The other week I finished the Diablo 3 Beta and took my readers through an overview of the Demon Hunter class and some basics with this video review:

Diablo 3 represents everything you loved about Diablo II, and includes the hordes of monsters that die by the hundreds, the thousands upon thousands of combinations of weapons, armors and accessories to eek out every extra edge in customizing your character.

Unlike typical MMO games where there is a Tank, Healer, Range Attacker…etc Diablo 3 seems like all characters are designed to simply obliterate opponents, and you won’t see any character having to hang back just so it can heal companions like you do with some fantasy based MMO games.

The action is everywhere and it is quite frantic, I think MMO’s could take some lessons from the hold+shift and right click to attack in whatever direction you are facing concept, this is brilliant and I enjoy just launching volleys of rapid fire arrows in the direction of my opponents without having to click on and select each target one at a time and then trigger an attack on each.

One thing about Diablo 3 is that there appears to be no character customization from the creation screen at all, you can’t adjust height, skin color, or any other facial/skin feature. This is probably due to the fact that once you adorn weapons/armor you pretty much can’t see any character details anyway, and that Diablo 3 keeps a reasonably distant overview of your characters never letting you zoom in up close anyway. I didn’t find this to be too hindering as once I got a customized hood for my character and some double hand crossbows I looked unique enough compared to other demon hunters.

Looks like Diablo 3 will be released in 2Q 2012 which will be a great day for fans who have been waiting for it for 4+ years now! The advantage of having such a vast online gaming system where you don’t have to pay a monthly subscription too may be a huge boon to those just willing to drop the $60 and unlimited game without worries of having to renew their monthly subscription like they have to with WoW or The Old Republic.

When Diablo 3 releases, I intend to give a copy away to readers in a contest, so stay tuned!

-Dragon Blogger

Diablo III List Price: $59.99 Price: $59.99 Read Reviews

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I have to hand it to Ana for another exceptional article on Traffic Generation Café where she talks about deleting 7,000 comments that had broken links existing her site to blogs that were either shut down, or links that no longer existed.

When your site ages and you start to have accumulated thousands of comments it is a good idea to make a point every 6 months or so to go through and mitigate any broken links outbound to keep your SEO optimized and prevent PR leakage to the void.

I didn’t have as much to worry about since when I first cut over to Livefyre comment system it automatically disabled all links in previous comments by default, so when I used drlinkcheck.com I only had 9 broken links out of a thousand in the initial scan.

I also used the broken links plugin which I reviewed previously to make sure my external links were all cleaned up previously as well.  With using external commenting systems now I don’t have to worry about the spam build up as much, Livefyre with Impermium is really good at blocking most spam comments and the only ones that make it through don’t have any external links (that turn into hyperlinks) in the comment so can’t really harm PR for a post.

But I also make sure I check webmaster tools regularly to see if any links are broken, especially my internal site links.

Once you hit your 5,000 approved comments you should start your broken link pruning process and I would probably repeat at every 5k interval or setup a system to do it routinely based on how many comments you receive.  If your site is huge enough to get 5k comments per month, I obviously would do it every 6 months as links aren’t likely to break in 30 days, usually sites bet abandoned in 6+ months.

Read Ana’s article on dealing with broken links to get more information and a ton of tool recommendations to help automate this process as much as possible.

-Dragon Blogger

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A new challenger has emerged in the realm of RPGs.  Did it come from just Ken Rolston?  No.  Did it come from just Todd McFarlane?  No.  Did it come from just R.A. Salvatore?  No.  It came from all three of these iconoclasts and a dedicated team of innovators seeking to give gamers a liberating RPG fantasy they never had played before.  Were they successful in this task of gargantuan proportions?  Rather than draw swift conclusions or continue on in lofty hyperbole, I will break down in simple terms the gratifying and not so gratifying experience provided by Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning PC Edition.  Feel free to watch the video review below or continue reading.

A Decent Base for a Story

Amalur’s story may not set you ablaze with excitement but it does possess a pretty decent base.  You wake up a living corpse – minus ugly zombie deterioration – and find out that you are a person who is literally fateless.  The madman behind spawning the abomination that you are is none other than the gnome scientist Formorous Hugues.  While you could say the band of characters you meet are pretty much based on the generic RPG stereotypes – the worried doomsayer, a silver-tongued vixen, etc. – its refreshing to play a game that doesn’t totally default to the typical Tolkien formula of elves, dwarves (gnomes in this game), and orcs.

Cutscenes That are Actually Nice to Watch

Thankfully, cutscenes in this game are fun to watch in most cases and can easily be skipped at any time if you’re not in the mood to hear all the dialogue.  They give you a chance to take in the gorgeous environments and distinct art style.  The lengths and strides games are taking in graphics sure are impressive but I appreciate Amalur forging its own path and deciding not to follow the hyper-realistic trend.  My only gripe with the graphics would be the fact that several characters appear to have a wide-eyed look in most of the cutscenes.  It gets pretty distracting at times to the point of warranting a chuckle or two.

Speedy Gonzalez World Navigation

Taking scenic routes in this game can be quite rewarding but there comes a time when you’ve just passed through a certain area one two many times and want to zip right through it.  If you end up in such a situation then you’ll definitely find a friend in the “fast travel” feature.  All you have to do is visit a location once and in the future it takes a simple click on your game map to teleport you right to that same spot.  It makes questing way easier to power through and I cannot tell you how indispensible it has been to me.

I’m a Warrior/Archer/Mage/Rogue!

