DLC #223 - Assassin's Creed Odyssey - The Fate of Atlantis : Episode 2

After a lengthy stay topside in Elysium, the reward for serving the Gods so well? Being plunged straight into the Underworld to meet Hades himself.

The immediate slaying of Cerberus throws the Underworld into chaos. If you're into Greek mythology, you'll know of the three-headed guardian whose role is to gatekeep the Underworld from the living entering and the dead escaping.

Well, courtesy of an opening boss fight, he's now also dead and this gate is being breached both ways, which rewards you with an immediate audience with Hades in order to fix this problem - or else. The God of the Underworld cuts a sinister figure, and the ultimatum kicks off Episode 2 of The Fate of Atlantis as you quest through hell to find a new gatekeeper (4 of them to be precise) and restore order back to Hades' playground.

It's clear that more effort has gone into The Fate of Atlantis compared to Legacy of the First Blade. This second episode transports you into a newly crafted realm, albeit much smaller in scale than Elysium, and there are more freshly added gameplay features to compliment a brand new episode.

Tartaros rifts can be found dotted around the Underworld, and provide enemy souls with immunity from humans until activated. Stepping into them will make souls vulnerable to attacks and adds an extra element of strategy to clearing forts and enemy camps. You won't be able to kill certain enemies until you've activated the rift they're linked too, promoting a more tactical element about how you navigate certain areas. Closing a rift also awards an ability point, so the game continues to absolutely ply you with the chance to upgrade your skill tree significantly.

Similarly, Tartaros veils block off passage to certain areas of the Underworld until you acquire the 5 pieces of a special armour set needed to pass through it's foggy barrier. This does act as a blocker to questline progression, and acquiring this armour set is heavily focused on the main questline, but it does also conceal a few optional secrets to be found within the environment, promoting off the beaten path exploration.

The environmental design does take a bit of a step back from the colourful vibrancy of Elysium. I know we're meant to be in hell, and the glum demeanor reflects that accordingly, but would it have hurt to use something a little bit more creative than just varying shades of brown to depict the landscape?

Ultimately though, despite these differences, you're still mainly running around doing fools errands - Just on behalf of Hades rather than Persephone and her motley crew. At least the motives are much clearer this time round. You've caused a problem and you're being forced to fix it, and there aren't 4 different characters chasing you around and confusing the narrative, which was a big plot issue in episode 1.

I very optimistically predicted this to be a 130 hour package by the time all 3 episodes had reached their conclusion, and we're already pushing 140 hours with an episode still remaining. It's moderately interesting to delve into the new gameplay features and explore fresh surroundings, until the predictable questline kicks in and redresses the balance of tedium.

In terms of trophies, 5 more have been added as part of this episode, with a big emphasis on main questline progression this time round, with almost every trophy being at least partially linked to the ongoing story.

The package is bookended with story-related trophies. The opening fight with Cerberus awards the first and there is a hidden trophy at the conclusion of the main questline after a similar encounter. The former is not to be treated as a spoiler, as this isn't hidden on the list, so I'm only playing by their rules in regards to what I reveal here.

Progressing everything else in between will also serve towards unlocking the other trophies on offer here. It became a common theme within each Legacy of the First Blade episode to track down a new Cultist branch as an extension of the main game. I was reluctant to point out the fact that this had been abandoned in episode 1 of The Fate of Atlantis because my research gave me a hunch that this was merely a brief reprieve.

"The One" trophy, awarded for Defeating all of the Fallen, confirms that hunch to be true, introducing 11 new targets to identify and kill in order to fulfil the requirements of this trophy. Some of these are linked directly to progressing the main quest as Hades' orders to find 4 new gatekeepers are from this selection of targets. Others are either found in the wild or linked to side quests.

You'll also need to close down all the Tartoros rifts for another trophy, of which there are 17 to find across the Underworld, and discovering the 3 Keeper's Insights will net you another trophy as well as help you acquire some more ability enhancements, exactly how you had to in the first episode prior. Access to both rifts and insights are sometimes within locations that are blocked off by a Tartaros veil, so the best starting point is to acquire the 5 pieces of Fallen armour before anything else, as acquiring the full set will give access to all locations on the map. It makes things less confusing when cleaning up trophies.

This is a much shorter experience than that of episode 1, taking the save file to a total of 138 hours, which means this clocks in at around a 7 hour package. Much of the trophy list boils down to tracking the new group of assassination targets with different end goals, whether that be because they're required by Hades' to be new protectors of the Underworld, or because they're holding a crucial piece of armour required to complete the Fallen set, as examples.

Next up - The final chapter.

DLC #222 - Overwatch - Additional Characters 3

Oh, Overwatch. I'd be lying through my teeth if I said I'd missed you.

A 10/10 Platinum trophy back in 2022 courtesy of some of it's outrageously demanding character-specific trophies. One I ultimately had to concede defeat in and boost in order to finish, despite my best efforts to plough through to the end.

Overwatch is still a well supported game. The developers are committed to rolling out regular updates and the live roster now has 52 playable characters. Initially, new characters were accompanied with their own trophies to obtain, but this soon halted - seemingly for good - with this DLC pack signifying the end of this trend.

A blessing in disguise as far as I'm concerned. I'm not sure I could have stomached a trophy list that was willing to continually add more and more undoubtedly complex trophies every time a new season ticked over and we saw the introduction of another new character. I've already said I thoroughly enjoyed Overwatch, and re-visiting it was a nice dosage of nostalgia, but in equal measure, the reasons why I was ultimately glad to leave it on the shelf made themselves known.

My original criticisms of the game from a trophy-based perspective are still current today. The spectrum of difficulty for these trophies is wide and vast - ranging from a fair challenge to borderline impossible - and many of the game features are still very trophy hunter unfriendly.  Why do I still have to wait 10 minutes in a queue to get into a game because all I want to do is select a Tank character for the purpose of unlocking a character-specific trophy?! So frustrating.

This DLC pack adds 10 new trophies which cover 5 characters who were later added to the Overwatch roster before Blizzard decided to stop releasing new trophies with any other subsequent character thereafter.

There are 2 trophies attributed to each character, and these include Junker Queen, Lifeweaver, Kiriko, Ramattra and Sojourn, and the initial step was to spend a bit of time getting used to each of these new characters. It had been a long time since I'd last played Overwatch and the step to just get familiar with these new characters in a competitive environment was a necessary one.

Onto tackling the trophies. I was determined to commit to making as much progress on these trophies as I could, putting aside big sessions to see how far I could get. One of the biggest issues with these trophies is that some of them are hugely down to circumstance, and how things align for you, which is a highly volatile factor to achievement.

This was punctuated by unlocking the "Giving Tree" trophy, awarded for Restoring 1200 health with a single use of Lifeweaver's Tree of Life. Activating this ultimate ability on a payload the moment an enemy Hanzo had unleashed a Dragonstrike is exactly the sort of circumstantial luck I'm talking about. This is one of the tougher trophies in the list to earn, but also just shows that all you may need is a bit of luck to be in the right place at the right time to find your window of opportunity present itself.

In similar fashion, the "Taking Charge" trophy, awarded for Getting 4 killing blows with a single use of Sojourn's Overclock, happened for me in similar circumstances. Almost 5 hours after unlocking the prior trophy, and on the verge of giving up for the day, Zarya's Gravitation Surge sucked an entire enemy team in. Sensing the moment, triggering Overclock allowed me to easily get the 4 kills needed to pop this trophy. This is the rarest trophy in this particular list, and I had been actively trying to earn it within this 5 hour period, but the time I got it was when I least expected to. A timely Gravitation Surge - Which was always clutch for group-kill trophies - and then seizing that opportunity.

Ultimately, these trophies could, in theory, take forever. Perseverance will generally win the day, but it's not a guarantee, and those are the worst kind of trophies for me. They're out of your control and your best chances are down to luck. I had some here, but would also run out of it later down the line, and it's the primary reason I boosted some of the Overwatch Platinum trophies.

