DLC #46 - Modern Warfare 3 Content Collection 1

Special Ops time!

Infinity Ward break their usual DLC trends, with the addtion of 6 new trophies for the 2 new Spec Ops missions contained within the first content collection pack.

You can nab 4 of the trophies for just completing both the missions (named Black Ice and Negotiator) on veteran difficulty, where the other 2 are granted for performing specific in-level actions in each of the missions.

The Black Ice trophies are incredibly easy to achieve, even on veteran, but Negotiator will certainly require a bit of persistence. The level itself is definitely tougher and the requirement of saving all 35 hostages demands a fast and methodical approach which will also take a few attempts to perfect.

All in all, it shouldn't take much longer than a few hours to achieve all 6 trophies. It's probably easier to do them in solo, but still not too difficult if you choose to partner up and achieve the trophies with a buddy.

Platinum #39 - Assassins Creed : Revelations

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 5/10                          
The single player trophies follow the typical mould of Assassins Creed games.                                  
There's a ton of progression based trophies for completing the various sequences throughout the game, with 15 trophies awarded for beating each of the games main story sequences, both for Ezio and Desmond, which is capped off with the "Revelations" trophy, awarded for completing DNA sequence 9, and beating the game.                                                                         
Even though the story has a modest length, clocking in at around 12 hours, there is room for alot of post-game work on this list, with a handful of trophies that will keep you playing way beyond the completion of the main story arc.

The "Fond Memories" trophy, awarded for achieving 100% synchronisation in all sequences, requires you to fulfil a range of challenges in order to fully synchronise every mission throughout the main story. The requirements range in difficulty, with some being extremely easy and some being quite challenging to fulfil, however the vast majority of the missions in the game slip into the former category, rather than latter, meaning the challenge isn't as great as it could have been.

You'll still need to go back and replay the mission in full in order for any progress to be saved, which can be a touch time consuming, depending on how many missions you need to achieve full synchronisation for, but the requirements are laid out in the pause menu, so you can always reflect on them before, or during, a mission in order to make sure you know what you'll need to do and minimise the need to replay DNA sequences at the end.
                                               
There are also some ever present collectible based trophies in this list too. The "Capped" trophy, awarded for collecting all Animus data fragments, requires you to collect 100 fragments in total, and it can be tough to begin with because there's no way for them to appear on your in-game map and assist with collection progress. However, when you manage to reach 50, the rest automatically appear on the map and are ready to be collected, which suddenly makes the task significantly easier, but up until that point, the help from the game is non-existent.

The "Sage" trophy, awarded for collecting all available books, is even more difficult, and requires you to obtain 28 books from various outlets within the game. Some of them are given to you throughout the main story, and by beating certain side quests, but the majority of them have to be purchased, and are incredibly expensive.

The cumulative total of every single book is around 450,000 coins, which is an incredible amount of money to amass, and the best way to raise money is by indulging in any activity that generates hourly income, including shop renovations, property purchasing and Mediterranean defence missions. The more of these you purchase and control, the more money you'll make each hour, and it's definitely something you should get onto early, otherwise you'll find yourself grinding out a very long end-game as you wait for each hourly tick to bring in enough money you need to buy every book. Money generating side activities unlock quite early, so if you indulge in them straight away, you'll spend less time trying to accumulate the money at the end of the game when everything else is finished and you have nothing left to do.

The "Mentor" trophy, awarded for having seven trainees reach the rank of Master Assassin, requires you to indulge in another somewhat grindy element of the game, and even though levelling up your Assassin crew isn't really difficult, you need to get seven of them to reach the highest rank (by sending them on defence missions, and returning them as successful), and even after the highest rank, you need to perform an assassination mission for each of them to earn the Master Assassin title. 

It's also important to note that Assassin's can die, in which case you'll have to start from scratch for each unit that does not return from a mission, and they also have a cooldown time period before they can be sent out again. It doesn't make it anymore difficult, just long winded and grindy.
              
