Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Multiplayer and racegames

Race games are fun to play and often competitive, but the AI can be a bit too easy. That's why many of the race games have a multiplayer. The multiplayer often have the serious races, but also fun events. In the fun events you need to do something which is challenging, but often not too difficult. Drifting the longest distance, jumping as far as possible or stopping within the right area are some examples of these fun events. But, all above isn't the reason why I wrote this article. The reason why I wrote this article, are the people who play the multiplayer games.

Most people drive normal and try to avoid crashes. They are very fun to race against. But some people are so annoying. The only thing they do is using you or the other players as crash barrier. A couple of days ago I came across one of these people when playing DiRT 3. In DiRT 3 you have a rating which indicates how clean you drive. Green means clean, white means sometimes an accident, yellow means that you don't try to avoid an accident and red means that you have accidents all the time. The guy I raced against had a white rating and I had a green rating. I started first and he started second. When I entered the second corner, that guy crashed into me. I thought it was just an accident, so I didn't care too much. At the first checkpoint I was three seconds behind him. After two laps I passed him, at the first corner after passing him, he crashed again into me. I was two seconds behind him after that accident and I finished second. The next race went nearly the same. Because of these crashes my rating was lowered to white.

I don't understand how a guy who crashes into me can have a good rating. I think that the developers of games should improve their rating systems because these people are very demotivating, and I think that is the last thing you want as a developer. It's also annoying that my rating is lowered because somebody crashes into me. This problem doesn't only exist in race games, but also in any other game. Hopefully the developers of this world will find a solution to this problem, because that will be good for the fun of a game.

Written by: WZ

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Friday, November 8, 2013

Assassin's Creed IV Review

As you know I have Assassin's Creed IV. I played every game of the series, so Assassin's Creed IV couldn't lack. The reason that my review is late is that I had to think quite long whether it's good or not and my game has an bug which doesn't let me finish the game.

The pirate theme is very anti Assassin's Creed I think. Pirates are violent criminals, while assassin's are sneaky and honourable. Ubisoft combined those aspects very good I think. There are a stealth mission which are just as good as in any other Assassin's Creed game, and there are action packed, pirate style missions. The missions are another problem for me. The missions are nearly always one of these: stealth mission, a chase or a naval battle. You can choose to start a fight while playing the stealth mission, but the missions are so often the same. The chases were always boring in any Assassin's Creed game I think. In this game there are more of them, and they are also longer, which annoys me very much. The stealth missions are very good, but there are too much of them, so later on I chose often to start some battles with enemies. The naval missions are good. They are full of action and they are challenging, but not too much. The secondary objectives are still present, but they are more easy than in Assassin's Creed III.

The naval part of Assassin's Creed IV is excellent. Sailing works good and is most of the time not boring at all, which I feared because of the huge map. Only the long distances are not too much fun, but you can choose to make those more fun by attacking ships which pass by. When battling a ship you can choose to destroy it or to board it. When you board ship you need to kill enemies, the bigger the ship, the more you need to kill. At the largest ship you also need to do a little missions, for example two kill officers or destroy the flag. After you killed enough people you won and the goods of the ships are yours. These battles are fun to do and they reward you with goods, which can be used to upgrade your ship, the Jackdaw.

The cities have a very different layout, Havana is a classic city which is perfect for freerunning. Nassau reminds me very much of New York from Assassin's Creed III. Kingston has much more nature between the buildings, which makes it a city like Lexington from Assassin's Creed III. Besides the cities there are also tens of islands and settlements to discover. What I miss is a big natural area like the Frontier. Of course you can find collectibles on these locations. There are Animus Fragments, chests, letters, manuscripts, song sheets, treasures maps and Maya stones. Animus Fragments only help you to reach 100%. The chests give you money, the letters give you information about personal lives, manuscripts give background information and song sheets give you texts. Treasure maps are more exciting. When you found one you get a drawing and a coordinate. When you go to the coordinate you can find a treasure somewhere around the coordinate. Maya stones let you solve a puzzle and then you can find a stones. When you have them all you get an outfit.

The weapons are much like the other games, but you have a blowpipe in this game, just like in Assassin's Creed III: Liberation. You can shoot sleep darts, berserk darts and lethal darts. The berserk darts are often fun to use because the enemy which was hit will kill other enemies. You don't have a bow, which was very useful in the other Assassin's Creed games because it's lethal and fast. In this game you don't have one, but two swords. This is very unrealistic, but gives the opportunity to many cool moves. You also have multiple pistols, between two and four pistols. To get more ammo or pistols you need to craft items with animal hides. The better the upgrade, the harder it is to kill the animal. This system is basically the same as in Far Cry 3. Hunting is a not as good as in Assassin's Creed III. You don't have bait and a bow, which makes it not very tactical. Harpooning sea animals is possible now. When you found a whale or a shark, you can start harpooning. When harpooning you are in a little boat and you need to throw harpoons at the animal. This is a fun activity the first few times, but after several times it gets boring.

The final part of my review is about the bugs. At first I thought there weren't as much bugs as in Assassin's Creed III, which satisfied me very much. After a while the first bugs starts to occur. The first annoying one which I had didn't let me counter. When an enemy attacks there is a red dot shown above their head. When you see it you need to press a button to counter. Sometimes Edward doesn't counter even if I press the button. Later on enemies became sometimes invisible. They are shown on the minimap, but I can't see them on the locations indicated on the minimap. When I attack the invisible, they suddenly appear. Especially in stealth missions this is very annoying. The worst bug of them all appeared in mission two of sequence nine. Minor spoilers ahead. After sneaking through the first area I needed to enter a little settlement and kill two targets. The first time I heard their voices, but they were nowhere to be found. After 15 minutes of searching through the area I gave up. One day later I tried again, same problem. The third time, same problem. This glitch is known, and patched at day one, but that didn't work for me. Currently I'm still stuck at this point, so I can't tell you about the ending.

I think Assassin's Creed IV is a good game, but Ubisoft made many small mistakes which are summed up quite a big problem. The missions are often fun, but they are too repetitive. The naval part of the game is amazing. Cities are nice and different designed and there are many collectibles to find. The weapons are good, but I miss my bow. Hunting isn't very good anymore. Sadly the game has some very annoying bugs which stop me from having fun.