Before then, there is at least a nice blend of easier to earn trophies that don't require ridiculously improbable situations to present themselves. Why couldn't they all be like this? I'm not suggesting to dumb them all down, just to close the gap a bit and add some fairer balance to the trophy requirements that don't make you feel like you're fruitlessly wasting your time.

I'd go on to achieve another 5 trophies fairly trouble-free, but most of these had fairer requirements. A nice balance between challenge and the sense of feeling that they were actually achievable. It's draining sinking hours into something that still feels like you could end an entire session without any further progress. However, we eventually hit that wall...

Purified - Cleanse 5 negative effects with one use of Kiriko's Protection Suzu in Quick or Competitive Play.
Life Weaving - Prevent 3 deaths using Lifeweaver's Life Grip without dying yourself in Quick or Competitive Play.

These 2 trophies were the ones that made me tap out and concede to boosting the remainder of this list.

The "Purified" trophy, awarded for Cleansing 5 negative effects with one use of Kiriko's Protection Suzu in Quick or Competitive Play is fully dependent on matching up against players who have picked a character who has the ability to deal out negative effects.

This list is very limited, and with such a crowded roster, if you're actively attempting for this trophy, you'll need to hope that the opposition team selects a specific character. Realistically - and it's important to bear in mind that you need to cleanse 5 negative effects in one go - there are only a couple of heroes that make this viable.

Mei's Blizzard ultimate is the recommended window of opportunity for this trophy. It has a very wide area of effect, and the gradual freezing damage counts as a multi-cleanse for some reason. This means you won't need your whole team caught up in it.

Junker Queen also has a multitude of attacks that cause bleeding damage, and can again, be linked together to apply to multiple enemies at once. The problem with Protection Suzu is that this is a very small area of effect, so you also need to have your team very closely bunched together and locked into one space. This is why Mei's Blizzard also works so well.

I gave this one an honest go, but just gave up after getting into game after game without the opposition team selecting the correct characters that would allow me to obtain this trophy. Way too much trial and error just to have the opportunity to earn the trophy, let alone earn it.

The "Life Weaving" trophy, awarded for Preventing 3 deaths using Lifeweaver's Life Grip without dying yourself in Quick or Competitive Play, is another trophy built in the same vein as above.

The Life Grip is an ability that pulls a teammate away from a certain death incident, but this is a great example of the unrealistic requirements that come attached to some of these trophies. To do this 3 times AND without dying in the same game is a real stretch, and on top of this, the specifics behind triggering a "life save" are also incredibly cloudy.

There is actually a statistic in-game that tracks the number of life saves you've earned from the Life Grip ability, but these do not correlate to the trophy. I actually had this counter up at 5/6 multiple times without achieving the trophy, and it's very much up for debate what the actual requirements are to unlock this trophy properly.

The theory that makes sense is one that suggests only attacks that were due to kill your teammate count as an actual save. Attacks that fall into this category as good examples are Tracer's Pulse grenade, which is an insta-kill with a stick, and Hanzo's Dragonstrike, which will kill anyone who stands in the way too long. D.Va's self-destruct is also another good example, but much harder to get the timing right for, due to the fact if you pull your teammate away too fast, it won't count.

Either way, you're not just reliant on matching up against opponents who need to select a specific character, but the trophy is just an unclear, buggy mess. Again, I just gave up after an honest plug at this one and decided to call time on something that I just wasn't prepared to waste my time on.

Even boosting these final 2 trophies felt like hard work to get this all finished. Matchmaking 2 groups together is an arduous chore, and the first session I attempted ended after 2 hours of not even being able to pair 2 groups of 6 players together in order to get into the same lobby. Even on the second try a few days later, we had to persist even longer before getting into the same lobby, but once you're there, it's easy enough to manufacture the situations you need to earn any trophy.

I don't like boosting, and I've rarely ever resorted to it. I'll always give any challenge an honest shot before conceding defeat, but the developers really need to re-assess the logic behind some of these trophies. I know Overwatch is a constantly evolving beast, and some of these trophy requirements have changed over time as characters and their move-sets have been tweaked, but some have remained almost impossible to achieve. Maybe that's a hook to keep people playing?

Anyway, never say never, but I think this one's finally on the shelf for good.

DLC #221 - Assassin's Creed Odyssey - The Fate of Atlantis : Episode 1

Deep within the isle of Thera, a secret. A vault discovered by Pythagoras leading directly to the underwater city of Atlantis.

Beating a series of trophy-related side quests in the main game will take you to the discovery of this vault and the possibility to explore the lost city.

The Fate of Atlantis DLC starts with the obvious question. What lies beyond? The answer is Elysium. A realm depicted in Greek mythology to form a portion of the afterlife. Gifted to Queen Persephone by her husband Hades, God of the Underworld.

Mainly occupied by the dead as a paradise for those who died in honourable circumstances, Alexios finds himself trapped inside in full human form after inheriting the Staff of Hermes from Pythagoras - A tool used to keep the vault shrouded in secrecy from outsiders.

The story is fundamentally based around Alexios identifying a means of escape from Atlantis, but it was never going to be as simple as just turning round and walking back through the same way you came in. An intertwined story featuring Elysium's occupants unravels, all of whom lay claim to being the key to Alexios' way out of the realm. If you're into Greek mythology, there are some very recognisable names here.

The plot, yet again though, leaves much to be desired. I feel like I've given Assassin's Creed Odyssey the benefit of the doubt with it's guff-filled story telling, but even The Fate of Atlantis reaches dizzying new heights on it's lack of clarity. The main characters make themselves known very early on and it's at least clear they all have different motives. However, the quest structure is really messy and contains objectives that completely conflict Alexios' loyalties to each of the 4 main characters in all of this.

If I side with one character, that should surely change how the others perceive me, and maybe even impact the questline? Nope. Alexios will just do as he's told and everyone will overlook the fact he's pimping himself out to anyone who asks the question, despite the obvious tensions between the main characters and their motives.

So the lore and storytelling is as confusing as ever, but the package does at least freshen up the experiences with some additions and changes. One of the biggest is the new environment. A desperately needed refresher after spending over 100 hours traipsing across Ancient Greece. Elysium is bright, vibrant and simply just a necessary change of scenery at this point. It's sheer verticality is a little bit intimidating, and the terrain is awkward to transverse at times too. However, it's still a welcome change. You do have the ability to teleport vertically through the new Hermes gates teleportation pads, once you get bored of the flowery, water-drenched landscape.

You'll also experience some new enemies in the form of Isu Soldiers and Colossi, who protect the Elysium grounds. Their attacks block adrenaline and prevent the use of special abilities, changing combat dynamics drastically. Colossi are especially dangerous, but will remain dormant until open combat is engaged, so despite their power, they're easy to avoid and prevent engagement with.

Abilities have also been tweaked slightly too. You can now unlock enhancements for all abilities that can be upgraded to 3 levels. Once you hit the third, you'll be able to apply an ability point to enhance that ability, which essentially just buffs it further. Experience rewards for beating quests have been significantly ramped up, so you'll level up and acquire ability points at a much quicker rate. You'll need to find Keeper Insights to unlock them - Special tablets dotted around the world that'll grant you access to these enhancements. There's a trophy dedicated to finding all 4 within this first episode.

Speaking of which, there are 5 trophies added to this ever-growing list, and most of these trophies can be earned through simple progression of the story arc.

There are 3 trophies awarded for beating every quest within Elysium, whether that pertains to the main story arc or the various side quests scattered around the landscape. Participation in side quests only influences story outcomes, so whilst many of them are optional, the less you do will provide less options towards the sort of ending you experience.

However this doesn't make any of these trophies missable, and you can still unlock these 3 trophies without any concerns of not fulfilling certain quests. The side quests which lead towards trophies are mandated, as some are heavily linked to main quest requirements, so you can bypass content without the worry of any detriment towards trophy progression. This is important to note because this was an unexpectedly lengthy package.

The "A Growing Perception" side quest, briefly mentioned above, pertains to finding the 4 Keeper Insights that will allow you to access ability enhancements, as well as the "Gathering Strength" trophy, awarded for Collecting all the Keeper's Insights in Episode 1.

