uiruki
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Post by uiruki on Mar 2, 2022 21:30:54 GMT
12. CrossfireX: Operation Catalyst - Xbox Series X - 2/5
There's a kernel of something here when the game does the funky Northlight weirdness like in Control, but the shooting is just so bad and the way the story progresses is terrible, with you constantly just walking into ambushes. Short and the ending didn't particularly convince me to stump up for the 'second half' of the campaign. The shotgun's totally dreadful, too.
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mrpon
Junior Member
Posts: 3,546
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Post by mrpon on Mar 3, 2022 8:14:26 GMT
The Bug Butcher (Switch) Think Pang but a slightly wider environment. Bought for buttons and rinsed the 29 levels. The 30th level however gave me some grief, I managed it but only after about 50 attempts. It was only after finishing I realised I'd done a Cosmo! There was an upgrade system I'd completely missed! Finished the game with a pea shooter basically! 7/10
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Mar 3, 2022 12:08:03 GMT
Talking of XCOM 2, it's literally two bucks on Xbox Live right now. I assume it will be completely unapproachable to a novice? Not really. If you're at all interested in tactics games, you need to play it. Just play on the lowest difficulty, and ask if you have any questions about things.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Mar 3, 2022 13:51:59 GMT
Talking of XCOM 2, it's literally two bucks on Xbox Live right now. I assume it will be completely unapproachable to a novice? From what I played of it on PS4 it was fine - didn't finish it due to the loading times but I don't remember ever being frustrated. It's just a game
/not a genius
Actually I might be
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Post by dfunked on Mar 3, 2022 13:53:05 GMT
I wasn't a big fan of the turn timer in 2, but still well worth a punt at that price.
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Mar 3, 2022 14:30:00 GMT
The turn timer is usually fine. I understand people not gelling with it, but it's a necessary evil imo, as the first game rewarded conservative play to the extent that it got a little boring. Inch forward, overwatch, inch forward, overwatch, forever and ever.
The sequel encourages more aggressive play, and to me that's way more compelling. It's not like every mission has a turn timer anyway.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Mar 3, 2022 14:35:32 GMT
I never like timers in games. Any kind of timer takes away from the enjoyment - even the ranking syetem in Valkyria Chronicles did it as you're heavily incentivised to just rush
I used to enjoy spending ages sat in my base building up a ton of tanks in C&C and then rolling over the enemy
It's the kind of thing that could just be an option/difficulty before you start the campaign
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Mar 3, 2022 15:34:41 GMT
And that's it for Hellgate: London, playthrough number three. I ignored most of the dialogue so I ended up not taking much longer than 25 hours.
My last playthrough with a Guardian was a breeze in the last stages (tons of damage absorption), but with my first character - an Engineer - as well as with the Evoker I just finished off, I did have quite a bit of trouble. Not least since there is so much annoying respawning in some spots. I didn't have much armor (so almost no damage absorption), so once the shields were down I did usually die very quickly. There's also a lot of health bloat, especially on some of the bosses that lead up to the last one. And in some cases they seem to constantly spawn in more minions.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Mar 3, 2022 16:02:25 GMT
And that's it for Hellgate: London, playthrough number three. I ignored most of the dialogue so I ended up not taking much longer than 25 hours. I remember this being something that really bothered me. There was no voice acting for any of the NPCs and the dialogue seemed completely half arsed. I remember a character that I think was suppose to talk like Captain Kirk but it just seemed lame. Nerds
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Mar 3, 2022 18:34:14 GMT
I don't think voice acting would have helped here. The writing, character animations and humour all work together to make things feel a bit childish. The MMO-like tasks don't help either. And when the plot kicks in and it starts taking itself seriously for once it comes across like a bad young adult novel.
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Mar 4, 2022 6:41:03 GMT
I never like timers in games. Any kind of timer takes away from the enjoyment - even the ranking syetem in Valkyria Chronicles did it as you're heavily incentivised to just rush I used to enjoy spending ages sat in my base building up a ton of tanks in C&C and then rolling over the enemy It's the kind of thing that could just be an option/difficulty before you start the campaign I think in XCOM 2, taking it away would change the game so much that most of the challenge would be removed. It would also make the in-universe briefing of a lot of missions not make sense. "You need to hack this console/assassinate this guy, the aliens know you're there oh but don't worry, they'll let you take as much time as you need" It's pretty generous anyway. You're not going to run out of time on most timed missions, as long as you're making a basic attempt to move towards the objective. It just disincentivises the "turtle in corner of the map, wait for enemies to stumble upon you" stuff from the first remake. Which you can still do on untimed missions, as there are still many of those. And if you really don't want any timer at all, there are mods for that (on PC).
