Skyward Fire

Blizzard. The name says it all. This has been one of those companies which revolutionize gaming and gamers with every title. Launched on 30th November 1996, Diablo was a definitive Earth shattering RPG which gripped us all by the throat and pulled us through its amazing game play, artwork and exquisitely mapped plots and demons. All said and done, it was a screaming success. It spawned countless RPGs from wannabe companies including a slightly appreciable effort by Microsoft when it launched Dungeon Siege. All efforts turned out to be in vein when Blizzard announced the sequel to Diablo. This game shattered the sales of other RPGs which “claimed” to be better than Diablo.

One thing Blizzard glorified was individual triumph. In most RTS titles, we mass armies and lay waste on the enemy base. Warcraft III changed the way we look at RTS titles with the excellent and highly developed hero system which involved making a hero (obviously) and small strike teams and micro managing them, which commanded much more skill and precision. In other words Blizzard is all about innovation. Big news hit the air on 30th June 2008 that the next game of Blizzard has been declared and fans cheered and campaigns popped as we had in our hands screen shots and videos from the next game in line, Diablo III.

Diablo III looks very promising. The moment Blizzard revealed the game play and interface screen shots; fans were in shock that blizzard had stuck to the interface as in Diablo I and Diablo II. This shows that these guys are smart enough to not let a tactic that worked, go waste, three cheers for that. However just putting in HDR and Bloom Effect and a million particles in one effect will not compete with games of today (for example, Crysis). Unless the game has substantial game play to back up the graphical power, it is an utter waste.

That is exactly the doubt fans had, “with all this graphical glory, will Blizzard maintain Diablo III true to the wonderful game play of Diablo II?” Looks like they heard our plea and released a game play video the very next day which showed II classes of characters -The Barbarian and the Witch Doctor. As the names itself suggest, the barbarian is a brutal bad ass who eats demon scum for breakfast. With overwhelming powers and amazingly brutal attacks, he looks like the Blizzard version of Kratos from the God of War fame. The Witch doctor is more of a defensive character with tactics that distract and kill off enemies when they are in clusters or when they are off-guard.

The sorceress in Diablo II could raise a wall of fire. We have also seen walls of rock, ice and bones in Diablo II. Ever seen a wall of Zombies? Some of the spells shown in the game play and the effect they have on the environment are unbelievably amazing. We have the freedom to knock down walls over approaching enemies. In Diablo II, substantial time was consumed in shuffling through the inventory for health potions. Diablo III will have a unique system as every enemy killed will drop small health orbs which increase health by small amount. Nothing huge and earth shattering but as we all know and have seen, simplicity is what drove Diablo II to the place where it is.

While games like Bethesda Game Studios‘ Oblivion and Bioware’s Never Winter Nights have too much loitering around, Diablo has always been an in-your-face-combat RPG. You either fight or you die. Right from the start we all knew Diablo III will be a bad ass gory and fun RPG which will give the player less time to make decisions and be involved in combat most of the time. Laying waste on 10 Million + demons sounds cool but it demands a strong story, since Diablo II almost shut down the plot with the death of Baal in Lord of Destruction. It will be interesting to see what causes Diablo to rise from the eternal death he was confined to. Coming to the graphical section, the game literally shines in this department. The video currently out shows some really nice effects caused from the attacks of both Barbarian and the Witch Doctor. Especially the Bash attack which demolished a door and the particles hit and knocked back the monsters behind it. Better start saving for that graphics card. I would recommend at least an 8800 GT to even try this game.

The reason is that if a game like Diablo isn’t played the way Blizzard intends it to be, and then you will not, I repeat, you will not enjoy it. It is supposed to be played with high frame rates and a good resolution. People, do justice to this requirement. The game deserves it. Also, if you don’t posses a hard core 5.I speaker set or some nice headphones, its time to shell out that extra booty you had been saving for your other half’s birthday gift. About the character classes, I just hope the old ones make a comeback. What is sad though that the Witch doctor will probably replace the Necromancer? I for one do not like this change. The Barbarian has been made very brilliantly and there are male and female versions of each class (they were absent in D2) which is really admirable. One thing which caught my attention was a video playback which was basically a cut scene in the game.

