Usually, what happens is that the office gives us a note/email informing us our their legal duty to perform this inspection. It’s really annoying and happens around mid October. For me I tend to drop my plans, my stress increases because it means I need to prepare. In the past, this would bother me a lot more because my place was much harder to clean. Luckily, the various projects these past few years in procuring new furniture and dumping out older stuff made my apartment maintenance far easier. That doesn’t mean on some level I don’t feel paranoid nor stressed out though especially because this stuff starts at 9am, which means I need to be up 90 minutes early and hopefully out the door (usually to the local Starbucks while the alarms blare loudly throughout the complex)

This year I think I lucked out slightly as the day before had some morning showers as SoCal had been experiencing a kind of El Nino season. I think if we had those showers today, I would’ve gone to the mall to hang out, even though I probably would’ve just been a zombie most of the day. My sleep schedule has been poor as of late from the stress and staying up late for various reasons, including the freak weather. And I wasn’t looking forward to combating the kids along Western Ave near my old schools.

Now, that this seemingly is done (although one guy said he would be back and left the filter against the wall), I’m trying to re-adjust. I’ve been mostly focused on coding and working with Claude since I encountered some issues with Gemini recently. Claude has been a mixed bag to me, possibly a better overall coder than Gemini but not fully providing the entire code piece but pertinent snippets. I haven’t used Claude Code but I am getting tempted into subscribing just to see what the hype is. Outside of money, the main thing preventing me from doing a minor subscription is the occasional “my drive was deleted!” incidents you’d read online.

Beyond those things, I did mention how I was interested in procuring that monitor arm for my portable monitor along with a new foot stand for my desk. I did get the two and am mostly pleased. The monitor arm is very good and I’ve attached it to my cart/desk next to my sofa. Not only has it freed up precious space on the cart, the adjustable arm is quite useful whenever I want to hook in my laptop with my screen. Also, the claw-like mechanism is very strong and keeps my portable monitor locked in, which was my biggest worry. It’s been such a nice setup that I almost wish I had another.

The foot stand wasn’t as good as I had hoped in that the adjustable part is only the rubber foot padding section rather than the whole stand being adjustable. But I can put my feet up and it’s not bad. My other foot rest/pillow has moved to the gaming part of my L-shaped desk. So all these little adjustments have been great in just allowing me to maximize my equipment. The only piece that really isn’t used much is the standing desk. I think if I had a longer cable, I could string my personal laptop over and hook the portable monitor arm on there but it feels like overkill. Also, I still need to make use of that external hard drive at some point but I’ve been too busy to deal with that part.

The rest of this week mostly is going to get hot again. Friday looks to be the worst and I’m ready for SoCal equivalent of a winter. Next will cool down but I’m quite tired of the heat. Even when I came home from Starbucks and was waiting on the patio, I was burning up from the sun. I figured once this crazy heat ends, I might start doing an outdoor walk again since I’ve been horribly out of shape.

Other than coding, I had been playing Diablo 4 a bit (hence my slightly bad sleeping habits). Unfortunately, the game is so laggy that I find it hard to summon up the motivation to play, even though there are things I want to do still. There is a patch tomorrow which I really hope will fix these lag issues because the game is almost unbearable. I did find or craft more Ber runes and made both an Enigma and Infinity for my Barbarian. Sadly, neither really helped deal with the Baal capstone dungeon so I put her back. I might give my Storm Strike Druid another shot at some point too since I have a bunch of spare mythic seals. I suppose if the druid can better handle the capstone dungeon I might play him more. Otherwise, I’ll continue just mucking around on my Warlock.

The other major thing that caught my eye the other day is how the Ukraine knocked out a bunch of Yandex server farms, which reportedly hosted tons of Russian bots. Since that time, my own bot problem has diminished. Most people probably don’t see what I would see on my site, which was a ton of spam comments. Some were certainly Russian but my filters would catch these. And in a few cases, my server was getting nuked by bots so I had to fix my web server. Normally, I stay away from geopolitical news but this one interested me as it affected me directly.

The post Another Annual Inspection appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

Supposedly, Dance of Knives Rogue is considered S-Tier, which is part of the motivation behind taking this build up again. However, the part that interested me was seeing the changes to this build. I know it’s not considered the best bossing build (I’ve seen one guy on reddit complain not being able to handle anything above T8 which makes me slightly suspicious) but so far it’s been a fairly fluid build. At this time, I am using the Maxroll version but might change over to the Mobalytics version down the road (the gear looks more interesting plus I’ve heard of M1pY)

My main issue with the Dance of Knives Rogue is that there’s effectively two builds (meaning not two separate creators); one for bossing and one for general pushing. I’m not really happy about the idea of changing gear sets for a single purpose so I’m not sure what I’ll do here. A lot of the time, when I’d hit T10, the build would fall off attempting to get into higher content especially now that I’ve seen how the Blazing Scream Warlock handles the higher tiers. So I might play this build more later on.

But I do like Spellbound Steel set in how you get all your Imbuements which is part of the reason I wanted to try this build. I’m still far from optimal and might look into how the Mobalytics/M1PY build changes a few things (including two uniques that I don’t currently incorporate into my build). I will say that leveling was really smooth with this build and that I got to use a Grief early on since I had a spare Lo rune lying around.

Let’s talk about the real star of the show: the Warlock and the Blazing Scream build. I mentioned that I had already moved my Warlock into T12 but didn’t do anything else after playing some Diablo 3 this past weekend. As that situation felt uninspiring, I simply went back to Diablo 4 to finish up somethings as well as start on that Rogue. As I mentioned, my Rogue managed to drop a Ber rune fortuitously, which made me decide to take the Warlock once again.

Originally, I had been using the Maxroll version of the Blazing Scream build. But it felt so weak when I tried doing the capstone dungeons in T10 (which is like a T13). I didn’t quite understand why it was underperforming and having issues like Wrath regeneration. Then there was the awkwardness of accidentally triggering Command Abodian, which did nothing for me outside of messing up my rotation. Instead, I turned to my friends over at Mobalytics and found a far better build that seemed more in line with what I observed DatModz using.

First, was crafting/employing Enigma. This is such a huge QoL and difference maker because of the zoom-zoom effect with the movement speed, Teleport and damage reduction built in. Plus, you can reroll one stat for more Wrath as well as receive a percentage increase to Maximum life. This is a huge deal because I like using Splinter of Pain for the damage reduction effect, which really bogs you down if you don’t have massive amounts of movement on your gear (you can also use Splinter of the Mother to counter this aspect but risk you getting stunned, which isn’t fun)

Once I had that item, the other major change was using Bombardment and focusing on killing my Demons for the regeneration. That with Sadistic gives me a ton of Wrath that I could now change my Wrath on my boots to +3 Evasion Charges. So I’m just zooming around in combining Evasion/Teleport and Rampage. I will have to redo my Paragon board but right now I haven’t felt a real need (not to mention I hate dealing with the Paragon board).

Another item I swapped in was a Wendigo Band, which I read is bugged and causes random health depletions. But the damage difference is worth it, although you need to pay closer attention to your health. Also, using Igni + Tir for Wrath regeneration is another MASSIVE win (and I managed to drop another Igni). So all these things were really adding up.

After testing the changes, I noticed just how much of a difference the build was. I immediately started a new Capstone Baal run and slaughtered the floor. The loot drop from that zone was pretty addicting so I knew my night would be long as I had been wanting to do this for sometime. Needless to say, the build would improve as I eventually got my first Mythic seal (which had the wrong sets) but that would allow me to use two sets, which was another major difference maker. So now, Baal is getting one shot and I haven’t found a boss that I couldn’t handle (outside of the Ubers and Mephisto but those are a different story)

But the real story here to me is the massive difference in just these adjustments. I don’t know why the Maxroll creator hasn’t updated his build but it’s just not good. I guess you could say it’s sufficient up until T10 but it really is missing some key things that put you over the top. The Bombardment and swap to Sigil of Chaos were pretty big for me. Also, not using a Stone of Jordan and Enigma seem questionable decisions.

As for what I intend to do from here on out, I still want to do the Uber fight to see if I can score a Torch. That seems to be the grand prize at the moment. But I was having a ton of fun with the Baal fight. I’ve collected so many ancestral Leoric’s Crowns that they’re just sitting around doing nothing (because I found a Mythic version). I think part of the enjoyment in doing those Baal runs for me at least is that they’re fast and you get great loot.

Either way, this has been a major turn around for me this season. My only real wish though is that the developers fix the lag issue. It’s really bad. I tried turning down the settings but the game crashed. Because it was late, I didn’t pursue restarting since I was expecting a delivery today. But the game is almost unplayable right now and I have no idea what to do beyond turning down my settings. I can’t even open the Blacksmith in town because the situation is really horrible. And it’s not just me.

