I started the day by picked up 9 Miis by stopping by three different McDonalds on my way over to Mark’s place. I got 4 at one place, 5 at another and none at the one closest to my apartment. I don’t know what’s up with that one McDs, but it never gives me Miis. It’s not a problem though because there are four other McDs I can choose from on my drive to Mark’s place.

At Mark’s I booted up the 360 and bought GTA: San Andreas HD on Xbox Live for $4. I figure I will probably try it soon and you can’t beat such a low price for this game. Then I couldn’t resist starting Diablo III for a moment before playing my intended golf game. I then ended up playing D3 all day long. That’s what happens with a game like this. It’s addicting. I found out later that Mark had played the intended golf game, Masters: Tiger Woods PGA 12, earlier in the day and he said the controls were very sensitive and precise, which means this is a sim-like experience and not the arcade style golf game I was looking for. He said Links 2004 has a simpler control scheme that is more fun to play, so maybe we’ll system link some original Xboxes next weekend and try that.

In Diablo III I started my level 56 Monk and Mark joined for co-op with his level 36 Monk. In this situation, though, I don’t level very quickly but he does. After a while I suggested starting up some new characters and playing at a higher difficulty than Medium.

So we each created a Witch Doctor. This character is kind of difficult. He’s like the Sorcerer but even more vulnerable. He does get a spell that slows enemies early on and I used that a lot along with various attacks that use poison frogs and spiders. These spells create a lot of chaos on screen which is fun to watch. We found some new “dungeons” and lore books along the way and I wondered that maybe they are linked to certain characters because they only showed up when I started a Witch Doctor. We played on Master I until we each got to level 11. The area just after beating the Skeleton King was ridiculous. We just couldn’t make any headway; giant bulls everywhere charging and killing us with one hit. It got too frustrating.

So we stopped and I returned to my level  56 Monk while Mark brought in his level 60 plus 11 paragon Barbarian so that I could level  quickly to 60. We played on Master I difficulty. Mark’s character did fine but mine was under powered; a little more than I expected. I had to hang back and take monsters one at a time. Sometimes I’d run in to a large battle and use my blind spell to help Mark out and then run away. I racked up some sweet loot and almost got to level 60 before the night ended. I got some new bright gold pants called Hammer Jammers that carry a nice gold boost. I totaled about 400k gold for the day. My equipment boost for gold dropped by monsters is almost at 300% and when I get to level 60, I’ll be able to wear the armor Mark found with the 100% boost and go even higher. I think the guide I read at Xbox360achievements.com is right to suggest playing Act III on at least Master I difficulty and 300% gold boost to really get gold quickly. I think that’s what I’ll work on next weekend and see how quickly I can get to 5 million. I’m at 2.7 mil right now.

                                          Look at them sweet Hammer Jammers!

That be it. Stay crunchy picklebits!