver, and again, the new skins are nicely complimented by the trophies, with bronze awards for obtaining 25 kills with Pig Josh's dynamite and Red's dead eye ability.                                                                                                        
The trophies in general are all nicely varied, but some seem very thrown in....Where does the relevance of getting 3 kills with knives come from? Or fighting back from 2-0 down to win a game of Hold your Own? These particular trophies in the pack can be somewhat frustrating to try and achieve, but not really enough to numb the experience too badly.                                                                             
Still, there is alot of fun to be had in this pack, and the Red Dead Redemption DLC in general.

Platinum #36 - Assassins Creed : Brotherhood

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 8/10                                                                                          
From the Single Player perspective, you could definitely argue that this is actually easier than Assassins Creed 2.                                                                   
The basis of the Single Player list is extremely similar, with a bunch of a progression based trophies, all tied to finishing the various DNA sequences and completing the main story arc.

There is also quite a heavy emphasis on side missions too, with trophies awarded for discovering the 6 main shrines in the game and destroying the 4 historical weapons, which makes up around a fifth of the list in total.

The collectible trophies also make a return, including the "Capture the Flag" trophy, awarded for removing all Borgia flags in Rome, and "In Memoriam" for collecting all feathers, which will fulfil the somewhat grindy element of the single player, totalling 150 items to collect around the world.

You can purchase maps from vendors that will expose their locations, which is more than helpful, given the sheer volume that is required for both trophies, but you also need to be aware that some flags and feathers are hidden underground and in tombs, so they're not always that easy to find, even with the aid of maps.

The ".. .- -- .- .-.. .. ...-." trophy, awarded for solving all of Subject 16's puzzles, requires you to solve increasingly difficult riddles and cryptic problems in order to unlock a small cinematic. Alot of these puzzles will require some deep thought and good problem solving ability. You can always look up the solutions in a guide, but they're tough to crack if you go through them all legitimately without any assistance, and are definitely the most challenging part of the Single Player list.

It is also important to note the "Mailer Daemon" trophy, awarded for accessing your e-mail in 2012, and the "Dust to Dust" trophy, awarded for finding 1 artefact in 2012, are most definitely missable, since you get a limited window of oppurtunity during the main story to visit 2012, so if you miss these trophies, you'll have to play through the game again from Sequence 2 in order to get the chance to unlock them.
                              
That's about as challenging as the Single Player gets, however, the Multiplayer portion of the game is where the difficulty rating really stacks up.

The "Download Complete" trophy, awarded for reaching level 50, is hugely time consuming, and will most likely take anywhere in the region of 20-30 hours to achieve, but you do earn experience points for practically everything you do, and the game does also offer a large selection of challenges that give alot of additional experience if you can fulfil them, which can accelerate the levelling process significantly. However, that is just the tip of what is a seriously gruelling online trophy list.                                                                                                                                                   
Chances are, you'll be chasing the rest of these trophies way beyond level 50, thanks to the "Role Model" trophy, for achieving all the co-op bonuses in 1 session, which takes some serious co-ordination and luck on the part of yourself and your partner.

The "Abstergo Employee of the Month" trophy, which requires you to achieve every Multiplayer bonus at least once, and involves huge amounts of luck, skill and patience, and is without question one of the hardest bronze trophies out there to be found in ANY game to date. Most of the bonuses are actually relatively easy to obtain, and you should naturally unlock the majority of them throughout your quest to level 50, however, the Extreme Variety bonus requires you to achieve 15 of these individual bonuses in just 1 round, which is a heavy feat to achieve.

In reality, there isn't really a methodical way to go around achieving this trophy. You need alot of circumstantial luck, especially for bonuses like Triple Escape, Intercepted and Grounded, and the bonus list isn't really that much bigger than 15, so you don't get a big leeway in regards to picking and choosing which bonuses you go after. It leads to alot of trial and error, and the amount of persistence needed will most likely take you beyond hitting level 50, but it's a seriously rewarding trophy at the same time.

If it wasn't for the fact the Single Player portion was so easy, aside a couple of trophies, and practically the entire wedge of this games rating comes exclusively from the online, it would have easily come into consideration for a higher score, however the Single Player portion provides a minimal challenge and can be completed in full in around 20-25 hours.

