My Top Ten: Games I’d Like to Platinum

Time for a relaxed, weekend Guest Writer submission. Over to Boomshanks to tell us about the ten (sort of) games he would most like to earn the platinum trophy for.

As most of my friends will testify I have a thing for trophies, and since I’m no athlete I’ll settle for the virtual ones(still hoping for the Hall of Fame Sony, if you’re reading this). It’s that ultimate quest for the platinum or 100% on a game that keeps me busy for longer than I care to admit. With me it’s more about quality than quantity though as my measly 4 platinums might tell you. Looking at those incomplete percentages on my trophy list every time can get to me though and I can’t deny that there are some games that I would truly love to have a platinum trophy on. Which games are those you ask? Well they’re the following ten* of course.

10.  Terminator Salvation

This might scare a lot of people away but I just had to include this on the list. See some games just have it all. Amazing graphics, great gameplay and a huge replay value. Top that off with one of the most creative trophy lists ever and you have a winner. I always enjoy it when developers really take their time creating a trophy list and don’t go with the non-original “Get this many kills” or “Complete this many chapters”. Fortunately the developers of this game were better than that. Look, there’s even a trophy for completing the game on Hard.

All sarcasm aside though I heard this game was one of the worst ever and was terrible to play so maybe getting the platinum is an achievement after all (no pun intended). You can’t deny however that when making a list about trophies, Terminator Salvation is a game that immediately springs to mind. Now it’s time for the real contestants.

9.  Assassin’s Creed 2 **

Some platinum’s are extremely hard, some extremely time-consuming and some just downright fun. The platinum of Assassins Creed 2 easily falls in the last category. It is in no way difficult but that’s exactly where its charm lies. I know a lot of people whose first platinum was for this game and I can see why. This is what people who normally wouldn’t really go out of the way for trophies want.

The game itself is very enjoyable. It doesn’t really get difficult but it always gives you lots of things to do within an incredible setting. The platinum is pretty much the same. It encourages you to try some new tactics with weapons you might not have tried before or explore places you otherwise wouldn’t visit. The best thing is that there is no grinding required. The only trophy that requires a bit of time is the one where you have to collect 100 feathers. Even this is a breeze though and I never found wandering through the city a drag with the lovely atmospheric music in the background.

8.  MAG

When you make a massive action game within the genre massive action games and you call it Massive Action Game people know exactly what to expect. And you get exactly what you expect, unless you’re one of those teenagers who is used to playing Modern Warfare 2, but they should all be banned from online gaming anyway.

MAG has an interesting trophy list to show. Like many people I cringed when I saw you had to get to level 60 with all three factions. When I had my hands on the game however I realized that it all wouldn’t be so bad. You level up pretty fast and putting in these trophies stops everyone from staying at SVER because, you know, it’s hard to fight a war when there’s only one faction. Like the previous entry these trophies encourage you to get the most out of the game which is always a plus. It also has one of the best images for a platinum trophy ever. Have you seen it? I should have put it on the list just for that.

Eventually the people who get this platinum are the people who thoroughly enjoy the game and play it a lot, hint: me. In the end the whole trophy list can be bogged down to practically only five trophies, getting level 60 with all three factions and collecting all medals and ribbons, but I couldn’t care less. I love collecting medals. They make me feel important.

7.  LittleBigPlanet

Creative trophy lists are few and far in-between. When LittleBigPlanet was announced though everyone knew we’d be in for a treat. Surely the men who made the cutest and most creative game of the century could make something wonderful of the trophy list? Well, they surely did. When you first play the game you’ll be bestowed with bronze trophies for simple things like dressing up your Sackboy and placing a sticker. These trophies encourage you to go all out with wacky creations and play the game with friends and have fun.

The tagline Play, Create, Share is also perfectly incorporated in the trophy list with a gold trophy for each. For the platinum you have to play every level on the disc without dying (which is actually quite hard), create levels which are hearted by other people and play other people’s level and heart them. It’s all about loving. It’s also the perfect way to get people into creating levels which results in some of the best creations I’ve ever seen. A game like LBP, which rewards a platinum trophy for living its tagline is clearly one worthy of a notion on this list. I can’t wait to see what they do with the sequel.

6.  Rock Band 2

When you get a mere bronze trophy for completing a song on Expert guitar with 100% you know you’re in for a tough list. The good thing here is that the list is not only tough, but also enjoyable. To me, Rock Band 2 will always be the ultimate party game and I have played, and still play it to death with my mates. Nearly all trophies can be obtained with 4 players in split-screen. Most of the trophies will be gained in the course of the main story. You also have to complete a song with 100% on Expert on every instrument though. And those aren’t even the hardest trophies yet.

Of course I’m talking about the two golden trophies here. The first, appropriately named the Bladder of Steel award, requires you to play the Endless Setlist 2 in one go without pausing or failing. The second requires you to complete it on Expert difficulty. For those of you who do not know: the Endless Setlist 2 is a setlist which contains all songs on the disc, which are 84! That’s about 6 or 7 hours of work. The setlist can become absolutely brutal on Expert with the later songs. Having the platinum for Rock band 2 means you truly are a master of the plastic instruments.

5.  Demon’s Souls

Fancy a challenge? Then this is the game for you. As most of you will know this game is extremely difficult and has an extremely steep learning curve. See when you die in this game you can still go on, only with less maximum health. The way to get back to life is to defeat bosses. You’ll find that even the regular enemies kill you a lot though, and the bosses are even harder. Furthermore when you die, which you will, all your souls, which are used to get upgrades and such, will be gone. To add to the pain all regular enemies will respawn as well which means you have to go past all of them again. Get the picture?

It’s very hard to complete the game, let alone do it three times. See to acquire all trophies you have to complete the game multiple times. You can do this with the New Game+ feature where nearly all of your stuff carries over. Unfortunately the difficulty goes up every time you do New Game + making the third play through absolutely punishing. With all those other easy platinums laying around it’s nice to see one that makes you work for it, and work hard you shall. It’s definitely achievable, but where it stands now I can only dream of it.

*             Ok, 9

**           I’m actually cheating a bit here as I already have this platinum. I just had to include it because I thought it was so much fun to get.