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Post by dangerousdave on Oct 8, 2023 11:01:15 GMT
Resident Evil 4 & Separate Ways DLC We didn’t get on at first. I thought RE was at fault. I went into this relationship with a closed mind. I wanted it to change, to be what I thought it should be. I set it an impossible task and walked away when it failed to meet my expectations. After some time apart I did some soul searching, and I asked it to give me a second chance. It wasn’t RE4 after all, it was me. It was always me. We’re happy now. I get it. I’m there for it and look, we have this wonderful DLC together now. Which is the best of both of us. For once I can look to the future and see us all together. For many more playthroughs. I won’t take it for granted or ask it to change again. I love you RE4 / 10 I see what you did there. RE 4/10
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Oct 8, 2023 11:38:28 GMT
Neverwinter Nights - Diamond Edition (58 hours, no expansions):
Everyone and their mother recommends just skipping the original campaign of NWN, but I have often heard similar opinions on the second game, which I quite enjoyed. The thing with NWN2 is that the fairly long early stretch is very slow and more on the dull side, but it also gets significantly better once the story gets going and the characters start to have more combat options. The campaign of the first game never really changes in quality and in a number of ways it even struggles to handle key moments of the story any differently than anything else. Standout moments don't feel or look or sound the part.
But I'm getting ahead of myself: One of the key differences to most other cRPGs is that there is no party, just the main character and the so-called henchman, which can be picked from a few different characters. The player can't level them or even view their stats and equipment. They have a basic story to tell over the course of the game, but - at least judging from the henchman I used - no reactivity to anything. It's possible to give them basic commands and they will do a number of things on their own like lockpicking or bashing open doors and chests that are locked. Both me and my henchman were melee characters, so it didn't make for the most interesting gameplay, but considering the amount of enemies in here, it might have been for the best. Less complications that way.
The character building system is one of the few positives here. There are quite a few choices, including a good amount of Prestige Classes for further specialization. However, the gameplay loop was quite repetitive and the progression mostly came down to better equipment, especially to improve armor class, chance to hit and various ways of resisting or evading damage. It felt like the equipment mattered more than the levelling. Towards the end my character was immune or resistant to most of the bothersome options the enemies had, but the later enemies still sometimes had options that would do my character in in seconds (Evard's Black Tentacles, instant death spells). Overall though there were a lot of encounters and even the few that were any challenge at all, were usually due to simple stat bloat moreso than interesting or complex encounter design. The pointless combat bloat in NWN might actually be on a level with Dragon Age: Origins.
Environments are visually uneappealing and very, very repetitive. Textures and assets are used and re-used ad nauseam to a point where I can barely think of any memorable environments, much less so aesthetically pleasing ones. Assets like furniture and such are barely adequate and sometimes not even that. Any cave system or dungeon is very much like any other and buildings in Luskan and their interiors were pretty much the same as in Neverwinter. The last little hub in Chapter 3 had a layout that was so similar to Port Llast that I was never quite sure if they might simply have used the same basic map again. The lighting did help a little and the music was actually decent.
NPCs are often bland and many quests are stock-standard, but some of the cliched and somtimes silly characters did have a certain charm to them. Though I wish they hadn't given everyone portraits. At times they can seem like they got assigned randomly and they just start repeating very quickly. The game was usually worse off whenever it started taking itself seriously. The more important characters were mostly not well written and the villains have only short appearances and almost no substance. And the so-called "spymaster" of Neverwinter was just utterly incompetent at his job. I don't think he ever had any useful information on offer and did always openly admit to it. Not that he was bothered by it in any way. In general, too many of the important characters kept on babbling without having anything of import to say. There are also a lot of opportunities for the PC to ask very, very stupid questions. Or threaten pretty much anybody with violence to get more money. The plot itself is bare bones and mostly consists of a uniform, repeating McGuffin hunt in every chapter. The game did just barely have enough charming minor characters and small narrative bits that kept me going. Somehow it never felt quite as bad as DA:O. More boring rather than frustrating.
Overall I have to affirm that this just isn't worth the time you'll spend with it. Way, way too much idle running so to speak. And even though I don't appreciate the pseudo-realism and grim-darkness of DA:O it at least has some ok writing and characters and the environments weren't quite as uniform and forgettable.
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Oct 8, 2023 11:54:05 GMT
I feel like the whole point of NWN was meant to be the "create your own D&D campaign" thing. I have vague memories of playing the campaign that came with it, but I don't think it was intended as the game's main selling point.