Written by: WZ

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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

First impressions of Assassin's Creed IV

Tuesday was the release date of Assassin's Creed 4, but my pre-order was delivered earlier, so I could play it on Monday. The graphics are very good. I played some missions in the jungle, and it looks fantastic. The sounds are very natural in the jungle. When I came for the first thing in Havana, I loved it's atmosphere. It is a very nice town to walk around. The buildings and the people are colourful. One of the first things I noticed when I started free roaming in Havana, were the small streets. In Assassin's Creed III the city's had big streets which were often difficult to cross without touching the ground. When designing the city's for Assassin's Creed IV they looked good at the city's of Assassin's Creed II. The streets are small and perfect for freerunning.

The first mission is a naval battle on the ocean in a storm. This mission is very cool. A little bit later in the story you get your ship, the Jackdaw. The Jackdaw is a fast ship, and very manoeuvrable. The ocean is huge, so it's very useful that the Jackdaw is fast. I enjoyed my time sailing around the Caribbean. Every ship you cross, is attackable, although some of them are too strong. Attacking ships is fun in this game. The battles are far more challenging than in Assassin's Creed III. After heavily damaging the ship you can board the ship. After killing a bunch of enemies you can steal it's cargo. This cargo can be used to upgrade the Jackdaw of you can sell it. This is fantastic to do. I attacked many ships and I still enjoy it.

After the first hours of Assassin's Creed IV I can say that it's an amazing game. The naval part is super, so if you don't have this game yet, buy it now. You can expect a review soon on my blog.

Written by: WZ

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Wednesday, October 9, 2013

GTA V Billionaire Guide (updated)

Scroll down for update

Money is very important in Grand Theft Auto Five. To buy some nice rides, a jet and a cinema, you need money, much money. In this guide I will tell you how to become a GTA V billionaire. There are several ways to get rich. The best one is using the stock market. For those who did the Lester Assassination missions and didn't get rich, skip to the next part, where I will explain how to get rich without the Lester Assassination missions.

After a certain point in the story you unlock the Lester Assassination missions. They are marked by a green 'L' on you map. The most important thing is to ignore them. Only the first mission is necessary to progress your story, the rest aren't. When you finish the game, you get $30 milion with every character. I know you want to spent it on awesome stuff, but don't do it! Now it's time for the most important part, by using the assassination missions you can get rich very fast. Follow the next steps:

  1. Spent all your money with every character on Debonaire (LCN) stocks.
  2. Do the Multi Target Assassination mission.
  3. Sell all your Debonaire stocks at 80% profit.
  4. Spent all your money with every character on Redwood (LCN) stocks.
  5. Sell all your Redwood stocks at 300% profit
That was the guide for mission two. My money was $30 million at the start, after step 3 I had $55 million and after step 5 I had $220 million with every character. For the next assassination mission, follow the next steps:
  1. Spent all your money with every character on Fruit (BAWSAQ) stocks.
  2. Do the Vice Assassination.
  3. Sell all your Fruit stocks at 50% profit.
When you sold at the right moment you will have approximately $330 million with every character. After this mission follow the next steps:
  1. Do the Bus Assassination.
  2. Spent all your money with every character on Vapid (BAWSAQ) stocks.
  3. Sell all your Vapid stocks at 100% profit.
You will have $660 million dollar right now, which is fantastic, but you can make more at this moment by doing the final steps:
  1. Spent all your money with every character on GoldCoast (LCN) stocks.
  2. Do the Construction Assassination.
  3. Sell all your GoldCoast stocks at 80% profit.
After these steps I had approximately $1.2 billion with every character. So, now you are incredibly rich, but what do you need to do with your money? I bought every piece of real estate. After that I bought private jets, yachts and sports cars with every character. Even know you can still get many more billions. I analyzed the BAWSAQ since I became billionaire and I found a way to get rich using the BAWSAQ.

The stocks on the BAWSAQ behave very predictable because real people buy the stocks. A good stock has several important characteristics:
  1. The price is lower than $100.
  2. The price went down the last week.
  3. Real life websites talk about it.
I will explain every point. The first one is very easy to explain. When you go to the supermarket you see two chocolate bars, number one has a price of $0.30 and number two has a price of $3.00. Their taste is nearly the same and their weight is the same. I'm sure most of you will buy the $0.30 chocolate bar. With stocks works the same. The BAWSAQ stocks which are cheaper than $100 change much more in percentage than the ones which are more than $1000. The Hawk and Little stock for example had a price of approximately $4 two weeks ago. One and a half week ago the price was $10, and now they are at $24. Pißwasser went up in one week from $15 to $48. Bleeter changed last week from $5180 to $5140, that's not a big change, because it's expensive, and people don't like expensive stocks.

Number two is the most important one. It's very important that a stock went down last week, because that means that many people sold their stock. After many people sold their stock there are more buyers than sellers, so the price will go up. What I've seen is that the time of selling stocks lasts for about one week. A dropping line doesn't look good, because it gets steeper every day. That has a very logic reason: when you see that your stock drops, you want to sell it. Every day more people discover that their stock drops, so more people sell their stock. The more people selling a stock, the more it will drop, but the dropping of stock will stop quite unexpected on the BAWSAQ. Take a look at the Crevis stock on the screenshot, you will see a period of dropping, and than a very unpredictable rise very fast. The reason that a stock rises so fast is because many people see that it was at an all time low, so they thought probably that it won't drop further, and that means time to buy stocks. From this moment you will basically see the same as at a dropping stock. The line of the graph will grow steeper and steeper, and than it will flatten, and everything starts again from the top of this paragraph.

The last point is a bit strange. The last weeks many communities around the internet were created to influence and watch the BAWSAQ. When GTA V was released, many websites said that you needed to buy AmmuNation, because they said that is will rise very much because everybody buys weapons. This isn't true, but the stock rose tens of dollars in the first week because everybody bought the stock. It's quite popular to influence the stocks using many people. Look for example a look here and here. Stocks which are discussed on the internet are much more unstable I found out, so take a good look around the internet if you want to know which stocks are unstable.

