Tag: trophy

Returning to the Wasteland: Fallout 4’s Next-Gen Update

~ Gareth Ellis ~ Leave a comment

Since the release of a certain TV series, you can’t go far in the real world or online without encountering something Fallout-related. It’s like the entire world has been swept up in the frenzy surrounding the release of the Fallout TV show. From billboards plastered with Vault Boy’s iconic grin to the incessant chatter on social media, it seems like everyone and their Radroach is buzzing about Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic universe. And in a way, I’m glad. It’s a game series that I’ve loved for years, and it’s nice that it’s getting recognition and new fans.

And amidst all this excitement, there’s another reason for Fallout fans to rejoice: the next-gen update for Fallout 4. As if the arrival of the TV show wasn’t enough to send everyone into a radioactive-fueled frenzy, Bethesda goes ahead and drops the bombshell of the PS5/XBox Series X/S update that I, personally, have been waiting for for a while. I was half expecting another Skyrim release before we got an updated Fallout.

So, with Fallout fever running rampant and the promise of a visually enhanced Commonwealth beckoning, I couldn’t resist diving back into the irradiated ruins of post-apocalyptic Boston, and let me tell you, so far, it’s been one hell of a ride.

But before we delve into the nitty-gritty of the next-gen update, let’s take a trip down memory lane. Remember those blogs I wrote about Fallout 4? One was a little bit of a guide for some of the more difficult trophies to obtain on your journey through the wasteland. The other was a mouthwatering recipe for Buffout cookies from the cookbook inspired by everyone’s favourite in-game performance-enhancing drug. Ah, good times.

Now, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: the graphics. Bethesda promised us a visual overhaul that would redefine our perception of the post-apocalyptic landscape we’ve come to know and love, and while they’ve certainly made some notable strides in this department, the overall impact might not be as earth-shattering as some of us hoped. In some lights, you can see some improvements, but most of the time, there really doesn’t seem to be much of a difference. It would be nice to have something that makes use of the current generation of console’s graphical abilities. I wasn’t expecting it to be an Unreal Engine 5 kind of upgrade, but I have to admit I was expecting more than we got.

As I find myself once again traversing the irradiated wastes of the Commonwealth, I can’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu. It’s like revisiting an old friend – familiar yet filled with new surprises around every corner. Some of these new surprises come in the form of new quests, mainly relating to the Enclave faction, which we saw a lot of in previous Fallout games. These new quests are a welcome addition and only serve to help you explore the wasteland, as well as providing you with some pretty decent new gear like the Enclave Power Armour. But even without these new additions, there is still plenty on the game that I didn’t explore during my last playthrough that will keep me busy for a long time.

Speaking of surprises, it wouldn’t be a true Bethesda experience without a few bugs rearing their ugly heads along the way. Some of these are new and exciting bugs, like total game crashes, that crop up during important times, and others are like old friends that have been there since the beginning; Cambridge Police Station, I’m looking at you. Like war, some bugs never change.

But despite the occasional hiccup, diving back into Fallout 4 has been nothing short of exhilarating. Whether I’m embarking on quests, building and customizing settlements, or simply soaking in the atmosphere of this richly detailed world, there’s never a dull moment in the Commonwealth.

So, as I continue my journey through the wasteland, I invite you to join me on this adventure. Whether you’re a seasoned survivor or a newcomer to the series, there’s never been a better time to experience all that Fallout 4 has to offer.

Until next time, happy exploring, fellow survivors!

Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Review)

~ Gareth Ellis ~ Leave a comment

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is an action-adventure game released in September 2021 for PlayStation 4, Playstation 5 and PC.

In the game, you control Kena, a young spirit guide travelling to a sacred mountain shrine. Throughout the game, she collects little fuzzy spirit companions called Rot, who help her solve puzzles and traverse the environment. In order to be allowed to have safe passage to the shrine, a masked spirit tells her that she must help several trapped spirits throughout the land.

