Rotluchs

hey Dax! well imho there's still a big difference between being "addicted" to a game or harmful, mind altering substances.. yes, those "lootbox" orientated games can be very harmful too to some individuals, at times, just like the real "money gambling games" you find in casinos.. but, personally I believe it's bull:eek:, the trend of companies releasing such games, but the prohibition of them, as well. thats a little bit over reacting, no? what I see endangered by those game the most, is not peoples finances, lives, health or sanity, but simply just the loads of fun you could have with it if these mechanics and monetarization models werent there.. simply put, I "hate" every developer or game, in which it becomes too obvious the company is interested way more in our money than instead of us just having fun. imho it's not all set into stone regarding diablo immortal, maybe they give in to the feedback all over the net.. but, it still is sad to see what they had in mind with this game.. milking the cash cow; trying to attract both as many little fish swarms and big whales at the same time, or what it's called.. they almost caught me too on first attempt, as well but they forgot to fix their fishing net, their impractical server structure + no fresh char class left two loop holes in it through which I escaped before they pulled the thing out of the water.

forgot to mention: blizzard staff at least already confirmed that they might look into the server situation and see if they could change it , in a way that leads to less "fragmentation" of the player base

im not there yet, I havent hit "that wall" .. I will play it and try to complete at least the story acts / main campaign. lets see how it goes.. but the reason why im not doing it even right now right away, has been mentioned by gogo as well: I, for one, am also surprised/disappointed to see not even one single new character class as well? why did they miss out on that one, I'll never understand... I would hate "feeling like I have to buy ingame currency/materials or temporary boosters" I would prefer almost everything else, eg. a wow-like monthly subscription based model, if it was cheap enough to equal lets say... 60 € max per year.. or pay once each time to unlock next act, some sort of episodic/season DLC model, or if they would sell permanent stuff.. much like inventory slots which I believe they have, they could just do permanent boosters to mf, drop rate, run speed and such.. anyway , whatever I get for my cash I'd like to keep. having to buy temporary stuff has always been bad so far. Im already curious how far ill get without spending a single dime, and then, if/when it stops being fun.. but as said, itll have to wait.. busy with torchlight infinite until 18.june.

no gogo, they do not only sell cosmetics, yes, they also don't sell you "bis" items directly.. but they artifically slow down progression drastically at some point, it becomes reeally really slow, so I have read. and what they then want you to buy, is boosters that allow to find more & better items in dungeons, a lot faster ( increased drop rate/quantity). you can also level up your gems which gives you more power, by buying the materials you need to do so. those can all be found ingame without spending real money so I have understood, yes. but at a much much slower rate, at some point you will perhaps feel like you won't be able to move on "to the next level" if you dont spend cash, I dont know.. im far away of even completing the first aera act.. I guess im level 13 or so a mayor draw back and a big concern, is server structure, your next question: in diablo 3, you had basically one big server/realm for america, one for europe and one for asia I believe. now, they get further divided, eg. europe gets first split up into several countries eg. Germany, Italy, France, and once again, then they have each their own sub-server shard/realm, which is finally where you chars are created& stored. a north american char cant join someone in europe. okay thats the same it used to be in d3 I think. but, you even cant join someone from france when you are on a German realm, yes, not even if youre from the same server region if you happen to have chars on american server A and your friend on american server B. it totally sucks and renders the whole 'play anywhere' cross platform idea useless imho ad absurdum.. long story short: if you click on the server name shown on the start up main screen, and change to any where else, you will always have to start over from scratch. plus, it makes it harder to gather up and play together like we used to in path of exile, sacred, or diablo 3..

as you may have read elsewhere, I recently tried out Torchlight Infinite & Diablo Immortal, but I'm having my difficulties: I never played mobile games before, or at least not for the last few years, and even before then, never seriously.. ( I think the last one I tried out briefly was Fallout Shelter or Pokemon Go, and before that, Nokia's Snake, like 2 and a half decades ago? ) since I bought myself a used Motorola G100 recently, I thought - why not give it a try now? (huge upgrade for me compared to the old phone I had before - not the Nokia claybrick from stoneage mentioned above, but an old Xiaomi Redmi 5A), well - found out mobile gaming - is terrible. at least, if the game I want to play has no controller support: If I have to hold the device near my lap or table to rest my arms at ease, it's a terrible pain in the neck, literally. If I hold the phone higher, my arms start to hurt or feel numb soon. Unfortunately, Torchlight Infinite has no controller support, so that I could rest my arms at ease at a lowered position holding the controller, and placing the phone=screen somewhere more on eye - level so I could hold my head straight and not having to squint downwards. Diablo Immortal on the other hand, has controller support & even it's PC version is out now (but looking ugly imho).. however, on first sight, I thought why should I waste my free hours for this even if it suddenly looked good on PC? I've seen all these Charclasses & most skill sets before, where's the fresh & new stuff ? So, what I'm waiting for now, (besides controller support for TL:infinite and a new char class for D:Immortal) , is public multiplayer rollout for Last Epoch, so I could return to PC

