Seasons After Fall | Xbox One21/5/2017 The humble fox, where would we be without it? For starters, the Lylat system would have fallen to Andross and his evil armies decades ago, the animals of Farthing Wood would never have made it to White Deer Park, and, er, that Disney version of medieval Nottingham where all the inhabitants are woodland animals would still be toiling under Prince John’s ludicrous tax laws. Looking to further add to these (sort of) legendary tales of fox glory are Swing Swing Submarine, with their Metroidvania-like, 2D puzzle/platformer, Seasons After Fall. Asides from notably changing the land’s aesthetics, by drastically altering the weather and lighting, each season also has its own unique effect on the platforming side of things. Autumn causes mushrooms to expand their caps, creating makeshift platforms, winter freezes lakes, making them easier to cross, summer sees trampoline-like plant pods bloom into life, while spring rains raise water levels. Often, you’ll need to combine these abilities in order to progress deeper into an area, such as raising a water level with spring rains, and then freezing it with winter’s cold, but doing so, for the most part, feels rudimentary, and you’re never really presented with any kind of obstacle that requires too much thought. As well as the four seasons, there’s a small selection of local wildlife scattered throughout the game that players will be able to utilise from time to time, including some insect-like critters that have a smack of the metroid about them. Depending on the type, these can be used to grow mushroom platforms, sprout new trees, or break down progress-halting barriers. There’s also a Super Mario-style Piranha Plant that, depending on the season you currently have selected, will create makeshift platforms by spitting out snow, or douse well-placed tree seedlings with water to make them grow. Watching the brush-tailed avatar trot, sprint and leap through the beautifully hand-painted landscape was one of the highlights of the game. As a key feature, the game naturally relies heavily upon its season switching mechanic, but the small animation that comes with every change, in which the fox is lifted into the air and the surrounding landscape is transformed, isn't as rapid as it could be, which can get a little tedious when even crossing a small area can sometimes require three or four changes. Also, if you happen to be standing on a moving platform when switching seasons, which is at times necessary, then the brief moment you spend hanging in the air is usually just long enough for the platform to move out from under your feet, causing you to fall.
Little issues like this, coupled with floaty controls and some occasional input lag, cement the feeling that Seasons After Fall was never intended to appeal to hardcore platforming fans, with the game relying instead on its charm, unique presentation and novelty value to keep the player invested, much like Unravel did when it released just over a year ago. Unlike Coldwood and EA’s title however, whose thread-based puzzles and nostalgia-inducing narrative made it easy to forgive the game its basic platforming mechanics, Seasons’ issues - despite its beautiful visuals, soundtrack and sympathetic protagonist - are harder to look past. Pros ● Lovely, hand-painted art ● Charming soundtrack ● An endearingly cute protagonist ● Manipulating the seasons is cool… Cons ● …but feels like it could have been implemented better, especially in puzzles ● Floaty controls ● No objective indicator makes it easy to get lost 7/10 Little Nightmares| PS42/5/2017 Little Nightmares is a welcome change from the typical puzzle-platformer; it's a dark, twisted tale that's riddled with questions from start to finish, playing upon the whimsical nature of childhood all the while. Unfortunately, it's also a game that's marginally let down by its lacklustre length. You're encouraged to interact with your environment in Little Nightmares, leading to some bizarre and inventive exploration. Being unable to take these creatures on toe-to-toe means resorting to stealth, resulting in hurried attempts to scurry under furniture for cover, or to reach the safe embrace of a cramped vent to gain a moment to catch your breath. It's exhilarating stuff, made even more pulse-pounding by the faint flicker of heartbeats that are introduced and become progressively louder the closer you get in proximity to an enemy. This strategic use of sound enforces a sense of imbalance at pivotal moments, further complemented by the likes of The Janitor's clawing swipes. The more you play, the less effect it'll have, however, as strictly scripted enemy behaviour starts to make their pathing predictable. You're encouraged to interact with your environment in Little Nightmares, leading to some bizarre and inventive exploration. Be it clambering on top of toilet paper to reach a switch, climbing up bookshelves, or creating a string of sausages to use as a swing, these child-like solutions are fantastic at creating a playfully absurd environment. With new and imaginative ways to progress to the next level, there's barely ever a dull moment, despite the oppressive nature of The Maw. Little Nightmares has combined elements of the survival horror and puzzle-platformer genres into one enticing and inventive package. With a story that gets progressively more malevolent, and an impressively eerie soundtrack to match, the game's lacking three-hour runtime never fully manages to explore the bizarre world in its entirety, however. Despite that, Little Nightmares takes a bold step in a satisfyingly fresh direction, making it an easy recommendation for fans of horror and/or puzzle-platformers.
