DLC #183 - Dead Space 3 - Awakened

If you've beaten Dead Space 3, but there was still any doubt in your mind about what it truly wants to be, the small handful of hours you'll spend blasting your through Awakened should completely re-affirm any stance in your head that this is a game with an obvious bias towards Action elements.

A splash of Survival Horror is still there courtesy of a few jump scares, but the core objective is driven by heavy portions of gameplay that will see you slogging through hordes that come at you in their masses as you attempt to progress, and it's arguably more prominent in this stretch of 3 chapters than it was at any point during the main game.

Awakened picks up from the immediate ending point of Dead Space 3. Isaac Clarke and John Carver are allegedly still alive, and their goal is to simply escape from Tau Volantis for good. They settle on a plan to locate a shuttle in order to find their way off the planet. A simple concept for a story, but complex in the sense that it just completely throws out even more ambiguity over the actual fate of Isaac Clarke. 

The story expansion taps into the mental instability of Isaac Clarke that you see sporadically across the series, and you play out a handful of segments where you're physically fighting demons that only seem to exist in Isaac's mind. It makes you wonder - Is he actually dead and you're just living out a nightmare within a parallel universe, or is he actually still alive and these demons are being manifested through the power of his mind?

Way more questions than answers though, and even the ending of Awakened is shrouded in mystery just as much as the end of Dead Space 3 was. It makes you question what the actual point of Awakened was given the fact we didn't get any closure to anything. If you enjoyed the heavy action portions of the main game, you'll have a solid experience at your hands. However, you'll spend your time traipsing across the same environments, fighting the same enemies with the same weapons you had before. The addition of the Circle and their Cult Leader adds a bit of variety, but everything else is exactly the same. If you're looking for a bit more flesh to the bones from a story perspective, you'll also be left wanting. It's a very passable experience.

The package also adds 8 new trophies, and will require that you run through the episode at least twice. You'll need to beat it once under any circumstances, and again in Pure Survival mode, though there's no reason why you couldn't go straight into a Pure Survival playthrough and grab both trophies at once.

There is a key decision to make towards the end of the story that awards 2 trophies for each possible choice though - Which is the sole reason you'll need to play through the episode twice over, regardless of whether you choose to play Pure Survival from the off or not.

Pure Survival mode isn't really that tough here. The game still throws resources at you pretty generously, and your inventory carries over from the main game too, so if you were already stockpiling ammunition and health at the end of the main game, you'll start Awakened with a stocked inventory. It defeats the purpose of Pure Survival, and you should have no problems here at all. It is a hectic experience, and the segment throws alot at you, but you'll respawn from the last checkpoint in worst case scenario, which is never too far back anyway. Hardcore mode would have been a much tougher challenge.

There are collectibles present within the 3 chapters that span Awakened, but perhaps surprisingly, these are not accounted for in any of the trophies within this list. Nor is any requirement to beat the content on Classic or Hardcore modes.

Annoyingly, there is a single Co-Op trophy tucked into the list, requiring you to slow down the bleed out process of your Co-Op partner with statis - A really minor task, but one you're going to need to find a partner for. I had already forecasted this and grabbed it whilst I was going through the main game to save having to come back for it and tackle it at a much later date.

Even beating this twice should take no longer than 5-6 hours. Pure Survival mode might beat you up a little bit, but the consequences for death are nowhere near as severe as they are in Hardcore mode. It might be a good idea to tackle a playthrough in Co-Op, purely for the single Co-Op trophy - Just make sure you're making the right key decision at the end each time to effectively manage playthrough expectations.

Platinum #133 - Dead Space 3

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 6/10

The end of an era. After 91 Platinum trophies, we finally close the catalogue on the Playstation 3. It's where trophy hunting all began, and it's provided me with tons of moments over the years. For all the good, bad and ugly, it will be sorely missed.

It's perhaps fitting that we close this particular chapter with one of my favourite series of games whose all 3 instalments up to this point featured on the Playstation 3 console.

Dead Space 3 isn't my favourite game in the series. In context of how it stacks up against the first two titles, I actually think it's the weakest instalment of the three, but as a stand alone title, it's still a solid, enjoyable game. It takes a few gambles that don't quite pay off, but it still keeps providing just about enough of what made Dead Space great through the years it graced the Playstation 3 era.

Isaac Clarke is still the main character, which has been the case across all 3 Dead Space titles. You're amidst yet another Necromorph outbreak, triggered by main protagonist, Danik and the Circle, whose goal is to use this outbreak to wipe out mankind. Isaac is recruited by Norton and Carver, in order to discover the secret to stopping Danik and the Necromorph invasion from spreading beyond space. This is based on their intel linking Isaac to both the creation and destruction of markers across both previous Dead Space stories, suggesting Isaac is the best person to assist them in stopping the outbreak.

What follows is a solid survival horror/action offering, that only occasionally gets bogged down by a couple of differences that I felt weakened the overall experience compared to the previously stronger titles in the series.

There is a much greater action-orientated focus within Dead Space 3 than there has been previously. Bigger emphasis on gunfights and larger scale shootouts in wide open environments are seen aplenty. For me, what always made Dead Space great from a survival horror perspective was the fact that every environment you walked through was tight, close and gave off a real sense of claustrophobia. The feeling you could be cornered and die at any second gave off that true sense or terror. That's not to say that doesn't exist in Dead Space 3 too, just to a lesser extent - walks through tight corridors and spaces are sacrificed to have you fighting human enemies from behind cover across a snowy plain, which is where you lose the survival horror elements for those moments you're engaging in those action-packed shootouts.

On the subject of human behaviour, the game also loses it's survival horror immersion during those segments where you're battling through Danik's troops. The reason the Necromorphs are scary are because they can charge at you quickly, leap out of vents unexpectedly or jump up to attack you after pretending to be dead, and you lose all of that whenever you engage human enemies. The love triangle between Isaac, Ellie and Norton is a great immersion killer too. It's made to be the focal point of the story way too often, and therefore feels forced. Nothing kills survival horror immersion more than the dulcet undertones of a bad love story playing out and stinking everything up, and Dead Space 3 most certainly has that. These things combine to dull the edges of the survival horror elements a bit too much and that's my biggest criticism of the game.

The game also becomes very heavily action-orientated towards the end. The final 5/6 chapters just feel like you jump from fight to fight and barely have a chance to catch your breath. It's not bad, but it's almost as if Dead Space 3 spends the first 13 chapters completely unsure of what it wants to be between Survival Horror and Action, then just caves in to it's own intrusive thoughts as you spend the remainder of the game blasting your way through hordes of enemies right up to the end.

However, everything that made Dead Space great is still alive and well. The gun catalogue is still full of punchy favourites, from the classic Plasma Cutter to the Ripper. The sense of satisfaction in lopping off a Necromorph's limbs in calculated fashion will never get old, and whilst I'm not crazy on the new gun customisation system, the game doesn't force this upon you and it isn't critical to maximise weapon upgrades to progress through the game, which is a subtle but vital touch. I don't think giving the player a range of customisation options is a bad idea for those that wish to indulge and experiment, but for those like me, who just found the wealth of combinations overwhelming and complicated, then it's good to just be able to fall back on the vanilla options in comfort that it isn't going to impact your progress. I much preferred the mechanic of previous games where you simply gathered nodes to develop a skill tree for each weapon until you maxed it out.

There are still an interesting and varied range of enemies, both new and old, and their diverse range of traits are always making sure you adapt the way you tackle them to keep the upper hand in combat. Avoid shooting the pregnant Necromorph's in the stomach, keep the explosive Necromorph's at a safe distance. It keeps the combat refreshing, but most importantly, reminds me how terrifying Dead Space can be when it nails the Survival Horror element, and the variance in design in it's enemies are a big part of the reason why.

