Month 1 - Am I on the right track?

I would like to welcome everyone back to my blog. Today I will be talking about my experiences with the 2 main games I have been playing, Demon's Souls and Dead Space 2. Then at the end I will be discussing how my first month of this goal is going. Lots to talk about, so lets get started with Demon's Souls.

As I planned this game is taking longer for me to Platinum let alone work on it. I love the game it's a great game, but it seems the problem I am having is I must sit down for a good 2 hours to play it. In other words I need to dedicate my time to this game... I can't play for 30 minutes go do something and come back to it. This may seem like a cheap excuse, but it's true. It takes at least 1 hour to beat a level and upwards to 2 hours. If you leave the level halfway everything spawns back, so no progress was made. I have beat 1-1 and 2-1 so far completely. You've also seen what I have done in 1-2 and 4-1 from the video I posted this past week. I will continue to play this game, but the updates might be slow. If I beat a level a week I could have the plat for this in about a month or two (if I decide to use the duping glitch).

I recorded my 2-1 boss fight, but accidentally deleted it, tried recovering it but failed. Instead I will describe what I did in the video that way you can do the same thing. I had my Compound Long Bow upgraded to Compound Long Bow +3 (don't upgrade it past this or you won't be able to upgrade it to Vicious Compound Long Bow. If you did that already don't panic just use a meltstone, and it will downgrade it. Downside is you'll lose the hardstone it took to upgrade), and make sure you have plenty of arrows. Once you enter the white fog to take on the boss run to the left side of the cave and stay against this wall (make sure you have thiefs ring on, this makes it so he can't target you with his fireballs). From the side of the save just keep shooting him with arrows, every once in a while he will hit you with his web attack, don't worry it does little damage and you can heal yourself in plenty time without having to worry about it to much. Just keep shooting him until he dies.

I recently picked up my copy of Dead Space 2. The first Dead Space was great, played through it fully twice (2 1/2 playthroughs for platinum). Never saw myself playing it again, so I got rid of it. I must say from what I have played in Dead Space 2 (regardless of having multiplayer or not) I'm most likely keeping this one on the shelf to be played at a later time.

I have yet to beat Dead Space 2. I was hoping to down it Saturday, but due to unfortunate working issues I couldn't. I made it 2/3 of the way Friday and planned to finish it on Saturday, but couldn't. Today, (Sunday) I have to work as well and most likely won't get to finish.

For my playthrough right now. I'm just enjoying the game, not technically worried about the trophies. I do know I will be playing New Game+ on Zealot most likely to determine the best strategies for hard core (which I will discuss later) and to finish off the trophies I missed. There are a few missable trophies, make sure to check out the Dead Space 2 Trophy guide (on ps3trophies.org) to find out what they are, and make sure you pick them up before finishing your first playthrough. The guide wasn't posted when I started and missed a few, but I can get them through my New Game+. The missable trophies are your first priority though, so don't forget them.

Here's the run down of what I'm doing.

Normal Playthrough
Learning where the enemies come from and what their actions are like. Picking up trophies that are related to story, and just in general gained from playing (100 logs, dismembering necros, shooting out windows in space, not getting hit by brutes, etc. etc.)

New Game+ Zealot Playthrough
Here I will be taking in consideration the hardest parts to get past and the best strategies to use on that part, while finding the best places to save in hard core (3 saves). I will be also working on getting the trophies I missed, such as Lightspeed de milo and elevator action. I will be also continuing on my kill trophies that don't involve plasma cutter (dismember 2500 necro limbs, kill 50 necros with flamethrower, kill a necro with every weapon, etc) Once I have every trophy except the Hard core (and maybe beat zealot difficulty) I will start my hardcore.

That is my trophy rundown for Dead Space 2. I know I haven't done one for Demon's souls, but that's because I'm not sure how I'm gonna go about it. Probably be like beat every boss (except last boss), farm for stones and get the best weapon in each class trophies, collect all spell and miracle trophies, which will then give me the plat. If I decide to do the duping trick. This will cut my playtime dramatically and make the platinum easier to get, but I lose a lot of gameplay doing that.

