Tuffty
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Post by Tuffty on Jun 26, 2023 14:23:23 GMT
Like A Dragon : Ishin - 8/10
The most recent Yakuza game that feels new with the historical setting and location, while also being quite familiar, featuring an all star cast of characters from across the series. As a remake of the original PS3 game, the combat is the same and remains closer to Yakuza 0 rather than Judgement or the turn based combat of 7. I think its one of the better stories of the series, the twists and turns are pretty obvious but delivered well. All of the side activities are there but a lot of characters requires a lot of grinding out a relationship meter, either by giving gifts or repeated conversations. I didn't really think these were necessary. In addition, a lot of possible equipment upgrades and new weapons is held back by a ridiculous amount of grinding and money investment that's clearly geared for end game. There are a lot of abilities that I hadn't got by the end too so it requires a big time investment. After clearing the story, at about 60% overall completion, I had logged 70 hrs.
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Post by Hanimalle on Jun 27, 2023 18:05:39 GMT
Scorn
This game was quite disturbing at times, especially in its final Act. The art direction is really Scorn's strongest selling point and I have a folder full of screenshots to prove it (though it's a real shame you can't hide the gun as it too often gets in the way...). It was pretty short but that's actually a plus for me these days. The puzzles were decent but nothing to write home about.
As for the story, I admit I had to look online to understand what was going on as a lot of it can be open to interpretation. The fact that I wanted to know more about it shows that it is an intriguing world however, one that would probably have been better off without combat. Though the weapons are well designed (and somewhat reminiscent of the original Prey ) the enemies are often difficult, annoying and, worst of all, unsatisfying to fight. Thank goodness I read about how bad it was and how you can avoid most of the creatures before playing or I might have given up entirely. Still, overall I'm glad I got to play this as it is a fairly unique experience.
Now I really need to play a happier game as I've completed three horror games in a relatively short amount of time so on to Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Jun 27, 2023 18:46:12 GMT
Finished with Infernium after about 10 hours. It features an intriguing and beautiful world with lots of ways to die and few ways to fight back. The maps are interconnected and exploration is rewarding, but can be pretty confusing. My first hour with the game was so much fun that I was happy when I realized that I could turn off enemies and perma-death. I'm quite sure that I would never have finished it otherwise. And I was mostly interested in visiting the various strange environments and finding my way through the world. Which isn't always as easy as it sounds and I can't imagine how frustrating and difficult it would have been with enemies roaming the environments. The achievements I got are all between five and ten percent.
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Jun 27, 2023 20:22:41 GMT
Terranigma
Last of the Quintet trilogy, and clearly the best one. It's absolutely epic in scope, and pushes the console to its limits in several occasions. Plays a bit like Zelda, but with a more active combat system (you can jump and run, and mix them up with different attacks). It's also a much better story than that of Illusion of Gaia, with far better executed emotional scenes in spite of the... ahem... questionable translation. The soundtrack is great too.
It's this close to a 9, but there are several niggles that bother me. The game is often not very good about pointing your next objective, and some dungeons can be very confusing since there isn't a map. Several times I had to resort to a guide after running in circles for a while. Magic is near useless. The difficulty is often too easy, and then it's mixed up with a couple super hard bosses. Also, despite being all very long, you never find any save point in dungeons, not even before bosses. Finally, the story gets a bit too fast in the last few hours, like the developers were starting to run out of money and needed to wrap things up faster. Took me around 15 hours, but it feels like too much of the plot happened in the last 3 hours.
Still very much worth playing. But this is one game that would deserve a remake, if only to fix its more outstanding issues and introduce it to a larger audience.
8/10
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Jun 28, 2023 4:11:32 GMT
I wish more people had played Terranigma back in the day. I think it was one of those weird PAL-only games that never got an American release, like the reverse of Chrono Trigger.
But yeah, it's immense, I owned a copy back then and played the hell out of it. Wish I'd kept it, that thing would be worth a mint these days.
And I too would kill for a remake, but I don't think that will never happen.
