Real Life Highscore

Having a comfortable keybinding, or keyboard, setup in a game like Diablo 3 is crucially important. In Diablo 3 you are sitting your hand in one place for long periods of time and if there is even the slightest strain you can cause severe damage, which can lead to severe (or even permanent) cases of RSI. 

To add to this the default keybinding setup on Diablo 3 is abhorrent, one of the most used buttons in the game (hold position) requires a contortion that defies all logic. An overhaul to the keyboard setup should be one of the first things you do, but if you have been using the default settings for a long time do not be disheartened – the following setup is incredibly easy to get used to. You should feel more comfortable then ever in less than an hour of play.

The following setup is optimized to follow the natural way that your hand rests. There is no uncomfortable stretching or contorting, all of the main keys that you use are right at your fingertips. For a demonstration see the video below:

The keys shown in this video are the main ones you need to worry about, other keys like inventory and map can be assigned in whatever way you deem comfortable. You can even reverse the TAB and Spacebar functionality if this feels better for you. Feel free to play around with the settings to make it right for you, but ensure that you keep this overall shape as it is the best for your hand for long play sessions.

What Else Can You Do to Save Your Hand?

A comfortable setup is crucial but that doesn’t mean you should play for four hours straight. The best thing you can do to avoid RSI is to stop at least every hour for a few minutes to stretch out your hand muscles. Move your fingers around and get the blood flowing again. Ball your hand into a fist, flex, and relax. All of this will go a long way to keeping you in great gaming shape over the long hours of Diablo 3 to come.

G’day! Today I have the pleasure of introducing you to a guest poster by the name of Clayton Donaldson who is the alter ego of the HULKGAMECRITIC Twitter personality. Hulk has taken on the noble duty of smashing the gaming industry for it’s failures and although Hulk may not be the hero the gaming industry wants, it’s the hero it needs. Today Clayton is here to share his experiences on leaving graduating and trying to make his way in the world of video games.

– Daniel ‘ZiggyD’

Editor @ RLHighscore

#5 The game industry is exceptionally bad at realizing who is serious about making games, and who simply sees it as a way to make money.

Not too long ago the focus on the game industry was making experiences that truly mattered to people. Sadly, through a failure in marketing these games correctly (and maybe some sheer ignorance from the game designers) we quickly began to see a shift in focus. Now more than ever I hear game studios talking about how their “metrics” decided which part of their game was good and which part wasn’t working so well, but it usually has more to do with what items were selling instead of being about whether or not their experience was improving.

To some, this chain of thought doesn’t really seem like much, but to me it shows a very dangerous change. People that subconsciously think of ways to make games better are not being given positions where they’re able to explore these thoughts and ideas, while individuals that are more focused on money, and how to milk a system are placed in charge of multi-million dollar projects that many believe won’t last beyond 2 years of the release date.

While the OMGPOP fiasco had nothing much to do with this argument itself, Their CEO’s tweets and personality are what first signified the problem to me. These guys have the final say in everything to do with the game’s development. They are not supposed to be talking shit about people or admitting they are more interested in watching their market share instead of their games future development, and as many personalities on twitter have stated already, ” It’s a miracle they got a game done, or that Zynga decided to buy them”.
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Blizzard make games that tend to be very well optimized and scale to lower end systems very well. However, if you have a laptop with integrated graphics or a bit of an older computer then you might be struggling in Diablo 3, even with all of the in-game settings down  as low as they can go. Luckily then that I recently discovered another way to increase your framerate or FPS on Diablo 3 using a slight graphical tweak on one of the settings files.

The tweak involves disabling Trilinear filtering through the D3Prefs.txt file and it can get you an extra five to ten FPS without any noticeable degradation in aesthetics.

Check out the video below for a guide to disabling Trilinear Filtering in Diablo 3 for both Mac and Windows.

Doing this little graphical tweak managed to get me about an extra 5 FPS on my 13-Inch Macbook Pro, making it playable in most areas. I look forward to trying it on my desktop to see if I can get an increase in performance while recording videos.

If you liked this little tip and want to check out some more make sure you check out my YouTube channel: ZiggyDStarCraft where I will be posting many more Diablo 3 tips and guides like this one.

I recently had this article published over at InfoBarrel. I go through my list of the top five reasons Diablo 3 is going to be one of the best games of this decade. Check it out!

Why You Should Buy Diablo 3

Included in the list are:

1. World-wide server play – No more geographical restrictions to stop us form playing with friends.
2. The real money auction house – Make some money playing video games!
3. No forced “best way to play” – Almost unlimited customization of your character and thousands of viable ways to play.
4. Extremely polished gameplay – The game is a pleasure to play.
5. Virtually Unlimited Replayability – Gear and content to keep us occupied for at least the next decade.

This week we have found three great games to add to your collection; Warhammer 40K, Sanctum and Borderlands. 68% off is the lowest price on offer here so it’s a pretty full on week for budget gaming.

Warhammer: 40000 Dawn of War The Complete Collection (PC) – $15.84 on Amazon (68% Off)

Warhammer: 40000 Dawn of War is a classic in the RTS genre. It did many things right including squad based controls and outfitting, territory control and racial diversity within the 40K universe. The second game did not quite live up to this one so if you are looking for the best 40K experience there is then this is the game to go for. The full game and it’s three expansion packs are available in this re-released edition for only $15.84 on Amazon.

Sanctum (PC) – $2.49 on Steam (75% Off) OR $7.49 for Four Copies

Although this is nto technically the biggest deal this week I cannot see how this game could get any cheaper. $2.49 for a 3D FPS/Tower defense game that offers full 4 player co-op play makes Sanctum a must have indie game. If you are feeling generous you can even buy a four pack to give out to your friends for only $7.49 (81% off in total), that way you can set up a full game right away.

Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition (PC) – $6.22 on Amazon (79% Off)