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r/patientgamers
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I miss overpowered protagonists
Prototype 1/2
InFamous 1/2/SS
Star Wars: Force Unleashed
Asura's Wrath
Bayonetta 1/2
God of War III
Saints Row IV
Darksiders II
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
Middle Earth: Shadow of War.
All those games make me feel like an unstopabble force of nature. Nowadays protaganists with powerful abilities live in worlds where everything seems too much balanced around them, and have rare moments of pure god mode.
An exemple: God of War (2018), Kratos is still pretty strong but i don't have moments where i feel to outclass bosses (except one).
Jumping over building
Superspeed
Making nuclear explosions with one hand
Fighting planet size enemies
Convert my strongest enemies into allies (unlimited duration)
Manipulate building size starship just with my mind
Having transformations that make my character more devastating
I hope in the future those kinds of games will return.
(sorry for the grammar english isn't my native language)
Lol does anyone remember the late 2000s when we were constantly getting articles and posts about how people were tired about how every video game was a power fantasy?
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The problem is the video game industry as a whole is too liable to jumping on the latest trends regardless of whether it fits the game or not. There's so many features like OP protags, morality systems, open worlds, zombie apocalypse as a setting, etc that can be amazing in one game and be detrimental to the fun in another, usually after something trends you'll see fewer games using it after a time.
Yeah, I remember reading those articles and thinking: but that's the shit I like!
I like my Divinity Ego Draconis, fable, black & white, dungeon keeper, star wars Jedi Knight/tfu etc
Most games make chorelists nowadays on trivial shit to pursue. I hate all that. Just give me a fun looking world and some good ass action without asking me to jump through 10000 hoops and without asking me to gather 10 of X to build one Y to then need 5 Y to build one Z etc
I'll admit, I'm one of those people. Power fantasies can be nice but it just feels obnoxious when there's no good story to back the whole thing up.
Putting a conflict the MC can't just punch away is key to keep my interest.
I love power fantasies. That's the only reason I watch isekai. Not for the story, but for the overpowered protagonists.
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You didn't mention them so The Crackdown and Just Cause games fit the bill. Also the new spiderman games have some pretty crazy power scale.
Crackdown is an excellent example. The traversal in that game as a supersoldier was so much fun, and that is to say nothing of the vehicles that, when fully upgraded, could lay entire highways of cars to waste.
Just got game pass and was playing the third. It’s what I remember.
When it takes all 6 bad guys to put a dent in your protag, it really makes you feel powerful
I found crackdown hadn’t aged well, I bounced off it pretty quickly. Just cause 2 is an eternal classic though
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Playing as Predator (and to some extent, Alien) in Aliens vs Predator (1999) and Aliens vs Predator 2 (2001)
There was another avp game that came out in like 2013 or thereabouts as well. It wasn't great but the predator campaign was a decent few hours of fun.
AvP2 is still up there as one of my favorite fps games. The multiplayer was hilariously fun as well, even had the alien lifecycle stuff. They put a lot of detail into that game I just wish the newer ones were up to par.
The ps3 and xbox 360 version was great to and you got to play marines too.
Man add Hulk Ultimate Destruction to that list, it was made by the Prototype devs and was the precursor to those 2 games. It has so many unique game play mechanics. I would love a remaster and scooped and old x-box to play it this year.
You could jump onto a helicopter your own weight pulls it to the ground and before you hit the ground you could aim at a tank and punt the falling helicopter into it. This is just one anecdote of many the game gives you to have a bunch of fun.
It will never happen, but I would love a remaster of that game
I firmly stand by the fact that Hulk Ultimate Destruction is one of the greatest games ever made.
Everything about it was fantastic. Bus surfing, plane surfing, giant monkey gliding, telephone pole baseball bats, wall running, missile throwing, tank tossing. Every time you were like "I wish I could" you could, and more.
The game was so incredible that The Incredible Hulk stole some of the moves for the movie.
That game is the standard I hold open world games to, and so far, nothing measures up.
