I think there’s potential for the narrative to be better with a speaking protagonist, but it didn’t completely pull me out. It may have been part of why the sex scenes mentioned in the review felt so bizarre.

To be clear, it was a code give pre-release but it was the same download anyone buying Metro on release day would get. That said, we provide that info in the same spot in all of our reviews. :)

Thanks for the kind words.

re: frequency of crashes, I probably had a total of 4-5 hard crashes across the 12-15 hours that the game took for me to complete it.

re: music, it’s of the more atmospheric variety, so it didn’t stick out to me — for the better or the worse

It’s precisely for the reason that the sex in the game IS presented as clean and normal and “sexy” that makes it feel out of place in the game and universe.

Re: Nvidia, I only have my one computer to test it on, so I can’t help you. As an anecdote, I’ve heard from at least one friend with an Nvidia card who still ran into some tech trouble, but sadly no feasible way to confirm this first-hand.

Yeah, as with 2033, Last Light borrows very heavily (and very well) from what made Half-Life and Half-Life 2 so good.

Sadly, I haven’t been able to test console versions as of yet.

I think playing the first game will help with your understanding of the world and the various players in it, but Last Light does a suitable job of catching you up on what’s going on with Artyom specifically if you haven’t played 2033.

I actually purchased the book in the middle of this review. That’s how much the game drew me into that world! Haven’t had time to jump into the book yet though.

Man, yeah, Donkey Kong ’94 is SUPER good. That game is underappreciated, I feel like.

Always nice when someone catches my semi-obscure music reference :)

They’re not inconsistent and arbitrary if you read the text of the reviews and not just the numbers. :)

Favorite comment imo

Let’s be real: You’re talking about me. I’ll almost certainly end up streaming it at some point.

I dunno why you thought this one’s me, but it’s all Danielle. :) Except the layout, Arthur handled that.

Not sure if we’ll still be livestreaming it, but I think there’s a solid chance!

If your definition of “real fans” of Dragon’s Dogma is only players who have played it over and over again until their level 150+ and know every single secret or hidden area, then yes, please feel free to disregard my opinion. As I said in the review, I believe a tiny group of the most hardcore of hardcore fans might enjoy this content. It sounds like you’re in that group, and that’s great for you. I’m not, though.

That’s a bummer, certainly, but we have no control over what independent aggregation do or don’t do with our scores. I would hope that anyone on an aggregation site who’s surprised/confused/whatever by the score, would click through and read the text in full.

I was doing the same on NG+, and I also switched back to strider before going through Bitterblack :D

That’s a nicer response, at least! FWIW, I liked the original Dragon’s Dogma a lot (as you can see in the review I linked twice above), and I also loved Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, which I’m guessing would fit your definition of challenging/deep. Challenging games are good. I love challenging games. But not all challenge is necessarily good. It’s about being a balanced, good challenge, which Dark Arisen wasn’t for me.

What class is your main? Looks great! I think at 82 you should be set.

That’s correct, yep. And CoffeeJezus is correct as well in that you’ll get bonus stuff if you have an old save.

No problem!

waaaait, I actually didn’t know you could go back to that area and get new stuff :O gonna maybe do that now…