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8/10 Yooka-Laylee | Xbox One5/4/2017 It’s impossible to talk about Yooka-Laylee without mentioning notalgia. The recent yearning for glory days gone by is a major reason the game’s Kickstarter campaign proved so successful, breaking records two years ago when it became the fastest game to reach $1million. Players longing for more of the charming 3D platformers that became instant classics on the Nintendo 64 hoped the project would finally recapture that elusive magic, but have the folks at Playtonic delivered the goods? The characterisation is good, with Dr. Quack fulfilling the henchman role with distinct henchmanliness, but given the richness of some of the villains we see nowadays, it can feel (again, surely quite knowingly) one-note. Some of the other supporting characters tend to be a lot more fun, thanks in no small part to their exposure, and the personification of animate and inanimate objects alike takes place left and right as no one bats an eyelid (no pun intended...). The core gameplay will have anyone who has played any platformer, not just ones released 20 years ago, feeling immediately at home. Aside from an occasionally awkward camera - an all too common gripe for the genre - the simple combat and traversal mechanics are smooth and easy to get to grips with. One crucial challenge you’ll need to master early on is managing what’s essentially the animal duo’s sprint ability, which sees Yooka roll forward in a ball as Laylee stands atop him and paces him forwards (this bat doesn’t do as much flying as you might assume), which is key to climbing steep inclines, as well as besting some enemies and challenges. The core gameplay will have anyone who has played any platformer, not just ones released 20 years ago, feeling immediately at home. Learning moves has often felt like an arbitrary way to gate sections of a game off, but the fact you can unlock them in the order of your choosing in Yooka-Laylee - provided you’ve collected enough items, of course - can lead to some further head-scratching as you try to work out whether you have the right move to do something or are just too stupid to work it out, particularly in the earlier stages of the game. Making progress involves collecting ‘Pagies’, torn out pages of the magical book central to the story, all of which are locked behind some sort of challenge - generally combat, traversal or puzzle-related - meaning you’ll need to do a few things in each book world before you can move on to the next. A nice touch is the choice to expand a world you’ve already explored rather than jumping into a brand new one, giving you more choice about which way your journey goes. Working out where to go next can be difficult though as, if you feel like you’ve done all you can in the current locale, the hub world, Hivory Towers, can be a bit of a maze to navigate. There are no objective indicators or all-seeing arrows to give you literal pointers on the best place to go next, so you’ll just have to potter until you figure it out. You can reclaim some control by utilising Play Tonics (see what they did there?!), which give specific buffs or activate special world modifiers, but you can only choose one at a time. Unlocking them means sampling everything the game has to offer, and, thankfully, the exact requirements are readily viewable. This gives you a range of smaller challenges to shoot for, the rewards for which you can use to make objectives a little easier to complete. Need to race a cloud around a track? (Trust us, it happens) No problem! Get a boost to how long you can move quickly before you need some health/energy-replenishing butterflies. Some challenges feel more reasonable than others, with it up to the player to decide whether defeating a giant boss is more attractive than just moving through an area within a time limit. It ultimately depends on your play style, but if you don’t like the feel of one of the recurring challenges you can always ignore them, though it will mean missing out on the bragging rights that go with 100% completion. Although many platformers punish players with incredibly hard ordeals which force countless retries and perfect timing, there’s not too much of that here. Most challenges will become clear without too much thought (providing you have the right moves unlocked), though actually doing what they ask of you can be more taxing. Functionally, the game performs well on Xbox - whether the experience holds together on Nintendo Switch, where, arguably, the