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Wizzard_Ook
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Post by Wizzard_Ook on Jun 28, 2023 5:36:14 GMT
Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Its weird. For the most part I really enjoyed it, took me 75 hours to complete, and I wasn't bored in any of those hours however, none of the new things really did it for me. Basically, I just wanted more Breath of the Wild, and when I was jauntily going along on my horse, going from shrine to shrine, poking away at its world I was at my happiest. The ambience in these games just draws you in. Its great. I like the addition of the depths and the sky islands - it basically more stuff to explore, and when construction is kept to relatively simple things like gliders - traversing these things is a lot of fun.
However, combat is a bit naff, they've tried to make it a bit harder, and I felt like I didn't really have the tools to really get into It and deal with some pretty tough enemies - with the added element of Gloom - a life sucking goop, I found the latter third of the game quite frustrating. It's easy to get pretty ruined, and frankly it pissed me off , more than wanting to work with it. To the point, I lets played the last 45 minutes on YouTube - and it appears I wasn't the only one. The engagement spike on the video I watched, was pretty high on the moment I decided to go fuck it, I can't be arsed with this anymore. Seems a fair few people felt the same.
Its a massive game - and its only really in the last 10 hours or so of my playtime I felt on top of the game, theres is a lot of stuff to see and do, a lot of systems are at play, and it felt pretty daunting for a vast majority of my playtime. There are some things you need to get on top of, but the game could do a better job of preparing you for stuff you should really get on top of - like fusing weapons to make them stronger, I went through a good 55 hours or so before I actually had to use it, but its so important that I was frantically getting my head round it.
Which leads me to, I preferred the tools (and the game in general) in BOTW, they felt more organic, and logical to me. The Breath of the Wild felt like an adventure, Tears of the Kingdom feels more like a video game. Breath of the wild had this natural flow to it, the puzzles, exploration, tools, physics etc relied on intuition and observation, and Tears is more I don't know, brute forcing your way through things. I found Breath of the wild more engaging.
It's a hard game to rate, mainly because Botw is ..well it's in my top 3 games of all time. Tears is a lot of fun, its more of the same, but I think it loses some of it natural curiosity which I really engaged with in the previous title. Yet I appreciate that the team really tried to shake the game up with the sequel. Review may seem negative, but at the end of the day it still captivated me for 75 hours, which few games do these days do, but its...not quite one of the best games of all time haha.
7 5/10
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Post by dangerousdave on Jun 28, 2023 6:21:34 GMT
I also think I prefer the abilities of BotW (although Ascend is great), but I do love the added depths, cave systems and sky islands of TotK, so I’m split between the two games.
I guess if I had to pick one, BotW might just edge it. You do feel a lot smaller in what is technically a smaller world. You’re less powerful, so overcoming challenges feels more rewarding too.
But TotK somehow managed to increase the feeling of discovery, has more side objectives and makes you feel smarter about yourself, so it’s a tough call.
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Post by Bill in the rain on Jun 28, 2023 6:44:38 GMT
Any thoughts on the best one to get first? Especially if it'll be played by kids too.
Everyone here seemed very into TotK at first, but I get the sense maybe people cooled on it a bit?
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Post by dfunked on Jun 28, 2023 7:45:50 GMT
I loved just arsing about doing shrines or discovering some new shiny thing on the horizon, which is where the game is at its best. Combat and building stuff never really clicked with me though, and the former really puts me off ever finishing it given what I've heard about the combat-heavy end stretch.
After all of the outcry over EG's review score, it'd probably be the same or even lower for me. I think I preferred BotW overall.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Jun 28, 2023 10:29:33 GMT
Forgot to mention something I was a bit surprised by. Infernium runs on Unreal Engine 4, but the download was only about 3GB and I had absolutely no performance problems.
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Kay
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Post by Kay on Jun 28, 2023 11:56:45 GMT
Any thoughts on the best one to get first? Especially if it'll be played by kids too. Everyone here seemed very into TotK at first, but I get the sense maybe people cooled on it a bit? Skip to TotK, as it's basically BotW + much more. Plus the whole vehicle building stuff would be ideal for kids to mess around with, I reckon. I do echo some of the earlier thoughts about TotK, though. I'm about 80 hours in, three dungeons down and for a lot of it I felt quite underwhelmed - but that's coming from the perspective of someone that spent 300-odd hours in BotW, scoured practically every inch of the map and didn't quite feel inclined to want to do it all over again. Plus it's definitely a much busier game than BotW, and arguably suffers a bit from the icon bloat that Nintendo actively tried to avoid with BotW. That said, in the last 20 or so hours it's starting to properly click now that I've finally gotten the hang of the new mechanics and feel confident enough to explore the map at leisure. It's not quite as special as BotW was for me just yet, but it's a long haul game and by the end of it I may well end up preferring TotK.
