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Post by dangerousdave on Mar 22, 2023 17:59:28 GMT
Does the Switch GBA emulator have save states? I abused the shit out of them on my last playthrough, as some of the bosses can be fairly nasty indeed. I think I'd just finished Metroid Dread and wasn't in the mood for more challenges after that! Yes it does! As well as a 30-second rewind feature that I abused once for a secret item I missed. It was either that or complete another small loop around the map. Its is definitely easier than Dread. Its just you have to find the single weakspot for most bosses. Its always just a small opening that is exposed when they're doing a particular attack.
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Post by RadicalRex on Mar 22, 2023 20:06:09 GMT
I think that nightmare whatever boss isn't easy because it's a little tricky to consistently dodge, and it takes forever to kill. Most other bosses are cheese though once you figure out what to do.
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Post by kilters on Mar 22, 2023 20:42:17 GMT
Horizon Forbidden West 8.5/10
Loved the original and I think mechanically and visually the sequel is better but the first one had a better story.
That said I was interested in the story this time around also. It's a bit far out there but it is coherently told.
Combat is great and is the high point when taking on such fantastically detailed foes. Are there more epic encounters in any game? Really recommend playing this on hard difficulty.
Marks off for too many upgrades, skill trees etc. Never used half of them. Still think some of the mini quests and characters are a good bit worse than the likes of The Witcher. Also the mapping of the west coast of the US into such a scaled down map just feels wrong.
Still, highly recommend. I just pre ordered the DLC. I've not pre-ordered a game in over 10 years!
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Post by Nanocrystal on Mar 22, 2023 22:40:35 GMT
I'm probably HZD's biggest fan boy, it's a stone cold 10/10 for me, so I wanted to love HFW but the story and to a certain extent the characters and writing just killed it for me. Particularly the ending, which I found insultingly awful to the point where I don't ever want to play the third game. Ah well, I'll always have HZD.
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Post by Chopper on Mar 23, 2023 17:17:44 GMT
Last Epoch (PC)
Had a great time with this ARPG and it still has its hooks into me after completion, so I will probably be dipping in and out for a while yet. My hardcore rogue only got halfway through the game, but luckily the game lets you continue in non-hardcore from that point. I also have half a dozen other characters at various points of the campaign and have enjoyed most of them (found the warrier guy a bit dull)
The story/campaign ends rather abruptly and I think there are a couple of extra chapters planned. As far as I can tell you don't restart the campaign but there's a bunch of endgame dungeons with various modifiers and rewards.
The only real 'drawback' is that drops are very generous, so I ended the game (level 59) with a few items of gear I got at level 5....very hard to abandon a belt that gives you +200 armour or whatever, though I should have been building up resistances etc. I did find the last couple of bosses quite difficult, possibly because of this.
Would really recommend it to any PC players still jonesing for some Diabloesque gameplay after the coming weekend. Loads of funky skills to play with.
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Post by dangerousdave on Mar 23, 2023 20:59:22 GMT
I just completed Metroid Fusion, unintentionally, after stumbling in to the point of no return. I was midway through my final sweep of the areas when I stumbled into a Navigation Room and locked myself into the final objective. Before I realised it I was too far into the sequence to rewind and my last save was a good 30 minutes back.
Edit - Oh yeah! You can jump back in after the end credits, same as Other M. Whoops.
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Post by Rubicon on Mar 23, 2023 21:33:24 GMT
8. Medal of Honour: Warfighter (PC)
I remember mildly enjoying the first game so I don't quite know how they managed to go from that to this.
Visually it uses the Frostbite 2 engine which was also used for Battlefield 3 so the game does still look good. That is when you can see as I struggled to see enemies right in front of me because it was so dark and it seems the US army carry around everything but a fucking torch. Which is ironic, as for anyone that has played BF3 will know the torches are blinding and sure enough, your enemies have them at points during the game. As a further aside the destruction which the engine is noted for is limited to scripted sequences so no blasting through walls like Battlefield.
It is a horrible game to play though calling it a game is generous as it seems to want to be an interactive movie at times. When it lets you actually do some shooting, I lost count of how many times I died from enemies that spawned in from nowhere. Your AI teammates don't seem to be able to hit a barn door and naturally you can be sniped behind cover. God know how many times you do the slow-mo breach and clear over and over again.
You can say what you will about CoD but this is about as soulless unpleasant experience as you can get.
3/10
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Mar 24, 2023 5:56:38 GMT
How did you find the pacing/length?
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Post by Chopper on Mar 24, 2023 8:26:34 GMT
How did you find the pacing/length?
