Well, it's time to say: "hello!" to another year, 2018, how will you be compared to last year?
Hopefully, for me, in terms of RL, a LOT better. In terms of gaming, I wouldn't object to more of the same.
Onto the final round-up for 2017!
Twin Robots (EU) (Vita) Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
So to start off the month (and indeed a challenge run, more on that later...), I decided to do the D-D-D-D-Double!! and get the Plat in the Vita version, having already done so on PS4.
That version was plagued with problems with trophies not unlocking, problems that were *supposedly* patched but I've heard that's unfortunately not entirely the case. :(
In any case, yep, this one not being patched at the time of playing meant that it definitely still *did* have issues, though I got away with it to a degree. Only really had problems with the spike/acid trophies.
The game itself, just as a quick recap, is an OK puzzle-platformer game, where you guide...err...Twin Robots to the exit after rescuing one of them from a crusher at the start of each level.
Would I recommend it? Well, it's pretty cheap and cross-buy so hard not to if you like the genre, even with the trophy bugs. The Vita version is actually not all that bad compared to PS4 on a performance level, which is highly unusual!!!
Personal Difficulty Rating: 3/10 Personal Game Rating: 2.5/5
Broken Sword 5 - the Serpent's Curse: Episode 1 (Vita) TrophiesBroken Sword 5 - the Serpent's Curse: Episode 2 (Vita) Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
Ordinarily, I wouldn't group games that are *technically* different but on this occasion, seeing as it's been released in one package since then, I shall do here.
OK, so this is one of the games I beat originally before I started my blogs. It's a Point & Click Adventure game, where you guide George Stobbart and Nicole "Nico" Collard at various points.
Your objective is to solve the mystery behind the murder of an art gallery owner that you're providing insurance for but of course, with these types of games, it's never nearly as simple as it initially seems like it will be. :P
It soon turns into a much bigger story and gets very interesting for sure!
The game in general is probably my favourite P&C game since the Monkey Island series, definitely a worthy rival, that's for sure.
The puzzles are clever and intuitive to work out, the gameplay is satisfying and the dialogue is very funny quite frequently!
This version of the game, however, I found kinda annoying due to the controls on the Vita. Not very intuitive having to drag to objects, though it seemed like you could click on them at times too...
Also, it's kinda hard to see what's on the inventory screen because you can't highlight them as effectively as on PS4 i.e. at all. So some of the paper items are pretty difficult to work out the difference between.
This, coupled with the lack of a Plat, albeit 2 separate completions, means that I would definitely have said skip this...if not for the fact it came out as a freebie with PS+. So that throws a bit of a curveball into it.
It's still a decent game even with these issues but I would definitely say if you didn't get this on PS+, play the PS4 version instead! Otherwise, no harm in giving this a go, I suppose.
Personal Difficulty Rating: 2/10 Personal Game Rating: 3.5/5 (ratings are for both episodes)
Invector Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
So, then, onto the next game. Invector, AKA: Avicii: the game!
Seriously, that name will be quite familiar to you by the end of it...because his various collaborations are all that you'll find in this game.
Though it turns out...that's not actually a bad thing imo.
Anyway: the gameplay is pretty unique, in that you have to move around a cylinder, hitting the buttons in order to keep your chain going and pass the song. You also have some flying sections just to break it up a bit, although they're pretty much on-rails, so not as interesting as it could've been imo.
On Easy, this will be a breeze, Medium isn't too bad either. On Hard, though...ooh, some of those arrangements will take practice to memorise, let me tell you!!!
The accuracy required to hit perfect notes as well is KILLER! I don't think I've come across a rhythm game so strict with that to date, though tbf, most of the ones I've played have been Miku games and they're seldom that strict. :P
This brings me onto probably my main gripe with it: I have no issue with the accuracy being so strict BUT: when I spend 10 minutes trying to calibrate it and can't effectively do so, I believe it's a problem.
Should be like the aforementioned Miku, where you can play the song and calibrate it based on your hits, not trying to guess how many ms you're off with your timing like this game makes you. :(
The lack of variety of songs re: it being Avicii only is also potentially off-putting to some, I would say. Even though many of the songs in the game are really good imo, it would definitely be nice to hear some other club anthems.
