plat•i•num [plat-n-uhm, plat-nuhm]

“1. Chemistry. a heavy, grayish-white, highly malleable and ductile metallic element, resistant to most chemicals, practically unoxidizable except in the presence of bases, and fusible only at extremely high temperatures.

2. a light, metallic gray with very slight bluish tinge when compared with silver.

3. achievement awarded for 100% trophy completion within a game on the Playstation 3 console system.”

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I’ve spoken many times about Trophies and the lengths some people will go to for a ‘ping’ in the top right hand corner of the screen.

I have a healthy Trophy score, which has occurred mostly naturally – I admit picking up a few trophies having known in advance what is required – but I have no inclination to go over old games for the sake of a few trophies.

Don’t get me wrong I have no problem with people going for trophies, it just doesn’t interest me personally.

But recently something has been bugging me. As many of you will know I would class myself as a fairly serious gamer and I noticed a few weeks ago when looking through my trophy collection that my highest trophy percentage for a game is Terminator Salvation. (81% Trophy Completion)

That’s right, the lowest scored game in the history of this site. The most boring PS3 title I’ve ever finished appears to be my most played and completed game

In terms of general playthroughs the closest was Assassin’s Creed II (71%), with most other titles coming in around 40-50%.

As I started my 2nd playthrough of Heavy Rain in an attempt to unlock a certain ending (I’m staying vague in case I give ANYTHING away ) I was using the help of a guide to make sure I did it correctly and suddenly realised something.

Playing through most of the chapters again using the conditions I needed and getting a different result to my original playthrough in most of them was actually gonna inadvertently net me a heap of trophies.

Could this finally be the game to rid me of the shame of Terminator Salvation? I must also add at this point that my ‘haul’ from Terminator was via one 4 hour playthrough on EASY in which you got a gold trophy for finishing each level

After completing the ending I was looking for in Heavy Rain I decided I’d enjoyed it so much that I wanted to see all the possible endings and find out what could’ve happened. Again I grabbed the guide and, checking the way to do it, realised that if it went as planned I would then only be a handful of trophies short of a platinum :wow:

And while I’m not that into Trophies there was no way I’d let myself not get a platinum by that small amount. Especially when even those last trophies would let me see new scenes/outcomes.

And so there it is – my first ever Platinum Trophy (and probably my last).

You see, Heavy Rain’s Trophies were based around content, not skill. This Platinum isn’t for gaming skill (although I did have to ace some of the quick time events) but having the patience to experience all there is within Heavy Rain.

And I’m glad I took the time to have the complete Heavy Rain experience, firstly because the game and all it’s outcomes were very cool and secondly because Quantic Dream’s ambitious project washed away the embarrassment of having one of the worst games I’ve ever played at the top of my list.

Heavy Rain – Review (PS3)

NOTE: This review is SPOILER FREE so don’t worry about it affecting your experience with Heavy Rain.

Heavy Rain is the spiritual successor to Fahrenheit, a fantastic PS2 title that unfortunately collapsed in on itself during it’s final third.

It seems it’s creator David Cage has learnt from that experience and has used the lessons to help form the experience that is Heavy Rain.

And I say experience because Heavy Rain is unlike anything I’ve played before.

Telling the story of the Origami Killer, who kidnaps young boys and drowns them in rain water, Heavy Rain sees you controlling four main characters and through their actions – whether everyday stuff like carrying in the shopping or a frantic fight for their life – you get a real feel for the characters.

Another reason you feel an attachment to them is the well documented continuous story element – whereby if one of the characters die the story continues, just without you getting further evidence/clues that the character would’ve uncovered.

You can’t actually ‘lose’ in Heavy Rain. Most games are like mathematics exams – you have to work out how to get from A to B. There are several ‘right’ answers but a lot more ‘wrong’ answers. If you get the question wrong you start from stratch and try to work it through.

In Heavy Rain the story continues from A to B regardless but your input shapes the way the action unfolds. Presumably the killer is the same each time (I’ve only had one playthrough so far) but the eventual outcome will vary depending on how your story was formed. Worst case scenario if you kill off all the main characters you will end up with a shorter story and, possibly, no resolution.

Knowing during every moment that a slip up may result in the character’s death as opposed to just having to retry the section really ramps up the pressure. Imagine Kratos from God Of War dying permanently if you messed up a QTE or died during gameplay Obviously it’s a different type of game so you can’t compare them directly but it means you care a lot more about making sure no-one gets bumped off.

You interact with your surroundings using the right stick to open doors, sit down, choose what to look at etc. Moving is old skool – R2 is forward whichever direction you’re facing with the left stick changng direction. Pressing L2 brings up a selection of the characters thoughts which can be triggered by the face buttons.