The Multiplayer side of this list is where the game excels, with a number of solid trophies. It's difficult to put a concrete time estimation on it, since it depends largely on how much luck you get with the "Abstergo Employee of the Month" trophy, and the experience could easily excel the 50 hour mark.
                                                                                              
Overall, an extremely solid Platinum that will test your skill and patience to the maximum.

Notable Trophies - 

..- ..-. -- ..- --.-.. .- - Solve all of Subject 16's puzzles
Dust to Dust - Find 1 Artifact in 2012
Mailer Daemon - Access your email in 2012
Download Complete - Reach Level 50 (Multiplayer Only)
Role Model - Get all the Co-op bonuses in 1 session (Multiplayer Only)
Abstergo Employee of the Month - Get every single bonus at least once (Multiplayer Only)

Hardest Trophy -             
                                                   


Abstergo Employee of the Month
Get every single bonus at least once (Multiplayer Only)

DLC #38 - Battlefield : Bad Company 2 SPECACT Kit Upgrade

Kill, Kill, Kill.

You get new camouflage for existing guns. Simple as that.
                                                                       
All 4 trophies in the pack require you to achieve all of the relevant awards for each of the 4 classes in the game, including Recon, Assault, Engineer and Medic. 

Earning all of the awards for each class holds a 100 kill requirement, which means you'll need 400 kills in total to unlock the 4 trophies within the DLC.

It clocks it at around 8-10 hours in total, and can easily be achieved by just playing public matches and racking up the kills as you play along. It's a leisurely set of trophies, even though it proves to be a slight time sink.

Platinum #35 - Battlefield : Bad Company 2

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 6/10                                  
There is practically nothing note-worthy in terms of difficulty with the Single Player part of this list. 

There are a generous amount of progression based trophies for beating each mission in the game, culminating in the "It Sucks to be Right" trophy, awarded for finishing Airbourne on Hard, which is the end of the games campaign.

If you want the slightly difficult method, you can just play the game from start to finish on the hardest difficulty and unlock all the campaign trophies in 1 fell swoop, and despite the hardest difficulty still being a pretty straight forward venture, there is still actually a much easier way to go about unlocking all of the campaign trophies.

The descriptions in the list only require you to beat the final mission on the hardest difficulty, meaning you can actually play the campaign right through to the final mission, beat the game and unlock chapter select, and then actually go back to the final missions via the menu and replay it on the hardest difficulty setting. You will still unlock the "It Sucks to be Right" trophy without actually having to play any of the other games levels on the hardest difficulty, and can just casually play through them at whatever sort of challenge you wish and still manage to unlock them all.

Due to this, the nature of the game is incredibly easy, and allows you to appropriately focus on the variety of other Single Player trophies available in the list.

Nothing really stands out, and it's a pretty standard fare for the most part. There are a small cluster of collectible based trophies to go through, surrounding the demolition of satellite dishes and collecting weapons caches throughout the games levels, and there are also a handful of trophies pertaining to the accumulation of kills with the different types of weapons in the game.

They're all very easy to achieve, especially given how easy the games campaign mode is in terms of difficulty, and you can even go back to chapter select if you've missed any collectibles or still need to farm some extra kills for a certain group of weapon, so there's still alot of flexibility and you don't have to worry about anything being missable and replaying the whole campaign to unlock certain trophies.
                                             
The Multiplayer side of the game is pretty much where the entire bulk of the difficulty rating is justified, with a handful of slightly more challenging trophies than those that are presented within the Single Player portion of the list.

The "Multiplayer Elite" trophy, awarded for reaching Rank 22 online, is a fair slog, and will see you plug at least 20-25 hours into the online mode, despite the fact that rank 22 isn't anywhere near the maximum rank in the game. You can focus on weapon challenges which will help you accumulate experience at a much faster rate, but even hitting rank 22 is a slow burner and does require a hefty chunk of experience to achieve, so a certain amount of dedication is still required, regardless.

The "Demolition Man" trophy, awarded for getting 20 demolish kills, is without question the hardest trophy in this list, and possibly one of the most frustrating trophies in any game to date. It requires you to kill 20 enemies through demolishing a house, and the amount of persistence and patience needed to fulfil all 20 is huge.

