: Oh, how the mighty have fallen...

If you had told me four years ago, in summer of 2008 when Diablo III was first announced, that this was the game that would ruin my faith in Blizzard Entertainment, I would have looked at you like you were mad. And there are probably quite a lot of people out there that will look at me like I'm mad now that I'm actually saying it; Diablo III has ruined my faith in Blizzard.

Blizzard has, in the past, made games that has massive replayability. I don't know how many hours I've spent playing Starcraft, Warcraft III, even World of Warcraft as a casual gamer, and particularly Diablo II. Starcraft II not so much, but that's mostly because, aside from the campaign, that game is so much focused on competitive gaming, and I'm not a competitive gamer. But now there's Diablo III, and I don't see any replayability here at all. I've maxed out two characters to level 60, and feel no incentive to keep playing those characters. And absolutely no desire to create new ones. 

In Diablo II, creating new characters was fun. You had to plan out what you wanted to do, what skills you wanted, how to best upgrade your stats... It required some thought and actual choices. And if you wanted to try something different, you'd have to create a new character and start over. I liked that, I liked creating lots of characters and specialize them. In Diablo III there is no reason to create a new character of a class you've already played, it'll just be the same as the old one. And that's just... Sad.

Don't get me wrong. The game is fun. But it just doesn't feel like a Diablo-game. I probably wouldn't have been this disappointed if this was an entirely new franchise, but... It's not. It's Diablo. And it's disappointing. I don't see myself still playing this game at all in a month, except maybe as a novelty on LAN's. As a matter of fact, I'll probably play Diablo II over III.

Or, you know... Torchlight II. Which is made by the actual people who made Diablo II. And looks so much better.

Anyway... I no longer feel particularly excited about anything coming from Blizzard. I'll most likely buy the next two parts of Starcraft II, as I can't imagine they'd do anything to screw up that, considering the massive professional community around that game. But I have completely lost interest in anything that has to do with World of Warcraft with the recent changes to character development and skills. There's bound to be an expansion to Diablo III at some point, but I can't really imagine being interested in that. They'd have to make some really mind-blowing changes to make me interested. And then there's the unknown new project they're working on, apparently code-named Titan, but... Based on Diablo III and the recent developments in WoW, I'm not gonna hold my breath... Also; It's apparently gonna be an MMO as well, and will most likely be subscription-based, so I'm really not interested either way.

There used to be a time where Blizzard meant quality and longevity. Sadly, that time has apparently passed.

: Thoughts on Diablo III post-launch.

Warning: You might not want to read this post if you don't want to diminish your enjoyment of the game.

I've been playing the game for about a week now, and I've come across several issues that I want to talk about. Before I start I just want to say that I do enjoy the game, a lot. While the rest of this post might suggest otherwise, I don't dislike it, and I think it's real fun to play. But there are several things that consistently reduces my enjoyment of the game.

Simplicity

The absolute first thing that I have an issue with, is the class development system. I mentioned this in my "Thoughts on..."-post, and my fears have been realized. The leveling up of my character, while always giving me new stuff to play around with, really isn't fun. There's absolutely no choice in what skills or runes you get. You can choose what you use, but eventually you'll get everything, and in a very specific order. There's no feeling of customization, it's too linear. I'll admit, the skill trees of Diablo II, Titan Quest, Torchlight, etc, are far from perfect. But I feel that this is a big step in the wrong direction. And I really don't understand why they removed the ability to assign stats ourselves. That's just ridiculous.

Class-specific gear

There's lots of class-specific gear in this game, at least a couple of type for each class, but the problem is that they don't feel special enough. They don't give enough benefit compared to the other types of gear, particularly because the benefits they might give takes up one random enchantment slot. If you get a white class-specific item, there's absolutely no benefits to it at all. In Diablo II, the benefits of class-specific gear was built into the item itself, before any enchantments. I don't understand why they couldn't do it this way in Diablo III as well. 

