Lurker > Simoun

SgtSphynx posted...

Darksiders 3 (PC)

Definitely the weakest of the 3 games, basically a disappointment. Continues the series habit of bringing up questions and not answering them.

I'm currently playing the first one. I love the oldschool charm so reading your comment, I'm just going to turn my brain off on this one
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

South Park: The Fractured But Whole (PC)

Ehhh. I guess it's more impressive than the last game. I liked it. I liked that it was more difficult and there were more options for battling. The plot was also kinda better. But I dunno, the first game had this ridiculous premise stretched upon LARPing. The 2nd game tried to go beyond that but also tried to retain its LARP roots. But I like the nods it gave to the 1st game at least.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Sold Girl Town (PC)

Google at own risk. It was kind of grindy in the beginning on a hentai level. Then it was very grindy by the middle and end from a management level. 2 out of 5.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Sort the Court (PC)
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India (PC)

Well, I'm not disappointed. The stealth is a bit better. But the story is at best a fan-service. If you haven't read the tie-in materials then you'll feel nothing for these people. I like it. The graphical style has changed to a colorful indian thingie contrast to the droll brush strokes of ancient China. And the level difficulty has increased, ranging from Now That's a Challenge to Are You F*** Kidding Me.
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Furi (PC)


The music was okay, which was my main reason for playing this. Played it until the true final boss. My reflexes suck and admittedly I needed help around some rather unsavory unfair ones but it was fun all in all.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China (PC)

As beautiful as Egypt is, I really do miss being a stealthy assassin so I went and just got this game trilogy instead while I wait for all of Odessey's DLCs to release. Initially I did dismiss them as unnecessary because I've played other sidestories before like Liberation and Rogue and they suck. But Chronicles: China was okay. Decent. If anything, it echoed the old AC that Ubisoft's now forgotten about. And it actually penalized you for forgoing stealth.

Hope the next 2 are good as well.
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Noted.

I was following this early access for a long time but never played it. Then I just chickened put when it released
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

SgtSphynx posted...

Subnautica (PC)

I really enjoyed this game

How hard is it? Been wanting to get into it but I'm afraid thatvI might get stuck somewhere
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Assassin's Creed: Origins + All DLCs (PC)

Egypt. Is. Beautiful.

Granted, nothing will ever replicate Paris' attention to detail in Unity, but I think this game officially dethrones Watch_Dogs 2 for best open world map. That said, the grindy RPG system is a bit of a hit and miss. Like, I enjoy it now but. What if I wanna speedrun or cut to the main story itself? It's flawed in its own way and I wish I can hate this game but it lures me with the aesthetic and the history porn (the discovery tour is a real joy).

Now I'm looking at Odyssey and thinking it's never gonna be the same is it? Sure, Ubi took 3-4 years to make this game, but the old AC is dead. Now it's the dawn of a new kind of AC and I'm not exactly sure I love it. I'm lured by the open worlds like I said, but beneath it I can feel the deception. Part of me wishes the franchise wasn't as big so that it could still watch itself with a chance to fail.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Raiden II (PSX)

Underrated shmup. This one has a very special attachment from my childhood. It's probably the one with my favorite chiptunes. Also love the attention to detail and the destructiveness of the environment.

But boy is it hard.

Also to my surprise, I can't believe the people behind this are still alive making shmups for the PS4!
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Party Hard 2 (PC)

I wanted to like this game. The first one was a blast. But I guess like every indie sequel, they just had to try and make it something more. The game itself was okay, it was more of the same really but better looking and had more to do. My main gripe is the story which was jumbled and tried really hard to be Hotline Miami, which is incidentally almost the same as this game except there is emphasis on stealth. I would still play this over the first one I suppose.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Call of Duty (PC)

Yeah. The original. My next COD conquest is gonna be WWII so I might as well go back and finish the classics that I never did back in highschool. To be honest, it holds up really well. The 90s shooter elements such as the non-regenerating health and the lack of a sprint key felt awkward at first but they gave the game more of its original challenge. I even on instinct held the shift key to "hold my breath" during sniper shootouts. I love the setpieces this game has. I mean, every COD has always had good setpieces but this stood the test of time for sure.