Kind of a mixed bag. The early levels are far too easy, maybe to do with the uniques dropping thick and fast. My first hardcore character didn't get killed until two thirds of the way through the game, and that was my first run. From that point it does get quite a bit harder, and I wiped a good few times after that (there are a couple of bosses whose mechanics need to be figured out which accounts for a a lot of those).
Also, when I thought I was in the end game, the game annoyed me a bit by sending me on fetch quests rather than letting me finish the game (and in an annoying-enemy level which contributed I guess). These of course are optional so possibly my own fault. It also turned out there was a fair whack to go at that point so I was wrong as regards it being the endgame. The last couple of levels were ramped up and a tiny bit of a slog. I will know if that holds up when I get my next character that far
In an update to my previous post, environments are quite beautiful later on, and they started with the darkest/most generic levels. It's not as huge and open as Grim Dawn, but the levels are nicely crafted and they have a great thing going on where you time travel between the same levels in different eras. Normally you'd say that is done to save money but they really did a great job differentiating these levels here, to the point that on my third or fourth character, I was thinking, 'Oh! I recognise this level transposed to ancient times, cool!'
Also, I mentioned that the animations were lacking in some areas, but this only affects a couple of enemies in the starting area it seems - I was setting enemies on fire and enjoying the nicely animated flames in later levels no problem.
Length-wise, it's hard to tell because I have so many characters on the go. 20-25 hours for a first run through I would say, that will come down significantly on subsequent runs.
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malek86
Junior Member
Pomegranate Deseeder
Posts: 3,176
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Post by malek86 on Mar 24, 2023 15:13:48 GMT
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PC)I really didn't like this at first. It's basically a new Tomb Raider clone with no fast travel and annoying combat. Fortunately it's not a very hard game, despite the Souls elements, which is surprising. Frankly, said Souls elements are barely noticeable, feel pointless, and the game might have been better without. The story is also mostly predictable. That said, it does get better once you acquire more force powers: traversal becomes more fun, combat more satisfying. The backtracking is not really that bad with all the opened shortcuts. And while the story is predictable, it was still decent enough. Also I'll admit I wasn't expecting everyone to survive, I was sure at least Cere would kick the bucket. And maybe BD-1 as well. Visually it's amazing, but the per-object motion blur is kinda awful and the whole experience is plagued by some of the worst stuttering I've ever had the displeasure of seeing. Shame. 7/10
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Post by drhickman1983 on Mar 25, 2023 23:48:26 GMT
Mafia: Definitive Edition
It's fine, sometimes looks very good, with some good attention to detail in the period setting, but also kind of janky occasionally. The gameplay is okay, but not great, the cars are a bit boat like to steer and the combat is fine. Not the worst cover shooter but far from the best. The story is okay but drags on a bit, and the characters are decent enough, even if they're essentially just archetypal Mafia gangsters. The voice acting in this version is pretty good though, making the most of it. I saw it through to completion, so it's better than the slight snoozefest of Mafia 3, but it's not as good as Mafia 2 (which itself isn't exactly amazing)
6/10
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Post by kilters on Mar 26, 2023 15:12:37 GMT
The Forest 6.5/10
Completed this finally after all the attention it's sequel is getting. After an initially very difficult learning curve became a very tense and enjoyable survive em up.
Has some rough edges and difficulty spikes but exploring the caves is hugely atmospheric. Special mention to the sound design. Nothing like moving through the forest at night while it's raining and hearing a shreik in the distance.
I enjoyed the ending also.
Very interested.in the sequel once it leaves early access.
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hicksy
Junior Member
I'm good for some but I'm not for everyone
Posts: 1,549
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Post by hicksy on Mar 27, 2023 6:31:43 GMT
TLOU Part 1
For me one of the GGOATS from arguably the best studio in the business.
Yes the genre has become saturated and the launch price was greedy (should have been £40 imo would have been fairer) but this version of one of the best games of all time, certainly with one of the best characterisations and story deliveries of all time, elevates it to an exceptional level on par with Part 2’s graphical fidelities and the gameplay is more even and enjoyable than on the slightly clunkier original.