Oh, and the story in this game is CRINGE-WORTHY! It goes for the: "so bad, it's good!" approach and just outright fails imo. Still, you can skip the cutscenes, I believe (I don't on a first playthrough so I can't say that with 100% accuracy but I *believe* the option comes up if you press a button)
So would I recommend this? Well, for hardcore music fans, absolutely! Possibly better to wait for a sale, though but it is a lot of fun to play imo.
Personal Difficulty Rating: 5/10 Personal Game Rating: 3/5
Welcome Park (Vita) Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
Sorry I had to post a walkthrough video for this one, couldn't find a trailer and this was probably the best quality video. :(
Anyway, for last month's on-going Challenge, I decided to re-visit this and try to finish it off, which I duly did!
This game basically serves as a tutorial to using the Vita and is a pretty effective one at that. The mini-games themselves are pretty interesting on the whole too, though of course, none of them are gonna blow you away.
The mini-games vary from using tilt to jump over obstacles/collect stars, using the camera to take a picture of your face and/or other items to do a block-sliding puzzle and recording your voice and playing it back, amongst other things.
Can't really say a whole lot more about it, tbh, it does what it says on the tin and does so competently. :P
Personal Difficulty Rating: 3/10 Personal Game Rating: 2.5/5
Lost Grimoires 2: Shard of Mystery Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
Right, this is a really, REALLY difficult rhythm game where you...
realise it's actually just another Artifex Mundi game.
So yeah, standard procedure when describing these games:
Point and Click Adventure game with Hidden Object scenes, recurring themes for the puzzles, nice graphics/music, decent story, usually ropey VA.
This time, the story revolves around trying to prevent a sorceress from breaking out of a mirror to take over the world. Pretty standard stuff.
This one was another pretty solid adventure for me. I will say, though as I try to be more objective that the games are starting to get VERY repetitive with the puzzles now, you don't tend to see a whole lot of different ideas anymore, though I suppose it is somewhat difficult to come up with varied ideas.
Nevertheless, if you like these games normally, get it, if you don't, don't.
Personal Difficulty Rating: 2/10 Personal Game Rating: 3.5/5
Squareboy vs Bullies: Arena Edition (EU) Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
So seeing as this ended up becoming a cross-buy purchase and I'd already beat the Vita version, I figured: "why not see if this version is any better and get another Plat while I'm at it?"
I've already covered it at length in a blog from a couple of months ago but to summarise: beat-em-up, Squareboy has to beat all the bullies, Streets of Rage et al clone, 'nuff said.
Somehow, though, this ended up being one of the rare cases where the Vita version was BETTER!!!
The reason? The controls in this are so sticky, it's barely playable. Doesn't matter if you use analogue stick or d-pad, still very unresponsive. This makes the whole using counter move to get out of stun lock almost impossible! :(
Though if you exploit the dash, you can by and large avoid it.
So yeah, unless like me, you love your trophies, I would recommend you stick to the Vita version if possible if you *really* want to play it, though as I said in that past blog, it's not that good a game in the first place imo.
Side-note: I played this on the day just before going to the work's Christmas do and I'd played the Vita version on the day just before going to the old boss' leaving do! Wish I hadn't bothered going to the Christmas one, though for various reasons, which I shall discuss in the: "Final Thoughts" section.
Personal Difficulty Rating: 3/10 Personal Game Rating: 1.5/5
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
Oh boy! I tell ya, I don't think I've had such trouble deciding how to rate a game before but more on that shortly...
So I decided to *finally* finish this off, motivated by the challenge, by and large (or rather not wanting it to destroy my completion like the last one did :P) and I *finally* did it!
So, my final thoughts?
Well, there's no denying that the song selection is by FAR the most comprehensive of any Miku game to date, featuring 224 songs across both main packs (not including the extra DLC ones). Many of the songs were favourites from before but I did find a few new ones amongst them!
However, the huge wealth of songs in this game means that, for me, it's less about quality and more about quantity. I could tell you most of the songs that featured in the other games but I'd probably struggle to name most of the new ones that featured here and many of them really didn't have that much of an impact on me.
Of course, with further playing, it's possible that may change, like it did with Diva F, F 2nd and X...but it took a long time just to get through the list in the first place that playing *all* the songs in the game enough times to click with them isn't likely, esp. with my backlog the way it is.