Kena is a game that Alex first noticed and told me about; although I liked the sound of it and couldn’t deny it looked like it would be a good game, I still wasn’t sold on it, but I ended up buying it for Alex at Christmas, and it wasn’t long before we were both well into the game. The design of the game was excellent, the environments were beautiful, and the levels were well designed. Unlike some games in a similar vein, the puzzles weren’t too complicated, and you could tell it was probably designed for the lower age groups of players, but that’s not to say that adults can’t find something to love in it. One thing that I think everyone will love, I know Alex and I do, are the Rots. The Rots are small fuzzy black creatures that follow you around the game and are used to perform certain actions like opening doors or moving objects and within battles performing certain attacks. The little buggers are so cute and lovable, and the fact that you can buy them all sorts of hatsꟷyes, hatsꟷthat don’t do anything of real value, they just make the Rots even cuter. The hats range from elf hats to pumpkin tops, mushrooms and various masks, and they add to the charm of the game.

The gameplay mechanics are quite simple and easy to grasp, so there’s no time spent frustratingly trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Even if you put the game down and come back a few days later, it’s easy to pick back up where you left off. The puzzles aren’t of a high level of difficulty either, and most involve getting your Rots to do something like moving rocks to deflect the magic from your cane or pots to stand on to reach higher levels. But this simplicity isn’t a bad thing; in a way, it’s a breath of fresh air to have a game that’s too overly complicated and makes you want to angrily throw your controller at the screen.

The characters are well crafted, and besides, the high quality of voice acting allows you to be further immersed into a world where you’re surrounded by spirits, good and bad.

The combat at times is a bit clunky and difficult to control; the camera spins around in a way that means you can’t see what’s going on. Although it’s easily rectified, it can be a bit annoying. But with the assistance of your little Rot dudes, the foes can be defeated

There is a lot in this game to love; even I, who isn’t the biggest fan of 3D platformers, which this game is at a base level, enjoyed this game. It’s not a long game, so if you have a couple of decent game sessions, you’ll probably finish it quite quickly, but there is quite a bit to do other than the main story, such as collecting “spirit mail” this is mail that you have to deliver to the home in the town it’s meant for and therefore allowing more spirits to rest. You can also try to find all the flower shrines, cursed chests and Rot hats; this alone will take you a few hours.

I wasn’t sure about this game, to begin with, but I’m glad that I gave it a chance, and although there could have been a little bit more to it, it’s still a fun game and well deserves a rating of 8/10. I would recommend this to anyone, and I’m sure if you’ve got kids, they would love it too.

Addition:

For the trophy hunters out there, most of the trophies are easy to obtain; they’re either from completing sections of the story, collecting all of something, e.g. Rot hats, or performing certain moves or attacks within battles. The one that is the killer is finishing the game on “master” difficulty. Some of the battles are hard when playing it on the normal setting, but on master, they feel almost impossible at times. But, if you keep chipping away at it, you’ll get it done.

Awkward Trophies: The Last of Us Part II Edition

~ Gareth Ellis ~ Leave a comment

I’ve done a couple of these posts relating to some of the more finicky trophies to get on certain games. You can find the Vampyr, Skyrim, and Fallout 4 one by clicking on them here.

In this edition, I’ll be taking you through some of the more confusing trophies in The Last of Us Part II.

Looks Good On You – Put a hat on your companion

This is easy to miss. Earned in the “Birthday Gift” flashback, to obtain this trophy you must pick up one of the hats dotted around the entrance to the dinosaur museum, which will cause Ellie to place it on her head.

In the second room of the museum, you can interact with the dinosaur skeletons and place the hat on their skulls. You want to do this twice with differing skeletons, which will cause an interaction icon to appear above Joel’s head. Go over to him and place the hat on his head to be rewarded with the trophy.

Put My Name Up – Earn the high score in the archery game

This trophy is self-explanatory and takes place in the aquarium when you are in control of Abby during one of her flashbacks.

All the targets are in the same room but there are quite a few of them so take the time to familiarise yourself with their locations before you begin the challenge.

