Played some more D3 this afternoon…

I’m really liking the Monk class.  Very cool.  Vaguely reminiscent of the Assassin from D2…  With maybe a dash of Paladin thrown in for good measure.  Lots of fun.

The game does some things in interesting ways…

The stash and gold seem to be shared across all your characters.  As do your achievements.  In fact, in a lot of ways, it almost seems like the individual characters don’t matter.  While you can name your individual characters, once you get into a game the only name that appears is that of your Battle.net profile.

One of my quests involved getting the local blacksmith set up and running again…  And when I came back to the game on a different character, he was already up and running.  I was still able to do that quest again, but I was also able to make use of the blacksmith before I did so.

Terri got in to the Diablo III beta.  Got a notice just a couple days ago.  As did one of my old DAoC buddies.  I didn’t though.  Primarily because I hadn’t even opted-in to the beta list.  I feel a little stupid about that.

Terri, being the awesome wife she is, has shared her beta access with me.  And I’ve spent a good chunk of the day today playing around with it.

My very first impression – holy shit, this place is dark.  The whole starter area is dark and gloomy.  Lots of fog everywhere.  Everything is varying shades of black and grey.  Feels very muddled.  Very hard to see.  Feels like those stupid rainbow-hating morons won.  I have to assume that later areas will be more varied, and this region is simply dark for plot-related purposes.  I certainly hope the whole game isn’t this dark.

Getting beyond the overwhelming gloom…  It’s definitely a Diablo game.  Feels just like I’m wandering the fields outside the cathedral in Diablo II, Act I.  Lots of zombies, the occasional quillrat.  Hollow logs and corpses to loot.  Even the sound of coins falling to the ground is the same.  Very familiar.  Very cool.

As I play through a couple of the dungeons, I get the distinct impression that I’m actually playing Torchlight, and not a Diablo III beta.  The Demon Hunter is playing almost exactly like the Vanquisher did.  Plus there are bonuses for destroying random objects in the environment.  And achievements to be earned.

The comparison to Torchlight is maybe a little unfair…  As Torchlight was simply the most recent game to imitate Diablo…  But that’s really what it feels like.

I’m having a few, small issues with the beta…  Getting some random pauses and slowdowns.  I’m assuming that it’s somehow related to the beta status of the game.  Maybe it’s doing some reporting behind the scenes…  Or maybe there’s still some bugs to be squashed…

But, on the whole, it’s playing very well.  The graphics are nice, crisp, and clean.  The gameplay is very familiar, very intuitive, and very enjoyable.

I can easily see myself sinking a ridiculous amount of time into this game once it is released.

Been playing a good amount of WoW lately.  And, since I’m not really part of an active guild, I’ve been running dungeons with a bunch of pick-up groups.

For a while there, I was having great luck with my PUGs.  Could burn through three or four dungeons, back-to-back, with no trouble.  Decent gear, no real drama, more-or-less competent players…  Really had no trouble clearing a dungeon – either normal or heroic.

Sure, there’d be the occasional fuckup and/or party wipe…  But folks would just get back up, dust themselves off, and charge back into the battle.

Then something happened.

I’m not sure if my luck changed, or a people suddenly got stupid, or what.  But I suddenly find myself constantly grouped with moronic prima donnas.

I’ll wind up in a party with one or more incompetent players – a tank who can’t hold aggro, or a healer that just can’t keep people standing, or a mage who simply can’t control his aggro…  And we’ll wind up wiping on something…  And then folks start bailing.

We’ll have a single bad pull, and all of a sudden the tank leaves the party.  Or the healer runs for the hills.  Or a couple of the DPS’ers leg it.

Depending on who leaves, it might be possible to queue up again, find someone to fill that role, and continue through the dungeon…  But unless someone is found very quickly, more people start leaving…  And before long I’ll find myself standing alone in some dungeon wondering where the hell everyone went.

Seems like I’m only actually clearing a dungeon about a third of the time.  It’s getting pretty discouraging.

