Be careful with mythos open beta. Remember it was developed in Korea. So far I have found that they changed my browser and bookmarks without asking, blocked the printscreen capabilities while the game is running (even if minimized) and spammed my email account. Who knows what other viral activities they are up to!

This list is for me to draw ideas from to find Diablo 2 (D2) clones. Basically pick a game by name from the reviews listed below and go research. It is ordered by what I like from least to greatest.

I am bred from playing Rogue clones Angband and Umoria. Since the warm amber glow of Xenix terminals I am an RPG hack and slasher, a crawler of all things dungeonic. Diablo 2 eventually became the standard by which all RPG Hack and Slash are measured. No time for RTS or grid base. I want freedom of motion and no menu systems or turn bars. If I click the baddie, he’d better die! If I click the NPC they’d better talk. I want a simple inventory and lots of tasty drops. I don’t want to farm, craft or micro-manage anyone. I like a replete but easy to move through skill tree. When I level up it needs to feel like a reward, not a puzzle box. Please rebuild the maps at random for replay value. Diablo is the game to play every five years. Until this go. For some reason my heart is not in it, maybe because I build my characters the same way. Maybe because the PS3 has spoiled me to higher video expectations. Time to search for a new standard, or at least comparisons for a good cheap dungeon crawler fix.

	Konung 3 Ties of the Dynasty PC – Not multiplayer. Lame 1C party offering, hard to navigate. Where to go? What to do? Died from the rabid dogs in half an hour.
	Battle OF Mages PC – This is not Battle Mages (which is more of a third party group control game). Battle OF Mages is a crawler with outdated graphics, not up to Diablo 2 quality. Two bandits came and I naturally attacked, then I was told I acted impetuously and should have talked to them first. Has some fun potential, but the interface and graphics lost me. LAN multiplay was an option.
	Silverfall PC – Very pretty, very flawed.
	Avernum PC – Avernum has like 6 installments. Have not tried this one. Never can seem to download one before it vanishes from the Amazon store.
	Daemonica PC – Have not tried this one either. Not sure if the too dark or too evil cover art scared me off. Kind of a hypocrite since Diablo means Devil.
	Throne of Darkness PC – It has a few small remnants of Diablo 2 feel. Maybe a small fraction of the blizzard people were involved. Kudos for the Japanese styling of everything. You control a four party team of like eight total characters. When your wizard is injured he can swap out for the ninja or samurai. I did not have the patience for the whole choose a formation system and micro-manage all the characters and their respective inventories.
	Summoner PC – Has a potentially cool multiplayer interface. I could not get the game to play smoothly. My interface glitched and jumped around like a fireworks celebration. The game itself looked better than the cheesy opening artwork, but I could not get the game to run smoothly. It cried about windows 2000 compatibility. (I was running XP.)
	Planet Alcatraz PC – Kind of a space RPG, but fits in this list. 1C company party of four, but stuck with the Rambo style main character. Seems like a similar engine to A Farewell to Dragons, but I could not handle the voices, interface and story.
	Hinterland PC – One player. Build your town bit by bit, attract and build up NPCs to assist you. Nice concept art everywhere. For adventuring you can choose your party size, but think about leaving the town protected. Not a crawler, more of a one level on the terrain surface. Feels almost like a really good flash game. No connection to other players with LAN or multi. You can probably beat the game in a couple hours; a better goal is try to make a dragon farm by upgrading to a keep and finding an egg. There were different titles online for Hinterland: Orcs and Adventure something, but they all seemed to be the same game. I would like a bigger and more robust Hinterland 2.
	Beyond Divinity, Divine Divinity PC, Divinity 2 – … Divine Divinity is the best of the Larian studios lot. These are all quest heavy. I found myself playing the Elder Scrolls Oblivion instead. Too close perspective, more like first person. Not really in the class of Diablo 2 like. Dragon Age: Origins is pretty good also, but I had just burnt out on Oblivion when I tried it. While we are on this subject, Two Worlds 2 is very pretty in the same mode. I suppose Fable should go here also since it is single player.