Dead Space 1 the hardest trophy to get was beating the game on impossible. I should you that it was very manageable. It was the difficulty of medium, but they hit like they were on hard. Now Dead Space 2 has gone an extra level to create an even harder trophy. Some people are freaking out about it, but honestly it doesn't sound all that bad. Hard core is about the difficulty of normal (which I'm playing on now), but the kicker is... you only get 3 saves throughout the whole game O.o . your probably freaking out right now, but don't worry. On normal, so far I have only died twice once due to not knowing how hard this one enemy hit and he jumped me by surprise, the next was because I blew out a window, and as I was sliding on the floor I didn't shoot the airlock in time and got cut in half :(. The only difficult part I see about this is playing the game for 3-5 hours straight. It sounds more time consuming that it does hard really. I will be recording video of my hard core playthrough, and again will be giving strategies to help you along the way if you ever decide you want to platinum this game.

Now from what I have played so far from Dead Space 2... has just been downright amazing. The visuals are beautiful, the ambiance that the first one had has been revamped in a good way, and just the cut scenes, story, and the little add ins they added were all upgrades from the older game. brilliant work these guys did. More on that next week after I beat it though.

Now some of you maybe wondering how am I doing in my goal... am I on schedule? Am I sticking to my back log/plan? Am I being distracted?

Short answer somewhat, no, and maybe.

Long answers... Am I on Schedule? I calculated about 85 trophies a month and 1 platinum a month (and 2 platinum for 3 months). I have officially broken 1100 trophies (at 1102 atm), but I started this month with 1047 (give or take a few). That's only 55 if ya know your math... and 55 =/= 85. My excuse though, is I've been side tracked and am currently taking on one of the longer platinums (Demon's Souls). Being side-tracked answers my second question...

Am I sticking to my backlog/plan? No... I have been distracted by 2 shiny new games that is a pick up and play, and put down whenever I want. Those 2 games are Super Street Fighter IV and Magic: The Gathering. I am working towards some trophies atleast, but not the trophies I should be working on.

Am I being distracted? This question may seem similar to the last question, but I meant it in a personal way. A huge reason I haven't gotten a lot of trophies or playing Demon's souls is because I haven't been around my recorder. I don't live with my Fiancee, but she has her own place. This past week I have been over there for 5 out of 7 day of the week. With no recorder I refuse to play Demon's Souls or any other game I decide to play on it's hardest difficulty.

As I currently am I am well within capability of completing this goal, but it's calm before the storm. In other words... It's gonna get more rough as I get further into this goal. I'll have to start dealing with full-time school, part-time work, and full-time Fiancee. I need to put more time into this than I am now, and I also need to take it more seriously. I want to complete this goal, but I need to make adjustments to make it happen. Thanks for tuning in guys! Please follow my blog, and get the word out that this is the coolest gaming blog you will ever find! Thanks again and I'll catch you all next week!

Trophy Counter:
Trophies: 1102/2012 Platinum Trophies: 18/32

Week 3 - All Over The Place

This past week has been crazy, and I've literally been all over the place when it comes to events, time of gaming, and what games I've been playing. Last update I just finished my platinum for Dead Space, and moved on too Demon's souls.

Once the weekend hit though I strafed away from it due to a few events over the weekend. First I Worked all day Friday, and once I got home from work I upgraded my hard drive to 500GB (If enough people ask about doing this I will put it in the next available blog). due to backing up, recording, and putting the hard drive in I didn't finish until about 1 A.M.. The next day my Fiancee took me to this wonderful breakfast place in Portland, OR called Screen Door. She took me to this place because I've always wanted to partake in Fried Chicken and Waffles, and Screen Door has been on unique eats show where they noted that their Fried Chicken and waffles was a must have. The second event was my first batch of brewed beer (which happens to be Irish Stout) was finished fermenting and was ready to be bottled. On top of that I helped my Future Father-in-law bottle his batch. This took all day saturday, and when I got home it was to late to jump into a deep game such as Demon's Souls. Instead I played some SSFIV (which I have yet to decide if I want to work the platinum or not), and Magic: The Gathering Duels of the Planeswalker. Both are easy games to put down after a few minutes.

