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This evening I downloaded the Torchlight 2 demo on Steam and

This evening I downloaded the Torchlight 2 demo on Steam and decided to give it a shot. Right away I noticed that the menus were pretty different from the original Torchlight. Not a huge deal, but it wasn't immediately apparent how to exit the game the first time I launched it. Its the upper right corner and is greyed out, I didn't see that the first time through.

I created an Ember Mage and liked the character customization. After creating my character I was quickly in the game killing things. I was surprised how differently it played from the original Torchlight. One main difference is that your character moves very fast around the screen. Its very smooth and I like... Read All This evening I downloaded the Torchlight 2 demo on Steam and decided to give it a shot. Right away I noticed that the menus were pretty different from the original Torchlight. Not a huge deal, but it wasn't immediately apparent how to exit the game the first time I launched it. Its the upper right corner and is greyed out, I didn't see that the first time through.

I created an Ember Mage and liked the character customization. After creating my character I was quickly in the game killing things. I was surprised how differently it played from the original Torchlight. One main difference is that your character moves very fast around the screen. Its very smooth and I like the character pacing much better than the original Torchlight or Diablo 3 even. Which is another thing about Torchlight 2, the game is really really smooth. Compared to Diablo 3, which lags the first few minutes in game, moving through Torchlight is like butter.

I like that you are not merely relegated to dungeon crawling in Torchlight 2. The outdoor environments are a welcome addition to my style. After I made it to town I got a few quests and headed out straight for the first one. After taking them down one by one I noticed the enemy and game difficulty ramp up considerably. My third quest in I met up with something like 5 champion mobs protecting the quest ending. They didn't pose a huge challenge but they did take a while to kill and all in all it was very fun.

I stopped playing around level 8 (before I stopped I snapped the pic above) and really enjoyed the game. I would say largely, Torchlight 2 is a big improvement over Torchlight. That said, I had a few nits with it as I felt the graphic style of the original was a bit better than Torchlight 2. As with the first game occasionally my character was behind the forefront graphic and the ghost/outline thing is hard to play through. Again, small things because overall the game was very fun.

No reason to not check it out as it will play on most under computers and the demo is out now on Steam!

MoonWyrd Supporter wrote on 11/23/2012 at 06:58am

With everything that's been going on in my life I completely forgot about Torchlight II. Thanks for the write up. I'm going to have to checkout the demo. Once Steam finishes downloading the internet, that is.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/23/2012 at 08:15am

Yeah you can nab the demo now and pick up the full game at a bit of a reduced price during the Steam Autumn Sale now.

MoonWyrd Supporter wrote on 11/23/2012 at 05:21pm

Silly me, I failed to note that the Mac version hasn't been released yet. Guess I'll have to boot up the Winders box sometime in the next couple days to check this out.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/23/2012 at 06:31pm

It will get ported to Mac eventually they said. Hadn't heard of an ETA though.

MoonWyrd Supporter wrote on 11/23/2012 at 07:35pm

Yeah, that's what I gathered from the FAQ. I don't mind checking out the demo on Winders, but I dislike depending on it for long periods of game play. Too many crashes.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/26/2012 at 05:19pm

Just picked this up during the sale, $10? Yes please. Hoping for a Mac port at some point. A few expansions might not hurt either.

MoonWyrd Supporter wrote on 12/03/2012 at 03:12pm

Finally had a chance to checkout the demo. Quite fun so far. Very reminiscent of D2. Not likely to be coughing up the $$ for the full game until I fine a new job, though.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/03/2012 at 04:12pm

We might have you covered as soon we are going to run a Torchlight 2 contest! Woot.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/04/2012 at 03:28am

Here it is: http://cheerfulghost.com/panickedthumb/posts/781

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This is a ridiculously simple game, but Im hooked! I

http://a3.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/060/Purple/v4/b8/76/19/b876194c-2aee-f6f9-9e14-bd1240dafbde/mzl.fjwukqve.320x480-75.jpg

This is a ridiculously simple game, but I'm hooked! I recommend it as a time killer.