On top of this, Kinesis and Statis are still fun to combine in battle and add to the range of options you have at your disposal during fights. Movement is a bit clunky and will get you killed more often than it probably should, but on the whole, it's fine.

In terms of trophies, this is a standard sized list, with 51 trophies in total, including the Platinum. For the most part, it follows the routine formula for Dead Space titles, with a mixture of varying tasks.

The "Shoot for the Moon" trophy, awarded for Defeating the Moon, concludes the story across it's 19 chapters, and on a standard playthrough, this probably takes somewhere within the region of 12-15 hours. There are 9 trophies in the list dedicated towards natural progression and triggered at specific points on your way towards the conclusion of the game. Dead Space 3 is not a difficult game in it's default version of itself. Weapons are powerful and can be upgraded easily, ammunition/health is never scarce and once you obtain access to RIG upgrades, you'll be able to increase you health, armour and strengthen statis effects which will significantly support you in battle.

There are no difficulty-based trophies like there have been in former Dead Space titles, which have previously required you to beat the game on Zealot setting. However, the trophy list will require you to explore alot of additional modes that have been added to the game this time round.

If you're familiar with Dead Space, you should be accustomed to beating the game multiple times under different conditions, but Dead Space 3 takes that up a couple of notches. From my experience, there were at least 4 full playthroughs of this game, and that's mainly down to a specific group of trophies awarded for beating the game in it's various modes. We're not going to talk about them all in detail, but when you combine the amount of additional time and effort they require you to sink into the trophy list, then are worth mentioning as a collective.

We'll go into the detail around Hardcore mode, but my first time beating the game was actually in co-op, which we'll also go through later, and there were specific reasons behind that. You'll also need to beat the game in Classic mode, where you play without the ability to upgrade or customise any guns. Pure Survival mode, where all health items and ammo have to be crafted with resources and cannot be purchased, and then there's Hardcore mode...

The "Aren't You Thankful?" trophy, awarded for Completing the game on Hardcore Mode, returns from Dead Space 2, but comes with some big adjustments. The previous iteration of Hardcore mode allowed you infinite deaths, but the catch was, you could only make 3 saves in the entire game, so you'd effectively need to beat the game in 3 segments. The challenge was committing hours of play in a single sitting, and if you died, you'd lose all that progress. It was challenging in it's own right, but it wasn't quite a perma-death mode.

This trophy IS a perma-death mode. You can save as many times as you wish, but the moment you die, the save file is wiped and you have to start over from the very beginning. Maximum disclosure; I used a save file trick to help me achieve this feat, and I will comfortably argue that this trophy pushes this Platinum to the upper realms of the difficulty scale if done completely legitimately.

I actually played through up until Chapter 6 without any major problems, but the reality of the task started to go through my head. This is a 10-12 hour game if you ignore all the side content. Was I really prepared to potentially die half-way through, or even further on, and expect myself to have the motivation to start from the beginning? The simple answer was no, so I would periodically back up my save file to the console, and reload it whenever I died.

I died. Alot. Dead Space 3 will generally kill you in a couple of ways. Firstly, there are cheap deaths lying around every corner. Getting turned into mince by an environmental hazard, failing to navigate an obstacle during the free-flying segments or getting crushed by a falling piece of rock on the wall climbing sections. These all occurred at least once during my Hardcore playthrough.

Secondly, the game's action-heavy segments. These are extremely high-risk, because they mostly occur towards the end of the game where there's a much higher level of jeopardy towards the trophy. It's very easy to become overwhelmed by large groups of enemies if you struggle to keep the numbers down, and the clunky movement and roll mechanic make it tough to survive in some of these instances. I lost many battles to the volume game, and combined with the previous point, I just didn't feel like Hardcore mode was a justifiable challenge for a game I was simply looking to just complete after 13 years of first starting it. This is fairly reflected within the official difficulty rating.

The "Ghosts of the Past" trophy, awarded for Facing all of Carver's demons by completing all Co-Op only optional missions, is where the trophy list really allows the game to lean into the Co-Op aspect.

As you progress through the story, you'll come across certain areas which contain Co-Operative only missions, and you won't be able to complete these unless you have a Co-Op partner. I mentioned above that there was a reason I beat the game for the first time with a Co-Op partner, and this is it.

There are only 3 Co-Op missions in the entire game, and you can approach this trophy in one of two different ways. You can choose to just go through the entire game from start to finish with a Co-Op partner like I did. As long as you're aware of when the optional missions occur and don't accidentally bypass them, this is a fairly foolproof method, and this is exactly how I did it.

The second option is to just jump straight into the relevant chapters via the chapter select screen and hope you can find a Co-Op partner to complete the optional missions with on an adhoc basis. However, this requires another player to be at that exact point of the story at that exact time, so it's a very specific requirement that massively restricts your choices. If you don't have someone willing to play through the game with you though, this will be your only option.

Further to this, and this is something Co-Op caused me further challenges with, the game has a handful of trophies for the various collectibles scattered around the game. Dead Space loves collectibles, and they're very much alive and well here again, coming in the form of 40 Artifacts, 71 Circuit Upgrades, 71 Audio and Text logs and 73 Weapon Parts - That's 257 in total.

The reason I'm mentioning these here is because a handful of these collectibles can only be obtained within optional Co-Op missions, and this is something that I completely overlooked during my Co-Op playthrough of the game. This meant I had to indulge in the second method later on via chapter select, when it became much harder to find players to go through the game with and collect these missing items for the remaining collectible trophies. The Co-Op mode is also purely online, and cannot be done locally via split-screen.

The Co-Op mode is implemented well, and the player who controls Carver will play out specific fight segments that the player playing as Isaac won't see as Carver's demons in his head manifest in front of him. The game's action-based vibes peak during Co-Op, and it pretty much zaps the Survival Horror immersion fully away from the game when you know you're being accompanied by another player at all times, but I didn't hate it as much as others perhaps did.

Everything else in the trophy list is familiar. There are some chapter-specific trophies, kill accumulation trophies and some Co-Op exclusive trophies to be conscious of grabbing when you're playing online with a partner. The game adds a chapter select feature for the first time too, which is a game-changer. It makes tracking all the collectibles and the completion requirements of optional missions easy, as they're all outlined on a checklist for each chapter. It also adds extra convenience by allowing you to just freely jump into certain parts of the game for the purpose of easy kill-farming or fulfilling those previously mentioned chapter-specific tasks.

This could easily be a 9/10 Platinum trophy. The Hardcore mode, on paper, is a much tougher prospect than that of the Dead Space 2 Hardcore mode, due to this being a true Perma-death concept. The ability to save your progress locally, and re-write your save file nullifies the challenge. It's frustrating to have to constantly fiddle around with game saves and transporting them back and forth across the system, especially once the deaths start to accumulate, but it's a small price to pay in comparison to the legitimate method of starting from scratch every single time, which I simply wasn't willing to entertain at this point.

You will need to beat the game at least 4 times, accounting for an initial playthrough, Classic mode, Pure Survival mode and then Hardcore mode. I would strongly recommend a Co-Op playthrough as your initial run if you can. This will accumulate the completion time healthily, and with the clean-up process on top, you're looking at around 50-60 hours for the Platinum trophy.

For me, the final one on the Playstation 3. What a ride it's been.

Notable Trophies -

Shoot for the Moon - Defeat the Moon.
Aren't You Thankful? - Complete the game on Hardcore Mode.
Ghosts of the Past - Face all of Carver's demons by completing all Co-Op only optional missions.

Hardest Trophy -

Aren't You Thankful?

Complete the game on Hardcore Mode.

Platinum #132 - Mirror's Edge Catalyst

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 4/10

The original Mirror's Edge is a fond personal memory of mine. It's not only one of my earliest Platinum trophies, but it was also one of my most difficult during a time where my trophy collecting journey was still very much in it's infancy.