The "Give 'Em Hades" side quest, where you have to reduce the influence of Persephone on Elysium, is linked to the "No More Rulers" trophy, awarded for Killing all Overseers in Elysium. By far the quickest way to reduce the influence of each region is by killing the regions Overseer and destroying their fort, so I'll count these tasks as mutually linked.

Finally, the "Free Their Minds, the Rest Will Follow" side quest, where you have to rescue 8 enslaved mortals from each of the 3 territories Elysium is broken down into will eventually award you with "The Conqueror" trophy at the very end of the episode.

Outside of this, there is a hidden trophy that produces a nice little Easter Egg revelation, and this is also linked to another side quest involving the recruitment of rebels to overthrow Persephone, and you'll also need to track down 18 Marble Maidens - Statues scattered around Elysium that'll need to be destroyed for the "Blasphemer" trophy. A small handful of these are very well hidden within underground caves and water systems, so some reasonable level of exploration is required.

I did touch upon the fact that this piece of DLC had an unexpectedly lengthy time completion, and this jumped my save file from 119 to 131 hours, so a circa 12 hour experience. This was a little bit surprising given the fact the previous episodic DLC consistently clocked in at around 3-4 hours on average per episode, so this first episode alone is already just as long as the entire Legacy of the First Blade combined. The general tedium of conducting the same actions within quests still lingers, but the injection of freshness from a new environment, as well as some new gameplay features does help.

It certainly makes my prediction of the whole thing being around 130 hours all in completely wide of the mark, but crucially, we're one more step further to the end.

DLC #220 - Assassin's Creed Odyssey - Additional Feats

Ubisoft really wanted to squeeze every last bit of life out of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, didn't they?

Just incase 6 episodic pieces of DLC weren't going to be enough, the idea was manifested to keep plying the game with a bunch of side quest content - presumably to keep the appetite at bay. You almost have to admire the brazenness of the belief that the one thing everyone who played 80-100 hours of Assassin's Creed Odyssey's main game wanted more of was generic stocking filler content.

"Additional Feats" or better known in-game as The Lost Tales of Greece, are simply a collection of side quests, released steadily beyond the main game - Delivered to tide players over between each episodic release of it's story-driven post-game DLC.

They're a bunch of short stories centered around a host of different characters. Some new and some existing, each with their own predicaments or situations Alexios is naturally required for his assistance on. I didn't do much side questing at all throughout my main experience with Assassin's Creed Odyssey, simply because I didn't need to in the end, but side-questing in open world games is so predictable, I'll generally avoid it until I have good reasons to indulge. Like when there are trophies on offer.

There is a little Easter Egg theory that each of the quests relates to a Greek God/Goddess and what they were most known for in Greek mythology. Cool, if true, but that's about as interesting as it gets. Each quest, despite who you may run into or where they may take you, simply just boils down to running around doing silly errands for someone - Something Assassin's Creed Odyssey has become way too comfortable with at this point.

The odd quest is somewhat intriguing, and there is a way this sort of content could have proven more useful. However, I don't need the experience points any more, the weapons/armour rewards are made redundant by the fact I'm comfortably scaled and the lore doesn't really add anything a story that has long concluded. Fetch this, kill them, discover that. It's classic stocking filler, and for something that was designed to tide players over between episodic DLC, it's only made me further desire the moment I can finally shelve this one for good.

There are 13 trophies added to the package as part of these additional feats, and each trophy relates to the completion of an individual quest.

They're quite lengthy and make up an entire questline built up of multiple quests in most instances, with the majority of these trophies taking between 1-2 hours to achieve each, especially if you're taking in the dialogue and lore, of which there is plenty.

There are 2 trophies linked not to questline completion, but taking down mythical creatures that roam the land, and these are slightly shorter as a consequence, but the longer-winded nature of the majority of these quests serves only to make them feel more like a chore to full completion. They just feel way too similar to one another, despite different story angles, and it makes Assassin's Creed Odyssey just feel more exhaustive each time you pick it up. 

Even the quest structure is predictably rigid. In very noticeable fashion, most questlines are broken down into groupings of 3. Speak to 3 people to trigger a quest for each person or visit 3 different locations to complete a quest within each of those areas - Usually a wolf-ridden cave or snake-infested tomb. I was mostly sleepwalking through this content at the sheer predictability of it's nature.

I tackled everything in mostly random order, and the exercise itself is a fairly straight-forward one with no surprises to completion along the way. Beat one questline, unlock the trophy for it and move onto the next until the list is complete. It's very self-explanatory. Just a quick note on a couple of the trophies;

• The "Every Story Has an Ending" trophy did require a few additional hours of pre-requisite questing. I had some outstanding questlines to complete before I could unlock this one. It ties up a few lose ends regarding a couple of main story characters.
• The "Heir of Memories" trophy requires you to begin the build up and opening portion of The Fate of Atlantis DLC and you'll experience the entire opening sequence to this content before seeing Atlantis itself on your way to unlocking this trophy. Both trophies leaned towards the higher end of 1-2 hours per quest guideline mentioned above as a result.

This package took my overall save file completion time from 107 to 119 hours, meaning an estimated overall completion for the package to be around 12-13 hours. With 3 more episodic DLC packs still remaining, we're pushing towards, at least, a 130 hour experience in total. 

That's alot for any game, and I would question the true value this content added to the experience. Some people will always want more, and that's fine, and I have said before that more of the same isn't always necessarily a bad thing. It has to be the right thing to do though. Releasing drip-fed quests into the game designed to be tackled in bitesize chunks isn't a bad idea on paper. However, it doesn't translate well for those that have to complete it all in one go and just ends up dragging.  

At least it was free though, but it's left me almost on my knees praying for The Fate of Atlantis DLC to be the deserving conclusion we're desperately after at this point.

DLC #219 - Grid Legends - Winter Bash

Drifting. It straddles the fine line of serious racing discipline and party mode - but it's always been a common fixture in racing games, including being the chosen theme to put the lid on the Grid Legends experience.

The aptly named Winter Bash celebrates the end of road for Grid Legends. We've explored a variety of different themes in this post-game content, but the final piece of DLC puts a focus on the art of drifting, with one last series of additions to the game.

One final chapter of new events closes out the Grid story. The BMW 2002 TII Race Car, Bugatti Bolide and SRT Viper GTS-R make the cut at the last checkpoint and the interesting decision to introduce a downhill racing drift track for use in drift events completes the meatier side of the package.

I was a little bit critical of the Enduring Spirit pack, for the simple reason that I didn't feel as if it actually leant into it's Endurance theme enough. The same can be said here too. Most of the new story chapter events are just standard circuit races, and only 3 of them are actual drift events. Even the pass objectives for the story events are based on "party" goals such as executing a certain number of barrel rolls and overtakes mid-race, furthering the stance that drifting is generally considered to be included as a party-esque, arcade mode of racing.

A final 10 trophies are also added to the main list, with the template remaining just as consistent throughout.

The new story branch adds 8 new events, and 3 of the 10 trophies are awarded for natural progression within this. You can technically stretch this to 4 trophies, for an additional trophy that requires you to execute a barrel roll. The chapter 3 pass objective is to execute a couple of barrel rolls during the race, which effectively makes this progression-related too.

The remainder of the list is the usual collection of miscellaneous trophies, including alot of interaction with the new group of cars added to the collection. You'll need to win 5 drift events in the SRT Viper GTS-R and 3 time attack events in the BMW 2002 TII Race Car for 2 additional trophies, both of which can be fulfilled within the race creation tool.