On Sunday I worked all day, and got home around 7. The lady and I decided to take off to use our free movie tickets to see True Grit, which I thought was a great movie, but this blog isn't about movies so I'll move on. We got home late again, so I decided to throw more time into SSFIV and M:TG. This also prevented me from getting my blog up on Sunday. I wanted to get it up on Monday, but that turned out to be out of the question as well.

On Monday we took off to the hospital, because my Father-in-law was going into surgery to have a disk fixed in his up back (right behind his neck). This was because of an rear end accident that happened about 9 months ago. After his surgery we took him home, and watched some movies with him before we headed home. I literally got no playing time or even blogging time in before I went to bed.

After you have read my life story of the past week lets move on to what I did accomplish in my gaming goal. We'll start with Demon's Souls!

I love Demon's Souls, but I can only play it when I plan to do nothing for at least half the day. It takes hours to get through a level or just to complete what your trying to do. What I have accomplished in the game is gearing up my character.

I decided to roll a Female Royal. Female for the Ring of Avarice and Silver Bracelet making it easier to farm souls (for leveling and purchasing items/upgrades). Royal because they start at level 1 soul level allowing me to choose where my first stats are allocated, and because soul arrow makes the 1-1 redonkulously easy. You of course can choose what ever class you want to play, these are just the reasons I chose the Female Royal (I am a male in real life).

I Complete 1-1 so I can open every other X-1 level. My first mission was to take out the red dragon guarding the bridge in 1-2. Allowing me two items I need for my build, 1. Winged spear 2. Purple Flame shield. Next step was to go into 4-1 and get the compound long bow.Here is a video with commentary on what I did to get those items. Again you can click on the video twice for it to take you to YouTube.com allowing you to watch in HD.



That is as far as I've gotten, but I know the next step is to get that compound long bow to a Sticky (Vicious) Compound Long Bow by farming for Hardstones in Boletarian Palace to get it to Compound long bow +3 and than Spidertones to get it to Sticky (Vicious) Compound Long Bow +5. This I know will take some time, and once I get through it I will show you the easiest way to farm them.

I have also been Playing SSFIV, I've heard the hardest part in getting a platinum in this game is the Trials... You have to complete all 24 trials with all 35 Fighters. 1-20 can be down quite easily with some patience, but 21-24 is the ones that can take hours. Lately I've spent trying to finish Sagats trials (which I did), as well as C. Viper, and Ryu. Lately I've been thinking about just doing the first 20 trials, than getting the story and online trophies, and then comeback to it if I decide I want to platinum the game. Right now it's just a game to keep my attention while waiting for Dead Space 2 (Which comes out the day I post this blog).

Next I decided to get M:TG Duels of the Planeswalker. I got this game because it was cheap, and I grew up playing card games such as M:TG. I completed story mode (16 games) with the Green deck, which was quite doable I think I lost once or twice, but only took me about 4 hours. Next I went through the challenges, and here are some videos of how to complete them.

Challenges 1-8


Challenge 9


This netted me a handful of trophies that M:TG has to offer. Win 1 game, Deal 20 damage in 1 turn, Beat Story mode, Beat 1 challenge, Beat All challenges. Really the only ones left is win so many games on-line, win two-headed dragon (which hopefully my Friend Sincethesurgery will help me with since I know he bought this as well), and get over 30 life (which can be easily done with the white deck in story mode, or playing the green deck I won with against the other solo green deck using the artifact that allows me to gain 1 life whenever a green spell is played).

With that all I've played I am now heading out to pick up my Dead Space 2. I still plan on working on my Demon's souls game, I'll will probably drop SSFIV and M:TG for now until Dead Space 2 is done. I also acquired Mass Effect 2 earlier this week, but won't play that until after Demon's Souls is done. Thanks everyone for reading my Blog, hope to catch you all on Monday. Don't forget to follow my two friends twitters and their blog, they're both very cool guys that also love gaming! Twitter: Sincethesurgery Blog: http://fancyarmy.tumblr.com/ & Twitter: elmander blog: http://bronzetrophy.tumblr.com/

Peace!