Well, Hello So sorry, I wanted to post this a few days / weeks ago but completely forgot... : I was browsing the steam forum boards related to some of my other h&s arpg's I got over there, including games I'm currently playing, been playing recently, or looking forward to play again.. Namely, that is Wolcen, PoE, Titan Quest, and Last Epoch (the latter I'm waiting for eagerly, want to start playing as soon as they implement and roll out multiplayer to public) and I think it was inside the Last Epoch forum, where someone compared LE's minion builds to other games, and somehow somewhere, someone dropped the name of a game called Torchlight Infinite.. Whoa, man did I look surprised, I guess.. Had never heard about that one before.. completely under & off my radar.. ! WHY is there a Torchlight game that I don't already know of, and hasn't been mentioned yet on any of the 'big' gaming news sites I usually browse? Then I found out, why: 1) Torchlight Infinite is (currently) a game only for mobile phones (google android & Apple iOS) : official Torchlight Infinite website can be found here https://torchlight.xd.com/ That might explains it, why I never heard or read about it yet: 2) it's still pretty new , and I usually never play, and also never browse mobile game sites. Also, sites like Gamestar.de are usually pretty slow and often just pick up and do reports about games when they are already known & hyped everywhere anyway. A PC version is planned & in development but hasn't been released yet. 3) It's developed and/or published by "XD Inc" , I had to look it up, found out I never played any of their games they mention on their site: https://www.xd.com/about-us/?lang=en 4) It's currently in public/closed beta, exlusively on "taptap.io" another thing that was new to me, turns out XD co-founded that games distribution platform. guess that's why it's currently exlusively distributed over that platform/portal - you can find Torchlight Infinite on taptap over here: https://www.taptap.io/app/227017 so, what exactly can you expect from this game? I currently haven't played that much yet, but got to level 25 and enjoyed it pretty much: * there seems to be a lot more depth to this game compared to TL3 at least, maybe also D3 * fair amount of skill & character customization * it runs - but sometimes with drastical limitations reg. framerate&visuals - even on 'older' or 'lower class/entry level' tablets, also including devices that won't be able to download & run Diablo Immortal - Eg. My Samsung Galaxy A7 Tab from I believe 2020/21, it wont get Diablo Immortal over the store, but I can try Torchlight Infinite instead as an alternative. * TL:Infinite features a similar look & feel like previous installments of the series, regarding it's typical art style, humour, story telling, characters and gameplay. I showed both of them to a colleague @ work today, he prefers the looks of Torchlight over those of Diablo Immortal; I for myself haven't decided yet, I'm okay with both. ( reg. the level of detail & how they look on a small screen - they both look & feel pretty decent, also gameplay wise.. they run at highest settings @ stable 60 fps on my Moto G100 ) I can't really say yet which character & skill development systems I will like better in the end, haven't played TL:Infinite long enough yet (but made it to level 25 and had fun for a few hours) and also haven't even started D:Immortal yet. currently, I think my favourite is going to be Torchlight Infinite in the end, because it's systems and it's characters & skills all feel kinda fresh & unique, in comparison to Diablo Immortal: just launched Diablo Immortal yesterday, and thought "meh, boring. why no new char class? played the existing classes it has to over @ launch up & down for hundreds of hours in D3, why nothing new there..?" (ended up creating both a Crusader&DemonHunter on one of the English, and also on a German Server (both showed roughly the same ping, only france would be slightly better at times I guess) regarding Torchlight Infinite, I'm currently running a machine guy, no idea what's it's class is called right now, but I picked it, because it's got loads of (mechanical) minions, and I just love playing minion builds, I always try them out first in any new game, if it features a dedicated class or skills.. here's a (story/intro?) trailer of Torchlight Infinite: ..and one for the CBT2 that launched end of April : oh, and here's my guy I think, Commander Moto (the mechanical minion dude I chose) :

