Level 14

It’s been a long time since I posted about trophies or gaming in general, and I have had many experiences since then. Digging through old posts, the last time I mentioned anything about trophies or my trophy level, I was level 6. Which by my estimation means that I had approximately 500 trophies or less. I have definitely played many hours of games since then, as I am 85% into level 13, and have 1450 trophies now. Much of my trophy hunting experience has been due to having invested whole-heartedly into Sony’s Playstation Plus membership. If you have been living under a rock, the Plus membership gives you free games as long as you a subscribing member. This means you have to stay a member to access any content downloaded through the service, but at $50 a year, it’s very manageable. There are also the added benefits of auto-updates, other free stuff, larger sale discounts, and full-game trials. It’s been a great thing for me, not only for the times when I didn’t have money to buy new games, but also for the times when I did have money and could take advantage of sales. When you can pick up games for a buck or two, it’s really worthwhile.

Also during periods of time when I had extra money, I ended up purchasing several new or older disc-based games. My more recent purchases were the Resident Evil 6 Anthology (all games 1-6), Borderlands 2 (with the season pass, so I have 3 of the 4 DLC’s already), and I picked up a copy of Skyrim (which we are finally getting DLC for next month). I also got into the Dead Space series, purchasing the 1st game on PSN and a disc copy of the sequel. Further back, I had picked up Reckoning and Dragon Age II, and for my bday and xmas I ended up with copies of Dishonored and Mass Effect 3. The Doom 3 BFG edition also resides on my hard drive. This doesn’t count the many free games I have acquired throughout the last 6 months or so; I have definitely grown my collection considerably.

On the freebie side of it, the most notable games were part of Sony’s “Instant Game Collection”, which were full disc-based games that were free for download. There were some pretty crappy games included in there, most of which I deleted after trying. As it is, my 160 GB PS3 has about 10 GBs free on average. I am constantly beating games to delete them, or just plain not liking them enough to keep, in order to make room for the next wave of new games. The most recent games I picked up through the service were Bioshock 2, Super Street Fighter IV, and Darksiders. I love the service because it gives out games that I overlooked, skipped, or didn’t have the money for when they released. Games that I wouldn’t have normally given a chance that end up being great are the icing on the cake.

Of the aforementioned games, I have beaten most. Me and Ted have been playing RE6 steadily, and are on our 3rd play through, I am going for the Platinum on this game. In Borderlands 2, I have beaten the original game and one of the DLC’s, so it’s a work in progress as well, though I am close to having the Plat. Mass Effect 3 was fantastic, as was Dragon Age 2. I have yet to beat Reckoning, but it’s on the to-do list. Dishonored I need to finish off, along with Doom 3. There are many games on my hard drive I haven’t finished, but I have completed a dozen or more games in the last few months, and my trophies are there to prove it.

One game that I was really looking forward to that I ended up picking up at release was Guardians of Middle Earth, and I was only partially disappointed. The game plays much like League of Legends or other lane-based MOBAs. The controls were intuitive, and the game play was polished. There really wasn’t anything wrong with the game, save for maybe the lack of heroes to choose from, until I had earned all of the trophies. I made a few new friends playing the game, as my experience with MOBAs allowed me to dominate early. It seems they lost interest once they earned their trophies as well. Some new characters were added, and I went back to play for a while, but overall, the lasting appeal of the game was lacking, and I was sad. But then I played other games and moved on. I don’t think that everyone is as obsessed with trophy earning as I am, but it seems like the wait time for games increased after most people had earned theirs. This is troublesome, only because a game designed to be re-playable should hold your interest without the drive to earn trophies. Or the trophies need to be a bit harder to keep you playing. This doesn’t deter my interest in earning trophies, but it means that games need to be good enough to keep playing, despite the extra incentives. Maybe I’m just an LoL fanboy.