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Post by dangerousdave on Oct 8, 2023 17:50:23 GMT
Red Dead Redemption 2 (Series X)
I’ve posted this in here once before, but this time I’m referring to the epilogue (that bridges the two games together). All that’s left now is to mop up the challenges, find some graves and get the 100% completion. I’ve also not bothered venturing into New Austin at all, so all that remains absent from my map.
It’s something I may return to do at a later date, but I think I’d rather push on with a new playthrough of the first game and try to 100% that again. At least that game is much shorter and a little less cumbersome.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Oct 8, 2023 18:26:32 GMT
Quake 1
I've often heard people dismiss the single player side but I didn't get into online Quake until the third game so I've got no reference for that. I absolutely love the campaign though
It has the best FPS level design there is in my opinion. It's less abstract than Doom's but isn't beholden to realism either. So much of the design is in the architecture (basically because that's all there is to it). Every map feels like an actual, complete thing you can explore and appreciate. Nothing needs to be particulary functional; switches can make walls slide open to reveal a Fiend jumping in your face just because. And this all comes from the creativity of the level designers. It's pure design - no office buildings or warehouses as a base, no set pieces to rely on or story to incorporate. It's a game that's designed to just be fun to play; the FPS analogue to Mario. There are so many interesting ceilings and floors and things to look at, because that's all they had to work with to give the levels personality
Then there's everything else; the art, weapons, enemy designs, incredible atmosphere, unique soundtrack. The NIN logo on the nail ammo is one of the low key coolest things in a video game. I don't even care about Nine Inch Nails. Stand out weapon is probably the rocket launcher - id's best one. Also always enjoyed the grenade launcher. There's just something endlessly satisfying about landing a grenade on an enemy, especially zombies
No doubt there's a heavy dose of nostalgia along with everything else. Every time I load the game up or even see a clip of it somewhere, it triggers awe me in, like seeing it for the first time. It's just a perfect game
I was playing the remaster on Nightmare, which soft caps your max HP at 50 (megahealth raises it above that temporarily). It's a decent challenge over the original Nightmare difficulty but I don't think I'd really call Quake a hard game to begin with
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Post by Aunt Alison on Oct 8, 2023 18:28:45 GMT
Shamblers are hairy
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Oct 8, 2023 18:41:27 GMT
I feel like the whole point of NWN was meant to be the "create your own D&D campaign" thing. I have vague memories of playing the campaign that came with it, but I don't think it was intended as the game's main selling point. Yeah, I know. But it always sounds a bit like an excuse as well as an explanation. It's a finished campaign after all that pretty much tries to do everything that other games of the type typically do.
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Post by rawshark on Oct 9, 2023 16:06:18 GMT
Return of the Obra Dinn
First game I've actually managed to complete in ages. Really enjoyed it, with the caveat that trial and erroring seems to be the easiest way to finish it.
Also, way to make me feel like a racist for not knowing which Chinese topman is which.
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Oct 9, 2023 20:15:41 GMT
Rayman (Saturn)
The original game on PC is one of my favorites, so I wanted to see how the console version compared. Turns out it's... a lot harder. Sure the game itself is mostly the same, but in the PC version you could replay levels to collect any extra lives you wanted. Not so here: all extra lives are one and done. Meaning you have to be very stingy with the little you get. Usually, when I lost more than three lives in any of the harder levels, I just restarted them from scratch (which means resetting the game, which is not so quick as it sounds). And even then, I cleared the final boss with only three lives left. And frankly, I've played this game so many times I know it mostly inside out. I wouldn't be surprised if a new player gave up around Band Land or so.
I can see why the console version would get a bad rap, but on PC it is quite a bit more forgiving, so I guess I would recommend it there. On console, it's still good, but also a test of patience.
7/10
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Oct 10, 2023 6:57:38 GMT
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles
A collection of two games, about an Ace Attorney-style plot set mostly in Victorian-era London. It's brilliant, the best the series has been outside of the original trilogy.
Though I'm glad it came as a bundle deal, because things get connected together in a way that you won't see until the second game. Which isn't a complaint, it's just that the two games are more like one story split into two parts.
Anyway, the characters are (mostly) great, the mysteries are great, the villains are great. It's a pretty hefty commitment, but 100% recommend if you are a fan of the series.
