Diablo III Review

May 24, 2012
Uncategorized
Leave a Comment

A recap of the DIII Release for Castle Co-Op, a website dedicated to Film, TV, Music and Culture – Published  24-05-2012


Fanart: courtesy of Tyler James (ARTofTY)

As a recovering Diablo II junkie, it has been an laborious exercise to tear myself away from the corrupted realm of Sanctuary, however seeing as the BattleNet servers are currently down for service (again), I guess this infuriating reprise allows me to review Blizzards latest PC addiction, Diablo III.

This latest instalment to the popular Action-RPG has had fans in the lurch for over a decade; loyal fans and avid gamers were treated to a selection of errors 33, 37, 3005, 3006 and the now game-breaking Templar Shield Bug. If nothing else, it provided fantastic fodder for some hilarious internet memes.

Since the failed launch, I’ve been able to hack-and-slash (well mainly shoot) my way through the entirety of the game save for Inferno difficulty, and am thoroughly impressed with the incredible level of detail poured into the systems, skills, and environments be they heavily controversial or a surprisingly satisfying endeavour.

The story picks up 20 years after the corrupted World Stone’s destruction; the story is short-and-sweet with the vehement of lore suppressed into optional dialogue. Now despite Blizzard’s noble efforts to make the narrative epic and attempt at cinematic drama during set-pieces, the plot is well executed despite easily foreshadowed, clichéd, and extremely predicable story – much to the dismay of my fellow party member who read the chat log as I unintentionally and continually spoiled the story, predicting almost every plot point. But it has never been the story that retains such a faithful fan-base; at its core Diablo III is still the same loot-driven, dungeon grinding, hero crafting (and PvP omitted from launch) of its predecessors, just innately honed to near perfection.

First up is the conclusion to my previous self-absorbed internal debate about the interchangeable skills system. Overall, skills are versatile and fun. Each progressive skill and rune is well suited to their respective hero archetype (even the bizarrely imagined enigmatic Witch Doctor), albeit each level unlocked grants a new upgrade subjugating this level of progression as obtusely overpowered. Each new level gained, and each new skill available makes your hero increasingly god-like where the supposed challenges in Nightmare and Hell seem far and few between (with the only exception being champion mobs). But again, the ability to experiment and change your skills on the fly is simply fun and have proven a valuable asset – assuming you’ve uncrippled your progress by selecting ‘Elective Mode’ and ‘Show Advance Tooltips’ in the gameplay menu (why this isn’t the default setting is truly baffling).

This system lends well with the revamped combat system of DIII. Despite this nagging feeling that the combat isn’t as graceful as I’d expect (be it lag, my graphics processor or fatigued induced delusions), but transitioning from the move and attack commands leads to a very small delay that can cost you your life when ill-equipped. Combat feels well paced as throngs of lesser foes melt under your god-like abilities, where a handful of champion mobs throw a gratifying spanner in the works. Emerging victorious from these encounters all depends on the gear you’re wearing, and skilled you are at your hero class, not how quickly you can spam full rejuvenation potions.

What still amazes me is the atmospheric environmental design that has your hero hurtling down endless claustrophobic corridors of the randomly generated dungeons. With extravagantly detailed and the vibrant exterior locales often gifting players with an awe inspiring view from atop sheer cliffs that depict serene rainbows arching over a babbling brook, to the wild hordes of demons battling the battalions of men over the remains of a desecrated mountain (I love the opening of Act III). Oh, and the FMVs interspersed between Acts are unsurprisingly kickass epic. The intensity of these visuals not just present onscreen, but with the excessive strain placed on my graphics hardware, as the omniscient hum of the fans grows ever louder, taxing the threshold of my laptop with its incredible details.

