First TD in Road to Glory - College Football 25

There are three main modes of College Football 25: Dynasty, Road to Glory and Ultimate Team. 

Dynasty is the one I care about most, but the learning curve is kind of steep. So I didn't want to start there. Got some good Ultimate Team progress in, and then I started a Road to Glory for a WR. 

I built a deep threat WR coming out of Peoria, IL...thinking that I might want to get recruited to Illinois. But then I saw my offers and Illinois did offer me, but I was going to be #2 on the depth chart. (Not bad for a WR, but at Arizona State I would be #1. And the NIL opportunities was high for ASU, medium for ILL.) Plus, I figured maybe Jimbob was a party school kind of guy. 

So I get to campus and the first week of practice was rough. But helpful. 

I get into the game and coach is pounding the hell out of the ball. Buddy, I didn't remember that you hate passing as part of your recruitment pitch. 

Anyways, it's 3rd and goal in a tight game. Coach dials up inside slant. From practice I remembered that it was helpful to give a first step outside before cutting inside. So that's what I did. 

First week was a solid win. Ended up like 6 catches for 67 yards. In week 2, I went 6 catches for 112 but in a 30-32 loss. 

Game is super fun. 

Platinum Trophy Update

Here are my current stats for Playstation Trophies:

But the only thing I pay attention to is how many platinum trophies I've collected. 

Here are the 13 I've earned chronologically, most recent at the top.

So two on the PS3, seven on the PS4, and already four on the PS5 in less than a year of owning it. 

Another way of looking at it would be four before 2020, nine since 2020.

For someone who loves data on their personal life, it's incredible to have such an accurate record of gaming dating back to 2010. 

Also, for the record, Grant actually earned the Spider-Man 2 trophy. Unlike the original, I haven't played the game at all.

- - -

So chronological is great, but I want to see the rarity of each one too. Here they are sorted by how many players have earned the trophy in descending order, starting with the most common. 

Spider-Man 2: 18.1%

Spider-Man: 8.4%

Viewfinder: 7.5%

Assassin's Creed Mirage: 7%

Assassin's Creed II: 5.2%

Control: 4.1%

Tony Hawk HD: 3.5%

Rocket League: 2.6%

Assassin's Creed Syndicate: 2.1%

Far Cry 4: 1.8%

Hitman 3: .8%

Just Cause 4: .3%

Teardown .1%

ps5 skateboarding: session

After revisiting the timeless Tony Hawk most recently on the ps4, I checked out a realistic skateboarding simulator called Session: Skate Sim on the ps5. Instead of pressing a button to grind, you actually have to line up your board up with the rail. Forget about pulling together combos of 10x+, just completing a successful grind or a specific flip trick feels like an accomplishment.

thps vibes only

Tony Hawk Pro Skater videos normally look like this, with big combos and points and special bars and there's just generally a lot going on visually on the screen.

So I thought, what if I did a different kind of video. No points or trick names on the screen. Just go for stuff that feels fun. The original intent was trying to make an realistic skate video where jumping over one stairset is a cool trick, but then I started doing less realistic stuff too. But still this isn't about points. It's just skating. 

 

Platinum Trophies

This is a follow-up to this post where I wrote about collecting Playstation trophies. 

Here are my current stats:

Since that post in early 2020, I've collected 3 new Platinum trophies, bringing me up to 9. 

I preferred the ui of psnprofiles.com but it doesn't seem to be updating stats right now. So here's the link I'm using to view these.

There are other games that I've beaten recently like Astroneer where I got most but not all trophies (because it required knowing other ps4 users with the game) or NHL 94 where I got all the trophies but it's too small to warrant a platinum. 

Sure it doesn't matter to anyone else, but it's nice to look back and remember that I got every trophy for all these games.

video game console timeline

 I did this for my cell phone history, figured I should keep track of my video game consoles too. 

NES

(released 1985)

circa 1988 - circa 1993

My first console. Started on Mario 1. Played lots of sports games like Tecmo Super Bowl, Tecmo Basketball, Nintendo World Cup, NES Play Action Football, Major League II, Blades of Steel. Mario 3 was awesome. Other notables: Tetris, Excitebike, Vegas Dream, Ducktales, Hoops, Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat. 

Sega Genesis

(released 1989)

circa 1993 - circa 1998

I remember wanting to play Mortal Kombat and my mom was not on board. We also discussed if we should buy our first computer. I remember convincing my parents that a Sega Genesis was much cheaper than a computer. The first game I got was NHL '94. An absolute classic. Bill Walsh College Football 95 was awesome. Then I got NHL '96 and it was even faster, better than the 94 version. I know I had a bunch of games, World Series Baseball (1994), NFL QB Club 96, FIFA 95. Basically I just liked sports games. 