(Update)
The stock market worked very for me, I bought one month ago stocks for a total of $1.1 billion with Michael. At the moment they have a worth of $9.3 billion, but yesterday they had a worth of $11 billion. At the screenshot (sorry for the quality) you can see the amazing worth of the stocks. So you probably wonder why I haven't sold my stocks yet. At first I sold the dropping stock, that was Hawk and Little (HAL). After selling them, I only had $2147483648. After some research I found out that your money in GTA V is stored in a signed 32 bit integer. That means that you can have a maximum of $2^31, which is $2147483648. So I reached maximum money, but that isn't a problem for me. The problem is that I still had the stocks which were left, but they were worthless. When I sold them I got $0, but they were still in my portfolio. That was problem one, but there is another, bigger problem with the cash limit. If a signed integer needs to store a number bigger than 2^31, it reduces it's worth with 2^32, which means that you will have -$2147483648 instead of $2147483648! So when you get any money after you reached the limit, you're bankrupt. Be warned: Don't get more than $2147483648 or you will be bankrupt!

The last thing I want to tell you is that you can follow the stocks outside of your game. When you have a Rockstar Social Club account you can go to this link. The clever people of this world also created apps for Android and iOS:

GTA BAWSAQ (Android, Free)

Personal Stock Tracker BAWSAQ (iOS, Free)

Do you want to get tips or investment advice? Become member of the BAWSAQ Google Plus Community!

Written by: WZ

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Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Beyond: Two Souls Demo Review

Today it's the release day of Beyond: Two Souls. The demo of Beyond: Two Souls was released last week, so I gave the demo a try. The game follows a girl called Jodie. Jodie can communicate with an entity called Aiden. Aiden is always floating around Jodie.

When you start the first demo mission, Jodie is still a small girl. She is playing with her toys in a room. This game looks like a cutscene, but after a minute or something like that I discovered this wasn't a cutscene but the actual game. This game looks so realistic, it's just incredible. Every movement of a person looks so natural, I can barely believe that this is a game. The voice acting is very good and natural.

Beyond: Two Souls has no HUD. The developer helps you by placing luminous dots on points of interest. When there are no dots, you just need to guess what you need to do, which isn't wrong I think, it makes the game a puzzle. A good example of this is the second demo mission, where you need to escape the police. One of the parts of the mission is in a forest. The cops are searching you and you need to run, but where you need to run isn't told. After some time dodging trees I found a rock wall, but I wasn't fast enough to get up, so the cops got me, but I think that was the intention. No HUD and nearly no hints make the gameplay very restful. You don't get distracted by anything but important things.

The controls are very different than any other game. You walking and looking around is the same as any other game, but in this game you only need triangle, and for minigames R1, R2, L1 and L2. The rest of the buttons are useless. These minigames are used for anything other than walking and talking. Combat for example works by pushing your joystick in the direction of your movement. So if you see on your screen an enemy at your right hand side, you need to push your stick to the right to attack him. This system works terrible in the beginning, but when you get used to it, it works very natural. By pressing triangle you can switch between Jodie and Aiden.

Aiden has some strange powers, he can interact with objects by pulling, pushing or shaking them. Nobody except for Jodie knows that Aiden is around, so when you switch to him and you interact with objects, the NPCs look surprised or get scared. Aiden is a strange thing, but I don't understand his role in the game yet, but in the full game his role will get clear.

The Beyond: Two Souls Demo is very good. The characters look very realistic. The idea of having no HUD and nearly no guidance in the missions is restful and very helpful to see the most important things of the game. The controls are strange and get used to them is hard, but they work very natural. Aiden isn't clear for me, but this will be different in the main game. If you want a very nice game which is very enjoyable, buy this game!

Written by: WZ

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Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Game Releases October

It's October again and this month's releases are good. Some nice titles are going to be released. Let's start. The first game is The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD. This Zelda game was originally released in 2003. You can buy this game on 4 October for the Wii U. F1 2013 will be released also on 4 October. You can buy it for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. F1 2013 gives you what you expect: realistic F1 racing. On 9 October you can buy Beyond: Two Souls for PS3. In Beyond: Two Souls you play through the eyes of a girl, from the age 8 until the age of 23. Today you can download the demo (US & Europe) and tomorrow you can download it in Japan. Beyond: Two Souls looks amazingly realistic.

On 12 October you can buy Pokemon X and Pokemon Y for 3DS. Both games will deliver you the classic Pokemon experience with new Pokemons. After Pokemon you need to wait two weeks until the next release, but it's one of the best games of the year. On 26 October you can buy Batman: Arkham Origins for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U and PC and Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate for PS Vita and 3DS. This game is going to be really good, so if you are finished with GTA V, it's a very safe pre-order. On 29 October you can jump into the ring with WWE 2K14 for PS3 and Xbox 360. WWE 2K14 is a very realistic boxing game, so if you like boxing, you will enjoy this game. The last release of this month is Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Mirror of Fate HD. It will be released on 31 October for PS3 and Xbox 360. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Mirror of Fate for the 3DS has a 73/100 on Metacritic, so it's an okay game.

Which of this games are you going to play? I hope to play Batman: Arkham Origins once, but I don't think I will do before the end of the year.

Written by: WZ

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Sunday, September 29, 2013

GTA V Review

17 september 2013, the day that Boston celebrated it's 383th birthday and the day that the first Space Shuttle became 37 years, but the most important of all, it was the launch day of Grand Theft Auto Five. The launch was the biggest success in entertainment history. Rockstar became one billion dollars richer in only three days. After playing the game for nearly two weeks, I thought it was time for a review.

