What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Anything from run & guns to modern RPGs, what else do you play?
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Ghegs
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Ghegs »

Just finished with Cruis'n Blast, got Golds in all cups for all difficulties and unlocked every vehicle. Think I played it for maybe five hours.

As happy as I am that the arcade game received a home port, and even got a physical release, a lot of the game's elements can be described with one word:

Meaningless.

To sum it up:
  • The game has a good amount of vehicles to unlock and choose from, but they all behave exactly the same. No matter if it's a Nissan GT-R, a truck, a double-decker bus from the streets of London, a UFO, a unicorn or a tank, it has the exact same acceleration, top speed, handling, and so on. The different levels of these the game tells the vehicles have, is a flat-out lie, they don't matter. The different vehicles are basically just different skins to the one vehicle the game has.
  • Levelling the vehicles up makes no difference to their capabilities, and buying the additional stuff for them (neon lights, better body and engine) are also visual-only effects.
  • This makes collecting money and keys for buying/unlocking different vehicles and upgrading them functionally pointless, unless you want to have that vehicle that look likes a hammerhead shark and put neon lights on it purely for the ridiculousness factor.
  • The stunts (wheelies, helicoptering, driving on two wheels, etc) are pointless. Peforming them does give a bit of bonus money at the end of a race, but it's a small amount and money is basically worthless anyway. Doing them can only have a detrimental effect on your vehicle's speed, if, for example, you do a wheelie before a jump then your vehicle keeps spinning vertically, and if you land on your roof then it takes a moment before the vehicle corrects itself. I never found any actual use for these, only that it's better to never do them.
  • The surface you're driving on doesn't alter the handling in any way. Asphalt, dirt, glass, molten lava - it's all the same.
  • Likewise, the setpieces are visual-only. Doesn't matter if the course has UFOs attacking, dinosaurs running over the road or helicopters shooting missiles at you, they're purely visual themes that have no effect on gameplay.
It wasn't until I was hunting down the last elusive keys in time attack mode that it hit me. This isn't a racing game. You're not meant to approach it as a racing game. But if you take it as what it really is - rollercoaster-like ride - then the whole thing makes a whole lot more sense. The game isn't designed to be a racing game, it's meant to be a thrill ride.

What really drives this home is that the courses themselves are railroading you constantly. Even if it looks like you should be able to drive off the course, there's an invisible wall there to keep you in place. Even in the air, you can't go outside the course no matter what.

Secondly, the non-NPC vehicle events on the courses are tied to the player. They only exist, and behave, in relation to the player. Like those dinosaurs, there are many cases where some dinosaurs run across the road. But if you slow down, they slow down as well. Their animations are tied to the player's location on the course. This leads to some hilarious things, like in another course there's a tanker truck that rolls over and its cargo flips through the air. If you slow down while this is happening, the cargo's flipping animation also slows down and it just hangs in the air, waiting until you proceed so it can then dramatically smash down at the exact moment it's supposed to.

This is also why the game doesn't allow you to look backwards, or even turn around, because it would mess this whole thing up.

As a port, Cruis'n Blast is quite excellent. The Switch version has added content, it runs at 60 FPS (with some small, but noticeable, jitters if there's a lot of action on screen), has four-player local multiplayer, and it looks and sound great. But there's not much actual game in there. And since it is technically a racing game and people will treat is as such, I'm sad that it's one of those arcade racing games that makes many people think all arcade racing games are just simple, flashy, brainless driving games.

Even on Switch there are far better options for solid arcade racing games with actual meat on their bones. Inertial Drift, Burnout Paradise, Riptide GP: Renegade and the two Rush Rally titles, off the top of my head. They have much more substance and soul, even if they lack most or all of the shiny things that Cruis'n Blast has. On the other hand, Cruis'n Blast could be tons of fun in multiplayer, especially with kids. The back of the box even says "Race, Drift and Bash with 4 friends for the ultimate party race game!"