10/10 (knock a point off for the rrp should you wish)
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2023 11:22:43 GMT
myhouse.pk3
I already mentioned it in another thread but having seen it through to 100% completion I can safely say it's one of the best things I've played this, or any, year. Anyone with an interest in GZDoom maps should download it immediately.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Mar 28, 2023 6:22:56 GMT
I have finished Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire after about 78 hours. I ignored the DLCs and it was a nice tease that the ending slides nevertheless pointed to my unfinished business, so to speak. Same goes for some of the other outcomes I got and the possible alternatives I might explore at some point in the future. Otherwise I did do quite a few of the side quests, visited a good number of islands and also collected many of the Bounties that some people had on offer. The character building system is one of the biggest improvements over the previous game. There are many subclasses and on top of that multi-classing. I was relieved to see that there is no dual-classing and no possibility to go for weird monstrosities with three, four or more classes. The only real complaint I have is that Empowering is something that is just available for everyone from the get-go, regardless of class or levelling-choices. That seems to be in line with the general attitude though: Lots of free toys to play with. Having almost everything available for every encounter is good for experimentation and it guarantees that you can actually get a lot of use out of your chosen spells and abilities. But I wish that there had been more variety. At the moment there are the classes which have to build up some ressource during combat and the others which can just use all the available spells every encounter. The latter could have needed some more variety. It fits that they also removed the Health/Endurance-system, where - in the first game - the lost hitpoints had to be restored from the Health-pool after each encounter. I did always like the idea, but it hardly mattered on Normal and while it felt more releveant on Hard, it was still more of an atmospheric touch more than anything else. It's not too much of a loss, but it would still have been nice to try and make it more relevant somehow. But of course, it wouldn't have really fit with how the game is built. Thankfully, another improved aspect of the game concerns the loot. Before you could enchant pretty much everything and that resulted in a lot of the supposedly unique items feeling completely unremarkable, but now that's only possible for some equipment anymore and there are usually a few interesting choices that require particular materials. On top of that the soul-bound weapons with their progression system also still exist. The world was interesting enough with a lot of places to visit. Some of the smaller inhabited places and the people there weren't particularly interesting or memorable and many of the islands of the Deadfire Archipelago only have some boss fights and the occasional text adventure. However, there are also some rather interesting adventures to be had and fun places to be visited. Some standouts for me were the Old City below Neketaka and an underwater ruin near Sayuka. First and foremost though, it was definitely Neketaka - the capital city - which takes center-stage. It is made up of six substantial districts and on top of that there are some more directly connected areas. Together with the events that can happen during travel, Neketaka feels like there is an additional layer that gives the city more depth. I'd also say that it connects out into the world more than was the case with Defiance Bay from the first game. That one was also definitely a good city by RPG-standards, but it had only five districts one of which was mostly just a combat area. And it also didn't have the same kind of depth for the most part, not quite this level of detail. The text-based adventures seemed hit-and-miss. They are used a lot, but rarely feel like they add much. One problem ist that Pillars 2 is generally not a game that is particularly challenging (on Normal), so it's logically difficult to have much in the way of meaningful choice and actual consequence. Most of this seems to come down to deliberate role-playing more than the game actually limiting the player much. Doing Bounties for instance seems to have no impact on faction relations and who you work for also doesn't matter much, much of the time. In general it's still possible to keep working for everyone, almost no matter what. There is no real tension - narratively or otherwise - there. At least before arriving at the end. It is very much a game that wants you to be able to do pretty much everything. Needn't be a bad thing I guess, but in this case the story-setup doesn't do this approach any favors. Which isn't to say that there isn't meaningful reactivity and choice and consequence. There is, it just very rarely has much impact and is more a superficial reactivity to reward and enable role-playing and there is a lot of it. It seems like I should be praising this, as I quite like this approach, but I'm increasingly finding that one fitting and well-written bit of reactivity is often more rewarding than the game mentioning that you are indeed playing *character class x* ten times. The game is probably also just too large and has too many different things going on to really accomodate for very dense and satisfying reactivity and C&C. But to be completely fair there for a momen: There are many games which would compare unfavorably, including Pillars 1. Personally I'm not quite sure why people dislike the story as much as they do. It was not always great perhaps and there are clearly many problems with the writing and the voice-acting, but most of the time it's still good enough and has some decent moments throughout. The complaints about the story being "too short" are misplaced, as that is simply how the game is built: A lot of the content simply isn't part of the plot and I didn't feel that the main story really needed more time to develop. Voice acting for everyone and everything was a bit much for me. Especially the narrator was clearly mishandled. She overemphasizes a lot of what she narrates and at times her voice-acting gets combined directly with some other spoken dialogue. For contrast, her narration during the ending slides was not as overbearing and much easier to listen to. Other than that it's mostly solid, but there is also simply so much of it that most characters just blur together anyway. I think - aside from the size of the world and the sheer number of characters - the problem lies in a lack of focus and brevity. People talk a lot and there isn't all that much that was more than serviceable, which also extends to the party characters. Sometimes I did wish that the game would just let me read instead of constantly being talked at. Especially being in repeated conferences with the "gods" wasn't always enjoyable as most of them sound just like people and bicker right in front of you, discuss with you etc. As a storytelling device this wasn't a good way to go about things and that is definitely one thing which Pillars 1 handled better. A few of them were better than others of course. Rymrgand seemed more like a force of nature for instance and Eothas' presence had some real weight to it. Xoti was another negative standout for me. Her burden doesn't really align with her character, which is rather lively and humorous. It's also a bit strange to have another character running around that can interact with souls just like the main character. It makes the latter less special and further pushes the whole "souls are real and tangible"-story beat of the setting into something even more mechanical and oddly mundane. In any case, I stumbled into Xoti's romance without intending to and the writing in this case was just embarassing. Same goes for her incoherent babbling when meeting up with Eothas the first time. Other than it didn't feel necessary to bring back characters from the first game, not least since Aloth's and Eder's personal quests don't amount to much and don't really matter in context of the different setting.
