This weeks Snooker Nation game was an amusing one, to say the least.

Jason managed to once again win 4 frames to 2 in a best of 7. Actually, at one point I was up 2-0 but Jason managed to win 4 in a row to claim victory. There was just one century break of 129 this week which belonged to Jason in the 3rd frame.

The amusing part was on the 5th frame where Jason had run out of position and snookered himself while on a colour. He somehow managed to hit the black, which then flicked off a red and potted in a middle pocket. Pure fluke but Jason being Jason he said he played for it.

I feel like I have been rather unlucky this week. I somehow managed to glitch a red in a middle pocket in the first frame but from that moment on not much went my way.

Once again I have played very little games lately so it was good to play a game with my Friend Jason and give me a some content to write about for my much loved blog.

I recently bought Deathwatch, a Warhammer 40,000 turn based strategy game for the Playstation 4 and I have to say, so far, I am not particularly impressed.

Turn based strategy games have been a favourite of mine since playing Front Mission 3 back in 2000/2001 and I have been recently spoilt by XCOM2, both of which are frankly amazing games. Front Mission 3 in particular will be with me forever because of the incredible soundtrack and story.

Deathwatch seems slow and the turns do not flow well, navigating the map is a chore and the ability to customize the space marines is non-existent. You can, to some extent, select which weapon and load out the marines use but beyond that it does not seem like you can do anything. While playing, you obtain cards which unlock marines and items to be used. I would have much preferred to have won points and given a way to spend them on whatever I wanted, recruit my own marines and equipment to better customize my experience.

So far the missions are really easy and boring. I do not see how I could ever lose a mission, also, while it has not happened to me yet, I believe if one my marines were to be killed on a mission, I do not think I would lose it. Instead I would only lose some of the experience that marine has accrued. I see no way to actually lose the campaign or suffer significant consequences which really takes the excitement out of the game.

The game is really quiet and the soundtrack is nearly non-existent which I suppose might be fitting for the space marine Warhammer 40,000 universe, but not something I particularly enjoy.

In fairness, anyone who really likes Warhammer 40,000 will probably like this game for how accurate it is trying to be to fit in the Warhammer universe, but for me, who is not especially a Warhammer fan, I just find the game lacking in features.

I have not completely given up on the game and will persevere to see if my experience of the game will get any better. I hope at the very least the game will offer some challenge and allow more ways to customize my experience.

Yet another game of Snooker Nation with my friend Jason. This time Jason won 4 frames to 2 in a best of 7 which must have felt good after his heavy defeat two weeks ago.

We both played well considering we both achieved century breaks, the first time one of us scored a century since the first week of January. I managed to score 126 in the first frame while Jason managed to get a break of 120 in the 4th frame. Unfortunately Jason missed the final black which would have given him 127, I doubt he cared much, considering how hard he worked for it and that this is his first century break this year.

Uncharacteristically I have not been gaming very much recently, it felt particularly good to play a game last night and it feels good to have a little bit of content to write about for my much loved blog.

While season 16 for Diablo III is still in full swing, my season 16 journey has come to an end. I can honestly say however that I have fully enjoyed getting as far as I have and might return for season 17, perhaps by playing hardcore mode, which I really liked when I played Diablo II.

After almost 58 hours play time, I managed to get paragon level 640 and have reached level 74 solo greater rift. These are not particularly high achievements, there are many elite Diablo players who obtain paragon level 2000+ and are playing in greater rifts level 120+. I am however very pleased and am quite proud of my personal accomplishments.

Since my last Diablo III post, I have learned about primal ancient legendary items, which very rarely drop in the world of Sanctuary. These items have perfect stats (not necessarily base stats) and as such are very powerful, I learned that as soon as you complete a greater rift level 70 on your own you are guaranteed to get one and that when they drop they emit a red beam which you can see in my screenshot below.

Unfortunately I did not find another primal ancient legendary item this season, but it was great fun searching for them and kept me playing for longer.

I also have Diablo III for Playstation 4 and have been playing that while considering what game I want to play next. I actually need just 3 more trophies to obtain the platinum trophy so the next time I get the urge to play Diablo III, I might try to complete the Playstation trophy collection before playing it on PC.

It has been 3 weeks since my last Snooker Nation post. After a period of being incredibly busy with work, combined with a nasty cold, I am happy to have had a catch up with my good friend Jason and play Snooker Nation for the 21st time since starting this blog.

We played a best of 7 and I managed to win 4 frames to 1. Unfortunately neither Jason or I managed to score a century break which now makes it 4 games in a row since one of us scored a century. Jason thought we might not have yet scored a century this year, he was close, the last time was on the 5th of January.

Because I won the game so quickly we decided to play some Pool Nation, an older game also developed by Cherry Pop Games. We played two best of 7 games of UK 8 ball which I won 4-2 and 4-0 followed by two best of 7 games of US 8 ball which I won 4-0 and 4-3.