It's chapter-specific Speedruns and Time Trial mode are what made it stand out on the upper ranges of the difficulty scale, and beating these would require a reasonable grip on the learning curve of it's Parkour concept.

It didn't have a massive amount of depth to it though. The story was fairly short, levels were set on a clearly defined linear path from point A to B, and variety came in the form of beating these same levels against the clock or via a selection of time trials set on random maps, but it was a refreshing change of pace to just see something completely new hitting the catalogue.

Mirror's Edge Catalyst is a reboot of Mirrors' Edge, where you still play as Faith Connors, who is released from prison after serving time for unknown reasons. Upon her release, it's quickly revealed she is in debt to a black market boss, and won't truly be free until the debt is settled. During one of the earliest missions in the game, she diverges to steal a valuable hard drive that she believes will help settle the debt, but is seen stealing this by Gabriel Kruger, the CEO of K-Sec, the group who control the city of Glass. This lands her in further trouble, as the hard drive belongs to Kruger and the contents are important enough for him to want it back from her immediately.

Despite being branded as a reboot, there really isn't much of a difference to the original game here. The biggest change is the fact that the game now takes place within an open world environment, which definitely makes much more sense for a concept like Mirror's Edge. It naturally lends itself well to the parkour-emphasised gameplay, even if the city of Glass feels a little bit devoid of life and personality.

The game has alot of shortcomings, and I don't think it's better than the original Mirror's Edge, but the one thing you expect it do well, it definitely does. The control scheme is intuitive and well mapped out and it's fun to zip around an open world environment and feel like you're truly embracing the core element of gameplay. The parkour mechanics are strong, allowing you to effortlessly transverse across the city at speed, chain together moves seamlessly and signposting on your options as you approach obstacles is clear and concise, which helps you maintain flow.

However, too many of the other game elements outside of the parkour are weak. The combat is still terrible. It feels clunky and forced into the game in a flimsy attempt to make it relevant, and wherever you can, it's better to just bypass it altogether. The story lacks engagement, characters are mostly forgettable and side missions are just watered down variations of the missions you'll progress through within the story.

The Speedruns and time trials were the best thing about the original game. They added a level of mastery to the parkour element for those who wanted to seek a higher challenge and hone their skills, and it's a shame they're both omitted this time round. Coupled with the weaknesses that weren't addressed, it takes the series back a couple of steps, and that also extends into the trophy list, which presents a much easier challenge as a consequence.

The list is large in size, containing 50 trophies, including the Platinum trophy. Despite not having a proper Multiplayer component, this list does require an online connection to complete in full through a couple of interactive trophies.

The Multiplayer contribution to Mirror's Edge Catalyst comes through players being able to lay down pins for other runners across the city of Glass, allowing them to set their own tasks for others to try to beat. This will either be through time trial routes or simply placing a marker down for someone to try and find a way to reach it. However, it is still mostly a Single Player story-driven experience at heart.

The "Blood is thicker than everything" trophy, awarded for Defeating Kruger, will lead you to the conclusion of the story. There are just 15 missions to get through, and full completion will only take around 5-6 hours, so it's a very brief experience for a predominantly story driven game. Leading up to this point, you'll also unlock a further 15 trophies that are tied to story progression, which is effectively a trophy per mission, so the game really lays it on and the trophies come at you thick and fast.

There are also a collection of 15 side missions that run alongside the Story missions, but these only add a couple of extra hours on top at best. They do exist separately to the story, but they will need to be beaten if you want the Platinum trophy, as they form a sub-section of the trophy list dedicated to beating all 15 side missions in the game.

The biggest difference within the story-related trophies this time round is the fact there are no difficulty sensitive trophies within this list. The original Mirror's Edge contained a trophy for beating the story on Hard difficulty, with tougher enemies that dealt more damage and runner-vision disabled, which meant you had no guidance from the game on routes to take in order to progress through chapters. You also had to beat the game once in order to unlock Hard difficulty.

None of this exists in Mirror's Edge Catalyst. There isn't even an option to choose a difficulty, let alone any difficulty-sensitive trophies to tackle. It minimises the necessity to replay anything, and provides a fairly casual challenge which rarely tests your ability. Enemies are weak and easy to bypass, and runner-vision is enabled at all times, so losing your way is never an issue. It's a stark contrast between both games.

As previously mentioned too, Mirror's Edge Catalyst banishes Speedruns and Time Trials. These weren't only an extremely fun way to add replay value to the game previously, but they also added an extra layer of challenge, testing your sharpness, speed and timing in equal measure beyond the Story mode.

They're substituted out for "Dashes", which are effectively just Time Trials at their core where you start at point A, and need to reach point B within an allotted amount of time. You're given a star grading out of 3, and can earn one of the game's Gold trophies for earning 3 stars on all 22 Dashes, but they're so easy they're barely worth mentioning.

The fastest route to earning 3 stars isn't always that obvious upon first glance, but once you figure it out, it's almost laughably easy how quickly you can reach the end goal on some of these Dashes in order to acquire 3 stars. It is important to note that, the game implements a skill-tree feature, whereby you can unlock skill points as you progress the story which will allow you to upgrade Faith and unlock new abilities. You won't be able to 3 star some of these Dashes without certain abilities unlocked that make you quicker or allow you to use certain skill moves. The game never makes this clear so just be aware before you spend hours attempting to beat certain Dashes wondering why you can't actually beat them. It's purely because the game isn't letting you yet.

I can't overstate enough how much of a disappointment it was to see them choose not to carry through some form of Speedrun or Time Trial features to a game that cries out for these kind of things in order to really allow the true justice of a fluid and well-designed parkour system to flourish.

There isn't a specific individual trophy to mention, but the Collectibles here are worth touching on because the game is absolutely loaded with them. The list awards 4 trophies based on collectibles throughout the game, and this includes 324 Gridleaks, 45 Recordings, 42 Documents and 40 Secret Bags.

The original Mirror's Edge only required the collection of 30 Secret Bags, so the collectibles here have been ramped up to a significant degree. The 324 Gridleaks show shades of Infamous 1 and it's blast shards, but once you beat the story, these will all show up visibly on the map, so it's probably best to get a headstart and collect these as and when you see them throughout the game, purely as the best approach for tackling the sheer volume. The Recordings, Documents and Secret Bags are scattered around both the open world and amongst the 15 story missions, and their locations will never be made visible at any point, so a guide is strongly recommended.

With a collective total of over 450, this a sizable task, and such a large volume of collectibles is worth an extra point for overall difficulty. A handful of these collectibles are well hidden, but nothing to the extent a guide won't solve. It's still an arduous task though.

One final point, and something mentioned previously, the list also contains 2 Online trophies. The game doesn't actually have a Multiplayer component, but when connected to the servers, you can lay down markers for other players to beat time trials and challenge them to find ways to get to hard to reach places. There are trophies awarded for completing these tasks, however, at the time of writing, the servers have been taken offline, making this Platinum unachievable to anyone who didn't have either of these trophies in question.

The foundations of a decent game lie somewhere amongst Mirror's Edge Catalyst, but they're hidden behind poor decisions and weak gameplay elements that mean the series takes a couple of steps backwards. This is coupled with a trophy list which presents a much inferior challenge than it's predecessor, courtesy of how it strips away everything that made the first game so compelling to those that wanted to master it's mechanics. It just about tips the verge of 4/10 difficulty, purely for some arduous collectibles, but at least they promote the parkour effectively, which can be enjoyable when it isn't disrupted by the terrible combat or disengaging story. The only reason I could recommend this game would be for an easy Platinum trophy.

Notable Trophies -

Blood is thicker than everything - Defeat Kruger.

