May 12
16
Diablo III – Initial Reactions
The first of many kills
So far, well worth the four year wait. Sadly, I wasn’t able to get my PC built in time for the Diablo III demo, so my first in depth look at the game was with it fully launched. I knew I was going to be impressed before I even started, but now I’m even more pumped to be playing the game. First of all, I was really glad I jumped back into Diablo II for a little bit before the launch. Not only did it re-acquaint me with the lore of the Diablo world, but it also helped highlight how well put together Diablo III seems to be.
The first thing you’ll notice with Diablo III is how alive the landscape seems. If you walk too close to an old building, the top level will collapse from the movement. Knock back an enemy into a wagon, the wagon falls apart. When walking by NPCs in Tristam, they’ll complain out loud about the trouble that surrounds them. Even enemies don’t just appear at random, but will crawl out of cracks in the ground or will run at you from a wooded area. It’s clear to me that so much polish has been put into the small things, that it really helps to elevate the whole experience. Minor thing to notice, maybe, but will you appreciate it when you play, absolutely.
After a few hours of game play here are a few tips and suggestions:
Does the Monk in Diablo 3 actually use the weapons that are equipped?
Yes, it matters what weapon or weapons you equip the Monk with in Diablo III. The animation of the character will show him only using his fists or legs to execute the attacks, with the weapon slung across the Monk’s back. However, your equipped weapon does impact the amount and type of damage your skills do. For example, here is the description for one of the Secondary Monk Skills, Lashing Tail Kick:
Unleash a deadly roundhouse kick that knocks enemies back and deals 200% weapon damage.
Even though the Monk uses his legs for the Lashing Tail Kick, the type of sword or lance or mace that is equipped determines the 200% weapon damage mentioned above. In addition, any magical effects on the weapons are also applied to the Monk’s skills. So it is very important that you pay attention to your Monk’s equipped weapons because they will dictate how powerful your active skills will be in Diablo III.
Can I customize my skill button layouts in Diablo 3?
Yes, you have the ability to assign skills to different buttons other than the defaults in Diablo 3. When you start, your primary attack is mapped to the left mouse click, secondary to the right, and then other abilities are mapped to numbers 1-4. However, what if you want a primary attack to map to the left mouse click and then another primary to map to the right? Luckily, Diablo III gives you the option to change this. To unlock the feature press Escape to bring up the Game Menu. Go into Options, then click on Gameplay in the left column. Look over to the right column and check the box that says Elective Mode. Now when you click on the skill menu and go to assign buttons, arrows will be visible at the top of the menu to scroll through your various skills.
One last suggestion on this point is to modify your mappings for the skills at numbers 1-4 and change those to A,S,D,F. Your hand will feel more relaxed and rests better in the middle of the keyboard rather than at the top numbers. That option can be changed in the Options Menu by clicking on the Key Bindings section in the left column.
Save that loot for crafting
Should I sell the magical loot I pick up in the beginning of Diablo 3?
No, save them! When you start Diablo III you will be tempted to sell all of your unused magical items at first. You think you don’t need them and the gold is far more useful. This is not the case however. Diablo III added a new feature in which you have a blacksmith that can craft magical items for you. However, the ingredients for these magical items can only be obtained by salvaging magical items in your inventory. So rather than selling those early magical items for a whopping 20 pieces of gold, hold on to them for a short while and stock up on magical ingredients instead.
Posted in Diablo III by .
Plenty of guts, with plenty more to fight
If you own this game and are a fan of the series, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be playing it right now. With the release of the long awaited Diablo III only days away (announced back in 2008), I thought it only too fitting that we break out one of the hottest games from the year 2000, Diablo II.
For those who don’t remember, the story of Diablo II picks up where the first Diablo left of. The hero from the first title, having defeated Diablo, drives Diablo’s soul stone into his skull, hoping to contain its power. Instead, Diablo possesses the hero, and he becomes the Dark Wanderer (and antagonist) for Diablo II. The Dark Wanderer leaves a wake of destruction in his path as he moves through the lands of Sanctuary in search of Diablo’s buds, the two other Prime Evils, Mephisto and Baal. You take on the role of a powerful adventurer who accepts the task of tracking down the Dark Wanderer and stopping the destruction left in his path.
