Monthly Archives: February 2012

Episode 10 – Seriously Sarcastic

26 Sunday Feb 2012

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The Shattered Soulstone podcast has now reached ten episodes! This is something of a milestone in podcasting. There are plenty of well-intentioned podcasts that fade away before they reach episode number ten. In gaming terms, we have just earned our first major “achievement”.

Nevik, Breja, and Jen would like to thank all of our listeners for giving Shattered Soulstone a try, for continuing to listen, and for giving us plenty of feedback. We couldn’t do the show without you!

Sponsor: Check out Audible for your FREE, no obligation 14 day trial including a free 1 credit book. audibletrial.com/diablo

Episode Topics

* We read, and responded to, an email from Kurly. Send us an email with your thoughts, comments, and questions, and we will read it in a future episode of Shattered Soulstone.

* We decided to extend the deadline for our Valentines For Diablo contest. Have you entered it yet? Give it a try! You could win some very cool irl loot.

* We discuss Jen’s blog “What is Mr. February?”. This is the second part of the series that describes the significance of the artwork that is in the 2012 Diablo 3 wall calendar. Stay tuned for next month’s blog!

* We highly recommend that you check out The Diablo Podcast episode 59, for a great debate about the changes that came from Beta Patch 13.

* We discuss the new Skill Calculator. You can play along at home!

* We share news from Jay Wilson regarding the changes to skill runes, and more.

* Here are the Beta Patch 13 Patch Notes.

* Changes have been made to the Beta Auction House.

* What happens when a writer rolls a zero on the detect sarcasm skill…twice!

* 40 minutes of content + played it for seven hours = Success!

* Another awesome Diabolesques comic from Calavera666

* Go here to get the D3 wallpaper that we were talking about. It is called “Bloody Battle”, and it is beautiful!

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What is “Mr. February”?

20 Monday Feb 2012

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The Diablo III 2012 wall calendar is full of absolutely amazing artwork. The artists didn’t hold back on making the characters look heroic, making the demons look horrific, or making the creatures look monstrous. The truth of this is obvious when you take a look at the artwork that has been selected for the month of February. It is a rather lifelike depiction of a monster that made me wonder “Dear God, what is that thing?”

It appears to be humanoid, which is somehow more disturbing than if it were some less recognizable shape. This creature has a male looking torso, and two human-like, muscular, arms. The arms are deathly pale, which contrasts sharply with the … tattoos, for lack of a better term … that cover the creatures lower arms, wrists, and hands. It almost looks like it is wearing turquoise colored fingerless gloves. The hands end in fingers that resemble talons. Each has a long, sharp, nail on the end. Well, except for the finger that has a portion of it missing.

It isn’t easy to tell if the head of this creature is encased in some sort of thick, metal, plate-like armor, or if that is really what its head looks like. If it has any eyes, those are covered by the “helmet”. Rows of razor sharp teeth are exposed in the creature’s open mouth. It makes me think of “Chatterer” from the Hellraiser movies. One can almost hear it shrieking.

“Mr. February” might be wearing some sort of pants, that appear to be held on to his body by a series of claw shaped staples. Or, maybe that is just how his hideous body is shaped? Also, I’m not sure if a creature that lacks legs, and whose body ends in what looks like a lizard’s tail, can actually wear pants anyway. This creature is carrying at least five human skulls along with him. Each skull is tied at his waist by a thick, red, rope. If you had any doubt that our “Mr. February” was not your friend, those grizzly trophies should quickly clarify things.

What in hell is this nightmarish creature? I decided to try and find out. The first thing I learned is that this particular piece of artwork came from the mind of an artist named Brom. If you are unfamiliar with Brom, take a moment to go check out some of the artwork on his website. He has a style all his own.

According to the Diablo III Wiki, this particular painting is called “Tomb Viper”, and it is hanging in the Blizzard Campus Gallery. I also learned that Blizzard released screenshots of this painting as a reward for bringing the Diablo III Facebook page to 700,000 “likes”. This happened on March 23, 2011.

At the 2009 Blizzcon, there was a demo released of the Monk. At that time, the Monk was the much anticipated, newly revealed, character class for Diablo III. Somewhere in the gameplay portion of the video, (at around 3:40) you can see the Monk destroy several Tomb Vipers. Clearly, the very creepy looking “Mr. February” is a monster called a Tomb Viper.

