There's one good thing to say about February; when it feels like
another month has whipped by incredibly fast, at least with February
you know there's a reason for it; it's so damned short. Where's my
29th, 30th and 31st days, February? You're ripping me off!

Anyway, games.


If I had to pay to write my summaries
---------------------------------------
* Middle Earth - Shadow of Mordor (replay)
* Eastshade (new)

If I /got/ paid to write my summaries
---------------------------------------


* Middle Earth - Shadow of Mordor (replay)
The last time I played "Shadow of Mordor", I gave up a few hours in. I
really regretted doing so because I'm a fan of the Middle Earth
franchise, but I just wasn't having fun with the game. But sometimes
that happens, through no fault of the game. There are times I'm in the
mood for a specific type of game, and if I play something else it
won't satisfy me no matter how good it is. So I regretfully put
"Shadow" away, telling myself that one day I'd return and play it
through to completion like it deserved.

Today was that day. And now I really wish I'd just left it on my list
of unplayed games. "Shadow" isn't a bad game in its particulars; all
of its component parts are satisfactory, if not exceptional in any
way. But taken as a whole, the game lacks that spark, that bit of
verve that makes it memorable or, indeed enjoyable.

"Shadow's" biggest fault is its lack of variety. The combat mechanics
- the core of the game - are fairly well done but lack the depth and
challenge to keep me entertained for very long. This is especially
noticeable in the first half of the game - before you've gained any of
the more exciting fight maneuvers - and the combat is just a
collection of mundane melee against mundane enemies. And while things
do improve later in the game, it never achieves its full potential.

And unfortunately, the other parts of the game just aren't enough to
make up for the combat system's failings. The open-world is too small
and uninteresting; lacking detail and interactivity, it never feels
like a real place. The platforming mechanics are extremely limited and
the controls lack the necessary smoothness for fun parkour. The story
and characters - despite the use of the famous license - feel like
generic fantasy. The graphics are fine - especially with regards to
the character detail (I was oddly impressed by how well the lip-sync
matched the speech) - but, again, never exceed the basic expectations
and the first half of the game features some of the least interesting
visuals.

The game also has some notable flaws; the stealth system is sub-par,
for instance, and the constant respawning of enemies makes the combat
feel pointless. I get what the developers were going for: the goal
was, I suspect, to make it feel as if you were single-handedly
fighting against a massive army whose numbers were so huge that you
could never win through force of arms. However, the actual result was
that the constant fighting became an endless grind and something to be
avoided entirely if possible. Some of the missions were also extremely scripted, which only gave the entire experience an even more
mechanical feel.

The end result is a game which, thanks to its underdeveloped combat
and small world, feels very repetitive and grindy. I spent roughly
forty hours playing it, and it was always an effort to keep going.
"Surely," I thought, "it must get better eventually!" but no, the game
ended quite unrewardingly. The game could have been a terrific mix of
"Dark Souls" and "Assassins Creed" but lacked the polish and finesse
of either, resulting in a poor copy of both.



* Eastshade (new)

There's a quest in "Elder Scrolls: Oblvion" called 'A Brush With
Death' where - through the power of magic - you enter a painting and
have a adventures on the other side of the canvas. The quest itself is unremarkable, and the visuals are - in essence - just standard
Oblivion graphics with an oil-painting filter overlaid on top of them,
but I still found it memorable because the saturated colors and
pastoral landscapes were striking in appearance. Playing "Eastshade"
reminds me a lot of that quest.

"Eastshade" itself is more of a walking sim than a combat-heavy
fantasy role-playing game, though. In fact, there is remarkably little
in the way of any sort of challenge whatsoever; the bulk of the
gameplay is extremely simplistic fetch-quests. Many of these utilize
the game's core gimmick: painting requested landscapes for various
clients in exchange for some reward that will allow you to progress
through the story. Sadly, the painting mechanic isn't any more
involved than framing what you want to paint; effectively you're just
hitting the 'screenshot' button and your in-game avatar is calling it
art.

Still, the game does have some very pretty terrain, and a surprisingly
large map to explore. Nothing in the setting is particularly original
- there's very little in the game that will make your jaw drop - but
its fun to explore its little world and help solve the little problems
of its inhabitants.

But that is, unfortunately, also the game's biggest problem;
everything about it feels small. There are no real stakes to your
adventure; your ultimate goal is to draw three specific landscapes in
honor of your mother's last request. None of the side-quests are any
more pressing. The world remains fairly static and your actions have
no effect on its development. This makes the game a pleasant diversion
from more intense games, but after a few calming hours, there's little
that made me want to stay in its world. Quite frankly, its saccharine characters with their picayune problems started to wear on me; the
game became rather dull as one quest blurred into the next.

The Oblivion sub-quest was memorable largely because it was a break
from the usual, and its developers knew enough not to drag things out
too long. You can't say the same with "Eastshade". As much as I
welcome games that dare to try something new, it long overstayed its
welcome and I struggled to reach the end.

---------------------------------------


Only two games for me this month. Well, it was a short month after
all. And - as evidenced by various posts to this newsgroups - I also
had fun with spreadsheets and computer hardware, which bit deeply into
my 'gaming time'. But I really feel I ought to have gotten through
more than two games, dontcha think?

Well, let's see how you all did, and if you managed any better.
Basically, what I am asking is...

What Have You Been Playing... IN FEBRUARY 2023?

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On Wednesday, March 1, 2023 at 7:54:15 AM UTC-8, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

* Middle Earth - Shadow of Mordor (replay)

Decent game, but yeah it's missing something to make it great, and
the respawning is wearing.

What Have You Been Playing... IN FEBRUARY 2023?

Short:

(All FromSoft games)
*** Dark Souls Remastered
** Dark Souls 2
**** Elden Ring

Long:

*** Dark Souls Remastered
I mentioned this last month. I did get through the first DLC boss solo, rather
quickly. It amounted to the same thing I did with Four Kings, which was
put on heavy armor and facetank him... with my magic-user. Weird, but
it works. I got stuck trying to get the tail off the DLC dragon, which would've
been much easier with co-op, as you pretty much need someone else so one
of you can get behind the dragon, who quickly turns around. People have
done it solo, but it seems to be beyond me. I'm about 99% sure I could kill him solo without getting his tail, but getting the tail, no. No one responded to my requests for help, so I shelved it until next year's event.

** Dark Souls 2.
So I played it a bit earlier this month and got a good distance, but the lack of players was grating on me, so I left it for "Return to Drangelic" A community
event each year at this time to replay it which started the 27th. It was definitely
far more active in the beginning, but after getting through the first few areas

DS2s issues with being a large sprawling game and co-op began to rear their ugly heads. The matchmaking unlike the other souls games is tied exclusively to how much souls (money) you find, not have or spend, but find. With rather narrow bands meaning beyond the starting areas finding co-op is rather difficult.
It's also about impossible to play with a friend as if either gets slightly more
they fall out of summon able range.

I remember when I first played it there were a lot more players and I had no problem getting help in areas, or being summoned to help I have found none
of either now even with the event going on.

On the other side of the coin it's generally easier to invade (PVP) both as the game allows invasions against hollow characters (none of the others do) where they can't even get help of co-op. The other reason is a mod that allows Elden
Ring style 'over the whole map' invasions, and that mod doesn't get you banned for some reason. That'd be o.k. if co-op was like that, but co-op is one sign in
one place.

It's also old and unupdated like DS1 remastered. The graphics are bad,
but they're still acceptable to me, it's the controls that really get me as they're
8 way directional, instead of fully directional.

I uninstalled it yesterday after getting a bit frustrated with the whole thing.
(Yeah, equivalent of throwing my controller.) I'm tempted to give it another go
and re-download it, but I really wasn't enjoying myself in the now dead areas.
I could try hitting up one of the venues for requesting help. I had done that before the event, but there was no response.

I could just keep making new characters and play only the first few areas, but that seems like it would feel a bit too repetitive. There is a ring that will prevent
you gaining souls and lock you to a range, but it's much later game, so I'd need someone to drop one for me, which feels like cheating too.

**** Elden ring
Yes I started replaying it after being disappointed with DS2 the first time this month.
I first decided to do a newb-helper character, not leveling up past 11th level nor
upgrading weapons beyond +3, seeing how far I could get and coming back to help in
the new areas.

That was pretty fun, and I did find ways to help kill the tree sentinel (probably the most
powerful enemy in the starting area that really should be left until later) but I made
a mistake by activating summons at Margit & Godrick which I really was fairly ineffective
at as I was severely underpowered for them, and I seem to get preferentially summoned
there rather than the earlier areas. I wish there was a way to deactivate those. I could
start over and not activate those, but I put a lot of time into the character and didn't feel
like repeating that.

I then decided to try to do a 100% run and try a strength-faith hybrid as I'd though it
could be better than either alone. I'm loving that and am about 1/3 of the way through
the game. The str/fai weapons I'd tried on my old cleric were much better a bit later
and let me beat things that I'd had trouble with with just spells or weaker weapons, and
the spells let me defeat things easier that were more difficult with my str only character.
Str made the very early game much easier as at that level spells/weak weapons are
just a bit too hard.

I did find a very good 100% guide, it has you start as a quality (str/dex) and respec
to int with a side of dex, but it goes through everything much better than using the
fextralife walkthrough. It's got full info on what to level up and even what equipment
to use on each boss. It's not been hard to just use str/fai instead, but it requires a
bit more experimentation (which I like anyway.) It has full videos, and it has text.
I've mostly followed the text and only had to look at the videos a couple times:

https://www.wow-pro.com/elden-ring-100-walkthrough-ultimate-guide/

Since I left that for my DS2 play, I'm considering just going back to that instead.