The video had the barbarian talking to his party member and he was wearing the same armor in the video as he was in real time! I mean the armor was totally random as he just got it from killing a demon! And it showed in the video which wasn’t even in game graphics! How Blizzard managed to pull off something like that astounds me. Sadly the game will be out somewhere in the 3rd quarter or 2009. So it’s a long wait. I just hope it doesn’t go the way of Starcraft Ghost!

For more Diablo 3 screenshots, artwork, trailers, news and information, keep watch at the Official Diablo III website.

View in full resolution here.

In a country like India where there are numerous people, and humongous traffic, you cannot really expect everyone to stick to the rules. The Indian traffic mentality and machinery is totally different from the rest of the world because of the condition of the roads, the local climatic factor, the drivers’ mentality and the number of vehicles hitting the street every day, it is an impossible task for the unevenly numbered cops to manage and enforce various street laws that are supposed to keep the various traffic facades in check. So then, there arises a need for a unified national citizenship initiative, by the people for the people, a tool that actually might just be a revolutionary step towards ensuring a peaceful and time-saving journey for you, your friends, your family, and everyone else.

TrafficViolators.Com is one such non-profit independent endeavour by Abhishek Kant that seems really serious about what it says it’s out there for. With a neat but feature-rich interface and  a simple objective, it is an open platform for you to act like that really responsible citizen you ought to be. Although just in it’s initial phase, the site currently covers the major cities of the nation, but new cities are constantly being added. It’s here because the only way we can get rid of all road hazards and ensuring road safety is self-regulation, and self-conciousness. No one can really enforce anything upon you, you are your best judge. TrafficViolators is the perfect media that allows you to judge yourself, gives you an oppurtunity to inform and warn fellow drivers of maniac traffic violators, and at the same time, it gives you a chance to apologize to the community on a whole. What the site does is really very simple. You report a violation, and it goes up on the site’s Shame Board almost instantly. The information you ought to mention while filing a violation report include the vehicle’s registration number & the city where the violation took place. Yes, that’s really it. You might also include other details like the vehicle make, the violation type, and the really fun-to-use VirtualEarth integration for mentioning the Geolocation of the violation. Once the details are filled up, all you got to do is hit ‘Report’. Simple, ainnit?

Wish to report a violation while you’re on the move without an internet connection? That’s not a problem at all, TrafficViolators has everything figured out for you. All you need is a Twitter account, with the SMS feature enabled. You have to submit the violation report in the form of a 140 letter-count-bound tweet, and voila! Job’s done. More information on how to submit a violation report via Twitter can be found here. And if that doesn’t helps, there are some very comprehensive video tutorials which you can watch here. Now, you know everything about posting a report. So go ahead and give it a go. There are some very interesting features that the site offers, and I probably should have mentioned it sooner. The site is Windows Live ID enabled! Yes, you’re probably thinking that makes it all really easy to register yourselves with the website, enabling a huge number of users to sign up at ease. You can also share the photos and videos of a violation you took or shot while you were on the street. You know you’ll be making a stern point about what are really willing to say. The RSS available for all the reported violators and violations makes it really easy for you to follow if you’ve ever been reported or not. The site offers an API, making it possible to make feature-rich widgets and applications one could use to report traffic violations, and you’re very much encouraged to do so. Then again if you’re an avid Facebook user, the site has it’s very own application on Facebook here.

One thing I love about this site is the ease at which you get the job done. I can never get tired of stating that fact. You aren’t being asked of much. Come be a part of the change. Until then, drive safe, and stay safe. I’ll see you at TrafficViolators.Com