Duck and Cover

We are writing tell you about an important change to Diablo III: we're going to be removing the gold and real-money auction house system from the game.

When we initially designed and implemented the auction house system, the driving goal was to provide a convenient and secure system for trades. But after much review and player feedback, it became increasingly clear that despite the benefits of the AH system and the fact that many players around the world use it, it ultimately undermines Diablo's core game play: kill monsters to get cool loot.

We're working out the details of how the auction house system will be shut down, but we wanted to share the news as soon as we made the decision in order to give everyone as much advance notice as possible. Please note that the final shutdown will occur on March 18, 2014. We will keep everyone informed as we work through this process, but feel free to check out our blog post on the subject, and stay tuned to Diablo 3.com for further details.

- The Diablo III team

So much for that, hyuck.

Kinda hard to round up the bull when he's already been let out of the barn. Blizzard should have realized this from day one.

Shadow Warrior. Very pleasantly surprised. Will elaborate in The Future. Probably.

Also, Thi4f devs have confirmed that they have plans to 're-imagine' Thief 1 and 2. Proof below :

Does it come with fries?

How horrible.

More GOOD NEWS.

Yes, Deus Ex MMO/MOBA. Woo . . .

So, Shadow Warrior. It's basically the child of Painkiller and Bulletstorm, with the daft, one dimensional, racist shite mostly stripped away.

It (naturally) has fairly ludicrous dismemberment, in fact, the sword is easily the best and most enjoyable weapon available. A close second would be the severed laser projecting demon heads you can collect on occasion. The weapons are upgradable, though it's a linear progression of money = better, the shotgun could stand to take a few lessons from the one in Blood Dragon - as quad barrel setups go, it felt somewhat anemic. In fact, all the weapons, bar the sword, feel lacklustre in effect.

Tied to the Bulletstorm inspired ranking system, there's a basic RPGesque skill/spell system, which leads to a slew of passive boosts, three blade techniques (lunge/spin/ranged) and four spells (healing/shielding and two variants of stun). They're pretty useful, particularly healing (more or less) on demand.

Cutscenes are almost all skippable, and there aren't any painful CoD inspired walk and listen loading screen masks.

There are a decent variety of enemies, ranging from out of their depth human mooks to assorted demonic filth (such as, for instance, rabbits), and they are all quite entertaining to cut to pieces. Also, plenty of usually volatile scenery to destroy. Usually via unintended chain reactions of incineration and electrocution.

Graphics and music are pretty good, decently optimised engine, it ran well. Controls are responsive, though movement is a little floaty at points. The one irritating issue I encountered is tied to this, if you happen to dash off even a slight slope, it usually causes instant death. That aside, I experienced no freezes or crashes.

There are plenty of secrets in almost every level, including retro build engine inspired areas. Pleasantly jarring.

Voice acting is rather good, and the plot actually surprised me, in that it wasn't brain dead.

Flying Wild Hog have certainly learned a lot since Hard Reset.

Oh, and Devolver Digital have alluded to acquiring the Blood IP if it sells well . . .

All in all, good fun and recommended.

Ice-Pick Lodge's latest, Knock Knock is out. It is great. That is all.

Been playing a lot of Xenonauts again. Lots of progress, game is in a pretty solid state, still have a few bugs and placeholders but the game is coming along swimmingly.

Fucking androns man.

Blargh wrote:Ice-Pick Lodge's latest, Knock Knock is out. It is great. That is all.

I read a review (one single review so now I know all there is to know about this game) and the reviewer was very impressed by the atmosphere and mood but said it got repetitive rather quickly. However, it seems from my read that you don't actually fight or kill anything, which would be a nice change of pace so this is on my radar for after the semester.

I've finally started playing ranked matches in League of Legends, and I've been playing through Avadon: The Dark Fortress, both for PC.

I recently finished Metro 2033, but I outright deleted Retro City Rampage. It just seemed like it was trying too hard.

My girlfriend had me pick up Diablo 3 for ps3 so we could play together, but I haven't had the time to really get into it, plus I spent so much time playing it on the PC that i'm having a hard time getting into it again.