Hardest Trophy - 

Blood is thicker than everything

Defeat Kruger

Platinum #131 - Dirt 5

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 3/10

It will always pain me to feel like I'm being overly critical of games within series that I've hugely advocated for in the past. I have 5 previous Dirt titles within my collection, all completed to 100% and it's still one of my favourite racing series of all time.

So it gives me no pleasure to declare that Dirt 5 is definitely a dip in form for the series. That can be taken as a positive inditement to the strength of the games that have come before it, but even looking at it from that perspective, there's just too much that misses with Dirt 5.

The biggest standout disappointment is the lack of content on offer. The Career mode is lengthy, and robust in terms of the volume of races, but it practically makes up the entirety of the game.

There's an Arcade and Time Trial mode for recreational free-racing, as well as an Online mode to fulfil the Multiplayer obligations, but there's just no depth and these modes are also practically completely excluded from the trophy list. Why is my only option within the public Online mode to instantly matchmake and end up being thrown into a completely random race? No event/car class preferences, no ability to set up my own public lobby with my own race parameters and settings, no ability to choose to play my favourite party game modes. Just completely restricted and devoid of choice.

The new Playgrounds mode allows users to create, share and play each others creations, and this is a nice touch if you're into this sort of thing. However, like all games that open their doors to user-generated content, you get the good, bad and the ugly, and once you've played a couple of tracks and realise there's nothing worth while awaiting your investment other than a spot on a couple of leaderboards, the novelty quickly wears off.

Even the Career mode, where you'll spend most of your time if you're gunning for the Platinum trophy, has it faults. The story is told through the recordings of a Podcast called Donut, with intermissions between events including soundbites from interviews between racers and personal ramblings from the hosts. The dialogue is just annoying and cringey, and I'd honestly just prefer a complete omission of it altogether.

There are still some positives though. The environments are vibrant, full of colour and excellently contrasted and the variety of terrains and weather conditions are perfectly captured. From the bi-polar sun-kissed, drenched rainforests of Brazil to the icy, rocky mountains of Norway - this has always been the most consistent strength of Dirt games, and really showcases the graphical capabilities of the console.

The gameplay will feel like it leans too far across towards an arcade vibe for some, but I've always felt like the Dirt games have favoured this option on the whole outside of Dirt Rally. It felt like the more technical aspects of racing simulation were reserved for the Rallying games in the series, and Dirt just allowed for that extra flexibility. I've never been a huge fan of heavy levels of customisation via vehicle tuning and modifications, and choosing colour schemes and liveries is about as detailed as customisation goes, which is fine by me.

There is a healthy selection of different vehicle types from different eras. Rally cars, Trucks, Buggies from the 80's, 90's and Modern day - It's a solid collection and they all they handle differently depending on their size, statistics and age. However, despite a few shining positives, it is the weakest entry into the Dirt series to date for me, just purely for how stripped back and shallow everything feels compared to before.

The step back even extends to the trophy list, with just 21 trophies on offer within the base game.

As mentioned, the trophy list is very heavily focused towards the Career mode, which sees you start your racing journey as a rookie under the tutelage of Alex Janicek (AJ). He is looking for you to progress to the very top and take down Bruno Durand, an untouchable, longstanding rival within the Motorsport community.

To do this, you'll need to progress through a series of different events, unlocking Showdowns against rivals, taking them down one by one until you reach Bruno Durand in the Grand Finale. It's a very familiar template that's been replicated in previous games in the series.

The "No Event Left Behind" trophy, awarded for Completing every Career Event will take you through practically the entirety of this whole list. Specifically, there are 125 events to get through, and the list does not require you to even win every event for the Platinum trophy. This has been a normal requirement in previous Dirt games, but to fulfil the obligation of this trophy, you merely just need to progress via collecting stamps.

There are 375 stamps to collect throughout the Career - 3 for each of the 125 events on offer. Stamp requirements are tied to the event objectives within the event, and these can be as simple as performing 10 overtakes or exceeding a certain speed limit at any point during the race. The more stamps you collect, the more events you'll open up and this is the key to reaching the end of the game. The game does not set an expectation of you to win and you can even re-roll event objectives until you see a list of objectives you're happy to tackle.

There aren't any difficulty sensitive trophies at play here either, and you can choose to play on more challenging difficulties if you wish, but I would question what the point is when the progress of the game is not determined by winning or losing. I played on hard, which is one level off from the toughest difficulty, and still found the game fairly trouble-free, but the lack of motivation to truly push myself due to the low-commitment nature of the trophy list made it difficult for me to see beyond this game as anything more than just an exercise of progression.

The AI is very passive too. Most drivers will behave like they're normal road-obeying users and even on the harder difficulty, there is a very distinct lack of aggression shown by the rest of the field. It just fits in line with the whole vibe of the game being an overly-casual experience with no real sense of drive to push you on to feel challenged in any way.

It really couldn't be much easier, and I do feel like the overall vibe of the game, right down to the trophy list, has been designed to make it as accessible to as many people as possible. I don't have an issue with this, but I also believe there should be a challenge to be sought for those who want it, and it doesn't even seem like you can do that.

The 125 events are well covered, with 8 different disciplines providing further variety across a range of different locations, track variations and vehicle classes. I just wish it promoted more of a challenge and I had 98% of all trophies unlocked by the time I had reached the end and finally unlocked this trophy, which put me just 1 trophy away from the Platinum. It wasn't too surprising, given the small size of the list, but it also evidences how heavily favourable this list is towards the Career mode and how you can practically beat the entire list through some light, natural progression.

There are a couple of trophies dedicated to actions within Playground mode and exploring vehicle customisation options, but this requires light dabbling at best, and barely worth mentioning. There are no trophies dedicated to the Arcade or Online portions of this game whatsoever. From a personal perspective, this is a huge disappointment for me because Dirt games have produced some fun journeys through online trophies in the past, and it's sad to see it neglected entirely for this instalment to the series.

As a consequence of this, there are no other notable trophies to mention - After all, why would there be when you can unlock 98% of the entire list through striving towards just a single trophy? There is a slight bit of deviation into other modes, but the majority of the the list is very progression-heavy, and you'll fulfil everything you need to by the time you beat that final event and conclude the journey. It's quite a rare occurrence to unlock so much of a list without even really having to think about it or plan ahead.

Even with my best attempts to artificially inflate the challenge by aiming to come first in each event, I still sit here and question whether or not I can justify this Platinum even being as high as 3/10 in difficulty. My save file clocks in at just over 47 hours, which makes it a reasonably lengthy game, and if nothing else, there is at least a respectable amount of legwork required to make it through to the end.

However, there are alot of combined elements that allow you to almost sleep-walk through this entire list. A lack of necessity to win races, underwhelming opposition, a high volume of purely progression-based trophies and a rigid trophy list that lacks depth. Despite having a chunky time-sink, it doesn't really break any boundaries elsewhere.

It does make for a really disappointing list, especially when you look back at previous Dirt games and their trophy lists, which always promoted extensive exploration of multiple game modes and encouraged a wider participation of the Online parts of the game, which is always where Dirt really excelled for me. 

There is a part of me that believes they knew their extra-curricular modes outside of the Career were a bit too bare and dysfunctional, so they made a conscious decision to exclude them from the trophy list. As a result, it makes for a very easy Platinum, and Dirt 5 is not a bad game - It's just not forward progress for the series.

Notable Trophies -

No Event Left Behind - Complete every Career Event.

Hardest Trophy -

No Event Left Behind

Complete every Career Event

DLC #182 - Cuphead - The Delicious Last Course 1

Whilst I appreciate I was somewhat late on arrival, and therefore, did not have to come to terms with fully waiting for half a decade for some form of additional content, it's still a peculiar set of circumstances to see post-game content arrive so late.

It's bizarre if only for the fact that 5 years is longer than a typical development cycle for a full game, let alone a single piece of downloadable content.

