Lurker > BetrayedTangy

Game 4: Greece Cont...
Difficulty: Prince
Map Type: Earth
Victory Type: Domination

While I did try to look into the Diplomacy victory, it seemed a tad complicated so I turned to the tried and true strategy of Domination and I won pretty easily. All of the other nations were entirely outclassed in terms of technology. I think I really lucked out too, because I had the entirety of North America to myself and all I had to do was march a bunch of Mechanized Infantry across Alaska into Northern Asia where I found France. Upon taking and annexing their capital, I found Egypt to the south as well as Songhai controlled Japan to the West. So I just began purchasing giant death robots that I used to take both capitals. Songhai and Sulemain's capitals were also nearby and easily taken, especially thanks to a nuke.

I'm really interested to see how the higher difficulties go, because so far the optimal strategy is focusing on Science and Production while remaining peaceful with cities that are all relatively close.

Also I can't stand City-States they feel like filler that just gets in the way half the time. I might try to turn them off in the next game and see how it goes.

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https://www.backloggery.com/betrayedtangerin

Ooh also some of the games for this contest are on sale for Nintendo Switch including

Bastion
The Talos Principle
Dragon's Dogma
Sonic Mania
Borderlands 2 (in a collection)
BioShock Infinite
Xenoblade Chronicles 2

A few others as well I think

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https://www.backloggery.com/betrayedtangerin

Oh yeah I should probably update my progress as well

Game 1: America
Difficulty: Settler
Map: Continents
Victory Type: Technology

This was my test game. I knew America was usually a pretty solid civ. Plus Technology victories were always the easiest back when I played Revolution. So I mostly wanted to see how different the games were and wow! While the core of both are very similar Revolution was insanely broken. It was insanely simple and easily exploitable. So this game was mostly spent realizing the same tactics wouldn't work. Thankfully it was on Settler, so it ended with me winning fairly easily once I got to the late game.

Game 2: France
Difficulty: Chieftan
Map Type: Continents
Victory Type: Cultural

This was probably my best game by far. With combat being really expensive I decided to just focus on building up my cities and thanks to the low difficulty and being surrounded my city-states I largely went unopposed.

Game 3: Japan
Difficulty: Warlord
Map Type: Archipelago
Victory Type: Time

So this game was the first real difficulty spike for me. I was initially aiming for an Economic Victory which was an option in Revolution, before realizing that wasn't option here, except for Time. I would've switched to Domination, but it was far too late and the map type + my spawn didn't help either so I just kinda played around with the combat more. Yeah it's definitely different. I managed to wipe out the Greece and eventually unlocked nukes and bombed the shit out of Gandhi, but I was running out of time and the Aztecs had been building their army from the get go. So I just took the easy victory. I am really looking forward to a Domination game however.

Game 4: Greece
Difficulty: Prince
Map Type: Earth
Victory Type: TBD

So I started this one last night and I'm doing pretty well for the most part. The Barbarians were a colossal annoyance and I was in debt for a decent chunk of the game. But upon learning the real value of building roads I started to make a comeback and am by far the most technologically advanced Civ. I also got really lucky with my resources, with plenty of Oil and Uranium. I could go for another easy Technology victory, but part of me also wants to look into either a Diplomacy or maybe even Domination victory. I guess we'll see.

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https://www.backloggery.com/betrayedtangerin

I might be able to tune in a bit later.

Which Civ are you playing as?

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https://www.backloggery.com/betrayedtangerin

Evillordexdeath posted...

In theory, winning any game of Civ V counts as beating it, but at the start of this topic I decided that I will play games without a traditional ending for two weeks and that's probably what I'll do with Civ, partially because I already like it and would prefer to play it for more than one campaign.

Oh thank god. So my only experience with Civ before was Revolution and to 'beat it' I won games with every civ. I was thinking about doing the same thing here, then I saw the full list. I do think I'm going to give myself a list of requirements though. I'm thinking

- Win 10 Games Overall
- Gain Each Type of Victory
- Win on Every Difficulty Level

Might add or change stuff as I go. The biggest hurdle is probably gonna be Deity though, but we'll see what happens.

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https://www.backloggery.com/betrayedtangerin

So I actually decided to start up Civ 5 early due to my lack of experience with the franchise. I'm wondering what is the specification you're going with for 'beating' it.

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https://www.backloggery.com/betrayedtangerin

Haha anytime, I try to never miss an opportunity to recommend ODST, it's so underrated.

Yeah I heard the books were pretty good as well, I really should try checking some of them out eventually.

