“I thought I’d hate it.
Surprisingly I didn’t.
I’ll buy the next one.”
Archive for the ‘Otaku’ Category
(Haiku) Review of SW:TNG/DW|A2
Thursday, June 14th, 2012“I thought I’d hate it.
Legendary Item 2
Monday, May 28th, 2012The other day I obtained my 259th Nintendo DS game. And it was no normal game, good readers, it was in fact… this:
Yes fellows, I now own the second in the Club Nintendo exclusive Game & Watch Collection series (I barely need mention I already own the first in the series)!
What is this game – which I remind you is unavailable in stores – you ask? It is none other than Parachute and Octopus coded for the DS. Here is an image showing both games in action:
Remarkable, wouldn’t you say? But it doesn’t stop there! No, my friends, this humble DS cartridge also contains the brand new remix game Parachute x Octopus which is an unholy combination of both (let’s ignore for the moment reviews that say it’s terrible).
So where did I obtain this? Club Nintendo of course! It cost 800 ‘coins’, which are obtained by registering games and hardware. 800 coins equals about 16 Wii games, about 27 DS games, or about 5 hardware systems (DS, Wii, 3DS etc.). I’m proud to say I now own all three actual packaged games Nintendo has made available through the system (for which I spent a total of 2800 coins!)
Time for an honest disclosure: I haven’t yet played this. In fact I haven’t removed the shrinkwrap. But I love it nonetheless 🙂
Diablo 3
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012Last week, Diablo 3 came out. I flitted over to the store on the morning of release and bought myself a copy.
As some of you know, I was a mad fan of Diablo and Diablo 2. Both were pretty roguelikes, which has always been one of my favourite genres. The latter in particular I played for oodles of hours, ending up with a level 96 sorceress, a level 9X amazon and a few other characters. This was no small feat, since levelling became torturously slow at high levels. I also had awesome gear, and had beat the highest difficulty many times over. What a game!
So my anticipation for Diablo 3 was high, to say the least. It was with great excitement I created my first character, Momomo:
Ok, she’s already level 41 in that screenshot! I did say the game came out a week ago surely?
I blasted through the normal difficulty quite quickly, finding it fast-paced and (frankly) quite easy. It probably took me about 16 hours to get to and kill the final boss:
That’s his loot in the above screenshot. A nice haul, wouldn’t you say?
Anyway Diablo games have never been about beating normal mode, they are about playing through multiple times at progressively higher difficulties, in which both the challenge and the rewards increase. Diablo 3 has 4 such difficulties (Normal, Nightmare, Hell, Inferno) and right now I’m half way through Nightmare mode. The going has gotten harder, but still not the level I’m anticipating!
This game is fun! It’s like ‘Gauntlet’ on overdrive, more arcadey and prettier than old Diablo, without sacrificing (yet, at least) any of the addictive qualities. It’s easy to lose hours just running around killing massive packs of monsters and sorting through the loot looking for upgrades.
The above shot shows that the game hasn’t abandoned character complexity, although I’m starting to suspect that amidst all those stats only two actual matter (DPS and HP). Character skills (of which there are dozens) are awarded automatically and cannot be upgraded via skill points like in D2. This means the five character classes are more homogenized within each other (for instance, in D2 the sorceress class alone had 3 or 4 viable ‘builds’ that were so different they felt like different characters), which is probably a change that was made in the interest of game balance. It remains to be seen how many of my skills will be viable at the level cap.
There’s Momo and Stefka (SFL) playing together! Diablo 3 is an online-only game, and obviously supports co-operative multiplay, which is handled very well with little noticeable latency or syncing problems. There are some issues however, especially that multiplay games are not really fun for either party when there are large level discrepancies between the players. But I suspect this is a short-term problem, since eventually everyone will hit the level cap (60) and farm Inferno together.
My biggest concern for the game at this point is with regards to longevity. It will take about 50 hours to get Momo to level 60. But how long will the game hold my interest then? The true appeal of Diablo 2 was farming for gear, and there was a mind-boggling variety available. I’m not yet convinced Diablo 3 has this variety and gear appeal (in fact I’m almost convinced it doesn’t), and the many words written on this exact topic in the last week by passionate Diablo veterans carry more than a grain of truth in my opinion. In addition, if the gear is not there then the draw for level capping additional characters is diminished as well (since it feels pointless).
But Blizzard is a smart company, with a lot invested in this game. At the very least, without a monthly fee their plan is to make money via a ‘Real Money Auction House’ (exactly what it sounds). This can only succeed if the items sold on the RMAH (gear) are attractive enough for people to buy. Therefore I think we’ll see some significant adjustments/additions to the gear in the game before too long.
But, as I said, that’s in the future. Right now I’m only lvl 43, and have a lot of playing ahead of me before I hit Inferno difficulty. And I’m still having a blast doing just that 🙂
Children Of The Atom
Tuesday, May 8th, 2012Several months back I resumed my WoW account to play through the content added with the Cataclysm expansion. At the time, I once again assumed the mantle of guild-leader of the legendary guild Atomic!
All was well, but something seemed… lacking.
That was remedied a little over a month ago when the lost member of Atomic once again joined our ranks:
I refer of course to the Champion Of The Frozen Wastes himself – Fyrenze the Druid!
Yes, I had finally managed to convince SFL to return to the game after a 2+ year absence of her own (insert evil laughter here). And when the day dawned on Fyrenze’s return, then Momo and him went berserk!
Quests and dungeons and even raids fell like skittles, and Fyrenze beggared belief in his/her ability to defy the gods of probability and win epic phatty lootz with supernatural rapidity, all the time hardly ever standing still (as these pictures illustrate). Soon the humble lvl 80 bear was a lvl 85 monster, bedecked in the most wicked of gear. It took less time that anyone would imagine, and it was fun 🙂
Around this time the dark horse of the guild, the Worgen mage Zornwrinkle (aka JBF in real life), also reached lvl 85. Our humble guild then combined powers – albeit briefly – for a few dungeon hacks:
SFL then turned her attention to the legendary Undying archer Fyrenza! Again level’s fell in short order, and with near alchemic cunning, the immortal slayer of Kel’thuzad himself stood alongside Momo and Fyrenze at level 85. Celebrations included sitting on camels in front of a pyramid.
But then…
But then Momo and Fyrenze/Fyrenza had a pause.
“Have we”, they simultaneously asked, “beaten this game?”
“Should we”, they simultaneously suggested, “suspend again until Pandaria?”
And the decision was “yes”. Accounts were logged on to, subscriptions were cancelled. And once again, we were both free of the tyrannical addiction of WoW. It felt great. We had beaten the game – killed Deathwing himself! – and would once again rest until our powers were needed again. SFL’s account ran out last Saturday; mine will run out at the end of next week.
I begun the ‘process’ of getting ready for suspension. Sell items that will not retain their value, finish off a quest here and there, say goodbye to Azeroth once again. I had mostly done this… stopped playing and moved on to other things…
…BUT THEN SOMETHING HAPPENED!
(to be continued…)
48 Boosters
Saturday, May 5th, 2012
45 English, 1 Russian, 1 Japanese and 1 Chinese.
It’s going to be fun opening these 🙂