From the less-cynical perspective, The Delicious Last Course is just a little bit more Cuphead, and that will never be a bad thing. There are some notable additions, mainly the fact you can now play as Ms Chalice - whose ghostly figure has been trapped in the Astral Plane. Cuphead and Mugman are promised by Chef Saltbaker that if they can defeat Inkwell Isle IV's selection of bosses, and collect all the necessary ingredients from them, he can bake a recipe that will release her.

Ms Chalice isn't just a re-skin though - She comes with her own unique abilities and superpowers. She has an invincibility roll, which, if timed right, can pass through and evade any attack - Something Cuphead and Mugman do not possess. She can also double jump which often gives you greater ability to avoid attacks, and her parry mechanic involves pressing R2 to dash-parry, rather than X. You can still choose to use Cuphead and Mugman if you prefer, but Ms Chalice offers a fresher experience.

There are also a range of new weapons to purchase from Porkgrind's shop to use in the small selection of fresh boss battles, as well as an alternative to the Run N' Gun levels of before in the form of the King's Gauntlet, which sees you play through a selection of mini-bosses akin to the pieces found on a chess board. The catch is, you can only pass the level using the parry mechanic, and offensive weaponry is barred from this mode. It's clever and a nice change of pace from the regular game.

Now for the more cynical perspective. For something that took 5 years post-release of the main-game, it does feel very limited. The new selection of bosses are excellently vintage. Wild, full of character, cleverly presented and provide a chaotic experience with every fight, but there are just 6 of them to get through before you've exhausted all the content on offer.

I'd managed to go through all these bosses within a couple of hours, and this included most of the King's Gauntlet too. The trophy list promotes a healthy amount of replay value here, and there is still great intrinsic satisfaction to be had going back through some of these boss fights on the toughest difficulty to A-Rank them, but it definitely leaves you wishing there was just a bit more to it all, and that viewpoint of mixed appraisal should be taken as a testament to the quality of the game and the high standards it had set for itself.

Regarding the trophies, there are 12 in total to earn, and this list mainly fits within the same standards as the main game.

Progressing the questline and defeating all 6 bosses in order to recover all the key ingredients for Chef Saltbaker's recipe is where most of the focus lies, and there is a pro-active promotion of Ms Chalice within the trophies, with a couple of dedicated tasks specific to her so it makes sense to choose to play as her whilst you progress the questline. You will sacrifice your charm slot due to the fact you have to equip the Astral Cookie charm in order to play as Ms Chalice, but her stronger ability set compared to Cuphead and Mugman offsets this nicely.

The "Ranger" trophy, awarded for Obtaining an A-Rank or Higher on all bosses in Inkwell Isle IV, is the exact same standard set for defeating bosses as the main list, and whilst there is a noticeable continuity in the difficulty of bosses carried over from the end of the main game, this shouldn't be too much of an issue if you have already earned the Platinum trophy.

It's also definitely worth looking into the range of new weapons offered up for purchase in Porkrind's shop. Once I'd purchased the Crackshot ability, the challenge to strive towards an A-Rank for each boss became noticeably more manageable, due to it's auto-lock nature. You can win the coins to purchase these abilities via the King's Gauntlet, which you'll need to progress through separately for a couple of extra trophies within the list anyway.

You'll only have access to the "Simple" and "Regular" difficulties for each boss from the outset, and beating them on "Regular" will unlock "Expert". However, you can still earn an A-Rank on "Regular" difficulty - albeit an A- rating - though this does still count towards the Ranger trophy, so there isn't a necessity to unlock and beat each boss on it's hardest difficulty mode. However, you will also need to beat just 1 boss to an S-Rank, which can only be done on the hardest difficulty.

The biggest thing that makes Cuphead so endearing is the fact that it's the sort of game that relies on the right kind of trial and error. The bad version of this involves tons of randomness, broken game logic and usually only rewards the player success through luck or fortune. The good version involves mastering pre-set attack patterns, but still tweaked enough to include a little element of randomness to keep you on your toes and realisation that the reward comes through practice.

If you're like me, and you already had the Platinum trophy, you'll probably jump straight back into this without having to negotiate a learning curve, beat the bosses with relative ease and even go back through to obtain the A-Rank for each of them after purchasing a few key abilities, ultimately finding this fairly trouble-free. Including the King's Gauntlet, and a couple of miscellaneous trophies in-between, I reckon you could wrap this whole package up within 5-6 hours.

It's a nicely balanced piece of content, with enough of a challenge to keep you on your toes, but not to the point where it hits some of the lofty difficulty heights of the main game. It is a shame there wasn't a bit more to it, but it's great whilst it lasts.

DLC #181 - Metal Gear Rising : Revengeance - Sam's Side Story

Going from an extension of Metal Gear Solid VR Missions into some story-based content felt like a very welcome change of pace on face value. The reality of what you get is straight out of the frying pan, and into the fire.

I think Metal Gear Rising : Revengeance is a great game, but I'm tired of it's deficiencies and constant desire to just be unreasonably difficult all the time.

Challenging content is absolutely fine, but when the challenge involves running into the same issues that have always plagued the game and leave you feeling completely at the mercy of luck, then it dampens the experience, and these are the things I'm eventually going to remember this game for, which is a shame.

Sam's Side Story is a brief experience that tells the tale of how Jetstream Sam came to join the Desperado's, and how this ties into his relationship with Senator Armstrong.

It's a cool twist to be able to take control of a different character aside from Raiden, and Jetstream Sam definitely has his own learning curve. He feels a bit clunkier and less mobile than Raiden, and sacrifices the ability to vault over obstacles for a double jump and mid-air dash. The effectiveness of his attacks is also determined on the ability to "taunt" enemies, through pressing up on the D-pad, which makes them susceptible to more damage, but in turn, enhances their attack power too.

Given the fact the side story is roughly 2 hours in length, there are no extensive customisation options for Sam, and he only has access to one weapon - The HF Murasama Blade he wields against Raiden within the main game.

I thought the concept of playing from the perspective of a different character was a neat idea, but there isn't a lot of depth without the same level of customisation options present, and you'll encounter the same enemies - including the 3 boss fights - as you did in the main game, all spread out across the same environments. It's a little bit disappointing, but the fast and frenetic gameplay is still hugely engaging at least.

There are 4 trophies in total, and you'll grab half of them by just completing the episode for the first time and cumulatively killing 100 enemies across multiple playthroughs, but the other half bring the pain in wholesome amounts;

Master of the Wind - Complete DL-Story 01: Jetstream on Revengeance difficulty in one hour or less.
You're Hired - Defeat Sen. Armstrong without taking any damage on Hard difficulty or above.

The "Master of the Wind" trophy, awarded for Completing DL-Story 01: Jetstream on Revengeance difficulty in one hour or less, is effectively the warm up for what's to come later, but still felt like it was harder than it should have been.

The aggressive rules of Revengeance difficulty still apply for this DLC package. Enemies are still tougher, dealing blows that can kill you in one hit and fighting against larger groups can really see the odds stacked against you.

I attempted this trophy straight after beating the story once, and quickly came to a couple of realisations;

The first one is the fact that, you have to use the "restart" feature to your advantage. An hour really isn't alot of time in the context of a side story that takes only 2 hours to finish, and every time you die, your previous time is counted towards this total - Unless you pause and restart from checkpoint, which resets the time. This can be tough to negotiate on Revengeance difficultly, where it's so easy to get killed quickly without the chance to hit pause and restart, and I ran into a couple of segments where this was happening too frequently, and gradually accumulating time that I couldn't get back, so I had to re-strategise.

