PixlBit

After watching an episode of Skylanders Academy on Netflix today, I got a lot of time in with Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition.

I finished the campaign solo (Mark had been playing on his own, so his character is now 10 levels ahead of me, too much difference with my character to play co-op) and then messed around in Adventure Mode for a while. I wanted to up the difficulty from Expert to Master because it was getting too easy, but the game wouldn't let me, or so I thought. I quit out of Adventure Mode kind of frustrated and made a Demon Hunter character in Hardcore Mode and played that on Expert. I got to level 18 before I got careless and died to a spider. It's so easy to get over confident. It only takes a few seconds carelessness with the right enemy and you're dead. Afterwards, I got a screen showing my ghostly character. I had used vanishing dye on his equipment so he was seen without armor. I joked I was keeping things extra sexy, like I heard Zakk Wylde (ex Ozzy guitarist) say once in an interview. The Demon Hunter, sans equipment, kind of looks like a rock star - like Glenn Danzig. . . but now as a ghost. 

Then I went back to my Witch Doctor character and started a new campaign on Expert thinking that beating it would unlock Master difficulty, but then I saw Master difficulty was already unlocked. What? Apparently that unlocked after I beat the campaign the first time. I guess I just missed it. So I went back to Adventure Mode, but then time ran out for the day. Tomorrow I'll play some Adventure Mode with my now level 59 Witch Doctor. I need some items to upgrade the Blacksmith and Jeweler to max which, apparently, only drop from elites in Adventure Mode.

I think I'm gonna go for the rest of the achievements. I've been playing without looking at them and trying not to get all O.C.D. with collectibles and such; trying to focus on just doing what's fun, which is designing your array of abilities and then using them in battle. There's quite a variety of loadouts you can have for each character type. It's fun to work them into a battle strategy and watch them in action. Most of the remaining achievements I have are pretty easy: leveling up the artisans, your character and all his gear, and enchanting all your stuff too. The tough one, or tedious one, might be getting to level 70 on Hardcore Mode. Set to an easy difficulty, it can be done without too much trouble, but that's kind of boring. Set on a reasonable difficulty like Expert or Master, it can also be done, but you have to pay attention the whole time. One mistake, like I did today, and you're done. I really liked that sort of tension as I played it today. It felt more like a survival horror game. I got more immersed in the world as I had to pay attention to every corner of a dungeon and watch the edge of the screen in wide open fields. It just would be really annoying to get to level 60 and get killed, permadeath style. I don't know how I'm going to approach that yet. 

So with that, I'm thinking I might be done with Diablo tomorrow at some point, so I'm bringing Skylanders Imaginators with me just in case. Yes, it'll be going from real Diablo to baby Diablo; should be an interesting comparison back to back like that. 

And speaking of Skylanders, I've been watching the Skylanders Academy TV show, one episode at a time, just before gaming. I'm half way through season one. It's been fine. Kaos is constantly being teased for living at home with his mother and having a crush on Golden Queen; and the core Skylanders are constantly talking about team spirit and positive thinking. Bah. Kind of predictible kids stuff, but I still like watching the game-like graphics and seeing what Skylanders appear in the show.

Finally, Diablo III enters my top ten most played games list today knocking off Ratchet & Clank. I'm looking forward to the blog I make describing my top ten most played games of 2016 at year's end. 

See ya.