Blizzard recently published an infographic on the Diablo III blog for Diablo III’s one year anniversary. It is a nice infographic, and it finally reveals some interesting stats about the player base that have thus far been elusive.

Some of the more interesting stats:

• 14.5 MM Unique Players
• 67.1 MM Characters
• 12.7 MM Level 60 Characters (18.9%)
• 5.8 MM Highest Daily Player Count
• 2.1 MM Average Daily Player Count
• 9% of Player’s Characters are Hardcore
• Most Popular Class Order: Demon Hunter, Wizard, Barbarian, Monk, Witch Doctor
• Players by Region: Asia (34%), Europe (33%), Americas (33%)
• “For every Elite monster slain, 18.4 normal monsters bit the dust”
• 3.3 Trillion Monsters Slain

And this radiant gem:

You can check out the full infographic here:

[via Diablo3.com]

Max Gleason, aka Smooth McGroove, puts his talent to the task once more to produce something truly magical. We’re not talking about the beard, folks, though we could at length. No, we’re talking about his wicked ability to render recognizable gaming music in fantastic acapella. This time he tackles one of the crown jewels of classic gaming music, the Moon Theme from 1989′s DuckTales. Just one listen and you won’t be able to get this out of your head for days.

Look for the HD remaster of DuckTales to hit Xbox Live, the PlayStation Network, and the WiiU eShop this summer!

Got other favorite Video Game Rappers? Let me know in the comments.

I’ve spent the last week dabbling in the world of Sanctuary of  the Diablo universe to see what “improvements” might have come with Patch 1.08 which was released earlier this month (May 2013).

The changes that I’ve found most important to the gameplay are:

• Players can now identify all items in their inventory by speaking to Deckard Cain or by using the Book of Cain that can be found near the shared stash in all Acts
• Players now receive a 10% bonus to Magic Find, Gold Find, and Experience per additional player in a multiplayer game, up to a maximum of 30% in a four-player game
• A notification is now sent to all players in a multiplayer game whenever a party member engages an Elite monster or Treasure Goblin in combat, and their location will be shown on the mini-map
• In addition to this, an icon will also appear over player banners in town to indicate if they’re in combat with a monster, Elite monster, or Treasure Goblin
• Players can now queue up multiple items and gems at a time within the same tier to be crafted, so long as they possess the necessary materials
• Players can now craft items using materials located in the shared stash
• Players can now disable the confirmation dialog when salvaging items of Rare quality
• Templar Skill: Loyalty Now regenerates 310 life per second (up from 155)
• In multiplayer games, the increase in monster hit points per additional player has been reduced to 50% (down from 70%)
• Nekarat the Keywarden now has a chance to drop a random Key (of Destruction, Hate, or Terror) in addition to the Infernal Machine plans

I’m still at a loss when I ask myself why I play the game however. The whole gear-chase aspect that reminds me so much of pulling a slot machine bar over and over doesn’t really appeal to me anymore. I think completing the game through Inferno difficulty (which isn’t difficult since progression is only a function of the gear your character wears) is the only thing really left to entice me.

What I had hoped the game would be was a new adventure with a dark, haunting, adventure with group quests, group challenges, and better loot chance curves (emphasizing Quality over Quantity).

There is still hope that the new lead designer, (not Jay Wilson), can bring some changes to the game that gave players some sort of tangible activity/goal to keep players playing the game, but from this standpoint, the game is a year old and the sun has already set on the majority of would-be Sanctuary Heros.

[via Diablo3.com]

Watch live video from playhearthstone on TwitchTV

When do you think the first round of Beta invites will go out? The game will be released? Let me know in the comments.

[via Blizzard HearthStone Forums]

Imagine for a second that Nirn undergoes a sudden and inexplicable axial shift, causing the continent of Tamriel to become all jacked-up as Skyrim heats up into a steamy paradise. That’s what this mod is all about, and it shore do look purty.

Modify your game with Tropical Skyrim today, and say goodbye to snow, ice, and arboreal woodlands forever!

Tropical Skyrim — A Climate Overhaul [nexusmods]

Starting today, for the next thirty days or so, you’ll have the opportunity to own one of the greatest games ever made for less than the cost of a cup of coffee. Pick up Super Metroid from the Wii U Virtual Console now, for the very humble asking price of $.30, before the offer ends and it gets jacked up to it’s normal $7.99.

