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MormonWarrior

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Xbox Live Arcade Game of the Year Candidates

These are my personal downloadable game of the year candidates. Seeing as I don't own a PS3 and the Wii's only good one was Cave Story...which was cool, I guess...I'm sticking to what I know best about. Here we go! Feel free to leave comments on your opinions at the bottom and see my regular GOTY candidate blog as well!
 
Super Meat Boy

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Super Meat Boy is a game that was designed for me. Seriously. I grew up on stupidly hard platformers on the NES and SNES, and I love 'em. I'm only missing a couple achievements from this game now, and every time I get stuck on a level I just get a stupid grin on my face. The game is nearly perfect as far as controls and design go, and I enjoy it far more than I anticipated. I don't typically love ridiculous Flash games, but SMB has captured my heart.
 
 
 

  Limbo
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Straight up, Limbo is amazing. It's evocative, it's chilling...despite its rather short length, it's very tightly paced and never once lets you up for breath. The moment you stop paying attention is the moment when some trap springs and you're left dead. This is one of the most intriguing and artistic games available on Xbox Live.
 
 
 
 
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
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Another title from the XBLA Summer of Arcade, GoL is a great co-op romp. It has a great look to it due to running on the Underworld engine, and it's the most fun I've ever had with a Lara Croft game. I still haven't completed it, but it is a ton of fun to play with a friend. Now that online play has been patched in, too, I highly recommend it.
 

 
 
 
 
 
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX
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Simply stated, CE DX is a blast. I've never been the biggest fan of Pac-Man, but I really enjoy the direction taken by this game. The real focus is getting insanely high scores by memorizing patterns and executing them at nauseating speeds. It looks great, controls great, and has lots of modes and features. I have nothing negative to really say about this game.
 
 
 
 
 
 Honorable Mentions:
This was such a great year for downloads that I simply have to mention others that I think are great. Ilomilo is technically not available yet, but the trial can be downloaded here and then purchased by unlocking the full game for 800 points. I have only just started playing it, but it gives me vibes of a combination of Adventures of Lolo and LittleBigPlanet, which I think is fantastic. We'll see where it goes, though I'm a bit bummed by the lack of simultaneous co-op. Doritos Crash Course is a goofy, fun, and best of all free game that is great to play with friends and honestly looks pretty decent. Last of all, Snoopy Flying Ace really scratches the dogfighting (ha!) itch left unattended to by the death of old Xbox Live and Crimson Skies with it. Even though I kind of hate Peanuts, I really enjoy the feel and style of this game.  
 
 ilomilo
 ilomilo

 Doritos Crash Course
 Doritos Crash Course

 Snoopy Flying Ace
 Snoopy Flying Ace
January 1 I will announce my Game of the Year and other categories.
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My Game of the Year Candidates

2010 is a year that started strong for gaming, and good stuff has been coming out all year more or less.
 
Here's my personal candidates for game of the year.
 
- Mass Effect 2

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This is one heck of an impressive sequel. I wasn't really sure if I liked the first Mass Effect, but after importing my character to 2 and playing through it, I'm totally enamored with the universe. I've played through every bit of DLC and I currently hold an S-rank for this game, and it's my favorite on the 360 by far. I've even beaten the game twice after going through the original game again! It's a fantastic sequel and better in every way.
 
 
 
 


- Alan Wake
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Creepy, moody, and sporting a fantastic story, Alan Wake is a great experience. The gameplay is solid, too. It does drag on a bit and can get a little frustrating, but this is one game you shouldn't miss if you appreciate Hitchcock films or suspenseful novels.
 
 
 
 
 
 


    - Bayonetta
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Bayonetta is utterly insane. It's also quite possibly the best character-action game on the market currently, beating out the Ninja Gaidens, God of Wars, and Devil May Crys out there. It's stylish, it's slick, and it's lengthy. It's also brutally difficult, making it a great game for all those hardcore gamers out there. If only it had a language filter option a la Gears of War...I just skip the cutscenes and cut to the gameplay anyway. Also I hear the PS3 version is broken. That's really a shame.
 