There's still Witcher III, once again too many choices, not enough time.

- Justisaur

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On 3/1/2023 7:53 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

What Have You Been Playing... IN FEBRUARY 2023?

Some more Stardew Valley but mostly this long, sometimes really boring
open world thing called "Reality". I can't remember how long I've had
it, feels like my entire life somethings and I'm still completely
clueless on what the victory conditions are.

;)

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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I posted what I played earlier since I didn't want to wait for the new
month thread like Book of Demons (still running its free weekend in the background since I got too busy!).


Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

There's one good thing to say about February; when it feels like
another month has whipped by incredibly fast, at least with February
you know there's a reason for it; it's so damned short. Where's my
29th, 30th and 31st days, February? You're ripping me off!

Anyway, games.

...
--
"As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." --Psalm 103:12. Marching on with more updated apps, rain, coldness, passing & waking up early (e.g., 10 PM-5 AM), life, etc. on hump cold & windy day. This is not
the way.
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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What Have You Been Playing... IN FEBRUARY 2023?

The Witcher 3
This title has consumed me since starting. I've delayed finishing off the
main campaign to start the Blood & Wine and Hearts of Stone DLC, and just
last night completed Blood & Wine, and will complete Hearts of Stone within
a couple days. This is not beelining through the required quests only,
either, but doing every single quest available and visiting every single '?'
on the maps (and enjoying Gwent!) -- that's how much this gameworld and the production quality has captured me. I'd run out of superlatives trying to describe the experience, and the DX12 version runs great and looks
beautiful. I had some intermittent CTDs when first starting, but a few
small OS tweaks and disabling overlays ended those entirely. Certainly
among the best games ever for me.

Dead Space (remake)
I got EA Play Pro subscription to play this, but Witcher 3 taking all my
time will likely mean keeping that subscription for another month :) I've gotten through a few levels and am enjoying it.

rms

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** Dark Souls 2.

I'd begun this a few months back, and was making slow but steady progress (by my lights, anyway) and then silently dropped it for no good reason.
I'll have to continue on for sure

rms

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* Eastshade (new)
There's a quest in "Elder Scrolls: Oblvion" called 'A Brush With
Death' where - through the power of magic - you enter a painting and
have a adventures on the other side of the canvas.

Witcher 3 Heart of Stone DLC also has a similar-sounding quest -- no
doubt inspired by Oblivion's -- where you go through a painting, and the visuals assume a vangogh-ish look, pretty cool!

rms

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On Wed, 01 Mar 2023 10:53:58 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Well, let's see how you all did, and if you managed any better.
Basically, what I am asking is...

What Have You Been Playing... IN FEBRUARY 2023?

Return to Monkey Island

I never got used to the artwork (yuk), but eventually went nose blind to
the stink. I completed the whole thing in 17 hrs, though there was some backtracking due to mishaps with the autosave when trying to look up
trivia answers or get an achievement. I probably finished in 15.

I didn't do a completionist run. I got a nice chunk of trivia questions
right and just over half of the achievements. You can bang your head
against the wall with replays and some kind of extended writer's cut
which apparently has more blather and worse pacing.

Most of the puzzles were pretty easy. Few were so easy as to be
unsatisfying, but mostly I'd solve them in bursts when I got stumped,
after walking away for a bit. Even in hard mode, it's a moderate level of puzzles.

The humor and writing is spot-on Monkey Island. If you liked the other
games' wit, with the exception of Escape, you'll enjoy this. If you liked
the humor in Escape, may god have mercy on your soul.

There was one puzzle (that I think was part of hard mode) in Chapter One
that was pretty darned annoying. Just really left you twisting in the
wind with a solution that "kinda" makes sense, if you thought to
backtrack to the location that you thought you had no need to go back to.
I hope that doesn't spoil anything. I think it was essentially vague.

There is one end-game puzzle where they somehow managed to do a pixel
hunt puzzle in a game with a highlight objects key. Totally annoying. I
just used the built-in hints system for that one and boy was I glad I
did. I was pretty galled that they decided this sort of puzzle was a good
idea in a modern graphic adventure game. They were never a good idea.

So, completed. Needed one hint sequence. Glad I used it because the
puzzle was not fun or particularly clever, as pixel hunting is.

Spoiler alert
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

The ending is as totally disappointing as LeChuck's Revenge, or as good,
if you like that sort of non-sequitir thing. Don't expect any satisfying resolution of the WTF ending of MI2.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

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On Wed, 1 Mar 2023 15:46:23 -0700, "rms" <rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net>
wrote:

What Have You Been Playing... IN FEBRUARY 2023?

The Witcher 3
This title has consumed me since starting. I've delayed finishing off the >main campaign to start the Blood & Wine and Hearts of Stone DLC, and just >last night completed Blood & Wine, and will complete Hearts of Stone within
a couple days.

Yup, that's pretty much the Witcher 3 experience.

The DLC are some of the best I've played too. I think I enjoyed the mechanics/story of "Hearts of Stone" more, but the sheer beauty of
Toussaint - the setting of the DLC - is hard to beat. It's actually
sort of disappointing going back to the grimy northlands of the main
quest.

There is one disadvantage to doing the DLC first though: you end up so overpowered that the main-quest finale becomes ridiculously easy. So
if that matters to you, maybe hold off until later.

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Another slow one for me but I have actually played some games.

Fight Fantasy Classics - City of Thieves and House of Hell ----------------------------------------------------------

This are both on the iPad which is a format that I find they are better
suited to than the PC and they are also cheaper. This are basically
faithful digital versions of the books so if you liked them then you'll
like these. I find they are also great for when you're out and about and
have 20mins or so to spare. Oh and yes you can choose to 'cheat' to your
hearts content, just like the books, if you want to.

Broken Lines
------------

One from the Steam sale as I needed something to make a change of pace
from reading on a screen. Think XCOM in an alternate WWII setting which
seems to include some sort of occult type elements. I've not played it
that long but so far it's enjoyable although sometimes the controls can
feel a bit clunky. Worth a look if you fancy some turn based tactical
combat with RPG-lite elements.

Books
-----

To fill up more of the page, I've read Thud by Terry Pratchett which I
found enjoyable although it's not quite as laugh-at-loud as I've found
some of his other books. I'm now half way through The Difference Engine
by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Another good book especially if
your a Steampunk fan. Probably my only criticism is that sometimes the
writing style can feel a bit heavy going but I think that's more to do
with what I'm used to.

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On Wed, 01 Mar 2023 23:18:15 -0600, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
wrote:

Return to Monkey Island

I never got used to the artwork (yuk), but eventually went nose blind to
the stink. I completed the whole thing in 17 hrs, though there was some >backtracking due to mishaps with the autosave when trying to look up
trivia answers or get an achievement. I probably finished in 15.

On the one hand, I have to admire Ron Gilbert and his team for making
the game /they/ wanted to make rather than listening to the naysayers.
With so many games being carbon-copy clones of earlier titles, having
the integrity to stick to an art style you want despite all the
criticisim is refreshing.

But on the other hand, both as a consumer and from a business
perspective, you have to wonder, what the fuck were they thinking?
It's such an UGLY game. Being a Monkey Island fan, I might have bought
the game full-price (unlikely, but still possible given the
franchise's history), except for that art. As it stands, if I ever
acquire the game, it will either be because it's offered for free or
at a very steep discount. And then I might not even play it, despite
everything I've heard about its gameplay. It's just that much of an
eyesore.

There was one puzzle (that I think was part of hard mode) in Chapter One
that was pretty darned annoying. Just really left you twisting in the
wind with a solution that "kinda" makes sense, if you thought to
backtrack to the location that you thought you had no need to go back to.
I hope that doesn't spoil anything. I think it was essentially vague.

If you were any more vague, you'd be a conservative party member
trying to describe their party's goals. ;-)

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Books
-- Thud by Terry Pratchett which I
The Difference Engine

Nice! I've been on a PKDick run lately, and have finished
In Milton Lumky Territory
Martian Time-Slip
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich
in the last few months. Just starting Ubik now

rms

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On Thu, 02 Mar 2023 11:55:44 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Wed, 01 Mar 2023 23:18:15 -0600, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
wrote:

There was one puzzle (that I think was part of hard mode) in Chapter One >>that was pretty darned annoying. Just really left you twisting in the
wind with a solution that "kinda" makes sense, if you thought to
backtrack to the location that you thought you had no need to go back to.
I hope that doesn't spoil anything. I think it was essentially vague.

If you were any more vague, you'd be a conservative party member
trying to describe their party's goals. ;-)

As a member of the Conservative party I just go on and on never letting
anyone get a word in edgewise until I start foaming at the mouth and
falling over backwards (*clunk*)

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 02/03/2023 16:55, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On the one hand, I have to admire Ron Gilbert and his team for making
the game/they/ wanted to make rather than listening to the naysayers.
With so many games being carbon-copy clones of earlier titles, having
the integrity to stick to an art style you want despite all the
criticisim is refreshing.

I can understand why some people didn't like the art style (personally I
rather like the look of it) but it did feel like it brought out some of
the worst in the oh no the sky is falling in crowd that seems quite
common among gamers.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 02/03/2023 23:04, rms wrote:

Books
-- Thud by Terry Pratchett which I  The Difference Engine

  Nice!  I've been on a PKDick run lately, and have finished
In Milton Lumky Territory
Martian Time-Slip
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich
in the last few months.  Just starting Ubik now

I have read a few short stories by Phillip K. Dick in some of the sci-fi anthologies I have but I'm buggered if I can remember any of the names.

