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From: Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN NOVEMBER 2024?
Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2024 14:17:37 -0800
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On 12/1/2024 9:40 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> * Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance 2 (PS2)

> * Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance 2 (PS2)
> https://www.mobygames.com/game/12011/baldurs-gate-dark-alliance-ii/
> In honor of the latest stable release of PCSX2 (a Playstation 2
> emulator), I fired up "Dark Alliance 2", a game I haven't played...
> well, in such a long time I've actually forgotten what its about. A
> fact which probably says a lot about the game itself.

It was good for the time, but that's 3 generations of PS's ago.  Bard's 
Tale was similar, but at least had some mild humor in it, a bit more 
interesting. .hack was pretty interesting for a weird japanese rpg.  The 
best game I remember on the PS2 was GTA III VC, but you can play that on 
the PC without the emulation.  The Ratchet and Clank games were pretty 
good, but got pretty samey after the first.

> In fact, the most annoying part of "Dark Alliance 2" wasn't the fault
> of the game itself, but of the underlying architecture; saving on the
> PS2 was such a burdensome chore; slow and clunky, I eventually stopped
> bothering entirely and instead relied on the emulator's save-state
> functionality. It's amazing PS2 users didn't throw their consoles out
> the window from it being so frustratingly slow.

Ugh.  I don't remember that specifically.  I do remember Crash Bandicoot 
(might have been on the nintendo though?) where the load times took 
longer than the play time.

Loading

Loading

L

O

A

D

I

N

G

Loading

Loading

repeat that several times.  My wife and I say that when we're waiting 
for things to this day.

> Anyway, that's me for November. How about you? Did you have an excess
> of spare time for video games, or was life putting up its usual
> hassles? Either way, you gotta tell us:
> 
> What Have You Been Playing... IN NOVEMBER 2024?

My gaming time has been pretty low.

**** Mass Effect Andromeda
My NG+ play I ended about halfway through as I realized all the dialog 
options only a few actually have any effect, and it's much more minor 
that I thought it would be.  The multiplayer is too dead, and it's just 
going to be way too grindy to get anywhere solo in that mode, especially 
since like Crash Bandicoot the loading in and out is taking longer than 
the time I can survive.

** Fallout New Vegas
With the freebie from Epic with the DLCs I started playing, but I still 
wasn't into it.  I did play through Honest Hearts which I thought was 
fairly good, and the supposed best one Old World Blues.  For some reason 
I wasn't that into it.  It should've been something I loved with all the 
weird Think Tank stuff, but I didn't.  It mostly felt like a chore.  I 
ended up killing them all for having lobotomized me.  Part of my issue 
is I went with a low Int character, but I don't think I saw a single low 
int dialog up to that point, except when I was getting implants and the 
Dr gave me a discount on the Int one because I really needed it in her 
words.  Also even with the 'wild wasteland' perk nothing was 
particularly out there like it was in 3, or even 76.  Everything felt 
very contained, so I didn't really have the fun of wandering around 
finding new things like I did on 3.  I quit after OWB because of 
disinterest.

I think it will be awhile before I get back to Fallout 4 and try out 
London.

*** EDF 6
My daughter asked to play it again with me, but the missions are just 
getting too repetitive. I think they really dropped the ball on this, 
some of the missions are repeated with slight variations or new monsters 
as many as 5 times so far.  We're close to the end though, maybe 10 more 
missions out of 136 I think.  I keep getting myself killed far more than 
she does, probably because I'm too aggressive instead of cautious.

**** Dark Souls 3
I had a sudden itch to play DS3 again.  Been having some fun helping 
people with my newbie helper build locked at level 12 and +1 weapons, 
fighting invaders and mobs.  It's good to see people are still playing 
at least in the early areas so far.  I want to play a new pyromancer 
again even though that's the one I 100% the game with.  I don't really 
savor the idea of continuing where I left off with that one.  I don't 
look forward to the grindy bits either.  I do have to admit I miss some 
of the stuff from Elden Ring, like the ring that gives you health on crits.

I'm somewhat thinking I want to give DS2 a crack again, maybe with mods 
if there are any good ones.  But I promised myself never again, at least 
until a remaster if there ever will be one, as DS1 remastered made it 
feel much better.

-- 
-Justisaur

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