It’s 3am, midnight, or somewhere in between. It’s time for Diablo III. The next several hours will be filled with the slaying of demons and monsters….If you can login. That’s right. As expected, there were so many people waiting to get in that the login servers just couldn’t handle it.

If you didn’t get in within the first few minutes, you’re probably not going to just yet. The error you’re going to see is most likely Error 37 “The servers are busy at this time. Please try again later.

If you’re getting this, just be patient, and try not to spam the login screen. And even if you do get past it, that’s not necessarily the end of your troubles. Some people have reported getting to the EULA, only to have it repeat, and kick you out. And finally, if you make it to the character creation screen, don’t log out. If you do, you could be stuck waiting again.

Blizzard has stated that the only fix is patience.

When the European branch of GAME was going through difficulties earlier this year, many fans were disappointed by the fact that the store wasn’t able to carry any of the hot games that they had pre-ordered. Now, it looks like it’s Australia’s turn, as the Australian branch of GAME entered into administration this week. That is, it entered administration right before the launch of what might be the biggest game of the year, Diablo III.

I can’t imagine the rage that a person might be feeling right now had I pre-ordered my copy of Diablo III from GAME. Not only will they be unable to receive their copy of the game, but they can’t even receive a refund for the deposit in any way, shape, or form. In other words, that money is gone, and it’s not coming back any time soon.

For those Australian fans affected by this, there’s really nothing you can do, unless you paid for the pre-order with a credit card, in which case you can then dispute the charge and hopefully get the money back. For everyone else, they’ll have to merely wait, as according to Kotaku, the people who have pre-orders have become “unsecured creditors”. However, they are on the bottom of the list when it comes to which creditors get paid first, so don’t hold your breath. Don’t throw out your receipt of your pre-order however, because it’s possible that once GAME Australia comes out of administration they may decide to honor the pre-orders again. Who knows?

Before I started writing for GamerFront, I never gave a serious thought to the case that my system would be stored in. Don’t get me wrong, whenever I would buy a case, I would do some comparisons between different cases, to see what kinds of accessories they contained, and how much they cost. However, I never thought that an expensive, $100+ case could possibly be worth the money. Why should I spend $169.99 on the Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 when all I really need is a box to throw my stuff in?

Initial Impressions

I was wrong. I was convinced that a case that cost that much could not be worth the money, but I was wrong. The biggest thing you’ll notice about the case when you first see it is its sheer size. This case is absolutely huge, standing 22.4 inches high, 9.3 inches wide, and 22.9 inches from front to back. This means two things: First, you’re going to have a lot of room to hold all the different components of your system. Second, and more importantly, you’re going to have lots of breathing room to help keep your system cool. A computer exposed to hot temperatures over a long period of time is going to wear down the different parts of the system much more quickly, so the more room in your case for air to flow the better.

Luckily, this case will not let your computer get hot. On top of the massive space inside, Thermaltake has added many different features into the case to help keep your system cool. On both the top and the front of the case you’ll notice a huge Colorshift 200mm fan. Throughout the rest of the case you’ll notice that there is space for another three 120mm or larger fans. Every fan has a mesh filter on the outside of it, as well, so you won’t need to worry about dust entering the system and killing it that way. A fan controller allows you to set the speed of the fans to a high or a low speed. However, the cords that go to the fans themselves are not very long, which makes it difficult, if not impossible, to wire them directly to your motherboard if you wanted to. The PSU slot receives a bit of this special treatment, as well. In this case, the PSU rests on the bottom, with a cutout so that the fan can suck in cold air from the outside instead of sucking in hot air from the system.  You won’t need to worry about sucking in dust and debris into your PSU, in part because of the mesh filter covering the bottom (which can be removed easily for cleaning) and also in part because the case has 4 sturdy feet which lift it off of the ground.

If we go back to the top of the case, you’ll see on top of the fan controller, you’ll see the fan color LED switch that changes the colors and flashing patterns of the LED fans. You got your standard reset and power buttons, your headphone and microphone ports, a couple of USB 2.0 ports, an E-SATA port, and most interestingly, 2 USB 3.0 ports and also a full on hot swappable SATA hard drive dock. Unfortunately, I was unable to test out the USB 3.0 and hot swappable dock because my motherboard does not support either of those features, but it’s great to know that they’re there if I decide to create a new setup.

Thermaltake did a great job on the construction of this case. It’s hefty, but never at any time do you feel like it’s going to collapse on itself. Plastic is prominent in the case, but it never feels flimsy. Really, the plastic helps make the case, as it integrates seamlessly with the black paint job of the metal parts of the case. On the left side of the case a clear window lets you look into the case, and also on that door is a mount for you to hold your headphones on. I will admit, however, that this is the only part of the case that I feel is a little flimsy, so I don’t normally keep my own headphones in case I hit it with my leg and crack the mount off. All the thumbscrews in the case tighten easily yet firmly into their holes, so there’s no need to worry about something falling off. The case also has holes built into it that allow you to install a liquid cooled system inside of the case easily, if you want to. The holes are covered with a thin rubber, so even if you don’t want to put a liquid cooler system in you won’t have to worry about dust getting into the system through those holes.

