Author: littlemute

DICE is NICE

Despite the rather long acronym for the game(BFBC2), the first blush of both the single and multiplayer have proven to be absolutely over the top.  Particle effects, sound and lighting are all nothing short of amazing and in multi: the destructible environments fundamentally change the way the maps are played.   Sadly, I’m getting a lot of lag in multiplayer, but that will lessen as I find closer servers to play on.

The single player reminds me quite a bit of Far Cry– one section harkens back to my favorite level: River, but with sound and lighting that put Far Cry to shame.

If you haven’t picked this up, even if you have no interest in the multiplayer game, it’s time!

Amazon Diablo 3

Without even a published release date YEAR announced (I’ve heard from 2011 to 2013), Amazon has started selling pre-orders of Diablo 3 for ~60$.  Is that even the final price?  Is that the final box art?  Are you giving a giant company a chance to invest your money for up to 3 years and gain interest on it for a pre-order that has only imagined value and from the price is not any type of deal at all, especially since electronic delivery methods may be the only way the game files are actually delivered to the user by the time it comes out?

Talisman HIGHlands

HIGHLANDHearkening back to my mental state when I first became fanatical about Talisman (1991), Fantasy Flight has announced the newest BOARD expansion for Talisman 4th edition: HIGHLANDS.  This puts to rest for awhile the debate about the City expansion being released.  Included will be 6 characters– obviously one is the Highlander, and from the tiny pic of the box cover I see the Valkyrie (awesome!) , but I can’t pick out any of the others. I do see a total of three sets of boobs there though.

COSMIC ANNIHILATION

With the arrival of the Cosmic Encounter expansion and with my stout-hearted board gaming group in tow,  we started what will end up being a year long Cosmic Encounter campaign I have dubbed the COSMIC ANNIHILATION!!!  The plan is quite simple:

  • Play games of Cosmic Encounter – this is a no brainer, but we are going for 4 Planet, 4 bases FTW to keep the games shorter.
  • After each game, Aliens that have lost are removed from campaign play and the winners continue.
  • Flares of eliminated Aliens are still used in the game, but may not be selected at start of play. (we will have a Live deck of flares and an eliminated deck to fill in the quota)

The idea was that there are Aliens that few people play, either because there is too much text on their cards or they have been blackballed after a few losing games (Citadel), so to give every Alien a go, it was time for the COSMIC ANNIHILATION.

Game 1

Tripler, Leviathan, Bully(W)

Notes: Leviathan had the Lunar Canon (!) and got 1 planet away from the win, Bully had the Prometheus ship, both Bully and Tripler lost their powers at least once each.

Game 2

Mirror(W), Deuce, Amoeba.

Notes: Deuce gained zero planets and the Amoeba was destroyed almost completely while allying.

Annihilated Aliens

Deuce, Amoeba, Leviathan, Tripler

Torchlight mods and mini review

The first wave of mods have begun hitting the net for Torchlight and while searching it’s going to be a long wait before some ardent fans start tackling an undertaking as huge as an equivalent to Diablo 2’s PENULTIMATE Zyel Mod, but here’s a couple goodies.

First off is Torchleech – a mod manager extraordinare.

Second is really the first mod that has piqued my interest (I’m not very interested in the ‘little tweak’ type mods at all) and that’s Starch the Monster Hunter— a new NPC with a new set of maps and a handful of new monsters, all surrounding the post-main storyline gameplay in the infinite dungeon.

My review of Torchlight is really pointless as I have 100% recommend it to everyone I know and love.  In short, they nailed the look and feel, nailed the feel and flow of the combat but they missed the boat on the crafting/enchanting.  I expected more out of the game in terms of crafting items.  Since Diablo 1, we have picked up thousands of items that were largely useless to us except to lug around and sell, and Torchlight is no different over a decade later.  Later Diablo-clones have created a way for the crap items to be harvested to make better stuff or a visual cue that you should ignore them when they are lying on the ground.   For example, if you have 3 normal swords of the same type, you can craft those into a low level magical sword, and with three of those, you can get to the next tier, and so on.  While there are sockets in Torchlight, and Enchanting, you end up piling your pet with rubbish to sell for a pittance most of the time.  Granted, the pet running off to town is a brilliant idea, which , guaranteed, will be stolen by Blizzard if D3 ever comes out.

What’s more, any discussion of the game needs to mention that Torchlight not being multiplayer.  Except for a few visual glitches here and there and the fact that they seem to still have a model’s shadow displaying through ceilings like Hellgate London, that’s about the only complaints I have.  That said, I heartily endorse Torchlight and think it’s got a great future as a brand.  I’m only on my second play through and while I loved my Alchemist in my first play through, I absolutely adore the Destroyer class.   It’s one of those games like Dominons 3, Strange Adventures in Infinite Space and especially Mount & Blade that will probably never leave my hard drive.