Category Archives: Games

Starfield is an action role-playing game developed by Bethesda and is the first new IP developed by Bethesda in 25 years.

Yesterday I decided to pay for the premium edition which has given me early access to play the game today. I built my PC in 2017 and it only just meets the minimum required specs. I’m honestly surprised it’s lasted this long, so earlier today I finally bit the bullet and bought a new PC too.

This time around I decided to buy something pre-built from Aftershock in Melbourne. I ended up buying the ZEAL: LVL 10 AMD R7 7800X3D/RTX 4090 which will run games in ultra settings in 4K (excitement!). It should get to me next week.

Specs:
Gigabyte B650 Gaming X AX | DDR5
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D | 5.0GHz | 8 Cores 16 Threads
32GB ADATA Lancer RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2x16GB)
Gigabyte RTX 4090 Windforce V2 24GB
Aftershock Glacier Mirror 360mm
2TB Gen4 Lexar NM790 M.2 NVMe SSD (R 7400 | W 6500)
10 x 120mm Aftershock Fans (7 x RGB | 3 x Black)
1000W FSP Hydro G Pro | 80+ Gold
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit (Activated)
Next Gen Intel WiFi 6 & Bluetooth 5.1

Starfield runs perfectly fine on my old PC with graphics set to medium setting at 1080 res. 2hrs in, it’s got me hooked already. VERY much like Fallout 4 all over again, but in a space setting, but similar vibes.

No bugs so far, everything has been really smooth. Gunplay/combat is actually great! Combat in space is AOK too! Dialogue stuff is very Fallout 4/Bethesda so far (quirky). I like it and can’t wait to play more of it at max graphic in 4K next week.

I was called a hater whenever I complained about the state of the game, but like many, I was only complaining because I loved the game. There’s been a few games that YouTubers were calling the next “Destiny Killer”, clickbait at best as I always knew that if anyone was going to kill Destiny 2, it would be Bungie themselves.

Even though I’ve not played Destiny 2 in over 12 months I still hear about the game from a mate who still plays, as well as vids that pop up on my YouTube feed. I can’t not watch. It’s like watching a train wreck. Ultimately I’m truly sad that it’s come to this.

Having said all that I’m looking forward to the showcase. I truly enjoyed The Witch Queen, and I knew there was no way Lightfall would be as good so I skipped it. Part of me wants to play The Final Shape to finally put a nail in the Destiny coffin for good. My gut tells me it’s going to be an amazing expansion.

PS: All I ever wanted was an all black shader.

Destiny 1 player here. Thousands of hours into Destiny 2. Absolutely LOVED the Witch Queen expansion, but stopped playing about a year ago due to many reasons, the main reason being that I got so tired of complaining about various states of the game.

I only ever complained about specifics because I love the game, but my complaints came across as negative to the people I was playing with.

I considered picking up Lightfall, but I wasn’t a fan of the neon purple and green/Miami Vice/Cyberpunk aesthetic, so I held off, then I watched a few overtly negative video reviews which have truly helped to put the final nail in the coffin for me.

I still keep tabs on all things Destiny 2 even though I don’t play the game anymore. I especially enjoy watching videos of all the uproar against Bungie. It’s a bit twisted, kinda like watching a train wreck. I’m 100% with the content creators and community. I feel for them. I’m 100% sure Bungie acknowledge the screams for change, the ball is in their court.

It’s ironic to me that over the years there have been so many new games touted as potential “Destiny Killers”, yet all along it’s been Bungie themselves who are killing Destiny.

A reddit comment of mine was read out in this video.

And a recent comment I made on the Diablo Immortal subreddit:

Imagine a game where the more you grind the more you get penalised. Oh wait! That’s Diablo Immortal!

IMHO Diablo Immortal was always intended to be a casual game, but many players I’ve met since launch, both in my clan and on the server have pretty much no-lifed this game, some players putting in 10+ hours a day or even more.

It’s been clear from the very start that when you go past server paragon level your XP gains get penalised. This alone suggests that the intent is to have players fall behind the server paragon level, and each day play catch up to get to server paragon level, then log off and rinse and repeat the next day. Skip a day or 2 because of real life? No worries, your XP gets boosted so you can easily catch back up to server paragon level.

A lot of other MMO’s go from being hardcore to more casual friendly over time. No doubt the more hardcore gamers can clearly see the amazing potential Diablo Immortal has as being their main game, but the hardcore reality is that Diablo Immortal is meant to be a casual game and I doubt that will ever change.

Rogue, my main character (currently level 73).

Necromancer, my alt.