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Post by killerbee on Mar 4, 2022 13:28:11 GMT
I’m a bit behind the curve on this one, but in between Horizon and Elden Ring, I managed to finish off Halo 3 (Master Chief Collection on Series S). My first time playing the game.
After Halo 2’s good looking makeover, it did feel a bit of a step back to the last-gen graphics, but gameplay wise I think this was easily the best of the original trilogy. It was really only the last couple of levels that felt tacked on and repetitive. I was quite disappointed to see Bungie reusing the Warthog driving thing as the grand finale again - it wasn’t very good on Combat Evolved and still disappointed here.
The series also has a real problem in that the Flood are just not much fun to fight when compared to the Covenant. It’s something that - with hindsight - you can see how Bungie really worked hard to fix with Destiny, where the four main factions are distinct in both visual and gameplay terms, but (aside a couple of annoyances) generally pretty consistently fun to get into a scrap with.
The overall plot is pure hokum and I didn’t ever find myself remotely getting attached to the Cortana character. It was hard to really see why she was so revered to the point of the Chief having to risk life and limb to perform a rescue. Well, other than it padded out the game for a level or two.
But the set pieces, including some good battles with big mechs and some wide open levels, were by far the best in the trilogy. Plus the musical score was consistently great, framing the action at key moments just as required.
I enjoyed it and will surely be back to the MCC for ODST in the not too distant future.
8/10 (but it probably would have been a solid 9 when originally released to the 360.)
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malek86
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Pomegranate Deseeder
Posts: 3,172
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Post by malek86 on Mar 5, 2022 9:28:36 GMT
Eternal Ring (PS2 on emulation)
An old PS2 launch title by From Software. Oh boy, it has to be good, right? Well... Elden Ring it ain't.
Unlike King's Field, this is more of an action game with some RPG elements. It's in first person, but not very good: most of the combat boils down to either circle strafing or back-and-forth. At this point, Elder Scrolls did it better. Your walking speed is also too slow. The ring creation system is only explained in the manual, and easy to abuse once you know the trick. There are only a handful of swords, all pitifully weak, while magic wrecks everything. Including the last couple bosses, which lasted as long as a random enemy against my mighty poison mist spell. Areas and enemies look uninspired, and the plot is strangely disjointed (and let's not get into the voice acting, please).
The game also ends pretty quickly. This is no 40 hours epic. More like a quick weekend deal. I know From developed Evergrace at the same time, maybe they were stretched too thin? Anyway, it may be a good thing. The game managed to keep me somewhat interested until I finished it. Had it been longer, I might have given up. At least it has that janky quality of other first-person games of the era, such as Iblard and Echo Night.
Emulation is good for the most part, but there are occasional sound issues. Nothing major though. The game does starve you of save points, so you could use save states at least, but luckily the game is not that hard anyway, once you learn to abuse its systems.
6/10
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Post by dominalien on Mar 7, 2022 6:35:01 GMT
Corpse Party: Blood Drive on PSVita
After the dismal Book of Shadows, this is more like it. The VN parts are interminable and mostly a slog. Exploring the school (no spoiler there) is on the level of the first game and good fun. The story takes a turn for the worse, with a lot of silly occult and secret organisations and the less said about the conclusion the better.
Technically it's a mess, multiple crashes throughout with a couple that took down the entire Vita with them. Turning on the flashlight brings the framerate crashing down, though it's still playable. It takes a few seconds of loading just to show the in-game menu and then for every page therein and pauses for a bit before playing any environment sound in-game for the first time (even after exiting the menu, where it reloads the entire level).
Took me the better part of an afternoon and evening to mop up the remaining trophies for the platinum after completing the game. Not much of an achievement, as apparently almost 50% of people who played it have go it, but a guide is absolutely required in a few instances. I did have a good time for a bit there, but I'm just so glad it's over now.
5/10
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Duffman5
Junior Member
big cook, little cook welcome to our cafe
Posts: 1,332
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Post by Duffman5 on Mar 7, 2022 9:32:41 GMT
Mass Effect 2 Legendary edition.
Well much like replaying the first game (before this) it was sublime and as good as I remember. I think I preferred having the Mako to drive rather than the scanning, but that was ok, I also missed visiting the various planets like we got to do in 1, so many great photo ops. I loved how the dlc was "blended" into the story. Story, gunplay and choices all top notch. I completed last night and have already stated ME3.
