Lurker > TVontheRadio

finally got around to starting nier automata this past weekend. put around 6 hours into it, balancing main missions and sidequests. the weirdness of the world is pushing me through the fairly rote sidequest design so far. i hear that particular element doesn't exactly get any better, so here's hoping the writing stays strong in that department.

the combat looks flashy (well, 2b looks flashy), but yeah, people saying it's just kinda mashy, at least on normal difficulty, weren't exaggerating. i also know it's not the main draw, so i'm not terribly disappointed or anything. same thing with the ps3-looking open world.

speaking of open world, is there a fast travel option? some of the sidequests asking you to go back and forth between distant places already feel a bit tedious, and nothing too interesting is happening while i move from one point to another. at the very least, the music has been pretty good!

oh and that best of e3 psn sale is about to end soon. got nioh with the season pass from the days of play sale last week, and i'm definitely getting wolfenstein tno before this sale ends. i could buy more stuff to hit $100 and get that $15 credit. gonna be at $63 spent with wolfenstein in the cart.

i'm considering for honor. the concept still sounds super cool to me, and i kinda want a new multiplayer game to get into.

there's also the entire destiny collection. stopped with the base game so there's certainly plenty of content for me to go through. but do i really want to binge on destiny to get ready for destiny 2: more destiny???
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breaking bad was good in s1 and 2, but it didn't get to "one of the best shows ever" tier until the very end of s3 and onwards. better call saul has been stellar since s1. to be fair, i think a lot of it has to do with gilligan and co applying all the lessons they had learned by the end of breaking bad. just about every character that gets screen time feels human. breaking bad was really just the walt and jesse show for the first two seasons.
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i actually think that bcs has been better relative to where brba was at the same point.
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event haul

skins:
d.va
tracer
lucio
bastion
symmetra
pharah

dances:
d.va
tracer
lucio
winston
reaper
reinhardt
mei
zarya
zenyatta
ana
roadhog

and i actually kept myself from spending what money i had in my psn wallet on loot boxes too! so i'm content.

also managed to win a match on dorado after easily losing the first defense and one teammate leaving. pushed our payload on attack all the way to the end 5v6. one person on the opposing team left afterwards. second go around had us stop the enemy team before they reached the end. we inched a little further on our turn to attack. fun times!

now i really have to go play something else. at least before that new map drops next week!
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not gonna watch any videos of this, and i'm also in the camp that feels... weird about this existing at all from that really stupid "artistic purity" standpoint because WE DON'T NEED EVERYTHING EXPLAINED IN A "NARRATIVE UNIVERSE" but these are the times we live in so of course this was going to happen and of course i'm going to play this.

also, the first life is strange is definitely about max and chloe, and digi is just being stubborn with his insistence to deny max's character, growth, and agency (apart from the player) in making life is strange life is strange. this applies to the most basic of facts in driving the plot as leon pointed out all the way up to the power dynamics and themes the game tackles as jakyl pointed out. placing it all on just chloe is also hella reductive for why life is strange resonates so much, especially with a particular crowd. maxine caulfield, in all her awkward, nosy, photography dork, twee, waif hipster bullshit glory, is fucking integral.
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lost around 200sr over the weekend, but i got pharah's event skin, tracer's dance, reaper's, lucio's, mei's, and reinhardt's from loot boxes. only other must-have things for me is lucio's skin, and i almost have 6k gold. might buy symmetra's skin if i don't get it via loot box too.
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The Last of Us 2
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Got my main account that was stuck on Plat for the past 4 seasons to Diamond, and I got the event skins for D.Va and Tracer through loot boxes. Got enough credits to buy another skin and some dances too, so I'm happy with this event so far!
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it's not about points though! i never even thought of it that way since those numbers are shown as percentages.

definitely agreed on the changes to 1v1 and 3v3.
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i've been playing this game forever and i still get confused with how people all over the internet call the types of maps this game has.

so let me get this straight!

control maps are the king of the hill ones, right?

