The Diablo 3 Ruby Pump'n'Dump - How I lost 10 million gold in 2 hours

Diablo 3 is a game full of economic opportunity. There are always money to be made if you know what you're doing.
There's also a crap ton of money to be lost if you don't and you try to get in on a wild wave of commodity pricing speculation.


Incidentally, it is the latter of the two options that I amused myself with yesterday evening after having read the Blizzard post about the Paragon system that we'll get in the upcoming patch...

Free Gold just waiting for me to pick up?! Throw in some magic beans and you have a deal, good sir!

Basically the Paragon system is going to be a way of alternate leveling that will increase your base stats and, more importantly, boost your gold and magic find to an eventual point where magic find and gold find on gear because completely irrelevant.

The Paragon levels will be gained through normal XP and this is the critical part.

3 Reasons Diablo 3 Gems show us the "Real" value of your Gold

It's been a few weeks since Blizzard gave us Diablo 3 players a chance to sell our piles of virtual dosh for some real world cash.

A lot more cash than what I have managed to earn selling Diablo 3 gold..

I've personally used this to unload 10 million gold for 25 Euro, which I was quite stoked about.
But when I tried repeating this success with another batch of 10 million gold I found that my auction did not sell, even after posting it three times in a row.

Naturally this is a direct consequence of Blizzard's institution of a minimum price on gold.
You are not allowed to sell your gold for any less than 2,5 Euro per million, which effectively prevents the normal mechanisms of supply and demand from working efficiently.

Charts make everything look more professional!

What is happening is that Blizzard has set a minimum price that is apparently higher than what the market is generally willing to pay compared to the massive amount of supply that is being offered at this price.
The result is that sellers throw their piles of gold in an increasingly bulging pile, while the buyers come in once in a while and take a few pieces from the heap.

But if 2,5 Euro per million Diablo 3 gold is not the "real" market value how can we find out what people are actually willing to pay?

This is where the gem market comes into play. Here are the reasons that gems are such a great tool for finding out what the "correct" value of gold is:

3 Risk Free Methods of Making Gold on the Diablo 3 Auction House

There are many ways to make your fortune in the dark world of Diablo 3.
Playing the auction house is a nice way to earn piles of shiny gold without stooping to such lows as actually killing monsters or looting chests.

It's also a nice way to completely piss away all your hard earned virtual yellows if you don't know what you are doing.
There are thousands of AH sharks out there that are all seeing to continue growing their wealth by snapping up every good deal they see, so it takes more than a casual interest if you want to really make the big score on the AH.

Flipping items on the Diablo 3 AH require a bit of finesse..

However, what if you don't need to make those multi-million gold wins that the big fish are all going for?
What if you are happy making 10-50.000 gold per deal and prefer not to risk the money you've already worked hard to accumulate?

Well, in that case there are several niches on the AH that will allow you to score a small profit without very much risk on your part.

For all three of these methods the thing to keep in mind is that everyone loves a free lunch.
The reason that these methods of earning money are almost risk free is because they have a very steady market price and high market demand.

Therefore there are a lot of people that compete for these same items, so don't expect to just walk through piles of easy gold ready to be picked up.
Basically you are getting low risk for your investment but will also have to contend with a market that's also full of other bargain hunters.

Diablo 3 Auction House Money Making - Back Into the Grind

When Diablo 3 released I was ready to try to recreate my usual gold earning routine that I most recently used with some success on the auction house market in Star Wars: The Old Republic, which you can read about in my articles about making money in SWTOR.

All for me! All for me!

Now was the time to get into the gritty world of Diablo 3 and make some gold in the auction house, diving into the buffet of great money making deals with all the enthusiasm of a starving Frenchman at an all you can eat frog legs buffet.

Of course the real cherry on top of the pile of steaming hot frog legs (that's a thing, right?), is that Diablo 3 gives you a chance to turn all that sweet sweet virtual gold into some real life digital coin, through the use of the real money auction house (RMAH).
So not only do you get the chance to cackle like a madman as you rake in those fictional pieces of yellow coinage, you also get to earn a little cash from playing a game!