Diablo II takes you through 4 unique Acts each with exciting locations from the Rouge encampment of Khanduras to the Pandemonium Fortress where we once again battle with Diablo himself. Each Act is broken into several missions requiring you to rid the area of the different evils plaguing the townsfolk. After a lot of fighting and running around, you are tasked to face and defeat one of the Great Evils before passing to the next Act. (Act I & II have you facing Lesser Evils, while the last two have you face off against two Prime Evils, Mephisto and Diablo) If you’re interested in catching up on Diablo lore before you start Diablo III, I’d highly recommend this series of YouTube videos here.
What kills me about either of the Diablos, is that all you’re doing is clicking like crazy. Granted you’re deploying skills and using up potions, but for the most part you’re just hacking away with your mouse. So basic, yet so much fun. However, this shouldn’t be confused as Diablo II being easy or simple. Far from it, oftentimes you would find yourself entirely surrounded by bad guys. They hack away at your health quickly while a shaman in the back resurrects each baddie you cut down. Do you waste a potion or 2 to get your health up or unleash a skill to take out the shaman, hording your potions for the boss fight to come. Diablo II is rife with these sort of split second decisions and one bad move could mean a tough journey to reclaim your lost epic loot.
Well met my favorite character, the Paladin
Whether it’s hacking your way through hordes of hell-spawn or meticulously arranging inventory to maximize space, Diablo II offers many avenues for gamers to enjoy. Playing the game now does highlight how far RPGs have come since 2000, but also highlights how Diablo II is still a pretty unbelievable and enjoyable game 12 years later. Of course the real reason we’re playing this month is to get ready for the release of Diablo III. Already the game looks really, really, really good, but we’ll have to wait a few more days to see if it holds up to expectations. I can just already tell that work is going to drag by the day of its release. Can’t wait for Diablo III.
Posted in Diablo II by .
May 12
8
My New Gaming Rig
Holy Mackerel has my foray into PC gaming been overwhelming. There is just so much to do, and I don’t know where I want to start. (That’s not entirely true, I’m already trying to play Civilization V while replaying Command and Conquer 3 while also getting ready for Diablo III, but also trying to keep putting some time into Dragon Age II, phew) The one thing that has been the biggest change over the laptop that I’ve owned for the past 7 years (ouch) is speed. Everything is so freakin fast. Start up and shut down take seconds, opening programs is a breeze, and games run like a dream. Needless to say, I’m very happy with my new gaming PC.
I wanted to start off my journey through PC gaming by providing the details around the rig I’ll be running all these games on. Obviously, a very important part, and my suggestion to anyone looking to build their own PC, get a friend like Bones Daywalker. He knew everything needed to know to build a kick ass rig. He knew what to buy, where to buy, and best of all, how to put it all together. Never build a PC without one! Alright, here are all the key pieces of my PC. (Clicking on the pic will bring you to Newegg if you want to check something out in more detail)
CPU:Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-P67X-UD3-B3 LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX
Me
mory: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
Storage: OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5″ 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (Note: I have a 2 TB drive for keeping the bulk of my media, but I use this drive for storing my OS and the games to increase performance)
Graphics: EVGA 012-P3-2066-KR GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 448 Cores FTW 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
So there it is, all the major pieces of my new gaming PC. Feel free to use these parts in your own builds or ask questions about how everything fits together. My plan over the next few months is to not only get a sense of what sort of PC games I enjoy, but also to stay on top of the Xbox games I’ve amassed over the next few months. Also, one area I’m going to delve in, videos. Hopefully, starting with Diablo III, I’ll be injecting the occasionally video to help you get a better feel for these games. Overall, expect a few changes here and there with PC gaming on the docket.
