Wizzard_Ook
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Post by Wizzard_Ook on Feb 4, 2023 21:26:34 GMT
Dragon Age: Inquisition.
After a bit of a rough start, I really enjoyed this one.
Although I've never played them myself, I know there's something of a schism in the Dragon Age fanbase as to which game was better, Origins or 2; as I understand it, Inquisition was BioWare's attempt at creating a "best of both worlds" scenario, and while I don't know how that endeavour fared, the game was a lot of fun when judged solely on its own merits.
Writing, world-building, characterisation, RPG elements... pretty much everything I loved in the Mass Effect trilogy was here, just in a fantasy setting instead of a sci-fi one. Even the combat, not regarded as the game's strong suit, turned out to be a lot better than I'd feared. (Here's hoping I'll be able to say the same thing about The Witcher 3 in due course!)
As with Mass Effect, I tended to stick with the party members I liked while ignoring those about whom I wasn't all that bothered, so I probably missed a lot of content by failing to try different combinations.
I also left one region of the map completely unexplored, as I wasn't about to grind out 20 Power in order to unlock it - although I was having a great time, I know from experience how quickly AAA open-world fatigue can set in, and I was happy to wrap things up around the 44 hour mark before I started to get bored.
The War Table mechanic was cool, although I get Molar's complaints about the plethora of fetch quests you actually undertake (while delegating more interesting content to Leliana, Josephine, or Cullen). As for the timed nature of these missions, I was less enthusiastic there (although at least you weren't offered the opportunity to fast-forward the countdown clocks in exchange for real money).
This may be heretical, but I think I enjoyed DA:I as much as Skyrim.
8.5/10.
How do you get on lore/narrative wise without playing the others? Often think of playing Inquisition but havn’t bit the bullet due to not playing the other two.
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Ulythium
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Post by Ulythium on Feb 4, 2023 21:59:50 GMT
How do you get on lore/narrative wise without playing the others? Often think of playing Inquisition but havn’t bit the bullet due to not playing the other two.
There are definitely a few returning characters from (and several references to) DA2, but I never felt as though I was missing anything critical.
A quick visit to the wiki was usually enough to fill in any gaps in my understanding.
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Wizzard_Ook
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Post by Wizzard_Ook on Feb 4, 2023 22:09:19 GMT
How do you get on lore/narrative wise without playing the others? Often think of playing Inquisition but havn’t bit the bullet due to not playing the other two.
There are definitely a few returning characters from (and several references to) DA2, but I never felt as though I was missing anything critical.
A quick visit to the wiki was usually enough to fill in any gaps in my understanding. Cool, I’ll add it to the too play pile (at this rate a long time in the future)
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Tuffty
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Post by Tuffty on Feb 7, 2023 9:36:50 GMT
GOW Ragnarok - 7/10
I came into this game pretty hyped having played the first game. The opening 2 hrs or so was already fantastic. Emotional, adrenaline pumping, got me anticipated to see what comes next....and the next 40 hrs did not keep that high standard up. There was a loooot of buildup that I'd argue you could cut and condense. There were some good moments, but a lot of it I don't think I will remember in the same way like the first game. In my mind it was all buildup for the final 2 hrs of the game which was also suitably epic and engaging. I think there were too many sections where you play as Atreus where the pace does come crawling along and his fighting style isn't as varied as Kratos to make it too interesting. Playing it, you also find things to annoy you, like the lack of fast travel from any given point, the compass on the UI being completely fucking useless, aiming to get the collectibles you see how much of a pain it is to get back to certain areas, the map could be much clearer in showing doors or areas you can't get to yet like a Metroidvania, Artreus solving any puzzle for you immediately as you're in the process of figuring it out, bloody Mimir yelling "YOURE ON FIRE KRATOS. ITLL PASS" every single time it happens. Had no issue with the camera until a certain optional boss against 3 berserkers and then you realise just how frustrating it can be.
Generally though, I did enjoy it. Combat still felt impactful, the new weapon is fantastic to use, boss fights were grand and it looks and sounds great with plenty of stuff to do. But I'd be in no rush to play the next game.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2023 10:00:42 GMT
Goldeneye 10/10
Finished on 00 (6 cheats unlocked), can now play about with 007. Still one of the very greatest greats. Seems much, much easier on series X emulation (took a house full of mates and about 18 months to 00 last time) - run and gun is smoother so easier to aim, so is luring and slapping, and edging around corners and elbow shotting a bit easier too, I think due to finer control. Plus VRR big screen, 8 million hours of FPS since help too.