However, the biggest problem, I think with this by far...the mechanics.
I did complain about them originally when I first started playing and my opinion hasn't changed. They REALLY aren't optimised for console at ALL! Yes, I know I can set up macros and what-have-you...but I really SHOULDN'T have to!!!
The Extreme songs in this, besides the easiest ones, are practically impossible to pass with the controls the way they are, let alone perfect. Of course, I'm sure you can search on YouTube and find a few crazy people that've perfected every song on Extreme with a controller...but imo, that's not the point! It adds a layer of artificial difficulty that just makes it not very fun to play and want to get better at imo!
Then, there's the business model: a playable: "demo" with trophies (All Bronze No Plat (ABNP)) and the trophies themselves are pretty boring...then you have each pack, with trophies just as boring that you have to buy separately to give you a full game.
I really didn't like this one bit and if it weren't Miku, I don't think I'd have gone for it.
Finally: where the £$%@ are the English subtitles in this??? What's the point of localising a game if you're not gonna, ya know, localise it (besides menus)? I know 224 songs is a LOT of work...but many of them have already been done for other games, they could've at least had them!!!
It just makes me feel like they saw the £/$ signs in many respects, tbh.../rant.
HOWEVER: despite that massive rant (it's because I'm so passionate about the series more than anything), this is still a very good rhythm game and pretty much a must-play for fans of the genre, DEFINITELY for Miku fans.
Now I'm trying to consider whether to get the JP/Asian release for a Platinum trophy...all bundled how it should've been in the FIRST place imo!
So yeah, safe to say there was a lot of difficulty rating this but ultimately, the sheer wealth of content and the quality of said content does shine through in the end ultimately imo, despite my various misgivings.
I just hope that for future instalments, we don't have these garbage mechanics...or at the very least they're optimised. Oh, and get rid of the stupid story/affinity grinding as well please, SEGA!!!
Personal Difficulty Rating: 3/10 Personal Game Rating: 3.5/5
HiQ Ace Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
Once again, apologies for the lack of an official trailer here.
So after Puzzle Showdown 4K released early this year with a shiny GRP, how will this freebie (only in EU currently sadly) with no Plat fare? :P
Well, given that it's free, you don't expect too much from it. You get 6 puzzles you can play on 3 difficulties and if you want more, you can purchase them from the store.
Gameplay wise, it's pretty standard aside from one major difference.
The game HIGHLIGHTS where a piece goes all the way through and once you do that, it will highlight another from the selection you currently have, rendering this game a non-challenge.
Maybe you can turn it off somewhere, tbf, I didn't really think to look but it's a bit of an odd choice to have it as the default anyway.
The music is quite nice, the backgrounds are pretty much the same kind of thing as PS 4K from what I can tell.
Once again, hard not to recommend given that it's free and you can get all the trophies w/o paying a penny. Shame the 2 grindy ones are made annoying by the lack of a counter. Grr...
Personal Difficulty Rating: 1/10 Personal Game Rating: 2/5
Trine 2 Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
Wow, I literally don't remember any of that that was shown in the trailer! Must've all been in the 2nd half of the game as you don't need to play all of this version for the Plat. :P
In fact, I wouldn't even have played this game anywhere near as early...if not for the challenge. Those co-op flags proved invaluable!!!
Anyway, from what I can tell, this game is actually pretty good (or at the very least pretty!) and I should try to make an effort to play all of them properly very soon!
It's a puzzle-platformer that follows on from the first game (duh!) and the idea is you have to use the Rogue, Wizard and Knight's abilities in unison as you traverse the game's various environments in order to progress and ultimately save the world! From what, IDK as I said, only played half of it.
So I've had to do a first and give this game a provisional rating. It's not something I hope I ever have to repeat in a hurry, I'd rather be able to give you all a fair view of the game. It looks pretty good,
though, I definitely thought the puzzles I saw were quite clever, though it's definitely not the most user-friendly game I've ever played.
Then again, I was sick when I played it so that might've been part of it.
Personal Difficulty Rating: 2/10 (w/ guide) *PROVISIONAL* Personal Game Rating: 3/5
Level 22 Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
Another game I played solely for the contest...and I did the same thing for GTASC in 2016! :P
It's a horrible, stinky ABNP game...but it's those bronze trophies (plus it being Action-Adventure)
that made this D-D-D-D-Doubly Helpful!!
