Last weekend I treated myself and purchased StarCraft Remastered. StarCraft is actually free to play, but I wanted to benefit from the graphics and aspect ratio enhancements Blizzard made when they released the remastered edition back in 2017.
Playing the original StarCraft brings back a lot of memories, some of which I mentioned in my first StarCraft post. I played through the original Terran campaign, which was easy, followed by the Terran Brood War expansion campaign which was a little harder but not exactly difficult for a StarCraft veteran such as myself.
While playing, I am reminded just how good StarCraft is and especially was when first released. I can hardly believe that after all these years no one has, in my opinion, released an RTS (Real Time Strategy) game anywhere near as good. Blizzard intend to remaster (reforge) their other, somewhat less popular RTS game, Warcraft III. I never played Warcraft III as I was too busy enjoying StarCraft and Diablo II. Because of this, I am incredibly excited and can’t wait to experience Warcraft III for the first time.
I highly recommend that anyone who enjoys RTS games should try the original StarCraft, even if it’s just the original free to play version as opposed to the remastered edition. In my opinion, StarCraft multiplayer is the hardest game ever made, but if competitive play is not your thing, the campaign missions are great and offer new players a fun challenge.
Here is my first monthly Snooker Nation post containing the results for every match that Jason and I played in the month of June.
Jason continued his ridiculous win streak after we played a best of 7 which Jason won 4 frames to 2. There were also two century breaks, 127 in the first frame and 111 in the third frame, both belonging to Jason which highlights just how well he was playing this week.
At last, I broke my losing streak and won 5 frames to 1 in a best of 9. It’s a bit of a running joke that Jason never wins when we play a best of 9 but often wins when we play a best of 7. There were no century breaks but I honestly didn’t care. It was great to win a match after losing so many.
Another best of 9 which I won 5 frames to 2 and while I didn’t score a century, Jason got 109 in the second frame. A patch was released the previous day by the developer of Snooker Nation (Cherry Pop Games). Here are the patch notes:
Disappointingly we found no significant difference to the online game play. The delay between each shot was shockingly slow making the game dull and virtually unplayable. Once again, we reverted back to the 2016 version of the game and have given up hope for a new and improved (most importantly playable) Snooker Nation.
Why does Jason play best of 9 matches? I don’t remember if he has ever won one. I won 5 frames to 3, giving me a 3 week win streak. Unfortunately, no century breaks this time and, to be honest, we both played badly.
For the last match in June Jason and I played a best of 5 which Jason won 3 frames to 1. Once again, no century breaks this week. Unfortunately my three week win streak was broken but, to be honest, I don’t like it much when one of us keeps winning.
I really like how this Snooker Nation post has combined 5 matches and as such 5 posts into one. As I mentioned in my previous Snooker Nation post, next month will be the first in a 6 month Snooker Nation ‘season’. I will be keeping tabs on statistical data which I hope will make these posts a little more interesting.
My Diablo III season 17 continues to grow since my previous Diablo post. I am not sure why but I am enjoying season 17 far more than season 16. I have a feeling it could be because this time around I decided to play hardcore (where if my character dies it dies permanently), making the risk/reward more exciting and gratifying.
The first thing to note is that I have levelled another character to the maximum level of 70. This is the 4th character I have levelled this season, all of which have been hardcore. My new character is a crusader which I have not played much so far, to be honest I do not think it suits my style of play.
More excitingly I managed to complete a level 70 greater rift with my wizard. This was the primary goal I set myself in my previous Diablo post and I have to say, it feels really good to have come this far. From now on I believe it is at least possible that primal legendary items (the best items in the game) can be obtained through play.
Once you complete a level 70 greater rift, you are automatically given a random primal legendary item. You can see from the screenshot below the red beam of light indicating the primal legendary which dropped for me. Unfortunately it wasn’t an item I want to use but I hope to find at least 1 more before the end of the season.
The last thing I want to mention is that my season 17 hardcore paragon level is now 668. Considering my total hardcore paragon level before season 17 is 120 and that my total soft core paragon level is 666, this is by far my greatest Diablo III season to date. I have seen many players hit well over 1000, even 2000 paragon levels in a single season and complete greater rifts over level 120. Regardless of this, I am happy with my achievements and look forward to improving my personal best.
