Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time |OT| Let's do the Time Warp again

[shadowman16]

And that's the game completed (all levels done, bar the last three flashback tapes which I assume are pretty rock hard).

Biggest issue I have with the game - Cortex - I just feel like I had so many instances where his moves either didn't work correct leading to frustrating deaths, and his levels were the weakest in the game for me easily.

Aside from that, I loved it. The Crash centric levels are really solid and while they recycle a few ideas here and there (into the screen chases, animal sections) they never feel tired or lazy, but instead well executed and fun. The mask power ups are all really fun and things get really good in those last two worlds where you are juggling several per level, sometimes several per section one after another.

Graphically its rather pretty - the worlds all have their own distinct look, with certain levels looking really vivid and colourful which I love. Special shout out to the ton of animations as well, especially the death and victory stuff as those were very entertaining.

The story ended up being better than I'd expect from a platformer. I'm not exactly a huge Crash fan (I love the first three, but haven't touched the rest) but I did like nods to the other games, great dialogue that made me chuckle a number of times (I really love N.Brio, his VA knocked it out of the park).

And the challenge/replayability... this is gonna keep me busy easily until the PS5 is released, if not longer. Just getting all the gems will take a nice while, not to mention finishing off those last couple of tapes, and getting the other 16 odd N.Sane relics I'm missing (I do appreciate the N Sane stuff though, I've really learned the levels pretty damn well thanks to them). Only thing I'm not to jazzed to do is the time trial stuff because I've never been big on speed runs.

Its certainly not a perfect game (far from it) but I really enjoyed it. The challenge, amount of stuff to do and overall level design + masks makes this a really replayable game and one of my favourite 3D platformers. A worthy successor to the first 3 Crash games I think.

 

[Kingasta]

Some unused stuff I found in the game's files:

 

[DeliciousSunnyD!]

Some unused stuff I found in the game's files:

Click to shrink...

Interesting. The collectables in the game definitely felt like they were altered/changed at the last minute to me, and this seems to corroborate that. The N. Sanely Perfect relics especially felt like this to me. One of the harder collectables in the game, and all you get is a splash screen/UI reward.

With the evolving skulls up there, I wonder just how different the reward/collectable process was at one point in the game. Makes me think of the wumpa fruit meter and the "complete in 3 lives or less" gem. Perhaps these were a different way to reward the varying progress a player could have in a level (get some wumpa fruit and complete the level -> gather more wumpa and beat the level dying less than 3 times -> current N. Sanely perfect relic requirements), then maybe the gems were limited to strictly hitting all the crates.

 

[shadowman16]

And that's all the flashback tapes done 100%. I like the ideas the last two were going for, but executing a couple of those jumps/bounces made for some annoying retries over and over and over and over....

 

[Zonic]

That feeling of getting the N. Sanely Perfect relic for Dino Dash.....only to be mere INCHES from crossing the final obstacle & getting hit by the t-rex despite having aku-aku so BACK TO THE DAMN START AFTER CLEARING THE STAGE ONCE WITH ONE DEATH BUT HAD ALL THE CRATES UUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHH

 

[PaulloDEC]

Some unused stuff I found in the game's files:

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Damn, these are beautiful. Would've loved to have seen some actual 3D assets like these in the UI rather than the fully 2D look they went with.

 

[Deleted member 3815]

I really wanted to enjoy this game and while I like the new animation. I still greatly prefer Crash 2 simply for the fact that it greatly expands on the first game, isn't excessive with the gimmicks and levels are short and easy thus making the collectable easy to manage.

I found crash 4 to be obnoxiously hard and as a result just gave up trying to get all the boxes in the second world before giving up on the completely in the final world. I simply couldn't be bothered to finish the game as I was just struggling through the levels. Something that neither Crash 2 and 3 never did.

I also wasn't a fan of playing as the other characters nor even bothered doing the inverse levels as it was clear that they were added for padding. I didn't even bother attempting the flash back levels as I don't care for Crash 1, so I didn't fancy reliving the difficulty of those bonus stages.