He is on my list though of I must read one of their novels and yesterday
I was looking at A Scanner Darkly from my now favourite second hand
online bookshop. The downside is you have to avoid the temptation to get another book before you've nearly finished the one you are currently
reading.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

* Middle Earth - Shadow of Mordor (replay)

The story and characters - despite the use of the famous license -
feel like generic fantasy.

This! I remember there was gameplay trailer which showed you (Talion) mind-controlling some orc (Ratbag) and then later he stabbed some boss
orc in the back and took maybe a third of its health bar. Unfortunately
I don't remember that experience from the game so I'm not sure if it was
even in there. Would've been cool and there certainly was a lot of mind controlling the orcs but somehow it was all meh.

Then there was the whole "nemesis" system which in the end just meant if
you didn't manage to decapitate boss orcs when fighting them then they'd
show up later with maybe some extra scars and somewhat meaner. And
there was no good way to make sure a dead orc was actually dead. And for
some reason this was a thing to some reviewers? I don't get it.

In addition I find that I don't remember much about the plot, such as it
was. I remember the baffling intro and Gollum had a few cameos. There
was some collecting, including some memory shards maybe and finding out
your other half was actually Celebrimbor. Not that I knew back then the significance of that character in Tolkien's world.

Anyways, I looked up the plot in Wikipedia but most of it felt fairly unfamiliar even though I'm pretty sure I finished the game. So
definitely not memorable.

Oh and my favorite, a skill bush with skills where it was always so hard
to figure out which skill might actually be useful and which were just
useless filler.

Only two games for me this month. Well, it was a short month after
all. And - as evidenced by various posts to this newsgroups - I also
had fun with spreadsheets and computer hardware, which bit deeply into
my 'gaming time'. But I really feel I ought to have gotten through
more than two games, dontcha think?

Must be the first time ever I played more games than you! Then again,
maybe you can add your spreadsheet app to the list of games?-)

What Have You Been Playing... IN FEBRUARY 2023?

* Dishonored: Death of the Outsider

I started this, I haven't really played the series, only the original a
little but I lost interest. I guess the story was a little cliched. In
this one it's at least clear what you're doing. Not a mission from God,
your goal is to kill a god aka the titular Outsider.

Finished the first level but it seemed to be mostly an intro and a
tutorial. But I had fun, sneaking around the guards and stealing
everything and getting caught and in the end I killed everyone. Or
some of them were killed by others peoples raiding the place. Seemed
like the guards I had choked out earlier had the best deal, they were
just unconscious through it all.

The game didn't seem that clear on who would attack me on sight and who wouldn't. Anyways, this felt a little like my old fave Deus Ex. I'll try
to continue.

* Crusader: No Remorse

Fun for a while, I played through four levels. But there are 15 levels
total, I'm not sure I'm willing to grind on. It's just as clunky as I
remember and it's super annoying how the level specific music restarts
from beginning if you pop into the main menu. The comic book brutality
doesn't seem quite as amusing as it was back in 1995.

* GTA III

Yes, I'm now a sucker who went and paid for the shoddy "definitive
edition" of the early 3D GTA games. At least it was half off so I
figured I'll give it a try and refund if it sucks. Well, it took all
of five minutes of game play to decide it's fun so I kept it. It feels
pretty much as I recall, except there's an in game map and navigation
help. And it autosaves at mission start! Otherwise difficulty seems
just as hard and unforgiving as ever. Or sometimes the missions are
really easy. Go kill those guys? Run them over, done.

Gunplay really isn't that good. For sure it wasn't good in the
original either and it's been so long, I'm not sure if it's better or
worse. I remember on PS2 the auto aim was pretty annoying, always
targeting the guy who wasn't shooting at you but at least when you
locked on, you got hits. In this modern version it feels like it's
easy to miss at close range and on foot you can get mobbed pretty
easily and melee is super bad.

But it's so much fun to just speed through the city! The driving model
is hardly realistic or maybe the roads are just sticky but it's fun!
You can just throw the cars around like crazy and recover from almost
any slide. Well, not when going really fast in a sports car or in the
rain but those are the exceptions.

Yes, some character models in the cinematics look weird. Right at the
start, you get a first job from "Luigi" and he looks pretty odd. No
impact on game play though so I wasn't bothered.

I'm maybe halfway through GTA3 now, I think I'll finish this for
sure. The good thing about GTA3 is that it's small, easy, short
missions. I don't know if I'll bother with Vice City or San Andreas
but as far as I'm concerned, this was a great retro experience.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Fri, 3 Mar 2023 09:04:05 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

I can understand why some people didn't like the art style (personally I >rather like the look of it) but it did feel like it brought out some of
the worst in the oh no the sky is falling in crowd that seems quite
common among gamers.

This is the only post about this Monkey Island game in this thread
that I agree with.

For me personally, the third game in the series looks far worse then
this one. I hate the way Guybrush looks in Monkey Island 3.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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I was looking at A Scanner Darkly from my now favourite second hand book shop

Link to shop? A Scanner Darkly is a great book, and surprisingly also a great movie. Woody Harrelson & RDJ are magnificent, & Keanu perfectly cast.

rms

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On Fri, 03 Mar 2023 09:03:33 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, Mike
S. wrote:

On Fri, 3 Mar 2023 09:04:05 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

I can understand why some people didn't like the art style (personally I >>rather like the look of it) but it did feel like it brought out some of
the worst in the oh no the sky is falling in crowd that seems quite
common among gamers.

This is the only post about this Monkey Island game in this thread
that I agree with.

For me personally, the third game in the series looks far worse then
this one. I hate the way Guybrush looks in Monkey Island 3.

See? And I loved the artwork in Curse. Absolutely ate it up.

Long, semi-rant follows...

Really, for the "the sky is falling" crowd, it's a credible Monkey Island
game, Gilbert still has it, and they can just get over the artwork.
Gilbert et al. went with a solid choice and stuck to it. Everyone should
be fine with that. The comments should reasonably be limited to "meh,
don't like it."

Social media, and the need for YouTube clicks, has done a lot to amp up
the extreme posts. That's why I quit that stuff and still come here. I
don't think I've seen the word "travesty" or "DESTROYS" (as in: "Rihanna aboslutely DESTROYS her critics") ever come up here, except perhaps
ironically.

I mean the closest thing to it is Spalls and NFTs, and we all know he's
just taking the piss.

The newest generations are not. Hell, the older generations are severely affected. But the young folk think that's the way you talk because they
learned it on YouTube and social media from middle school. It doesn't
even register with my daughters how over-the-top YouTubers are these days
(and how self-assured they are in their expertise simply because they can
use Google). Me? I can't listen to Nostalgia Critic for more than a few
minutes at a time. It's like they all use the same deliberately grating
voice I refer to as "YouTuber voice."

But I'm an old fart and I'm sure they'll figure out how to deal with the
fact that they're all basically shouting at each other when they
disagree. Hopefully, it won't lead to the collapse of democracy. Which is
a shame, because I really like these kids, and they've got a lot going
for them if they can learn to stop trampling on each other's opinions.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Fri, 3 Mar 2023 08:59:39 +0000, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, JAB
wrote:

On 02/03/2023 23:04, rms wrote:

Books
-- Thud by Terry Pratchett which I �The Difference Engine

� Nice!� I've been on a PKDick run lately, and have finished
In Milton Lumky Territory
Martian Time-Slip
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich
in the last few months.� Just starting Ubik now

I have read a few short stories by Phillip K. Dick in some of the sci-fi >anthologies I have but I'm buggered if I can remember any of the names.

He is on my list though of I must read one of their novels and yesterday
I was looking at A Scanner Darkly from my now favourite second hand
online bookshop. The downside is you have to avoid the temptation to get >another book before you've nearly finished the one you are currently
reading.

Hmm. I seem to have that problem with games. You?

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com> wrote:

Social media, and the need for YouTube clicks, has done a lot to amp up
the extreme posts. That's why I quit that stuff and still come here. I
don't think I've seen the word "travesty" or "DESTROYS" (as in: "Rihanna >aboslutely DESTROYS her critics") ever come up here, except perhaps >ironically.

My problem is with the more regular media, who will see an angry Reddit
thread about something and turn it into "players up in arms" or "fans
are mad as hell". Sure maybe some people are genuinely angry, but even
in that thread most will be at worst just disappointed. And that's
just what one group of players on Reddit think, not necessarily a
representive sample. Sometimes there's even another group of Reddit
users that think differently.

And, it's pretty much only Reddit and maybe Steam reviews media sites use
to gauge player reactions. Most discusions social media are hidden where
they can't easily be found, like comments in Twitch or YouTube video,
or completely inaccessible to outsiders like on Facebook. Reddit has
become the Internet forum of record pretty much by default.

The newest generations are not. Hell, the older generations are severely >affected. But the young folk think that's the way you talk because they >learned it on YouTube and social media from middle school. It doesn't
even register with my daughters how over-the-top YouTubers are these days >(and how self-assured they are in their expertise simply because they can
use Google).

People crave certainty, so it's easy to just stop at the first authoritive sounding voice and accept what they say as fact. For a lot of things
that don't matter, like what video game or shoes to buy, that's fine.
Of course, to a young kid trying to fit in, things like that can matter a
lot, so even then they may learn that they need to more skeptical about
what they see on the Internet.