The "Tax Evasion" trophy, awarded for getting your money back from a tax collector, has a massive element of luck which causes nothing but annoyance. The spawning of tax collectors isn't only random, but also extremely sparse, and having to wait for hours for this trophy to pop was nothing but frustrating. There are methods that allegedly make him spawn quicker, though I didn't find any correlation personally, and it was just a matter of waiting around, literally for hours, for him to spawn and take my money.

The Multiplayer portion of the game is much more relaxed this time round, and definitely a step down from the gruelling tasks included in the trophies from Brotherhood.                                                                                            
The "True Templar" trophy, awarded for reaching level 20, is less than half of what was required in the Brotherhood, and it will take the average player no longer than 6/7 hours to hit that level.

Every other trophy related to the online portion of the game can be easily accomplished on your way towards that milestone, and none of them really provide any sort of challenge, and you will even unlock most of them natrually as you work your way through to level 20, making the Multiplayer the easiest aspect of this whole list, a very stark contrast to the previous game in the series and it's gruelling trophies.
                                                                                                                                                 
The series definitely takes a step back from the difficulty spike presented within Brotherhood, and goes back to it's original and much familiarly easier roots. 

The Multiplayer trophies are so casual, you won't even need to go out of your way to unlock most of them, and as long as you're just focusing on hitting level 20, you'll probably end the Multiplayer side of the list as soon as you hit that milestone. 

Some of the Single player trophies can be extremely grindy, or at least feel a bit repetitive, but the element of genuine challenge is very little, and the games combat system is still as easy as ever. Some of the challenges to achieve full synchronisation of memories will give you a few tests, but that's about it in terms of difficulty, and if you don't mind a bit of a slog throughout, and into the end-game, this is a relaxed Platinum trophy, even though you can safely put a 35-40 hour minimum completion time onto it.

Notable Trophies -

Fond Memories - Achieve 100% Synchronisation in all Sequences
Capped - Collect all animus data fragments
Sage - Collect all available books
The Mentor - Have seven trainees reach the rank of Master Assassin
Tax Evasion - Get your money back from a Templar tax collector

Hardest Trophy -                                                                                                                                               

Tax Evasion
Get your money back from a Templar tax collector

DLC #45 - Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories : The Ballad of Gay Tony

Take on the role of Luis Lopez,
and do the dirty for Tony Prince

The Ballad of Gay Tony does everything The Lost and Damned did tenfold. More trophies, greater time commitment and much more difficult to achieve 100%.                                                                                  
Going through the smaller scale stuff provides some interesting (and some not so interesting) tasks, such as free-falling for the maximum amount of time possible and perfectly pulling off a series of quick time event dancing mini-games in both nightclubs. There's also a few standard progression related trophies for completing the main story within.                                                                                                  
The less interesting stuff in the content requires you to perform 25 gang wars, which are OK for the first few times, but very quickly recycle and cause the inevitable feeling of dragging on.                                                         
There's also 15 base jumps to complete, which are slightly less boring, but only because there are less of them to do. It's still has a very "chucked in" feel to it for the sake of longevity.                                                                                                                                             
Aside completing the 26 main story missions once, which is a good 8-10 hours in it's own respect, there is a challenge to be had here in the form of 1 trophy;
                      

TBoG : Gold Star
Score 100% in all Missions : The Ballad of Gay Tony


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
Each mission comes with a set of it's own criteria, which must all be fulfilled to attain 100% in that particular mission. This will require multiple playthroughs, given how difficult it can be to achieve all the criteria in 1 go for the majority of them.                                                      
For some missions, it simply isn't possible, and they're required to be broken down as you go through the mission 3/4 times in order to make sure you tick off each criteria systematically.
                      
Some people will definitely find it a slog, and probably more hassle than it's actually worth, especially when you consider the fact it is merely a bronze trophy. Some of the missions have some testing requirements, and you'll have to face up to the fact these certain missions will need a bit of perseverance and metal in order to finish them to 100%.                                                            
I personally found it quite enjoyable, which is somewhat surprising given the amount of repetition, but the constant drive to better my last effort meant I always saw reasons to go back and retry a mission. None of them we're insanely difficult by any means, it was mainly the completion times criteria that served up the problems for the harder missions, but when you didn't have to worry about meeting any other criteria you had already achieved, speed runs become somewhat easier.
                  
