Diablo 3

[SoBe Clock]

So the search function didn't bring up any actual discussion threads for Diablo 3. I am surprised. I'm sure any of you reading the thread already know what Diablo is so explaining the game would feel awfully self serving.

At any rate, the open beta has been going on since yesterday. It ends Monday. Battle.net and DRM issues aside, this game is FUN. It's probably going to be a day 1 buy for me. I don't buy barely any games these days, but I'm not going to be able to pass D3 up. Hopefully Starcraft 2: HOTS wont launch until close to the holidays, because after getting D3 I won't be able to get anything else for a while.

I've been playing the Witch Doctor, which will probably end up being what I start as on launch day. I've heard that public multiplayer is currently just sort of a bunch of people in a server doing whatever they want, but co-op with friends is super easy to do. If your friend is playing you can just join him through the friends list, easy.

The graphics are fantastic, the atmosphere is great (screw the naysayers) and the combat is satisfying. Great animation and soundwork make attacks and spells feel like they have a powerful impact, it's far and away from the old days of D2.

Release date is May 15th, in case anyone interested hadn't heard. Is anyone else picking this up near launch? If so, It would be fun to be able to play this with some of you.

[RobClock]

Spent hours today trying to get on the beta, finally did about 2 hours back and just finished playing co-op with a friend of mine. Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. So glad i pre-ordered this.

[SoBe Clock]

Spent hours today trying to get on the beta, finally did about 2 hours back and just finished playing co-op with a friend of mine. Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. So glad i pre-ordered this.

I'm going to be doing co-op with my brother a lot tomorrow, but when it gets released we should definitely play. I want to make sure I have a chance to try all 5 classes before the beta ends on monday.

[Lump Clock]

The graphics are fantastic, the atmosphere is great (screw the naysayers)

I just turned down the gamma on the game so it felt more atmospherically correct. haha

[SwirlberryClock]

I planned on picking it up. Hopefully I'll have enough money then. Never got in the beta though.

[Thor]

I really wish they didn't go with World of Warcrafts "pauldrons the size of houses" character design philosophy.

[Chalk Clock]

I have tyhe annual pass, so i will be playing on the 15th. was not able to get into the beta though i did get intothe panda one. shit is buggy as hell.

[GreyClock]

Well I played Diablo 2 for like five years so I am installing the beta as we speak. If it is any good I'll probably buy the game. Which is also really rare for me, the last game I didn't get out of some discount bin or whatever was Lord of Destruction.

[NintendrCkolc]

I played as a monk a few days ago. Probably gonna be the class I go with. Haven't had as much time to play this weekend due to work and school but I did manage to finish the beta in one sitting.

I'm pretty happy with it. My only complaints stem from Leah being kind of lame and the graphics aren't as awesome as I think they could be. (sc2 looks better) I also think the areas are a little too linear. I'm hoping they'll get bigger and more open as the game progresses.

Does anybody know if the dungeons are randomly generated or not?

[GreyClock]

I played as a monk a few days ago. Probably gonna be the class I go with. Haven't had as much time to play this weekend due to work and school but I did manage to finish the beta in one sitting.

I'm pretty happy with it. My only complaints stem from Leah being kind of lame and the graphics aren't as awesome as I think they could be. (sc2 looks better) I also think the areas are a little too linear. I'm hoping they'll get bigger and more open as the game progresses.

Does anybody know if the dungeons are randomly generated or not?

I think some dungeons are randomly generated. Even parts of the regular world are. Regardless it does indeed feel too linear and unless I'm missing something they dumbed down the skills and possibilities for varying builds significantly. I only base that conclusion on not being able to throw the javelin I found as a barbarian but yeah. The gameplay also feels a lot less fluent and less responsive in comparison to Diablo II. By that I mean that when you cast a spell or whatever your character just seems to stand there looking stupid for a second before it takes off in the appropriate animation and you just sit there looking at it doing stuff while a growing feeling of disinterest makes it harder and harder for you not to press ALT+F4.

