Archive for the ‘Diablo’ Category

And There Was Much Rejoicing

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

Over 20 years ago, the Priests of Morloth convened within the the chambers of the Temple of the Damned, to discuss and interpret these recent signs and portents. Some suggested that Morloth would finally emerge to claim the world that was rightfully His. Others feared that Thyrn, God of Light, would descend upon the earth to lay His Judgement upon the Damned.
But by the end of the day, when the light of the Sun crept back, they all agreed. Something terrible was Born. And so, the Priests of Morloth knew that they balanced upon the edge of a blade, a blade that would mean either Doom or Salvation.
As the clouds parted, the earth trembled and the sky opened up, threatening to unleash a furious light, the Priests of Morloth huddled in darkened corners, chanting their incantations, praying that Morloth’s Salvation would come at last. Then… there was silence.

Atomic

Dramatic nonsense aside, It’s actually my birthday today. Getting older is no picnic, I – and almost everyone else – can tell you that.
Becoming 20 was great, it’s a round number, and for some reason it is considered the ideal age. But becoming 21? Well, you realise it’s only going one way from here on out. It’s all downhill from here, folks!

On the other hand, it feels great! Who the hell wants to be 20 forever? Apart from those really sad middle-aged people you see hanging out at the trendy clubs. Or people who never dares to stop drinking or partying, because it’s the only thing they have left to cover up the fact that they are a just a complete douche.
No, getting older feels good. Despite the fact that society has a lot of expectations of me, and that I don’t fulfill any of them, I still feel pretty good.

My birthday wishes are these: That the Kimbo inside me remains strong.
That I will soon get my hands on a proper PC.
That part 1 of the 4th season of “Battlestar Galactica” will hit the shelves as soon as possible, and that I’ll love it.
That Sci-Fi channel picks up “Firefly”.
That Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis and Neil Gaiman never stops writing. T
hat season 4 of “Lost” will hit the shelves soon, and that they don’t ruin the mystery.
That Diablo III will be great.
That McCain will lose the November election.
And that I will always have a book to read, a show to watch, and a game to play.

I’m not much of a celebrator, so today will be relatively quiet, save for my brother and perhaps a few friends visiting.
Hopefully someone will give me a pretty good movie to watch. The Movie-Ghost has been kind lately, and blessed me with good films such as “Juno” and “Charlie Wilson’s War”. Something along those standards would be pretty neat for a present.

And with that, I conclude this self-glorifying birthday post, and leave you to your affairs.

Oh, and by the way, next post will be about a TV-series. I swear!

Posted in Battlestar Galactica, Blizzard, Books, Comics, Diablo, Games, Geek-Culture, Kimbo, MMA, Tv-series. | 8 Comments »

The Lord of Terror Has Risen

Saturday, June 28th, 2008
You need to have flashplayer enabled to view this YouTube videoYou need to have flashplayer enabled to view this YouTube video

I will have to direct your attention to this earlier blog post of mine Because these recent news just confirm my theories and everything I wrote there.

What am I talking about, you ask? Well, simply This: Blizzard has officially announced today that a sequel to the award winning and critically and commercially acclaimed Diablo II is currently in development!
Official site can be found here.
Here is the official cinematic teaser:

So far only two character classes has been confirmed, namely the Barbarian and the Witch Doctor. The Barbarian should be known to players of the previous installment. The Witch Doctor, however, is more of a mystery.

Here’s a sample of Barbarian gameplay. As in the previous installment, the Barbarian relies on cold steal and physical prowess to survive in combat. As evident from the video, the Barbarian has several Area of Effect attacks in his repertoire, such as a jump attack that covers a lot of distance, as well as annihilates a group of enemies. It’s slightly similar to Charge or Intercept from World of Warcraft only 50 times cooler.
A shockwave attack that deals damage to enemy targets in a line.
A cleaving attack similar to Cleave from World of Warcraft, that does damage to at least 2 enemies per swipe. This ability may be passive, rather than active.
A ground stomp, that disarms enemies of their shields.
And a whirlwind attack similar to, well.. Whirlwind from World of Warcraft.

Here’s a sample of Witch Doctor gameplay. Not much is known to me about this class, except for a few abilities he possesses. One of them is the ability to summon pets, as well as amplifying their strengths.
As evident in the video, the Witch Doctor also appears to possess magical melee and Area of Effect attacks.
It also seems he has a few debuffs up his sleeves, such as curses and/or diseases Which makes sense, I mean he is a Witch Doctor.

As with the previous installment, online gaming will take place on battle.net

Take a gander at a few official screenshots here:

The atmosphere of the previous installments remains intact in Diablo III

Diablo III screenshot03
A Bridge Too Far

Diablo III screenshot 4
The Witch Doctor making house calls

As I said, Diablo III appears to maintain the much-loved “Diablo atmosphere”, and it’ll be interesting to see how the story evolves, and how well it connects with the already-very-solid mythology. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a lot of new books expanding upon the Diablo universe. It’s simply the Blizzard way.

Here’s 10 minutes worth of gameplay footage:

As you can see, Diablo III also maintains the essence of the Hack & Slash, action role-playing game that was Diablo II. The overview camera, the very similar, yet improved interface, the dungeons, the combat and the overall gameplay all appears to contain the Diablo essence.
I’m looking forward to learning more about the new features, as the already revealed additions such as weapon enchants and environment interaction, sounds promising.
Watching the Barbarian slaughter his way through the tombs with such prowess and mobility, feeds the Kimbo inside me!
I find myself looking enormously forward to this game, and will await further information with great anticipation. It’s been at least four years since I played Diablo 2 properly, maybe it’s time to re-install and level a character? Perhaps say.. Barbarian?
Kimbo laughs with malevolent glee

You see what I mean? These only lend further proofs to my theories, and validates everything I wrote In this post! It’s all there! It’s all there, I tell you!
Anyway, with that being said, I conclude this mad ramble and leave you to your sanity.

By the way, I originally intended this as a “Veronica Mars” or “Eating my own Words” post, but decided to postpone t a day or so, after Blizzard made their announcement today.

“This place is thick with the stench of ghouls“.

Posted in Blizzard, Diablo, Games, Geek-Culture, Kimbo | 5 Comments »