Overall, it's roughly a 25-30 hour experience, though that will vary depending on the extent to which you need to replay missions. The challenge is stern though, so it's safe to suggest most people will push to the higher end of that boundary. Great piece of DLC though, I can't recommend GTA highly enough.                                                                                                              

What is the big deal over Day 1 DLC?

There are a number of phrases you can utter that will boil the blood of gamers worldwide. Whether it be "Yellow Light of Death", "Rubber-Banding AI", "Unskippable Cutscenes" or "So, Bethesda are releasing a new  game then..."

All of these have been with us for a while, but there's something missing from that list. Day 1 DLC.

This is mainly because of the fact it's only really come to fruition in more recent times, as more and more developers catch onto the idea of releasing additional content at the exact same date as the release of the main retail game itself.

Naturally, it has caused a storm of sorts amongst gaming communities who believe day 1 DLC is nothing more than a shameless cash-grab, and the content of said DLC should have been packaged within the game already at no additional cost.

Mass Effect 3 is the latest game to embrace Day 1 DLC

Mass Effect Producer, Casey Hudson, has jumped to the defence of Mass Effect 3 by stating, "It takes about 3 months from "content complete" to bug fix, certify, manufacture and ship game discs. In that time, we work on DLC."

From a purely personal point of view, I understand the argument, after all, isn't post game DLC exactly that? Whether it's released 2 hours, or 2 years after the game, the core factors such as the degree of content and pricing will still remain the same, so it somewhat baffles me why people are against getting their hands on DLC earlier, rather than later.

Do some developers take advantage of the concept of DLC by creating a game, deliberately chopping off 10% of it, and then shipping it out as DLC at a later date? Possibly, but that's a completely different argument entirely. There's a difference between offering an expansion unrelated to the core game experience, and purposely cutting off parts of the game in order to make room for the possibility of DLC later down the line.

Sure, the primary concern of both methods is to maximise profits, but the ethics of both are at completely opposite ends of the spectrum.

It's a shame in some ways, because I genuinely feel that most developers who offer day 1 DLC are doing so simply because they want to bring post game expansions to players at a greater convenience, but they'll always be under scrutiny for it because of how much of a juggernaught computer games have become in recent years and the amount of money the big dogs in the business make from them.

If you don't agree with day 1 DLC, then simply boycott it and either wait to purchase it at a later date or when it comes down in price, which still isn't guaranteed to happen. Whichever side of the argument you're on, it doesn't change the fact that day one DLC is becoming more common, and, in my opinion, we should embrace times where developers are willing to go the extra mile on games to offer us a greater all round experience, at the soonest time possible. 

After all, how can it ever be considered a bad thing to see developers, who take such pride in their work, want to keep expanding it and giving us even more?

DLC #44 - LA Noire - Nicholson Electroplating

Discover the mystery behind a huge
factory fire.

LA Noire DLC is finally wrapped up with the Nicholson Electroplating Arson case, which introduces yet another 5 trophies. As usual, 1 gold and 4 hidden, and, as usual, extremely easy to achieve aswell.

Completing the case will take around an hour or so, but the hidden trophies are quite easily missable, unlike certain previous cases, so use a guide at your own discretion.
                                            
I can't think of another game that provides such a generous offering of DLC trophies. 20 trophies in total, 4 of which are gold, and all 4 cases can be easily finished within less than 5 hours collectively. There isn't that great of a challenge in any of the cases, but they offer some excellent additional gameplay and extend the LA Noire experience excellently.
                                                                     
You shouldn't really get the game for whoring the trophies, but for the fact it's an excellent game, though there is no doubt the vast abundance of DLC trophies on offer make the incentive to pick this game up much greater. 

Platinum #38 - Call of Duty : Black Ops

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 8/10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Notable Trophies -

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

Hardest Trophy -                                                                                                                                            


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

DLC #43 - LA Noire - Reefer Madness

Time for a classic drug bust.

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

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

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

Easy. Easy. Easy.

Luck Based Trophies - Yes or No?

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

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

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

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

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

DLC #42 - Dead Space 2 Severed

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

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

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

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

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

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