It's a pretty cool stealth game, where you have to guide Gary back into work without being spotted by his colleagues. He does this by hiding behind newspapers, crawling through vents, spiking his colleagues' coffee and much more besides.
As I've done this game both times with a guide (really wanted to avoid it this time) :( IDK how easy it would be to actually work out on your own. I would imagine the main game is fine but the vault combinations (or indeed where to find the vaults), I get the feeling could be nightmarish!
This was a freebie with PS+ (only on Vita, though) so chances are you may actually have it and if so,
I'd definitely recommend you give it a go. Otherwise, get it on PS4 if you're interested, it's pretty cheap anyway!
Personal Difficulty Rating: 2/10 w/ guide Personal Game Rating: 3/5
NBA 2K18: The Prelude Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
After being fairly surprised by last year's Prelude entry, I was trying to find a moment to play this and the challenge provided me with one. :D
Was it any good, though?
Well: this time around, you're controlling DJ, doesn't matter what you call him, he's always known as DJ and you have to guide him to a tryout with an NBA team. His rival, ATM, will goad you as you go along but who will triumph in the end???
Not much of a spoiler to say: "You" really, is it? :P
I feel that this version was inferior to 2K17's for 2 main reasons.
1) The Story/characters: OMG! Seriously, so annoying! Prez' plight was far more interesting to me and actually quite humorous writing in places, here, it just amounts to smack-talking between you and the other guy,
which pretty much anyone over the age of 5 could write.
2) The Missable trophies in this one were obnoxious. You only get one shot at some of them and if you don't do it that playthrough, you've had it!
Also, if your game crashes on one of them, you've had it too!
DEFINITELY consult a guide before attempting this game if you want 100%.
In any case, it's a freebie for (likely) a limited time before it gets delisted so whether you play it or not is down to how badly you love Basketball or want easy trophies, I'd say.
Personal Difficulty Rating: 1/10 with guide (potentially unobtainable completion without!!) Personal Game Rating: 2/5
My Name is Mayo TrophiesMy Name is Mayo (Vita) Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
Well, how do I even begin here?
There comes a time in every trophy hunter's life where he/she has to look at themselves and think: "why am I doing this again?" :P
In my case, I have an excuse, though! For that shiny TT Community Challenge Complete badge upgrade!!!
Nah, even without it, I'd have still done it, I HAVE NO SHAME!!!
TBH, though, as I said to a friend of mine on PSN, it's a bit silly to worry about what others think of the games you play. If you wanna play games like this, then just do it! Seriously!
Anyway, massive off-topic rant aside, because I needed something to fill the space here. :P
My Name Is Mayo...is a clicker game...made for the sole purpose of giving gamers trophies. Seriously, that's it.
TBF, though, I actually *kinda* found this therapeutic to a degree, I have no idea why. I'd rather do this again than Albedo/Orc Slayer/Eekeemoo, that's for sure! Doesn't detract from the fact, though that as a game, this is an abomination!
I just wish that Green Lava Studios had expanded upon Fenix Furia or, ya know, actually fixed the bugs the trophies had rather than made this!!!
So if you possibly can resist the stupidly low price tag and allure for easy trophies, then please make a stand and don't get this!!! I was too weak, I'm sorry!
Personal Difficulty Rating: 1/10 Personal Game Rating: 0.5/5
Daytona USA Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
DAYTONAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!
To end 2017, I decided to play this old classic...I actually played this to fix a glitch I had with the challenge...but more on that in the relevant section of this blog.
So, this is an old school arcade racer that made its debut in the arcades many, many moons ago now. I never played it when it was remotely current, sadly, so have no nostalgia for the actual game,
the tune, yes because I heard it fairly frequently when I did other activities, such as ten-pin bowling/playing pool/air hockey in my local bowling alley, which had some arcade machines.
:)
It's pretty good for what it is, I suppose. You get a choice of 3 different tracks and a handful of different modes, plus some nice, shiny trophies.
Unfortunately, looking back at it, it hasn't aged particularly well. It's decently fun for a short burst but besides that, not much going for it, I'm afraid.