Installation

The nice thing about this case is its tool-less entry design. Anything needing screws use these nice, large thumbscrews that easily come on and off. The power supply, which sits on the bottom, has this nice adjustable bar that can accommodate the largest and smallest of PSUs. If you’re a person who hates cables strewn about your case, then you’ll love the fact that the case has a false back, where you can string your cables behind the board and bring the connectors out of different rubber ports, minimizing the amount of cabling that you’ll actually see. With fewer cables crisscrossing the system, you can get a really good airflow going on.

This case is also hard drive friendly. You pull out a hard drive bay by pulling on a lever on the front. To install a hard drive, all that you need to do is take out a set of prongs on each side, and slide the hard drive into the bay and replace the black prongs to keep it anchored to the bay. Then, all that’s required is for you to pop it back into its slot and hook the wires up. It really couldn’t get much easier than that. After dealing with screws and space and other issues with other cases, I instantly fell in love with this design. However, there is only support for the old regular 3.5 inch hard drives, so if you have a 2.5 inch SSD you’ll have to find a work around.

Disc drives are also pretty simple to install on here. The front of the case pops off easily enough, and from there you can just gently squeeze on the blue tabs to pop off the front protector. Then, just slide the drive in, and screw it to the case. Simple enough, eh?

Final Thoughts

As you can probably tell, I love this case. It’s a solid design, and I’m not going to be ashamed to show this case off to people that I meet. Now, with that being said, there are one or two minor things that I can find wrong with this case. The mesh top, with its exhaust fan, is both a blessing and a curse. While it helps a lot with the air flow and aesthetics of the case, it also caused a bit of a noise problem for me. Before I installed a new cooler on my CPU, and switched out my GTS 250’s for a single GTX 560 Ti, the noise level was through the roof, and with the mesh roof, it allowed for the noise to escape that much more easily. However, I’ll admit, that’s a really minor issue, because after I installed that new cooler and graphics card my system is actually quieter now than ever before. However, just keep in mind that you might have to makes some improvements to some of your other cooling systems. Another issue with the case is the fact that it’s absolutely huge. Now, while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, if you have limited space you’re going to have a hard time getting this case to fit. But, again, this isn’t really a negative, but rather it’s just something to consider before purchasing this case. After using this new case for just a short amount of time, I know now that I’ll never go back to a boring old aluminum box again. Unfortunately, that means I’m going to have to fork out some money from here on out, but after working with this case, it’s totally worth it!

If you were a mother with a few hundred children, and you somehow misplaced all of them, I assume you’d feel pretty terrible. What’s worse is that they weren’t lost in a local convenient store or a mall, it was in a forest. A dark, damp place with horrendous monsters that wish to cause you harm.

Surely you would do anything to get your kids back, like chucking them at walls and enemies so you can get home. This is the storyline of a game called Offspring Fling, though I probably am making this poor little forest creature seem like a bad mother. Created by Kyle Pulver, this action puzzle platform game gives you over 100 levels to trek through.

There is some cheery music to play along with made by Alec Holowka, and the sounds that this game makes are adorable and wholly satisfying. The game costs $7.99, and is available for PC or Mac. From the looks of things, you’ll likely be able to beat this game in a few hours, but there is a replay system that will keep things interesting.

Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure was quite a success when it came out. Any game that uses actual toys and calls the player the “portal master” was obviously going to latch on quickly. After the game released, a few toys that you might have thought were mistakes hit the shelves.

Colored in silver and gold, these Skylanders look a little bland compared to their colored counterparts. However, they are collectibles, and there is certainly a market for them. It may come as a surprise though, that someone might buy them at about two hundred bucks a pop.

An auction on Ebay which ended three days ago had six rare Skylanders up at auction. This was definitely a collection that took some time to build, as it had three were gold, and three silver Skylanders. It ended at about $1,260, which is quite a bit more than you would spend on six toys in a day. The big question now is how many of you are going to start hunting these things down to try and repeat this endeavor?

A reader over at Kotaku chimed in this week to let the community know how he fared this holiday season. The reader, Mike, sent in a photo showing that he got a Christmas gift sent all the way from the sacred land of Hyrule. This special gift came from his sisters, and it’s packed full with rupees, a special box, and even a Master Sword.

Mike sent in this description of the present, and its contents:

It started with a box. In the box were a green hat and a satchel of rupees and a small note saying I could use the rupees to purchase an item from my sisters!
This item was The Master Sword! The sword had a new quest attached to it; defeat the beast in the laundry room!

