Low hanging fruit vs low gaming standards

The basics and the accompanying pain.

By Simon Woodington · September 1, 2026

I'm not recovering, the illness persists, but in some ways I'm improving and I am grateful for those ways. I'm at that awkward stage of having enough energy to be restless but little enough physical capability to get it out of my system.

Get your ferratin levels checked. Mine were critical and probably the cause of most of my issues. My wife wasn't any better off than I, and when we decided to go the infusion route, thankfully it was mostly covered. A little bit of financial pain is worth it for the functional gain, in this case.

I appreciate that there are a lot of people not in the position I'm in, but that's not why I'm blogging this morning.

I finally reached a decision about some games I haven't addressed here, and it involved a guilt inducing installation. I've avoided Blizzard for many years since Starcraft was a big hit with the kids in high school. I dabbled for a few days with World of Warcraft (busy playing Lineage II and Aion Online, donchaknow), and Diablo II was a haunt for a while even though I never quite managed to completely beat it. Assassin for the win, every time.

I'm not sure what possessed ol' Blizz to give the Diablo II remaster such an ugly aesthetic, so reviewing that one, I won't touch it. That may have been a bridge too far. Starcraft didn't suffer so much, somehow. The putridity of the world and its characters is consistent with the story and its environment. It works, and the much is as exciting as ever.

Battle.net just feels creepy. Am I nuts? The sheer marketing pitch is so much more heavy handed than the other stores I'm used to. Well, I did sign up for the journey, and at least it doesn't get in the way of what's important: Playing their games. Rather, it hasn't so far.

Y'know, the company I'm keeping--insofar as games--is probably as dismal/hopeful as reality. That's something?

Cheers?

Comments 5

honestgamer Staff Sep 1

I don't go to the various stores to browse, these days. I almost always have a particular game in mind. I search for it and I buy it or add it to my wish list, and then I bounce. Boring in some ways, but the habit has served me well. With Blizzard, I've really only looked around long enough to activate a key or two over the last decade or so (most recently, Diablo 4 that I got from Humble Bundle). Will I ever play it, though? That remains to be seen.

hastypixels Blogger Sep 3

Boring shopping makes for good sanity keeping. My wife and I actively avoid situations that are "too peoply" whenever we can. We're fortunate to be able to shop in the early morning, and yeah, grab what ya need and bounce, that's the thing to do.

The Diablo series held my attention for a while, but I am not ponying up $50 (CDN) for the remaster of Diablo II just so I can play it, get frustrated and then drop it for months, or maybe years just to pick it up again when I have a mood. I think overall I'm best keeping my distance from Blizzard. Bad vibes.

overdrive Staff Sep 3

I've been playing the hell out of Diablo 4 for the last month or more. Great fun in that repetitive "kill everything, get better equipment, build that stuff up better, kill more everything" way. Up to the second DLC for main quest stuff and up to the last main game regain as far as side quests and stuff goes. Since I just started the game midway through Season 14, I'm not overly sure about the Seasonal stuff. Seems to be a tiny amount of story attached to them and a whole lot of random challenges that make you ratchet up the difficulty to do various things. Unlike Diablo 3, everything seemed really easy here until I got into the Torment difficulties and, really, Torment III has gotten pretty easy in the last couple days due to a couple Paragon bonuses and other upgrades. Guess when the new season starts in about two weeks, I'll have to start up a new character to do that content. Which is a good idea, all things considered. If you have eight or so classes and multiple ways to build each one, it does make sense to encourage players to experiment and not be like me, going from the Demon Hunter in 3 to the Rogue in 4 because both classes are archery based and at least kind of similar. Even if the damn Rogue doesn't seem to have that super-awesome "machine gun bow" skill that I loved with the Demon Hunter.

Cavalary Sep 5

Ouch, Diablo II, that sure was a pain. Had heard so much praise for it, then I finally played it, in 2008, and hated every moment of it. As far as not just expectations vs. reality, but resources put into it vs. result, I consider it the worst game I ever played. But I did finish it, obviously with sorceress, thinking ice, but not entirely sure anymore, there is a chance it was lightning, or that I mixed a little. Either way, frustrating, but the one really nasty part was just the expansion's final boss, basically had to die to get any hits in, so go in, hit hit die, recover, resurrect henchman, go back and repeat. Luckily I hoard and had just enough gold to keep doing it until I whacked him.

As for game stores, it's DRM free of not at all. And when it was about actual purchases, just GOG because they allowed PSC, unlike the other DRM-free stores, just have some freebies from others. And now that GOG added an 8.5% transaction fee if you use PSC, nothing at all for purchases, have enough games to last me the rest of my life and then some, and plenty of freebies or contests out there to get some more now and then as well. But yeah, as a rule, ever since I got off the "high seas", if it's not fully DRM-free, it doesn't exist for me. No FOMO for gaming, way too many games out there to have a chance to get to in a lifetime for any one of them to be "necessary", so the message to publishers is offer it to me as I want it or stick it where the sun don't shine.

hastypixels Blogger Sep 5

@overdrive, @cavalary: It sounds like the DLC plenty path and wore out their welcome. I've come to enjoy the post-DLC experience where I can enjoy all that the developers build into the game instead of buying extra after the fact. "Oh hey, like that hotdog? You'll like it more with condiments, which I happen to have for just a little extra..."

Good examples: I got into Half Life 2 long after the Episodes had been released and the chatter concerned the one we never got. Same with Starcraft. I was able to enjoy the story of both titles without worrying about when the next installment was coming out. I also got the benefit of the additional mechanics, new maps, and so on.

This is the way I prefer to play in any instance. Whatever they're pitching, I'd rather wait until all is said and done, then jump in at my leisure. It doesn't always work out that way, but we're spoiled for choice these days anyway.

It's interesting that Diablo II lacked balance, but was acceptable because of its novelty, whereas later installments lacked novelty but had balance. By that, I mean that the player became the equal of the final--or latest--enemy or challenge. See, the thing I like about Half Life 2 is its built to aid your success. You've got to figure out how to best use your resources, but ultimately you are equal to the challenges.

Publishers don't have it easy and nor should they.