Smashing a bus and riding it like a skateboard, jumping up and kicking it onto a helicopter
Ultimate Destruction was way better than either of the Prototype games, too. I wish it would get a remaster.
i don't so much miss overpowered protagonists because every protagonist is overpowered, i just wish the games would actually acknowledge the powers (and limitations) more. like Doom Eternal has you playing a pretty standard FPS protagonist but, like if he were to exist in real life, he's worshipped for being a demon-slaying roadman and absolute psycho. instead of writing everything off as "just game things", you actually pause and think "huh, yeah, i'm the shit" every now and then. Bloodborne does it similarly; instead of just being like "eh, you kill these werewolves the size of 4-storey housing projects and come back to life because it's a videogame", your resurrections are actually part of the story and the reason you can kill everything. you're literally pestering the bosses to death, and multiple characters note how you'll come back after dying.
i know a lot of people see the plot and context of everything as secondary, but it makes the gameplay so much more satisfying when the mechanics are actually acknowledged in the story IMO, cause at this rate we're gonna reach a point where they have to chuck thousands of enemies at you that you can easily mow down just to get the power fantasy kick.
Reminds me of the discrepancy some games are having between their gameplay and their "lore".
I can't give you examples, but I mean stuff like, demolishing hordes of dudes and monsters, then comes a cutscene and you stub your toe and everything hurts and aches, then you start killing hords of monsters and dudes again, and than comes a cutscene and your enemy ambushes you, almost knocking you out, and than you beat the shit out of each other, which would have killed you in the cutscene.
The cutscenes in Doom Eternal are a lot of fun, everyone is just so much in awe and KNOWS what you could do.
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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is such a fun game. Not difficult but yes as you say you feel like an "unstoppable force of nature", just a hell of a time running around electrocuting people and cutting down stormtroopers with a light saber. Some of the boss fights can be challenging but never in a frustrating way- I definitely only died once or twice throughout the whole thing, but had fun the whole time.
I thought that game was fairly hard. Some sections took me a couple of tries. I rember one part towards the end of the game were I felt the game was bullying me. It was in a big hanger against two or more AT-ST and a bunch of stormtroopers.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
I really liked it. But it's also the game that pushed me to find bigger games.
I was tired of paying $60 for a game and beating it in a weekend.
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Dantes Inferno. I'm not sure how well it holds up today, but it had a feel similar to Bayonetta, DMC, and God of War. I loved it back in the day.
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i was always bothered when enemies in assassins creed games could pull off all the awesome parkour stunts of the main character while pursuing me ...
Morrowind is the best for this. You start out feeling like a weeny bitch that dies to a scrib but 200 hrs later you have killed 3 gods and can leap 10km in a single bound.
I have played (and loved) every Bethesda game since oblivion’s release in 2006 but for the LIFE of me I can’t get into morrowind. Never been able to put my finger on why but I always see comments like this and wish I could go back and play it.
Capture a god's soul, throw it in a ring, and turn yourself into a thundercloud of death
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Vampire Survivors :)
Sure it’s not a AAA game and doesn’t have the scope of what other folks are talking about. But the tagline is literally “become the bullet hell” and it’s well earned. If you build your upgrades right, within 10-20 minutes you ARE an unstoppable bullet hell for the hordes of baddies
+1. Vampire Survivors definitely makes you feel like a powerful badass
I loved Vampire Survivors, but the difference in effectiveness between the evolved weapons ended up making me feel like there were one or two "correct" builds, and you just had to hope you got lucky enough to roll those weapons.
If you liked Darksiders 2 you really should play the first game. It's a better game than the sequel imo.
War and Death really do play quite differently, which is why I really the series. Haven't played 3, but 1&2&Genesis are fun.
In Saints Row IV you are, quite literally a super-person, capable of running quicker than cars, flinging them at your enemies and, if i remember correctly, flying. Also some other things.
Granted you are playing inside simulation, but even before that you are a president of USA and ride a ballistic rocket to disarm it. So ya know xd
No need to look far, Doom and MGR Revengeance perfectly fit your description. There's nothing cooler than beating a skyscaper-size monster/mech with a tiny sword.