The post Diablo 4: Season 15 Blazing Scream Warlock Adjustment for Me appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

The big thing was removing the keyboard/mouse tray from the window facing side of my desk then placing my gaming laptop under the main laptop arm while my main Macbook is setup on the laptop arm mount. Then I moved my 27″ Samsung Curved monitor back under the hutch, using the stand to get a little more room. In a way, I used this setup previously but the main difference was that both laptops would be put to sleep when the hoods were closed. Instead, I changed that and only keep my Macbook’s hood open. I wasn’t really using the gaming laptop’s screen and honestly it would cause some issues for certain games. So this really ended up becoming a better configuration and I’ve recovered a lot of table space.

One reason I prefer this setup is for my mouse and keyboard usage. Both trays were giving me problems especially the smaller one that was included with the desk. There simply wasn’t enough space to do any intense gaming. Also, my neck was sore and legs would feel stiff because I had to lower my chair. And I wasn’t really getting good usage from my 27″ Curved Samsung monitor, which became a prop for my standing desk most of the time.

The only real downside in this setup is that I have to face the wall to game again and the outlet for the cable modem is very loose. So if I accidentally hit the cable with my feet, I can knock out my internet easily and need to crotch down and toggle the end. I should really just call the housing office and them tighten up the outlet but I’m a bit lazy at the moment.

Otherwise, the idea here is that I didn’t need to spend more money on a switch for the monitors to my laptops and another expensive and questionable set of monitor arms. With the monitor tray, I ended up just putting it in my storage room for now. I might remove the smaller one on the other side of the table just so that I can slide my chair close underneath. But it’s not a huge deal at this time as I do not want to accidentally bump my cable modem wire off.

That said, I have been eyeing a smaller monitor arm for my portable screen and maybe a better footrest than the one I have. I really like the one I linked because I can attach it to my portable cart next to my couch and keep my screen there at all times. The screen that I’m using frequently slips so having a monitor arm would make it a lot more stable when I’m doing stuff on my couch and encourage me to use it more often.

For the footrest, I’ve been looking at an adjustable one like this. The one I have is okay but slides around a lot. Also, it’s not adjustable. The footrest I linked above could be multi-purposed in that I could use it for my couch too when I don’t want to put my feet on the sofa. It’s either that or an ottoman but I think the ottoman’s are a little pricier. I have to see if my gaming chair’s built-in foot rest collides with the metal bar on my desk. If it does, then I would certainly have to consider this foot rest especially now that I’ve adjusted my setup again.

Now, the argument for buying at least these two items is mostly for my health. The footrest would be good for me ergonomically and I could just move the spare footrest to where my gaming side of the desk is. The smaller monitor arm would be great for my sofa setup or even my bedroom if I ever decide to use my monitor in there. But it’s just more flexibility as well as me not having to worry about the monitor slipping and breaking on accident.

Beyond these things, the only real item remaining at this point is setting up my external drive for backup. My old Western Digital had died a while back and I ended up buying another external drive but never bothered opening up the package. It almost feels wasteful but I’ll have to consider handling that at some point.

Then there’s the standing desk. I still use it but not as much as I really would like. With my 27″ Curved Samsung back on my main desk, the standing desk might end up becoming the spot I eat upon again. I could use my persona Macbook on it along with the other portable monitor but I prefer my couch setup for dealing with that. Either way, I need to figure out what else I can use that desk for as I’ve managed to consolidate things a lot more with this latest configuration.

At any rate, I really enjoy the new setup. My only wish is that my Macbook could handle three monitors because I would prefer being able to close the hood and use my 27″ Curved Samsung with it or even my portable monitor. My iPad would’ve been an option but was a version or two behind sadly.

The post Desk 2.0 Refinement appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

Hulk Hogan Refusing to Join the NWO, Forcing Sting to be the 3rd Member

Maybe of all the scenarios in the lifespan of the NWO, Hogan refusing to turn heel would’ve had a massive effect no matter what. Even if you despise what Hogan became, you can’t deny the impact of his heel turn that finally happened here. I’ve read how McMahon would never have done the turn but I think Hogan really had no choice at this stage of his career. The fans wanted it badly and when he did turn, it felt natural especially his interview post-turn.

Conversely, having Sting in the role of Hogan, as it was rumored to have been the backup plan, honestly made no sense either. Even though by this point at the Great American Bash 1996, Hall and Nash were forced to admit that they were not still affiliated with the WWF for legal reasons. Since Sting had been exclusively an NWA/WCW talent right up until WCW’s demise, having Sting being the one to turn on the Macho Man would not have made any sense. There wasn’t a good reason for him to turn heel and quite frankly, I don’t think he could’ve pulled it off. When Sting became the Crow version, there was better reason for that change (besides the acting gig he got) because they had developed the distrust between him and Luger. But the plan would be for him to eventually face Hogan at Starrcade ’97, which was their biggest PPV.

The question then becomes if they ended up going down this path, what role would Hogan have played? Part of the reason I ask this is because between Uncensored ’96 (which was heavily criticized as one of the worst PPVs ever) until Bash at the Beach ’96, Hogan really wasn’t on the cards. There were hints of Hogan going dark with his change in attire but I know people online at that time talked about Hogan’s general failure in WCW. While I doubt Hogan would be fired, one has to wonder if this would be how Hogan would face Sting (since that would be a huge match as proven by their two major PPVs). Yet I doubt WCW fans would have wanted to boo Sting. And while the NWO probably would’ve been edgier and more “realistic” with Hall and Nash, I could see them face Hogan as well, although as we have witnessed, it was better for them to team with Hogan.

In general, the NWO without Hogan just wouldn’t have had the same impact in my view. Sting turning on WCW would’ve been a huge mistake and there honestly wasn’t another candidate strong enough from WCW who would have the same impact.

Nash and Hall/WCW Not Being Legally Reprimanded for Their Characters

It’s not surprising how fast the WWF acted when Nash and Hall (especially Hall since he was still doing his Razor Ramon accent and act) appeared and threatened legal action against WCW. But how different would the NWO storyline have been if the WWF didn’t or couldn’t pursue legal action is the real question?

The whole premise of the NWO was tricking fans into believing that the WWF would actually “invade” WCW. Effectively, people have been wanting a co-promoted event because you could create interesting dream matches in those scenarios where there’s a booking parity. Numerous Japanese promotions in the mid 90s would do something like this whether it was the UWF vs NJPW, All Japan Women’s vs the other women’s leagues or even in the 80s with Riki Choshu’s army invading All Japan. But you wouldn’t just get fresh matches; you’d get key rivalries based on figuring out who could create an interesting opponent for high profile matches.

However, the invasion angle worked mostly because of timing of two top people from the WWF and Hogan’s name and the desire of the WCW fanbase to boo Hogan. the truth is that the fans actually preferred the NWO, Hall and Nash with their antics so WCW looked like putzes because Hogan and his buds were squashing all the WCW regulars. Hogan only became cool once he fully embraced the NWO persona but it was still the aging Hogan with his long winded promos.

So the only thing that the legal action prevented was Hall and Nash using their WWF names. Because the people who were aware that neither were affiliated with the WWF were those who watched the Great American Bash ’96. You still needed other elements to make the situation believable when it came to the invasion portion. Sure, more people would shortly join like Syxx, Ted Dibiase and even Jeff Jarrett. But these weren’t as high impact names like Hall and Nash. Ted Dibiase by that point was just a glorified manager. But he couldn’t take bumps. As far as I’m concerned, changing the legal aspects would’ve done nothing in the scheme of things.

The other point I need to make is similar to the one I talked about previously regarding what an invasion really would mean. I never really cared for the idea of “we’re taking over”. It sounds cool when you hear it but when they tried to put it in practice with the Nitro takeover and the original Souled Out PPV, it really demonstrated how silly this would be. The only real “take over” was when Vince McMahon actually bought WCW for pennies, which is pretty ironic. Otherwise, what are you invading for? Why are you around? Why would any company allow for this type of situation? Remember even if kayfabe had been dying, it wasn’t completely dead, which is why fans bought into this scenario in the first place.

Jeff Jarrett as An Original NWO Member

People online knew that Jeff Jarrett was on his way out of the WWF and joining WCW. Many speculated he would be another NWO member and there were really mixed feelings on this subject from what I recall. In the end, for whatever reason, Jeff Jarrett became a Horseman. Or he spent a while trying to prove he belonged in the Horsemen. Why though? He didn’t really fit and it made for some nonsensical TV especially when Debra McMichael started speaking (which was ill advised). Instead of having the Horsemen + WCW vs the NWO, you had this alternate subplot that wasn’t interesting, lacked focus and benefited no one.

However, let’s take the other path where Jeff Jarrett actually joined the NWO. Because in the end, he did join them and it probably was better for him because that was more or less his final character (even though slapnuts still is an awful catch phrase). The thing about Jeff Jarrett joining during the early parts of the formation of the NWO would’ve made some sense to me because you’d still get that weird Horsemen subplot/rivalry but you’d have a decent enough worker where Arn, Benoit and Flair could have a solid upper midcard opponent for something like the US title. Also, Jarrett always was better as an annoying arrogant heel character and he even had a connection with Scott Hall.

