I just played two hours of Everquest 2. All I did was hunt around the Sinking Sands trying to gather some materials for crafting. I think I had two, no I had four fights. My character was well above the MOBS, but I was so bored I wanted to just fight. I got a good amount of crafting materials, but it was a long two hours.

Some games are meant to be log slogs. You play them to build up experience points, for bragging rights, but they can take a long time to play.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank goodness for Diablo. Back in the day, when you just wanted to kill stuff, you played Diablo. In Diablo I and II, the graphics were great but not cutting edge. That wasn't the selling point. If you had a bad day at work and wanted to work out your frustrations, you could up the game, get into a random generated dungeon, and kill anything that moved.

It's been 12 years since the last Diablo game came out. In May, to much fanfare and controversy, Diablo III was released. So let's tackle the most controversial aspect of the new game. Having to log on every time you play the game, even in solo mode, is kind of a pain. Yes, when the game was released there were hiccups and players lost their minds. Now that almost a month has passed, it have been less complaints. I would have to say, IMHO, the early complaints about trouble logging on should have been expected considering the history of the gaming industry. I'm not saying this as an excuse for what happened, but no amount of planning, as a business person, could allow you to accurately anticipate the amount of traffic one can expect with an initial release for a game. Of course, you could overcompensate, then you would have to raise the price of the game to cover the cost of servers that will have to be shut down in a month or two once the actual pattern of the server load can be determined.

OK, with that addressed, I have to say this game is fun. It doesn't re-write the formula about gaming, or this game in particular. The graphics, while advanced, aren't cutting edged brilliance. This is a game to play quick and often. You play this game to get some frustration out. What I have found interesting about the game is while I can set aside time to play it, there is a good addiction value to it. I'll say I will play for two hours and before I know it three have gone by. I look forward to waves of monsters coming at me and the joy of seeing a stat pop up saying I wiped out 12 creatures with one blow, or that I just had a run of killing 45 creatures.

It takes some time to adjust gameplay to the various player characters in the game. As you move forward and gain skills, it is surprising how some advanced skills aren't good at the beginning, but with time and the adding of runes they can be devastating. Diablo III doesn't change the world of gaming, but it is new enough to be satisfying with the additions it brings. It would have been nice to be able to play off-line, especially in the solo mode, as previous versions were but this is a solid and fun game to kill a few hours with.