Community Backlog Blitz Season 5 - Runs October 1 through December 31 with a raffle at the end

beep boop

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Dec 6, 2018
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Knocked Planescape off the list a little while ago. Quite good, especially considering when it came out. Combat is obviously a bit of a drag, but the general quality of writing makes up for part of that at least. It also just has a staggering number of unique characters around that you can talk to. The sheer quantity really surprised me.

One thing that struck me as odd was the game's pacing and structure. It throws a lot at you very fast, and the amount of people you can talk to is quite overwhelming. It keeps up that breadth right until like seventy percent into the game, whereupon it funnels you into the endgame for the remaining time. It felt a little jarring. Perhaps if the remaining places you went to were comparably open like the earlier ones? But then there wouldn't be a sense of urgency, I suppose. The introduction of an entirely new companion so late into the game was also a little strange. I didn't pick them up, because I was pretty happy with my team. I did take a moment to read up on them, and they seem kinda cool.

What I enjoyed most was probably the scene-setting, the really imaginative lore and everything about TNO's character. He is one of the more interesting protagonists I've encountered, and the game does the whole amnesiac bit quite well despite it being such a common design trope. Disco Elysium of course comes to mind and how that game also integrated this well-worn concept into the fabric of the story, character and game design. The companions I was not too excited by, personally. Dak'kon is the one standout with his rich history and connection to TNO. He seems to be the most complex character in terms of content about him and interactions with the player-character compared to all the rest. Perhaps that isn't quite true in terms of raw word count, but he feels like the single most meaningful companion that joins you. I generally liked Morte as well. The rest not so much.

I'm glad to have played this. The overall experience is still quite strong after all this time, and it's nice to have a reference point like this when thinking about other RPGs. Disco Elysium in particular feels like it built a lot on the ideas in here, as the designers themselves had said. Having been able to see that and thinking about the stuff that DE doesn't differently and why that may be the case was half the fun. Playing Planescape highlighted just how much thought and expertise went into Disco, and it intensified my appreciation of that game even more. So yeah. Great game. Relevant even today!
 
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gabbo

MetaMember
Dec 22, 2018
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Well I'm still a little baby I guess, but a little baby that beat Cloud Punk, game three for the quarter.
Kind of a nice story set in a seedy, dying cyberpunk city. Part of me really, deeply disliked the cube-minecraft look though. I'd love to see this with a different art style
 

Parsnip

Riskbreaker
Sep 11, 2018
3,026
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Finland
Finished Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ so that's one done.

Undecided where to go from here. Maybe Broken Sword 5 or Darksiders 3.
 

ganmo

My Neighbour Totoro
Dec 10, 2018
350
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1. Tales of Berseria
2. Vampyr
3. Sleeping Dogs

4. Batman Arkham City
5. Batman Arkham Knight

Finished "Sleeping Dogs" was really nice game and the HK island very well done. I looked up whether there were any sequel to it, and to my disappointment there wasn't and the game studio even closed down. Really sad since I would love to see not just the HK island but also parts of the HK mainland. I give this game an overall good grade anyhow since there are so few games which, if any, which takes part in HK :)
 

beep boop

MetaMember
Dec 6, 2018
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That we won't get another Sleeping Dogs is such a damn shame. It continues to be my favorite open world GTA-like. The story, characters, hand-to-hand combat, shooting and driving are all top notch. So much potential left in it as well. Square-Enix had pure gold in their hands but they wasted it :poutblob:

4. Batman Arkham City
5. Batman Arkham Knight
That might be a tough pill, one right after the other. They're very similar mechanically. But good luck! I really liked both games.
 
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Wibblewozzer

Wibblewozzer

Robot on the inside
Dec 6, 2018
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We're at the halfway point of this season. How's everyone doing so far? Hopefully you've got at least two finished!

The prize pot is still at $22.26 which is just the opening pot plus the leftover from last time. If anyone wants to chip in here are the various ways I have set up to do so:

Paypal - Wibblewozzer@gmail.com
Venmo - @Nicholas-Garboden
Square Cash App - $NicholasGarboden

And as per usual I'll update here with what I receive, and if noted, who it's from. Hopefully we can get a decent prize for the holidays since the prize will be during the Steam sale period so it'll hold a bit more value. But as per usual, no requirement to chip in and because it's during the sale event people should still be able to get some good prizes regardless.
 
