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Paratroopa1 01/25/20 4:04:54 AM #401: |
#1 Years of release: 2014-2015 (PC early access), 2015 (PC), 2016 (PS4/Vita/iOS), 2017 (XB1), 2018 (Switch), 2017 (Amplified DLC) Beaten?: haha Hi, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Paratroopa and I am mostly known for playing Crypt of the NecroDancer. My name, or at least my online handle, is listed in the credits of this game as a beta tester. I wound up in this situation by making the best impulse purchase I've ever made in my entire life. Most of the games on my list I either heard of because of their general prestige, or otherwise through word of mouth from someone I know. Breath of the Wild is a goddamn Zelda game, for instance. Dels has the impressive distinction of having being the one to introduce me to my #3, #4, #5, AND #6 games on this list (good job Dels). FTL and Darkest Dungeon were known to me because they had a lot of good press among indie games. The list goes on. Every game was either recommended or at least suggested by a friend, or had come out to rave reviews that couldn't be ignored. There is one game on this list. One. ONLY ONE. That I purchased completely on a whim because I saw it on the Steam store, with no recommendations from any friends, without having heard a single peep of hype from anywhere on the internet, only having seen the store page and the trailer. It's this one. It's Crypt of the NecroDancer. I bought it in early December 2014, because Steam recommended it to me (good job Steam), and it was a little bit on sale because it was in early access, and I was like, hey, why not, I'll take a chance. It's a roguelike, love those, and it's a rhythm game, love those too, seems like a good concept, game looks fun, let's give it a chance, maybe it'll be good. I then basically fell down a randomly-generated rabbit hole for the next six months. Crypt of the NecroDancer is, indeed, a rhythm roguelike. You're in a dungeon, you can move in four directions on the grid, and every step you take has to be on the beat of the music. Going in a direction attacks an enemy if one is in your range, otherwise you move. Enemies will try to attack you immediately after you move. Weapons, armor, and various items increase your capabilities. The dungeons are randomized every time, split into themed zones, each with their own unique set of enemies. You have only one life, and if you die, you have to start over. That's about all there is to it! The rhythm element is a brilliant addition, as not only is it fun to tap along to the beat of the song, but it also forces the pace of the game, requiring you to make a decision every beat of the music of what you want to do. The game didn't originally start as a rhythm game, but rather as just a game where you had a time limit to move - but the designer, Ryan Clark, eventually realized it played a lot like a rhythm game so that became his concept. And now here we are. According to my achievement stats, I beat zone 1 on 12/3/14, and zone 3 on 12/10/14 - there were only three zones at the time. I beat All Zones mode for the first time ten days later, on 12/20/14. I'm kind of surprised it took even that long, despite the fact that the first all zones clear is a pretty big accomplishment - I remember playing this game a lot the first time I picked it up. I was instantly hooked. The gameplay mechanics are fun and addictive - every time I died, starting over with a new dungeon to see what I could do this time was never disheartening and always exciting. I wanted to keep on going, unlocking every item and just figuring out how everything worked. Victories were always rewarding, and deaths always felt fair and never like a frustrating setback. Pretty soon Dels and I started playing daily challenges, in which you play a seeded dungeon every day and compete with every other player to try to set the highest score on a single attempt. We got pretty good at it, and I know we both set some pretty good scores back in those days. For a while doing the daily challenge was kind of a ritual that we'd do. I was interested in challenging myself further, though, so I went looking at Speedrunslive to see if anyone was racing this - they were. Two racers named Rat and DJC. I watched them play for a while and really wasn't sure that I would be able to compete, but they were enthusiastic about inviting me in and told me to get involved in CONDOR, or the Crypt of the Necrodancer Online Racing... league. I did. I sucked, at first, but this was yet another leap of faith that would pay dividends. Racing this game is extremely fun; playing this game fast really amplifies the difficulty of every little choice you have to make, forcing you to forgo more items and take bigger risks as you wander into increasingly crowded rooms, spending as little time fighting as you get to the exit. We used to do these unseeded, but now we do them seeded; both players play the same random dungeon, and each player competes to complete it the fastest. This has greatly improved racing and made it really interesting to see how different players approach the same seed. And while there are some items that are better, stronger, or faster than others, it never feels like a run of this game is "good" or "bad," merely "different" - you're not pulling the slot machine every time hoping for the one magical run, but rather, every run simply offers different options and challenges. So, I got more into speedrunning this game as well as scorerunning. I continued to play through the early access period in early 2015. This was back