 
 
 
 
 
- Super Street Fighter IV 
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Super Street Fighter IV adds to the original with ten more characters, more locations, more moves, and further balanced gameplay. It's a fantastic fighting game that gets deeper the more you play it, and it's nearly perfect in its feature set. It still lacks a good training mode to get novice players (like me) up to speed, and the online components could use a few tweaks. A fantastic value nonetheless.
 
 
 
 
 

 
- Super Mario Galaxy 2
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SMG 2 is brilliant. It builds upon its incredible masterpiece of a predecessor in smart and creative ways. It never stops for breath, and is so filled with variety and style that it puts other games to shame. The 2D platforming sections littered throughout make New Super Mario Bros. Wii look like third-rate shovelware, and the music is fantastic once again. I never felt like I was treading old ground. WE NEED MORE PLATFORMERS LIKE THIS ON ALL CONSOLES, DANG IT!!!
 
 
 
 
Stay tuned for updates as I play more games, and my potential Downloadable Game of the Year list as well.
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Super Mario Galaxy: The Greatest Game Ever Made

Since 1985, Nintendo has been at the forefront of video game production. It has been argued that Nintendo saved the industry in a time when gaming had become nearly irrelevant, and they earned their place as kings of the industry with myriad masterpieces. Their games – Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and many more – have influenced arguably every other game in existence, and their mastery in the field shines in their earnest endeavors.

So it is certainly reasonable to expect that the original saviors of the video game industry would continue to define gaming and push innovation throughout every generation of consoles, and that is exactly what they have done. 

 That's right. Without Mario, you probably wouldn't even be playing games.
 That's right. Without Mario, you probably wouldn't even be playing games.

Zoom to 2006. Nintendo’s newest and most controversial home console, the Wii, had a lot to prove. As a basic proof-of-concept game aimed at a growing casual market, Wii Sports showed what kind of quirky things the Wii could do. However, the Wii was technologically behind the HD standard of Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360. What the Wii needed was a high-caliber killer app, the likes of which Nintendo is famous for producing despite any perceived shortcomings.

This killer app was Super Mario Galaxy, a game that could arguably be called the greatest game ever made. Considering the substantial involvement of Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Zelda, Donkey Kong and Mario, it can hardly be surprising.

What exactly made Galaxy so special? From the outset, it looked like it followed the formula created by the revolutionary Nintendo 64 classic Super Mario 64 with sharp polygonal platforming and a focus on item collection to progress. Aside from the space theme, it seemed like it wasn’t much of a stretch from what had been established a million times before. It could have so easily been just a cop-out like many companies are wont to do.

But upon release, Super Mario Galaxy shocked the gaming public. It certainly used many elements of past Mario games as a reference and blueprint, but at its core Galaxy was its own creature, totally unique and much, much more than a sum of its parts. From the get-go, it was clear that Mario was up to a new standard of cinematic quality. The prologue to the game, set in the Mushroom Kingdom just outside of Peach’s infernal castle, is vibrant and happy, already kicking off the marvelous and sweeping soundtrack and setting the awe-inspiring tone.

The story progresses as most Mario games do, with Bowser showing up to whisk away the princess for whatever reason, but the scope of what happens and the production level of the scenes involved takes things to an entirely new level. Seeing Mario get pulled up into space, then subsequently being blasted away from saving the princess is such a gripping way of retelling this old story mechanic. 

The introduction is incredibly dramatic in ways Mario has never been.
The introduction is incredibly dramatic in ways Mario has never been.

From there, the game goes off introducing the incredible gameplay. One of the dozens of new gameplay systems introduced was the concept of round planetoids which are impossible to fall off of. After getting past the initial “whoa” factor and vertigo, it turns out to be incredibly intuitive and interesting. It’s used to thrilling effect throughout the game, though there is so much variety that it never gets stale.