Hi folks, since Diablo Immortal got released today for mobile & most regions, and tomorrow for PC (beta), I'm wondering: Who's gonna give it a try & play? And if you dare, where ? (Server Region & Server Name) (PS: Just found out charnames are 'unique' per server not per account, unlike in Diablo3, and (imho) unfortunately a lot more like in PoE, eg. Diablo Immortal is only one char=account with name 'X' allowed for region 'Y' on server 'Z' )

Wee Tanks! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1797680/Wee_Tanks/ a work colleague introduced me to it a few weekends ago, it was surprisingly fun to play in party, via the "steam remote play together" feature, which allows inviting other players for some co-op action who don't even need to own the game.. there's even an outdated version on the developer's homepage that won't get any updates anymore, https://www.weetanks.com/ but it's decent to try it out if you don't know anyone who owns the game on steam (it's only a few bucks, anyway..) you can also support it via patreon, which gives you also a steam key & some little extra DLCs etc.. it's still in early access, what you already get now, is a main campaign mode ( I think 100 levels), several survival modes, a level editor, and local co-op or via the aforementioned "steam remote play" function for example..

..you know, after writing this yesterday, I loaded up TQ Eternal Embers again as I wanted to check the new controller support.. and, in general, it works better than I expected ! just having one issue, whenever I choose the controller for input, the game ignores the ingame (or windows?) DPI settings and things like the mini map and also the character inventory look pretty small, even when close in front of the screen ( @ 4K )... I hope this gets fixed fast.. also tried FH5 again after dec 3rd patch last night, which turned out broke more things for me than it fixed, got sooo upset / disappointed about this game right away again, I might take a longer break and play things like TQ for real instead, even though there are quite I few things I wanted to complete before leaving FH5 ..I also want to leave them some more in depth review / feedback on their official FH5 forum, but each time I try to write it down and get to the point, I give up, frustrated.. @Flix man, I almost forgot I could have tried some mods, if I had decided to go SP as well.. I remember, there were many mods for the original D2, right? What mods are you using, is it okay to use them, and is 'single player' really 'offline' like it used to be with the original ? Maybe you can link me to one of the 'good' sites regarding mods for the new D2:Res .. I might even re-buy it then, haven't thought about modding-possibilities at all before.. in general I'm missing a lot of QoL comfort, and maybe vanilla drop rates are a bit too much of a PITA for me and my limited free time I could sink into D2.. I always said I'm looking forward to D2:Res because I missed out on the original (only played D1, then Sacred1&2 ofc, then D3) but, I was really missing 'comfort' : things that ease&speed up certain things, it had too much micro-management & repetitive gameplay ('farming' for stuff.. but maybe PoE is even worse?) I love listening & looking @ D2:Res! but did not enjoy playing it: inconvenient, circuitous control/ time consuming gameplay, but great art/atmosphere/storytelling (for a h&s arpg, that is) I was also shocked by the bad hit/feedback lag/delay I noticed in the pre-release online test of the new D2:Res.. maybe it was because of the servers (lagging), or because of the way the new game works on top of the old one.. so I checked the original game (in SP though) - and there, the animations were the same, 'simple' ones, but after the animation of your character hitting an enemy had ended, you would 'see' the enemy reaction/getting hit animation, without delay, unlike D2:Res (MP test pre-release) .. can someone who has both version installed, do a quick test, this time within the same game mode? (single player) is there a noticeable delay / difference in the animations and the duration / timing between them, from 'clicking' an enemy to seeing your character performing that hit, and the enemy 'registering' it by playing it's 'I've been hit' anmiation in response ? if even SP mode turns out to be that unresponsive/laggy now after release & some patches, I might not re-buy it on sale cause I guess even mods won't be able to fix that.. I hope what I experienced was 'only' because of the laggy MP servers and suspect that SP is different, just want to make sure there's no bad surprise again regarding that one (it was the most anoying issue I had during testing, and one of the main reasons why I refunded it instead of keeping it.. there was no way to tell if it would be like that after release in SP mode, the stress test was MP only)