I have no specific goals other than to carry on playing for as long as I find season 17 fun. I will write one more Diablo post to sum up my season 17 when the season ends or when I am done playing.
After speaking to my good friend Jason, I have decided to change how I post our Snooker Nation results.
I noticed that a large proportion of my blog posts are about my weekly Snooker Nation game with Jason. While I do enjoy Snooker Nation, I feel the frequency of which I make Snooker Nation posts is excessive and quickly over shadows posts about other games which I have, more often than not, put much more effort in playing and producing content.
Starting immediately, I have decided that my Snooker Nation posts will now be monthly and will contain the results of all matches Jason and I play in that given month. This has meant that I have deleted the post Snooker Nation Week 34 of which the content of will be used in a new post, Snooker Nation June 2019. This will be released either at the end of June or beginning of July.
Furthermore, from the beginning of July, I will be adding statistical data at the end of each monthly post. This means in July I will include a table for matches played, matches won, match points (3 points for winning), frames won, number of century breaks and highest break. After 6 months I will reset the data and will declare the season champion before starting a new season in January.
This will reduce the number of Snooker Nation posts from a potential of 4-5 a month to 1 a month. Each post should also be more interesting and content rich rather than just 1-2 paragraphs containing just a few sentences.
I feel like this is a good evolution for my blog and that it will even make the game more fun. I hope that other posts about my different gaming activities will be given more exposure as well.
Since starting Diablo III season 17 again after my newly max level demon hunter died after an hour or two of playing the end game content, I feel I have made some good progress.
At the time of writing this, my season 17 hardcore paragon level is 501 and my new demon hunter still lives with greater rift record of level 50 (torment XI). For those readers who have not played Diablo 3, or have but from before the launch of Reaper of Souls back in 2014, after your character reaches maximum level, in this case level 70, you start to gain account wide paragon levels. Paragon levels give you points to spend and make your character stronger. There is no limit to how high your paragon level can become, however if your paragon level is very high, it will take quite some effort and time to gain more. Greater rifts are big part of the end game content. The higher the greater rift level, the more rewards you can expect for completing them. Eventually greater rifts become so difficult that it is nearly impossible to complete them and will always offer a challenge to the most elite Diablo III players.
Surprisingly for me, I decided to level a second character, a wizard. While I have found the demon hunter more fun to play this season, my wizard seems to be much stronger and I have a greater rift record of level 57 (somewhere between torment XII and XIII).
The reason my wizard is so much more powerful is partly because I have traditionally played wizard as my favourite Diablo III class, but also because I have a good sense of direction as to what my build should be. In Diablo III it’s usually a good idea to find and use items which compliment specific spells, making them more and more powerful. It’s fine to change the way you want to play your character, but it usually involves finding a new set of items to make it highly effective.
Moving forward, I hope to make 4 or 5 improvements to my wizards set of gear which I hope I can use to get to greater rift level 70. I found out that you must complete a level 70 greater rift solo before any primal legendary items will drop (Primal legendary items are the best items you can find in the game and are very rare). Doing this on softcore was relatively easy, it didn’t matter if I died, just as long as I completed the rift on time. On hardcore however, it’s a completely different story.
I don’t know why but I am enjoying Diablo III season 17 even more than I enjoyed season 16. It’s nice to play something so passionately again. I really hope this continues.
Earlier this week I wrote about my Diablo III season 17 disaster in that my newly levelled hardcore demon hunter died pretty much as soon as I started playing the end game content. This was through overconfidence and general stupidity on my part. This meant my levelled up character was gone and that I would have to level up a new one to continue my season 17 journey.
I must have a strong urge to play Diablo III right now because yesterday I completed levelling up another demon hunter on hardcore mode. Either that or I just couldn’t bare to let the season end like that.
To be honest levelling a new demon hunter was not much bother, especially since the crafting materials and status of the crafting traders are not lost when your hardcore character dies. This meant I was able to craft new items every 5-10 levels or so to make the levelling easier and faster.