I canceled EVE again not so long ago.  Signed up for the WoW yearly subscription thing, so I could get a free copy of Diablo III and entry into the next WoW beta and all that good stuff.  And I’m having great fun with it…  But there’s a very distinct feeling to EVE that most other games simply do not deliver.

There’s a feeling of loneliness and quiet desolation as you fly through space.  Thousands of kilometers between you and the nearest object.  Millions of kilometers between you and anything that could be called “civilization”.  A feeling of freedom, of being able to wander aimlessly wherever you want.

And the open-ended nature of EVE just isn’t replicated in many other places.  You can run missions, engage in piracy, build a trade empire…

But the X Universe games have always done a pretty good job of capturing that kind of feeling.  That same feeling of the vastness of space, and the open-ended possibilities.

So, I’ve recently started playing X3: Albion Prelude…  It’s the newest title in the X series.  I guess it must take place some time after Terran Conflict, but I have to admit that I’m not familiar enough with the setting’s lore to know what’s going on with any certainty.

Looks like there’s been some kind of falling out…  The Terrans appear to be at war with everyone else.  I’m not entirely sure what has caused this rift.  There’s an intro video that looks like it might explain what is going on, but it’s just a bunch of dramatic scenes.  And, honestly, I’m not sure that even matters too much.  The meat of the game is the free-roaming, open-ended gameplay that you engage in outside of the storyline missions.

I’ve just started playing around, and I’m horribly rusty.  Having a hard time navigating and fighting and anything else.  No idea what I’m doing.  And there isn’t much of a tutorial.

The graphics look pretty awesome.  Much improved from the earlier games I played.

And the game is definitely more mouse-friendly than it used to be.

But there’s still a distinctly X feel to it.  And I’m having fun wandering the spacelanes.  Can’t wait until I get the hang of things and really get going.

Today is finally Friday.  It’s been one hell of a week…  Feels like I somehow wound up with an extra day or two, like I’ve already worked six or seven days.  All week long it has felt like it should be later in the week – Tuesday felt like Wednesday, Wednesday like Thursday, Thursday like Friday, and today I’m just glad it is Friday.

Work is still consuming most of my life.  Every day is very busy.  And then I’m coming home exhausted, and going to bed early.

I’ve pretty much stopped playing Skyrim.  I’ve got over 80 hours logged, haven’t finished the main storyline, and I just can’t find the time to devote to it these days.  I’ll wind up going back to it eventually…  But, for now, I just don’t have the time.

I’ve been playing WoW again.  It’s easier to log in and waste ~30 minutes in WoW than it is in Skyrim.

I’ve pushed my huntress up to 81, got her out to Vashj’ir and I’m playing with sea creatures.  I also rolled up a priest and I’ve got her to 31.  Took her to the Darkmoon Fair a few times and ran a bunch of dailies around Stormwind.

There’s another sale going on Steam…  This time around it’s their Autumn Sale.  They’ve had different specials every day.

Today, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine was on sale – 33% off.

I’ve been a big fan of pretty much all of Relic‘s 40k games, and I’ve been eyeing this game for a little while, so I had to grab it while it was on sale.

Tried it out earlier tonight…  And it is certainly an interesting game.

It definitely captures the dark, gritty, brutal feeling of the 40k setting.  But it also completely ignores the current trend in shooters towards more tactical gameplay.

I don’t know how many shooters I’ve seen recently where cover was absolutely essential.  Games with all sorts of interesting covering-fire and blind-shooting mechanics to allow you to take advantage of cover.  Games where you virtually *need* to use the gun’s sights just to hit the broad side of the barn.  And, while this is fun, it doesn’t exactly fit the in-your-face nature of the 40k universe.

Which is why I was so delighted to see Space Marine ignore that trend.

Rather than ducking behind cover and waiting for your health to regenerate, you have to gloriously destroy the Emperor’s foes to recover your health.  And, rather than hanging back and carefully picking off enemies from the safety of cover, you’re generally encouraged to wade into the fray and mete out justice with a melee weapon.

It’s a hell of a lot of fun.