Therefore, this forced me to switch my approach by running through the story on easy difficulty and collecting enough nanopaste to carry forward into a fresh Revengeance run. This would not only provide me some insurance in the event of near death, and therefore, giving me a chance to restart where I needed it, but it also actually allowed me to progress. Another issue I was finding was that I was just getting destroyed during segments with tougher enemies, and needed the nanopaste to just get through the challenge - Another reminder of the unforgiving nature of this game.

Frustrating to have to do it this way, as it added a fair amount of unnecessary rework, but the worst was still to come. 

The "You're Hired" trophy, awarded for Defeating Sen. Armstrong without taking any damage on Hard difficulty or above, is where this challenge really lies. 

This was a staple trophy within the main list, appearing 5 times for every main boss battle you encounter within the story. The Monsoon and Senator Armstrong fights are notoriously difficult, and it's hard to believe there was any further room to squeeze out a more difficult challenge, but it's no doubt the toughest boss fight to beat without taking damage in the entire game, and many of the reservations I've had about Metal Gear Rising : Revengeance can easily be summarised within this trophy alone.

The biggest issue here is the fact that, simply put, the fight is just broken. This version of Senator Armstrong is slightly different to the version you fight as Raiden within the main story, and whilst you can still expect to see mostly the same attacks, there are a few new ones to account for. However, this isn't the main problem, and the new attacks are easy to understand and develop a combat strategy in order to contain them.

The problem is the fact the attack patterns are wildly unpredictable and glitchy, which does not follow the normal pattern of boss fights within the main game, and when attempting to beat a boss without taking any damage where the margin for error is zero, this becomes hugely troublesome.

The key to success with these boss fights is all about learning the predictable nature of the attack patterns, after which point it just becomes a matter of getting the timing right to parry and counter these attacks, and for whatever reason, this is completely abandoned within this particular battle. Senator Armstrong suddenly has no predictability with the moves he chooses and there is no logic to the fight. A few of the unblockable attacks are also really badly designed - For example, he has a fierce charging attack that can go back and forth anywhere between 3 and 6 times. It's meant to travel in a straight line and pass directly through you, but on the odd occasion it'll whip around in a circle and become impossible to evade. I'm not sure if it's just a glitch or purposeful, but either way, it compounds an already frustrating experience to see these sudden inconsistencies.

It also effectively means that the route to success alters from being about learning and understanding battle patterns, to pure luck. I never felt at any point throughout this fight that I was in control of the outcome, and it ultimately boiled down to relying on seeing a specific move set play out that includes many of his easy attacks to safeguard against.

It's also worth noting that there are 2 phases to this fight, which split at 50% of Senator Armstrong's health. In the second phase, Senator Armstrong's arsenal contains alot of grabbing attacks that cannot be parried and have to be dodged, so the fight suddenly becomes much less combat-centric. I've rarely had to use the dodge mechanics so aggressively prior to this, so to have a sudden learning curve this deep into the experience made this second phase feel like a few extra notches up in difficulty.

It took me 2 sessions to earn this trophy, with around 4 hours dedicated to phase 1 of the fight, and around 7 hours dedicated to phase 2. I genuinely feel like this is a open-ended timescale, based on my firm belief that the biggest factor of success here is luck. There are effective ways to combat individual attacks, but with no obvious attack patterns at play and some cheap, unavoidable range of moves, it's a genuine struggle that many won't persevere with.

And yes, the camera is still absolutely awful in this game when it comes to directional parrying.

Platinum #130 - Crash Bandicoot 4 : It's About Time

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 10/10

A perfect score hasn't ever been something I've given out lightly, but I have rarely been more certain about a game that has deserved to take maximum points for it's level of challenge.

When you look back through the Crash Bandicoot timeline, it looks like a clear scale in difficulty has occurred throughout. The N'Sane Trilogy, which contained reboots of the first 3 Crash Bandicoot titles originally released on the Playstation 1, all scored 5/10 - A leisurely re-introduction to the series where all 3 titles could be beaten within a sub-25 hour timeframe.

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled kicked things up a notch scoring an 8/10 - A challenging racer with difficult to master game mechanics and unforgiving time trial requirements.

Then we finally got Crash Bandicoot 4 : It's About Time, which absolutely blows the ceiling off from a difficulty perspective. It's also the first Crash Bandicoot title developed by Toys for Bob, who clearly wanted you to suffer all the way through this experience - At least from a Trophy hunters point of view. If you're not of the disposition that attaining full completion matters, then you'll probably come out the end of this experience with your sanity (and thumbs) fully in tact, otherwise strap yourselves in.

The gameplay experience of Crash Bandicoot 4 : It's About Time is very different to the previous 3 Crash Bandicoot titles in the series. It is important to remember that, despite the N'Sane Trilogy only preceding this title by a handful of years, these were just effectively a series of remasters from titles that were released over 20 years ago, so whilst they have a few gameplay improvements, they're still mostly carrying the same formula as they did 20 years ago when they first came out.

Levels are much lengthier, complex and varied in comparison, and there are a number of big changes to the game when matched up against the original Crash titles. This time round, you'll take control of a variety of different characters, all with their own specific character traits. Tawna has a grappling hook that you'll need to swing through levels, Dingodile possesses a suction gun that can suck up boxes from a distance, as well as fire them back out as projectiles and Dr. Neo Cortex has a raygun, which can be used to change enemies into different states of matter, such as jelly and metal, to allow you to progress through the level in different ways.

Speaking of which, the game also introduces a variety of different Quantum masks. When donned, these allow you to make changes to the environment and come in 4 flavours. Lani-Loli allows you to pause time, 'Akano allows you to consume Dark Matter, which increases the length, distance and height of the spin ability, Kupuna Wa allows you to slow time and Ika Ika allows you to manipulate gravity. This is the strongest addition to the game, and it's implemented really cleverly throughout the vast number of levels, making them incredibly dynamic. Once you reach the latter stages of the game, you'll notice that you play through levels which contain the use of multiple masks and this is where the challenge becomes much more apparent - but it's still a fun game mechanic that adds layers of the depth to the game.

Something that never seems to change is the plot. Dr Neo Cortex is attempting to take over the universe (again), and it's Crash's job to stop him (again). You'll encounter a familiar cast of antagonists who join Dr. Cortex, and you'll still transverse through dimensions in time as you go through the game - Prehistoric, Futuristic and even pirates, to name a couple of the 10 different dimensions.

Outside the familiar, usual platforming levels, you'll also encounter timelines, flashbacks and boss battle arenas, which adds to the already impressive levels of depth this sequel goes to. Timelines are a handful of levels where you'll play as an alternate character, mentioned above, and flashbacks are somewhat like a mini sub-story, which tells the tale of Crash's attempts to escape as a subject within Cortex's experimentation lab.

Despite being one of the most challenging trophy journeys I've ever been on, it's still an excellent game, and it's a worthy sequel which improves upon the original titles in every way, shape and form.

This trophy list contains 52 trophies, including the Platinum trophy, and will require you to beat practically everything the game has to offer for full completion of this list. There is nothing done by halves here - You are all in on this experience, whether you like it or not, and whilst the majority of the trophies all work up towards beating the game to 106% completion, each of them contains individual challenges that are worth mentioning here.

Firstly, " The Fourth Time" trophy, awarded for Defeating Dr. Neo Cortex, requires you to beat the game, which simply involves progressing through all 38 story levels, as well as each boss battle arena, culminating in defeating Dr. Neo Cortex and saving the universe once more.

This is probably the least challenging element of this list, but it's important to use this opportunity to get familiar with the layout of levels and some of the game mechanics you'll need to heavily rely on, such as map knowledge, effective use of movement, Quantum masks and techniques like the slide spin and triple spin.

There is a noticeable difficulty curve as you progress through the game, and levels begin to get more complex, longer and use multiple different masks that shift the environment constantly. I recall when playing through these levels originally how impossible it seemed to be to have to eventually beat all of them without dying, but that's why the aforementioned is so important - A grasp on all of the above is imperative to success, and this should be the focus of your first run.