There were also some very contemporary sounding expressions used at times (What the Hel, Amen, darned etc.) and that was annoying, but at least it doesn't happen too often. And it's also mostly Xoti to blame, if I remember correctly.
Overall though, I think it's not so much the voice acting, but rather writing decisions and "voice acting direction" (or whatever you call that) that is the problem.
I don't have too much to say on the soundtrack as I merely found it to be serviceable. I think I prefer the music from the first game, though not by much. However, the game actually looks quite impressive this time around. Pillars 1 had a lot of detail to it and some of the places you did visit could be impressive aesthetically, but there was something missing. Perhaps it has something to do with the lighting, but it's difficult to tell. Still, whereas Pillars 1 merely gave me the feeling that it looked good technically, Pillars 2 feels like it actually uses it effectively. I can't describe it better than that. But the area of spell effects in combat is something that just straight-up looks better.
And a small niggle for last, but nevertheless a bit of a pet peeve of mine: Too few portraits. I only found one fitting one for my dwarf and one of the first characters I met in the game had the same portrait. Baldur's Gate II had this solved many years ago by simply exchanging one of the portraits for another one. There were also a few portraits that kept popping up on different characters. Mostly not a problem, but the same portrait of a dark-skinned Vailian woman was used on both very minor and not quite as minor characters four or five times. Overall mixed feelings I'd say, but character building and exploring were rewarding and for a while the combat felt challenging enough to keep things interesting. I could have babbled/ranted on a while longer, but there are some points which feel like I would need to think on longer and perhaps write something separate.
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Post by Rubicon on Mar 28, 2023 9:09:30 GMT
9. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (PC)
Techy stuff: There is a mod out there which updates the resolution for modern systems but fucks with the FMV ratio.
Visually it's still a good looking game and they've managed to create an art style which I'm sure will look good in another 20 years. FMVs are as cheesy as I remember with a cast that includes: Udo Kier, Ray Wise, Kari Whurer and Barry Corbin being the big names.
Where I think the game falls down is in its gameplay. Playing through the campaign I lost hours to begin with but then the issues began creeping in: cramped building space, poor unit pathing and units that seem happy to watch your base be destroyed a few pixels in front of them, defences which make up there own mind when they want to work, bullshit balance and the fact all you need to do is spam your most powerful unit and blob to win.
In that sense the game drops any allusion of strategy with enjoyment turning to frustration and I was becoming bored. This became more apparent in the Yuri's Revenge expansion pack which I did start but couldn't be bothered finishing. It all feels dragged out far longer than it needs to be.
It was nice having the nostalgia trip and if your looking for a quick blast of fun then it's still there. Anything deeper than that then I suspect you'll need to find it elsewhere.
8/10
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Post by A46Matt on Mar 28, 2023 9:17:36 GMT
Maneater - Series X
Tried this out of pure curiosity and what a pleasant surprise. I thoroughly enjoyed this from start to finish.
Presented in a cheesy take on a Discovery Channel show, it looks great and plays just as well. Difficulty and progression are spot on, if you’re under levelled there’s plenty to do to level up.
It’s just fun to play, chomping increasingly larger ocean life from turtles to whales and of course a few hundred humans along the way.
Doesn’t outstay it’s welcome, 100% completion in 12 hours.
Had read of there being plenty of bugs in the game but only experienced one crash to dash, luckily losing no progress.
Would recommend if you’ve been on the fence
8/10
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Mar 28, 2023 12:37:36 GMT
9. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (PC) I wish they weren't so random about where the C&Cs are available. I have half of them on steam and Red Alert 3 is also available, but Red Alert 2, Generals and I think Tiberian Sun as well, are only available through that Origin package.