Personally, I love that Blizzard selected this particular piece of artwork for the month of February. Valentine’s Day is in February, and I am not a fan of that holiday. It would be really difficult to find artwork that is less “Valentine-y” than Brom’s Tomb Viper!

Episode 9 – At Least Two Titles

17 Friday Feb 2012

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Nevik, Breja, and Jen recorded this episode rather late on Saturday evening. We were all kind of tired, but somehow managed to put together a fun episode of Shattered Soulstone, anyway. As always, we had a lot of Diablo related stuff to discuss.

Sponsor: Check out Audible for your FREE, no obligation 14 day trial including a free 1 credit book. audibletrial.com/diablo

Episode Topics

* We read, and responded to, email sent to us from our wonderful listeners! This time, we got email from Rahtahr, Ametous, and Smokimus. Send us you Diablo related thoughts, questions, or observations, and we will happily read it on a future episode of Shattered Soulstone.

* We talk about our second Diablo II gaming night. Did you miss it? You can listen to the highlights of it, skillfully edited together by Nevik. Check out the awesome poem he reads at the end! :)

* We briefly discussed a very well written forum post called From A Diablo Veteran (Rant It Up). It was written by Tavus, 85 Undead Rogue, from the Blood Bath and Beyond guild.

* Jen did a review of the last book in The Sin War trilogy, The Veiled Prophet. It was written by Richard Knaak. Don’t worry, we didn’t put any “spoilers” about the book into the episode!

* We go over news about some Blue Posts regarding the Annual Pass, and the frustration many players are feeling about the delay of the release of Diablo III.

* Bashiok answers questions. We comment about some of what was said.

* Calavera666 created “And the Heavens … Shall Be Delayed” Go take a look!

Obscure References
* E.P.E.E.N.
* Arthas
* Snu Snu

Email your questions to us at show@shatteredsoulstone.com

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Diablo II Gaming Night #2 Recording

08 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Gaming Night, Podcast

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Missed our second gaming night? Do not fret! As with our very first gaming night Nevik decided to record the second gaming night for prosperity. Once again it seemed that technology fail popped its ugly head out but in the end a fun time persevered.

A big thanks goes out to Chaos (@Chaos5061), Rilandune (@Rilandune), and once again Lanntonio (@Lanntonio) for joining us on second Diablo II gaming night. Unfortunately Breja was unable to join us to represent for the poor barbarians but fortunately Nevik decided to create an aspiring singing barb (many thanks to Lanntonio for the donation of two Wizardspikes!).

Our next gaming night will be coming up soon’sh so keep an eye out to our twitter feed (@ShatteredStone) for details on when we’ll be doing it again. Remember that you don’t necessarily need to have Diablo II or the expansion to join in on the fun as you can drop in to Mumble and chat it up with us!

Let us know what you think of these recordings. Should they be shorter? Longer? Funnier? Do you like hearing about all of the non-game technical difficulties? Would you prefer it to remain strictly to game-related conversation?

Leave a comment on this thread to let us know what you think.

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Book Review: “The Sin War: Book Three: The Veiled Prophet”

06 Monday Feb 2012

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The Sin War is a trilogy of books that takes place within the “universe” of the Diablo games. All three were written by Richard Knaak, an author whose writing I always enjoy. According to the Diablo Wiki, everything that happens in The Sin War Trilogy takes place around 3000 years before the darkening of Tristram. Or, if you like, it takes place before the Tristram that you knew when you were playing the original Diablo game.

The Sin War: The Veiled Prophet is the final book in the trilogy, and it was published in 2007. You might remember that 2007 was also the year that the second book in the trilogy, The Sin War: Scales of the Serpent, was published. After waiting for a year in between when the first book, The Sin War: Birthright, was released, and when the second book in the trilogy was out, it was refreshing to not have to wait quite so long this time in order to see how the story ended.

I would highly recommend that you read this trilogy in order. There are some series where each book can truly stand on its own. This is not the case with The Sin War. This trilogy feels like one, long, story, that was split into three parts. You really do need to know what happened in the first two books in order to fully comprehend the significance of what happens in the third.

The beginning of The Sin War: The Veiled Prophet takes place not long after the events that occurred at the end of The Sin War: The Scaled Serpent. It might be impossible to review this book without accidentally giving away the smallest of “spoilers”, but I will try and minimize it as best I can. I want you to enjoy the book as much as I did, and be just as surprised by the events that unfold.

