Has anyone else picked up Ni no Kuni? It’s a game on everyone’s fingertips this week, with so many of you picking it up at launch. It’s clear to see why, even just from my early moments of play time; it’s beautiful and utterly beguiling.
Hopping into the hot seat this week is our perennially cool cucumber, Freezebug. I guess the cucumber bit doesn’t make much sense, so I’ll revise that to say that he’s as cool as a cucumber, whilst still being a bug.
I’ll hand over to him to explain what it is you’re seeing:
So here’s my humble game set up with minimal space utilised, so it’s not so much a rig but more a pick up and play corner. You can see the AverMedia game capture device with an 600GB HDD attached, where all the gaming magic never quite seems to happen while I’m recording. It’s still nice to twiddle with the remote control that came with it, though.
The second picture shows my hard as nails but quiet as a mouse 320GB slim PS3 in the background on the shelf, with USB hub and card reader added for those essential storage and add-on accessories. But at the front is my DFGT steering wheel and pedals mounted on a modified fold up camping table with pedal extension. As daft as it looks, it works an absolute treat with F1 or GT5 and stuff… I’m such a cheapskate!
That’s my USA Gibson Les Paul Standard guitar which is used to play Rocksmith PS3, as well as the usual guitar tomfoolery, and finally there’s a picture of my other working consoles, each with a sample game that represent good memories of the PS1 and PS2 eras.
Quite a lovely and compact little gaming set up! I’m just impressed at how little space is wasted.
If you’d like to share your gaming set up too, please use the submission form below, get in touch with me on twitter @teflon, or just send me an email out of the blue to [email protected]
I talked about Ni no Kuni in the intro, but of course nobody would have had time to platinum this in the days since release, and I wouldn’t expect to see the fastest platinum to pop up for quite a while yet. I wouldn’t expect it to take quite as long as BadBoyBoogie’s epic battle with Test Drive Unlimited 2, taking the fastest platinum in just two short years!
Somewhat faster came Flexxible’s fastest record for Angry Birds Trilogy platinum, as he closes in on Star Ocean’s. All the while, Crazy_Del, his compatriot at the very head of the leaderboards has been forging ahead with platinums for God of War: Chains of Olympus, Ghost of Sparta and just yesterday clobbering the last few trophies for Tekken Tag Tournament 2.
We’ll come back to Del’s efforts, as Youles and McProley have bettered his Tower of Babble trophy from a week ago. It took them just three attempts for this notoriously tricky trophy. Much better than Del and his cohort’s 20!
It also seems to be the week of the 100%, rather than the platinum, as Origami Killer polished off the trophies on The Unfinished Swan and Datura, Youles did the same for RAGE and all its DLC and Uncharted: Fight for Fortune. Freezebug might have thought he was closing in on it for Alien Breed 2, having finished an Elite difficulty play, but that darned co-op seems to have ramped up the difficulty on him.
I guess it’ll take him a little while longer to nab that one, then. Similarly, element666 is going to have to keep plugging away on Hitman: Absolution, but tactical20’s all squared away with his 7th platinum for Far Cry 3.
But we finish off by turning back to Crazy_Del who this week reached a phenomenal landmark… 10,000 trophies!
What was his 10,000th? Well naturally it was “Get a Life” from Unreal Tournament 3. By his own admission, a delightfully apt achievement.
That’s almost all you get this week. You can head over to page two for the fastest platinum leaderboards, but to finish off this page, we have the usual submission form for photos and accomplishments.
Origami Killer
Really well organised set up! Love the handy bit of DIY for the wheel and pedal stand :P Wait that’s a real guitar, I might be being a bit stupid here but how do you play it with rocksmith?
Darth Newdar
Well done on finishing The Unfinished Swan (if that’s possible?) I only have the Minimalist trophy left, which I’m finding frustratingly difficult!
Origami Killer
I actually managed to do it first time! Just turn the volume up a lot and listen to your footsteps.
teflon
Rocksmith is designed to use real guitars rather than toy guitar controllers.
Origami Killer
Really?! Well I don’t know why I haven’t bought this game
teflon
Perhaps because you didn’t know that it uses real guitars? :P
Sympozium
Doesn’t Rock Band 3 have a similar mode?
freezebug2
Yup, only the real thing works, it has a special guitar to USB cable that comes with the game, you can even use the EAGB strings on your guitar to play the Bass add on DLC that comes free with Rocksmith UK.
freezebug2
Ops, I meant the EADG strings. :O
Origami Killer
I was going to say! Don’t know what guitar you’re playing haha
matthangzhou
Congrats Crazy Del 10k is truly mindblowing. Out of curiosity how many games do you own/have downloaded?!