Over the next couple of days I will be trying to further my season 17 progress. I just hope that I don’t die in the first hour or two of playing. It’s not that I mind dying and losing my character, if I did I wouldn’t play hardcore, it’s just how my character died last week and how little time I had to play. This time around I would like to gain at least 100 paragon levels and push a good greater rift record. Who knows, I may even find one of the new primal ancient legendary items.
Jason and I played yet another game of Snooker Nation, this time a best of 7 which Jason won 4 frames to 3, continuing his winning streak.
I have made so many disappointing mistakes lately. For whatever reason I just can’t seem to play well like I used to. All credit to Jason capitalising on some of my mistakes and scoring two century breaks, 101 in the 4th frame and 110 in the final frame. Unfortunately Jason could have ended on 137 in the final frame but he missed the yellow, not that it matters. The only good thing I can say about my performance this week is that I was at one stage down 3-1 but managed to win two scrappy frames to make it 3-3.
I don’t like playing Snooker Nation single player, especially against the really bad AI, but perhaps I need to set aside some time to practise if I want to win next week.
The first time playing my newly levelled up hardcore Demon Hunter for Diablo III Season 17 has ended in utter disaster. Without taking my own advice in my previous post, I got over confident and died with just 28 paragon levels under my belt. When a hardcore character dies in Diablo III, a screenshot is captured, almost as if to rub salt into the wound.
I do at least get to keep my 28 paragon levels and collected crafting materials. The profession traders also remain levelled up should I decide to level another character from 1-70.
To say I am disappointed with myself is an understatement, I jumped 3 difficulty levels and completely screwed up on the fight that killed me. I was going to stop playing season 17 as soon as my character died. It would be a shame however to stop when the season has only just begun. I will have to give it some thought and see if I feel like starting another character in the days ahead.
Last Friday Season 17 started for Diablo III and I got started straight away. This time however I am playing the hardcore mode, something I really liked in Diablo II.
For those of you who do not know about hardcore in dungeon crawler games such as Diablo, Path of Exile and Torchlight, it’s a where if your character dies, it will not be resurrected. You will permanently lose your character and the equipped items. For some this makes the game more fun, giving a sense of risk, something to lose if your character dies. Other than that the game is no harder or different, but you must be careful not to let your concentration slip or get too over confident.
While watching WCS Spring 2019 I levelled up a Demon Hunter to level 70 which is the highest level obtainable in Diablo III. At the time of writing this, I also have a very modest paragon level of 15.
This is an ideal start to my season 17 and I will be looking to increase the paragon level, get some nice items, and hopefully achieve a reasonable greater rift level before either dying or stopping for the season.
I have traditionally played wizard in Diablo III to date. I have a feeling it will be fun to get to know the Demon Hunter class better and come up with some cool and effective ways to play.
This past weekend has been great. Not only did season 17 start for Diablo III but it was the weekend for a major Starcraft 2 tournament, WCS Spring 2019.
SPOILER ALERT
While I have been playing Diablo this weekend I have had WCS Spring live streamed on my TV and I have to say, it’s been an excellent tournament with so many epic games and close matches.
It has been great to see some talented young players take part in the tournament. I have been especially impressed with Croatian Leon “goblin” Vrhovec and Frenchman Clément “Clem” Desplanches. Both of these young men got pretty far and won a lot of excellent matches. If I were looking to recruit Starcraft 2 players for my team, I would most certainly be considering inviting these two who will most certainly be a big part of the future for Starcraft 2.
To see WCS 2018 winner Joona “Serral” Sotala and Juan Carlos “SpeCial” Tena Lopez in the final is hardly surprising. It was good to see Serral get revenge against Riccardo “Reynor” Romiti in the semi final after Reynor defeated Serral in the WCS Winter 2019 final 4 games to 3.
What was surprising and a little disappointing to see was how Serral completely dominated SpeCial in the final, winning 4 games to 0 in a best of 7.
Other than the fantastic games, I have to say the production and casting of this event has been excellent. I have enjoyed every moment and am really looking forward to the next event in July. It was especially nice to watch one of my favourite casters and Starcraft streamer Kevin “RotterdaM” van der Kooi cast this event along with Benjamin “DeMusliM” Baker and Leigh “Maynarde” Mandalov, all of which have been a source of inspiration for me recently.