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https://www.backloggery.com/betrayedtangerin

Yeah you hit Reach's main issue right on the head. The Fall of Reach was supposed to be this dramatic, emotional event about a whole planet getting wiped out, but it just comes off as a typical action movie.

As far as Reach's innovation goes, just about all of it is sadly confined to the multiplayer. It took everything Halo 3 did well and amped it up to 11. The Forge mode alone was insane. Not only did it lead to a bunch of cool custom maps, but what was essentially new game modes too. There we minigames, platforming challenges and even things like escape rooms, all using the map editor it was some really cool stuff given the time of release.

I also really want to take this time to talk about Halo 3 ODST. It did what Reach attempted to do, but a year earlier. If puts the player in the shoes of the ODST soldiers who are pretty much just humans. Not only does it do a great job of making you feel weaker as a Non-Spartan, but it also has a much more interesting story told in a nonlinear fashion and through the atmosphere and setting. It does still play it pretty safe overall as it's nothing crazy, but it's a great change of pace for the franchise. I highly recommend it, if you ever feel like looking into the franchise again.

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https://www.backloggery.com/betrayedtangerin

Haha yeah, Halo's story has never really been great. I will say though I'm a sucker for the Covenant lore. All the different alien types are really cool and how their different personality types tie into the gameplay.

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https://www.backloggery.com/betrayedtangerin

I'm glad the piloting section was a nice change of pace for ya! I think it's kinda hit and miss for most people, but it's nice seeing it get some appreciation. The scenery during it is really nice too.

I also think a cool feature of LNoS is when you enter the ship and it goes zero gravity. It really helps keep the gameplay fresh imo.

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https://www.backloggery.com/betrayedtangerin

So I ended up watching a speedrun of Reach instead of playing it and man do I love how many alternate approaches there are to get through the levels. For example before one of the AA guns there's a broken part of highway that you can jump up leading to a Warthog that's lined up perfectly with the AA gun so you can just sit there and destroy it without worrying about enemy encounters.

I feel like this is something Halo has always been great at as not a lot of AAA shooters encourage exploration like that.

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Backlog Progress: 75 Games Remaining
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So I have some advice on dealing with those enemy types if you're interested.

For the shield Jackals, if you fire a charged plasma pistol at their shield it will cause it to temporarily short out.

Similarly for the elites a charged Plasma Pistol will also drain their armor to zero. Other Plasma weapons also work well on shields, then switch to standard bullets when their armor is gone. Also sticking them with a Plasma Grenade is an instakill.

The Hunters are tricky, but in general try to aim for the exposed orange parts around their neck and back. You can even break through their back armor. It's generally a good idea to save grenades and power weapons for them though as they are the hardest enemy type in the game.

Yeah Armor Lock is pretty useless for the most part, it is pretty handy if you know you're about to get hit with an instakill though.

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Backlog Progress: 75 Games Remaining
Current Game: Metal Gear Solid 3 & LoZ: Oracle of Ages

Finally beat Red Dead Redemption today! I went back to read your final analysis as well and I found myself agreeing with a lot of it. But here's my go at a bit of a write up.

I'm going to start with the positives before jumping into the horses. I really liked the Sandbox they created here. All the different costumes and challenges were really fun to stumble upon. Even finding a new animal tended to have its moments, it was always a pleasant surprise to randomly see a beaver or getting attacked by the cougar. Hell I even found a Jackalope near the end.

I think it plays into the story as well. As repetitive as a lot of the farm tasks got, it actually made me more invested in the characters and their struggles. I found the Mexico arc to be really fascinating too, while I'm sure it lacked any historical accuracy it still managed to spark an interest in the Mexican Revolution.

Now for the negatives... so the horseback riding may be front and center with how obnoxious it can be, but I think the real issue is the lack of a decent fast travel option. Majority of questing just involves getting to the location, then once the quest is over you're just kinda left there and have to travel all the way back just to start the next quest. It's frankly infuriating, sure you can set up a campsite and fast travel, but that requires you to leave cities/roads to use it and even then not all quests are in fast travel locations, so you still have to ride there.

The other thing that really hurt this gameplay loop for me was the sheer number of main quests as well as their lack of variety. There are over 50 quests and a vast majority of them boil down to maybe 5 or so types, so the quests weren't rewarding enough for how long it takes to actually get to them. I think it would've suited the game a lot better to roll multiple quests into one or at least allow us to start them immediately afterwards.

Anyway I'm not really sure what Rockstar was trying with some of these gameplay decisions. I've only played this and Bully, the latter of which I had a much better time with. Really interested to see how the other sandbox games and especially GTAV stack up against this.