Looking forward to finishing the rest of em. Don't know if I'll try World at War.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Thanks for the heads up. I tried this game pretty early on last year and had immense difficulty with the time limit mechanic
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Far Cry 5 (PC)

Them Duck Dynasty boys are at it again!

Okay seriously, a vast improvement from the slowly deteriorating formula. While I kinda hate the achievement based perk system, it was a refreshing mechanic that didn't try to clone the last 3.5 games. I never would have thought that rural Montana was such a fun place to play in and I think one of the biggest improvements is how everything looks much less gamey; that is to say the enemies no longer dress like videogame enemies, the outposts are no longer generic buildings, and since everything is rural, there is little in the way of elevated terrain making the outpost takedowns much more satisfying as you can't just camp snipe your way to victory.

The ending sucks though. Both of them. Game Design 101 like why put your player character through all that crap when it doesn't matter anyway in the end.
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Omg I keep wanting to finish that game but I just gave up around the 3rd act
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

It's been awhile since I played Stick of Truth, but I recall relying on the completely abusable status effects. I remember not even realizing that the hardest secret boss in the game was actually the secret boss.
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That's unfortunate. I was kind of digging its cyberpunk appeal. Maybe I'll play it next year
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Hollow Knight + 4 DLCs (PC)


When I finished this game last year, I could barely do the secret dungeon and so I never fought the true final boss. I was surprised coming back to it that it had gotten a little easier. And then of course, they added some other hard stuff. It was nice seeing this game constantly improved through its DLCs. To my understanding, the bosses added in were what the original Kickstarter stretch goals that weren't reached before.

Still my game of the year. So much love.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

bump
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

I also actually finished Cuphead (PC) a few months ago, just never posted it here.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III (PC)

I was not expecting Ghost in a Shell in my mindless action shooter.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Bullet Hell Monday (Android)

I finished every Challenge Mode on Hard. Except the last one. I don't wanna finish the Heaven difficulty it's just too much. I'm not even a bullet hell fan and this game eases you so much into it. I recommend it for anyone willing to love the genre but completely suck at it.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

KCF0107 posted...

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime for PC

So I played the tutorial several months back. I thought that I could handle everything they threw at me. I was dead wrong. I played the first two constellations (I think that each world was named after one) on normal/standard difficulty, and struggled mightily with the bosses. With the second one, I had to change my strategy entirely. I normal took care of moving and shields while having my partner handle all weapons, but I ended up having to reverse roles in the end.

After that, I did the third constellation on easy and the final on beginner just to be safe. The levels leading up to the bosses are fine, but the difficulty spikes with the bosses are jarring to say the least. The game is great though. I just don't see myself rescuing everyone.

Wait. Are you telling me this game is possible alone? What changes when you shift the difficulty to easy?

I've been wanting to finish this for ages
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Immortal: Unchained (PC)

I don't know how I steadied myself to finish this rather mediocre Souls clone, but here we go. It's Dark Souls With Guns. It's pretty bad. 5/10. The levels dragged on too much, the bosses were either pathetic or cheap. The sidequests were confusing. The gunplay was okay but very exploitable. There was also this Borderlands-esque randomness with the loot which was annoying. The game starts you with classes of your choice but really there's no reason to do anything else but sniper. What's the point of being a Souls with Guns if everything else teaches you to keep shooting till you're in melee range then whack the guy from behind.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Nancy Drew 9: Danger on Deception Island (PC)

Eh. It was okay I guess. The mystery kind of solved itself halfway, but decided to pad itself by turning the plot into a treasure hunt. And of course the bad guys are smugglers. And of course there's a hidden cove full of treasure. There are alot of ways to die in this game which is mighty annoying. I mean, legit death is fine but going off a trail for not wearing your helmet? And you have to wear your helmet everytime you fast travel. Ugh. It feels like a Sierra game.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Cultist Simulator (PC)

