Whatcha Been Playing?

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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Magical_Isopod »

Miririn wrote: March 16th, 2021, 2:36 pm After four (!) tries to get into The Witcher 3 something has finally clicked and now I've finally got to the addiction stage of playing this game that I kept seeing people talk about and didn't really understand. Not sure how far in I am (I'm alternating Skellige and Novigrad quests) but it's a wild (get it har har har) ride so far.

What's there really left to say after six years of people discussing it? In brief: Team Yen (I don't care for Triss), got the "good" Bloody Baron ending (...was it... good???), The Crones are great, I accidentally killed one of Geralt's minor love interests (consequences!), and I'm not bothering with Qwent but am pursuing Witcher contracts like mad. And I'm not really playing Geralt with any coherent moral code (except I'm romancing Yen and rejecting other women), I just pick whatever story option sounds more interesting or whatever story option I hope will lead to trouble for characters I don't like (the clever thing about the writing in this game is I often get it wrong and things turn out okay for them).
Pro Tip: Don't try to do every tiny side activity, because it will straight-up make you hate the game. Just stick to the main quests and story sidequests and you'll (probably) avoid burnout.
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Miririn
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Miririn »

My main rule so far is: main quests, side quests, random exclamation marks I find on the map, all contracts, no gwent. Sometimes deal with random bandits etc if I encounter them. Although towards the beginning of the game when I needed to level up I did zone out and do some "?" mark clearing while listening to podcasts.

It is such a long game, I might play something else to break it up, but at the moment I'm happy to plug away at it.
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ColinAlonso
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ColinAlonso »

Magical_Isopod wrote: March 16th, 2021, 3:14 amReally unfortunate, considering Ys VIII is like a Top 5 JRPG for me. But yeah, this one's been a big disappointment for me overall.
Aw man. I liked VIII, though not a much as yourself. When a sequel to a beloved game doesn't quite hit the same way, I think the disappointment can really affect how someone thinks of a game (Persona 5 is my recent example of that).

I listened to half an hour of the Stardew Valley podcast and remembered I owned it somewhere (turned out to be on PC). I only played for about 30 minutes before but now I'm up to midsummer of the first year now. Mostly just growing crops and exploring mines, but I'm about to get a chicken coop. I'm a little excited by this, which seems kinda sad.

I played the ROM of the original SNES Harvest Moon about 15 years ago, so I kinda know the score but this is a much expanded game.

Aside from that , just more Slay the Spire, I've completed ascension level 19 with the Ironclad. Just one more to go.
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Truk_Kurt
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Truk_Kurt »

Magical_Isopod wrote: March 16th, 2021, 3:36 pm Pro Tip: Don't try to do every tiny side activity, because it will straight-up make you hate the game. Just stick to the main quests and story sidequests and you'll (probably) avoid burnout.
I'm also currently playing it for the first time. How do you distinguish between story sidequests and non story sidequests?
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Magical_Isopod wrote: March 16th, 2021, 3:36 pm Pro Tip: Don't try to do every tiny side activity, because it will straight-up make you hate the game [The Witcher 3]. Just stick to the main quests and story sidequests and you'll (probably) avoid burnout.
Have to say, I feel the complete opposite. I did every possible mission and loved it. You really need to do side quests and monster hunts to level up for the next story quest, I found. I just never burned out on the game, played it solid for about 5 months and loved every second!
Truk_Kurt wrote: March 17th, 2021, 9:34 amI'm also currently playing it for the first time. How do you distinguish between story sidequests and non story sidequests?
It clearly indicates which side stuff isn't story based and is more just a monster hunt. I think it puts them in a separate category (under 'jobs' maybe?) on your quest log. As for the difference between story based side quests and 'main' quests, again I think it lists them separately, but I can't remember that for certain.