Me? I can't listen to Nostalgia Critic for more than a few
minutes at a time. It's like they all use the same deliberately grating
voice I refer to as "YouTuber voice."

I don't watch YouTube, so I'm not sure what you're talking about.
I can't get past the preview images where some guy looking constipated
points at the subject of the video.

--
l/ // Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU
[oo][oo] rridge@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
-()-/()/ http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca:11068/
db //

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On Fri, 03 Mar 2023 14:26:58 +0200, Anssi Saari <as@sci.fi> wrote:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

* Middle Earth - Shadow of Mordor (replay)

This! I remember there was gameplay trailer which showed you (Talion) >mind-controlling some orc (Ratbag) and then later he stabbed some boss
orc in the back and took maybe a third of its health bar. Unfortunately
I don't remember that experience from the game so I'm not sure if it was
even in there. Would've been cool and there certainly was a lot of mind >controlling the orcs but somehow it was all meh.

All done in a cut-scene, btw. The whole 'Ratbag' subplot was extremely disappointing and led nowhere (ROT13 spoilers: ur qvrf unysjnl guebhtu
gur tnzr). And you don't get any similar influence with any other
orcs.

Then there was the whole "nemesis" system which in the end just meant if
you didn't manage to decapitate boss orcs when fighting them then they'd
show up later with maybe some extra scars and somewhat meaner. And
there was no good way to make sure a dead orc was actually dead. And for
some reason this was a thing to some reviewers? I don't get it.

Yeah, the Nemesis stuff was overhyped in the media and underdone in
its gameplay. Every now and again an orc would introduce himself,
"Remember me? I'm back for revenge!" Except, no, I don't remember you,
Mr. Orc. You're just one of the dozens upon dozens of minor orc-bosses
I've slain. You were an interchangable mini-boss the first time I
killed you, and you aren't any more memorable now.

But that was the biggest problem with the game; enemies just respawned
but otherwise were fairly identical. Oh sure, some had 'phobias' and
others had resistances, but it was rarely worth the bother to take
advantage of either, especially since most of the time I stumbled
across these mini-bosses somewhat randomly. Had the bosses had more
influence on the gameworld and plot, then maybe the nemesis system
might have been a notable mechanic, but as implemented it was mostly
just a random boss reusing the name of some guy I'd already killed and forgotten about already.

In addition I find that I don't remember much about the plot, such as it
was. I remember the baffling intro and Gollum had a few cameos. There
was some collecting, including some memory shards maybe and finding out
your other half was actually Celebrimbor. Not that I knew back then the >significance of that character in Tolkien's world.

Gollum was thrown in there for marketing reasons. He really doesn't
have any influence on the overall story and disappears entirely after
the halfway mark.

The game felt large disconnect from the Middle Earth franchise; aside
from the reuse of some familiar names it could have been any generic
fantasy world. Gollum was added, I think, to make the connection more
visible, but it wasn't done in any meaningful way.

* Dishonored: Death of the Outsider

I started this, I haven't really played the series, only the original a >little but I lost interest. I guess the story was a little cliched. In
this one it's at least clear what you're doing. Not a mission from God,
your goal is to kill a god aka the titular Outsider.

I've always wanted to give this one a try, except I never really
enjoyed playing the Dishonored series. But I do want to know how the
Outsider - the 'god' of the series - bites it (and what the
consequences of that death would be). The backstory of that game was
always far more interesting to me than its characters or mechanics.

* Crusader: No Remorse
Fun for a while, I played through four levels. But there are 15 levels
total, I'm not sure I'm willing to grind on. It's just as clunky as I >remember and it's super annoying how the level specific music restarts
from beginning if you pop into the main menu. The comic book brutality >doesn't seem quite as amusing as it was back in 1995.

Having just replayed it the other month, I'd recommend giving it up. I
don't want to dismiss the game entirely, but it doesn't really get any
better the longer you play it. It's just... more. Keep at it until you
stop having fun, then move on.

* GTA III

Yes, I'm now a sucker who went and paid for the shoddy "definitive
edition" of the early 3D GTA games. At least it was half off so I
figured I'll give it a try and refund if it sucks. Well, it took all
of five minutes of game play to decide it's fun so I kept it. It feels
pretty much as I recall, except there's an in game map and navigation
help.

The GTA3 games had such mixed gameplay; some missions were
extraordinarily good, others were aggravating in their difficulty or repetitiveness. And the controls were always workable at best (but
don't get me started on the model airplane controls in Vice City or
San Andreas!), never feeling entirely intuitive or smooth.

But it's so much fun to just speed through the city! The driving model
is hardly realistic or maybe the roads are just sticky but it's fun!
You can just throw the cars around like crazy and recover from almost
any slide. Well, not when going really fast in a sports car or in the
rain but those are the exceptions.

GTA3/VC/SA's biggest draws were always its giant worlds, and how much
fun it was just to roam about. The driving controls could be a bit
iffy but snaking through the city to evade the cops? Always fun.

Yes, some character models in the cinematics look weird. Right at the
start, you get a first job from "Luigi" and he looks pretty odd. No
impact on game play though so I wasn't bothered.

The remaster got a lot of criticism, and well deserved too, because
despite it supposedly being a remaster (and priced accordingly) it
didn't really improve the base game. That said, if you don't expect
anything more from the remaster than that it's the original games
reworked to run on modern hardware, it's an okay way to (re)experience
the GTA3 games.

But, owning the originals already (and even having the old-school
hardware to run them on natively) it was a hard sell trying to
convince me to re-purchase the games again. The remasters weren't
really offering me anything new or of value, so I was happy just to
stick with the versions I already owned.

I'm maybe halfway through GTA3 now, I think I'll finish this for
sure. The good thing about GTA3 is that it's small, easy, short
missions. I don't know if I'll bother with Vice City or San Andreas
but as far as I'm concerned, this was a great retro experience.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 03/03/2023 18:29, Zaghadka wrote:

On Fri, 3 Mar 2023 08:59:39 +0000, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, JAB wrote:

He is on my list though of I must read one of their novels and yesterday
I was looking at A Scanner Darkly from my now favourite second hand
online bookshop. The downside is you have to avoid the temptation to get
another book before you've nearly finished the one you are currently
reading.

Hmm. I seem to have that problem with games. You?

I made a conscious decision, I think a year ago, to try and get out of
my habit of stop buying a game just because it's cheap, play things in
my back catalogue and also don't flit between games but instead just
play one for a decent amount of time. So far it's worked pretty well.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 03/03/2023 15:43, rms wrote:

 I was looking at A Scanner Darkly from my now favourite second hand
book shop

  Link to shop?  A Scanner Darkly is a great book, and surprisingly
also a great movie.  Woody Harrelson & RDJ are magnificent, & Keanu perfectly cast.

It's World of Books (now branded as the more catchy WoB) and I believe
the have operations in both the UK and US. I've found them pretty good
in terms of selection and price (The Difference Engine in hardback was
only £5.99 with free P&P) and out of the ten or so books I've got from
them only one of them has been in a condition that was bordering on I'm
not sure I'd have bought it if I'd know what I was getting. The majority though, although obviously not like as new where still more this hasn't
been well read. It also means that as the also do new books I can stop
giving so much money to Bezos.

A Scanner Darkly now goes on the list. Oh and is it just me that can't
watch John Wick without thinking is that really the guy out of Bill &
Ted. Party on dude!

www.wob.com

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 03/03/2023 18:28, Zaghadka wrote:

On Fri, 03 Mar 2023 09:03:33 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, Mike
S. wrote:

On Fri, 3 Mar 2023 09:04:05 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

I can understand why some people didn't like the art style (personally I >>> rather like the look of it) but it did feel like it brought out some of
the worst in the oh no the sky is falling in crowd that seems quite
common among gamers.

This is the only post about this Monkey Island game in this thread
that I agree with.

For me personally, the third game in the series looks far worse then
this one. I hate the way Guybrush looks in Monkey Island 3.

See? And I loved the artwork in Curse. Absolutely ate it up.

Long, semi-rant follows...

Really, for the "the sky is falling" crowd, it's a credible Monkey Island game, Gilbert still has it, and they can just get over the artwork.
Gilbert et al. went with a solid choice and stuck to it. Everyone should
be fine with that. The comments should reasonably be limited to "meh,
don't like it."

Social media, and the need for YouTube clicks, has done a lot to amp up
the extreme posts. That's why I quit that stuff and still come here. I
don't think I've seen the word "travesty" or "DESTROYS" (as in: "Rihanna aboslutely DESTROYS her critics") ever come up here, except perhaps ironically.

I mean the closest thing to it is Spalls and NFTs, and we all know he's
just taking the piss.

I can't remember who said it but it was something alone the lines of one
of the reasons for click-bait titles is very often it's something that
the original creator didn't add and if you want your channel to be seen
then you'll almost forced to do it as everyone else does.

As a slight aside I did watch a video about How Warhammer 40k is
Destroying My Channel. The creator did say the title was part of the
main point that he wants to cover other systems but it's the videos with
40k in the title that give the large viewing figures. I hadn't, for some reason, really thought of it like that.

The newest generations are not. Hell, the older generations are severely affected. But the young folk think that's the way you talk because they learned it on YouTube and social media from middle school. It doesn't
even register with my daughters how over-the-top YouTubers are these days (and how self-assured they are in their expertise simply because they can
use Google). Me? I can't listen to Nostalgia Critic for more than a few minutes at a time. It's like they all use the same deliberately grating
voice I refer to as "YouTuber voice."

