Diablo 3 - by a noob. And shaving - by a noob.

Hmm - I think I've got a spot on my chin.

The reason that I'm not sure is that I have a fairly decent beard growing.  I try to keep it under control whilst at work, but I haven't been at work for 5 days now and it's sprouting quite well.  And I think somewhere underneath it all there's a spot.

Might have to shave an exploratory gap to check.

Anyway - off topic.  I've just completed Diablo III on Normal difficulty.

Diablo III, for the people that don't know what it is, is a very good game.  You essentially play through an adventure game, killing monsters, picking up loot, typically being accompanied by one or more helpers as you explore the lands, ultimately heading towards taking care of a rather nasty chap called Diablo.  Apparently he's the root of all evil or the centre of evil or some such gubbins - I've heard that not only does he not pay his television license, but he even helps himself to a grape in the supermarket without paying for it (that annoys me no end)

So, I created a mage called Raistlin - whilst many people know me as my WoW hunter Thog, Raistlin goes back a lot further, to when I was a kid and read a book called Dragons of Autumn Twilight.  I got this book in with a game for the ZX Spectrum - the game itself wasn't memorable, but the book was.  Raistlin was basically this mage, who starts off neutral but over time turns to evil.  If you want to know his story, read the Dragonlance books - they're good. (And to any readers of the Dragonlance books - I know I massively oversimplified Raistlin's backstory here)

So, Raistlin was a cool character and so I used his name in various old RPG games, notably Dungeons of the Necromancers Domain and Mordor.  But when I played WoW, I couldn't get Raistlin as a name, so he fell into longterm memory for recovery at a future date.

And then Diablo 3 came out.

So, Raistlin is back and has just kicked Diablo's ass on Normal difficulty.  I won't go through the details in case you haven't played the game yet (I do recommend it), but I would say that the way the game is set up is directly against how I play.

If I play a game, I usually play it on the lowest difficulty setting, so that I feel like less of a noob, and once I've completed it, that's it.  Don't play it again.

But the idea of Diablo 3 is that you play it on Normal, then on Nightmare, then on Hell, and finally on Inferno.  Now my understanding is that I'm essentially going to play the same game (albeit harder and with better loot) four times, and to me it just seems like a grind.

I like seeing new content, that's cool.  And new loot is always nice.  Perhaps I need to party more?  I'm a bit of a solitary player (mainly so that I don't look bad in front of other players) and I've done very little partying.

I guess I'll leave it a little then give it a try on Nightmare mode - my fiancee has played through the difficulties and loves the game, so there must be something to it.  Any comments folks?

Right - I'm going to try to find a spot!

(Fifteen minutes pass)

No spot.

Damn that hurt.

I (stupidly I know) dry shave.  I generally use an electric razor to get the thick of the beard, but then I always need to use a Mach 3 or a Fusion Power Stealth Ninja Deathblade to remove the last few rogue hairs (and even then it's amazing how often I look in the mirror and a single inch long hair has sprouted overnight) and when it's been a while since I last shaved the dry shave stings a bit.  I constantly get told to wet shave, the trouble I find is if I wet shave the razor gets gummed up with bits of cut beard almost instantly, so you have no option but to buy a new blade (and I like to make the blade last as long as possible - which also unfortunately increases the pain), so instead I dry shave.

Ultimately, the problem with razors is that we don't really know anything about them. The only way we can measure the quality of a razor is by the number of blades it has. So manufacturers are having to outdo each other on the blade front, and it is only a matter of time until we are all using a razor that is also used in Chinese takeaways to produce shredded crispy duck.

To go further, there are manual razors (that don’t need electricity) and electric razors. Electric ones usually don’t give as close a shave, but last ages and don’t peel your face off. But now you can get manual razors that need a battery. I await the day when I own an electric razor that doesn’t need electric, and instead you rub it on your calf for five minutes to generate enough static electricity so that all your hairs on your body stand on end and you get to pluck them off one at a time with a pair of tweezers.

Battery powered tweezers, of course.