Back on the Horse

Hello, it's been a while.

Four and a bit months actually, my biggest break from writing about, well, anything since I started this thing.  Life has been pretty hectic the last four months, there's a book there somewhere, maybe, but it has been fun.  It's also been kind of gameless.  Those shiny new consoles have seen little to no action apart from the odd bit of COD and my weekends have been filled with a girlfriend, friends, family, kittens and Festivals instead of a game pad.  Then about two weeks ago I had my first weekend at home since the end of May and I put Watch Dogs back on.  It sucked me in a little, I actually forgot how much I liked the online aspect, the ability to hack and be hacked by other players and the story is kinda fun.

Then I received a text, 'Are you getting Diablo 3?'

I'd not even realised it was about to come out.  A game I'd deliberately avoided buying on PS3, because I knew it was coming out for next gen (or this gen, you know what I mean).  So I said yes and bought it on XboxOne.

Firstly, it's gaming mana.  Hitting things, lots of spells, collecting stuff, hitting some more things,  manage an inventory, craft things, hit that thing over there.  Lovely.  Secondly, it's gorgeous.  It might be a game with an isometric POV but it just sings on my One.  And at times there's a serious amount of stuff going on, like, an insane amount and there's no slow down, none.  It's the first game I've bought for one of the new consoles where I've really felt like I'm playing something worthy of the grunt under my TV.

Then there's the social bit.  Now the One, despite the annoying dashboard, does this better than the PS4, and the headset that comes with it is miles better than the one the PS4 ships with.  But all that aside the social bit of Diablo 3 is just a joy.  Playing with a friend, in this case @ben_cameron from Twitter, has been really good fun.  We've been playing through the story together and when we've not been able to, we've been building up another character each in a different class to the one we started with.  It's geek heaven, obviously, but both hitting the hell out of waves of demons and then both saying, 'Hang on, I need to check my loot,' is a genuine gaming marvel.  Yep, Diablo 3 is an old school dungeon crawler but it's just got so many layers.

So there you go, I'm back on the horse.  Bring on Destiny, Dragon Age 3, FIFA 15, The Division, The Witcher 3 and all.

I'm back.