at a time when early access was still kind of a dirty word - I think it still is, but at the time 'early access' really felt synanimous with unfinished games and doomed projects that never seemed like they would ever see the light of day. Necrodancer changed my mind on this. I'm so glad I got to see this game develop during early access - every week brought new changes, added items and content, and it was always exciting to see a new patch come out that would add new stuff to the game. I only wish I had gotten into it earlier! The early access phase didn't take too long, and the devs pushed content out on a tight schedule and had a very clear deadline in mind for when they wanted to release the full game. And, impressively, Ryan Clark really listened to players' input on what should be changed in the game - a ton of player suggestions got directly implemented into the game, almost always for the better. The community in early access was really dedicated to playing and mastering the game and coming up with suggestions to make it better, and I think the interaction between players and devs here really improved the game. ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Paratroopa1 01/25/20 4:05:51 AM #402: |
Sometime probably in February of 2015, there was a topic of discussion that started happening on the game's forum about whether or not to remove the Shrine of Rhythm from the game. This was a controversial 'upgrade' that could be found randomly in dungeons that removed every eighth beat from the game, forcing the player to pause, and if they moved on that beat or missed any other beat in the song they would instantly die. But in return, they would get a gold multiplier, so the shrine was required for maximizing a score run. At first I hated this shrine, but assuming that I would simply have to get used to it, I started taking it, and I started learning how to play this game with as much discipline as I could muster. Eventually, I mastered it, and I was able to play runs with shrine of rhythm without dying very often at all. But, naturally, my original reasons for hating the Shrine of Rhythm really were correct, and it was discussed what should be done with it. Even knowing that doing away with it was probably the right thing, I made a fairly impassioned devil's advocate defense in favor of it, because learning how to master it had improved my experience with the game quite a bit. It was ultimately completely reworked; however, my involvement in this discussion and my enthusiasm for making suggestions about the game must have caught the dev team's attention, because I was invited on for the beta test of the final release.
I was under orders not to talk about it at the time, which killed me, since I so badly wanted to tell Dels that I had access to zone 4 and the final build of the game before everyone else, but I had to wait and play coy like I wasn't doing that. It was one hell of a privilege to be involved though; a couple of the bugfixes/changes I suggested made it into the final game, and it was just fun as hell to get to see the final parts of the game before everyone else, and see them develop. Around this time I got more involved with the community, along with a lot of its big players at the time who are mostly still around today. Ever since then I've been at least semi-active in the community and I've done a lot of racing over the years, and eventually got... sorta good, not really great, but I've had a few decent wins to my name, and I eventually won an event as part of a team and even made some money as a runner-up one time (CONDOR for its first few years was quite flush with prize money, as the devs donated it to us to help grow the community - that was super nice of them). Between 25 dollars here, 33 dollars in Cadence of Hyrule, and 20 dollars in Pokemon Puzzle Challenge, my official gaming earnings comes to 78 dollars! I felt like bragging about that. I'm more proud of just having been here at the start of this community, though - I was running this game even before Spootybiscuit, who would eventually go on to become the most talented player of this game. I watched along with the rest of the Necrodancer discord as Spooty accomplished beating the game with the hardest character, Coda, at AGDQ 2016 - most of us weren't sure he could even pull it off, and it stands to me as one of the most impressive feats anyone has ever accomplished in a GDQ run. This led to a race of Necrodancer happening between Spooty and Mudjoe2 (another top runner) at SGDQ 2016, and that was what led me to finally make the pilgrimage there. There were about 10-11 of us at that event from the Necrodancer community, and meeting them was like meeting old friends. We then proceeded to spend the entire week playing Ultimate Chicken Horse (see entry #38). This was one of the most memorable weeks of my life. It's staggering to think that I've made actual real life friends playing this game. There was a lot of hype when this game had its DLC come out, and then again when Cadence of Hyrule was released, and that's kept the community pretty active. I've kind of taken a step back from it now as I feel like I've done about all I can do with this game - but CONDOR season 9 is starting up soon, so back I go getting dragged into this yet again, starting the 20's off right with more Necrodancer. This game's pretty much a core part of my identity at this point, really. I was lucky to pick it up when I did - best decision I ever made. This game didn't have to be as good as it was, but everything just fits so perfectly. Addictive gameplay, polished