Archive for the High Scores/Accomplishments Category

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One Day: Two Games Beaten

Posted in Best / Worst, Blog, Games, High Scores/Accomplishments, Portal with tags on November 11, 2023 by slateman

In the spring of 2012, I beat Portal and Portal 2 on subsequent days (I had been working on them simultaneously, on PC and Playstation 3. When I moved to Sweden in late 2016, I earned a pair of platinum trophies in the same day: Zero Time Dilemma at midnight and Far Cry: Primal in the afternoon. None of these accomplishments are particularly noteworthy outside of fond memories, but today I’m adding another to that list: completing both Dark Souls III and Super Mario Bros. Wonder within about an hour of one another.

I endeavor to post my thoughts on these achievements separately, but hey, I figured it was noteworthy enough to make a post about. My hernia surgery is set for Monday and as I am all-but-incapacitated, why not play some games! Unfortunately, I’m still two days away from surgery and I’ve completed two titles already. I’ll have to see what’s on sale during my post-op downtime.

Resident Evil 4 Remake Results

Posted in Best / Worst, Blog, Games, High Scores/Accomplishments, Resident Evil on April 30, 2023 by slateman

After the high-quality renditions of Resident Evil 2 and RE3, the inevitable question posed was whether or not RE4 needed the facelift. Any doubts have been banished after Capcom knocked it out of the park…again! This new from-the-ground-up remake modernized what needed it, kept what worked and slathered it all in polish. The game is fantastic, and while I don’t post on this blog much, I wanted to share my remake results.

Run #1 was my fun, check everywhere, explore and enjoy playthrough.
My second game was the ‘get the infinite rocket launcher and collect everything’ run.
Finally, my easy-mode, rocket launcher speed-run trimmed my time from almost 20 hours to 3:20.

Capcom knows what they’re doing. Will Street Fighter 6 launch with such quality? All signs point to yes!!!

Oh, with this, I’ve updated my game-completion lists and my RE Rankings.

Resident Evil Trophy Progress

Posted in Best / Worst, Blog, High Scores/Accomplishments, Resident Evil on May 3, 2021 by slateman

This image is equal parts cool and pathetic. Here’s my PSNProfiles collection of Resident Evil games. Of course, this only catalogues the Playstation 3 and onwards – but even still, this is a hefty list! My curiosity was borne out of me purchasing Resident Evil Revelations (Again!) As it was only on the PS3 (well, and several other platforms), I knew I could never play it on modern PS consoles. One drunk, $8 click later and it was mine (Again!) In the light of Resident Evil VIII coming out soon, I wanted to see what my history looked like visually. Well, for better or worse, here it is! From my first platinum (RE5) to now…that’s a lotta RE!

In all? 375 trophies across 17 games.

[Note] This has been updated with RE8 statistics. Stuck on Heisenberg on Village Of Shadows difficulty. Yeah…think I’m done with this game!

New 4×4 Record: 1:43.62!!!

Posted in Blog, Cubing, High Scores/Accomplishments on April 2, 2021 by slateman

When I broke my four-year-old 4×4 record last month, I was rather thrilled, securing my first sub-2-minute solve in the process. I was quite content with the accomplishment and immediately felt satisfaction and zero motivation to improve upon the time. However, as I’m on spring break right now, I’ve been tinkering around with the puzzle and it’s so spectacular! The magnets are just wonderful and as I was running through things, I noticed two things. First, my centers are done in about 20 seconds. Second, I’ve been getting better at edge matching. First, I match white edges and then move on to yellow. These high-contrast pieces are much easier to keep track of and instead of lining up several edges at once (like the pros do), I just wing one at a time and keep track of other edges which is actually more productive.

Anyhow, as I have noticed an improvement, I figured I go for time. My best average-of-five now resides around 2:07 with a new record a full 10 seconds faster than my prior record! Pretty damn cool, I have to be honest. I can’t see any huge change coming in the future, but I may keep trying. \m/

Following Day Update: I haven’t come close to my 103-second solve, but it was not for a lack of effort. In the process, I managed a 2:05.28 average-of-five. it’s hardly disappointing: 2:05 would’ve been my personal best before last month!

New 5×5 Record! Sub-5 Minutes!

Posted in Best / Worst, Blog, Cubing, High Scores/Accomplishments on March 25, 2021 by slateman

I haven’t really tried for a 5×5 record in ages. I purchased my ShengShou way back in 2012 and promptly broke my record. However, while the puzzle itself is pretty good, I only rarely returned to try to break my just-over-five-minutes standard.

For Christmas, I made a massive order of puzzles. I got like a dozen or something and among them were three magnetic puzzles: a 3×3, 4×4 and 5×5. Now, I’ve already proclaimed my love for these last month when I broke my four-year-old 4×4 record getting my very-first sub-two-minute solve. Today, with some extra time on my hands, I figured I’d take a stab at the 5×5, a puzzle I haven’t improved time on in eight-and-a-half years.

