D3 Redux (PC)

Just like the title of this blog, I've only had about 20 minutes to play anything recently.  In fact, the ability to play games at all is a relatively new thing considering how busy the last six months have been.

When I have had a bit of time, I've been jumping in to D3 and the new expansion, 'Reaper of Souls'.  I had sworn off of Blizzard entirely, but with the latest patch (2.0) I have been converted back in to a Diablo fan again.

In it's current form this is pretty much the perfect game for someone that wants some mindless downtime.  You can pop in and out of games really easily, regardless if it's your game or a friend's.  Friends can do the same to you which is a awesome casual way to keep social with people.

Getting rid of the auction house and tweaking the loot drops was the best thing Blizzard could have done to fix this game.  Knowing that you have to click to find good stuff, and knowing that the next click could drop something uber awesome, will have you chasing around every mob and inanimate object you can find.  There is something just that much more satisfying in knowing that you 'earned' each piece of your gear rather than straight up buying it from the AH.

Blizz also tweaked the difficulty level system as well.  I haven't made much use of this as I've kept my campaign game in Hard mode in order to burn through the story faster, but I do intend to try out Torture mode once I'm through all of the new content.  Yes, I know this isn't a new mode, but being able to up the difficulty without grinding through everything again is pretty sweet.

Speaking of new content, the story line is head and shoulders above the original.  Yes, it's already been done, and yes it's pretty cliché, but in all honesty it's way more interesting than all of the 60 levels prior.  They've also made it slightly more morally ambiguous which makes it easier to digest.  You're still the unstoppable good guy fighting evil, but it's not as in-your-face-saccharine-sweet good vs bad like it was prior. The rogue companion seems to have gotten cockier with his comments which is also much appreciated.

All in all, the patch made me feel like my initial purchase was worth it, and the $45 I spent on the expansion was money well spent too.  It's essentially a re-skinned D2 which is what it should have been all along. I'm still not huge on the rune system as I find it 'feels' way more limited than a skill tree.  I also wish they hadn't scrapped rune sockets as the process of combining runes in socketed items was one of my favourite features in D2. 

All things considered I'm still really enjoying D3 RoS and would recommend it to anyone looking for a quick and easy way to blow off some steam.