Trophy Counter:
Trophies: 1077/2012 Platinum Trophies: 18/32

Week 2 - First Platinum!

 So I ended last week on level 3 of Dead Space. I was pretty excited to start of this goal with a bang thought I would be able to start on my next game (Demon's Souls), but came across a HUGE error on my part. I realized I was playing it on hard mode >.< Noob mistake on my part. Luckily I kept my end of game save (Always keep these for this kind of moment, you never know what mistake you might make). Therefore I had to start over, but to my surprise it was about the same difficulty as hard. They took less shots to dismember, which was nice on the wallet and conserving ammo. The one thing that was harder was their hits. boy did they hit like trucks! the regular necros would take 2-3 bars of my health, super necros were taking 5-6, regenerating necro to 5-6.

So I wrote a few tips last week on how to help you get through hard, so we are going to rebuild that, but keeping in mind it was impossible mode I was suppose to be playing.

Tips for Impossible Mode
- Save your Ammo when you can! Taking out a Necromorphs legs, use stasis on him, then stomp a mudhole into his head. Only do this when you know of your surroundings. Getting greedy can cost you.
- Sell your Stasis and Air can packs for ammo in the store. I found that 90% of my ammo was bought from the store. There are Stasis and Air recharges throughout the game when you need them the most, so don't worry about not having it when you need it.
- Use the explosive cylinders around you to your advantage. These are placed throughout the game, and are easy to spot. They deal massive damage and can save on ammo if you use Kenisis to pick it up and throw it.
- Upgrade Plasma cutters damage first! The faster you do that the more ammo you save, the less ammo you have to buy/find.
- Use your corners to your advantage. You've played that game at least, you remember where they come from. Taking 1 at a time is better than taking 3 at a time. Also if they can't see you they can't hit you.
- When being overran by Necropmorphs find a room. Every room has 1 or more vents, They have to come through those vents 1 at a time. allowing you to stay calm and time your shots.
- If overwhelmed in close combat use Stasis. Controlling whats around you makes this game easier. If 2 Necromorphs are in your face Stasis 1 so you can take the other out more easily.
- If not going for the One Gun Trophy/Achievement I recommend the Force Gun. Helps with large amounts of necromorphs and also has splash damage.
- Always go for the legs first. Necromorphs without legs are slower an are less of a threat.
- When in doubt shoot. If you see a Necromorph on the ground, and your not sure he's faking death or not... shoot him you'll find out.
- Put yourself in a corner. Normally you wouldn't want to do this when trying to survive, but more times than not I found it allowing me the furthest distance and safest place to shoot/kill Necromorphs from.

As a Bonus to this Blog I recorded my Gameplay through impossible mode. I sifted through all my work and picked out some of the fights in the game that I thought were the hardest, and gave some pointers on what to do. Quick not: The first level was not put on here because you take on I think 6 or 7 Necromorphs, which none of those fights were all that hard.

Also all my videos were recorded in HD, so if you want to view in HD just click on the video and it will direct you to YouTube where you can watch in HD.

Level 2 & 3

Level 4, 5, & 6


Level 7, 8, & 9


Level 10


Level 11 & 12


Final Boss/Trophy Pop!


On top of that I also got a free game this week. I went in to my local EB Games, and traded in some games I wasn't playing/finished and wouldn't play again. I was there to finish paying off my Dead Space 2 game, and they had a deal where if I bought a used game I would get 50% additional trade in value. I had 40$ worth of trade in credit, so if I got a used game I would get 60$ of trade in credit, so I traded for a 20$ game (Which happened to be SSIV), and still walked away with 40$ in trade value.

I got few extra trophies playing that with a friend, I also started Dead Space extraction, since I got it free for pre-ordering Dead Space 2. I plan on finishing that up and then starting on Demon's Souls while I'm at it. Also some of my great friends who have been trying to get me followers deserve some shout outs to their blogs, so here are their links Check Them Out! http://fancyarmy.tumblr.com/ & http://bronzetrophy.tumblr.com/. Thanks for tuning in and I'll see you next week!

