I had two goals this weekend, gaming-wise, and both, I’m happy to say were complete successes. Well, almost.

The almost comes from Uncharted 2. I only had three chapters left to play in UC2 and with my kid-free day I had on Saturday, there was no excuse to not finish the game. Sure, something could have frustrated me to the point of not completing it, but fortunately, there were no helicopters in the end. There was a crazed lunatic hyped up on *spoilerspoilerspoiler*, but he was cake compared to the helicopters. But yes, I did finish the game, and I’m so happy that I did. I must thank my two shoulder-angels, MattG and Eric for talking me into not giving up. The frustration was really worth it in the end, and I got to see one of the best games in existence (yes, this one may top Lost Odyssey) through to the end. Not only that, but I started and finished my first shooter. I’m so proud of me.

So where is the almost? Well, for some reason, I never got a completion trophy from the PSN when I finished the game. I did complete the game on Normal, for those wondering if I kept the difficulty level down low.

I hadn’t had the game on Easy since the helicopter scene, but I guess completing the game with 75% Normal isn’t enough for a trophy. I suppose that the only way I will get a trophy now is to either complete each chapter on Normal (which I’m not sure that will even do the trick) or play through the game again on Normal without changing the difficulty. My early switches are the only things I can think of as to why I did not receive a trophy. I’m not sure why I want the trophy as proof I finished the game so badly. Back in the day, we had no real way of proving anything. Yet, here I sit, wanting my proof. Now do I want it so badly I’ll hurl myself in front of that infernal helicopter again? Ha! No. The above picture will have to suffice.

After I finished UC2, I wiped away a tear (yes, I did get a little choked up at the ending and the overall story), ate some lunch, and then hopped into my car to pick up Darksiders and its corresponding strategy guide at GameStop. I didn’t look at the guide until I got home, but I was stunned and very, very pleased to see Doug Walsh‘s name on the cover. Not only did I love his work with the Crisis Core strategy guide, but he’s also agreed to grant me an interview. If this guide is half as great as the Crisis Core guide (without the obsession with Costly Punch, of course), it will receive a rave review.

I only played a few hours of Darksiders, because believe it or not, I was feeling a little gamed out at that point. G4TV gave the game a 2 out of 5, mostly for shallow hack-and-slash gameplay, but I like shallow hack-and-slash gameplay. So far, I haven’t found it to be that shallow, but maybe when War gets some of his powers back, it will be stale. For the moment though, I’m having fun with it. I have to say though that UC2 kind of spoiled me a bit with its great graphics. I got spoiled with the cut scene and game sequence graphics looking seamless and identical. Darksiders is definitely not seamless and definitely has two sets of graphics running. A little sad, but I have to remember that not all games can visually be as great as UC2. Well, they should be, but I supposed they can’t be.

Stay tuned for my long overdue blog post about Spirit Tracks and the Uncharted 2 strategy guide review!