DLC #66 - Shift 2 : Unleashed - Speedhunters Edition

Become Top Dog, and tackle 2 new Career
Branches.

The second and final piece of Shift 2 DLC brings 2 completely new events to the Shift 2 world, and, as with the Legends DLC, a new series of Career events to battle through.

Even though this DLC has 2 additional Career branches this time round (Drag Racing and Standing Mile events), it's undoubtedly a shorter venture than the Legends pack single Career branch.

The "Grim Reaper" trophy, awarded for beating Chris Rado and winning the 1320 Outlaws Championship, and the "Monster Dog" trophy, awarded for beating Koz and winning the Standing Mile Outlaws Championship are practically the sole focus of this DLC.

Again, the difficulty of the events isn't really that challenging until you get to the Championship event, and that's the same for both Career branches. Chris Rado and Koz's cars are much better than anything you're given in the Speedhunters Pack, and you'll most likely just have to resort to using a fully upgraded car from the main game in order to defeat them.

The "Ready to Rock" trophy, awarded for winning an online event in a Speedhunters Edition car, isn't hard, but the online portion of the game isn't exactly buzzing these days, so you need to knock it off at the first available chance if you don't want too long of a wait.

The "Speedhunter" trophy, awarded for completing a Career event in each of the new Speedhunters Edition Cars, requires you to unlock both the Dodge Viper GTS Twins Turbo and the World Racing Pro-FWD Reaper Scion tC (the cars you unlock for beating the new Career rivals), as well as the 12 other Speedhunter cars. This means this trophy will most likely be the final one you unlock, but it is easy to miss out the 2 final cars, so just be aware.

Both Career branches can be beaten within 1-2 hours, due to the very short nature of the new Drag and Standing Mile events, and the other trophies will collectively take no longer than an additional hour or so, depending on how quickly you can win an online event.

DLC #65 - Shift 2 : Unleashed - Legends Pack

Take on a new Career branch, using classic
cars from the 60's and 70's

The Legends Pack DLC adds 2 trophies, attached to the new Legends career branch, with a series of events to beat, culminating in the Legends World Championship event.

The "Rock Hard" trophy, awarded for winning an online event in a car from the Legends pack, is simple enough, and in truth, so is the majority of the new Legends Career branch too.

There are 17 new preliminary events to complete, but only 12 podium finishes are needed to unlock the final event. This is where you can eventually unlock the Gold "Mattley Crue" trophy, awarded for beating Matt Powers and winning the Legend Championship series.

The selection of new events is vast, but even on the hardest difficulty, they're still relatively easy. The only point at which the DLC becomes a challenge is during the Legends Championship itself, simply for the reason that Matt Power's Porsche Carerra 911 is a much more powerful car than anything you have access to. The Championship series is still a 6 race event, which gives you plenty of opportunity to win the series and unlock the trophy, but margin for error is incredibly small if you want to win enough races to win the league.

Overall, this is still a fairly easy DLC package. Winning the solitary online event might require some co-ordination, since you won't be able to race anybody using the Legend cars who hasn't bought the DLC, but is still an easy silver. 

Beating all 12 events needed to unlock the Championship series is easy to the point where it just feels like you're tying up formalities, especially when you consider you only need to podium finish the event to officially complete it. This ensures the branch will take anywhere between 2-3 hours to unlock the Championship, with the series finale (and the subsequent Gold trophy) itself requiring at least another hour on top, with a slight peak in the difficulty of the package when you face off against Matt Powers. 

SimplySupreme Hits 50 Platinum Trophies!

It's funny looking back sometimes. When you reflect on anything in life, you always think about certain things, and give them greater thought than what you usually would. What was good? What was bad? Was it worth it? Any Regrets? Granted, people usually apply this sort of logic to more pressing matters in life than virtual accomplishments, but these shiny pixels still pose the very same questions when you look back upon achieving certain milestones, especially when you consider the amount of time and effort you've dedicated to the cause of achieving every single last one of them over the years of gaming.

When it was announced back in June of 2008 that the Playstation 3 would receive a new update that would rival the popular achievements system that has been used on the Xbox since 2005, a whole 3 years prior to the eventual Playstation equivalent, I wasn't exactly overcome with joy.

Platinum #1 - Where it all began

It was nice to know we finally had something that would track our completion rates to games, but the system was sparse, and not much was known about it at the time of release. A solitary game actually shipped with the system at the time it was rolled out in Firmware 2.40, which was disappointing to say the least, but not totally unexpected. That's the main reason why my initial enthusiasm about the system didn't really take off, mainly because I felt if Sony were deadly serious about the system, they would have prepared more games to be rolled out with full support at the time of the update.