Hey, how're you? You know, logging in here like 2-4 times a year, it's a bit weired, almost feels like xmas family reunion.. well, just stopped by to officially inform ya all, that whenever I'm not playing stuff like memory, building tracks for the wooden toy train and whatnot with our 3 (and 1/2) year old , then sometimes I'm sitting in front of my screen late night, pondering, if (and mostly, what) I should play.. then I try out one or another, there's plenty to choose from, but it's not feeling right anymore, I either get bored or bugged out way too fast, but usually I get just too tired, even faster.. mostly I just launch a game for and hour or two and 'mess around' as well, without a plan or knowing what I'm really doing there ;) but sometimes I also notice I wasted like three or four, instead of the 1 or 2 I planned, and all that without 'achieving/accomplishing' anything at all ;) there's only a few that I can remember playing 'seriously' in general, but still, there's even a handful I've put way more hours into throughout the year than I should've, probably.. : * 325hrs of Wolcen, how did this happen ? (I definitely didn't fell asleep in front of the screen, I would remember that, as it would also include falling off my chair I guess ^^ .. but finally stopped playing it last summer ) * Forza Horizon 4 - it's been soo relaxing, just driving around, listening to the classical music radio station ingame.. (recently replaced FH4 with FH5 but not so happy with the new succesor as I've been with this predecessor here) there's also a few games that are/were not so time consuming, and I really enjoyed "playing them through": * Tell Me Why - I tell you why : "complex characters, voice acting, narrative design and setting, as well as its competent handling of culturally sensitive subjects such as transgender topics" (wikipedia) Together with * What remains of Edith Finch, these are the best 2 story/adventure games I've played in years/decade(s) I guess.. for me they're kinda unique, making me feel like "I was there", as if it was 'real', etc.. hard to explain. anyways, afterwards I felt pretty sad, too, not because of the ending, but just because, it ended, you know.. (both games are pretty short, I played through each of them in one big session from evening til early morning on friday weekends) I also played through DontNods latest title up to date, * Twin Mirror , and was expecting a lot more than I got unfortunately (it's a game similar to the 2 mentioned above, but different setting) and, man, I felt - nothing - 0815 story, main protagonist and almost all other characters you'll find lacking personality imho, the gameplay mechanics get in the way too, but still, I had to see the ending(s?) of the story.. there were a few side/secondary characters ingame that I would've loved to get to know and learn more about by interacting with them, unfortunately they don't go in-depth there, developed&incorporated way too little stuff for them. what else.. well wait!.. yesterday, a new Addon/StoryDLC has been released for Titan Quest:Anniversary Edition, all out of the sudden, it's called Eternal Embers.. TQs 4th expansion comes with a new story/act , a new Mastery, and controller support, alongside some perfomance fixes.. already bought it, and played it for like 15 Minutes! ;) You need to know, usually I buy every Titan Quest / Grim Dawn Expansion there is.. but mostly NOT for playing it, but just because it's h&s arpgs, you know, I have to have them, keeping my digital shelf collection complete.. (except for D2:Res , I refunded it in the end.. got some open issues with that game that Vicarious Visions hasn't resolved/fixed yet.. it's not only 'just because' of blizzard and the storm(s) about them ) Titan Quest was the main reason that brought me here today, there you have it, now you know PS: off to driving around a few miles in Forza Horizon 5 now before heading to bed.. PPS: Merry X-Mas and Happy Easter, too, in adavance, because, who knows.. ! (I do plan to stop by at least once more before then though) CYA !

Well, it's now official, Diablo II Resurrected is coming! Now, I've been watching the entire blizzcon diablo day 1 channel last night, and was browsing the new D2 website today, and it looks absolutely amazing... here's the official trailer, there's more stuff on the site, I also recommend to re-watch the Blizzcon Diablo Day 1 channel.. here's probably the most interesting stuff, not 100% if I understood/read everything correctly: * New 3D engine(?) build on top of the original.. * new reworked cinematics * shared stash, extended stats window (item stats summary) * all content that was there in the original D2 and it's addon will be there in the new D2 as well.. * all mechanics are supposed to stay the same (droprates, item stats etc) * you can already apply for technical alpha access * they mentioned in a video it's scheduled to be released in 2021 (not sure if they meant the tech alpha or the final release version) * for the D2 remaster/remake, blizzard partnered with the guys that did a solid job (from hearsay) on the tony hawks remaster/remake.. * planned cloudsave feature, play it on consoles and pick up on PC where you left.. https://diablo2.blizzard.com https://blizzcon.com/de-de/?stage=diablo all this is some really exiting news, can't wait to try it out! There're many reason why I'm looking forward playing this, main reason being - I still haven't played D2 at all! neither the original, nor it's addon or any mods.. I've been playing D1 like about 20 years ago or so, but somehow 'forgot' to try out D2, simply because I went directly from D1 to Sacred1, then Sacred2, then Diablo 3.. you know.. I always wanted to give D2 a try during the years after Sacred1, but there was always something more interesting, and whenever I fired up D2 on my PC, on my widescreen monitor, I just couldn't look at that outdated pixel-mess of D2 for long.. And while D4 is also looking pretty good already imho, D2 resurrected will help to bridge the gap, meaning the long wait until that one's ready as well.. PLUS, I remember many of you also loved to play the D2 original, which means here's me hoping to finally meet some of you online/ingame again ! Cya Bob