So, where do I need to start? This game is so extremely big and comprehensive, it's nearly unbelievable. The world is approximately three times as big as Liberty City from GTA IV, but there is also a massive underwater world. The game let's you explore the map by yourself. Every time you go further into the map, your map get's updated. I like this system, because it gives me a good reason to go to the most remote areas of San Andreas, and there are many remote areas. The biggest advantage of the huge world is that you can find new spots for many hours, so the world stays fun to explore. San Andreas looks amazing. The level of detail is fantastic. Every little piece of the world has the smallest details. Even a garbage bin or a towel looks good in this game. The water is greatly improved since GTA V. The waves very realistic. When you are at the ocean you see the typical slow and big waves of an ocean, but when you are at a smaller lake, you see tiny and fast waves. When you are under the waves, you are amazed. The seabed is as detailed as the world above the water. You can see all kinds of different plants, huge underwater canyons and some shipwrecks.

Grand Theft Auto Five is the first game with three main characters. The characters are totally different. The first one you meet is called Michael da Santa. He is a retired bank robber and father of two kids. The second character you meet is Franklin Clinton. He is a young guy who grew up in the poor district of Los Santos. The last character is Trevor Philips. He is totally insane. Trevor is a drug addicted murderer who runs a weapon and drug smuggling company. The characters feel like real persons. Their background story is very good and gives the story an amazing boost. Every character has a special ability. Michael can shoot in slow motion, Franklin can drive in slow motion and Trevor can do more damage and take less damage. The special abilities are very useful during gameplay. The special abilities also fit the stories of the characters. When you play as Franklin, for example, you have much more driving mission than with the other characters. You can switch between the characters using the down button. When switching, the game will zoom out, move to the place of the other character and zoom in again. This looks really nice. You get a cool overview of the area you're in.

The story is very good. The missions are varied and great fun to play. In the beginning of the game the story starts slow, but not too slow. The further you get into the story, the more intense and action packed the game is. Later in the game the missions are very challenging and spectacular, and they are definitely worth it to replay them. The game is all about heists. In the storyline you can play several heists, from a jewelry heist to a stealing the gold reserve of the biggest bank in town. You need to prepare the heists yourself, by choosing a crew and the way of performing the heist. You can always choose between tactical and explosive, gun blazing raiding. After your decision you need to do some small preparation missions to get ready for the heist. This system of making your own heist is really cool. When playing the heist you can truly notice the difference between a good and a bad gunman, which is very important in succeeding.

Vehicles are very important in every Grand Theft Auto. In GTA V there are 257 vehicles, which is amazing. There are trucks, sports cars, boats, classic cars, planes, helicopters, trailers and many more vehicles. Many vehicles are new, but there are also some vehicles from other GTA games. The vehicle handling is totally different than the handling from GTA IV. In GTA IV the vehicles didn't had much grip and leaned much. In GTA V the vehicles are sticked to the road. They have good grip and have a good handling. In the beginning you need to get used to the different handling, but after a couple of hours you can drive much better than in GTA IV. The damage model looks more like the other GTA games when you have little damage, but when you have much damage, the damage looks more like the GTA IV damage. When you have small accidents your bonnet will loosen and your bumper will hang a bit down, but with bigger accidents, your vehicle has a more round damage, just like GTA IV. Your car can lose most of its body parts. The GTA V damage model is much more realistic than any other game damage model on this world.

As mentioned before, cars aren't the only vehicles in GTA V. The boats didn't change much, but I think that wasn't necessary. The boats react very good to the waves of the lakes and oceans. It's even possible to explore the waterworld in a submarine. It's fantastic to explore the seas in a submarine. With the submarine you can discover many underwater easter eggs, but I will tell more about easter eggs later on. Sadly the submarine can only go down to 500 feet, but the seas are much deeper. The trucks and some cars can pull trailers. The truck trailers are very funny to play with. You can, for example, drop a trailer when driving at the highway. This can cause some fantastic accidents, but you can also create roadblocks, have amazing crashes and do many more things. The car trailers are much smaller. Most of the car trailers are boat trailers, and sometimes they actually have a boat on them. There are also some smaller utility trailers. With the car trailers you can have just as much fun as with the truck trailers.

Planes are back again, and this time you can fly in them. When you are in a plane you can see the amazing world really good. The planes in GTA V are very different. You can fly for example in a private jet, or a fighter jet or a jumbo jet. The fighter is fast and has a very good handling, but the jumbo jet has a bad handling, but can go really fast. Using planes in GTA V is very useful, because of the size of the world. You can land them on most of the hills, if you aim good, but when you jump out of the plane later in the game, you get a parachute. Skydiving is much more difficult than in The Ballad of Gay Tony. You fall really fast down, and you can control yourself worse. Parachuting is also more difficult, but you can still land very precise, for example on a driving car. I think the GTA V skydiving and parachuting system is much more realistic, but maybe it's a bit too realistic. Helicopters are more steady than in GTA IV, which is a good improvement. Hitting a building isn't a very big deal anymore, because your helicopter will stay steady.

The AI is extremely good. People on the streets talk to you, react to your actions by taking pictures or calling the police. The police is another one of these great improvements. They are very intelligent. When you are driving they try to block your path, or do a PIT maneuver.  The helicopters of the police have snipers inside them, which try shoot your tires, and they often succeed in doing that. In combat the agents try to stay in cover until they get a chance to shoot you. When you are in a static position, the agents try to flank you. The way of attacking you is extremely deadly when you're not aware of them. Gang members choose a more direct way of attacking you. Every type of enemy has a different way of attacking you, which makes the game much more challenging than any other GTA.

The weapon types of GTA V are nearly the same as in GTA IV, but they shoot very different. I have the idea that they have less recoil, but that isn't a problem for me. For the first time you can customize them. The customizing isn't very extensive. The customizing is nearly always limited to a suppressor, a flashlight, a grip and extended mags. There are three prints: black, army and LSPD. I think the customizing is too limited, which is sad because nearly everything of this game is amazingly extensive. One weapon surprised me: the jerrycan. It's a surprisingly useful weapon. When you have the jerrycan equipped, you can make a gasoline trail. By shooting at it you can ignite it, which creates a flame wall. It's one of my favorite weapons to play with.

