Dude, where’s my loot?

The Diablo 3 announcement got my loot-whore juices flowing again. Loot in WoW is a grind to get, Titan Quest hadn’t done it for me, AoC didn’t even register, Robokill is nice but small, and I am fighting the urge to buy the Diablo 2 battlechest. But then I remembered that the Too Human demo was coming out soon. Today, in fact.

I like what they were trying to do with the game, I like it a lot. Odd combination of Norse mythology, sci-fi, action-packed combat against hordes of enemies, and the level ding and loot thrill. However I’m left fairly underwhelmed by the execution. Like most of the game, graphics alternate between neat and clunky. Combat needs a lot of getting used to, and I only started to ‘get it’ by the time I finished the demo. A lot of exploration was taken away from me because, being the methodical type, I like to wipe the place then look around, but here after you kill the boss they teleport you to cutscene world. And the cutscenes range from meh to pretty bad.

People in the forums talk about all sorts of neat gear they found in the demo, but I finished it with half white half green stuff, not very exciting. I died a few times and failed two of the three tests I ran into, whereas other people have breezed through it, so my problems may be partly my fault. Summary: ok game but I doubt I’ll buy it.

In other news, I am now officially part of the largest videogame publisher in the world. Sounds great but at the moment it doesn’t feel like much. 🙂

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Movies and stuff

Age of Conan came out, a promising MMO from veterans Funcom. It promised gore, nudity, great graphics and a few twists to the classic MMORPG genre. Even though it delivered in those areas, the game is way too buggy, unfinished and, well, unpolished. I reached level 43 and stopped playing. As a developer, I can endure normal bugs, but there’s just not enough variety in the game to make me want to play further. I started playing WoW again, leveling a Hunter so I can enjoy the expansion pack in a few months.

LEGO Indiana Jones is great. More of the same if you have played the previous games, but I love it the humor, the gameplay and the original trilogy. The new movie was decent but rather forgettable.

Blizzard announced Diablo 3. YES!! A while ago I felt the Diablo urge again, so I bought Titan Quest; it was good but I just didn’t find the excitement and raw "just one more" quality of Diablo 2. People are debating if the more colourful and cartoony graphics of Diablo 3 are appropriate for the series, but after watching the extensive gameplay video, I couldn’t care less. It’s at least a couple of years away, but I’m sure the wait will be worth it.

I rarely play Flash games, but Robokill is sort of a Robotron/Diablo little game that’s a blast to play.

Pixar did it again with Wall-E. While not the absolute masterpiece that was Ratatouille, it’s one of the best animated movies ever made. Kung-Fu Panda was surprisingly good and fun, but it’s still not in the same league as Pixar.

Other recent movies: The Incredible Hulk acts like Ang Lee’s vision never happened (a wise move), but while an ok action movie, it’s nothing special. Iron Man was a lot better in every way.

Last weekend we went camping to Vancouver Island. Wonderful weather, and we even managed to watch Spain win the Euro Cup! Here’s a view from Mystic Beach:

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