Scott Pilgrim is a nice little beat up game in the vein of

Scott Pilgrim is a nice little beat up game in the vein of River City Ransom. However, all the time between the games has not helped Scott Pilgrim. What you expect from a game that comes 10 odd years later is an advancement in game type. It fails to deliver that advancement, if anything, the game goes backward from River City Ransom (easily one of my most favorite video games ever.)

Why is it not as good?

The fighting is not as well done. It is extremely hard to block weapons or thrown weapons unlike River City Ransom which can make fighting difficult.

There are no new moves to unlock via books. This was easily one of the best features of River City Ransom, you only get... Read All

File this under first world problems but I have a ton of

File this under "first world problems" but I have a ton of video games. Oh wait, Cheerful Ghost to the rescue, how many games do I have? According to my handy dandy games list... http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/games I have 242 games. That's quite a lot of games. Now some of those are on my old NES and I don't really pull those out too often. But many of those are PC or PS3 games and lately I have noticed that if I stopped buying games I wouldn't be done with what I have for months. I have enough content to possibly keep me busy well into the next year.

Wondering that with Steam and as many Free to Play titles that exist if we will all will be perpetually swimming in... Read All

Timogorgon Member wrote on 09/24/2012 at 06:57pm

Lemme see what games I have yet to finish...

Disgaea 2 ('bout half wayish)
Disgaea 3 (I started a game, but stopped because I hadn't finished the 2nd one.)
Final Fantasy 12 (lost my save somewhere along the way, gotta start over)
Final Fantasy 10, but it sucks, so I don't care. :P Same for FF 13.
Mass Effect
Costume Quest
Torchlight
Fallout 3 (still playing off and on)
Borderlands (need to finish DLC)
Borderlands 2 I'm currently playing
Lone Survivor (awesome but scary! I think I'll play this around Halloween time :D)
Portal 2 (co-op)
Breath of Death VII
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Games I have but haven't even started yet:
All the Half-life games (I KNOW! I'll get around to them eventually)
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Time Gentlemen, Please!
Cthulhu Saves the World
Hunted: The Demon's Forge

I'm sure there's more I'm missing, but those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head. Yeah, I have SO many games to get caught up on. It's almost as bad as how many books I have sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read. There's just not enough hours in the day to do everything I need to and everything I want to!

BR Supporter wrote on 09/24/2012 at 07:56pm

There are a few games that I haven't completed recently, but most the time I finish games that I enjoy to play. I guess I only finish games that I enjoy the story of such as:

Fallout 3: beat it 3 to 4 times
Fallout New Vegas: 3 to 4 as well
Oblivion: beat this once but logged about 400-500 hours in it
Skyrim: Only beat this once
Mass effect 1: 2 play-throughs
Mass effect 2: 3 play-throughs
Mass effect 3: 1 play-through but I'm going to star another soon with all the new dlc

So I guess my conclusion is that I will play entirely through a game that I really enjoy(multiple times) such as mass effect, which its story is by far my #1.

There are also games which I haven't beat yet, but that is due to something I enjoy more coming along and pushing it aside. Some of these games are:

Dead Island
Magicka
Titan quest

These are games I don't enjoy as much as others and therefore usually I stop playing them and instead play a more enjoyable game to me.

I guess that about sums it up.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/25/2012 at 12:49am

Whiteboy: When did you get GTA? Is it the Ps3 version? Haven't played GTA since 2 on Windows back in the day.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/25/2012 at 12:49am

BR: Did you play Fallout 3 differently with the multiple play throughs? I could see myself sitting down and playing that again. I beat it originally on the PS3, I could do it again on the PC.