A common theme of Wii games within the first year of release was capitalizing purely on the motion based gameplay at the expense of accuracy and quality. This also meant a lot of normal, mainstream games suffered from compromised control schemes that really didn’t work. The controls of Super Mario Galaxy, however, are incredibly intuitive and only use Wii controls where it makes sense. It shows an incredible understanding on Nintendo’s part of the limitations of their console. There are those few levels that do implement the unique motion-based controls, and they’re done in a succinct and fun way, so as to not become overbearing. Even removing direct camera control, which sounds like a nightmare, ended up being exactly the thing to do as the designers were able to craft an automatic system that works like a dream, rarely if ever becoming a problem.

The greatest single addition to the basic controls of Mario is his spin move, activated by shaking the remote or the nunchuk attachment.   The spin is used very much like the classic Raccoon or Cape Mario, both used to stun and defeat enemies as well as assisting traversal in a way to instill confidence during tricky jumps and in expanding the range of level design. The frustrating just-short jumps so common in polygonal games, even past Mario games, is all but removed with the inclusion of this simple-but-inspired move.  

One of the largest pitfalls of the two previous Mario games was the mind-numbingly repetitive nature. Despite its impact to polygonal games in general, Super Mario 64 was a severely flawed game due to its new and unexplored mechanics. Objectives were largely the same from beginning to end, and the direct sequel Super Mario Sunshine some years later only worsened the problem. Part of the genius of Super Mario Galaxy is the constant variety it affords the player. After playing the first few obligatory levels, things open up dramatically, allowing the player to explore whichever worlds he desired. If a place was too frustrating at a given time, several other stars were available. Ultimately, the game could be beaten after getting only half of the 121 available stars and taking the path of least resistance.

Fun as it could be, Sunshine was bogged down by many unnecessary elements.
Fun as it could be, Sunshine was bogged down by many unnecessary elements.

What Galaxy understood, and which most other 3D platformers seemed to fail to grasp, was that the gameplay was the reward. Sure, stars are available to collect, but they are simply a means to progress and open up more worlds to explore. Nintendo cut down on the excess and eliminated pointless collecting. Coins were simply there to manage health, and perhaps unlock an in-level bonus area once in a while. Gone were the frustrating 100-coin stars from the N64 and Sunshine. New “ star bits” were an added collectible that simply added a fun diversion while traveling around, simply requiring a point of the Wii remote to collect and never demanding backtracking or grinding to get the sufficient amount to unlock new side levels.

The wonder evoked when exploring the beautiful and intricate new worlds is perhaps the greatest part of the experience. Taking a page from another of Nintendo’s masterpieces, Super Mario Bros. 3, the levels were short but sweet. Unlike Sunshine that had made levels gargantuan and somewhat unmanageable, Galaxy had focus in each of its many “galaxies.” A guided path in each episode made trips back as memorable and unique as the first level. Also unlike Sunshine, the central theme – cosmic space travel – was not overused. There is always the idea that you’re on some group of small planets, but they’re each so different and based on completely unique motifs.

The cosmic worlds you traverse bring a great sense of wonder.
The cosmic worlds you traverse bring a great sense of wonder.

A key part of the incredible nature of Super Mario Galaxy is the phenomenal score, written mainly by Mahito Yokota and assisted by series veteran Koji Kondo. Originally planned as a more Latin-themed soundtrack, the unique sweeping music is a mix of orchestral grandeur, semi pop themes, and classic Mario. Plus, it was recorded almost completely with a live studio symphony, something Nintendo had promised with their decidedly disappointing Twilight Princess. It evokes a sense of beauty to match the incredible visual design and amazing gameplay. Simply put, it is one of the most moving and emotional scores to any game ever, and that it totally fits the game just means that it is one more essentially flawless element in the incredible masterpiece of a game.

A common complaint about the Wii is that due to the lack of HD functionality and its decidedly last-gen processor, games on it look like garbage. Most certainly, this is generally the case. Despite the general rule, Super Mario Galaxy is a visual marvel, both from a technical and an artistic standpoint. The colorful environments are pure eye candy and the incredibly imagination of the game creates that mystical sense of wonder at a near-constant level.