Randomization

I am very disappointed with the random maps system. It's only really used properly in dungeons and underground ares, it seems. All the above ground areas are the same shape every time. Sure, there's some randomness to what events and bonus dungeons you come across within each area... But there's no real element of discovery to it, as it was in Diablo II. After your second run of the game, you can essentially just walk directly from one above ground area to the next without much thought. And that's not what I want, at least. 

Gems

First of all; There's too few of them. What happened to Sapphires and Diamonds? And what about Skulls? I guess they limited it to only four because there are only four different stats, or something. But I can easily think of more bonuses for the other gems, particularly if you re-introduce the elemental-damage part of the gems. I mean, the only really viable option for gemming a weapon right now is a Ruby, the other bonuses seem pointless to me.

Second; Sockets take up an enchantment slot? I don't understand that. That was one of the great things about gems and sockets in Diablo II; Any item could have sockets, even unique items that normally didn't, and could be enhanced further by adding stuff to those sockets! I mean... What? Why? What's the reason behind this? It's one more element of customization gone from the game, essentially.

Monk Combat

This is just a minor annoyance, but why doesn't the Monk use the weapons he has equipped? I created a Monk wanting to go for the bo-staff as my chosen weapon, hoping to see some epic staff-combat (as the bo-staff is my absolute favourite weapon), but he still punches everything. He walks around with the staff in his hand, but as soon as he attacks it's on his back and he's using his fists, no matter what skill I use. I'm guessing this is a result of them removing normal attacks from the game, another thing I cant quite understand. The only times you're able to use your weapon normally is on level 1, before you get your first Secondary skill, as the right mouse button is then set as a regular Attack, and when you run out of your resource and try to use a secondary skill. 

Battle.net

I will admit that there are a few benefits to always being connected to Battle.net, particularly the ability to join and leave games on the fly, without having to exit and set up a server, or, if you are the server, wait until everyone has left before you can leave without being lynched. But, with my current connection, if I try to do anything that uses just a little bit of bandwidth, things start to get laggy as hell. I refreshed my Tumblr dashboard on my other computer, a few gifs started loading, and the game just stopped completely. And then there's server down-time, and lack of a connection... This is not a fucking MMO. I want to be able to play this game whenever I want to. Having the Battle.net connection as an option would be fine, but not a requirement!

: Breath of Death VII

Breath of Death VII is game by Zeboyd Games, released in 2011. It's a parody of old-school JRPG type games, particularly from the NES and SNES-era. The name itself is a reference to the Breath of Fire series, while the game-play is more similar to Dragon Quest (a series of games i unfortunately haven't played much, as I have never been able to find proper English versions of the games).

Story

Game World

The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where there are no more living humans, and the undead have taken over and become civilized. Unlike what you'd expect from a world like that, the towns and such are actually real towns, and not just ruins from the "old world". It's a bit funny walking around a nice town, full of flowers and stuff, talking to ghost, ghouls and skeletons. I like it, though, it's different.

A nice little town, inhabited by the undead.

Main Quest

The thing about the main quest, is that you never really know what it is. You basically go through the game, just following the directions it gives you, and then the end comes and you're done. I mean, I got the feeling that I was getting to end, but there was no indications of it in the dialogue or anything. But to be quite honest, it doesn't matter. I will say, though, that the way it ended was rather unexpected.

Side Quests

There doesn't seem to be any real side-quests in this game, but there are several side-paths you can take, that will generally reward you with some sort of treasure. These side-paths can be easily overlooked, unless you're the type to explore every single nook and cranny of the game world. It's highly recommended to to that, as these treasures are usually very useful.

Presentation

Graphics

While I am generally a big fan of SNES-style graphics, this game looks very boring. There's way too little variation in the surroundings, which can be very disorienting at times when walking through long caves and such with multiple path choices. I know that this is an indie game, created by only two guys from what I can see... But it just looks very uninspired. Just a few variations here and there would've made a huge difference, but I guess that would've meant a lot more time spent designing sprites.

It just feels very bland and uninspired.

Sound

When it comes to sound, and particularly music, this game falls way short. The music, while initially very nice, at least for an indie title, quickly becomes very repetitive and boring. The fact that the same music is used over and over again for different areas doesn't make it any better. The sounds are very generic, but they're mostly there to have some audible hint of what's happening. I barely even notice them, though. But this is an indie game, so I guess you shouldn't expect too much.