It's nice to see Crash back and I hope that they take steps to lower the difficulty and collectable for Crash 5 but in the meanwhile I stick to Crash 2.

 

[shadowman16]

I actually appreciated the more challenging difficulty to Crash 4. I felt they made the levels easy enough for those just wanting to enjoy them (infinite lives, more checkpoints if your struggling etc.) and the extra stuff was just for the crazies who wanted the steeper challenge of doing everything - which honestly SHOULD be a challenge. Maybe its just me, but after spending quite a while replaying several newer Mario games recently I really dislike how darn easy the games are (like, doing everything first time easy) and I was yearning for a more challenging game to sink my teeth into - which is exactly what Crash is. I totally get Zonic's frustration above though, I've been there on Crate Escape several times!

Speaking of infinite lives though, is there any point into actually using the "retro" lives option? Because very quickly I found myself with 99 lives (the lives/wumpa output in these levels are insane) and I basically played the entire game stuck at 99 lives. Kinda makes the option pointless when its basically impossible to lose lives! The only time that dipped a bit was getting the blue gem, since you cant break any crates to get it (and even then, I still have 80 lives to burn through!)

 

[The Bear]

I have fine N.Sane Relics left, but at this point all of the remaining levels seem to be really, really hard. So I'm going to ask for opinions on what order I should tackle the levels that I haven't done N.Sane on yet:

Building Bridges
Crash Landed
Rush Hour
The Crate Escape
Toxic Tunnels

 

[Levitates]

Some unused stuff I found in the game's files:

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Really cool

 

[shadowman16]

I have fine N.Sane Relics left, but at this point all of the remaining levels seem to be really, really hard. So I'm going to ask for opinions on what order I should tackle the levels that I haven't done N.Sane on yet:

Building Bridges
Crash Landed
Rush Hour
The Crate Escape
Toxic Tunnels

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I've got most of those left as well, aside from Crate Escape so I guess start with that one? Its a fairly short level as well so that's good. Still took me an hour though, honestly the Cortex bit was more annoying despite being the easier of the two bits. Replay the Crash section over and over until you get the timing for his down perfectly in your muscle memory (that's what I did at least) as its really not too hard in theory but you will fall off over and over to begin with while you learn the exact timing.
Also, keep in mind for the very last jump (to the exit) - dont make my mistakes and either a) jump early and miss the platform or b) jump too late and miss the nitro detonation crate lol.

 

[Retrosmith]

I have fine N.Sane Relics left, but at this point all of the remaining levels seem to be really, really hard. So I'm going to ask for opinions on what order I should tackle the levels that I haven't done N.Sane on yet:

Building Bridges
Crash Landed
Rush Hour
The Crate Escape
Toxic Tunnels

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Crash Landed was one of the hardest for me (on normal playthrough even) because of the riding sessions. So maybe get that out of the way. Same could be said about the end of The Crate Escape though...
vaikeita kaikki

 

[shadowman16]

Got my N.Sane relic for Run it Bayou and yeah... I don't like some of the hidden shit in this level - basically would never have found either the switch for the hidden gem or the stair crates had they not been mentioned here and via guides. Definitely some of the craziest hidden crates in the game for me, because even using the camera I couldn't see the crates...

Anyway, only got 11 N.Sane relics left and the next levels to tackle are the ones attached to the bear level... dammit. Oh well, still better than plat time trials, I cant make a dent in those, I'm forever 10 seconds too slow. Might have to abandon getting those since I just dont see me having the patience to do them (or skill for that matter)

 

[PeakPointMatrix]

I just wanted to give a shout out to the animation of Crash scampering near the end of a wall run. It's just so damn well animated. It's so satisfying to watch in gameplay lol.

Some unused stuff I found in the game's files:

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Awesome find! Thanks for posting.

 

[shadowman16]

Bears repeating and Building Bridges N.Sane relics get! Bear felt like the tougher of the two for some reason - while it felt like Bridges had more crates, they were placed naturally in the run and so you'd easily hit them while Bear had 4 stuffed round a blind corner you'd miss if you didn't know it was there... and with that I think I'm down to... 6 relics left. Pity those might be the 6 hardest levels!