There are a couple of things that make this trophy tough. Firstly, it takes alot of firepower to take down a building, which means you're going need to equip yourself with a class that packs plenty of explosive based weapons. C4 and the RPG are solid choices, and you'll need to hover around buildings carefully planting C4 and waiting for the opportune moments to blow the building up, with the RPG being mostly there for insurance just incase you need more than the C4 to take down the building.

However, this brings across the second issue, which is the fact that enemies are always given way too much warning before a building collapses on them. The background noise rumbles and the screen shakes for a good 7-8 second period, and in the majority of cases, this is usually more than enough time for anybody inside the buildings to escape and thwart your efforts entirely, which is incredibly frustrating when you consider the effort it takes to finally take down a building that contains 1 or more enemies.

There's no solid concrete tactic, it's just a matter of patience. You will eventually stumble on enemies who get caught up in a building collapse, or just don't get away in time, but accumulating 20 kills isn't a short term job by any stretch of the imagination.

Apart from that, there's not much else that should give you any problems. The "Airkill" trophy, awarded for roadkilling an enemy with a helicopter, and the "Careful Guidance" trophy, awarded for destroying an enemy helicopter with a stationary RPG, are both tasks that might require a bit of trial and error, but not in the same way the "Demolition Man" trophy does.

This isn't really a hugely demanding list, though it does contain some tricky trophies. The Single Player portion is one of the easiest Single Player offerings you could find in any game, but the Multiplayer part is where pretty much all the difficulty of this game shines through.

The levelling up process is a fairly lengthy one, even for just hitting Rank 22, and the "Demolition Man" trophy is pretty much just a big game of trial and error. If you can get round those 2 trophies, then the rest of the list takes care of itself, but with the campaign, which is around 8-10 hours in length, along with the slight levelling grind, you're looking at a good 30-35 hours. It's hard to put a time valuation on the rest of the Multiplayer trophies, but the "Demolition Man" trophy could easily add another 10-15 hours onto the overall completion time, so you're looking at an overall estimation of 50+ hours.

Notable Trophies -

Multiplayer Elite - Online: reach Rank 22 (Warrant Officer I)
Demolition Man - Online: Get 20 Demolish kills

Hardest Trophy -       

                                                                                   

Demolition Man

Online : Get 20 Demolish kills

DLC #36 + 37 - Uncharted 2 Drake's Fortune Map Pack and Siege Expansion Map Pack

Resistance Chimera in Uncharted? DLC baby!

If you want a seriously challenging set of online trophies, look no further than both pieces of Uncharted 2 DLC.                                                         The Drakes Fortune Map Pack comes with 12 trophies, and achieving all of them on offer will require a hefty time investment, with the specifically harder tasks requiring you to attain a collective total of 150 wins across the games 3 different online modes, capturing 200 times in Plunder mode and a general requirement of 2500 kills. 

You'll also need to obtaining 7 rapid fire medals, which is more luck based than judgement. It makes for for a long road of dedication and hard work as you tick off the mammoth list of tasks in order to nab every trophy in the pack.                                                                                                          
The Siege Expansion pack picks up from where the original left off, and offers the new siege game mode, and a core of hugely challenging trophies.     
              
The highlights in this pack come from beating all co-op maps on Crushing mode, which will require solid teamwork and skill (not to mention an undoubted number of attempts, too) and earning 10 Protectorate medals in competitive online also proves to be excruciatingly difficult, and also hugely luck based.
Even after I'd unlocked every other trophy in both packs, I was still going for the Protectorate medals for a long while after. It was a rewarding challenge, but it definitely felt like it had long outstayed it's welcome.

Even though it would seem unfair to single out specific trophies as the stand outs in this package, the most demanding task does still stand out significantly;



Cold Blooded
Get 2500 Kills
                                                




There's not way to sugar coat it, you need 2500 kills across any game mode. It most likely won't be the last trophy you unlock, but it's a daunting reminder you need 2500 kills to achieve it, and given that you'll probably achieve around 20 kills in a very good game of Plunder/Team Deathmatch, it doesn't even bare thinking how long this will take.

