Tag: blizzard

Wights in Diablo III

Prasad AjinkyaLeave a comment

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 –

WhiteWalkers.png
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.

Game of Thrones in Diablo III!

Prasad AjinkyaLeave a comment

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.

Continue reading “Game of Thrones in Diablo III!” →

Diablo III pays more homage to Dune

Prasad AjinkyaLeave a comment

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.

Like how you can find Shaitan, the worm from Dune in the game.

However, I found some more references to Dune –

  • Stilgar’s corpse
  • A separate Bounty called Wormsign

Wormsign

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.

Fenring2
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).

Good job with Battle.net Blizzard!

Prasad AjinkyaLeave a comment

 

Good Launchers

I am a huge fan of Blizzard. In fact I have pretty much played everything that they have released … right from Blackthorne (a 2D Scroller) to Warcraft Series. World of Warcraft is one of the games where I have paid more than 1000 USD to the company before I realized it was eating away into my life. One of the main features of the Blizzard games is the custom launcher which will download the game and set it up for you … the launchers that Blizzard makes are fairly awesome and aspiring game design firms should learn from them … this taunt is remarkably true for the TESO MMO and the Star Wars MMO. I believe RIFT is the only game which has done a better job with the launcher, the rest are languishing far behind.

Security Paranoia

The only complaint I had with the Battle.net system was the ridiculous account security and password rules. Everytime you have to play the game, you have to keep the password in mind … it studies your account usage and even emails you when it detects an off pattern. All this pretty much ensures that when you are playing hookey at work (who does’nt) and sitting at home and playing a raid on WoW, it will ask you to reset your password! Not to mention the requirement to enter your password everytime you want to play.

However, with the new Battle.net client, this has stopped!

The new Battle.net Client

This week I installed the new client because I wanted to give Diablo III and the latest patch a whirl. I had heard too many good things about the new Loot 2.0 system to not do this!! More on Loot 2.0 later.

The new Battle.net Client has integrated all the games in one client (quite like Steam or Origin) and has also made account security a part of this software. So when I save my login, I do not have to enter my security credentials all over again. This is awesome … no more getting stuck on login screen trying to cook up new “strong” passwords.

Configurable Downloads

The cool part about this client is that you can also choose to install the games on different drives of your computer. So no more worrying about your drive filling up and not being able to download the latest update.

Up until this week, I had pretty much given up on wanting to play any more Blizzard games. Especially with Valve releasing a slew of DOTA2 updates and Grinding Gear Games showcasing their Sacrifice of the Vaal expansion, it meant lesser time to play other games. However, the D3 team has something going here … the new Battle.net Client looks to be just the start!

Undead Deckard Cain

Prasad AjinkyaLeave a comment

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 –

Undead_Deckard_Cain

My Templar is confused on whether to kill this undead Cain or just be glad that he is back!

Diablo 3: Updates

Prasad AjinkyaLeave a comment

I have been waiting for almost three years for this game to release. Along with me thousands of other Diablo fans are waiting for Blizzard to announce the public beta launch date. Truth be told, it’s going to negatively impact the subscriptions of the other Blizzard games, especially World of Warcraft. Perhaps they are working out on when to announce the launch of the 4.3 WoW patch, and when to announce the Diablo public beta. Here’s a list of all things that I have heard about the game.

  • The private beta has been released last week, and is open to all the friends and family members of Blizzard employees. Not only is it a way to find beta testers ;-), but also it’s a brilliant HR ploy.
  • The game will fear an Auction House (AH) like the WoW series, but this time players will have an option to use real money in the AH. This is going to be a game which will somehow impact the economy, at a micro level albeit, but interesting to note that no other game has the balls to try this out. Then again, this idea might just backfire.
  • The solo game will require the player to still be connected online. I guess the online part is made mandatory due to the ease of operations. The game can be updated later on, DRM issues are resolved, piracy goes down, instead of a one time purchase a player can be made to pay the subscription amount month on month. Most of the game houses are trying to include this concept (even Microsoft with X-Box live).

Having said all that, the game is still widely awaiting and you can start checking out the game play videos of Demon Hunter, Monk, Wizard and Witch Doctor. With the private beta now live, you can always hope to see a lot more content and videos on youtube.

Here’s hoping that the game releases before 2012!!