We’ve all been there. Saving up elixirs and god knows what else for that critical moment when you need them most. That time never comes, though, until the very final boss, and then you can’t even burn through them all before you’ve won the game. Easily, might I add, perhaps too easily, thanks largely to your stockpiled cornucopia of super-powerful crap.

I do this in every RPG I’ve ever played. [r/gaming]

But we wouldn’t blame anyone for thinking it was the real deal. This expertly executed fan-made teaser for the PS4 is not an official shred of Sony propoganda, but damn if it isn’t better than half the crap they ever kicked out for the PS3.

The more I hear and read about Hearthstone, the more excited I get. I never did get into Magic: The Gathering because of the cost involved in even getting a reasonable deck built, and Hearthstone sounds like a way to get deep into the a strategy card game without any (or with minimal) cost in an intellectual property I’m already a big fan of (The Warcraft universe).

I’ve watched all the pre-recorded “Fireside Duel”s to date and I’d expect this one to be available afterwards, but just in case you want to catch it live:

TwitchTV: http://Twitch.tv/PlayHearthstone
Twitter: http://twitter.com/PlayHearthstone

Time zone help:
Los Angeles (U.S.A. – California) Thursday, May 9th, 2013 10:00:00 PDT
New York (U.S.A. – New York) Thursday, May 9th, 2013 13:00:00 EDT
London (United Kingdom – England) Thursday May 9th, 2013 18:00:00 BST
Warsaw (Poland) Thursday May 9th, 2013 19:00:00 CEST
Moscow (Russia) Thursday May 9th, 2013 21:00:00 MSK

Check out these other Fireside Duels on Youtube to get a sense what you might be in for:

Rick Boer *is* Naked Snake. The level of dedication and costume quality here is off the charts. Check out this gallery of what will be the very best Metal Gear cosplay you have ever seen.

*RBF-productions [deviantART]

Does this mean Ganondorf is Link’s father? Or perhaps Link and Zelda are siblings?

(Thanks to Delta Attack reader Geoff Daddy.)

Real Racing 3 fans were greeted by an interesting push notification today.

The previous Real Racing 3 update brought the Chevrolet brand to the game with two cars, the Chevrolet Cobalt SS and Chevorlet Camaro ZL1. What we didn’t know was that there was more goods under the hood.

A third Chevrolet car, the Corvette ZR1, was unlocked in Real Racing 3 and is now available for purchase for 50 Gold.

Chevy fans underwhelmed by the Cobalt SS and Camaro ZL1 should now be pleased.

This addition brings the total number of cars currently available to 49.

The Corvette also replaces the McLaren MP4-12C as the cheapest of the Gold currency cars. Note, however, that the Corvette is featured in only two racing series, one less than the McLaren gold car. With an additional series and higher starting statistics, the McLaren MP4-12C remains the first Gold car that racers should purchase.

Unfortunately, the Corvette shares a series with the McLaren MP4-12C.

Regardless, file this incognito extra directly under the “Keen” category, folks.

By the way, here are the stats after applying all 27 Upgrades.

You’ll need 124 Gold to complete 8 of 27 vehicle upgrades.

Sometimes when you break open the cocoon of nostalgia, instead of finding a beautiful butterfly, you find a shriveled up nasty little thing that would have best been left alone. Such is the case with Ys III: Wanderers from Ys, an SNES cart that I’ve kept on a pedestal for too many years, ever since first playing it during its prime.

Playing Wanderers is like coming back to your hometown after two long decades, expecting the bustling streets of your youth but finding dilapidated buildings and empty shops instead. To call it disappointing is not enough; it verges on shameful, knowing that at some point in time I regarded this game as a thing of joy and admiration.

To be fair, there wasn’t much stuff like Ys III floating around back then; any time an action RPG popped up, we’d jump on it like flies on, well, you know. Shit. As such, we were very much like flies ourselves – content to gorge ourselves on any excrement that drifted by, so long as it was fresh, even going so far as to prefer it. I don’t know where I was going with this. Hey, it’s got swords in it! Litmus passed.