All of the trophies on offer will probably require a huge collective time investment, but there are no doubt a decent mix of skill based trophies in there too.                                                                     
When you combine them together, they make Uncharted a solid 100% to achieve. Both packs throw up some equally challenging tasks and collectively, they push towards a 60-70 hour experience to achieve all 23 trophies.

DLC #35 - Battlefield : Bad Company 2 - Battlefield Vietnam

Going Old School.

One thing is for sure with this DLC, you're in it for the long haul.

The main focus of the Vietnam pack is around earning a gold medal in all the Vietnam weapons, of which there are 12, and a gold medal simply requires 100 kills. Translated into simple maths, that means you'll need to rack up 1200 kills to max out every gun to gold standard. It's a reasonable enough number of kills, and is quite a fun journey given the detail and fun factor in the new maps and weapons added within the pack.

You'll also need an extra 100 kills with tanks and 50 kills in the ridiculously under-strength HUEY's. (The latter is incredibly frustrating to achieve as a result of the paper mache-esque choppers). Kills whilst inside vehicles are generally quite frustrating to rack up, mainly due to the fact enemies will always gravitate to the tanks and choppers as the greater dangers on the maps, and thus, it makes the kill total a bit of a slow burner at times.
                                                                                                      
To grab all trophies will probably clock in at somewhere around the 40-50 hour mark for all 10 of them on offer, and is really nothing more than standard "kill x amount of players", using the variety of weapons and vehicles within the DLC packs, though there are a small collection of other trophies with an emphasis on winning, including wins on all 4 new Vietnam maps, achieving the best score on the leaderboard in 1 game and being a part of the best squad in any game.
                                                                        

Platinum #34 - FIFA 11

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 9/10                                                               
Another year, another challenging FIFA Platinum.                                                                                                 
The "Virtual Legend" trophy, upgraded to a gold from FIFA 10, awarded for playing 500 matches with your virtual pro, makes a customary return, and is most definitely where the bulk of this Platinum is picked up, though the new emphasis on Pro Clubs makes it somewhat less of a grind than last time out.

However, even at the minimum of 8 minutes per game, the required total to achieve this trophy alone is 66 hours, but the new emphasis on Pro Clubs mode should nullify alot of the grind element, especially considering the new attachment of trophies towards various pro related modes.

On such a note, the "Club Glory" trophy, awarded for winning the cup as part of an online Pro club, is somewhat glitched and you may be kicked out of the tournament at any of the 4 knockout stages, despite clearly winning the match on some occasions, so this emphasises the importance of being part of a strong and active club in order to try multiple times if necessary.

Sticking with Pro Clubs, the "Virtual Football" trophy, awarded for playing a Pro Clubs match with a team of 10 or more, also returns in it's reduced form, but you'll still need to co-ordinate a session dedicated to this trophy, since all 10 players need to be part of the same club. It shouldn't be too difficult if you have a dedicated club already, but it will still require 10 people to be online and active at the same time regardless.

The "One Club Man" trophy, awarded for playing 50 matches for the same online Pro Club, is a good way to advance towards the 500 Virtual Pro matches you'll need, but you will need to do it with a single club, so it's important to make sure you're playing with people who are dedicated to reaching 50 games, and winning an online cup at the same time. Playing for another club will reset your progress entirely, so it's vitally important to choose the right team for both trophies.
                         
In a definite backwards step from FIFA 10, the "Hundred and Counting" trophy, awarded for playing 100 ranked Head-to-Head matches, requires you to simply complete 100 games, rather than win them, but the match must still be completed for progression towards the trophy, so you can still expect a solid 10-20 hour venture for this trophy alone, as you no doubt have to endure a fair amount of rage-quitters who will deny wins towards the tally and negate matches you would have otherwise won. 

Even still, you will achieve this naturally over time, since winning isn't necessary, however the "Good Form" trophy, awarded for playing 5 consecutive Head to Head matches without losing, will encourage you to play for victories, even if you're just playing for the sake of notching up 100 matches. It isn't easy to go 5 unbeaten online in FIFA, but you'll need to do it regardless of how many Head to Head games you play if you want the Platinum trophy.
                                                                                                   
The even more customary "FIFA for life" trophy, awarded for spending 50 hours on the pitch, would usually be worth mentioning, though in the context of FIFA Platinum timescales, 50 hours is largely irrelevant, and you'll most likely unlock it with a long way to go towards fulfilling every other task required on the list.

