Dat Plat

Hit Platinum for Takedowns, playing Gangplank 99.9% of the time. Pretty stoked. Feeling motivated to turn all of those emblems into Shiny Diamonds $$

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

Difficulty: Knight (Hard)

Though I still prefer the 2d Castlevanias, Lords of Shadow manages to be a pretty decent 3d offering. The visual presentation delivers some breathtaking scenes. The narration by Patrick Stewart is especially entertaining. A few of the classic Castlevania elements such as the secondary weapons, and destroying candlesticks/other parts of the environment to find items are included. Many of the enemy types are traditional Castlevania as well. The game also drew inspiration from Shadow of The Colossus with gigantic boss battles that require you to scale them and find their weak points, while clinging to avoid being shaken off.

Overall it didn't exactly capture the feel of the earlier games in the series for me, but stands alone as a solid singleplayer experience. Playing through on Knight difficulty did provide somewhat of a challenge. There are collectibles, and optional trials for each stage supplying some additional replay value.