This Week In Trophies 07-26-2015 – 08-01-2015

One platinum trophy, one trophy glitch, and an unexpected game all make for a some what exciting week in trophies. Although my trophy count wasn’t all that high this week, I continued to push through hoping to finish up a couple of games that have been on my list for a while. Here’s how my week went.

Fallout 3 – 3%

I continued on my leisurely stroll through the world of Fallout 3 and gained one new trophy doing so. I’m really enjoying playing this time around and have no problems sinking 6+ hours straight into this game. The trophies are coming really really slow and I’m lucky if I get one a week, but I’m not really caring at the moment I’m just taking my time and enjoying the game.

Rocket League – 100%

I grinded out the last couple of trophies early on in the week to get the platinum for this game so that I could just be done with it. I’m finally glad that it’s over because those last couple of trophies were just a complete pain to have to grind out. My full review of the game will be out this Wednesday, so make sure to check back for it.

Sparkle 2 – 95%

I’m pretty pissed off when it comes to Sparkle 2. I finished Nightmare mode, completed the survival, and then went onto the challenges only to not receive the last trophy even though I have 100% on the challenges. I tried everything to try and get the trophy to pop. I deleted the game and reinstalled it. Deleted my save and reinstalled it. I even went back and played a few of the challenge levels to see if it would pop. Do you know what I got though? NOTHING. My only option now is to delete my save and start again until I unlock the challenge mode and then go back to complete it hoping that the trophy pops this time. I’m so disappointed when it comes to this game though, I’ve had so much fun playing it in the past and this kind of ruins the whole experience and makes me not even want to attempt Sparkle Unleashed on the PS4.

The Sims 3 – 54%

This game really came out of nowhere this week. It was sitting on my trophy list and a quick look told me that I was missing a bunch of pretty easy, well easy in my opinion, trophies that just needed some time to acquire. Not really interested in playing anything else I thought what the hell and jumped back into this game. I’m not sure if I’ll continue or not but it was a nice break from everything else I was playing this week.

There you have it, my week in trophies. Not all that exciting but I was pretty pleased about the platinum this week so that’s something. For this upcoming week, I’m not really sure what I’m going to do. I feel like I’m sort of in this gaming slump where I want to play, but I don’t know what to play. I picked up a few games during this new PS sale so I might start those or I might go back and play a few old games. You’ll find out what I decided to do next week.

This Week in Trophies 06-14-2015 – 06-20-2015

While I’m continuing to play The Elder Scrolls Online every once in a while, I kind of got tired waiting to log in all the time and decided to start a not so new game this week for those times when I don’t feel like waiting to log in, which in most cases I really don’t feel like waiting around to play a game so I just don’t play. The start of a new game usually means a bunch of trophies, so this week was ok when it came to trophies. It wasn’t great, but here’s how my week played out.

The Elder Scrolls Online – 5%

I was able to get one random trophy this week along with a story mission trophy. While I’m progressing in the game it just seems like it’s taking a really long time and I always get side tracked when I enter a new area, probably because there are a bunch of side missions that I always get stuck doing. Anyway, I’m still enjoying my time doing random stuff, but I just haven’t been playing all that much.

Sparkle 2 – 61%

I finished up my hard playthrough this week and I’m currently working on my nightmare playthrough before I start the survival and challenge modes. Even though this is the third time I’m playing this game, I’m really enjoying it and I look forward to finishing it so that I can start Sparkle Unleashed on the PS4.

Rollers of the Realm – 70%

I started playing this game again this week because I recently seen that a patch downloaded for this game. Hoping that this patch cleared up some of the trophy issues that I was having, I was glad to see that after a few frustrating rounds of arena I was able to get a trophy that I should have gotten a long time ago. Since this game and it’s trophies are now functioning properly I’ll continue to play and hopefully be able to get the 100%.

Borderlands: The Handsome Collection – Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel – 12%

I started this because it was sitting on my PS4 taking up space, plus I needed something new to play while I played The Elder Scrolls Online. Sometimes it’s just like that where you can’t strictly play just one game. Besides, I always like getting back into Borderlands and in this game I really enjoy playing as Athena because let’s face it, her shield is just badass.

So for this upcoming week I will continue to make my way through Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. I’m not really sure if I’ll be getting the platinum for this game since I don’t even have the platinum for this on the PS3, but you never know. I’ll also be continuing my journey through The Elder Scrolls Online while playing Sparkle 2 and Rollers of the Realm in between.