Gameplay

Battle-screen, Dragon Quest vs Breath of Death VII.

There's not really much to say about the gameplay. The battle is what you'd expect from a JRPG, and if you've played Dragon Quest it'll seem very familiar. The battle is rather difficult, though. Not right away, the first few levels are rather easy, but then suddenly it turns rather difficult. By the time you get the third (of four) party member, each battle needs some real strategy. Either that or empty your mana pools completely. 

Or maybe I just needed to grind more, I don't know. =P 

The level-up system is rather interesting. All four characters have their specific roles, to a certain extent. But every time you gain a level, you get to choose between two "level-up packages". You get a default amount of HP and MP, then the game gives you a choice, which can be anything from choosing between two sets of extra stats, to choosing between different new spells, or even different variants of the same spell, or passive bonuses. It's a nice touch.

Two examples of level-up choices.

One other things to mention about the battles, is that you have a combo counter. Normal attacks and most offensive abilities will increase the combo counter based on the amount of hits they do. A select few abilities will get increased damage the higher the counter gets, but will also reset the counter when you used them. Other spells, like Heal, will reset the counter without gaining any benefit from it, which makes the battles even more strategic

Conclusion 

This game is... All right. It has some interesting mechanics in the combat that I like, that makes it interesting, but the battles get very repetitive very fast. Adding to that the fact that both the music and the graphics, while initially nice, also get very repetitive and boring very fast, I have to say that I'm not very impressed by this. I've enjoyed playing it, but it's not amazing in any way. The parody-humour isn't too much to talk about either.

I give this game a 4 out of 10. 

I wouldn't be either. =P

: Thoughts on Diablo III pre-launch.

Needless to say, the release of Diablo III is one of the biggest events when it comes to gaming this year. It's been so long waiting for this, and I can't wait to have the game in my hands. Or at least to be able to install and play it, as I'll hopefully have the game in my hands a day or two earlier. But there are a few things that sort of bother me about what I know about the game.

Always on DRM

That is what the need for constant connection to Battle.net to even play in single player actually is, and anyone trying to say otherwise is... Naive, at best. I mean, yes, there is the thing about cross-game chat and all that stuff, but that should really be optional. Needing to go online to activate the game and register the CD-key and all that, that's fine. But after that, there's really no point in them requiring you to be online to play in single player. I don't know what other features than cross-game chat that comes with being connected to Battle.net in single player, but I'm sure I can do fine without them. I did in Diablo II, so why not now?

Part of me really hopes that on release, the servers will crash so hard that they're forced to revert this, and allow single player without connection to Battle.net. This is highly unlikely, though, considering their experience with World of Warcraft and Starcraft II, which has the same type of DRM, but I can dream, can't I?

The other part of me just really wants to play the game. =P

Too simplified character development?

There has been some rumors lately that Blizzard has purposely gone in and simplified the gameplay in Diablo III because they're preparing for a port to consoles. I don't know if this is true, but from what I've heard and read from people who've actually played the game in different states of development, the game has actually become quite a lot more simplified since it was was first announced, particularly when it comes to skill management. I really don't know if this is a good or a bad thing.

On the positive side, the way things work now, you can basically switch your entire spec in just a few clicks. If you've played as a frost-specced wizard the entire game, you can just change a few things and suddenly you're fire-specced. No need to create an entirely new character to play another specialization. On the negative side, this means that there are few to none really meaningful choices when it comes to creating and developing your character. It's all just given to you, and you can just pick and choose what you want to use, and repick at no cost if you're not happy with what you've got. I'd like it better if they had used some sort of re-training system. Like in Titan Quest, where you need to go to an NPC and pay them to remove the unwanted skills.

Removal/postponing of features

It has also been said that quite a few features that was announced at some point, has later been removed from the game. I'm trying to find a comprehensive list of these features, but so far haven't been able to do so. I have, however, found a few featured that was once either announced or in the game, but has since been either scrapped entirely, or pushed back to post-release.