Well, if that is not the best offer since low priced buffets then I don't know what is.

But of course the big question is, now that I've had a chance to take part in this feast of buying low and selling high that is the Diablo 3 experience, have I actually been any good at it?

Well, both yes and no I would say.

Mass Effect 3 Review - An adequate farewell

If you read my initial impressions about Mass Effect 3, then you already know that I was not completely overjoyed with my first few hours of playing the game.
Despite my great affection for the Mass Effect games, or perhaps exactly because of that, I could not help but feel a little let down by the first impression I got from this final chapter in the trilogy.

Problems with awkward animations, flat voice work, bad lip syncing and a universe that felt a lot smaller than in the previous two games made me really concerned that BioWare had managed to do a "Dragon Age 2" on Mass Effect 3.
For those of you that are unfamiliar with Dragon Age 2, you can replace "do a Dragon Age 2" with "completely fuck up a great franchise".

Presentation has always been a fairly big part of Mass Effect.
The Mass Effect games have played heavily on providing the player with a very cinematic experience, so when I was met with bad animations and dull voice performance that was a major issue for me.
Luckily the quality of the voice overs, the lip syncing and, to some extent, the look of the animations all improve a lot once you get deeper into the game.

"Sweet, I can see my house from here !...Oh crap!"

The plot of Mass Effect 3 sees the invasion of the advanced sentient being nom-nom-nom'ing Reapers, who have arrived to rid the galaxy of all advanced life, a routine that happens every 50.000 years or so and is generally what most of aforementioned advanced life would consider "a bit of a downer".
As you take control of commander Shepard it's your job to travel across the Reaper infested galaxy and recruit the various civilizations into joining into a combined force that will be strong enough to take on the Reapers.

Being a story about large scale politics and saving all advanced life in the galaxy, Mass Effect 3 focuses much less on the intimate personal stories that were such a big part of Mass Effect 2, though you'll meet plenty of familiar faces from both of the first two games.
And as is the trademark of the Mass Effect series, the familiar faces that you run into will react differently to you depending on how you handled them in the previous games. Provided you didn't get them killed, in which case you'll be meeting new and unfamiliar faces, which again affects the way that things are going to play out.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning impressions - I reckon I'm not impressed

Back in January I played through the Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning demo and was none too impressed with it. The demo left a rather poor taste in my mouth, like bad ale washed down at the local inn, but I hoped that my worries would be proved wrong once I got my hands on the full game.

Therefore I was cautiously excited when I finally got a copy of the PS3 version of KoA. Would I be immersed in a fantastic fantasy world of adventure and excitement, or would my fears of a game that was rougher around the edges than an axe crafted by a drunk Dwarf prove to be all too valid?

I think you're going to need a bigger sword, dude

Well, I'm only six hours into the game by now, but the smell of dwarven booze is wafting at me strong and rank.
Let me preface this impression by explaining that I pretty quickly concluded that I am probably not the target player for KoA. There is a lot of exploring to be done in KoA and lots of quests to do that are completely unrelated to the main narrative, which makes the game slightly reminiscent of Skyrim.
I am very much a story driven gamer and while I do enjoy a fully realized gaming world to frolic around in, I generally need a strong narrative motivation to spend hours clearing dungeons and collecting flowers. So if a big world with tons and tons of side quests to dump countless hours into is really your thing, then maybe you will love KoA, despite the numerous dagger stab wounds that I am about to deliver into its head and neck area.

First off my biggest problem with KoA has to be that it simply feels half baked in a lot of places.
The game feels like it was shipped about 6-9 months before the developers had time to smooth everything out and really polish up their digital baby. The UI looks a bit coarse and the inventory management in particular feels clumsy and unwieldy with long lists to scroll through to find what you're looking for.
Then there is the way that you can only ever see one quest on your world map (though on the local map you'll see markers popping up if you get close to your non-active quest). Oh, and speaking of quests, you better be prepared to ignore a lot of quest givers or scroll through a huge ass list of quests, since you can't abandon a quest after it is accepted and the amount of side quests means that you probably won't finish them all, unless you're really OCD about completing every quest in your log (in which case this game could quite possibly drive you insane(r)).

