Most of the time, I don’t care about being in on the hot thing of the moment. I’m fairly impervious to being manipulated by commercials and the like. Marketing doesn’t work on me–mostly. I have my weak points. One is the Xbox One controller. I love it to an unhealthy degree. I hate the PS4 DualShock, which means I use my PS4 as little as possible. Which is sad because the RKG lads do all their playthroughs on the PlayStation. I really wish they would play on the PC, but I get it. I actually don’t, but I know many people prefer consoles for whatever reasons.
Anyway, Ian has an Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 and brought it with him the last time he visited me. I held it and it felt so good in my hands. I loved ii. I was mentioning in the RKG Discord (because the boys are playing Elden Ring on the PS5) that I loved my Xbox One controller and someone mentioned the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 being the best controller he’s ever use.d. That pushed me over the edge, and I went to check the price of the controller on Amazon. And then on Xbox itself. On the latter page, it was forty bucks off. I mentioned it to Ian, and he asked if that was the Core (the pared down version). I said, no. That one was on sale for…seven dollars less. So it was $132.99 for the Core and $139.99 for the full-fledged one. I mean. If I’m going to spend that much money on a controller, I’m not going to balk at seven bucks. Plus, there is no black one in the Core category.
Long story long: I bought one. It should be here by Thursday (it’s Tuesday as I’m writing this).
Next up is Diablo IV by Blizzard. Derbler III was one of the first hardcore games I’ve ever played, and I played the shit out of it. Demon Hunter was my fave and Wizard was a close second. The former is not in Diablo IV, and the latter is the Sorcerer in this game (maybe they are actually different classes?). It’s coming out, and people are inhaling it. There are some criticisms, but it’s getting rave reviews for the most part. 89% positive on OpenCritic with 97% recommended. That’s really high! Now, I have issues with Blizzard as a company. I’ll be honest. It’s the biggest reason I have not bought the game yet. And, yes, I know there is something wrong with practically every company in the business, but that’s not a reason to not take a stand. You could say that about everything in the world. Enviorment is fucked. Why bother trying to go greener? Sexism in the States is entrenched. Why bother trying to fight it?
Bottom line is that we all have to decide what hills we’re going to die on. If you never make a stand, then nothing will ever change. But. Man. Everyone is playing Diablo IV and loving it. And I’m envious. It’s a few weeks after Tears of a Kingdom (Zelda), and I had no interest in that one. Nor could I play it because I don’t have a Switch. But this one? Yeah, I have interest. Or rather. I have to say that I haven’t been impressed with the gameplay I’ve seen because it looks similar to the third game. Which, as I said, I played the hell out of. But it just seemed iterative rather than innovative.
Which is fine. Not every game in a series has to reinvent that series, but it’s been over a decade lsince the last real Diablo game. Many old-time fans are happy that it’s more like 2 than 3 because 3 was not well-received when it came out. Partly beacuse it wasn’t as grimdark as the prior games and because of the crappy monetization system that was implemented for the game. and the server slam when the game was released.
I loved that game. I liked the art style. I was underwhelmed by the look in this game. Yeah, I said it. It’s not because I hate grimdark–I do not. But there was something missing for me. When I see all the hype, I just wonder what I’m missing. I think it looks fine. It seems as if it plays fine. I jsut don’t have a pull towards it. The reason I’m considering it is because other people are enjoying it so much. I want to see if I can recapture that magic I felt while playing its predecessor. Magic being the operative word. I was learning toward the sorc, anyway, and then one of the people in the RKG Discord said that she wsa playing sorc. Who has a fire tree. Which is my jam! As she knows (as everyone in the Discord knows0. Plus a frost tree. Those are my two jams. So that makes me lean more towards getting the game.
It’s difficult. I’m used to listening to my gut because it’s right more often than it’s not. When I try to talk myself into things, it rarely works. And, as I’ve said, this game has left me cold for the most part. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve become so FromSoft-ified or what, but I can’t seem to convince myself that I will enjoy the game. Which is wild because I had so much fun with its predecessor.
It just goes to show. Diablo III was released in 2012–11 years ago. In the meantime, I’ve played all the From games except Demon’s Souls and platted them all except Sekiro. This is my kind of game, apparently, and it’s the opposite of Derbler. I do understand that people can appreciate different kinds of games. I’m not one of those people. I’ve never been one of those people. In every area of pop culture, I dislike far more than I ilke. I know that 99% of all pop culture is crap, but it’s not even that. I would say objectively Tears of a Kingdom is not crap, but I have no interest in it. Knives Out, which I loathed, was not a bad movie if you discount the plot. And the way it’s shot. Ok, it’s a bad movie to me, but I can understand why people like it. Kind of.
What I’m saying is it ‘s me. My taste is eclectic and strange. I’m at peace with that.