I think that perhaps Bischoff simply wanted to swerve people here especially people online in trying to prevent the obvious. However, if the obvious was to get Jeff Jarrett as part of the NWO to create a kind of parity between WCW and the NWO, he should’ve stuck to his guns because this definitely was a major missed opportunity where the other direction would’ve helped everyone.

Roddy Piper Not Joining WCW

This is not a case where I’m saying Roddy Piper should’ve been part of the NWO. Instead, I’m talking about whether WCW should have joined WCW at all. As much as I love Piper, by this stage, it was clear he really didn’t belong in wrestling anymore at least in the ring. There was that infamous “age in a cage” match at one of the Halloween Havocs that Piper had with Hogan where people ridiculed them for just hanging on and doing nothing on the side of the cage while HBK and the Undertaker were doing their groundbreaking Hell in a Cell match on the other side of the pond.

However, the real issue I have is that Piper didn’t really add anything but probably took away some key spots for people still coming up the roster. Then besides the terrible matches, there were other embarrassing moments like that weird shoot-like match with the random jobbers (and John Tenta) on one Nitro where it looked like Piper was trying to give some people a chance for an upcoming PPV match against the NWO. Or there was the nonsensical moment where Piper identified Bischoff as this fake, despite how Bischoff took a powerbomb from Nash through a table. The only thing Piper did in WCW was reinforce the notion that the WWF had been doing in the mid 90s about WCW being a retirement home for all the stars it created.

Not having Piper to me would’ve allowed better focus on the key WCW people like Sting, Luger, Flair/Horsemen/DDP in setting up their feud with the NWO. Instead, Piper felt like a major distraction from the core issues whenever he showed up.

The other thing is that one of the main criticisms I’ve read/heard about Piper is his refusal to put others over. Jim Ross mentioned that and I think Nash/Hall might’ve had some issue with Piper. I think that mentality worked for Piper when he was coming through the territories because it helped him stand out. But that period was when he was younger and still growing. So he needed that attitude. By the time the NWO angle rolled around, Piper had hip replacement surgery and was limping around noticeably. His “style” was passe and he wasn’t as intense compared to his heyday. As a result, his mentality in WCW just couldn’t work anymore and it honestly was sad watching him by this stage.

Blood Runs Cold

Blood Runs Cold was meant to be this Mortal Kombat/game kind of gimmick aimed at younger kids. This was part of Eric Bischoff’s “something for everyone” thesis, which I think is flat out wrong and the execution of this disaster demonstrates why I am justified in my beliefs. But there was a small rumor (I think before people saw what this was going to be) how Blood Runs Cold would’ve been used as a potential feud for the NWO at some point. I mean, the Glacier character was given this very elaborate entrance (costing almost 500k) so it’s implied there were going to be some major plans for him and this group (especially because Bischoff has/had a hard on for martial arts).

In the end, we got more nonsensical characters like Mortis, Wrath and Ernest the Cat Miller. Oddly, Mortis was the one that most people ended up singling out in this group because he was doing more “modern” wrestling moves. But I think the reception of the NWO with its grittier presentation immediately nullified the whole Blood Runs Cold gimmick. Like I cannot see Nash taking a Cryonic Kick from this guy.

I suppose the what if for me here was not even using this guy at all and sending Wrath (who was known as Adam Bomb in the WWF) as part of the NWO while Mortis/Chris Kanyon could’ve made for a lower tier cruiserweight type of guy. Maybe this gimmick would’ve worked if he had come along during the Dungeon of Doom’s height to help/feud against Hogan but otherwise, this was just money down the drain. If they had anything to do with the NWO directly, it would’ve been a disaster and made everyone look stupid.

The Ultimate Warrior Not Showing Up (Ever Again)

By now, everyone knows that Warrior’s entire purpose in WCW was to appease Hogan’s ego for his loss at Wrestlemania VI. The problem though was that everything involving the Warrior was a disaster in WCW. When he showed up, the crowd took to him naturally because he has that energy. But the moment he got a mic, without having someone strictly producing him, the episode was embarrassing and the crowd turned against him immediately. Maybe the worst outcome in this situation was the stupid trap door in the ring that caused Davey Boy Smith an injury that eventually caused him to be terminated and further declined his health. While Warrior might not be directly to blame, the fact that he’s associated to this nonsense is what most people will remember from this run.

The NWO Initial Inflation

One of the biggest criticisms of the NWO was how a lot of people joined who probably didn’t belong. In a way, it would become a kind of revolving door that diluted the brand. But mostly I am focused on one infamous night where chaos broke out and various people suddenly showed up to join the NWO including Buff Bagwell, Mr. Wallstreet, Chono (from NJPW), Ray Traylor and Scott Norton. Some of this was strategic like getting Chono the NWO brand to spread in Japan. And Bagwell was having problems with his partner Scotty Riggs so he did a subpar rendition of the HBK turning on Marty Jannetty scenario minus the mirror. But Wallstreet, Traylor and Norton? I mean in general probably the person who benefited the most in this group was Bagwell because he got to show off his “real” personality. In the case of Traylor, he meant more as the Big Boss Man but that gimmick and memory was slowly dying. And Mike Rotunda would be meaningful only if he could team up with Ted Dibiase; but Dibiase wasn’t wrestling anymore and Rotunda was far from an outstanding worker and personality at this stage of his career. Norton was a legit arm wrestler and had more notoriety in Japan but he never got over big out here.

Later on, Nick Patrick would be associated to the NWO. While there’d been angles of dirty referees in the business, I just hated the idea of this. We would get that silly one arm match with Jericho where after Jericho would brag about being the first person to defeat someone in the NWO (an annoying trait he would repeat with the double win against Austin and the Rock). Then you had the Macho Man, who was a big name but made no sense for joining after the various beatdowns and his rivalry against Hogan. Or Muto, Tenzan and Saito for more NJPW support and eventually Konnan so they’d have a worker and luchadore.

Of course, all this would eventually lead to the disastrous inaugural Souled Out PPV in ’97, where Bischoff needed these extra hands to fill out the card to make it really seem like a WCW vs NWO scenario. The problem is that when these people were actually wrestling, it became clear that it’s still the same old people that no one cared about.

I think the what if scenario here would’ve been just stopping with Syxx and possibly Jeff Jarrett. You could even toss in Wrath/Adam Bomb just in having another former WWF big guy. But there was a period where the impact wasn’t as big because the names in the group weren’t as important. I think giving people like a Norton the NWO colors was meant to make the weekend pre-taped shows more exciting by having someone from the NWO show up as opposed to forcing Nash and Hall to work. In general, I think they needed to keep the group smaller and make it more parallel so that the people involved here could have clear rivals on the WCW side to lead to major events like War Games, WW3 and Starrcade.

Eric Bischoff Not Joining the NWO

I always thought Bischoff joining the NWO made zero sense. He was powerbombed through a table and bullied. I know later on he admitted that part of the decision was to remove himself from commentary. And while Bischoff does come across as this naturally conman type of sleazy character, I just hated how this was done.

I think part of the issue in general with the direction this situation turned out was that some of the audience responded positively to Bischoff where he might’ve increased his ego. And that was a huge problem because he seemed unwilling to listen or see problems at the time with how things were going. You’d read about him really believing he was going to put the WWF out of business. And having a goal is one thing but being convinced that it’s going to happen is straight out wrong.

But the other problem is that a lot of bad segments happened with Bischoff being involved. One was the infamous “Oh Canada” song the NWO performed just before Starrcade ’97 when Bret Hart was going to arrive. That was just awful and embarrassing. I get that the idea was to make Bret Hart the babyface in creating an obvious false red herring with this “flattery as a form of bribery” bit but the whole thing stunk badly. Then there was the stupid moment where Bischoff challenged Vince McMahon to show up in WCW in a shoot type of fight. No one ever believed McMahon would do such a thing. It just ended up being this giant waste of time and poor publicity stunt that made people hate Bischoff even more.

I had no issue with Bischoff stepping away from the broadcast booth. He wasn’t a good announcer but why go through this elaborate situation. The powerbomb off the stage was fine because it looked good and people wanted to see it. He already had the perfect out. Also, Bischoff becoming part of the NWO pretty much diminished Ted Dibiase’s role. You don’t need two managerial figures inside a group with that many egos.

Of course, Eric Bischoff getting to act as a volume pumped up version of his natural asshole self eventually would give him the practice to eventually debut in the WWF. But I think he would’ve done fine regardless.

Bret Hart Not Joining WCW

I mentioned with the Bischoff part about Bret Hart and it’s hard to ignore Bret Hart in the scheme of things. Maybe there are two scenarios that need to be discussed here. One is if he had accepted an offer earlier before rejoining the WWF and the other is if McMahon kept Bret Hart over Shawn Michaels during the height of their actual rivalry.

Bischoff has heavily criticized Bret over the years (not surprising considering Bret bashes Bischoff every chance he gets and deservedly does so). The main problems Bischoff points out is that Bret wasn’t motivated nor the same guy by the time Bischoff got him. It made me wonder then what Bischoff had seen or desired from Bret in making him that major offer in the first place.