For the below collectibles we used the guide over on Powerpyx

Arms master – Fully upgrade all weapons

Archivist – Find all artefacts and journal entries

Master set – Find all trading cards

Numismatist – Find all coins

Prepared For The Worst – Find all workbenches

Safecracker – Unlock every safe

Journeyman – Find all the training manuals

Survival Expert – Learn all player upgrades

High Calibre – Find all weapons

If you enjoy a scavenge for your trophies, then The Last of Us: Part II does not disappoint with many of the trophies following a similar mechanic to those in the original.

The difference in the sequel, however, is that there are certain collectibles, weapons and player upgrades that are specific to either Ellie or Abby, making it harder to keep up with what you have or haven’t got.

Honestly, you could try and collect all these organically, but if you’re in the mood for a trophy hunt you may be better off finding a guide to help you find all of the locations.

We personally did one playthrough collecting what we could naturally and then did a second run to mop up what we missed.  This way your first playthrough can be spent enjoying (I use this term loosely, here’s looking at you Rat King) the story, while the second allows you to focus on other aspects of the game, unlocking different dialogue and combat options through the collectibles that you may not have experienced in the first playthrough.

Vampyr: An Awkward Trophy Guide

~ Gareth Ellis ~ 2 Comments

A while ago I wrote a review of the game Vampyr. At the end of the review I put a short section about one of the harder trophies to pick up if you’re going for the elusive platinum. I’ve had some great feedback about the post and how it helped them with something that was particularly difficult so I thought I’d do another post with some information on how to do some of the other hard to get trophies. Hopefully this guide will shed some light on them for you and help you on your way to platinum.

Unlife is Strange

For this trophy you need to water ‘Lisa’. This is the name that Jonathan gives to the dying plant in his room at the hospital. In order to save it and make it grow you need to pick up some fresh water and give it to the plant. This item can only be found upon beginning Chapter 4 of the game and can be found in a cabinet in a small shop across from where you save the citizen Mr Kimura from a level 22-24 ekon that you will have to defeat to gain access to the shop in question. Once you have the water, take it back to Jonathan’s room and give to the plant. After sleeping a total of three times, the plant will grow and the trophy will pop.

Bloody Roots

I’ve previously gone over the requirements for this trophy in an older blog post. But I feel there are a few things that need to be stressed about it. As well as bagging you a trophy, solving this puzzle will also snag you one of the best weapons in the game, so it’s well worth trying to get it.

  1. You need to find all documents in the game. If you’re doing a pacifist run this can be quite hard to do, but it’s still possible.
  2. DO NOT read Usher Talltree’s book that he asks you to collect for him. If you do, you won’t receive one of the other documents and so won’t be able to complete the requirements for the trophy.
  3. The puzzle seems to change depending on what the game randomises. The solution that worked for me (see previous blog post) might not work for you. You’ll need to check all the documents you collect for the small white pixel in the corner and the pattern displayed to make sure what your pattern is.

Tools of the Profession – Keep Your Distance – Weapon of Choice

All these trophies are impossible on a pacifist run. Some of the weapons you can only receive by killing a citizen and either picking it up off their body or by looting a key for their safe.

If you kill someone and then sleep, it might transpire that another character will go missing. If this happens, their weapon will be lost and you won’t be able to pick it up for the trophy. I’d recommend killing everyone in one night so this doesn’t happen.

Not Even Once

This can be easily missed. At the start of the game, Jonathan is given the option to bite or release a character called Clay. If you bite and kill him, that’s the end of your pacifist run. Letting him live will mean you can carry on and as long as you don’t kill anyone else you’ll get this trophy.

Doing a pacifist run however, isn’t easy. You won’t gain XP from killing characters and will only get it from healing them or through normal combat. This might mean that your pacifist run is considerably longer than a genocide run.

Lore Keeper

As mentioned in the Bloody Roots section you need to collect all the in game documents for this one to pop and reading Usher Talltree’s book will stop you from collecting one of them.

It took me three runs to platinum Vampyr, but it can be done in two if you do one pacifist and one genocide.

