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