I'm in the future. Like hundreds of years in the future. I've been dead for centuries.
Oh, lovely, you're a cheery one aren't you?

Sunday, September 23

Cool

Torchlight II

In short, Torchlight II offers you more and better Torchlight.  More character choices (four classes, all available as male and female, against the three choices in total in the original), more pets (up from two choices to eight), more towns, more dungeons, more monster-splatting goodness.  The story picks up right where the original left off, with everything you'd set to rights promptly going wrong again.

I played the Vanquisher in the original (read: hot shooty chick), so I'm playing a female Outlander in the new one, which provides much the same deal, though I'm mostly using a shotgun this time rather than dual-wielding pistols.  A shotgun with a bayonet, mind you, which is frankly terrifying.

I'm likely to come back for a replay later too, because both the Embermage and the Engineer look like interesting classes to play.  (And it's about time an RPG had an Engineer character class!)  I tried the Destroyer in the original (hulking barbarian type), and it was all a bit meh.

If you enjoyed the original and wanted more, then this truly delivers.  If you didn't like the original, then you're a bad person.

And if you haven't played the original, there's never been a better time to pick it up.  It's available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and it's part of the latest Humble Bundle, which means you can get it DRM free, plus four or five other games, for just a few dollars.  The Humble Bundle is a name-your-own-price deal, but you get extra goodies if you pay more than the current average, and part of it goes to the EFF and Child's Play, both well worth supporting.  The current average is just $5.84, but they've sold over 200,000 bundles in this deal so far.

Metacritic is showing an average review score of 90, and an average user score of 9.2. (Why one is out of 100 and the other out of 10 I don't know.)  Diablo III rated 88 on reviews but a dreadful 3.8 on user scores, because it disappointed the existing Diablo fans, particularly with the flaky servers at launch time.  

Torchlight II doesn't disappoint.  This is no story-driven epic like Dragon Age: Origins, but it doesn't want to be; it's comfortable with what it is.  And what it is is a whole lot of fun for twenty bucks.

I'll go with the crowd here and give it 9/10.  It's not going to change the course of computer gaming (I have my hopes pinned on several recent Kickstarter projects for that), but if you ever wanted to take a firearm to a fantasy trope, this is for you.

Also, it has goggle-wearing ferrets.  That in itself is worth the price of admission.

Torchlight II: Shooting ratlins so hard they explode since September 20.

Update: If you're still on the fence, try this: Engineers can build robots.  Clanky little steampunk robots.  And you start out armed with a hundred-pound pipe wrench.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:11 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Friday, September 21

Cool

Goggle Ferret

Torchlight II.  Goggle ferret.

No, seriously, goggle ferret!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 07:59 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Saturday, September 15

Cool

Eternity

Since Double Fine blew the lid off indie gaming funding six months ago, every old-school gamer has been keeping a list of people and companies they wanted to see on Kickstarter.  And near the top of many lists have been Chris Avellone and Obsidian, who in a previous incarnation brought us the immortal Planescape: Torment.

(Which is currently on sale on GOG.  Go.  Buy.  This post will still be here when you get back.)




Their goal of $1.1 million is low for an RPG, but high for Kickstarter.  Will they make it?  Right now it's anyone's guess, but they've hit 65% in just twelve hours, so anyone's guess is yes.

http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/minichart.png

Update: Well, there you go.  Took a whole day, but they're now closing in on $1.2 $1.3 $1.5 million and have announced stretch goals (including Mac and Linux versions) out to $2.2 million, which I expect to see them exceed handily.

In less glorious news, BGEE has been Novembered.  Awfully close to the release date to announce a ten-week schedule slip, but still, I'd rather have it actually work when it comes out, and it's not like I'll have nothing to do in the meantime.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:47 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Friday, September 14

Cool

La La La


http://www.animecubed.com/billy/userimages/sigs/85354.jpg

Hmm.  Well, that should update shortly.  Ah, there we go!

(In case it's a bit hard to see, I've started my own village.)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 08:04 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Post contains 26 words, total size 1 kb.

Thursday, September 13

Cool

All I Want For My Birthday Is...


Well, yes, that will do nicely.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:54 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Wednesday, September 12

Cool

I'll Take Two!



Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:57 AM | No Comments | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Monday, September 03

Cool

Out Of Names Error

I don't know how many people have bought iPads because they liked the Nexus 7 so much, but whatever the number is, +1.

I've been thinking about it ever since the retina iPad appeared; I could afford it, but there was a gap between afford and justify that I couldn't bridge.  The cheaper Nexus 7 had much less of a gap, so that became my first PDA since my trusty Palm Tungsten T3.

And I find I use it all the time.  It really is a brilliant device.

The 7" screen is just right for reading fiction and playing games and generally noodling around.  It's too small for reading technical documents, comfortable web browsing, or watching TV.  (If you need to zoom in, your screen's too small.)

So I found myself looking at the Asus Transformer Infinity, probably the best all-around Android tablet today.  It's kind of expensive in Australia, though, and although the 1920x1200 10" screen is a solid step up from the Nexus 7's 1280x800. it's still not the 2048x1536 of the iPad.

And since I wanted an iPad for software development anyway, and I walk past the local Apple Store on the way to the supermarket, and I needed to buy groceries today, well....

Now I need a name.  Recent female anime character, preferably a schoolgirl and goddess, and associated with apples.  Unfortunately, Horo is taken.

Need a name for my Nexus 7 too, come to think of it.

P.S. 3G, 64GB, black, as I said to the young lady in the blue shirt.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:19 PM | Comments (17) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Sunday, September 02

Cool

Nun Of The Above


Posted by: Pixy Misa at 03:21 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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