00 Aztec is probably still just as hard, as they get the drop on you regardless, so it's back to elbow shots.
Glad we got the emulation rather than remaster - would prefer both ofc but if it's one or the other, I'll take this as closer to the original experience.
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Post by uiruki on Feb 7, 2023 20:11:44 GMT
3. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Reunion - PC - 3/5
An interesting remake of an interesting game. You can feel the original game's scope limitations and it gets very repetitive if you try and do even half of the side missions but I'm glad I gave it a go. It was satisfying to just Falcon Punch the final boss to death, and I appreciated the lack of a stagger type mechanic which ended up ruining the FF7 Remake combat for me.
Steam Deck report: Not bad in the end - it's not too hard to get a reasonable 60fps output but there's some rendering weirdness which means that the quality of the picture even at max detail isn't great, and I found that the performance benefit for reducing settings wasn't worth the hit to image quality. Turning off AA in particular just turned it into a soup of badly scaled pixels.
4. Evil West - PC - 4/5
A really decent old-school action game. The fighting's put together with a real panache considering it's the team's first such game, and it does a good job of having a balance where you're either dying very quickly or completely unstoppable which feels 100% down to your skill level. You get so many tools to take down the enemies it's actually easy to forget some of them sometimes. Don't be fooled by it looking old-fashioned - for me, it was well worth the time and effort.
Steam Deck report: Not only does it look reminiscent of a UE3 game, but it kind of runs like one too - with a bit of FSR I got a very good 60fps out of it. Well worth a go.
5. Dead Space - PC - 4/5
One of those remakes which do a great job of being like how you remember something was rather than just being the same thing with a polish-up. Some great visuals and atmosphere (the HDR in particular excels with the moody, misty visual style), excellent sound and it felt so good to get back to that unique Dead Space combat. Combined with the new visuals, using something like the Force Gun ended up feeling like a new level of violence, cutting pieces off enemies is still as satisfying as ever, and the stomp remains a perfectly realised mechanic. My only real complaint, aside from some wobbly performance at times, was the final boss requiring me to go back a bit and grab some plasma cutter ammo as the weapons I'd been favouring in the back half of the game couldn't hit it at all.
Technically it's a bit shaky on PC which was a shame, but since they improved it a couple of times while I was playing through, I can see them getting to a good place in a few months.
Steam Deck report: It went from literally unplayable on release (it'd crash if you brought up the map!) to very playable at 40hz by the end. On the one hand you lose the impact of the visuals (though it does look very good) but on the other you can really crank the sound on headphones. Well worth a go; my main problem in the end was the fact that the mouse input wasn't very good so I couldn't bind good gyro controls for the aiming.
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wunty
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Post by wunty on Feb 8, 2023 10:54:18 GMT
Dead Space (PS5) It's Dead Space, but it looks phenomenal. In my humble opinion all the changes that were made were for the better and it's brilliant to be able to just move about the Ishimura at will. The intensity director is a superb addition that means you never feel constantly overwhelmed with encounters to the extent it numbs the combat. There's a fine balance throughout the whole game and you are on edge just enough, the entire time. Sometimes areas will fill with smoke and vents will explode, but nothing attacks you. Other times you'll hear shit moving about in the vents and brace yourself, yet nothing happens. Then boom, necromorphs everywhere just when you relax.
Isaac talks, but not too much, and it all feels totally natural. He's an engineer and chips in with how he can fix things, putting more into context that he's there playing an active role in trying to get off the Ishimura and not just silently doing what he's told the entiure time. It just contributes to it being a more rounded experience.
It's just utterly fucking superb. 10/10
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Post by uiruki on Feb 8, 2023 11:18:55 GMT
I will admit the intensity director and the artifice behind it ended up annoying me on quite a few occasions - it'd deliberately choke me on ammo if I used the kinetic attachment to kill enemies or otherwise generally play well (getting 100 credits from a security locker is really galling).
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wunty
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Post by wunty on Feb 8, 2023 11:27:35 GMT
Weirdly by the end of the game I had more ammo for all my weapons than I ever needed, a shit ton of money and enough nodes to max out nearly all my four main weapons and my suit. It was a bloody cakewalk.
