PS3 trophies: Why do I insist in torturing myself with these?

Seriously. Back then during the PS2 and before, I wouldn’t even touch the hardest difficulty setting of a game, thinking that I didn’t need to do them anyway because I already finished the game. Speaking of finishing a game, I also rarely replayed a game because there was little to no incentive in doing so. But with the introduction of the trophy system on the PS3, I was just hooked. I don’t know why, but that chime whenever you get a trophy feels so satisfying.

That’s a nice trophy number…

What triggered this strange addiction to virtual trophies? Well, the first PS3 game I got was MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, which was bundled along with my PS3. I knew nothing back then about these so I just played through the game. At first I didn’t even mind them, thinking “Hey, okay. That’s neat” and proceeded to play along with the game. Days passed and I was hooked to the game. By this time, I was racing online just for the fun of it. But then I unlocked even more trophies and at the same time, more vehicles. This is probably when the trophy hunting started. I liked to unlock all the cars and to do so, I needed to do the trophies. I checked the trophies screen and was amazed at how hard and silly some the trophies were. But nonetheless, I plowed through everything just to get those cars. A month had passed and I got my first ever Platinum (and a sweet dump truck to boot). I then reflected upon it and I thought “Why?” Because in all seriousness, I went through Time Trial mode, a mode in racing games that I barely even touch, and yet, I didn’t feel bored or gutted about it. Just incredibly satisfied. From then on, I just decided to Platinum every game I get, no matter the difficulty. But of course, we all have our limits so some trophy sets in my profile aren’t complete. It’s either because I got bored and incredibly disinterested with them (Midnight Club) or is just incredibly difficult (Beatles: Rock Band).

My first and ironically, the hardest Platinum in my list.

So you may call me a trophy whore, but honestly, I’m not. I do not buy or even rent games with easy trophy sets. All the games in my trophy list are games I own and have bought. If the game has an easy trophy set, then so be it. If it has a hard one, then I’m all up for the challenge. Also, I do not tend to complete trophy sets of games I don’t enjoy so yeah, I wouldn’t even think of buying or even renting a game like Hannah Montana just to get the Platinum for it.

But really? What pushes me to get these achievements? What pushes me to sing for 6 hours straight the whole Rock Band 2 setlist? What pushes me to senselessly kill 53,000+ zombies in Prototype? Well, here’s the short answer for you: I’m incredibly OC and it’s fun for me. With the trophy system, I just can’t stand not having 100%/Platinum on a game. It just looks horrible to me.

Why do you mock me so?! Can’t I delete you? Please?

There’s also the fact that games are expensive. Some of them can be finished in less than 10 hours and that’s a hard pill to swallow considering a PS3 game costs around P2500. With trophies, it remedies that sickness. Instead of just shelving a game after the first playthrough, you can either go through it again or do some random stuff just to get the trophies. Yes it may be sometimes tedious and hard but hey, at least you’re getting your money’s worth with added hours to those games. Not to mention you can actually hone your skills a lot more in a certain genre you’re having trouble with by forcing you to do trial and error until you master it. Yep, I just really love the challenge.

That ends this post. Thanks for reading and good night.

Make it come to life.

As you might know, I thoroughly enjoy reading webcomics. So much so that I printed one of them (Better Days if you’re wondering and yes, all 600+ strips of it) and even had it book bound just so I can carry it around. That book of mine was sadly lost though thanks to some inconsiderate person.

That isn’t the subject of this post though. While that book was in my possession, it often stayed in my bedroom. There, I occasionally read through it, always giving voices to the characters. It wasn’t just reading it aloud with a monotonous voice, I would shift my voice just to fit the characters. With the majority of the cast being girls, I often did female voices and would laugh at myself on how silly I sounded. That also depended on the mood of which the characters were in so my voice wasn’t really constant and often followed their emotions.

Where it all began.

It’s fascinating how something minimal can really bring life to a character. It’s also an effective way of getting attached to the characters and more importantly, the comic’s story or theme as a whole. With you lending yourself to portray the character’s emotions, you can’t help but feel giddy when they’re happy or downright miserable when they’re down. So you might say, an animated version with proper voice actors and all the jazz of said webcomics would be amazing! Sadly, that doesn’t always work out. Take this for example:

Now, I do occasionally read CAD and think it’s an OK comic (pretty funny at times) but that video was just… randomly unfunny. It might be the less than fluid animation, or rather the voices. I’d have to admit though that Lilah’s voice is quite fitting but Ethan’s and Lucas’? Not so much. Point is, it felt dull and pretty much just made the characters more 2D. Maybe some music would’ve made it a lot better? If so, let’s move on to VGCats’ atttempt:

Now that’s a lot better. Though the whole animation part is gone, it just has an overall better vibe to it. The voices really fit the characters’ scenes and actions (Krug and Pantsman and the “World of Pain” ones were awesome) and there’s music! Appropriately used music if I may add. Music is a double-edged sword. Use it badly and you’ve got yourself a pretty boring or cliche scene but use it well and it really pays off. It’s even much better when the characters are the ones doing the singing. Not convinced? Well, here’s a little experiment for you.