The first one I found was the Talisman. I hadn't heard about this one, but after reading a bit about it, it sounds really sweet. I can't really understand why they decided to remove it. Basically, this is what would have replaced the classic charms from Diablo II. The Talisman was a separate inventory that could only contain charms, which in this case looks like they're parts of enemies you've killed rather than... Whatever the charms in Diablo II were. You'd fill the available slots in the Talisman (I'm assuming the slots would unlock as you level up, or something, I've seen screenshots where some slots seem to be unavailable) with these charms, and they'd give you extra bonuses. But now it's gone. Bashiok has said that they want to bring it pack post-release, and I really hope they do, 'cause as I said, it sounds really sweet. I mean, the charms in Diablo II were nice, but I'd rather have something like this, that doesn't take up my regular inventory space.

Another removed feature, although it can't technically be called a "removed feature" from what I've read, is the brutal death animations. In case you don't know, or don't remember, what I'm talking about, when they first showed the game, the very first video released, they had a boss at the end that, instead of just knocking the players to the ground when they were killed, actually picked the player up and bit off its head. These animations will, unfortunately, not be in the game. And while I understand why, as all of these would have to be scripted very carefully to actually work, which would've taken quite a lot of time, it's a bit sad. I'd been looking a bit forward to seeing my character being brutally slaughtered when I fail. There's no word on whether these will be implemented at a later date, but somehow I doubt it.

One postponed featureg that I, personally, don't really care that is pushed back, is the PvP arena system. I am not a PvP player, and while the PvP system in Diablo III might be better than what it was in Diablo II (which was essentially non-existant (ear-gathering!?)), it's still utterly uninteresting to me, and I'm very glad they decided to postpone this to get the game out earlier.

The last removal I want to mention is one of the Artisans, the Mystic (the other two being the Blacksmith and the Jeweler). The Mystic was originally going to be the goto-NPC for scrolls, potions, magic weapons, runes, charms and enchantments, as well as being able to mass-identify. During the beta she lost the ability to create potions, scrolls (which has all been removed from the game or made into non-item functions), weapons, runes (which you now gain at levelups) and charms (which was removed with the removal of the Talisman). She was basically reduced to an enchanter, and they decided to remove her until they had given her more of a purpose. Which I can understand. I'm just curious how they will eventually re-introduce her.

Auction Houses (both gold and Real Money Transfer)

While having an Auction House in a games like World of Warcraft and other MMORPG's makes sense, I'm not so sure that having it in a game like this does, though. To be quite honest, I'm very conflicted about how I feel about this. On one hand, I feel like it will be a bit of "pay-to-win", only that you're restricted to stuff that other players have found and put up. On the other hand, I probably wont play with anyone who'll actually use this. At least not for buying items. I, and those I'll play with, might sell stuff for real money... But I'm pretty sure at least I don't want to buy anything for real money. I might buy stuff on the gold-AH, but I highly doubt I'll ever use the RMT-AH for buying anything. So... Yeah. I don't know.

They'll probably use the Action Houses as another excuse for the always online DRM as well. Bah.

Conclusion

As a result of all of this, my expectations for this game has been significantly lowered. I'm far from as enthusiastic about Diablo III as I was when it was first announced back in 2008. I'm still very much looking forward to it, but I'm not feeling it as much as I used to do. I hope I'll be proven wrong in the end, and that it'll be as epic it's supposed to be... But yeah, we'll see.

: Just an update.

This blog, unlike my now deleted music blog, is something I really want to work on. I really want to update this blog on a regular basis, write "reviews" of games, news about games, and such... But the problem is that there are very few games that I like. My taste in games is very narrow. This becomes painfully obvious when I'm at LANs, as there are no current games that I want to play, at all. There are several coming out this year, the first, and biggest, in little over a month, but at the moment there is absolutely nothing.

So, yeah, that's why this blog isn't updated too often. I guess I could have written reviews about older games in the mean time, but that really isn't very interesting. Which is partially why my review of Dungeon Siege 2 hasn't been released yet. I was probably more than halfway through, then I just lost interest in it, and in writing the review about it. It's still "in progress", though, so I might complete it at some point. Maybe during the next month, while I wait for Diablo III.