EDIT: Yeah I checked, it has like main quests, secondary quests, and then monster hunts and stuff under their own categories in the quest log.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

I've just started Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch on Switch. Good lord, it's beautiful! I mean I knew the screenshots looked nice, but in motion it's something else! I started with Japanese voices but then tried the English dub, and was so delighted that a character had a broad Welsh accent I decided to stick with that. The voice work in general seems very good for a JRPG. I've literally just started, about 15 minutes in, but I already feel like there's an epic, magical quest ahead of me, and I can't wait to get in to it. Haven't had such a positive reaction to a game in ages!
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Jon Cheetham
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Jon Cheetham »

Alex79uk wrote: March 17th, 2021, 11:02 am
Magical_Isopod wrote: March 16th, 2021, 3:36 pm Pro Tip: Don't try to do every tiny side activity, because it will straight-up make you hate the game [The Witcher 3]. Just stick to the main quests and story sidequests and you'll (probably) avoid burnout.
Have to say, I feel the complete opposite. I did every possible mission and loved it. You really need to do side quests and monster hunts to level up for the next story quest, I found. I just never burned out on the game, played it solid for about 5 months and loved every second!
Totally agree. The more of it I played the more I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything. I cleared most of the maps almost entirely.

The thing is the monster contracts themselves often have some of the best stories attached to them, too! It was very seldom a case of go place, kill monster.

Actually Kurt a good tip is if you feel you need to level up do the quests at the recommended level, otherwise you get like 2 xp for them if you're already five or more levels past the recommendation.
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Gadget8Bit
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Gadget8Bit »

I started Pillars Of Eternity II: Deadfire this week on the Xbox

I love a good D&D style RPG. The Caribbean/West Indies vibe of the Deadfire archipelago makes a refreshing change from the generic Western European feel of most RPGs. The combat is complex and meaty and the role playing is top notch.

It’s also slightly amusing to me how many of the Critical Role cast do voices for the game. Feels like I’m playing with Vox Machina, which isn’t a bad thing at all
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DeadpoolNegative
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by DeadpoolNegative »

Ratchet and Clank 2016- I consider the original Ratchet and Clank series to be one of the best of all time; fun platforming, excellent imagery, crazy ass, imaginative weapons, and a touch of Metroidvania. The writing was also great, especially the first game. It wasn't afraid to make its main character unlikable to underscore the character arc. "We still need to fix that arm." still makes me tear up a bit. I enjoyed parts of the Future trilogy, but I didn't like where the story went. Into the Nexus was a satisfying "Ending" to the original saga...

...which paved the way for the movie, and this remake. Which both, story wise, strips out the character arc and makes Ratchet and Clank a pair of can do heroes who... can do. Which is fine, I guess- the movie was clearly For Kids, and it did its job. But the utter lack of stakes and conflict is keenly felt. I was pretty impressed that the voice cast for the film- with one obvious exception- stuck around for the game. Though Bella Thorne's line readings sound like she's stoned. Paul Giamatti's take on Drek isn't quite as good as the original but it's fun in its own way.

The good news is, though, is that the gameplay is still top notch. The redesigned levels from the original game look beautiful, though I mourned the generic, sweeping score replacing the demented, mischievous score of the original games.

The new weapons are pretty good, and I liked the tier systems and bonuses for unlocking, although it would probably take several playthroughs to max everything out. This game doesn't feel quite as long- in fact it feels significantly less longer than the original. I'm not sure I'm really being fair to the game relentlessly comparing it to the original, maybe there's people who have never played the original who like this a lot. But I bet they don't love it.

--Dan
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Truk_Kurt
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Truk_Kurt »

I never played the original but I was someone who loved it when I played it last year. I also thought though that I loved it more than other people and I think it's partly due to it being only the second game in the series I have played after Tools of Destruction many many years ago, so the whole thing still felt quite fresh and I was a sucker for how gorgeous it looked as it was the first game I tried on my new 4K OLED TV.
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Scrustle
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Scrustle »

Been dabbling in some emulation stuff again recently. First trying out Drakengard on PCSX2. Being a big Nier fan this is something I've long felt like I should at least try out at some point. But hearing about what it's like, I always suspected I probably wouldn't like it. So far my expectations have proven accurate. I haven't got far, but it sure is a slow and clunky game. Very drab looking and with a terrible draw distance. The dragon flying controls are pretty bad too, pretty unwieldy and unresponsive.

