This review is for any achievement/trophy hunters out there who were as bitterly disappointed with the list for this collection as I was.

I was looking forward to experiencing this incredible pair of games through a new lens as I hunted down all of the achievements, only to be met with the blandest, trashiest, laziest list I've ever seen in a game.

So I decided to make my own list, and hopefully demonstrate how much better it could have been. If any readers have a great idea for a Battlefront achievement I'd love to hear it!

Battlefront
1. The War is Over - Complete the Clone Wars Story Arc
2. The Circle is Now Complete - Complete the Galactic Civil War Story Arc
3. You Were My Brother - Complete the Clone Wars Story Arc in local split-screen multiplayer.
4. And He Was A Good Friend - Complete the Galactic Civil War Story Arc in local split-screen multiplayer.
5. The Ultimate Power in the Universe - Win Galactic Conquest.
6. Execute Order 66 - Kill 66 Hero/Villain NPCs using any possible method.
7. Meesa Go Boom Now! - Kill 500 Gungans.
8. Not Just The Men - Kill 250 Tusken Raiders.
9. You Are All That Remains - Win a battle as the last man standing.
10. Take It Back! - Win a battle with zero command posts held at the end.
11. How Did This Happen? - Hold all command posts on a map but lose the battle.
12. Pitiful Little Band - Lose a battle to an enemy force of 10 or less.
13. I Shot First - Get the first kill in a battle.
14. Watch Those Wrist Rockets! - Destroy 50 enemy vehicles.
15. You Still Hanging Around With This Loser? - Win Galactic Conquest against another player in local split-screen multiplayer.
16. Not the Droids You're Looking For - Destroy all Health and Ammunition droids on one map.
17. I'm Not Such a Bad Pilot Myself - Destroy 50 Enemy Ships.
18. Your Eyes Can Deceive You - Get 10 kills with a Sniper without using the scope.
19. You Are a Bold One - Amass 100 kills in a single battle.
20. So Uncivilised - Win a battle using only your side-arm.
21. Heroes on Both Sides - Win a battle on every map with every faction.
22. More Powerful Than You Could Possibly Imagine - Get 50 kills with every infantry class.
23. Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy - Die on Every Map.
24. The Best Star-Pilot I've Ever Known - Kill 50 on-foot soldiers from a starfighter.
25. Programmed for Etiquette, Not Destruction! - Win a battle without firing a shot.


Battlefront II
1. Just Like the Simulations! - Complete the Training.
2. The Waning Hours - Complete the Battlefront II Story Campaign.
3. Always Two There Are - Complete the Bettlefront II Story Campaign in local split-screen multiplayer.
4. Trust Only in the Force - Complete Galactic Conquest without using any bonuses.
5. No Match For a Good Blaster At Your Side - Kill 10 Lightsaber-Wielding Characters with a blaster.
6. Vader's Fist - Complete the Jedi Temple level without dying.
7. The First One to See 'em All! - Win a battle on every available map.
8. Flying is For Droids! - Win a Space Battle without dying.
9. Bring Balance to the Force - Play as all available Hero and Villain characters on any mode except Hero Assault.
10. Keepers of Peace and Justice - Defeat 250 enemies as a hero character.
11. The Dark Times - Defeat 250 enemies as a villain character.
12. Once More the Sith will Rule the Galaxy - Win Galactic Conquest.
13. Now I Am The Master - Win Galactic Conquest against another player in local split-screen multiplayer.
14. The Outer Rim Sieges - Complete a run of all maps in Instant Action.
15. Impressive. Most Impressive. - Play all maps in all available modes on Instant Action.
16. Tell Jabba I've Got His Money - Earn a cumulative 10,000 credits in Galactic Conquest.
17. A Million More Well on the Way - Unlock all Clone units in Galactic Conquest.
18. I'm Good at Fixing Things - Slice into 25 enemy vehicles.
19. Vicious, Mindless Monsters - Win a match of Hunt as every available class.
20. It Ought To Be Here - Capture and deliver 25 Flags in CTF.
21. You're Braver Than I Thought - Earn 100 points in a single battle.
22. Have You Noticed The Shields Are Still Up? - Destroy all key points of an enemy Cruiser.
23. Punch It! - Complete the Battlefront II Campaign in under 3 hours.
24. I am a Jedi - Earn enough points to play as a Hero/Villain 50 times.
25. ....To Bring Us This Information - Die 30 times as a Bothan Spy.