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Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
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I have 2 finished \o/
But I've also been mainly playing everything except what's on my list :grimacing-face: :whistle: 🙈
 

ganmo

My Neighbour Totoro
Dec 10, 2018
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That we won't get another Sleeping Dogs is such a damn shame. It continues to be my favorite open world GTA-like. The story, characters, hand-to-hand combat, shooting and driving are all top notch. So much potential left in it as well. Square-Enix had pure gold in their hands but they wasted it :poutblob:



That might be a tough pill, one right after the other. They're very similar mechanically. But good luck! I really liked both games.
I hold hopes that Square Enix, if they still own the digital data of Sleeping Dogs, will make use of it and put some life into what would've been the sequel. Or perhaps somehow the old developers start a kickstarters or something. If it happens I hope they could make it fully Cantonese too. Haha. I have many wish and hopes.
 

beep boop

MetaMember
Dec 6, 2018
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I hold hopes that Square Enix, if they still own the digital data of Sleeping Dogs, will make use of it and put some life into what would've been the sequel. Or perhaps somehow the old developers start a kickstarters or something. If it happens I hope they could make it fully Cantonese too. Haha. I have many wish and hopes.
In case you haven't read it, Patrick Klepek wrote an extensive article on the canned pre-production design docs for Sleeping Dogs 2. Read at your own peril (sounded very ambitious!).

 

Deku

Just nothing
Oct 19, 2018
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I beat the final boss in Final Fantasy 13-2. The final boss was kinda random... which isn't really new in Final Fantasy games... But they need to stop with random final bosses in the series :p

Ending spoiler
Oh, my. The ending ended with a plot twist... I guess I have to play the final game in FF13 series soon.

That's the fourth game, one more game and I am done with the Blitz
 

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
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I beat the final boss in Final Fantasy 13-2. The final boss was kinda random... which isn't really new in Final Fantasy games... But they need to stop with random final bosses in the series :p

Ending spoiler
Oh, my. The ending ended with a plot twist... I guess I have to play the final game in FF13 series soon.

That's the fourth game, one more game and I am done with the Blitz
I really enjoyed 13-2 from a gameplay perspective, but the story was whatever. I'm still annoyed that they just straight up ignored the only interesting lore from 13 (I was really interested in the fal'Cie conceptually) and went with a "generic" timey-wimey plot instead.
Lightning Returns is vastly different (again). Its combat system is my favorite of the trilogy, but its story gets even worse.

The entire trilogy is worth playing just for how vastly different each entry is (and, well, they look and sound great) but they're really mixed bags.
 
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Valdien

✵ Chaos! ✵
Mar 26, 2020
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I beat the final boss in Final Fantasy 13-2. The final boss was kinda random... which isn't really new in Final Fantasy games... But they need to stop with random final bosses in the series :p

Ending spoiler
Oh, my. The ending ended with a plot twist... I guess I have to play the final game in FF13 series soon.

That's the fourth game, one more game and I am done with the Blitz
Lightning Returns combat is one of my favourites in any JRPG. It's a complete opposite of FF13/13-2's battle system. You're in control of every action. It does have a steep learning curve, especially for people who aren't into Japanese action games; but man, it is rewarding. You can also Perfect Guard every single attack in the game, expect for a certain attack performed by a boss during a cutscene.
 
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Deku

Just nothing
Oct 19, 2018
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I really enjoyed 13-2 from a gameplay perspective, but the story was whatever. I'm still annoyed that they just straight up ignored the only interesting lore from 13 (I was really interested in the fal'Cie conceptually) and went with a "generic" timey-wimey plot instead.
Lightning Returns is vastly different (again). Its combat system is my favorite of the trilogy, but its story gets even worse.

The entire trilogy is worth playing just for how vastly different each entry is (and, well, they look and sound great) but they're really mixed bags.
I totally agree with you, the combat is more enjoyable in FF13-2 than in FF13. Much more fast paced. The story was meh. I am not fan with time travel, it just doesn't work no matter how good explanation is. But the way time travel works in FF13-2 it was just so bad.
 
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C-Dub

Makoto Niijima Fan Club President
Dec 23, 2018
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Time travel stories are very hard. I don't think Motomu Toriyama has the writing chops to pull it off. Heck, he can barely write a non-time travel story...
 

Futaleufu

Laughing Chojin
Mar 14, 2019
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Playing Lords of the Fallen and enjoying it so far. Almost by accident I ended up with a battlemage build where I do a lot of physical damage and even more magical damage, I've even killed the last 3 bosses in my first try
 

Futaleufu

Laughing Chojin
Mar 14, 2019
679
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Just completed Lords of the Fallen. The addon DLC barely has 40 minutes of gameplay. Time to move on to the final "contracted" game, South Park The Stick of Truth.
 