[SoBe Clock]

unless I'm missing something they dumbed down the skills and possibilities for varying builds significantly. I only base that conclusion on not being able to throw the javelin I found as a barbarian but yeah.

Yeah I haven't spotted any actual throwing weapons yet. Other than that though I'm hoping the variety in items remains in tact from the previous game, since that was really the only thing that gave D2 any actual sense of variety.

The gameplay also feels a lot less fluent and less responsive in comparison to Diablo II. By that I mean that when you cast a spell or whatever your character just seems to stand there looking stupid for a second before it takes off in the appropriate animation and you just sit there looking at it doing stuff while a growing feeling of disinterest makes it harder and harder for you not to press ALT+F4.

I don't have this problem at all, the game seems pretty responsive for me. Other than actual casting animations for spells there's no delay on my end, and casting animations are really short. (a few frames?) I'm guessing either the server you're on is having some lag issues or your computer is having problems syncing input with video.

[BoomStick Clock]

Day 1 purchase for me.
But yeah in comparison to D2 the skills and builds are severely reduced.

[SoBe Clock]

Day 1 purchase for me.
But yeah in comparison to D2 the skills and builds are severely reduced.

Not really.

As far as stats go in D2, the only stat you should ever put a point into all game long is vitality. If you play things right, you can wear all the best gear with having put every point into vitality all game long. Mathematically, any deviation from this results in a weaker character because of the lower overall rewards from putting points into the other stats. I don't call  "5 stats with only 1 stat worth it" a system with variety.

Skills were the same way. there were only a few viable ways to play each hero, and any deviation just resulted in you being weaker than if you had built them "the right way." Let's say you want to make a fireball sorceress. You spend all game maxing Firebolt, Fireball, Meteor, and something else I think. What does this skill build give you? Well, you have a strong firebolt but why use it when you have a more powerful fireball. You have meteor, but it's only about twice as strong as fireball and cant be cast nearly as fast. Congrats you leveled your character past 80 so you can keep spamming that one spell you've been spamming all game as good as you can possibly spam it.

People tend to praise D2's "variety" when talkiing about D3, when in all actually it was a very monotonous game from a stat/skill standpoint when played correctly. What D2 did have was good variety in items to build your character with. At least in D3 it isn't using that terrible skill tree system that everyone is so attached to for a reason I can't comprehend. Every skill will be viable and usable late game as long as they aren't underpowered from a balance standpoint and then you can modify the spells with your rune of choice. The stat system being automated just saves you the 5 clicks into vitality each level-up, a la D2. If D3 can keep a good variety of items and end game stuff available, it will be a far better game, imo.

[GreyClock]

I don't have this problem at all, the game seems pretty responsive for me. Other than actual casting animations for spells there's no delay on my end, and casting animations are really short. (a few frames?) I'm guessing either the server you're on is having some lag issues or your computer is having problems syncing input with video.

Hyperbole, but I was indeed talking about casting animations.
 

Not really.

As far as stats go in D2, the only stat you should ever put a point into all game long is vitality. If you play things right, you can wear all the best gear with having put every point into vitality all game long. Mathematically, any deviation from this results in a weaker character because of the lower overall rewards from putting points into the other stats. I don't call  "5 stats with only 1 stat worth it" a system with variety.

Skills were the same way. there were only a few viable ways to play each hero, and any deviation just resulted in you being weaker than if you had built them "the right way." Let's say you want to make a fireball sorceress. You spend all game maxing Firebolt, Fireball, Meteor, and something else I think. What does this skill build give you? Well, you have a strong firebolt but why use it when you have a more powerful fireball. You have meteor, but it's only about twice as strong as fireball and cant be cast nearly as fast. Congrats you leveled your character past 80 so you can keep spamming that one spell you've been spamming all game as good as you can possibly spam it.