But if we were to accept that Bischoff had wanted or needed Bret Hart, say right after his match with HBK at WM12, would things have been different? WM12 was at the end of March, which would’ve been around the same time as Uncensored ’96. Some felt that WM12 match was one of Bret’s best (I thought it was boring until the last 10 minutes) and it was clear that the main event picture for WCW needed top talent that could work. I think he did a tour until late April but that still meant he would be close to when Nash and Hall made their WCW re-debut. And now that I’m thinking about it, imagine if Bret Hart was the 3rd man rather than Hogan. At that time, Hart becoming the 3rd member of the NWO would’ve made huge news, maybe not the same level of impact as Hogan but Bret was still in his peak. His natural rival would’ve been Sting and I could see the NWO program with Bret on top leading. And unlike the Hogan match, I think Bret vs Sting at say Starracade ’96 or even ’97 would’ve been at least good.

A few other key things would’ve been that Goldberg wouldn’t have arrived for another year or two much less be anywhere near the main event. So Bret would’ve avoided the concussion. Bret would not have wrestled Dean Malenko and got that injury that made him despise Dean and I think Bret would’ve had significantly more pull since Hogan was on the downturn at this stage. Davey Boy Smith would’ve joined at some point (I already referenced DBS in the Warrior fiasco) so Bret would only be missing Owen as another key ally.

But the other major point would’ve been the lack of the Montreal Screwjob. The Mr McMahon character would never have been born so there’s a distinct possibility that the WWF could’ve been shutdown. Heck, I think Bret was hugely responsible for Austin’s growth/success and helped save the Rock’s early career since HHH and HBK didn’t seem to like him.

The only real X-factor in this is where Hogan would belong. Hogan still would’ve been the biggest power player in WCW. I can imagine a red hot Bret Hart after WM12 would not be someone Hogan would let around for long. The other problem is that I can’t see either having a match. The hard part to resolve is Bischoff in where he would stand between the two. I think if Bret Hart created a near equal ratings hype alongside Nash and Hall, then Bischoff would’ve easily sided with him and shelve Hogan for as long as he could. I don’t think Hart could’ve pulled off the same interview as Hogan did for Bash at the Beach but I think if Bret let off some steam especially about McMahon and HBK in the same vein but direct it to people in WCW and the fans, then it would’ve been decent at least.

Then there’s the other scenario which I talked about in my other What If post. But I want to address how crucial McMahon choosing HBK over Bret has been to the industry. Yes, McMahon is sitting on billions of dollars but he also has no company anymore. His legacy mostly has been wiped away and marred by that lawsuit and no one is really clamoring for his return at this point.

But I have to think about what Bret really meant to the WWF and how that contrast to the way HBK and by extension HHH have turned the WWE into what it is now. I think the whole “wrestling is anything you want it to be” mentality comes from these two. HBK was more of an entertainer/performer type rather than a wrestler. And HHH comes off as nothing more than a schmozer. These days you see this prostituted version of pro-wrestling with the ads, the nonsensical booking, the lack of realism and more performance based in ring rather than anything that makes sense for a fight. I have to credit HBK for a lot of this in recent years because he’s supposedly the one in charge of NXT where you’re seeing more of these types of performers come through who don’t really have any idea what pro-wrestling ought to be. Combining them with the Vince Russo “Attitude Era” booking ideas, pro-wrestling has become pure nonsense.

If McMahon chose Bret Hart, I think the WWF wouldn’t have grown to the same heights but that the overall industry would be healthier because of how Bret Hart thinks about the business. He’s more of a traditional pro-wrestler but one who could have a reasonably modern style without things becoming overly exaggerated. He still grounded his matches in reality and thought about how things should appear along with putting safety first. I think when you have a live performance type of traveling sport like pro-wrestling, you really need this type of mentality so that the people involved know how to take care of themselves and the business.

Even if the WWF wouldn’t become the monstrous entity, I think with Bret Hart inside the WWF wouldn’t have fallen to WCW. WCW were going to shoot themselves in the foot regardless just because of the AOL-Time Warner bureaucracy as well as Bischoff and other people on top’s mismanagement. And even without AOL-Time Warner stepping in, I think the sheer amount of egos involved with WCW, including Bischoff’s, would’ve still ended up hanging themselves just because of the sheer amount of spending. Instead, I think we could’ve seen Austin receive his title earlier maybe even in ’97. But he wouldn’t have changed and the audience would still be on his side. You just wouldn’t have seen the ridiculous Mr. McMahon character magnify Austin because of the Montreal Screwjob. Perhaps, over time Mr. McMahon could’ve become a thing but it wouldn’t have been as necessitated since Bret wouldn’t have been screwed over.

Where Doth Stephanie McMahon?

In my other What If blog, I postulated in conjunction with McMahon choosing Bret over HBK that both HBK and eventually HHH would’ve migrated to WCW to be with their friends. Having HHH in particular in WCW would’ve implied him never marrying Stephanie, which was a highly contentious thing inside and out of the industry. And without Stephanie, it’s easy to assume that HHH would never have gained his level of power.

But the follow up question is what would’ve happened to Stephanie without HHH? Part of the rise of the Mr. McMahon character was introducing the whole McMahon family. Early on, some speculated that Shane was the one who would take over the business. However, the power couple of HHH and Stephanie shifted gears and there have been rumors of Stephanie being the one who encouraged Vince to resign. But it shows just how much power Stephanie herself wields as well as the amount of trust Vince has for her if this is all true (which I think it is).

And it has been mentioned that Vince generally discouraged Stephanie from dating wrestlers (which may be influenced in part due to the rumored but scandalous Randy Savage incident). So where would she have ended up on the side of things?

This question is quite hard to peg down just because it really involves Mr. McMahon becoming a character. You needed all the right variables in place. Much of Stephanie’s own infamy came through the audience’s general dislike for her. She had that whiny voice and was bitchy and entitled on screen. Then anytime she had some onscreen time against another wrestler, she was generally disparaged (especially by the Rock and Jericho). In general, it’s tough to figure this one out because I’d assume other wrestlers like a Jericho or Rock even might’ve approached her. She is still quite beautiful and who wouldn’t want a billion dollar babe?

However, I still think her influence is partly because of HHH. I think having HHH along her side probably helped motivate her more within the business. Despite being around the business itself, Stephanie doesn’t really strike me as someone who really belongs in the business, which might be ironic. I think she has a privileged view because of her position but that view is tampered because of how she was brought up.

Now, you might ask, what does Stephanie have to do with the NWO at all? In truth, she doesn’t but assuming HHH and HBK leave the WWF to join Nash, Hall and Syxx in WCW in ’96 or whenever, then that leaves Stephanie out of the picture. It means Bret probably has more say/control which implies Stephanie wouldn’t be forced into the spotlight. But she’s such a crucial figure in pro-wrestling whether you want to admit it or not that you can’t deny how she figures into this mad scheme.

Raven’s Flock

Raven’s Flock was one of those groups that never really took off. At least to me this group never got to the levels that certain people involved probably believed they should’ve. And WCW between ’97 – ’98 started to really lean into more groups beyond the Horsemen and NWO. When WCW signed Raven (Scott Levy), some people speculated that he would go onto fight the NWO.

Around that period Raven got signed, I think Bischoff was trying to hurt ECW. He signed a bunch of their people (as did the WWF for the record except they kind of had an agreement) with varying degrees of success. The thing with ECW was that they had developed the whole hardcore part, which WCW attempted to emulate a few times here and there (like using Public Enemy vs Harlem Heat in a street fight). Then with Raven and his Flock, he would use the whole “Raven’s Rules” No DQ type of match, which was geared towards what ECW had been doing.

But there were two major problems with this group. First, the hardcore/No DQ match was frustrating to watch back then as it is now. Like the Public Enemy vs Harlem Heat match at Uncensored ended up becoming a stupid joke only because Dusty Rhodes had a rare night of hilarious commentary. Otherwise, it just looked bad and that was emphasized by Dusty laughing at the participants.

Second, Raven’s character was really a niche thing that worked for the ECW audience because those people are just flat out nuts to start with and could relate to this late grunge type of character. On a major scale, Raven just appeared as this whiny bitch that looked like shit when he “wrestled”. He had one good match that I can remember which was against Dean Malenko/Benoit where he teamed with Saturn. Otherwise, he’d give this lengthy, unmemorable promos where he’d sit in a corner and just sulk.

I mentioned that some people speculated on him fighting against the NWO. I think when people saw him associated with Stevie Richards and later Saturn, the possibility was there. However, that group also was diluted in talent when they got a bunch of jobbers that no one cared about like Van Hammer, Kidman, Horace, etc. I mean, I guess it’s fine if they’re warring against the likes of Mike Rotunda or Ray Traylor since their identities had been stripped down to the minimum. But no one in their right mind could imagine Raven taking on Hogan, Nash or even Hall at their status. But if you’re going to run a group and supposedly be a top guy, what else can you do to stand out?

Maybe if Bischoff had more guts he could’ve tried having Raven go solo or just with Richards and Saturn to take on a few of the NWO people. Maybe even Hogan. Like if the scenario was the Horsemen and these three Flock people vs a more focused NWO, then yes, that could’ve been an interesting scenario. But the problem with the NWO was that they still were in the land of giants and super stars and you had a pecking order that was reinforced by the crowd’s perception. If you think I’m being outrageous, don’t forget about the time when Kidman took on Hogan. Do you think anyone gave Kidman a chance?

The Tazer/Fingerpoke of Doom

I have to mention these two scenarios even though I had stopped following as much by this point. Probably, the fingerpoke of doom would be considered one of the major downturns in the history of WCW especially as it relates to the NWO. I recall a similar stupid incident with a tazer involving Goldberg. But obviously neither helped the company. The incident made Nash look terrible as a booker and people heavily critiqued his thinking for the business. But the main point here is how badly it hurt WCW’s reputation just like David Arquette winning the title. I never saw the point in any of this and why anyone would’ve thought it was a good idea. Even if Nash wasn’t a great worker, I think just having a normal mach that wasn’t long against Hogan would’ve been better than this crap.

Sting Coming Back as Surfer Sting vs Hogan at Starrcade ’97

There were various behind the scenes rumors about Sting with regards to Starrcade ’97. He was out of shape, unmotivated, didn’t have any energy, etc. Some of the things leading up were embarrassing like the one time Sting had a vulture up in the rafters. I recall people making Thanksgiving jokes when that happened. Despite all the long overdue collision between Hogan and Sting, people still wanted to see this match take place. The result was far from ideal with Bret Hart coming in to parody his recent screwjob and the match mostly with Sting getting beaten up by Hogan. That match was so bad from memory that I almost would’ve thought that was the imposter Sting. Heck, if they had the imposter Sting getting beaten up for 5 minutes then have the real Sting come out as the original surfer Sting with his energetic yells, his original music and his high flying and Hogan reacting with fear, it would’ve been one hell of a finale and payoff for this feud and the thing that would’ve sent the fans home happy.

Even though Sting won the belt that night with help by Bret, it was far from satisfying and there were more shenanigans with a Dusty-like situation the following Nitro that had the two have another match later at Superbrawl. Maybe that was called internally since the match stunk but it was such a bad ending to one of the best booking scenarios WCW ever produced. It would be similar to if Luke Skywalker had his arms, legs and dick cut off by Vader in a squash fight in Return of the Jedi only for an Ewok to show up to toss a rock at the Emperor’s head to kill him.

Final Thoughts

I didn’t cover other topics like the NWO Red & Black or Wolf Pack or whatever they want to call themselves. All I know is that sometime in ’98, I was winding down my obsession of American wrestling and moving more towards Japanese stuff (especially the women’s wrestling). The only things I would pay attention to were certain cruiserweight bouts or anything involving Benoit and Malenko such as them vs Raven/Saturn at Spring Stampede in ’99. I’m sure there are other matches, angles and situations too that I’m forgetting. But these are the major ones off the top of my head.

The post Re-Thinking Key Moments in the NWO appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

It’s been established how Diablo 3 was going to be this open world experience. From what I’ve read, there were floating concepts of things like towns and obscure references to “interactions” that would make these towns feel alive. When Diablo 3’s team left and we ended up getting that botched release, the result was this stripped down underdelivered mess that eventually evolved into this arcade style slot machine game. I think Diablo 4 might’ve attempted to re-use some of those concepts from Diablo 3 but with the churn-n-burn teams, things didn’t exactly pan out.

But at least when it comes to the execution aspect, the open world part never really made a lot of sense to me. I feel like with Diablo 4 and possibly even Diablo 3, there was an inkling of how this idea of a social game would be handled but not actual concrete plans for how it ought to evolve. It feels part of the ongoing development of Diablo 4 was to utilize Blizzard’s internal knowledge from World of Warcraft in trying to replicate some of that success in Diablo 4. You had things like herbs and mining nodes in the open world as examples as well as World Bosses and events that you could encounter in the open.

Despite these elements, the open world of Diablo 4 felt really static to me and purposeless. The World Bosses are prime examples of this situation where they evolved but didn’t really have an end goal beyond being a raid/group effort with some high end loot at one point that kept changing until the developers decided not to mess with them anymore. But I still don’t understand why they were a feature. Was it just to have group content early on as a proof of concept for the open world? Also, outside of getting 5 easy Whisper points, why would people do these? There’s no real lore behind any of these things. They’re there because they’re there and nothing more.

Then you had mining and herbal nodes that kept changing in purpose. At this point, most of those nodes aren’t useful at all but you can get a few crafting materials if you’re desperate. However, there are other things that have superseded those features where there’s almost no point in interacting with these things anymore. Obviously, with herbs they were meant to be used for leveling up one potions. However, that ended up being more of a chore that people ended up ignoring since they weren’t fully using their potions until recently.

Or the ideas of events. Events sounded more dynamic when they originally talked about this feature as though they’d spring up out of nowhere. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, events are pretty statically spawned and most times I end up ignoring them outside of some seasonal achievement requirement. But the way these were discussed made it seem you’d have a multitude of players showing up to these, making them must do. Instead, I think most events are ignored because they’re annoying to do except for ones that require minimal effort and focus on killing.

But I have to wonder what the actual vision for this open world was meant to be. I still think it was more of a vague idea based on the original Diablo 3 plans and implementing techniques borrowed from World of Warcraft.

However, the biggest issue to me is that there’s no real consequences for the open world. At least in my mind, an open world implies that you can see changes/evolution to the world and that the world itself has a life to itself. Maybe you need some regeneration to prevent complete resource drought (like mining nodes) but I like the idea of phasing zones where your decisions have a direct impact to the game.

Part of me thinks that they put so much emphasis on a shit story rather than letting this world tell it as you explored it. Like instead of having this long, drawn out campaign where you’re slowly discovering new zones and the map opens up through a rigid story, they should have made the world more dynamic in what you’re seeing and how you’re treated by NPCs through the consequence of your action. Some examples in other games are like Baldur’s Gate 2 where you can make Anomen insane and Chaotic Neutral if he fails to join the Radiant Heart. Or how traders may sell things for higher prices if you have a low reputation.

Another weird thing that I never understood but feel like it was a remnant/hold over from Diablo 3 and to a lesser degree World of Warcraft was the reluctance of making things tradable. Uniques and maybe even Legendaries weren’t originally allowed to be tradeable and were bind-on-account. This idea simply defied the idea of having a social game since there would almost be no reason for having a social factor beyond a few group instances like world bosses (which proved moot in some cases) or Legion events (again proving moot with the right build)

Then you have instances. I hated the arena aspect for bosses, even though for the Pit they simply made the boss integrated into the dungeon and ditched the arena (which I think has been great). But I never understood the need for instances in a game that purports to be open world. To me if you decide to have an open world, it really should be all-or-nothing at least as far as the seamless transition from one area to another is concerned.

Strongholds too made no sense since those were in the open world but would transition into an instance. But when you finished it up, it would become it’s non-instanced state. WTF? You might argue doing a Stronghold does change the state but it’s not really the same thing I had in mind because it’s almost like a mixed metaphor. I think if Strongholds had evolving states, maybe one could argue that the phasing would be worth it even a necessity. But this again was one of those features that never made a lot of sense to me in terms of what the point was at the end of the day.

Also, what were the blue flavor quests for? I know the earlier versions tied them to some bonus points for regional completion but what was the point? Blue quests weren’t the same as daily quests from World of Warcraft and the rewards never evolved. Yet there were a LOT of these things. Some were just downright broken (meaning bugged). Were they meant to evolve over time? I mean, seasons seemed like a huge deal for Diablo 4, which meant that you were supposed to do these over and over again (along with things like the Altars of Lilith). Yet the sheer amount involved would feel repetitive especially if you’re doing multiple characters per season. So I have to ask what were they thinking here outside of importing another mechanism from World of Warcraft?

I think as time passed especially once Season 2 became a success, it quickly became clear how the open world wasn’t really working out and the direction the players actually wanted to go. By Season 7, the “green Helltide” part became a meme sadly and Blizzard pivoted the way they would handle season mechanics. But they continued pushing a faster pace where the original vision for leveling (if there was one) had become outdated. I figure that the developers were betting on a longtail type of experience per season by having players go through these long repetitive grinds in re-doing all these quests, Altars of Lilith, exploration, etc. because it would allow the developers not to be forced spending excess time creating new content outside of season piece. And for the first few seasons, the open world looked like it had a bigger overall role.

Again though, I think the pacing that the players expected from this game was different than what the developers had imagined. The type of open world that was imagined certainly had a larger grind to it but the kind of grind that they envisioned wasn’t the same type that the players desired especially from an ARPG. Worse yet they probably didn’t see how certain players could break their builds to do things like one shot World Bosses, which turned those entities into proverbial loot pinatas. You certainly didn’t see any meaningful social interaction outside of the occasional, “Yes,” “Hello,” and “Thanks” style emotes before and after a World Boss fight, which seems more like a joke.