The beast, of course, was my sisters’ dog dressed in Christmas attire. After I slew the beast (with a good ol’ fashion scratch behind the ear) I noticed the key tied to his neck, with a note attached. The next quest! Explore the dungeon beyond the white door! This clearly meant the garage. I entered the garage, wondering what I could possibly find hidden in its darkness. I stumbled upon a large chest (a 100 year old treasure chest) and in classic Zelda style, bent down and opened it without a second thought. As I did, my sisters played the “open chest” jingle on their phones, a nice touch! And inside the chest was the Hylian shield, a bottle marked XXX and a potion bottle, both filled with mead!

I thought this would conclude my truly amazing Zelda present…. that was until I saw my girlfriend, Erin, who had something just as special waiting for me. I opened her present to find a Zelda pouch, containing an Ocarina she had custom painted, and a book… a hand bound, home made, suede book. And in this book aged paper with hand-drawn Ocarina tabs for all the Ocarina songs from the game. Each page beautifully decorated with love and care.

Happy Holidays to everyone at Kotaku, and Gawker! I hope this little story warms you guys like it warmed me :)

Seems like this guy got a perfect present for Christmas. He must have some seriously awesome sisters, and it’s great that they helped give him a gift that he’s really into. I know all the Zelda fans must be playing their own ocarinas in celebration for Mike, and it’s a perfect occasion! Congrats to Mike on a super sweet Christmas gift. Speaking of Christmas, was anyone else’s out there this epic?

A little over a week ago, a Left 4 Dead fan film teaser was released on YouTube, and it was spot on with what you would think you’d want to see. Somber, sad, and filled with guns and smoke, just as you would picture it. However, a few days ago the full film called Impulse 76 went live, and it is certainly not what you would’ve expected.

There are more than a few unexpected characters that pop up over the course of the 9 minute video. While they don’t all make sense as to why they’re there exactly, they definitely make it awesome. This was a really well-made fan film, with a whole lot of help from Airsoft GI, and if you’re interested in the behind the scenes, you can see them here.

One can only hope that if we find ourselves in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, such colorful characters as the ones portrayed in this video will arise. I’m not saying I want the zombie apocalypse to happen…unless of course I happened to have a Lancer handy.

Off the top of my head I can’t think of many, if any multiple disc games for Xbox 360. Just the idea has many gamers complaining. As for installing a game on your console that is pretty much common practice these days, but what if that install was almost 10 Gb?

Tim Willits, Id Software creative director has confirmed what most of us expected, Rage will use multiple discs for 360 and an 8 Gb install for PS3. That’s right there will be disc swapping in all its glory, for you Xbox 360 users. Unless you want to install each disk totaling 22Gb which isn’t much better either, especially if you have an older 360.

Just thinking about this disc business brings me back to the days of VHS where if a movie is irregularly long it requires two tapes (Titanic). With Rage being such a huge game I hope it makes up for the installs and swapping by kicking major butt. So don’t expect to see Rage in the games on demand in XBL market place at least not for a while. Needless to say this news will more than likely spawn rage face after rage face, but will still probably sell tons of games. I just hope the three discs doesn’t affect price.

For whatever reason, it seems that Xbox Live and Xbox.com are experiencing some difficulties at the moment. Apparently “Xbox is having issues at the moment” says Director of Architecture for Xbox Live Operations Eric Neustadter.

As far as we know, it’s being worked on, but there’s no word yet on how soon it will be fixed. Hopefully they’ll get on it before a swarm of gamers show up on their doorstep.

We will give you updates as soon as we get them, but it’s been down for a while, and there’s no word yet on when it will be back up. Let’s hope this is just a tiny glitch and not something that’s going to keep us debilitated  for long.

**Update** Back up and running again, good as new.

It’s no secret around the office that I am a bit of a Halo fanatic. I have been playing since the release of CE many years ago, and I’ve been there for every update from the sword launch bug fix to the grenade damage change and I’ll be there for every new update to come.

The newest update for the Halo franchise will be for Halo: Reach and it encompasses several things. The first being my favorite, is the revival of the original Halo CE M6D pistol that devastated so many players back in the day. The Pistol will only be available through multiplayer gameplay in select playlists. The next is the fix that allows 4GB 360 owners to be able to play matchmaking and campaign without the HDD. There will also be several changes to armor abilities; Amorlock will absorb damage, the length of active camo will be reduced, and you will no longer be able to block the sword with any weapon other than another sword. And last but not least, you will be able to configure rifle bloom to fine tune you DMR surgical skills.

Bungie and now 343i have always been very good at listening to the community and taking action based on what they hear. For example, I’m pretty sure I am not the only one who hates Armor lock, so they listened to we the fans, and tweaked it. Whether you love Halo or hate it you cannot deny that it pioneered the day for other games of its kind.