Closing in on 400 trophies

Right now I have 395 trophies with a couple more Skyrim trophies within my grasp.  As a matter of fact I am getting close the the platinum trophy [it will be my first!]  Unfortunately due to a glitch I'll have to start a new game to earn one trophy, it shouldn't take more than 30 minutes or so to make it pop though.

A portion of Killzone 3 is now free on PSN

The online multiplayer part of Killzone 3 will be available for free download from the PSN starting today!  Now this is NOT the full retail version and it will cap the player progress at the Sargent I level.  So you might call it a "Super Demo."   You will have the option to purchase the unlocked version for a mere $14.99 if you decide that the Super Demo is to your liking.  I'll probably give it a try.

My adventures in Skyrim

Yes I went out and spent the full retail price on Skyrim. Despite all the reports about playability due to glitchy software [especially on the PS3] I took the plunge. And I don't regret it at all.  Don't get me wrong the games does have glitches, some are funny some are annoying, but my overall experience has been awesome. 

I'm playing as an Imperial mainly focusing on one handed combat combined with the blocking skill.  My imagined back story for my character Surfslayer is he was captured by Imperial forces after shortly after crossing in to Skyrim from Cyrodiil.  There was a fight with a small group of bandits and Surfslayer killed a couple of them before the rest of the group retreated.  A squad of Imperials soldiers found Surfslayer as he was looting the dead bodies and arrested him for banditry and murder.  Despite Surfslayer's protests that he was the victim of the dead bandits he was taken in to custody and transported by prison wagon to Helgen.  A fellow prisoner on the wagon was Ulfric Stormcloak, who is leading a rebellion against the Imperial rule.

Upon reaching Helgen it become evident that the prisoners will be executed by beheading.  After witnessing a beheading Surfslayer is brought to the chopping block and is moments from losing his head when the keep of Helgen is attacked by a dragon.  Chaos ensues, giving our hero an opportunity for freedom as the Imperials and prisoners unite against the attacking dragon.  Surfslayer befriends the fellow Imperial, Hadvar, who leads him through an underground dungeon and cave system to relative safety.  The two men travel together to the small town of Riverwood where Hadvar's uncle lives.  Along the way the pair are attacked by three of the vicious wolves that inhabit Skyrim.  Although injured by the attack the two men are able to kill the wolves and take the pelts.

Shortly after killing the wolves they reach Riverwood where Hadvar introduces Surfslayer to his uncle Alvor, who is a blacksmith.  Upon hearing about the dragon attack at Helgen Alvor asks Surfslayer to travel to Whiterun to ask the ruling Jarl for military assistance for Riverwood.    

I'll post more of Surfslayer's adventures in the future.

Spent a month away from the PS3

For no particular reason I have not played a PS3 game for about a month.  I fired it up yesterday and played enough inFamous to earn a trophy [number 311].  Then I switched to FIFA11 and discovered something wrong with the career mode that I was playing.  I'm not sure what is up with it unless I forgot the way I left it the last time I played it.  Not so happy with that. 

I'm trying to sell an old PS3 on Craigslist.  Not much luck with that.

The PS3 does have a function to transfer data from an old machine to a new machine that works very well.  I used it when I upgraded my PS3 a couple of months ago. 

300 trophies

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I've finally earned 300 trophies.  The big push was from inFAMOUS.  I beat the game [tons of fun] earning a bunch of trophies along the way.   Right now I'm doing some trophy hunting in the game, trying to pick up some easy ones.

The next game I'm going to play a lot of is COD:MW2.  I've beat it once but had started playing through on a harder difficulty in order to earn some extra trophies.  I'm going to pick up where I left off and hopefully be able to beat it again.  If I'm able to make it through on the harder difficulty I may try to finish COD:WAW for the second time.

My two free games from PSN

I picked inFAMOUS and Dead Nation from the list of five games that PSN is giving away as a way to say sorry for the outage.  So far between the two games I have amassed 14 new trophies all but one is bronze though.  With these additions I have run my total trophies up to 269. 

I thoroughly enjoy inFAMOUS and once complete will probably play through again with an evil character in order to see the game from that perspective.

Dead Nation might be a different story.  I like the game but I'm not sure about the re-playability of it.  Game play is a look down 3rd person view, of which I'm not a big fan.  I do like the scary atmosphere that the game has, it can startle you when a group of zombies come out of the fog when you are not expecting it.

PSN returns

After several weeks the PSN has returned to the suffering masses.  What did everyone do while the PSN was down?

I for one replaced my PS3 with a newer model.  I did play some offline games.  But not a ton.  I spent some time reading books from the library.  I read a couple of Heinlein novels I had never read.  As well as a couple of Spider Robinson books. 

I have not personally been logged into the PSN so I don't know if any of my friends have moved their trophy count higher.  I'll look into that in a day or two.

PSN outage

The other day I tried to log-in to the PSN via the website to check my trophy totals against my friends.  I could not.  It seems Sony has taken the PSN offline due to "an external intrusion."   In other words they have been hacked.  And at this point we don't know when the PSN will be back up.

So far not a huge inconvenience for me as my PS3 is out of commission. 

