Video Game Tuesday: Mods and Achievements

This week for Video Game Tuesday I’m covering a topic I’ve been thinking about recently. It’s all about Mods and Achievements!

What?: So I’ve been thinking about how most PC games when you install a mod automatically disable any achievements so you can’t earn them when you use mods. I personally think that it really depends on the mods used because some mods are not at all impacting gameplay at all. Some are just for fun, like replacing Skyrim’s Dragon’s 3D Model with Macho Man Randy Savage, which is both disturbing and hilarious. Others are game breaking mods that make you a god, literally in some cases, and completely break all game balance. That’s just how it is with most games.  But should installing a mod at all automatically disable achievements? I tend to think no, firstly because most achievements in games are pretty easy to get, and just require you to perform certain actions in a given scenario. World of Warcraft allows for tons of mods, like Deadly Boss Mods and they don’t disable achievements upon installation. Of course mods for World of Warcraft are much more restricted compared to a single player game like Skyrim, because it’s a multiplayer game and you can’t make a mod that automatically plays the game for you. That would be outright cheating and everyone knows that.

But mods are cheating!: Are they really though? I mean just changing the 3D Model of a Skyrim Dragon to look like some WWE star isn’t really impacting your game. If anything it’s a hindrance because you’re laughing too much and get roasted by the Dragon. There are also plenty of difficulty mods that up the difficulty of the game in question and allow for players to really have to work for progress.

They’re still cheating!: I mean we could go over this all day, and I’m too lazy to do so. But think about this, is a mod that improves texture resolution or heightens the difficulty really cheating? It’s not in my book, and even developers would be hard pressed to say that they are in my experience.

Mod’s can enable achievements!: Yep there are mods out there to do just that for many games that disable achievements upon mod installation. Skyrim and Fallout are key examples of that.

That’s it for this week’s Video Game Tuesday. What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below!

 

Video Game Tuesday: To Platinum or Not

Hey all, I’m back with another answer to a question I receive a lot for this week’s Video Game Tuesday! It’s whether To Platinum or Not!

To Platinum?: I mean to complete a game 100% or to unlock all the achievements (Trophies for those PlayStation gamers) in a game. This often involves beating the game on the hardest difficulty and/or doing so in a certain way. Whether that is a time limit or a character level limit, or even just a side quest completion rate it doesn’t really matter. The actual question I get asked however often goes like this, “As a Game Reviewer do you complete a game 100% before writing the review?”.

So do you?: As a general rule of thumb, the answer is a big fat NO. I do not achieve a Platinum Trophy in a game before reviewing it, because for most games that would take way too much time to accomplish. I’ll often do the story and if it’s an RPG any sidequests, before giving a review. There have been exceptions like the one time I reviewed Coffin Dodgers, which is my all time record of lowest score ever for a game I reviewed. Now if a game was to be so short and simple to beat that I was easily able to earn a Platinum trophy in a matter of hours instead of days I might end up going for the Platinum. That is if I find the game worth investing that time into. I have a busy schedule, and while I do what I love which is to review stories in all sorts of various formats, doing that takes up a bunch of time for me. So spending hours upon hours to Platinum a game that I find boring or even just mediocre I won’t bother going for a Platinum.

But have you ever fully completed a game you reviewed?: Yes I have, Final Fantasy XV and InFAMOUS Second Son are both games I’ve completed 100%. Earning the Platinum on Second Son was pretty interesting as you ended up hearing Delsin give you a message upon achieving the final Trophy. That was a fun way to reward the player alongside the Platinum Trophy. I’d love it if more games followed that example.

That’s it for this week’s Video Game Tuesday! Do you go for a 100% completion in games you own? Share your thoughts and stories in the comments below!