I'm probably over-scoring this one a bit, tbh, might need to revise it later (got a lot of others to do that for too) but I try to take everything into account when I rate my games and the fun factor, plus the iconic theme tune, do definitely bolster the score a bit.
Personal Difficulty Rating: 2/10 Personal Game Rating: 3/5
Phew! That took a while to write! 15 completions makes for a longer blog for sure. :P
Onto the games I played but have yet to beat:
Geometry Wars³: Dimensions Evolved (Vita) Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
Another familiar game from a previous blog makes its way onto this one.
I just thought it would be a blast to go through it again and get some more trophies/TT score for my 10K a month goal, really. :)
Oh, the ratio also helped for the challenge!
Gotta go back to it and get the co-op trophies. Indeed, make sure I get all 3 Platinum'd for my Shmup goal as well!
As previously said before: great shoot-em-up game with a variety of modes and highly addictive gameplay! This one was actually a PS+ freebie so if you have the Vita, added this to your library back then and love the genre, there's no excuse not to play it!
DJMAX TECHNIKA TUNE (Vita) Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
I literally only played this for the challenge last month.
I definitely need to go back to this in 2018 and give it a proper go. Definitely looks like it could be a promising rhythm game.
Project CARS Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
The end is in sight for the Community Challenges now!
How ironic, then, that I would also be using this game for the 2 TT Community Challenges we've had already too! :P
I've also found a cool video that tells me I can apparently earn the other online trophies on my own!!!!!!! So maybe the Platinum isn't a pipe-dream anymore!
I shall hopefully be reporting this game's completion sometime this year and maybe actually have a more expansive blog entry then too. :P
Super Hydorah (EU) Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
Fair to say I was intrigued by this game when I first learnt about it.
It's an old-school side-scrolling style shoot-em-up, with a branching path system, oddly.
Your objective is to go through all these, find all the secrets if you want/can and destroy the Hydorah,
preferably his seeds too and without continuing for the best ending, if the trophies are anything to go by.
I haven't really given this game enough time yet to form a proper opinion. It's quite difficult, though.
And maybe it's just me but my save seemed to wipe. Could've been I picked the wrong option and didn't realise (I was sick last month) but still...hopefully, I can figure it out one way or the other as it looks quite fun.
Rabi-Ribi Trophies (PLATINUM NOW OBTAINABLE ON BOTH VERSIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) *** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
Well, it's safe to say that the glitched trophy kinda ruined my enthusiasm last time, so let's try this again...
ZOMGZOMGZOMG!!!!!!! RABI-RIBI IS ON PS4/VITA!!!!! ZOMG, GREATEST GAME EVER!!!!!! WOOOOO!!!! RABI-RIBI FOREVER!!!!!!! BUY IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ahem...there, now I've got my fangasming out of the way...
I made some more progress on this game, I really wanted to beat all the story content (beat the main game but got some post-game left) but due to my illness and having to fit in the challenge where I could, unfortunately, I kinda had to put this on the back-burner.
Not to worry, I shall definitely be Platting this (and likely the Vita version) in 2018 because I am a Bunny Lover!
So that has rounded up the final month for 2017! There's still more to be done, though.
Onto the stats!
15 Games Started, 20 Games Played, 15 Games Completed
333 Trophies for 11,685 XP worth 15,186 TT!
Milestones Achieved
True Level 58
235 Completed Games
Playstation Level 42
450,000 TrueTrophy Score
79% Completion
7,750 Trophies Won
240 Completed Games
245 Completed Games
Well, I've already played one so far.
INK Trophies but what else have I got in mind?
Well, it's safe to say that, whilst I want to push on and get into the 80% completion bracket pretty quickly, I've also looked at my insane backlog and some of the weird and wonderful games I have to play...and I'd like to play some of them, esp. if they contribute to my Platformer/Puzzle/Shoot-em-up goals!!!
I'd love to *finally* play
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Trophies, also
Touhou Double Focus Trophies.
Some other weirder titles, such as
Velocibox Trophies and
Cosmophony Trophies are up for consideration and many more besides. It'd take too long to list them all at this point. XD
Plus any games I've played up to now that are: "In Progress" are always up for consideration!
So we finally reach the part of the blog that most of you will probably be most interested in. The round up of the last community challenge! What path did I take through it? Were there any unforeseen pitfalls? And did I even beat the thing???