New features of DIII include a roster of unlockable Achievements (akin to StarCraft II), improvements on the inventory management (notably Town Portal and identifying items are on a channelling and cooldown system), a shared stash for troves of loot, and shared progressive upgrades of your artisans remain a most welcome addition making multiple-hero management a breeze. Gold in DIII is purportedly a valuable currency. Upgrading the aforementioned artisans (Jeweller and Blacksmith) is a worthwhile effort as their wares and usefulness is a genuine asset – especially when you can craft rare ‘gold’ items without having to grind, although not nearly as thrilling. The only issues that arise from the items are weapons being reduced to mere aesthetics. All seem to have identical melee range; the only differing factor is attack speed and animation.

Just for fun, I decided (for the purposes of the review) to go in the Action House (with the Real Money Auction House still unavailable) and purchase the most overpowered weapon available for my hero that my measly stockpiled gold would allow, transforming my already god-like hero into a cleansing spectre of death to all my foes. Personally, the game only became challenging (i.e. situations deemed impossible to defeat the enemy) came in Hell, where my religious adherence to the shift-clicking was rendered moot were against the charging champion mobs (my favourite being the first encounter against the earthbending satyrs) with ridiculous HP-sinks, and combinations of ancillary powers that result in a guaranteed OHKOs for your hero.  Not even the Act’s final set-bosses poised this level of difficulty in comparison.

Exploring the vast plains of Sanctuary can be a lonely venture, but since Blizzard forceful imposition of a perma-connection to the internet, you might as well play with close friends or random allies as co-op has been beautifully integrated in the retail release. The constant chaos onscreen as four-partied heroes clash against Diablo’s minions is a real spectacle, which makes great use of the interchangeable skill system to best utilise each skill and rune to the betterment of the party, not just yourself. The revive mechanic is very useful in boss battles, but most notable is the loot-drops that are individualised for each player to combat the mad dash for loot at the conclusion of the boss battle. What I love is each hero has individualised drops – so if a party member picks up a rare gold item that would benefit a partied ally, they can just share the link into the chat, trade (or if you’re very fortunate) give you the item in question. This makes for some surreal moments as players quickly divvy up and barter over the spoils of war over the corpse of the downed demon. All in all, co-op is just more fun.

The few gripes that I have with the game are the constant server updates and inopportune time (for instance, as I write in place of a raid), a 10-item limit on auction house listings, no public lobby  tha makes joining a random game with a full party of four difficult, and no integrator voice chat client. A small nitpick that I don’t really care about, but for players wishing to watch the story in its entirety are not recommended to play through co-op as any player in party can skip cut-scenes and dialogue cues. While good for those who don’t care, it can be annoying for newer players. The exclusion of the Real Money Auction House and PvP on release is frustrating to providing readers with a full written review.

Overall, while some may dismiss Diablo III as a mere superficial facelift from its predecessor, I to agree that the game doesn’t do much in terms of ground-breaking innovation. It simply distils the best elements of DII, admittedly dumbing down a few key areas of skills, stats, and customisation in favour of a user-friendly system and appealing to a larger audience base. All I will comment is Diablo III is exactly what you expected from Blizzard for a dungeon crawl hack-and-slash – and for me, it doesn’t matter, as the new loot, new heroes and a new world is enough enticement to sacrifice the remainder of my social life in the hunt for the next legendary loot-drop.

___

Other: Check back for my thoughts on the RMAH (Real Money Auction House), PvP (looking to be an interesting meta-game), my thoughts on Inferno Difficulty, and a final check to see how long my Hardcore Hero can survive. Finally here is a quick video link for players wishing to visit the secret level in Diablo III (There is no Cow Level)

___

___

DEVELOPER: Blizzard Entertainment

PLATFORM(S): PC
PUBLISHER: Blizzard Entertainment

Video Game High School: The Feature-Length Webseries

May 12, 2012
e-Sports, Film, Internet
Leave a Comment

For all us fellow YouTube procrastinators out there, you’ve undoubtedly heard of or seen one of freddiew many cinematic antics. Real Life Mario Kart, Flower Warfare, and the Rocket Jump are just a sampling of the joys Freddie and his crew bring to the otherwise dull browsing experience.

So have you ever wondered what Freddie could do with the budget for a feature length film? – Well here’s the Trailer.