But yeah. I wish I had a broader taste in games, so I had more to write about, but that is not the case. I don't want to force myself to play games I don't like, much less pay for them. So updates on this blog might be few and far between. But unlike my music blog, I will keep this one.

: Terraria is dead... Long live... Starbound?

So, a few days ago I learned that Terraria is, well, dead. Redigit, the guy who, from what I understand, single-handedly programmed the game, has stopped working on the game, because he feel there's no more progression to be made. He says that everything he can do with the game now "feels like sideways progression", and that "nothing really excites (him)". So he considers the game finished, and has moved on to work on something new. No mention of what that is yet, though.

While I do understand his decision, and can't say I'm too affected by it, as I sort of lost interest in Terraria quite a while ago now, it is very sad to see Terraria "die" so soon. The game had massive potential, in my eyes, and while a lot of it has been fulfilled in one way or the other, I'm sure there's still quite a lot more that could be done. But yeah, if he doesn't feel it anymore, then there's really no point in him working on it anymore.

One other reason why the development of Terraria has stopped is because Tiyuri, the guy who created most, maybe all, of the graphics for the game, has moved on to form another game company called Chucklefish. There he's working on another, potentially competing, game, called Starbound. And to be quite honest, Starbound seems to be more of an actual game than Terraria can ever be.

There's not much known about Starbound yet, as it is still a relatively new project, but it will be a sandbox-type game, just like Terraria is, only with more of a purpose. There will be an actual "hub" in the game, a Space Station that you go back to, that is your base, and that you improve over time, conducting research and filling with people that, I'm guessing, you meet around the universe. And yes, that means that you're not limited to one world at a time, you can travel back and forth between planets that will be randomly generated the first time you visit them. But unlike Terraria, it seems these worlds will be generated with more care. They will not seem as empty and "chaotic". And there will be no artificial "edge" to the worlds; If you go far enough in one direction, you'll get back to where you started. 

There will also be "quests and story driven missions" in the game. And that is something that I really missed in Terraria; A purpose. I mean, Terraria does what it does really well, but after a while I just lose interest because there's no real point to it, no direction. While I do like the sandbox-style gameplay very much, it feels very hollow without some sort of quest or goal system.

The graphic style of Starbound will be sort of similar to Terraria, in that it's very much inspired by SNES-era graphics. It will be a lot more detailed than Terraria, though. To be quite honest, the graphics is a very big reason why I decided to play Terraria over Minecraft. I've always loved pixelart and particularly SNES-style graphics. And to me, Minecraft looks, well... Downright ugly. So, it was an easy choice. And Starbound just looks freaking sweet.

Looks quite nice, doesn't it?

Starbound will also have an actual combat system, it seems, something which both Terraria and Minecraft lacks. From what I understand, you don't get hurt just by touching an enemy. Any enemy, player or monster, will have to actually attack you, that means go through an attack animation, in order to hurt you. You can also block attacks, which will build up some sort of counter-attack charge. And probably a lot more, but they haven't talked too much about it yet. The main point is, there will be more to it than just randomly flailing your weapons. So, yeah. Vewt!

There's quite a lot more to the game as well, but most of it is just mentioned without giving much detail. And they say there's also quite a lot that they haven't announced yet. So, yeah. While it is very sad that Terraria has "died" so soon, I'm really looking forward to playing Starbound instead. Whenever it's released. It's not even in beta yet.

: My Top 5 Games of 2012.

My review of the Dungeon Siege series have been delayed a bit. I've been distracted by other things when I've been at home, and Dungeon Siege 2, which is the one I'm currently playing through, wont run on my laptop for some reason. So, in the meantime, I thought I'd write up some thoughts about the games I look the most forward to in 2012. 

1. Diablo III

Diablo III is, of course, the number one game I look forward to in 2012. Not just because I was such a fan of Diablo II (I never really played Diablo I), but also because this is just the type of game I really, really enjoy; Action RPG. I am a big fan of RPGs in general, but some of them get a bit too slow at times. In my opinion, games like Diablo, Torchlight, Titan Quest, etc, is the best kind of RPGs, as there is little to no "downtime", like there is in games like Neverwinter Nights, Skyrim and Dragon Age.