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Backlog Progress: 75 Games Remaining
Current Game: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Actually made some good progress in RDR today, Fort Mercer is cleared. I'm admittedly starting to enjoy it a bit more since using the fast travel. The story is good and seeing the world interact with itself is a lot of fun. I just wish the story missions had some more variety to them.

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Backlog Progress: 76 Games Remaining
Current Game: Red Dead Redemption

I'm honestly throughly impressed with how much better SMG2 is compared to the original. It's just an all around better experience despite being very similar.

Really intrigued to see how Starcraft goes. I've personally never experienced the franchise in any form, so I'm looking forward to the write ups!

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Backlog Progress: 76 Games Remaining
Current Game: Red Dead Redemption

Huh wonder where I got September from. Ah well, just gives me more time to beat RDR haha

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Backlog Progress: 76 Games Remaining
Current Game: Red Dead Redemption

Ooh Halo Reach is next isn't it? Any chance you want to do Co-op?

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Backlog Progress: 76 Games Remaining
Current Game: Red Dead Redemption

Once we get closer to Minecraft I'm thinking about setting up a topic where I give out some free copies, maybe to get some more people interested

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Backlog Progress: 77 Games Remaining
Current Games: Red Dead Redemption & Paper Mario The Origami King

Mewtwo59 posted...

I really don't understand why you guys keep watching the show. Every season it seems like the worst people in the game get together and vote out anyone remotely likable. I feel like you've said that exact thing before but with different names.

I think it's because we're holding out for a season that doesn't do that. Personally I thought All Stars would be a good season for that. Unfortunately I don't think they brought the right people back.

- Dan and Derrick should be here instead of Memphis/Cody
- I think Jodi would be a way better player than David
- As much as Vanessa and Paul got on my nerves in their respective seasons, they should both be here over Da'Vonne and Christmas.

I get All Stars is already a tricky thing to put together and Covid surely made things harder, but it really felt like they were reaching here.

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Backlog Progress: 77 Games Remaining
Current Games: Red Dead Redemption & Paper Mario The Origami King

Evillordexdeath posted...

I would like to try hosting a Minecraft server for this project, now that you mention it. I'll have to look into how that's done.

If I recall there's two main options. So you can do a Minecraft Realm which is limited to 10 players, but has crossplay with the Xbox, PS4, Steam and Switch versions of the game or you can have unlimited players in the Java version but only players using the Java version can play

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Backlog Progress: 77 Games Remaining
Current Games: Red Dead Redemption & Paper Mario The Origami King

Been awhile since I posted in here, but I am still working on Red Dead! I just got really distracted with Tony Hawk and Paper Mario, both have been infinitely more fun so far!

Here's my Top 10:

10. Baba Is You
So this is one of the few games I hadn't heard of before the contest, but having seen a little bit now, it looks really fun! The concept is really cool and it seems like it has the potential for some interesting twists. Plus it looks like a nice little short Indie game

9. XCOM 2
I've always loved the concept of permadeath. It makes you actually care about your characters and you have to take serious consideration when making decisions based on that. However it also makes the games a lot harder, throw in the base building and the first one was really difficult to me, but having beat it earlier this year. I feel more than ready to tackle this one.

8. Dark Souls
Speaking of really hard games I keep putting off... Dark Souls has always intrigued me, based off what I've heard it's unfairly difficult to an absurd degree and the first one in particular has some technical issues. Yet this franchise is insanely popular nonetheless, so I guess I'm excited to see what I'll the hype is about.

7. Hollow Knight
Recently I've been having a lot of fun with Metroidvanias. A couple years back I had beaten Super Metroid and Sotn and this year I finally beat Shovel Knight. So HK is definitely on my radar, especially thanks to one of my irl buddies. My only 'issue' is the same as the last two as well, I don't know if I'm ready to invest a lot of time into a difficult game! So as a result I can't put any of these much higher.

6. Octopath Traveler
So I've actually put a lot of time into this one already, and I was honestly really enjoying it despite its flaws. However I did reach a point where my characters weren't even close to holding their own in battle, so I am in a bit of a grinding road block that's made it kinda hard to jump back into. Thankfully I know once I get past that I'm sure I'll be enjoying it once more.

5. Doom
I adore games with a good flow and I've heard that Doom has it in spades. So I'm just really excited for some adrenaline filled combat. I did hear it gets a little stale after awhile so thats why it isn't any higher

4. Minecraft
Oh man am I ready for this one. So I have beaten Minecraft already, but I've mostly just played it with a friend or two. What I'm really looking forward to is the full multiplayer experience. If we can manage to get several Board8ers into a server the amount of fun would be huge. Minecraft has such a good mix of strategy, combat, platforming and especially creativity that a variety of different gamers would make it a really unique experience.

