A video game sale can be a helluva drug. My Steam, GOG, Epic, Amazon Games, and Switch backlogs can attest to that. So it's probably no surprise that when Larian Studios (Divinity: Original Sin, Baldur's Gate 3) had (as of February 9th, it was still on sale on GOG, but no longer on Steam) put their entire catalog of games from the Divinity series on sale, I couldn't help but purchase the first three games in the franchise for fewer than $4.00 total. And then I went over to GOG and bought them again after finding out (which I should've realized in the first place) that the GOG versions also give access to the soundtracks, prequel comics, manuals, novellas, and making of documentaries; you know, all the stuff we love about physical DVD/Bluray releases that aren't included on streaming services.
I wasn't planning on jumping right into the games as I was already attempting another run of Fallout 2, but I was tempted to see if the first game in the series, Divine Divinity, being a 23-year-old game, would work on modern systems and how it would feel in 2026. Well, apart from stuttering issues that I've yet to figure out, and frequently learning what keys do what and how dragging objects is about 25% of the game, I've managed to put in just over 12 hours.
The play styles are very different, too. Fallout 2 is a more methodical and slower-paced game than the action-RPG setting of Divine Divinity, which is closer to Diablo than say, Baldur's Gate (the first one, not the third one that Larian would later go on to help revive the Dungeons & Dragons video game brand). Missing six times in a row in Fallout 2 takes nearly a minute and is exceedingly frustrating, whereas missing four times in a row in the early levels of Divine Divinity is over in a few seconds.
So why did I put down Fallout 2 after investing another 16 hours after my last save file was corrupted? I think part of it was that I had played for about 60 hours, recently gotten to San Francisco, and was exploring a difficult area of a ship that was full of aggressive aliens. I had been using a guide to look up recommended skills based on how I wanted to build out my new character, Rose, and was genuinely enjoying the game again. What really pulled me towards Divine Divinity was the newness of a franchise and series that I'd heard great things about, that I had never played. Christmas Present Syndrome all over again, I guess.
And I think the promise of something new, but still old, felt more enticing than retreading the same ground for a fourth time after three previous failures, even if one of those failures was due to a software issue.
P.S. I do promise to come back to Fallout 2 before I get a new laptop, because I don't know if I want to potentially deal with another corrupted save file just to start over from the Temple of Trials and gecko hunting all over again.
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