One of the main reasons why Diablo II was such a big success, to me at least, was the random maps with randomly spawned enemies. Even though the game was very linear when you really look at it closely, the random maps feature made up for it by making you have to explore the world anew with every playthrough, never knowing where the path to next area was or where a random mini-boss might show up. Another big reason was the random drops. You never knew what kind of equipment you would get. It could make the game very frustrating at time, but also very interesting.

Other features that will enhance replayability is the addition of random quests and events. Other features that will make Diablo III even more interesting is the Artisans; Different crafters that will join you on your journey and create things for you based on what recipes you discover, and the Followers; Slightly customizable companions that will follow you into the battlefield.

And last, but not least; Customizable skills. Every skill and ability has the option of having a runestone added to it which will change it in one way or the other, everything from simply increasing damage or reducing resource cost to completely changing the mechanic of it. A good example is the Wizard spell Hydra, which you might remember from Diablo II, that summons a three-headed Hydra who spits fireballs at your enemies. Depending on what type of gem you add to this skill, the element and attack of the Hydra will change.

All of this will ensure that every single playthrough will be different.

There's not much known about the story yet, as far as I know, other than that it will have something to do with at least one of the Lesser Evils, Azmodan, and something called the Black Soulstone. Also, only one of the classes from Diablo II will return; The Barbarian. The other four classes, the Wizard, the Witch Doctor, the Monk and the Demon Hunter, are completely new, although there will be some similarities to the old Diablo II classes, particularly the Wizard will have some spells that are very similar to the Sorceress' spells.

2. Torchlight II

In many ways, Torchlight and Torchlight II is very similar to the Diablo-series. Compared to Diablo III, it's almost the same. Despite that, I'm still looking forward to it. I enjoyed the first game, but felt it lacked real depth, and the lack of multiplayer was definitely a big drawback. Many of the skills weren't too interesting either, to be honest. But it was a decent game, and I got quite a lot of playtime out of it.

Torchlight I was very similar to Diablo I, in that the entire game took place beneath a single town, going deeper and deeper underground until you reached the final boss. And just like Diablo II, Torchlight II will expand on the first game by taking you out into the world of Torchlight. Torchlight II will also have the same type of random maps, monster and drops, and maybe even events and quests, as Diablo III has. And considering that the guys who founded Runic Games were the same guys who founded the no longer existing Blizzard North, who created the first two Diablo-games, this is not really a surprise.

As for game length, they estimate that the entirety of Torchlight I could fit within the first 2/3 of the first act of Torchlight II. Quite an improvement, particularly considering that the game will cost the same as the first one.

It has also been said that skills will be improved a lot from the first game. First of all, none of the old classes will return, there will be four entirely new classes. Second, Torchlight 1 had many passive skills that were shared by all classes, which were honestly quite boring. In Torchlight II these passive skills have been removed, the bonuses they provide might be in some way included into stat bonuses (kinda curious about how), leaving room for more active skills, none of which are shared between several classes. Spell scrolls will still work the same way, as in anyone can use them.

Pets will also be improved somehow, but I can't find any specifics about it.

3. Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm

It hasn't been confirmed that Heart of the Swarm will actually be released in 2012, but it really should be. Part one, Wings of Liberty, was released in July 2010, and if it takes more than two and a half years before the expansion is released... That's just too long, particularly considering that there's also a part three, Legacy of the Void.

I am not interested in the multiplayer aspects of the Starcraft games, I play them for the campaign. The only multiplayer I'm really interested in is playing with friends against the computer. But it's mostly the campaign I'm interested in, so that's what I'm gonna talk about.

Heart of the Swarm starts off where Wings of Liberty ended, only this time you're controlling Kerrigan and the Zerg. Even though Kerrigan has regained her human form, at least partially, she still has some kind of power over the Zerg. It would seem it is no longer as strong as it used to be, as several Queens have taken control of smaller Zerg broods, and the first part of the game is apparently focused on Kerrigan defeating these Queens and uniting the Zerg.