visuals, creative monsters and items, and the music - jeez, I didn't talk about the music much, but this game could have sucked if not for a brilliant soundtrack by Danny Baranowsky. I wasn't really the hugest fan of his prior work in Binding of Isaac and Super Meat Boy but the evolution of his style was really impressive in this game, and he stepped up and delivered a soundtrack that was thoughtfully composed to match the style of this game. All that, though, and it's probably the fact that I just got so deep into the community and speedrunning the game and all that that it's really a slam dunk for my game of the decade. I got a little burnt out on this game but I think I'll pretty much always come back to it; I never really get tired of it. It's pretty much perfectly suited to my skills and my tastes and I have about as much history with it as I'll ever have with any other game (despite it only being the game I logged the 2nd most playtime with this decade - Slay the Spire is a few hundred hours ahead somehow). That was a bit of a ramble. I knew that this would be the hardest write-up to do and it's probably the messiest but that seems appropriate enough. There's so much I could go on about in the design of this game or anecdotes about my history with it that I wouldn't be able to shut up for a while but I think that covers it. It's the most transformative gaming experience of the decade for me and one of my favorites all time. ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Paratroopa1 01/25/20 4:09:41 AM #403: |
Whew! I guess that wraps it up. I expected that whole project to be a lot shorter, but I ended up really getting into it when I talked about my biggest faves, and finding the words to write about some of my most sentimental favorites was tough, but it was a good exercise. Thanks for reading, I really appreciate the engagement and kind comments - like I said, I mostly did this list for myself, because I feel kinda compelled to make lists and write about them, but it's nice to know that others take interest in this sort of thing. I figured this list might be unique enough to be worth reading, even if it's just one guy's opinion on some games that he likes.
I guess that's it. Not too much else to add. I'll probably do this again in 10 years so see you then. Until then, I guess I need to find some other list project to keep me occupied. Getting this one off my chest was a huge relief and I'm so glad I was able to do it. List recap: 1. Crypt of the NecroDancer 2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 3. Undertale 4. The Witness 5. SpyParty 6. CrossCode 7. Mega Man 10 8. Darkest Dungeon 9. FTL: Faster Than Light 10. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice 11. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective 12. Night in the Woods 13. Rhythm Heaven Fever 14. Slay The Spire 15. Baba Is You 16. Virtue's Last Reward 17. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds 18. Super Mario Maker 19. Jackbox Party Packs 1-6 20. Cadence of Hyrule 21. Portal 2 22. Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling 23. Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony 24. Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations 2 - Prosecutor's Path 25. Mass Effect 2 26. Sid Meier's Civilization V 27. Animal Crossing: New Leaf 28. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 29. Freedom Planet 30. Cuphead 31. Elsinore 32. Celeste 33. Life Is Strange 34. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies 35. Puzzle & Dragons 36. Grim Dawn 37. WarioWare D.I.Y. 38. Ultimate Chicken Horse 39. Lovers In a Dangerous Spacetime 40. Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair 41. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc 42. Dead Cells 43. Shovel Knight 44. The Fool And His Money 45. Mega Man Unlimited 46. Pikmin 3 47. Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney 48. Kid Icarus: Uprising 49. Into The Breach 50. A Hat In Time 51. Catherine 52. Kero Blaster 53. Divinity: Original Sin 54. Bastion 55. Another Metroid 2 Remake 56. Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask 57. Armello 58. The Stanley Parable 59. Mario Tennis Aces 60. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 61. Monolith 62. Fire Emblem: Awakening 63. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 64. Yoku's Island Express 65. Super Mario 3D World 66. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze 67. Downwell 68. Her Story 69. Xenoblade Chronicles 70. StreetPass Mii Plaza 71. Crawl 72. Rock Band 3 73. Starbound 74. Terraria 75. Untitled Goose Game 76. 20XX 77. Super Mario 3D Land 78. OneShot 79. Gone Home 80. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons 81. Game & Wario 82. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night 83. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes 84. VVVVVV 85. Pokemon Sun/Moon 86. Zero Time Dilemma 87. Tricky Towers 88. Hammerwatch 89. Beat Saber 90. Firewatch 91. Papers, Please 92. Torchlight II 93. Overcooked! 94. TIS-100 95. The Binding of Isaac 96. Pushmo 97. SpeedRunners 98. Last Window: The Secret of Cape West 99. 868-HACK 100. Caves of Qud (Games that I forgot to include: Kirby's Epic Yarn, Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors) ... Copied to Clipboard!
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cyko 01/25/20 8:23:38 AM #404: |
Good list, Para.
--- Yay - BkSheikah is the guru champion of awesomeness. ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Team Rocket Elite 01/25/20 8:57:17 AM #405: |
Interesting read. Thanks for doing this.