Intriguing game concept, but a bit repetitive in the beginning. Progression is geared towards trial and error and extreme micromanagement late game.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Nancy Drew 8: The Haunted Carousel (PC)

Another one down! And I thought the last title was lulzy because you only meet the ghost dogs once. The Carousel in this game isn't even haunted. You find out early on how it's activated, and the rest of the game is spent unraveling another unrelated mystery. To be fair, it was quite the engaging set of events and it didn't feel like it was an excuse for Nancy to do some chores around the park. More interestingly, the crappy attempt to scare people was not a Scooby Plot either. Turns out it was to drive the prices up for the carousel's designer-made horses so that the bad guy---a forger could make a better killing when he sold them.

New things in this game are mainly two things: Nancy has a checklist now to determine her objectives, so the game doesn't rely on unseen triggers to move the plot forward. And she has a celphone with speed-dial! No more manually dialling numbers although charmingly enough the option still exists. I miss the 90s Nokias and this brought back some nostalgia. I think this is also the first game that has multiple locations on a map seeing as the setting is an amusement park. There's also this extremely terrible real-time portion where you have to grab something while riding the carousel. It's as stupid as it sounds.

All in all, a very fun and intriguing mystery.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Nancy Drew 7: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake (PC)

Straight up Scooby Doo plot. It's a shame though that you only get to encounter the dogs once. This is the first game to get rid of the annoying clock mechanic which in previous games served only to annoy you by making it so that certain NPCs were only available at certain times. Oh also I forgot to mention in my last post that ND6 would be the first ND where Nancy would hint about her succeeding adventure. Let's see, this is also the first game where Nancy gets a Smartpho---I mean PDA device. This is after 2002 so who needs a journal to keep your notes. No more going back to my hotel room to check it when I can just deduce on the go.

Minor annoyances. There was a forest with thankfully a map to follow, but it still gave me Return to Zork flashbacks. There was a cemetery but thankfully no scares. There was actually an option to enter a mausoleum and nothing came of it so, it was pretty clever a red herring I suppose. The bad guy this time was kind of obvious made only less suspicious by the fact that she would have to defy the laws of teleportation to be able to pull off half the stuff she does and that she was the nicest suspect; a common element I've been told will be very frequent. It's never the asshole giving Nancy a hard time. Except for 1 incident I recall.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Nancy Drew 6: Secret of the Scarlet Hand (PC)

Game series is getting more elaborate now. On the one hand, my head fucking hurts from all the stupid puzzles (and by that I mean, literally badly designed stupid puzzles). On the other, I get to brush up on my Mayan history, which doubles as edutainment I suppose. It's the first game to actually step out of a fixed location and gave you ample freedom to explore.

The bad guy here wasn't all that obvious on deduction but was pretty obvious on process of elimination. Also, we never really get to trap the guy surprisingly. He just manages to get away with a counterfeit of whatever he was stealing. And what exactly was he trying to accomplish was not clear to me so he's more of an idiot in that sense.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

bump
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Devil May Cry 1 HD (PC)

This is my first time playing this game. My only exposure was the 3rd game and I totally no idea going into this what to expect. That said, I had no idea the graphics were this horrendous. I actually thought it was a PS1 game for awhile. I don't know what to feel. Lots of early episode weirdness to be sure. An underwater first person portion and then an airplane escape finale? It definitely fits what I heard that it was originally going to be RE4.

I'm just glad it's over. I hated every second that wasn't a fight. The bosses were kind of dicks, and the platforming was hellish not helped by the really clunky controls. I forget now if the third game was like this.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

KCF0107 posted...

Teslagrad for PS4

First impressions were not great and while some significant issues never went away, I was glad I took the time to play it by the game's conclusion.

