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LoseHound posted:I like the puzzle that gives you the name. Its needless complexity is part of the fun. Piecing together random details from fragments of information seems like a pretty cool mechanic. Certainly a better premise for a puzzle than "FEED ME" or "FEED ME MORE". I agree in theory, but to actually play it was just way too long (it probably took me about twice as long as what was shown) and a lot of the time it was pretty difficult to tell what you were supposed to be doing. It could have been vastly improved by changing the dialogue to give more guidance about what you should be doing and to keep you focused on the reason you're doing all this (to get the dead guy's name). Stuff like the way Erica keeps telling you the solution isn't right (because you haven't got all five memories right) makes it seem like you're doing something wrong even though you're on track. And like I said in the video, by the time I actually got to the bit where Robert gives you Antony's name I'd forgotten what the whole thing was about. It doesn't help that the name comes up at the start of the memory and the rest of the details from that point on are useless.
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Jun 23, 2015 07:06
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And finally it's time for the last part of episode one, time to catch our killer. Sort of. Not really. Episode 1, Part 7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PndLpPwbsgo I know it's only episode one of four, but that was our resolution? Really? Let's tally this up: We've had three killers. Two of them escaped and the other one was already dead when we found out about him. We've gone to the rescue of two people and failed to save both of them (and if anyone can explain to me where the hell Davies appeared from in that final cut scene I'd appreciate it). We've solved one set of crimes by having another criminal solve it for us and just hand us the solution. We sort of learned to control our psychic powers, but didn't really learn anything useful from them and should probably just stick to normal police work in future. Or quit and let somebody competent take over. And we know that John and Cordelia are both involved in some mysterious things that we should probably be interested in finding out about, but honestly... eh. And we found out that on top of the two victims we knew about the Speaking of victims, here are the three we saw the info on:  Will any of this be useful or relevant to the remaining episodes? Probably not. But that's it for this episode, so the next update will be part one of The Wise Monkey. I wonder if we'll manage to do anything right this time? Or if we'll ever give John back his lighter or Gallagher her tape recorder? Or if that symbol that Antony Longmore had tattooed on his arm and then was later used to point to the right spot on the map will be significant to anything? Or how many people in this world are aware that psychics exist? Or why Davies tried to shred that note, and then saved a bit of it? Or why John's desk is all the way at the back of the room by itself? Some, all, or none of these questions may be answered next time!
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Jul 23, 2015 16:44
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Probably by accident. I mean we're still suppose to think that Erica is a tuff gurrl who can Get Things Done even without her powers.
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Jul 23, 2015 17:12
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Yay I helped! And got mentioned! And my name was pronounced correctly! ...but it was this game... I do not know how to feel right now.
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Jul 23, 2015 19:06
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Huh. Well, I will give them this. The psychic powers they introduced are pretty well suited to adventure game capabilities. Get three of a thing together! Fill in the blanks in this picture! Now if only there wasn't all this petty larceny.
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Aug 17, 2015 00:21
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Just want to let anyone following this know, I haven't abandoned the LP. CosGit and I have both had to move house recently and each had various things come up in our lives, but I've just started playing episode two, so we should be starting up again before too much longer. And from the little bit I've played so far, it looks like it gets even dumber as it goes.
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Sep 24, 2015 18:23
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I finally caught up on this (Firefox has this really nifty bug with that many YouTube embeds where it gets them all scrambled), and as someone who lives in the Boston area, this game is written really strangely. "The train" that they made you pick a station for is a subway. No one in Boston would call it a "train station" - they'd call it a "T station." OK, fine, I can see not wanting to call it "the T" because if you're not from around here you'd probably not know what "the T" is (hmm) but then after calling it a "train" they suddenly switch to calling it "the T" without any explanation. (The T is simply Boston's transit system. Any part of it, including the commuter rail (actual trains), the subway, and the various bus lines (including the bus line the T calls a subway line for political reasons).) It's like someone realized partway through that calling it "the T" would be confusing but only edited a couple of pages of the script before getting bored. So, anyway, a local would call it "the T" and refer to Longmore as a "T employee" but you'd think they could throw in a couple of lines explaining what "the T" is for people who haven't been to Boston or at the very least be consistent in referring to the MBTA and the subway as "the T" so it didn't come out of nowhere. (Although to be fair to the game developers, the Green Line does eventually go above ground. But the stops they're showing you are all underground subway stops.) Tiggum posted:
That map is pretty clearly traced directly over a real map. The Green Line runs along Boylston street at that point, so most of the stops are named after cross streets. Except for Boylston, which is on the Common. (All their maps look like they were traced off Google Maps, including the world map.) If anyone was wondering why Back Bay is randomly orange, that's because it's on the Orange Line and all the other stops are on the Green Line. If you're wondering why it looks like the Green Line splits at Copley into two separate lines, that's because it does. Considering the game doesn't bother mentioning any of this I'm not sure why they bothered color coding Back Bay because it ultimately makes it look like it's highlighted, rather than the stops being color coded. (The restaurant locations are all fake, although amusingly it looks like there really is a Pad Thai restaurant in that area, but it happens to be located where they put Ginger 'N Basil.) The other fun thing with this game are the voice actor's attempts at doing a Boston accent or at least sounding "Bostonian." Erica's voice actor seems to constantly forget she's supposed to be speaking in a Boston accent and then randomly drops Rs to try and pretend. The people who wrote the dialog clearly knew some Boston-isms - any time someone uses "wicked" they're trying to make it more Bostonian. Sometimes it sort of works. Sully's voice actor has, by far, the best Boston accent of the voice actors. I'm kind of hoping that they keep this set in Boston because it has this weird mix of things that are clearly local references and things that absolutely aren't. It has the feeling that one guy on the team lived in Boston and was only occasionally consulted on story elements.
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Oct 5, 2015 06:07
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After some technical issues that I've sort of resolved (if anyone knows why Windows Movie Maker would suddenly stop being able to use FRAPS videos, let me know) and some slight scheduling issues, we're back, and it's time to start episode two! It's even worse than the first one! Episode 2, part 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h5msBFLi44 Now I don't know that Sully is going to die, I haven't played ahead, but I'm just going to assume that we'll race to save him and arrive just moments too late since that seems to be what happens any time Erica tries to save anyone. Goodbye, Sully, you were a terrible detective and will not be missed.  And here are those files on the four victims so far:     And the case file:  And the killer's file:  I really don't understand why we're not just putting out an APB and giving her picture to the media. This case is solved, right? BTW, if you try to access the Wise Monkey case file from your own computer, you just get this:  This makes no sense. You don't get the case file from Sully's personal files, you look it up in the case database, it just gives you a different result if you use his computer somehow.
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Nov 30, 2015 01:07
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I had given this LP up as abandoned. Happy that isn't the case.
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Nov 30, 2015 23:55
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I remain amazed by what a trainwreck this entire story is (and it only gets worse). It's like someone heard of police procedurals and had one automatically generated using Markov chains.
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Dec 1, 2015 12:46
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Southie is South Boston. This game just loves making random Boston references without bothering to explain them. Sully's voice actor does a good job of doing a Southie accent. Kickball is basically baseball played with a soccer ball. It's very common in elementary school gym class, but I don't think there are any adult leagues.
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Dec 1, 2015 17:31
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I'd hoped to get this one out before the end of the year, but unfortunately didn't quite make it, so here it is now. Episode 2, part 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHNMFocBm2E This is probably the least interesting/entertaining part of the game so far - so much dialogue - or maybe I'm just forgetting the worst bits of episode one.
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Jan 4, 2016 02:31
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Berklee College of Music is a real place and not too surprisingly their exterior shot looks suspiciously similar to the Wikipedia article's picture. Fun fact! After starting at Boston University, Psy of "Gangnam Style" fame transferred to Berklee College of Music, where he ... dropped out before graduating and starting his music career in Korea. And as you guessed, real Berklee is, in fact, larger than that single building. With a student body of over 4,000 - good job going out and meeting all of them, Dean Chapman. And I love how his computer is blatantly showing a screenshot of the Berklee.edu website. Considering Yo-Yo Ma has a degree from Harvard, the concept of him visiting Berklee and signing a cello for the dean is really not that far fetched. And as Berklee is (at least according to Wikipedia) the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world, it's not that odd that they might have signed Beatles memorabilia. So I'm not sure why they bothered showing that stuff. Unless Raleigh Holmes applied to and was rejected from Berklee and they're still sore about that.
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Jan 4, 2016 07:14
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Xenoveritas posted:Considering Yo-Yo Ma has a degree from Harvard, the concept of him visiting Berklee and signing a cello for the dean is really not that far fetched. And as Berklee is (at least according to Wikipedia) the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world, it's not that odd that they might have signed Beatles memorabilia. So I'm not sure why they bothered showing that stuff. Like I said, I think the implication was that the dean is suspiciously wealthy, but I don't know why his wealth should be suspicious or how that could possibly tie in to the whole serial killer thing.
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Jan 4, 2016 07:32
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No, I agree that's what they're going for, but the only way you'd get that is from the Dubai comment. Otherwise it seems like stuff that isn't that far out of the realm of possibility for things that the dean of a music college might have. Then again I'm not entirely sure of the developers' grasp of concepts like "scale" and "reality" based on things like needing to steal a cassette tape or the flat screen VCR TV or any of the backdrops for this game.
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Jan 4, 2016 09:33
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OK, so we've still got a lot of dialogue in this episode (including the most annoying character ever), but we sort of make some progress? We have a couple of leads to follow up on, at least. Episode 2, Part 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWTgaNI8kY8 And unless you rewatched this several times while editing it like me, you probably didn't notice what that interagency request form looked like. We only saw it very briefly as Erica passed it to McAdams and he passed it back. But I saw it and I thought it looked strangely familiar...  I can't quite make it out, but it definitely reminds me of something...  Oh right, that's it.
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Feb 20, 2016 03:12
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I love how Erica snarkily rolls her eyes at Melissa suggesting they "talk to the spirits". It's like the game developers forgot they gave her psychic powers from birth.
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Feb 20, 2016 10:49
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To be fair, it's pretty consistent characterisation. She's smugly dismissive of everything, not just psychic stuff. To be equally fair, I don't think that's something the writers deserve credit for.
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Feb 20, 2016 17:41
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After a couple of really dull sections we finally get something entertaining. I don't think it was meant to entertain us in the way it did, but it's certainly something. And we're approaching the end of episode two, so it's all coming together (as much as this game ever does). Episode 2, Part 4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Rxdq242V-c PS. Plot twist!
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Mar 11, 2016 17:33
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And here it is, the thrilling conclusion! Turns out I'm not as good at predicting how this story's going to go as I thought, but as a consolation prize we do get to see Erica walk up some stairs again and our favourite police officer is back. Episode 2, Part 5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjDg5f16O_Q And here's that message from Batman's friend / that IT company / probably Cordelia, let's be honest. Although taking into account my prediction about Sully dying, maybe I'm totally wrong about this one too.   Coming up next: The Oracle!
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Mar 24, 2016 16:31
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So, this isn't over yet? How much longer until you put this game out of our misery?
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Mar 24, 2016 23:20
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Well, there are four episodes and we've done two. I think the first one was probably the longest (just because the second was significantly shorter) but I don't know how long the remaining two actually are. 
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Mar 25, 2016 03:10
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Erica really is a terrible agent. Not only does she tamper with all the evidence, but she never gets any results either.
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Mar 25, 2016 07:48
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kjetting posted:Erica really is a terrible agent. Not only does she tamper with all the evidence, but she never gets any results either. Yeah, our results so far are pretty dismal. Victims Scott Reed: Dead. Madison Davies: Dead Jared Sully: Kidnapped from the middle of the FBI office and mutilated. Cases Cain Killer: No leads. Hangman: Suspect dead. Wise Monkey: Suspect dead. Oracle: No leads. The Oracle's escaped twice now, and solved two of our cases for us. 
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Mar 25, 2016 14:37
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Before we move on to episode three, just a quick bonus video to show what happens if you do things a little differently. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggFG9qp8tpI
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Apr 13, 2016 03:39
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We're back, with restored enthusiasm and good spirits! Maybe skip to 2:41 if you don't care about the recap of the plot so far. Also, the game throws a bit of a twist at us in this video, and I am curious, if only to see how they screw it up. Episode 3, Part 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FChJiaqFr14
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Jun 3, 2016 03:28
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Tibetan singing bowls
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Jun 3, 2016 19:31
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By now I find it hard to believe that the writing isn't self aware and that Erika isn't written as the worst FBI agent ever on purpose. Especially comments like "my favorite part of any investigation, carrying around murder weapons". Has there been a single piece of evidence that she hasn't tampered with yet? A law enforcer colleague whose job she hasn't been obstructing? A witness she hasn't failed to protect? A case she has managed to close? She's like a grimdark version of Inspector Gadget, bumbling around, following all the wrong leads and doing everything wrong.
