Achievement Unlocked 07.04.08 A New Challenger Appears

Posted by Rod Oracheski on 07.04.2008

Sony's long-awaited Trophy System is here. Well...kind of.



While just anyone can get an Xbox 360 and start gathering Achievements, it takes a special kind of PS3 owner to gather Trophies. The 2.40 firmware went live, July 2nd, bringing with it limited in-game functionality for the XMB and the long-awaited Trophy system.

There were three kinds of PS3 owners on July 2nd - those that got the 2.40 firmware downloaded and installed without a hitch; those that got it downloaded and found it bricked their system; and those that missed out after Sony pulled the firmware, notified by a deluge of complaints.

I wound up in the second category, and my PS3 is on its way back to Sony yet again - only this time it's probably not going to cost me $150 for the repair.

If you happen to be in the first group of 2.40-running PS3 owners, then you have a few new options open to you. You're able to open the XMB while in a game (though you'll want to remember to pause the game first!) and perform a few tasks. There's no voice chat, but you can text other PS3 owners, for example. They're working towards voice chat, but there's no date set for that feature. There's also no cross-game invites, but that's apparently in the pipeline to arrive at some point as well.

You can also queue up custom soundtracks, but only if the game supports it. I don't believe that any do, at the moment, though PixelJunk Eden is supposed to whenever it arrives.

The final - and though I'm probably missing a few minor features in the rundown, this is the only one that really applies to the whole idea of gaming achievements anyway - feature is the Trophy system.

This is Sony's answer to the Achievement system, one that I discussed in an earlier column. Back then it was allegedly "confirmed" that the system would be called Accomplishments, but they've now gone with Trophies instead. I'm guessing, as it's actually out, this may finally be the one they stick with.

It turns out that each game, at least each game that supports Trophies, can grant you a number of them - at varying levels of value: Bronze, Silver, and Gold. There's no word on how many Trophies a game can award, and currently known ones vary greatly - Super Stardust HD has 17 total (nine Bronze, six Silver, and two Gold) while Warhawk's Trophy count, when patched, will stand at 56, with values unknown.

Each 'regular' game (apparently PSN titles, for the most part, aren't included in this) will also offer up a Platinum Trophy - earned upon completion of all the other Trophy requirements.

There's no GamerScore, which I thought might be a good move judging by the number of Achievement Whores out there, it turns out that earning Trophies will advance your Gamer Level - so it's a matter of trading one evil for another. You start at Level One, and each Trophy earned moves the level bar a bit - Bronze the least, Silver a little more, Gold a little more yet, and Platinum the most. The numbers are a bit more hidden, but the ePeen waggling will start, just the same.

Another disappointment comes from the way a Platinum Trophy will require having DLC, at least in Super Stardust HD. If you want to get that 100% completion, you're required to have picked up the DLC expansion as five Trophies - including one Gold - require the expansion. That's a lousy way to start the system out. It would have been nice to see it award the Platinum at completion of the main game's objectives, with DLC offering up bonus Trophies.

At least the Trophies in Super Stardust HD are, for the most part, pretty well thought out. There's the typical "comple the level' ones, five in all, but there's also a good mix of gameplay-related ones that offer up a decent challenge to get. Unfortunately, even if you've achieved some of those goals already, you'll have to do them again as Trophies will not be rewarded retroactively. Sony has said that Trophies can be rewarded retroactively, but it seems that Super Stardust HD's dev team didn't get that memo.

The support for Trophies isn't too awe-inspiring just yet. If you've wondered why I mentioned Super Stardust HD so much, the reason is simple - it's the only game to offer support for the reward system. Warhawk will have a patch at some point, though there's no timeline for it. Also in the 'at some point, but it's not known when' list are Pain, Uncharted, NovaStrike, and Burnout Paradise. Buzz: Quiz TV will reportedly launch without Trophy system support, but will have a day one patch to implement it.