Note: I pretty much missed out on everything from Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64. Occasionally, I got to play Goldeneye at friend's house but was so inexperienced that I never really got to enjoy it. Same for Mario Kart. 

Sega Dreamcast

(released September 1999)

circa 2000 - circa 2005

My absolute favorite game from this system was Tony Hawk 2. Also played a ton of College Football 2k2. Some others I remember: Crazy Taxi, Spider-Man (2000), Sonic Adventure 2, Jet Grind Radio, NBA 2k1, Resident Evil series. 

Note: By high school I was able to visit friends and play a lot of PlayStation. In fact, because several friends had a PS1, I think that was a reason that I wanted the Dreamcast for variety. I fell in love with Metal Gear Solid, Tony Hawk 1, Driver, the Twisted Metal series, and Madden 2001 on the PS1. 

PS2

(released October 2000)

May 2005 - June 2008

So GTA3 came out in October 2001, a month after I started college. I did not have a PS2 but I wanted to play GTA3. So I did what anyone would do. Played the entirety of the game on Borello's PS2. I seriously logged 40+ sitting on his floor playing his game and system. NO REGRETS. I got through college on the Dreamcast, see above. But after I graduated, the Gamestop on campus was selling PS2 systems and games for very cheap. So I went ahead and picked one up at the end of its era. Good value. 

Got to play GTA Vice City and San Andreas, Metal Gear Solid 2, College Hoops 2k5 (including the Illinois Final Four team), NCAA 06, Burnout, Guitar Hero 3, Hitman Contracts/Blood Money and more. 

Just looked it up. I paid $16 for San Andreas in 2006. Got a bunch of great games at low prices, a few years after they came out. 

PS3

(released November 2006)

June 2008 - June 2015

I distinctly remember that I got the PS3 so I could play Grand Theft Auto IV. And it was awesome. 

I feel like the PS3 was a big step up from everything before this. This is the dividing line of modern gaming to me. PS3 is when I started playing online, there were trophies, you could even download games. 

On October 9, 2008, a little independent game called Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle Cars came out. It seemed cool so I paid for it, downloaded and was uploading highlight videos to youtube by October 13, 2008. 12 years later, Rocket League has over a million active players. But more on that later. 

The PS3 is where I got started on the Assassin's Creed series with the brilliant AC2. Likewise with Portal. 

Another reason I consider this the beginning of modern gaming? I literally have a record of all the games I've played. Anyone can scroll down and see all the games I've played right here. 

Loved Portal 2, The Saboteur, NHL 11, AC3, GTAV, Driver SF, Red Dead Redemption and plenty more. I distinctly remember logging 40+ hours in AC3 trying to complete everything before our second child was born and video games would go back on the shelf for a bit. 

Played that system a ton and after 7 years of constant use, it finally died. The first time a system ever stopped working before I moved on. 

PS4

(released November 2013)

August 2015 - Present

As it turned out, the PS3 dying in June 2015 wasn't the worst timing. Rocket League launched in July 2015 so I went ahead and got a PS4 in August 2015. Also got Madden 2015 and The Last of Us with the new system. 

The PS4 has been great to me. Love Hitman 1 + 2, Far Cry 4&5, Firewatch, Just Cause 3, Mafia 3, RDR 2, Spider-Man, and Tony Hawk remastered. 

Playstation has been good to me for the last 15 years and I'm sure I'll get a PS5 one day. I'm happy to wait a few years, so it can drop in price. I'm sure there will be a game that's only available on PS5 that will make me pull the trigger...or maybe the PS4 will die one day. 

(I also got a Nintendo Switch for the kids, and I play it occasionally with them, but don't consider that my console.)

Rocket League Hoops Comeback

Here's a online game of hoops. I'm on top half, G is on bottom half. We were down 0-2 but came back for the win.

THPS

Here's a clip where I did all four of Tony Hawk's special tricks in one combo.

A perfect screenshot

 

Something I've never done in a Tony Hawk game, do a run that gets perfect scores from every judge. Even got a trophy for it. And the song playing during this run, as shown in the bottom right? The same one used in this video during my brief skateboarding career. 

Fall Guys

Fall Guys takes the popular battle royale format of 1 winner and applied it to a game in the style of Wipeout/American Ninja Warrior. Each match starts with 60 players and eliminates players every round. This was Harrison's run from earlier today.

 

Fortnite? Fortnite.

A couple weeks ago, my youngest asked to get Fortnite. I had never really been interested and if it was expensive, I would have maybe put up more resistance. (I didn't want to start him on violent games, but after looking at it, the game seemed cartoonish enough to not actually be violent.) But it was free, so we tried it out. And it's surprisingly fun for all ages. I can see why it became so popular.

Here was a clean run I had in solo mode. 

