Well, as you probably know already, Diablo III finally opened yesterday after an eternity since Diablo II. Diablo II has been the benchmark for all RPGs since its release back in 2000 and Diablo III has a high standard to maintain. It’s likely you have already heard the news as well. The Diablo servers were a bit under the weather yesterday for a large chunk of time (read: several hours) on the day that was to be its triumphant moment. I plan to not dwell on the server issues and plan to stick to the contents of the game. So here it is…

Installation: 5 out of 5

My install was completed on the 14th and, therefore, was done when the servers were not under load. It went quickly and consistently was downloading data at the highest rate my connection would allow. I have a 25Mb connection and sustaining 3.22MB/s at times was as fast as it could go. At that speed, it went quickly and installed effortlessly. I do know that Blizzard uses a bittorrent like distribution of data so reaching my max limit would be easy as long as the data was kept in order. I didn’t hear of anyone having install issues, although I’m sure there were some, so this rating shouldn’t be hard to believe

First Impression: 4 out of 5

The first execution of the game went similar to the World of Warcraft client so I kinda knew what to expect. The issue I had with this is the same issue I have with WoW as well. How many fracking EULAs do I have to agree to? I had to agree to three different EULAs before I could do anything. Now I understand the necessity of the EULA, but having to read through all that is unacceptable. I think they do that so no one will read it. With that out of the way, we move on.

Character creation: 3 out of 5

Character Creation (or CC for short) was simple and breezy. My issue here is that it was too simple. One thing I hate about RPGs is the fact that every female witch doctor will look virtually identical. There were no customization options at all. Having read the strategy guide (or thumbed through it a bit, didn’t want to spoil anything), there are certain looks for each character type. WoW had this same issue and introduced transmog options to change things up a bit. What is available is nicely done, however you should expect your character to look a certain way with the best gear on as you have no other option except to swap out to lower spec pieces. To the same point, there is no customization of the character look either. Blizzard is not known for this at all. This is something they will have to work on. I’m not asking for Skyrim level customization, but throw me a bone, please.

Graphics: 3 out of 5

Now here is where everyone will disagree with me. I like the graphics on the game (a rating of 2 or less would be otherwise). However, the graphics style seems to have gone the Warcraft way and seem a bit less detailed than Diablo II did in its day. Diablo II seems to be more detailed than the screen resolution would allow. It was nearly magic how well it looked for being limited to 800×600 resolution. There are things in D3 that don’t fall under this rule. The chandeliers are nicely detailed. But the overall environments seem a bit washed out in color. I compare this to the overly colorful appearance of Red Alert 3. Now RA was designed to be that way from the first game. Diablo was not. It has a history of being very dark and intricate. The new environments do not seem to live up to that. I will say the animation detail is quite exquisite though. The chandeliers falling and the statues and furniture breaking apart when you hit them give the illusion of a destructible environment. These animations add character to the visuals of the game. The even utilize a physics engine to make these animations more realistic. Three out of five is good, but not what I expected out of it. It’s even a high 3.

Gameplay: 5 out of 5

The gameplay of D3 is exactly what you’d expect of a Diablo game. Much of what you wanted is back in a big way. With the environments being randomized, you can expect a play though to differ each time. It is amazing how D3 can deliver on this while still making the graphics decent is a feat in and of itself. We, as a gaming culture, have gotten used to the same experience repeated as being entertaining. I cannot tell you the number of times I have been through Skyrim. It is refreshing to see a game that can randomize the environment and make the experiences unique. So far, gameplay in D3 do not differ greatly from D2. Since D2 continues to be played to this day, keeping that part of the game formula similar is a no brainer decision. So far I have only played the Witch Doctor so I cannot comment on any of the other four classes. I will say that the Witch Doctor through level 11 has been very fun and I look forward to progressing with her more this week. I’m still having fun and have killed the Skeleton King.

Audio: 5 out of 5

The sound system is running at 128 voices although the default is 32. If your system can support the additional load, I recommend doing so. This will help in making sure you don’t lose environmental sounds while a lot of combat is going on. The quality of the audio and the blending across the sources is top notch.

Multiplayer: ???