There are also 3 additional trophies related specifically to the Bugatti Bolide. You'll need to set a hot lap on the Strada Alpina (Circuito Stradale) course, reach a 265MPH speed and accumulate an unnecessarily large 200 miles. The full Strada Alpina circuit is roughly 7.5 miles, meaning you'll need to execute around 27 laps of this course. The Bugatti Bolide is quick, sharp and hard to control at times, and the hot lap trophy requirement is 3:03, which means you'll need around 2 hours just earn these trophies alone, assuming you achieve the hot lap trophy prior to accumulating 200 miles of distance. Make sure you've acquired all of the tier 3 upgrades for the Bolide - It makes the time requirement much more achievable. It does make more sense from a time perspective to just lap the oval, especially with the speed of the Bolide, but I took a bit of time to get the hot lap trophy, so felt it made sense to just keep lapping this circuit to reach all 200 miles.

By this point, the route to completion had become a very familiar one. Progress the new story branch, jump into the miscellaneous trophies and clean up. The decision to move away from trophies tied to sponsor objectives was a good call too - We didn't need those to persist any longer than necessary, and it made the packs less time consuming going forward.

Winter Bash should take somewhere within the region of 3-4 hours to complete. The race creator will allow you to knock out the events with the minimum requirements quickly, and despite needing the majority of around 1.5/2 hours dedicated to some slightly grindy tasks for the Bugatti Bolide, you should still be able to fit within the completion timeframe easily. 

DLC #218 - Assassin's Creed Odyssey - Legacy of the First Blade : Episode 3

I noted a belief in the review of Episode 2 that I knew where the conclusion to this story was heading. It's exactly what I expected. A story that takes a tragedy-laden turn in the sort of fashion that only Asssassin's Creed knows how.

For this final episode, Alexios island hops one more time to Messenia in order to tie up the loose ends of the Order of the Ancients and come to terms with the future of his bloodline.

I'm ultimately critical of the execution of the overall plot for Legacy of the First Blade. The plot itself is intriguing, but the execution is clunky, and there are too many elements to it that just don't make any sense, most notably the ending to Episode 2, and the overall conclusion to the story in Episode 3. There are too many continuity errors and critical plot points feel forced to steer the story down a certain narrative route that dilute the storytelling and deprive it of any natural flow.

When you combine this with an equally predictable gameplay loop, it almost feels like I've played the same piece of content 3 times over. Another main questline packed with fetch quests and fort infiltration. Another cluster of Order of the Ancients to track down and kill. Even the trophy list is a familiar template at the point. I now have just over 107 hours on my save file for Assassin's Creed Odyssey after the conclusion of these 3 episodes of DLC and it's seldom truly given us anything different to what we saw in the opening few hours of the game - and there's still more content to come.

The trophies add 5 more to the package, with alot of aforementioned familiarity attached to them for the conclusion of this sub-story.

The hidden trophy is related to story-progression, and is awarded upon completion of the final main quest. Episode 3 is much more narrative driven in comparison to previous episodes, and there is alot of storytelling involved. As a consequence, there are only 4 main quests that you'll need to complete to reach the end of the episode and unlock this trophy. It definitely felt like you're more detached from gameplay in comparison to Episode 2, and whilst there are a handful of sub-missions that link to main quests, these are present to hunt down some of the Order of the Ancients targets for another Gold trophy related to finally killing all of the Order of the Ancients across the entire sub-story. There are 7 more added specific to this episode.

The package also adds yet another new ability to the skill tree that you'll need to reserve an ability point for, and the relevant trophy on this occasion is awarded for killing 10 enemies using the Fury of the Bloodline. I had to purchase this skill, but I was holding a spare ability point back specifically to use in light of this trophy. Again, you can always reset your skill tree and reassign ability points for the purpose of this trophy if necessary to do so.

There is also another similar trophy awarded for healing yourself by getting 10 headshot kills with the Golden Harbinger equipped - A legendary staff that will heal you each time you kill an enemy with a bow and arrow. You can only obtain the Golden Harbinger from Gergis of the Order of the Ancients. If you choose to allow him to walk away, the item will be available in a chest later on instead.

There's also a final trophy awarded for acquiring the Sword of Kings. Upon completion of the main questline, you'll obtain an epilogue quest to visit the blacksmith in Phokis. He will be able to craft the sword for you, providing you have enough resources to do so. Adamantin and other normal crafting resources are required to do so, and I was crafted the sword automatically without any necessity to farm additional resources, so the extra-curricular tasks were fairly straight-forward for me. Also, being granted the actual iconic hidden blade, instead of yet another non-descript item of loot, would have topped any ending we ultimately got here. Talk about a missed opportunity. 

Full completion of the Legacy of the first Blade added a total of just over 13 hours onto my save file, taking it to just over 107 hours for total play time. A long time to still be investing into any game at the post-game content stage, especially when you consider there are still 4 content packs to complete - and when it feels like I've been trapped in an endless gameplay loop since minute one. I hope the Fate of Atlantis story is good.

DLC #217 - Grid Legends - Rise of Ravenwest

There isn't anything much more iconic about Grid than Ravenwest. The original protagonists. Always the team to beat - And with the cinematic production levels of Grid Legends, this DLC gives the people associated with Ravenwest the limelight to portray their obnoxious personas.

The previous 2 pieces of DLC content have focused on gimmicks, touching on Demolition and Endurance racing. Rise of Ravenwest is just a nostalgic nod to the past and focuses on the roots of Grid through a longstanding icon of it's series.

It doesn't do anything spectacular, but it's still my favourite individual piece of DLC so far, mainly for the subtle features that build on the nostalgic vibes. The user interface changes to the bold, vibrant yellow text originally featured in Race Driver : Grid. The lighting and slightly grainy filter give it an old school ambience. The classic Ravenwest liveries return, though it is a shame you can't use them outside the new story branch. The Miami race location returns. All of this with a story told that stretches way back to the beginning of the Grid series. It won't mean anything to some, but I'm a bit of a nostalgia freak so I loved seeing these surprises pop up as I progressed deeper into the content.

Expanding on this, the Miami location adds 2 new track variants and there are 4 new classic vehicles added. These include the BMW 320 Turbo Group 5, 1967 Chevrolet Corvette, 1971 Plymouth GTX and 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback.

Again, there are 10 trophies added to this collection, and these are a bit more straight-forward compared to previous sets.

The new Rise of Ravenwest story branch is the most fleshed out offering yet, containing 11 new events to progress through. This is the most amount of events for any story branch thus far, and as a result of the prolonged length, 6 of the 10 trophies on offer are purely progression-based in relation to completing the story.

With no real dedicated racing theme connected to this expansion, circuit racing is heavily featured within these events, and the requirements are fairly simple for the most part, requiring you to finish anywhere between 4th place and just simply complete the event. You'll need to go on to win a couple of them, but this isn't too demanding, even against tougher AI. All 11 events should take no longer than 2-3 hours, given the fact you shouldn't really have to replay many of them, if any at all.

Trophies tied to sponsorship objectives are chopped for this package. Instead, you'll be required to beat 3 hot laps using specific vehicles on specific tracks. These are with the new vehicles added to the game as mentioned above - A nice touch to give you an excuse to use them, and whilst it's true these are nowhere as grindy as the sponsorship objectives, there is a crucial detail to know.

I was stuck on the first hot lap for hours and thought it was just a matter of practice and developing my strategy. I had the vehicle maxed out with performance upgrades and I felt like I was pulling off the optimal lap each time, yet I was consistently falling a good few seconds short of the required lap time for the trophy.

I did some research and discovered that the default setting for custom events switches off performance upgrades, which negated the upgrades I had installed on the vehicle. Once I'd turned this on, I managed to achieve the hot lap time straight away. Applying the same settings to the other hot lap trophies yielded similar results. It's a good job I checked. I knew something wasn't quite right and it was a crucial piece of information to find out about. I'd lost a few hours unnecessarily but sometimes you find things out the hard way and that's just how it is.

Taking this into account, it's an easy completion. The trophies are heavily weighted to the story and the hot lap trophies are also easy once you know about the trick above. You might need to drive the required mileage to unlock the tier 3 upgrades, which is a little bit grindy, but it's still a better direction than fulfilling sponsorship objectives. 

DLC #216 - Assassin's Creed Odyssey - Legacy of the First Blade : Episode 2

I've quickly realised that the middle portion of episodic DLC is the most difficult to review. At least the beginning and end give you obvious discussion points through both the establishment of a plot and a conclusion respectively.