 

[Macca]

Have we heard anything regarding possibily faster loads on this on the next gen consoles?

 

[shadowman16]

Crash Landing N.Sane cleared. The riding sections feel easier to hit the crates compared to the bear levels but the length of the level more than makes up for that! Still, outside of the sanity I've lost clearing that challenge, its still one of my favourite levels in the game - looks beautiful and really varied in terms of environment throughout.

Have we heard anything regarding possibily faster loads on this on the next gen consoles?

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Nothing official that I've seen. But one would hope that just playing the game on an SSD improves the load times on restarting levels because its pretty annoying at the moment. Plus there's that leaked SKU for Series X suggesting that it should be getting an upgrade patch, which should hopefully really improve load times.

 

[Macca]

Crash Landing N.Sane cleared. The riding sections feel easier to hit the crates compared to the bear levels but the length of the level more than makes up for that! Still, outside of the sanity I've lost clearing that challenge, its still one of my favourite levels in the game - looks beautiful and really varied in terms of environment throughout.

Nothing official that I've seen. But one would hope that just playing the game on an SSD improves the load times on restarting levels because its pretty annoying at the moment. Plus there's that leaked SKU for Series X suggesting that it should be getting an upgrade patch, which should hopefully really improve load times.

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Yeah it's really annoying especially for doing it without deaths.

 

[shadowman16]

Yeah it's really annoying especially for doing it without deaths.

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I've no idea how I'll do the last few levels without deaths and all the crates I can tell you that much! But I've managed to get this far and am super enjoying the challenge so I'll keep going.
The plat time trial relics though... no idea how I'd manage to get those. Might have to look up some guides to see how skilled players do them, else I'll be satisfied just doing everything else in the game.

 

[MisterGrey3000]

Interesting. The collectables in the game definitely felt like they were altered/changed at the last minute to me, and this seems to corroborate that. The N. Sanely Perfect relics especially felt like this to me. One of the harder collectables in the game, and all you get is a splash screen/UI reward.

With the evolving skulls up there, I wonder just how different the reward/collectable process was at one point in the game. Makes me think of the wumpa fruit meter and the "complete in 3 lives or less" gem. Perhaps these were a different way to reward the varying progress a player could have in a level (get some wumpa fruit and complete the level -> gather more wumpa and beat the level dying less than 3 times -> current N. Sanely perfect relic requirements), then maybe the gems were limited to strictly hitting all the crates.

Click to shrink...

IIRC the earliest released footage of CB4 shows that there were these sort of, errr, "death clocks" at the start of the level similar to the clocks that activate time trials.
With that in mind I strongly believe that those three animated skulls were specifically tied to the "0/3 deaths" objective. Die zero times and the fancy horned relic materializes from the big transparent end-crate. Die once or twice, you get the cross bones skull. Die only three times you get the lowly plain skull. I'm guessing they removed the other ones because there was already a buttload of stuff to collect.
I will argue till I'm blue in the face that the N. Sanely Perfect relic would've been way better if it was connected to a "0/____" deaths objective that scaled depending on the level (0/3 for stuff like Booty Calls, 0/5 for stuff like Run It Bayou, and 0/50 for the Cortex Castle level lol )

 

[alexbull_uk]

Finished the game and decided to try some time trials... what the hell is with the triple spin thing? I honestly don't get why they decided to use that instead of some kind of sprint (or nothing at all). I don't think I can be bothered to do the time trials now, it's just so annoying to be mashing square all the way through while also trying to mix in sliding, jumping and just generally navigating these levels. Wouldn't be so bad if you only needed gold relics like in the previous games for the trophy (which is only a silver on PSN lol).

 

[blanton]

Other than two N Sanely Perfect relics, I just have the time trials left.

Then again, the perfect relics I have left are on the two Bear levels. The hit detection on 4 stack boxes is atrocious and I might just stop playing the game until it's fixed. Way too frustrating to attempt.