Grand Theft Auto Five is one of the biggest games I've ever seen. The world is enormous and highly detailed. The three character idea is fantastic and works very good. The story is good balanced and very exciting to play. Vehicles are very important in GTA and this time they are better than every. You can do many things with with the vehicles. The AI is very intelligent. Every enemy tries to attack you in a different way, which makes the game very challenging. The weapons are good, but the customisation is too limited. Grand Theft Auto Five is the best game I've ever played. I think this game is the best way to exit a generation of consoles. If you don't have this game yet, buy it now! For more GTA V, keep an eye on this blog.

Written by: WZ

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Saturday, September 14, 2013

My pre-orders of 2013

Last week I did my pre-orders of this year. I pre-ordered two games: GTA V and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. I'm so excited about these games. I've said much about GTA V, but I can't get enough of this game. The trailers, screenshots and gameplay look so amazing. Two days left, and then I can enjoy it! (If they send it on monday and hopefully they do...). You can expect much more GTA on this blog, of course I will post a big review, and maybe some let's plays.

Assassin's Creed is one of my favorite series, so I had to pre-order Assassin's Creed IV. Last year I pre-ordered the most expensive version, with a beautiful statue, but this year I chose the Special Edition, which is strangely the cheapest. The gameplay looks amazing. The world is huge, and has a high level of detail. The world has many island to explore, so I'm going to spend many hours to explore them all. I think the game has a very relaxed atmosphere, and that's a thing that I like. Why hurry or stress? You're in a virtual world where you can do what you want in the beautiful Carribean. Just like GTA V you can expect a review and maybe some let's plays.

Both games are very different, but also have many things in common. Both worlds are big, have much detail, you are killing many people in-game, on many ways and there are many animals to hunt. The differences are not very difficult to see, because GTA V is a modern-day game, and Assassin's Creed IV plays in the 18th century. Which games did you pre-order?

Written by: WZ

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Friday, September 13, 2013

Assassins Creed Wall

Every time I come back from school, I drive past a wall with my bicycle. The wall contains always an advertisement for something, but in May, it was an amazing advertisement. I tweeted a picture of a picture of the amazing wall. The wall art contained a huge Assassin's Creed IV logo. Many of you liked it. When I went back to school, the wall was repainted. Now it looks even better. The wall contains the boxart of Assassin's Creed IV! It looks in real life way better than on my pictures, so if you're in Amsterdam, check it out!

I did some research to know a bit more about the wall. There is a company called ikwilgraffiti (I want graffiti) who make murals, paintings, rooms and give workshops. They made both the paintings. If you want to know how they made the murals, click here.

I think this way is a great way to promote a video game. Every time I drive past it I'm amazed by the size and beauty. Do you have any amazing game paintings in your neighborhood?

Written by: WZ

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Monday, September 2, 2013

Ten things I would like to see in GTA V

The big waiting is nearly over, GTA V is coming in two weeks! Rockstar came with loads of new ideas for the latest game in their super popular gangstar game. But which things would I want to see? I'm going to tell you the ten things I would like to see in GTA V.

1 Apps
You can do many things in Los Santos. For example you can buy stocks. But if you are in the desert, your stocks are useless. But if you download the BAWSAQ (GTA version of NASDAQ) app, you can check your stocks, everywhere, anytime. That's not all, it would of course also be very useful if you can sell and buy them. I can imagine many more apps, but I won't annoy you with more ideas. Time for number two!

2 Delivery service
If you ever played GTA Chinatown Wars, you know the Ammu-Nation delivery service. If you download the Ammu-Nation app, you can order guns, and then, they will be delivered to the closest safehouse, just like in GTA Chinatown Wars. Guns are of course not the only things I would like to order. I would also like to order clothes, cars and pets. Pets? Yes pets! Read more about them at number three!

3 Pets
What I would like to see is pets. Of course you have the very cute dog of Franklin, he has the name Chop. But dogs aren't anything. How awesome would it be if there is a bird flying around you when you're stealing a car, or a kitten who is walking through the bank you're robbing. I think that would be awesome! When you're done stroking your kitty, read number four!

4 More cheats
If you ask somebody to name typical GTA features, the change is big that the person would say 'cheats'. I thought the cheats of GTA IV were a bit disappointing. Some guns, some sports cars, a heli, get rid of the cops, full ammo, health and armor. That's it! I want many cheats. I want to spawn airplanes, yacht's, heli's, many different cars, every gun, health, ammo, armor, get rid of the cops, change the weather, change everybody into Elvis, a ninja or a hooker, blow up every car, fly in my car and every other thing I could imagine. Fun cheats, that's what I missed in GTA IV. Sadly cheats don't work in real life, so check out number five!

5 Useless vehicle functions
Yes, useless vehicle functions to use. Got it? In GTA Vice City Stories the forklift could actually lift things. I want that back! And the Packer from GTA San Andreas, which had a liftable vehicle ramp so I could store cars. A skycrane would also be awesome. Lifting boats and drop them on the streets with a skycrane would be cool! When you're finished lifting vehicles, check the awesome number six!

6 Fighting styles
Fighting styles, just like in San Andreas. Boxing, Kung Fu, Martial Arts, Karate and any other thing you could imagine. Why hitting somebody on a useless way when you can fight in amazing styles. Some cool moves and somebody is laying on the ground. One swipe of a stick and your enemy is on the ground. Many things that would be great to see back in Los Santos. When everybody in your room is laying paralyzed on the ground, check number 7!

7 Satchel charges
The sticky and deadly bombs which were available in GTA San Andreas. The sticky bombs of The Ballad of Gay Tony were basically the same, so they would also be great to return. The cool thing of satchel charges way sticking them on a car, get a high speed, jump out and then... BOOOOOMM!!!!! Great fun! When everything is detonated, have a look at number eight!

8 Store robbing
Robbing stores, a perfect criminal activity. I hope that you can rob stores in GTA V. In Mafia 2 it was the best way to earn money, and get free stuff. Of course Rockstar can't come with such an easy way of robbing, and it's not very exciting. So, if the shopkeepers attacked you and it was a bit harder, it would be better. More possibilities would also be better. Think about driving through the front wall, enter the shop via a back alley. When every single store in Los Santos is empty, read number 9!