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Post by dangerousdave on Jun 28, 2023 12:01:58 GMT
I think if you’re gonna play both, play Breath of the Wild first. It is the better introduction to modern Zelda. I love both though. Top 2 open-world games ever made, in my biased opinion.
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Kay
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Post by Kay on Jun 28, 2023 12:11:19 GMT
Yep, if you definitely want to play both then BotW should be first - it would feel harder to go backwards after TotK. But if you just want the "best", most fully featured one then TotK is the way to go.
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Frog
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Post by Frog on Jun 28, 2023 14:26:48 GMT
Bramble the mountain king 8.5/10 (gamepass).
If you like Limbo and little nightmares then this is a no brainer. Beautifully dark and a real joy to play through.
My only gripe is the aiming feels a little off sometimes but it's such a minor part of the game that it didn't hinder me too much. .
Will take you around 4-5 hours to play through and you should do so.
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Post by harrypalmer on Jun 28, 2023 15:19:48 GMT
TOTK is such a weird game. I honestly think that if you adore BOTW you'll find stuff to dislike about TOTK. I completed BOTW in the minimum amount of time because after about 30 hours I was bored and found it bland and uninteresting, despite its obvious merits. I'm the exact opposite with TOTK, I'm 100 hours in and basically forcing myself to get to the end now because there are other games I want to play, but I'm not remotely bored of it.
Zelda stories do nothing for me and I can't get into them ever, so the fact the TOTK seemingly embraces the fact that it's a game means I enjoy it more. It's an example of all the different elements you can cram in to a game and somehow make it work, I find it to be an extraordinary accomplishment.
I therefore rate it much higher than BOTW but that game didn't hit me in the same way it did many others.
However, because I just can't engage with the story, I don't have any deep connection to it in the same way as Elden Ring for example.
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Jun 28, 2023 16:35:34 GMT
I wish more people had played Terranigma back in the day. I think it was one of those weird PAL-only games that never got an American release, like the reverse of Chrono Trigger. But yeah, it's immense, I owned a copy back then and played the hell out of it. Wish I'd kept it, that thing would be worth a mint these days. And I too would kill for a remake, but I don't think that will never happen. Yeah, Enix's American branch had closed down, and with the N64 coming up very soon, they couldn't get Nintendo or any other publisher to release the game in the USA. Nintendo published it in Europe, probably because the N64 was still a few more months down the line here.
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Youthist
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Post by Youthist on Jun 28, 2023 16:37:19 GMT
Just completed 100 per cent run of Guacamelee Tournament edition. Great game
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Youthist
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Post by Youthist on Jun 28, 2023 16:40:03 GMT
I wish more people had played Terranigma back in the day. I think it was one of those weird PAL-only games that never got an American release, like the reverse of Chrono Trigger. But yeah, it's immense, I owned a copy back then and played the hell out of it. Wish I'd kept it, that thing would be worth a mint these days. And I too would kill for a remake, but I don't think that will never happen. I gave my copy away for free about 15 years ago to someone on Eurogamer who was after it and I didn’t realise it was rare at the time. Never heard from him again. Nice move!
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Frog
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Post by Frog on Jun 28, 2023 17:20:13 GMT
Good work, Guacamelee isn't overly easy.
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Youthist
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Post by Youthist on Jun 28, 2023 17:56:22 GMT
Good work, Guacamelee isn't overly easy. Yep the El Inferno gold challenges are a proper test. Really enjoyed those though.
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zephro
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Post by zephro on Jun 29, 2023 17:05:55 GMT
Dragon Age 2.
It's ok. The actual structure and most the main writing is good, if a bit unfulfilled. They could have done something more with it being narrated by Varric and having it be an unreliable narrator, which only lasts the prologue. But setting it all in one place over time periods is good if underused.