--- Link isn't the only one who kicks ass. Congrats to Advokaiser for winning the CBX Guru Contest! ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Leonhart4 01/25/20 11:00:49 AM #406: |
Breath of the Wild is so good that even I'm a big fan of it!
--- ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Anagram 01/25/20 11:25:03 AM #407: |
Thanks for the list, para.
--- Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig. Started: July 6, 2005 ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Kenri 01/25/20 12:10:12 PM #408: |
Necrodancer is hella fun. I'm not good enough to beat it but I had fun trying.
Thanks for sharing your list with us, it was a good read. --- Congrats to BKSheikah, who knows more about years than anyone else. ... Copied to Clipboard!
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linid0t 01/25/20 12:55:48 PM #409: |
Great write ups and great taste in games well done sir
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Fastbreak 01/25/20 12:58:23 PM #410: |
Honorable mention codenames *nods*
Loved the necro dancer write up --- *Fastbreak Intensifies* *ScareChan Intensifies* ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Nelson_Mandela 01/25/20 1:11:01 PM #411: |
Excellent list. Wish FTL and Necrodancer would get physical releases.
--- "A more mature answer than I expected."~ Jakyl25 "Sephy's point is right."~ Inviso ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Naye745 01/25/20 1:57:59 PM #412: |
i'll get around to necrodancing my heart away someday
...someday --- it's an underwater adventure ride ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Paratroopa1 01/25/20 7:56:35 PM #413: |
Naye745 posted...
i'll get around to necrodancing my heart away somedayIt's a good game! Although as a rhythm game it's quite simple, but I still think the flow feels very good even if the rhythm pattern is as basic as possible ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Paratroopa1 01/25/20 7:57:47 PM #414: |
Fastbreak posted...
Honorable mention codenames *nods*Codenames goes into my "it's a board game, so I'm not including it here" category. There was at least one other thing like that that was a board game that I played a lot in video game/digital format but I can't remember what it was at the moment, but I just decided not to include board games Playing codenames online is very fun though ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Naye745 01/26/20 2:08:08 AM #415: |
dominion.isotropic.org?
--- it's an underwater adventure ride ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Paratroopa1 01/26/20 2:10:12 AM #416: |
Also true but there's one more example I think, it's just slipping my mind. Maybe I WAS thinking of codenames tbh
... Copied to Clipboard!
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Waluigi1 01/26/20 4:38:17 AM #417: |
Yay awesome list. BotW is too good. How is the sequel gonna live up to it.
--- PSN, and GT: Waluigi1 Switch FC: SW-6848-3841-9099 ... Copied to Clipboard!
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MZero11 01/26/20 5:40:01 AM #418: |
Paratroopa1 posted...
Also true but there's one more example I think, it's just slipping my mind. Maybe I WAS thinking of codenames tbh Was it Board Game Online? also play Persona 5 imo --- MZero, to the extreme Listen to Advokaiser's bracket, this may be our last chance ... Copied to Clipboard!
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SSBM_Guy 01/27/20 4:50:26 PM #419: |
I really enjoyed reading this. Your write-ups are excellent at explaining why each game deserved to be on the list. Im excited for any future projects you do!
--- The BK in Guru Champ BKSheikah stands for Bracket Killer. when thinking of Krystal, does GMUN's pants get overcrowded? ~ GMUN ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Paratroopa1 01/27/20 5:04:43 PM #420: |
Haha, thanks! I think some people I talked to were surprised that I was able to commit to writing about 100 games I liked in just this decade, but surprisingly enough, to me most of all, I'm kinda enthusiastic about a lot of different games and all the little things in them, so it wasn't too hard to run the list up to 100.
Having now played Obra Dinn a bit (it's really good) and A Short Hike (short, but intensely wholesome and sweet) I'm only regretting that I wasn't able to play MORE games this decade, like, now I can get around to Mario Odyssey, and AI Somnium Files I still really want to play, and ugggh too many good games I think it would be fun to do a list like this for my all-time favorite games, but I'm not sure what to do now that I've exhausted my talking points for all the 2010's games. Maybe I just need to write like, "top 100 games from 1980-2009" (I don't think any of my favorites predate 1980) ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Paratroopa1 01/27/20 5:04:58 PM #421: |
Also now I'm realizing that I probably need to save the writeups on this list and I'm trying to figure out the best way to do that. hmm
... Copied to Clipboard!