9 Destructible environments
How awesome would it be to blow up a building? Awesome of course! I'm quite sure that's not going to happen, but destructible environments are also possible in a bit more simple way. I think it would be great if you could blow up a wall if you want to be on the other side of the wall. Blowing up walls isn't everything of course. If it was possible to destroy trees, electricity poles, roads and shops, the world would be a lot more fun to play in. After every tree is down on the ground, it's time to burn them! Burn them? Yes! Check number 10!

10 Huge fires
Everybody knows the molotovs to light the world on fire, but they are often small and are finished in a very short time. That's why I would like to see big fires which last long. Burning a huge part of the countryside down, and then racing through it. That would be great. Another advantage is that a big fire is actually an interesting job for the fireman. In the previous games the fires were often finished before the firemen's arrived.

So that are the ten things I would like to see in GTA V. I don't think many of them would make it to the game, but if many do, it would be awesome. What would you like to see in GTA V?

Written by: WZ

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Wednesday, August 21, 2013

I'm back, with some announcements

Welcome back gamers. I know it's been a long time since I posted something on my blog. I've been four weeks on holiday, and after my holiday I had some other things to do. But I'm back. I will try to post at least once a week something on this blog.

The second thing is that I'm going to do is stop the mail services. The forum will also be stopped. Both will be stopped because nobody used them... I will also try to post more videos on the YouTube account.

For the last point of the announcements I need you. I'm searching writers for this blog. If you want to write for this blog, you need to be able to write English. If you want to write for this blog, please send an email to dutchgamercontact@gmail.com. That's it for today. Have fun and keep gaming!

Written by: WZ

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Saturday, July 20, 2013

Uncharted 3 Review

Uncharted 3, one of the best reviewed games from this console generation, is free with PlayStation Plus. I was very excited about this game, after seeing the Metacritic score of 92. It seems like everybody loves this game, IGN said about this game: 'The characters, the graphics, the sound, the story – they're all top notch' and Machinima loves this game too: 'Every single aspect of Uncharted 3, including its surprisingly robust multiplayer, is staggeringly well-executed.' Enough reason for me to be excited.

The game has great light, beautiful designed environments and the faces of the people look beautiful. Most of the gameplay is fun. The climbing is challenging and is never boring. Climbing is easy, but not too easy. Thanks to constantly changing environments it stays exciting. The voice acting is done very well, the voices of the characters are very good and they are very clear. I can keep being positive about nearly everything, but there are enough people who do that, so believe me: nearly everything is very good.

I liked about every thing about Uncharted 3, except for two things. The first one is the gunfights. Every time they bored me. Shooting is too easy. It's so easy, that 100 of the 233 kills I made at a certain moment were headshots. That's nearly half of my kills. Every gun feels the same, the only thing which is different is the fire rate and the damage. Yes I know there is an RPG which is different, but that weapon is badass, just like every other game! Throwing grenades is made very easy. If you hit the L2 button, the grenade is thrown to the place where you aim. In the beginning of the game it isn't a big problem that gunfights are boring, but at the end of the game you shoot all the time. Only the shooting from a horse is fun, but that is because you need to control a horse while aiming.

The second disadvantage is the repeating of the same part again, and again. Nearly every mission is the 'same' as another mission. Missions are nearly always like this: Some climbing, then a bunch of enemies to kill, then some climbing, a puzzle and then your result of the puzzle will be stolen by the bad guys and girls. Because of the repeating of missions, the game also starts to bore.

Uncharted 3 is great. Everything is beautiful and made with loads of care, except for the gunfights. They are boring. Missions are often the same, which is sad, because it's totally unnecessary.

Written by: WZ

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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Need for Speed Most Wanted

Again some Need for Speed on this blog, and this time it's about Need for Speed Most Wanted. I bought this game thursday. As you could read in the other Need for Speed article, I love Need for Speed. Since the release I've looked forward to play this game, and now I can do it as much as I want! Of course I played the demo, i played it very much, but when you have a full game, it's still totally different than the demo.

One of the first thing I noticed when I started playing, was the beautiful light. Just take a look at the Aston Martin DB5, the shine on the bonnet, it looks stunning. The first car you drive is an Aston Martin V12 Vantage. The Vantage feels a bit vague. I think they could better choose a different car to start, like the Audi R8 GT Spyder, because that car has a handling, which is just amazing. Fairhaven is a very nice city, with many opportunities to fly, drift and crash.

The cars are all great looking, and truly unique. Not a single car handles the same as another car. Some cars are really quick and have a very direct steering, others are great offroaders, and some of them are real drift monsters. The collection of cars is totally insane, you can drive cars from the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor to the Koenigsegg Agera R. It's a great game and one of my favorite Need for Speed games ever.

Written by: WZ

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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Need for Speed

And I'm back again! This time I'm going to write about Need for Speed. The first Need for Speed I played was Need for Speed Most Wanted. I loved it, and I bought Need for Speed 510 for my PSP. Since then I played every game except for Nitro and World. The games all have one great thing in common: fast cars. I'm a huge car fan so Need for Speed is some kind of heaven for me, because I can drive the greatest, coolest, fastest and best cars of the world as fast as I can. Every Need for Speed I played so far looks very good. The cars are nice, the light is realistic and the environments are beautiful.

What I like the most from all games is drifting. I always liked to drift in every corner as long as I can. In Need for Speed the cars don't handle very realistic, but they handle on a way which keeps the game fun to play. Gran Turismo for example has cars which handle very realistic. In Gran Turismo a Bugatti Veyron is a understeered tank with a top speed of 400 km/u (250 mph). In Need for Speed it's also a tank, but it's still great to drive. That's why Need for Speed is my favorite racegame.

I borrowed Need for Speed Hot Pursuit from my cousin, and I finished it last weekend. I like the idea that you are a cop and a racer. The cop missions are very exciting and challenging, and if you find out how to wreck a racer as efficient as possible, the races are even more fun. Seacrest County looks very nice, and the roads are great to drive, thanks to the challenging corners, the hills and the view. Do you like Need for Speed?