10/10
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Mar 8, 2022 11:37:41 GMT
Necromunda - Hired Gun (15 hours): I ran into some performance trouble yesterday as I was finishing it off. For a large part of the last mission I was down to less than 30 frames for much of the time, so a much worse framerate than during the rest of the campaign. Trying around with settings didn't really help.
Otherwise though I have little reason to complain. In the other thread I have already mentioned how there are a lot of respawning enemies in certain situations, but those ocurred only occasionally. Otherwise the large and complex maps where you sometimes have conflichts between different factions going on, were quite enjoyable. Some were more about navigation and parkour and there were often loot chests in hard to access locations. Some and in particular one map were a bit slower and let the atmosphere breathe more. There were also some maps or sections of maps which allowed for sniping. Overall a good mix even though I still feel that they should've toned down close combat a bit more and provided more opportunities for long range weaponry. Enemies are very perceptive, though there are silencers and the game mentions how laser pointers and refractor fields make the player more visible. It's certainly true for enemies.
Gunplay was meaty with convincing gun sounds and enemies frequently exploding in a completely over-the-top way. Though I think it might depend on weaponry used. There is a large arsenal which can also be customized, so the amount of possible variation is quite extensive. Two plasma guns, three bolters, two assault rifles, a grenade launcher etc. Both the player and doggo can be upgraded.
Parkour did also work well, but I didn't make much use of wall-running. Double jumping, dashing and the grappling hook worked well enough for me. It could be fun during combat, but I liked it most for getting around the complex levels.
The soundtrack is mostly rather metall-y and I didn't mind it, but it's not really my thing when it comes to games. Though it's admittedly fitting for this kind of mostly high-octane game.
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Post by stuz359 on Mar 9, 2022 18:57:59 GMT
Mass Effect 2 Legendary edition. Well much like replaying the first game (before this) it was sublime and as good as I remember. I think I preferred having the Mako to drive rather than the scanning, but that was ok, I also missed visiting the various planets like we got to do in 1, so many great photo ops. I loved how the dlc was "blended" into the story. Story, gunplay and choices all top notch. I completed last night and have already stated ME3. 10/10 I liked the idea of the Mako sections in the first game. But I mostly found it boring as it was mostly rinse and repeat in a very small, mostly empty play area. The scanning in ME2 was also boring but strangely therapeutic at the same time. I much preferred the side missions and variety of side missions in the second game as well. Outside of the main story missions in ME1 it wasn't brilliant. But ME3 has my favourite missions of the series. Even if the end doesn't pay off for people, a lot of those missions before the end do pay off for me.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2022 8:57:39 GMT
Psychonauts 2 on gamepass.
More like this please. Fun, quirky, not focused tested to oblivion. Had its rough edges, but that is part of its flaws. I miss games like this.
8/10
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Ulythium
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Lily-livered
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Post by Ulythium on Mar 13, 2022 17:18:42 GMT
Horizon Forbidden West. This is a weird one. Although it was my least-anticipated new release coming into 2022 (after Elden Ring, current-gen Witcher 3, and God of War Ragnarok), I was still looking forward to it as I'd enjoyed the first game a good deal; having rolled credits last night, I can't help but think I preferred Zero Dawn for the most part, while lamenting what could have been. The good: I still really like Aloy as a protagonist; the NPCs, old and new alike, were all very good; the world Guerrilla has created is as amazing as ever; and the ranged combat is still a lot of fun. The bad: the melee combat still sucks, even though they claimed they'd improved it compared to HZD; there were very few new elements to the gameplay, making this feel like Horizon 1.5 instead of a full-fledged sequel; and the side quests tended to be pretty repetitive throughout. The ugly: a range of performance issues, ranging from mildly annoying (loot being uncollectable as it had spawned in midair or inside a piece of the environment) to outright game-breaking (machines I needed to kill in order to complete a quest despawning altogether, forcing me to reload a previous checkpoint); and the ending, discussed below. 8/10, but only just. I mean, seriously - what the fuck?
You get to kill Erik in a decent-but-not-great boss fight, and the game seems to be heading for a boilerplate "Good triumphs over evil, but suffers some casualties along the way" ending. Nothing revolutionary, by any means, but it had the capacity to be satisfying all the same...
... Until you reach the top of the tower.
