Diablo III: Book of Cain hands-on!!

Just recently, I got fortunate enough to secure a copy of this wonderful book:

It's the Blizzard-licensed book, Diablo III: Book of Cain!! :D

This wonderfully made book is a must-have for Diablo fans, as this tries to emulate/recapture the look and feel of that tome Deckard Cain carries in-game. Complete with rich lore and history of the entire Diablo trilogy, it gives players an inside look of the world of Sanctuary.

Here's some shots of the book itself:

Front w/ cover label

Back w/ cover label

Front w/o cover label

Back w/o cover label

The book cover itself looks and feels great. It's got a nice matte finish with a slight embossment on the details of the book which feels great. The book itself sports amazing artwork (as expected of Blizzard) to accompany the book's rich lore of the world of Sanctuary. It even has scribbles and notes from Deckard Cain, putting down important notes about certain events, people, places. It tries its best to closely resemble that of the tome that Decark Cain was carrying, as presented in the game. Even the page edges are small "tears" to make it look like an "ancient" book. It's those little attention to detail that makes this book more amazing to behold in person. :D

Just looking at the book coverpage, it reminds me of
those old manuscripts in museums.

It even contains a letter addressed to Deckard Cain's nephew; Leah.
The letter is abit bittersweet and made me a little teary-eyed.
(if you know what will happen to Cain in Diablo III)

The book also details how the world of Sanctuary
was created, with accompanying artwork.

The Archangel of Justice; Tyrael, looking majestic, as his illustration
accompanies his description in this page.

The book also includes description of the many
places in Sanctuary where our heroes hail from;
just like this entry about Ensteig... home to the Demon Hunters.

Aside from the said lore and illustrations, the book also has a special surprise at the back:

It's the map of Sanctuary itself!! To be honest, as a fan of the series, this is the first time I've ever seen the world of Sanctuary detailed as a map, and its simply glorious to behold. Seeing where Lut Gholein is located, or even Tristram is just amazing for a Diablo-fan like myself!! :D

The book is priced locally at Php 1,395 (roughly $31) and is available in Fully Booked. So if you're a fan of the series, this book is definitely an excellent addition to your book collection, as it fully compliments the game and gives fans additional information and lore that fully fleshes out the world of Sanctuary. :) Hopefully I get my hands on it's supplemental book as well; The Book of Tyrael. :D

Offline Alternatives to Diablo III

After reading up this post, I was pretty much bummed out. Because after hearing the news that Blizzard will finally be removing the Real Money Auction House from Diablo III on PC, I was hoping that they would finally include an offline version of the game like in the console version. But alas, it wasn't meant to be. That being said, I scouted online to find suitable offline alternatives to Diablo III for PC (as well as consoles and handhelds), and here's what I got:

PC:

Titan Quest (Windows)
Think Diablo, but using greek mythology as a backdrop, you get Titan Quest. With its dark atmosphere that brings me back to my Diablo II days. :D

Torchlight II (Windows)
From the same team who made Diablo I & II, it plays just like Diablo of old, and works wonderfully. If you are gonna play the game using Steam, may I suggest you get the "Torchlight II Essentials" mod, as it basically adds a new class, and tons of improvement from the vanilla game (respec, tons of new pets, items, etc)

Consoles:

Dungeon Siege III (PS3/Xbox 360)
Developed by the same team who made the PC version of Neverwinter Nights 2, its a decent enough hack-and-slash game for the console space. The fact that finding a brand new copy of this game nowadays is relatively cheap, I'd say why not?

Dungeon Hunter: Alliance (PS3/Xbox 360)
Do you like to play hack-and-slash games but you don't want to spend too much? You okay with digital downloads? Does $12.99 (roughly Php 600.00) sound good to you? Then get this hack-and-slash gem from Gameloft. It's a pretty barebones hack-and-slash game, but hey at least you got it cheap.

Diablo III (PS3/Xbox 360)
Do I really need to say any further? Critics have been calling it the best version of Diablo III, and rightfully so. Offline play, amazing loot, local co-op, and so much more, its definitely THE version of Diablo III to pick up. If you want to find out why the console version is considered by many to be the better version against the PC version, you might want to read this post I made comparing the 2 versions.

Handhelds:

Heroes of Ruin (Nintendo 3DS)
If you own a Nintendo 3DS, and you are craving for some on-the-go Diablo-style gameplay, then look no further and take Heroes of Ruin for a spin. It's basically a stripped down version of Diablo, but it still nails the simple and addicting hack-and-slash gameplay of Diablo perfectly, which is what's important. It's got local co-op as well as online co-op, with daily quests and other features that makes it a decent enough game for those looking for hack-and-slash gaming on their portable. Now that it just recently got a price drop, its definitely something to consider picking up.

Dungeon Hunter: Alliance (Playstation Vita)
Yes, its the same game for the PS3, but unlike its cheaper console counterpart, this one charges a full price for the experience. As much as I don't like recommending this game really for PS Vita owners (coz the price is just extortion), there's little hack-and-slash games out there that I can recommend (considering the once promising Ruin was cancelled) as of this writing so yeah...

So what do you guys think? Do you have any other suggested offline Diablo-like games to share? Sound off on the comments below! :)

Killed Diablo on Hardcore, Normal

Click on thumbnail for a larger image.

I finally killed Diablo on Hardcore Mode, Normal Difficulty.

Because my Barbarian is probably on a very high level for this stage of the game (he's currently Level 32) and bearing some really good gear for that level, it wasn't really that difficult dispatching Diablo.

Diablo barely made a dent in my hitpoints (life level) and at no time in the battle did I feel in danger of dying. I'm pretty sure that will all change when I enter this character into the next level of difficulty, Nightmare.

But for now, I'm just gonna take this in. I just can't believe I was able to actually finish the game without dying once.

I was never able to do it in Diablo 2.