And it’s hard to ignore what I will describe as the utter failure of a PVP system. You have two effectively dead zones that people are using these days for an easy 5 whispers. But the PVP in those zones are non-existent. I never really understood the desire to put this system here. My theory was that if you wanted this type of thing, just have a simple flag. Or since you have hardcore and even solo self found modes these days, just have a dedicated instance for players that want it. Why have a dedicated zone for this kind of thing? Did they want those zones to become massive arenas for their esports initiatives?

As far as it goes, I think the open world setting was laughable at best. It seems more like a cool idea that they decided to pull off because they could and the fact that no other ARPG on the market really has that type of feature. I think there’s a good reason why ARPGs lack open worlds though because there’s simply no demand for it. The basic high paced nature of an ARPG and the fact that ARPGs really are meant to be hack-n-slash type of games with no or very limited social interaction and even story telling defy what was attempted here.

I think the underlying technical issues that arose from the open world are because of the expected concurrency and number of users on a server along with all the other checks, the transaction nature of players’ actions and differing platforms (cross network play). I think some of this is different than say World of Warcraft. Like with World of Warcraft, I think the game play isn’t as fast so the issues you’d face like some Warlock appearing on screen with all his effects blazing incoherently isn’t as offensive. Most of the time, the biggest issues I’ve seen with lag were in raids or when you had huge concentrations of players (such as the old dinosaur boss in Mist of Pandaria). With Diablo 4, everything feels like glass where things are horribly brittle and ready to fall apart at any moment. But those moments really count such as finding loot or conquering something that may require a long grind. When a failure happens in those cases, it’s very frustrating.

In thinking about how Diablo 5 will manifest, the one thing most people want is an offline mode. The open world unfortunately necessitated and forced the online mode. But if Diablo 5 is going to be more individual focused, why have an online mode at all? The only times that works is for some social aspect or when you need to connect a player to a global resource like a leaderboard. Otherwise, I hope these lessons will force Blizzard to re-think how the foundation of Diablo 5 is structured. I really hope that not only they remove the open world aspect but kill the forced online mode too and make the game more client heavy to eliminate a variety of the technical issues. Otherwise, I’m afraid that they’ll face the same problems as Diablo 4.

The post Diablo 4: Did the Open World Model Really Fail? appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

There were a few things that appealed to me here. One was certain powers for Witch Doctors, notably the one which would summon a Gargantuan and Zombie Dogs to your side. But when I originally played the season during its premier, this particular power was different in that the Gargantuan would spread Locust Swarm, which, to me at least, made this power by far the most versatile as almost every Witch Doctor build incorporates the Ring of Emptiness. So having a Gargantuan passively casting Locust Swarm would be similar to having a 4th Kanai’s Cube slot and a nice quality of life feature.

Unfortunately, I guess I missed out when they ended up modifying the power such that the Locust Swarm aspect was removed and how Sacrifice via Zombie Dogs would be the trigger to activate a damage boost. So I was a bit miffed on this as I wanted to use the original power with a few builds. Usually, to get the original effect, you would need to use the weapon slot for Kanai’s Cube to include a Wormwood, which only causes Locust Swarm to become a passive effect but not really boost any damage.

Given that, let me talk about this season. It’s been a horrific pain. I had a lot of problems transitioning in difficulty particularly between T3 and above because I could not craft anything useful nor gamble something decent for the build I was aiming for. Then I did a large number of Act I runs for the Ring of Royal Grandeur and settled on Double Bounties for my Altar just to increase my chances of the ring dropping.

As I played this class, I kept thinking how badly they fumbled with this class. It really wasn’t well designed and they had to do a ton of hacks to it and I felt it was left in a bad state by the time the game went into maintenance mode. Probably, my biggest complaint has been how Spirit Walk has a double cooldown. I’ve never liked that because it makes the class feel extraneously slow; they did something like that to Teleport for Wizards too and tried to put the counter effect into items.

Along with that, especially with my rotten luck this season, I just feel that this game has really shown its age to me. There were interesting concepts when it started and the gradual improvements made the game better compared to its initial state. But I think it gets harder to play especially when you’ve seen how the ARPG genre has evolved. For instance, habitually I kept hitting my space bar to move forward. Then there’s the clunky UI that honestly feels it was customized in house. For instance, dealing with upgrading Legendary Gems is a real patience grating experience when you apply a single level upgrade. Or the various obnoxious pop up windows. I suppose you can excuse some of this back when it was released but it’s hard to ignore at this time.

Also, there are some things I still would like to try like the Unhallowed Essence Strafe build. I never had the opportunity to use that since I ended up going with the Natalya’s Strafe/trap build during this season (which they ended up changing regardless). When I looked at the Unhallowed Essence set, I noticed the weird conditional used for handling its damage reduction part: you need distance for it to be effective.

At that moment, it occurred to me how some of this design with the conditional logic in triggering damage or defense may have started here for Diablo 4. Because you see a lot of these odd dependencies and triggers in the game, which I think was meant for designers to quickly create interesting combinations for items to work.

Similarly, as I slowly tried to assemble my set, I realized what a fuck factor the whole set armor had been since you basically were not only locked into a set to push but there really weren’t solid alternatives in most cases (Legacy of Dreams might be one but you still had to assemble a “set” of legendary gear and level up the gem to make it effective). The problem here in general is that you’re depending on a piece to drop from a randomized pool where the drop rate is catered to higher difficulty levels. So getting what you need is both RNG based on statistically based on time.

Outside of expressing my frustration here, the reason I’m bringing up these points is because of the general negative response towards Diablo 5. I think there’s a nasty pattern being established by Blizzard where they manage to find their stride in something but eventually just pulls the proverbially rug from people. With Lord of Hatred as being something highly praised, the immediate announcing of Diablo 5 at Blizzcon 2026 not only felt premature but I believe triggered a kind of PTSD from already cynical players about their treatment. Even if Diablo 5 is 3+ years away, Blizzard does not have a good history for releases nor being able to promise on what they intend to deliver. So the current state whenever a talk is given about Diablo 5 seems like lipservice especially as more people scrutinize the Xbox head’s leadership (or lack thereof).

But seeing how Diablo 3 ended up just becoming this maintenance thing that probably still had some life to it by the end probably gave people an ill foreboding about the fate of Diablo 4. Now, Diablo 4 has its issues and a lot of probably technical. But you have to think that in all likelihood outside of major technical glitches, Blizzard isn’t going to put more effort into a game that will eventually become obsolete once Diablo 5 launches. So these players who have invested time and money into the game probably won’t want to spend more money on something where their time and money aren’t being respected.

As for myself with Diablo 3, I don’t know if I’m going to play much more. I have more things to do outside of casual weekend gaming and Diablo 3 generally is best served as a quick run for a weekend while everything else is down. However, I still have a fair amount of goals in Diablo 4 with Season 15, which makes my priorities with Diablo 3 tiny. Since I don’t feel that I progressed where I should’ve this weekend, I can’t see myself investing anymore time into it.

The post Diablo 3: Returning for Season 40 and Thoughts appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

Around the early to mid 90s, I would say there were various comic book style super hero type of movies they made that had this hybrid look between the cartoon (along the lines of a Tim Burton) and the old TV super heroes shows like a Batman. For myself, I never really cared for this style as it mostly alerted you to how ridiculous the film would become because of how the director would rely more on a cartoon style lens rather than realism.

The Mask falls into this category especially as you can see how more computer graphics were integrated here such as the main character’s heart pounding like the wolf cartoon character out his chest. While it looks decent enough, this style makes me feel bored as you have to expect a matching humor that’s similar to the old Looney Toons. Also, you would think Jim Carrey is a natural fit here as he has a very animated face and exaggerated moves that paradoxically allows him to be a real life cartoon figure.

Yet none of this works for me as I found the movie very exaggerated to the point where again I just felt bored waiting for a good joke to drop. In a way, this movie was more like a refined version of Jim Carrey’s other goofy caper, Once Bitten. Fortunately, The Mask isn’t as annoying mostly because his sidekick here is minimized and used sparingly for only crucial moments. But the plot could almost match in structure Once Bitten if you remove the specific flavors where you have Jim Carrey as a real handsome but awkward guy who for whatever reason cannot find love nor happiness and simply experiences a series of bad luck and other mishaps until he encounters his schtick to overcome his confidence issues. This movie even has its own dance routine.

But the similar structure makes me think that The Mask is more of a Jim Carrey vehicle to show off his antics than bothering to be an actual decent movie. The main villain here is drab and unremarkable with barely a single note that makes us despise him. There are two females, one posing as a red herring for the main character’s love interest that at the end suddenly turns on him without warning except with the blandest, shallowest and lamest excuse of, “I needed $50k for my condo.” What? It just comes out of nowhere. Sadly, the character uttering those words is played by Amy Yasbeck, whom I have a deep affection for and was the main reason I even bothered checking this movie out (because I didn’t recall her when I first saw it).