I’ve been playing Skyrim almost non-stop.  Steam claims I’ve got over 57 hours logged.

I haven’t done a whole heck of a lot with the storyline though…  I found Alduin’s Wall, and was then directed to go talk to the Greybeards about the “dragonrend” shout…  And was then told that I’d have to go out to the Mage College in Winterhold…  And that’s where the main storyline stands at this point.

I also went out and recruited some followers into the Blades.  But I haven’t done anything more with that, either.  They’re still waiting around for me to lead them against some dragons.

Killing dragons, however, has really become secondary to what I’m trying to accomplish right now.  I’m almost dismayed when I hear that distant roar, and the sound of wind howling across their wings.  It’s still a challenging fight…  And there’s still some good loot…  But I guess I’m not finding those dragon shouts as useful as I thought I would (probably because they aren’t terribly stealthy) – so I’m not too worried about collecting dragon souls to unlock them.

I’ve recently finished the big Dark Brotherhood storyline.

Getting in to the Dark Brotherhood was much harder in Skyrim than it was in Oblivion.  In Oblivion, I just happened to kill a random NPC and was offered the chance to join.  In Skyrim, I had to actually hunt down a specific quest to get things rolling.  And the quests, in general, seemed easier.  Much less cloak, far more dagger.  I didn’t really have to think all that hard about how I was going to pull any of the assassinations off – I was virtually handed a dead body and a quest reward.

Still, it was a fun storyline.  And I’ve now got a good source of income when I need it – that Radiant system means that I’ve got a virtually unlimited number of assassination quests available to me, if I want them.  And they pay fairly well.

Right now I’m playing around with the Thieves Guild.

Unlike in Oblivion, where it was fairly difficult to get into the Thieves Guild…  I was almost hauled in unwillingly in Skyrim.  Again, the quests seem more straightforward and far less complex than they were in Oblivion.  But at lest I’m being forced to be stealthy…  For the most part.

I feel a little silly saying this…  But I think one of the changes I’m happiest about in Skyrim is the fact that everything on the table doesn’t go flying when you pick up a single item.

In both Morrowind and Oblivion, it seemed that objects weren’t actually resting on the furniture as they appeared to be.  You’d touch a single item on the table (desk, whatever) and everything on it would drop an inch or so onto the surface that it was supposedly already sitting on.  Some objects would bounce or roll around…  Maybe a goblet would tip over…  A piece of fruit would topple a bowl or send a fork flying…

Was very annoying.  I’d try to pick up a single potion off a table set for some fancy feast…  And everything went flying.  Looked like a bull had rampaged through the place.

Could always tell if I’d been through an area, because it looked like a tornado had hit.

In Skyrim, this is much less noticeable.  I’ve still managed to mess up some stuff…  But, for the most part, stuff doesn’t go flying when you pick up a single object.  And that really adds to the feeling that you’re in a real environment with semi-realistic physics.

Wow.  This last weekend just flew by.

I spent most of my weekend playing Skyrim.

I’m playing with the same stealthy archer build that I’ve enjoyed so much in Morrowind, and Oblivion.  Light armor, lots of archery, lots of sneaking.  I’m not doing a whole lot of actual thieving this time around though – not picking any pockets, not stealing anything.  For now, I’m going the heroic route…  But I might very well turn to a life of thievery (or worse!) if I can find the Skyrim equivalent of the Thieve’s Guild or Dark Brotherhood.

I’ve mostly been hanging out around the Whiterun area…  Haven’t really traveled too far abroad.  I’ve been doing an assortment of quests for folks in the area.  Joined the Companions.  Killed a couple dragons.  Bought a house there in Whiterun and fixed it up.

I’ve killed about a half-dozen dragons, and discovered at least that many words of power, but I’ve only unlocked two shouts.  The one that throws people back, and the dash one.  I assume that I need to advance the main storyline further before I’ll be allowed to unlock the rest of them.

I just made my way to Solitude for the first time…  Walked in on an execution.  Nasty as that business was, the city itself is very pretty.  Kind of makes me wonder if maybe I bought a house in the wrong place.  Maybe I can buy a second house there in Solitude.