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Fastbreak 01/27/20 5:06:50 PM #422: |
Google doc
--- *Fastbreak Intensifies* *ScareChan Intensifies* ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Paratroopa1 01/27/20 5:08:14 PM #423: |
I mean more of a problem of like, oh no, this is a lot of copying and pasting I need to do
I guess I'll do it later while watching some youtube videos or something ... Copied to Clipboard!
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SeabassDebeste 01/27/20 5:28:23 PM #424: |
for the topics where i liked the feedback, i liked just saving the whole page as html
--- yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Team Rocket Elite 01/27/20 5:33:35 PM #425: |
Paratroopa1 posted...
I mean more of a problem of like, oh no, this is a lot of copying and pasting I need to do You probably want to just save the web pages. As a bonus, you keep the replies to your topic as well. --- Link isn't the only one who kicks ass. Congrats to Advokaiser for winning the CBX Guru Contest! ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Paratroopa1 01/27/20 5:37:17 PM #426: |
That is much easier, true
... Copied to Clipboard!
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Fastbreak 01/27/20 5:46:50 PM #427: |
I would suggest starting in doc next time though. You never know when game faqs will die on you and you lose your post. And you put a lot of care into your write ups
--- *Fastbreak Intensifies* *ScareChan Intensifies* ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Kenri 01/27/20 7:26:11 PM #428: |
Paratroopa1 posted...
Maybe I just need to write like, "top 100 games from 1980-2009" (I don't think any of my favorites predate 1980)I'd read it! --- Congrats to BKSheikah, who knows more about years than anyone else. ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Nelson_Mandela 01/27/20 7:28:54 PM #429: |
Paratroopa1 posted...
Also now I'm realizing that I probably need to save the writeups on this list and I'm trying to figure out the best way to do that. hmmLog faqs will automatically archive it --- "A more mature answer than I expected."~ Jakyl25 "Sephy's point is right."~ Inviso ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Nelson_Mandela 01/27/20 7:33:48 PM #430: |
Also I support a similar list for other decades
--- "A more mature answer than I expected."~ Jakyl25 "Sephy's point is right."~ Inviso ... Copied to Clipboard!
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SeabassDebeste 01/27/20 8:37:55 PM #431: |
Nelson_Mandela posted...
Also I support a similar list for other decades --- yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Waluigi1 01/28/20 6:22:56 PM #432: |
I sometimes wonder just how different my favorite games of all time would be from just the last decade...
--- PSN, and GT: Waluigi1 Switch FC: SW-6848-3841-9099 ... Copied to Clipboard!
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ZeroSignal620 01/28/20 7:26:57 PM #433: |
Solid write ups, even if I haven't played most of the games on here.
I've been doing my own countdown of the decade's best on Instagram, using only story pics to show what # my games are (mainly cause I have no time to do writeups) --- Formerly known as Raven 2 http://card.psnprofiles.com/1/ZeroSignal620.png ... Copied to Clipboard!
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HanOfTheNekos 01/29/20 6:39:23 PM #434: |
Woof, finally finished reading.
Para. Why aren't we bester friends? We share good tastes. --- "Bordate is a pretty shady place, what with the gangs, casinos, evil corporations and water park." - FAHtastic ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Paratroopa1 01/30/20 9:51:56 PM #435: |
Just bumping this for now still need to archive it
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Paratroopa1 02/06/20 2:03:17 AM #436: |
I have archived this now, but I'm going to save it one last time just in case there's anyone I still want to show it to that I can't think of right now. I don't think so though; I think this has run its course
Again, thanks to everyone for reading this list and enjoying it, I've gotten a lot of really nice comments about it. I might do another sometime because writing about my favorite hobby is fun ... Copied to Clipboard!
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banananor 02/06/20 9:45:44 PM #437: |
i played The Witness in parallel with a friend and it was a great experience. it's probably the most fair and immersive puzzle game. it has a beautiful production value, too.
it gets a little bit of that adventure game/myst aesthetic without any of the bullshit. the ability to just wander to a different part of the island and make progress when you're stuck is wonderful. i never went for any of the difficult stuff that i would consider to be "postgame" because i wasn't prepared for that level of intensity. the "main" stuff was perfect. --- You did indeed stab me in the back. However, you are only level one, whilst I am level 50. That means I should remain uninjured. ... Copied to Clipboard!
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banananor 02/06/20 9:46:11 PM #438: |
great list, and thanks for making it
--- You did indeed stab me in the back. However, you are only level one, whilst I am level 50. That means I should remain uninjured. ... Copied to Clipboard!
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