Easier Reading

• I'm changing the format of these posts to something like this, rather than making them bullet point lists and readers not really knowing what each minor post entails. For example, you might want to know more about Titan but you don't care that I had a random thought about why video game companies no longer say "Proudly Presents" in any of their intro cinematics (the last game I can remember ever doing that was Westwood's Red Alert.)


• And, if you want to make things easier for me, please create yourself an alias name when post comments. That way, I'm not always responding to "Anonymous". It's just one extra step (under "Name/URL" instead of "Anonymous") and you don't even have to put anything into the URL section. It's still anonymous, but now I can have a specific name to respond to. :)

What's Really Holding Diablo 3 Back?

(This one ending up becoming quite big, so I cut it out and put it into it's own post. I will post shortly.)

January 17th Release Date

On a related note, the January 17th release date is still predicted by some.

VoidTester alerted me to a post about one person's reasoning for the January release date.

The link I originally read (on the Battle.net Forums) wasn't too well organized, but there's a much better thought out and articulated post here (possibly by the same person, Druwin):

- Diablo 3 will be released on January 17th, 2012. Why? Because the free 30 days trial period of SWTOR expires exactly mid January.

- Diablo 3's release date will be announced in 2 weeks on Dec 10, 2011 during the Spike Video Game Awards. Why? Because a.) SWTOR launches 5 days later, b.) competitor BioWare also reveals their new strategy game during the show, and c.) Blizzard did the same with the announcement of WoW “The Burning Crusade” which, by the way, has once been pushed back from a late 2006 release to mid January 2007 as well – same situation as with Diablo 3.

- Amazon knows NOTHING. It’s all just placeholders.

- Selling of Diablo 3 merchandise has begun: Tyrael hoodie, SteelSeries mouse, pad, headset etc. The “Book of Cain” will be released on Dec 13, 2011 – 3 days after the release date has been announced during the VGA.

- I expect a big, final Diablo 3 stress test with a lot of additional beta invites starting mid December, when SWTOR launches.

(TBC wasn't announced at the VGA, though, they just released the intro TBC cinematic.)

* UPDATE (11/30/11): Confirmed. They're just going to be showing the full Diablo 3 opening cinematic at Spike VGA. Same as last time.

Still, they listed some pretty good reasons. And there are other favorable marketing cases for a mid-Jan release date (plus, it's in the beginning of the quarter), but this would be assuming that the game is fully completed with a working RMAH.

I believe that the RMAH is the one piece holding everything back though, and we'll know more within the next few weeks. If an announcement is made at VGA, it would be more likely for a Feb release date. That leaves a Jan announcement for early March, but there won't be any releases in mid to late March, since it's too close to the new quarter.. they would rather push it into the first couple weeks of the next quarter instead (early-to-mid April.) I think everything is going to depend on the RMAH testing schedule and government approvals (especially in SK.)

At this point, I'm going to say that January 17th isn't a likely release date and there won't be an announcement at VGA.

TitanGuru.Com Account Suspended

The TG site went down over the weekend, again.

This Account Has Been Suspended

Although I'm not advocating use of the website, you can still get their latest updates here on their Twitter page.

I don't recommend them because TitanGuru ripped off a large amount of new Titan details from this blog where it was discovered first. The site owner refused to acknowledge the real source and will not provide citations to his readers.. but they rather claim that "they came across it". Since then, they've been very careful not to mention this site or link back to it in any way (and deleting posts about it if ever mentioned). They still frequently visit this site for new Titan information, however, so that they can continue to claim it for their own. :)

If you're looking for Titan information, I would recommend this site (of course) or TitanFocus.info as better alternatives. As an added bonus, those alternative sites don't need to buy visitors or use paid botting services for FB Likes. So you know that the traffic is "honest" and visitors are only there for Next Gen MMO information and not gimmicky tricks.

Since TitanGuru still hasn't posted any updates on their Twitter or Facebook page today, you can probably assume that he just hasn't logged into the site since the Thanksgiving Day long weekend to correct the problem. It will be back up sometime later and it probably just went down due to quota violations (more than 100 visitors in a single day on that site is serious business.)

You're not missing anything right now. They haven't had any decent posts in a while, and even then, it was the stuff they got from here. They're not down due to releasing "HUGE NEWS!!", as some might suspect. It's down just for silly reasons, and they're not a site to ever find or have inside leaks.

Matais has given us his Friend Beta-Key for another giveaway here.

My day is going to be a bit hectic today, so I don't know what exact time to post it. (But, I want to give you all a chance to be on the blog when it's time so I won't just post it right now without warning.)

I'll post an update in a few hours, but I'll probably give it away within 6-7 hours from now. It's about 6:30 AM PST right now by the way.

* UPDATE

It's 9:20AM PST now, I'll be giving away the beta key in just less than 4 hours (1:00PM PST).