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Post by dfunked on Mar 28, 2023 20:19:10 GMT
Resident Evil 4 Remake - 10/10
I mean how could it be anything else? One of my all time favourite games brought bang up to date without losing any of that special magic. Bloody loved every minute of it (well, maybe not all of the island)
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wunty
Full Member
Pastry Forward
Posts: 6,443
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Post by wunty on Mar 28, 2023 20:27:29 GMT
dfunked Was the island the same length in this as it was in the original?
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Post by dfunked on Mar 28, 2023 20:29:42 GMT
My memory is admittedly a bit rubbish, but it seemed to be about the same or possibly shorter.
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wunty
Full Member
Pastry Forward
Posts: 6,443
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Post by wunty on Mar 28, 2023 20:33:24 GMT
Shorter would be nice. I'm definitely going to get it down the line but my recollection of a big chunk of the castle and the island puts me off a bit.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Mar 30, 2023 6:07:52 GMT
The Graveyard and its demo. Not much of a game and it is very, very short. I just found it interesting that they are essentially one and the same, except you can finish the demo, whereas that's not possible with the commercial version, because your character dies while you play. And that doesn't happen in the demo. Probably some kind of experiment.
The graveyard has a lot of little birds flying around and they seem to keep landing in different spots. The soundscape has some bits that don't repeat. In more than half an hour I heard that church bell ringing only once and when starting over in one case there was a police siren blaring.
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Post by harrypalmer on Mar 30, 2023 8:24:56 GMT
The Quarry
This sucked. I was a big fan of Until Dawn, but this is nowhere close. I can't believe this is the game they wanted to ship, let alone that it got decent reviews.
There are bafflingly few interactive elements, whole sections where you literally do nothing but watch scenes unfold. Which would be tolerable if they weren't so poorly paced/written/acted/directed. Considering the situation, the protagonists never seem bothered by what is going on. At one point one of them loses a hand, and seemingly couldn't care less - it's fucking dreadful.
Players control like really slow tanks, and there is a lot of walking from a to b through large empty locations with absolutely nothing of interest to discover. Characters can't walk and talk so they frequently stop to have inane chats, despite the imminent peril.
I'm actually deeply annoyed that I had to sit through it but my partner insisted on seeing it out.
I AM MOST DISPLEASED.
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Post by baihu1983 on Mar 30, 2023 9:36:28 GMT
I'm moving onto that one soon...
Bulletstorm
It's okay and the Xbox One/PS4 version actually looks pretty nice at times even today. But it goes on much longer than it needs to and the script takes a massive nose dive towards the end to appeal to 12 year old.
3/5
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Post by Jambowayoh on Mar 30, 2023 10:04:15 GMT
Resident Evil 4 Remake: 11/10
I think user Dfunked has already said pretty much what I want to say although I do like the island part. This nails it for me as Capcom being one of the best developers around currently they've pretty much been on a roll since Monster Hunter World, even despite Resi 3 remake not being what it should which appears to be because they farmed out development to an external studio to focus on making Resi 4 internally and it definitely paid off. This game could have easily missed the mark but they seem to have staff who deeply understand what made the original so special and they've added in more setpieces and subtle changes to augment those already brilliant moments. I'm not sure where they'll go from here, perhaps they'll do Resi 5 although I think they'll have to change a lot of that especially in today's culturally sensitive era, I don't specifically mean the enemies being mainly black being the problem as it's set in a Saharan area but more of the whole the tribal/savagery implications later on.
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wunty
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Pastry Forward
Posts: 6,443
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Post by wunty on Mar 30, 2023 10:15:11 GMT
I'm not sure we need any more remakes. 5 and 6 are not well loved enough and I don't think the demand is there for them or Code Veronica either. RE1 would be a massive backstep going back to the mansion and zombies and I just don't think it would be particularly exciting as it will never live up to the RE2 remake anyway.
I'd like another new one now. RE9 please.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2023 10:18:49 GMT
I'd like them too do both 1 and Dino Crisis.
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Post by Jambowayoh on Mar 30, 2023 10:23:45 GMT
I think Dino Crisis could be a good shout, that multiplayer Exoprimal game has a character that looks EXACTLY like Regina it would be a crime not to. Anyway I think their next big game is going to be a Monster Hunter World sequel for the big consoles.
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Post by rhaegyr on Mar 30, 2023 10:32:03 GMT
If Capcom insist on another remake it should be Powerstone 1 & 2.
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