Anyway, upon playing the game again, Ys III’s flaws become immediately apparent: It’s a mechanical mess – movement and hit detection being the most unforgivable of Ys‘s sins. Level design is bafflingly uninspired, consisting of bland hallways with enemies peppered in at long and predictable intervals. Swordplay is reduced to holding down the attack button as Adol swings wildly and repeatedly; oftentimes his reach is much shorter than the enemy’s, resulting in guaranteed hits as an inevitable consequence of engagement. The solution is a simple one, though: level up enough to trounce your way through. Finesse in Ys III is not rewarded nor recommended until the very end where it becomes necessity.

So, what’s left to love in Ys III, then? Surely, there must be some redeeming quality – something, anything, to lend it some legitimacy as a gem worth revisiting. There is, in fact. An aspect the series is well-known for, and has always held true for each entry: the bombast of its music.

So, as a parting gift, let me save you some time. Don’t play Ys III. Just listen to these songs instead. You’re welcome. Few soundtracks from the SNES era managed to get you as pumped as this one did.

Although revisting Ys III after twenty years did a bad job on my perception of it, it wasn’t a total loss. It reminded me that I should give the PSP remake of Ys III, Oath in Felghana, a dedicated shot. If it’s anything like Ys Seven or Ark of Napishtim, then I’ll be a happy Ys’er once more.

The original Castlevania on the NES: 6 stages, 5 subweapons, 11 music tracks, and one slayer of non-glittery vampires that laid the gothic groundwork for a series that has been resurrected into almost 40 incarnations — so far. The roots of all entries in this iconic series can be traced back to this one action-laden creep-fest, and for that we owe it a debt of homage.

Let’s be critical, though. What made Castlevania so great back in the early days of the NES? How does it hold up by today’s standards? Should it still be played, or is it better left in the timeless realm of our nostalgia?

When Castlevania hit North America 26 years ago today, it was a journey into the macabre that was a welcome alternative to the mostly colorful, lighthearted games on the NES, such as Duck Hunt, Bomberman, and Burger Time. I’ll never forget wandering into the Aladdin’s Castle arcade at the mall and finding a curious machine titled PlayChoice-10, which offered ten different NES games that could be switched between at will, as long as you kept pumping in tokens to add another 300 seconds to the ever-running clock that would pull the plug on anything you were playing if your vigilance slipped and that timer hit zero. The PlayChoice-10 at this particular arcade had some familiar favorites, such as Contra, Excitebike, and Super Mario Bros, plus some great games that this excited young nerd had never beheld, including Goonies, Rygar, and — thankfully — Castlevania.

Love at first sight between people is a load of guano, but it can totally happen with games. Castlevania had me right from that first scene where Simon Belmont walks past rotting walls to the blood-rusted gates of Dracula’s domain, with the moon accenting the silhouette of the mammoth castle and bats flitting in the midground. The accompanying nine-second intro tune is etched into my mind.

Dark, decayed graphics and upbeat, catchy music are hallmarks of the series, and they nailed those aspects right from the start. The first Castlevania’s portrayal of the castle is of course extremely dated 26 years later, but still manages to be creepy. The tunes are legendary, and, to this day, can be enjoyed by any fan of video game soundtracks who can hear past the limited auditory aesthetics of the time and connect with the soul of Castlevania’s music.

Yet, the true measure of a game is how enjoyable it is to play, and Castlevania has not held up well in that regard. The unforgiving jump mechanic that disallows mid-air trajectory change is definitely more realistic, but also brutally difficult to manage. Combo that with Simon hitting terminal velocity instantly when walking off a ledge, and you’ve got an uphill battle just to get the game to do what you want.

When it comes to attacking, the connecting of whip-tip to the variety of horrific denizens wouldn’t be that bad — even with the two-direction limitation — if only you could control those jumps more easily. As it is, this title, while undeniably a classic, requires so much finesse that unless you’ve been playing it and/or its two NES sequels on a somewhat regular basis, returning to such rigid controls will quickly suck the life out of your nostalgic high.

Verdict

If you’ve never experienced the origin of one of the greatest series in gaming, I can’t really recommend it. Check out the music if you’re down with chiptunes, but leave it at that.

If you did play — and love — Castlevania back in the day, I still can’t recommend returning to it. Again, revisit the music, but leave the actual playthroughs in your past. They won’t live up to your nostalgia.

Rock it Out, Gothic Style

For Delta Attack’s very own Top 30 Castlevania Music selection, click here: