March 2022

The 28th update for roguelike action game Dead Cells is out now for both PC and consoles, bringing a new biome and more to the 2018 game.

The free Break the Bank update adds another biome called the Bank, where players will be able to increase their wallets more than the other areas. This optional underground biome features three new enemies to help aid or hinder in that endeavor, such as the Gold Kamikaze bat that drops more money or the Agitated Pickpocket that will take your gold.

Players can receive three new weapons that focus on gold, such as the Dagger of Cupidity that gives critical hits after picking up gold and the Money Shooter that literally will shoot your gold at enemies. The free update adds three new mutations, two outfits, and quality of life updates all detailed in the latest patch notes.

Dead Cells studios Motion Twin and Evil Empire also revealed today that more DLC will be coming to the game “for the rest of 2022 and beyond.”

“This update marks the beginning of a new era for Dead Cells,” said Evil Empire CEO Steve Filby. “We have an array of content and ideas we are still creating on our side and it’s important to us to reassure fans who maybe thought after the last paid DLC that we were winding down on development. That is not the case, and we consider Update 28 still in the middle of the game’s lifecycle so there’s certainly more to come.”

Dead Cells is available on PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices.

Twitch can often be a cesspit of awfulness. If it’s not one streamer getting swatted or another streamer getting accused of misogyny, then it’s potential litigation between big-name broadcasters (that ultimately fizzled into nothing). But there is some good on the platform, too. One such example is WowGrandma78, a…

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Borderlands games aren’t exactly known for being challenging. Even if you turned up the heat, you wouldn’t get a tougher game. You’d just get a more arduous one, the many bullet sponges simply becoming bullet-spongier. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands does away with all that by including an actually interesting wrinkle to its…

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On March 29, lawyers representing choreographer Kyle Hanagami sued Epic Games for copyright infringement over the “It’s Complicated” dance emote in Fortnite. The in-game emote begins with movements which Hanagami’s lawyers allege are lifted from copyrighted dance moves created by the choreographer. The lawsuit was…

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The unnerving tone of Geography Of Robot’s Southern Gothic point-n-click adventure Norco fascinates me. Its conflation of a recognisable 21st-century Louisiana, and dystopian science fiction, creates an oppressive darkness that weighs on my mind as I click through the game’s “mind-map” menu, where memories and ideas…

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Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe - the remake of the remake of everybody's favourite comedic rumination on video game agency - finally has a release date and will, after a number of not-insignificant delays, be heading to PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and PC on 27th April.

Stanley Parable's Ultra Deluxe edition was first announced back in 2018, with developers Galactic Cafe and Crows Crows Crows (the respective studios of original Stanley Parable creator Davey Wreden and William Pugh, who co-designed the 2013 remake of the 2011 original) aiming to launch the following year. 2020 bought a second delay, and a hat-trick was achieved in 2021 - leaving many to ponder if the whole thing mightn't actually be some sort of mega-meta ruse and that the game didn't, and would never, exist.

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Arcade1up has been around for a while now, making home arcade machines for those with the enthusiasm and floor space to give 'em a shot. In recent years, though, it seems like its reach has grown to allow it access to hard-to-license properties you can't play anywhere else. Among them? Konami's The Simpsons, a well-regarded 1991 beat-'em-up. The game made a brief appearance on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but otherwise? It hasn't been available for people to play. So die-hard fans? Yeah, they may be ready for something like this. We put the machine through its paces.

Assembling an Arcade1up cabinet is certainly an undertaking, but it’s not so bad. You generally need to set aside an evening for construction, but it’s doable for normal folk like us. Arcade1up sent over the bundle with riser and stool, and all of it comes together fairly simply. There are a few elements we'd love to see improved, but they're relatively minor. Like the plastic screen covering getting stuck in the screws! But for the most part, the company's worked out most of the kinks in the process.