But I'm an old fart and I'm sure they'll figure out how to deal with the
fact that they're all basically shouting at each other when they
disagree. Hopefully, it won't lead to the collapse of democracy. Which is
a shame, because I really like these kids, and they've got a lot going
for them if they can learn to stop trampling on each other's opinions.

Very much agree, a lot of YT personalities seem only to have that
position not because of the information they give but instead how they
act. For the TV example I give you Big Brother. I remember when it first
came out as it was very much normal(ish) people living in a house. Over
the years it morphed into if you want to keep the viewing figures up
then you have to get more and more outrageous combined with the people
being pick to appear was very much based around will this person be car
crash TV, willing or not, as they want to be a reality star.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Fri, 03 Mar 2023 12:28:40 -0600, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
wrote:

On Fri, 03 Mar 2023 09:03:33 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, Mike
S. wrote:

On Fri, 3 Mar 2023 09:04:05 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

I mean the closest thing to it is Spalls and NFTs, and we all know he's
just taking the piss.

I'd just like to say that it is always safest to assume that
/anything/ I write is said with a smirk and a twinkle in my eye.

Although... I'm not really trying to be extreme with my talk about
NFTs. I just find the whole subject so wonderfully ridiculous that I
can't help but share them with others because nothing makes a joke
better than getting others to laugh at it too. ;-)

That said, NFTS WILL DESTROY THE WOLRD AND MAKE YOUR CHILDREN WORSHIP SATAN!!!!!1!!!!!! (and not the cool Satan either, but the one who
pitchforks your heinie for eternity)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Sat, 4 Mar 2023 10:43:15 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

I made a conscious decision, I think a year ago, to try and get out of
my habit of stop buying a game just because it's cheap, play things in
my back catalogue and also don't flit between games but instead just
play one for a decent amount of time. So far it's worked pretty well.

That's a disgusing and unhealthy attitude and I don't support it at
all. We were put on this earth to collect large numbers of computer
games, after all. Your position in the afterlife is determined by how
many games you collect. You don't want to reincarnate as a dung beetle
or Twitter personality just because you don't have enough games in
your library, do you? ;-)

But it probably helps you avoid the 'paralysis of choice' I routine
suffer from whenever I finish one game and have to decide what to play
next.

But you are missing out on that smug satisfaction you get knowing you
can play any and every game at any time you want (even if most of them
suck). Nothing keeps you warmer at night than smug satisfaction. ;-)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 3/4/2023 8:46 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Sat, 4 Mar 2023 10:43:15 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

I made a conscious decision, I think a year ago, to try and get out of
my habit of stop buying a game just because it's cheap, play things in
my back catalogue and also don't flit between games but instead just
play one for a decent amount of time. So far it's worked pretty well.

That's a disgusing and unhealthy attitude and I don't support it at
all. We were put on this earth to collect large numbers of computer
games, after all. Your position in the afterlife is determined by how
many games you collect. You don't want to reincarnate as a dung beetle
or Twitter personality just because you don't have enough games in
your library, do you? ;-)

But it probably helps you avoid the 'paralysis of choice' I routine
suffer from whenever I finish one game and have to decide what to play
next.

But there are so many ways you can decide! Alphabetical, Order of Purchase/Acquisition, Price, Ratings, Throwing Darts at a Listing on
your monitor....

But you are missing out on that smug satisfaction you get knowing you
can play any and every game at any time you want (even if most of them
suck). Nothing keeps you warmer at night than smug satisfaction. ;-)

My stuffed animals disagree with you.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

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On Sat, 04 Mar 2023 14:16:50 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Xocyll wrote:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the >entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

There's one good thing to say about February; when it feels like
another month has whipped by incredibly fast, at least with February
you know there's a reason for it; it's so damned short. Where's my
29th, 30th and 31st days, February? You're ripping me off!

I always kind of wanted to standardize the year into 12 months of 30
days each and a New Years "week" of the remaining 5.

What Have You Been Playing... IN FEBRUARY 2023?

Oldies for the most part.
City of Heroes: No explanation necessary, still the best superhero game >ever.

Borderlands the Pre-Sequel (newly bought, played until I hit the boss
where apparently you are supposed to die your way past - die, 2nd wind,
die, 2nd wind, repeat 50 times or so - I gave up at that point, since
that's tedium not fun.)

Borderlands 2 (When I bought the pre-seq it was a bundle that came with
all the DLCs for BL2, so I had another go.)

EV Nova: All time old favorite space sim. Haven't been able to get it >working for years, (since win7,) but the company finally closed up shop >semi-recently and updated versions are available for download as well as
some pre-patched total conversions.

For anyone interested:
http://escape-velocity.games/

Is it my imagination, or have we not seen you in a while, sir?

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

There's one good thing to say about February; when it feels like
another month has whipped by incredibly fast, at least with February
you know there's a reason for it; it's so damned short. Where's my
29th, 30th and 31st days, February? You're ripping me off!

I always kind of wanted to standardize the year into 12 months of 30
days each and a New Years "week" of the remaining 5.

What Have You Been Playing... IN FEBRUARY 2023?

Oldies for the most part.
City of Heroes: No explanation necessary, still the best superhero game
ever.

Borderlands the Pre-Sequel (newly bought, played until I hit the boss
where apparently you are supposed to die your way past - die, 2nd wind,
die, 2nd wind, repeat 50 times or so - I gave up at that point, since
that's tedium not fun.)

Borderlands 2 (When I bought the pre-seq it was a bundle that came with
all the DLCs for BL2, so I had another go.)

EV Nova: All time old favorite space sim. Haven't been able to get it
working for years, (since win7,) but the company finally closed up shop semi-recently and updated versions are available for download as well as
some pre-patched total conversions.

For anyone interested:
http://escape-velocity.games/

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Sat, 04 Mar 2023 11:41:07 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Although... I'm not really trying to be extreme with my talk about
NFTs. I just find the whole subject so wonderfully ridiculous that I
can't help but share them with others because nothing makes a joke
better than getting others to laugh at it too. ;-)

That was my exact point! You have a very dry, very reasonable way of
ranting about something.

Therefore, you are the "closest thing." Imagine it is said with the same twinkle, the same wry sense of irony.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Sat, 4 Mar 2023 10:43:15 +0000, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, JAB
wrote:

On 03/03/2023 18:29, Zaghadka wrote:

On Fri, 3 Mar 2023 08:59:39 +0000, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, JAB
wrote:

He is on my list though of I must read one of their novels and yesterday >>> I was looking at A Scanner Darkly from my now favourite second hand
online bookshop. The downside is you have to avoid the temptation to get >>> another book before you've nearly finished the one you are currently
reading.

Hmm. I seem to have that problem with games. You?

I made a conscious decision, I think a year ago, to try and get out of
my habit of stop buying a game just because it's cheap, play things in
my back catalogue and also don't flit between games but instead just
play one for a decent amount of time. So far it's worked pretty well.

See, I wish I could stick to that plan. I've reached the point of "I have enough games to comfortably play until I am dead" several times over, and
each time I vow the same.

Then I pick up Midnight Suns on sale because it just looks so freaking
cool.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com> looked up from reading the entrails of
the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:

On Sat, 04 Mar 2023 14:16:50 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Xocyll wrote:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the >>entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

There's one good thing to say about February; when it feels like
another month has whipped by incredibly fast, at least with February
you know there's a reason for it; it's so damned short. Where's my
29th, 30th and 31st days, February? You're ripping me off!

I always kind of wanted to standardize the year into 12 months of 30
days each and a New Years "week" of the remaining 5.

What Have You Been Playing... IN FEBRUARY 2023?

Oldies for the most part.
City of Heroes: No explanation necessary, still the best superhero game >>ever.

Borderlands the Pre-Sequel (newly bought, played until I hit the boss
where apparently you are supposed to die your way past - die, 2nd wind, >>die, 2nd wind, repeat 50 times or so - I gave up at that point, since >>that's tedium not fun.)

Borderlands 2 (When I bought the pre-seq it was a bundle that came with
all the DLCs for BL2, so I had another go.)

EV Nova: All time old favorite space sim. Haven't been able to get it >>working for years, (since win7,) but the company finally closed up shop >>semi-recently and updated versions are available for download as well as >>some pre-patched total conversions.

For anyone interested:
http://escape-velocity.games/

Is it my imagination, or have we not seen you in a while, sir?

You have indeed not.

There was a while I had no reliable internet and of course most of the
groups I used to read dried up and blew away leaving very little
motivation to actually check daily.

Daily became every couple, then to weekly, bi-monthly, monthly, then you
just forget to check at all for 6 months since there was so little
traffic and you're caught up in doing something else.

I read a lot more news these days, in the sense of multiple online
newspapers. Funny how so many "we insist you buy a subscription"
overlays just go away when you have javascript off and you can just read
in peace

Far less interested in gaming news since I haven't upgraded the computer
in years (athlon2, win7 - AMD guy and during the FX chip years it wasn't
worth it, now that it is there are shortages) and can't even run the
majority of new games, most of which don't seem interesting anyway,
forced pvp, online only even for single player, overly interested in
micro transactions and "awards" and so on rather than interesting
substantive gameplay.

Same issues with modern TV and the endless bad and/or woke remakes;
rather replay older games and watch older TV shows on dvd.

