Guys, Best Buy Black Friday deals just marched in, and Diablo III is gonna be $35. I checked out the trial back in the summer and decided I couldn’t justify $60 with the always-online DRM (I was having internet problems to boot then). Now, to be honest the Torchlight II demo drew me in much more effectively and now I’m more interested in that game than in DIII.

I just want to give another late Squad-Nod™ to Assassin’s Creed Revelations. That is an excellent game, and in stark contrast to some reviews, is worthwhile FOR people who have been following the story all this way. This didn’t feel like a rushed cash grab. Sure, the forward momentum of the meta-plot is minimal over what you learned in AC2, but Altair, Ezio, and even Desmond come out as stronger characters in the end. This is especially true for their cross-century ties to each other, which is a part of this story that I’ve always loved (I’ll admit, I got slightly teary-eyed at Ezio’s final message). I don’t know, there’s something about this iteration, I feel like the writing stepped up a notch.

Of course, stabbing dudes. Constantinople is like a slummy Rome mixed with Jerusalem’s sandy Middle Eastern aesthetics. Whether you like this setting or not depends on you, but if you enjoyed Brotherhood, there’s nothing you’ll miss here other than horses. Hookblades and bombs are just gravy on top, and if you’re afraid of the much maligned tower defense addition, don’t be. Refrain from running around with 100% heat on you and THEY NEVER HAPPEN, besides they aren’t even that bad. Also, you should know this by now, but avoid collecting shit, because it does nothing for you. I finished with only like 70% sync, don’t burn yourself out and you’ll enjoy it.

Lastly, the music. The music, guys. THE MUSIC. Jesper Kyd is on top of his game here, and it is the best it has ever been.

This is the last big series that I am emotionally invested in that hasn’t wrapped up yet. I’m in deep. Please don’t crap your pants, AC3. PLEASE!

@impynickers Nice lineup. Yeah, Diablo… that was a flash in the pan this year, eh? Is anyone here still playing that? I had a lot of fun with it, played through 3 difficulties, but there’s no long term love there. Ditto for Blizzard’s sophomoric storytelling, though we’ll have to see how Starcraft plays out.

Tiny and Big is on my list, especially after that GB quicklook.

Dwarf Fortress…….. ummm… I watched the video Giant Bomb posted last week and I’m sorry but I can’t do it. I literally sat there faced with the insanity that was on the screen and tuned out. It’s interesting and I respect those who enjoy it but I don’t have the time to sink into a game like that.

With the vacation/ work/ holidays craziness, I haven’t had the chance to comment on my recent gaming time, so here we go *cue brain dump*:

Gears of War 3: Finally got to this a few months ago. I respect Epic for getting out of the brown grays and working in some color to the Gears world. The gameplay is still classic Gears which still drives me insane at times (I seem to have a tendency to get stuck on cover for some reason) but it was quite enjoyable. Happy I finally got to it but I harbor no real desire to return to that world again.

Child of Eden: Arrived from Game Access after Gears and “finished” it in about a week. I don’t own a Kinect but wanted to play it anyway. I don’t think lacking the hand waving capability really impacted my experience anyway. I loved the variety of visual styles and the accompanying music for each level although for the life of me I couldn’t really tell what the heck is going on in the overall “narrative” but I don’t think that is really the point anyway. Gameplay is “meh” but worth getting through for the audio-visual ride. Biggest negative however is the game’s artificial way to lengthen playtime by essentially requiring you to replay levels to advance to the final levels. NOT COOL GUYS. I understand that 5 levels makes for a short game but in that case, make more levels instead of forcing multiple replays. All in all, a worthwhile rental. Nothing more.

Diablo 3: I enjoyed my time with it so far but I didn’t get past Act 1 and haven’t had the desire to go back in a few weeks. Now part of that may just be my natural aversion to gaming on my Mac/PC but maybe not….