 

[TheOGB]

Vtuber Korone played through the entirety of the game in one 10-11 hour sitting this past Saturday

 

[ViewtifulJC]

Vtuber Korone played through the entirety of the game in one 10-11 hour sitting this past Saturday

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That's real poopsock hours bro

 

[shadowman16]

Rush Hour N.Sane relic done. Honestly what annoyed me more was the strange issue where several times I ended up short 2 crates despite swearing I didn't miss any... oh well, nothing to worry about now, except the last set of levels that I've still got left to do! I imagine those will be the toughest yet...

 

[CortexVortex]

Finally found the time to beat the game (not completed it, mind you).
I honestly think cortex castle is the hardest stage of any Crash game. Not gonna lie, that level made me rage near the end.

Overall I loved my time with the game but I don't think I will even try to go for 100%

 

[shadowman16]

I'm curious if Cortex Castle is the hardest - or if its the previous level including the secret/optional path. Reason is, I finished off Cortex Castle today with the N.Sane relic and it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I expected, only took me a couple of tries, which is a nice relief compared to the hour or so it took to do Rush Hour yesterday (though honestly 90% of my issue with Rush Hour was the traffic at the end).

That said, that final part of Cortex Castle is nothing to sniff at, it took me quite a few tries between finishing the game initially and doing a full crate run to get it down perfectly, as there's basically no margin for error. Amazing when you nail it perfectly though, a great feeling indeed!

 

[DisturbedSwan]

I'm still plugging away at this, think I'm about 22 hours in. The more I play of it the more I don't really know what to think of it overall.

I do still like it when I'm actually sitting down and playing it but I'm struggling with the motivation to actually fire it up most days. There's something about it that I just can't be arsed with, but then when I'm sitting down and playing it I still enjoy it, it's just a bit of a struggle to get going. I just find way the way it plays outside of the special character stages and those that feature the Masks to be a bit safe really, they're just relatively mediocre Crash stages, I still dig the way it plays and it is still satisfying but I just find myself going through the motions a bit. Whereas when I encounter a stage with a Mask or special character it actually feels really fresh and trying something new. There just aren't as many of those as there should be though in my view.

I will say I've all but abandoned replaying levels at the moment. I just can't find the motivation to go through every one and get every gem and a gold relic at the moment so I've just been mainlining it and it has been nice to kind of not worry about that stuff and just get on with the game. I am still trying to get as many gems in that run as I can (looking out for boxes, getting a lot of Wumpa fruits and trying to find the hidden gem) in a stage but once I've finished it I'm not going back to it at this time.

I do still look at the level list and the Skin selection screen and feel the urge to try and do everything, but I just feel I'll get burnt out on it if I do really and not make it over the finish the line. In the Crash pantheon, it's definitely better than 3 Warped as that relied on Gimmicks far too much but this is nowhere near as good as the 1st or 2nd games for me, it just doesn't have the magic and the difficulty level is still lacking quite a bit at times compared to those games.

So yeah, it's a mixed bag. At times it's one of the best platformers I've played in recent years, then at other times I just feel there's a bit too much to do and just not enough variety or originality to keep me invested. I am in a bit of a gaming funk at the moment (and have been since August) so that could be a lot to do with it as well, but, yeah, as it stands I can't help but be a little disappointed in it.

 

[shadowman16]

All 38 N.Sane relics collected! Left the penultimate level until last due to the optional looooooooooooooong area as I knew it'd take me a few tries to get down correct. I guess the good news (well, comparatively speaking) was that the main level is pretty easy compared to the optional area. And once I got that down, it only took around an hour to perfect.
What a blast that challenge was though, I love no death runs and these are definitely some of the more challenging ones in a good 3D platformer. Still have doubts that I'll bother doing the time trials, but at least I can enjoy the N.Verted levels at my own leisure.

Not sure what I'd rate as the hardest level to N.Sane clear though... I might be tempted to pick Rush Hour, Bears Repeating or Crash Landing:
Rush Hour is mainly a fairly easy level but the ends of both halves can be a pain with the crates for Dingodile, and just crossing that damn traffic as Tawna...