style seems a more natural fit, remains to be seen. It’s easy to overlook the fact that Playtonic are a relatively small outfit, with the game being published by Grand Masters of the Worms franchise Team 17, so to see something so polished and consistent in its art style and technical performance is impressive. There are definitely the beginnings of something special here, and embracing the tone of the game is the biggest factor in enjoying it. If you play it without quite getting its sense of humour then it will feel like a struggle, just as those expecting logic and reason at every turn will be disappointed by the slight vein of mayhem that runs throughout. When approached in the right mindset, Yooka-Laylee can be a Force Awakens, introducing a whole new generation of fans to a franchise by showing off exactly why their parents fell in love with it in the first place. The issue is that this is a new IP, there’s no Banjo here (he’s a bear, not a musical instrument, if you’re wondering) and no thread to pick up from what has come before - it’s absolutely a brand new game. Going back to Banjo-Kazooie now, even comparing it to its own sequel you do see things which were improved and moved forward, but with Yooka-Laylee you’re not sure whether it should feel like Banjo-Threeie, Thirty-Threeie, or something completely different, and that lack of clarity might be too much for some people. Having poured in a number of hours, it a brought a smile to our faces whenever we met a character with a pun-tastic name, or came across some contrived reason for our heroes to complete a task just to retrieve a torn scrap of paper. There’s love poured into every area of the game, from the upbeat score that’s packed with nostalgic motifs and takes on a different feel depending on where you might be, to the bizarre and unusual things you can turn into after giving one recurring NPC a ‘Mollycool’.
In the end, there’s a lot of skill and creativity on display, but there will undoubtedly be many who went in imagining their own version of what the game should be depending on their own exposure to 3D platformers. The important thing is that you can actually play this game, enjoy it and want more - which is what, we hope, Playtonic were going for. Pros
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8/10 Snake Pass | Nintendo Switch30/3/2017 Snake Pass is a nostalgic return to the classic 3D platformer genre. It's gibberish-talking central duo and soundtrack penned by David Wise are especially reminiscent of Rare’s N64 catalogue, but in terms of mechanics, the game is almost entirely individual. It takes some getting used to, but once you have the knack of it, controlling Snake Pass becomes intensely rewarding. Unlike most of its peers, Snake Pass is devoid of enemies, and, thus, combat. There are moving traps and deadly pits, but even those are relatively sparse, so you’ll mostly meet your end by slipping from a ledge and suffering a fatal fall as you seek to hoard a level’s collectibles. Each level contains three Keystones that are directly tied to progression, in addition to optional pickups in floating bubbles, which generally litter your more immediate path, and deviously hidden gold coins. There’s seemingly no tangible payoff for gathering the non-primary collectibles, but ticking all of a level’s boxes will be reward enough for completionists. Some, however, may be deterred from the pursuit by occasionally poor checkpoint placement, which can lead to losing decent chunks of progress (as well as anything gathered in that timeframe) to challenging sections far removed from any safe haven. While this issue wasn’t prevalent enough to cause any real frustration, that certainly wasn’t the case on the odd occasion Noodle became completely stuck and restarting the entire level was the only available workaround. Just as the option to reload a checkpoint is missing, so too is the ability to change the camera sensitivity, which feels too sluggish by default. There’s also no in-game option to disable the irritating Joy-Con rumble that emits a sound like a rusty harmonica, though, mercifully, you can do so in the Switch’s System Settings menu. Snake Pass’ level-based structure is a perfect fit for gaming on the go, comfortably accommodating play in short bursts, which is how we’d recommend approaching the Switch version. When docked the increase in resolution is immediately noticeable, but the trade-off isn’t worth it when the frame rate suffers as a result, as was the case with Breath of the Wild.