3. Ori and the Blind Forest
So for Ori, I seriously can't get over its gorgeous art style. Mix that with my interest in Metroidvanias and I'm so ready to give this one a whirl, plus I'll have the sequel to look forward too, since I heard it fixes a lot of the problems in this one

2. The Stanely Parable
Man I've wanted to play this game since release, but I never really had a decent PC to play it on until now. I've heard nothing but good things on this one and I love me some quirky writing, so this is definitely of my most hyped games.

1. Night in the Woods
So i know very little about this game, but I do think the art style is great and heard that it carries a lot of thought provoking messages. It really is the mystery and intrigue here that have me hooked more than anything else.

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Backlog Progress: 77 Games Remaining
Current Games: Red Dead Redemption & Paper Mario The Origami King

I'm so done. Janelle totally could of stayed if people stopped trying this vote with the house bullshit

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Backlog Progress: 77 Games Remaining
Current Games: Red Dead Redemption & Paper Mario The Origami King

Yeah Memphis cracks me up. He thinks he's one of the greatest players because he worked with Dan near the end of BB10

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Backlog Progress: 77 Games Remaining
Current Games: Red Dead Redemption & Paper Mario The Origami King

Well something I've realized in BB recently is everyone's been kind of spineless. I think it started post BB16. Derrick's alliance became so successful that I think most players are trying to emulate that and it's really not fun.

I started watching BB6 recently and it's really refreshing to see how their personalities actually come into play. They make flawed and interesting decisions, and you can feel how the house shifts every week and doesn't remain stagnant.

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Backlog Progress: 77 Games Remaining
Current Games: Red Dead Redemption & Paper Mario The Origami King

Memphis is really not looking great here. He has some good ideas, but is way to brash and could really use some of Dan's subtlety. The smarter way to get people to play in the Suite would've been to have his alliance members divide and conquer. Maybe have each one talk to a different HG and make them feel unsafe. It works so much better than going oh yeah I might put you up, you should play.

David's underdog story is getting me hyped. They set him up with great motivation, plus I like how he has to prove himself so early in the game. Like yeah it's All Stars, it's a really good opportunity to become one of the legends.

Glad to see Christmas actually playing for herself too, I think the worst thing about 19, was everyone just trusted each other while Paul was taking over the game. At least that's how I remember it.

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Backlog Progress: 77 Games Remaining
Current Games: Red Dead Redemption & Paper Mario The Origami King

Woop woop Top 10! Let's go!

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Backlog Progress: 77 Games Remaining
Current Games: Red Dead Redemption & Paper Mario The Origami King

Be More Chill is great! I too listened to it fairly recently. From what I've heard the original Chigaco cast is the best version.

I think Upgrade is probably my favorite song featuring the Squip

https://youtu.be/1fD5bAqKsAM

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Backlog Progress: 77 Games Remaining
Current Games: Red Dead Redemption & Paper Mario The Origami King

While I'm bummed Dan and Derrick didn't return I'm really happy with the cast variety here and I really like how there's a lot of underrated players/ones that got screwed over. Like maybe Da'vonne and Kaysar can actually do something this time around, even if I'm not exactly thrilled with their return.

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Backlog Progress: 77 Games Remaining
Current Games: Red Dead Redemption & Paper Mario The Origami King

I really liked your write up on HeartGold it kind of sums up my thoughts pretty well too, especially on Pokemon as a whole. However I feel like the Johto games are some of the weakest. Over this past year and a half I played a ton of Pokemon and honestly the problems you mentioned feel at their worst in Johto.

Half the Gym Leaders have some pretty frustrating tactics, mix that some really poor level scaling and it winds up being more frustrating than challenging. I don't mind the idea of a challenging Pokemon game, but I feel like it's important to give tools for either grinding or strategy. Which I found to be severly lacking.

Now I may be in the minority with this opinion, but I'm not a fan of the addition of Kanto. I like seeing how it changed since Gen 1, plus the fight against Red is dope, but I think it hurts Johto, as well as the game's legacy as a whole. When it's being discussed Kanto is usually the main thing that's brought up and I feel like it wouldn't be as well remembered without it.

Regardless of my negativity though, Pokemon is still Pokemon and at its core I'll always love building a team and finding new favorite Pokemon. I would just rather play the better games.

Also I'm really hyped for Red Dead, it'll be my first time playing, even though I already know the ending as well

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Backlog Progress: 77 Games Remaining
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Luis_Sera89 posted...

