My thoughts on Diablo 3 Loot 2.0 update

I was one of those who were extremely excited about Diablo 3 when it finally came out. And I really enjoyed playing the game. One thing really bugged me though - I didn't ever get any decent gear drops, I literally had to hit the Auction House after each level up just to be able to survive my encounters. I ended up leveling up my Demon Hunter to about level 46, my Barbarian to about level 27 and a few more to the early teens. No cool gear drop worth mentioning.

I know why Blizzard decided to do an Auction House - they wanted to keep an eye on things, because in Diablo 2 people sold gear all the time to other players, so Blizzard wanted their share of the pie as well of course. Anyway, it really hurt the game more than anything in my opinion.

I lost interest very quickly, and didn't even level one character to level 60. I wasn't in the mood to grind till I level up, and then spend an hour searching for nice new gear in the Auction House.

Last year I learned that Blizzard has decided to finally take the whole Auction House out of the game, and I was really glad to hear that. Furthermore, they've patched the game with their new Loot 2.0 system, which is also a pre-patch for the new expansion coming out.

After Loot 2.0 came out, I kept a close eye on the internet to see what the people had to say, and I was happy to learn that it was good news. Great news even! It was a new game!

I decided to dust of the section of my hard drive where Diablo 3 was installed, and started it up again on Saturday. First thing I noticed was that the difficulty settings has changed, and you can increase or decrease the difficulty at any time.

I started a new Witch Doctor, and quickly went to about level 20 in a few hours - there's currently a double XP buff active in the game, I guess that really helped. The loot drops have been amazing! Finally I'm getting gear in every game that improves my character. I've even had two orange items (legendaries) drop as well, and BOTH were actually usable by my character!

I've upped my difficulty to Master, and I'm surviving so far! It feels like a new game, so if you too were disappointed in Diablo 3 because of the loot issues, you should definitely give it a try again. The new Loot 2.0 system is awesome, and it really makes the game fun again.

Pixel Piracy, from the makers of Terraria

This morning I saw a post on Facebook about Pixel Piracy, and it was made by the same guys who made Terraria. I found myself immediately intrigued. Terraria claimed over 275 hours of my time - that in anyone's book is money well spent!

Now, I haven't bought Pixel Piracy just yet, but I think I might just do it. Check out this gameplay video, looks really cool hey!



It's on Steam now as an Early Access title for $15, but with 33% off :) I will definitely give it a try sometime...

Afrihost at it again

I just got this email from Gian Visser, the CEO of Afrihost (Yes I'm sure it's an automated email, but I don't care):

We have a gift waiting for you...

Why?

Because we're sincerely grateful for your business and wanted to say 'Thank you' for trusting us with your internet and for sticking with us through thick and thin.

So there are free, fresh GBs waiting for you in your ClientZone right now.

Here's how to claim your extra GBs:

- Click this link
- You'll see your Bonus Calculator
- Press the 'Show My Bonus' button
- You'll be given a percentage of your
  monthly GBs
- Your account will be automatically 
  topped up with these extra GBs for the 
  rest of the month
- This costs you absolutely NOTHING

What's the catch?

There isn't one! Enjoy!

Have a spectacular weekend

Gian
CEO, Afrihost

And here's what I got:

Hehe, that makes me a happy chappy!

Galaxy Note 3 and 4k Video Recording

One of the features of the Galaxy Note 3 was that it's camera can capture 4k video. That has a 8.3 mega pixel resolution of  3840 x 2160. That's huge!

Anyway, after I got my phone, I only saw full HD as an option for recording video, and it's not a mistake. You see, there are two versions of the Note 3 - the one I've got has the 1.9Ghz Samsung Exynos 5 Octa 5420 3G processor, and the other one has the 2.3Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 LTE one.

That probably means I don't have LTE either, but to be honest, I'm not missing it, or the 4k recording. My phone is blazingly fast, and pretty much anything I throw at it, it handles without breaking a sweat.

I've also read that even in some countries, the 4k feature is also missing on the Snapdragon version.

I only think that once 4k TV's become mainstream then this might be something you'd want, but here in South Africa we're not even close to having affordable 4k TV's.

Anyway, bottom line, my Galaxy Note 3 is awesome, I'll never go down to a smaller phone again. And I still use the stylus! :)