When does it get better? I kinda gave up around the 2nd boss (the mechanical bird thing)
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Donut County (PC)

Hilarious. It's short length is okay given that the novelty will run out fast, but it's strength also lies in its writing and storytelling. I also love how it pokes at certain things in our current culture. I love that final stage and boss, it was fun all the way through like I was watching an episode of Steven Universe.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

A Story About My Uncle (PC)

It got hellish in the final zone but it was worth it. The ending leaves it ambiguous enough for the situation to either be real or not. But I'd like to think it's the latter because it makes the narrator's storytelling towards his daughter more sweet.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Nancy Drew 5: The Final Scene (PC)

Holy. Shit. I mean I expected the series to get better eventually, but not this good. Didn't see that twist coming a mile away! Also, they combined the real-time death QTE of the game with the final boss in a way I've never seen Adventure Games do it before. Very well done. Good enough for tenth in a top ten.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

KCF0107 posted...

Rusty Lake: Roots for PC

I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. I sort of liked my time with it, but I have no intention of playing any more games from this series.

Is it because nothing makes sense? I hate that about some games too.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

metaIslug posted...

Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage

I liked Spyro 1 so much, I thought it was gonna be downhill from here (expectations now exist).
But nope! Spyro is still awesome, I wish I had these games growing up because they are so legit. Anyway Spyro 2 just delivers the goods in almost every way. There's only one complaint I have. It's the lack of egg thieves. There is one level where you chase them, but it's very short and hardly memorable. Seeing as egg thieves are so great in Spyro 1, seeing them not in 2 is disappointing. In every other way though this game is just great

Spyro 2 is the best! The third game is also great but I think the 2nd game hit the sweet spot very well.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Mystery Case Files: Revenant's Hunt (PC)

It's not terrible, and it actually improves as a HOG, but it's not the same. I hear the next one's going to return to its more innocent roots. When the finding really mattered.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Nancy Drew 4: Treasure in a Royal Tower (PC)

So I guess they found the sweet spot with the 3rd game and decided to copy its formula in the sequel. It's pretty much the same except the "Mansion" is bigger and there are no ghosts. There is a sense of improvement when it comes to the puzzles and the progression. My only complaint here is the bad guy was so obvious about a 5th into the game and came to no surprise. The treasure hunting was more focused on solving logical puzzles and I learned a bit about Marie Antoinette too (if I didn't already in Asscreed Unity).

Also, one thing to note is that I'm starting to see a pattern with these games. You got a main mystery, a culprit, and a slew of suspects to deduce. And capturing the final bad guy always constituted solving 1 final puzzle. And boy I thought nothing could top the 2nd game's luck-based stupidity. The first was kind of clever, the 3rd had you dropping a chandelier on the guy. This one? Why, just pressing a button beside the staircase you came from to drop the baddie in a prison cell. As in, that was the button's only purpose! I would never have known unless I happened to fiddle with it randomly.

Also something I've noticed now is that every game has at least one Quick Time Event or you're dead! I find it hilarious because these games came out in what 1999? And so QTE's before they became standard at one point and annoying, was already being annoying here. Thankfully the games gladly rewind time back to the moment before your demise. I just always found it kind of funny in the Nancy Drew games. Almost like a running gag.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

That's ridiculous haha, kinda like a bootleg Megaman
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Downward (PC)

Ehhh, it's okay. It's the only Mirror's Edge alternative aside from NaissancE and if you're up for open world and time trials then it makes decent use of its parkour. However, the game is marred by bugs and poor design choices. I spent the whole game ignoring a potentially useless skill tree, backtracking because the portal system was broken only to just realize at the end of the game that the ability to fucking fast travel is in that useless skill tree.

There were also multiple endings, but they're all bullshit. They barely last 15 seconds and require you to collect things out of reach and out of sight. It doesn't help that the story is cliche and almost non-existent, making you not invested at all. The cool parkour can only hold your attention for so long.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Nancy Drew 3: Message in a Haunted Mansion (PC)

Okay this is alot better. It came out in 2000 so it's pretty cliche though. The "Manor being renovated is filled with treasure and ghosts" plot. It turns out to not be a scooby doo hoax though as the ghost was a publicity stunt to get people into the bread and breakfast, having nothing to do with the treasure

I liked this alot better. It flowed well and the inventory puzzles start showing up more. But it's still pretty old and with that it had some minor grievances; sliding block puzzles, repetitive music, triggers necessary to move the plot forward. But it wasn't as stupid as the previous game. All in all I liked it.