Admit it, who else thought; “OMG! It’s Chuck!!”

Video Game High School (VGHS) began as a Kickstarter project that exceeded its pledge goal by over 350%, and is by far their most ambitious project to date. With fellow filmmakers Matt Arnold (writer/directot) Brandon Laatsch (freddiew co-founder), Will Campos (writer), and Brian Firenzi (writer, “The Law”) in tow, the VGHS narrative envisions the veritable (optimistically inevitable) utopian discourse of Video Games as the apex of competitive sports, as the current eSports scene has burgeoned from a niche sub-culture to a global phenomenon.

The pilot début, dubbed “episode 0,” introduces protagonist Brian as potential VGHS progamming academic, after his concurrent rise to fame, pwning “The Law,” the worlds top amateur online-fragger and VGHS Senior in a routine pub-stomp – all done with exuberant cinematic flair, quintessentially freddiew. From RTS to FPS; the competition, the glory, the millions of dollar endorsement, and the hordes of screeching fan-girls who quiver and spontaneously faint at the mere mention of the progaming elite – well I did mention this was fiction.

This 90-minute feature will be aired as a 10-part webseries (aired weekly) with the first episode available on May 17 on freddiew’s YouTube account, or for the impatient, you can venture over to their sister site Rocket Jump to get view the first episodes in its entirety.

___

Dominare . Certa . Perfice (can someone translate for me? – Latin I assume?)

Episode 2: BrianD’s First Day of School here

Episode 3: Welcome to FPS 101. My name is Ace. You can call me Ace

Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2012: Review – ‘The Wrong People’ @ Revolt Melbourne

May 7, 2012
Review, Uncategorized
Leave a Comment

This is my inaugural comedy review article for RHUM (Rabbit Hole Urban Music) Online Magazine- Published 04-05-2012

With a distinct off-off-Broadway kind of vibe, the Revolt Art-Space possesses an innately grungy, industrial-chic décor with a seemingly dramatic art gallery affair, boldly draped in black with splashes of red that add to the slightly burlesque and macabre aesthetics. Somehow there is this inescapable sensation we’ve entered some underground Hipster territory. All that’s missing is said clientèle with their Ray-Ban wayfarers, black cigarette legged jeans, and knitted beanie, sipping their organic soybean caffeinated concoction cradled in a biodegradable cup.

Despite the nagging impression I’m probably going to be mugged; this definitely feels the perfect locale for the unscripted shenanigans of The Wrong People.

Let me preface this by emphatically stating I have the utmost respect for performers who engage in improvisation as one of the more difficult genres of comedy to execute. I hate to be that guy, but growing up spoiled with the improv styling of ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway,’ there is an understanding of a strangely oxymoronic structure to the craft of improvisation that is required to reign in the act.

With The Wrong People, there really was an ineffable onstage dissonance amongst the troupe dynamics. Each players performance was too individualised that never congealed as a unitary performance, but neither was there a competitive agenda of comedic one-upmanship.

The show employed an orthodox variant of improv-comedy fabricating narrative scene based on audience suggestion as improvisational ammunition, yet neglects to autonomously adhere to improv basics. Engaging with the audience and their suggestions, feeding each other inspired material to complement the scene, and the adopted personas for each scene lacked distinguishable diversity to the point where all three acts began to merge as a hodgepodge of comedic drek.

The act merely failed to deliver any sort of comedic rhythm to harmonize the improvised material; an ebb and flow so to speak. What resulted was an awkward group dynamic that, regardless of any criticism, the audience responded generously in earnest with genuine levity.

There were some chuckles to be had, sure – but that’s the whimsical joy of the live comedy act. It’s euphoric atmosphere. That’s simply the nature of the beast, where improv comedy can go either way. The stand-up acts interspersed throughout the show and the MC Dil Ruk were the redeeming highlights of the evening, juxtaposed with the average improvised scenes.