This Week in Trophies 05-31-2015 – 06-06-2015

I’m not going to lie, this week was pretty damn awesome for me trophy wise. I added a bunch of trophies to my collection and I’m so close to reaching that 5,000th trophy mark. I’m really excited about my milestone trophy and while I could plan it so that it’s something great, I’m just going to let it happen naturally and see what pops up. Here’s what I got this week.

Far Cry 4 – 51%

As you can see, I’ve spent most of my free time this week playing this game. While it’s not the best game that I’ve ever played, it’s not the worst either. The game as a whole, even the story line, is really similar to everything in Far Cry 3. So the game for me is familiar but at the same time a little different. Still, I’m having a nice time playing it. I’m hoping to have the platinum before The Elder Scrolls Online comes out, but we’ll see how things go within the next couple of days. I’ll also be skipping the DLC on this one since it really doesn’t interest me.

Sparkle 2 – 52%

I always play this game when I only have a little bit of time to play, but somehow it just sucks me in and I end up playing for hours when I could have been playing something else. That’s not to say that I’m not enjoying playing this game again for the third time though. I completed all the standard trophies for this game that require you to do special things and play for 4 hours, so now I’m just working on playing on Hard and Nightmare before playing through the Challenges and Survival.

So that was my pretty awesome trophy week. As close as I am to my 5,000th trophy, I’m also close to another milestone which is my 40th platinum trophy. I guess that Far Cry 4 isn’t a bad milestone platinum, but with this one I kinda wish that I had planned it a little better. Maybe I’ll actually plan the 50th platinum trophy when I get to it.

Sparkle 2 Review (PS Vita)

Just recently realizing that this game was a cross buy, it was one of those duh moments that I sometimes have, I decided to load it onto my PS Vita and give this version a try. I mostly did this because I really enjoyed the PS4 version, you can read my full review on that version here. After spending a decent amount of time playing and getting through everything the game had to offer, here’s what I thought about the PS Vita version.

Like the PS4 version, Sparkle 2 isn’t just a match game like Zuma, there’s an actual story to the game. There are five different keys laying around a forest that you just happen to be exploring and gathering all five keys will unlock a mysterious portal at the end. While it’s not much of a story it shows that effort was put into the game to make it more interesting then just match a bunch of same colored balls so they don’t fall into the hole. This game gives you a purpose to continue to play through all 92 levels.

Even the second time around I really enjoyed playing this game and played longer then I had planned to each time. Being the portable version this time it was easy to get caught up playing while doing something else like watching TV. As with the PS4 version there are a bunch of different things to do that will keep you occupied for hours upon hours. Not only are there different difficulties to master, but there are also survival levels and challenge levels. As with the PS4 version, I did become frustrated at times when playing the harder levels. Since the balls are randomly generated, both the ones that are in a line and the ones that you have to use to match, sometimes the balls just don’t fall in your favor and you can lose. A lot. There’s nothing really you can do about it and even changing which enchantments you use doesn’t work. This at times becomes frustrating and at that point it’s usually good to put the game down and just walk away for a few moments.

The playability is pretty simple for this game, as it should be for a game like this. All you have to do is match up 3 or more of the same colored balls in order to clear them from the board. It’s not hard, but on the harder difficulties it sometimes requires more planning then just shooting off a bunch of the balls at random. The PS Vita version makes full use of the touch screen which was surprising. Tapping on the touch screen gives you the same output as using the actual controls on the Vita. While I preferred using the old fashioned controls, the touch screen controls worked just fine and were extremely responsive.

I really enjoyed the graphics on the PS4 version and was hoping that it transferred down to the PS Vita version just as well. I’m happy to report that it did just that. Having the graphics become smaller didn’t in any way change what the original graphics from the PS4 version. On the PS Vita, the graphics were just as crisp and as detailed as the PS4 which doesn’t happen very often but it’s a nice bonus when it does.

The trophy list for the PS Vita version is a separate one and it has 14 trophies to it. All of the trophies are the same as the PS4 version and are pretty easy to get. The trophies for playing on different difficulties might be a little challenging, but once you know what combination of enchantments to use for certain levels you should be able to get all the trophies without a problem.

Yay for no multiplayer, especially on the PS Vita.

