Got around to playing Steambot Chronicles (another Atlus localisation), seemed okay enough. I'm sick of the hero-with-amnesia premise though. Seriously. It's gone beyond cliche now, and is just plain stupid. Didn't get to play long (reason coming up) but like all the reviews said, the Trot controls suck. It's like buying a Ferrari and discovering it doesn't have power steering. And the hero gets hungry way too fast.
I know having all the little touches makes a game unique and fun - like when you decide between 3 answers to 3 questions at the beach and there's actually voiceovers for all 9 possible answers, the playing instrument thing (interesting, seems like you'll find other instruments and songs later, woop), customiseable Trot right from the start (money seems tight though)... but the hero gets hungry way too fast. So you'll need to stockpile food but money doesn't appear easily obtainable, and wagering at the arena seems to be rigged (I friggin' hate it when the AI/engine cheats instead of having the decency to leave it to chance - yeah I know PRNG isn't exactly random but what are the odds of losing a 4:1 bet five friggin times in a row? That's like, you have to roll <20% five times consecutively). And I stopped at 5 - I imagine if I bet 10 times, it'd make me lose 10 times.
Oh well. Anyway, the reason I didn't spend much time on SC was Titan Quest. Finally got around to installing and updating it (v1.08, won't bother with v1.11 until they say it's good). It's not bad - and that moron who said the ragdoll physics (on death animations) are exaggerated is exactly that: a moron. The enemies drop pretty normally, I didn't see any flying corpses. Of course, perhaps with a detonation-type skill but I haven't read enough to know.
Looks pretty nice though. I'm not sure whether it'll replace Diablo 2 (for me). The requirements for smooth gaming are a bit high - not as ridiculous as Oblivion which chokes on anything older than 3 months - but still noticeable enough to be laggy especially when you start running behind trees. I mean, try visiting the merchants at night - I suspect it's all those transparencies and lighting effects - even while browsing the vendor screen, which means no 3D visible, it still lags as if you were viewing main. So if you have anything older than a year, prepare for some jerkiness especially if there are many NPCs around, and especially while moving behind trees (i.e. there are trees blocking your view of your hero).
The game itself? I only managed a couple hours so I can't really say - especially since I know jack about the skills - but the low-level game almost feels comfortable like low-level Diablo 2. In Diablo you start to shine close mid-to-end Act 2, around level 20ish and with a good (hopefully) skill build. Leveling seems a tad slower in Titan Quest, and I stopped just around lv10 today, so I can't really say. Played a huntress, of course. Nothing like scouting out a new game than playing ranged hit-and-run to see how it goes. Plenty of monsters, although still fairly sparse - I hope the later areas have more, to allow you to show off your skills - like in Diablo where crowd control comes into play.
More later when I get through it.