woot, I didnt know last epoch had its own thread already found out about about last epoch just recently in the talks about wolcen and thought I havent heard about yet.. maybe I just forgot? anyway guess what - I just spotted two guys on last epoch forum, called Dobster and Llama8 hehe.. they seem to enjoying and playing it a lot, maybe we can get them over here and tell us what its like currently ? also, a new patch is planned for end of march, updating last Epoch s graphics and stuff.. or, anyone else care to tell us their experience with this game? its in beta now and steadily aproaching final release this year so ive heard..

duh, I wrote this late at night hehe.. even harder to put it in a nutshell when you're tired and distracted and stuff.. maybe it turned out this way because I haven't even made up my mind entirely.. I would recommend to wait. don't buy it right now, let's see first if and how they continue to improve the game during the upcoming months and after.. also I'd say better wait, because I just found another promising one, it's beta early acess though.. I was in a rush so bought it anyway, haven't had time to play it yet though.. : Did anyone else ever heard of it? It's called Last Epoch .. and it's got.. time travel, yay ;) So, by the time Last Epoch will be released (plans for later this year), I'd compare the 2 see and which one proves to be better then.. personally, I'll stick with the one that has the 'casual-friendlier endgame' so to speak.. I need something motivating to keep on going, but not consuming thousands of hours..