ilios
lijiang
nepal
oasis'

assault is 2cp

hanamura
anubis
volskaya
and soon horizon

escort is payload

dorado
route 66
gibraltar

and hybrid is 1cp and payload

king's row
hollywood
numbani
eichenwalde

okay after getting all that straight, i find it extremely hard to believe that there are people who think control maps are the worst and not every single assault map, especially when they're solo queuing. control is actually the one map type where i'm not automatically stressing about every other player on the team! it's the least demanding kind of map when it comes to coordination. everybody knows to fight on or near the point. matches there actually have a back-and-forth flow unlike 2cp maps where games are usually just less than 2-minute stomps on defense if one or two key roles die or torturous slogfests on attack when your teammates trickle or sit with their thumbs up their asses on chokepoints waiting for something to happen. it's mostly awful when you're on the losing end, or not very satisfying when you're winning. it's super rare having actual close, nail-biting matches where everyone on both teams are doing things right.

it's why i am disappointed hearing the new map is also 2cp!
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Almost caught up with Bojack Horseman. Maybe it's presumptuous of me to say it right now, but this might be the best Netflix original show.

I still need to see all of S3 of Kimmy Schmidt. It might not be the best, but it's the one that makes me laugh the most consistently.

Master of None got maybe a bit too cute for me this second season. Still a great show though.

I think Better Call Saul is fantastic and is relentlessly compelling character work.

Still have only seen the very first episode of Orange is the New Black season two. Really like the first one.

Really need to get around to watching Handmaid's Tale and American Gods.
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man i haven't raged at playing this game quite as much as i have been in this one session. mercy mains seemingly not knowing how a pocketed pharah in this tier just destroys.
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after almost a hundred hours, i'm finally done with dragon age inquisition and all its dlcs. pretty good. trespasser is especially crazy. love it. if the rest of the game had been as focused, i really would have enjoyed it more. as it is, the total package is just "okay". really pretty game too!

hoping bioware learned its lessons with this and andromeda for dragon age 4.

anyway, time for nier: automata.
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I did placements for both of my accounts these past two days. My alt which I got to Masters last season and finished at 32XX placed at 3159 after going 5-5. My main which is perpetually in Platinum placed in low Plat after going 4-3-3.

Not saying Diamond and up is a paradise, but at least the players in those tiers don't make the same basic mistakes of trickling, over-extending, panic ulting, sticking to one character even if they're getting demolished, etc. 75% of the time. It's just real obvious switching back and forth between the two accounts.
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new map coming soon



also buffs to mccree and reaper coming soon

deadeye will be scarier and reaper will maybe hopefully not be just a surprise ult deployment mechanism anymore with his health leech change.

oh yeah and the oni genji and cop dva costumes will now just be added to regular loot boxes. hooray for me not bothering to try hots just to get those skins in the first place! being lazy can be rewarding!
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i may get tired of the negativity in these topics every now and then, but it's good to see regulars just smack down incredibly old arguments about the game.

also, yeah, this season wasn't that good. props to sarah. the change in the jury is actually great despite the super lame forced theming. that's the one twist i'd love for them to keep.
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yeah, i get it, not trying to downplay how you feel. just sharing some positivity on my end!
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i actually think lucio's skin is pretty cool, and the way the music changes is awesome. will definitely spend credits on it if i don't get it by the end of the event!

also, i'd just like to say that i still enjoy playing the game even if i don't get the cool cosmetics that i want! and just being able to play (most of the time) with other people who try their best is enough incentive for me to keep playing competitive. quick play and arcade can be fun, definitely, but there is really a beauty and intensity to comp games when you're either rolling the enemy team or you're in a close, hard-fought match.
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goddamn i can't count the times i choked away wins too doing 1v1. think i'll keep playing that once s4 ends so i can ease myself out of the anxiety!
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KommunistKoala posted...

TVontheRadio posted...

1v1 is absolutely confidence crushing. i am definitely better at being a team player.

yea I'm almost Masters and I can't win a 1v1 to save my life.

doesn't help that I never play DPS characters though

oh yeah that's sorta my case too. got to masters but by playing tanks and support. i mean i got to diamond insta-locking dps, but i'd get my kills off of better positioning than through pure mechanical skill. switched off to more utility roles once i got to mid and high diamond.
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and of course my first win is from a dude quitting midway lolol

yeah, really liking the changes for these arcade modes. 3v3 was pretty much solved with the roadhog/soldier combo plus who else has self-healing. these new maps are interesting too!
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1v1 is absolutely confidence crushing. i am definitely better at being a team player.
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LapisLazuli posted...

