I think Blizzard is not known for cutting edge graphics; WoW has been doing well with that extraordinary high details of graphics. It is not intended to be Skyrim.
It’s far better than what there was during D2. And…well, D3 is not a RPG, it’s just a extravagant graphical version of a roguelike. Story-telling and NPC interaction are not its main points. Killing shitload of stuff and grabbing their loot are.
Looking for that sort of things in a Diablo game is…well, barking up the wrong tree.
I believe it has been > 10 years.
Heh some D2 fans I know think it’s too different now.
That said, I still prefer the moody old gothic look of D1. D3 is dark and grim but the art style doesn’t scream “gothic horror” like Diablo 1. Of course until someone does a game with the graphical style of aesthetics of D1 in glorious full 3D, it’s hard to say which style is better.
Bashiok indicating the devs don’t want boss farming to be a thing anymore… which is fair enough, but it’s looking like the solution they came up with will prevent farming in general… which is hard to fathom.
Well, I had a blast. Managed to get all 5 characters through before the end of the stress test. Fastest run from start to finish was with the wizard, 1 hour and 4 minutes. Slowest was the monk at 2 hours 30 minutes, because I solo’d that one from start to finish. Skeleton King solo was actually not a pushover. Took screen-caps of all my toons haha. It feels weird, but I’m already gonna miss those little guys! I really like how you can track their DPS right on your menu screen. Other nice things are the banners and the salvage function of the blacksmith. I also really like how your loot is YOUR loot, but some probably miss the old competitive style.
As for negatives, I wish the graphics were a bit darker, and it does feel way too easy, but, I was thinking about that, the groups I’ve joined have without exception all been smoothly flowing killing machines. No noobs, no stupid shit, just pure, teamworked, pwnage. And, on top of that, in a group of 6, I as witch doctor and a sorc ran ahead of the group in the defiled crypt… ran smack dab into a group of what was about 40-50 enemies. Managed to pull it off by a nose. So, there can be hard parts if you make them for yourself.
Sorry for rambling. All in all I’m looking forward to it.
I gotta get to bed, but as of this post there is 1 hour and 44 minutes remaining on the stress test, so go go go go go
Now that I’ve brushed up on the difference between a dungeon crawl and an RPG, this is just not my kind of game, mainly because it is a twitch game. I stink at them and have a definite preference for turn based combat. It still seems to me to be Baldur’s Gate with training wheels.
I read on the developer posts that the game is designed to be fair both for groups and solo players. Seems to me then that since it is designed to be a solo friendly game there are two reasons for it being an online only game; it will totally defeat piracy and it will mean that those with credit cards or PayPal accounts are always only a few clicks away from buying some new equipment.
What I think is going to turn out to be interesting to watch is how the real money auction develops. Since the only way to manipulate your stats is through items and items can have so many different stat modifiers applied to them it’s going to take a while for people to work out what is really the best in slot.
Players who want to test out the difference between 1.41 vs 1.42 attacks per second on their weapons will have a lot of opportunity … for a price. They will have to compete with the auction professionals when they sell used equipment, giving the pros a profit on the used as well as the newly crafted items. I suspect Blizzard will have their hands full trying to keep up with the hordes of gold farmers figuring out new opportunities but they won’t be too worried about it since they will be raking in commissions on the exchanges.
I have no interest in playing the game but I look forward to seeing how the real money auction develops.
Eh, different strokes and all. Really, I think the root of the problem is that the Diablo games are often marketed as RPGs. You can play Diablo as an RPG, but it’s really, really hard, in the same way that it’d be hard to play Chutes and Ladders as an RPG (though I don’t doubt that someone has managed to do that, too).
I don’t know 'bout you guys, but my favorite part of Diablo 2 was the story, char. designs and atmosphere/details, and those are all back with much more potential, so I’m ecstatic. The whole weekend (aside from the 37s and 3004s) was heavenly. The barb and demon hunter are so fun! The other three are all coo in their own ways, too, though the Witch Doctor seemed a bit unwieldy in low levels.
I totally don’t understand people shitting on this game because it’s too similar to the last one. Diablo II is one of the most beloved games of all time, with a healthy player base even 12 years after the fact. It’s unique, focused and accessible, and I’ve been waiting forever for another such game. I also can’t understand people whining about it being too easy after playing a small, incomplete fraction of what is essentially level 1 on easy mode (No matter who I played, I never had any real trouble until maybe Diablo in normal, then at least the middle of nightmare mode in DII), or people complaining about the game format when they either didn’t play or didn’t like the last games. A lot of you guys sound like those old men from the Muppets, just saying
The main thing I’m worried about is being locked out of my happy single player business because there are too many assholes on or some server hamsters died. I’m also kinda worried about being forced into grouping up when I don’t want to; I hope whats-his-name was wrong about his “some parts will be too hard to do by yourself” thing. I only like multiplayer when I like the people I’m playing with.
If by “whats-his-name” you mean me, I’m quite confident/hopeful that, at least for the “Inferno” difficultly, you will need to party-up in order to go everywhere and kill everything.
ETA: And as for liking the people you’re partied with, it seems that there’ll be no shortage of Dopers on hand to fill that role. Did you ever play D2 with fellow Dopers? It was a pretty likable bunch, I’d say.
I didn’t mean you, this was from an interview I’d read and I didn’t recall where But I’ll most likely look into playing with dopers when I need to, if they’ll have me!
Another Bashiok post relevant to the build permanence issue.
Basically, once you hit level 60, whenever you kill champions you get a buff to magic and gold find, and the buff goes away when you respec. They’re working on exactly how much (if at all) to make it stack, how long it will last (sans respec of course), and so on.
Hey… it’s a lvl 0 Defensive Skill! “Sexy Stilettos is a passive defensive skill that stuns demons and gives the DH a buff to attack defenseless demons”.
I took my lvl 1 DH all the way to the Skeleton King without being attacked by any mob…it worked like a charm!
Deckard Cain was a different issue though…the lech!;)
I enjoyed running a Monk and a DH several times each and it was pretty much a faceroll every time…I think I died once for jumping into a pile of 30-40 mobs without being maxed on health, hatred and discipline on my DH…but other than that, quite enjoyable. That seems to be the Normal mode and the higher levels will be much less forgiving…seems like I always ran Hell level or higher when I was playing D2, so I am not too worried that this game will lose it’s play value early on.
This time, I have two sons wanting to do runs together…woot!
I don’t feel like I got a good chance to really see what the game was about. It was so easy that it would be like playing an MMO running around the starting zones at level 10. You’d just sort of run around and click and stuff would die, there was never any need to use skills or be cautious or anything. There was also little randomly generated content, so it’s hard to get a feel for how different the game would be from playthrough to playthrough.
Overall, meh. I’m only considering buying the game because I know 10 of my friends will be getting it, and I want to do more co-op gaming. But I’m just not getting into it. The whole game is basically the gear grind of an MMO - without the side benefits like being the first guild on your server to score a boss kill, or being able to show off your gear and titles and accomplishments to the world at large, or being able to use your equipment to PVP, etc. It’s just grinding for the sake of being able to grind more efficiently in the future.
But I’ll most likely look into playing with dopers when I need to, if they’ll have me!