So that’s some of the more awkward trophies in Vampyr. Happy hunting!

Easy Platinums And The Games that Give Them

~ Gareth Ellis ~ Leave a comment

A few weeks ago when we were bored and thinking of new games to play. We looked up what games give the easiest platinum trophies for the PS4. We came across several easy (and cheap) games to play if you want to do a bit of trophy hunting.

My Name is Mayo 1 & 2

What can I say about these games? Well, you better make sure that your button bashing skills are up to it. These games are very simple in their premise; tap the jar of mayonnaise. That’s it. I know, who comes up these complicated games. It’s not all just tapping though, no, you can also select different ‘stories’ for the mayo. Sometimes it will be wearing a bikini, others it will have a moustache and sometimes it will be being licked by a giant tongue.

So how do you get the platinum I hear you cry. It’s simple. You tap the mayo 10,000 times. Okay, okay, so there’s a little more to it than that. At certain points in the games you need to select the stories. Each one has a trophy after a certain number of taps. Once you’ve done all these you should be up to the required taps.

What do you do after you’ve platinumed it, you ask? Delete it and never install it again. Unless you want a place on the leaderboard, but for that you’re going to need to spend some time getting possibly billions of taps. Is it really worth your time?

Slyde

Remember those puzzles as a kid where you had to move them around until you had a picture? Well that’s exactly what this game is. Only this time, other than the knowledge that you finished the puzzle, you get trophies to show that you did. No more running to mum and dad to show them what you did. Now you can just send them a link to your PlayStation trophies to show how you spend your time. Won’t they be proud?

This is one of the easiest platinum trophies I’ve ever seen. If you’re good with puzzles, it will take you less than 3 minutes to get another shiny imaginary trophy. You only need to solve a single puzzle within this time to get all the trophies to pop. There are even easy solutions to be found online that will tell you exactly what order to move the pieces in if you can’t be arsed to work it out for yourself.

Unless, you enjoy puzzles of pretty images, this game is yet another that will be deleted and never seen again.

Road Bustle

You know, Frogger, right? Well, this is Frogger but with a person. The premise is pretty much the same, get your character across roads and train tracks while avoiding cars and trains. Only unlike Frogger which has set levels, this game just goes on and on and on and it’s all about how far you can go.

Run for the platinum. All the trophies here are based off far you’ve run. You can pretty much avoid all roads and train tracks by running in a circle at your starting pot and get the trophies. It doesn’t require any skill and even if you want to run forward instead of round and round, you’ll still easily be able to avoid obstacles and get another platinum is around 15 minutes.

Another for the list.

Chickens on the Road

This game does exactly what the title suggests. There are chickens on the road. Although unlike the previous entry in our list, in this game you have to run them over – probably not a game for vegetarians. Once you’ve run over enough chickens (while avoiding the green ones) and racked up your whopping score of 1100, you’ll have the platinum. Honestly there isn’t much else to say about this game apart from again it will probably take you less than 15 minutes.

Snake Boat

Much like the movie Snakes on a Plane, except it’s on a boat and there’s no Samuel L. Jackson to entertain you. For this game you take control of a snake in a boat that propels it’s self with…it’s tail? It’s body? It’s arse? Well, whatever part of the snake it is, you use it to move yourself around some water avoid projectiles that come at you from the sides of the screen. This is another game where you can go around in circles and avoid what you need to while racking up points and trophies. One of the trophies requires you to play in a different mode, one where most of the screen is black so you’re not supposed to be able to see the projectiles – Spoiler Alert! You can see them.

Well that does it for the ones we played. I’m sure there are more out there that we may play at some point if we’re that level of bored again. Are there any that you’ve played that aren’t mentioned here? Also if you’ve played any of the above let me know what you thought.

Watch Dogs Legion (Review and Trophy Guide)

~ Gareth Ellis ~ 1 Comment

Watch Dogs Legion is an action-adventure game that was released in October 2020 for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. It was released in November of that year for the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.

