Thoughts on Diablo III

Excellent.

Also, Short. Thank god for replay-ability.

Some spoilers (of course) follow.

Really, I suppose, it’s not that short - but it is COMPLETELY obvious that most of the development schedule was spent on getting the core game completely spiffed up, and the first act. The amount of quests/stuff to do/variety in design rapidly decreases - you can really, REALLY tell that waay more of the development cycle was spent in Tristram than Bastion’s Keep. I could be completely wrong about this, but generally it felt like there was more to do in the first couple of acts - I suspect because there were multiple, and less obvious Big Goals. Acts 3 and 4 are straight up, line drive, wade to the end and hit the big boss. From the moment you hit those levels your objective is clear, easily view able, and solidly defined and in front of you. There’s very, very little mystery. This is nitpicking, I know, but when the questlines in Acts 1 & 2 involve unraveling the past of tristram, figuring out that the meteorite is actually a fallen angel, proving your worth as a Nephalem, finding shards of the angels sword (all 1st Act)  resurrecting an evil, but damn smart sorcerer by running around in the desert looking for his body parts, finding the lord of lies true identity and escaping through sewers… etc. It feels involved and clever. The next couple of acts are just “There’s the boss. Go kill him.” Literally all the quests are killing specific lieutenants while slaughtering your way up the hill till you get to the bone head at the top. After the cleverness of the first 2 acts, that much directness is kind of a let down.

Again, small complaints. The core of the game is wonderfully well thought out, complex and involving (yay for crafting), and the click-to-kill methodology and loot nabbing is as good as ever, even if the naming conventions are a little confusing (note to Blizzard: don’t remove the item’s root name, the one that identifies it’s level and grade, from magic item names!).

I ran through my first playthrough with a barbarian, and the really, REALLY hit that one on the nose. Huge, hulking, powerful, WAARRRRRGH. Much visceral shouting and smashing. I’m not sure how the rest of the classes play (yet) but the game felt… tailored to a Barbarian character, who exemplifies “larger than life” in play style and character design in every way possible. When your 2nd level skill essentially sends your enemies heads flying across screen in a shower of gore and debris, you know you’re a walking tank that towers above mere mortals, meant for greater things… etc.

There are a fair number of dropped hints and enough indication to me that there’ll be an expansion pack, and I hope more than one, because the game strikes me as being easy to expand, considering how solid the base of it is. One can only hope that we see as long of a support and development cycle on D3 as we did on D2 (which had content updates up until LAST YEAR. 10 years after the release of the expansion pack), and that we really see some good over-time support out of the awful, awful always on DRM. Hopefully we get WoW quality expansions.

I’ve always rather respected and appreciated Blizzard as a developer, which is odd considering a) I don’t play WoW b) I SUCK at Starcraft, but still adore it (no I don’t know why, fuck off) and c) some of the specific choices they made for rolling out D3 (an inherently single player game with multi-player OPTIONS) are just stupid and downright prejudiced against players without consistent broadband connections. It might seem odd in the civilized world but not everyone has access to good internet.

I should also mention how damn pretty the game is! Since it’s Isometric and the models are more distant, and therefore don’t have to be as detailed, all the effort went into the textures for the world, which are just absofreakin’ gorgeous. They look painterly, I suppose, is the best word for it - it’s made clear through the soft and detailed but very obviously brush-stroked and drawn appearance of it all that this is, indeed, a fantasy, a world much more beautiful (even at it’s most horrid) than ours. Also things die real purty.

Similarly, the sound design is amazing, and amazingly satisfying. The hacking, slashing, and zapping sounds soooo right along with the screams of your dying foes.  

The music (much to my intense disappointment, as it was the highpoint of the last game to the extent that I still listen to it just for fun) is not as good as D2. It couldn’t be. Totally different composer. It’s just… more backgroundy. Not as interesting or clever, not as attention getting, just more… there.

Anyway, in sum, great game, a few bad decisions, a little disappointing in small ways (but nothing is perfect, apart from Knytt Stories).

1 week ago  /  0 notes

Anonymous asked: Why am I such a failure?

Perhaps you don’t believe in yourself enough?

1 month ago  /  0 notes

A second post about cars: Ford RS200

I also really enjoy Rally racing, and there’s no more insane and exciting period of rally than the Group B era in the early to mid 1980’s. Group B was a classification which basically stated that, so long as you also made 200 to sell to consumers, you could do ANYTHING you wanted. This resulted in some… rather bananas cars. The most infamous of which is the Ford RS200.

The RS200 was a mid-engine 4 cylinder, turbo charged, 4 wheel drive car which made about 400hp in race trim. It’s transmission was front mounted. It was not highly competitive in the rallys of the era, but it was by far the deadliest car, killing 2 drivers and a co-driver, 3 spectators, and injuring many others in some of the most spectacular crashes of the era.

It’s probably the aura of death that makes the RS200 so interesting, but it was a frighteningly fast car off the line, and one hardly controllable due to pure speed on the course. It was also known for running it’s motors so hard that a post-race rebuild was pretty common.

It’s a last of an era sort of car - and one I’d like to drive some day.

1 month ago  /  0 notes

Melancholy

I just re-read one of the first posts I put on my Tumblr - which was me complaining about how boring South Florida is, which I am familiar with since I went there every year to visit my maternal grandparents. My Grandfather on that side passed almost 7 years ago, however, and my Grandmother on that side has sold her house in Delray Beach, moved to California (to live near my Aunt) and is presently in and out of the hospital and living in a senior group home.

It was more than odd to think about a place that I’ve probably spent close to a year of my life in as completely gone. I know I’ll probably be back once more, but ONLY once (for reasons which should be semi-obvious), and not for very much fun or time. I surely complained about Florida, but it was without doubt a place I knew.

I should be used to this sensation, to some extent, as not a single school I attended before college still exists. A place you’ve been going to your entire life, however, leaves a bigger hole than you might expect, especially when it remains the longest period of time you spend with your immediate family in the past few years.

Now I really don’t know when I’ll go on another family vacation (it’s been really pretty wonderful to have this tradition continue well into my twenties and my little sister’s college life), although I suspect it’ll either be to Holland, MI, at my parent’s vacation condo, or to California, to where my Grandmother is staying now.

Cali, San Francisco to be specific, is pretty much my favorite place on the planet. I look forward to being out there - but I’ll likely be staying in a hotel, and it IS 3 hours later. As much as I love the place it is FAR from being a familiar one (except for a few specific unchanging things).

Holland I’ve been going to for a long time as well - but it’s not a place with a whole lot to DO. Beach, bikes, and… Dutch people? I’m not sure. I suppose I go there with the same expectations as Florida, the last few years: lots of time to do nothing. I’m ok with that.

Losing childhood memories and places, when they’re good, and consistent, is always a little traumatic.

I need to go on a big trip, I think. I’d love to take a month and just… go places.

1 month ago  /  0 notes

A first post about cars: Mazda 787b

I do like cars, as my friends probably know, and this is one of my favorites:

The Mazda 787b LeMans Prototype.

Read More

1 month ago  /  0 notes