9/10
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senso
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Post by senso on Oct 10, 2023 10:07:11 GMT
Quake 2 Remastered (Single Player)
I remember owning Quake 2 back in 1997 but never touched the single player campaign as I was too busy getting gibbed in multiplayer to care. This collection gave me the opportunity to play the single player portion as well as all mission packs and remakes. And it was, by and all, a great experience.
Quake 2 - Great, well paced, well balanced (in general) game with a decent final boss (at least when compared to Quake's)
Quake 2 64 - I never played the original but it terms of content this was not bad as a port - I liked how it is a completely different campaign to the PC original. There were some annoying difficulty spikes but overall I had fun.
Quake 2: The Reckoning - The mission packs lots of people seem to hate. I can understand why, as it does seem to change things up a tad too much and feels claustrophobic at times. End bosses were also crap.
Quake 2: Ground Zero - I didn't like the early part of this but it get better as the game progressed. The final level was annoying but the final boss was lots of fun.
Quake 2: Call of the Machine - At this stage, I was getting fatigue from Quake 2 weapons, enemies and levels at this stage but ploughed through regardless. Not a fan of the 'hub' system and there was a large variation in quality between each level. Towards the end, the game seemed to ignore level design in favour of just throwing waves of enemies at you. This was fun in some of the secret levels. Final boss was great, though.
TLDR: Buy this remastered game as you get a ton of quality content for the price.
9/10
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Post by Aunt Alison on Oct 10, 2023 10:57:28 GMT
I've only played the first 3 missions of the Call of the Machine stuff and it's been pretty good so far. I have noticed a tendency to throw a load of low tier enemies at you along with a BFG
I think proper old school FPS level design is somewhat of a lost art
The Quake 2 boss only takes about 30 seconds, if that, with a quad damage. The Quake one lasts marginally longer, if you go straight for the slipgate. I still like the first Quake's boss - it's unique and telefragging it is cool. Same with Chthon. It's a silly fight but memorable and both are super easy on a replay. More of a coup de grace than anything
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Post by Wizzard_Ook on Oct 12, 2023 12:59:51 GMT
Star Wars Jedi Survivor (PS5) Completion time 22 hours.
A mixed bag, which I probably ruined for myself by trying to rush through certain moments. It starts of pretty well, despite some technical issues it looks great, mo-cap and cutscenes are pure Star Wars, the combat initially makes you grin like a fucking idiot - it is probably the best lightsabers have felt in a game - use of haptics, sound and animation is very satisfying. I really thought we could have a rival to Uncharted when it comes to cinematic games.
It follows uncharted being a third person, climby, shooty *well in this case swordy* game, but instead of being a fairly linear experience, this leans into hub worlds and light metroidania and its where the game starts to become a bit 'meh'. It feels like for a majority of the game, just to move forward, you have to always climb, up and around. Every single time to the point it almost feels like a parody of itself. And It gets a bit frustrating. You just want to move forward, but everything is turned into an obstacle course and I tried to fight it, by not really thinking and just rushing though certain moments. It has metroidvania elements with new gardens or force powers introduced at a fairly regular intervals, but theres no real reason to back track or seek out places you couldn't get too before - I never really felt the need to. It just there to push the story along, and just felt kind of worthless.
Which is what can be said about all the little extras in the game like tending to your garden, recruiting people to the town you are based etc. I just didn't really care that much about it. I don't know whether that is the game or just me not trying to engage with it. When I tried to reset myself, I did enjoy it more. Some of the platforming can be fun, and its in these moments the game makes more sense but it feels like a game with systems in place for the sake of it. It has meditation points and shortcuts like Dark souls, but theres no real point. The game isn't hard enough, and some shortcuts are like opening the door between your living room and kitchen, but you had to go though next doors house by going up the stairs, out the window, down the drain pipe and back through your own window to get through. Theres no real sense of achievement or moments that make you go' thats cool", or no real sense of place to make those moments feel alive. It just there for the sake of it.
It immensely playable though. It does have tenchial issues, cut scenes can be very framey at times, and it is clearly an unfinished game - npc's for example do nothing until you engage with them. but it plays well (I don't know what it was like pre-patches) with only one area near the end that tanked the frame rate. I guess it like most blockbusters, where I guess it's decent entertainment, that could really grip you or it could just feel a bit mindless. It doesn't quite match up to the good impressions it makes. It's fighting between itself and, perhaps being cynical, stuff it has to have because other games have them.
