• 13Oct 08

  The Trophy System

  Am I the only one who noticed how lack luster the trophy system is at the moment? I mean, it's there to rival achievements, but so far only a handful of games take advantage of it, and most of them are first party titles. Even upcoming 3rd party games like Fallout 3, Saints Row 2 (so I've heard), and the new exclusive Naruto game wont be supporting trophies. WTF???

  I've heard news (it might have been a rumor) that Rockstar is going to patch GTAIV to include trophies, but so far that's all I've heard. Has there been a single third party game that supports trophies yet? If so, please - somebody tell me. Even Sony's own amazing, crazy awesome exclusive Metal Gear Solid 4 isnt seeing a patch for trophies.

  I'm just not really interested in the trophy system at the moment. Maybe when Home launches (which I've heard is going to be November 19th, finally) it'll be more worth while... but right now the whole system seems so half baked it's pointless. I mean, you would literally have to go out of your way to pick up games with trophies, because you cant just go buy some random 3rd party title (or heck, most first party titles for that matter) and expect trophies. If your buddies arent collecting them, what's the point?

  I have one trophy at the moment.. and it's for getting your first treasure in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune... a bronze trophy. That's it. I couldnt push myself to play the game again (for the third or fourth time) just for a few trophies.

  It's a shame too, because although achievements are ultimately pointless, they are fun to obtain and will push you to replay games if you want them. (This by no means make the games more playable... it basically just makes the game a torture device, especially if you are playing soley for trophies... I forced myself to replay TMNT for the easy 1,000 points.) I recently restarted an account on XBox Live and it's fun to rebuild your gamerscore... and it certainly can be addicting.

  Anyway, hopefully before too long 3rd party games will implement trophies just like the 360 gets achievements. It's good to see Take-Two add trophies into the PS3 version of Bioshock. As for Bethesda, they basically took a dump on the PS3 when they announced the 360 will get exclusive DLC for Fallout 3... but then it's like they took another HUGE dump on the PS3 when they said they wouldnt even support trophies that were implemented in July. Thanks alot Bethesda, even if I am dual console owner... couldnt you show the PS3 a little more love than that?

  It's a shame... here's hoping to future Home apartments littered with 3rd and 1st party trophies.

  • Posted Oct 13, 2008 6:56 pm PT
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• 11Oct 08

  LBP does God of War!!!

  Now this is more like it. This level actually looks fun and creative. Finally an impressive looking level for LBP. Maybe if there was less garbage levels getting YouTubed the buzz about this game would regenerate. I've seen two reviews of the game so far, one was 9/10 and the other was a 10/10. Things are looking good for the game... and I have to say this level has gotten me excited about the game again.

  This God of War recreation is what I'm talking about!!!

  • Posted Oct 11, 2008 5:37 am PT
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• 7Oct 08

  A Trip to Gamespot. (A long, probably boring read. Beware.)

  It's a beautiful Tuesday morning, and I've been jonesing to go to Gamestop and buy Kameo, so I figured what better day than today? I'm off work, the sun is shinin', nothing on my agenda. I havent been to Gamestop for a few weeks, might as well go browse.

  I walk into the Gamestop, and immediatly go to the Wii section because it's like right there. It's amazing how many garbage titles there are for the Wii. I cant even remember the titles of half of 'em, but what stood out to me the most was Hell's Kitchen... the style of that game reminds me of the SNES days. No kidding. I literally said to myself under my breath, "I'm so glad I sold mine." And $50 for Mario Sluggers? I'll pass...

  Then I decided to check out what I came for, luckily there was one copy of Kameo left, used for $10. Not bad at all. I've heard good things about this game, so I figured I would give it a whirl. But then something caught my eye to my left... an HDTV with a black screen that read "No signal". As I investigated the TV further, my eyes followed down to the peice of equipement hooked up to the TV -- a red ringed Xbox 360. It was like an omen. It was like something was telling me, "dont do it - dont put faith into your Xbox 360... it's a trick". It's happened to me before ya know... putting faith back into my 360 only to have it red ring. I wrote a blog about it. Of course, I ignored the omen and continued browsing...

  Off in the back corner was the PS3 section tucked away like a contagious disease. No kidding, it's even half way blocked off by a PS3 kiosk. Probably most inconvenient space in the store. Not to mention the section was pretty small, with like half the space of everything else in the store. I browsed and saw nothing interesting I really wanted to buy... at least in my price range of 10 bucks, lol. Seriously, the 360 has so many cheap used games it's ridiculous. I think the cheapest PS3 game there is like $17.99, which isnt bad... but it's not a steal like Kameo.

  So it was time to checkout, and I got behind a guy who apparently was trading in his entire original Xbox collection of games for a whopping $34 dollars. It was like a stack of at least 12 games, for just $34. I've been ripped by Gamestop before, but that was insane to me. After he got out of the way, it was my turn to check out. Surprisingly, I wasnt harrassed about getting an Edge card. No lecture, no speech, no nothing. Just gave him the game, he scanned it, and gave me the receipt wishing me a good day. I was shocked, and I forgot how convenient shopping at Gamestop could be if you didnt have to get slapped over the head with a speech of how you should get an Edge card.

  Overall, it was a good visit. I got to whitness some of the piles of shovelware the Wii gets that even goes below the radar of System Wars, got to see what could possibly be an omen of what is to come for my 360, saw that my local Gamestop apparently hates the PS3, and watch a guy bend over glady for Gamestop and give him his entire Xbox collection for nothing. It was a good trip indeed.

  • Posted Oct 7, 2008 9:27 am PT
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