Crazy_Del
Too many……
Currently own (Unfinished games) 108 and 91 Downloads!
There’s also 6 Vita games too!
And I own roughly 90 games that I already Platinum as these are the best games I really enjoyed and to offer help with TSA if the Multiplayer/Servers are dead!
Youles
Great setup freeze!!
Well done Del, 10,000 is incredible, and congrats again on the job! ;)
Cheers for the mention…..McProley and I were pretty fortune with the EMPs to be fair! One round we both got them!!
freezebug2
Ta, that’s only really half of it, there’s a bookcase full of games from several consoles and accessories. I also forgot to include a pic of my working Amiga 1200 with the games I kept for that!
Youles
I’ve still got my Amiga too….I’ll do my rig for TSA one day!!
BadBoyBoogie
Nice to get a mention in the Accomplishments for TDU2. :) It certainly was an epic battle due to the ‘temperamental’ servers!!
Congrats Del on the 10,000th trophy. Brilliantly judged as well to make it the ‘Get A Life’ trophy. ;)
Nice gaming rig there Freeze. I especially like the homemade DFGT wheel mount!! Good to see GT2 as your choice of PS1 game. That and Colin McRae Rally were my two most played games on the original PlayStation.
freezebug2
@BBB Patent pending lol!
Yeah GT2 was awesome for it’s day, and a good step up from GT1 also loved the Colin Mcrae’s and Toca Touring car games!
The Lone Steven
I managed to complete the Darkness 1 with a controller that had it’s right analog stick possessed. :O Oh and can we not encourage the filthy trophy whore to get more trophies as it’s a crime against nature thus anyone who has a plat should be shot or forced to play ET. :P
Sympozium
ET >:D
Crazy_Del
Thanks Teflon ^^
Great write up. Awesome Rig there Freeze wish I had a wheel and pedal for racing, but no space for me lol.
Congrats to everyone on their Trophies/Platinums especially BBB’s TDU2 as that game is dead to me! =P
And damn Youles and McProley for being lucky with Tower of Babble early rounds (><)
Good luck to others out there though!
The Lone Steven
There is one thing that you can never do with trophies del and that is hold the record for having no plats. :D Yep, no plats and proud!
freezebug2
Yeah wheels do take a massive chunk of space especially if you use them regularly and keep them set up. One solution that you could go for might be the wireless laptop wheel without pedals from Logitech, but I don’t think it’d be as precise as a wheel and pedal set…not sure?
teflon
There is that company that makes some really nice collapseable wheel mounts for £70, I think. I forget the name, but they’re really nice if you want to keep everything easy to tuck away.
freezebug2
I think they are by wheel stand pro or something like that, they look fine as long as they fold with the wheel still connected, I doubt the wheel clamping system would last too long if it had to be detatched each time the stand was folded away. Certainly a thought for Del though ;)
blackredyellow
A nice set up Freeze! What, may I ask, is the shredder for? Is that a new form of rage induced disc snapping?
And yeah, Del you’ve definitely earned the top spot on the leaderboard. 10,000 trophies is incredible! I’m only just approaching 5,000 :(
Crazy_Del
5,000 is a great milestone. Perhaps should get a life trophy as 5,000th Trophy xD
blackredyellow
Or maybe I’ll save it for my 10,000…? That way I can claim to have a life? Maybe… no i didn’t think so!
freezebug2
Haha, no it’s just a handy foot stool when dualshocking, although one or two game discs in the past have come close!
Shaggy2Dope
Not sure if i should ask Del because of his immaculate platinum list or freezebug because of his racing wheel so i’ll ask you both…
Do either of you recommend a racing wheel or a Dualshock when attempting to platinum certain racing games?
Crazy_Del
My racing Platinums were Dualshock but I am struggling to Platinum NASCAR 2011 and Gran Turismo 5. Been told using Wheel on GT5 are very accurate than dualshock, but I never own one. Had a wheel for N64 I think lol.
But that depends on the kind of racing game, say DiRT its an arcade style so DS pad. GT5 is SIM Racing hence the wheel for great driving experience. It really depends on what racing game.
freezebug2
Totally agree with Del. Arcade racers use a Dualshock and for sims use a wheel.
I found it impossible to get past bronze or silver in the GT5 Vettel challenges with a pad but managed to gold them using the wheel being far more precise.
I find a Dualshock more precise and far easier to control cars with arcade racers though.
@Del DS is fine for the NASCAR 2011 platinum, never bothered with the wheel.
Crazy_Del
I still can’t shave off a second or 2 from the times (><)
Maybe more/advance tuning perhaps. Will keep trying freeze.