Trophy counter:
Trophies: 1057/2012 Platinum Trophies: 18/32

Week 1 - Rough Start

Just got back from my trip to New York City, and I must say that it was an awesome experience. I wish I could describe it to you, but it's something you have to try out for yourself. Movies and stories just don't do it any justice.

When I got back, the next day (Monday) I had to be at class which was awful. Taking 15 credits led me to do my homework and finally unwind from my trip, and was not able to put in any time to my PS3. A lot of time was spent talking to family and friends about the trip. On Tuesday I got called into work, so after class went straight into work. Didn't get home til 8 and this was when I said to myself this isn't going to be possible. I can't work, and take 15 credits. I was so exhausted I had dinner and went to bed. The next day I ran some errands, and dropped my classes. Just a temporary thing, I had no money from being in New York. I could barely afford my books, I still don't have a car from when it was hit and ran by some douche (I know I could take the bus, but that's just another stress), and I just got back from my trip. Next quarter I'm all for it, but this one I had to hold off.

My next road bump is that my recently acquired Fiancee is still on vacation. This isn't a bad thing I've just been spending some time with her before she goes back to her job.

I'm left at the weekend with no game play in, which isn't a problem for most, but I work on the weekends too. Not off to a great start, but luckily me I squeezed some time in on Friday and Saturday morning. Also I gave myself some room by starting this goal with 1040+ trophies, so it gave me some space for these type of problems.


(Just a heads up this will be an extremely long blog, due to me being mid-game going into this goal, so basically I will be giving you the 1-2 weeks I spent on this game before I started the goal.)
Before my New York trip I've been trying to down Dead Space, mainly due to the sequel coming out at the end of this month.

First I want to talk Dead Space, and how much I've enjoyed it. Normally I will review after I have completed the game at least once, which I did, but if I'm in the middle of my first playthrough don't think you'll find a review of the game. Also they will only be short reviews, you'll get what people are basically looking for when they review certain games. In other words I'll be cutting all the filler. This is an older PS3 game that I picked up when it dropped on the greatest hits list. I knew the game was gonna be good, but I'm what you call a "Pansy" I hate these thriller games. Literally I could only beat 1 level at a time when I started playing it. Bioshock took me forever to complete because I would play half a level ever day. Usually I can only stand playing these games once. Once I got use to it it just seemed like an everyday game to me. I was completing 3-4 levels at a time, this is the only thriller game that made me want to pick it up and play some more.

Review:
Sound -The sound and ambiance gave me the feeling that I didn't like, but somehow it drew me closer to the game.  You would hear creeks and clinks in metal or unstable platforms. Surround sound was used in full effect here. Most of the time when I heard a suspicious from the surround sound I would immediately turn that direction to. Sound as usual is always a major factor in thriller games such as this, and it's top notch!

Lighting - Lighting goes hand and hand with sound when it comes to thrillers, and like the sound they did a great job with the lighting to. A lot of points in the game where the lights just shut off, you can barely see and Necros may or may not pop out at you. A few times I found myself running to a door and watching the power shut off and not being able to open the door (due to the power outage) freak out and hide in a corner until power came back on. This game was definitely a "mind fuck" When it came to lighting and sound.

Gameplay- The gameplay was smooth and solid piece of work. You weren't forced into any menu or inventories. It was all done by your characters (Isaac) HUD, which made navigating easier and more visible on what was going on around you. They used the an upgrade system, but was different than the others. It was very unique in a way, almost as if you were re-wiring your weapon to it's max compacity. You would need power nodes to fill the gaps that needed power, so you could get to the good stuff. Power nodes could be found on the floor or purchased for a high price in the store. Many different types of enemies also left the game interesting.