Waiting for the inevitable remake in a few years, when "Batman" is a
Trans, Lesbian and only beats up White Male criminals because all the
others can be excused their bad behavior because of historical
discrimination - Bat-they/their/them: The Woke Knight.
Naturally I won't watch it.

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 04/03/2023 19:19, Zaghadka wrote:

On Sat, 4 Mar 2023 10:43:15 +0000, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, JAB wrote:

On 03/03/2023 18:29, Zaghadka wrote:

On Fri, 3 Mar 2023 08:59:39 +0000, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, JAB
wrote:

He is on my list though of I must read one of their novels and yesterday >>>> I was looking at A Scanner Darkly from my now favourite second hand >>>> online bookshop. The downside is you have to avoid the temptation to get >>>> another book before you've nearly finished the one you are currently
reading.

Hmm. I seem to have that problem with games. You?

I made a conscious decision, I think a year ago, to try and get out of
my habit of stop buying a game just because it's cheap, play things in
my back catalogue and also don't flit between games but instead just
play one for a decent amount of time. So far it's worked pretty well.

See, I wish I could stick to that plan. I've reached the point of "I have enough games to comfortably play until I am dead" several times over, and each time I vow the same.

Then I pick up Midnight Suns on sale because it just looks so freaking
cool.

It's something that has slowly crept up on me over several years and can
be summed up as don't buy crap unless you need it. With games I did toy
with the idea of sticking to my back catalogue but thought there's no
point in aiming for some I won't achieve. So now I try to alternate
between new game and back catalogue. I also won't beat myself up if
sometimes I don't stick to it.

The other thing I've tried to do is generally keep away for even looking
at special offers presented to me. Amazon I could be particularly bad
with and getting yet another 99p Kindle book to add the the list of all
the other ones I haven't read or something for the kitchen that would
end up in the back of a cupboard.

This 'mentality' even seeped into my last PC upgrade a couple of years
ago. Before it was driven buy I'm prepared to spend this much what can I
get for that to this is what I need how much will it cost me. The net
result I spent roughly half the money than I did for my previous upgrade.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 04/03/2023 16:41, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Fri, 03 Mar 2023 12:28:40 -0600, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
wrote:

On Fri, 03 Mar 2023 09:03:33 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, Mike
S. wrote:

On Fri, 3 Mar 2023 09:04:05 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

I mean the closest thing to it is Spalls and NFTs, and we all know he's
just taking the piss.

I'd just like to say that it is always safest to assume that
/anything/ I write is said with a smirk and a twinkle in my eye.

Although... I'm not really trying to be extreme with my talk about
NFTs. I just find the whole subject so wonderfully ridiculous that I
can't help but share them with others because nothing makes a joke
better than getting others to laugh at it too. ;-)

That said, NFTS WILL DESTROY THE WOLRD AND MAKE YOUR CHILDREN WORSHIP SATAN!!!!!1!!!!!! (and not the cool Satan either, but the one who
pitchforks your heinie for eternity)

The good thing about NFT's is that, as you say, they are so ridiculous
you don't even need hyperbole. Microsoft are the bad guys as they won't
let you use their IP to effectively scam their customers. How most unfair.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Sat, 04 Mar 2023 14:16:50 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:

Oldies for the most part.
City of Heroes: No explanation necessary, still the best superhero game >ever.

This is how I know it is really you. I remember you liking this game.

I thought you were dead Xocyll. Welcome back.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 3/4/2023 2:54 PM, Xocyll wrote:

Same issues with modern TV and the endless bad and/or woke remakes;

Waiting for the inevitable remake in a few years, when "Batman" is a
Trans, Lesbian and only beats up White Male criminals because all the
others can be excused their bad behavior because of historical
discrimination - Bat-they/their/them: The Woke Knight.

I'm aware everyone else here is too polite to say anything so allow me
to do the honors (and I'm only speaking for myself, obviously).

"Woke" for the right [1] is actually just a catch-all term so they don't
have to say specifically that they are utter pieces of shite. It's just
much easier to simply say "I'm not woke" than the truth, which is
basically "I'm terrified of what I don't understand and I only know how
to process that as anger because I can't look inward."

It should be noted that RepubliQans appropriated the word from the
African American community, where it describes someone aware of racial injustice and social inequality. However, conservatives describe
“wokeism” as a “mind virus,” an “intolerant and moralizing ideology,”
and even a “cruel and dangerous cult.”

What most Democrats know "woke" to mean is learning new things about
people and the world as a whole then acting accordingly. Like basic
kindness and a gesture of care towards people who are more vulnerable
than yourself. It's a simple enough concept for anyone who is capable of empathy, but it's "wokeism" and "socialism" to the MAGA cult.

I've been on Usenet since Windows 3.11(?) if memory serves and have only
ever blocked one other dude (John Difool aka SteamKiller) in all these
decades, but my tolerance towards you lot had dwindled over the past few
years to the point where a single idiotic post like this is enough to
make me want to say: welcome to my kill file, please make yourself real
comfy - you're going to be there for a long fucking while.

[1] The irony in calling RepubliQans "the right" is never lost on me -
talk about an oxymoron of the highest order.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Sunday, March 5, 2023 at 4:15:49 AM UTC-8, Mike S. wrote:

On Sat, 04 Mar 2023 14:16:50 -0500, Xocyll <Xoc...@gmx.com> wrote:

Oldies for the most part.
City of Heroes: No explanation necessary, still the best superhero game >ever.

This is how I know it is really you. I remember you liking this game.

I thought you were dead Xocyll. Welcome back.

Sad that everyone here is so old we think they died if they don't post for
a month or two.

CoH is indeed the best superhero game ever. Glad to see someone here
is playing on the new servers. My main issue with it was they made
it far too easy. I got to high level content and pretty much did everything
I never got to that I wanted while the official servers were up from 0 in
a couple months.

My old guild was fun to play with initially, but they mostly dropped off
before I did, including the guildmaster, and the guildmaster came back
after I'd quit.

I also preferred Red side and no one was doing redside with the ease
of transferring blue - actually that's the main reason I quit back when
the official servers were up too, that and money was tight and the microtransaction & subs were annoying, at least both those are gone.

- Justisaur

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Mon, 6 Mar 2023 06:25:14 -0500, Metal Guru <MetalGuru@IsItYou.com>
wrote:

I'm aware everyone else here is too polite to say anything so allow me
to do the honors (and I'm only speaking for myself, obviously).

"Woke" for the right [1] is actually just a catch-all term so they don't
have to say specifically that they are utter pieces of shite. It's just
much easier to simply say "I'm not woke" than the truth, which is
basically "I'm terrified of what I don't understand and I only know how
to process that as anger because I can't look inward."

Where's the "like" button on Usenet so I can promote this post?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 06/03/2023 11:25, Metal Guru wrote:

I'm aware everyone else here is too polite to say anything so allow me
to do the honors (and I'm only speaking for myself, obviously).

Spalls may want to give you a like but I would say a gold star is more
in order. I read the part of the post you responded to and my reaction
was to roll my eyes and engage my mental kill file but as as you've
posted I feel almost obliged to also post very much agreeing with what
you've said. The amusing part about the anti-woke brigade, well it would
be amusing if it didn't translate into real life behaviour, is the
people pushing this agenda care very little about the issues they talk
about and care even less for the people they know will lap it up and the consequences of that.

It's the oldest trick in the book, don't worry about your real problems
(we have no interest in fixing those) but instead look over here where
the 'other' are the real cause of the problem.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Mon, 6 Mar 2023 07:48:11 -0800 (PST), Justisaur
<justisaur@gmail.com> wrote:

Sad that everyone here is so old we think they died if they don't post for
a month or two.

Well Xocyll has stopped posting for longer then that but your point is
still taken.

I thought Spalls was dead when he suddenly stopped posting awhile
back. I really need to break the habit of thinking the only reason a
person would stop posting to usenet is they kicked the bucket.

CoH is indeed the best superhero game ever. Glad to see someone here
is playing on the new servers. My main issue with it was they made
it far too easy. I got to high level content and pretty much did everything >I never got to that I wanted while the official servers were up from 0 in
a couple months.

I do believe CoH is the best superhero game ever and I played on
Homecoming awhile back. It was very active at the time at least.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Sat, 04 Mar 2023 14:54:07 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Xocyll wrote:

Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com> looked up from reading the entrails of
the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:

On Sat, 04 Mar 2023 14:16:50 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Xocyll wrote:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the >>>entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs >>>say:

There's one good thing to say about February; when it feels like >>>>another month has whipped by incredibly fast, at least with February >>>>you know there's a reason for it; it's so damned short. Where's my >>>>29th, 30th and 31st days, February? You're ripping me off!

I always kind of wanted to standardize the year into 12 months of 30
days each and a New Years "week" of the remaining 5.

What Have You Been Playing... IN FEBRUARY 2023?

Oldies for the most part.
City of Heroes: No explanation necessary, still the best superhero game >>>ever.

Borderlands the Pre-Sequel (newly bought, played until I hit the boss >>>where apparently you are supposed to die your way past - die, 2nd wind, >>>die, 2nd wind, repeat 50 times or so - I gave up at that point, since >>>that's tedium not fun.)

Borderlands 2 (When I bought the pre-seq it was a bundle that came with >>>all the DLCs for BL2, so I had another go.)

EV Nova: All time old favorite space sim. Haven't been able to get it >>>working for years, (since win7,) but the company finally closed up shop >>>semi-recently and updated versions are available for download as well as >>>some pre-patched total conversions.

For anyone interested:
http://escape-velocity.games/

Is it my imagination, or have we not seen you in a while, sir?

