From the Brow of Zeus

I bought Torchlight during the recent hope-you-didn't-just-buy-this-for-$20 sale on Steam. $5 falls just under the price of a rental, which is exactly what I consider games on Steam--a nice, long rental.

So far, I really like it. Torchlight is a great little Diablo II clone.The graphics are clean and cartoony. It can run on old hardware, and the developers are keen enough to release low-texture packs and include a Netbook option in the graphics. I just may do a 5 Reasons I Bought Torchlight in the future, so I won't go on and on about how great it is. Instead, I'll complain: From the looks of things, this game is going to take place entirely underground, in various (nicely decorated) parts of the same dungeon, give or take. That means it clones everything about Diablo II except my favorite expansive outdoor locations--no rainy forests, sprawling deserts or treacherous jungles. Having always preferred wilderness exploration to crawling around in a dungeon, I find that more than a little disappointing. Still, $5 ain't bad, and while the game lacks a multiplayer component, at least they aren't talking about selling character skills as DRM, like the Diablo III team.

It even inspired me to go back and finish an old story I was wrote back in 2004 or 2005, based on Action/RPGs like Diablo.

Speaking of stories, The Dream Quest (my first short story collection) is due back from the printers any day now! Woo!

Aaaaand it just hit 2am, so I'm calling it a night.