If you’ve read up on Bittersweet Candy Bowl (which I really recommend doing as it’s a charming webcomic and because you won’t get anything that’s going on in the chapter), you’ll notice that chapter 24 is filled with songs. Now, instead of reading it plainly, try singing the lyrics (that is, if you know the tune of the song of course) or read them along with the song playing. It’s a truly joyous experience as every song just fits the scene perfectly. The title of the songs are posted in the “Author’s Comments” section located directly below the comic strip but just in case you’re lazy, here are the links to the songs:

1. Como Si No Nos Hubieramos Amado (Page 1. Play until 1:11) (Translation)
2. I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing (Page 2. Play until 1:18)
3. If I Could Fall In Love (Page 3. Play until 1:18)
4. White Flag (Page 4. Play until 0:24)
5. Cool (Page 4. Start at 0:35; play until 0:59)
6. Si Yo Me Vuelvo A Enamorar (Page 4. Finish the song if you like) (Loose translation)

And that’s about it. Hope you enjoyed the little experiment.

That ends this post. Thanks for reading and good day.

PS. If you could translate the last song correctly, please inform me. I’d greatly appreciate the effort. Thanks.

3D: It’s overrat3D.

Wow. What a horrible pun. Puns aside, yeah, I think 3D is going overboard and I must say, it’s overrated. Why must everything be in 3D now when it’s just unnecessary. I mean, I found the jump to HD alright. I actually adored it, seeing and hearing everything so crisp and clear. It’s just like watching something live. In the subject of games, it almost blurs the line of fiction and reality. With 3D however, resolution takes a step backwards and the picture becomes a lot less refined and a lot blurrier.

Is it really THAT necessary?

There’s also the whole 3D Glasses thing which is very annoying. I honestly don’t like wearing glasses (shades included) because they feel uncomfortable both physically and in vision to me. Though I do feel sorry for the people wearing glasses because they have to wear both their prescription glasses and the 3D glasses to enjoy the show. That’s a huge inconvenience to them.

Now that’s a design flaw.

Now I say this by experience, not someone who hasn’t even tried it yet. I’ve been to an IMAX theater and there I watched Superman Returns (way back in 2006). It was a new experience to me and I thought the 3D aspect was lacking. I thought the whole movie was supposed to be in 3D, but that wasn’t the case. There were select scenes that had the 3D effect and they picked some unnecessary ones. One scene I remember was where Clark was just floating in the barn house. I thought, “Really? Was that the best you could come up with?” It was pointless. I mean, the starting credits would’ve been a ton better to see in 3D than that, but no, they settled in for that scene.

I haven’t seen anything in 3D after that (mainly because I’m not a movie buff). Then came the PS3′s Official Launch here in the Philippines (that was this year). During this event, they were demoing the 3DTV. Me being curious, I decided to try it out. The game (better yet, a clip of the game) being demoed when it was my turn was MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, a game I knew like the back of my hand. I put on the glasses and glared at the screen and literally saw no difference. I was pretty baffled. I checked the glasses if they were on, and they were. I even lifted the glasses and put them back on just to see if there was a difference. Nothing. Maybe it was the clip? Impossible, as it had the blurry 3D effect when the glasses were off. After that, the clip changed to Killzone 2. Finally I could see the effect, just barely, but it was there. The clip changed again, this time to a polar bear swimming. The effect was visible albeit very minimal. So I asked myself, “is it really necessary when there are little to no changes at all?” I answered that as well and said “No.” There’s also the impending eye-strain. I spent a good 10 minutes in front of that booth, just noticing the effects and after I took the glasses off, everything was just uncomfortable to look at. It was either too bright or too dark. It’s like I just woke up after staring at a seizure-inducing image for long (may be exaggeration).

Isn’t this good enough already?

If that isn’t enough to steer you away, then comes in the price tag (this part is obviously not for the filthy rich). I was searching Amazon and the cheapest I’ve run into was a 50″ Samsung 3D Plasma HDTV. The cost? $1799 (approx. P81,000). How much is a 1080p HDTV of the same brand and caliber? $1067 (P48,100). Not much of a difference you say? Well get this. The 3D Glasses are sold separately! That’s right, before you can even enjoy the thing fully, you need to pay for more. How much are the 3D Glasses? $349 (P15,700). And that’s just 2 pairs! If you have kids or a lot of friends around, you’re pretty much screwed over.

So yeah, I’m gonna end that little rant here. I’m not attacking you people who like the technology, not at all. I just think the technology itself is unnecessary and is taking a step backwards with the whole cinematic experience. Not to mention it’s deeply flawed by giving you headaches and little-by-little, blinding you (hey, that kinda sounds like the Virtual Boy!). Call me when they’ve perfected it or better yet, when they’ve gotten the whole hologram thing going on.

Now THAT’S 3D!

That ends this post. Thanks for reading and good night.