Diablo3

Blizzard has been hosting teaser splash pages the last few days leading to the Worldwide Invitational and it's official - Diablo3 is coming:


Perhaps from some Wow influence, it seems more skill based with a recognizable skill hotbar. Does that mean UI mods will be allowed? Wow mechanics in a real game would be something to look forward to. It always seemed to me that they could easily take the Wow engine and build a game out of it - like, a real game.


Each character class gets a male and female version as well, look familiar?

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New Gaming PC

I had the opportunity to acquire a new wolfdale CPU at discount and decided it was time to build a new PC. It's been about 7 years since I stopped building computers and my last two were pre-built from Dell over 5 years ago (hyperthreaded P4s!). They still work great, but are slow by current standards and won't keep up with the latest games. So here's what I've put together:

Intel C2D E8400 3GHz
Asus P5KC
Nvidia 8800GT 512
Geil Ultra 1066 PC8500 2x1G
CM 80+ RS-650W

Recycled an old ATX mini tower case and it booted first try. The Geils, however, don't run at the rated speed - the SPD is 800MHz cas5 and they will run at 950MHz, but not stable and they won't POST past 1GHz no matter what (even bumping to 2.4v with looser timings as Geil claims will work). They simply do not, so could have saved some money with cheaper PC6400 (since that's what they really are) or a more compatible brand.

During this exercise, I found what I really miss is the simplicity of the Dell clamshell cases. Too bad Dell uses all proprietary parts, so the cases can't be re-used. I've never felt cramped installing parts into the Dells, which are even smaller than the standard ATX mini tower, yet they feel so roomy when opened. Meanwhile, I swear up and down at the crappy ATX cases - if Dell would only design a clamshell that takes standard ATX parts.

The E8400 is a overclocking beast. It will run at 4GHz on air, but the cores run too hot for comfort without a better cooler. With just the stock cooler, 3.6GHz seems to be the sweet spot - the cores hit 65C under 100% load at 1.2v and passes Prime95 overnight. While in acceptable range, that's still a bit hot to me, so I'm going to try an Arctic Freezer cooler.

I'm already happy with the performance so far and total cost was $465. Now, off to re-install all the software..... ^^;;;;

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Installed an Arctic Freezer 7 Pro and bumped it up to 3.8GHz at 1.25v - the cores max at 60C on prime torture test overnight. Typical gaming load sits between 50-55C and it is very stable.

I was sad to see the PowerEdge 400SC get gutted though, so I decided to experiment with Ubuntu XBMC. I put the original 256MB and 40GB drive back into the box and installed Xubuntu and LXBMC. It streams up to 720p content at about 70% on both "cores" (hyper-threaded), but can't keep up with 1080p content. It also lags on some mkv subtitles with lots of text, but at this stage, it's quite usable as an extra network media player. I needs to get a little more stable though before I replace the xbox, as I can crash it pretty easily.

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Fear and Hope

Found this posted yesterday over at dailymotion. Looks like a new trailer of Soul Calibur IV with "Fear" and "Hope" gameplay footage at the end:

Soul Calibur IV - Avril trailer

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WoW-Freedom

Having spent 2 years of my life in WoW, I am now officially WoW-free for a year as this marks the anniversary of my account expiration. I actually stopped actively playing sometime in mid January, a few weeks after Burning Crusade was released as I found myself wondering why I was paying Blizzard to play a game I had already played just for new graphics and to keep up with the Jonses.

I played a horde mage named Sputnik on a PvP server grinding up the PvP ranks to General, and indeed half way towards Warlord, when the PvP honor changes occurred. In some ways, the months of honor grinding for gear (which was now being given away for almost free) marked the end of the game for me. I still tried to give BC a chance, but with a record number of players in the same zone filled with quests collecting items with a 0.0001% drop rate (which we affectionately called "livers"), I could stand it no more.

With 2 months still paid on my account, I decided to let it expire. This money making machine of Blizzard has no end - there's no goal to look forward to and all it takes is another patch to keep you playing catch-up for the next set of gear (and more subscription money).

I wouldn't have reached out to other forms of entertainment and hobbies if I hadn't quit. As well, I had renewed focus in my day job which lead to two promotions that year - far better returns than my night and weekend "job" in WoW with nothing to show for it but digital bits. I also had renewed interest in playing music and found an artistic outlet in building the resin kits shown in this blog. None of which would have happened if I stayed on the WoW treadmill.

R.I.P. Sputnik.

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Lost Odyssey

I've been reading the coverage of Wonder Festival in between playing Lost Odyssey on the 360. I'm playing it with the japanese audio and english subtitles and omg, some of the translations are hilarious.. there are plenty of places where there is dialog and no subtitles at all, but I can follow enough of it to make sense of what they are saying.

I'm quite fond of the character designs in this game and would love to see figure kits of the immortals, Ming especially, but it is probably not popular enough to happen. I do like some of the new anime kits coming out from the WF coverage, but think I am favoring the smaller eyed, more naturally proportioned and somewhat dressed character designs. Maybe it's time to try learning to sculpt! =:O

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