It was a bad day. A lot of bad stuff happened. And I'd love to forget it all. But I don't. Not ever. Because this is what I do. Every time, every day, every second, this: On five, we're bringing down the government.
Sunday, September 23
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.
I looked at one of the trailers, and my impression was that this is like Diablo. Is that the basic idea?
Obviously it's a lot newer, and obviously therefore it's got a lot better graphics. Does it have any kind of multi-player mode?
I really liked Diablo, but after I really got into it and started playing it heavily, my right hand started to hurt really badly. I had to quit, and it took months before the pain went away. I assume it was "repetitive stress" etc. caused by me holding onto the mouse strongly while playing.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Sunday, September 23 2012 04:41 PM (+rSRq)
2
It plays a lot like Diablo, but it's a bit lighter in tone and feel. More approachable, I guess, particularly now with Diablo III's cash auction house gumming up the works.
Torchlight was single-player, but Torchlight II has LAN and internet multiplayer for up to six people at a time. I haven't tried that yet, but I think it would be a lot of fun.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, September 23 2012 05:27 PM (PiXy!)
3
Far less clicking than the first Diablo; I don't think anyone has ever tried to replicate the RSI feature of that game.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at Monday, September 24 2012 08:54 AM (2XtN5)
4
It's been so long since I played Diablo I'd forgotten that aspect. In Torchlight, you just hold down the button to attack continuously (or until your enemy is splat).
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Monday, September 24 2012 08:39 PM (PiXy!)
It probably was the fact that you had to click for every strike that wrecked my hand. I used to play the archer, so it was a click for every arrow, and most enemies took a lot of arrows.
Just thinking about it is making my hand ache.
It's interesting that Duke Nukem 3D didn't do that to me. I played that an amazing amount of time and had no trouble.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Wednesday, September 26 2012 12:59 PM (+rSRq)
1
Did something happen to the water in old Sydney Town?
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Saturday, September 22 2012 08:09 AM (+rSRq)
2
In Torchlight (and in the earlier Fate series) you could have a dog or cat as a pet. Your pet carried their own little backpack (allowing you to collect more loot), assisted you in combat, and could be sent back to town to sell off unwanted items while you continued exploring the dungeon.
Torchlight II adds a wolf, a panther, a bird, a sort of dinosaur thingy, a stupider sort of dog... And a ferret, wearing a tiny pair of goggles.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, September 22 2012 01:18 PM (PiXy!)
3
I don't remember adding the #1 comment up there. Did your new caching software permit someone, who visited just after me, to post as me?
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Tuesday, November 26 2013 12:56 AM (+rSRq)
4
And now this post isn't on your front page any longer; but my comments still show up in the "recent comments" list.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Tuesday, November 26 2013 01:24 AM (+rSRq)
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.
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.
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.
I am still waiting for someone to come up with a Master of Orion fantasy turn-based strategy (Or maybe realtime with pauses, unlike how Majesty plays.) on Kickstarter. Or a sci-fi RPG (Other than Wasteland 2.).
C.T.
Posted by: cxt217 at Monday, September 17 2012 02:51 PM (juwHe)
Posted by: GreyDuck at Friday, September 14 2012 05:06 AM (LNOjy)
2
Too late, I pre-ordered it.
Just coincidence that the oft-delayed release finally lands exactly on my birthday.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Friday, September 14 2012 01:08 PM (PiXy!)
3
Now, that's timing! My daughter's birthday is a few days later...
Of course we're in "embarrassment of riches" territory, here: Borderlands 2 closely followed by Torchlight II. We didn't get into Borderlands until a few months ago when Steam put it on an incredible sale ($7.50 for the full meal deal), and now I'm hooked.
Posted by: GreyDuck at Friday, September 14 2012 11:04 PM (Buiw/)
4
And Baldur's Gate EE is out on the 18th, and then XCOM on the 11th of October.
And that's on top of my Nexus 7 and the 15 Kairosoft games I've bought.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, September 15 2012 01:02 AM (PiXy!)
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Monday, September 03
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.
I just finished watching Higurashi Kai on DVD, thanks to a fine bunch of Australians who just licensed it. So how about a Hanyuu? Recent (by DVD release anyway), schoolgirl, goddess. Nothing especially apple-y about her, though.
Posted by: Mikeski at Monday, September 03 2012 02:45 PM (1bPWv)
2
I know that you've used Yurie. Have you used Skuld?
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Monday, September 03 2012 03:15 PM (+rSRq)
3
Have you used Sia or Rin or Primula from Shuffle?
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Monday, September 03 2012 03:22 PM (+rSRq)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Monday, September 03 2012 03:23 PM (+rSRq)
5
I don't want to think what would happen if I named it for a character from Higurashi.
I haven't used Skuld. We did have a trio of servers at a previous job that I named Urd, Belldandy, and Skuld (and then added two more, Peorth and Mara), but that was a decade ago.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Monday, September 03 2012 03:24 PM (PiXy!)
6
Haven't seen Campione yet. I thought of Rin from Usagi Drop (one of the best shows ever) but I'm lukewarm on that name because it's so common in anime.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Monday, September 03 2012 03:27 PM (PiXy!)
- Mio and Sae - notebooks (15" HD model and 13" ultralight, respectively).
- Haruhi, Yurie, Nagi - older PCs. (Nagi runs Windows 7, the others Linux.)
- Shana, Lina - current PCs. (Windows 7 and Linux respectively.)
- Sugar, Pepper, Salt - LaCie 5Big NASes.
- Taiga - reserved for a Mac if and when I buy one.
- Akane, Aoi, Midori, Mikan, Kurumi - mu.nu/mee.nu servers.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Monday, September 03 2012 03:34 PM (PiXy!)
And to prevent Pixy from running out of names before 2026, Mashiro from Tayutama is a kami-turned-schoolgirl. Or avatar-of-a-kami. Or fragment-of-a-kami. Or something like that. (I wasn't watching it for the plot, apparently.)
Posted by: Mikeski at Thursday, September 06 2012 06:51 AM (1bPWv)