TVontheRadio posted...

reaper's dance is pretty good.

sucks that winston didn't get an event skin though. constantly been getting overlooked. you'd think a mascot character like him would get better treatment!

He got 2 Legendarys in a row!

winter and chinese new year feel like so long ago now! and i guess i kinda see him as on par with tracer, reinhardt, and mercy as the game's more iconic characters. blizzard doesn't seem to think so, unfortunately. d.va, genji, and even fucking bastion have gotten a lot more cosmetic love.
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reaper's dance is pretty good.

sucks that winston didn't get an event skin though. constantly been getting overlooked. you'd think a mascot character like him would get better treatment!
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i enjoyed my time with that game on ps3, but i also had my fair share of frustrations with it that i don't think i'll bother with the re-release on ps4.

also, after 80 hours spanning almost 4 months of play, i beat dragon age inquisition. man, what a nothing ending. at least people say the dlc is good and that trespasser actually gives some closure!
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preparing for what seems to be the final story mission in inquisition. i really like all the moments you have with your party members and advisors. i love cassandra's little secret. i really wish the game had more of this.

i'm also glad that i got back into let it die. the core gameplay loop is fun, and unlocking more weapons and movesets and facing more enemy types is keeping things interesting. getting past the 10th floor and seeing a totally different environment has been invigorating, too. killing shit is also just so satisfying! the bosses are still kinda awful, but man their designs and stories and all the cutscenes are just so fucking weird and good. i think i will beat this game, even if it takes me all year.

juggling an hour of that, paladins, and overwatch every day has slowed down my single player game progress immensely, but fuck it, i'm enjoying all the games i'm playing, and that's what it's important goddamnit.

june is still looking like a relatively dry month for me anyway so i have time to get to nier and horizon and a dozen of other great 2017 games.
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casual viewer here too. i think there's no denying that this episode made cirie look bad, but not necessarily an idiot, especially given the info we have now about when she got clued on by sarah. definitely agree with naomi's analysis, too. but yeah, i'm hoping for a brad win, so maybe that also clouds my judgement???

before this lapse though, gotta give props to sarah so far even though she hasn't been the most compelling character. i get that they're still playing to make their lives better, so they should keep doing what they think they need to do to win. it really just comes down to that lack of charisma though, especially with how monotonous she sounds.

also, these season gimmicks are a constant reminder that we're watching a reality tv show on cbs. it's gotta be bad!
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i've been listening to a lot of soundgarden, temple of the dog, and some of his solo work for these past two days. i usually don't get bummed out by celebrity deaths, but this one got me.

saw the footage of his last performance, too. it's sad stuff, and it also happens to be the performance of a song that made me a believer of soundgarden. i mean, black hole sun got me into them because of the insane, creepy video, but man, the absolute raw fury of slaves and bulldozers is awesome, and i mean that in the purest sense of that word.

so yeah, i'm gonna remember him at his peak when he was lighting the world on fire with the force of nature that is his voice.


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Graduating from college at 21, I was around 90lbs. Started working out, and I hit 130lbs at my peak.

I have gradually lost most of that weight throughout these past two years from not working out. I haven't checked a scale all this time. I should really get back to the gym.
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thought i only had two areas to explore in inquisition. nope, there's another whole landmass i haven't touched at all. considering how most of the non-story/non-character quests have been, tempted to skip these altogether and just beat the game then the dlc. really want to play nier automata soon and complete it before the end of the month.

what i've heard of the surge makes me not want to get it, but what i've seen of the surge makes me want to get it. reviews peg it as a good 7-8 kinda game so it sounds like it's worth checking out. though i still need to play nioh!

and the latest bonfireside chat episode has me wanting to get back to let it die!

also wasn't expecting this, but i'm continuing to play paladins. the lack of polish and weight still irks me, especially whenever i play overwatch. the breeziness of it is kinda sorta refreshing though?

dropping the tomorrow children. reading about how the one thing you need to actually start building stuff requires real money or dozens of hours is deflating. the core gameplay just isn't engaging or rewarding enough.
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SgtSphynx posted...