So, there it is, the game itself even says so. Treat it as a party game, the same way as Wii Sports or something, and it has its place. But anything beyond that and it falls flat.
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DenimDemon
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by DenimDemon »

You can't look back on Outrun 2 as well. "there's nothing there lol" told me a Sumo dev...and its not about racing as well but there's more finesse with the handling and track design sure.
I've been enjoying my time with Cruis'n Blast but im sure the novelty will fade quickly. And i played more than 5 hours for sure, probably the double. Still haven't finished all Cups on Gold.
After Shmups nothing beats a solid PURE arcade racer.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by guigui »

Thanks for the opinion on Cruis'n Blast Ghegs. I had my eyes on it, but waiting for price drop ; now I'm waiting for big price drop.

So when is the next Sonic & All Stars racing game ??
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Marc »

Honestly, while I can't disagree with a single word that Ghegs has written, I'm enjoying Cruis'n. It's just bloody good fun. The only thing I would argue is that the CPU opponents have always been the same in Midway arcade games. They're just obsticles to try and stop you from obtaining the fastest time rather than actual opposition. It's as deep as a puddle, but as something to fire up for half an hour before I play a 'proper' game, I'm finding it a blast.
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Ghegs
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Ghegs »

I probably came across a bit harsher than I meant to. I can't say I didn't have fun with the game, but people shouldn't expect to get an experience equivalent to Sega Rally, Daytona USA or even Ridge Racer out of it, and these are titles that came out almost 30 years ago. I'm glad that I have the game and that I played through it, but now that I have, I'll probably never touch it again, unless I happen to have a chance to try out the multiplayer. If this was any of the games mentioned above (or in my previous post), this is the point where I'd spend the next 30+ hours working out my time attack lines on my favorite course.

I did forget to mention: You can't remap the controls (though since that's now possible with Switch itself, not a massive issue...but still, c'mon), and if you want to disable rumble or activate tilt controls, you can't do it in the settings menu, you have to play a race, and in the post-race screen are the options for these. It's like the UI designer didn't realize there were two pages to his brief and then they madly scrambled to put the options in somewhere...
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Mischief Maker »

DenimDemon wrote:You can't look back on Outrun 2 as well. "there's nothing there lol" told me a Sumo dev...
Wait, what? You were talking to a Sumo dev and they shat on Outrun 2? Why? Details, please.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Ghegs »

^- I actually remember reading something like that as well. The sumo dev didn't shit on Outrun 2, just stating facts about how the game's engine works. If memory serves, when they wanted to add reverse courses for the home port, the original devs at Sega told them that it would be impossible because the game just wasn't designed like that. But they did it anyway, because they're Sumo.

There's an interview about this somewhere...
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Ghegs »

Found it over at RockPaperShotgun: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-be ... ide-outrun
Paul Porter: It's built like a film set. It's amazing, really - as long as you've got the camera pointed in the right direction, everything looks perfect and pristine. But if you allowed the camera to turn around at all, you'd see that everything was just cardboard fascias.
Porter: I'll never forget when we wanted to add more content to the game. One of the things we wanted to do was reverse the tracks. The look on the Japanese faces: 'You want to reverse the tracks. Are you crazy?' We were like, 'Ah, but we'll change the chevrons and it'll be--' 'No. No you won't.' And you look and it's like, 'Aaah, so we're going to have to reposition everything.'
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Mischief Maker »

Gotta laugh at this article with all the talk of meticulous QA testing to the point of pixel-perfect scenery placement, but the PC version of 2006 Coast 2 Coast literally has a bug where there's no lens flare because a file is in the wrong folder.

The solution, if you're interested:
1. Go to <path-to-game>\Media\.
2. Copy lens_flare_offset.bin.
3. Paste in <path-to-game>\Common\.
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Sima Tuna »

Monster Hunter Gen Ultimate. I tend to alternate between very action-heavy games and very grinding-heavy, relaxing titles. Monster Hunter for me is the latter. It's so chill. I don't like the newer games though, since they remove most of the preparation and some of the jank which gives the series its heart and soul.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Stevens »

I've bought OutRun 2 in various forms at least three times. I had zero issues pirating C2C on the PC.