I will try to stick with it to see if the story grabs me on any level, because I haven't really got far enough for that to get going yet. But I think I can already see a big problem. From what I've heard, one of the big themes of this game is exploring the kind of mentality a character in a game must have to be doing the excessive amounts of murder they usually do. The game seems to be trying to paint Caim as filled with hate and driven by vengeance. But he also doesn't speak, having lost his voice. So he doesn't really portray that personality himself, and I'm just being told he's like that by other characters. Doesn't come across as convincing, so far anyway.

Also been trying out some Dolphin stuff. Already talked about Mario Kart in the Games Completed thread, but I've also been playing R: Racing Evolution. I've never played this before, but for some reason it's always stuck out in my mind as being a prominent Gamecube game. I vaguely recall it didn't review very well at the time. Playing it for the first time now though, it's not bad. While it has a pretty serious presentation to it, with a sort of realistic framing, the handling is kind of arcade-like. I mean, it's still mostly serious, but I wouldn't say it was anything like an actual sim. You can definitely feel the Ridge Racer origins here. In a way it has the same kind of tone to it as something like GRID or Project Gotham, although it doesn't have the subtleties of those games. There's not much content to it, but what is there is good. It kind of made me a bit nostalgic actually, playing on some tracks that I used to like a lot in some games I haven't played in forever. Or original tracks that remind me of the style of courses that games used to have at the time. It has an amusingly bad story too. The character you play as is a woman making her way in a professional racing career, and every character interaction is like "a woman can be a race driver?!" It's sort of trite, but in a way that is charmingly campy and dumb.

It does have one annoying issue though. The steering tends to drift to one side when going in a straight line. It's not hard to keep under control, but it does feel like it shouldn't be a thing, and makes the game feel less accurate to control. I'm not sure if it's the game itself or some issue with the emulator though. I cranked up the deadzone on the stick so that it should be easily within the margin of error, but that didn't seem to fix it.
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Simonsloth
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Simonsloth »

Scrustle wrote: March 18th, 2021, 11:44 am Been dabbling in some emulation stuff again recently. First trying out Drakengard on PCSX2. Being a big Nier fan this is something I've long felt like I should at least try out at some point. But hearing about what it's like, I always suspected I probably wouldn't like it. So far my expectations have proven accurate. I haven't got far, but it sure is a slow and clunky game. Very drab looking and with a terrible draw distance. The dragon flying controls are pretty bad too, pretty unwieldy and unresponsive.

I will try to stick with it to see if the story grabs me on any level, because I haven't really got far enough for that to get going yet. But I think I can already see a big problem. From what I've heard, one of the big themes of this game is exploring the kind of mentality a character in a game must have to be doing the excessive amounts of murder they usually do. The game seems to be trying to paint Caim as filled with hate and driven by vengeance. But he also doesn't speak, having lost his voice. So he doesn't really portray that personality himself, and I'm just being told he's like that by other characters. Doesn't come across as convincing, so far anyway.
If you can get past the fact the original Drakengard is a terrible version of Dynasty Warriors mixed with a below average Panzer Dragoon the narrative is actually really good.

The credits roll multiple times as you would expect from a Yoko Taro game but it really only starts becoming interesting after the first credits sequence. For your own sanity I would not try and find every weapon to get the hidden ending. Just watch it on YouTube.

There are some sequences and cutscenes that I genuinely couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It’s a shame it hasn’t been remade as improve the gameplay to a serviceable level and it would be so much better.
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Jon Cheetham
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Jon Cheetham »

Been playing Paradise Killer. Perfect on the Switch, perfect change of pace after a ton of Witchering.

The 3D world is really gorgeous and exploration is fun, and interviewing and interrogating suspects is supported by strong dialogue and an intriguing mystery that's just unravelling and unravelling. Great cast of characters with these lavish 2D sprites instead of 3D avatars.

The music though. Oh my word. The hype is correct - this is an incredible soundtrack. Thumping '80s style tunes with saxophones and rubbery bass follow you as you travel around the island, underscoring otherwise grisly or enigmatic conversations to create a unique vibe. You find more music as you explore, so there's certainly an incentive to be thorough.

Only gripe so far is you need to spend every time you want to fast travel - not a big deal right now as I'm combing the island on foot, but unless the economy gets a lot more generous this might be an issue later on if I want to quickly cross-examine someone on the other side of the island. Particularly as it uses the same currency as everything else so I'm always hesitant to spend.
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OldBailey
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Jon Cheetham wrote: March 19th, 2021, 7:44 am Been playing Paradise Killer. Perfect on the Switch, perfect change of pace after a ton of Witchering.