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Accoun

MetaMember
Dec 9, 2018
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Finished Vanquish.

Not sure what to say, because even after finishing it, I'm still not sure if I learned the game "enough". Still enjoyed the glimpses of actual, more high-level coolness.
BTW, it's the first Platinum game I actually finished.
 
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Accoun

MetaMember
Dec 9, 2018
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Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

...it's still Far Cry, duh. For both good and bad. I mostly appreciate the smaller scale and the fact that the fantastical setting allows them to not give a shit about pretend realism, but as someone who doesn't have any specific reverence for the 80s (or the faux-80s Synthwave aesthetic) it was frankly kinda grating.

Won't say I didn't enjoy it a bit (especially again, due to smaller scale), but I feel like the internet definitely oversold it.
 
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Deku

Just nothing
Oct 19, 2018
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The story mode in Dragon Ball FighterZ is pretty much a very boring story. There are three different story arcs, but all arcs have pretty much the same premise: The Red Ribbon army revived a few villains and also created a bunch of clones of most of the Z warriors including the villains. A new Android: 21, wants to eat all the warriors and the clones in order to become stronger.

None of the story arcs are connected in any way. So it's a reset once you finish one arc. The first arc we follow Goku and the other good guys, the second we follow Frieza and the other bad, the good guys joins the bad guys. And the last arc we follow Android 18.
I just started the third arc and don't know which guys will join her.

Again, the story mode is meh...


edit: I got enough zeni to unlock SSGSS Vegeta
 

Parsnip

Riskbreaker
Sep 11, 2018
3,026
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Finland
Swapped Brütal Legend to Lego City Undercover. Just feeling like playing these Lego games right now, already started Lego Marvel Super Heroes (though it's not on my blitz) so after I finish that I'll just move to Lego City Undercover.
 
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beep boop

MetaMember
Dec 6, 2018
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I don’t think I’ll get around Deus Ex, but I completed Yakuza 0 and loved it. The back half of that game is an incredible ride! Still planning to do Soma. Just got to steel my nerves...
 

Deku

Just nothing
Oct 19, 2018
4,261
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Finished the story mode in Dragon Ball FighterZ. All story arcs done. With this finished, I am also finished with the Blitz challenge for this season. I am not going to do any other fighting games in the future Blitz. The story in fighting games aren't that good at all :D
 
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Wibblewozzer

Wibblewozzer

Robot on the inside
Dec 6, 2018
1,095
1,646
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Finished the story mode in Dragon Ball FighterZ. All story arcs done. With this finished, I am also finished with the Blitz challenge for this season. I am not going to do any other fighting games in the future Blitz. The story in fighting games aren't that good at all :D
Not saying any of them are excellent but I wouldn't judge all fighting game story modes off of just Dragon Ball FighterZ. That franchise has shit stories altogether so expecting the game to be something great is maybe asking a lot. Netherrealm stories tend to be a good time so consider one of them?
 

beep boop

MetaMember
Dec 6, 2018
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That franchise has shit stories altogether so expecting the game to be something great is maybe asking a lot.
Wow, I feel personally slighted. What's not to love about buff hair metal-looking dudes screaming at each other and monologuing for hours on end while blue-steeling their enemy? :cat-heart-blob:
 
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Wibblewozzer

Wibblewozzer

Robot on the inside
Dec 6, 2018
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Wow, I feel personally slighted. What's not to love about buff hair metal-looking dudes screaming at each other and monologuing for hours on end while blue-steeling their enemy? :cat-heart-blob:
Absolutely nothing. Nothing is to love about that.

I'm glad you agree.
 

ganmo

My Neighbour Totoro
Dec 10, 2018
350
408
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1. Tales of Berseria
2. Vampyr
3. Sleeping Dogs
4. Batman Arkham Knight

5. Batman Origins

I swapped out Batman Arkham City, since it turns out I already finished. Anyhow I will be playing Batman Origins instead.
And I finished Batman Arkham Knight now. Though I'm grinding it for achievements. Lets see how many I get before I swap to the last game :)
 
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Wibblewozzer

Wibblewozzer

Robot on the inside
Dec 6, 2018
1,095
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1. Tales of Berseria
2. Vampyr
3. Sleeping Dogs
4. Batman Arkham Knight