Also OutRun 3 please. Got that Yu? Thanks.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by SolDirix »

Psychonauts 2 is a ton of fun. Some of the keyboard controls are a little wonky but you can change them up.
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To Far Away Times
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by To Far Away Times »

Got the new Melty Blood that just dropped. Finally out of 240P poverty and into the modern era. Gimme those sweet sweet HD sprites. Been a long time fan of the games, going back to revision B on PC. Had many late nights playing the old games with friends over the years.

Lots of changes to make this one more accessible (auto combos on every button, auto jump after 3c launcher, many others I havent discovered yet I'm sure) but its a ton of fun.

Played a bunch of matches tonight. The GGPO netcode is spectacular, as expected. Feels like playing local and only had one match drop, otherwise not even a hint of lag or stutter.

This is peak animu fightan games.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by null1024 »

Playing new Melty too.
It's fun. I'm bad, my friends weren't big on Melty and I haven't played any at all in at least three years now, so I have a bunch to learn.
Unfortunately, the PC release of this has a bunch of problems with networking and the game crashes semi-regularly when trying to get into a match. Bit of a mess, really.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

Stevens wrote:I've bought OutRun 2 in various forms at least three times. I had zero issues pirating C2C on the PC.
The only issue is if you use a no-CD/DVD patch. I've got a copy of the PC version's "White Label" release and can't be bothered to put the DVD in each time, and the patches available break high score saving. Your times won't be saved properly. I did get an ISO file I burned of it running properly using CureROM though, so that seems to be the best way.
Also OutRun 3 please. Got that Yu? Thanks.
I'd be happy with another Outrun 2SP just with new tracks. Heck, if Ferrari is being a pain with licensing (and they are as they're the reason it's no longer for sale anywhere), ditch them too. Outrunners has generic cars and it's fine.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by MOSQUITO FIGHTER »

Crash Bandicoot 4. Picked this up for cheap last Black Friday and just now getting around to playing it. Really brings me back to those simpler early PlayStation 1 days. Level design is surprisingly good. Game is fun. Seems like I heard about this game being really difficult before. I think the difficulty is just about right. There are a few levels here and there that are really impressive.

Blasphemous. Picked this up on sale for $8. I like it ok so far. Doesn’t really come close to the heights of the Metroid series or SOTN type Castlevania games or anything like that but it’s worth checking out for the artsy graphic style. Something about the map/level layouts just doesn’t jive with me. When you reach a new area in Super Metroid/SOTN it’s really cool and exciting. Here it’s just like talk to this weird thing ok here’s a new area. Whatever.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Mischief Maker »

Currently replaying Huntdown.

This is like the greatest Sega CD game that was never made.
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.

Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Stevens »

Mischief Maker wrote:Currently replaying Huntdown.

This is like the greatest Sega CD game that was never made.
Haha. WHOS THE BADDEST MOFO LOWDOWN AROUND TOWN?
BareKnuckleRoo wrote:
Also OutRun 3 please. Got that Yu? Thanks.
I'd be happy with another Outrun 2SP just with new tracks. Heck, if Ferrari is being a pain with licensing (and they are as they're the reason it's no longer for sale anywhere), ditch them too. Outrunners has generic cars and it's fine.
Having the Ferrari license is 100% not required. OutRun 3 with Unreal Engine 5 graphics? Drool.......
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by null1024 »

Still playing Melty Blood Type Lumina.
Still kinda bad, but I'm managing. If there's one thing about the game that's really maddening me right now, it's the shield teleport.
I really don't feel like suddenly playing rock-paper-scissors, least of all when I'm fullscreen away from the opponent. If I'm up in their face, yeah, I expect to be doing a lot of guessing, but being able to teleport from any stray part of an attack or a projectile is maddening.
Also, it feels weird after playing Strive that throws can actually reasonably be teched [you get TWO FRAMES in GG lol, compared to the actually reasonable 8f window in Melty]. Feels bad when bad GG habits get me trying to throw people and then it gets teched and I'm caught flat-footed, but that's just throws being too strong in GG. :lol:

