Diablo Updates

There has been a lot of talk lately that the Diablo series might be getting a new game or expansion.  Recently, Blizzard is looking to hire a bunch of artists for an unannounced Diablo project.  Whether this project refers to an expansion or a new game is uncertain.  In my opinion, I think the Diablo series is working towards a brand new game.  My theory is that part of the Titan project (Blizzard's cancelled MMO project game) will be introduced in the new Diablo game.  We all know that the characters and gameplay that was created under the Titan project became to be Overwatch, which is about to be released soon.  Since Overwatch is not an MMO, I think that the MMO portion of the Titan project will be used in the new Diablo game.  If you think about it, it kind of makes sense because after spending 50 million dollars developing Titan (reportedly), Blizzard wouldn't just waste money like that (they would want to show people what they have done with that development money).  Sure, part of that development is now used in Overwatch, but the other part (the MMO portion) is still unused.  This is quote for what the Titan project could have been - "The main concept was this: you, the player, would maintain a mundane job—butchering, engineering, entrepreneurship—during the day, while waging clandestine warfare against opposing factions at night (or between work hours)." (source titanfocus.info).  Another quote that falls into the MMO portion is this - "Not only would players have been able to run their own businesses and shops, according to one source, they could maintain relationships with non-player customers and retail staff, even starting families thanks to a complicated AI system that Blizzard hoped to implement. (One source told me that Blizzard had hired a number of former Maxis staff who worked on The Sims in order to help put all this together).  The goal, according to one person who worked on the game, was to construct cities that felt like living worlds, full of businesses, shops, and NPCs with schedules and behaviors based on what was happening at any given time."  All of this is just pure speculation on my part but it is really interesting to note that Blizzard is only hiring artists for this Diablo project right now (perhaps that is all that is needed since the MMO system is sort of in place already).  This is very exciting news for us Diablo fans but I wonder if Blizzard was thinking of using the Starcraft universe instead of using the Diablo series since the Starcraft saga ended with the recent last expansion. 

Another topic in Diablo 3 that has come up lately is why so many people have stopped playing the game.  I know that this happens every season, where there is a bunch of people at the start of the season but after a month into the new season, most of the players have stopped playing the game.  Why is this? It is probably due to fact after a certain point, players come to a wall.  While finding upgrades and getting those paragon points is really exciting at the beginning of the season, after a while, there's a point where you aren't finding any upgrades and grinding for the paragon levels is all that is left to do.  So to combat this problem, I suggest having a Weekly Challenge Mode.  Just like the Tavern Brawl system in Hearthstone and the new Challenge Mode in Overwatch, the Weekly Challenge Mode can be changed weekly so that players can expect to play differently every week.  Although the Weekly Challenge Mode wouldn't be the main way of playing the game, it would be a nice change up to the game.  The Weekly Challenge Mode in my vision would be something that is quick and fairly easy to accomplish.  Here are some examples of the goals in a Weekly Challenge Mode (you could probably come up with much more of these):

1. Find "x" amount of legendaries in "x" amount of time.
2. Find "x" amount of death breaths in "x" amount of time.
3. Complete "x" amount of bounties in "x" amount of time.
4. Open "x" amount of chests in "x" amount of time. 
5. Find and click "x" amount of shrines/pylons in "x" amount of time.   
6. Destroy "x" amount of barrels in "x" amount of time.
7.  Kill "x" amount of Bosses in "x" amount of time.  

There could be more complicated ones as well:

1. Kill "x" amount of enemies with the Fallen Lunatic (Nagelring) at your side. 
2. Kill "x" amount of enemies just by using pets only.  
3. Kill "x" amount of enemies using the Death Watch Mantle.   

There might be certain rules that each Challenge Mode might offer such as:

1. No paragon points allowed.
2. Only weapon slots equipped.
3. No set items allowed.  
4. A pre-set character already made by Blizzard.
5. Only weapons and jewelry allowed.   
6. Randomized skill set.
7. Randomized passive skill set.  