Doom Slayer isn't OP when I play him. I imagine the demons laughing at him while he fumbles through his weapons to find the right counter or swapping weapon mods when he meant to glory kill for the 100th time.
MGR:R turns 10 in less than a year! What I'd give for a sequel...
/u/tchjay92 Seconding DOOM (2016, less so DOOM Eternal), and also Prey (2017), especially if you aren't playing on a high difficulty, know the game well, and/or invest a ton in the Typhon powers.
Love both game's shotguns, too. 😍
I used to play force unleashed on the lowest difficulty just for the power fantasy
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Ironically, I felt this in Fromsoft's latest game when I overleved. It's satisfying because bosses are really supposed to be gods and legendaries, but with my overpowered character, it's fun to insult them in defeat. Lol
Boy I never felt this with the endgame bosses (everything after Morgott). Doesn't matter how much I leveled, I was always one bad combo away from instant death.
I always feel that in fromsoft games lol
Every single fromsoft game has you playing as an unstoppable force of nature, slaying literal gods and demons as chump change on your way to real threats
My personal fav for feeling stronk is sekiro tho even tho it’s on a smaller scale as a whole
I'm nearly lv. 130 and I wish I had that feeling with the Godskin Duo in Elden Ring :(
Edit : Damn thank you all for the advices, I'll put those to the test on my next try !
The weird aspect of fromsoft's games, you can destroy a boss under 1 min then few moments later regular enemies make you live a nightmare 😅
That's what I was thinking. I massively enjoyed Elden Ring partially because of that. Sure, I die in a few hits, but I can also wreck a lot of bosses and enemies just the same. It's fun to have a storng character. I really enjoy games like those where you feel very powerful but can still die if you fuck up
I disagree with Shadow of War because the first one, Shadow of Mordor, let you be far more overpowered by the end. Shadow of War is still fun, but you can still get stomped even after beating the campaign and having super high level gear.
Shadow of Mordor I literally spent an hour just killing waves of stronger and stronger enemies and feeling like a God of Middle Earth!
Mordor is compelling.
When I first played it, I felt like it was insanely hard and unfair. Getting ganged up by 50 orcs was too much.
When I played it the second time, though, it was extremely easy. I could destroy entire hordes and their bosses very easily even when starting out. Mordor genuinely makes you feel overpowered when you become skilled. Mind controlling orcs just increases that by multiples.
War, however, was like the complete opposite. Ironically, a big part of that is the new nemesis system which allows bosses to get used to literally anything and allows betrayal/resistance from mind control. It also didn't help that the game revamped the skill system to make the most useful skills harder to get.
Any Hack n' Slash game I think does that.
Also check out Crackdown 3, you use some wacky ass stuff that create chaos and mow down enemies
I was going to suggest this. Not the greatest game I've ever played but it does give you that overpowered God satisfaction late game. It even lets you take your endgame character into a fresh world with all your power unlocked and just absolutely house enemies.
The fact that it was a commercial failure may be part of the reason we don't see as many games like this anymore.
I recommend getting any of the Devil May Cry games that let you play as Vergil. DMC3 Special Edition (available in the HD Collection or as a standalone on Switch), DMC4 Special Edition, DMC5 Special Edition or as a DLC add-on for the base DMC5. Players who get good at playing him get to do shit like this
There’s a difference between getting good at the game and the game being designed around ur character being OP as hell. I know from experience if you are bad at DMC you will not feel OP. If you are bad at prototype you can still one-shot a tank, and even if ur strategy skills are lacking you can still send soldiers flying on the battlefield in Dynasty Warriors
What I was thinking when playing. I've been trying to do the Bloody Palace with Vergil and he's just so much stronger than all the other playable characters
get to do shit like this
Wait, that is actual gameplay? This looks sicker than cinematics do in many games wtf. Is the camera auto-controlled? If so that's insane
Why did they do that to my boy Virgil? He just wanted to LARP an anime protagonist, and they decided for that sin he gets no eyebrows or hairline.