	Baldur’s Gate 2 PC – I remember unfolding all those discs with amazement. The amount of quests and material will never be forgotten. I prefer more simple crawling action, so I stuck with D2. A great game in its time.
	Dungeon Siege 2 PC – multiple party members, supports multiplayer over LAN. Nice to have a mule for healing and storage but still over-complicated. I want to be able to jump into a game in minutes and not have to trial and error learn interfaces.
	Dungeon Siege 3 – Not ready yet, but the lack of Microsoft’s evil stamps is a great thing. Anyone think they can compete with Diablo 3?
	Gauntlet Dark Legacy PS2 – I pondered whether gauntlet games fit in this list or not. I suppose they meet the qualifications. Seven Sorrows is linear and graphically pretty. It is very short. It is worth a rent and once through for sure.
	Conquer Online – Downloaded to my desktop and ready to install.
	Runescape, Mabinogi Online – Kids seem to eat these up like chocolate Dove bars. Not sure why. All the basic elements are there: inventory, quests. Even minigames for members and such. Runescape has pets and cool summons. Mabinogi has mounts. For some reason it just doesn’t appeal to me.
	Lord Of the Rings Online – Nice massive online. Have not played it enough for a good review. Why do I run from online environments? The flood of ads or 10 year olds? Hmm.
	Guild Wars Online – Played for a short time and almost got hooked. Travel time in the world got old quickly, and when the first realm is over and the whole world turns to destroyed mode I lost interest. It was more fun to dance in town than actually play.
	Loki – Choose from Norse, Greek Egyptian or Amazonian Mythologies. You will start in different realms and quests for each. Makes for good replay variety. Similar to Sacred in quality, reasonably quick to pick up the interface and controls. The game supports multiplayer over LAN and supposedly online servers. Install artwork was nearly NSFW and didn’t match the game.
	A Farewell to Dragons PC – Almost a decent party rpg. No multiplayer. 1C company makes lots of straight download games. This one is an interesting blend of modern with past. Some gun and steampunk elements are blended in. It takes a while to get used to the right-click as primary button. I keep waiting for the dragon mentioned in the title to kick in.
	Drakensang PC – I played this for a while as a female pirate class. Can’t remember why I gave up on it. Looks pretty good.
	Avencast: Battle of Mages – PC. Avencast is a good looking high resolution interface, no multiplayer. Complicated navigation systems where both hands are required for WASD movement. Lots of castable spells and pet summons. Of course all of the complexity comes with a list of keys to remember and cast. It starts slowly in the Neverwinter Nights style with basic training and talking to teachers before advancing.
	Fate, Fate: Undiscovered Realms, Fate: The Traitor Soul PC – Perfect one player only dungeon grinds. Wild Tangent made these widely distributed and well-known. We played separately and longed for the ability to join games. Bragging about finds and stats just isn’t the same as co-op adventuring. I especially like the fishing and the pet transformations. Items are well presented and the Traitor soul installment can play as Orc, Steampunk, Elf skin and not just Human. In fact this latest one is all about re-skinning everything. There is still a bug that happens on my psycho gaming machine when the in-game sounds repeat like ten times. It allows projectile baddies to fire ten shots instantly also. Our other computers don’t have this problem.
	Untold Legends, Dark Kingdom PS3 – Snowblind quality it is not. Playable? Very. It is a decent looking full widescreen on a ps3 where the Norath PS2 game options are in hard to see 4:3 shapes. Jumping is a hit and miss operation. Exp just goes to whoever is closer to the fallen baddie. I am a support mage and fall way behind the warrior in xp and essence (gold). Lots of jumping into battles with no story. Example: How do you kill the skeletons that keep re-spawing? Through trial and error you are supposed to throw them into the progress barrier. The next set of re-spawing skeletons? Just beat them a lot in the circle. Occasionally you will stick to the many trees, or the really tall buildings and branches full of leaves will block the whole viewpoint. The point assignments and equipment seem to not really affect much. The skill trees do not develop down a path well. No reason to focus on an element like fire or ice. Still very fun and playable while we wait for Snowblind to make a dazzling PS3 option. By the way the camera makes the game almost unplayable in single player mode. Get a buddy for this one.