Beat Dishonored 2. Fun game

how'd you play it? yeah, that game is real good. didn't have the same impact on me as the first game, and i think some of it had to do with how hyped up the two standout levels were. i think if i had gone into them totally blind, i would have been wowed way more. not to say that i didn't find those areas incredible and fun to play through! really looking forward to the dlc, if the first game is anything to go by.

on the other hand, yeah, the minimal marketing and this dumb review policy of bethesda seems to have just hurt it and prey. don't think anyone would disagree that immersive sims are hard to demo, too.

eager to check out prey later anyway.

in terms of the main campaign, i believe i'm close to the end of inquisition. the winter palace is really good. man does this mmo/open world design really hamper this game. so easy to lose focus and find yourself just droning out. if this had just been like the previous bioware rpgs that just gave you access to the main quests and your party members' own quests, it would be so much better.
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just saw the latest episode

was holding back the tears! goddamn i hate seeing family tear each other apart.

also, hell yeah jimmy storyline all the way. i feel like the mike arc has been getting too much screen time since s1, and it really just seems to me that they have it to keep all the breaking bad fans who love the action/thriller aspects more than anything else. not really getting anything new or nuanced from that whole thing. yeah, i get it mike is a relentless, methodical badass who can't ever be underestimated and he loves his granddaughter a lot.

definitely agree this has been better than brba was at the same point in that show.
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i like the idea of the io guys just making a james bond game or a spy thriller if they can't get their hands on the license.
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well fuck

i hope those folks get picked up and stay employed. they created an amazing game with a model that actually made sense in keeping the hitman name relevant throughout all of 2016, but apparently it didn't in the one way where it matters most. i wonder if other publishers/devs won't bother now with a season roll-out system for games like this.

i should try out that elusive target later.
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i've no problem using estus and whatever other advantage i can have when dealing with invaders or when i'm invading. outside of fight clubs and summoning through the red soapstone for duels, everything is fair game!

did you play ashes of ariandel, digi?
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got to listen to the appendix of the last proper bonfireside chat episode. good to hear they managed to fit in my response to the ringed city dlc even though it was a little long. probably helped that it was a positive one!

will be sticking around for the rest of the episodes, but once that's done, think that'll be it for me and duckfeed.
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i hear that's in the plans? would love for it to happen too! can't think of a reason for it not to. maybe it gets a name change? what it is right now is kinda bad and generic! it being in early access shouldn't prevent that either, what with all the games in beta that's available on consoles right now too.

speaking of which, i tried out paladins aka totally not overwatch. came out last week on ps4 and xbone. since it's free and a friend said he enjoyed it quite a bit, i've been giving it a shot. it's totally alright given its pedigree, and it does things differently enough that i think it can exist as its own thing.

yeah, it's still in beta, but i do think hi-rez isn't going to be changing much about how it feels, and it certainly doesn't feel as tight, weighty, and responsive as overwatch! budget f2p game indeed.

also decided to check out the tomorrow children. what a great looking labor simulator. if only the requirements to build anything weren't so steep and the tutorials weren't so lacking, i could see myself really digging into it. but boy does it not give you much to work with.

got no excuses now to continue dragon age. i should really get to it so i can eventually start nier.
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the maria fight is one of those battles for me where i either get destroyed immediately or i destroy her. i think if she weren't so easy to stagger, i might have ranked her higher. her music is also just good in the first half, and i think ditching the more melodic parts for just a constant stream of loud chanting was a mistake.

still though, fantastic boss that i think ranks within my personal top 10 of the entire souls series.

i think central yharnam might just be the single best souls area. i'll have to revisit that thought when i eventually get to writing a comprehensive ranking of souls bosses and levels.

although the chalice boss rankings could have been done better, gg tazzy, and i look forward to the dark souls 3 topic!
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gehrman's music is one of the few music pieces that gives me chills. it's haunting and sorrowful and beautiful. his story is just perfect too. i do wish he'd show up more in the game, but that's not part of the boss battle itself so

yharnam is easy, definitely, but she's just the most unique and interesting fight in all the chalice dungeons so i couldn't not put her up top. fairly middling in the grand scheme of things but yeah, i'm not super crazy about the dungeons anyway. they're fine.
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okay i somehow managed to get to master's ranking on overwatch for ps4 with my alt account. i don't think i'll be getting up to grandmaster or top 500 so that's probably my signal to start playing something new.
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MariaTaylor posted...