In fact, if you've played Cadence of Hyrule, that's him on the guitar and her singing on the title screen and Fairy Fountain tracks!

Oh wow, I knew Jules did a ton of CotN stuff but had no clue Adri did those as well

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Backlog Progress: 76 Games Remaining
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Johnbobb posted...

I do thank it for introducing me to Adriana Figueroa, who does some incredible vocal covers of songs from games and shows.

Oh Adri's phenomenal, her and FamilyJules have some great covers together as well.

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Backlog Progress: 76 Games Remaining
Current Game: Red Dead Redemption

The Mana Sword posted...

Theres one toad Im missing in picnic road thats somewhere near the earth vellumental temple and I cannot figure out where this thing is

I recommend using the Toad Radar there's quite a few sneaky ones there

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Backlog Progress: 76 Games Remaining
Current Game: Red Dead Redemption

Poor Cupid, Victreebel is actually quite good, he was actually the 2nd best member of my Blue team, which is saying a lot because I had an Alakazam as well!

It's a shame he couldn't be better here due to Gen 2 locking half the content behind Kanto.

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Backlog Progress: 76 Games Remaining
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Honestly it's a bit of a relief to see that I wasn't the only one who lost here. Lance's team is insane and I too was subject to some bad RNG. Good luck on the next attempt though!

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Backlog Progress: 76 Games Remaining
Current Game: Red Dead Redemption

LordoftheMorons posted...

I do have one small issue with the game so far: the balancing with the battles is pretty screwy. As long as you can one shot enemies, doing the rearrangement correctly will let you get through a battle taking zero damage, but as soon as you can't you take a ton of damage since there are so many enemies. There's not really a middle ground.

The weapons help alleviate this, plus mushrooms, hearts and benches are pretty plentiful so even if you take a lot of damage it's not too hard to get the health back.

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Backlog Progress: 76 Games Remaining
Current Game: Red Dead Redemption

Ratigan's great, I definitely think Vincent Price is focusing more on the acting than he is the singing. Regardless of that however he is definitely one of the most ruthless and cold hearted Disney villains out there and will always be one of my favs.

Also super hyped that Kick It Up a Notch is my final nomination.

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Backlog Progress: 76 Games Remaining
Current Game: Red Dead Redemption

Just beat the first boss. It was actually a lot of fun! I have some high expectations for some of the later bosses

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Backlog Progress: 76 Games Remaining
Current Game: Red Dead Redemption

DeepsPraw posted...

nah, farming in games is a mindless activity. When you're stressed out or drained it can be nice to throw a game on and do some grinding

Oh don't get me wrong everyone should feel allowed to waste time in their lives just to unwind.

But at the same time I think if you make a long term goal it's important for your 'checkpoints' to have value. So even if you don't hit your goal you still had some memorable experiences along the way.

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Backlog Progress: 76 Games Remaining
Current Game: Red Dead Redemption

I just thought about all of the other things he could've done instead. Like he probably could've learned to fluently speak like Mandarin or something.

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Backlog Progress: 76 Games Remaining
Current Game: Red Dead Redemption

Minecraft

Super Mario 64 is probably the real answer though, I just didn't play it until the early 2000s so it wasn't as impressive to me as I'm sure it was in 96

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Backlog Progress: 76 Games Remaining
Current Game: Red Dead Redemption

Thank you Janus and Paul for those JIC Cid H saves! That could've been messy

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Backlog Progress: 76 Games Remaining
Current Game: Red Dead Redemption

th3l3fty posted...

no

...

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Current Game: Red Dead Redemption

Jecht

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GenesisSaga posted...

How would Seymour be remotely spicy?

I mean he is Top 25 stats and Top 15 New Stats

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Backlog Progress: 76 Games Remaining
Current Game: Red Dead Redemption

Started playing. Been exploring Toad Town and working on map completion.

Gotta be honest I'm having a blast so far. It's still early but it has the potential to pass SPM, which I enjoy far more than most.

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Backlog Progress: 76 Games Remaining
Current Game: Red Dead Redemption

Kain

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ZenOfThunder posted...

I'm at a 5 guys right now

5 guys

Five Guys is also great! It wasn't included due to lack of drive thru tho

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Backlog Progress: 76 Games Remaining
Current Game: Red Dead Redemption

It's actually pretty funny I one of the few people who didn't buy into the hype. So when bought it I was having some fun with it and I really respect the developers for improving on it.

Still haven't done too much as it's one of those games with a huge time investment, but I'd like to someday

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Happy birthday dude!

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Current Game: Red Dead Redemption

Well duh you've got to be pretty old to have all those Platinums.

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Backlog Progress: 76 Games Remaining
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