The first thing you see when loading up Marvel's Avengers is mostly indicative of the entire experience. An unintuitive menu, behind which is a wall of content that holds much promise, but delivers a bombardment of shallow and repetitive missions instead.

At first glance, this wall of content seems like a good thing, until you realise that most of this content consists of shallow missions with the same objectives that have been reskinned and replaced from other areas of the game.

I'm glad I came late to this game so I didn't have to deal with the live-service issues as they were happening, and I got all of the extra content for free! I like the costume roster, which contains a plethora of (now) free cosmetics which range from great, to some truly awful original costumes. Nevertheless, they are great fun to mix and match while playing as your favourite heroes.

The actual gameplay itself is serviceable enough in itself, the characters control pretty much how you would expect them to, and the heroic power fantasy survives just long enough until you encounter enemies who should be crushed under the weight of a single Hulk-Smash, yet turn out to be merciless punch-sponges. I would imagine playing in easy mode would keep the power trip going a little longer, but the gameplay quickly becomes repetitive and grind-y.

Grind-y is also a great way to describe the achievement list that accompanies Marvel's Avengers. I definitely like a good achievement hunt, but when I see multiple achievements requiring hundreds of levels, collectibles, mission completions and the like, I get sincerely turned off. Clearly the developers thought they would have a dedicated player-base for years to come, and yet it is so easy to understand why many a player would have fallen off after completing the main campaign.

Speaking of the campaign, I actually was intrigued and mostly invested in the reassembling of the Avengers in the aftermath of a disaster. I think this is quite an interesting place to meet this version of the team for the first time. I just think it's a shame that the team are divided for more of the game than they are united, I wanted an Avengers team-up power fantasy game, not the separate adventures of 6 heroes featuring even further separated adventures in the DLC.

The team-up idea is let down even further by the actual gameplay. There is nothing akin to teamwork within this game - sure, you can take companion Avengers with you on missions, but you can't work together to tackle objectives, they mainly throw punches at the same punch-sponge enemies you've been fighting the whole way through the game. There are no tactics, ideas, or great thought that can be put into these fights; the enemies don't require strategy, just punch 'n' shoot. I'm rather glad that I played Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy first because at least now I know what this game could have, and should have been.

Marvel's Avengers is basically worth checking out for a one-and-done superhero romp. You'll get your power fantasy, but it will be short lived in spite of the sheer mountain of content slopped onto your plate. Just enjoy the short campaign while it lasts, and next time we'll all know better than to get our collective hopes up years in advance for an Avengers game.

Okay, so is this a tech demo? Yes, of course it is. But did Team Asobi have to go this hard when making it? No they absolutely didn't. Nonetheless, they did and the result is Astro's Playroom.

Not just a glorified tech demo, a completely free action platformer complete with 16 levels, power ups, boss battles, and a great soundtrack to boot - seriously, you try getting that GPU Jungle theme out of your head...

Also if you have any type of relationship with Sony and previous PlayStation products and IP, this game will have you smiling like an idiot from start to finish. There are so many fun little references to Playstation games, and I adored exploring the levels to find all of the Playstation 'artifacts', from the original Playstation Dualshock Controller, to the PS Vita console.

I honestly can't find much room to criticise this game, it's free, it's more substantial than it ever needed to be without overstaying its welcome, the controls are silky smooth and do a great job of introducing players to the wondrous new Dualsense controller.

This was one of those games that was honestly a joy to Platinum!