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Post by bichii2 on Feb 8, 2023 16:54:37 GMT
Hi fi rush.
Excellent game that just gets better and better. By the end I was surprisingly invested in the characters and story considering how it's very light hearted fun I definitely wasn't expecting that. I would have happily paid for this so having on game pass is amazing.
9/10
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Feb 9, 2023 11:55:29 GMT
Hi-Fi Rush (PC)
Well there is a nice surprise. DMC-style combos are a bit too much for me, but the beat helped keeping me invested in the combat. Eventually the constant arenas get a bit thin, but the game knows that and starts throwing out more and more crazy situations to make up for it. The characters were good too, though the story was generally predictable. It was not too long either, at 12 hours I didn't really have the time to get bored.
Finishing the game opened up a few extra challenges that look interesting, unfortunately you gotta play through the levels again to get to them, and the levels are long (can't even skip the tutorials), so that's annoying. Don't think I can be bothered.
Anyway, it was good fun even just for the story mode alone.
8/10
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Post by dangerousdave on Feb 9, 2023 13:21:56 GMT
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of of Hope
I absolutely loved this one, if you couldn't already tell from all my ramblings in other threads. I wasn't sure a sequel could be justified, given how close to perfect the original was, but this slightly flawed sequel opens up the series in interesting ways.
The free-form player movement, the sandbox world design, the genuine and improved variety between playable characters, the random battles, they're all huge positives.
The negatives; its a little too easy, some of the random battles do feel 'random' and the game doesn't encourage you to experiment with different characters quite well enough.
If you do turn up the difficulty and experiment with characters more often, however, you'll get a lot more enjoyment out of the game. You'll see the game for what it was trying to be. And that game is excellent.
5/5
The end.
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Post by stixxuk on Feb 9, 2023 19:11:24 GMT
Might give Dead space a go, never played the original (or any of the series for that matter)
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Feb 9, 2023 19:50:27 GMT
I actually feel like playing the original myself. Should be okay even today, survival horror design hasn't changed much in the past 15 years.
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Post by Red_Bool on Feb 9, 2023 21:02:15 GMT
Nier Automata 8/10
Ok, so now I got all the (main) endings. Switching to easy after the first ending made things a lot more enjoyable. Still have mixed feelings. There were moments of brilliance but also parts that were really dragging. Still, I'm glad I saw it through to the final end.
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Post by Samildanach on Feb 10, 2023 0:46:19 GMT
King's Field (the original Japan-region only release)
So delving back to FromSoftware's very first game and it's SHITE! The graphics are shite. The music is shite. The gameplay is shite. The story/lore is shite. The souls games are much better. Shite.
OK, now I am not being an absolute dick I can say I quite enjoyed this now ancient game. Biggest thing is of course the atmosphere, something that FromSoftware have always managed so well. There is a creepiness to everything despite the now slightly comically basic looking enemies.
For those who don't know it is a first person slow-paced dungeon crawler. Combat involves you slowly slashing your weapon, ideally in time with you moving closer to an enemy to try and time it so you hit them in the down swing before backing out to avoid being hit yourself. It's slow and repetitive, but there becomes a sort of hypnotic rhythm to it as you progress. You can also throw basic spells.
The dungeon has five levels which consist of a few smaller sub-areas and the whole thing takes under 10 hrs easy. The first 30 mins are probably the hardest as you die quickly before leveling/equipping up. There is only two 'boss' battles: the first being a dark magician and his gold golem mooks, who after one hit turns into a skeleton thing, the model of which is used as a normal enemy on just the next level so he is more of a mini boss; and the final boss which looks like a low polygon Bed of Chaos. It spams magic at you and you send magic back (or use the MOONLIGHT GREATSWORD RAAAH!) and if you have enough healing items to outlast him, you win!
So a game really for only the obsessive FromSoftware historian now, but it is not without its quirky charms.