The stickerless, magnetic ShengShou is a great puzzle. It never locks up, those magnets help tidy up those quick turns and it cuts like a dream, so I’m rarely ever stuck between layers. My first solve was almost 5:30 – not too bad with no practice and my second was 5:07, a mere five seconds off my record. Solve #3 was it: my first sub-five-minute 5×5! Clocking in at 4:51, I beat my old record by 11 seconds!

After a mess up and another 5:something time, the stars aligned and…OMFG??!! 4:12.93! That is fifty seconds better than the record which stood since October of 2012. FIFTY SECONDS! I don’t even know what to say! Beating this would require some serious dedication but, like the 4×4 before it, I’ve accomplished what I’ve always wanted to: a sub-five. The four-minute finish line feels way too far off. I think next up will be a new 6×6. Still rocking the V-Cube 6 I bought in August of 2011. Urgh.

New 4×4 Record! Sub-2 Minutes!

Posted in Best / Worst, Blog, Cubing, High Scores/Accomplishments on March 1, 2021 by slateman

I haven’t done any speed solving in quite some time, but after ordering a treasure trove of puzzles for Christmas, I was enjoying my 4×4 MoYu Meilong and its magnets. I realized just how quickly it turned and I thought a new record could be in sight. After an impressive 2:04 – an eight-second improvement on my existing personal best, I busted out my very first sub-2-minute run! Clocking in at 1:54.10, this was my first new record in over a year. I am certain I could improve upon it – but I don’t feel any burning need to do so. The 2-minute threshold is satisfying enough! Pretty psyched and this year marks my 10-year cubing anniversary.

Spelunky 2: Made It To World 5!

Posted in Best / Worst, Blog, Games, High Scores/Accomplishments with tags on October 17, 2020 by slateman

Around 500 deaths into this game, I finally unlocked the second shortcut, allowing me to skip straight to the Tide Pool, world 4. The alternate fourth world is the Temple of Anubis which wrecks me almost instantaneously. However, after just a little while of working through the Tide Pool, I managed to beat it, making it to the Ice Caves for the first time! It’s been a while since I played the original Spelunky and though I enjoyed the flashback, I haven’t made it far into this new locale. Additionally, building a shortcut to it, without having to traipse through the Tide Pool, will be a rigorous and almost-impossible task.

My first impressions of the game were not quite at the level of other review outlets, who have dished out 10s. But the more I play, the more I realize how brilliant the game is – particularly when playing with my 9-year-old son. This game is great and one of the year’s best!

Demon’s Tilt: 916 Million!

Posted in Best / Worst, Blog, Games, High Scores/Accomplishments on March 23, 2020 by slateman

I’ve been a bit stuck in Demon’s Tilt. After that legendary 400-million point run, I’ve found myself not progressing much at all. All of that changed today, however. The first ball was going rather well and now that I know how to aim for rituals (each of the three tiers has a six-letter word – complete all 18 for Wizard Mode), I focus mainly on those. Things were going really quite well and other than a shitty second ball (200 million on ball #1, a mere 24 on #2) after having a 99 multiplier, my third and final attempt was nearing my first Wizard Mode. Upon initiating this souped-up mode, the entire board is enshrouded in flames and I’m pretty sure I had five balls going at once. I started at 450 million or so and those numbers just got insane fast. 500, 600, 700, 800 million!!! The boost in numbers was just absurd. Looking at those crazy high scores in the past, it made me wonder how it was all possible. Wizard Mode is how it’s possible.

It was intense and thrilling and cements the game as one of the best ever. Wow, that was exciting.

Demon’s Tilt: High-Score Progress

Posted in Best / Worst, Blog, Games, High Scores/Accomplishments with tags on February 27, 2020 by slateman

This game is spectacular and is the best new title I’ve played in quite some time. I’ve been playing for score and managed my first 300-million run yesterday. This was usurped by a 400-million game a few hours later. Dissecting this and figuring it all out is fun and rewarding and may be the start of a new addiction! Until then, proof of said 400m game!

Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night – 200.6% Again!

Posted in Best / Worst, Blog, Castlevania, Games, High Scores/Accomplishments on November 15, 2018 by slateman

Just four months later, I’ve 200.6%ed Symphony Of The Night again! In the process, I managed to platinum Castlevania: Requiem as well. Two of the best Castlevania games in one package? I shelved Red Dead Redemption 2 to play 20-year old games. What a world.

To address the port itself – it’s lazy as hell. The options and modes are pretty pathetic and it’s missing some truly basic items. You can’t turn off the overly-used rumble feature? Simply no option at all? But while it’s a real bare-bones title, the games are rock solid. Playing through Rondo Of Blood again reminded me just how awesome it is – handily defeating the other games of the era (see my recent retro-game backlog!) The game’s hype is spot-on and it’s a must-play from the series.

There’s little to say about Symphony that hasn’t been said yet. There was really no way I wasn’t going to 200.6% this beast. I was reminded of its few bullshit moments which come from a different time. However, the whole experience was just remarkable, just as good as ever. In addition, the trophies really gave me reason to try things I never would have and even after so many playthroughs, I learned new things. This game is a legend and yet another run solidifies it as a top-10 ever game. (Or so…that list is tough to quantify!)

So, after not playing the game fully to completion in the prior 21 years, I’ve now managed to do it twice in four months. Not bad.


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