People tend to praise D2's "variety" when talkiing about D3, when in all actually it was a very monotonous game from a stat/skill standpoint when played correctly. What D2 did have was good variety in items to build your character with. At least in D3 it isn't using that terrible skill tree system that everyone is so attached to for a reason I can't comprehend. Every skill will be viable and usable late game as long as they aren't underpowered from a balance standpoint and then you can modify the spells with your rune of choice. The stat system being automated just saves you the 5 clicks into vitality each level-up, a la D2. If D3 can keep a good variety of items and end game stuff available, it will be a far better game, imo.

I don't think you're getting the point of certain builds in D2. They are supposed to make for weaker characters, to make the game more challenging. Sure you can make every character a hammerdin or a meteorb but nothing beats running through hell difficulty with a melee sorc, throwbarb or rangerdin.

[Thor]

And putting aside viability for a second, a central aspect of dungeon crawlers has always been customization. If you remove the ability to make unique and interesting characters so that the players can't fuck up it's just less personal, and it takes away a lot from the game. Sure the Diablo II system was pretty bad since you had to pick very specific stats to not suck balls, but it would have been much better if they just balanced the stats instead of removing them wholesale. Removing features has never been an acceptable alternative to fixing them, but it's an all too common practice these days (removal of skills and spellcrafting in Elder Scrolls, removal of weapons in Ninja Gaiden, removal of grenades in tf2, ect)

[SoBe Clock]

I don't think you're getting the point of certain builds in D2. They are supposed to make for weaker characters, to make the game more challenging. Sure you can make every character a hammerdin or a meteorb but nothing beats running through hell difficulty with a melee sorc, throwbarb or rangerdin.

I suppose that's true. Apprently the game is going to be plenty tough enough even for well built characters though, so I'm not worried.

And putting aside viability for a second, a central aspect of dungeon crawlers has always been customization. If you remove the ability to make unique and interesting characters so that the players can't fuck up it's just less personal, and it takes away a lot from the game. Sure the Diablo II system was pretty bad since you had to pick very specific stats to not suck balls, but it would have been much better if they just balanced the stats instead of removing them wholesale. Removing features has never been an acceptable alternative to fixing them, but it's an all too common practice these days (removal of skills and spellcrafting in Elder Scrolls, removal of weapons in Ninja Gaiden, removal of grenades in tf2, ect)

I don't know I'm pretty happy with D3 from what I've played so far. I played D2 for years, if I wanted to play D2 I'd still be playing it. I'm still hoping there will be good customization through items, which it seems there will be, and the spells have many variants of them you can choose to use. There's like 5 skills for each of the 6 categories you have and each of those 5 skills in each category has about 6 variations. Two Witch Doctors in a party both using grasp of the dead may be using two different versions of it that have different properties and particle effects. The fact that your spells' damage scales off your weapon damage rather than having a defined damage cap from putting points into it makes me think that early skills will still be useful late game. I am pretty confident Diablo 3 as a whole will be pretty great and I'm actually happy it didn't try to hard to be Diablo 2. Keep in mind, Diablo 2 was quite a departure from Diablo 1 as well, the series has managed to change up quite a lot with each iteration of the game and still manages to keep being fun.

[buttplug]

I have nothing nice to say so I'm not saying anything at all.

[ProqagandaClock]

Loved the old.

Played Beta for this, not impressed... made me kind of sad.

[Thor]

I don't know I'm pretty happy with D3 from what I've played so far. I played D2 for years, if I wanted to play D2 I'd still be playing it.

Diablo 2 is practically unplayable now because the online servers are full of nothing but bots. There's like a 20:1 ratio of spam bots to humans on battle.net last time I went on. Truly disgusting.


Right now I'm a lot more interested in Path of Exile than Diablo 3, but I have been unable to get into the beta of either at present.

[buttplug]

Path of Exile feels like an updated Titan Quest