There is potential to this upstart comedy troupe, but this crew hasn’t found it yet.
—-

Chuckle Factor: 1.5 / 5 

Diablo III BETA Impressions …

May 2, 2012
PC, Preview
Leave a Comment

A recap of the DIII BETA for Castle Co-Op, a website dedicated to Film, TV, Music and Culture – Published  04-05-2012

With the close of the open BETA servers on Tuesday, I guess it’s about time we discuss a little Diablo III (DIII). Minus the lag induced by extraneous stress placed on the servers, as a Diablo II (DII) veteran, the BETA yielded a nostalgic yet surprisingly refreshing take on my favourite RPG-Dungeon Crawler that parasitically enveloped most of my time during high school.

Welcome back to the corrupted realm of Sanctuary.

Perhaps less so than Blizzard’s efforts with StarCraft II, but DIII’s progress has been hotly debated amongst fans vying for the success of their adored franchise. From trivial debates such as transitioning from the murky, gothic visual aesthetics to the oversaturated phosphorescent My Little Pony colour palates (that might be exaggerated) or the perma-connection required for the single player campaign, DIII has undergone serious retooling since the first closed-BETA last year – with the noticeable omission of the Scroll of Companion.

During my BETA stint, I thoroughly wring the Demon Hunter and Monk through their paces as my preferred hero classes as they closely resemble the Amazon and Paladin from DIII’s predecessor, although the Monk’s uncanny resemblance to Avatar Aang was a decisive factor. Despite initial trepidations that each class would just be a shallow synergy between the previous classes (Monk = Assassin and Paladin), they all seem fresh and acutely varied that cater toward a variety of play styles.

The Monk’s swift up-close and personal melee approach was addictive and ultimately satisfying with the string of attack animations, while the Demon Hunter’s shift-clicking ranged projectiles was a might underwhelming, however it looks like the DH’s true potential unlocks past the BETA cap.

Building on the successful franchise with a few UI cues from World of Warcraft, the most notable changes revolve around the oversimplification of the Stats and Skills Tree. This lack of class diversity will take a noticeable hit in PvP (an omitted feature from DIII’s release), but I can see where it benefits the more casual players, alleviating the unnecessary burden associated with creating the perfect warrior. I’m somewhat satisfied with the auto stat allocation, as they remained pretty constant with each class from DII, but the skills – I’ll need to play much more of the campaign before I’ll form any lasting opinion.

As I write, I’m trying in earnest not to engage myself in an egotistical antagonistic discussion; but I can see both the benefits of eliminating the Skills Tree and its drawbacks. Having Skills simply unlock as to have each available and subsequently levelled for use in any situation is a convenient joy. However, to justify this open-ended skill customisation, it creates the demand for the game to be throwing a lot more than simple point-and-click enemy AI at players.  Otherwise the ability to switch skills on the fly becomes nothing more than a poorly executed gimmick.

With all characters evolving similarly, there drops any real customisation in terms of class mechanics, however the new Rune system satiates the void providing a viable source of diversity. Also there will be heavy reliance on custom forging weapons, armour, and accessories as there hasn’t been much change to the pot-luck loot drops that mercifully have evolved from a mad scrounge for the boss’s corpse to personalised drops only for each party member.

Inventory management has always been the crux of my frustration during The Lord of Destruction expansion pack, with the introduction of Charms. Luckily DIII has revamped the UI as you will no longer be thwarted by a never ending game of Inventory-Tetris. Blizzard has also taken action against Potion-Spamming, with a new Health-Orb drop system in place. Their presence seems innocuous enough not to be considered a high-value resource you need to actively hunt during gameplay – unless teetering on the brink of death, then it’s a god-send.

At its heart, Diablo has always been an action centric RPG-Dungeon Crawl with a heavy influence on combat, and a ‘lucky-draw’ loot system that had myself and thousands more on constant Bloody Foothill, Ancients and Baal runs. DIII has made a valiant effort to uphold their convictions to deliver a wickedly fun BETA without losing any of its old charm that players fell in love with over a decade ago.