The Career Mode also has a fair amount of trophies dedicated to it, and although most of them are  relatively straight forward, you'll still be looking at playing through a couple of seasons in order to earn all of them, although this is mostly down to a couple of trophies

The "It's in the Blood" trophy, awarded for going from being a player to a manager in Career Mode, requires you to make a transition from player to manager, and you will need to be dedicated enough to prove yourself as a player before becoming a manager, which will require playing through a few seasons as a player first, so it's still a fairly time consuming task.

Even longer still, the "Folklore" trophy, awarded for becoming a legend as a player in Career mode, is also a massive time-sink, and although it will vary in timescale from player to player, it took me 10 seasons to hit Legend status with my created player, which most probably equated to more games than the "Virtual Legend" trophy alone requires of you.

On that note, the Career mode is easily the best way to knock down the 500 game target with your Virtual Pro. Both of the above trophies are hugely time-consuming and you don't even have to play the games from the Pro perspective for matches to count towards the trophy, the only important thing is that the games you play include your Virtual Pro in the side, meaning you can control all 11 players at the same time and still make progress towards that big figure.
                                                                                                                                                  
Just to add the gargantuan amount of time required, the "Around the World" trophy awarded for playing a match with a team from every league, which equates to 31, and similarly, the "Home and Away" trophy, awarded for winning a match in every stadium in the game, of which there are 50. It's best to go after these trophies in tandem with one another, in order to knock down the amount of games needed to unlock both trophies, since playing through both simultaneously will almost half the amount of matches you need to play, though it is important to note that you need to win in every stadium, whereas you only need to play a game with a team from every league.

The "Once in a Lifetime" trophy, awarded for scoring as the goalkeeper in any match is way too difficult to achieve under normal circumstances, and the easiest way to unlock this one is just simply have your goalkeeper take a penalty during the game. It'll still be tough, due to the fact the goalkeepers penalty taking skill will be near non-existent, but it's still the only plausible way to score a goal with your goalkeeper.

All in all, this is most definitely another couple of hundred hour FIFA Platinum that only the dedicated FIFA player will earn. There are a host of trophies that pile on the estimated completion time, and although the times will vary from player to player, you can definitely take 200 as an absolute minimum, making this list without doubt the longest FIFA Platinum to date. The skill element isn't as high as it has been in previous FIFA titles, but the sheer amount of dedication required more than makes up for it.

Notable Trophies - 

Virtual Legend - Play 500 matches with your Virtual Pro
Club Glory - Win the Cup as part of an online Pro Club
Virtual Football - Play a Pro Clubs match as a team of 10 or more
One Club Man - Play 50 matches for the same online Pro Club
Hundred and Counting - Play 100 Head to Head Ranked matches
It's in the Blood - Go from being a  Player to the Manager (or Player Manager) in Career Mode
Folklore - Become a Legend as a Player in Career Mode
FIFA for Life - Spend 50 hours on the pitch

Hardest Trophy -                                                                                                                                                                                   



Virtual Legend
Play 500 matches with your Virtual Pro

DLC #34 - Battlefield : Bad Company 2 Onslaught Mode

Team up and face the Onslaught.

Courtesy of a free code from JasonZink on PS3trophies.org (Thanks again!), I've been able to playthrough this DLC for nothing!

The trophy structure is incredibly straight forward, and entirely progression based, with 4 trophies for completing each map on regular difficulty, and 4 trophies for doing the exact same thing on hardcore difficulty.

If you get together with a good squad, then you'll mostly breeze the 8 trophies on offer, though the trophy for beating some of the maps (especially Isla Inocentes) on hardcore mode might prove somewhat challenging in parts.                                                                         
Saying that, if you have a good squad (with headsets, preferably), then you'll mostly sail through the 8 trophies on offer, though the trophy for beating the maps on Veteran will put even the best squad to the test.                                                                                                                                  
It isn't a brilliant piece of DLC by any means, but if you want 8 easily achieveable trophies, then you shouldn't look any further.