The "King of Bling" trophy, awarded for Earning ALL of the Clear Gems, is the next natural step towards the Platinum trophy. Each of the 38 levels contained within the story has a total of 6 Gems to collect. 3 of these are awarded for collecting 40%, 60% and 80% of the Wumpa fruit contained with the level. 2 of these Gems are awarded for finding all boxes and beating the level within 3 lives. The final Gem is awarded for finding the hidden Gem somewhere within the level.

This is an extremely time consuming exercise, and will require you to play through levels multiple times to acquire all 6 Gems attached to each level. Ultimately, you have to beat every level in the game without dying whilst collecting every box, which will automatically fulfil the requirements of 2 of these Gems anyway, however, the kicker here is that you'll need to perform this feat twice, for the games N'Verted mode.

N'Verted mode just applies a mirrored filter to the level, usually just for aesthetic purposes, but you'll also need to earn all 6 Gems for each level within this mode too, which will award you the "gnilB fo gniK" trophy. 38 levels times by 6 is 228 Gems, and when you further times this by 2 to account for N'Verted mode, this means you'll need to collect a whopping 456 Gems in total. This was an incredibly grindy task and whilst I don't have many complaints about this game, this was definitely my least favourite part of it - It's incredibly repetitive and N'Verted mode did not feel like a necessary addition to the game outside of some classic content padding.

The "Perfectionist" trophy, awarded for Earning ALL N'Sanely Perfect Relics, is where this challenge really kicks off.

In order to earn an N'Sanely Perfect Relic, you need to beat a level without dying whilst collecting all boxes in one life. The most important thing to mention here is that you can take your time on this. Failure will often come from making silly mistakes through rushing and the lack of acknowledgement to the key fact that you can take your time with this task.

Some of these levels can take 15-20 minutes to beat under normal circumstances, and the pains experienced with this trophy will involve alot of smaller nuances. Realising you've failed to collect every box at the end of the level, dying through a silly lapse in concentration or missing a well hidden box are all included within this, and it's tough to progress through some of these longer levels just to slip up agonisingly close to the end.

Many would argue just getting through these levels without dying is a great enough challenge, let alone having to collect every box at the same time. There are so many easy ways to die in this game - Having to focus on not dying whilst trying to remember the location of every box is sensory overwhelm and once you reach the latter part of the game and this is happening all over your screen, it's easy to see how lapses in concentration can lead to death and/or missing boxes.

This trophy is another reason why it's important to get to know each level in detail. Forecasting hazards and memorising where all the more difficult to spot/hidden boxes are the best way to be prepared for this challenge. It may be something you also have to learn the hard way at times, but it will make a difference to progress.

Also, when I say there are so many easy ways to die/fail, the game adds elements of non-platforming that can be tough to negotiate sometimes. Chase segments where you have to run towards the camera and cannot see what's ahead of you, grind rails (the game loves a grind rail) and traversing the landscape via riding a Polar Bear or Jet-ski are not only very easy to die from, but also very easy to miss boxes from too, because you cannot turn round and correct any errors. It's a feat that's worthy of being responsible for a couple of difficulty points on it's own, and it's mad to think that it still isn't the peak of the list in terms of challenge.

The "Faster than Sound" trophy, awarded for Earning ALL of the platinum Time Trial Relics, is exactly where that peak lies, and requires the player to beat each of the 38 levels to Platinum standard - The highest pass time in the game. The Time Trial Relics are a staple of the Crash Bandicoot series, but the previous Crash titles only required the player to beat the Time Trials to a Gold standard, and this is the first time this standard has been set to Platinum.

This trophy will require a mastery of everything for you to succeed. Map knowledge? Check. Hazard awareness? Check. Perfect understanding of the triple and slide spin? Check. The requirements for the Platinum relic are tight and require practically zero margin for error.

The rules are exactly the same as they have been for any previous Crash game. You'll need to beat the level from start to finish without dying within an allotted amount of time to earn a Relic, and this challenge is only cut out for the very best. The box layout is exactly the same as it is for any normal level, however, some of the boxes will change to a number between 1 and 3, which indicates the amount of time the clock will be frozen for in seconds should you smash that box, which is key to establishing a quicker pass time.

Mastering the triple and slide spin is also incredibly important, and if you can't do this, you won't achieve these Platinum Relics. Executing a consistent pattern of triple and slide spinning will allow you to always achieve maximum speed, but this isn't an easy rhythm to maintain whilst also trying to avoid environmental hazards and enemies, and you may be often required to react or think quickly to avoid death. It's also made tougher by the fact you have to be consciously aware of smashing timed boxes wherever you can too, and this sometimes means deviating from the best path or exposing yourself to risky moves that can cause cheap death. It's a necessary evil though.

There are, of course, the standard things to consider when it comes to Time Trial trophies too. There's alot of trial and error, alot of practice and hard yards to put in and alot of perseverance required. As far as Time Trial related trophies go, this is one of the most gruelling I've ever had to put myself through, to the point where I actually developed a blister within the crease of my thumb once I'd earned all 38 Platinum Relics. The constant triple slide spinning really did take it's toll, and it is quite easily the most difficult task in this list.

The "OVER-Overachiever" trophy, awarded for Watching the 106% bonus ending, effectively ties up everything mentioned above. For maximum clarity, the requirements checklist includes collecting all  228 normal Gems, collecting all 228 N'Verted Gems, earning all 21 Platinum flashback Relics (which isn't mentioned above), earning all 38 N'Sanely Perfect Relics and earning all 38 Platinum Time Trial Relics.

With all of this accounted for, and the remainder of the list mainly just down to a very quick clean up procedure, it took me a whopping 175 hours according to my save file to beat this game, which is an incredible length of time. I managed to finish the hardest elements of this game within an overall time period which spanned around 4 months, and whilst this wasn't through playing the game religiously every single day, it was consistent enough to ensure that I didn't become rusty and have to re-learn the more complicated elements required to reach it's highest demands - and that's a big complimentary show of respect to the level of difficulty of this game.

I'd actually go as far as to suggest that this is within my Top 3 hardest Platinums in my entire collection. When I look at the select group of games that have fit the billing for a 10/10 on the difficulty scale, and the reasons they're in that group, some of them don't tick as many boxes as Crash Bandicoot 4 does.

It's grindy, it has a high standard of mastery and it demands perfection in everything you do, and if you needed the tie-breaker for any reason of doubt, there isn't another game that has given me actual blisters on my thumbs.

Notable Trophies -

The Fourth Time - Defeat Dr. Neo Cortex.
King of Bling - Earn ALL of the Clear Gems.
Perfectionist - Earn ALL N'Sanely Perfect Relics.
Faster Than Sound - Earn ALL of the platinum Time Trial Relics.
OVER-Overachiever - Watch the 106% bonus ending.

 Hardest Trophy -

OVER-Overachiever

Watch the 106% bonus ending

DLC #180 - Far Cry 4 - The Valley of the Yetis

Whilst I admire the intention to at least do something a little bit different - and by different, I just mean "At least it's not zombies again..." - I still can't help but think that if I was to make a list of games out there I didn't really want a reason to revisit, Far Cry 4 would be on it.

But what's one more average gaming experience? Albeit a fairly short one, which makes it palatable at least. Even the intriguing selling point of Yetis still somehow ultimately turns out to fit the Modus Operandum for Far Cry 4 of everything just feeling a little bit underwhelming.

You're still in control of the main protagonist, Ajay Ghale, as the plot starts with a helicopter crash landing right in the middle of a valley. Your pilot is heard being taken captive by a local group and you have no clear way of escape. You eventually find a relay station to hole up in, which you acquire control of - and will ultimately have to defend throughout the story. The goal is to find your pilot and escape, as the plot is told via radio communication with a man who eventually identifies himself as Master Sandesh, leader of the Disciples, the group who have taken the pilot hostage and hold the secrets that occupy the valley.