In the game, you recruit citizens of London to the hacker syndicate DeadSec as the group tries to clear its name after being framed for multiple terrorist bombings around the city.

The game consists of stealth, hacking, driving and shooting your way through this mission. Unlike the previous entries in the Watch Dogs series, there isn’t a single main protagonist. Instead, you recruit members from all around the city and take direct control of them. Each character has their own traits that aid you in traversing London. These skills include but are not limited to; doing extra damage with weapons, lowering arrest times of characters, increasing hacking speed, taking less damage, or even coming with their own custom vehicle; for example, the spy character comes with a spy car which is fully fitted with missiles and a cloaking device. You can switch characters at any time (unless you’re in a restricted area or in combat) to make use of their unique skills. In order to recruit a new member to DeadSec, you have to complete a task for them to prove that you’re on their side.

Watch Dogs Legion is a game that I was excited to play. I thoroughly enjoyed the previous two games in the series and was looking forward to the new mechanics and setting – if not only so I could drive on the correct side of the road for once. Unfortunately, as with so many games, it fell a bit by the wayside, and I only recently picked up a copy.

From the very beginning, I was immersed in the new world and the London within. Although some of the mechanics differ, the game does feel very familiar, and although it’s been a while since I’ve played a Watch Dogs game, I quickly got back into the habit of hacking and stealth.

The story is pretty decent, once again, DeadSec is being painted as the enemy, and they have to clear their name; this time, it’s because a series of bombs have been set off around the city. As members of DeadSec, you have to fight your way right to the top of the conspiracy and clear your name. You do this by completing missions and tasks that will ultimately liberate sections of London until the entire city is free – well, I say free, you still have to confront gangs and private military contractors. You also need to take out several key targets like the head of the gang that thinks they run London, the man at the top of the PMCs that also think that and a woman who creates AI.

The missions, well, as always, with games like this, they can get pretty repetitive. Mainly it’s; go here, hack this, escape or go here, kill these, escape. However, when using the multiple different skills that characters have alongside the many different gadgets at your disposal, there are several ways in which you can complete a mission. For example, you could go in guns blazing and shoot everyone you see to reach your target, or you could stealthily send in your spiderbot to do the hard work for you.

The characters themselves don’t really have that much personality. Occasionally they will chip in their with a humorous comment, but most of the humanity and humour comes from the AI that DeadSec uses named Bagley.

The one issue that lets the game down is the sheer amount of bugs that are present. I’ve had characters randomly move from one spot to another, be unable to enter or exit vehicles, combat targets that get stuck in or on top of walls, invisible walls that I’ve hit when driving, plus what annoyed me the most, bugged trophies.

You should know by now that I love a good trophy hunt, and I figured I might as well go for the platinum in this game. However, I ran into problems with certain ones. Mainly drinking (or getting pissed) in every pub and playing darts at every location. I found that the trophies didn’t pop if I went through and did these as I played. I had to take some time to take a single character around to each one in turn, and only then did it unlock. If you’re going to try this, I recommend that you do the same. Any of the trophies that involved taking part in activities was the same. I even had one completed trophy pop after the game crashed and restarted.

The issues with the game didn’t stop me from enjoying it, and they weren’t as prevalent as, say, the ones in Cyberpunk 2077.

If you’re a fan of the previous Watch Dogs games, then Legion will be a game that you’ll enjoy as I did. But if you’re new to the series, it won’t be too difficult to jump into this one; there are no direct links to the previous games other than the fact that you’re playing as DeadSec.

I’m going to give this one an 8/10; it has its issues but is overall an enjoyable game.

Below is a little assistance with some of the more challenging trophies;

Meta Gaming:

This trophy requires you to recruit a video game designer. It can be a pain to find one of these, but I’ve highlight on the map below where I found mine. It may take a while for one to pop up, but if you hang around for long enough and scan enough people, one will appear.

You Don’t See Me:

For this trophy, you need to rack up a five star wanted level and then escape using the human statue emote.