It has not a good night for Jason to say the least. In his defence I think he must have been really tired because on two occasions he potted the black/8 ball when he still had something else to pot on the table, giving me the frame.

A few days ago I read a touching article about fellow gamer, Mats ‘Ibelin’ Steen.

Mats was a Norwegian born gamer who had Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a rare disorder that causes muscle degeneration. Instead of allowing this disorder to define who he was and confine him to his wheelchair, he took to gaming and defined himself in his World of Warcraft character Ibelin, where for years he would have a positive impact on his fellow gamers.

Mats eventually died from DMD in 2014, however, as a testament to his good character and Ibelin, many within Azeroth (the name of the world in which World of Warcraft is set) mourned his death and even attended his funeral, in person.

If you have access to the BBC UK website you can read about Mats here, but be warned, it’s a touching read.

Years ago, during towards the end of the World of Warcraft expansion, the Burning Crusade, a highly liked member of the guild I was in died and I must confess it affected me more than I thought it would. Unlike Mats I do not have DMD but I use gaming to escape the world in which we live and re-invent myself in the games that I play. It was hard for me to accept that death still needed to be a part of my escapism and I suppose this is one reason why I usually game alone.

I recently joined a guild called Midlife Crisis within World of Warcraft and I have always held them in high esteem. It has been great, for a change, to get to know people who have a passion for the same game as me and perhaps gaming in general. While at this present time the game does not interest me as much, I really hope my fellow guild members of Midlife Crisis know that I think they’re amazing and I hope in future they’re still around when I have my next stint of World of Warcraft. After reading about Mats I will post on the Midlife Crisis blog, just to let them know my intentions and give them ways to reach out to me. While I am currently bored of World of Warcraft, I am by no means bored of them.

Reading about Mats’ story, I am reminded of just how powerful gaming can be. What shall I tell my colleagues about my weekend when I go back to work tomorrow? Shall I tell them, as usual, that I did not get up to much and just had a chilled weekend? Or shall I tell them I saved the earth from Diablo and his hordes of minions?

When I die, I would have not climbed Everest, I would not have won an Olympic gold medal or scored the goal which won the world cup. I would have however slain dragons, saved he world from alien invasions, commanded space faring civilisations and lived though the greatest stories ever told, that’s enough for me.

It has now been a little over two weeks since season 16 for Diablo III started and so far I have enjoyed every moment.

As I mentioned in my first Diablo themed post, I have not played since season 7 which ended in 2016 sometime. This means I have over two years worth of additions to explore and so far, I am impressed.

Each act has an entirely new zone complete with different enemies, terrains, quests and bounties. There are whole bunch of new legendary items available and I don’t necessarily see the same 4 or 5 items constantly like I used to. There have been a number of quality of life changes too, for example crafting materials are now no longer stored in your inventory/stash but act as a sort of currency which saves a lot of time.

While I have been very busy with my work, I have still managed to put in a decent amount of time in playing both last weekend and this weekend. As such I have managed to reach paragon level 463 with a wizard and have hit level 66 in greater rifts with a time of 10:43.883.

To say I am pleased with my progress would be an understatement. To give you an idea, my total non-ladder paragon level is currently 440. This means in the past 2 weekends I have managed to achieve a higher paragon level than my combined season 1-7 efforts. I am easily farming torment level XIII, which is the highest level to farm, and I am sure I can exceed greater rift level 66 if I wanted to. The main problem for me right now is survival, I do enough damage for now but I need to stay alive longer and not die in just a few hits.

Playing Diablo III at such a high level means it rains legendary and set items all of the time. The sound and sight of these items dropping never gets old for me. Even when killing a greater rift boss where I always, without fail, get at least 5 legendary and/or set items still makes me smile.

Unfortunately I am going to be even busier next week and probably won’t have much time to game or blog. I will however try to squeeze in some game time over the weekend and see if I can increase my Diablo III progress. Non-casual Diablo III players seem to hit paragon level 1000 with relative ease, maybe I can do the same? One thing is for certain, if I do, I will try and remember to record the moment.

If any reader would like to share their Diablo III achievements, no matter how small, I would love to hear from you.

Almost two weeks ago I wrote about trying Magic: The Gathering Arena (MTGA) again to see if there had been any changes and since then I have been intermittently playing.

For the first time I tried Momirs’ Madness within MTGA which I found incredibly fun. You don’t need to construct a deck but you see some crazy and unforeseeable creatures come in to play causing unpredictable havoc. Because of this a lot more luck than usual is needed to win but it’s still fun. To give an example of how crazy it can get, take a look at the screenshot below where I have 149 life and my opponent and I both have 12 huge 16/16 impervious greatwurm creatures. Regardless of having so much life I still lost the game.

In my last MTGA post I also mentioned the new ranking system and that I had reached bronze tier 1 in the constructed category. Subsequently I have managed to get promoted 5 times and have this morning reached gold tier 4. This is by no means a great achievement in the scale of things, but for me, as a super casual gamer, this is awesome and I could not be more proud of myself.