Episode 2 of the Legacy of the First Blade does throw up a couple of intriguing plot points, but it's still yet to be seen where these go.

The beginning of this DLC sees Makedonia left behind for Achaia for the second leg of this story, and as before, the entirety of the content is focused specifically within this region. That's probably the most notable difference given the fact the game doesn't really expand upon it's gameplay features within this second episode. 

There is more of an active emphasis on naval combat off the shores of Achaia for portions of the questing, and you'll be able to try out the Chimera's Breath for the first time - A newly added flamethrower attachment for the Adrestia. However, the package is very much more focused on the ongoing development of the story and progressing closer towards it's conclusion than bolstering the gameplay additions.

It's still too early to give any sincere thoughts on the story, but the conclusion of the episode does dangle a carrot of intrigue about how this ultimately ends, albeit with a hint of predictability in the air. I'll be able to confirm if this hunch I have turns out to be true or not. It does also reveal a pretty bizarre plot point which didn't make an awful lot of sense to me. Have a look at the artwork for the hidden trophy in this set if you want a clue about what this relates to.

In terms of trophies, there are a further 5 on offer which add more of the same as previously seen.

The hidden trophy is awarded at the conclusion of the episode, which definitely feels a bit more fleshed out compared to the first installment. The main story continues with 9 new quests, compared to the lighter offering of just 5 previously. Getting through these and unlocking this trophy is where most of your time is spent within this package, and the questing is still way too overly familiar, sticking to a rigid formula of fetch-questing and fort infiltration. At what point does it become acceptable to question the lack of variety and creativity in these quests?

There is another trophy added for hunting down a new group of Ancients of the Order too, though only 5 have been added for this episode, which is 2 lighter than the previous one. Same principles apply - Find the clue that reveals the identity and whereabouts of the target, and execute them all until you have the trophy.

The remaining trophies relate to smaller miscellaneous tasks. The new Chimera's Breath weapon needs to be used to set 10 ships on fire, and you'll also need to kill 10 enemies with the Rapid Fire ability. Depending on your skill tree distribution, you may or may not already have this ability. On this occasion, I'd already previously acquired it, but you can reset your ability points should you need to unlock it for the purpose of this trophy.

The final trophy is awarded for parrying 10 attacks with the Judgment of the Lion, which is a bonus weapon you'll earn during the main questline.

The overall content is slightly longer, adding 8 hours onto my save file to breach the 100 hour mark with this game. This is mainly down to a chunkier main story offering, with the number of quests almost doubled compared to Episode 1. The side activities are a bit leaner, and the miscellenous trophies can be earned in no time at all. Let's see how this one wraps up.

DLC #215 - Assassin's Creed Odyssey - Legacy of the First Blade : Episode 1

Episodic DLC is always difficult to review within it's own merits. You're effectively halting progress part-way through to give a full assessment of a piece of content that only makes up part of the full experience.

This isn't the first time an Assassin's Creed game has adopted episodic content. Assassin's Creed 3 was followed up with the 3-part Tyranny of King Washington story, and there is still a second batch of episodic content to review for Odyssey in the form of The Fate of Atlantis.

The Legacy of the First Blade calls Alexios to Makedonia to save a burning village. During this encounter, he is attacked by Darius - wielder of the "First Blade" - an iconic nod to the Hidden Blade which became a staple weapon of the early Assassin's Creed titles.

Darius reveals that a Persian group called the Order of the Ancients has invaded Makedonia to hunt him down, under the belief that he is a "Tainted One" - Figures who carry a powerful bloodline and are seen as a threat to their cult. Incidentally, Alexios also falls into this same category and turns out to be a prime target for the Order too, meaning they must work together to eliminate the threat and protect themselves.

The content is exclusively limited to the confines of the Makedonia region of the world map, and doesn't add many notable gameplay features or alterations. There is a brand new main story questline added to kick off the episodic story, and the side content is supplemented by a small handful of quests and a new assassination kill list to work your way through.

The Death Veil ability is added to the skill tree, which makes bodies disintegrate when you silently assassinate them, and you can earn some new weapons/loot - including the Pride of the Lion sword acquired early on. However, this is disappointingly light, especially when you quickly discover that the content is limited to a pre-existing portion of the map and alot of the activities the trophies require of you have just been replicated from the main game.

Speaking of which, there are 5 trophies added for this first episode of content, and they make for a fairly straight-forward completion.

There are only 5 main story quests to reach the conclusion of the first part of this story, which unlocks the hidden trophy amongst this collection. There's not much variance within the individual quests - They mostly follow the same sort of pattern from the main game. Fetch this, infiltrate that, kill these soldiers. They should only take a couple of hours to beat, too.

There is also another trophy linked to killing the first group of enemies within The Order of the Ancients. The DLC opens up a new kill list off the back of the Cultists menu, which provides you with 7 new targets to assassinate. You will encounter some of these enemies naturally through the main questline, and in exactly the same fashion as the Cultists side-quest from the main game, you'll need to uncover the identities and locations via clues to find the rest.

This is where most of the remaining time with this package is spent, with the other trophies in the list being easily attainable for smaller side feats. You'll need to purchase the aforementioned newly added Death Veil ability - and kill 10 enemies with it equipped. You'll also need all 3 upgrades to the Rush Assassination ability too, which will allow you to chain together 4 attacks for another trophy, so there may be a necessity to grind a couple of levels if you don't have it. You can also spend a few thousand Drachmae to reset your ability points, which may be a much more viable alternative.

There are an assortment of other side quests available to tackle as part of this DLC, but these are not necessary to trophy attainment, so can be skipped over.

It's a fairly short completion, clocking in at around 4-5 hours total. My save file has reached 98 hours and 23 minutes, so it sits perfectly within this expected timeframe for completion. It is important to note that it does make up a 3-part story, so you may naturally expect it to be a bit more bite-sized overall, but after a 94 hour Platinum experience, that's not necessarily a criticism as far I'm concerned.

DLC #214 - Dirt Rally 2.0 - Season Three

We're on the final stretch of seasonal content for Dirt Rally 2.0 and the grand finale is on the horizon.

Until then, Season Three comes with a couple of newly added Rally locations in Greece and Finland, as well as the brand new Yas Marinas Rallycross location in Dubai.

As with previous seasons, there are also a collection of new vehicles to drive. The Subaru Impreza, Ford Focus RS Rally 2001, Peugeot 306 Maxi, Peugeot 206 Rally and the Seat Ibiza and Volkswagen Golf Kit Cars are all added to the ever-growing collection of vehicles.

Season Three also adds another 4 trophies to the overall list, and contains a strong focus that leans towards the new locations over usage of any of the new vehicles. 

Purchasing any of the 2 new Kitcars will award a trophy, and then you'll need to perform 100 jumps in Finland to unlock the first Gold trophy offered out within this slew of Dirt Rally 2.0 DLC content. It's easily achieved by just loading up a Custom Event with multiple stages and just driving through each of them. Any time your car remotely leaves the floor, it will count as a jump, so it effectively becomes a naturally acquired trophy through accumulation.

There's also another trophy awarded for rolling your car in Finland and continuing the race. I earned this without even trying and Finland's snowy routes with it's raised snow barriers are extra hazardous, so certainly help with this.

The final trophy is awarded for Winning an Event in Greece by over a minute with Hardcore damage enabled. I found the key to making this easy was to choose one of the Rally cars for which I had full engine upgrades available for, as per the main trophy list. Even on harder difficulty levels, the extra performance power of these cars can make light work of competitors - You just need to make sure you pack the event with enough stages to build up a deficit to second place of longer than a minute. It may be worth adding 4/5 stages to make extra sure and prevent any sort of rework.

These content packs have been very straight-forward thus far, but I've already begun working on the final two, both of which are immediately more challenging for different reasons, so it's safe to say the preliminary heats are now over.