Mass Effect 3 Launch Trailer features more Reapers doing their reaping thing

Mass Effect 3 is launching next week and, in an attempt to drive us into a Krogan-like state of Mass Effect fueled frenzy, BioWare has just put up the launch trailer for the game.

Oh yes, I'm ready for another ride with the good Commander!



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Mass Effect 3 Take Earth Back Trailer

In case you still needed a reason to want to play Mass Effect 3, take a look at this juicy new cinematic trailer that BioWare has just released:

I can't wait to dive back into the Mass Effect universe!



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Mass Effect 3 Demo impressions - Reapers with a side order of Krogan

I just finished playing through the Mass Effect 3 demo and I'm pleased to say that I'm still very excited to play the full version of the game, when it releases later this month.
The demo gives you a chance to play through two different segments of the main storyline, where one is primarily focused on the narrative and cinematic effects, while the other mission is more about showcasing Mass Effect 3's combat.
After the very mood dampening experience that it was to play the demo for "Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning", I was almost scared to try out this demo, in case BioWare had managed to ruin my favorite gaming franchise.

You get a chance to spec out your Shepard before you start the demo, so you can choose if you're going to play as a male or female, your background story and also select which class that you want to play as. Sadly you don't get to import your save game Shepard for the demo, but I guess that would be a bit overkill as you'll be through the two missions within an hour or two.

"Oh crap, Reapers! This is going to significantly reduce local property values"

After a nice intro sequence the demo kicks off with the first mission, which sees Shepard back on Earth where he has been stripped of his military rank after an incident that you could play through in the last bit of DLC for Mass Effect 2.
When reports of human colonies going dark suddenly start pouring into Earth military command, Shepard is brought before the armed forces leaders to confirm the obvious; the Reapers have finally shown up and have begun nom-nom-noming on the sentient beings of the galaxy.

Events really pick up when Earth itself comes under attack by Reapers and Shepard needs to escape the military compound while it is being assaulted by Reapers and the zombie-like "husks".
Your old buddy Admiral Anderson is also there to help you out, as you scramble through the apocalyptic war zone, which also acts as a tutorial for introducing you to the various controls of the game.

Mass Effect 3 Demo is hitting the web today

Just a friendly reminder for those of you that may have missed it that today is the day where we get a small taste of the space opera goodness that is Mass Effect 3.
The content of the demo is sounding pretty juicy as BioWare presents it on the official Mass Effect 3 webpage:

"Crap. I should have brought my ship"

"The demo begins in dramatic fashion with the spectacular opening attack on Earth, after which you're thrust headlong into a mid-game section showcasing the groundbreaking interactive storytelling, adrenaline-pumping action, ruthless and intelligent enemies, and deep customization that make Mass Effect 3 the must-have title of 2012."

In addition to whetting our appetites for the single player blowout, the demo will also offer you a chance to try your hand on the brand new multiplayer part of Mass Effect 3.
You'll get to try two co-op missions that sees you and your fellow players facing off against the invading enemy hordes, in a heroic defense of planet Earth.

The demo will be available for PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

I'm interested in seeing if any of my top 5 things I'm looking forward to seeing in Mass Effect 3 things are present in the demo.



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Blizzard apparently still tinkering on Diablo 3

While we did not get a chance to play Diablo 3 in time for the 2011 Holidays there was a wide spread hope/belief that Blizzard was onto the last little bit of tweaking and that the game would be out in early 2012.

Now this post on the official Diablo 3 website makes this seems like a very unlikely prospect indeed.
Apparently Blizzard still have their hands deep down the proverbial bowels of the game and are currently changing and cutting several significant game mechanics.

"Actually, could we make it a FPS instead? Or maybe try a Sci-Fi setting!"

