Platinum 38: Legendary

 

After four months of daily and weekly challenges, I finally got to the 11th Level of Awesomeness, Truly Awesome!, and the Legendary platinum trophy for Rayman Legends. I've written before on the superb platforming experience of the last two Rayman games. They rival the classic perfection of Nintendo's platformers. Incredibly fun, absolutely gorgeous, with eye-popping setpieces and mind-bending platforming sections, this is one of the best games I've ever played. Can't recommend it strongly enough. I hope Ubisoft is working on another sequel, because I will eat that up. The challenge trophy was kind of absurd; even collecting mostly gold cups, it still took me weeks and weeks to get that final ranking. Time consuming, for sure, but fortunately the experience is so fun that it wasn't really that bad. All in all, I am very pleased to add this platinum to my collection, and look forward to getting the Vita version and doing it all over again. It is that good.

Rayman Legends Overall:  9/10

Platinum Difficulty: 9/10

Platinum Enjoyability: 9/10

The Wolf Among Us Platinum

I really enjoyed this latest episodic series from Telltale. The story was engrossing, the characters interesting, and the point and click adventure style is much more refined than TWD. It earns its hard Mature rating without a doubt; the violence is unforgiving and brutal, and I've rarely heard as many obscenities in a game before. They don't pull any punches here, and although it goes over the top at times, it all adds up to make an unforgettable, gritty and hardcore experience. The mystery built fairly well across every episode, especially the first three. In Sheep's Clothing was a little flat, overall. I did have some problems with the final episode, which I thought was the weakest of the series. The fight with Mary wasn't very satisfying, and the trial of the Crooked Man seemed strange. Maybe I just wasn't prepared for it, but I didn't realize I was going to have to argue the Crooked Man's guilt before Fabletown. It was a tough sell. The last scene was intriguing, though, and of course left us on a cliffhanger--ostensibly for a second season.

I will happily play it again when it drops on the Vita, and I will definitely play a second season. The few hiccups and missteps it took in no way took away from the overall experience of the game. I really enjoyed Bigby and his rocky relationship with nearly everyone else in Fabletown. The acting was really top notch, and the graphic novel style of the graphics was fantastic. I'm looking forward to playing through a second time with a different approach.

8/10

Dead Space: Martyr

I read a Dead Space spin off novel this week, Dead Space: Martyr. I am a huge fan of the Dead Space series and have played every game so far (the iOS tablet version excepted) and seen both of the animated movies. So I have been looking forward to checking out the books for a while now.

(Spoilers and Dead Space jargon ahead)

Martyr is about the discovery of the Black Marker on Earth, the resulting first recorded necromorph outbreak, and the origins of the Church of Unitology. Michael Altman, who in the games is worshipped by the Unitologists as a prophet/god, is the geophysicist at first studying the Marker, then finally trying to destroy it. I never realized while playing the games that Altman was actually against Unitology, that EarthGov plotted his death as a way to manipulate the people. It is an interesting origins story; probably only worth the read for die hard fans of the franchise, though. The writing isn't fantastic, merely adequate; about average for a video game spinoff novel. It reminded me of one of the Mass Effect novels I've read. Very interesting for a DS fan, though. Makes me want to play through the games again.

Platinum #36

Completed Uncharted: Golden Abyss in just under two weeks. The bulk of the trophies are typical Uncharted fare; weapon kills, treasure collection, hand to hand combat, and the hard and crushing playthroughs. There were also a couple Vita specific trophies, like using the back touchpad to climb a rope, and finally the new addition to the trophy family were the pain in the butt bounty trophies. None were super difficult, though, and I am pleased to have all 4 Uncharted platinums in my collection now.

Golden Abyss is probably the weakest game in the franchise, but undoubtedly one of the best the Vita currently has to offer. I found myself continuously impressed at the animations, character detail, overall visuals and size of the levels. It's pretty incredible what the Vita can do in terms of having power. The story was merely all right, and the dialogue ran from acceptable to silly. My favorite parts were the chapters that included Sully. They made me want to play the console games again, honestly. Overall, a very enjoyable Vita experience and one I easily recommend to series fans.

Enjoyability: 7/10
Platinum difficulty: 3/10