I’m slowly making my peace with the UI.

One of my big complaints is that essential information is broken into two distinct sections.  If I hit TAB, I get this four-way menu where I can look at my magic, items, map, or skills.  If I hit ESC, I get a different section where I can look at my quests, check my statistics, and change game settings.  It just doesn’t make much sense to have quests broken out into a second area with your game options like that.  And it keeps confusing me.  I’ll hit ESC when I should’ve hit TAB…  Or TAB instead of ESC…

But now that I’m making a habit of hitting the shortcuts for specifically what I want (‘J’ for the quest journal, for example) it is much easier to navigate.  I’m still not a big fan of how they’ve over-simplified things…  And I’m hoping that someone will roll out a nice UI mod like folks did for Oblivion…  But I’m finding my way around easier.

On Sunday, I had D&D again.  It’s been a few weeks since I last played, and I’ve missed out on at least two sessions.  So I really had no idea what was going on.

Somewhere along the line, we went from level 1 to level 14, so my character was horribly unprepared for the game.  Had to quickly level him up.  We quickly figured out the basic stats, and then the GM started throwing magic equipment at him.  All sorts of +3 gear, a Girdle of Giant Strength, a Cloak of Protection…  All of which is very nice, but it made me a bit apprehensive of what was to come.

With good reason.

Before too long we were fighting a couple dozen human fighters, accompanied by a giant or two, and all led by some magic-users.  It was one hell of a fight.

Then there was some intrigue…  We were sent to recover a stolen statue, but when we got back to town we discovered that our employer had been murdered, and guards were looking for that statue.  Had to do a little snooping around to discover who the killer was, and who was behind him.  Then we started some rumors around town, which turned out to be far more accurate than we’d thought.

And then, before we knew it, it was time to wrap the game up and head for home.  Six hours went by in a flash.

And then the weekend was over, and I was heading back in to work.

Spent most of the day playing Skyrim.  Having a lot of fun so far.

I’ve killed a couple dragons.  Learned a couple different shouts.  Climbed up to the top of a mountain and talked to some ancient monks.  Delved deep into a few dungeons.  Killed a crapton of bandits.

I’ve gathered all sorts of random meats, fruits, vegetables, and grains…  And cooked them into all sorts of interesting things.

I’ve also gathered all sorts of random plants, organs, and herbs…  And brewed them into all sorts of interesting potions and poisons.

I’ve purchased a house, and a horse.

Over all, I’m quite happy with the game.  Definitely having fun with it.  The visuals are simply amazing, and the world is just plain huge.

But the game is not without its flaws.

The UI was definitely designed for consoles.  I thought Oblivion‘s UI was bad…  But this is just horrible.  Everything is basically broken into scrolling lists.  It’s actually easier to navigate the menus using the keyboard, than it is to click on things with the mouse.

It’s annoying and clunky…  But what is even more annoying is the fact that The Elder Scrolls was originally a PC franchise.  We had several very good games on the PC before anyone even thought of releasing one of these on a console…  And now we PC gamers are having to put up with a stupid UI because the game was designed to accommodate console gamers.

Key bindings also don’t seem to work quite the way they should…  I play with ESDF instead of WASD, and have re-bound my keys accordingly.  But some of the on-screen indicators still tell me to hit the old keys.  And some keys just don’t work the way they should.  Marking something as a favorite is labeled wrong…  And I don’t know how to pick up a book that I’m reading – doesn’t seem to matter what I hit, none of it works.

The game also seems to be somewhat dumbed-down from previous incarnations.

I haven’t seen any medium armor at all – just light and heavy.

Weapons seem to be simply lumped into one-handed or two-handed, no separate skills for swords or axes or whatever.

I didn’t get to pick my class, or design a class of my own.  Didn’t get to allocate any points into attributes like strength or intelligence.  Didn’t get to pick my birth sign.

None of which is bad, necessarily…  But it doesn’t feel quite like a TES game.