DLC #213 - Dirt Rally 2.0 - Season Two

The Post-Platinum clean up has taken longer than expected for Dirt Rally 2.0, and based on what's to come, we've still barely scratched the surface.

Season Two continues with one of the less challenging content packs, adding a single new Rally location in Wales, as well as two new Rallycross locations in Latvia and Germany.

It also brings a slew of new vehicle options, including the Peugeot 205 T16, Ford RS200 Evolution, Lancia Delta S4, MG Metro 6R4, Porsche 911 SC RS and the Lancia 037 Evo 2.

It certainly leans more towards a Rallycross focus, and this is also evident within the 4 new trophies also added to the package.

Completing any event at Wales will net you a trophy, as well as winning 3 Rallycross events in the Ford RS200 Evolution. Both of these can be as simple as creating these events in the Custom Race mode with the shortest parameters possible if efficiency is of the essence.

The final 2 trophies are very similar, requiring you to win at Latvia in the Reinis Nitiss Ford Fiesta Rallycross (MK7) as well as win at Germany in the Kevin Eriksson Ford Fiesta Rallycross (MK8).

I attempted to further create a custom race to fulfil these, but it didn't quite work for some reason. I even made sure the livery was correct for each vehicle and attempted them both again to no avail.

I ultimately just started a new FIA World Rallycross Championship, selecting the appropriate driver and skipping all races until I got to the relevant location before ensuring victory. It's a slightly longer-winded method, and both Latvia and Germany are right at the back end of the Championship schedule, but it still shouldn't take too long to skip the events until you reach the end. You will need to do this twice to cover both drivers and their location though.

In a similar vein to Season One, nothing at all terribly demanding, but we are definitely on the build up to bigger things to come.

Platinum #149 - Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 7/10

Assassin's Creed Origins did something drastic and completely changed the formula for Assassin's Creed games.

I came out the other side of that experience with the belief that the shift into a larger open-world focused, RPG-driven offering was a step in the right direction for the series.

That sort of stuff is easy to say when something feels newly refreshed, and the real acid test is how well the formula stands the test of time. So the big question is, does Assassin's Creed Odyssey - which looks to build upon the newly introduced formula - capitalise on the change of direction?

This franchise has shifted so hard, I don't actually feel like I'm playing an Assassin's Creed game any more. The vast dialogue options, the expansive RPG elements, the absolute bucket-load of side content/questing. If you gave me this game out the box and didn't label it, and you wanted me to guess what I was playing, it would feel a lot closer to the Witcher than it does Assassin's Creed. Your character doesn't even carry around a hidden sleeve blade anymore. That's a subtle but significant difference. 

The hidden blade is a hallmark for Assassin's Creed and it just feels like such notable omissions are the games away of sheading it's roots to settle into this new direction it's taken. It's not a bad thing. I said in my Origins review that it's a series that needed something a little different after all these years, and it's taken that to the very opposite end of the spectrum.

The time period on this occasion is Ancient Greece, and you'll have the option to either play as Alexios or Kassandra, depending on whether you want a male or female protagonist. They're siblings to each other, and there are no drastic changes to the plot depending on who you pick, so it's mainly down to personal preference.

The story is set during the Peloponnesian War and you're a mercenary who fights for both sides of the war between Sparta and Athens. This is heavily overlayed by a personal plotline - To transverse all corners of Ancient Greek land to reunite your broken family and eliminate a secret organisation controlling the war called the Cult of Kosmos.

Ancient Greece is one of my favourite time eras, and the shift in direction for the series does great justice to such a vast world filled with Ancient Greek references. The era is captured perfectly in it's scale and vastness. The multitude of Greek islands, the mythological beasts and creatures, the historical characters. Assassin's Creed games have always nailed historical accuracy - but seeing it on such a grand scale is the strongest suit of the game.

The all-action combat returns, heavily interwoven into the RPG elements once again. Levelling your character will allow you to use ability points on a skill tree to develop your range of attacks and equip better weaponry you'll either find out in the wild or receive as rewards for beating quests. The quest design leans way more into the action elements than it does the stealth-based gameplay the series grew up on - Possibly deliberately in another nod to truly shedding it's roots, but it works well and lends to some solid combat mechanics.

The combat also extends to the sea. The naval-based combat has featured in previous Assassin's Creed titles, but it takes on a huge role in the open world here. This wasn't the case in Origins, and there is a big emphasis on naval combat in the questing for Odyssey. I'm not as big on this side of the combat compared to that of land, but it does a good job of adding to the scale of the game and some of the graphical scenery whilst out of sea is excellent.

It builds well on Origins, and purely for the time era being one of my personal favourites, it's an overall positive step in the development on this new trajectory the series is on. It does have it's flaws. It ends up being way too repetitive and grindy on much of it's content, and that ties deeply into the trophy list, but it's a good installment to the series and still kept me engaged to the very end. Admittedly though, it did start to wear thin eventually, and my engagement threshold was being pushed to it's highest limits.

Speaking of which, the game has 51 trophies in total, including the Platinum trophy, and strap in, because this is a long old haul to the finish line.

The "Odyssey's End" trophy, awarded for Completing Episode 9 + Epilogue, signifies the end of the main story arc, and Odyssey continues along the same structure Origins followed in terms of how the story is presented. Sequences with sub-objectives to achieve full synchronisation were dropped for Origins in favour of a running questline through a series of episodes, and that's bought back again here, meaning we've probably seen the last of the sequence-based format that was so familiar to the game for such a long time.

You can unlock a total of 10 progression-based trophies on your way to the end of the main story arc, and whilst you will be asked to choose a difficulty level to play through the game, this does not have any material impact on the trophies. I chose to play on "Hard", which is the highest difficulty level, and this is only really noticeable at very specific points of the game. It's not necessarily as noticeable whilst playing through the main questline, but it is for elements of this trophy list which aren't necessarily notable if it wasn't for the nature of the task.

For example, there a handful of trophies awarded for defeating classic Ancient Greek mythical creatures, including the Cyclops, Minotaur and Medusa. These are big fights designed to test your combat abilities, and on the hardest difficulty, these become rough. Perfecting your dodge, timing and endurance to their heights. This also extends to other combat-centric elements of the list including a trophy awarded for beating a side questing arc that requires you to defeat 8 Legendary animals. Again, big fights which will battle-harden you on the toughest difficulty. These alone are worth a mark on the overall difficulty rating - Providing you do indeed choose to play on "Hard" difficulty.

It may also be important to note that enemies scale to your level too, so you always feel like you're fighting battles relative to your own levelling curve. It keeps the difficulty consistent, and fights do mostly feel like they're fair, especially when you finally equip that weapon or piece of armour you've been levelling towards.

Across the 10 episodes of the main story, there are 95 missions in total to beat. This is a testament to the scale of which Assassin's Creed games have grown. I did primarily focus on the story before consciously tackling the side activities, which will constantly have you bouncing around the different regions of Greece. This naturally leads to discovering new territories and things to do often, so it is very easy to get sidetracked, but I did remain committed to beating the story first and foremost, so when I say my save file read 60 hours by the time I'd achieved this trophy, I'd like to think that's a fairly accurate measure. It did feel as long as the time indicated.

So it is a lengthy offering, but the difficulty of selecting "Hard" doesn't actually become that prevalent throughout the story, as many of the quests are simple exercises designed to tie a plot together. The combat can still be challenging, but it never hit it's peak. That sort of challenge is reserved for the big boss fights outlined above. However, for a story arc, that's still a big time investment, but even at this sort of length, it still barely scratches the surface of what the remainder of the trophy list demands. 

There are many miscellaneous trophies you'll unlock naturally by just progressing the main story. I'd unlocked 31 trophies by the time I'd finished the main portion of the game, and whilst a couple of these can be considered side activities that sit well away from the main quest, the vast majority of them are for very simple, naturally-achieved tasks.

However, despite this large accumulation, the post-story grind is big in it's own right, with a number of notable trophies that make up some significant additional hours on top of an already time-consuming main story.

The "Cult Unmasked" trophy, awarded for Defeating all the Cultists of Kosmos, was the first priority in terms of side content progression.