Assassin’s Creed Revelations: Enzo’s story should have ended at Brotherhood. While I still enjoy the core elements of the game, it feels so tired and stale after the previous two ACs. Ubisoft’s response to complaints about the mechanics from AC2 and Brotherhood seems to have been “let’s just add more mechanics and gameplay elements so that people ignore the fact that we didn’t change anything”. The tower defense stuff is pointless and not very fun. The Desmond’s journey is interesting from a background info perspective but just feels bolted on at the last minute. The “notoriety” meter is a cheap trick to slow down your progress. The fact that I still need to go to the Bank to collect my money and that I still need to go back and forth from the map screen to the game screen to navigate after this many iterations is a joke. At least there was some global storyline closure/ progression in the end but really….Assassin’s Creed 3 can’t come soon enough to breath some new life into this series.

Saints Row 3: Only played about 15 minutes of this but quite possibly the most ridiculous, over the top, insane first 15 minutes I’ve ever played in a game. You know you’re in for a ride when the game starts with a parody Star Wars-like scrolling text. This should be the kind of crazy fun that I hoping it is…. will get back to it once I complete the next game which just came from Game Access…

Rayman Origins: First the positives. I LOVE the art design and the music. I could sit there and stare at the screen for hours. Love the originality of the first 3 worlds so far and just how much detail Ubisoft put into each level. However, I have been quite frustrated at times with the controls. Maybe it’s just the Mario jumping “feel” that is built into me but I have blown many jumps just because I haven’t fully picked up on the momentum on the characters as they move. Very much enjoy the game and will get through it but no chance in hell that I try to fully medal each level. Would probably drive me to insanity.

*brain dump completed*

I will try to avoid waiting so long between updates next time :p

And I’m 30 minutes early but whatever….Happy 4th to the American contingent of the Squad. May it be as awesome as the 1st was for us Canadians

@impynickers Second Squaddie to get hit recently. That sucks. Sorry. Be sure to get in touch with Blizzard and add an Authenticator to your account if you want to play again — they should be able to roll back your character and recover your stuff.

People are scum.

So my Diablo 3 account was hacked. My highest level characters items were stolen, and all of my gold taken… It was a fun game … but this is just too much.

Kind of a shot in the dark here, but do you guys know what the problem usually is if only one computer on your home network is having shitty internet? Normally I’d investigate problems on the router-side but since literally every other computer on the network is fine I’m kind of stumped. I’ve tried every solution I can think of and am just wondering if anyone here’s been through this. Can’t play Diablo III with that always-online DRM in my current state.

Since a few of us are going to be playing Diablo III when it launches, I’ve opened a sticky thread at the top of the page so we can exchange Battle.net and character details and thoughts on the game.

I’ve also archived a couple of the previous stickies to keep things clean.

Remember, you can always find past mission threads here, past podcast episodes (from Season 2 onwards) here and past Squad Music Mixes here. These links are also in the sidebar.

The SquadCast will return very shortly! It’s looking increasingly likely we’re going to do a lot more “mission” podcasts in the near future, as we have a whole heap of awesomeness queued up and ready to talk about. We’re recording the first of these next weekend (not this coming one) so you can expect something new to fill your lugholes with for several hours within a couple of weeks. Joy!

In the meantime, have you listened to Chris and Jeff’s new show “Too Old For This” yet? Find ‘em on Facebook here and Twitter here. Or just subscribe in iTunes here.

Diablo III

The official Squad crew of elite skeleton clickers

So it seems a few of us are picking up Skeleton Click III shortly. Post your Battle.net details/character names etc in the comments below, along with any thoughts on the experience.

BattleTags
zegolf#1213
AngryJedi#2260
CptCarnage#1483
MrN1CKERS#1922
Bowlisimo#1728
Beige#1834
mjpilon#1415
KonradBeezo#1109

@pepperized We only tend to hang on Skype when we’re actually recording (at least I do) so exchanging Skype names will probably be a futile gesture. If you want to chat when we’re not hanging around here, Twitter is usually the best way to do it.

Bioshock Infinite delayed? Meh. Don’t care. Bioshock really didn’t grab me as much as I felt it was supposed to. It was certainly no System Shock 2, that’s for sure.

A big yes to Diablo III, though. The reason I am excited about a new Skeleton Click is it will be the first game in, like, for-fucking-EVER that I’ll be able to play online with friends in the same time zone. We’re going to have a party of characters just to play together with and then do our own thing on our own time. I’d certainly be up for playing with Squaddies, too. We’ll exchange Battle.net details nearer the time. There’s a weird system in place for international play from the sound of things, but at least it’s possible.