Arcade1up has been iterating on its cabinet designs in some smart ways. For one? It dropped the “let’s put big logos on the front” thing in favor of decorative fake coin doors. That looks nicer in peoples’ houses! Good on ya, Arcade1up. It also feels like trial and error has led to more comfortable button spacing. When we played earlier machines, things felt a lot more cramped.

A Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions update arrived and adds both a Hirado Middle School story chapter and Freestyle Match mode. But it isn’t the only new content coming to the game. There will also be more paid DLC, starting with the Episode: Rising Stars Part 1 on March 31, 2022. They are part of the Character Mission Pack, which will include 9 characters total.

The paid DLC will kick off the new pass with three new characters. Hikaru Matsuyama, Karl Heinz Schneider, and Taro Misaki will all be added. The announcement confirmed there will be IF stories for these new players. Each one will have missions with rewards. If it follows the pattern set by the previous pass and DLC, it will be $2.99 per character or the whole pass for $24.99.

As for the free Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions update’s Hirado MS route and Freestyle Mode, there are also videos going over both. With the Hirado storyline, people will follow Hiroshi Jito and Mitsuru Sano. As for Freestyle, it allows people to use items as they play to turn the tide in a match.

Here’s a trailer looking at the Hirado route and Matsuyama, Heinz Schneider, and Misaki.

Fire Emblem Heroes next Legendary unit will be Nanna from Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia 776. This new version of the heroine will be a red sword-wielding cavalry unit. The banner will appear on April 1, 2022.

This marks the first time Nanna isn’t a healer in Fire Emblem Heroes. In both Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia 776, she appears initially as a troubadour who can heal, and her standard and Scions of the Twelve alt both use staves. She wields the Lands Sword here, which increases her attack by three, gives her an attack and speed buff if her health is above 25%, stops foe’s follow-ups, prevents certain non-Special effects, and heals 7 HP after a fight.

In addition to Nanna, the following characters will also be focus units.

• Ash: Retainer to Askr
• Celica: Queen of Valentia
• Chrom: Crowned Exalt
• Lilina: Firelight Leader
• Mila: Goddess of Love
• Rennac: Rich “Merchant”
• Seiros: Saint of Legend
• Sigurd: Fated Holy Knight
• Thrasir: Omnicidal Witch
• Ullr: The Bowmaster
• Wolf: Coyote’s Loyal

Here’s the trailer revealing Legendary Nanna and the other units on her banner.

Click here to watch embedded media

Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Publisher: Crows Crows Crows
Developer: Crows Crows Crows
Release: April 27, 2022

427 isn't just Stanley's employee identification number. The number cleverly is also the release date for Crows Crows Crows' The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe.

Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Release: TBA

Blizzard Entertainment released a Diablo IV Quarterly Update yesterday, and several devs chimed in on what the upcoming open-world RPG will offer players. Recently-appointed game director Joe Shely voiced that Diablo IV will be "an immersive world you can wander through and enjoy getting lost in." These words held even more weight when art director of environments Brian Fletcher and lead exterior environment artist Matt McDaid added that Sanctuary (the game world/mortal realm) boasts five explorable regions with over 150 dungeons. 

House of the Dragon, the prequel series to Game of Thrones centered on House Targaryen, premieres on August 21, HBO announced on Twitter today. 

The 10-episode series, which will only be streamed through HBO Max, is set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, when the Targaryens were still in power. However, House of the Dragon centers on the inner turmoil that led to their downfall, particularly a civil war known as the Dance of Dragons. The show draws partial inspiration from author George R.R. Martin’s 2018 book Fire & Blood.  

The cast includes Matt Smith (Prince Daemon Targaryen), Olivia Cooke (Lady Alicent Hightower), Paddy Considine (King Viserys I Targaryen), and Emma D’Arcy (Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen). Writer and producer Ryan J. Condal (Rampage, Colony) and George R.R. Martin serve as principal showrunners.

You can watch House of the Dragon’s first trailer, which premiered last October, here.

Are you excited to watch House of the Dragon? Let us know in the comments!