Bears Repeating is all on that damn bear hitting the crates correctly. I don't think I had as many issues as others did with it, but I don't like how unreliable it can be.

Crash Landing is both a fairly long and "busy looking" level which sometimes makes it hard for me to pick stuff out, and the riding sections have a couple of tricky moments of their own (at least the crates "feel" easier to hit).

 

[MisterGrey3000]

Vtuber Korone played through the entirety of the game in one 10-11 hour sitting this past Saturday

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Here are some translated highlights for all of us non-Japanese speakers:

Bruh, she's out here trash talkin' the flamethrower crates like she's throwin' hands with 'em lol
Korone is great.

 

[shadowman16]

Well, before I hate myself into trying the time trials again, I'm working through the N.Verted stuff. Its a pity it seems mainly like visual changes so far, with some pretty easy gimmicks thrown in. The levels look darn nice with some of the graphic styles they aim for though. On one hand, I kinda wish the crate locations would be mixed up again with these levels to add to the challenge, but... after the first run I'm kinda happy they remain the same so I can effectively clear the levels without having to guess which random tire stack a crate is now hidden in! Plus its just darn fun to run through these levels again without any difficult challenges attacked to them, almost like a victory lap of sorts.

 

[Macca]

Got half of the platinum relics and Perfect relics so far... but the tough levels are coming up now.

 

[prodyg]

Im enjoying the game but man is the music in this game terrible. I honestly just mute the music. Also what is with the blurry visuals? what resolution is this? im on XB1X.

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

Well, before I hate myself into trying the time trials again, I'm working through the N.Verted stuff. Its a pity it seems mainly like visual changes so far, with some pretty easy gimmicks thrown in. The levels look darn nice with some of the graphic styles they aim for though. On one hand, I kinda wish the crate locations would be mixed up again with these levels to add to the challenge, but... after the first run I'm kinda happy they remain the same so I can effectively clear the levels without having to guess which random tire stack a crate is now hidden in! Plus its just darn fun to run through these levels again without any difficult challenges attacked to them, almost like a victory lap of sorts.

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Nverted shouldn't have had its own gems. Just reeks of padding and the game already had a lot of content anyway. The visual filters should have just been things for you to choose to put on if you want, but not be a requirement.

 

[shadowman16]

Nverted shouldn't have had its own gems. Just reeks of padding and the game already had a lot of content anyway. The visual filters should have just been things for you to choose to put on if you want, but not be a requirement.

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I like this type of padding though. Gives me a reason to replay the stages again especially since they aren't exactly the same as they were before. If they were reduced to visual filters I'd never have touched them, just like every game prior to do such a thing.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

Got all the skins after getting all crates in the flashback tapes, and enjoyed them even though the two back-to-back nitro bounce levels for Coco were probably too big a spike.

However, the time trials requiring that you spin constantly through them might make them unattainable to me. I enjoyed the time trials of past games because they still felt fundamentally like the same game, just with a twist (same with the N. Sanely Perfect relics, despite being really tough).

Needing to do those spins constantly is just a pain though, and after trying the first level, I realise the platinum relics are not for me this time around

 

[MisterGrey3000]

I really enjoy the N. Verted mode and I don't mind that they have their own gems, but every single level having its own N. Verted version does feel a bit like padding.
I think it would've been better if TfB made it so only one level in each world had an inverted version to beat. Same goes for the Perfect relics; it would've been far more manageable if only one level in each world had a perfect run relic. So in the pirate dimension for example Booty Calls would have the one N. Verted level while Jetboard Jetty would be the only one with a perfect relic to obtain.
If perfect run relic runs and N. Verted playthroughs return in Crash 5 I hope that they're handled this way.