5. Batman Origins

I swapped out Batman Arkham City, since it turns out I already finished. Anyhow I will be playing Batman Origins instead.
And I finished Batman Arkham Knight now. Though I'm grinding it for achievements. Lets see how many I get before I swap to the last game :)
Did you get the proper ending with the credits? Arkham Knight really got me angry with how it handles that after completing the story. And I don't mean the true ending for getting 100%.
 

ganmo

My Neighbour Totoro
Dec 10, 2018
350
408
63
Did you get the proper ending with the credits? Arkham Knight really got me angry with how it handles that after completing the story. And I don't mean the true ending for getting 100%.
I didn't get to see the end credit :O
Currently I'm grinding toward to unlock the Knightfall Protocol though. I thought that would be the proper ending? Or something else should happen after finishing off the main villain? :unsure:
 
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Wibblewozzer

Wibblewozzer

Robot on the inside
Dec 6, 2018
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I didn't get to see the end credit :O
Currently I'm grinding toward to unlock the Knightfall Protocol though. I thought that would be the proper ending? Or something else should happen after finishing off the main villain? :unsure:
That's the proper ending, yeah. I've complained in places before but it's silly that beating the story doesn't give you credits and tie up the story and then when you beat the game it then decides how many more of the side activities you need to complete to trigger the ending. It's essentially needing to complete 50% of the remaining activities. So if you did none of the activities before beating the game it'd task you with completing seven more to get the ending. But if like me I had completed seven of them already when I beat the game it then wanted me to complete three more, if I recall, for a total of ten of them completed? It also means if you did all but Riddler before the end of the game you'd have to complete Riddler just to get the actual ending and credits. It's just baffling this is how it was designed.
 

Parsnip

Riskbreaker
Sep 11, 2018
3,026
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Finland
Swapped Darksiders 3 to Horizon Zero Dawn.
Was initially thinking about waiting until I get a new gpu before starting but who knows when that is going to happen. :blobweary:
 

ganmo

My Neighbour Totoro
Dec 10, 2018
350
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That's the proper ending, yeah. I've complained in places before but it's silly that beating the story doesn't give you credits and tie up the story and then when you beat the game it then decides how many more of the side activities you need to complete to trigger the ending. It's essentially needing to complete 50% of the remaining activities. So if you did none of the activities before beating the game it'd task you with completing seven more to get the ending. But if like me I had completed seven of them already when I beat the game it then wanted me to complete three more, if I recall, for a total of ten of them completed? It also means if you did all but Riddler before the end of the game you'd have to complete Riddler just to get the actual ending and credits. It's just baffling this is how it was designed.
haha tough if Riddler would be one of the need side mission to complete. Well for me I didn't play any sides, so I just needed to finish 7 side mission to unlock. So two more to go before I can see one of the ending ;)
But yea, it is strange that there's no end credit now that you mentioned it. I didn't think about it so much, as I thought the end of the main quest was the game. And then it became open world to continue exploring and finish remaining quests.

Oh I didn't play any of the DLC stories either yet. That's something I think I might be playing perhaps. :rolleyes:
 
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Wibblewozzer

Wibblewozzer

Robot on the inside
Dec 6, 2018
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ganmo You'll get your credits after you finish what you're working on because you'll also get like the proper ending and everything. The nice thing for you is you can knock out the more interesting, entertaining, or just shorter side quests at the end. I had cleared all those out prior so when I saw I needed three more to get an actual ending I was then left doing more tedious ones (I think I cleared all the checkpoints, pulled all the mines out of the road, and I think I had Penguin's bank heist stuff that I never finished so that one thankfully went pretty quickly).
 

Theswweet

Dirty Weeb
Mar 12, 2019
984
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Swapping out Death Stranding for Labyrinth of Galleria, because Galleria is longer and I don't know if I'll be able to finish both this quarter.
 

Cacher

Romantic Storm
Jun 3, 2020
4,133
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I am really not in a mood for any VNs, so I swapped out Memoria for Far Cry New Dawn.

Going to finish the main story of Yakuza 0 and work on the mini games afterwards. There are just too many mini games in this game...
 

ganmo

My Neighbour Totoro
Dec 10, 2018
350
408
63
ganmo You'll get your credits after you finish what you're working on because you'll also get like the proper ending and everything. The nice thing for you is you can knock out the more interesting, entertaining, or just shorter side quests at the end. I had cleared all those out prior so when I saw I needed three more to get an actual ending I was then left doing more tedious ones (I think I cleared all the checkpoints, pulled all the mines out of the road, and I think I had Penguin's bank heist stuff that I never finished so that one thankfully went pretty quickly).
Well I got to first half of Knightfall Protocol now. Dunno how I should feel about it... but it wasn't good. You have MGS games which has lengthy cinematic and then you have Arkham Knight which short cinematics. Can it not be something in between instead?