Valorant’s Episode 4 has already seen the introduction of one new Agent –Neon, the speedy Philipino duelist–, but there’s another on the way soon, and Riot Games has already begun teasing their arrival. Here we’ll be recapping everything we know about the new Valorant Agent ‘Bounty Hunter,’ including all abilities and information so far disclosed.

Update 04/13/2022: Patch 4.07 has added new easter eggs throughout the practice range that refer to a new Agent from Turkey. Also, advertisements around Turkish cities teasing the launch of a new Agent have been discovered.

Update 04/16/2022: Dataminers have revealed that Bounty Hunter’s Agent name is Fade!

Update 04/20/2022: Riot Games has since officially revealed keyart for Fade, showcasing her look for the very first time during Masters Reykjavik 2022. The image has been added at the top of this page.

Today third-party developers had plenty of news to share about add-ons for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

We start with Qbit, which released another video focusing on showcasing the progress done on its freeware Boeing 737-800 for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

This time around, we take a look at the flight deck, and more precisely the work done on the avionics.

If you want to follow the project’s progress, you can find Qbit at the dedicated Discord server.

Next, Aerosoft released new images of its progress on the Airbus A330, including a look at the landing gear bays and the EFB, which features SimBrief integration.

Dead Cells' already ridiculously generous bounty of stuff has expanded once more, this time courtesy of its free new Break the Bank update, which brings the likes of new money themed enemies, weapons, and a brand-new biome to PC and consoles today.

Break the Bank is all about the gold, and its centrepiece is an opulent depository for unimaginable riches known as The Bank. Mechanically, this is quite a bit different from other biomes so far added to developer Motion Twin's acclaimed rogue-like action-platformer, given that its entrance - a mysterious giant chest - will appear at random during a run.

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In a recent tournament match, a Call of Duty: Vanguard player was accused of cheating. In an attempt to clear his name, the player shared off-screen footage of his gameplay, in which you could clearly see...that he was cheating.

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FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki’s love for the late Kentaro Miura’s manga and anime series Berserk is the worst kept secret in the gaming industry. While he avoids explicitly discussing the connections between his games and Berserk, it’s clear that every Miyazaki-helmed project since 2009’s Demon’s Souls has…

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Microsoft has reinstated the ability for Xbox users to share game screenshots and videos directly to Twitter in response to feedback it received after removing the feature from console dashboards in an Xbox Insider build earlier this month.

While the direct Twitter sharing feature never got the chop in the live build of the Xbox dashboard - meaning the impact of its removal was limited - there were certainly grumbles from Insider testers after they were forced to grapple with more cumbersome methods of image and video sharing, requiring them to first upload clips to their phones, following the changes made in Microsoft's previous Insider build.

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Anyone still playing Marvel’s Avengers on PS5 over the last few days may have run into an issue where the game crashes. If that’s you, as of today there is a “workaround.” It’s just a rather drastic one.

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Today is definitely crossover day for Bandai Namco’s popular JRPG Tales of Arise. Not only did the game receive items from Scarlet Nexus, but also from Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream.

These include a hair accessory that can be used by all characters, on top of weapons available to Shionne and Dohalim.

The press release included images for all, and you can check them out below.

Nintendo has just released a five and a half minute long overview trailer for the upcoming game Nintendo Switch Sports, the spiritual successor to the iconic Wii Sports. This trailer features gameplay and information pertaining to each of the six playable sports.

The trailer shows off gameplay for volleyball, badminton, bowling, soccer, chambara, and tennis. There is an emphasis on using motion control gameplay with the Joy-Con in this overview trailer; it shows the player in the corner of the screen going through each of the sports’ motions and how that translates to the game.

The overview trailer also elaborates on multiplayer options in Nintendo Switch Sports. You’ll be able to play every game locally with friends and family on one system in the same room. You’ll also be able to take the action online by challenging friends from far away.

