So the Cursed Woods bounty had me take a few screenshots. One because of the clear reference to Kashyyk from Star Wars.
The other was this sighting of zombies –
Notice their blue eyes?
These are shuffling corpses, or the reanimated dead. Peculiarly, they have blue eyes. The only other zombie reference to have had blue eyes was in Game of Thrones, and those were Wights.
These were the reanimated dead that the Whitewalkers created to raise an army against the living. Presently, we know they are making a march against the wall, and can only be killed with Valyrian steel or those Dragonshard knives. The wights in Diablo III however, can be killed as long as you have enough damage output.
We also have Dragons in Diablo, next time will check the name of those serpents.
(Edit) I came back to this post after a year and the next Season of Game of Thrones was already out. There has been more lore exposed about the whitewalkers and how they were created.
With Game of Thrones Season 6 out at pretty much the same time Diablo III Seasion VI is released, I have been following both of them.
That pretty much means that I have been reading up on lore for both the game and the series. So, it came as a pleasant surprise when I saw a reference to Gregory Clegane from Game of Thrones in Diablo.
I have been playing Diablo III on and off for the last four years, and have started taking it up again. This is primarily because of the new concept of Seasons and Adventure Mode.
No more do I have to keep endlessly grinding … uhh… it is a clickfest of a game, but what I love about it is how it pays homage to different pop-cultures.
In Act IV, you are asked to go to a small dungeon and eliminate all Hellbearers. This is pretty easily done and on dispatching all four of them, you see the boss – Fenring.
Meeting Fenring in the Wormsign Bounty
Dune fans will recognize this reference to Count Hasimir Fenring, confidante, advisor and chief assassin for Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV. The book series contains a fair number of Fenring’s exploits as an assassin, including one where he kills a victim using neural daggers (pretty cool way).
I had started playing Torchlight back in 2010, when Blizzard was sitting mum about Diablo III. During those days, there was a huge gap in the RPG space … a gap that needed to be filled with different Diablo clones. A gap which was completely satisfied by Torchlight.
So with the impending delay in the release of Diablo III (as always with Blizzard and their releases), I was glad for the release of Torchlight 2.
Unlike it’s predecessor, Torchlight 2 is not only restricted to the city of Torchlight and the many dungeons underneath. It’s not your classic dungeon crawl, but instead it features an open world, where the adventurer can stumble upon other random dungeons for additional loot.
Torchlight 2 takes off right where Torchlight stopped. The plot picks up from the pace and throws you, the adventurer right in the middle of the story. The Alchemist (supposedly one of the heroes from the earlier series), has been infected by the ember and is trying to end all sources of ember in order to stop his infection. Our job is to stop the Alchemist and his nefarious plans.
The good part about Torchlight 2 is that the game play which we all loved has been retained. The awesome part is that the classes have been streamlined into four different classes – the melee Berserker who relies on Dexterity as a main stat, the melee Engineer who relies on Strength as a main stat, the ranged Outlander who relies on Dexterity as a main stat and the ranged Embermage who relies on Focus as the main stat. I am using the term main stat only loosely here, since all the different stats have different uses for all 4 classes.
A berserker scores a crit
What I liked about the classes, is that all four have distinctly different game playing styles. The trees and skill differences are also so distinct that it sets each variation apart.
That apart, the game can be played solo, on a lan or on the internet. All you need is a login with Runic Games. I have not really tried my hand with multi-player on this one yet, since I always (ALWAYS) like to finish the game first on solo and then go for the different variations.
Believe me, right now I am having much more fun than grinding/farming the different Acts in Diablo III. That’s a huge plus!!
I am a big fan of Blizzard, not only because the quality of their games completely sucks you in, but also since they manage to include a lot of popular culture within their games. For example, during Christmas, the whole of Azeroth would also celebrate it with the rest of the real world.
As I was farming Act II in Nightmare mode with my Demon Hunter, I was suddenly engulfed by a big rock worm, not only was it an elite boss, but it also had a lot of baby rockworm minions to accompany it. When I went back and looked closely at its name … it was Shaitan, The Broodmother … also known as the Great Maker!
Fans of the very popular Dune series, will easily link up the facts .. big ass worm + desert + great maker + shaitan … as a clear cut reference to the worms on Arrakis.
On killing this elite, you get access to its random dungeon which spawns from where the worm appears. More loot and sadly no more references to dune. It would have been great if a dying fremen or two would have been there in that cave.
I was playing D3 in Hell with my Barbarian, and just finished getting the third sword piece of El’durin. As I saw Deckard Cain die and I exited his cabin, I saw a strange figure huddling between Leah and the entry to the cabin.
It was Deckard Cain!! Very much alive! I have taken a screenshot of this bug –
My Templar is confused on whether to kill this undead Cain or just be glad that he is back!