First, you need to find a character that has the required statue emote. I don’t know where these appear more often, but I found mine in Southwark. I found her pretty early on, so I can’t remember exactly where, but I’ve seen them pop up regularly in other places, too, especially around shops or entertainment venues.

Once you have this character, switch to them and start shooting. I used the stun pistol and grenade launcher and just shot civilians until Albion turned up, then move to those as my targets. I found it best to try to get headshots on them; this seems to increase the stars much quicker than body shots. I had the cloak ability equipped, so when my health was critical, I popped that and waited for my health to return before carrying on. Once I hit five stars, I popped the cloak again to escape and gain a bit of ground on my pursuers. Once out of the line of sight, use the statue emote. The wanted gauge should go blue, and once it’s gone, the trophy should pop. I will say, though, that you need to make sure you’re out of sight entirely from Albion and any drones that might be around. If you’re not, they will just continue to find and shoot you.

Fallout 4 and it’s Platinum Trophy: A Guide

~ Gareth Ellis ~ 4 Comments

Fallout 4 is an action role-playing game that was released in November 2015 for PC, Xbox One and PS4. It’s the fourth main game in the Fallout series. It’s set in a post-apocalyptic Boston and Massachusetts region known as The Commonwealth.

The main story takes place in 2287, ten years after the events of Fallout 3 and 210 years after The Great War. You take control of a sole survivor who has been cryogenically frozen in an underground shelter called a Vault. The character has witnessed the death of their partner and the kidnapping of their son and goes on a mission to find him when they venture out of the vault.

Personally, I have loved the Fallout series of games for years, all the way to the turn-based isometric original on the PC. The worlds and characters that are crafted draw you into the story and let you live the apocalypse.

Fallout 4 expands on its predecessor by adding a crafting element. You can collect all sorts of junk on your travels around The Commonwealth, take it back to settlements that you set up and craft items to improve the living conditions of other survivors. The settlements vary in size, from the large starting one named Sanctuary to the smaller Hangman’s Alley. Each has its own challenges to overcome, be it space to build, or raider and super mutant attacks. This crafting element adds just that little bit more detail to your environment and makes your actions feel more like they have a purpose.

I got Fallout 4 when it first came out on the Xbox One, but I have also since repurchased it for the PS4. I’ve lost track of how many hours I’ve put into it, whether building up my settlements, exploring the map or trophy hunting. It’s a massive game that you can get lost in and easily spend hours playing.

This brings me to what I want to talk about in this blog; trophies and hunting that elusive platinum.

Over the past week or so, we’ve been working hard trying to get Alex the platinum trophy for Fallout 4. I managed to get it on my account a few months ago, so you’d think that getting it again wouldn’t be an issue…well, you’d be wrong.

For the most part, the trophies are pretty straightforward; you’ll get many of them for simply playing the game and completing quests. I’ll go into some of the more difficult or confusing ones here.

Some trophies require different playthroughs – at least from a certain save point. This is because you have the option to choose from one of three factions and get different endings. If you want to get the trophies for all you need to make a separate save at a particular point in the game – I chose to do this before undertaking the “Battle for Bunker Hill” quest. If you save at this point, you don’t have to replay the entire game to get the different endings. It’s a good spot to diverge into the various factions as not long after it you’ll end up pissing off the other factions to the one you chose and losing the ability to use their resources or complete their quests.

Once we finished the main game, it was time to do a mop-up of other trophies. For example, to get the two – yes, two – bobblehead trophies, you have to wander around the map – probably to places you’ve already been but weren’t paying attention – to pick up each one.

Each bobblehead gives a boost to a stat too, so it’s well worth grabbing them when you see them, even if you don’t care about the trophies. I used a great guide from game-maps.com to find the ones that I had missed. It shows you where they are on the maps with a brief description of its location within the given area – it’s really easy to follow.