Additionally, there will be an online mode to challenge players from around the world in random matchmaking. In survival bowling, 16 random players will be able to bowl at once, and in soccer, players can compete in 4v4 matches. Going “pro” in each sport online allows you to gain up to 12 skill ranks.

Finally, the overview trailer shows off the character customization options in Nintendo Switch Sports. Competing online can allow you to earn points to spend on new customization items. Miis can also be used as characters.

Nintendo Switch Sports will release on April 29 and can be pre-ordered right now.

You can watch the entire overview trailer below.

Nintendo has just added three more classic titles to the Nintendo Switch Online NES and SNES library of games, and this time, they’re all sequels. Earthworm Jim 2, Dig Dug II, and Mappy-Land are now available for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers to play.

Earthworm Jim 2, a platformer originally released for the SNES in 1995, is a sequel that takes place after the events of the first game. The evil Psy-Crow has kidnapped Princess What’s-Her-Name and Jim must rescue her once again.

In Dig Dug II, you must clear out enemies by inflating them until they burst or by digging up traps for them to fall into. This puzzle arcade game was originally released in 1985 on the NES.

Mappy-Land, an NES game from 1989 that is a sequel to the original game Mappy, allows you to play as an adorable mouse through four various stories. You must help the mouse, named Mappy, collect items and avoid enemies along the way.

Of course, you need to be a Nintendo Switch Online subscriber in order to play these classic NES and SNES games. The last two NES/SNES games added to the service arrived last month in February; earlier this month, a single N64 game was added to the library for Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack members.

If you’re unfamiliar with Earthworm Jim 2, Dig Dug II, or Mappy-Land, you can check out the Nintendo Switch Online March 2022 update trailer, which features gameplay from each of these three titles, below.

It has been more than a month since Elden Ring burst onto the scene and staked its claim as perhaps the greatest game of all time. There are still many who are enjoying the romp through The Lands Between, while others are still struggling to overcome the many dangers that await. With over 12 million copies sold, Bandai Namco and FromSoftware should be happy, which is probably why a new trailer has been released, showcasing all the praise from the critics alongside some epic and spoiler-filled scenes.

It is hard to argue with the snippets from the different press outlets, and the frame showing off all the perfect scores (including Twinfinite’s) would make anyone stand up and take notice if they have not already. The Elden Ring trailer also does a great job of highlighting the awesome boss fights and cool moves that players can pull off, albeit with the right builds and skills. Having that voiceover certainly helps too.

Here’s the trailer if you are not worried about certain spoilers:

A massive open world awaits players, giving you the freedom and flexibility to go almost anywhere and explore, discovering a world full of mysteries and dangers alike. Couple that with the excellent combat and the variety of ways you can use to approach enemies, and it has never been easier to get good.

Horizon Forbidden West continues the story and journey of Aloy in a lush and beautiful post-apocalyptic world inhabited by mechanical robots. It’s shaped up to be a worthy successor to the first game, though it hasn’t come without its fair share of bugs and other technical issues.

One major issue that players have brought up with the game is how shiny and shimmery some of the fauna can look in the game. While it’s not exactly ugly per se, it can be rather distracting when you’re traversing the open-world and surveying your surroundings. While Guerilla Games is still looking into this visual issue, the new patch does help to alleviate it a little.

In addition to that, it’s no secret that Horizon Forbidden West has also fallen prey to numerous bugs and glitches that have popped up while trying to progress through various quests. Patch 1.09, which has just been deployed, fixes most of these issues including enemies getting stuck on obstacles, the inability to interact with key items, and other major bugs that halt progression entirely.

You can read up on the full patch notes here.

Horizon Forbidden West is now available on PS4 and PS5.

Today massive Japanese publisher Shueisha officially announced its new game publishing brand, Shueisha Games.

This is basically an extension into a full-fledged brand of the game development initiatives undertaken by the Shueisha Game Creators CAMP.

On top of further support to game developers, the new brand will also encourage collaboration between developers and creators of manga, novelists, screenwriters, illustrators, and composers, helping them to reach the world with their creativity with original games.