7/10
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Post by Rubicon on Oct 13, 2023 8:44:08 GMT
29. Battlefield 3 Campaign (PC Game Pass)
I'd managed to avoid that period where everything turned to modern warfare so thought I'd give this a quick blast out of curiosity - it was also nice to be reminded of a time when you launched a game from your web browser.
Visually it still looks great and DICE have managed to capture the cinematic feel with the set pieces and the main theme playing over them to get the blood pumping. However I found the game very frustrating due to the mechanics that were issues at the time (being blinded by any sort of light/laser sights for example) and was genuinely struggling to see what I was shooting at, which coupled with how quickly you die makes for a frustrating experience.
Thankfully it's only about five or six hours long so doesn't outstay it's welcome as I really was not enjoying myself.
There still seems to be an active multiplayer community with a couple of near full servers if that's your thing.
6/10
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Post by Nanocrystal on Oct 13, 2023 9:00:07 GMT
Life is Strange: True Colours (PS5)
I liked it. It's slow. It's about feelings. It has an indie-folk soundtrack and all the characters are hipsters. It's Life is Strange, you should know what to expect by now. It has some really great facial animation, particularly on the main character. The story was fine. Not as much variation in possible endings as the previous entry, it's not as ambitious in that sense, but I got the ending I wanted.
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Post by dfunked on Oct 14, 2023 16:17:36 GMT
Toem (SX) - 9/10
Well that was just lovely! A perfect little gamepass palette cleanser. I'll probably dip back in for the rest of the achievements.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Oct 15, 2023 16:20:02 GMT
Diablo II Resurrected (20+ hours): Got weak and bought it earlier this year. And since it has been years and years that I have replayed it...
Anyway, I made another attempt at going with a melee Spear Amazon, which definitely wasn't the most fun or effective build I've ever tried, but at least I ended up with a trio of Spear people eventually. My own Amazon together with the Act 2 mercenary and eventually the Valkyrie as well.
I ran into some weird balance issues. Most everything still seemed like I remember it from the original, but a few of the smaller story bosses fell over so quickyl that I barely had to attack them. The end of act bosses are still their old selves and the Chaos Sanctuary just as dangerous as I remember it. Necessitated a few naked corpse runs.
Graphically it's quite impressive. The amount of detail they have added in the environments especially. I had massive trouble with constant massive frame drops on the first day, but for some reason that mostly went away after that. Now it's just some kind of memory leak or so that shows up after a while.
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Duffman5
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Post by Duffman5 on Oct 15, 2023 16:25:27 GMT
Toem (SX) - 9/10 Well that was just lovely! A perfect little gamepass palette cleanser. I'll probably dip back in for the rest of the achievements. This is my "daily" cheveo/gamepass quest game and I agree it is rather nice
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JonFE
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Post by JonFE on Oct 16, 2023 7:12:45 GMT
Right after finishing Lies of P the other night (which I enjoyed enormously and intend to check in NG+), I tried and finished in two sittings Cocoon as a palate cleanser, an adorable little puzzle game created by Jeppe Carlsen, the lead gameplay designer of Limbo and Inside.
You play as a little bug navigating through beautiful a-l-i-e-n worlds, trying to figure out how to proceed to the next area by solving puzzles to open gateways, move platforms, pull switches, you know the drill. Combat is kept to an absolute minimum (only against bosses), while your interaction with the world comes down to one button.
Its "gimmick" is that when you are done with a world, you jump out of it and carry it around as a sphere, that you can place on certain surfaces and dive right back in again. There are 4 different worlds like that, that can be carried all together (one inside the other) and give you some kind of power while you carry them (for instance the ability to shoot energy beams or "see" invisible paths). Puzzles are not that taxing, at least not until the end and the whole game can be finished in 2-3 hours.
It was released on Xbox/GamePass the other week, as well as PS5, PC and Switch. Here's a trailer to see what the game looks like:
EDIT: Do we really have to substitute A L I E N with "That Goddamn Film Again"?
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mrpon
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Post by mrpon on Oct 16, 2023 8:54:32 GMT
Got an Essential on EG as well - added to my list(s)
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Post by JuniorFE on Oct 16, 2023 9:05:32 GMT
EDIT: Do we really have to substitute A L I E N with "That Goddamn Film Again"?