The other female is played by Cameron Diaz and this may have been the movie where I took notice of her. I can’t recall but she does look great here. Of course, she plays this lounge type of singer who had hooked up with the main villain before meeting Stanley Ipkiss (Jim Carrey) and finding some level of fondness for him. Yeah, it’s one of those one in a million bullshit scenarios where she still likes Stanley, despite the social awkwardness. But let’s face facts here: Stanley, despite all his ineptitude, is still a moderately successful banker and handsome white dude. So of course, she might find some attraction to him, which just makes me think how bullshit of a story this is.

Now, you might note that I haven’t really talked much about the plot unlike other movie reviews. I guess the issue for me here is that I hated it. It’s just bland and something you’d see in various super hero movies back then. It wasn’t a mess and they managed to get to a conclusion but all I could think of while watching this movie was just how goofy Jim Carrey is. And I know he was able to make money from his talent but the movie just overdoes it with him. For instance, when the “Mask” gets shot by the gangsters, he does the cartoon style exaggerated cough while one of the subordinate villains cries over the bad melodramatic acting. And I get that he’s playing a cartoon version of himself here but it’s too much at times and this was around when Jim Carrey was really peaking in his career.

Quite frankly, the real star of the show was the dog Milo, a Jack Russell Terrier. Milo was the absolutely the best thing about this movie and stole every scene he was in. The best line in movie was from Lieutenant Mitch Kellaway who witnessed Milo unlocking the vehicle and letting himself out and commenting, “Smart dog.” I’ve always had a fondness for Jack Russell Terriers (not as much as a Shetland Shepdog but that’s a different story) but this is the kind of movie that makes me wish I had my own house with a nice yard so I could own one of these guys.

But going back to the plot, I really can’t say much outside of it being a generic super hero type of deal so you can watch almost any super hero movie around that period and get a good sense of what this would be. And mostly it’s allowing Jim Carrey to do his thing and I guess it just doesn’t work for me. He’s not like Robin Williams where you just sit in wonder at the celerity of things the guy tosses out at random. It just feels unnatural and forced where he’s trying far too hard to be a cartoon because he’s got that exaggerated face. And once you see Jim Carrey do his thing, you’ve pretty much seen the rest.

The other major problem I have with this movie is that no one really questions just how outrageous of a situation any of this is. Like when the Mask pulls out the giant armaments, the villains just accept it and run. Or how this guy does some Looney Toons dance out of nowhere and gets everyone to join in. If the whole thing was a dream, then you can kinda accept it. But the fact that people’s responses made it seem like any of this was normal felt insulting

Now, I mentioned that Amy Yasbeck is the one reason why I decided to check out this movie again. Unfortunately, she just has such a small role in the scheme of things that I felt bad. I know there’s a deleted scene that shows her ill fate where she’s pressed into some newspaper as an ironic death (probably by the villain who apprehends the mask) so I’m glad they cut that.

At any rate, to me at least the main reason to watch this is for Milo. The rest of the movie feels forgettable these days.

The post The Mask (1994) Review appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

So far, I managed to get most of the basics for her gear except for crafting an Enigma and an Infinity. So there’s still quite a distance I need for getting optimizing this build especially because I haven’t found any Ber runes (yes, I know where you can farm for them as well as how one can craft them). But essentially, I need three Ber runes to complete the basic build, mythics notwithstanding.

Now, I have managed to find a decent helmet that rolled as a mythic without any greater affixes. But I wasn’t going to complain given that my previous one had crappy thorns on it. Also, I upgraded my gloves to be Mythic while a crappy version had dropped from el Greg boss. Beyond that, I’m also trying to farm the currency that helps with transfiguration for amulets as I can’t hit Anger Management. Either way, there’s more I need to do along the way.

Of course, I’m still thinking of trying other characters. The only one I really want to take a stab at is a Dance of Knives rogue. Originally, I considered the so-called GoD version in D4 but it looks like they had no idea of the nuances in terms of implementing the D3 version. So I might just end up taking a normal Dance of Knives rogue, although I read that Death Trap still is the ultimate top build for Rogues.

But let me pause here and go on a rant because of how itemization still stinks. I’ve done rants before on how I think Tempering, Enchanting and Masterworking have been poorly conceived. Tempering never really made any sense to me, not the idea of having a blacksmith improving your gear, but that the result would be random. While they did improve Tempering to a degree in removing the alternate category choices, the fact that they kept the RNG part in any form just felt downright rotten. In fact, all of these systems are downright rotten still and beyond frustrating.

My main complaint is that I hate sitting around waiting for something to hit just for an affix that eventually I’m going to get. Now, if the RNG part was replaced by an estimated cost the way Torchlight Infinite does something, I probably wouldn’t mind. But it’s the experience of improving your gear with these three methods that drive me nuts.

I’ve stated that the only RNG portion should be finding the materials not the act once you get what you want. A better system is in Baldur’s Gate 2 where you’d kill key enemies or find a treasure trove and use the Dwarven Smith or the Imp to craft/upgrade your gear. The key here is that you’ve won the crucial battle or solved the quest and have the items available so you should be able to get your hard earned items.

So Diablo 4 makes you feel like an absolute idiot for wasting your time because the affixes are so badly randomized that most items are worthless. Then when you finally get a reasonable item, you still have to go through this ridiculous process rather than receiving a satisfying outcome that make you believe you not only earned something but you’re progressing your character.

But what triggered this sudden rant? I saw the other day on reddit someone complaining of spending several billion gold trying to get a +2 skill on their amulet using enchanting. Recently, I started to focus on ensuring that I could get higher end affixes as opposed to using the first one I hit because I had 6 billion in gold. Even when dealing with small pools of ranges, you still won’t get what you’re looking for. Worse yet because you’re mindlessly rerolling as quickly as possible, there’s a small chance you’ll accidentally skip over the thing you need. Then you spend another couple billion trying to get the same affix. This is an utter waste of time.

I had stated in the past that the real fix to Tempering, Enchanting and even Masterworking was getting currency to progressively upgrade your items. Instead of having these awful ranges with RNG on top of RNG, just make the currency be RNG based and if you want, throw in a quality portion so that higher ranges need better currency. If you want a little more RNG, instead of having broad Tempering recipe manuals, just make each upgrade type an individual thing you find just like Aspects. I really don’t understand why there’s this level of RNG in the game. I want to be excited about finding a treasure, not relieved when I finally hit a craft by chance.

Since I’m on this podium, I just want to say that if/when Diablo 5 ever arrives, I truly hope that they look at this garbage system of itemization and just toss it. There’s some interesting concepts like Aspects but I think the whole system got out of control at some point. Then Uniques became the actual build enabler and conflicted with Aspects where Aspects felt useless. I mean most of the builds this season almost use all Uniques with only one or two Aspects included. I don’t get it.

Next, there’s all the stupid damage types like Vulnerability, Critical Damage vs Critical Damage Multiplier, etc. Why? I’ve been reading on reddit how you have these Apocalypse Warlocks hitting 100T worth of damage. That’s sheer nonsense. At some point, this just becomes an exercise in futility that got out of control. None of this is good game design at all.

And I’ve been reading about how the secret Uber fight for this season is impossible to solo unless you play Blazing Scream Warlock because of how it’s a broken build. I can’t express just how frustrating that sounds because of how damaged the core system must be. At this stage, I almost wish the Diablo 4 developers just stop making any attempts to balance the game and just put all their energy in fixing bugs.

Speaking of bugs, the game has just been horrible in terms of performance lately. I read that some people put the blame on Whirlwind Barbarians. While I am playing that build, it shouldn’t be this wretched. Nothing can be more frustrating than a game that has this level of instability.

Lastly, I’ve been reading a few threads on reddit where people believe that this is going to be the last season where we see something significant for the game. One person pointed out that the upcoming Amazon class will be a boost, there’s nothing guaranteed. Some people believe that the team got moved off to Diablo 5 and that a small contingent are keeping this game on life support. It sucks because the game seemed to finally have found its mark but mostly had been marred by lingering performance issues and a need to fix up old content. Given Blizzard’s history and the incompetence demonstrated by the current XBox head, it’s not surprising most people lack any confidence. As for me, I’ll continue playing out this season but I don’t have a lot of hope for what remains with this game. At least with Diablo 3, it went out okay by the end. I don’t know if Diablo 4 will be able to make three more years at this rate.

The post Diablo 4: Another Whirlwind Barbarian for Season 15 appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

Because this was recently released on YouTube with subtitles and the fact that I like the three previously mentioned people gathered in a single contemporary film, I thought I would check this piece out. So at least from my perspective, despite this film being partly labeled as a comedy, I honestly did not find it all that humorous. The director, Lee Pooi-Kuen, isn’t someone I recognize and from the looks of it, this might’ve been his final movie credit as a director. But perhaps that’s because this movie isn’t very good and without the subtitles it would’ve been impossible to follow based on how it was shot.

But the main premise is a corrupt, shady landlord and his equally despicable/dastardly wife/girlfriend manage a rundown complex with numerous tenants that were friends with the previous owner. Unfortunately, that person had passed away but due to their relationship allowed the tenants to stay despite the barely livable conditions. The place itself has numerous issues such as water problems, cheap tiling, small rooms, a single restroom, etc. that all these people must share apparently.