The aim of the brand is to combine the ability of the publishing industry to find and nurture new talent and the power of the gaming industry. By combining these two elements, Shueisha Games aims to create new games that haven’t been seen before and take on the challenge to spread them worldwide.

4000 developers have registered with the Game Creator CAMP and the number of supported games has passed 10, including unannounced ones.

The first four titles that will be released under the brand will be Oni by Kenei Design, Ukiyo by Seaknot Studios, The Tower of Children by Tasto Alpha, and Captain Velvet Meteor: The Jump+ Dimensions by Momo-pi Studio.

That being said, the developer also mentions in the announcement press release that it has large-scale games already in the works, and they’re not just big in terms of creative value, but also development budget.

The first is a mobile game developed by a major studio from outside of Japan. The character design is by a major mangaka that publishes on Shueisha’s famous manga magazine Weekly Shounen Jump. The aim is the global market with a focus on Japan and other Asian countries.

Below you can see teased silhouettes.

Today Atlus released another trailer of its upcoming JRPG Soul Hackers 2, revealing another demon that will appear in the game.

The returning demon is Nozuchi, which is another one of the classic Shin Megami Tensei demons that were skipped in Shin Megami Tensei V.

As usual, we also get the daily horoscope, with Pisces at the top of the fortune ranking, while Virgo languishes at the bottom.

Soul Hackers 2 releases for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC (Steam and Windows Store) on August 26, just one day after the Japanese launch on August 25.

For fans of the Fallout series, the adventure is going to be expanded out of gaming and into the world of television thanks to a partnership between Bethesda and Amazon Studios. We already know that actor Walton Goggins will be involved, and now, Variety is reporting that English actress Ella Purnell has joined the Fallout television series.

The details surrounding Purnell’s role in the show remain scarce, but certain sources have painted her character as “upbeat and uncannily direct with an all-American can-do spirit” with “an intensity in her eyes says she might just be a tiny bit dangerous.”

If you have watched Netflix’s League of Legends animated series Arcane, then you would have heard her as the voice of Jinx. Purnell is currently working on Showtime drama series Yellowjackets, and is also part of Star Trek: Prodigy.

Frontier Foundry released a new trailer of its upcoming turn-based tactics game Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters.

In this trailer, we get the reveal of the remastered version of the classic “Ultramarine Chant” from the original game. Anyone who has played Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate has that music obsessively engraved into their mind, since it used to play over, and over, and over again.

You can check the trailer out below.

Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters launches exclusively for PC on May 5.

Below you can read an official description and you can also check out our preview.

“Lead humanity’s greatest weapon, the Grey Knights, against the corrupting forces of Chaos in this brutal and fast-paced turn-based tactical RPG. Root out and put a stop to an insidious plot to infect the galaxy with the Bloom, an intergalactic cosmic plague capable of rotting worlds into oblivion.

Elden Ring is already one of the biggest Game of the Year contenders for 2022, thanks in no small part to its immersive open-world and a sense of discovery that permeates every aspect of that game. True to FromSoft’s usual storytelling style, most of the story and history of the game is hidden away in cryptic item descriptions, and there are plenty of events and items that you can miss if you don’t know what you’re looking for.

If you consider yourself a true master of Elden Ring, however, we’ve prepared a short trivia quiz to test just how well you know the game. Do be warned that this quiz contains major spoilers for the entire plot and some of its endings, so if you haven’t beaten the game yet, we recommend doing that first before coming back to try the quiz.

Without further ado, it’s time to test your knowledge and see how closely you’ve been paying attention to the finer details.

A new event, Sea Monster Crisis: Floating Island of the Innocents, will go live in Fate/Grand Order from April 6, 2022. This means that it will start more or less as soon as the ongoing Battle in New York 2022 ends. While the Sea Monster Crisis event will give a welfare Servant, there is no information as of yet.

