Random Thoughts

[CG123]

How did you find the trial? The worst part of all this, I'll probably buy it next week and then have to cry myself to sleep because I've no longer got any principles haha

I posted about how I found it last page:

I got a guest past off my brother, and finished up to where that allows you to play up to pretty easily. Imo it definitely wasn't as good as Diablo 2 was back in the day, i.e. I'm not going to go out and buy it or anything. It had a real WoW feel about it, just the way the towns were set-up and stuff, and I didn't like it how it pretty much held your hand as you went through the start of the game, telling you exactly how to do every quest (I'm not sure if that continues later on). I liked Diablo 2 because while it had a strong storyline, it still allowed you to go off on your own with most areas being open, unlike D3 where you seem to pretty much just be following a path the whole time (at least at the start I was). Don't get me wrong I still though it was a good game and I enjoyed my few hours or so playing it, but I it didn't live up to as good as I thought it would be.

FTR Diablo 2 was definitely one of my favourite games growing up. I was playing it a few weeks ago before D3 came out, and it's quite remarkable that it came out in 2000 (give or take), considering even playing it now it's still a very good game, although I really don't play that many games anymore other than the occasional ventures in to ICC/FIFA etc.

 

[puddleduck]

Yeah you did sorry

By the way, the first playthrough is basically a tutorial and very easy apparently, but by nightmare and hell it supposedly starts to really crank up the difficulty.

 

[CG123]

By the way, the first playthrough is basically a tutorial and very easy apparently, but by nightmare and hell it supposedly starts to really crank up the difficulty.

Yeah, what I played (around half of act one) was very tutorialish. They told you when to use way points etc., and stuff like that. While it took me a while to beat the Skeleton King, I was never really in any danger of dieing. While I'm 99% certain that it's get better as the game goes on, I'm definitely not going to fork out $90ish when I have exams starting in like two weeks, and straight after that I'm going away to the UK for a month. And then when I get back from there I'm already missing the first week of semester two of uni, so I essentially already have no free time for the next few months.

 

[puddleduck]

If you come to Bristol at all let me know, be happy to buy you a pint and show you around a bit

 

[Chewie]

oh yeah the difficulty does get much harder once you've completed it once. But the quests are pretty straightforward, you don't choose what quests you do. There is exploration and stuff but in the end you do have to go a certain way, unless you want to go back and explore old areas again.

The reason I like Diablo 3 over something like torchlight is the multiplayer aspect though. I don't really like single player RPG games

 

[Manly]

See User Pictures thread for my latest Random Thought.

 

[CG123]

If you come to Bristol at all let me know, be happy to buy you a pint and show you around a bit

I don't think I'll be going there atm. I'm going over with my family and my dad's one of those people who has to have everything planned etc., while I'm quite content to just roll-up and plan what I do as I go. Where I go though will be pretty much the same as the parents and sister because we're pretty much going to be freeloading off friends and family the whole time, not that I really know anyone since I haven't been over there since I was five. Atm I've only really got three theme parks and one of the English domestic T20 matches planned, as well as all of the usual tourist stuff in London etc. My mum's best friend is getting married which is part of the reason why we're going over, and I just found out today that the wedding and all of the stuff that goes with is going to be 12 hours long...

 

[barmyarmy]

Three theme parks?
One forgets that provincials are impressed by bright lights...

 

[CG123]

Three theme parks?
One forgets that provincials are impressed by bright lights...

One forgets that Auckland's three times that size of Edinburgh.

 

[barmyarmy]

We had to build upwards within the town wall to stop the English burning our houses down. Auckland is just wasteful of space

 

[CG123]

We had to build upwards within the town wall to stop the English burning our houses down. Auckland is just wasteful of space

That must be why so many people come from overseas (the likes of Asia etc.) to live in Auckland, while Edinburgh is pretty much all White "natives".

 

[CG123]

I'll tell you what is stupid about Auckland, some of the students. There was a protest this afternoon against the NZ Budget that was released today, and one of the things that they were protesting against is that students will no longer be able to get a student allowance after four years of studying. A student allowance in New Zealand is free money that the government gives to students who come from moderate to poor financial backgrounds, although I know people who get them who are just as well off as me, and I'm no where near getting one.

So effectively they were protesting that they're no longer going to get free money after four years of studying, of which a lot of that money gets wasted on the likes of alcohol etc., and then there's people like me who get absolutely nothing from the government. It's just one of the those things that shouldn't really piss me off, but it does, because even with four years of getting a student allowance, they're still going to be getting $20,000ish from doing absolutely nothing.

And ftr my parent's aren't paying for any of my uni. fees, so in my situation I would be better of if they were poorer and I could get a student allowance. What a stupid system that's in place, and how stupid can some people get for protesting that they want more free money than they're already getting.

/end rant

 

[Chewie]

I can see why they're upset because it basically means that people who aren't well off can't do conjoints with law or engineering or they can't do med.

What I reckon is that there should be stricter criteria for getting it, and it should only be for how ever many years your degree is - if you fail some papers you don't get it for the extra semester or so you have to do to catch up.

My ex and a friend of mine both get student allowance, and neither of them should really. They just take advantage of the system and that their parents own a business so they don't really have any declared income

 

[CG123]

I can see why they're upset because it basically means that people who aren't well off can't do conjoints with law or engineering or they can't do med.

Yes they can, they can just put it all on their loan like I'm effectively doing with my whole degree.

I know they have a point for people coming from a poor background and who are living away from home, but this is a real majority of at least the people that I have encountered in my year and a half. It's there as a way for people coming from poor backgrounds to give them a greater opportunity at going to university (as is the absolutely stupid easier entrance requirements for Maori/Pacific Islanders), but it doesn't do anything to address the root of the problem with breaking the social trend in for example the likes of South Auckland, where a lot of people don't have the opportunity to go to university. Whether they have a student allowance or not doesn't make any difference, for the majority of them at least.

I definitely agree with you about your second point, I put it slightly differently though; "What a stupid system that's in place". A different system definitely needs to be adopted in the future, instead of the stupid online application form.

 

[barmyarmy]

That must be why so many people come from overseas (the likes of Asia etc.) to live in Auckland, while Edinburgh is pretty much all White "natives".

Touch?. Although I was actually brought up in London.