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Feb 10, 2023 7:09:26 GMT
So a game really for only the obsessive FromSoftware historian now, but it is not without its quirky charms. Do give Shadow Tower a try next. It's one of the most oppressive dungeon crawlers I've ever played. Really, even the Souls games don't feel so claustrophobic and unforgiving. I didn't last long myself, only around 12 hours or so? Enough to kill one of the bosses and reach a fire area, at which point I got destroyed by the stronger enemies there. Maybe I could have continued, but I was adamant not to use a guide despite the game being obscure as hell, and admittedly it had one too many flaws to keep persevering (much like King's Field, the combat isn't exactly great). Still, it's a unique game for sure. Still have my save.... maybe I'll give it another go... Edit: ok, so I reloaded my save after all. Let's see if I'm luckier this time. The place sure is a labyrinth. Edit 2: didn't last long. Now I remember why I dropped it. Weapon durability is horrible, and repairing items is very hard. Some of those later areas are an absolute fucking nightmare. But at least I managed to reach the bottom. Small victory, I guess.
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hicksy
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Post by hicksy on Feb 10, 2023 15:52:07 GMT
A Plague Tale: Requiem (PS5)
For you I know I'd even try to turn the tide.
For anyone who loves gaming as an art form and story as a passion. Thank you team Asobo.
9/10
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Post by dfunked on Feb 10, 2023 19:11:17 GMT
Metroid Prime Remastered - 10/10
Absolutely sterling work. This is what remasters should aspire to be. I've played through it on Steam Deck and on a beefy PC in recent years, which both looked great, but this still feels like a step up. Just a lovingly done spruce up without going overboard anywhere. Phazon Mines is still shit, though.
A couple of minor quibbles. How did the charge beam even get past QA? Weapon select could do with something like press to cycle as well as hold to select.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Feb 10, 2023 19:23:23 GMT
That was quick. What's the playtime? I thought it was quite a long game
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Post by dfunked on Feb 10, 2023 21:17:22 GMT
Had a day off today, so pretty much no-lifed it after making a decent dent on it yesterday. Just over 9 hours, but only 90% items so could've done a lot better. It's a pretty long game at first, but quick enough when you know your way.
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Ulythium
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Post by Ulythium on Feb 11, 2023 0:20:10 GMT
Mass Effect: Andromeda.
Hoo boy. Where to start?
Some games in well-established franchises fare poorly when compared to previous entries, and slightly better when considered in their own rights - Hitman: Absolution, for instance, or the 2014 Thief reboot. So it is with Andromeda.
As a Mass Effect game, it's a major disappointment; as a third-person sci-fi shooter with RPG elements, it's pretty decent.
As I've said several times in the dedicated Mass Effect thread over the past week, the core gameplay loop of Andromeda - combat, exploration, levelling up Ryder, and checking quests off a sizeable 'To do' list - is solid. The jump-jet makes traversal of the environment fast and fluid, in combat or out of it, and driving around in the Nomad is everything the Mako sections in ME1 should've been.
For all the (deserved) criticism of the game's writing, the overarching narrative arc of setting sail for a new galaxy, hoping to find a home there, is actually good! It certainly beats staying in the Milky Way and trying to top the epic events of the Shepard trilogy, and I'll credit BioWare for attempting something different on this front.
But while the writing works on the macro level, on the micro level it's a bloody mess.
By the time the credits rolled, I hardly gave a rat's posterior about any of my squadmates, save for Cora and Peebee, and that's a *huge* drawback in a BioWare game; I also wouldn't swap a single character in ME1-3 for an Andromeda NPC, under any circumstances whatsoever.
As a result, huge chunks of the experience went untouched, as I simply couldn't bring myself to spend another [X] hours running around the galaxy with people I'd come to regard as colleagues I tolerated, rather than liked. After 20 hours, I was done.
As for the game's oft-lamented technical issues, I didn't see anything akin to the nightmare-inducing footage that was all over YouTube at launch; however, the game was buggy as hell in a number of ways, and it was altogether a far less polished experience than it should've been, even after all those patches. (It's three years younger than Dragon Age: Inquisition, but if I hadn't known as much, I would've guessed that Andromeda was the cross-gen 2014 title, and Inquisition was the newer 2017 model.)
Judged as a Mass Effect game, I'd (barely) give it a 6. Assessed on its own terms, I can (just about) give it
7/10.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2023 1:18:19 GMT
Binary Domain PC.
Originally beat it on PS3.
10/10 still the greatest third person shooter of all time.