	Dungeon Runners Online – the multiplayer massive online and free all factor into a great but temporary dungeon crawl. The camera worked reasonably well. Art, inventory, interface and graphics were decent. Rainbow drops were actually exciting for a while. It gets old and grinding to mine Rotgut becomes a chore or a favor to another player.
	Magicka – PC. Awesome combination of 8 elemental skills. Mana management is replaced with which spell or combination of spells should be used. Each mage can do havok to baddies as well as selves/co-op players. Don’t count on saving, expect some bugs. It is a great multi-crawl. There is a vietnam expansion as well. The psycho wizards showing up in the kong is funny.
	NOX PC – love this game. You will think you are playing D2. Bummers are that it is not as complex for character/item development and that it is a linear path. No auto-generation of dungeons. I had some of the best multiplayer map fights in this game. With chained teleport traps and temporary invincibility my wizard was unbeatable.
	The Chosen: Well of Souls PC – Single player adventure with impressive graphics. Camera can be easily controlled by WASD and the mouse wheel rotates. Smooth playing game and interface. Nice blend of Guns and magic. You end up with a golem and a flying gadget. The spoken English dialogue is torture.
	Baldur’s Gate, Champions of Norrath, Farewell to Arms PS2 – these are the closest D2 clones for a console. Well presented interface. Simple and easy to navigate inventories. Skill trees that are fun to develop into one path. Nice drops and story lines. Great Multiplayer options with same-screen camera that actually works and rarely sticks.
	Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader PC – great potential, nice looking graphics. Multiplayer over LAN to 4 players. If a couple of us use a spell with lots of particles, the game will chunk and lag a bit. There are a ton of class/alignment/skill options. Chose one of three spirit guides. It takes some time to get to the grind. Seems like the drop rate is the same no matter how many players. Some don’t get any gold. Don’t run out and collect baddies right away, get your gear in order first.
	Titan Quest PC – looks are everything here. Multiplayer over LAN to 6 members is supported. It is a very fun linear path. The main baddies are large as life and impressive. You will be hooked the first time you kill a blackbird and see the feather shower. Should be a requirement for every RPG gamer to do a one time through. Iron Lore released an Immortal Throne expansion chapter before sadly closing its doors.
	Torchlight PC – Absolutely wonderful dungeon crawler. Still a one player only deal, but Runic games is nearing a Torchlight 2 which will finally bring my multiplayer hopes to fruition. While Torchlight is still in the isometric view, there are better depth perceptions built in. Baddies are often below or above. Maybe there is an elevator or something underneath you. Still has the fun diversions like the fishing and the pet transformations. Inventory and item combinations are well interfaced. Horadric-like gem building is rewarding.
	Sacred and Sacred 2 PC (PS3 Xbox) – Very fine games. Sacred 2 is beautiful. All of my family could join in and become whatever they wanted. A vampire that gets hurt during the daylight and is stronger at night? No problem. A lightning fast Seraphim? If it weren’t for the stupid speed caps I could have outrun the horse mounts. The sheer amount of quests and the overall size of the system is impressive. They also are the downfall for me. One glitched quest and the perfectionist in me has a stomp fit. There were many such problems. How about an unkillable wyvern quest near the town? No way to end his tiny life. Is it because he is over the water? Sigh. Play Sacred 2 for sure.
	Mythos Online – The Flagship studios built this game as a test for something in Hellgate London. It was a massive online multi-player Diablo like game and every pixel had more character and life than Hellgate. Great crafting, great chat system. Excellent inventory and storage. I really enjoyed the class choices being so unusual like Cyclops or gun-slinger. Towards the end of the trials the developers started listening to the masses (WOW heads) and following a shaky path of expanding the town and leaving us on the surface more. They apparently also forgot to manage the bills since it went to the Koreans. The redbanana team has been putting a closed beta back up. Watch for it on mythos.com How I long to Mythos once again!