It did show promise though, and although it was merely through intrigue that I popped Uncharted back into my Playstation in the middle of August 2008 when the official trophy patch was released for the game, that was when I was hooked. I hammered out my first Platinum trophy within just a month (going by timestamps, though in reality it was about 1 and a half weeks, due to the inclusion of a summer holiday in between).

It left me wanting more, but there wasn't anything to be had. The build up to Christmas 2008 saw a number of high profile games being announced with trophy support included straight out of the box, including Bioshock 1, Dead Space, Call of Duty : World at War and Mirrors Edge, but there were still games omitting the system or eventually patching trophies at a later date, which still bought about questions regarding Sony's system. 6 months on, and even though I had a handful of games with full support of the system I still only had 4 Platinums to my name by the close of 2008.

Early in 2009, things changed when Sony made it mandatory for games to ship with trophy support straight out of the box. This renewed my faith in the system, and for the first time, I could actually envision it being a big part of the Playstation and how we play games.

Highlights of 2009 included Mirrors Edge, Resident Evil 5, Skate 2, LittleBig Planet, FIFA 09 and Call of Duty : World at War, and my Platinum count rose to 13 by the end of the year. The limits to which certain trophy lists would push your ability went beyond what people would have previously gone to without them, and I've always personally relished the challenge of tough Platinums, where others shy away and stick to safe games. If a game has an easy list, then so be it, it doesn't affect my enjoyment any less than a game that goes to another level, but I see trophies as accomplishments and feats within my gaming preferences, and not just merely just an extension to a arbitrary collection.

The Big Five - Motorstorm : Pacific Rift, GTA IV, Resistance 2, FIFA 10, Shift 2 : Unleashed

There are times when you do question certain things, and trophy hunting can be a physically and mentally draining activity sometimes. 2010 produced a further 11 Platinums, and a slew of big lists were taken down, including Pacific Rift, GTA IV, Resistance 2 and FIFA 10, and although every single one of them was incredibly rewarding, they almost make you hate gaming. I'd always take breaks from trophy hunting, which is the main reason my strike rate is reasonably slow, but I'd have gone insane without relaxing and just zoning out from the whole thing every now and again, whether that be through playing casual games of Call of Duty/FIFA with mates, or just taking a break from gaming in general.

Ultimately though, I never stay away for too long, and 2011 clocked in with 12 more Platinum trophies. The yearly figures seemed to be quite consistent, and my average works out to around 1 Platinum every 6 weeks, which does actually sound surprisingly frequent, when you consider it took me almost 5 years to hit 50 in total.

The Number Crunch

2012 saw a slight dip, with 9 Platinum trophies, but 4 in 2013 thus far have set that track towards a greater route already. It is also important to note the amount of time invested in DLC packages too, which obviously doesn't count towards any lists Platinum, but for those who want to achieve 100%, like myself, games are constantly revisited in order to collect the additional trophies as and when the DLC packs are released. When you're revisiting games at that sort of consistency, and have to devote the time towards unlocking the additional trophies they carry, you will lose time on working towards other Platinums, which will have a detrimental effect on strike rates.

It's true that trophy hunting can be boring sometimes. Whether this be through natural monotony of lists, or just simply being bored of the whole thing entirely, there's always a seemingly invisible pull that will bring you back for more. A game isn't complete in my books until it's at 100%, and my natural enthusiasm for perfectionism continuously drives me towards my goals, no matter what sort of darker areas a list will have me delve into, and there have been plenty. It's just knowing what's at the end that matters, and I've always believed that if you want something enough, you can have it.

Thankfully, there have been way more enjoyable times than there have frustrating ones, and I genuinely believe that trophies have also enhanced my gaming skills in various ways. They aren't just a way for me to pass time, or feel good at something anymore. I always find myself looking for that next challenge and grabbing a Platinum that is achieved through increased skill and determination, and developing a collection that makes you proud to look back at.

Whilst I'm fully aware that 50 Platinum trophies isn't exactly a massive figure in the larger picture of trophy hunting, especially 5 five years on, it is still an achievement I never thought I'd fulfil. It's taken a little while, and it definitely carries it's fair share of ups and downs, but it's still a satisfying milestone, and one I will always be proud of. 

Here's to another 50.