Metal Gear Solid 4 is a notable exception from the list of games confirmed to have Trophy support added in, though it seems likely it will indeed receive a patch at some point. The original Motorstorm is also missing, though with the sequel seeing Trophy support it's perhaps unlikely that the team will go back to patch the first title.

Several games have also had the development teams pointedly say there'll be no Trophy patch, including Call of Duty 4 (also no patch to include rumble, for those with a DS3), Resistance, Ratchet and Clank, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, and Civilization Revolution.

The list of upcoming games that will definitely feature Trophy support is also a bit sparse at the moment, with a grand total of five games currently slated to launch with Trophy support: PixelJunk Eden (also one of the only games currently known to support custom soundtracks), Resistance 2, Motorstorm 2, SOCOM, and LittleBigPlanet. There are a couple of major omissions on that list, including Killzone 2, which seems like a no-brainer for inclusion.

So, if you have a PS3 and managed to escape the 2.40 install unscathed AND have Super Stardust HD...what's your Gamer Level? Do you plan on tracking down all of Super Stardust HD's Trophies? Does the idea of increasing your Gamer Level interest you at all?

If you were previously down on Achievements but now sing the praises of Trophies, feel free to share why. I can't really see a marked difference between the two, aside from the Trophy system hiding the smaller numbers. Maybe you can explain what makes one system suck and the other one stellar.

Played a bunch of Unreal Tournament 3 this week, including some split-screen with my wife. While, as I've said before, the run-and-gun action isn't really my sort of thing anymore, she really likes it and she actually got pretty good over the course of a half-dozen games or so. If you've always wanted to get your wife or girlfriend gaming with you, maybe you need to stop trying those 'girly' games and let them take a shot at something different. Who knows - it worked for me!

What didn't work for me was the 2.40 firmware. After getting my PS3 back a while back from a repair when it refused to read discs of any kind, a repair that cost me $150 to have done, I've had to send it out yet again. Fortunately I kept the box it had been shipped back to me in and just had it shipped out from work this morning, so there's no wait for a shipping container to show up. I also didn't hear Word One about having to pay for this repair, so I'm hoping there's not going to be a call with "we need money if you want this thing back!"

I know that I could have "just" taken the HDD out, taken apart my PC and connected the HDD to it, then formatted it that way - but that's not really a "just" amount of things to do...nor does that save any of my info - my saved games, profiles, videos, etc...

Hopefully sending it off the Sony will accomplish that much.

I guess I've learned never to download firmware until WELL into the afternoon hours from now on. It still stuns me that Sony would screw up this one - perhaps the most important firmware release they've had to this point, the one that brings them close to finally having a feature set equal to Xbox Live.

Don't get ahead of yourself, overeager fanboys, Sony's online system is still trailing behind Xbox Live - even if you managed to get hold of 2.40. There's still no cross-game invite system, nor a real feeling of community - and adding text messaging in lieu of voice chat just isn't going to change that. It doesn't help that most of the 'in-game' XMB stuff takes you out of the game, which seems to defeat the purpose entirely, and the coolest stuff has almost no support.

Why launch custom soundtracks with no games supporting it? Why put out the Trophy system and have a grand total of one game with Trophies to earn?

Delay it another few weeks or a month, you've waited over a year already so it's not that big of a deal, and get some games to back it up before putting it out. And hey - maybe then you can do the testing to catch those silly little bugs that lock up people's consoles.

Still no word on when we can expect that Too Human demo, though preview code has been going out to a number of major players recently. The people who've actually played the game, for the most part, still seem overwhelmingly positive about the experience - particularly the loot and the co-op play.

I'm looking forward to this one even more after hearing there's some type of crafting system to make high-end armor sets. I do worry a bit that this game, more than most, could easily be a setup for constant DLC additions.

Kind of like Ace Combat, only with more swords.

Until next week, I'm out. On the way out, consider this strange image. I love Barack Obama, but the man has apparently married Wayne Brady.