Looking at the game exponentially, unfortunately there isn’t much beyond the hype of a new Diablo game. All these shiny additions and supposedly fresh innovations seem to cater toward the unruly casual market, however I’ve condemned myself not to make any rash accusations and shape ill-informed opinions until these mechanics have been fleshed out and thoroughly experimented in the retail release.

For fans in the Americas server, please feel free to add me to your friends list, as now the real challenge is finding something, anything to bide the time before the release on May 15th.

Watch this space for a full review

The Avengers Review

April 27, 2012
Film, Review
Leave a Comment

For fans there was never any doubt that The Avengers, this culmination about a half-dozen film franchises, billions of dollars investment, and the creative backing of the mastermind Joss Whedon would be nothing but spectacular. No, seriously. That’s it – the remainder of this review will be me gushing over the overtly Whedon tropes sprinkled throughout this amazingly fun film that elates my inner nerd. All I can say is walking out of the cinema of my first viewing, I couldn’t help a smug grin crease my otherwise mesmerised expression thinking; “Yeah – Joss Whedon definitely directed that.”

For those kind enough to read on, the plot revolves around the pulsating blue-cube known as the Tesseract (as seen in Captain America: The First Avenger), as both portal to Asgard and the Nine Realms (Thor) and source of limitless self-sustaining power (similar to the arc-reactor in Iron Man), and the threat of an invading alien race, threatening the existential genocide of humanity. Your typical blockbuster sci-fi plot, only The Avengers has a Hulk. Enough said.

The script was near pitch perfect as Whedon undertook the difficult yet familiar task of bringing together this ensemble cast of leading men to create a very distinct team dynamic that evolves throughout the film. An impressive feat attempting to balance this synergy of strong individuals into an ensemble cast while simultaneously introducing these established characters to the audience ala Serenity.

If nothing else, Whedon’s comedic sensibility permeates throughout the film juxtaposing heightened gut-wrenching emotional states and epic speeches with comedic levity, especially between the surprisingly venomous and petulant Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and – well, to divulge anymore would venture into spoiler territory.

Robert Downey Jr. seamlessly adopts the Tony Stark role as if he were bred for Whedon’s particular brand of witty and satirical scripting. Chris Hemsworth returns with a great ‘Shakespeare-in-the-Park’ performance as the guilt ridden Thor and Chris Evans sheds the Propaganda facade to reveal the true soldier and true hero within as Captain America. Adding to this volatile mix of egos is Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner, with a standout performance and commitment to the motion capture role as the Hulk. I can confidently say this is the first time I enjoyed the Hulk in any live-action film.

What was surprising and inspired was Whedon’s commitment to the entire ensemble cast, giving enough time to flesh out Scarlet Johansen’s Black Widow, delving deeper into her past as she does her usual kick-ass thing and Jeremy Renner who has redeemed my previous assertion of Hawkeye as the world’s worst archer. It was comforting to see Whedon deliver a true balanced ensemble dynamic with no character really outshining the other. The cast gelled together incredibly throughout the film with their personal story-arc and still delivered a phenomenal group performance.

If you can consider the Marvel films leading up to this point as small-scale, you can be assured The Avengers makes up for that in earnest with a kind of Michael Bay extravagance and flair. However not just the big explosions and the ridiculously astonishing action set-pieces but the smaller intimate scenes between characters that really delivered a stunning yet entertaining super-hero film.

The flaws of the film are negligible if not non-existent and makes me wonder what was omitted from the original 3-hour director’s cut. Joss Whedon has done the near impossible to deliver what I believe is the greatest comic-book-to-film adaptation to date. Whedon’s embraces the knowledge and loyalty in committing to the source material that is unparalleled (even getting Lou Ferrigno to voice the Hulk), but take all this praise and enthusiasm with a grain of salt, I’m generally bias toward anything Joss Whedon (the man’s a genius).

I sinceerely hope The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spider-Man have been taking effusive notes; the bar’s just been reset.

___

___

DIRECTOR: Joss Whedon

STARRING: Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansen, and Tom Hiddleston
WRITERS: Zak Penn and Joss Whedon