Well, let's see what happened:
Day 1 - One Game Completion -
Day 2 - Two Versus Trophies -
*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***Sounded potentially difficult/annoying at first...until you realise that you can get a lot of trophies with versus flags in single player! :D
and The Grand Chelem trophy in Project CARS worth 41 pointsGot pole position in qualifying, fastest lap in the race and won whilst leading every lap were the ones I ended up getting.
Day 3 - Three 3.0 Ratio Trophies -
*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***another potentially sticky one, esp. as on TT, ratio is a LOT harder to come by generally. Fortunately, we still have PS+ titles here!!! :D
, and ended up being what I got.
Day 4 - Four Letters of NOEL -
*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***Another potentially annoying challenge. Definitely harder for the TT crowd as we've never had GTASC over here. :P
, , and are what I used for this one.
Day 5 - Five Gold Trophies -
*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***by FAR the most predictable of the challenges. As a side-note: this was Five Rare Achievements on TA. :P
This in theory should've been the easiest for me as I love my GRPs but for once, I took my time with it as I was playing Invector so would get it naturally anyway. :)
, , , and The One Million trophy in Invector worth 133 pointsGet a total score of 1 000 000 across all tracks and difficulties. did for me here!
Day 6- Six Single Player Trophies -
*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***Another easy one but it turned out to be surprisingly difficult to find a game I was in the mood for, actually!
, , , , and were the ones I eventually plumped for.
Project CARS turned out to be useful for challenges this year! XD
Day 7 - Seven Trophies in Different Games -
*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***Probably the one challenge that filled me with dread, besides the last one...
As someone who's a completionist and abhors the idea of bean dives, having a challenge that pretty much actively encourages it is not something I'm a fan of.
Nevertheless, I knuckled down and got it done! I also got the flu during this stage and that would drastically reduce my chances of victory!
, , , The Piece of Cake trophy in HiQ Ace worth 15 pointsComplete any Easy Arcade Level in less than 100 seconds. , , and were the ones I got. That last trophy had the most apt name for any trophy I got throughout this contest.
Day 8 - Eight Cooperative Trophies -
*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***This was the last challenge I really feared. I knew that I likely would prevail if I could just find a game somewhere that had the 8 trophies I needed.
Luckily, I stumbled on one! :D
The I Didn't Do It trophy in Trine 2 worth 93 pointsMake goblins die of three different environmental hazards in a single level , The Bouncy Bouncy trophy in Trine 2 worth 103 pointsStand on a conjured box bouncing on any bouncy surface for 10 seconds , The Dirty Tactics trophy in Trine 2 worth 108 pointsGet at least 10 enemies killed by other enemies' actions in a single level , The Hammer Havoc trophy in Trine 2 worth 101 pointsKill an enemy with a thrown hammer bouncing at least once before kill , The Surfboard Master trophy in Trine 2 worth 107 pointsStand on a plank floating on a single airflow for four seconds , The Cirque de Zoya trophy in Trine 2 worth 104 pointsUsing grapple, swing around an object and reattach grapple again without touching any surface , The A Hail of Arrows trophy in Trine 2 worth 105 pointsShoot 3 arrows in the air and catch them all with the Knight's shield and The High Rise trophy in Trine 2 worth 109 pointsConstruct a tower made of eight objects and stand on top of it were what I got. REALLY didn't want to play this game until I'd done the PS4 ones but oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do to win sometimes, eh?
Day 9 - Nine Action-Adventure Trophies -
*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***I guess this one could also be tricky if you weren't quite sure what game to play but this was a considerably easier proposition than Challenge 8.
In the end, I actually thought of a game that served me well for this *and* the next challenge too!
, , , , , The JULIAN trophy in Level 22 worth 21 pointsFind the figurine of Julian , , and were the trophies I got for this and I continued on with this game for the next challenge too lol.
Day 10 - Ten Bronze Trophies -
*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***On TA, this made more sense - it was Ten 10 GamerScore achievements.
In any case, I used the same game for 2 challenges, D-D-D-D-Double Day Win!!