I've been currently playing Wolcen.. yes, it's bugged and I knew that, saw the gamestar review of it, hesitated a few days after release and bought it anyway.. why? it seemed like a good alternative to Diablo 3 and/or PoE and/or Grim Dawn, because in a way it looks and feels like a mix/blend of all these, also adding in a few things I haven't seen so far.. eg. endgame where you upgrade your town/buildings to receive permanent boni, or to unlock ways to alter your items.. I kinda just still love the isometric, loot centered, hack & slash/slay ARPG genre, always did, since Sacred... picked up Wolcen because I'm out of alternatives.. so far I tried: Diablo 3: (omg, just checked, total of 2182 hrs playtime over 8 years if that's correct.. current set of non-deleted char totals to 560, and last season 19 ~44hrs in total) finally became way too boring and stale to keep me busy for longer than like 1 week after each season.. and upcoming season 20 might be the first I'll give a pass entirely.. if I every so often play it, then mostly, I just rush for season rewards which won't take long, and then I'd try to beat my personal GR level from the coresponding previous season - which also won't take long (which is good, aint got much free time per week anymore).. POE ? ( I'd say about 'only' 260 hrs total since v1.0 over 6 years) PoE is free, and a good game and all that, but way too complex - I don't mean the skill tree, but rather its grindy exhausting end-game and tons of different crafting sub systems it has by now.. way too much imho.. so, it's too time consuming and it's difficulty curve is too steep.. I usually just play a different build thru the main story in each new league, even having fun every now and then with new league mechanics, but after the campaign, I'd stop right there and hardly ever I'd even touch the atlas thing.. ;) besides, even with all these new league mechanics that appear and vanish periodically, or new skills etc.. it kinda stays the same.. they're really good at 'selling' the same things in different 'disguise' tho.. 'selling' because they actually don't, poe is free.. and in 'disguise' because it actually isn't.. anway.. : also contra: the most annoying thing to me starts right there in the main menue / char selecting screen: you STILL can't sort them.. plus, each league start almost every name I'd like seems to be already taken even after seconds/minutes into new season.. no offline mode, and for multiplayer on the other hand - by the way things like level penalties, lag, gfx overkill from skills, but most of all experience & loot distribution/scaling works in party - that doesn't feels like fun/ not rewarding. Grim Dawn? (~ 'poor' 11 hrs over 4 years ) has really good ratings, many people say they like it, and so do I.. kinda.. this is weired, because even tho imho base game is good, and I even tho I 'collect' every expansion, I still haven't played em yet^^ I haven't touched it for longer than 11hours .. total.. just one char, somewhere half thru the first or second main act, or whatever they're called in GD.. hard to explain or pinpoint why.. maybe it's just the way combat feels (donno, I'd describe it as a little.. clunky, slow.. ) or the story telling.. or, its looks, its engine.. it looks 'really outdated', and I mean from a 'technical' point of view, not the fact that I believe it's deliberately trying to create a gritty, rusty, medieval, bleak dismal look (which it is quite successful at).. maybe they overdid it, at times it wouldn't feel appealing but way too cheerless, be it by art design or technical limitations of the gfx engine.. also, it has no real online-only mode.. plus, I played TQ way back then, and GD only looks different, it doesn't feel different... I own TQ anniversary edition as well, I really don't know why I keep buying and not playing GD stuff^^ always bought the GD and TQ parts when they were really cheap so I don't regret it.. not much. feel pretty stupid and embarassed right now tho, lol not going into detail but also tried Torchlight (10hrs) TL2 (12hrs) and TL3 previously known as TL Frontiers (6hrs since it moved to steam) , Guardians of Ember(11 hrs) and Victor Vran and Adventures of Van Helsing .. for ~15Minutes each ;) so, what's special about Wolcen? imho, you can see what they probably had in mind creating it: be more complex than D3 and less complex than PoE while also looking better than both of them.. making it - in theory - the game of choice if you love hack & slash/slay ARPG's with loads of loot... ..but are already bored by D3 or exhausted by PoE or didn't like GD like me, or just don't like one or more or all of them for your very own reasons in theory, because: Wolcen is still bugged currently, and also not very well balanced. (you most likely will notice this on high levels/end game especially) I still don't regret that I bought it. Wolcen wasn't a bad buy. what does this mean? I enoyed playing it for about 45 hrs Single Player offline & online, and think It was already worth its money.. there's less build diversity right now than you might think, both because bad balance and also obvious bugs. If they continue to deliver more balance patches, once there's more enjoyable active skills / tactics for passive tree, then I'll play more. Wolcen is ~35€ right now which is average I'd say, there's way more expensive titles I enjoyed less, or played less.. or both.. and, there have been a few patches post-release already, they promised to work on fixing stuff for the next 4 months and then adding new stuff..: more details regarding my personal experience: was able to play 1 char after day1 hotfix in offline through the main story (act 1,2,3) - had no gamebreaking/questbreaking bugs, or almost none: first one at start of act 2 (blocked path because I missed the NPC which had no quest marker ;) after I googled,searched & found her, it was no longer a problem..) second one was kinda worse, end boss of final act, was unable to beat him for like 20 times in a row until I found out he was bugged if you used certain skills/damage types or attacked him during the wrong moment.. managed to kill him after I switched away from aether/stasis dmg and also turned down difficulty from normal to story mode for final boss.. always kept all my items (others werent so lucky tho it seems) lost my progress after act 1 when act 2 started (got booted to beginning of act 1 again) could repair my progress manually by editing the save file.. by the time I started my online-only char, they either fixed the progress/item reset bug already, or I just got lucky, because I experienced neither of those 2.. with my online char, I tried out the endgame modes, it's fun for a while but gets repetetive fast .. it's basically similar to D3 but you can customize em.. => mandates = rifts and expeditions = grifts... you have your own town / buildings that will unlock passive boosts to gold/magic find/personal chest space/skills, or 'recipes' to alter/reroll/upgrade your gear stats.. these can get quite expensive and running expeditions just to unlock em over and overy feels like a chore sometimes.. all this needs balancing too.. personal Wolcen sum up: + offline-only mode + online-only mode + one of the best looks graphics-wise compared to other current ARPGs + pace during main story, and for fighting monsters in general + imho better hit feedback than GD +/- in theory more diversity as in D3 but less complex as PoE +/- story comparable to D3, imho in Wolcen there's 'more of it' than in PoE but less lore than in GD - nasty bugs, higher possibilty to encounter game/fun breaking ones - balancing issues across the entire game, but mostly noticeable in late game / end game final verdict: already like Wolcen more than Grim Dawn, currently best alternative to D3 and PoE, or better say addition to D3 or PoE, especially if you preferred D3 over PoE. but most certainly no full replacement. that's because of the remaining bugs, and the balance issues.. at times, the combat / attacking foes also doesn't always feel quite as right as in D3 for example.. if your favourite is or was already PoE then neither you'll need D3,GD .. nor Wolcen . would I recommend it? yes, maybe.. but only if you already tried PoE first, since the latter is free, has more content, and has way less bugs.. I also wouldn't recommend Wolcen if Grim Dawn doesn't ring a bell.. the latter is way more polished as well.. I know, lots of people are sceptical, because it has been in development for so long and still bugged, also others are disappointed, because its not the game anymore they were expecting when backing it way way way back on kickstarter.. one of the biggest changes eg. no more open world as originally planned.. but imho thats no biggy.. maybe, it's best to wait at least a few more weeks and see if they can fix build diversity / end game balancing for example, these two are a bigger problem imho than the remaining other bugs.. Wolcen is still enjoyable even in it's current state tho (you know, just like Sacred was, which had hundreds of thousands of bugs as well at first), it's just less balanced and has more bugs than D3 PoE or GD