While issues - some of which affect the Switch port specifically - can slightly hamper the experience, ultimately, Sumo Digital have successfully melded retro and modern design to achieve an inspired middle ground. When you consider Snake Pass’ stellar visual and aural presentation, along with its uniquely rewarding mechanics and lovable protagonist, Noodle, fans would have to be mad to miss this catalyst for the 3D platforming revival. Pressure’s on, Yooka-Laylee! Pros
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Score 8/10 Rise & Shine | Xbox One18/1/2017 Rise & Shine is a gorgeously illustrated adventure that’s equally vibrant and violent throughout its short duration. Despite a strong aesthetic and solid mechanics, however, its shortcomings leave it placing no immediate demands on your time or money. Its self-aware brand of humour mostly misses the mark, unfortunately. Thankfully, gameplay fares better. Varied and engaging pacing is one of the game’s strengths, cramming a shoot ‘em up vehicle section, mini-games, edge-of-your-seat boss battles and more into a range of locales across a tight 2-3 hour runtime. Though it’s an enjoyable ride, there’s little reason to take it again unless you’re hunting achievements.
A serious visual treat, Rise & Shine’s gourmet presentation could be misleading. Lazy attempts at humour that rely on references without substance and an unsatisfying portion size make it more akin to gaming fast food. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, we all enjoy it from time to time, just don’t expect anything more than a quick and dirty burger. Pros
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Score 7/10 The Last Guardian Review | PS415/12/2016 The Last Guardian is a successful achievement in emotive and interactive storytelling, and my first few hours of playing were filled with wonderment. To observe how Trico, your half-bird/half-dog hybrid, animates and reacts to their environment is a beautiful moment to witness. The bond shared between these two companions is an accolade we haven't experienced since playing The Last of Us, in 2013. Technically ambitious - its core mechanics are often neglected, and left as a second priority. Where it excels visually and narratively, hinderance lies heavily on the game's controls. Clambering onto Trico's back during combat, being thrust in numerous directions in the process, needs the support of reliably stable camera controls, but they just aren't there. It often feels so technically ambitious that it comes at the cost of core mechanics, seeing them become a secondary citizen and the experience suffer for it. Breathtaking moments were often sullied by lazy and inaccurate camera design, which inhibited our ability to focus on the action. One pivotal moment towards the end relied upon quick response times, but we were unfortunately met with bouts of terrible frame drop, resulting in some real frustration during an inopportune period. It was particularly disappointing considering the game had so far executed some fantastic cinematic set pieces without similar issues. The Last Guardian strikes an interesting artistic merit as well, providing a unique mix of anime and Western 'triple-A' gaming. The world is shrouded in mystery and symbolism, and because of this, it feels compelling to discover its secrets, as well as uncover your own. The attention to detail on elements like the flicker of Trico's ears, which are receptive to his emotional responses, resemble that of a of real-life animal, and is a huge technical accomplishment. We cherished watching Trico bathe in pools, yawn and make himself comfortable, and use his claws to softly and playfully suggest the answer to the next part of a puzzle. A marvel of interactive storytelling. A treasurable experience. It’s been a long 8 years of speculation, curiosity and excitement. After the 15 hours it took to complete its story, we're left feeling both profoundly moved and saddened at the thought that our time with Trico has reached its end. In The Last Guardian's greatest moments, it’s confident while sensitive approach to storytelling makes for an emotive and treasurable experience. At its weakest, sticky and lethargic camera controls disturb an otherwise beautiful story-driven experience.