Combat in Amalur is really one of the most enjoyable elements.  Ever hate the fact that you get locked into a certain type of fighter in typical RPGs and reach a point where its utterly impossible to revise your style of attack?  That doesn’t happen in Amalur…ever.  Tired of the longsword?  No problem, switch it up to chakrams or daggers or a staff!  If you don’t have enough points to make you strong enough in the aforementioned weapon talents then simply ring up your neighborhood Fateweaver to give you a hand.  They will clear your slate – for a price – and you can redistribute your experience any way you like.

Skilling Actually Has a Use

Skilling is not just for show in this game.  Each talent serves vital purposes, and depending on how you’re interested in playing, you better invest in them wisely.  For example, beefing up the persuasion skill alone will not make you the master of conversation.  Some points thrown into the dispel skill will serve you better in convincing people to see you eye-to-eye on certain matters.  Hint, hint…the House of Ballads storyline.

Ok the Bad News…

After laying out all these positives, I can just sense you eagle-eyed readers out there searching for my first real dig at this game.  Well here’s where the honeymoon ends.  As much as the game displays itself strongly in certain areas – it strikes me as more of the same for the most part.  You got yourself the familiar dialogue wheel, wave after wave of identical enemies, and you guessed it – a world that is bloated with useless sidequests.  I’m really not so keen to spend my time on 50+ quests that do not shape the narrative and give a dinky little trinket to add to my junk pile.

Amalur’s faults do not damage the hours of gameplay.  In fact the old adage of quantity does not equal quality is crushed by this game.  There’s so much packed in that you’ll enjoy – it’ll make you forget that lousy 2 gold coin drop you just received.  I hazard to conclude that Amalur can be merely described as “a success.”  I believe a more befitting description of what Amalur is would be “no strings attached.”  Just as the game promises, you truly are a fateless being that can forge a destiny entirely of your choosing.  It is for that reason that I find this RPG one for the ages.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Review (PC Edition) ★★★★☆ 

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning List Price: $59.99 Price: $37.99 Read Reviews

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It is very important for everybody to keep themselves healthy, which means that not only one should maintain a good diet, but also maintain a regular exercise routine. As far as the statistics say, it is not possible for people to keep track of their daily routine with their day-to-day busy lives and only a very few percentage of them strictly follow good healthy routine. So we have just the right kind of an accessory, that not only motivates you to keep yourself healthy and running, but also keeps track of all those minor details that necessary for a healthy living.

Nike, the brand which is well known for its high quality and reliable sports products and accessories, has introduced another new product called the Nike+ FuelBand. NIKE+ FuelBand, an innovative wristband that tracks and measures everyday movement to motivate and inspire people to be more active. Activities can now be measured through a new metric called NikeFuel: the more active you are, the more NikeFuel you earn.

“The NIKE+ FuelBand is a way for Nike to further evolve the exciting possibilities of merging the physical and digital worlds. Nike has always been about inspiring athletes, and the NIKE+ FuelBand will help motivate them in a simple, fun and intuitive way”, said Mark Parker, President & CEO of NIKE Inc.

The Nike+ FuelBand has been specially designed in the form of band, that can be worn throughout the day, thanks to its user-friendly and ergonomic design. The FuelBand uses the built-in accelerometer, which keeps track of all your activities and provides you with resulting information on its LED dot matrix display. The four different metrics that can be caliculated by the band are -  Time, Calories, Steps and NikeFuel.

Everyday users will be able to set there daily goal of how active they want to be, and how much NikeFuel they want to achieve. The NIKE+ FuelBand displays a series of 20 LED lights that go from red-to-green as the user gets closer to their goal. To get all the recorded information, you either need to plug-in the FuelBand into your PC’s USB port, or you can simple connect with the band from your mobile device wirelessly via Bluetooth with the help of Nike+ application.

The Nike+ Fuelband is now available for purchase in the US at Nikestore.com for a suggested retail price of US $149.

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If you are concerned about what will happen when oil runs out and you like real time strategy games, then there is a good chance to be impressed with Oil Rush. UNIGINE sends players into a world that was transformed after Judgment Day and is now completely covered by water, while people are fighting for dwindling resources. Oil has almost run out, which makes the remaining pockets even more important and large armies collide or engage in skirmished to control key nodes. The premise is interesting and developers did a good job in imagining the apocalyptic scenery but they could’ve done a better job in terms of gameplay.

Blood run deep, oil runs deeper

All those who survived the aftermath are now engaged in a bitter fight for oil and in this intense war, those who control the nodes emerge victorious. Just like in any respectable tower-defense scenario, troops are spawn automatically near these nodes, so the more you control the larger the army will be. In terms of units, there is not a large variety of troops that you can command in battle, with jet skis, battleships and attack helicopters making most of your army.

These few units can inflict a lot of damage when used in conjunction, but sometimes you will need to make the most of their individual abilities. Knowing when to choose mobility over resilience and speed over firepower can make the difference in your favor, but sadly there is nothing to do against a larger army. The odds are simply stacked against you when the opponent marches towards your poorly defended nodes and micromanagement or special tactics are not going to save the day.

Bigger is better

Speaking of large armies, the player needs to rush the nodes and after establishing a dominant position, reinforce them with turrets. Just like in any real time strategy game, investing too many resources in fix defenses is a bit risky, because you will need the mobility of an army. The best defense is a permanent harassment and in multiplayer this becomes obvious, because you will face intelligent players rather than highly scripted AI.

The only problem is that at least for now, you will not have too may opponents waiting for you online until the game gains some traction. This brings us to the less favorable part of Oil Rush, which is the rather tedious campaign and the weak storyline. One of the issues that plagues both the singleplayer and the multiplayer is the fact that you can’t really control your troops in battle and each skirmish feels random. Oil Rush is worth checking out, so don’t hesitate to take a lot at the trailer, but in my opinion it deserves just three 3 out of 5 stars.

Oil Rush is rated ★★★☆☆ 

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