Trophies have been around for roughly a year now, on Playstation 3 at least, and they're now standard with every PS3 release. With literally thousands of trophies to earn, there's plenty of interesting, annoying, easy, tough, enjoyable, bizarre and taxing targets to aim for. Not every goal laid out on Sony's machine is perfectly measured, but in this topic, trophies of all kinds, from the frustrating through to the fantastic, are considered, and the best in a variety of random categories are described.
With five trophies in particular that are certain to cause most gamers severe difficulty, Wipeout HD's trophies are unrivalled for their rock-hard criteria. Reaching Zone 75 for the Zone Zeus trophy has to be mentioned, but Beat Zico, Arcade Perfect, Airbraker and Elite Campaign Legend are all severe challenges in their own right.
With no descriptions on most of the trophies, the hidden goals of Noby Noby Boy are almost impossible to achieve without resorting to a guide of some sort. A quick peak online reveals some of the more random targets, but it's not clear how you're supposed to find them all yourself without enormous amounts of trial and error.
Some of the Warhawk trophies are really quite inventive, with awards handed out for tricky achievements like shooting down a Warhawk using a tank shell, or destroying a Warhawk using the shield on the APC. They're all things that can be done simply by playing and enjoying the game for a long period of time. It's possible the help yourself reach your goal by choosing your vehicle or weapon accordingly, but it's best not to force things, and to simply let it happen when it does. Great fun.
Though there's plenty of competition in this category, the trophies awarded in Dead Space are amongst the most interesting to look at. Trophies don't reward you with anything in particular, so with just a trophy card to look at, it's nice to have colourful and interesting awards to decorate your screen. Other notable candidates include Fallout 3's versatile Vault figurehead, attempting to act out many of Fallout 3's more interesting moments.
At the other end of the spectrum, there's Killzone 2, with originality that was carefully packed into boxes, carried to a special ship, taken out to sea and dumped into the deepest ocean. Almost copying the wording of other games, and never straying far from the absolute norm, Killzone 2 is after all the usual suspects, from basic level completion through to weapon-specific kill counts. There's even collectible Intel to find, allowing you to learn more about Nathan Hale and every other First Person Shooter, ever.
Though the irritating kill targets of games like Resistance 2, which put too much focus on a long slog through boring online play, can consume a great deal of time, none can compete with the thousands of hours required to beat all of the trophies in Warhawk. With achieving the rank of General among Warhawk's many trophies, the dedication required to beat the game completely is astounding, though it places endurance above skill.
With the Playstation Eye and extra packs adding extra complexity (and annoyance for many) in the trophies of Burnout Paradise, it falls to Uncharted to provide the easiest trophies, though that record looks set to be broken by the astoundingly easy, and rubbish, Terminator Salvation.
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