Hi everyone, it's been a while, again Hope you're all fine.. ever heard of Torchlight Frontiers? https://www.torchlightfrontiers.com Developed by Echtra Games (founded by a bunch of people that were working over at Runic Games as well), and published by Perfect World.. some of the developers & artists working there were also involved in games such as Diablo, Fate, Hobs, and .. Mythos just like the aforementioned games, Torchlight Frontiers is going to be a "3D Iso-view hack&slash action RPG" , but with a larger focus on online multiplayer experience just recently, March 5th, the Closed Alpha 3 started, they were sending out the next wave of keys, and guess what, I got selected Can't wait to check it out, already installed, launched and played the first quest, but it's too late & I'm too tired now.. gotta work tomorrow ^^ If interested, you can still sign up for alpha/beta test, and maybe you get selected in one of the next waves.. currently, they mostly do it account bound tho, so if you get selected they just unlock your account to grant access so no key ( to give away if you redecide eg.) however, they still give out keys to fansites and magazines, I guess.. btw, with Alpha 3 the NDA has been lifted, you might find more infos & gameplay reviews etc pretty soon across the net.. cya around Bob

Hi, anyone heard of this one yet? I stumbled across it some time ago - I read about it in a german article about "upcoming diablo-like alternatives", I believe.. Hadn't decided to buy it yet though, because of the mixed reviews and the fact that it's still in Early Access - (Alpha) stage I think. However, it is on steam sale right now - for a whole week - til 21 August..: http://store.steampowered.com/app/463680/Guardians_of_Ember/ So, I just went ahead and bought a key for the most basic version/package they're offering, which means around 9 or 10 Dollars/EUR (from around 20, 50% off..) It is said to be some kind of Diablo/WoW/Runes of Magic mix, the latter in fact being one of developer runewaker's earlier game.. graphics/combat style definitely looks to be more diablo like, while it's content/mmo-orientation is more like wow/runes of magic I guess.. maybe that's why one of the reviews listed on their official site calls it "the secret child of diablo and runes of magic" .. beware - this game has some sort of "double dipping" financing plan..: it is not Free2Play, although it's pretty "cheap" right now (see above) it has a cash shop too, and although they claim Guardians of Ember won't be Pay2Win and won't offer stuff you can't obtain otherwise in game as well, I've read it already contains stuff that makes you level or travel faster... (if I understood the whole thing about the cash shop) so I'm not sure how this is going to turn out in the end, I hope it won't be an awful endless grinder then unless you're willing to spend additional money in that said shop. alright, I think I've finished downloading it now, let's see... cya

Hi everyone, surprised there's no post about the recently released, massively big 3.0 patch update for path of exile.. (patchnotes: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1930316 ) The Fall of Oriath adds a bunch of new acts, bosses, items, skill gems etc.. also, a new league just started, called the Harbinger League.. I just picked PoE up again after being bored by D3 even with their Necro Pack DLC (and also kinda feeling fooled by blizz and their stance/politics regarding the current state of the entire Diablo franchise) haven't played PoE in a loooong while now (in fact, almost never played it since the original first beta years ago).. it feels so much more polished now, and so much content that's new to me.. not just the recent update^^ anyways: Is there a darkmatters guild / anyone playing it or interested in picking it up again? greetings, bob