BR Supporter wrote on 09/25/2012 at 02:35am

Yeah, I did play as an evil and good character. Although I have played with similar characters through the story. There wasn't many different ways you could go in fallout 3. Fallout New Vegas on the other hand had tons of different endings depending on which faction you chose to follow.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/25/2012 at 02:39am

Did you blow up Megaton? I still kind of want to try that :)

BR Supporter wrote on 09/25/2012 at 04:42pm

Did it on two characters and not on the other two.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 09/26/2012 at 06:48pm

@jdodson: It's the PS2 version, and I've had it for a long time. I sunk a ton of hours into it but the game is HUGE and after while I just started playing other stuff and never came back to it.

I still have just one character on Fallout 3, and I'm a "good" guy for the most part. :) If I ever do get around to playing a second time I'll probably go the evil route. I played through the first Knights of the Old Republic game several times and did both good and evil characters. Playing evil characters is fun at first, but after awhile I start to feel bad lol.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/27/2012 at 01:45am

I agree. Doing the bad thing leaves me with a strange feeling. I imagine the second play through it would be better considering I had chosen the right path I know what the end run of that is.

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Humble Bundle 6! Humble Indie Bundle 6 features six

Humble Bundle 6!

"Humble Indie Bundle 6 features six fantastic titles and five breathtaking soundtracks. Name your price and dive into the critically acclaimed action-RPG Torchlight; the rugged sci-fi action platformer Rochard; physics-based brick breaker Shatter; top down space combat sim Space Pirates and Zombies; and steampunk puzzle platformer Vessel. Customers who beat the average price will also get the incredible frantic acrobatic platformer, Dustforce!"

I will pick this up a bit later when the average has been settled and a few more games become available. I missed the Torchlight 2 pre-order so I will be getting this primarally to add Torchlight to my Steam... Read All

The one benefit to playing Borderlands 2 on the PS3 is

The one benefit to playing Borderlands 2 on the PS3 is split-screen multi-player with friends. Tonight one of my friends came over and we played a few hours together. He went Gunzerker and I went Commando. It was a good pairing but it took me a bit to get the hang of Axton. Was used to run and gunning with Salvador so it took me a bit to get used to dropping a turret and staying behind it. Axton's skill tree isn't my cup of tea, but I found one path that was interesting.

As we were playing it went like this: See a group of bad guys, I drop the turret and he pops into Zerk mode and runs in. Clean up. It broke down a few times when we were not working together but overall... Read All

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 09/22/2012 at 10:49am

You've mentioned a few times about difficulty. I don't know if you've yet to have a run in with a Badass Pyro Threser but, those are by far the most overpowered enemies up to where I'm at. They can take out your shields AND all your hp in almost a single hit with their pyro shockwave. Getting up on something tall is the trick.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/22/2012 at 10:42pm

I haven't, thanks for letting me know. Incendiary damage so far hasn't been too fun. I don't remember taking elemental damage in the original Borderlands. Interesting they added it for regular players to take in 2.

Missile_Drop_Kick wrote on 09/22/2012 at 11:57pm

Hello from Chicago (currently at least)! I played a few hours like you suggested. It got much better in the 2nd and 3rd hour. I actually figured out the weapon. I ended up putting in another 2 hours and getting a bunch of video. I need to get home to edit it and figure out how to comment on it. However, it was much better. I finally got to use Zero's disappearing powers. Awesome.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/23/2012 at 07:14am

I agree, the game opens up a bunch after your main power unlock. Also when you start getting awesome drops.

BR Supporter wrote on 09/25/2012 at 06:49pm

I'll definitely say that once you get some cool guns the game becomes a lot better cause it is fun to just blow your enemies to pieces.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 09/26/2012 at 07:00pm

I still haven't had too much time in the game, but I've played a little co-op with my wife and now I've done a little solo playing as well. The game is (at least at this point) more difficult than the original Borderlands, but in a good way. The baddies feel challenging without making me feel like the computer is cheating. One thing I noticed right away was that navigating the menu during co-op was better but still not great. It was better once we swapped our split screen to divide vertically rather than horizontally though.