You probably have the film thread to thank for that one
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Post by theguy on Oct 16, 2023 11:31:39 GMT
Been keeping a keen eye on cocoon, didn't think it'd be quite that short though
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JonFE
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Post by JonFE on Oct 16, 2023 12:07:29 GMT
Been keeping a keen eye on cocoon, didn't think it'd be quite that short though There are 100% walkthroughs in YT that are 2 hours long; of course they seem to know exactly what they are doing and waste no time looking around for the solution, so a normal playthrough will take at least twice as long. I'm not quite sure how long it took me over the 2 sittings, but I'd expect around 5-6 hours, as I was looking for any collectibles as well.
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rhaegyr
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Post by rhaegyr on Oct 16, 2023 12:12:52 GMT
I'm quite liking Cocoon so far (about two hours in) but it's not hit the highs of games like Inside, Braid or The Swapper.
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Post by dangerousdave on Oct 16, 2023 12:31:19 GMT
I am about 3 orbs into Cocoon and it’s been fine, but I overestimated how puzzle-like or clever it was going to be. It’s a very slow, ambient kinda game. I’m enjoying it, but it’s been very breezy so far. Had to slap on a podcast during my second stint with the game just for a little bit of extra stimulation, which is a shame because I actually like the ambient noises.
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Post by stuz359 on Oct 16, 2023 21:00:42 GMT
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles A collection of two games, about an Ace Attorney-style plot set mostly in Victorian-era London. It's brilliant, the best the series has been outside of the original trilogy. Though I'm glad it came as a bundle deal, because things get connected together in a way that you won't see until the second game. Which isn't a complaint, it's just that the two games are more like one story split into two parts. Anyway, the characters are (mostly) great, the mysteries are great, the villains are great. It's a pretty hefty contentment, but 100% recommend if you are a fan of the series. 9/10 Agreed, but mention the soundtrack, it's fucking great. It's just a great, 'I can play this on the couch while other things go on' game.
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rhaegyr
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Post by rhaegyr on Oct 17, 2023 8:50:38 GMT
Is it a good place to jump in for someone who's never played an Ace Attorney game? The original trilogy is currently on Gamepass but I'm not sure if it'll feel a little dated now.
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JonFE
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Post by JonFE on Oct 17, 2023 10:03:56 GMT
rhaegyr Since it's on GamePass, it doesn't really hurt to try it and see for yourself if it feels dated to you. Also, dated compared to what? I don't think the series has evolved that much since inception, but I could be wrong having played only some of the trilogy...
So many games, so little time
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Post by JuniorFE on Oct 17, 2023 13:40:18 GMT
Is it a good place to jump in for someone who's never played an Ace Attorney game? The original trilogy is currently on Gamepass but I'm not sure if it'll feel a little dated now. I'm fairly certain that the Ace Attorney Chronicles games are more self-contained and you don't necessarily need to have played other games in the series to know characters or understand what's going on... That said, for one I might be wrong and for another the original trilogy is on Gamepass and the next three games (Apollo Justice, Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice) are apparently also getting a compilation soonish, so I'd say give the original trilogy a shot first, just in case. Might as well check if you like the gameplay before actually buying a game in the series The series in general goes like this: -Original trilogy (Ace Attorney, Justice For All, Trials and Tribulations) -New Trilogy (Apollo Justice, Dual Destinies, Spirit of Justice) -Ace Attorney Investigations duology -Great Ace Attorney duology (both are in Chronicles) -Ace Attorney vs Professor Layton spinoff The first trilogy is self-contained (as in, you can play the first three and have a complete experience), but the story of a lot of its important characters continues into the second trilogy. Then the two Ace Attorney Investigations games are more loosely connected to mostly the first three or four (they came out before Dual Destinies, plenty of familiar characters and references showing up but the story itself can stand alone for the most part). Finally the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (again, AFAIK) are mostly their own thing, as is the Ace Attorney vs Professor Layton spinoff.
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Duffman5
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Post by Duffman5 on Oct 17, 2023 13:46:10 GMT
Dishonored 2 Epic a "banger" and 10/10. Second run, first one in a few years though, so had forgotten a fair amount. Both runs with Emily (I thought I had used papa the first time!) and both high chaos. I have just started NG+ this time actually going with Corvo and I am going for low chaos. I did download The Outsider, so might jump on that as well. I know it does not get the same love as 1&2 but I enjoyed it first time around in 2017
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