In order to participate in the event, you will need to first finish Lostbelt No. 2. However, though you will not need to clear Lostbelt No. 6, the event will contain spoilers for that chapter. As per usual, the welfare Servant that you can get from the Fate/Grand Order event will be an SR.

In addition to the free Servant, there will be a new Servant to pull for from the gacha. Their name is simply Nakayoshi Saber, and they are two Servants acting as a single unit. There is speculation that Nakayoshi Saber is the Trung sisters from Vietnam. Take, who worked on Pokemon Sword and Shield, Katanagatari, and Pokemon Legends: Arceus, designed Nakayoshi Saber.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gajOFNrJGIo

In addition to the new Servant, Lasengle also revealed which characters play an important part in the event story. These Servants include Morgan, Mysterious Alter Ego Lambda, Semiramis, Meltlilith, Wu Zetian, and Ereshkigal.

This is cyberpunk right here. The analogue future of analogue yesterday, but with a bit of grit in it. A handicam with a busted viewing screen. A space-taxi dropping off stale pizza.

City Wars: Tokyo Reign gets cyberpunk. Gets it right in its chunky, villainous, brutal heart. This is a collectible card game and a roguelike, but deep down, in its heart? It's cyberpunk - eternal night, eternal scrabbling to get by. Never enough to go around. Never enough to get a real break.

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In an interview, Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV) Producer Naoki Yoshida shared more information about the Myths of the Realm raid. Specifically, Yoshida elaborated on the story-focused aspects of the raid. The Myths of the Realm raid will explore and elaborate on the Twelve, which are the deities of Eorzea. Previously, an image of an area that will appear in the first part of the raid was shared during a Letter from the Producer Live. Players will be able to experience the first part of the Myths of the Realm raid in FFXIV with the arrival of Patch 6.1. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]

In regards to the story of the Myths of the Realm raid, Yoshida said this:

In Endwalker, we answered the question behind the myths of Zodiark and Hydaelyn, but there is still the question about the Twelve, Eorzea's Gods, that remain. It seems that Louisoix Leveilleur used the power of the Twelve to create the seal to Bahamut during the Seventh Umbral Era and save the Warrior of Light. But is this really the power of the Twelve? It's a mystery that still remains in the world, so we would like to elaborate on it. I think those that like the world setting and the story of Final Fantasy XIV will enjoy the raid.

Capcom announced Monster Hunter Riders is ending service on June 16, 2022, at 12 p.m. JST. Purchase of in-game currency will be unavailable starting March 31, 2022. The official Monster Hunter Riders Twitter account released a farewell message to fans alongside an illustration of Mary and Esmeralda.

Monster Hunter Riders is a spin-off mobile game based on the Monster Hunter series. Similar to in Monster Hunter Stories, users can play as various Riders and ride a wide variety of Monsties in turn-based combat.

In a farewell message to fans, the Monster Hunter Riders account apologized for not being able to continue supporting the game. The team also revealed that it had initially planned to release a second main story after the release of the first's epilogue. Specifically, the team intended for the player to meet a grown-up Esmeralda as part of a new adventure. The attached illustration of Mary and Esmeralda was the concept art for the planned second main story. The development team expressed hope that they will be able to tell the story sometime in the future.

https://twitter.com/MH_Riders/status/1509364861737832448?s=20&t=_cmYGPQQ4WIRAZ00RR9mtA

Nightmare Reaper is rad, which is something I didn't think I'd say. DOOM and its DOOM-like spawn don't often do it for me. Bouncing around an arena and carving demons into hunks of meat gets a bit repetitive for my tastes. Which is weird! I love FPS games and repetitive things, like dying in Hades over and over again.

I'm into Nightmare Reaper because it's repetitive... but not. It's a roguelike DOOM-inspired shooter where you blast through procedurally-generated levels and their demonic denizens, earn cash, put points into a skill-tree, and get as far as you can. The quest for loot has elevated this from a potential "Meh" to a solid, "Oh yeah".

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