This will probably read more negatively than one who has played Diablo 2 might expect it to be.  I should probably start out with my background with Diablo 2.  Diablo 2 was my pre-WoW time sink.  I spent hours upon hours playing it.  I had a whirlwind barb, fury barb, firewall sorc, strafe zon, fury zon, some kind of horrible non-hammerdin pally, shapeshifting druid, the list could go on.  I had tons of items that I sold on ebay for a good chunk of change.  So needless to say, I was very familiar with the game sans-cheating.  I could have probably played the game blindfolded.  I knew what items were before they were identified and knew the range of values that would make the item good or bad.  I almost knew the rune system by heart.  It was gross.  So going to play Diablo 3, you sort of expect a sort of familiarity.  A sense of easing right in.  That is actually not what playing Diablo 3 is like from the keyboard/mouse perspective.  Read on to find out why!

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This was on the media kit I hear

I’ll warn you first off by saying that if you never played Starcraft 1, there are going to be terms that I use that you may not understand at all. I’m not even going to provide a glossary either so deal with it.  Again this is a super long post, so if you’re interested hit the break for more.

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Covers Warcraft 1 and 2 with the expansion and the bump upgrade for War2: Battle.net Edition.  Cool watch at 15 minutes in length, just as high quality as the other retrospectives.

I’m off to Irvine for Blizzcon this weekend! You can keep track of me at www.twitter.com/avarim for my play by play. I’ll be taking a camera as well and plan on uploading to Picasa each day. Feel free to shoot me questions on twitter and I’ll be able to respond using my iPod. I’m looking forward to

• Starcraft 2 hands on
• Diablo 3 info
• War3/Starcraft Tournaments

MOSTLY I’m looking forward to Starcraft 2. If Diablo 3 isn’t playable then the tournament stuff is really fun to watch. I get back in late late Sunday night.

My planned schedule will look like this:

• WoW UI Panel
• WoW Class Panel
• Starcraft 2 Gameplay Panel
• Hands on Starcraft 2/other games
• Starcraft Semi-Finals
• WoW Raids and Dungeons
• The Guild (but may cut to see War3/Star finals)
• Starcraft 2 Community Match

If you need Microsoft points for something go here: http://stridelovesrockband.com/ and sign up.  I signed up on Monday and got my winning email today (found it in my junk mail so maybe I won yesterday).  If anything, it’s a free $2 for you to spend however you want on the MS store.

I’ll be going again this year it looks like. Last year’s event was a total blast. Seeing Wrath unveiled as well as playing hands on Starcraft 2 was amazing. Meeting the people I boss around in my guild was cool too. =)

Last year I toted my backpack everywhere which was pretty much useless. This year I’ll travel far lighter and leave the backpack. The area had wifi, but to sit down, break out the laptop, connect, then do whatever sort of distracted from the environment.  Probably a shame too because I’d probably have more to write about or twitter about this year with Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2.  I’ll try to use my iPod Touch since I can update the site and tweet from there but I hate the keyboard.  I’m currently in the Wrath beta so I guess I could start writing up some of my experiences and post some shots maybe.

I saw lots of relatively famous people last year, obviously the Blizzard crew like Chris Metzen, Rob Pardo, then others like Richard Knaak, Leroy Jenkins, and journalists like Jessica Chobot.  I should gotten better pictures I guess.  I ate great food, drank the most alcohol I’d ever drinken in my life, and actually it wasn’t that much since I don’t usually drink which might be sad for some of you, and met a chinchilla.  I’m hoping for more of the same.  A lot of the guildies want to have a Rock Band night so I’m looking forward to that, unless they make me sing.