I'm still pretty early in the game on both my characters so I haven't found any especially awesome guns yet. I have to say that starting with the Gearbox gunpack was nice. The SMG and Sniper Rifle were especially useful in the first couple missions.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/27/2012 at 01:46am

The guns open up more as the game progresses. If memory serves the original Borderlands didn't have awesome guns right away, but then again I did get a shotgun early on that I kept until the end, it was that awesome.

So far nothing that awesome yet, but some good stuff for sure.

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I played WoW a bunch. The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the

I played WoW a bunch. The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King kept me going for a while, but I dropped out before Cataclysm came out.

I had no idea another another expansion was coming out until I saw a Kung Fu Panda commercial, that ended up being a WoW commercial?!? Mists of Pandaria? What the heck?

It might be drawing me back... thankfully my computer can't handle it, so it'll be a while before I lose myself to it, but I'm definitely interested.

Anyone else picking it up right away?

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/21/2012 at 04:39am

This expansion really interests me and I am not a WoW player. They add a kind of pokemon mini game to it, plus I really like the look of Pandara. I dig the whole dark game thing, but I enjoy bright open worlds too. WoW had that, but maybe I just started as a Undead and... Wait I did :)

That said, the Undead area has its bright places and it was fun. I just can't get around a sub...

TonyJapMayo wrote on 09/21/2012 at 05:33am

is GW2 better than WOW? I might buy GW2..

AdamPFarnsworth Post Author wrote on 09/21/2012 at 07:23am

I've not played GW2, but hopefully someone else knows :)

Ben_Dodson wrote on 09/21/2012 at 03:40pm

Is GW2 better than WOW? That is like asking the question is Torchlight 2 better than Diablo 3. Both are great games that are similar but everyone has their bias and you then can ask the question what coffee is the best and you will get different responses.

Mist is looking to be a fun expansion. The keep claiming it will get back to the original WOW roots of exploring and Horde v Alliance conflict.

There are many new mini games as Jon talked about Pokemon. If that wasn't enough there will be a type of Farmville with the Tillers faction. There is already a Plants v Zombies in the game.

Cataclysm revamped the Old World in a huge way. The 1-60 leveling is by far the best it has ever been. However the 80-85 content there are many opinions on this and mine is I am glad it is over. I am not going to make a huge post in that regards.

Kung-Fu Panda meets WOW we shall see but from the test I have seen and the feed back I have read this should be good.

And Jon I am sorry but when WOW is under 2Mil subs I am sure they will make it free. Until then 15$ a month.

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/23/2012 at 05:42pm

Yeah, I don't think WoW will go F2P for ALONG time, if ever.

The game I want to go F2P though? The original Everquest. That would be awesome.

Missile_Drop_Kick wrote on 09/27/2012 at 01:54am

I can see why you quit WOW when Cataclysm came out. This girl would make me quit too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QFtqIqaYLs

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/27/2012 at 01:58am

This dude is better. He is a character based on gaming stereotypes and I love him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZXNMs8D-Ow&feature=related

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/27/2012 at 02:04am

Oh man, he just dropped this about the Panda expansion, hilarious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VvYGAVvphU&list=UU4_bwov47DseacR1-ttTdOg&index=0&feature=plcp

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Torchlight 2 launches today! Are you getting it? If so

Torchlight 2 launches today! Are you getting it? If so what do you think? How does is stack up to Torchlight 1? Can't beat the $20 price tag!

Recently Runic released the full Torchlight 2 soundtrack for download by Matt Uelmen, you might remember Matt from sucks soundtrack greats as Diablo, Diablo 2, Starcraft, World of Warcraft and Torchlight 1.

http://torchlight2game.com/news/2012/09/18/the-torchlight-ii-soundtrack/

vdogmr25 wrote on 09/20/2012 at 03:14am

I'll be playing as soon as my PC lives again. :)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/20/2012 at 03:20am

What happened to it?