In the space of 10 minutes, you get the reveal of a new Big Bad that makes the Zeniths look like a generic trash mob, a heel turn from Tilda that you could see coming a mile away, a mediocre final boss fight, and a face turn from Sylens that didn't ring true at all. Then it just ends.
I can't think of another game I've played that finished on such a tepid note. Pure sequel bait. "Thanks for dropping ÂŁ70 on our game - be prepared to do so again in 3-4 years if you want to see how it ends!"
Eurgh.
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Post by dfunked on Mar 13, 2022 17:39:35 GMT
Just watching the credits scroll funnily enough and yeah, same borderline 8/10 for me. Absolutely loved Aloy as a protag as well as some of the supporting cast. Loved the world they've created and I'll probably go back to it for the plat and just to pootle about on my mount (although the last melee pit with the impossible combos is making me dread it) I had the same WTF is this shit thoughts about the ending. Really didn't gel with me
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Post by pierrepressure on Mar 14, 2022 11:31:37 GMT
Cyberpunk 2077.
Just finished the main campaign and thought it was pretty good despite all the glitches I had on PS5.
Didn't bother with all the busy work as driving around the city was no fun but the main story and side quests kept me entertained.
7.5/10
Now onto HZD: Forbidden West.
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Post by steifybobbins on Mar 14, 2022 23:02:19 GMT
Psychonauts 2 on gamepass. More like this please. Fun, quirky, not focused tested to oblivion. Had its rough edges, but that is part of its flaws. I miss games like this. 8/10 I couldn't get on with this game but I really wanted to. I can totally see what you mean despite not quite getting into it myself
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Post by dominalien on Mar 17, 2022 6:25:05 GMT
The Walking Dead: The Final Season on PS5, PS4 version.
It ends way too well.
7/10
Looks like I was playing through S1 in 2012 on PS3, seems fitting to complete it all in 2022. Right now, I'd rate the whole 10-year experience a solid 10/10, rose tinted glasses and all. Telltale is missed, at least at this desk.
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Post by Rubicon on Mar 18, 2022 9:51:48 GMT
Psychonauts 2 (Game Pass)
Like the users above I have issues with the game - in my case the combat being irritating. However there are so many positives (character/level design, voice acting, story etc) that it can be overlooked and feels a joy to play. I loved it.
9/10
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Post by timmywimmywoo on Mar 20, 2022 8:17:03 GMT
Dying Light 2 (PC): 8.5/10
My first time playing a DL game. I’ll be honest I bought it to give my PC a raytracing workout, but it kept its hooks into me enough to play it for 30 hours over a month and a half, which is a lot for me with two young kids.
The story has already left my brain, but the parkour, world and weapon mods haven’t. I never quite got the timing right with combat for blocking and jumping around, but didn’t really mind when you could turn people into bonfires with a swipe of a machete.
I’m not sure there was much point in the skill tree (I only found the double jump in my last play session…), but I kept wanting to go back to it, even if it was just to explore. So yeah, a great game and one I’ll return to, if only to jump around and slice people in half a bit.
Oh, and with all the raytraced stuff on it looks amazing.
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Post by steifybobbins on Mar 20, 2022 21:05:27 GMT
Welcome to Elk
Couldn't resist a short narrative driven game for the current price on switch. Completed it in just over 2 hours. The felt tip like art looked lovely on the OLED and the scenes where real people pop up to share real life stories documentary style was certainly unique and intriguing. General gameplay was basically press A to chat or interact with the occasional mini game thrown in. The stories told in game or outside of it are really very dark and I was curious to see what story I would hear next but if those don't hook you there's little else here. Do I regret playing it? Absolutely not, was it a little style over substance?? Quite possibly
7/10
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Post by Samildanach on Mar 20, 2022 23:51:28 GMT
The Witcher 3 (main game, not expansions yet)
Well, what a game. As I am sure the rest of the world already knows, this was such a step up in how you do a fantasy world with interesting sidestories all over the place and beautiful landscapes that felt truly alive and real.
There were great call backs to the books and so much was well done that I could go on for ages about what it does right, but it is easier if I mention the few flaws and especially the biggest: Geralt's movement. The damn witcher slides about too imprecisely, so picking up items would be a regular pain in the butt and for somebody used to the precision of Dark Souls combat, the imprecise and floaty Witcher combat didn't quite feel right. Its certainly not BAD, just serviceable. Also a lot of the big bad enemies also weren't a patch on the Souls genre bosses in that they had limited and repetitive attacks which were easy to predict and avoid. Deaths usually came from ganks rather than any of the single enemies. I gather the expansions possibly improve on this, but it didn't stop me enjoying this game massively, so let's give it a 9/10
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malek86
Junior Member
Pomegranate Deseeder
Posts: 3,172
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Post by malek86 on Mar 21, 2022 9:34:10 GMT
Tunic (Series S)
A game of two halves. The first half is pretty much Souls under a Zelda guise (for comparison, Death's Door was Zelda under a Souls guise). It wants you to find out everything on your own, and you are going to have to work for it.