   

 Here's a fun highlight where I entered a secret room with two chests from above instead of through the wall like normal. So when someone came in through the wall expecting two chests, they found me instead. (I was a little panicked, but still managed to take care of business.)

 

And here's a great match that we had in Duo mode. I was on top, G was on bottom. I was killed and needed a revive from my son. 

Retro Bowl

One of the greatest games ever made was Super Tecmo Bowl (what I call it) or what it's officially called: Tecmo Super Bowl. 

So anytime I see a replication of it, I'm in. I bought Tecmo Bowl Throwback on PS3 ten years ago. Recently, a mobile game called Retro Bowl showed up in my recommended. Free to download so I checked it out.

They started me as coach of the Dolphins, promising that by doing well I can get a job offer from better teams. After inheriting a 2-14 team, I went 10-5-1 but missed the playoffs in my first year.

At the start of the second year, I spent my first draft pick on a speedy WR named Vance Akins. My offense is basically throw it to him on every play. I took this screenshot after Week 13 of his rookie year.

At this point, I think I was 12-1. Feeling great heading into the playoffs. And then after Week 14, I get this:

I finished 13-3 and was the #1 seed in the AFC. Even with the bye, I would have to play one playoff game without Akins. I grabbed free agent Fred Delaney to be my #1 WR for the playoff game.

With 48 seconds to go, I was down 3. 67 yards to glory.

Akins came back for the AFC Championship and I blew out the Broncos. On to the Super Bowl. Here's what happens right before the big game. 

As a coach, you love to get that right before the Super Bowl. Anyways, it didn't matter.

Yay, I won the Super Bowl. What's the one question I get asked?

Seriously? I just won the Super Bowl and my only two options are criticize the player or criticize the team? Also, we know he's on drugs! Of course he didn't play well. 

Anyways, so after taking the tanking Dolphins to Champions in two seasons, surely the Chiefs want me to coach them right? Nope. 

I ended up clicking on Detroit but then once I saw how shitty their roster is I just erased all my data.

Trophy Hunting

I got my first Playstation Trophy on October 10, 2008 playing the precursor to Rocket League, Supersonic Rocket Powered Acrobatic Battle Cars. 

As of this moment, I've earned 1699 trophies.

Trophies are little achievement markers, signs of progress. And they're up to the game developers discretion. Often, you'll get a trophy for obvious things like completing Act 1 or beating the game, but there will usually be fun things like stun 5 enemies at once or 100 stealth kills or find all the hidden treasures, etc. They're not worth anything. It's not like you can redeem trophies for a new game or even new suits or gadgets. They're just for the video game player. Recognition that you've done something challenging or cool.

One of the things I like about video games is investing time in something and seeing progress. When I was younger, I loved sports games but didn't want to just play one-off games. I wanted to play a season and make it to the Finals. I also really loved when a game like NCAA 2005 gave you challenges, like playing historical classics. This game would check them off as you completed them, and it felt good to say I beat all the challenges. On the other hand, one of the reasons I never liked Mortal Kombat or really got into Goldeneye or Smash Bros. is because it's all designed around one-off matches. You play and either you win or lose. But no matter what you're back where you started.

Another example of progress, is in a game like Assassin's Creed or GTA or Far Cry, where you unlock the entire map starting from just a small space. A lot of these games give you opportunities to upgrade your player, unlock and upgrade gear, etc. By the end of the game, you're facing far more difficult enemies but you're a stronger character. Progress has been made.

So I've always liked trophies. When I get a game that I really like, I want to do everything in it. Whatever the developer thought was was worthwhile, I want to do it. It's a way of measuring, have I really mastered this skill or game. Another cool thing is that the game shows you what percentage of people that have played this game, have earned a specific trophy. The first trophy you get, will often be in the 90s. Like if you played for 15 minutes, you got this. By the end there are some trophies only 1 or 2% of players have earned. Always cool to feel like you did something most people didn't.

Trophies come in four varieties. Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum. Really the only thing I notice is platinum or not. Platinum means you've unlocked all the other trophies in the game. (More specifically, all the trophies in the main game at the time the game was released. Very often, games now release downloadable content that you have to pay extra for, but come with their own trophies. The platinum trophy doesn't hinge upon these new ones. Also, it's possible to earn a platinum and then the game add new ones so you have the platinum but are not at 100%.)

Here are my current stats.

Yep, out of the 1699 trophies I've earned, only 6 are platinum.

(Side note: very cool how trophies are seamlessly captured across PS3 and PS4. The fact that I can, from any computer, see the dates that I've played all games in the last twelve years across two different consoles is crazy.)


Platinum Trophies 

Here are all the platinums I've earned, by date.

Assassin's Creed II - PS3

 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD - PS3

Rocket League - PS4

Assassin's Creed Syndicate - PS4

 Far Cry 4 - PS4

Spider-Man - PS4

So because I said the platinum means that I got every trophy, you might assume I'm at 100% trophy completion for all those games. Nope. Four of them have released DLC.