For example, the post details that Blizzard is currently reviewing the core stats and the benefits that they provide to player characters, which seems like something you would/should not be doing if you are planning to ship your game within the next few months.

Additionally this quote from Jay Wilson, Game Director for Diablo 3 does not exactly inspire much hope that we'll be clicking our ways through hellish hordes any time soon:

"There’s a lot of work left to be done, though. We’re constantly tuning and making balance changes; it’s a massive task. Some of these changes can be seen in the beta, like changes to item rarity, the levels at which we introduce affixes, and how many affixes enemies can roll up. Some you can’t see in the beta, like balancing the difficulty of the entire game for four different difficulty levels, adding tons of new affixes, creating legendary items, filling out crafting recipes and itemization, working on achievements, and implementing Battle.net features. We’re also working on a number of other large systems changes -- specifically with the skill and rune systems. We're not quite ready to share what those are just yet, but we look forward to being able to do so in the near future."


Oh dear... I don't want you to "share changes" with us in the near future. I want to *play the goddamn game in the near future!*

Oh well, I guess Blizzard will be Blizzard but I guess this means that we should probably not expect Diablo 3 any sooner than Q4 2012. I'll be happy if it just doesn't slip into 2013.



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Skyrim Review - Here be dragons. And a crap ton of other stuff!

The cart rolls into the Imperial camp. I look at my fellow prisoners and take solace in the fact that at least I’ll be dying alongside someone famous, the rebel leader Ulfric Stormcloak. Hey, if you gotta die then at least you can go out alongside a big shot and not just pickpocket Johnny Noname.

The first prisoner is brought forward and, with the sickening sound of meat and bone being cleaved, his head is parted from his body. I’m glad I had a light lunch.

As I stand around wondering how a Breton magician apprentice from High Rock ended up in such a fine mess I am distracted by a passing shadow and the sound of giant flapping wings.

I look up and see something that I know is impossible, but yet there it is. A dragon!

Oh, I don't think these carts are going to Disneyland...

During the chaos of the dragon attack I escaped my captors. Though all sanity in my body screams for me to get out of Skyrim as fast as possible, I feel compelled to delve further into the mystery of the returning dragons. The splendid city of Whiterun is my first port of call and I soon find myself talking to the Jarl of the city himself.

By an incredible coincidence I am around at the exact moment that reports come in of a new dragon attack. Bolstered by some unknown source of courage, I volunteer to help repel the dragon and join a small force of guards, heading out to kill a dragon (I wish I was back at the warm inn studying my arcane books, what madness is this?).

We manage to kill the dragon. Well “we” mostly being the guards. My contribution was mostly approaching the dragon as it was distracted by the guards, briefly draining all my magic resources for a magical flame attack and then running behind the nearest rock to hide.

As the dragon lay dead on the ground something incredible happened. White light erupted from the dragon and shot straight at me. Panic filled my very being, but I quickly realized that I was somehow being… empowered by this light. I have no idea what happened but some of the guards claimed that it showed that I was something they called “Dragonborn”. I don’t know what to make of all this…

Skyrim is a game that you don’t play as much as you *live*.

When Skyrim is at its best it feels like you are walking through Lord of the Rings helping citizens in need, slaying mighty beasts, crafting mighty armor or going on epic quests and saving the world.

A look at Skyrim's Civil War questlines - Commentated video of Fort Amol assault

I mentioned in my last Skyrim Journal post that I have been playing through the civil war quest line. After deciding that Ulfric Stormcloak was an Elf hating racist bastard I joined up with the Imperials and set about maiming and murdering Stormcloak soldiers where ever I found them.

I followed the quest line and I quickly discovered that there is a pattern to the way that the civil war quest line works. You'll be sent out to an Imperial camp where you'll be given a couple of missions, such as blackmailing a local person of power into helping the Imperial cause or freeing some captured soldiers.

