Diablo 3: Error! Does not Compute!

In hindsight, I kinda wonder why I made a special effort to leave for work earlier so that I could hopefully pick up Diablo 3 at my local EB Games. It was unfortunately not open yet and I rushed to work a bit paranoid that I wouldn't be able to get a copy when I had time during my lunch. I actually went during my break to snag a copy... which there were many of. 


Then you see the news that the servers are overloaded with an error37.


RAGE QUIT!!!!!


lol. More like a *shrug* "meh."


We shouldn't be upset at such a thing, as we need to approach the Diablo 3 launch as a launch similar to (but possibly even more popular than) the most highly anticipated mmo. Say 'maybe' Guild Wars 2. I'd go out to even say that D3 will have even more people playing it than GW2.


In saying that then, there is always launch day issues. Overloaded servers.. massive lag, and huge queues is the norm. Except with Rift which had some rather huge queues for the first week.. more mmo launches are rather rough. 


BUT "D3 isn't an mmo" we scream/whine. That is true; this is the way of the future, being required to be connected to the internet constantly, even if we are playing single player *coughSTEAMcough*. This is the part I don't particularly like; ok the servers are overloaded and we can't play online with other players: that is acceptable. But I would like to play some offline D3 and totally understand I can't transfer my character or gear to my online character even if it is the company's 'fault' for not having enough servers to handle launch day capacity. 


And that is exactly how it works for Heroes of Might and Magic 5; if you cannot connect to the internet, you can still play Homm5 singleplayer. The game will not track your progress and earn any rewards, but atleast you still get to play.


The inability to play even the single player offline-mode without any transfer over for D3 is a bit disheartening for me. Thats why i've learnt not to take vacation days for launches of games, unless it is a totally offline game that doesn't require internet connection.


Take heart fellow gamers; Blizzard is one of the better companies out there and are probably doing their best to solve this issue for their legions of fans.

And as I write this, looks like most people are able to log in fine now.. and the game is very good.

Heroes 6 on Sale

Heroes 6 may not have been necessarily mind-blowing, but its still very polished and I like a few new implementations.

Its currently on sale on Steam this weekend for only 24.99 (50% off). 

Alot of improvements, graphics-wise, customizable heroes and set items. The worst thing is being required to be online to play it and the VERY hard campaign mode.

Does Not Compute

This is why I don't like the growing trend of needing to be connected constantly to be able to play PC games.

There is nothing wrong with my internet, and there is nothing programmed wrong with my settings (firewalls, virus protection)that is causing me not to enjoy a game that I rightfully paid for. Its the companies server that is down (pssst this isn't an mmo). And the user suffers because of that?

Unacceptable.

Heroes 6 by the way is amazing, but not liking the constant connection requirement.

Game of Heroes

I ended up pre-ordering the Might and Magic: Heroes 6 on Steam to get access to the beta. I'll have a preview up soon but so far everything looks alot better: graphically, emphasis on storytelling, new factions, interface.

Oh Dear God...

Huge savings (albeit on Steam) from June 30th to July 10th...

Just what we all needed: more games..

Not to mention,

Pre-ordering will get you into the beta..

So many games... so little money for more Magic cards... guh

Sweet Deal: MTG Duel of the Planeswalkers 2012

Just because this game is a steal and incase Steam wakes up and changes their mind... two entries today:

If you had the pc version of Magic the Gathering: Duel of the Planeswalkers 2010, then you may have noticed that the 2headed Giant format didn't work. If you enjoy multiplayer with your friends/live people, then the MTG 2012 version is totally worth your money.

For 10$ you get:

The traditional campaign
- unlock decks and cards for the decks by defeating other planeswalkers
- complete puzzles for achievements

Archenemy
- a 3 vs 1 MTG format, where the person on their own has incredibly strong cards that makes 3vs1 feel more like 3vs5 (in their favor)
- case in point: getting a card that gives the person on their own a 4/6 Golem token in the first turn, or a 5/5 Flying Dragon on the first turn
- same kind of format as the campaign, defeat these Archenemies one at a time, picking your 2 other party members from any deck to see which combinations work best
- unlock a Revenge mode (haven't got there yet) and additional cards for your existing decks

2Headed Giant Online
- 2vs2 mode

Free-for-All mode
- 4 player format, battle royale
- unlock cards as well here

1 on 1 mode
- pretty self explanatory

Deck manager
- honestly, not the best, but able to switch out cards of your 60+ card deck

The only drawback that i've seen so far is that you pick from a preset deck with a certain set of cards. You can't just create your own deck from a pool of cards. Usually these cards are all mutally exclusive.
The upside to this is that the decks are pretty well made and work well. There is a recognizable theme to each deck and works the way you'd play MTG.