Best shot of most of the parts, minus cables
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Apr 12
27
Dragon Age II – Initial Reactions
I loved playing Dragon Age: Origins. I played it before I started writing about video games, but even so, the game showed up on two of my Top 5 lists : Game Sidekicks and Top Games Played in 2011. I was a bit late to the game, playing Dragon Age: Origins about a year and a half after it was released, but was a huge fan of the title, and glad I spent the 50+ hours playing the game. I actually played the first Dragon Age at the perfect time because Dragon Age II (Released in March 2011) had only been out for a few weeks. However, other games took my attention at the time, and it wasn’t until now (over a year later) that I finally have the chance to sit down and play Dragon Age II.
So many baddies, only so many spells
With Dragon Age II, I settled on the Mage, it’s a weak character when it comes to melee combat, but can quickly unleash lots of destruction through many spells and abilities. I’m particularly partial to the Death Syphon, which refills your mana every time you kill an opponent, always leaving me with plenty of death dealing options. Luckily, the Mage is equipped with staffs that shoot balls of magic that don’t pull from your mana pool nor do they need any sort of recharging, keeping the action moving quickly.
On that note, the one thing I’ve noticed that is really different from the first Dragon Age is the pace of the action. Dragon Age II comes at you fast and furious with the combat. First of all, there are alot of baddies to fight. Not necessarily a great variety of bad guys (one of my gripes), but there is always plenty of cannon fodder to blast away on. But what’s really unique about Dragon Age II is that these baddies come from all directions. They jump out of the woods, run out of doors, lower down from the ceiling and in waves as well. It’s like a Black Friday sale where you’re character’s head is the door buster, these guys are practically knocking each other over to get at you. It really keeps you’re head on a swivel, keeping you constantly looking over your team’s shoulders to ensure a squad of Mages didn’t sneak up behind you.
With only about 6 hours of game play for what will probably be a 20+ hour game at the very least, I’m still warming up to Dragon Age II. The story is loosely related to the first title with pieces of the original story being filled in with a storyboard type style. There also seems to be a large divergence from the heavy RPG element of Dragon Age: Origins, instead favoring a more simplistic organization of attributes and abilities. Sadly there is less of a focus on the team tactics which was such a huge portion of the first Dragon Age.
At this point though, the largest barrier to playing Dragon Age II for now will be the fact that Bones Daywalker just helped me build my first gaming PC. So unfortunately or fortunately my focus may divert to PC gaming for a time, more on that in the future though.
Posted in Dragon Age II by .
Apr 12
23
Top Gun: Hard Lock – Wrap Up
Much like Mortal Kombat, I decided to take on Top Gun: Hard Lock as a side project while I played other games. It was a quick game (about 7-8 hours) with a weak story that didn’t really need much investment to enjoy the game. Even after finishing the game though, I’m still not convinced I enjoyed it.
The infamous QTE (I meant notorious)
Being a pretty serious fan of the Top Gun movie, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play the video game of one of my favorite movies of all time. In the game, you play as a pilot named Spider. Like Maverick from the movie (who is one of your instructors in the game) you fly by your own rules and do what you think is right, not what your ordered to do. Only a few missions have you actually flying at Top Gun with most of the missions taking place in real combat. The way they worked Top Gun into the game was really by dropping quotes from the movie into the pilots’ discussions while they were flying. For example, “She’s lost that feeling” was used whenever a female squad mate lashed out at the main character, or “I have the need…the need for speed” whenever you went super sonic. It was really, really, really cheesy, but then again so was the movie.
Things I would change
- Difference in plane attributes – Every plane in the game acted the same way in terms of flight. The F-18 flew exactly like the F-14 which was no slower than the F-22. The only difference was in what the plane looked like. There were no pros and cons in picking an aircraft to fly. I would have liked to see scenarios where a plane was fast, but couldn’t take a lot of damage or an aircraft had great maneuverability, but couldn’t carry a lot of weapons. Unfortunately, none of that was to be seen with Top Gun: Hard Lock.