One great aspect of Super Mario Galaxy is its callbacks to other games in the series. Mario is capable of using a variety of special powers and suits like the Super Mario Bros. series; certain stages contain music that hails to previous games in the series; characters and Easter eggs show up now and again that will bring a smile to any Mario fan. They are added intelligently and with style.

Though the game sports gobs of Mario nostalgia thrown in at good taste and to great effect, Alex Navarro, then working for GameSpot, said of Galaxy (their 2007 Game of the Year): “You could’ve put Bubsy in that game, as long as the level design was the same and…every other facet of that game was identical, you just took the Mario nostalgia out of it, that game would still be pretty friggin’ awesome.” The Mario elements do not make the game – they simply add to it in a way that makes it that much more meaningful. It successfully built upon what Nintendo had built before while including the best of the present.

Now, one important factor of a game contending to be one of the greatest games of all time is overall impact on the industry as a whole, as well as innovation. In a generation dominated by hyper-violent, dirty action-shooters, Super Mario Galaxy’s undefiled innocence shines like a beacon. Though artistic psychos associated with such projects as “I Am 8-Bit” try to read strange pseudo-sexual or violent themes out of Mario, the real key to the series (and pretty much everything from Nintendo) is the definite, unapologetic purity. Mario is super happy, and everything is weird and wonderful and cute all at once. Nothing has even a hint of shady undertones or moody emo-centric politics. Nope. Super Mario Galaxy is unabashed, joyful, enjoyable innocence.

Amazing and squeaky clean is the name of the game.
Amazing and squeaky clean is the name of the game.

Beyond that, the strides Nintendo has made in a genre many people ignore in this day and age (once again, focused on big-budget online shooters) shows that there is so much untapped potential to be found in every aspect of gaming. Many gamers feel left behind this generation since their favorite styles of games have slipped into bargain-bin quality – Japanese roleplaying games, platformers, etc. In this sort of environment, Nintendo has produced their most polished effort yet, really bringing their A-game and everything they know to the table.

At the same time, there’s a beautiful simplicity to the way things are in Super Mario Galaxy. Anyone could pick it up and play it, but there’s more than enough tooth-clenching challenge for the Mario savant. It’s accessible and inaccessible in ways that only the finest of art is. It touches a deep emotion beyond the scope of just being a game – a beckoning to a realm of possibilities in a beautiful, harmonious, and unsoiled world. It inspires and lifts while so many other games are known for sapping your life away and turning your brain to mush. Only time will tell if the industry will pay attention to what Nintendo has done and realize that every game doesn't need to be a set-piece driven grungy shooter.

Now in 2010, Nintendo has released a sequel that has built upon the gameplay elements found in the original Galaxy in intelligent and ingenious ways. At the same time, in streamlining many of the mechanics and the soundtrack, it has lost a little bit of the stirring level of mystery and splendor. As a game, it evolves as you would expect it to and is exceptionally fun. As an overall experience, it still doesn’t hit the same notes quite as hard as Mario Galaxy did back in 2007.

 SMG2 built upon the framework of the original in meaningful ways.
 SMG2 built upon the framework of the original in meaningful ways.

And for these and perhaps many other potentially-explored reasons, Super Mario Galaxy is one of, if not the greatest game ever made.

Feel free to leave educated, meaningful comments. Realize that this analysis is somewhat subjective, just as determining a best game ever made will always be subjective to personal taste, age, values, etc.

   

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Why I Didn't Like "Twilight Princess" All That Much

I am, and have been from a very young age, a slobbering Zelda fan. I list among my favorite games many of the Zelda series, and I feel they aptly represent the best of all of Nintendo's consoles that they appear on.
 
This is about the one game in the series that severely disappointed me: Twilight Princess.
 
To start out, it was originally announced in 2003 that a new Zelda game was underway. A year later, at E3, a teaser was released demonstrating the return to Ocarina of Time's more realistic approach, unlike Wind Waker's cel-shaded cartoony appearance. I was very excited at the idea of another epic, land-based Zelda adventure with much-improved visuals over the N64 games.
 