The Cultist tree lays out 43 assassination targets as people linked to the Cult of Kosmos, and unlocking the trophy will require all 43 of them to be killed. For the most part, they're not readily available to hunt down, and their identities will need to be revealed by unearthing clues about the Cultist and their exact whereabouts. To have to scour the landscape and reveal clues, as well as find and kill the Cultist, makes this a fairly time-consuming exercise, and a big chunk of the post-game clean up is dedicated to this trophy. 

Some of the Cultists identities will also only be drawn out through some longer-winded prerequisites too. For example, one Cultist will only be revealed once you weaken a certain region, which requires a couple of hours of taking on mundane side quests to lower the regional influence down to the necessary point that triggers the naval battle you need to kill the Cultist at sea. Another Cultist is drawn out at the higher ranks of the Gladiatorial arena, and you'll have beat a bunch of random warriors in order to reach him. This game is very good at padding longevity through artificial means, and some of the steps required for this trophy are a good example of that.

This trophy also directly links to the "Legacy Restored" trophy, awarded for Upgrading your Spear to Tier 6. Spear upgrades are purchased with Cultist fragments, which are awarded per Cultist you kill. All 43 fragments are required to upgrade the Spear to Tier 6, making these trophies heavily linked.

The "Top of the Food Chain" trophy, awarded for Becoming the first Mercenary, is another key focus within the post-story grind, and this relates to another sub-quest similarly aligned to the Cultist tree. This trophy requires you to kill 38 Mercenaries across the land to climb the ladder from Tier 9, all the way up to Tier 1 and reach the number 1 spot.

Each tier contains 5 Mercenaries to defeat, except Tier 2, which includes just 3, and then Tier 1, which includes the sole number 1 Mercenary. A Mercenary will either come to hunt you when you have a bounty on your head, or you can pro-actively hunt them around the map. Either way, each time you defeat one, you'll gain a spot on the ladder.

On this logic, I believe I had to defeat 38 Mercenaries, though that is a non-committal figure. The Mercenary system is the most annoying mechanic in the game. Having a bounty on your head and being pursued by Mercenaries has a very limited novelty value, and whilst it can be a productive method towards attaining the trophy, it also meant I was having to kill more of them that what was necessary to. Alot of the Mercenaries that came after me were lower in the pecking order, and defeating these does not progress you up the ladder, so this only served as an inconvenience to progression. Pursuing this trophy was where I was starting to get a little bit fed up of how certain elements of the game had started to consume my experience with monotony and dullness.

Mercenaries aren't difficult to take down, but to go from Tier 9 and just jump around the map slaying them all one by one to reach Tier 1 is just another lengthy exercise in a game with trophies fully focused around these sort of tasks. After the Cultists tree, did we really need something else that is essentially just the same thing reskinned? The real grind of the list was beginning to test my patience by this point.

Finally, the "Lord of the Seas" trophy, awarded for Upgrading the Adrestia to Legendary Status, requires you to accumulate enough upgrades for your ship to achieve it's highest regard. There are 9 different parts of the ship to upgrade, and 7 levels are required per component to fully upgrade it. Again, this will take some time, but it's mainly down to the amount of resources you need to collect. Drachmae, Wood, Precious Stones, Ancient Tablets and Iron Ore are all necessary for these upgrades.

I found myself constantly out of wood, and the easiest way to acquire this is to purchase from a Blacksmith. This is an easy fix, but cuts into the Drachmae you need in tandem with the other materials to upgrade the ship. As a result, I began to run out of drachmae with a handful of upgrades remaining. I think I was also too liberal with my spending early on and underestimated the amount of money and resources this trophy would eventually require. It also didn't help that I wanted to purchase wood, iron ore and precious gems, rather than naturally farm them from the environment, but I was done with the grind by this point and really just couldn't be bothered. I did end up having to do some additional side content to earn enough money for all of the above though and this was seen as a necessary evil. I wasn't prepared to go around farming materials from the landscape.

This entire list is actually littered with grindy trophies, but the rest of these are much more passive in comparison. There is a trophy awarded for reaching level 50, which I did unlock deep into this journey, and I did actually end up achieving level 56 by the time I had concluded the entire list, which is probably another highlighter of how grindy this experience is - I overlevelled by 6 whole levels to get this Platinum finished. Every action you carry out seems to award experience points, so you'll comfortably reach this anyway. There is also a necessity to complete 20 different side quests and 20 message board quests, but again, these are much more passive as you'll need to find ways to earn Drachmae and resources for ship upgrades, and questing is the best way to accumulate this.

The trophy list ramps up the expectation of the players dedication to previously unseen levels for an Assassin's Creed title. My save file for Odyssey clocked in at 94 hours and 1 minute by the time I'd popped the Platinum - That's almost 25 additional hours in comparison to Origins at circa 70 hours of game time. It did start to weigh me down after jumping between one grindy exercise to the next and the repetitive nature of the game catches up with itself eventually - Particularly post-story. I dislike it when games I enjoy go to unnecessary lengths to extend their longevity, and this has to be taken into account for the difficulty rating. At this stage, we're still pretty early into the sandbox era of Assassin's Creed, but I hope future games move away from this.

The game is most fun when it challenges you with it's combat and the big boss fights but these are somewhat lost in a sea of grindy post-game and side content. The combination of both just about edges into the lower tier of a 7/10, but the majority of this marking is down to it's overall length and the monotony of how you have to reach the end of the game. It's just too much and I'm hoping it doesn't take the edge off the excitement I have for the DLC.

Notable Trophies -

Odyssey's End - Complete Episode 9 + Epilogue.
The Cult Unmasked - Defeat all the Cultists of Kosmos.
Top of the Food Chain - Become the First Mercenary.
Lord of the Seas - Upgrade the Adrestia to Legendary Status.

Hardest Trophy -

The Cult Unmasked

Defeat all the Cultists of Kosmos

Platinum #148 - Tales from the Borderlands

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 1/10

I have sometimes wondered what the easiest Platinum trophy in the Playstation catalogue might look like.

A couple of games in the collection have flirted with such an accolade, but have usually be spared by at least something of note that prevented it from hitting the very bottom of the difficulty scale.

In what should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone, the answer lies within an episodic, interactive choice-based story spin-off from the Borderlands series.

Set somewhere among the aftermath of Borderlands 2 and Borderlands : The Pre-Sequel, Tales from the Borderlands follows the story of tandem duo Rhys and Fiona. Rhys - a Hyperion employee and Fiona - a professional con artist, unexpectedly team up after a deal involving a monetary exchange for a faked Vault Key goes wrong and leads them to go in search of a real vault containing real riches.

It maintains alot of the key story-based values you expect from a typical Borderlands title. It's still got it's comedic edge, a dirge of wacky and wonderful characters - Many of whom are returning from the first 3 Borderlands games - and it's all tied together with some excellent dialogue and interactions between them all.

It should go without saying, but it's perhaps worth mentioning that, despite the above similarities, the core experience is completely different to what you're used to. The high octane combat and thoroughly detailed RPG system takes a back seat to make way for a story-driven experience requiring tentative button inputs to keep you engrossed in the lore, with regular intervention for dialogue options and button mashing sequences.

The game is also accompanied by a banging soundtrack that compliments the intros/outros to each chapter, which is definitely something I didn't expect.

I did have a major gripe with the game though. It does a good job of trying to build up the drama around the choices the player makes throughout the game and make them seem like they'll matter to a much grander scale later, only for this to not really be the case in the end.

In the interest of maintaining as much of a spoiler-free stance as possible - though I will slightly give it away to just summarise my point - the part of the game in Chapter 5 where it becomes apparent your decisions impact on the story relate to something completely immaterial to any sort of story outcome, and instead ends up being much more meaningless than that. It's hard to not be too vague, but you'll understand what I mean when you see it. I'd built this up in my own head to be a grand finale where your decisions may impact critical moments of life and death, or significant actions that dramatically change the plot or the ending - But it's nowhere near any of this sort of stuff, and that detracts from the experience for me when it comes to games like this where the player is given the choice to influence the course of the game. The climax needs to be hard-hitting and significant to the ending.