The 3D world is really gorgeous and exploration is fun, and interviewing and interrogating suspects is supported by strong dialogue and an intriguing mystery that's just unravelling and unravelling. Great cast of characters with these lavish 2D sprites instead of 3D avatars.

The music though. Oh my word. The hype is correct - this is an incredible soundtrack. Thumping '80s style tunes with saxophones and rubbery bass follow you as you travel around the island, underscoring otherwise grisly or enigmatic conversations to create a unique vibe. You find more music as you explore, so there's certainly an incentive to be thorough.

Only gripe so far is you need to spend every time you want to fast travel - not a big deal right now as I'm combing the island on foot, but unless the economy gets a lot more generous this might be an issue later on if I want to quickly cross-examine someone on the other side of the island. Particularly as it uses the same currency as everything else so I'm always hesitant to spend.
Great to see so many people on here enjoying this game. The paid fast travel is just a way to nudge you towards exploring the island on foot as much as possible early on - there are A LOT of secrets and collectables stuffed into each area. If you're exploring thoroughly, you will find enough crystals to make it a non-issue eventually so don't stress too much about spending them. I did some testing for Kaizen during the alpha phase where you also had to pay to save! Probably for the best they pulled back on that one...
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Jon Cheetham
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Jon Cheetham »

OldBailey wrote: March 19th, 2021, 8:22 am
Great to see so many people on here enjoying this game. The paid fast travel is just a way to nudge you towards exploring the island on foot as much as possible early on - there are A LOT of secrets and collectables stuffed into each area. If you're exploring thoroughly, you will find enough crystals to make it a non-issue eventually so don't stress too much about spending them. I did some testing for Kaizen during the alpha phase where you also had to pay to save! Probably for the best they pulled back on that one...
Ah that's good to know! And yes to be fair I did go on a bit of a blood crystal hunt because I wanted a Starlight upgrade and found quite a lot in a short space of time.

I'm so glad they didn't do pay to save. In one way it's not a huge deal on the Switch with quick resume as I tend to only play one thing at a time, but it would have filled me with an inky, cosmic dread of the app crashing and wiping an hour of conversations!
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by stvnorman »

Finished Gears 5 on Xbox Series X. Great looker and plenty of mindless fun, if nothing especially memorable. Played through new Game Pass arcade and RPG offering Undertale in a couple of sittings too, which is just so masterfully crafted. Also restarted my Wreckfest career on there for its graphical upgrades, and still jumping between Forza 4 and Dirt 5 as well.

Binned off Middle Earth: Shadow of War on PS4 and Donkey Kong Country Returns on 3DS, both at about half way, and both because neither are really what I want to be playing and I’ve just had my fill. Did finish Starfox 64 on 3DS though - closed doors academy football is back so plenty of time for my backlog on there again!

Otherwise, still playing Test Drive 2 on SNES, Devil Crash on Megadrive, arcade and Spectrum 1942, and Frankenstein’s Monster on Atari 2600 (which I even finished!), all for various pieces I’m writing. Much fun! And I’ve played about three hours of original Dragon Quest on Switch because I fancied some mindless grinding in something!
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Jon Cheetham
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Jon Cheetham »

Still playing Paradise Killer. As well as the music and world building being terrific, I think the world design itself deserves plaudits too. It's impressive having spent a few hours in the game now getting up to a vantage point of some kind and looking down to notice how everywhere fits together and interconnects. I've also found I can trace my way around the island by memory quite easily at this point, which is again impressive as my horrible sense of direction means I usually can't do that in real life never mind an imaginary setting.

Savouring it as like in other media detective games are hard to re-experience at least any time soon. It really is wonderful.

Started The Witcher II Assassins of Kings on pc, which I got nearly a year ago for the equivalent of about a quid. Skinflint gaming forever. At that price I've more than had my money's worth already on the basis of the prologue, which is phenomenal. You're thrown into this running battle alongside King Foltest as the amnesiac Geralt fights his way through La Valette's forces with this pounding battle theme accompanying it all, framed by an interrogation in prison some time later. You also decide which events you play through in what order, depending on what you tell Roche during the interrogation. It's a really cool idea and a kinetic opening.