A new Magic: The Gathering set has been released, Ravnica Allegiance, which follows from the previous set, Guilds of Ravnica. The new set was made available immediately within MTGA, if anything it was actually accessible a little early, giving players the opportunity to play with and against the new cards without spending a penny.

As part of the pre-release event a new MTGA code was given for anyone to use to obtain 3 Ravnica Allegiance booster packs within MTGA. If you play MTGA and have not already done so, or if you are thinking of trying the game, I suggest you use the code ‘PlayAllegiance’ to get yours.

While I am not particularly fond of the cards I have seen from Ravnica Allegiance so far, I have still ordered almost £50.00 worth of physical cards to add to my collection, partly because I believe there will be codes I can use within MTGA.

I am absolutely loving the synergy between the online game and the physical cards/events. I get so much more enjoyment in collecting the physical cards. While I might not be able to play with them against someone in person, I can at least relate to them within MTGA.

This week in Snooker Nation Jason managed to win 4 frames to 1 in a best of 7, giving him his second victory in a row and his second victory this year.

Like last week, I thought I was in for another whitewash when I found myself down 3 frames to 0. I am thankful therefore that I managed to secure at least 1 frame.

Jason played pretty well but he did get rather lucky in the first 3 frames, managing to pot a half chance plant and narrowly avoided potting the white once or twice. What’s unfortunate is that neither of us managed to get a century break which makes it three weeks in a row since one of us managed to score a century.

I was sad to learn that my favourite snooker player, Ronnie O’Sullivan, lost in the 2019 masters snooker final to Judd Trump 10 frames to 4 in a best of 19 after beating Ding Junhui 6 frames to 3 in a best of 11.

In November last year I wrote about my Starcraft journey and I thought I would do the same for another one of my favourite series of games, Diablo.

My Diablo journey started when I was around 14 years old in the late 90’s in a card shop. Not the kind of shop which sell greeting cards but the kind of shop that sold collectable card games among other nerdy things including video games.

After school most days and some weekends I would spend what little money I had there with friends and play our favourite card games. When bored the shop had a Playstation and Nintendo 64 which we could use providing we paid a few pounds for the privilege. A man called Fred, sketchy I know, brought in the game Diablo and I agreed to play it with him. Before I knew it, the shop was closing and I needed to leave.

I very quickly noticed that the same game developers that produced Starcraft, Blizzard Entertainment, had also produced Diablo which very quickly became a favourite of mine. It didn’t take long for me to get the game for the PC and I can tell you from first hand experience, the PC version is much, much better.

Unfortunately the game was easily abused with item duplicating software along with other hacks which made my online experience of Diablo not particularly fun.

In 2000 Diablo II was released for the PC but the family PC I was using at the time simply was not up to the job of playing the game and I did without for a number of years to come. A school friend of mine had it when he was given a laptop but once again it did not run very well. It was not until 2002 when I got my own PC that I had the ability to play Diablo II properly, incidentally this was around the same time cable broadband was installed where I lived and I quickly took advantage of it getting myself a 512kb internet connection, no less than 10 times faster than the previous dial up modem my family and I used.

This time the online experience was amazing and I really enjoyed playing the game using the hardcore setting which is where if your hero dies, it’s over and you need to start again. Unfortunately however, in Diablo II I did something I regret to this day. I started to sell in-game items for real money on ebay and directly to contacts who knew me as a seller of items. I also levelled up peoples characters for money and sold accounts with a high level character with items. I don’t know how much money I made doing this but it was not substantial, either way, I regret my actions. Both my Paypal and Ebay account were suspended but I was never penalised within the game. I shouldn’t make excuses but thankfully  in today’s world if people want to monetise their passion for gaming they can do so more easily without breaking the rules like I did.

For a while I thought Diablo II was as good as it was going to get, especially when using battle.net which allowed my friends and I to communicate across all blizzard games, a unique system for the time which has subsequently been replaced by a new battle.net. After World of Warcraft was released however, Diablo II fell by the wayside.

Around 10 years passed until Diablo III was released. I was so excited that I had acquired a brand new PC before hand, specifically in order to surpass the recommended Diablo III settings so that I may play the game on the highest graphics settings without the fear of latency. While I was disappointed in the end game (what you can do in the game after hitting the highest level), I have always found Diablo III to be a phenomenal game which has had some excellent changes to improve the end game experience, especially with the launch of the Reaper of Souls expansion. I have levelled every hero class (with the exception of the new Necromancer class) and I have logged over 1300 hours game time, mostly playing wizard (909 hours). I have taken part in Season 1-7 but stopped playing the game after that. I am very interested in playing Diablo III again and as luck would have it, season 16 started two days ago, Friday 18th January, and I have already made a start. Let’s see if I can keep my Diablo journey alive and improve on my previous Diablo III accomplishments.