Overall I give this game a 4 out of 5

What’s Great:
+ Having a small story to accompany this game adds to the overall game making it more interesting.
+ Graphics transferred nicely from the PS4 to the PS Vita.
+ Addicting. Be warned, you cannot just play this game for half an hour no matter how hard you try.

What’s Not So Great:
– The game can become frustrating at times when playing on harder levels.

If you enjoyed the PS4 version of this game, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t enjoy the PS Vita version of this game. If you haven’t played either yet, then why not? Not only is this game a good value since you’ll get a lot of play time out of it, but you’ll also get it for all three consoles. It’s a win win situation. Also, if you have both the PS4 and PS Vita, I would say to give the game a try on both versions since they basically match up and are pretty similar.

This Week in Trophies 05-24-2015 – 05-30-2015

This turned out to be a pretty decent week trophy wise with the release of the latest Game of Thrones episode. Not to mention that the Dragon Age: Inquisition DLC Jaws of Hakkon was finally released on the PS4. I also started my Sparkle 2 playthrough on the PS3 and continued to play Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare. I even started a new PS4 game after I kinda gave up on The Witcher 3 by the end of the week. Here’s how my week played out for me.

Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare – 57%

While I’m not even close to getting this platinum trophy, I haven’t really been playing this game to get the platinum trophy anyway. I just really enjoy playing and it’s a nice break from playing The Witcher 3 which unfortunately I’ve given up on at the moment. It’s nice to pick up random trophies for this game here and there.

Game of Thrones – 62%

The release of a new episode was surprising, but not unwelcome. Although I would have rather had a new Tales from the Borderlands episode, this episode was decent enough and I’ll have my review posted here sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Dragon Age: Inquisition – 100%

The wait for the DLC for this game was long and I was eager to play this DLC as soon as I got it. It took me roughly 7 hours to play and even though I enjoyed it, I kind of regretted paying the $15 for it especially when I could have picked up some pretty sweet sales in the PS store this week for the same price.

Sparkle 2 – 33%

I’m really enjoying playing this game again on the PS3 this time. Even though I’m enjoying it, I can see some noticeable differences between the three versions. I’m pretty dedicated to continuing to play through this game when I get some spare time here and there.

Far Cry 4 – 6%

So I started playing this game because not only have I had it from release day, but I’m also kinda done with The Witcher 3 for the moment. I plan to just put it on the shelf and continue it at another time to see if I can get into it better then I am at the moment. So far I’m really enjoying Far Cry 4. I can see where the game is very similar to Far Cry 3 and I’m not sure if Far Cry 2 or Far Cry classic is the same, but that doesn’t make it a bad game.

That was it for this week. I would say that this week was pretty decent especially since the month is over. With The Witcher 3 being out of the picture at the moment I’ll probably spend my gaming time playing Far Cry 4 as well as Plants Vs. Zombies every now and again and finishing up Sparkle 2 sometime soon.

This Week In Trophies 05-10-2015 – 05-23-2015

This edition of this week in trophies is totally supersized since it includes last weeks trophies as well. After a week of feeling like absolute crap, it’s nice to finally start feeling better and getting back to doing what I love, which is gaming. While I didn’t even touch my PS3 or PS4 while I was sick, I have to say that my PS Vita became my best friend this week as I carried it just about everywhere I went and spent some major time playing between bouts of passing out from the over load of medication I was taking and watching many many reruns of The Facts of Life. Here’s how the past two weeks treated me.

The Unfinished Swan – 100%

I finished this game up early in the first week and was really glad to have done so. I didn’t get that much enjoyment out of the game as a whole and I’ll be posting my full review later this week for the game. Let’s just say though, that I’m glad it’s over and I don’t plan to play this game on any other platform.

The Handsome Collection – Borderlands 2 – 100%

Even though I got the platinum for this a couple of weeks ago now, I just really wanted to finish this game up completely and get the 100%. I worked pretty hard farming to finish up some left over DLC quests and a couple of other things along the way. I’m just glad that it’s done and I have a new 100% game to add to my collection.

Don’t Starve: Console Edition – 28%

I started playing this game again as I waited for The Witcher 3 to come in. I started this game a long time ago, probably when it was free for PS+, and just forgot about it afterwards. I’m glad that I started playing this game again and hopefully some day I’ll be able to get the 100% on it.