IGN Link

Skill
Solid Gold, Baby!
Gold star any song.     25
Flawless Fretwork
100% a song on Expert guitar.     25
Flawless Drumming
100% a song on Expert drums.     25
Flawless Singing
100% a song on Expert vocals.     25
Flawless Groove
100% a song on Expert bass only using up-strums.     25
Flawless Guitar Solo
100% a guitar solo using only the solo buttons.     20
The Bachman-Turner Award
Maintain deployed Overdrive for 90 seconds.     25
Million Point Club
Earn more than 1,000,000 points in a single song.     25
Bragging Rights
Defeat a player in either Score Duel or Tug of War.     15
Comeback Kid
Defeat the last player beat you in either Score Duel or Tug of War.     15
Band Savior
Be a savior 3 times during one song.     20
Hello Cleveland!
Deploy Vocal Overdrive 4 times in a single song.     20
Overdrive Overdose
Achieved an 8x Band Multiplier     25

Band World Tour
Got Wheels
Won a Van in World Tour     20
Open Road
Won a Bus in World Tour     20
Jet Setter
Won a Jet in World Tour     20
Worldwide Sensation
Gain the ability to play around the world     25
West Coast Performer
Played a set on the West Coast of North America     10
God Save the Band
Played a set in the United Kingdom     10
Heartland Performer
Played a set in Middle America.     10
Western Europe Performer
Played a set in Western Europe.     10
East Coast Performer
Played a set on the East Coast of North America     10
Eastern European Performer
Played a set in Eastern Europe.     10
Road Dog
Played in every venue in the world     30
One Million Fans
Reached 1 million fans in Band World Tour     30
SECRET
This is a secret achievement regarding progression.     20     Hidden
SECRET
This is a secret achievement regarding progression.     20     Hidden
SECRET
This is a secret achievement regarding progression.     30     Hidden
SECRET
This is a secret achievement regarding progression.     50     Hidden
SECRET
This is a secret achievement regarding progression.     25     Hidden

Exploration
Clothes to the Edge
Buy over $100,000 worth of clothes.     20
Needs More Umlauts!
Made a Band Logo.     10
The San Dimas 4th Annual Award
Competed in a Battle of the Bands.     15
You’re Hired!
Hired a staff member.     10
You Killed the Radio Star
Made a music video.     15

Tour Challenge
Along for the Ride
Beat an instrument-specific challenge while playing another instrument     10
Challenge Novice
Complete 25 Challenges on Medium Difficulty, or 10 Challenges on Hard Difficulty, or 5 Challenges on Expert Difficulty     10
Challenge Master
Complete 25 Challenges on Hard Difficuly, or 10 Challenges on Expert Difficulty     15
Challenge Savant
Complete 25 Challenges on Expert Difficulty     25
The Final Countdown
Unlock an Impossible Challenge     15
Stage Igniters
Beat the Impossible Band Challenge     25
Lord of the Strings
Beat the Impossible Guitar Challenge     25
AN-I-MAL!!!
Beat the Impossible Drum Challenge     25
Virtuoso
Beat the Impossible Vocal Challenge     25
Groove Assassin
Beat the Impossible Bass Challenge     20
Buy a Real Instrument Already!
Beat an “Impossible” Challenge on Expert Difficulty     35

Drum Trainer
Beat It!
Complete all beats at 60BPM or higher, or half of the beats at 140BPM or higher     10
The Beat Goes On
Complete all beats at 100BPM or higher, or half of the beats at 180BPM or higher     20
Fill Me In
Complete all fills at 60BPM or higher, or half of the fills at 140BPM or higher     10
Fill Legend
Complete all fills at 100BPM or higher, or half of the fills at 180BPM or higher     20

The plus side from what I’ve read is that the Band World Tour stuff should be obtainable via single player.  Not that I advocate playing Rock Band solo, it’s just irritating that I’m only allowed to get certain achievements in RB1 by playing multiplayer.

Current Rock Band 1 progress has me pegged between hard and expert difficulty on the drums.  I’m stuck on songs because of my unresponsive red drum head.  I need to do more research into the sock mod to move on.  It helps if I don’t take long breaks from playing Rock Band too though.