the Living Failures have some epic boss music as well, which is hilarious considering how they are a huge group of pushovers

yeah, i mentioned that in my comment on its ranking. just the music for this entire game is amazing. my favorite souls soundtrack for sure.

before dark souls 3 came out, orphan was the one boss that always made me feel afraid and vulnerable and alive even after i had replayed all the games multiple times on numerous ng cycles. the whole idea of fighting a god that literally crawled out of its dead celestial mother's womb in the order of hunters' collective nightmare of the past is fucking bonkers, and the design and mechanics lives up to that setup. the thing uses a goddamn placenta as its weapon. its shrieks are maddening. the timing of the attacks feel so weird but fair that when you get it all down perfectly to dodge every strike, it feels magical. but it never makes things comfortable, and that second phase just feels like pure survival against this raging force of nature.

funny thing about it is that it only took me on maybe my 3rd time against it to realize you had to attack the shade it leaves behind when you win to get that final cutscene signifying the end of the nightmare!

tazzyboyishere posted...

Axl
Complex and designed very well. Too bad the atmosphere is lacking.

wat

Maria said...

Namely, I feel like the navigation is too linear and too easy for such a big level. There are side areas to explore at certain parts but the path forward is always very narrow feeling.

forgot to comment on this but yeah, this is what ultimately kills the area for me. wasn't already feeling the same aesthetic it carries over from the nightmare frontier as well as it repeating most of the cathedral ward's layout.
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ludwig i think might have the best boss music in the entire series. he's not my favorite, but i do believe he's the perfect encapsulation of bloodborne. insane design, insane presentation, insane fight. love it.
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god is prey really something that i need to play
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i think i would have gotten close to maxing out all s links if i actually took the time to read fortune's rank 7 skill because i'm an idiot who never used it. i know i'm a moron!
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bsb was my wall. learning to dodge leftward into his attacks and destroying him felt great. music is perfect.
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only played 23, but i'm working on playing a couple more on that list.

vagrant story's placement is another nice surprise. ffx's absence is kind of crazy to me.
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the "hype" we were referring to was in-universe, not irl. characters and cutscenes refer to it a lot, and it's pretty much the starting point for the story.

well, that's what i was referring to anyway!
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kevwaffles posted...

See, I think the hype Byrgenwerth gets really hurts it. It's arguably more hyped than Anor Londo and does not come anywhere close to living up to that standard. We would have been better off either not going or being more obviously "cutoff" from part of it.

The Research Building is the kind of level we should have gotten for something that was made this important. Or at the very least the Lecture Hall.

i agree for the most part, and hey we can lore-logic that last point you make with how the "byrgenwerth" the characters and the world hypes up is the institution as a whole, including the lecture halls, and not just that one manor where master willem hangs out!

i just think that ultimately everything apart from the actual structural design is good enough for what they're going for relative to the other areas which i ranked lower that don't have as interesting worldbuilding/aesthetics while also not delivering on the mechanical level
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byrgenwerth has nasty surprises waiting at every turn, gets hyped up in-game before you get there so that feeling of mystery and awe is everywhere, it's up there as one of the most important places for lore, and it looks cool.

so even though it's not actually much of a "level" in the traditional sense, it's not at the bottom for me!
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iiicon posted...

I think I enjoy 3 more than they do and would push back strongly on the idea that the DS3 season was a hard listen.

i think my memories have also just been heightened because i'm pretty sure they trashed the end of the main game (gary hates the final boss), and it's been non-stop since then! they were also sorta holding out hope that the dlc would redeem the game for them, and it didn't.

this last proper episode was nearly 3 hours of them dumping on/not caring about the second dlc and repeating their overall exasperation and disappointment with dark souls 3. and i really like these two dlcs! so yeah, it's been rough for me.

still respect what they've done and how they arrive at their opinions. that's why i've stuck with them through the whole season! i've always relied on the community for lore interpretation and analysis, and they're probably the best at being critical while also being open. i just also haven't found myself arriving at the same conclusions they get to in regards to the mechanics, the enemy encounters, and the boss battles.

i had no idea how huge bsc is for them since it's literally the only thing they do that i follow. think i said it before, but their humor just doesn't click with me. maybe it's weird, but that's probably why i haven't bothered checking out their other stuff!
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