Another leisurely step up the ladder. Yeah, no big, it's just level 11. But... "Atomic Punk"? I don't get that reference.
Finally got a Mindflare. Man, breeding monsters in FFT is sooo tedious. Those lousy Pisco Demons, I had like 6 of the class 2's (Squidlarkin), and 1 Red Dragon (class 3 dragon). The dragon alone bred more than the 6 Squidlarkin combined. Sheesh. It took about 2 and a half game years - spent moving back and forth one day at a time between 2 points, so it didn't really take that much real time, about 2 hours or so, but I took breaks. Now I've got to level it to 99 and prepare for the Chapter 2 fights.
Oh, got Yakuza :p Just played a bit though, kinda busy. It looks really interesting, reminds me of those horrible FMV games I disliked back in the '90s but done better. It's like what The Bouncer should've been, although the story parts do take up quite a bit of time. The Bouncer was pretty much all-action, while Yakuza seems paced slower. After reading some player reviews it seems the story picks up soon; I've gone through about 1.5 hours.
Finally ditched Titan Quest and got the latest iteration of V&K's Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction Middle Earth mod, which runs on D2LoD v1.10. I don't care about the v1.11 official patch, because I don't play the vanilla game and they probably only updated a bunch of runewords and stuff (something about Tristram and Chaos Diablo, whatever). What a noticeable difference in gameplay!
Titan Quest is easy, period. Even in Legendary difficulty you can cruise around, click-dead-click-dead (yes, I've run melee chars, not just casters, up to legendary Typhon as well, I think I'm entitled to say the game is easy). That plus sparse mobs means most of the time you're just running around looking at the same ol' scenery, getting angry and bored wondering why the next quest area is so far away. Back to D2LoD, looks like V&K really beefed up the cannon fodder, there's so many of 'em. Can't wait to tear through the multitarget skills again once I level enough. Yep, started a bow Amazon-type ("Rohirrim Shieldmaiden") as my first character.
Was torn between her or an Assassin ("Dark Elf"), but I really miss the strafe action :p Titan Quest's bow skills suck in comparison. I was reminded of how great V&K are at skill rebalancing: got a point in Exploding Arrow (fire AoE) and it's quite useful for clearing crowds. See, no skills are useless in the mod - anything can be useful, given some preparation (if you're thinking of just spamming spells like TQ's broken Ternion attack, you're looking at the wrong game).
It's all about challenge. Titan Quest was a good try, but ultimately appeals to the casual gamer. I don't like the way loot rains at you like nobody's business, nor the way everything dies in one click. Hit bosses with an Ensnare, throw Study Prey on them, then jab them with a Lethal Strike, and you'll likely have taken off 80% of their life. And I'm talking about boss-Bosses, not random mob bosses! Hell, I killed Typhon like that, it was a single critical hit. I was like, WTF.
It felt great to be back in a VKME mod again. Can't wait to fight those Act 5 monsters, or the insane mobs in Act 4. Even Act 2 was supremely boosted, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself fighting for my life. Duriel ("The Watcher") is still as cheap as ever though, but when I next meet him I'll have better skills and equipment so he better savour those deaths since they'll be the only ones he'll get to inflict :p