For example:
Gideon Jura's White deck:
- deals with alot of weak soldier creatures and angels that use equipment to boost themselves

Nessa Revane Green/Black deck:
- an elf deck that takes all the best elf cards to overwhelm your opponents
- it looks almost like my Green/Black elf deck

Chandra Nalar Red deck:
- an agro deck based on duels, constantly being on the attack and using spells that directly attack the creature or player

I can't verify right now, but you might be able to unlock a deck for Nicol Bolas and Karn (from Scars of Mirrodin block). There is an interesting Green/Blue Planeswalker deck who's theme is to get TONS of lands on the field to summon incredibly strong creatures including Eldrazi creatures!

In the end: If you're a MTG fan, 10$ is a fantastic deal; this version is much more robust and should be charging easily 30$ for it. If you're interested in learning MTG, this is a great start. And even if you end up not liking it, its only 10$, so you won't feel so bad.

Weather and Immersion

I hope everyone is enjoying the Rift headstart and its been nice and smooth unlike many other mmo launches. I will wait till the 1st to play; I was able to get my sound card to work and have been trying to get my games to work on Steam. It all seems much smoother and more stable which is great.

I'm VERY disappointed though with the new game Dungeons: it just plain won't work. It constantly says there are critical errors when loading maps; I haven't been able to play one map/scenario yet. I'm currently re-downloading the game and hoping it works after that; otherwise i'll have to contact Steam to remove it and get a refund b/c I don't want to pay for games that are poorly designed.

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Anyways, lets talk about weather and it's role in immersion.
Not only weather effects, but having these effects take different forms.

Ie. Heavy Rain
Don't just decrease visibility in a circle around your character, but in a certain moving area. Make there times where you can literally see the rain ahead of you and able to walk in and out of the storm. Being in the storm will decrease visibility or possibly cause a debuff to you or the monsters in the area (or even give them buffs).

That was one thing that was interesting with Monster Hunter Tri for the Wii (that i wished was on the American 360); the game had weather effects of both cold and heat, needed potions to be resistant to it's effects and travel normally. In the dark, it was pitch black without a torch and even then, it wasn't very easy to navigate making it extra tense when monsters were waiting for you.

Requirements, notebooks and boredom

I have a question in which i'm not sure if anyone has the answer to:
Will RIFT require constant connection to Steam, or if we get the physical cd copy, will it have it's own launcher?

I've always preferred to buy games at the local store/EB/BestBuy as I like to have something physical to hold onto and don't like spending massive time chunks downloading it from Steam. Saying that, I like how even if i relocate and even somehow lose my computer, as long as I have internet connection and can remember my passcode, I can redownload the whole game from Steam (and hopefully have a blazing fast connection :P).

I've also found that many games that i've purchased from Steam crashes more frequently than ones with actual cds (barring Fallout NV which is just a sad bag of crappy bugs).. but Steam does have their sales and the in-game items I can benefit from.

The answer to that question will determine whether I buy from the store or from Steam.

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Something that should be implemented in future and existing mmo's should be a guild notebook.

A simple window in the interface that lets guild members write things down. Though this creates a wide opening for abuse, inappropriate language and dialoge, it can also be useful:
- to list non-guilded friend's of the guild
- to list enemies/rude people to avoid with reasons why
- an in-game forum for various topics including in-guild auction, events, tips, etc

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I keep trying to get into Guild Wars... and i get bored after 10 minutes.
Maybe the game ramps up after the tutorial area.. but i can't get around:
- the lack of being able to jump; making you feel like you're on rails
- the old drab graphics (it can't help that)
- 'load-out' of skills just seems odd
- transition between zones requiring loading screens
- high amount of instancing

Game Design

When you encounter a cliff where falling, normally means instant death, game designers allow one of 2 things:
- to fall to your death
- put in an invisible wall
What you never really see is the ability to somehow survive the fall (maybe falling into water doesn't hurt; or featherfall spell).. but have nothing of particular use down there, and give an arduous and painful walk alllllll the way back up (hence punishing the player). We're a curious creature.. and given the chance, most of us would plummet into the unknown with the knowledge that the penalty isn't too great.

What reduces the penalty if there is nothing of value and being able to survive a huge fall is recall stones.. just think though if we didn't have that convenience..

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Guild Wars 1 expansion: Eye of the North
Is on sale on Steam.. if you wanted it
I can't bring myself to play Guild Wars 1...soooooooo I won't get it.

