Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN NOVEMBER 2024?

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
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L
O
A
D
I
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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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