Thanks. Is the order of the DmC matter or i can pick a game without the others?
I never really felt overpowered in Control. The powers are definitely strong and you can combine them in powerful ways, but it's still very easy to die.
Once you unlock everything and get a good setup it can be good, but I keep getting my but kicked at the jukebox challenges.
Blade and Sorcery (early access VR, although I have been playing it over a year) is kind of like lucid dreaming + being Maximus + having Neo (slow time) Jedi (telekinesis) powers: Like playing The Force Unleashed with actual arm/hand gestures for throwing lightning/fire or flinging your enemies around.
I also get a superpowers fix from superhero/villain mods for GTAV, while obviously not native gameplay, if I want to run around in a convincing physics engine and large open world as a smashing hulk or speedy flash, or fly like superman, web people like spiderman, or use Thanos powers to turn police into dogs, that's also some kinda fun. (Battling other supers is fun too.)
Makes me wish some developer would take notice and make games in that vein, but I don't mean licensed marvel/dc properties; something more like Champions Online but with modern graphics and better physics, and ideally a solid offline/singleplayer experience and not just MMO schlock.
"Overpowered protagonist" and "Bayonetta" do not go hand in hand when I'm the one playing.
Jokes aside, I find that Diablo games and such are usually pretty good for feeling overpowered. I've been playing Grim Dawn lately and there's nothing that makes you feel overpowered like teleporting into a group of enemies, popping one AoE ability and watching like ten monsters explode into loot drops.
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I loved the new Wolfenstein games for this. The New Colossus takes a bit longer to ramp up to that level (half the game), but basically all of them provide (to me at least) this feeling, while still being challenging.
Oh, absolutely. Stealth killing half a level, just to get caught, and wipe out the other half with akimbo mp40s was awesome. The last half of New Colossus is crazy from a storytelling perspective, too.
The fact that Activision shut down the prototype dev studio (Im blanking on the name while I'm typing this) is still just such a shitty thing to me. Huge bummer and it would've been cool to get one more game.
Railjack
some random studio (I can't think any of them) has to grab Prototype and make a remake or a third part.
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The Yakuza games are fantastic for this. Nothing in gaming feels better than triggering a brutal heat move against some wimpy hooligan who thought it was a good idea to accost Kiryu in the middle of a street lined with bicycles and other weapons
Yakuza games played on easy setting are like over the top action movie you're starring in.
The Yakuza games are fantastic for this.
So long as they don't have guns and you're not trying to fight the lunch money dudes in Yakuza Zero
I kinda disagree with the Arkham series. I just finished playing Arkham Knight and he always just feels like a regular guy with some cool toys. If you dont have a very specific upgrade to counter a specific enemy it makes it super tough. There are times you just rip through a crowd of enemies and times when every single enemy has an upgrade or weapon and you have to take it slow.
Another good example are those huge sentry cannons. Lethal early on and then absolutely trivial once you upgrade the disrupter enough.
The Batmobile, however, was cool AF.
My biggest modern recommendation would be Control. By the end of “control”, you’re flying, and ripping up the floor to throw at people, using upgraded space guns, and basically being a superman but in the SCP labs (to use some analogies)
Something with less environmental interaction, but a high level of movement and power would be sunset overdrive (from the Spider-Man people). The humor is late 2000s edgy, but honestly not so bad, and the gameplay makes you really feel like sunset overdrive.
I was gonna recommend Sunset Overdrive, such a good game for chaos
Control was exactly what I was thinking of too. Early on I felt pretty weak, but even by midgame I'd put enough into Launch to 1 or 2-shot most enemies. Even the "minibosses" (Like the named rangers and such) weren't too much as I could stagger them with Launch, and my energy took less time to recover than it took them to stand back up.
And by far, the Ashtray Maze sequence gave me a huge sense of power, like it was the culmination of my character's progression.
I loved this so much about Control, especially since you're playing a woman and that's so rare for protagonists like this.
