Pretty busy mid-year with work, but that hasn’t really stopped me from playing a bunch of games on the PC and iPhone. The PlayStation 5 is still a decorative vase in my living room; I’ve missed the window to sell it off as the availability of the console has improved. Your chances of walking into a Sony Centre and snagging a unit (it seems to be the Horizon Forbidden West bundle) with minimal PWP is pretty high. I wonder how would those shops who were hoarding and selling PS5 units at exorbitant prices would react to this new uptick in availability.
In any case, here are the top two games that I’ve been playing in July:
Diablo Immortal
You might be wondering exactly why is a pay-to-win title sitting on top of the pile. Take away the pay-to-win elements and stick to the mobile version of the game (instead of the desktop port) and you are left with a very good Diablo experience which I would have paid top-dollar (one time, not many times) fee, like how X-COM was priced when it turned up on mobile.
What I rely like about Diablo Immortal would be the storyline (which seems compelling enough), the design of the dungeons and the new creature/enemy types that I get to slay. The character class that I’m using is a favourite from the other Diablo games, and that would be the Necromancer.
Unfortunately though, the pay-to-win elements are here to stay and I heard the end game portion of Diablo Immortal relies on that as well, so I’m not so sure whether I will stick around and listen, I mean finish the game.
Halo Infinite
I’m taking my time with this title; honestly 313 Industries could have come up with some nonsense title for this game such as The Legend of Master Chief: Breath of the Wild and I would have just bought it anyways. The game has a lot in common with the Nintendo Switch classic, namely the open world exploration and there’s no shortages of sights to be seen. There’s even a trophy for those who make it to the top of a certain Forerunner structure that would reward players with an amazing view of the Zeta Halo.
I managed to unlock the Wasp in the single-player campaign so now it’s time for dead-from-above. Did you know that when set on easy, it’s pretty easy to jump into a firefight and elbow enemy units to death? Yup, it’s pretty fun.
New Hardware!
Yup, you read that right. New hardware. But it’s not a new processor or RAM or anything like that, as it’s a PC peripheral (but an important one). I’m typing this article on a new Razer Huntsman Tournament Edition TKL keyboard. While I know there’s a Version 2 out in the market that comes with a wrist rest, Version 1 was available at a hefty discount on Amazon so I decided to get that.
It’s a fast, twitchy keyboard as it is very sensitive due the use of Razer’s linear optical switches with 1.0 mm optical actuation, which basically means Master Chief was jumping around so often in single-player Halo Infinite due to my habit of resting my thumb on the space bar. This keyboard will definitely take some getting used to.
It also does have a lot more RGB and lighting options than other mechanical keyboard, the Logitech G610 Orion which only has a white glow. I might consider getting a Bluetooth mouse from Razer, simply because the wireless mice from Logitech don’t seem to work well with my office’s MacBook Pro especially when the wireless receiver is connected to the USB-C to USB-A dongle. I’m open to suggestions.