Yet you do get the feeling that despite all the hardships of the building, there is a relatively close community with the residents. However, they aren’t favorable to the manager of the place and have squabbles with him. Within the residents themselves, each person has a distinct personality or job such as one being an electronics sales person, another working as a cab driver, another being a doctor. So in a way, they balance each other out.

However, the surrounding area is owned by a powerful man/corporation who wants to monopolize the region and increase the value by removing that last bastion. In turn, the owner easily bribes the manager, although he does realize that the tenants are difficult and had that relationship with the previous owner. Nonetheless, the big boss basically leaves the details up to the scheming manager.

The manager himself isn’t incredibly bright but he does various things to make life difficult for the tenants such as going to Lo Mang’s store and breaking a TV which causes his boss to fire him, tossing black ink all over Gordon Liu’s taxi or bribing a crooked cop to harass Gordon Liu. Between all this not everything is down for the tenants and the manager’s own incompetence gets him into trouble.

Regardless, at one point, we find out that Lo Mang’s wife in the movie (whom some may recognize as one of the fruit peddlers from Invincible Dragon) has a child. Since she is from mainland child and lacks the proper paperwork, she is used by the manager as a way to force Lo Mang into agreeing to move out (otherwise the manager would call the authorities on her and the child would not receive a proper birth certificate). This is when the residents start rallying up with each other as they find the manager to be heartless. In the end, the wife turns herself over to the police so Lo Mang’s efforts were for naught as the manager gains all the signatures to be able to evict the tenants.

Figuring that they need to fight back, they decide to plot to regain the paperwork from the main boss by setting him up with one of the more attractive tenants as the boss has a weakness for women. She seduces the boss which allows some of the tenants to stage a break in to find the safe with their paperwork. At the same time, some weird gangster ends up spying on the decoy woman because he’s suspicious that his wife is cheating on him. In turn, he sends his men to castrate the tenants which results in more chaos while the decoy girl is forced to have sex with the boss.

Despite their efforts, they learn that the document is a copy. The decoy girl is distraught and Gordon Liu tries to comfort her which creates jealousy with Kara Hui who he actually is his love interest. Somehow they make amends and Kara Hui decides that she’ll lure the boss out the next time. A ball is setup where people are dressed up in costumes. Somehow the tenants manage to get in and they bump the boss into the pool. Embarrassed, the boss goes to shower and rinse himself off then hands Kara Hui his special shirt which contains the main document.

In turn, the tenants celebrate by burning/tearing up the document and here’s where things make no sense to me because the movie shifts into a bizarre horror drama. But ghosts start appearing and people get possessed or freaked out while one of the tenants splatters after trying to appease Buddha. None of this made any sense to me because it just came out of nowhere abruptly without any necessity.

After that segment, things get even weirder because the boss decides to continue with his ruthless plans by drilling into the foundation of the zone to make the area unsafe legally. In turn, the police/riot squad show up to try and force an eviction. However, the tenants make a last stand as a huge chaotic fight breaks out between both sides. Eventually, the police use tear gas to smoke the tenants out, which implies that the big boss has won.

As some workers begin work on demolishing the building, they uncover an artifact shaped like a curved tea pot except it’s supposed to be an ancient artifact signifying the importance of the site as a historical monument. As a result, the area is declared critical and that it should be preserved. The tenants are moved to a different complex where they hear the news. A brief shot shows that Kara Hui and Gordon Liu got married (in the movie) while the old manager remains insane.

This movie was just all over the place for me and very hard to follow. I think part of it was that it seemed to be moving in the direction other TV shows of that nature were going. There were just too many characters to get to know while the humor itself was more dumb slapstick. The tenant’s manager was flat out annoying and I’m guessing made to look like a stooge while the big boss guy appeared as this modern corporate power player. I suppose if you’re more in tune with this type of culture and humor, it might appeal to you. But I just couldn’t get into this.

The only reason for me to watch this movie is Kara Hui. As always, she’s a doll. Although I will say the glasses and hair style they gave her at one point. Oh jeeze. Please, no.

The post Shaw Brothers: The 82 Tenants (1982) Review appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

The big pieces to me in the change to Firewall are the Vision of the Firestorm helmet, Drognan’s Anguish and the Phoenix Runeword item (Focus) along with the Lo Runeword (which I do use). Because of the Tal Rasha charm set’s activation of various skills, it changes Firewall into a more passively cast spell (because it is on a cooldown) but all your Mastery skills get cast which seems pretty cool. Also, what’s nice is that for once you don’t have to run an Ultimae skill so that makes this build very different than other ones I’ve played in the past.

However, I still need a few additional pieces and am currently running T4. I’ve completed the Pit for T5 but quit last before swapping. In the meantime, I’m going to talk about the current build I’ve been playing which is Blizzard. Actually, it’s very similar to the Season 13 Static Field Blizzard build except probably not as powerful compared to when this build first launched. But for leveling it’s quite powerful. Besides the Stealth Runeword piece, I also craft Insight since you get a ton of mana regeneration, which makes spamming Blizzard trivial. And since you get a few of your runes back from the Blacksmith, you can just periodically craft these once your damage seems too low. Eventually, higher difficulties become trivial during the pre-70 leveling process.

At the moment, I’ve got my 5 set Tal Rasha working, along with an Orsivane, Galvanic Azurite and Raiment of the Sea pieces. I found the Tal Rasha unique ring too but it’s not Ancestral in quality so I can’t convert it just yet into a charm. Also, I lack numerous aspects but my damage is quite good because of the other things I’m running. The only thing I won’t run at the moment is the Splinter of Pain because my boots are really out of date and things slow down to molasses without the proper Greater Affixes. The guide I’m using suggests having +3 to Maximum Evade charges so that you can use your Teleport as a fire based invocation skill for Tal Rasha’s but the movement itself is just horrifically painful. I honestly prefer just putting movement elsewhere or tapping a Greater Affix on the movement if I’m going to counteract the Splinter of Pain. Either that or I have to continue to ditch it because it’s just too slow early on.

Right now at least, these build is nice because it’s great for farming. I don’t know how it’ll do against bosses but not dealing with Critical Strike Chance is a great boon. Also, I don’t have to worry about an Enigma and can actually use the Lo rune on either build. For the most part, it still plays similarly to the S13 build, which is mostly smooth. The seasonal powers along with the the Runeword items would play a part but I still think I want to try the Firewall build once I get the basic Blizzard build operational. I want to see if I can farm the Capstone dungeons as many people are claiming being able to find sparks (which I did). If not, I might try a different build like a Rogue or even another Whirlwind Barbarian.

What is good that I’m noticing is that there’s enough difference in builds with the Runewords and seasonal content that it is worth trying a few new things out. Again, I cannot emphasize enough that this should signal to Blizzard that they need to emphasize seasons like this especially when the player base is clamoring to keep the critical parts of the content because of how it increases the variety. Like when you have a lean season such as 12, then older content helps supplement the amount of activities. For instance, while Sanctification did end up finding its way into the game through Transfiguration, S12 simply did not have enough on its own to keep people interested. Imagine if both Chaos Armor and Sanctification had been kept for Season 12. Then I think more people would’ve stayed around until Lord of Hatred launched. Similarly, when Season 3’s midgame patch hit, if Vampire Powers and those zones had returned, I think players would not have felt as disappointed in the direction of the game as people would believe that Blizzard is willing to continue tacking on more content with more ways to build and grow their characters.

One thing I saw the other day was that Diablo 5’s philosophy for feeling powerful will be different than Diablo 4’s method and it made me wonder if the team realized that the combination of the open world’s various problems with level scaling (which I think was a terrible idea adopted from WoW) just added to much difficulty in trying to balance everything. Because the current Diablo 4 team’s philosophy seems to be conflicted in giving the players too much power, which makes no sense to me. I realize there are leaderboards and that bugs exist that cause stupid issues like infinite damage, but those situations are one offs to me.

However, the real problem I’ve seen that I think real RPG fans know is that Diablo 4 most of the time does not let you overpower your foes. That seems to be the crux of the complaints in the current direction of the game. You have silly one shots, phased mechanics with immunity phases and ridiculous health pools for no good reason outside of this bizarre war between players who think they want a challenge and players who just find the challenge to be farming content to get items for their build. I think that type of conflict in game philosophy can’t coexist just by its very paradoxic nature. As a result, Blizzard has not been able to easily bring in older content especially with the powers because each time, those situations require a balance pass. It’s the same reason I think the original Unique’s set affix design ended up getting scrapped with Lord of Hatred.

But what this does is reveal to me that there’s a lot of mixed and competing design decisions which are inhibiting the game and probably why they needed to rebuild the game from the ground up along with having someone else in charge. Honestly, at this stage, Diablo 4 seems more like a beta test for what ought to be Diablo 5, which means that the Diablo 4 engine got pretty messed up along the way.

The post Diablo 4: Rolling A Blizzard Sorcerer appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.