The dialogue prompts pop up very regularly too, so the game gives you the impression every choice matters and a big path is being woven in the background to come to a specific outcome tailored to your choices. If the idea behind the very regular interaction is to just ensure players stay engaged, then that's fine, but I do also feel like there has to be more to it than what this game gives you in the end. Ultimately, did the game make me care enough about who I could and couldn't take into my vault hunter group for the grand finale? Not at all.

Regarding trophies, this is medium-sized list, with a total of 36 trophies, including the Platinum, and it's an incredibly easy list to break down and go through.

The structure of the game is broken up into 5 individual episodes, with each individual episode consisting of 6 chapters. It's not clear when a chapter begins and ends other than the fact it'll just trigger a trophy notification, and the menus only allow you to begin a specific episode from the very start, so there's no further breakdown of chapters that allow you to replay certain portions of the game from the main menu.

The "Tales Twice Told" trophy, awarded for Completing Episode 5, is awarded upon conclusion of the story. Naturally, you'll start with Episode 1 and work your way through, playing the game exactly like you would in it's natural storytelling flow. You don't necessarily have to do it this way - All episodes are available to play fresh out of the gate and there's no pre-requisite to unlock each episode in conjunction with passing through the episode prior, but it wouldn't exactly make much sense to do it out of kilter anyway would it?

Admittedly, I don't have much experience with games of this variety, but it did remind me of Heavy Rain. This differs in the sense that all the decisions you make are relatively consequence-free. In Heavy Rain, every choice, decision or action you made carried significance to the shape of the plot. Characters could die based on your choices and the path of the plot could dramatically change, throwing up a variety of different gameplay paths and endings. That's what gave it the edge of difficulty it had, and Tales from the Borderlands lacks the same sort of depth in comparison. The interaction here feels completely token and does not have the same weight on your shoulders that Heavy Rain gave you when it came to making decisions.

Heavy Rain also contained intense quick time events and fumbling inputs or missing prompts could have dire consequential outcomes which impacted the rest of the game, especially if you were going for trophies that meant you had to achieve specific endings. Tales of the Borderlands is way more forgiving to almost an infinite degree. You can technically fail. I saw a "game over" screen a couple of times due to dropped or no inputs that caused the death of a key character, but all you'd be prompted to do was reload the last checkpoint and you were free to resume from where you left off. This lack of jeopardy makes it incredibly easy and feels like you're always just going through motions. In effect, you can't really lose or fail.

Each episode clocks in at roughly anywhere between 1 and a half to 2 hours in length, totalling a 10-12 hour experience for all 5 episodes. I didn't binge it all in a couple of sessions, and committed to an episode roughly every 3 days, to ensure the story remained fresh in my mind.

Each episode comes with 7 trophies, with a trophy individually dedicated to each chapter within an episode, and capped off with an overall completion trophy to sign off the ending. Rinse and repeat this format across all 5 chapters and that's how you end up with 36 trophies when you include the Platinum.

It's that straight-forward, there's really not much else to say. I almost wanted to qualify this game for an "N/A" in terms of overall difficulty rating but just for the benefit of consistency in attributing a mark to every game I've ever completed, it just about makes it onto the scale, but even that's incredibly generous in itself. There is certainly justification for why this game shouldn't even be attributed a score and I wouldn't argue against that at all.

You can still see a "Game Over" screen if you don't react quickly enough to certain button prompts that otherwise result in death, but that's about as far as I can stretch the logic, and I'm doing alot of heavy lifting to come up with something there.

However, after the struggles I was put through by Borderlands : The Pre-Sequel, the change of pace was welcome and it was refreshing to just sit back and take something in for what it was for a change. I didn't think it hit the right spot purely for it's superficial outcomes and lack of genuine weight the users choices ultimately have, but it's an easy Platinum trophy, and if you're after something a little bit different, it gives you that.

Notable Trophies -

Tales Twice Told - Completed Episode 5

Hardest Trophy -

Tales Twice Told

Completed Episode 5

DLC #212 - Grid Legends - Enduring Spirit

Endurance Racing. It's the sub-genre marmite of the racing world. I've never been a fan personally. Grid itself did enough to put me off the idea of such highly-focused concentration levels of racing with the "Around the Globe" trophy nonsense.

Despite the label, it's a lot lighter touch than you'd rightfully think though - to the point where you can potentially argue that it's masquerading.

The Enduring Spirit is meant to be all about the Endurance discipline, and whilst the undertones are there, the theme is left mostly wanting, and you end up with a fairly generic piece of DLC as a consequence.

Aside from the newly added Endurance discipline, the package finally adds a brand new location with track variants - The Fuji Speedway - as well as 4 new vehicles in the Bentley Speed 8, BMW V12 LMR, Bentley Continental and the Mazda Autozam AZ-1. It's about time we saw an actual new location with a load of track variants.

It's important to note that Endurance racing has featured in previous Grid titles, but it's approached much differently this time round.

Previously, physical tyre wear would determine the distance you were capable of covering in Endurance races, and the race would end at full degradation of your tyres to the point where they'd disintegrate and make your car incapable of travelling any further. It was a slightly odd mechanic, but it's how the game distinguished Endurance racing from your regular circuit race.

Enduring Spirit strips that back entirely and the field of cars is split into multiple classes where you simply cover as much distance as possible within a set time limit. You're only up against your specific car class so it effectively feels like there are multiple races ongoing simultaneously. The times for Endurance racing can range from as little as 5 minutes up to an hour and the race ends once the car in first place overall crosses the finish line once the allotted time limit has passed.

As before, there are 10 new trophies added to the total list, with a varied spread of tasks required to unlock them all.

Starting with the new Endurance story mode branch, which adds 8 new events to the ongoing story mode, where you can unlock 3 progression-based trophies for passing the requirements of all 8 events. Remember to select one of the 3 new sponsor objectives to instantly begin progressing the 3 trophies on offer for completing the sponsor events for Accuse, Avanzar and Bellezza respectively. If you choose Accuse before you start the story, you'll almost have the requirements completed to unlock this sponsor event by the time you reach the end. Handy tip.

The story events are still fairly straight forward, courtesy of their low-bar requirements to pass each event and progress onto the next, and when I said above the package feels like it's masquerading on the Endurance gimmick, the story mode is a great example of that.

Only 3 of the 8 events are actually Endurance races. The rest are just standard circuit races with vehicles already available within the base game lineup. It's a little bit strange to have a themed piece of DLC where you end up thrashing stadium trucks and electric cars around a circuit instead. Even stranger when you remember that Classic Car-Nage was all-in on it's story mode and dedicated every event to it's theme. I can only think that they didn't want to be too heavy on the Endurance theme knowing how time-consuming this could be, and were effectively too scared to fully commit to it.

Speaking of absent, the corny cinematics are also dropped. You see an opening trailer introducing Endurance to the room, absolutely nothing in between the first to last event, and then a very brief closing outro to wrap it all up. It's almost like they started the idea with intent and just gave up halfway through and duct-taped the rest of the package together.

Either way, the story events should take no longer than a couple of hours to beat. Despite the lack of Endurance events, the 3 they do offer are all 10 minutes a piece, and the rest will occupy the remaining time to completion. The only event you're required to win to pass is the final one.

The trophy clean up post-story does at least still lean into the Endurance theme. You'll need to complete two 15 minute Endurance races for another trophy, and you'll also need to win an Endurance race on Mount Panorama in the Bentley Continental GT3. The 3 trophies linked to the aforementioned sponsor objectives all contain requirements linked to Endurance, though these are much more reigned in for grindy-ness than they have when previously featured, so they're not too demanding. There are also opportunities to combine the requirements for multiple trophies and progress towards earning them in tandem.

The post-story is where you'll spend most of the time with this package in the end. Clocking in at around 6-8 hours, it's a fairly simple route to completion, though the naturally more long-winded nature of Endurance races does somewhat extend this time estimation.