Do reviewers get screwed out of Trophies & Achievements when playing a game early?

[Jawmuncher]

This is just something i've been wondering about as I wait for the Trophy & Achievement List for Outer Worlds to pop up. Lately lists on either side don't seem up populate until far closer to release. Does this mean there's a state where playing the game gives no unlocks? Or are they always technically there even if you can't currently see them?

I know back in January with RE2, reviewers were apparently playing with no achievement list on Xbox but the achievements later populated and unlocked by themselves. This threw me for a loop since the Xbox is a bit notorious for having "iffy" achievement unlocks, especially if played offline (Numerous games even now have no form of offline achievement support, since it doesn't seem to be mandated unless I missed something).

On the PS4-side of things i'm assuming it's similar to the old days of playing the PS4 offline. Where you would just see a generic trophy unlock and couldn't actually see what it was until you sync'd to the server. But i'd like to know for sure.

 

[ASleepingMonkey]

On Xbox, you're totally blind. You unlock achievements and can see what they're for, the gamer score, etc, but you can't see the full list.

On PS4, the list is saved locally on the console. Once you earn a trophy in the game, you can go to your notifications and manually look at the list. They just don't sync to PSN until around launch.

I think if you ask nicely enough, PR will just forward you the list if you want it that badly after you get your review copy.

 

[Shizuka]

On PS4, the list is saved locally on the console. Once you earn a trophy in the game, you can go to your notifications and manually look at the list. They just don't sync to PSN until around launch.

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This. I mean, it sucks when it's a game with all trophies marked as spoilers, but you can check them if you go one by one. You can also get the first platinum trophy for games if you're into that.

You upload the trophy, get an error message, choose to see the list locally/offline and there you go.

 

[Desma]

I've seen some games being released before their trophies are uploaded to their servers.

On PS4 at least, you can still see your trophies and see them (offline), but you'll get an error if you try to upload "unknown" trophies to their server.

 

[ASleepingMonkey]

This. I mean, it sucks when it's a game with all trophies marked as spoilers, but you can check them if you go one by one. You can also get the first platinum trophy for games if you're into that.

You upload the trophy, get an error message, choose to see the list locally/offline and there you go.

Click to shrink...

Yeah I was one of the first people with the Spider-Man platinum. Think I got it like 3 days before the game released. Was a neat feeling since I'd never gotten a platinum before launch before.

 

[Nemesis_]

I've never missed out. I did once on Bioshock Collection because for some reason I got the game before achievements were uploaded, so bad to replay the beginning, but everything else has been dandy.

But yeah, can see the full list on xbox. Usually Exophase has a leaked trophy list I can find tho

 

[samred]

We're too busy trying to play enough of the game and say enough smart things about it ahead of launch to worry about 'cheevos. And nowadays, we're sometimes starting with the Epic Games Store version as the only SKU available, so they don't even appear.

On Xbox, you're totally blind. You unlock achievements and can see what they're for, the gamer score, etc, but you can't see the full list.

On PS4, the list is saved locally on the console. Once you earn a trophy in the game, you can go to your notifications and manually look at the list. They just don't sync to PSN until around launch.

I think if you ask nicely enough, PR will just forward you the list if you want it that badly after you get your review copy.

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Xbox 360 used to just show all the trophies for games before they were out. I miss that. You can force PS4 to show unreleased games' trophies by waiting for its default view to time out, then load the offline list. On Steam, only the most recent achievement you earned will appear for unreleased titles. Clicking on it to see more will take you to your Steam public profile page, instead of anything about that game.

 

[Freezasaurus]

I've seen some games being released before their trophies are uploaded to their servers.

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There was that time it happened accidentally with that Yakuza 6 demo.

 

[Deleted member 18944]

We're too busy trying to play enough of the game and say enough smart things about it ahead of launch to worry about 'cheevos.

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As a former game journo, it is this.

 

[ASleepingMonkey]

We're too busy trying to play enough of the game and say enough smart things about it ahead of launch to worry about 'cheevos.

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Yeah, usually this. I take a look at the list when I get the offline PS4 list and just glance, maybe just taking note of a few easy ones that I can get while playing. But the pursuit of trophies and achievements is usually left until after the review is done!

 

[Jawmuncher]

Interesting, so it seems it's usually not an issue. That's good to know, was super curious about how that would work on both platforms. Seems playing offline is the only thing that impacts stuff on the Xbox side of things then.

 

[Smash-It Stan]

Yeah I was one of the first people with the Spider-Man platinum. Think I got it like 3 days before the game released. Was a neat feeling since I'd never gotten a platinum before launch before.

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If it was 3 days, you're probably not even in the top 100 of first achievers for that: https://psnprofiles.com/trophy/8143-marvels-spider-man/1-be-greater

Most first trophy/achievement people are reviewers but I always wondered who were the people that aren't reviewers.

 

[ASleepingMonkey]

If it was 3 days, you're probably not even in the top 100 of first achievers for that: https://psnprofiles.com/trophy/8143-marvels-spider-man/1-be-greater

Most first trophy/achievement people are reviewers but I always wondered who were the people that aren't reviewers.

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I just looked, I'm in top 50. But yeah, there are some names in these lists that always get copies but I have no idea who they are and it's bizarre.

 

[xendless]

I mean I guess it matters for sites that write walkthroughs as well as reviews.

 

[Chaserjoey]

I've seen some games being released before their trophies are uploaded to their servers.

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This happens a lot of the time when you live in a timezone like Australia and the company is US based on holding off on having the trophy server go live until the game is out in the US.

But yeah, can't really say much else without echoing what has been said vis-à-vis the PS4 trophies. Bless Sony for giving the offline / local view at trophy lists. Very helpful when the wifi drops out too.

 

[JusperX]

Depends on the game. For me in both DiRT Rally 2 and Monster Jam, achievements unlocked normally a week before the game's release.
Get Even on the other hand did not unlock while I was playing.

 

[Potterson]

It's not uncommon for reviewers to play games on 3rd party accounts even (like one acc for whole team so they can share to do a video/guide/review) so I'm not sure many of them care that much. If someone cares they buy their own copy.

 

[hey it's that dog]

Achievements exist as a motivation to wring the maximum playtime and value out of a single game. That's the opposite of what reviewers want/need to do.

 

[burnsy]

Never understood the appeal of trophies. Anyway, critics aren't enjoying a game like you or me. They are there to scrutinized and pick apart detail. Normally crunching the game in small time frames as well. Absolutely not going to waste time trying to tick off silly trophy checklists

 

[slothrop]

I mean... Criticism is a job. If they're more concerned about their personal gamer score when evaluating a game I feel like their priorities are out of sync (with me at least) from the get go.