Of course the main purpose of the Weekly Challenge Mode is to reward the players that try this mode so offering a reward after the first completion would be ideal.  Some rewards that Blizzard could give out are: Forgotten Souls, Death Breaths, certain legendaries, potions, Ramalandi's Gift, Horadric Cache materials, gems, and of course cosmetic items (pets, wings, banners, portraits).  Another idea for the Weekly Challenge Mode is to have either a co-op mode or a PvP mode.  Maybe a certain week, players need to work together to achieve one of the goals or in another week, players have to challenge each other (thus the much talked about PvPvE mode we've all been asking for).  I think this Challenge Mode would work well in both season and non-season and would probably force people to play different classes. 

Anyways that is it for now.  Diablo season 5 should be wrapping up in a couple of more weeks so I should have an update as to what my season 5 ended up with. 

Star Blazers/Space Battleship Yamato

On this blog, I want to cover one of my favourite tv cartoon shows of all time.  It is called Star Blazers (or Space Battleship Yamato in Japan).  I first saw this show when I was very little (maybe at age 5 or 6).  It would come on in the early morning and I would wake up real early to watch this show.  The reason why this show was so good was because it had a linear story line meaning that the more of the show you watched, the further you progressed in the story.  Most cartoons of its time didn't have any story from show to show so Star Blazers was one of the first to do so.  Also, this cartoon was one of the first to entertain the idea that cartoons weren't just to be funny, in Star Blazers there were many themes that were more serious in nature.

The story of Star Blazers is that the current Earth was being bombarded by the planet Gamilon, which forced to the citizens of the Earth to live underground.  The Earth then receives unexpected help from Queen Starsha of the planet Iscandar, who offers a device called "Cosmo DNA" which will remove the radiation. However, since Iscandar is 148,000 light years away, Starsha also sends plans for the experimental Wave Motion Engine that, when constructed, will aid whoever can travel to Iscandar. On Earth, a crew is recruited, headed by Captain Avatar, and an old sunken battleship (the Yamato) is transformed into a spaceship (the Argo), outfitted with the Wave Motion Engine, and sent to Iscandar.  It is important to note that the Yamato was an actual battleship used in World War II and was one of the heaviest and most powerful armed battleship of all time. The wave motion physic was also used for the wave motion gun, which was a huge gun at the front of the ship.  Another aspect of the Yamato was the use of smaller airships called the Black Tigers.  There were 3 seasons of the Star Blazers story and they are available on DVD (which I have). One of the reasons why I love Star Blazers so much is the music.  If you ever get the chance to listen to the music, it is one of the greatest music ever for a television show.  The music is full orchestral and has nice vocals as well.  I would recommend everyone to listen to the music. 

Star Blazers is often compared to Star Wars because the story takes place in the future and has a lot of science fiction in it.  I had first watched Star Blazers before I watched Star Wars, so when I first watched Star Wars, I didn't feel too impressed by it.  I thought Star Blazers was a way better version of the science fiction genre.  There many things that I liked in Star Blazers over than Star Wars.  The main spaceship, the Yamato, was way better than the Millennium Falcon.  I also thought that the Black Tigers were better than the X-wing.  I liked the character Derek Wildstar over Luke Skywalker (although Derek Wildstar is more like Han Solo).  Also, Nova was more attractive than Princess Leia. 

The "live" version of Star Blazers is now out on DVD and I had a chance to view it recently.  There are a few subtle differences from the cartoon series.  First, Nova is a much better in the "live" version.  She is more opinionated and a much stronger character (she even knocks out a couple of guys).  The doctor is a female in the "live" version but still carries a bottle of sake and has a pet cat.  The weirdest change between the cartoon and the "live" version is the Gamilons.  In the cartoon version, the Gamilons are humanoid form but in the "live" version they seem to be more of a non-physical form.  This is a bit confusing since it could have been easier just casting more people to play the role of the villain.  Overall, I thought the "live" version had pretty good acting in it, although at times, the story seemed a little too drawn out.  There were times that it was pretty obvious as to what was going to happen next.