Despite this, The Last Guardian is a game that should be experienced by all players. On a personal note; it's comfortably my personal Game of the Year. PROS
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Score 9/10 Rivals of Aether | Xbox Game Preview13/10/2016 Developer Dan Fornace is the mind behind Super Smash Land, a fan-made Super Smash Bros. demake, who also served as Lead Developer on the excellent Killer Instinct reboot that launched alongside the Xbox One. Dan’s background is precisely why his new independent venture, Rivals of Aether, should grab your attention. It’s an amalgamation of the knowledge he’s accrued, as well as another passionate love letter to one of his favourite games. Once you’re good and ready for competition, you’ll need to carefully select a stage to put your new skills to use on. There’s a mixture of symmetrical and asymmetrical layouts, as well as compositions that allow for more or less verticality, centred around both grounded and fantastical geography. Each possesses a fitting retro soundtrack that’ll really put the wind in your sails, as well as unique hazards and pick-ups that change the way you play. It’s worth noting that these modifiers can be turned off should you want an unimpeded fight experience, perhaps to settle a dispute with a level-playing-field grudge match. A further glut of customisation options are available for the matches themselves, namely edits to the time limit and number of lives, number of participants, whether the battle is free-for-all or team-based, and each individual fighter’s competence. Everyone can find their sweet spot as a result. Whatever settings you opt for, matches are enjoyably frenetic, especially if you opt for a full roster of four. The streamlined controls earn their stay here, not getting lost amongst the crazy cavalcade of busy visual effects as conventionally complex inputs likely would. As you dish out beatings the recipient’s damage percentage increases, and the higher it gets the easier it is to knock them from the stage and deplete their stock of lives by one. Once they run out, they’re eliminated, and you win by being the last animorph standing. It’s incredibly Smash, but it’s regardless a raucous good time that brings the experience to an audience Smash largely doesn’t reach. It’s incredibly Smash, but it’s regardless a raucous good time that brings the experience to an audience Smash largely doesn’t reach. For an early access game, technical performance is mostly rock solid thanks to responsive controls and no hitching during even the most frenzied of encounters. When we ventured online, some issues did unfortunately apparate in the finicky invite system and occasional bout of lag. The online multiplayer issues don’t quite end there, however, as the breadth of choice available to solo users gives way to quite a rigid structure. Whilst it’s understandable that ranked matches would disable stage modifiers and bots, there’s no reason to enforce the same strict ruling on friendly matches. To the same point, team-based battles should also be available. Rivals of Aether is predictably at its absolute best when shared with friends, but unless they’re available for local play, the options are disappointingly limiting. Despite that, if you’ve been craving a nostalgic shot of Smash Bros. but have long since left Nintendo behind, were burned by PlayStation All-Stars, or are just looking to inject some variety into your repertoire of bog-standard fighters, Rivals of Aether is for you. Whether you choose to invest now or wait for the final release depends where your interests lie; whilst you’re (at least eventually) in for a treat either way, we’d advise erring on the side of caution and waiting to see if the online options are expanded upon first. Pros
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Pick it up in preview Wait for final release Avoid it either way Note: To reiterate, Rivals of Aether is currently in preview phase and this review reflects the state of the game at the time of publishing. Things can and will change, likely only for the better. A brief second opinion: With that in mind, the preview build definitely offers a strong beginning that we can expect to reach its full potential as the game is updated to reach release state.
ReCore | Xbox One23/9/2016
Going into a game like ReCore raises questions. “So what's this one about?” “Isn't this the one with the robot dog?” “When is this coming out on PS4 again?” Arriving on the tail end of a summer of ups and downs in gaming and being Microsoft's first exclusive since the release of the Xbox One - this new IP has a lot to prove.
Making your way across the epic landscape - which looks great, but not exceptional - is helped by the use of classic fast travel stations, but sadly they aren't spread very evenly, meaning you can run into three and then not see one for a while.
Since popping back to Joule's crawler (where she's been sleeping for the past 200 years in suspended animation) is a key part of the game, as it allows you to upgrade your corebots, it can be frustrating to find yourself easily able to warp back there, but unable to return once your tinkering is complete. ...a fun action platformer which executes the simple, and sometimes familiar, ideas it has very well, but there's not too much more to it than that.
This leads us to possibly the worst element of ReCore - the loading times. Moving between two areas, even a fairly straightforward door, triggers a 30-60 second loading screen and often stays black for much of that time.
Of course, the experience could be different on PC, something you can do easily thanks to Xbox’s Play Anywhere programme, which allows you to play the game in full on either platform. The structure of the game feels most similar to something like The Legend of Zelda, though that endearing quality and personality you get from particularly the locations in those games doesn't show itself here, as ReCore offers you either a sandy plain or a grim dungeon.
The fact that the game does describe them as dungeons is to its credit though, there's no overly-forced slew of technical terms to translate here. The dungeons themselves share the game’s love of simplicity, challenging you with only a few rooms and the odd frantic, timing-based platforming element.
ReCore doesn't outstay its welcome though. At around 8-10 hours the main story wraps itself up fairly neatly and there's not too much more to discover by returning to some of the earlier locales.