They're making a remake of destroy all human 2 which I can't wait to play. 😁
add Pre-2013 Tomb Raider to the collection
Lara was pretty much a superhuman in those games
I feel like Warframe might do all these things.
Jumping over building
You can't jump super high but zephyr can fly
Superspeed
Volt and Gauss
Making nuclear explosions with one hand
Nova
Fighting planet size enemies
Well nothing planet big but eidolons tower over you, and the Jordas Golem's last phase
Convert my strongest enemies into allies (unlimited duration)
Revenant
Manipulate building size starship just with my mind
Railjack
Having transformations that make my character more devastating
Nidus and Sevagoth
You may want to put the descriptor under the names for clarity.
But yes, if you want to push the limits of the game to extreme levels, you can basically one-shot the entire map with certain characters.
The Arkham games are like this too. You really do feel like you're Batman. With all the gadgets and how the counter system works for combat (much like the Mordor games) its rare you will be feeling like you're in over your head, unless you play at the very highest difficulty.
I can sympathize with the OP - what about the musou games like Dynasty Warriors / Hyrule Warriors / etc.? I’ve enjoyed those decently well, and they seem good for a dose of “one person wrecking crew” feeling?
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Playing Warband with 25% player damage feels just this way. You're a god among men leading an army and amassing your enemies.
Until you get surrounded by low tier bandits and the stunlock you to death...
Fist of the North Star! Nothing says power fantasy like poking people a few times and watching their entire bodies swell up and pop like overfilled water balloons!
Rage 2 got some hate for being "generic clear the enemy bases" game, but was probably the most fun "be overpowered superhero" game I've played in a while. Tons of crazy powers that have some real feel behind them when you're punching people off cliffs etc.
The first 5 or so hours it did feel like a slog. Grabbed a trainer, leveled up my supers and weapons by 50%. Had a blast after that. FYI, cutting out the resource gathering really cuts the playtime down and makes it like a more traditional action game.
You're an unkillable god until a greater Wisp erases you from existence.
For something a little different, check out the Air Raider class in the Earth Defense Force series.
The character doesn't have any super powers, but you have a whole arsenal of airstrikes, missiles and satellite lasers at your disposal.
Here's a random clip I found from EDF5 that gives an idea of the destruction you can rain down.
I don't like this feeling that much, though i understand why you do. You should try playing the two newest Doom games, they're really good.
What games are you playing, though? There are a lot of games that let you play that power fantasy. Like a lot.
Of the top of my mind, I guess any decent Roguelike let you be a killing machine once you learn the know-how of every build or stuff.
Also: Vampire Survivors.
look his game selection you are already playing a raid boss at start of the game nothing to do with hack n slash or vampire survivors or game difficulty,prototype you just fuck the whole world you are the apex and everything else is food
To be fair, Kratos isn’t as strong in GoW4 because he’s in the realm of other religions so his powers aren’t as strong as they would be in the Greek world.
Set the game to easy and every protagonist becomes god mode, this is my go to for relaxing, low stress gaming.
It's more about the feeling on how the character dominate his world not necessary the difficulty. Destroying buildings in easy mode and shooting bullets in easy mode feels much different
That's what I did in AC:Origins I'm playing now. Set it to easy and still I feel an assassin should be even more powerful than my character is. I cannot imagine playing it on hard difficulty and taking 10+ swings to kill somebody, what kind of a lame assassin is that?
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Doom Guy is pretty overpowered.
Hitman's Agent 47 also feels pretty powerful. You can easily kill a small army before going down. Or just kill everyone on the map if you play a bit carefully.
Easy mode FTW?
I agree lore wise he's pretty strong but in the gameplay it feel more like a buff John Wick than a god for me. But it's still pretty satisfying to rip and tear demons
I Didn't play Hitman but he's not the kind of powerful character i talk about
It's more about the feeling on how the character dominate his world not necessary the difficulty. Destroying buildings in easy mode and shooting bullets in easy mode feels much different
I generally prefer more challenging games with powerful protagonists. I think it’s great when a game forces you to persevere in order to take full advantage of the power your character possesses. Beating this type of game on higher difficulty has made me actually feel like a badass, rather than watching a movie where someone else does badass stuff.