At the start of the book, we have Uldyssian, the main character of the series. The people who have joined him have become very much like an army. Each one has become more powerful. This is leading many, including Uldyssian himself, to become a bit careless, and somewhat overconfident, in their abilities. Only his brother, Mendeln, seems to be aware of the dangers inherent under those circumstances.

Uldyssian’s army is about to attack the last remaining structure of the force that they had been fighting in the first two books. By now, I think that most people who are interested in the lore of the Diablo games is aware that Sanctuary, the world that these stories take place in, is desired by both the angels of the High Heavens and the demons of the Burning Hells.

By book three, it appears that one of those two sides has been vanquished. One would assume that the rest of the book would involve a battle between the remaining force, and Uldyssian’s army. What actually happens is more complex then that. This is where the mage clans step into the story. Previous to Uldyssian, it was the mage clans that held a great deal of power, (both magical and political). Needless to say, they are not thrilled by what has been happening.

I won’t say how the book ends, other than to note that the ending wasn’t what I expected to read. This is fitting, though, in a trilogy that is filled with unexpected twists and turns, and characters who are not what, or who, they appear to be. The Diablo “universe” includes both angels and demons. They don’t equate to “good” and “evil”, but rather as “order” and “chaos”. Neither side can be entirely trusted.

One more thing.. after you get to the end of The Veiled Prophet, go back, and re-read the prologue. You will find that it holds more meaning than it did before you started reading this book.

Valentines for Diablo Contest

04 Saturday Feb 2012

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Remember when we alluded to the fact that we had some more prizes to give out? Well it’s time to announce our second contest for the month of February, the month of loooooove. (Imagine Barry White just said that)

The Shattered Soulstone is excited to announce our Valentines for Diablo contest. This contest will be held entirely on Twitter and will be a judged contest (no random.org this time). All you need to do is to tweet a valentine message appropriate for the Diablo universe or the Lord of Terror himself and include the hash-tag #vd4diablo somewhere in the tweet.

It’s that simple! No need to include our show twitter since we’ll be keeping track of the entries through the #vd4diablo tag. Valentines for Diablo will run the length of February (every day is loooooove day) but the dead-line will be February 29th (leap year!) at 11:22 (33 secs) pm PST.

So what are the prizes? That’s the most important part right? Well just like our last contest we will be giving away three prizes for our Valentines for Diablo contest.

  • 15th Anniversary Music Collection CD
  • Diablo-head Night Light
  • Diablo III 2012 Calendar

Winners of the contest will be contacted via DM and instructed to prioritize the loot they’d love to see and we’ll work out who gets what that way. Unfortunately this time we’re going to have to limit the contest to North American listeners for the physical loot but fret not if you’re one of those awesome European folk. We’ll come up with something if we receive a winning entry from Europe.

So what are you waiting for? Get to tweeting! Creativity and wit are your friends! (Sorry Barbarians ^^);

 

Episode 8 – Wait! What???

02 Thursday Feb 2012

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Wow, did we have a lot of stuff to talk about in this episode! Nevik, Breja, and Jen discuss the controversial changes to Diablo 3 that were announced by Jay Wilson. We also read, and respond to, listener email about this topic. If you didn’t have an opinion about this whole brouhaha before listening to this episode, you probably have formed one by the time the show ended!

Sponsor: Check out Audible for your FREE, no obligation 14 day trial including a free 1 credit book. audibletrial.com/diablo

The sample you hear in this episode is from the book The Gunslinger: The Dark Tower I by Stephen King. It is narrated by George Guidall.

Episode Topics

* We read email set to us by our awesome listeners! This week, we got email from Rahtahr, Lanntonio, Ametous, Gabriel, and Medros. Send us your thoughts, and your email could be in the very next episode of Shattered Soulstone!

* We go over what Jay Wilson said in his post called “System Changes”.

* We talk a little bit about how the very first Shattered Soulstone Gaming Night went.

* Medros sent us a helpful link about installing Diablo 2 on an Intel Mac.

* Markco got banned from the Diablo 3 beta. Here is more about that.

* Jen wrote “Who is Mr. January?”, the first of a series of explanations about the artwork in the Diablo 2012 wall calendar.

Email your questions to us at show@shatteredsoulstone.com

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