At its core then (well, you know there'd be one…) ReCore is a fun action platformer which executes the simple, and sometimes familiar, ideas it has very well, but there's not too much more to it than that. Those looking for sweeping cinematics or an incredibly deep plot will be disappointed, but if you've got a free weekend and you want to hit a game hard, ReCore is certainly a good bet. Pros
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Score 7/10 Have you played the game yet? Are you still too busy with No Man's Sky? Let us know in the comments, and don't forget to watch the video review as well (and subscribe, naturally). FRU | Xbox One12/7/2016 I’ve personally always been on board with Kinect, immediately adopting the original peripheral and accruing a sizeable portion of its catalogue. The - mostly - good times that followed meant I took no issue with the second generation initially being a compulsory part of the Xbox One package. I did, however, grow to take issue with the fact that it received excruciatingly little software support thereafter. If that sounds a tad complex (in the least patronising way possible), FRU is very accommodating and might be able to help. Pass the controller off and designate a person to each operation, use objects to extend your reach, even tactically dress to more easily fit into small spaces or cover larger areas. Perhaps most useful is the ability to pause gameplay whilst repositioning yourself, which opens the experience up to those less able and to those with small play spaces. Whichever tactic you choose to employ, whoever’s in front of Kinect will naturally look the fool. Embrace this and there’s a great party game that’ll see your friends and family takings pins, lunging, sitting on the floor, standing on one leg and more. The silhouette’s pretty unflattering and seemingly adds a few pounds if you’re self conscious, but if that’s the case you probably aren’t going to be up for crab walking around the room with your arms in the air... A few personal examples. Unfortunately, there isn't much substance to justify busting it out more than once. There are four short chapters, each one introducing a new mechanic to keep things fresh, in which you’ll easily acquire all of the collectibles. You’re rewarded for doing so with access to FRU’s prototype phase, which is drastically different aesthetically, whilst maintaining the same core mechanics in a less polished form. It’s interesting to see how the game developed over the course of a few levels, but nothing more. The undoubtedly front-and-centre gameplay mechanics are complemented by a serene soundtrack that effectively develops to be quite urgent in the final, challenging stages. Meanwhile, the simple art carries a warm and charming glow that’s impossible not to be taken with, mirroring the touching connection made in quite literally guiding a character by hand. Naive storybook framing furthers the effect, as if you were helping them off to sleep with a whimsical bedtime story the whole time. In an odd way, it’s the closest I’ve come to parenthood, because I was essentially playing that role in what was evocative of nostalgic childhood memories. Perhaps the final hurrah for Microsoft’s Kinect, FRU sends it off with a bang. A sweet, innovative and tight platformer that’ll work your mind and body, the game unfortunately comes to an end all too quickly.
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Score 8/10 INSIDE | Xbox One30/6/2016 Games like INSIDE don’t come around often; it’s a truly special experience that should be savoured over its precious three to four hour course. It’s Playdead’s second game, the spiritual successor to LIMBO, and another absolute classic. To fully explore INSIDE’s strange and exciting subject matter would be to rob you of discovering them for yourself. Platforming is a secondary gameplay pillar, more a means to an end than a challenge of its own. You’ll naturally employ the tightly controlled manoeuvres to aid in your traversal, but don’t expect any particularly taxing jumps. There’s a refreshing, if still slight, level of freedom for what’s usually a somewhat linear genre. Some sections can be tackled in an order of your choosing, dependant on which direction you choose to take off in, whilst there are also plenty of hidden secrets to uncover. These are tied to the game’s achievements, in addition to an alternate ending, but please resist the temptation to introduce the distraction of a walkthrough on your initial playthrough. Play at your own pace, allow yourself to absorb it, discover what you discover, then go back. To fully explore INSIDE’s strange and exciting subject matter would be to rob you of discovering them for yourself. That said, the ending has been the one constant criticism raised. It certainly doesn’t answer all of the questions it prompted, but when paired with the alternate ending, we’re content with our interpretation. It doesn’t need to be spelled out. A rare, somber experience that’s dense with atmosphere, you’ll likely play in a stunned silence, mouth slightly agape in wonderment. If you ever find yourself in a games as art discussion - a topic that shouldn’t still be up for debate - point towards INSIDE and rest your case.
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Score 10/10 |
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