Blizzard you had me sorely disappointed when I played Diablo 3. You had re-hashed Diablo 2 but forgot what the nice things about it were. I basically played it once through on Normal and forgot the game completely. Don’t get me wrong it is still a good game but the only reason it was decent for me was because of the story and cinematics. The gameplay mechanics from the 2000 game did not live up to the expectations and hype in 2012. Maybe it felt too similar to World of Warcraft in some ways. Anyways I hope that the upcoming expansion will restore my faith. Blizzard, the Diablo universe has too much potential. Don’t let it go to waste! 6.5/10
Now to the real reason why I decided to actually update this blog at 1am: SC2: HoTS. I am still feeling psyched! I haven’t felt this good about finishing a game since forever. The gameplay mechanics are a testament to a true old-school real-time strategy game and the graphics are incredibly detailed and polished. However, for me, the actual magic comes from the story, the cinematics, the characters, the sound: everything here screams EPIC. Everything blends seamlessly. The final cinematic… wow. Thank you Blizzard for keeping that star-struck, magical feeling alive and for the gentle reminder of why I’ve always wanted to create games. I don’t think there is any other medium that is able to achieve this level of immersion when all the aspects are done properly. Kudos to Blizzard for managing this yet again. 10/10