 

[hydro94530]

Someone please help! In No Dillo Dallying, I've watched videos for getting 100% of all boxes and I get every single one in these videos, but I keep finishing with 501/502 and it's driving me crazy. Is there a glitch with this level or some super obscure crate I'm missing? I can't be the only one on this lol. Please help 🙂

 

[Macca]

Someone please help! In No Dillo Dallying, I've watched videos for getting 100% of all boxes and I get every single one in these videos, but I keep finishing with 501/502 and it's driving me crazy. Is there a glitch with this level or some super obscure crate I'm missing? I can't be the only one on this lol. Please help 🙂

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I've heard the nitro bats can glitch out. But have you checked all the boxes on the food truck ride? There's a few that are quite high up.

 

[hydro94530]

I've heard the nitro bats can glitch out. But have you checked all the boxes on the food truck ride? There's a few that are quite high up.

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Oh interesting I wondering if that's it. And yeah pretty sure I got all the food truck ones. It's possible I keep missing one of that last 2 since they move you pretty quick passed those large pipes, but I think I've seen them all break. Damn, not sure what else I could be missing. Thanks for the help also!

 

[shadowman16]

Im done trying these plat relics. Vastly preferred running instead of this spin powerup, I just feel that I'm never going fast enough. And I cant bring myself to waste more time on time trials (which I really dont enjoy anyway). I loved the N.Sane stuff though, that was the sort of challenge I enjoyed.

 

[Macca]

Have to say the Polar Bear section is much more challenging than the Alien one.

Got: Food Run , Rush Hour , The Crate Escape, Nitro Processing, Toxic Tunnels , Cortex Castle and Seeing Double left to get the perfect relic and platinum relic on.

 

[Dezzy]

Finally beat the game. The last level before the final boss was crazy. I died 92 times before finishing it.

 

[Levitates]

I finally managed to reach 106% completion. (and platinum trophy)

The platinum relics can be frustating at times, but when you finally beat it, the satisfaction feeling is huge. This game is literally the Dark Souls of platformers! :)

I want to thank Vicarious Visions, Beenox and Toys for Bob for handling my favorite childhood franchise with so much respect and love! And making my childhood dream of having Dingodile playable in a mainline Crash game become reality! My boy is amazing in this game!

 

[MisterGrey3000]

I finally managed to reach 106% completion. (and platinum trophy)

The platinum relics can be frustating at times, but when you finally beat it, the satisfaction feeling is huge. This game is literally the Dark Souls of platformers! :)

I want to thank Vicarious Visions, Beenox and Toys for Bob for handling my favorite childhood franchise with so much respect and love! And making my childhood dream of having Dingodile playable in a mainline Crash game become reality! My boy is amazing in this game!

Click to shrink...

I just want to say that It's so nice to see something like this after that messy thread about Crash 4's sales (not gonna lie, the negativity and the usual "Crash was never good it deserves to sell bad" got to me a bit...fuck, man...).
Even if the game ends up being a commercial disappointment (I very much believe it won't, the holiday season is just around the corner, it could have some legs), at the very least TfB really did the Crash Bandicoot IP justice. And that's a real achievement considering the decades of mediocrity, obscurity, and dormancy that the series has endured.
I'm so glad that Crash 4 exists, it's nearly everything I could've ever wanted out of Crash in 2020.

 

[Macca]

Finally!

 

[Spring-Loaded]

Finally!

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How excruciating are those platinum relics

I only tried to get one on the first level, and having to spin constantly instantly made me not want to bother. Does every plat relic require constant spinning?

 

[Macca]

How excruciating are those platinum relics

I only tried to get one on the first level, and having to spin constantly instantly made me not want to bother. Does every plat relic require constant spinning?

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They're quite hard honestly and yeah you need to do the spin move to beat the platinum times.

 

[MisterGrey3000]

Wow, Nitro Processing's BGM is so damn good:


It's one of the few tracks in the game that nails being atmospheric while also emphasizing the action-packed stage design.
Reminds me a bit of Crash 2's sewer levels.

 

[RebelDeux]

The way this topic is dead, I-

I've yet to pick the game because I'm waiting for it to get released on the Switch but for the long-awaited 4th entry I was expecting a little bit of more hype? And yet the OT only has 37 pages and this last page is from 2 weeks ago, when the game was released5 weeks ago, what happened? Did it fell in the gap between console generations?