Anyhow is the 100% Knightfall Protocol worth to grind toward? Unsure if I want to look for every Riddler Trophy even with guides it would take really long time to do find them right? :rolleyes:
 
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Wibblewozzer

Wibblewozzer

Robot on the inside
Dec 6, 2018
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Yes, it'd take quite a long time and if you're not doing it naturally and just following a guide that seems like it'd be really boring. I'd suggest just checking the video of the ending on YouTube. I just rewatched it and it adds about 2.5 minutes to the ending and it honestly creates more questions than answers any but if they do make another game that follows this series the true ending would likely be relevant (or just shrugged off and acted like it was never made, who knows!). But I don't think you'd be satisfied wasting a lot of time to see the video in-game unless you're in it for the achievements or need to have a 100% complete file.
 

Futaleufu

Laughing Chojin
Mar 14, 2019
679
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Just completed South Park The Stick of Truth and that makes it 5/5. It's one the least "family friendly" games I've ever played along titles like Harvester. it's really funny, it's not too long or too short and it's everything the Costume Quest games were aiming for but fell short of.
 
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Accoun

MetaMember
Dec 9, 2018
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Max Payne 2

I enjoyed it, but I remember liking the first one more. Not sure why to be honest, since I feel the sequel dragged a bit less in the middle part (the funhouse chapters in 2 were bad, tho). Maybe I'm just prejudiced after watching some analysis/retrospective videos, but the silly story about a secret-ex-government-supersoldier-drug conspiracy fit more than the more serious plot here.
Also, was the bullet time so buffed from the first one? The game felt way more about running in slow-mo right in the middle of the groups of enemies than I remember from playing the original last year.

BTW, Max sounds rather pathetic during the Mona segments, where we hear him from a perspective that isn't his own. I assume on purpose.
 
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ganmo

My Neighbour Totoro
Dec 10, 2018
350
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Switching game again.

Since it turns out the game I thought I bought Batman Arkham Origin, in fact is BAO Blackgate. So the last game I'm going to play now is going to be Murdered: Soul Suspect instead.
 
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Wibblewozzer

Wibblewozzer

Robot on the inside
Dec 6, 2018
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Coincidentally I was considering adding Blackgate to my Blitz next time. I was putting some thoughts into backlog goals next year and that's a game I got like halfway through and never finished. I remember it being pretty decent (though not the prettiest thing on a big TV).
 

Cacher

Romantic Storm
Jun 3, 2020
4,133
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Complete the main story of Far Cry New Dawn.

I played Far Cry 5 and New Dawn back-to-back. I heard many people were not happy with both games due to the story and progression system, but overall I find both very enjoyable. The guns feel great and level design is pretty good. It also gives a good mix-up to the locales in Hope County. Seeing all the spots in Far Cry 5 become ruins is sad and interesting at the same time. I also love how it finally ends the story of Hope County properly even though the choices in the last mission have no effect to the ending, so there is wasted potential but overall it is pretty good.
 

ganmo

My Neighbour Totoro
Dec 10, 2018
350
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Coincidentally I was considering adding Blackgate to my Blitz next time. I was putting some thoughts into backlog goals next year and that's a game I got like halfway through and never finished. I remember it being pretty decent (though not the prettiest thing on a big TV).
I see haha, I wouldn't mind to play it though actually just that when I read through the plot it sounds like I need to play Batman Arkham Origin first as Blackgate is kind of a sequal to it. But I'm kind of wondering if the 2.5D works out too :unsure:
Btw I eventually grinded through to get the true ending in Arkham Knight. All in all, it would've probably been better if I simply watched a youtube of it instead haha
 

Parsnip

Riskbreaker
Sep 11, 2018
3,026
6,662
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Finland
I need to play Blackgate at some point too.

As for the blitz, I've been slacking. Launched HZD for a bit but I think I'm going to delay that after all. I've been spoiled and don't want to play it at 1080p. :weary-face:

So I'll probably swap that blitz slot again, not sure to what though. Maybe Blackgate. :grinning-face-with-smiling-eyes:
 
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Wibblewozzer

Wibblewozzer

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From what i remember of my time with it they did an admirable job taking the formula and feel of the other games and making it 2D.