I'm four hours in and have now reached the first settlement, Flotsam, which I feel has a very strong sense of place. To be honest it's more memorable than many of the equivalent minor towns and villages in The Witcher III, and I like the way the tavern becomes your base with all your friends hanging out there while you do side quests. Speaking of which, to my delight I'm now reunited with Dandelion and Zoltan as well as Triss who is present from the start of the game. It's the same voice cast as well as in the third one and Zoltan already has me in tucks.

Remains to be seen how I get on now that I'm into the game proper. Getting around Flotsam's environs, now I'm off the linear path of the prologue, can be a pain and the mini map isn't that great. It isn't always clear which of the dirt paths (shown on the mini map) you need to be following. And the geometry hems you in - you can't just pick a direction and whistle for Roach. There's also no fast travel! So let's see.

I'm currently on a contract for the Kayran which has taken residence in the port, but I've read that although the side quests in this one are worth doing the monster hunts are only that and I can safely skip most of them.

My complaint with this game is that the misogyny that the first one is known for is still here in places, and it's frustrating to have to listen to characters like Roche make comments you'd expect to get from some boorish manager who thinks he's having bants with the new hires.
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Miririn
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Miririn »

I played an hour of Final Fantasy VII Remake because it was on PlayStation+ and because one of my closest friends works for Square Enix and has been pushing me to play more Sqex games since she got the job last year. And it is ridiculously beautiful. Yes I make fun of the stupid hair and the pretty barbie faces in this type of game but it is GORGEOUS. When the opening credits played and the camera swooped over Midgar and all the detailed buildings I almost went "oooooh!" out loud. And I kept stopping Cloud to move the camera around and gawk at everything. It looks so, so good.

And then I died fighting the first big boss because I'm not used to this fantasy-action-RPG-meets team-based-task-delegation fight style and couldn't get the balance right and so Cloud died while I was distracted working out how to play as Barrett. So there's some work I need to do there. :p

I'm saving the game for after I finish the main campaign of "The Witcher 3" (I've discovered I'm not great at having a few games on the go), but the prettiness has won me over so much that even if the game was a pile of manure I'd still just sit there with huge sparkly eyes staring at the screen and mumbling "p r e t t y" under my breath.

So well done to the people doing the graphics and visuals at Sqex because my god that is an attractive game.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Jobobonobo »

Finished the main story in Yakuza Kiwami 2 but not fully completed it as I still have Majima's story to do. Which I can't complain about because I really have been enjoying this one. Huge leap in quality from the first Kiwami.

But I decided to go through a short game before fully finishing Kiwami 2 and am nearly finished with the delightful Donut County. Simple concept but pulled off very well. It is definitely a nice game to play if you just want to sit back and relax.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ReprobateGamer »

Reached one of the endings of Call Of The Sea - still have a few collectibles to tick off and the other ending to view but an interesting take on this style of game.

But rather than see that ending, the girls and I have returned to a game from a while back - Q.U.B.E. 2. Another 1st person puzzler with a sci-fi theme, I'm steadily working through that, though I'm just getting a little concerned that it's going to end up being a little more adult than my 8 year old should really be watching.

They are also still both keen on Minion Masters so I'm spending a bit of time on that some evenings, and actually spending a bit of time crafting decks to go with the various masters as they come in and out of rotation - it's an enjoyable mix of arena battler and deck building and I'm quite keen on the 2v2 option in this game

And when they've gone to bed, I'm also ekking out more progress on Control. I like this game but I can't quite decide if I should power through the story missions, or whether I should be continuing to work on executive orders and side missions for a bit before pushing onwards

Finally, the family is still making time to sit down as a group on Minecraft Dungeons. We are approaching the current level cap so the frustrations of inventory management in that game (very poor compared to almost every other looter game) have been joined by all the merchants no longer having kit at the level we need (including, very frustratingly, the blacksmith who is meant to upgrade gear!). The Daily Trials and Ancients Hunts are working to keep us going for now but I suspect that we'll be on the hunt for a new family co-op game before long ...
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