The next trophy I’m going to talk about is called The Harder They Fall, where you have to kill five giant creatures, i.e. Mirelurk Queens and Super Mutant Behemoths. To get this trophy, you need to fight said creatures and get the last hit on them. If you’re with a companion and they get the final blow, it won’t count. Below are the locations of 5 of these big nasties;

  • Swan is a unique Super Mutant Behemoth found at Swan’s Pond in Boston Common.
  • A Behemoth can be found south of Walden Pond at a location where cars are stacked on top of one another like some kind of druid meeting place.
  • A Mirelurk Queen is killed as part of the Taking Independence quest at The Castle.
  • A  Behemoth can be found outside of Fort Strong.
  • A Mirelurk Queen can be found to the west of Salem, northwest of the Museum of Witchcraft.

Next up, it’s Mercenary. This quest involves completing 50 miscellaneous quests. These are quests that appear under the miscellaneous heading in your Pipboy quest list. Below I’ll list a few of them which you may miss.

  • In Diamond City, next to the shop on the end is a “Wanted” board. You can get several quests from this, all of which will be classed as miscellaneous.
  • If you visit the Atom Cats Garage on the east coast of The Commonwealth, they will give you several quests; again, all are classed as miscellaneous.
  • If you visit Bunker Hill, Joe Savoldi, Deb and Kessler, they will each give you a quest.
  • In the Third Rail in Goodneighbour, Whitechapel Charlie will give you a mission to clear out some warehouses.

Now comes the biggest pain in the butt trophy to get in Fallout 4; Benevolent Leader. There are a load of guides out there that work for some people and not others. I’m going to go through what worked on our last playthrough as what I did to get it on my account didn’t work on Alex’s.

First off, you want to get your settlement up to what’s considered “large”. This means that you need to build and build in your chosen settlement – in our case, this was Sanctuary – until the bar in the top right of the screen fills and turns yellow.

Second, make sure you’ve got enough settlers there that you can assign wherever needed. In our case, it was the more, the better. I think we had around 24 when the trophy popped. If you’re not getting new settlers, make sure you send any companions that might be present to other settlements. To get them quicker, visit other populated settlements and tell them to go where you need them.

Third, build the last stage of the Clinic storefronts – you’ll need the perks Local Leader level 2 and Medic level 1 to be able to place these. These increase happiness as long as someone is assigned to them. So build and assign as many as you can. Of course, you have to make sure that you’ve still got some people working on food production. If not, this will cause your happiness level to drop. This will make all your hard work on creating a kickass settlement for nothing, but it seems to be the only sure-fire way to raise happiness enough for the trophy.

Fourth, get into a pattern of sleeping and ringing the bell that gathers everyone around you. From around 80% happiness, you want to make sure that you never stray far from your settlement. Ringing the bell is a good way to get everyone to gather around you and bask in your benevolent glow. We did this for around an hour or so for the final few happiness points.

That should hopefully be it. As I said, this method is just what worked for us. This is a good starting point to give you an idea, but you might have to tailor it slightly to make it make for you.

Hopefully, Benevelont Leader is the last trophy you need to make that platinum pop.

All I can say now is good luck, and happy (trophy) hunting.

Moonlighter – Sales and Slashing (A Review)

~ Gareth Ellis ~ Leave a comment

Last year we discovered a new game; Moonlighter.

We watched a trailer for this delightful little dungeon crawling shopkeeper game and straight away we knew that it was our kind of game. It was reasonably cheap for a physical copy, so we went ahead and ordered a copy.

When it arrived, I was knee-deep in We Happy Few, and although I was really into it and wanted to finish it, (it had been on my ‘to-play’ pile for a long time), I couldn’t wait to get Moonlighter going. Luckily I could stick it in to install and still play We Happy Few for a bit.

Once it was installed I was in there.

When the game starts you find yourself in a dungeon – one that looks like it’s straight out of Zelda: A Link to the Past – you’re in control of the main character Will, and you have to fight your way through a few screens of enemies until you get overwhelmed. At this point, you’re unsure as to whether you’re supposed to fight or just give in so this bit was a cause of much confusion.