The actual ending is shite though. There's lots of setup for variation based on all the decisions you make. But ultimately you have to kill the head of both sides no matter which side you pick which is just lazy.
They re-use a lot. Feels like there's maybe 5 enemy types and most places are the same map with different doors locked. Which on that note despite the 3 time frames of the city it never visually changes at all.
The combat is quite shallow though and fuck me but the mouse is annoying. You can't zoom out far enough in hilly areas and the right click to move is always hampered by weird invisible hit boxes blocking you clicking where you want. Or menus not respond right as I didn't cycle through in order but just clicked the 3rd thing. Also the party AI can do one.
Did remind me the Dragon Age setting is pretty fun though.
Fired up Inquisition finally afterwards and the mouse is worse. A) I have to hold a button down to attack for some god forsaken reason, just keep attacking the prick I right clicked for god's sake. B) no right click to move except in tactical mode where the camera is awful.
I expect to be able to play RPGs with just a mouse. But no I've got to move with WASD like some kind of chump. And I just refuse to put a controller in.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2023 19:30:16 GMT
I wish more people had played Terranigma back in the day. I think it was one of those weird PAL-only games that never got an American release, like the reverse of Chrono Trigger. But yeah, it's immense, I owned a copy back then and played the hell out of it. Wish I'd kept it, that thing would be worth a mint these days. And I too would kill for a remake, but I don't think that will never happen. I gave my copy away for free about 15 years ago to someone on Eurogamer who was after it and I didn’t realise it was rare at the time. Never heard from him again. Nice move! Probably Timmeh
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hicksy
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Post by hicksy on Jun 29, 2023 19:35:04 GMT
Timmeh Timmeh?
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Nanocrystal
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Post by Nanocrystal on Jul 2, 2023 10:17:37 GMT
Stray - 9 lives out of 10
As a cat person I was always gonna love this. They nailed the animation and personality of the cat - jumping into shelves and knocking off breakable objects never got old. The story was simple and serviceable, as were the puzzles, combat and stealth sections. The art design was pretty great. Mrs Nano watched me play the whole thing and enjoyed it too, which is quite rare. I would love a sequel a bit bigger in scope, maybe with a more open world and some light RPG elements... basically I would happily play a cat simulator all day long. Cat.
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Post by baihu1983 on Jul 2, 2023 13:17:46 GMT
Went back and 100% Sonic Frontiers.
Hoping for some proper story content DLC at some point.
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lukasz
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Post by lukasz on Jul 2, 2023 13:33:40 GMT
Not sure if it counts but completed half life lost coast.
Just for fun installed this game as I remembered how big of a deal it was whe it was released. Was important benchmark for new gpus (and my 7600gt) and looked so great!
And still does. Wall textures are blurry as they are low resolution, but only when looking at them slowly not during a fight.
Lighting is faked but at the same time is realistic enough
Explosions are little bit flat compared to modern games but having stuff blow up right and left is still satisfying.
Enemies look decent, move realistically enough...
That level of graphics, is still perfectly fine for me. If games didn't progress in graphical technology i would not really be that bothered.
Also commentary was great as they are talking about lighting tech and now the ray tracing tech is solving the issues they had 17 years ago.
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Post by killerbee on Jul 2, 2023 15:36:11 GMT
Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS5)
I’ll be honest, I’m more conflicted about this game than I have been in a long while.
On the one hand…
The 42 hours I clocked up completing it (including all side quests available on a single play through) actually felt longer than that. The game is one of the worst I can remember for being padded out completely unnecessarily: repetitive, copy-paste level designs; tedious side missions that rarely got above the level of fetch quests or “go to X and kill Y” design; a whole section of backtracking over content you just did a couple of chapters before… ugh.
And the some chapters, like a “spooky” train graveyard bit, that had no bearing on the story and seemingly only served to make you forget you were about to rush off to save your friends / the poor repressed citizens / the world…
Honestly, it seriously could have had 20 hours of filler removed and no one would have missed it. In fact, it would have improved the game if it weren’t there.
BUT! On the other hand…
The main story, those beloved characters, the (mostly) fabulous graphics and character models, a decent modernisation of the ATB battle system that felt fresh without losing what made the original so good… and never forgetting the best musical score in video games ever, remade and recorded to modern AAA standards…
Yes it was fan service, but it was really, really well done.
