I used to love the original Diablo PC game but never played Diablo 2 or 3. If anyone knows this series from Blizzard I'm curious as to if I got a great deal or wasted my money.

I paid a total of $39.92 plus tax at Walmart for the following.
1) Diablo II Battle Chest including the expansion to Lord of Darkness, the full strategy guide and 2 key codes for World of WarCraft.

2) Diablo III, also including 2 keys for World of WarCraft.

One thing that I know is that Diablo III is huge. I'm in the process of downloading about 9GB of updates and other parts of the game.

I don't know how the WOW deal works. It may be another massive download or possibly strictly on-line.

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I'm changing the title of this thread to "Games that you like".

LOL! Now that my desktop is working again ( see thread viewtopic.php?p=11968#p11968 ) I have played both games a bit and will call it a really good deal.

I have always preferred RPG games and still have Baulder's Gate 2, with the expansion to Thrown of Bhall, from back in the days of Windows 2000, mayhaps earlier. BG2 is still, in my opinion, one of the best RPG games ever written. LOL! The thing even still installs and works fine all the way up to Windows 10... I think I installed it on 10, I know it still works on 8.1. Of course it does not have anywhere near the graphics of today's games but is still one of the best as to story, humor and game play.

Other RPG games that I've played and really liked are Fable the Lost Chapters from MS (Which still works in Win 7, 8.1 and, I think, 10.) and Never Winter nights (which I cannot get to run on my Windows 7 desktop.).

Shoot, even on my Play Station 1 emulator I still go with RPG. My favorite game on that system is Midi Evil. Hmmm, just what PS1 disks do I have that still work? Some of the following skip and hang but I was able to rip ISO images of all which the emulator will mount.
Medi Evil
Final Doom
Spyro
Resident Evil
Resident Evil 2
Lost World: Jurassic Park
PacMan World
Castlevania
Alien Trillogy
Frogger
Astroids

So what types of games, if any, do you happen to like?

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Games of Logic - of course.

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

LOL!

But even Spok gave up on logic a few times.

BTW, I see that you have gone back to your Vulcan alter ego...

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Just temporarily, for this thread.

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

Actually I like your Vulcan avatar. You would have made a good Vulcan... Oh, wait... you ARE Vulcan; are you not?

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That would be the logical assumption. Based on my appearance anyway.

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

I checked out the free World of Warcraft deals I got with Diablo II and III. I doubt that I'll use the one I activated as it is subscription based at a minimum price of $12.99/month if done as a 6 month deal. Going actually monthly is $14.99/month. I am willing to do a subscription for something useful but not a game. Even renewing on a 6 month basis (lowest price) it would still be $155.88/year.

Add to the above that the 'free' version is a 'starter edition' with many game restrictions it is just not for me. Actually it is cheap to upgrade to the full version, $19.99, but a subscription is still required.

Other requirements:
A Battle.net account is required. This is not an issue as such an account is free. I have such an account for Diablo III. Battle.net is the mass game server for Blizzard Software. Of course this also means that a large part of the game is web based so, for decent performance, you need a decent ISP speed. OK, I just did a bit of searching and WoW should play OK on any connection of 2mbps or higher. The problem with bandwidth is not so much playing the game as I found results in my search that stated that it was playable at dial-up speeds as long as you avoided crowded areas. The problem as to connection speeds is the install and updates. WoW is a HUGE realm. It takes from 25GB to 32GB to install on a drive. Even if you buy a boxed version a lot of that is still downloaded. If you will remember in my first post of this thread I mentioned that the updates for Diablo III were around 9GB.

Yes, there IS a reason that I put out all the above info.

I have three key codes available that are fully legit to distribute. I would have four but I already registered one to see what was what.

If anyone is interested in one of these codes please send me a PM. Please only do so if you are a lover of RPG games and really want a look at WoW.

Here is how it would work... If I get three or less responses within two weeks I just send the info. If there are more than three responses I would randomly draw names; pieces of paper in a hat type thing.

The info would be sent to you via a PM. If you have PMs disabled either enable or please do not respond. I would take a photo of both sides of the offer card and send to you as a PM. You would then just follow the instructions.

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Don't really play games on the computer I've got my Nintendo for that with puzzle games on it, I have the complete series of Professor Layton. If I just want to waste 5 minutes I'll just have a game of matching 3 on Facebook.

Not into games that much if I'm not on the computer I'll either be reading or knitting.

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Joan Archer
http://crossstitcher.webs.com

Joan, in my opinion, reading or knitting is much better time spent than playing games on a pc.

Acadia

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The blazing evidence of immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution. -- Emerson

LOL! Depends on what is being read. If fiction I don't see a lot of difference.