Been playing Diablo IV a LOT. The game has a pretty aggressive scaling system where each time you level up and get more powerful, the monsters do too (this takes away the power fantasy of gearing up to overpower your enemies). A LOT of people have been talking about it, mostly negative feedback too. I was one of the people against it earlier, but I was wrong.

I’m at level 73 now, and I’ve spent the time to find the right pieces with the right stats, then added the right affixes to upgrade them all into Legendaries (such a good system!), and I have to say, where I struggled in Tier 4 Helltides and solo dungeon runs before (had to use potions) I now melt everything and never once have to use a potion to heal.

I get that in a few more levels time I’ll have to probably get rid of my current min-maxed gear and find upgrades, but that’s the loop, right?! You sometimes feel too weak, but then you get to a stage where you feel like it’s challenging but fun, then you get to a stage where you feel like a God. Rinse and repeat.

Maybe the scaling will be an issue as I progress more levels (people at 80+ seem to think so), but the more I play the game the more I love it. Still feels very much like a solo game, but the Helltide events are awesome fun. I hate countdown mechanics in most games, but farming enough cinders to open 2 mystery chests and 2 normal chests as the timer runs down is addicting. A true hour of power. Love the world bosses too.

Today I stepped down as leader of Australia Clan. I’ve been playing a lot of Diablo IV and trying to keep up with Diablo Immortal, but I’ve never been able to play more than one game at the same time. I figure I might still be able to play Diablo Immortal as a casual, especially if I step down from a leadership role.

Here’s the announcement I shared with the clan:

Hi all! Just wanted to let everyone know that I’ve decided to step down as co-lead of Australia Clan.

Initialy I was hesitant to step up to the role, but thankfully Tazzly was willing to co-lead with me. I couldn’t have done it without him. Special thanks to our officers Lunate, Sausage and DarkSader too for the hard work, support and voice of reason when I needed it.

Much thanks to all of you. Especially those who have been with us from the start, and stayed with us when there was a change in leadership. I love you guys!

It’s been a wild ride! I’m very much looking forward to enjoying Diablo Immortal as an Australia Clan member without the added responsibilities of running a clan.

Much gratitude X.

Mummy!

Just my initial thoughts on Diablo 4 (D4), specifically in comparison to Diablo Immortal (DI).

1. Diablo Immortal feels a lot faster (both movement and combat). I’m sure my build in D4 will get faster in the end game when I unlock more movement abilities, but straight off the bat, DI is faster (both movement and combat). DI is also more ‘zoomed in’ (field of view) than D4 which also makes it feel faster.

2. DI is a lot easier than D4. DI is just so much more casual. You can literally just stand there and kill mobs. D4 involves a lot more work, placement and timing, all in all it’s just more involved. D4 unfortunatly makes it so enemies scale to your level, so even if you go back to a starting area, those enemies scale to your level. I’m not sure this is a good thing as you never quite feel radically more powerful despite getting better gear and levelling up.

3. The D4 story is dark, real dark! Great character development so far (your character speaks too and appears in all cut scenes which is awesome). I’m only at the start of Act II, but I’ve already found that the dungeons all look and feel a bit sameish (whereas DI’s dungeons all look and play so different to each other).

4. The skill tree in D4 is HUGE. The game allows for so much build diversity it’s actually insane and no 2 players would ever have the exact same build in the game. Anyone who loves build crafting and min-maxing will love this system (that’s me!).

5. DI feels like an MMO, D4 does not. In-game chat just doesn’t work or feel the same and right now the clan system is a skeleton in D4 (no benefits to joining a clan at all), and PVP is not a mode, but instead just 2 areas on the map (no leaderboards, nothing).

SO far, so good. I wouldn’t say I’m hooked just yet, but I’ll at the very least finish off the main story quest before putting it down.

PS: Cross posted this to reddit and it’s gotten pretty good upvotes and engagement: https://www.reddit.com/r/DiabloImmortal/comments/13ysmom/my_initial_thoughts_on_diablo_4_vs_diablo_immortal

MVP with zero deaths!

Been a while since I’ve done a game update: I got tired of being slayed by Monks with way less resonance than me in Diablo Immortal PVP Battlegrounds matches. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em?! Necro for life, but I finally decided to class change to Monk.

The game forces you to grind for new gear for your new class, so I’ve been playing the game quite a lot lately in order to get my build right. The first few days were miserable as I not only didn’t have the gear, I also had no idea what I was doing as the Monk playstyle is so different to the Necromancer, but I’m happy to say that I stuck with it, and a week in I’m starting to do really well!

PS: One essential Monk skill is called “Shield of Zen”. Maybe it was meant to be?!