Hi there, for some reason I'm having a hard time completing the S5 Journey / Conquests , and I can't find much detailed info about how to speed or ease things up a little.. as I don't have that much time to play, and when I do, it's mostly solo or with friends, I'm only @ PL 500. running rifts @ T10 occasionally in a 4 man public game sure helps, but I'm still missing certain items, upgrades, and resources so, my WD with jade harvester set is currently stuck @ GR 56, for the extra stash tab I'd still need GR 60 solo, and one more conquest: only have completed avarice which was easy, even without finding a gilded baron, and had no luck in finding/mixing any gear that would work fast enough for "the thrill" one, which would be GR 45 solo without any set items) how about sprinter? is it still hard to complete in a 4 man group, and what are the chances of completing it solo? (might have to switch to a DH or Wizard then, I guess..) greetings, bob

also still playing D3, season 5 SC actually, but on EU servers.. still haven't completed even a single season conquest, they're challenging, for me at least^^ maybe I'll make it before season ends, which would be cool, for the achievement.. and last but not least it adds another stash tab, and I'm always running out of space

..updating via steam right now.. will check it out tonight, when my better half will be off for night shift

Merry Christmas to everyone Hope you're all up and well? have 3 days off, but caught a terrible cold.. even though it's about 16°C above normal, here too first x-max that I haven't spent at home with my family, stayed in town with my fiancee.. we both had to work yesterday.. had a romantic candle light dinner and plenty of food, still missed the rest of my beloved ones a little bit^^ happy new year too, In case I forget, next week.. greetings Bob

although I don't like Steam very much (I'm okay with it, but sometimes it sucks I have to use it), I like the idea of how the steam OS / steam machines might finally help to push development of games specifically designed to run on linux natively, plus development of good and fast GPU drivers (both AMD and Nvidia).. I dislike Windows 10 more than Steam, so it would be awesome if we could finally switch OSes and break away from Microsoft in order to play games without too many performance issues on linux, and not having to depend on MS/Windows/DX12 this is going to be interesting, maybe this time it's finally happening.. if Vulcan can change things, too? we'll see... I used to run some older games on linux with the help of wine, but newer games tend to stutter a lot, if I can get them to run, at all.. (and yeah, my PC hardware is getting old, too.. sadly) PS: you can install steam OS on practically any PC, so a dual boot of Win10 / Steam OS (or any other linux distro) should work on higher end PCs as well.. as most of the steam machines are low/mid end, or too expensive imho.. (building an individual PC yourself buying the hardware you like is always cheaper, but ofc that's not for everybody) so far, it's always been the same.. customers/gamers say they would like to switch from MS to linux, if their favourite title xyz would run, but tend to stick with MS anyway when it doesnt. publishers won't release many major AAA titles natively supported by linux because they say there's no/little market, and therefore, freeware/proprietary GPU drivers used to lack support/proper development as well, and so on... if this chicken-and-egg problem could be solved, some day?

sry for double post.. I'm pretty sure someone aready did it before, but can't find it.. maybe, this tool would be of any help if someone decided to read out sounds, in order to (possibly) being able to listen to and write down all the speech files? http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?/topic/21615-any-way-to-mod-the-soundpak-file/?p=6971374 or, this thing.. http://wiki.xentax.com/index.php?title=Game_Extractor

before I looked it up on the net after I saw some discussions about it years ago, what came to mind after I spend some time closely listening to those goblins shouting "Schniepel" , was more or less the same thing : here in austria, and especially in carinthia, teenagers also used the word "Schniedel" for penis, which is closely matching the word "Schniepel" and the related meaning as mentioned above.. (also found it here: http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/deutsch-englisch/Schniepel.html ) which reminds me about discussions I've heard or read about somewhere during my studies, regarding whether parents should use "baby talk language" when adressing their children during ther first few years, or not... and if it is useful or even harmful.. I don't know the correct english term for this if there is one, but one example would be "look, a woof-woof/wau wau" in an exaggerated high-pitched "talking to small children" voice mode instead of "look, a dog" using more or less your normal voice as when talking to your partner or grown up friends.. but, as chattius mentioned, we also use "schnipseln" over here, maybe the equivalent to "schnippeln" , and its meaning of cutting something into small pieces.. also, like in "Papierschnipsel", a very small piece of paper, usually not cut, but instead ripped/torn out of another sheet of paper.. hmm.. I also wanted to say something else, but I forgot.. Bob sorry, I also can't find it a the moment I remember a few loooong lists with all sorts of character / monster quotes for Sacred 1 as well.. If only I had made an entire forum backup before they merged/closed large bits of it.. personally, what I will miss the most, is useful info that was on the beta-test forum and the bug-DB.. but only if I let you guys start me thinking about it^^ good times.. but I get a strange feeling sometimes when I think about how many hours I spent for my hobby, back then..