- No QTEs – The title of this game derives from an action you can do in the game called a “Hard Lock.” When you enter this “mode”, you and your enemy are locked in a dog fight of sorts. The goal of this is to keep the enemy aircraft in your aiming reticule long enough to acquire a missile lock. The missile you then fire cannot be evaded, amounting to a guaranteed frag. The problem with the “Hard Lock” was that it was all based on quick time events (not cool). Different flying maneuvers, such as an Immelmann or Split-S, would appear on your screen with two circles and arrows. The circles corresponded to your thumb sticks and the arrows to the direction you had to hold the sticks. If you were able to beat your opponent to the thumb stick movement, you stayed in position behind them. They beat you, and they end up in the firing position. Also,whoever completed the move first would have their targeting reticule increase, making it easier to get the missile lock. I wasn’t happy at all with this. I play these flying games to execute these hard moves and out maneuver aircraft in my own manner, not by pressing buttons in a fixed fashion. I would just drop the Hard Lock all together.
- Being able to control your roll – This was a huge deal breaker from me and made me think that Top Gun: Hard Lock should have been an Arcade game rather than a full release. You could not properly roll your aircraft. The left thumb stick controlled pitch (up and down) and yaw (side to side). While the right thumb stick controlled speed and would allow you to execute a quick barrel roll by hitting the thumb stick to the left or right. There were no options any where to allow for rolling the aircraft which really ruined the game for me. Definitely not a flying game meant to make you feel like you’re flying. If there was one area where major improvement could be made, this would be it.
Things I would keep
- Cheesy lines from Top Gun – This was the real reason I played the game, to enjoy a little Top Gun action. Even though the lines from the movie were so cheesy in their placement and delivery, it really worked out well. If you haven’t seen the movie or aren’t a fan, make sure you watch the movie before you play the game.
- Music – The music in Top Gun: Hard Lock actually does a really good job of setting the pace for the missions. Some of the earlier missions include music from the movie, making for a really awesome experience in the beginning. Later missions use more generic music, but still keeps you rocking out while taking the MIGs out. If they could have combined the good dog fighting music with equally exciting dog fighting, than they would have been on to something.
- Quick mission failures – This is something a lot of games miss the mark on these days, but it was really easy to fail a mission in Top Gun: Hard Lock if you weren’t efficient enough. Many of the missions involved you providing air support for a ground, naval or slow moving air unit. Each of the units were given health bars and as they took damage from enemy air, ground, and naval troops, that bar would quickly deplete. What was great about the game, was that if you took too long taking down one enemy plane or if you concentrated your fire on the wrong targets, your allies would be destroyed quickly. They actually struck a great balance between making the missions easy enough where you weren’t restarting 20 times, but it was still challenging enough where you had to pick and choose the right targets to be successful.
Top Gun: Hard Lock is not a game that I would suggest for any one to run out and buy right away. It really does not present a great or innovative flying game, nor is it a great re-hash of the movie. Ultimately, it falls into the trap of using the Top Gun license to draw attention rather than quality game play. I, above most, would always welcome a shot at re-imagining the 80s blockbuster, but not like this. If you’re really itching to play the game, make sure you wait for a significant price drop or just buy Top Gun on DVD instead.
Rating
Attention grab
2 – Missions became repetitive and the story was very disjointed. Sorry, I hate it when it does that.
Bang for your buck
2: 7-8 hours of what I thought should have been an Arcade type game, crash and burn.
How hard is it to get good
2.5: QTEs make it hard to understand what is going on, however it’s more about timing rather than skill. So it’s a fairly easy game to pick up. (No need for carnal knowledge, of a lady this time, on the premises)
Cheevos (Achievements)
3: I was able to get 32 out of 49 cheevos without much extra attention. So a fairly easy game in terms of cheevos, but a few of the bigger ones rely on playing the multiplayer for a while. Buzzing the tower – best cheevo ghost rider.
Quality
1.5: Maverick put it best in the Top Gun movie: “Slider, you stink.” Not the kind of Top Gun game I was hoping for and left a lot to be desired.
Total: 2.2/5
Posted in Recent Games Top Gun: Hard Lock by .