You have indeed not.

[snip]

Same issues with modern TV and the endless bad and/or woke...

[snip]

Oh fuck. You sir, have gotten old and cranky. Lesbat is not coming. I
just got back from an all-female production of 1776 the musical and it
didn't suck.

Get your brain out of rigor mortis.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Mon, 6 Mar 2023 06:25:14 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, Metal
Guru wrote:

It should be noted that RepubliQans appropriated the word from the
African American community, where it describes someone aware of racial >injustice and social inequality.

To be fair, Gen-Z appropriated it first on college campuses. One of my daughter's old, and very white, friends described things as "woke" as a compliment, long before the so-called conservatives did as a perjorative.

I have african American friends who simultaneously considered that
culture appropriation and were disgusted by it, even though those kids
had the best of intentions.

*Then* Republicans turned it, along with CRT, into a battle cry. Now the
term is meaningless.

Frankly, the lot of them can all just stop. Social Media has turned
nearly everyone participating in it into a ranting, thin-skinned,
provincial, bubble-bound fool.

I watched it for long enough, participated occasionally to say WTF, was
having panic attacks from witnessing all the brutality coming from all
sides, and got the hell off. In conjunction with my therapist's hearty approval.

Please don't bring it here.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Mon, 6 Mar 2023 18:52:18 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

On 06/03/2023 11:25, Metal Guru wrote:

I'm aware everyone else here is too polite to say anything so allow me
to do the honors (and I'm only speaking for myself, obviously).

Spalls may want to give you a like but I would say a gold star is more
in order.

I gave a one line reaction because nothing more needed to be said. Do
you know how rare, how unique, how awesome a compliment that is coming
from me? I can drone on for hours over how dust is falling, and yet
couldn't do more than add what was, essentially, an "I agree" to MG's
post? And you think your silly 'gold star' in any way equals that
magnificent achievement? When verbosity is the usual, terseness is a
reward all its own ;-P

(full snark mode enabled, of course. About the gold star thing, I
mean. Not the agreement.)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Monday, March 6, 2023 at 4:43:46 PM UTC-8, Zaghadka wrote:

On Mon, 6 Mar 2023 06:25:14 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, Metal Guru wrote:

Please don't bring it here.

I agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment. I play games and come here partially
to avoid the insanity that is our (American) politics. I get too much of that
already through the few podcasts I listen to while doing chores and driving, and stumbling across it elsewhere on the internet.

I deleted my sub on the main podcast I listened to for years as while there was
some political stuff on there, it's gone up since covid and feels like its now 80% political.

- Justisaur

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the
porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:

On Mon, 6 Mar 2023 07:48:11 -0800 (PST), Justisaur
<justisaur@gmail.com> wrote:

Sad that everyone here is so old we think they died if they don't post for >>a month or two.

Well Xocyll has stopped posting for longer then that but your point is
still taken.

Hell I was completely offline for over a year but hadn't posted for at
least 6 months before that due to declining interest.

When there is very low traffic and the games being discussed (when it
didn't go off games completely) are ones I have no interest in, well you
just get out of the habit of even starting up the newsreader.

It's surprisingly easy to fall out of the habit of something you did
first thing every day over your morning coffee.

I thought Spalls was dead when he suddenly stopped posting awhile
back. I really need to break the habit of thinking the only reason a
person would stop posting to usenet is they kicked the bucket.

CoH is indeed the best superhero game ever. Glad to see someone here
is playing on the new servers. My main issue with it was they made
it far too easy. I got to high level content and pretty much did everything >>I never got to that I wanted while the official servers were up from 0 in
a couple months.

I do believe CoH is the best superhero game ever and I played on
Homecoming awhile back. It was very active at the time at least.

It really depends on which server you are on, what time of day and which
side you're playing on.
Blue has the most, Red is quite a lot lower population and Yellow is a
Ghost town.

Every time I make yellow side char I see no more than 3 people in any of
the basic city zones and usually less. First Ward/Night Ward tend to
have more since you don't have to have started Praetorian to do those.

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Metal Guru <MetalGuru@IsItYou.com> looked up from reading the entrails
of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:

On 3/4/2023 2:54 PM, Xocyll wrote:

Same issues with modern TV and the endless bad and/or woke remakes;

Waiting for the inevitable remake in a few years, when "Batman" is a
Trans, Lesbian and only beats up White Male criminals because all the
others can be excused their bad behavior because of historical
discrimination - Bat-they/their/them: The Woke Knight.

I'm aware everyone else here is too polite to say anything so allow me
to do the honors (and I'm only speaking for myself, obviously).

1. Cutting out all context.

"Woke" for the right [1] is actually just a catch-all term so they don't
have to say specifically that they are utter pieces of shite. It's just
much easier to simply say "I'm not woke" than the truth, which is
basically "I'm terrified of what I don't understand and I only know how
to process that as anger because I can't look inward."

2. Explaining to me what I "really" meant. So you're a SJW.

It should be noted that RepubliQans appropriated the word from the
African American community, where it describes someone aware of racial >injustice and social inequality. However, conservatives describe
"wokeism" as a "mind virus," an "intolerant and moralizing ideology,"
and even a "cruel and dangerous cult."

3. Assuming I am American, Republican and don't know where the term came
from. (Honestly, it's a past tense term used for current tense, it
could only have come from the same group that wants to "axe me a
question")

4. Cutesy use of a portmanteau of Republican and Qanon to further
demean.

What most Democrats know "woke" to mean is learning new things about
people and the world as a whole then acting accordingly. Like basic
kindness and a gesture of care towards people who are more vulnerable
than yourself. It's a simple enough concept for anyone who is capable of >empathy, but it's "wokeism" and "socialism" to the MAGA cult.

Except the whole wokism thing has gone so much further.
From the basic Politically Correct movement, through the Social Justice Warriors and now into the full on Inclusion and Equity phase where
everyone MUST be represented and have equal outcomes no matter how that
does not fit and/or harms the story of the movie or TV show or the
gameplay of the game.

When the politics mean more than the story or the gameplay, then I'm
calling shenanigans on Hollywood and the game makers.


Oh lets remake Snow White and the 7 Dwarves (oh but we can't call them
dwarves anymore even though that's literally the name of their race,)
and we'll spend so much time going into each dwarf's Gender, sexual,
religious, political, etc, identity there's no time left to actually
tell the story, so they just end with a flash card explaining that the
"smaller than average but still proper size people" stopped "raping the
earth" with their mine, and opened an all identities nightclub,
unionized the Enchanted Forest, deposed the Monarchy and executed Snow
for being too damn white.

This despite the fact that the dwarves are supporting cast and no one
cares about their stories since the story isn't about them.

Think it couldn't happen?

And yet this sort of nonsense is already happening; https://nypost.com/2023/02/26/nyc-teacher-tells-kids-that-nintendo-characters-have-sexual-gender-identities/
(had to google that)

I've been on Usenet since Windows 3.11(?) if memory serves and have only
ever blocked one other dude (John Difool aka SteamKiller) in all these >decades, but my tolerance towards you lot had dwindled over the past few >years to the point where a single idiotic post like this is enough to
make me want to say: welcome to my kill file, please make yourself real
comfy - you're going to be there for a long fucking while.

Your disingenuousness above makes me want to be in there so I don't have
to deal with your dishonesty anymore.

You seem to be just like the people canceling Scott Adams, all of which
seem to only talk about what he said, and carefully removing all trace
of what he was replying to; A Survey where 26% of Black Respondents said
it was not OK to be White.

Not Ok to be White. Think about what that means.

So 1 in 4 black respondents think you have no right to exist if you're
white, yeah I'd be saying stay the fuck away as well, especially in the
heavily armed United States.
But of course they, like you, remove all the context in their attack
posts to make him seem racist when the racism was in what he was
replying to; People denying his right to exist as a white person.

We've seen where that intolerance leads: The Heresy trials in Spain to
root out Muslims and Jews (Spanish Inquisition.)
And of course that German Party that thought it was not OK to be Jewish,
or Gay, or Roma, or have development issues or ... and the actions they
took subsequently.

[1] The irony in calling RepubliQans "the right" is never lost on me -
talk about an oxymoron of the highest order.

Only for someone who doesn't understand the difference between a
direction and correctness.

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com> looked up from reading the entrails of
the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:

On Monday, March 6, 2023 at 4:43:46?PM UTC-8, Zaghadka wrote:

On Mon, 6 Mar 2023 06:25:14 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, Metal
Guru wrote:

Please don't bring it here.

I agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment. I play games and come here partially
to avoid the insanity that is our (American) politics. I get too much of that
already through the few podcasts I listen to while doing chores and driving, >and stumbling across it elsewhere on the internet.

Kind of my point.

I watch fictional TV and play games to get away from all that fucking
bullshit, I don't want it in shows and games where it's just in the way
and actively interferes with them.

Which is why I am mostly playing older games and watching older TV from
before the rise of the woke/sjw/inclusion/equity types who want to force
their politics and beliefs into everything.

Imagine if you will, Borderlands (any of them) filtered by the
politically correct/sjw/inclusionary types before it's allowed to be
published.

Would that be a game you'd be playing as it spends 50% of your in game
time harping on their beliefs?

Although Indoctrilands almost sounds like a cool game name.

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

[snip]

Seriously dude. Can we just talk about games?

Please leave the politics to Facebook.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 07/03/2023 15:20, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Mon, 6 Mar 2023 18:52:18 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

On 06/03/2023 11:25, Metal Guru wrote:

I'm aware everyone else here is too polite to say anything so allow me
to do the honors (and I'm only speaking for myself, obviously).

