Simple, just combine a PSPGO with the Iphone and I'd be all over it, a music player that is a phone and plays legitimate games on it? I'm there.

Hidden Packages, Blast Shards, Orbs, Treasures, call them what you will. There curse has spread its way over gaming in ways that I never thought would happen.

My first experience with this was during Grand Theft Auto 3, it was the first truly open world game that I had ever played and collecting the hidden packages was actually kind of fun. The reward of being able to pick up free weapons and power ups from outside of your house was greatly appealing and really helped to make the end of the game pretty easy.

I’m not sure if this was the first game to include such an idea, but as with most things in Grand Theft Auto 3 it was certainly one of the things that caught on in a big way, not just in future Grand Theft Auto games, but also in other sand box games and eventually it even spread into more traditional games.

As the generational shift of games consoles happened this became more apparent than ever, and now with trophies and achievements it’s gone from being something optional for in game benefits to something that is usually required to complete if you want to truly finish a game to 1000 gamer points, or to unlock that platinum trophy. This in turn has made it incredibly frustrating, why does every single sandbox game need these? Why do they have to be so obscure? And why do I always have to always have one missing by the end?

This problem has come into effect for me in a massive way recently, and when I say recently I mean within the last 24 hours. Don’t get me wrong I’ve had a problem with these damn things since Crackdown but within the last 24 hours I have collected all 179 treasures on Tomb Raider Underworld (twice, as one of them glitched towards the end of my first play through) all 350 Blast Shards in Infamous and all of the 1001 light seeds from the Prince of Persia.

Other than for purely extending the play time of their games, I can’t understand why developers continue to include them in their products. I personally believe they can actually ruin the game by making you very aware you are playing a game. That first moment when you find number 1 of however many is a moment I dread as I then have to make the decision. Do I collect them all as I see them, and hope they are in an easy enough place that I can collect them all by the end of the game, without missing any? Or do I avoid them like all holy hell so that when I do finish the game I can use the only method I find to be truly effective and to systematically check every single location using some kind of map, checking off each location as I find it.

In my experience I haven’t found a single person who doesn’t dread the “hidden package experience” as I call it, so why do they keep this stuff in games? As games shift and change into the modern versions we see today, how is it that this incredibly archaic way of doing things has managed to survive so long?

I have full respect for which ever open world game takes the plunge, and is the first to omit this dark side of gaming forever.

Thanks for reading.

Ok, so I'm hardly an Insomniac, but it's currently 4:04AM and I can not sleep for the life of me. No matter how much I try I've got this burning sensation of guilt at the back of my mind that I just can't purge.

The reason?  I think it's time to give up on gaming.

Now, I know this sounds rash, and it sounds harsh but I havent really been properly enjoying my gaming for at least a good year now. I've mostly put it down to an increasingly poor quality of games being released nowadays combined with my increased jadedness towards gaming/life/well, everything.

I'm a student, (of games design funnily enough) so I have a lot of time on my hands to kill and only today did I sit down and work out that I play on average around 60 hours a week, which is the equivilent of a job! I remember I used to game for fun, but now I only really seem to bother for trophies and achievements. I know this is stupid, and it's a habit I should be able to break but I can't. For example,  I'd love to go back and play some more fallout 3, but with 100% of the trophies to be earned on there earned, I really don't see it as an option worthy of my time. Instead I'm forcing myself through all kinds of crap, just to increase a small digital number that no one but me really cares about.

Congratulations me, I offically have an E-Penis equivilant to Level 11 on PSN and Almost 40,000 Achievement points on Xbox live, but at the end of the day what is the point in it all? As time goes by I'm beginning to find myself becoming more short tempered, and not just games but also with my family and friends, I've put on weight for the first time in my life, weighing 15 stone at 6 foot 1, making me according to my BMI at least, overweight. It's also an expensive habit, I haven't actually gone into the figures, but in the last year alone I wouldn't be suprised if I had spent well over £1000 on gaming, which is an expensive habit for a student with no job.

I could be doing such more productive things with my time, learning how to cook properly, how to look after myself better physically and also increasing my skills as an artist and 3d Designer, something which should be my main focus in life if I want to get ahead in this career.

Now I'm not saying I should give up forever, but I should maybe cut down to about 6 or 7 hours a week at the very tops and at least have the self respect to play games purely for the fun of it. Fuck the figures, Screw the trophies and achievements, I'm going rouge.


I'd like to apoligize if this doesn't make much sense, or even read very well but a lot of what is written is all just pouring out of my brain at once, and it's pretty tough to get it all down, let alone in any kind of readable english (plus it being 4am probably doesn't help lol).

Anyway, thanks for reading this, if anyone has any advice on what I should do, or any words of encouragement I'd be more than happy to hear them.


Soap

Before you read any further please be aware that this is not news, it's just an idea I would love to see come true (hence the Dreamy Days title)

Final Fantasy VII was released on PSN this week, I'm pretty sure it's going to sell very well, especially for people who legally want to play Final Fantasy VII on there PS3/PSP/PSP Go (in the near future) but now that it's in downloadable form, wouldn't it be awesome to see some trophies for it? I'm pretty sure that would also drastically increase the amount of people willing to download it as well.

Ok, so I was bored to day at work and came up with a few trophies for it, feel free to give me your feedback on it or make your own up if you feel the need.

Final Fantasy VII Trophies

Bronze -
                  Finish Disk 1

Bronze - 
                 Finish Disk 2

Silver -
                Complete the Game

Bronze -     "Full House"
                 Have all characters in your team (Including Yuffie and Vincent)

Gold -         "Weapon Master
                Defeat all Weapons (Ultima, Emerald, Ruby, e.t.c)

Bronze - 
                Stop the Train in North Corel

Silver -     "On the Ladder"
               Purchase the house in Costa Del Sol

Silver -    "Arcade King"
               Beat all the Highscores in Gold Saucer

*Secret* Bronze -
                                Be chosen to spend the night with Don Corneo


Thats all I've got for now, Obviously it wont happen, but don't you think it would be pretty cool?

The Xbox 360 has been out for almost FOUR YEARS now, you can no longer even find Gamecubes or original Xbox games/consoles in shops anymore (and PS2's aren't far behind)...

So can we finally stop calling it Next Gen!?

>_>