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 09/20/2012 at 09:56am

What game did you really mean stack up to?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/20/2012 at 10:43am

Torchlight 1. Updated the post, thanks Jacob!

vdogmr25 wrote on 09/20/2012 at 04:14pm

HDD death. New one on the way.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 09/21/2012 at 02:52am

I have not ever had the chance to try torchlight 1. However, I do look forward to playing some torchlight 2 at some point. Just got a settlement from the FTC. May use that to play it.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/21/2012 at 04:36am

Awesome. I am going to pick up Torchlight 2 at some point, maybe when I am less interested in pick up Diablo 3? Maybe sooner. $20 is a really good deal at any time though.

Axel_Mller wrote on 09/21/2012 at 05:24pm

My amazing close friend bought me a copy of it. So far it's definately a lot better than Torchlight 1.

BR Supporter wrote on 09/25/2012 at 06:54pm

I'm glad they decided on a $20 price tag. If it was $60 like diablo 3 I most likely would of 100% not bought it. With a cheaper price I will pick it up when I have the extra coin.

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Do you trust your game developers? Do you feel that the game

Do you trust your game developers? Do you feel that the game they are pitching to you is as good as they say? With a games goes from concept to alpha then beta and if we are lucky enough to release are you satisfied with the game that they made for you?

I am an MMO player. I started with World of Warcraft since the original level 60 cap. I followed Star Wars since the idea and the concept art shown at a convention. With anticipation I saw the rise and fall of 38 Studios. Then I found some games that are great in their form that do not get a lot of attention. I recently found DC Universe Online and that game is amazing. I literally bought into the hype of The Secret Word... Read All Do you trust your game developers? Do you feel that the game they are pitching to you is as good as they say? With a games goes from concept to alpha then beta and if we are lucky enough to release are you satisfied with the game that they made for you?

I am an MMO player. I started with World of Warcraft since the original level 60 cap. I followed Star Wars since the idea and the concept art shown at a convention. With anticipation I saw the rise and fall of 38 Studios. Then I found some games that are great in their form that do not get a lot of attention. I recently found DC Universe Online and that game is amazing. I literally bought into the hype of The Secret Word and since launch I haven’t even played one minute of the game. The Beta killed it for me. Then I found Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO) by accident. It is made by Turbine and I think this games concept is amazing and fun to play but it is slightly outdated and because it is Turbine Lord of the Rings Online is because of this game. Give me a hobbit and DDO and we have two games that are ok.

This is just the surface of MMO’s I know that. But when you get all hyped up and the game you are sitting in front of dose not play to the buildup do you feel cheated in anyway. I think the future of MMO’s is free to play. That model is working very well. Starwars is moving there and that leads me to ask “Why was it not free to play since launch?” I felt very taken with Starwars. I did not play beta much. I wanted the game to be fresh but at level 28 I felt the nails of the grind. I know that is a concept of an MMO but why can developers nail it and other fall so short? Blizzard for the most part has changed the game style of their game and the current expansion Cataclysm (until the 25th) changed everything that was of the grind play style. The WOW player base is huge and with that I feel Blizzard can gauge their game and develop in a way that no one else can. This is all a guess but if the entire MMO player base is 15 million and Blizzard has 10 of those that leaves a 5 million player base to be divided up. I do not feel that games can have proper feedback unless you make every game a spin off WOW. My numbers might be off but it makes since. So when you have developers pitching and pitching ideas to the same player base how do you not get numb as a player? How do you believe and share that vision that this MMO will blow your mind and be everything you want an MMO to be.

These are my thoughts, what do you think? I think MMO’s might be going out of style fast unless they bring a new concept to the table. Can they?