Spalls may want to give you a like but I would say a gold star is more
in order.

I gave a one line reaction because nothing more needed to be said. Do
you know how rare, how unique, how awesome a compliment that is coming
from me? I can drone on for hours over how dust is falling, and yet
couldn't do more than add what was, essentially, an "I agree" to MG's
post? And you think your silly 'gold star' in any way equals that
magnificent achievement? When verbosity is the usual, terseness is a
reward all its own ;-P

(full snark mode enabled, of course. About the gold star thing, I
mean. Not the agreement.)

I'll give you a silver star* for that one.

*That comes from when I was in primary school and at the front of the
class room you had a big piece of paper with everybody's name on it and
the teacher would award you with stars for good behaviour.

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On 07/03/2023 00:43, Zaghadka wrote:

On Mon, 6 Mar 2023 06:25:14 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, Metal Guru wrote:

It should be noted that RepubliQans appropriated the word from the
African American community, where it describes someone aware of racial
injustice and social inequality.

To be fair, Gen-Z appropriated it first on college campuses. One of my daughter's old, and very white, friends described things as "woke" as a compliment, long before the so-called conservatives did as a perjorative.

I have african American friends who simultaneously considered that
culture appropriation and were disgusted by it, even though those kids
had the best of intentions.

*Then* Republicans turned it, along with CRT, into a battle cry. Now the
term is meaningless.

Here in the UK it never gained any real popularity as a positive and
went straight to a negative. We even had a senior politician standing up
in our House of Commons complaining about the wokeyiaty being why people thought her policies were rubbish. It makes you wonder where the adults
are in the room if that's what passes for political discourse.

It's not just the baggage that goes with it but also the way it's used
as a frankly lazy argument. Woke is bad, your opinion is woke therefore
you opinion is bad. For me it's just the flip-side of calling someone a fascist.

Frankly, the lot of them can all just stop. Social Media has turned
nearly everyone participating in it into a ranting, thin-skinned,
provincial, bubble-bound fool.

I watched it for long enough, participated occasionally to say WTF, was having panic attacks from witnessing all the brutality coming from all
sides, and got the hell off. In conjunction with my therapist's hearty approval.

At the end of last year I decided to re-evaluate my use of social media
to get rid of what I didn't think was a positive. A few YT channels got
removed but the big cull was Facewank groups. They have to be the
biggest cesspit I know of. They just seem to attract the worst on both
sides who have no nuance to issues, cannot understand how anyone can
have a different opinion to them and have a mentality of if you're not
in 100% agreement then you're the enemy. Even just questioning their
opinion is seen as some sort of heresy.

Please don't bring it here.

Very much agree, I used to be a member of a gaming NG and that was
pretty much ruined by two posters who would often bring up their politics.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 07/03/2023 15:42, Justisaur wrote:

On Monday, March 6, 2023 at 4:43:46 PM UTC-8, Zaghadka wrote:

On Mon, 6 Mar 2023 06:25:14 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, Metal
Guru wrote:

Please don't bring it here.

I agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment. I play games and come here partially
to avoid the insanity that is our (American) politics. I get too much of that
already through the few podcasts I listen to while doing chores and driving, and stumbling across it elsewhere on the internet.

I deleted my sub on the main podcast I listened to for years as while there was
some political stuff on there, it's gone up since covid and feels like its now
80% political.

I do listen to a political radio talk show but it's one I consider more moderate and they have some interesting takes on issues that I think are important. When I do have a problem is when politics or religion is
brought into a channel when it has nothing to do with the overall
channel content. That's pretty much a will not watch any more for me.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 02/03/2023 23:04, rms wrote:

Books
-- Thud by Terry Pratchett which I  The Difference Engine

  Nice!  I've been on a PKDick run lately, and have finished
In Milton Lumky Territory
Martian Time-Slip
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich
in the last few months.  Just starting Ubik now

Well I finally succumbed and bought a copy of Selected Stories of Philip
K. Dick. A bargain at £9 including P&P.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Wednesday, March 1, 2023 at 9:54:15 AM UTC-6, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

There's one good thing to say about February; when it feels like
another month has whipped by incredibly fast, at least with February
you know there's a reason for it; it's so damned short. Where's my
29th, 30th and 31st days, February? You're ripping me off!

Anyway, games.

If I had to pay to write my summaries ---------------------------------------
* Middle Earth - Shadow of Mordor (replay)
* Eastshade (new)

If I /got/ paid to write my summaries ---------------------------------------

* Middle Earth - Shadow of Mordor (replay)
The last time I played "Shadow of Mordor", I gave up a few hours in. I really regretted doing so because I'm a fan of the Middle Earth
franchise, but I just wasn't having fun with the game. But sometimes
that happens, through no fault of the game. There are times I'm in the
mood for a specific type of game, and if I play something else it
won't satisfy me no matter how good it is. So I regretfully put
"Shadow" away, telling myself that one day I'd return and play it
through to completion like it deserved.

Today was that day. And now I really wish I'd just left it on my list
of unplayed games. "Shadow" isn't a bad game in its particulars; all
of its component parts are satisfactory, if not exceptional in any
way. But taken as a whole, the game lacks that spark, that bit of
verve that makes it memorable or, indeed enjoyable.

"Shadow's" biggest fault is its lack of variety. The combat mechanics
- the core of the game - are fairly well done but lack the depth and challenge to keep me entertained for very long. This is especially noticeable in the first half of the game - before you've gained any of
the more exciting fight maneuvers - and the combat is just a
collection of mundane melee against mundane enemies. And while things
do improve later in the game, it never achieves its full potential.

And unfortunately, the other parts of the game just aren't enough to
make up for the combat system's failings. The open-world is too small
and uninteresting; lacking detail and interactivity, it never feels
like a real place. The platforming mechanics are extremely limited and
the controls lack the necessary smoothness for fun parkour. The story
and characters - despite the use of the famous license - feel like
generic fantasy. The graphics are fine - especially with regards to
the character detail (I was oddly impressed by how well the lip-sync
matched the speech) - but, again, never exceed the basic expectations
and the first half of the game features some of the least interesting visuals.

The game also has some notable flaws; the stealth system is sub-par,
for instance, and the constant respawning of enemies makes the combat
feel pointless. I get what the developers were going for: the goal
was, I suspect, to make it feel as if you were single-handedly
fighting against a massive army whose numbers were so huge that you
could never win through force of arms. However, the actual result was
that the constant fighting became an endless grind and something to be avoided entirely if possible. Some of the missions were also extremely scripted, which only gave the entire experience an even more
mechanical feel.

The end result is a game which, thanks to its underdeveloped combat
and small world, feels very repetitive and grindy. I spent roughly
forty hours playing it, and it was always an effort to keep going.
"Surely," I thought, "it must get better eventually!" but no, the game
ended quite unrewardingly. The game could have been a terrific mix of
"Dark Souls" and "Assassins Creed" but lacked the polish and finesse
of either, resulting in a poor copy of both.

* Eastshade (new)

There's a quest in "Elder Scrolls: Oblvion" called 'A Brush With
Death' where - through the power of magic - you enter a painting and
have a adventures on the other side of the canvas. The quest itself is unremarkable, and the visuals are - in essence - just standard
Oblivion graphics with an oil-painting filter overlaid on top of them,
but I still found it memorable because the saturated colors and
pastoral landscapes were striking in appearance. Playing "Eastshade"
reminds me a lot of that quest.

"Eastshade" itself is more of a walking sim than a combat-heavy
fantasy role-playing game, though. In fact, there is remarkably little
in the way of any sort of challenge whatsoever; the bulk of the
gameplay is extremely simplistic fetch-quests. Many of these utilize
the game's core gimmick: painting requested landscapes for various
clients in exchange for some reward that will allow you to progress
through the story. Sadly, the painting mechanic isn't any more
involved than framing what you want to paint; effectively you're just hitting the 'screenshot' button and your in-game avatar is calling it
art.

Still, the game does have some very pretty terrain, and a surprisingly
large map to explore. Nothing in the setting is particularly original
- there's very little in the game that will make your jaw drop - but
its fun to explore its little world and help solve the little problems
of its inhabitants.

But that is, unfortunately, also the game's biggest problem;
everything about it feels small. There are no real stakes to your
adventure; your ultimate goal is to draw three specific landscapes in
honor of your mother's last request. None of the side-quests are any
more pressing. The world remains fairly static and your actions have
no effect on its development. This makes the game a pleasant diversion
from more intense games, but after a few calming hours, there's little
that made me want to stay in its world. Quite frankly, its saccharine characters with their picayune problems started to wear on me; the
game became rather dull as one quest blurred into the next.

The Oblivion sub-quest was memorable largely because it was a break
from the usual, and its developers knew enough not to drag things out
too long. You can't say the same with "Eastshade". As much as I
welcome games that dare to try something new, it long overstayed its
welcome and I struggled to reach the end.

---------------------------------------

Only two games for me this month. Well, it was a short month after
all. And - as evidenced by various posts to this newsgroups - I also
had fun with spreadsheets and computer hardware, which bit deeply into
my 'gaming time'. But I really feel I ought to have gotten through
more than two games, dontcha think?

Well, let's see how you all did, and if you managed any better.
Basically, what I am asking is...

What Have You Been Playing... IN FEBRUARY 2023?

I've been playing two Total War titles:

Shogun II
Warhammer III

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