Except, they're not the only occupants of the valley. The Yeti plays a role in the plot, though their overall presence both within the storyline and open world is somewhat on the scarce side. You mainly fight against disciples throughout the storyline, and Yetis only really make the odd appearance during a story mission or through open world random encounter. It's not exactly a massive dealbreaker, but if you're excited at the prospect of being led to believe that they're at the forefront of this DLC, you're in for a disappointing revelation.

Outside the plot, the new environment just feels like the same as it did in the main game, just with snow, though in a thankfully sensible move, you don't have to liberate outposts to reveal it bit by bit anymore. Other smaller additions of the snowmobile as a mode of transport and a small collection of side quests rebranded from the main story just feel pretty insignificant. Just like the main game, it's a passable at best experience.

The package contains 7 trophies, which can all be earned through natural progression of the storyline, and best explained by splitting this content down into 3 parts.

There are 6 Storyline missions to complete the story, which will earn 3 progression-based trophies, 5 nights to survive in-between, which are used as a way to break up the story missions, and 9 additional side quests to complete in order to unlock 2 trophies relating to earning all relay station upgrades.

The relay station, which serves the purpose of a hideout, is attacked each night, and you're made to survive 5 nights in between each story mission, giving the story an interesting little twist. It's actually nicely done, and the way they're interwoven is a good touch, but it does ultimately just boil down to being a horde-mode-esque feature that pads some additional time to the package as you fend off increasingly more challenging waves of enemy per night. The steadily progressive levels of chaos are fun to watch unfold when you reach the latter nights and Yetis start to turn up and you've suddenly got a 3 way fight between yourself, the disciples and the Yetis, but it's still just a content-padding concept when you strip it all back.

The 9 side quests, which also contain little variety, especially given that most of them are just ripped straight from the main game - Hijack a truck, collect some bags etc - are vital to complete outside of the trophies they award, due to the fact the upgrade rewards will help you greatly when fending off the nightly attacks.

Each side quest will grant you access to an additional feature to help you defend the relay station, whether this be a mounted turret gun, stronger fortifications or traps, so from a strategic perspective, it makes sense to complete these as soon as you can. They're a bit bland, but it's fun seeing the carnage on nightly defence missions when you have every upgrade installed and traps are going off like fireworks.

It all amasses to around a 6-8 hour experience. Missions and side quests are short, sweet and well mixed, and it's nicely paced throughout with the alternating story. It feels very much just more of the same, and I didn't expect anything drastically different that strayed too far from the already trodden path, but it's a fairly quick completion, so it never reaches the point of feeling laboured or forced. You're also encouraged to kill the Yetis, which awards the remaining 2 trophies within this set once 5 of them are felled. They're big, hit hard and they soak up bullets like a sponge, but they're still no match for a couple of power weapons and that's about as tough as it gets.

DLC #179 - Metal Gear Rising : Revengeance - VR Mission Expansion

If you're a trophy hunting Metal Gear Solid fan, and the term "VR Missions" doesn't send a shiver down your spine by now, then you're more than likely a being devoid of any sort of human emotion.

The 20 VR Missions contained within the base game were a genuine blocker for many people, due to their unforgiving nature and steep difficulty curve, and this expansion brings more of the same kind of pain.

The expansion adds 30 fresh VR Missions, and comes with just 2 additional trophies to cover them. It's a straight-forward concept, and there really isn't much further context to provide in terms of depth here - Take what you already had from the base game and just add more. Pretty simple.

The Missions include a variety of different tasks, but they're the same tasks that made up the foundations of the original missions. Reaching a specific waypoint within a certain amount of time, clearing the stage of all enemies, defeating all enemies using a specific method etc. 

There are some interesting tweaks - Some of the missions now have you playing them from a side-scrolling perspective, rather than third person, some of the stages are littered with insta-kill explosive mines, which is my least favourite tweak, and some are played within the dark. You don't really see enough of these changes to make this feel like a completely fresh experience, and most of the things that do feel familiar centre around the agonising feelings of frustration that came with overcoming the VR Missions from the main game.

Despite there only being 2 trophies, one of which is awarded for just simply beating each of the 30 missions to any requirement, this a gentle reminder that the VR Missions are not exactly light work;

Hero of the Metaverse - Set the highest score on every DL-VR Mission.

The "Hero of the Metaverse" trophy, awarded for Setting the highest score on every DL-VR Mission, requires you to achieve the first place time requirement on each of the 30 new VR Missions. This is exactly the same experience as the "Virtually Flawless" trophy from the base list.

I flew through the first 18 missions with little to no trouble whatsoever, and then suddenly hit the wall. The same wall that I was dreading from the original set of missions. I wasn't lured into any false sense of security here - I fully expected this to happen. It began on mission 19, and continued on and off right through to mission 30.

Everything that was said about the "Virtually Flawless" trophy from the Platinum Difficulty Rating review is applicable here. Strict time limit requirements with almost no margin for error? Check. Tough enemies that come at you in waves? Check. Loads of trial and error? Check. I fully expected more of the same and that's exactly what you get.

I actually think this set of VR Missions is collectively more difficult than those in the base game, and that's saying something given the steepness of that particular challenge. It also contains the toughest VR challenge out of the entire set in VR-DLC Mission 27, which I spent a total of 10-12 hours on alone, which is insane for just a single VR mission. Just for reassurance, this also seems to be the general consensus, so it's just not me and my own personal shortcomings at play here.

Just to add the relevant context, it requires you to defeat all enemies using Zandatsu with a completion time of less than 8 minutes required for first place. Outside of the fact me and the Zandatsu game mechanic just don't really get along - I've always found it to be wildly inconsistent and awkward - there are so many other nuances that contributed to the pain experienced within attempting to beat this mission.

Enemies can suicidally launch themselves off the edge of the map, which will count as a Non-Zandutsu kill and end the mission - an unfortunate circumstance completely outside of your control, and when you get past the tough part, and this happens to you near the end, that's a hard pill to swallow. The volume of enemies attacking you at once within each wave can also interrupt you from completing a Zandutsu kill, which will also prematurely end the mission. The 8 minute time requirement is tight and it's also very easy to get stun locked in situations that you simply can't recover from as you try to withstand combo attacks from facing enemies simultaneously.

I also mentioned above that one of the tweaks to these new set of VR Missions included playing some levels in the dark, which seriously limits visibility and judgement, especially when attempting to block and parry enemy attacks, making any level with this condition much more difficult, and this applies to VR-DLC Mission 27.

I do also want to reiterate how terrible the camera is in this game, and it can't be understated how much it works against you within these VR Missions. It was something I highlighted during the Platinum Difficulty Review, and it's a shame they didn't take the opportunity within this expansion to address something that quite clearly needed fixing - Particularly because you have to block and parry so often within these standout Missions, it makes the design flaw even more critical to success. There is enough working against you here without long-standing, buggy game design playing it's part.

VR-DLC Mission 30 also deserves a mention. I spent a fair few hours trying to beat that too. It requires you to defeat all enemies by any means within a 15 minute time limit for first place, but it pales in comparison to VR-DLC Mission 27.

Despite this matching every expectation I had based on recent prior experience of VR Missions, it didn't make it any less daunting. To spend 15-20 total hours on a DLC package where around 60-70% of that time is spent attempting to beat a single mission is a real test of determination to succeed. Many people would, and probably have, given up the ghost on this under the belief that it just isn't worth the hassle when a Platinum trophy isn't at stake. 

I don't necessarily blame them, but then again, I've always been glutton for punishment, and I'll take the greatest solace in the fact that these VR Missions are finally behind me.