 
What is most agonizing to point out, though, is that the game was released in November of 2006 (note: more than three years after the original announcement and after several meaningful delays) as a hacked-together port to Nintendo's new console, the Wii, and was released almost as an afterthought a month later onto the system it was actually developed for, the GameCube. What should have been Nintendo's crowning masterpiece and the finest game they had ever crafted turned out to be...just another Zelda game. For better and for worse.
 
Since then, Nintendo has released what I believe to be their best game yet: Super Mario Galaxy. It featured classic polygonal Mario gameplay, but adapted to their new console with a sense of polish nobody, Nintendo included, has been able to touch before or since. It also had top-notch visuals, the most sweeping, beautiful fully orchestrated soundtrack I've ever heard for any video game ever, plus it featured meaningful innovation and stylistic modifications to make Mario relevant in this day and age. 
Wind Waker was a hugely innovative and artistic masterpiece.
Wind Waker was a hugely innovative and artistic masterpiece.

 
Twilight Princess, on the other hand, offers almost nothing to distinguish itself as meaningfully better than what Ocarina of Time accomplished back in 1998. The gameplay is largely identical with minor enhancements, the dungeons follow largely the same patterns and themes, the music is similar (and synthesized - though Nintendo had promised all along that it would be recorded with a full orchestra), and the world is largely similar too - Epona? Check. Zoras and Gorons? Check. Princess who largely messes things up and has to sort of atone for it? Check. It's telling that Nintendo even planned on putting Sheik in as a character at one point.
 
The biggest shortcoming, in fact, is that Twilight Princess is so by-the-numbers Zelda it's almost boring. Now, bear with me - games like Darksiders and Star Fox Adventures show quite plainly that Nintendo has a special gift for the style of gameplay that nobody else can match. However, it is obvious that Nintendo can do much better. Wind Waker was the sequel nobody was expecting. It was polarizing, even - many didn't like the new visual style, the sailing, and such. But that's what Nintendo's always been known for doing best - making fantastic and innovative games, even when you didn't think you wanted it. After Super Mario 64, every 3D platorming game followed closely in its footsteps except for one: Super Mario Sunshine, its own sequel. Majora's Mask, though recycling a lot of visual and audio assets from Ocarina of Time, was a vastly different game in focus and tone.
 
Everything in TP screams "fan service" to the worst of Zelda fans - those who are super vocal about the most geeky aspects of Zelda and whine when things aren't exactly their way. Tons of people played OoT back in N64 days, and all these people I've ever encountered have really positive memories about Ocarina of Time and would love to play it again or would recommend it. Many of these same people would never come near Twilight Princess, and I feel it is because it just doesn't make the same impact, nor does it meet the same requirements. The gameplay, style, focus, etc. of OoT was mindblowing even by N64 standards and still holds true, but copying that exact blueprint with new technology just comes off as weak and, quite frankly, too nerdy for its own good.
 
But let's get away from the vague theories and really get down to the core game here.
 
You start out as a young adult farmhand, a skilled and well-liked young man named Link. The game starts very slowly as you are tasked with herding goats, impressing the bratty kids in town, and getting on the good side of the local girl. The game holds your hand through familiar game mechanics for a while, then finally gets moving a little bit. Soon, you are acquainted with the game's main gimmick: Link's wolf transformation. The game plods along, tasking you with gathering numerous glowing orbs to restore a part of the landscape back from its twisted Twilight form. (These are a few of the many direct comparisons that can be made to 2006's arguably superior Zelda-esque title Okami.) A better sense of pace would have immediately helped the game. I find it funny that Nintendo Power, possibly the most ridiculously biased and one-sided magazine for reviews, gave the game a 9.5 on its scale, citing early development as a serious problem. That they didn't give the game a 10 is an incredible shocker, especially given how they went on and on about it leading up to its release. They went on to give Metroid Prime 3 and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, both decent but very flawed games in their own respect, a perfect 10.
The wolf form is mostly uninteresting.
The wolf form is mostly uninteresting.