I’ve only played one game to the Skeleton King by Multiplayer. There are a few things about MP I’d like to see improved. We had a lag issue it seems and I’m not sure if it was related to the server issue yesterday, so stay tuned for an update related to this.

Odds and Ends: ???

I have not used the Auction House (AH), real money or gold. There are other aspects of the game I’m sure I have yet to experience. You can expect this review to be maintained as I continue to play.

Overall: 4 out of 5

I’ve had solid enjoyment so far with the game. Even though there are some issues I’ve seen that, imho, are pretty serious, I still recommend this game whole heartedly. I know that Blizzard will continue to maintain the game and you can expect to see things pick up in performance and reliability. I wish the graphics would be a bit more detailed, but that will not stop me from enjoying this game. I hope you enjoyed this review and plan to give Diablo 3 a try. You will not regret it.

I received an email today stating that the President of the United States ordered that the honors bestowed to the next of kin at military funerals be changed.  Basically, instead of “On behalf of the President of the United States and a Grateful Nation…”, it was changed to “On behalf of the Secretary of Defense and a grateful nation…”  It really pains me that this stuff continues to circulate despite the fact that a simple google search would prove it false.  I responded to the email letting the sender know that it was false, but I was taken aback, if only a little, at the string of addresses in the list would have received this email already before I saw it.  How many of them will believe every word without question.

When we forward an email, we are attaching our credibility to that email and the recipient will add that credibility to the email regardless of whether we researched it or not.  We want to believe that others wouldn’t lie to us.  Is it this, or are we so dissatisfied with our current President that we will believe that he would do anything .  As minor as this would be, if it were proved positive, it would be political suicide.  So why do we propagate this material?  Do we want to believe we are not being lied to, or do we dislike this President that much?  I am not satisfied with our current leader, but at some point we must stop and verify what we pass on, or else we put our names on that list testifying to that information.  To the three of you who read this, please don’t pass on things like this.  I count this as hate, however minor.  If we are going to believe in something, try to believe in the good in someone before you eagerly believe in the bad.

After working on encoding some videos for youtube (see previous posts), I broke some of the multimedia support on my Windows 7 machine.  This may not sound like much, but it translated into half my media no longer playing on my system.  This was unacceptable.  However, it did give me a chance to try out my Windows 7 modified USB installer.

I sideloaded the Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit installation DVD files onto a usb stick and made the modification for it to ask me which version I’m loading.  I haven’t slipstreamed any service packs into, but that is because once you do that, you can’t use it as a repair DVD anymore.  The Windows 7 Professional 64-bit took 15 minutes to load.  Start to finish.  I’d have to say I ‘m impressed.  I couldn’t load Windows 3.1 in 15 minutes.  Now begins the process of restoring all my Steam, Origin and Blizzard stuff.  It’s taking awhile, but with a 30Mb connection, it won’t take as long as most.

In case I’ve never told you, if you are ever in the market for high quality desktop images or web backgrounds, Check out Interfacelift.  This website has abstract and high quality photos from around the world.  Downloadable in virtually any resolution and containing thousands of high quality images, I challenge you to not find something you like.  If a lot of the images are to your liking, consider buying the whole collection in the resolution of your choice for a pittance.  While you are there, look around for other things they have.  They can help you spruce up your iPAD as well as icon sets and desktop themes for Windows and other Operating Systems

The Server has just been updated to 1.2.3 and is now in the process of upgrading the map file to the new format, giving up a delicious 256 block high world to build in. the conversion is at 21% and may take several minutes. By 8:30 AM i expect it to be up and running. Crossing my fingers that the conversion goes well.

IS-100.b – Introduction to Incident Command System, ICS 100

The one that starts it all. This course is estimated to take 3 hours to complete from start to finish. After completing this course, you will know if you want to continue. It contains a lot of detail on the course, but do not discount the additional courses. As detailed as this one is, the follow-on courses go much deeper. Emergency Management is an honorable career that requires an individual who can deal with long periods of high stress.  If you think this is a good path for you, try this out and find out.  Even if you do not follow this path, knowing what goes into a response plan can be useful when you have to follow them.