A few notes:
One of the biggest reasons I don't get a platinum trophy for a game is that it requires multiplayer trophies. I don't like multiplayer. I don't pay for it. I'm not going to seek it out just for a trophy.

The other factor is some games require tedious amounts of boring things, like shooting all 100 of the hidden birds spread across the entire map—and the only way to complete is to find a guide and follow along and even then you end up with 98 out of 100 and you're not sure which two you missed and it's just annoying.

Assassin's Creed II was a game I truly got immersed in. And the trophy list didn't have any multiplayer requirements. There was some tedious feather hunting, but there wasn't much beyond what I had already done.

Tony Hawk only had 17 trophies so I'm surprised it considered it a platinum. (Smaller games don't even get platinums, just gold as the highest one.) But there was challenge that required advanced skill, and it took me a while to practice, so I do feel like I earned this one.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate was another good game. The one tedious thing was you had to crash into 10000 objects on a stagecoach so I remember driving in circles for an hour.

Once I did Syndicate, I went back to get the platinum for Far Cry 4, a game I had started 8 months prior. This one required a co-op trophy, so I actually had to post on a message board to find someone willing to help me get this.

Rocket League had 36 main trophies. It took me 7 months because one of them was play online with a friend. Though this one I didn't have to seek out, because I was doing a short-lived experiment with multiplayer at the time.

Spider-Man was the most recent and it was pretty straightforward. No multiplayer. The crimes got a bit tedious at the end, but at least they were missions. My kids liked finding the hidden backpacks and they were shown on the map so it wasn't bad at all.


Games That I've Beaten But Didn't Earn A Platinum Trophy


Grand Theft Auto IV - PS3

I beat this game in the summer of 2008, the first game I played on PS3. Trophies didn't exist yet. They would come out soon after and GTA IV would eventually get trophies added. But they weren't retroactive. So I'll never know how close I was and if I could have platinumed this one.

Supersonic Rocket Powered Acrobatic Battle Cars - PS3

Got 13 out of 14 trophies. There was one challenge I couldn't beat. But there was no platinum anyways.

The Saboteur - PS3

Man, I loved this game. Great concept and great levels that allowed for multiple ways to approach them. In the free roam, you can plant bombs to blow up Nazi radio towers. Cool. There's over 1000 of these, 425 just in one district.

Uncharted 2 - PS3
Heavy Rain - PS3
LA Noire - PS3
Uncharted 3 - PS3
Sherlock Holmes Crimes and Punishments - PS3
Uncharted 4 - PS4
Journey - PS4
Unravel - PS4

All of these games were story-driven, linear games. I played through them once. Didn't ever think about going back through and trophy hunting.

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood - PS3
Red Dead Redemption - PS3
Portal 2 - PS3
Assassin's Creed III - PS3
GTA V - PS3
Hitman Absolution - PS3
Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag - PS3
Driver San Fransisco - PS3
The Last of Us - PS4
Tomb Raider - PS4
Assassin's Creed Unity - PS4
Far Cry 5 - PS4
Watch Dogs 2 - PS4
Red Dead Redemption 2 - PS4
Burnout Paradise - PS4

All of these games I completed but didn't get the platinum because they had multiplayer trophies.

Just Cause 3 - PS4

Great game. Looking through it there weren't multiplayer trophies. Just a lot of tedious ones.

Firewatch - PS4

Completed it, loved it. Too small for a platinum.

Mafia III - PS4

Another one that I loved. Looked at getting a platinum. Turns out you have to beat the game twice and I wasn't interested.

Steep - PS4

Great snowboarding/skiing game. The reason I didn't platinum this is I wasn't good enough to get all the gold medals. These challenges are really tough and I did well enough to get some rare trophies but not all. This is what a platinum should be about. They should be hard. I wish that this was the reason for more of the absences, instead of I got every single-player trophy and that's why.

Assassin's Creed Origins - PS4

This is where the series seemed like it switched to focusing on combat and not stealth. Completed but not platinumed.

Hitman 2 - PS4

And then there's Hitman. The game I've put the most time into ever and called the best gaming experience of my life. Because it was released episodically, there's no platinum. I have completed all of the trophies for the standard levels. (Didn't do all the trophies for the sniper levels which is really a separate game mode and includes multiplayer trophies.)

How about that. That's a lot of games. 31 games that I've beaten in the last 12 years without getting a platinum. And the 6 where I did get a platinum. That's not even counting the various sports games like Madden, Fifa, and NHL where I've played a decent amount but the trophy lists are ridiculous and multiplayer heavy.


Rarest Trophies

There's this one in Steep...

But then I have a bunch in Hitman 2 that are deep cuts.