When you’re pulled out of the dungeon, you find out that you’re tasked with running your grandfather’s shop Moonlighter, but that Will harbours a secret yearning to become an adventurer and hero.

The way that the game separates the two tasks is quite good, by allowing you to adventure at night and then run your shop during the day – which you need to do, to earn money, to upgrade your gear so you can fight your way through the dungeons.

It’s such a simple premise when you think about it, but it works so well and is extremely enjoyable.

The shop bit is a fun addition to what may have been an average dungeon crawler. Not only do you sell the things you find in the dungeon, but you also have to adjust prices to customer demand and even do tasks for them. It’s all about fine-tuning your selling price and not flooding the market with a particular item. Oh yeah, and there are thieves you need to stop whilst your busy serving customers…bastards.

Along with upgrading your weapons and gear, you can also buy upgrades for your shop to allow you to buy more selling and storage space. There are also several upgrades for the town where your shop is situated, businesses like potion shops and blacksmiths that will help you along your dungeon adventure.

The dungeon side of things is all simple. There are 4 types of dungeons which have various kinds of enemies of varying difficulties. As you complete one dungeon by defeating the boss, the next one opens up to you.

Inside the dungeon, there are a total of 3 floors (including the boss at the end of the third) in which you need to get through. You don’t have to get through them all in one go as you gain a pendant that will allow you to save your progress, leave the dungeon, and then go back later. This is useful as the one thing that you can’t upgrade through the game is the size of the bag you carry that stores the items you pick up through the dungeons. This is good in a way because it makes you think about what you’re picking up and making space for the more valuable items, customer quest items, or things you need for the upgrades.

Throughout most of the game, you’re on your own in the dungeons. But there are eggs that you can pick up, that hatch a little buddy. This buddy will follow you around and help you fight enemies.

We enjoy a good trophy hunt and Moonlighter provides some fun trophies to get, some of them are a little on the hard side due to not being able to save and redo bits. In particular the ones where you have to kill the bosses without being hit; this requires a lot of practice, and another where you have to kill each boss by using your trusty broom for the last hit. The platinum may be just out of reach to all but the seasoned adventure, but if you’re so inclined it does add the extra playability after you’ve finished the main story.

Overall, Moonlighter is excellent. It’s not too taxing and is quite a good stress reliever with its retro graphics, slow pace, and soothing soundtrack. For the price that this game is, it’s well worth it and maybe a bit more. I would definitely give this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and recommend it to anyone that asked.

Good News Monday

~ Gareth Ellis ~ 1 Comment

Yet another Monday hits us in the face like a brick.

I woke up feeling sick and in pain, but as the pain meds kick in and the sickness fades away, I’m left with at least some good to come out of a Monday.

The Next Stage and Creatures are now available on Google Books in 66 countries.

With this new outlet, it means that my books are now available through Amazon, Lulu, Payhip, Apple Books and Google Books. I’m hoping that these distribution channels will mean that more people will be able to read and enjoy them.

I’ll add the new Google links to the Books page of this blog with the others.

Last week I also started a giveaway with the Apple version, I’m going to extend this giveaway until Friday of this week and add in the Google version, so when you enter you can let me know which version you’d prefer to receive a code for.

In other news, I’ve several more reviews in for The Next Stage, and I’m happy to say that the full 5-star rating on Goodreads hasn’t been changed. Everyone seems to really enjoy this book and every time I receive a new review – and it’s another 5 – it makes all the work I put into the book worthwhile and spurs me on to want to get it out to as many people as I can.

As far as the writing goes, I’ve not done a great deal over the past week, that’s to say I’ve done none…

I’m hoping that now I’ve been on these new pain meds for a week that the side effects start to settle down and I can concentrate on things again. The only thing I’ve really been able to do this past week is play Skyrim. That’s not a bad thing, and I got another platinum trophy out of it, but I miss writing, and I want to get back into it as soon as I can. But I also don’t want to write for the sake of it and end up churning out crap.

Once I’ve posted this and update the links and whatnot, I’m going to attempt to do some; I guess time will tell.