Heavy Rain's Delayed Trophies

To prevent you from coming out of the game-induced coma that is the story of Heavy Rain, the developer, Quantic Dream, has gotten the green light from Sony to set a delay on the trophy notifications; you won't know you've unlocked a trophy until you're between chapters.

What's to say that I've unlocked 10 trophies in a chapter, and I have to look and wait as 10 trophy notifications rape my TV's top right corner for 5 minutes? Sony should implement what Microsoft did to Achievements, what, 2 years ago, in that there should be one pop-up for whatever Achievements/Trophies you've just earned. There are games that still slip by this - Brütal Legend is one of the more recent games I can think of - but it shouldn't be hard to do this. Hell, it would make it easier.

Kotaku originally ran this story, and here's what I had to say, in response to the user Spilt_Milk:

I can see why you think they're lazy, but I completely agree with Quantic Dream. The blips do take you out of the experience, but they should be looking at ways to show that you've earned the reward in-game.

For example, if you earned a trophy in the game and it's during a scene while in a house, there could be a bookshelf in the background with a trophy in it - be it bronze, silver or gold - and it will shimmer or glisten to indicate a trophy has been unlocked of a certain worth, and you can check what it was later.

Of course, that will have problems, such as if you don't earn the trophy, will it still be there, or will the trophy materialize out of nowhere. To me, they can plan the trophies, meaning, if you've done something prior to the aforementioned cutscene that rewards a trophy, the scene will load with that trophy on the bookshelf.

Or just give the gamer the choice to turn the notifications on or off in the options menu.

I would love for devs to think of shit like this and actually implement it. It would make the "slap back to reality" - as user Friedhamster put it - far less harsh and keep you in the moment of the game.


[Via Kotaku]

[SIDE NOTE] PS3 Trophy Card Tracker for iPhone

Anybody know a good PS3 trophy card tracker app for the iPhone, or one of the better ones in the App Store that is free?

I like how Microsoft mandated all the XBL Achievement tracker apps on the iPhone be free, and I've got one (iNXES [iTunes Link]) that gets the job done, but is very limited in the information it shows; it doesn't sync with your profile - you have to add your GamerTag in which is nothing more than a list of all the friends that you know their Tag by heart or want to constantly compare with - you can't see individual achievements without it opening Safari and going to xbox.com, forcing you to sign in and see the list on the site. It's just you, your friends, and the game cards.

I know I get somewhere around 10-15 people a day here, which is pretty remarkable, considering I don't freely advertise my site on facebook or anything - and I don't think I'll have a response to this - but if someone is scavenging through here and knows which one is better, let me know.

The Problem With Reward Systems in Gaming

This is a long time coming. I have some serious beef with Sony's Trophy system for the PS3 - and the lack of one for the PSP - the lack of one from Nintendo, and Microsoft's fuddling with their own system, which started the craze. The idea of writing about it has been lingering in the back of my head for a while now, and after getting Platinum in Uncharted 2, I can see this would be an opportune moment to do so.

Sony's Trophy system, the answer to Microsoft's Achievements, seems like a bastard child. Sony needed something to get gamers to buy into their side of the Console War. Like myself, many gamers will buy the 360 version simply because it has Achievements. When Uncharted's trophy patch hit, I was waist-deep in GamerScore and didn't really care too much about Sony's trophies, which is botched in many ways than one.

The trophies do seem like a good alternative to a simple point architecture. You have your bronze, silver and gold trophies, as well as the elusive platinum trophy for earning all trophies in a single retail title. There are very few PlayStation Network (PSN) games that offer a platinum trophy (WipEout HD and Trine come to mind) simply because they offer much more gameplay than, say, flOw. That, and they cost just as much as a full retail game. The 360's point system works in a way that retail games come with no more than 1000 GamerScore with a maximum of 50 achievements off the bat, while Arcade games have 200 GS and 12 achievements. They can add an additional 50 points to Arcade games through DLC, and up to 1250 for retail, however, some games go way beyond that (Halo 3 and Fallout 3 have a current standing of 1750 GS).

The problem with the hierarchy is that no developer seems to understand how daunting a feat is in a game.

Call of Duty: Classic Achievements Revealed

About time. For those not in the know, Call of Duty: Classic, the original CoD, is going to be released alongside Modern Warfare 2 as a "timed exclusive" for those who buy the Hardened or Prestige editions of the game. No release date for XBLA/PSN has been announced, but it's sometime afterward for roughly $15 real dollars. Expect these to be the PSN's Trophies, as well.

The achievements, gathered by my favorite achievement-tracking site, xbox360achievents.org, has compiled the list comprising of 12 achievements. There is your standard fare of achievements, such as normal story progression and actually beating the game. However, there are some oddballs such as beating a mission without dying or loading a checkpoint and beating a mission using solely your pistol (melee's do not count).

Source • X360A - Call of Duty Classic Achievements

Uhh...flOw Gets Trophies?

Image via PlayStation Life Style

I was comparing Trophies to a friend, and noticed he had flOw trophies. I fired it up and was prompted to download version 2.10. I did and blammo, Trophies.

The full list can be viewed at PS3 Trophy Guide. I, for one, know this will do for today until I get Uncharted 2 and Brütal Legend tomorrow.

You are getting Uncharted 2 and Brütal Legend tomorrow...right?