Fast paced and responsive controls and mechanics, surprisingly smartly written story with cheesy dialogue. It’s like playing an 80s sci-fi blockbuster starring Arnold, Sly, Jean Claude or Dolph.
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scanline
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Post by scanline on Feb 11, 2023 7:19:13 GMT
Loved Binary Domain on PS3.
Tried to get it up and running on PC a few years ago but couldn't configure it quite right for a Xbox controller.
Might give it another bash.
Edit: seems Xbox 360 version is FPS boosted to 60fps on Series S|X. Why didn't anyone tell me this?!
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wunty
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Post by wunty on Feb 11, 2023 8:02:59 GMT
I need to get back to Binary Domain. Think I'm about 2/3 of the way through it.
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wunty
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Post by wunty on Feb 11, 2023 8:10:31 GMT
Dying Light 2 Only took me a year. Got it on release, played it a ton then dropped it like a hot egg when Elden Ring came out. Tried a few times to get back to it but a few too many things irked me about it. Fast forward a few months and after a few patches that actually addressed a lot of the issues I had (colour grading, night not being dark enough, not enough threat from the biters or at night, no sign of volatiles, other misc things) and I ended up going back to it. Dropped it again for Callisto Protocol, then again for Dead Space. Loaded it up last night and was quite surprised to find I was close to the end, so hammered through the last mission. It's not a patch on the first one, but I grew to like I for what it is. The traversal is brilliant and it feels amazing to glider, grapple and parkour my way around the city. Still got no real idea what it was all about but after finishing I looked up the endings and actually noticed I got what is considered the best one wherein Aiden leaves Villedor with Lawan, the city is safe, Frank is alive, Hakon is alive etc so it looks like I made all the right choices. It's an odd beast and I'm very torn on it. One one hand it's great and on the other it just feels like something isn't right with it. Looked at my playtime after completion and even though I felt that the ending came too soon, it had taken me a total of 50 hours to get there, so obviously it hadn't! I think upon reflection, I'll give it a solid 8/10 for the state it's in now. There's one thing you can't fault Techland on, and that's post-release support. There's still more QoL improvements in the works, but I do think a lot of this stuff should have been in the game when it came out. I do get the feeling, thinking back to all the delays etc, that it had quite the troubled development.
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Post by Chopper on Feb 11, 2023 8:53:11 GMT
Binary Domain PC. Originally beat it on PS3. 10/10 still the greatest third person shooter of all time. Fast paced and responsive controls and mechanics, surprisingly smartly written story with cheesy dialogue. It’s like playing an 80s sci-fi blockbuster starring Arnold, Sly, Jean Claude or Dolph. Nice! I originally played it on PS3 but wishlisted it on PC when I saw you were playing it earlier in the week. Looking forward to getting into it again, though what scanline says about controller config difficulties gives me (a tiny) pause.
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hicksy
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Post by hicksy on Feb 11, 2023 9:14:01 GMT
7/10 for ME:A fair imo good summary
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Post by Rubicon on Feb 11, 2023 9:18:40 GMT
1. Iris Fall (GwG)
This was last months free offering and you can see why they were giving it away as it's very barebones.
The plot as far as I can make out is that you are a little girl in some sort of dream world that has to use light and shadow to solve puzzles. On that premise I thought it would be similar to Contrast or A Shady Part of Me but that's about all they have in common as it's all so very basic.
The game is third person with a fixed camera and there are around 8 'levels' to complete with a puzzle in each. The ones that use shadows are relatively easy but there are a couple which stray from this (a rubix cube style one for example) which are more trial and error. All in all the game can be finished in about 2 or 3 hours.
Some other bits: visually the game is cell shaded but rather bizarrely (for such a simple game) suffers from some slight screen tearing. There is an inventory system which is a bit clunky on controller as well.
As it was free this is bit of a distraction and only really worthwhile if your looking for something quick to play as there are other better games out there. I'm not sure it's one I'd be paying full price for though.
3/10
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Post by theguy on Feb 11, 2023 10:35:05 GMT
Ooft. Had no idea it was on GwG but I bought Iris fall and started it the other week
Haven't managed to get back to it since but 3 seems quite harsh from what I played. It did feel bare bones, and a bit disjointed in that there wasn't much of a consistent structure to the puzzles but what I played seemed fine. Nothing special but not particularly bad either.
I'll go through and try finish it soon I suppose
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