When the game actually stopped wasting time, I really loved it. Cut scenes were thrilling, the voice acting was mostly on point, and the feeling of returning to a world I played and loved 20+ years ago and seeing it look this good was well worth it.
I even enjoyed the controversial ending, which left me more intrigued about where this is headed next.
Overall, it’s a hard one to call. I’m torn between a 9/10 for the visuals and music and fan service, and a 6/10 for the padding and repetition and lacklustre exploration. Splitting it down the middle seems unfair to what’s great, but over generous to what was poor. But I think ultimately I have to focus on this game in a modern setting. I’d recommend it to a FFVII veteran or fan, but when so much of the fan service would mean little to anyone else, I think the only fair score is…
(Final Fantasy) 7/10
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Tuffty
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Post by Tuffty on Jul 3, 2023 9:01:10 GMT
Jedi Survivor - 7/10
Fallen Order was a good game with some pretty obvious technical flaws, a good example of a game that you would hope for a sequel of as the devs could make a bigger more polished game. In addition the cast of characters were compelling enough to warrant coming back to for another adventure. While the sequel is certainly bigger, there is an argument about whether its any better.
The devs broadened out the Souls like approach to level design in favour of wide areas with plenty of locations to explore for upgrades and treasure. It does genuinely feel good, most of the time, to rock up to an area whipping out the lightsaber and dispatching enemies with a zen like ease. Robots splitting open with the swing of a lightsaber, customised to minute detail to a spec of your liking from the colour of the blade to the colour and finish of individual parts of the handle. The power fantasy fulfillment is very high, the inner child in meThe number of things to do is also expanded, there are TOTK esque shrines to complete, bounty hunters to dispatch, side quests to follow even seeds to acquire for a garden. The locations you're going to are pretty interesting, some requiring continuous use of your abilities to platform through areas. When the story requires it, the set piece moments are huge and visually impressive. The cast of side characters are also intriguing and entertaining and there's a long list of dialogue to go through if that's your interest.
However it's not without its issues. The most obvious being performance, its the worst game I've played on PS5 in this regard, dropping below 60, even 30 while on performance mode is a bit wild. Most notable is when phasing from gameplay into cutscene, characters almost have to lock into place before starting and running below 60fps, it's visually so jarring. One of the big complaints that I was sad to see wasn't addressed was how the combat deals with multiple enemies. As you progress the game will ask you to deal with multiple elite enemies at the same time, or 1 elite enemy and multiple ranged attack enemies or multiple massive alien creatures with huge health bars. They're never good, it's scrappy and takes far too long to get through. I understand there needs to be challenge but it feels cheap. Some of the hardest combat challenges the games asks of you is to fight 2 of the largest alien creatures together and its an exercise in frustration, multiple unblockable attacks and one hit kill command grabs with dodgy hit boxes in a small area. The story is fairly weak, picks up towards the end but your central premise and villian aren't as good as the first game I felt. And it's kinda buggy all round, multiple times bosses have died because of collision with the geometry. One just disappeared mid fight.
Hard one to assess, as I feel its pretty positive overall but it wasn't quite the huge leap forward in quality and polish as I would have liked. The game seems to borrow a lot from the recent GOW in terms of structure and I feel the same way about it as I do when comparing Ragnarok to the first game. Better, but only marginally so.
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Post by harrypalmer on Jul 3, 2023 9:25:21 GMT
Tears of the Kingdom - 10/10
It's wonderful. This is how I imagine others felt about BotW. Whilst that game is a purer experience, I found this one to be far more enjoyable. There's so much to do, and it's all fun. If you've sunk 200 hours into BotW I can see this game being a bit a re-tread, or even adding unnecessary complexity to a pure experience, but it's such an insane, ambitious and unique approach to a sequel and I love it for that.
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Duffman5
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Post by Duffman5 on Jul 3, 2023 9:29:16 GMT
Managed to see 3 off yesterday, as in get credits rolling. In fairness they were many already hours in and sometimes started years ago!
Xbox X: Fallout 4 (still loads to do)
ps5: Stray Control,complete ed (still loads to do)
I enjoyed all 3 immensely
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