Much like the Wings of Liberty campaign, there will be some sort of "hub" you go to between missions, where you can upgrade, or evolve, both Kerrigan herself and the different units. Unlike Wings of Liberty, however, Kerrigan will play a huge part in the missions themselves, being a playable unit in most, maybe even all, missions. Her skills will apparently vary according to which "battle focus" you choose before a mission. No information on what these battle focuses are, though.

All in all, I'm excited to play through it. I'm curious about the RPG-ish elements of Kerrigan, and very excited to see where the story goes.

4. Borderlands 2

When I first tried Borderlands, I didn't have high expectations. I didn't think it was a game for me, as I'm not really that big a fan of shooters, but I was pleasantly surprised by the RPG-ish elements in it, and particularly the random drops. All of this will return in Borderlands 2, and that is really enough for me to want to play it.

The characters from the first game will not be playable in Borderlands 2, but will show up as NPC's throughout the game. Instead there will be four new characters, of which two has been announced; Salvador the Gunzerker and the Maya the Siren. Salvador is very similar to Brick, except that he doesn't go berserk with his fists, he goes berserk with guns, allowing him to dual wield any two weapons for a short duration. There's no info on Maya's skills yet, only that she will not phase-walk like Lilith, the Siren in the first game.

One of the main features of Borderlands, the immense amount of randomly generated weapons, will of course return in Borderlands 2. And there's even more possible variations this time. Also, some of the weapon manufacturers from the first game are gone, as a direct result of the events in the game, and others have come to take their place.

One of the things that I didn't like about Borderlands, although not really too big an issue, was the colors of the environment. Everything was mostly brown or grey, which fits with the sort of post-apocalytic feel of the game, but is ultimately really boring to look at. Fortunately, in my opinion, it seems that things will be more colorful in Borderlands 2. And still in the same cartoony cellshaded style, of course.

Another things I didn't about the first game was the stupidity of the enemies. There was no real cooperation or tactics behind what they did. This has also been fixed in Borderlands 2. Enemies will take cover when wounded, work together by flanking you, interact with each other in order to heal or boost shields, be able to climb obstacles or traverse difficult terrain to get to you, etc... Which makes for a more interesting game.

5. Grim Dawn

To be honest, I didn't even know this game existed until I started doing research for this list, but after reading a bit about it, I gotta say I'm really looking forward to it. This is a game created by Crate Entertainment, which was founded by former members of Iron Lore, the people who created Titan Quest. It is also created with the Titan Quest engine, and has many of the same features, so it might be considered a form of sequel to Titan Quest.

Like Titan Quest, you will be able to combine two different classes in this game as well. They expect to have five classes to choose from at launch, with new classes being added with expansion packs, which they plan to release every six to ten months. Unlike Titan Quest, there will apparently be synergy modifiers between skills, not only within a single class, but also across classes, which means that upgrading a skill in one class, will also enhance skills in the other class.

Unlike Titan Quest, this game is not set in any variation of our world, or even based on any mythology. It's set in a dark, post-apocalyptic style world that is loosely based on the Victorian Era. There's no mention of whether the game world will be randomly generated or not, but as the game is created with the Titan Quest engine, I highly doubt it. I'm guessing that both the world and enemy locations will be static. Two major differences from Titan Quest is the addition of destructible objects, which can be used to fight your enemies, and weather effects.

There's no information about the story yet.

The loot will, of course, be random, and supposedly with a lot less junk loot than in Titan Quest. They have also made sure that boss-drops are more rewarding, probably by dropping higher level items. There will also be blueprints one can collect to combine "salvaged components" into usable items, although there's no mention of what "salvaged components" actually are.

As for quests, there will apparently be a system where you can choose between several quest paths and rewards through conversation choices. There's also a faction system, and gaining reputation with a faction will unlock new quests and stuff to buy. Of course, gaining reputation with one faction might reduce your reputation with another.

There's no release date on this game yet, so it might not be eligible for this list, but it's rumored to be released sometime in 2012.