Written by: WZ

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Thursday, June 6, 2013

The Last of Us

Yesterday the game press got a copy of The Last of Us, and they love it. The game has been rated very high. Company's like Cheat Code Central, IGN, Eurogamer and Machinima gave this game a 10 out of 10. The game is one of the best rated games ever. From the 57 critic reviews on Metacritic, the game has an average grade of 96 out of 100. Only a few games in history reached a higher score than 96. Well, that was enough excitement, let's talk about the game.

The game plays 20 years after a fungus killed millions on earth. The earth is full of zombie-like 'people'. Joel, the guy, promises a friend of him that he will search his daughter and take her away from a resistance group. After some time Joel finds the young girl, called Ellie, and they escape, or at least try to. Military, scavengers, hunters and infected people try to capture and kill Joel and Ellie. It's quite an exciting story which is very good written, according to the reviews I read.

The game is a third-person shooter, so a big variety of weapons is available, but you need to use them wise, because ammo is rare in this game. Not all the weapons from the game are findable, some of them need to be crafted. Crafting in this game is very important. With things like a battery, sugar and alcohol you make many items such as a medical kit and molotov cocktails. The game also has skills. You can increase your skills from level 1 to 100. The skills are quite common, such as increased maximum health, faster health regeneration but also Listen Mode. With Listen Mode you see the outlines of the world, and you can see enemies.

The Multiplayer of The Last of Us is something truly unique. In the multiplayer you need to build a clan, the goal of the clan is a higher change of survival. You can choose between two clans: Hunters and Fireflies. There are two game modes: Survivor and Supply Raid. In Survivor is basically Team Deathmatch, but everybody has only one life. If your dead, you won't respawn. Supply Raid is also Team Deathmatch, but there is a limited amount of lives for your team. When you win, your clan becomes stronger, when you die, your clan becomes weaker.

The Last of Us is one of the best games of this generation, and I could really recommend you this game. It's looking great, it's very good made and multiplayer is unique. Are you going to buy The Last of Us?

Written by: WZ

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Tuesday, June 4, 2013

PES 2014

Konami announced PES 2014 today. The game will use the brand-new Fox engine. The game looks good, although I think FIFA 14 looks much better. Look for example at the lights on the right, they are just stripes. They players are recognisable, but they don't look very realistic. Konami promised some cool new features:

Motion Animation Stability System
With the Motion Animation Stability System (M.A.S.S.) the contact between players is made more realistic by several factors like weight, size and power of the players. The idea of M.A.S.S. is that duels become more exciting. I wonder how good this system works, because the differences between players are not very big.

TrueBall Tech
TrueBall Tech sounds cool, and it is cool. With TrueBall Tech you can control the ball very precise. You have the possibility to control the ball with two feet, which is actually very cool. Konami says that 'dribbling control is a much more personal attribute'. Hopefully it works very good, because it sounds already good.

Heart
With heart the players have a heart. You can see it beating and a realistic pace. That's a lie, it's really a system which gives the players a real moral. If the stadium is full with people, your players have a better moral and if one of them scores, he gets a moral boost. So if a player scores more, he get's a boost and he can score even faster. Sounds cool. Hopefully it's made nice and balanced so players don't get overpowered after scoring.

PES ID
PES ID is actually a really boring feature, it only means that there approximately 100 types of players, based on real ones. So you got a Messi type and a Ronaldo type and so on. Quite boring but useful.

Team play
With Team play you can control up to three players from the team. While you control three players at a time you can use more advanced techniques to use the weak point of the other team as good as possible. I fear that Team play uses very much AI because you can't control three players individual, so the moves need to be done by the AI.

One last thing, the cameraman of one of the screenshots. Check the red rectangle on the image left. The knee of the cameraman is floating, and the foot is in the grass. It's very sad that Konami puts very much effort into a game, but they 'forget' to create a good looking cameraman. Which game is you favorite, PES 14 or FIFA 14? I don't like football games very much, so for me it's neither of the two.

Written by: WZ

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Sunday, June 2, 2013

Game Releases June

This month's game releases are exciting, although there aren't much releases this month. The first game will be released on 7 June and it is Remember Me. In Remember Me you play Nilin. Nilin lost her mind and she's escaping her former boss who erased her memory. In Remember Me you have superpowers to fight your enemies. On 14 June Animal Crossing: New Leaf will come to the Nintendo 3DS. In Animal Crossing: New Leaf you are mayor of a little town. You can create laws, build a nice little home, talk with villagers and many more things. Animal Crossing looks very cute. If you like games which are not very difficult but fun, Animal Crossing is a good game for you.

The best game which comes this month is for sure The Last of Us. The Last of Us is a PlayStation exclusive. The game looks great. The characters look very nice and the environments give a great atmosphere. People who played the game said that the soundtrack is very good and makes the game very exciting. The Last of Us is for sure one of the best games of 2013, so I could recommend you to buy it. On the 25th of June Company of Heroes 2 will be released. In Company of Heroes 2 you are commander of a World War 2 army. The game plays at the Eastern Front, so it the Germans against the Soviets.

The last big games will be released at the 28th of June. The first big title will be Ride to Hell: Retribution. In Ride to Hell: Retribution you will be a biker and you need to fight against an enemy biker gang. The setting is great for a action and shooting game, so hopefully it will be a good game. The last big game of this month is Deadpool. In Deadpool you play Deadpool, which is of course very strange. Deadpool looks awesome I think. Deadpool will be an okay game according to the ones who played it. The developer produced Transformer games before, so they know everything about action. Which game are you going to buy? I don't plan to buy any of the games which will be released.

Sources: PU, Eurogamer.net

Written by: WZ

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Thursday, May 30, 2013

Grid 2

Five years ago Codemasters released Race Driver: Grid. Race Driver: Grid was a very cool game, and now there is Grid 2. Grid 2 was released on 28 May in the US and will be released on 31 May in Europe. Grid 2 takes place in the World Series Racing, a fictional cup. The World Series Racing (WSR) creates a story around your races. While racing you will be 'filmed' and placed on a fictional YouTube. On this way you will be discovered and you grow to the international racing series. I think this is a great way to create a story behind a racing game.