My First 5 Hours with Borderlands 2 Picked up Borderlands 2

My First 5 Hours with Borderlands 2

Picked up Borderlands 2 today and started making my way through Pandora after Handsome Jack. My character is Salvador, the Gunzerker as I was most interested in playing him from the other new classes. I have quite a few thoughts about Borderlands 2 and am not really sure where to start. From a high level my first 5 hours were very fun with a few nit picks.

Stuff I Loved

I really like that the game has settings other than desert. So far the game has all been snow for me, but I have heard it has quite a few new settings beyond the snowy mountains. The art style of Borderlands 2 seems pretty much like the first game but much much more... Read All

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 09/19/2012 at 07:11am

So I've put in a good chunk of time now as well. Thanks again you guys. I'd like to make a few small comments and perspective points of my own.

The rarity relic is stackable when playing with others. so that's 20% higher drop rates. In an rpg standpoint that can be hugely significant especially since this game does not use MF (or magic find).

The guns are hugely varied especially as the game progress's there's even a new special type of weapons you can get similar to the special alien weapons but i won't spoil them for anyone who hasn't yet gotten to that. That to me makes it feel fresh.

You can pimp your vehicles (+ something extra again won't share on here) now and while the customization of characters is not super special. I still find it highly enjoyable to change around how I look and there are a lot of choices in that respect.

The environments truly are varied. And since i can comment on the PC side of things. The physX is off the charts. I got a grenade launcher assault rifle and when you fire it into the air it literally is a hail of shrapnel that falls down from the sky covering a huge distance.

The challenge to me is much desired. Borderlands even a few days ago I went back and played and I can just run over everything without even trying. In borderlands 2 if i wasn't playing with my friend it would probably be quite the challenge. Very engaging and makes some intense "oh shit!" moments.

Overall while there was a few things that kind of are iffy this is an amazing game. Such as running into your team mate who's with you can cause kind of an invisible barrier to prevent you from running forwards. (even after he's moved) Just a few minor issues. However, the game is extremely well optimized. You can even alt tab about 100 times with no slow down in the performance of the game.

As a final note of criticism the skill trees while better and greatly enhanced from borderlands. I still would wish to see them try to amp it up a little farther. Like multiple skills and skill trees for separate things. Like grenade skill trees. Meele skill trees. Athletic skill trees. (This coming from someone who really enjoys rpgs and customizing my character)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/19/2012 at 07:14am

Your right, a few times I got into some crazy awesome fights I barely made it out of! So much fun ;D

Oh, what are you playing as?

I like the customization to, but aside from making Salvador more red I haven't done much with it. Nice to have though.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 09/19/2012 at 10:17am

I'm playing as zero right now. But we are starting for real tomorrow with my brother and I'm going to be maya. my bros axton and my cousin will be salvador. Going to make a full speed elementalist build.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/19/2012 at 01:57pm

Awesome!

Timogorgon Member wrote on 09/19/2012 at 05:48pm

Man, reading everyone talk about the game is getting me really excited. My copy should arrive before the weekend gets here, so I know what I'll be doing in the evenings. :D

Travis Admin wrote on 09/20/2012 at 04:52pm

I'm playing as Maya as well. I loved Lilith in the first game, and Maya is similar. I definitely want to try out the other classes more this time around than I did in the first one.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 09/21/2012 at 02:56am

True that panicked. I only ever played mordecai in borderlands 1. Going to have to try out all the characters this time. Although I find in ability comparison, zero is the closest to Lilith. Just without the speed. He is able to run through all enemies while invisible. However Maya still feels set around a similar gun set. Especially if you use the elemental tree path. Then it is pretty close to Lilith. Since smg's still seem to be one of the best weapons for elemental effects. Double that by the fact there doesn't seem to be "auto" pistols as much anymore. In borderlands they had some crazy rate-of-fire pistols.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/21/2012 at 04:38am

I know, I had some sick pistols in Borderlands 1. At one point the pistols were better than the sniper rifles I was finding. Then I got some really OP sniper rifles.

This time around I am doing well by incendiary damage pistols and shutguns with the Gunzerker.

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