, , , The LUCA trophy in Level 22 worth 23 pointsFind the figurine of Luca , The GNITH trophy in Level 22 worth 24 pointsComplete the puzzle of Gnith , , The TONORO trophy in Level 22 worth 24 pointsFind the figurine of Tonoro ,The TOREE trophy in Level 22 worth 24 pointsFind the figurine of Toree , The GWENN trophy in Level 22 worth 24 pointsFind the figurine of Gwenn and completed this one.
Day 11 - Eleven Main Storyline Trophies -
*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***With the end in sight, I still had to get a bit creative to get to the final challenge. 2 games sandwiching the main attraction. :P
, , , , , , , , , and set up a tense final day! Could I do the unthinkable and win this...WHILE SICK???????
Day 12 - Twelve Trophy Leap Frog -
*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***And as if being sick weren't bad enough...TT decided to break with regards to this challenge and not scan the trophies I'd planned properly. :(
I had to just play normally with my strategy I'd set up *just* in case it would be retroactive.
TT came in and said that all I needed to do to fix it was to unlock another trophy. I played Daytona USA to see if it would work...
IT DID!!!!!!!!!!
So without further ado, I unveil my strategy for Day 12...probably the most cynical way of doing it I could've found but I don't care! New colour badge GET!!!
, , , , , , , , , , and .
Yes, that's right! I D-D-D-D-Doubled Up!! with Mayo, alternated between the Vita and PS4 versions! There must've been some inconsistency with the numbers because I ended up with a slightly different order to what I would've had with my calculations...still, my strategy gave me a bit of leniency with it and the victory was mine!
Overall, I did enjoy the challenge! I wish I hadn't got sick towards the end of it, forcing me to wait until the final 24 hours to complete it, made it far more stressful than it should've been! I'm glad to still have a 100% record for TT Community Challenges so far and am intrigued to see what future ones will be like!
So that rounds up 2017 pretty much. At least, the individual months, I still have the yearly round up blog to do and as this one took a while to write, might be a few more days until I get to that one.
I learnt one thing: I won't be going to another work's do ever again, at least, if I'm still at the place I am now. Didn't enjoy the Christmas Do at all and got the flu as a nice parting gift from it. Awesome.
Seriously, while the meal (well, the Starter and Dessert) were nice, the overall experience was AWFUL! Music on FAR too loud whilst dining, meaning you could barely hear the person next to you...but that was nothing compared to how loud it became when the: "party" part kicked in. Holy CRAP!!!! Earthquakes galore!!!!!!!!
Then, to round it off perfectly, one of my colleagues was adamant I'd dance with her because I did last time. I was scarcely in the mood at that point, plus hadn't had enough to drink to be loose enough for it (I mean, I had to be up early for work the next day, why would I be?) and I must've said: "No!" to her at LEAST 20 times! If not more, did it work? Did it FUCK!
Sorry for swearing there but I can't understate my sheer frustration with the whole thing. If it had been the other way around, I'm pretty sure I'd be in jail for harrassment at this point! But because I'm a bloke, it's OK and the laws of consent clearly don't apply! FFS!
And yes, I could technically have just not done so or walked out or w/e...not so easy when peer pressure is involved (at least 2 others were pressuring me) and then there's the obvious awkwardness that would come the next day.
And yes, I know it's a whole world of difference from what consent usually refers to...but it's still the same principle, isn't it?
I think I'd better move on before I open a whole can of worms on that one. Let's just leave it with I'm really annoyed about it. Definitely not going to another one, I never wanted to in the first place, not being a socialite and that's just turned me off from it once and for all!
Don't want to end the blog on a negative so I thought I'd get that out of the way first.
So my gaming ended up going really well in 2017! I definitely did by FAR the best I've ever done from a completion viewpoint and my scoring was a substantial improvement from 2016 as well! I really hope I can continue this trend for 2018 but it no doubt will be tough, esp. as I probably really should be focusing on other stuff more.
I'll probably leave that for the yearly summary and/or plans for 2018 blog. :)
Gonna wrap this up now: thanks to all of you who've read any/all of my blogs and everything in between. Special thanks to the people who comment regularly or just speak to me in general in the feed, you have no idea how much of a difference it makes to have such nice people to speak with on a daily basis. :D
Here's to 2018 hopefully being awesome for all of us! As ever, leave a comment and let me know what your month was like and what you have planned for 2018!