I got a couple of Resident Evil games when Capcom was having that Steam sale.

Revelations was bretty gud, RE5 is RE4 but not as good.

I'd give them both Playable/10

cazsim83 wrote:

Blargh wrote:Ice-Pick Lodge's latest, Knock Knock is out. It is great. That is all.

I read a review (one single review so now I know all there is to know about this game) and the reviewer was very impressed by the atmosphere and mood but said it got repetitive rather quickly. However, it seems from my read that you don't actually fight or kill anything, which would be a nice change of pace so this is on my radar for after the semester.

I've finally started playing ranked matches in League of Legends, and I've been playing through Avadon: The Dark Fortress, both for PC.

I recently finished Metro 2033, but I outright deleted Retro City Rampage. It just seemed like it was trying too hard.

My girlfriend had me pick up Diablo 3 for ps3 so we could play together, but I haven't had the time to really get into it, plus I spent so much time playing it on the PC that i'm having a hard time getting into it again.

(Sorry I didn't return the call, barely missed you. Crises developing left and right with people, I just started calling folks to check in and make sure life was okay.)

Get back on D3 on PC. I want an actual playthrough of a campaign past Normal with you, and we can use Skype like vent.

Not checking in back here often but it's always a rare treat to see you post

This looks like it could be really, really cool. Or perhaps it will fail spectacularly.

But I doubt it.

I've been playing NWN2. It's alright. The main campaign has a better storyline than NWN but it's not mind-blowing (the main baddie is called "The King of Shadows!") Some of the glitches are horrid and get worse especially near the end. I haven't played Mask of the Betrayer yet which I hear is pretty damn good.

This also looks like it could be very unshite. Grand music always helps.

Right now I've mostly been playing GTA 5 and trying to finish it. Before that I was playing the new Shadowrunner and enjoyed it. Of course I've been playing BF3 with my friends on xbox and I actually just got BF4 on the xbox but I haven't started playing it yet. After I finish GTA 5 I will work on Batman Origins even though I hear it's not as good as the other two, I will be glad just to beat up people with it's beautiful fighting system.

You should all throw your monies at this, post haste. How could 2D trenchcoatery not look ducky ? Exactly. Yes.

How? How do you keep finding these gems? Are you magical?

Magic? Everyone knows that's not real.

Blargh is a multidimensional being from beyond Caluvian Veil.

Magical ? No, Danny, I just steal head noises.

Also. Five days left, short of a click-by vulgarly lucre'd benefactor, it seems those stretch goals will go unfulfilled. Pity.

Assassin's Creed - Corporate Insertion Fan Fiction (ORIGINAL IDEA - DO NOT STEAL) continues the franchise trend of being pretty bloody tedious, FYI. This time, however, they've streamlined not just the combat (by reducing the weapons and tools available), but the gameplay too, as it seems as though every other mission involves tailing someone/A <strike>BOAT</strike> SHIP (or not killing people who have dedicated themselves to hunting Edward/Edward's on-again/off-again gang of pillage-friends down and fucking every aspect of their lives with knives). Oh, and even while wonderfully dead, Desmond's still distressingly prominent. Also, his sidekicks - continuing in their fight against the Templars without even the most basic of disguises, not even pseudonyms. Naval combat quickly becomes wearisome, as there are only so many captains, powder stores, flags and scouts one can neutralise before it all blurs together . . .

On the other hand I've always been thrilled by the prospect of being coerced into performing corporate espionage for no appreciable reason, and with no option to even attempt to do anything but silently obey the edicts of a reckless, unstable I.T muppet. Thanks for that, Not-Ubisoft.

Also, the bit where said muppet attempts to overwrite your avatar's mind with the digitally suspended persona of his 80,000+ year old bit of fluff, who also happens to be, surprise, batshite insane - the only logical recource ? Return to work and wait for him to kill you in your sleep.

Utterly, unengagingly daft.

Ahahaha, just saw this on RPS.