It's Distracting When Game People Are Pretty

Watching the E3 Twitch stream. Splinter Cell Blacklist's creative director Maxime Béland is pretty damn hot. That accent, too!

Probably Should Just Buy It But Now I'll Play It First

Thanks to some quick tweeting I managed to get a beta key from GameSpot's Shaun McInnis. While I've seen plenty of reviews and hype I haven't been grabbed strongly enough to buy the game. I wanted to get in on a beta event to see what it was really like first. See what it is.

Going to Suck Waiting an Extra Thirty Days for This

So GameSpot just posted an article about Dawnguard:



Pretty impressive. It sounds like the Dawnguard are a faction of Vampire hunters. The video also shows off mounted combat, the glowy-eye effect, Vampire transformation, and some new areas. Hopefully it's a complete, separate worldspaces like Shivering Isles was.

As exciting as it was I had to laugh when I realized what I was doing. Watching the video I was looking for ways it would impact what I've been modding with. *lol* Such a nerd.

I do think it will be fun. In fine ES tradition I'm looking forward to feasting on others as a vampire then making a killer of these nocturnal fiends.

Wondering What Will Happen When Lots of Things Are Patched

So I guess the Lord of Terror is protesting the Monk nerf. If my time zone calculations are correct Diablo has been down almost thirteen hours now. Patch 1.0.2 must have been pretty intense or somewhere along the deployment line there were serious potholes. Glad I'm not on any of those teams.

Inferno Skeleton Kings Tells me GET MOAR DPS

Ugh. This was a bit of a bash-face-in-wall kill. Died five or six times 'til I found a spec that worked. Ended up using the Scoundrel along with the fire pet and it took almost ten minutes. *sigh* Need more gear. Yet I won't be able to farm much inferno for it. Not sure if Hell will give me upgrades. Can't afford upgrades in the auction house. So… yeah.

Civ5 was free this weekend so I put in a few hours. Erm. A few hours turned into ten. *lol* I used to be into the TBS games yet they seem a bit more tedious now. I miss the classics like MOO, MOM, and Empire Deluxe. Didn't quite need the time investment.

Still… there are times when I might load this up. Could be worth the $7.50. Or $12.0 for the GOTY. Got twenty hours to decide.

Diablo on Hell isn't So Hellish

The real challenge was getting through Act 4. Some of the larger areas with runner-bosses were goddam insane. So I was all dreading the fight with Diablo since the Templar isn't there to help out. Turned out to be cake.

Though I really enjoy using Seven-Sided Strike for the immunity, stun, DPS, and hilarity, I had to give it up in favor of Krippi's spec. Double-flash is incredible considering how it even affects Diablo. The rest of the stuff he had I pretty much used already except for the Keen Eye rune. Forgot about the armor buff and it does help.

Now… time for some Inferno repair bills…

Few More Official TES Things From Bethseda

It was announced on the Beth Blog that Mounted Combat arrives in the next patch along with a number of bug fixes. It was the only feature bullet point for 1.6 but I suppose one thing is better than no-thing. *lol* Unfortunately I re-read it after reading some feedback… "Skyrim now allows you to do melee and ranged combat while riding a horse." No mention of spell casting or magic. Hrm.

The TESOnline information continues to trickle out through GameInformer. Since I first mentioned their article on the Daggerfall Convenant they've covered the other two factions, the Aldmeri Dominion and the Ebonheart Pact, then started in with the interviews. Seems like a carefully staged releases aimed at generating interest that will culminate in something more informing at E3—now less than two weeks away.