The autocombo system is weird because it's just high enough damage that shorter manual combos just aren't worth it at all vs just mashing a/b/c [often you're like 200 damage better manually, but sometimes you're like 50 damage worse!]. Great for getting damage off of stray hits that you weren't getting any manual combo off of, but it also means that if you want damage output, you're going to have to learn harder combos before it gets worthwhile to not use.
I really do like how you can really easily launch with it, though. Doing some damage analysis, standing launcher doesn't even feel that useful and you lose like 100-200 damage. Less optimal, but only a little.

Also, I really need to use Moon Drive more, I usually reach for Heat activation when I'm in trouble. Probably also means I need to spend less moon too. :lol:
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Marc »

Stevens wrote:I've bought OutRun 2 in various forms at least three times. I had zero issues pirating C2C on the PC.

Also OutRun 3 please. Got that Yu? Thanks.
I just want Out Runners. It runs like crap on my dodgy emu box.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by To Far Away Times »

null1024 wrote:Still playing Melty Blood Type Lumina.
Still kinda bad, but I'm managing. If there's one thing about the game that's really maddening me right now, it's the shield teleport.
I really don't feel like suddenly playing rock-paper-scissors, least of all when I'm fullscreen away from the opponent. If I'm up in their face, yeah, I expect to be doing a lot of guessing, but being able to teleport from any stray part of an attack or a projectile is maddening.
Also, it feels weird after playing Strive that throws can actually reasonably be teched [you get TWO FRAMES in GG lol, compared to the actually reasonable 8f window in Melty]. Feels bad when bad GG habits get me trying to throw people and then it gets teched and I'm caught flat-footed, but that's just throws being too strong in GG. :lol:

The autocombo system is weird because it's just high enough damage that shorter manual combos just aren't worth it at all vs just mashing a/b/c [often you're like 200 damage better manually, but sometimes you're like 50 damage worse!]. Great for getting damage off of stray hits that you weren't getting any manual combo off of, but it also means that if you want damage output, you're going to have to learn harder combos before it gets worthwhile to not use.
I really do like how you can really easily launch with it, though. Doing some damage analysis, standing launcher doesn't even feel that useful and you lose like 100-200 damage. Less optimal, but only a little.

Also, I really need to use Moon Drive more, I usually reach for Heat activation when I'm in trouble. Probably also means I need to spend less moon too. :lol:
I play Kohaku and Hisui and I am always burning that moon meter. The ex projectile and punchy plant are just waaay too strong. Drop Hisui's ex projectile assist and then rush in with Kohaku as it travels across the screen. So many safe setups from full screen. I can lock people down and rush in for a mixup. I can "steal" turns at neutral and it makes such a huge difference.

It's broken that that stuff doesn't come from the main meter, but I ain't complaining.

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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Marc »

For an hour or so last night I played Crash Nitro Racing on PS5, before swiftly deleting it.
THIS is what you PS peeps had to make do with while us N64 owners had MK64?
It's like the devs looked at everything that was good about MK64, tweaked it to be slightly worse, covered it in the most repugnant artwork I think I've EVER seen, and voila!

The only good think about it is the generally shorter lap lengths, other than that....

Off it fucks.
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DenimDemon
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by DenimDemon »

^^^^ [FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY] agree!