My PS3 is dead

Ok it is several years old now.  But it looks amazing.  However it doesn't power on.

Bummer.

Time to see if I can fix it.  I did fix a couple of PS2.  One was mine and the other was a friends. 

Just as I was starting to play the first Uncharted game.  Oh and I'm up to 201 trophies.

I've hit 150 trophies

I noticed a PSN friend attempting to catch my trophy total.  Ok I'm not sure that he is really trying to catch me but I will not let him catch up with me.  I've added a couple of quick FIFA 2009 trophies and I've made plans to purchase the new FIFA Soccer 11.  And I have gone back to playing the campaign in Call of Duty:Black Ops so I've picked up a couple of trophies there as well. 

My new goal is 200 trophies. 

Trophy total has hit 120

Between Guitar Hero 5 , The Godfather II and NBA 2K10 I've added 15 trophies to my ever increasing total.  I've placed some good distance between myself and my PSN friends.

One of my PSN friends may be plotting a come back so I will have to keep an eye on him.  And not spend to much time playing Call of Duty.

Where has the time gone?

I'll tell you where.  Call of Duty:Black Ops.

I am very much addicted to playing online.

I need help.  Maybe an intervention. 

Forget about earning trophies.  I must work to improve my K/D ratio.

Prestige once....not enough....Prestige twice....still not enough.

I think I need a new headset so I can communicate with my teammates....we have to win!!!!

Disk no longer needed for Netflix on the PS3

Not that having to use a disk to watch movies through my PS3 was a deal breaker.  But I am glad that I don't have to swap out disks any more.  Just last week Netflix made the announcement that you could stream movies without swapping a game disk out and replacing it with the Netflix disk. The download was pretty quick and the install was quick as well.

I opened up a movie real quick and it worked fine.  Nice job to Netflix and PS on this one.

Pushed my trophy total to 92

My efforts of trophy domination have not let up.  I've switched games again.  This time to Burnout:Paradise.  I have earned 13 trophies so far.  There are several that are pretty easy to earn.  I've systematically been trying to earn them by focusing my efforts on the different ways to earn trophies.   

I've enjoyed playing the game so far but I'm thinking of switching games again to earn some more easy trophies.  I have not picked out a game yet.

I'm also going to try to add a few more people to my PSN friend list but I'm going to try to be somewhat selective by making sure they are close to my trophy totals.  Although adding someone with a huge trophy total might make me a little bit more competitive...not that I need that.

More trophies

Since I've started playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance I've added 19 more trophies to my collection.  I have created that gap I wanted between myself and my online nemesis.  I played through the game on the easiest level and have started paying through again on a more difficult level hoping to pick up some of the trophies that I might have missed the first time through.

Right now I have 79 trophies to my name.  I hope to increase this number significantly by the end of the month.

Trophy laggard

So I've owned a PS3 for over two years and I only have 67 trophies.  I think I spend to much time playing COD online.  On a whim I played Little Big Planet the other night and made a friend while online.  They had 69 trophies.  Upon noticing this I felt a competitive rush surge through my Mountain Dew infused body [no it wasn't the caffeine.]  At that moment I knew that I had to crush my new friend's trophy total.

I started by looking at my trophy collection and determining which games I would have the best opportunity to earn several trophies in a short time.  Reading through the Little Big Planet's trophy list I decided, based on the description, I could knock out a few really quick. By the end of the night I earned three new trophies and had passed my new online nemesis.  That was my first goal.  The next goal is to put a sizable gap between us.

After further analysis of my game collection and available trophies, I decided that beginning tomorrow would start playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance. 

COD:MW2 Prestige

I've been sitting at level 70 for several month, unwilling to give up all the hard earned weapons and equipment.  This weekend I've decided to bite the bullet and prestige.  Oh how I miss my favorite weapons and attachments.  I have not had a long kill streak all weekend.  I did, however, have my longest win streak.  My prior long win streak was 10 and my current best win streak is 13.  I don't know if that has anything to do with prestige or not but I'm glad to have increased it. 

PS3 version 3.40

Last night after volleyball on the beach and a quick shower I headed to the basement where the PS3 resides. I fired it up and loaded MW2 only to discover that Sony required me to do a system update. So being the loyal PS3 owner I ran the system update. At the time I had no idea why there was an update waiting to install.

Probably the biggest new feature is the Playstation Plus premium online service. I'm not sure that $49.99 per year for cross game chat, some exclusive demos and trials, and access to the Qore premium video series is worth it. But I'm sure some people will take advantage of it. The beach bum in me says save the $50 for something else. A new game perhaps.

Other features include a beefed up Facebook on PS3, the ability to upload pictures and video to select sites on the Internet.

Not entirely impressed.  I would rather see the ability to switch users within a game.  Instead of having to reload a game that another users had been playing.  But that's me.

Video of the upcoming COD game

MW2 kill streak still at 20

I can't seem to get past 20.  I've set me kill streak rewards to Harrier, chopper gunner and nuke.  I've been having trouble getting to the Harrier kill streak.  I have not earned it in the past week.

FYI, yes I'm still obsessed with this game.