Pure Pool – 55%

While I am in no way going for the platinum trophy for this game, I do like to pick it up time to time between games and just play when I have some free time. Any trophies that I get are just an added bonus.

Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare – 44%

This was just another game that was sitting on my system that I decided to play while waiting for The Witcher 3 to be released. I did actually enjoy picking this game up and playing again since it had been a while. Who knew that I was so close to getting so many trophies if I had just kept playing. Anyway, I’m kind of addicted now and have continued to play this game on and off.

Sparkle 2 – 100%

While I was sick, I finally finished up the Vita version of Sparkle 2. It took me way longer then I expected since I would constantly fall asleep while I played, but at least I got it done. I’ll probably start the PS3 version some time this week.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – 1%

I finally got around to playing this game and so far…I’m not really sure how I feel about it. I encountered a couple of problems actually trying to get the game to start, which is just a bunch of absolute crap because how can you not notice that your game isn’t loading during QA testing, and I’ve had a couple of other problems along the way as well. I’ll be giving this game another chance though as I continue to play through the story a little more.

Fat Princess: Piece of Cake – 55%

Another game that I just started playing again after I finished with Sparkle 2 on the PS Vita. I didn’t really realize how close I was to the 100% and only have a few more trophies to go. I’ll probably continue to play this game just to get the 100% and delete from my system to clear up some memory.

Murasaki Baby – 100%

Another Vita game that I started when I was feeling just a little bit better and was pretty sure that I wasn’t going to pass out while playing. I played the whole thing in one sitting and got all the trophies. I’ll have my full review of the game in a few weeks.

So there you have it, all of my trophies for the past two weeks. What a crazy couple of weeks and I’ll be looking forward to things getting back to normal. As I play The Witcher 3 a little bit more, I’m sure next weeks trophies will be a little lighter since the trophies for The Witcher 3 seems to be very sparse, but you never know.

Sparkle 2 Review (PS4)

Being a fan of Zuma and similar games, I had wanted to pick up Sparkle for a while now. I decided to wait until it was on sale because I figured it would be on sale sooner or later or it would eventually be free with PS+. After downloading this game I immediately started playing and here’s what I thought.

I was surprised to see that Sparkle 2 had an actual story to it. It’s up to you to pick up the five keys throughout the forest in order to enter this mysterious portal at the end. Each key has a different pathway to it leading you through different levels throughout the whole game. It isn’t much, but it’s something and it shows that effort was put into it.

It’s easy to get caught up in this game and play for much longer then you intended to. Wanting to only play for half an hour turned into playing for two hours and completely losing track of time. The different levels of difficulty and the different enchantment combinations will keep things interesting as you work your way through 92 levels. There’s also challenges and survival mode to keep you playing even longer.

The playability for this game is pretty simple. You line up the colored balls and shoot them at the other colored balls. Make a match of 3 or more of the same colored balls and you’ll take those balls off of the board. The balls will keep coming until the level is over, just make sure that you don’t let them go into the hole at the end of the line that the balls are following. You’ll also have power ups that appear on the board every time you make a combo of three which will help you out along the way.

I wasn’t expecting much graphic wise from this game, but I was very impressed with the amount of detail that went into the graphics. Being used to the Zuma type graphics, that’s what I was expecting when I first went into this game. The graphics are similar but they’re also more detailed and crisper. I liked that they were similar but also different in a sense that they were more evolved.

There are a total of 14 different trophies for this game. All of them are extremely simple to get and just require you to play the game. You’ll have to play the game at all three different levels of difficulty, survive endless mode for the different levels, and complete all of the challenges. While nightmare mode isn’t all that easy, it’ll take some time, patience, and the right enchantments hooked up, it’s still really do able. All you have to do is invest the time into it and these trophies should be a breeze.

There’s no multiplayer for this game and I like to consider that a good thing.

Overall I give this game a 4 out of 5

What’s Great:
+ There’s an actual story that goes with the game and it shows that a lot of effort went into it.
+ Very easy to get caught up and just keep playing for hours.
+ Nice graphics.
+ Offers a lot of different modes to keep things interesting.

What’s Not So Great:
– Harder levels get a little frustrating at times.

Sparkle 2 is a fun little game that offers a hell of a lot of play time for not a lot of money. If you’re a fan of Zuma and Zuma type games I would definitely recommend giving this game a chance.