Stay Awhile and Listen - Week 12

Games Played:, Diablo 3, Misc. Games: Minecraft, Team Fortress 2, Assassin's Creed: Revelations

Other Business: I didn't post last week for two reasons: 1) because I forgot until some time on Friday or Saturday and 2) because all I did was play Diablo 3. Whatever the case, nobody reads these so it doesn't matter.

Diablo 3:

Man, I have been playing some Diablo over the past two weeks. Diablo 3 is the logical evolution of the series into the modern age. Blizzard has refined and streamlined the game down to the core of what that style of game play is about. The biggest sacrifice of character customization is also one of its greatest accomplishments (I am not going to touch the always-on thing). Sure, I probably won't want to make another barbarian and run them up to level 60 again, but damnit I don't have to worry about breaking my character and having to start over because I can't make it any further. I am all for games not holding my hand the entire time and this is obviously a direct counter to that preference but there is so much game here that I don't think it really matters. The ability to change my tactics on the fly to fit the enemies and environments is great and what I find to be the greatest addition to the game. I have logged something like 25 hours of game time thus far over two different characters and the play styles are so radically different between them and within them that I already feel that I have gotten my money's worth out of this purchase. I have yet to finish normal difficulty with either character and get to the true meat of the game too, so I have that to look forward to as well. The last thing I want to mention is that the constant comparisons to Torchlight 2 are just crazy to me. Torchlight was a retelling of Fate, which was a reimagining of Diablo and by what I have read on Torchlight 2, it will be a reimagining of Diablo 2. I played Diablo 2, a lot, as much as I love that game, I want to play something different. I am confident that Torchlight 2 will be great and I intend to buy it, but I don't think it will be anything like Diablo 3, except in game play style. There is nothing wrong with iterating on the success of Torchlight, which was expanding on Diablo, but I just don't understand this hostility toward Blizzard about it. They invented the concept pretty much (no, I don't know the exact origin of the idea, so I am sure I will be yelled at) so I never had a doubt they would do something amazing with it after over a decade. Then again, having read through a bunch of the internet rage about this, I feel myself just chalking the whole reaction up as exactly that, internet rage. That is a whole other subject that I don't want to go into, so I won't.

Misc Games:

Assassin's Creed: Revelations:

I played more assa-mon and took over some more cities and hired a bunch of dudes to go poison politicians and build foundries. Still fun, I just wish I could get around to more of the story missions. I can feel myself right on the brink of actually being interested in the story and really putting some time into it, but then I think about Diablo 3 and suddenly I am playing that instead.

Minecraft:

Minecraft is my "I'm watching something and I want something to fiddle with on low points" game. I love jumping into my world and working on my tree house or doing some mining while I watch videos.

Team Fortress 2:

My girlfriend recently started getting into TF2 and as such I have started playing a bit again to help teach her. Lots of free-to-play-ers who make great cannon fodder, perfect for ego boosts and showing somebody the ropes of the game. I had over a 2.0 KDR in a 40min session the other day. Always makes me smile.