Standing back and performing the role of human artillery is quite fun during a fort assault

After these quests you'll finish up the area by assaulting a fort filled by enemy soldiers. This ends up as fairly large battles where you'll be supported by 5-10 allied soldiers and your goal is to simply murder every fool that is crazy enough to not run away when you start throwing fireballs in their general direction (turns out most of the Stormcloaks are crazy fools).

Further travels in the land of Skyrim - The clothes makes the wizard

Please note that some spoilers of Skyrim content may appear in these posts. I will try to avoid delving into the quest stories and plot details, but I may refer to quest outcomes, so if you're picky about avoiding any potential spoilers you will probably want to avoid reading any further.

In my last Skyrim journal post I was still just finding my legs in the cold fantasy winter wonder land of the Nords. Since then I've sunk in another good 10 hours of skyrimming (that sounds downright inappropriate, actually) and I've gotten a much better grasp of the game and world by now.

So come and join me for more tales of Erasmus the daring Breton Mage, hero of a civil war and slayer of many a retarded dragon.

When we last left off I had made my way across half of Skyrim to join up with the mages of the College of Winterhold. I quickly submerged myself into the dusty halls of the college, determined to rise in the ranks and improve my ability to burn things with magical flames.

I won't spoil the storyline of the Winterhold quests, but I will say that I found the quest chain to be a tad on the predictable side, with ancient magical artifacts and an antagonist that could only have been any more obvious if he had been tying a women to a railroad track while twirling his curled mustache.

I made my way through old and peril filled dungeons and proceeded to cleanse my enemies with fire, which was made easier by the presence of my new conjured flame bolt flinging Atronach, unearthing a mysterious device of unknown origin. That said device turned out the be of incredible potency and of interest to the aforementioned obvious antagonist should come as little surprise. Cue a mad dash to prevent the evil misuse of the ancient artifact and a search through yet more old dungeons to find yet another ancient artifact to stop the use of the first artifact (next time you find something immensely old and powerful in a ruin let's just leave it there, alright? These things never turn out well).
I eventually managed to stop the nefarious plans and found myself being hailed as a rather cool guy by the mages of Winterhold, who decided to award me some sweet sweet new robes.

Check out my baller new robe and metal face mask. I'm like a medieval Doctor Doom!

Procrastinating the advancement of the main storyline even further, I decided that I should get involved in the civil war going on in Skyrim. The Imperial forces are fighting for control of Skyrim against the rebellion of Ulfric Stormcloak, who is all about the proud independent traditions of the stoic Nords. Practicing the old religious beliefs and honoring the old warrior ways of his people. Oh, and being mad racist and hating on everyone who is not a Nord.

Skyrim Journal 10 Hours In - I'm a wizard. You burn now!

It's been a week since Skyrim launched. Way too much stuff has being going on for me to play it anywhere near as much as I would like, but I have gotten in around 10 hours with the game by now. Of course, 10 hours of Skyrim is really just scraping the very outer layer of the near bottomless content pit that Skyrim offers.
It's kind of crazy, when you think about something like the Modern Warfare 3 campaign, which offers around 6-7 hours of gaming to complete. Skyrim is a juggernaut of a game that promises to munch down all my free time with some with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.

My first week with Skyrim has really just been about getting my bearings in this overwhelming world. I've done a little bit of the main story line, but I was quickly distracted by a deluge of side quests that saw me finding dead bodies and listening to the tales of old crones.

The initial city of Whiterun can keep you occupied for hours. There's just so much to do!

When playing these big RPG games I normally tend to focus on just the main quest line and supplement a little with side quests. It's not that I hate doing side quests, but I really enjoy following a story, and most often I'll get sucked into the main storyline of a game and find myself blasting through it and missing a lot of content. But with Skyrim I feel more compelled to do other things than just the main quest. Perhaps it is because Skyrim feels so much like a real world, and you can't help exploring a lot and wanting to peak just around the next corner in case there is something cool there.