It's also interesting to note that since I've played some of the latest ones, I'm curious as to when the series will begin becoming modern. As of now, you still had to manually dial numbers to call your friends for hints whilst in the later versions, Nancy already has a smartphone that could call at a press of a button. The devs even went out of their way to put minigame apps in Nancy's phone. Love it!
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Nancy Drew 2: Stay Tuned for Danger (PC)

Hoo-boy. It sucks hahahah

The villain was out of nowhere, the interface was really bad. Like I just wanted to get over to a certain part of the room and it won't let me because I had to enter it a certain way. And this is something I never realized starting from the old ones but the game expects you to be so thorough before anything significant triggers. I spent maybe an hour furiously clicking around wondering why nothing was happening until I realized I didn't examine a slip of paper in a screen where something more obvious wasn't clickable so I ignored it.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Nancy Drew 1: Secrets Can Kill Remastered (PC)

This is a game series I've been considering doing for a long time now. I have played a few already, but like the latest 5 ones or something. Never really looked into starting from the beginning because I might get turned off by the age (the clunky slow unskippable interface that plagues many an oldschool adventure). But being so bored of the relatively easy Fallout 4 has given me some perspective.

Technically this game came out after the 22nd in the series (since its Remastered version) so I will have yet to encounter the clunkiness here, but having played this now and knowing what's at the end, I marvel at how far this series has come. Only 3 locations and only 1 of them had a huge map, which is still small compared to the newer ones. Only 4 suspects and the killer wasn't even one of them but the guy who called you in the first place!. All in all, I would say nothing has changed and that's a good thing. Whether it is the first or the nth of the series, this adventure is still a tough cookie, and one that encourages you to write things down and look at things instead of relying on inventory puzzles. I really like how the series started and hope I can continue down the line. Needed a break from the Sherlock Holmes games anyway.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Fallout 4: Game of the Year Edition (PC)

This is the reason why I suddenly went dark in this thread. Skyrim took me 3 months. This game sucked me in and I was never really truly ever able to get out.

That said, I...wish I can hate it. I wish it was called STALKER 2 instead. This game is a betrayal of everything Fallout was. And even if I could do less with these radial settlement quests, the game itself is flawed from a fundamental level. The story is bullshit. Your companions save maybe Nick are bullshit. Everything being said and done are just excuses to move around the huge open world map. I barely felt anything for the people I was talking to. They'll say probably a line or two about their backstory which is admittedly deep enough but then that's it. At least with Fallout 3, the game kept you moving, kept you interested despite the blandness of everyone. And at least that game had karma. God I hate the dialogue system.

The only good thing to come from all this is Far Harbor, which I will say is pretty much like the Dead Kings DLC of Asscreed Unity. This is a DLC that proves that the company can make a competent scenario, but fails in their main content to do so. Far Harbor works because every single person in that place was useful or meaningful in some way. A faction or town was filled to the brim in its sidequests, and I actually felt like belonging to these people; a feeling now rarely sought in any main game content. And this DLC manages to improve my respect and love for Nick Valentine.

All in all, it was okay. It was great in the beginning, not so much halfway when you had to pick a faction, and then meh by the end save for Far Harbor.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Oh crap i meant to say after 1.5 years. Had it mixed up with another game
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

The End is Nigh (PC)

OMG Fucking finally. After 3 years, this hell is done. I hate this game so much but I just couldn't give up. It's fair for what it is but just way too stressful for me.

I wonder if meat boy was ever this hard. I haven't played that yet.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Resident EVII: Not a Hero (PS4)

Fuck Lucas! the DLC. That's what this is.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

KCF0107 posted...

It's my favorite Platinum game, but I'm not a fan of the company like the rest of B8 generally is.

Oh I did not know it was popular around here, the company that is. Actually, I think you and I are the same. This is the only Platinum game I like or remember at least. But my brother is nuts about this publisher and plays all their stuff
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.