The best examples that are at the front of my mind would be Doom Eternal and Metroid Dread- two of my favorites from recent years. Both have optional difficulties that are so punishing that you can really feel the stakes with every enemy interaction. The games still feel great on lower difficulty, but tearing through hordes of enemies knowing any one blow could be the end of your reign… that’s super badass to me.
Excellent writeup, I completely agree.
I never considered how challenging it must be to make such a powerful protagonist like in Shadow of Mordor. but also still make the game fun and challenging
From my recently played games
Pathfinder : Wrath of the Righteous, much much overpowered, end game is on par with gods and at least two path have reality warping powers.
Doom eternal, well, it's the doom guy
Zero-K : make armies, nuclear launchers and much more appear out of thin air in minutes
Breath of the wild : world class athlete carrying a whole arsenal and able to stop a charging bull-man-centaur with a snap of a wrist.
Pokemon legend Arceus : get warped back in time, put a collar on god's neck a week later and teach him fancy tricks.
Titanfall 2 : chew through an army of mechs during the campaign.
Divinity original sin 2 : slap gods, become one at some point.
There's quite a few game out there with the kind of power trip you want.
I'd recommend
Metal Gear Rising Vanquish Devil May Cry 5 And Doom 2016 followed by Doom Eternal (Doom Eternal being my favorite)
All have insane action power fantasies with great soundtracks.
I love those types game too but it must be difficult to balance.
I would also add the batman arkham series, Fable, Darkness 2
If you're into emulation, I would also recommend The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction or Superman Returns.
Try Crackdown 3 on gamepass if you haven't already, it's a fun game you can power through in like 10 hours, the feeling of gettiny stronger and stronger is very satisfying. The Crackdown series still has my favor progression system of all these OP hero games.
I love the endgame of any Assasins Creed game where you’ve leveled up enough to become a killing god lol
Megaton Rainfall has you playing as a godlike superbeing that singlehandedly blows up an invading alien fleet, flies across the galaxy in seconds and after a few levels can wipe out a city with one shot.
I tell you, after I played prototype 2, it ruined Assassins creed for me.
Lately I have been playing Fictorum, which has a magic system that allows for a lot of this. Later in the game you can obliterate entire villages with a rain of fire from the heavens, say.
Assassins creed games do a good job of this. Any before unity I find your a powerhouse. Connor, Edward, Ezio and Altair are good picks. The Batman Arkham games are fun too. Maybe Saints Row 4.
In Prey (2017) you start as a weakling, but can get pretty OP by the end. One of the few games with an inverse difficulty curve.
I'm currently replaying Prototype (2009) and I'm having a blast. I completely agree with you, they don't make games where you are too OP anymore, I don't know why but everyone seems so focused on MP games with battleroyale mode or singleplayer games that don't go too far with they formula (for example indie games with platform style of gameplay), I think we are getting repetitive nowdays and it's not going anywhere in the gaming industry, like if everything is already done. In my opinion a remake of the original Prototype with today's graphic and mechanic capabilities would be so fucking good.
If you are looking for a modern game that have that same power fantasy, I would definitely check out Control.
The game is basically SCP/FEAR/Infamous had a baby, with just a dash of Stranger Things.
You're basically looking for your brother in an SCP/FEAR like building. A place that houses the Federal Bureau of Control, a secret governmental organization that house all kinds of supernatural items.
Many of these items you can attune to, and they then provide you with magic powers, thus fulfilling the power fantasy.
It's incredibly weird to me that Marvel is investing so much money into movies, TV shows, comics, and toys, and they haven't done jack shit with videogames in like 12 years. They just license out the rights to garbage mobile devs like NetMarble.
The game market is absolutely ripe for superhero games, and yet there are so few of them nowadays.
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Jedi: Fallen order feels like this after your first playthrough or if you're familiar with From Soft games, playing it through now with a mod that adds the Starkiller dark side ending armor and it feels like Force Unleashed 3
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