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Jun 7, 2016 08:42
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kjetting posted:A law enforcer colleague whose job she hasn't been obstructing? kjetting posted:A witness she hasn't failed to protect? kjetting posted:A case she has managed to close?
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Jun 7, 2016 10:39
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kjetting posted:She's like a grimdark version of Inspector Gadget, bumbling around, following all the wrong leads and doing everything wrong. It doesn't really baffle me that she continues to be an adventure game rear end in a top hat -- I know why it's happening, because USE FRIENDLY DEMEANOR AND FEDERAL CREDENTIALS ON MAN is not a puzzle -- but that doesn't make every new level of assholery any less of a trainwreck to watch. I both dread and await more.
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Jul 20, 2016 05:15
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This video was a long time coming, even by my standards, so sorry about that. I could make excuses, but instead I'll just get on with it. Episode 3, part 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz9tDpfMsQI New characters, new game mechanics, and we've got a few pictures to go with this update. First some paintings.    Not sure if or how those are going to be relevant, but we'll see. Now some notes on dead people.   And miscellaneous.  
Tiggum fucked around with this message at 14:31 on Aug 29, 2016 |
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Aug 29, 2016 14:27
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Just posting to let anyone who's still following that the LP isn't dead, but at this point I don't know when the next update will be. Hopefully some time in January. Till then, here's a preview.
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Dec 15, 2016 09:40
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Tiggum posted:Just posting to let anyone who's still following that the LP isn't dead, but at this point I don't know when the next update will be. Hopefully some time in January. Till then, here's a preview. I was actually just thinking about the thread right before you posted this.
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Dec 15, 2016 15:00
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I never heard of this game before and looking it up showed that the person behind the Gabriel Knight series made this game, so this should be an interesting experience.
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Feb 13, 2017 01:44
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Mraagvpeine posted:I never heard of this game before and looking it up showed that the person behind the Gabriel Knight series made this game, so this should be an interesting experience. Jane Jensen was just a story consultant.
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Feb 13, 2017 15:04
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OK, we finally had some time to record another video. Our plan going forward is to get The Oracle done, then LP something else (short) before coming back to do The Cain Killer, and when we do we'll probably get all the videos done ahead of time and then post them one a week. So in the immediate future there should be one more video (already done) before too much longer, two more to follow (hopefully not too far behind) and then there'll be a longer gap, but it'll be intentional this time. So anyway, here's episode 3, part 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQKSUHA4X5I And as usual there's some handouts for you:    We really didn't pay any attention to this during this recording, but I've finished the episode and I don't think there's much that you really need to know here, most of what we're getting seems to be red herrings and pointless complexity. Basically, we know that Max is dead and Keith is missing; Cordelia says she killed Max (but John thinks she didn't) and we know that Cordelia killed the Hangman and the Wise Monkey and also Davies, and kidnapped and tortured Sully. What we don't know is why (any of it) or what Skorobeus's deal is or who really killed Max or where Keith is, or who Therrien is or how he fits into anything or what the Smiths business actually is (Real estate? Art? Electronics? All of those?) or what Max was hiding from his siblings. It seems like the stuff we do know is more than enough to be going on with, but we're stuck investigating the other stuff for the moment instead of just trying to track down Cordelia for the murders we know she did. And she and Skorobeus have let us into her house for some reason. 
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Apr 7, 2017 12:49
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Episode 3, part 4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T1FfRaVvR8 This was probably the least interesting part of the entire game. I was hoping we'd have another video ready to go by this point, but unfortunately we don't, so no ETA at this point on the end of the rest of the episode. But here are some handouts.       
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Jun 6, 2017 10:11
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I've now recorded all the gameplay for the entire rest of the game and I'm glad to report that the worst is behind us. There's some amusingly dumb stuff to come and episode four is the shortest by far, so hopefully we can make some time to record commentary in the near future.
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Jul 30, 2017 09:42
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I wonder how dumb it's going to get.
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Sep 26, 2017 14:21
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Mraagvpeine posted:I wonder how dumb it's going to get. Look forward to finding out in the near future! Cosgit and I recorded a couple of videos the other day, I've just got to get the editing done. And that will bring us to the end of episode three. I'm really glad some people are still interested in this because episode three has honestly been a bit of a slog to get through. Episode four does get better though (in the sense that more dumb stuff happens for us to laugh at / complain about). But I doubt I'll be attempting to LP anything in the future without playing through the whole game first; just because it starts out fun doesn't mean it won't get really boring later.
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Sep 26, 2017 15:58
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