Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - Ultimate Evil Edition

Eleven months ago, the Reaper of Souls expansion pack for PC versions of Diablo III was announced. This was closely followed by the console release of Diablo III a month later. I pre-ordered a copy with the intention of playing it at a later time. That time arrived, and I managed to reach complete most of the first act with my chosen character.

Then life and other games got in the way, and Diablo III sat neglected in my gaming box for a while. Recently I begun playing Diablo III as my primary game again (I often swap between two or more titles, when I get stuck, or have simply had enough of a particular genre), and now I am quite excited about the news regarding the Reaper of Souls console release in the form of the Ultimate Evil Edition.

OK, so the news hit nearly two months ago now, but I've been a little preoccupied with arranging a wedding and stuff. Last month the PlayStation exclusive items were announced, and once again they're centred around tie-ins with PS exclusive titles. This time round the games are The Last of Us, and Shadow of the Colossus, neither of which I've played. There is also an additional piece of armour available as a pre-order incentive, the Infernal Pauldrons, which should look pretty neat when paired with the Infernal Helm pre-order incentive from the console base game.

While I'm mentioning the base game, it will be included in Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - Ultimate Evil Edition. That means if you have yet to get a copy of Diablo III for your console, all you'll need to buy in order to join in on the console experience is the Ultimate Evil Edition. Not a bad deal at all considering PS3/ Xbox 360 version is retailing at only R 419. The same retailer is selling the PC version of the Reaper of Souls expansion for R 379, and that excludes the base game, which is required to play, and will set you back another R 451.

For those who already own console versions of Diablo III, and only want to add the Reaper of Souls expansion, digital downloads will be available through the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live closer to the release date. I'm thinking that for only R 419, I may as well buy a physical copy of the Ultimate Evil Edition, as I like to have physical discs over digital downloads. Call me old-fashioned, or whatever, but if I ever decide to delete games from my PS3 harddrive, I want to know that I will still be able to play them again in the future, without having to waste time downloading them again.

That said, I'll wait and see what the price difference between the physical and digital versions of Reaper of Souls are before committing to either. At the moment though, I'm still leaning towards buying a physical copy.

New games incoming

Last month I had a little poll to see which open-world, first person shooter was favoured by my modest following of readers. Despite the 250 or so hits the blog has received in the last month, no one took the time to vote. This isn't the first time this has happened, so I get the impression you lot don't like voting in polls regarding first person shooters.

Never the less, I decided to resolve the matter in my own way; by purchasing Rage: Anarchy Edition. How did I go about making this decision? It had nothing to do with ratings, reviews, or recommendations. Instead I looked to see which of the three titles I was interested in playing was still available from the various online retailers. Since Rage was the only title available, Rage is what I bought. OK, so it's not a 'new game' as such, but it will be a new game for me.

As an added bonus it was on promotion, so I managed to pick up both Rage: Anarchy Edition and Deadpool for only R299. The downside is it will take nearly three weeks for the package to be delivered. That will at least allow me some time to progress in Diablo III, and possibly even try my hand at playing Call of Duty: Ghosts online. That said, I have spent quite a few of the last couple of evenings watching soccer (or football if you prefer), instead of gaming or reading, so perhaps I wont get all that much further in Diablo III before Rage and Deadpool arrive.

Kahn live: An anti-review

Last night I got roped into attending the début solo performance of local musician, Kahn Morbee (The Parlotones). Following Kahn's advice of, 'not writing about what I don't like,' I'll simply tell you about my favourite part of the evening, and that I like the project's logo.

After playing a few new songs, Kahn asked if the audience wanted to hear a Parlotones song, which was met with several people in the audience cheering. Kahn asked for suggestions, at which point someone shouted "Shallow waters."

The irony is probably lost on foreign readers here, so I'll explain; Shallow waters is a song written and performed by another local band, Just Jinjer.

If you wish to hear what Kahn's solo effort sounds like, The candle is available on his website as a free download. It's not my cup of tea, but I'm sharing it anyway.

Foo Fighters South African Tour details

Following this morning's announcement that Foo Fighters will be touring South Africa this year, here are some of the tour details.

At present there are only two shows scheduled:

10 December - Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town

13 December - FNB Stadium, Johannesburg

The opening acts are Kaiser Chiefs (U.K.) and local alt. rockers Blk Jks [pronounced Black Jacks].

Several years ago a couple of the members from Blk Jks joined us for a braai at our student commune. At the time they were still relatively unknown on the local scene, but had already travelled to, and gathered quite a following on the other side of the Atlantic. 

When I traversed the Atlantic in 2011, I was able to attend a Foo Fighters performance on the last night of my stay in New York. It was one of the best concerts I have ever attended, and I promised my friends that if Foo Fighters ever came to South Africa, I'd be getting standing tickets.

Tickets go on sale at 09:00 (local time) this Thursday, and I am already dreaming of attending both gigs. If the Jo'burg concert was first, this would have been more likely, but either way I aim to attend at least one of these events.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the Foo Fighters perform live again, and I am relieved that the promoters have chosen artists worthy of opening for the band.

Now to wait for news on the first single from 'Studio Album Eight,' the premier date for Sonic Highways, and ticket sales to open.

Today is a good day...

This is probably the best news I've ever seen on a Monday morning!

It's official, Foo Fighters are coming to South Africa. More details to be announced by Big Concerts at 16:00 local time.

I'm on a tropical island

I haven't had time to write much the last few weeks, but now that the wedding is over, I should have a bit more spare time to sit and write again. I'll probably wait until we get back from our honeymoon before jumping back into blogging, so that I can maximise on the relaxation time, and take a lot of photos.

Sonic Highways - Fall 2014

By the far the studio album I am most looking forward hearing this year is the eighth offering from the Foo Fighters. Even more exciting is the decision to record the album at various studios around the United States, document the recording process, and then turn it into the HBO TV series, Sonic Highways!

Unlike Sound City, Sonic Highways will share more of the stories of the musicians, and the music scenes that influenced them while living in cities renowned for their impact on global music trends. in Grohl's own words, "a love letter to the history of American music."

The series will run for eight episodes, with each episode centring around a new location. These are rumoured to be Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Seattle, and Washington D.C. 

Chicago, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles are high on my list of "places to go," and New York is at the top of my "places to go again" list, so those are the episodes I'm looking forward to. In all honesty though, I reckon the entire series will be worth watching, and I'll definitely be asking my (future) family in the States to get this for me on Blu-ray once it's been released.