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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by drauch »

D2: Resurrected. I basically never quit playing the original since it initially launched, so nothing new. But! It's great. Looks sexy as hell, with insane amounts of detail. I often forget it's even a remaster, since it retains the same look and exact feel, just with some sexy graphics. Some nice QoL stuff, but otherwise the same goddamn addicting game. Thankfully now I don't have friends or any responsibility and can just grind away after work until I inevitably stay up too late, only to go into work and read and watch videos on it. And now I have repetitive motion injury in my ring finger on both hands, forcing me to try some different layouts. Wish I had some robot hands.
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Mischief Maker
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Mischief Maker »

drauch wrote:Wish I had some robot hands.
https://youtu.be/wvpcsDQ-Jtw
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

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Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Immryr »

CTR is so much better than N64 mario kart.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by guigui »

drauch wrote:D2: Resurrected. I basically never quit playing the original since it initially launched, so nothing new. But! It's great. Looks sexy as hell, with insane amounts of detail. I often forget it's even a remaster, since it retains the same look and exact feel, just with some sexy graphics. Some nice QoL stuff, but otherwise the same goddamn addicting game. Thankfully now I don't have friends or any responsibility and can just grind away after work until I inevitably stay up too late, only to go into work and read and watch videos on it. And now I have repetitive motion injury in my ring finger on both hands, forcing me to try some different layouts. Wish I had some robot hands.
Damn, I just started playing the game with this Resurrected, never touched D2 before I'm not sure I want to step in such an addictive thing.

Currently struggling to complete Act I with my Sorceress. Trying to do it kind of blind to understand of mechanics work by myself.
I could use some "don't do that, it's bad and irreversible" advices if you have some, though.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by To Far Away Times »

Marc wrote:For an hour or so last night I played Crash Nitro Racing on PS5, before swiftly deleting it.
THIS is what you PS peeps had to make do with while us N64 owners had MK64?
It's like the devs looked at everything that was good about MK64, tweaked it to be slightly worse, covered it in the most repugnant artwork I think I've EVER seen, and voila!

The only good think about it is the generally shorter lap lengths, other than that....

Off it fucks.
Yeah. For all the many great games the PS1 had, when the N64 shined it shined brightest. Crash Racing is a poor man's Mario Kart.
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drauch
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by drauch »

guigui wrote:
drauch wrote:D2: Resurrected. I basically never quit playing the original since it initially launched, so nothing new. But! It's great. Looks sexy as hell, with insane amounts of detail. I often forget it's even a remaster, since it retains the same look and exact feel, just with some sexy graphics. Some nice QoL stuff, but otherwise the same goddamn addicting game. Thankfully now I don't have friends or any responsibility and can just grind away after work until I inevitably stay up too late, only to go into work and read and watch videos on it. And now I have repetitive motion injury in my ring finger on both hands, forcing me to try some different layouts. Wish I had some robot hands.
Damn, I just started playing the game with this Resurrected, never touched D2 before I'm not sure I want to step in such an addictive thing.

Currently struggling to complete Act I with my Sorceress. Trying to do it kind of blind to understand of mechanics work by myself.
I could use some "don't do that, it's bad and irreversible" advices if you have some, though.
Oh, nice! Yeah, you're doing it the right way, then; it's definitely best to just play blind at first and see how it all works, go through the story, etc. If you're not aware, the game essentially has three difficulties, each one unlocked after you beat the other. Normal -> Nightmare -> Hell. You can respec your character once in each act off of the first quest, The Den of Evil, so if you find you aren't doing much damage later on you can always change skills and stat allocation.

My only advice for a Sorceress without sending you in a particular build direction at first is to not put any stat points into Dexterity, as that is only need for swords/bows, with the main purpose being your Attack Rating, or your chance to hit monsters, which spells don't require. Just put what you need into Strength to wear armor, but primarily you're going to want Vitality. Energy seems like the clear option, but many Sorceress Staves and Globes and such will give you points to Mana and Energy, and skills like Warmth help increase the regeneration. If you find yourself still suffering endless mana drain you can always dump some points into energy, then use the aforementioned respec later if you find yourself suffering with health.

Any questions feel free to ask!
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by MOSQUITO FIGHTER »

Never played the original Crash Team Racing or N64 Mario Kart. But I’d take the Crash Team Racing remake over Mario Kart 8 any day. More skill involved. Mario Kart 8 plays like it’s on auto pilot most of the time. Better courses too. Probably the most fun I’ve had with a racing game on last gen. The boost mechanic is just way more interesting.
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