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Depends on the fiction, Jay. Take Atlas Shrugged, for instance, or War and Peace. Both of which I have read in the last couple of years. In addition to much less lofty fiction. Non-fiction too. Currently on a break from the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. That will probably take a couple of years. LOL

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

This is true Patty, I WILL admit that there are different levels of fiction. Mayhaps I should have included a disclaimer stating a difference between speculative fiction and fantasy.

Still I can see no problem with games when related to fantasy fiction. Staying with the RPG aspect is it better to recline and read a Conan the Barbarian novel (actually I never have) or play the Conan RPG game (I also never have)? I would think it better to play the game as you would have to make decisions and actively use eye/hand coordination.

There are originations that use video games to help physically and mentally disabled people improve their real life abilities by exercising their eye/hand coordination.

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My fiction tends to be the family saga type covering the late 1800's and early 1900's. Mind you the last lot of books I've read were true stories involving people and cats.

That book I tried to send you Patty was one of the true story ones, he wrote 4 books and I read them all. Then I read all the books involved with a ginger cat called Bob and a drug addict, that is now being made into a film.

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Joan Archer
http://crossstitcher.webs.com

Sounds good, Joan. Mind you, I was just making a point to Jay with my more literary fiction, but I read plenty of low-brow fiction too! Gothic Romances are a current fave. They at least recall those wonderful books by Mary Stewart and Phyllis Whitney that I can't get! But the writers have nowhere near the sophistication of those writers, and some are downright juvenile (the writing). Morris West was a great one from the 60s. Some of the best writing I've ever seen. Probably seconded by James Michener.

Anyway, fantasy can be wonderful too! My favorite fantasy series are the Belgariad and Malloreon by David Eddings. A very dry wit, wonderful characters you can't get enough of. There are five books in each series, though they continue the same story. By the end of the ten books, you want more! How many video games make you laugh?

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

OK, here are a few more excellent Sci-fi and/or fantasy authors/series that may be better than a game.

Tolkien... what more needs to be said? Then again the game may have brought you closer to the story but only if already read.

ANYTHING Asimov! If they ever made a game based on his Foundation series I would not be able to resist.

Then there is Anne McCaffrey and her Dragon Riders of Pern series. Again, if a game were made, I could not resist.

The above are just a few examples. The problem with games derived from books is the same as movies derived from books... They just don't tend to follow the book.

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Good to see someone who loves Pern!

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

Yes, Pern is one of my favorite realms but there are SO many others also. Sigh, what if they made an immersive game based on Frank Herbert's Dune series?

To any 'anti-game' people I will agree that there ARE better ways one can spend their time. Still I would say that my weekly game time is much less than many watch TV. Well that is not totally true... I just do not watch network TV other than sports. Sports is the only reason that I have cable video. I use TV for nothing else. If there is a series of interest that I hear about such as 'Once Upon A Time' I watch it on Netflix without the mind numbing commercials.

My entertainment is movies and games and, OK, especially Football. I'll probably play Diablo III for 1.5-2 hours this evening. How much time will you spend watching TV? Of course I know that there are others other than myself that do not watch TV but I'm talking about an average.

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Hey, I'm not anti-game. If you get enjoyment from your games, that's good. I get enjoyment from mine, but they are just different games. I don't watch TV either. I watched the Mentalist for all of its 7 or so seasons. I loved PBS's Sherlock, and Downton Abby of course. That's about it, going back to Star Trek: The Next Generation.

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

When I said 'anti-game' I did not specifically mean you Patty. I was speaking in general.

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YES!!!!! Read those two series a couple decades ago and kept the books simply waiting for the right time to read them again. When I broke my foot two years ago and was unable to hike for a while, guess what was the first thing I read! Those 10 books helped to keep this avid hiker from climbing the walls.

Acadia

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The blazing evidence of immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution. -- Emerson

I have read them numerous times, bought them numerous times, both my daughters have read them numerous times. I've bought them in paperback and hardback. And now I have them in eBook format. I forget if I got them at Barnes & Noble or Kindle (as I always convert my books to both formats). My daughters have also bought them as eBooks now too!

Did you read Belgarath too? How about Polgara? I even got The Rivan Codex.
(These three are all involved with the same world, characters and story.)

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

Not yet, maybe next time I break my foot.
Acadia

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The blazing evidence of immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution. -- Emerson

Ha ha... be careful what you wish for!

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

Well I am not in any way a traditional gamer. But, I to enjoy Train Simulator. I guess it's the kid in me.

But it is machine intensive. My Steam folder with Train Simulator in it is 37GB and 120000 files.