The game looks great, the cars look very realistic. If you crash, the damage looks also very realistic. The environments look very nice. It's still great that the developers can take even more out of the console with every new game. The game has several game modes, such as drift, elimination but also LiveRoutes. With LIveRoutes the route change every lap. In lap one you can have a left-right corner, but in lap two it could be possible that you have a right-left corner. I love the idea and I'm sure that it works good.

For some reason you can't tune your car, you can only change the exterior of your car. It's sad that they took out the possibility to tune your car, because a better car is always nice. The multiplayer has a separate garage than the single player, so if you finish the single player, you need to start all over again with the multiplayer. The game isn't purely focused on realism, Codemasters searched for a good balance between realism and fun. Sadly I didn't play this game yet, but I'm sure it's good. Did you play this game already?

Written by: WZ

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Sunday, May 26, 2013

PlayStation 4 versus Xbox One

Both new consoles are announced, the specs of both consoles are known, so let's compare the next-gen hardware!

CPU
The PlayStation 4 has a x86 AMD Jaguar processor, with 8 cores. It's clocked at 1.6 GHz. The Xbox One has a custom Microsoft CPU with also 8 cores. The Xbox One CPU is probably based on an AMD processor. The CPU of both consoles is nearly the same, so no one is stronger or better than the other.

GPU
The GPU of the PS4 is an AMD Radeon chip with 1152 stream processors and a 1.84 TFlops core. The Xbox One has 768 stream processors and a 1.2 TFlops core. The PS4 has clearly a much stronger GPU than the Xbox One.

RAM
The PS4 will have a 8 GB GDDR5 GPU which runs at 5.5 GHz with a maximum bandwidth of 176 GB/s. The Xbox One will have a 8 GB DDR3 GPU which runs at 2.133 GHz with a maximum bandwidth of 68.3GB/s, but it also has a 32MB ESRAM-cache which creates a maximum bandwidth of 102GB/s. The  PS4 is again much stronger. The PlayStation 4 OS uses 1 GB of memory and the Xbox One OS uses 3 GB, so the PS4 has much more RAM than the Xbox One.

Hard disk
The hard disc of the PS4 is not known, but rumours suggest that it will get 500 GB in the basic version. The Xbox One will have a hard disc of 500 GB, so no difference on this part. The consoles don't have a SSD, probably because of the price.

Motion
The PS4 will have PlayStation Move and the controller has SIXAXIS to track your movements. The Xbox One will have Kinect 2.0. Kinect 2.0 is super, it works great and can track every movement very accurate. The Xbox One is clearly the best if you look at the motion sensors.

Connections
Both consoles have USB 3.0, Bluetooth 2.1 and HDMI output with 4K support. The PS4 also has the classic A/V analog output for the older tv's. The Xbox One has two HDMI outputs and the PS4 has one HDMI output. The Xbox has one extra because you can connect your tv receiver to it.

Conclusion
If you only look at the specs, the PlayStation 4 is the big winner. If you like movement games, the Xbox one is absolutely the best of the two consoles thanks to Kinect 2.0. The Xbox One has one extra HDMI input, so you could see that as an advantage, but the PlayStation 4 has A/V output, so no console has a real advantage on the connections.

Sources: PU, Tweakers

Written by: WZ

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Forum

The Dutch Gamer now has an official forum! You can ask everything about games, talk about games or ask things about your console on the forum. The forum also has a mobile version, so you can access it from your smartphone. Hopefully it's useful to you and have fun! Please read the rules before you start posting.

Forum

Written by: WZ

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Thursday, May 23, 2013

GTA V pre-order bonuses!

Great news today! Rockstar announced the GTA V pre-order bonuses! They are very cool, so I'm going to tell you everything about them. Everybody who pre-orders the game gets the opportunity to fly the Atomic Blimp. The Atomic Blimp is a huge zeppelin which is always flying above Los Santos as advertisement for Atomic, the largest tyre manufacturer of Los Santos. The Atomic Blimp looks nice, but because it's a Zeppelin it probably won't be very fast, but you will have a great view from this huge zeppelin. If the Atomic Blimp is a hydrogen zeppelin, you can't crash it, because hydrogen will explode when it meets air and crashing means a leaking zeppelin.

GTA V Special Edition
The Special Edition costs $79.99. With the Special Edition you will get the following stuff:

  • A copy of the game.
  • A steelbook with artwork. The artwork on the steelbook is unique to the steelbook and never shown before.
  • A blueprint map. The blueprint map is a map of Los Santos and Blaine Country. It contains special and useful points on the map to get where you can get easy cash for example. It is 21.5” by 26.75”, so also ideal as a poster for your wall.
  • Special ability boost (in-game). Every character has it's own special ability, and with this boost it will regenerate 25% quicker.
  • Stunt Plane trials (in-game). There are several extra stunt plane trials on the map thanks to this bonus.
  • Bonus outfits, tattoos and special deals (in-game). Every character gets several new clothes and new tattoos. Shopkeepers also offer you special deals.
  • More weapons (in-game). When you visit the Ammunation, these weapons will be always available for free: a Pistol .50, a Bullpup Shotgun and a melee Hammer.
GTA V Collector’s Edition
The Collector's Edition is the most expensive edition of all, it costs $149.99. With the Collectors Edition you will get the stuff from the Special Edition and the following stuff:

  • A security deposit bag with a logo key. The security deposit bag is made to store important items, according to Rockstar. I think it's just a wallet with a key lock.
  • Grand Theft Auto V New Era 9FIFTY™ Snapback Cap. Terrible name but it's the coolest thing of all! The Los Santos cap is better than all those baseball caps. It's looking great.
  • Custom characters for the GTA Online Character Creation System (in-game), whatever that is.
  • Unique Vehicles and Garage Property (in-game). With this piece of content you get some extra vehicles, such as a hotrod and an extra garage to store your extra vehicles.
Great special edition, I think, not those useless stuff which you dump in a corner and where look never at after the first time. The Collector's Edition is my favorite, because of the cap and the ingame content, which is also awesome, but the price is too high for me, so maybe the Special Edition will be my choise. Which one are you going to pre-order? You can pre-order GTA V here: http://www.rockstargames.com/V/preorder

Written by: WZ

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