Skyrim early hours impressions

I have been looking forward to Skyrim a lot. I was so keen on playing that I decided to stay up until midnight between Thursday and Friday and wait for the game to unlock, just so I could get in a couple of hours of play before I had to head to bed (stupid work making me get up early in the morning!).
Unfortunately I discovered too late that apparently Skyrim was going to be unlocked at midnight GMT and not local time (I'm in GMT +1), so it was 1am before I sleepily got into the game.
So I only got a brief amount of playtime in on Thursday night, and with a busy weekend I was only able to play a couple of hours more.

Skyrim - For all your fantasy fetish needs

But still, I have already seen enough to tell that I think I'm really going to like my stay in Skyrim.

Skyrim the most anticipated game of November on Light Speed Gaming

Our poll for the most anticipated game for November has ended.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Skyrim was the winner of this contest.
More surprising is how big of a winner it was. The below snapshot of the poll results demonstrate the size of the humiliating defeat that this dragon exterminator simulator managed to inflict on the defenseless competition.

70% of the responses were for Skyrim, while the mega franchises of Uncharted, Modern Warfare and Zelda managed to scrape in just a single vote or two.
It's interesting that Skyrim has such a strong appeal, as it is perhaps not as flashy and easy to market as something like Uncharted 3 or Assassin's Creed. I was actually expecting Skyrim to take it, but I had assumed that Assassin's Creed in particular would give it a run for its money.

However, this is good news, as I am about to hit you up with some impressions of playing Skyrim, and it looks like I have an interested crowd for that subject!

Thanks to everyone who responded to the survey. Stay tuned for a "Game of the Year" poll, and make your favorite game the "Reader's Choice Game of the Year" for Light Speed Gaming!



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Deciding on your Diablo 3 class - Swords, Toads and Great Balls of Fire

Even though the hope of getting Diablo 3 before the end of the year has been mercilessly crushed by Blizzard, the game is still on track for an early 2012 release. And if you're the kind of person that like to over analyze stuff, like me, then it's really time to start thinking about what class you're going to be playing.

Difficult choices to be made

After thinking long and hard about it, I think I've finally been able to reach a decision.
Read on for my thoughts on the different classes and hopefully get some inspiration for your own class choice.

Skyrim Review Round Up

The time for donning your horned helmets and losing yourself in Skyrim is upon us!
If you haven't already laid down cash for a preorder and you're still sitting on the fence, wondering if this latest entry from Bethesda can sufficiently slate your dragon slaying thirst, then wonder no more!

Reviews are now up of Skyrim, and it's looking rather well:

Gamespot (9/10)
IGN (9.5/10)
Giant Bomb (5/5)
Joystiq (5/5)

So across the line it's top marks for Skyrim. Even if the game does still feature some of that open world jank that we've become used to suffer from Bethesda open world games. The favorite bug I've seen so far are the flying mammoths that spawn in mid air and plummet to their doom.
Maybe one of the programmers was inspired by the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Gamespot video review after the break

Shadowrun Browser Based MMO - Trolls With Guns!

Hot on the heels of our preview of City of Steam, which promises a relief from the standard fantasy setting by throwing in a hefty dose of steampunk, we're taking a look at the MMO "Shadowrun Online".
This article is based on an interview from "Rock, Paper, Shotgun", so head over there if you want to know more.

Like City of Steam, Shadowrun Online is going to be a free to play browser based MMO, which means a low barrier of entry for anyone interested in jumping in.
The game is based on the pen and paper role playing game of the same name (just Shadowrun, not the "Online" part, in case you were wondering).

Not sure what Sam Fisher is doing here...

The Shadowrun universe is a cyberpunk setting with a twist. Set in the year 2073 (putting it within spitting distance of Anno 2070, then!) Earth has become populated with Elves, Dwarves and Trolls, which are a result of genetic mutations.

Aside from the presence of these fantasy freaks, the world has also seen the emergence of magic, so you have a fireball to go with your Elf (but do you have a plan to go with that fireball?).
The result is an interesting setting that features spellcasting Elves, who can also wield assault rifles, and Dwarven martial arts experts that dabble in computer hacking.