During some cutscenes you’ll be required to take part in QTE events – pressing, holding or tapping various buttons and using the right stick. But Heavy Rain isn’t just a bunch of QTE’s, you will have the freedom to investigate environments and only once did the game (via the character thinking to himself) prompt me to go back and do something before I could leave the scene.

Graphically this game is up there with the best of them and because the camera angles are dictated by the game you’re guaranteed the game will look amazing all the time.

It’s not flawless – I had a few glitches whereby an unrelated character stumbled into view as a cut scene started (presumably as it’s all running on the same engine in real time) and the main character walked right through them.

Friends that have played the game are saying things like ‘this is amazing’ or ‘I’m astounded’ which is pretty high praise from regular gamers. After finishing Heavy Rain I could not stop talking about it with everyone I met – which is quite an achievement without discussing the story

And I am extremely wary of ruining any part of this experience for anyone that reads this, which is why I haven’t mentioned anything specific storywise.

Heavy Rain is a game that deserves to be played by the masses – I suspect, sadly, that it won’t be but if Sony marketed this right (I’d release a full trailer as you would for a film personally) it could break through.

Some people will hate this game and think it’s boring but for me it’s great to play through a strong story and the mundane moments help build the characters.

It says a lot that as soon as I finished this game I wanted to play through it again straight away. I want to give the characters a slightly different personality, experiment to see what happens and find out how it changes the story.

Heavy Rain is by no means perfect but it brings a whole raft of new ideas and innovation to the table.

At the very least rent this and give it a shot – once I started I couldn’t stop playing it and I hope many more people enjoy it as much as I did.

Rating: 9/10

Fahrenheit (PS2) – Review

It’s not often I review a PS2 game these days but had heard amazing things about Fahrenheit from a while back and then two of my friends recommended it (cheers Oggy and Hollow Snake) (note that link contains very adult and colourful language) .

Fahrenheit tells the story of Lucas Kane as he comes to in a diner restroom having just murdered someone.

The real genius of this game is that it’s almost like an interactive film – except your actions have a consequence and while there is an arching storyline there are several endings and different ways things can play out.

It almost reminded me of a game version of the old Fighting Fantasy books I read as a kid (without the Orcs and Dwarves though )

The refreshing thing about Fahrenheit is that you play as a few of the characters, not just Lucas.

So once you’ve got Lucas out of the diner and someone discovers the victim, you control the police officers (Carla and Tyler) conducting the investigation.

You’re investigating a murder you just committed!

Obviously with Lucas having no recollection of his actions until after the murder you use the police officers, as well as Lucas himself, to try and help solve the overall mystery.

Using the left stick to move around, the right stick is reserved for interaction. So if you approach a table for instance you might get two icons with a direction each. Say left for coffee cup and right for plate. You then press on the right stick what option you want to take.

The same goes for conversations, often with four options to steer the interaction in the direction you want. Also this isn’t something where you can just go through and choose all the options one after the other. You might get to ask two things then the conversation ends.

Likewise in stressful situations you’ll only have a few seconds to decide how you answer, which is really cool.

You’ll also get quick time events where you’ll have to copy pressing the sticks in whatever directions flash up on the screen. This is usually reserved for bursts of action and make for some frantic manoeuvering of the sticks!

It doesn’t mean game over if you ask the wrong questions (at least not everytime!) or if you mess up a quick time event during a conversational cut scene. All that happens is that you don’t get all of the information you would’ve done.

It’s a great system that often leaves you wondering if you should’ve asked this or done that etc.

My only complaint with the game was a couple of tedious flashback sequences of Lucas as a boy that were essentially badly done stealth sections but really they form such a small part of the game it seems unfair to judge them too harshly.

Fahrenheit is a very innovative game, which is really saying something as it is is almost 4 years old. The whole game feels brand new – obviously excluding the graphics. While they are more than respectable for the PS2 they pale in comparison to even average looking PS3 games.

Something else I loved was the way the game would wrap up with a voiceover at the game over screen if you ‘failed’ – technically you could stop playing there and you’d have a finished story (with a lot of questions unanswered but still…).

The storyline is excellent, although fairly far fetched so if you’re looking for gritty realism this won’t be for you.

Fahrenheit is an adult game. There is sex, violence and a complex storyline here, which to be honest younger gamers may not really understand. Not to sound patronising, there are some that would get it – just seems like this could be a little deep for some younger gamers (it’s a 15 rated game).

If you are looking for something completely different but refreshing and enjoy watching films then I’d recommend Fahrenheit – right from the off the tone is set and this is one of the best made games I’ve played for a long time.

The guys who made this are currently working on Heavy Rain (see trailer below) so I’m now even MORE excited about that game.

RATING: 9/10