* UPDATE

Here it is: FRKDC-GVPGR-2RE9U-F27TX

If you win, please leave a comment. :)

(Next one will be a little more difficult, I'll make it jumbled up words by the way.)

I also have that Account Giveaway too (it's not a beta key, but a fully registered account already.. I would just need to transfer ownership to the winner.) That contest hasn't been announced yet though.

It's something I noticed in the post-production work of NBC's Grimm pilot episode. A lot of the music and sound effects didn't add up, and it was almost as if it was clumsily put together. They had also inserted a lot of "scary" or sudden music at very inappropriate times. It didn't really make a lot of sense, and I thought that they just had bad sound guys.

However, it's starting to make a lot more sense now.. especially because of the latest episode (#4). It appears that they're using scary mood music and environmental sounds on a show that was probably more of a light-hearted scifi drama initially (more similar to Supernatural). They've gone back and edited the show to try and change it into something more dark, sinister, serious, and more horror oriented.

I think they ripped apart Episode #4, re-shot some new scenes, and put it back together again to tell a different story. It explains why the episode makes no sense at all. (Either that, or they just have really bad writers.)

Here's why:

The episode introduces the Ziegevolk (goat people aka Bluebeards). The Ziegevolk give off pheromones that affect women within close proximity and hypnotize them.

Ziegevolk love being the center of attention, having women around them, they're very social, they never kill ("they're lovers not fighters"), and they're basically players and "Hollywood types" whose natural impulse is to reproduce with select women. That's their purpose.

Remember, they can only seduce and hypnotize women and they have a strong desire to procreate.

Then we're introduced to Billy Capra ("Capra" meaning Goat.. "Billy Goat", get it?)

He's the caretaker of the Bramble House Bed & Breakfast and he's nothing like other Ziegevolk.

He's sensitive, it looks like his Mom dresses him, he has bunny rabbits in his backyard, he's a gardener, he sews and knits, he makes hand made dolls, he bakes biscuits, his house is very neat and tidy, there's glitter, he's into crafts and paper doilies, he's very polite.. did I mention he dresses "really nice" and he's very sensitive? I think you know where I'm going with this, you silly goose.

This is all confirmed right before Billy, the Grimm Detective, and his partner Hank head out into the garden. Billy rubs up against Hank and then you're shown that the pheromones are affecting him. The Grimm detective even has to ask him if he's okay because he suddenly starts acting out of character.

Before Hank was focused, but now suddenly he's hypnotized, walking in a stupor, and in an obvious trance-like state staring at Billy (having strange tingly feelings below his belt) the entire time. You can see that it's the reason why he accidentally stepped on the frog.. it's because he was hypnotized and secretly lusting after Billy the whole time.

Moments earlier though, the "newly wed girl" hugs and kisses Billy on the neck, and it had no effect on her. Billy made sure not to touch the "newly wed male", though.

Because he could seduce any woman he wanted, there was absolutely no reason why he had to kidnap them and rape them to reproduce.

They made it plainly obvious that Billy could only seduce men and that Hank was under his influence. Going by this conclusion, the episode starts to make a lot more sense now. :)

Here's what the episode was supposed to be about before they re-shot everything:

Billy is the exact opposite of his heterosexual brethren. He can only attract men, which he likes, but his species also has a strong natural drive to reproduce. Billy cannot seduce women or hypnotize them, so he's forced to kidnap women, gas them to hypnotize them artificially, and keep them sedated so that he could rape them and procreate. He tries to hold out for as long as possible, but eventually natural instinct kicks in, so he does it in large spurts before moving onto another community.

The '67 "most desirable MG ever made" Roadster was a gift to him by a man he seduced. (It was not explained in the episode, but now you're seeing that it makes more sense now and why they showed that specific scene.)

The "Blue Moon Bar" episode was probably going to be a humorous scene with their comic relief character "Monroe, the Wolfman" entering a gay bar and ending with hilarious results.

And then there's Hank who probably had scenes where he was wrestling with his new "funny" feelings towards Billy.

The producers probably thought it was all too offensive or just too silly/funny for being so early into the series, and they wanted the episode to be more serious and dark. So they re-used old cuts and re-shot new scenes. Voila, you get this masterpiece which makes no sense.

This was definitely not bad writing. They vastly changed the script and created new scenes. This is a very bad sign for the series.. last minute (major) changes, no forward thinking, there's no clear direction for the series, they're changing the tone of the series to make it more serious (trying to match their competition?).. it's chaotic and simply being thrown together.

Even the episodes are being aired out of order. "Three Bad Wolves" was originally supposed to be aired as #3 or #4 (or both), but it was moved to #6.

Without the inappropriate horror music, though, the other episodes are pretty funny. I actually like Grimm as a comedy drama.