• 3D Dot heroes
• Assassins Creed, AC 2
• BlazBlue – Calamity Trigger
• BlazBlue – Continuum Shift
• Blur
• Demon’s Souls
• Eternal Sonata
• Final Fantasy XIII
• Infamous
• Just Cause 2
• Katamari Forever
• Lego Pirates All 4
• Lego Star Wars – Complete Saga
• Little Big Planet
• Lord of the Rings – War in the North
• Little Big Planet 2
• Portal 2
• Ratchet and Clank – A Crack in Time
• Ratchet and Clank – Tools of Destruction
• Rayman Origins
• Skyrim
• Soul Caliber IV
• Super Street Fighter IV
• Toy Story 3
• Untold Legends – Dark Kingdom

Go immediately and listen to Strangeways Radio. This is what “alternative” was when I was barely filling in my shoes. Almost half of my CD collection matches their library.

Here are some of the songs I was not familiar with yet really appreciated:

Gary Numan – Dark

Peter Murphy – I’ll Fall With Your Knife

Secession – Love Lies Bleeding

Courteeners – The Opener

Babble – Hold the sky

Ofra Haza – Show Me

Paper route – Carousel

Plastic Bertrand – Ca Plane Pour Moi (This life’s for me)

Ambra Red – ___? Princess

I also frequent Frequence 3 when I want to hear the latest and popular sludge. For example I was sick of Dragonettes “Hello” months before I heard it in the states. I like being able to vote for the eurodance and against the rap!

Both stations share the same curse: you cannot downvote the cheesy Show hour stuff. I want my radio to play actual music!

This single play is not the banana sundae that Mythos was, but if they get everything else right about the new multiplayer in development, it will be worth the wait.

Did I mention it runs on a NETBOOK? Pretty sweet. Reminds me of how fun Nox was. (Of course without the Multiplayer)

1.     Go to BIOS Utility F2 during splash screen

2.     Select advanced – IDE SATA CONFIGURATION – Compatibility.

3.     Boot from CD and Install Windows XP and Service Pack 3.

4.     Download and run 7kim06ww.exe

5.     Go to C:\DRIVERS\WIN\IMSM\PREPARE, and double-click install.cmd.

6. Reboot and enter the BIOS.

7.  Select Advanced -  IDE SATA CONFIGURATION – ENHANCED  

8.  Start Windows XP. The Welcome to the Found New Hardware Wizard appears.

9.  Click No, not this time and click Next.

10.  Select Install from a list or specific location (Advanced), then click Next.

11.  Select Search for the best driver in these locations. Then select Include this location in the search:, specify the path, C:\DRIVERS\WIN\IMSM, and click Next. The Completing the Found New Hardware Wizard appears.

12.  Click Finish.

13.  When the System Settings Change window appears, click Yes.  Restarts.

I saw the chance to take this thing apart and see what makes it tick. (Or rather not tick.) As I suspected, there is no burnt capacitors, no indication of heat. As perfect inside as it was out. Can you believe the size of the main fan?

I have found that younger gamers are much harder on systems. Duh! Ps2 number seven has been repaired twice for bad power jack. I just went in and replaced the failing laser with a 7 dollar one from DealExtreme. It worked quite well. In fact I grabbed another used PS2 (number that has the same failing laser problem to keep as a backup for the main ps2.

Ever since the original Playstation was released in white, I have wanted something other than black. To avoid battles over whether I get to play games or just give up to the children I purchased number Nine. It was silver and the picture on the box looked promising. Silver is closer to white.

The price went down, along with the build quality. The plastic is cheaper feeling, none of the cool ribs are built in, and the finish is like a silver krylon spray can job in someone’s greasy garage. It is hard to depress the power button since it is flush with the case material.

After all this hoonanny a pristine PS3 showed up on Craig’slist that was backwards compatible, and in the price range I would be willing to pay! So here are the current stats for my allegiance to Sony:

• PS1 = 3


• Pocketstation = 1


• PS2 = 9 (I only paid for 6)


• PS3 = 1