Then, something happens, and the second half is different. Think a bit like The Messenger, except in that game the metroidvania part was at odds with its more linear first part. In Tunic, what happens earlier allows you to be prepared for what happens later. Arguably, you wouldn't get anywhere in the second half if you hadn't learned how the game behaves in the first half.
The second half really makes the game worth playing. Shame that the combat is kinda cruddy, so the first half might put some people off, though I still found it pretty good. The general obscureness might also be annoying, it sure was to me at first. There is a god mode option, which doesn't seem to disable any achievements (I completed the game with the best ending without using it, and it didn't give me anything extra), so it could be good to try, especially against some of the more annoying bosses. Though really only one gave me any trouble.
Anyway... again, I'd give it a try. If you can get past the first couple hours, it gets better, a lot better.
9/10
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Mar 21, 2022 17:16:03 GMT
I'm done with the Cryostasis-replay (8 hours).
It's a game that feels longer than it is and I did play through in a bunch of shorter sessions. Even after half an hour I was often feeling that I had been playing for quite a while. I'm not complaining since that's obviously intended, it's just that movement is slow, combat is slow and clunky (but perfectly functional) and there are a lot of flashbacks and interactive flashbacks. But pretty much all of the individual sections are quite distinct. In fact that's so much the case that I still did remember most of it from my first playthrough perhaps a decade ago. It also helps that the story is fairly unique and quite memorable.
There is snow and frost everywhere, oftentimes the player can see his breath in the air and the edges of the screen are fogged in cold areas. In general visually and sound-wise the game is pretty good in communicating if the player is currently in a cold or warm area. Especially since frost on the weapon will disappear and the surroundings will melt once the player starts up some machinery or source of heat. How immersive this all is is why it's so satisfying to discover a source of warmth or simply to be in a warm place for a little while.
There are few weapons that mostly feel distinct and are satisfying to use. Even here when reloading for instance it's a fairly slow process that feels in tune with the rest of the game. Early on it's a few melee weapons before the Mosin becomes available. After that a carbine, smg and water cannon basically become the mainstays for the rest of the game. There is also a scoped Mosin, which is of little use in these cramped environments and a flare gun for which there is almost no ammo in the game. Which is odd, but no real problem.
In terms of the technology used it reminds me somewhat of Clear Sky, which did also push the boundaries of what was possible back when it was released. Including bad optimization and such. But outside of it dropping down to very low frames a few times in the beginning I didn't run into any troubles. I did use the PhysX(1.1.)-patch and played it on 30 FPS.
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Post by Chopper on Mar 24, 2022 16:51:21 GMT
Elden Ring (PC) 147 hours to complete this, and for the last ten or fifteen of those I was making a beeline for the ending, not even deviating from the path to pick up items. I didn't make it to several areas, and didn't meet lots of the characters - I finished three NPC questlines out of about fifteen, I think. It was a little long for me, especially when it comes to my expectations for a souls game, but given that I spent the first 100 hours looking into every nook and cranny, I can't complain. The game itself is a tour de force. The sheer amount of work that went into the world creation is mind boggling. The bosses had lots of new stuff to offer, though some of it leaned heavily on delayed attacks to throw souls veterans off their game. In particular, I thought the 'legacy dungeons', i.e. full souls levels from previous games inserted into the open world via castles, cities etc., were incredible. And the world as a whole really rewarded exploration - there was almost always a reward if you went off the beaten track, tried climbing or jumping to a new area, or simply looked behind a pillar. Finally, From really gave players of every level the tools they needed to succeed - NPC Summons and Ashes of War (weapon arts) being fantastic additions not only for customisation, but you could usually find a combination of these, talismans (rings), and player summons, that would get you through any given situation, no matter your skill level. They really knocked it out of the park. Phew! Happy that playthrough is over though. I won't roll a new character straight away, but I can see myself revisiting and doing a few of those missed quests, at least. Now, let's open the backlog spreadsheet and see what I have lined up for the rest of the year.... Oh. Oh dear.
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