Playability - The controls seem a little sluggish. A lot of times I tried to alternate fire mode or reload or even use a module, and it just wouldn't until I hit it again. Stomping was slow, but I thought it added to the effect of it being one hell of a stomp. I mean he's dismembering people breaking through unknown material boxes (not cardboard) and other things. You expect that stomp to be sluggish due to the power behind it. The HUD menus were also kind of sluggish when you had to flip through the pages using L2/R2. After playing Assassin's Creed series though I can't complete about the way they did the button layout. You have your everyday normal buttons then you have hold down L1 and get a whole new set of things to do like in Assassin's Creed.

Story - The story to me was also very drawing, I won't go to much into detail if you haven't played it yet, but you and your team are headed to this ship that is known for it's planet drilling (gathering resources). Your headed to this ship because you got some distress calls saying they needed repairs. Once you land you find out nobody is alive on the ship. As your progress through the game you find out what was found on the planet they were drilling and the effects it has on the people of the ship. Each level draws you onto that, and you just keep playing because a little more of the secret is revealed.

Replay Value - There isn't a whole lot of replay value in this game. They do allow you to replay on the same difficulty with all your upgrades, money, and items in a New Game+. Also If you want to beat it on hard you have to beat it on a lesser difficulty to unlock the harder difficulty. Really there is only so much you can do, but replay value is there so I can't say this game doesn't have it. Some people might enjoy replaying the game on the same difficulty with all there awesome upgrades.
 
I am glad that I purchased this after it was released on greatest hits, because it lacks multiplayer, which is a standard for today. Paying 60 bucks for a game you would play maybe once or twice (7-8 hours per playthrough) wouldn't warrant the 60 bucks.

Platinum Strategy:
My strategy coming into this plat was very simple. I knew it would require at least 2 playthroughs, because you had to unlock hard to get the hard trophy. My first playthrough I made sure to get the 1 gun trophy (allowing me more freedom in the hard playthrough.) as well as the other missable trophies, Ragdoll Check; Playing Catch; Don't Get Cocky, Kid; Slugger; Crackshot; Zero-G Baller; and There's Always Peng! It's always a good idea to check you missable trophies before you play the game. (I use http://www.ps3trophies.org/index.php for all my Trophy information. They also give you the difficulty to platinum and time to platinum, which can be helpful.) This will prevent you from having the play the game more than you have to. Unless you feel you want to play it that many times. There are only a few games that made me want to continue playing it after I got the platinum. I beat my first playthrough before my trip to New York, so when I came back the only thing left for me to do was get my hard trophy, maxed out, and kill X enemies with X gun. I started a game+ (can only play on the same difficulty) and got all the non hard trophies. I finished that on Friday. Basically I just saved all my health packs and unused ammo, stasis, and air cans in my storage. Then when I started my New Game+ I sold all those items purchased all the power nodes I needed and maxed out each gun after purchasing them. After I upgraded them all I used them to unlock the kill trophies. Pretty simple straight forward. I think I made it to level 6 or 7 before they were all complete.

Hard Strategy:
Saturday morning is when I started my hard playthrough, which took me about an hour 15 minutes to get to level 3. A few things I found that could be difficult. It takes more bullets if not the same amount to kill 1 Necromorph, than you pick up from 1 ammo drop (6 bullets for the cutter) for your gun. My suggestion is you sell all your stasis and air can to supply you with money to buy extra ammo. I also would suggest using your kinesis module to pick up any exploding cylinder things to blow up the Necromorphs. Another thing I suggest is using chopping off their legs, so they end up crawling. Use your Stasis module to slow them down and stomp on their head to finish them off. Also upgraded your cutter to give you full damage should be done first. More Damage = less shots to kill.

Added Backlog:
I found out there are few more games that I forgot to mention that I was interested in. Ico/Shadow Colossus collection, Sly Cooper Collection, Bulletstorm, and Mass Effect 2. A lot of games that I want to complete before next year... haha :(

That concludes this weeks blog, next week I will continue to give more tips on playing the game on hard. I Should also be starting my next game (Demon's Souls) this upcoming week. Please share this blog with your fellow friends and gamers. Many thanks and appreciations to the people have been and continue to do that for me.