 
After a few dungeons - formulaic but fun, as the game would prove to stay true to - you are finally able to switch between both forms on the fly, which should have been granted much earlier. The wolf form never develops any further than the initial abilities you have right at the beginning of the game, which is a real shame. It means you only use the form when absolutely necessary, and it's a bigger hassle to switch than it should be, since you can't do it in sight of anybody and it takes a whole discussion window and several button presses just to switch. As regular Link, the game is more or less identical to Ocarina of Time, with a few more sword abilities borrowed from Wind Waker and pulled from Super Smash Bros., just to appease the fans, you know. The swordplay doesn't feel as fluid or fun as Wind Waker, though, and most of the abilities you learn are pointless and just for show.
 
As far as the storyline goes, Twilight Princess ultimately fails to deliver.  Midna is at least an intriguing character with lots of skeletons in her closet and an impish ability to cause trouble. However, she, as well as all of the other characters introduced throughout the game, are ultimately hollow shells without rhyme or reason. As the game begins, it truly seems to merit its "T for Teen" rating in darker tone and more thematic elements. As the game progresses, though, it never fulfills on the promise to be anything more than the classic Zelda story. Ganondorf is bad. He must be stopped. Why is he bad? Why does he want power? What will he do with it when he gets it? Nope, sorry. None of that here. It's even more primitive than previous games in that no motive is set up. He wants the Triforce and will do bad things with it. Naughty, naughty Ganondorf that never seems to do anything bad enough to really come off as that evil. To contrast, the first time you hear any mention of Ganondorf in Ocarina of Time, you hear it from the ancient tree spirit - the Deku Tree - in his final moments, since he has been mercilessly murdered for not cooperating.
 
In fact, OoT seemed to have the dark tone and creepy foreboding down much better on much more primitive hardware. The atmosphere of the adult temples is almost chilling, and the horrible things that exist in the future Hyrule are really kind of shocking, especially for an E-rated game. It even featured red blood splatter from the final boss - which was changed to green for the Wii Virtual Console and other recent versions, probably to conserve the rating. Twilight Princess seems to have that darker feel at first, but it never really captures it. 

Also, in this day and age, where even  Final Fantasy and  Dragon Quest are fully voice-acted, it comes off as downright silly that Twilight Princess lacks this. Of all the games out there, the story in Twilight Princess would have benefited hugely by the inclusion of solid voice work. Link can remain silent all he wants, but all of the other characters would be so much better were they given more voice and personality. That pervading sense of antiquity in TP is summed up very well by Jeff Gerstmann himself in a review he did for Gamespot back when it released. I feel he was being simply merciful in giving it an 8.8.
 
The Wii controls do nothing to enhance the game, either. When it was first released, the new shiny Wii controls seemed like a cool thing to include, but now that the luster and initial coolness factor of motion waggle have worn off, it's painfully obvious that the controls were terribly thrown together. There's an annoying large fairy pointer that's present at all times unless all Wii controls are turned off, at which point it just becomes a bad control setup period. Pointer controls work okay at times and poorly at others, and replacing a button press to swing Link's sword with senseless shaking of the remote simply doesn't work right. Plus, several sound effects and musical cues are done through the crappy speaker on the remote, which leads to the need to turn off the sound for the thing. Just play it on the GameCube, folks.
At times, the visual style can be breathtaking.
At times, the visual style can be breathtaking.

    
The visuals of the game are another thing to mention. Twilight Princess looks solid, and has a pretty nice art style going for it. But it would most certainly not crack the top five best-looking games on the GameCube - among them Resident Evil 4, Metroid Prime 1 and 2, Wind Waker, Star Fox Adventures, and others. Texture work is fairly poor, in fact, and is rather perplexing. There are impressive moments in which the scale and style of the game are well-demonstrated, and others when it is kind of sloppy looking.
 
In short, Twilight Princess never delivered on the promise Nintendo made. Its presentation is relatively sub-par, the gameplay doesn't improve anything, and it makes numerous steps backwards while other games in the series boldly try new things and apply the Zelda formula in different ways. I don't think Twilight Princess is a horrible game by any means. I simply think it didn't accomplish anything new or impress like it should have, especially in light of how cinematically impressive games are becoming. I was very, very let down by this game.
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