Unless someone can convince me its worth 20$

Great Updates

Result: I bought a Kia Forte Koup 2010 from Kia Markham

It should look roughly like this; it'll be red, with tinted windows and Xeon lights. Kia Markham did a great job and fought hard (and fairly)for my business.

Note: Do not go to Kia Oakville; worst sales manager there EVAR. They have some reps there that 'seem' nice, but the one we got was horrible.

My last post on cars will be pics of the actual car.. I promise; then only gaming ;)
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Taken from Spinks:

Wouldn't it be cool if the next town was north west of the northern pass of that map, the road path (leading East) is much safer but a longer route, while going through the wilderness will have more dangerous mobs but is much shorter. Choices.

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I want this Tron limited edition 360 controller.

Looks sick.

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I've been playing alot of Left 4 Dead 2 on pc; i found out that by lowering the graphic's settings it allowed my pc to run and couldn't tell the difference. Great game; love fast scary zombies.

Downloaded Magic: The Gathering from Steam.. and every time I log into it, 2 minutes into the game, it'll cause my monitor to go black and tell me that no data is flowing.. but i can clearly hear the game music in the background. BLAH. Glad I only paid 2.50$ for it.. but its sad.

Big Steam sale right now; buyer beware; its a good platform.. but it has its problems.. :P

Slow week going fast

Yeah that doesn't make sense.. a week where nothing really happens and you're just waiting for the weekend to come. Everything right now seems to hinge on my trip to the Bahamas at the beginning of January, but thats another story.

No real gaming news; WoW Cataclysm comes out next week; will NOT be buying it. YOU CAN"T FORCE ME!! lol It just seems too old an mmo, though I always have a hankering to play Ultima Online ;)

Haven't been playing much; been going through my photos that i've taken and getting rid of crappy or blurry photos. I did pick up Archon from Steam; its probably the only game that doesn't crash besides Civ5. I intend on possibly upgrading my RAM by Christmas.

I'm totally on Team Meat

Though PETA likes to have nude models to get their point across... Tie score.

Bargains Galore

I'm on the fence on whether Steam is the cause to my woes with the crashing of my games especially Fallout New Vegas.. but ill admit, its a well designed platform to deliver games online and connect with your friends similar to if not better than Xbox Live. Not only that, they are finding better ways of knowing the games you like and getting you deals.

Take now for instance, they have a Thanksgiving/Black Friday weekend, where there are massive sales on many major titles. If you create a wishlist of atleast 10 games and are in good standing, there is a chance that you might win the chance to have your top 5 games on your wishlist be free. Most sales are pretty big, I got Left for Dead 2 for only 5$ yesterday.. only problem is if your connection sucks, you'll be downloading the game for ages.. **cough 12 hours**

Rant: I Hate Steam

Thanks to a stressful work week, ill go on a rant and say:
I hate Steam.

It makes panda's sad.
Causes world hunger, poverty and cancer.
Is the love child of Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnell.
Makes the Tea Party look like a legit political party.
Even Lindsay Lohan thinks they suck.

I've never liked the mandatory connection to the program to be able to play games. What happens if you lose internet connection, what then? What happens if the Steam server is down, how can we play the game that we've bought?

Answer: You can't.

I'm finding out that your save files exist on a cloud and it needs to sync with Steam to be able to access it. Imagine how disconcerting it is to open up the game and load your last file to find out, "hey, this isn't my character... wtf?" And then look at your save files and see that your last file that was saved was the manual save file (I quick save every 5 minutes) that was only the first hour into the game while your current file should be a good 4 hours.

I dunno; I understand the need to protect one's game from piracy, but this is unacceptable. If I bought the game solely from Steam, i'd understand if I needed to be connected, but when I buy a physical copy, I want full access at all times. I'm seriously thinking about not buying any games that require a constant connection anymore a la Steam and just pirate it. So you want to prevent piracy but actually push people towards it. Thanks.

Sales sales sales!

If you're like me, you don't trust buying things online and dont' like downloading large files b/c it takes a freakishly long time.

That is still the same today but I have started using Steam.

I normally would never use such a system unless forced to (a la DRM and say Dragon Age/Mass Effect 2).. but when seeing they have a massive sale on tons of titles till July 4th, I had to take a peek.

And it had on sale, X-Com: Terror from the Deep for 3.74$!!!!!! And not only that game, but every other X-Com game they've ever made for that low low price! I broke down, made an account and bought the game. It's already crashed once (not impressed) but for that price.. its worth it.

Take a look, you might find some oldie that you haven't played in 10 years.. buy it and realize you threw out the strategy guide a few days ago b/c you never thought you'd play it again..