Diablo 3!

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Griffith said:
Yeah, well, too bad Blizzard servers and my computer stopped getting along only AFTER my character was dead. I can't even begin again. Oh well.
Hey, fun while it lasted! .... Right? :griffnotevil:
 
Walter said:
Depending on what they're doing with it, I might give it a shot. But I think Blizzard really shit the bed with this game already.
I love D2 but i haven't really played D3 because of all the bad reviews it was getting. I really hope they turn it around. D2 became really exceptional when the expansion came out, i want to believe that something similar happens to this game.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Walter said:
frankencowx said:
1 New class
:schierke:

Yeah, that's pretty underwhelming, but I only want to build my barb so I'm not really affec...

frankencowx said:
lvl 70 cap

:schierke:

This is actually managing to be below my expectations, which only amounted to a couple new classes, level 99 and the return of Adria as the main villain and eventual vessel for Diablo or, better yet, Tathamet (which would actually make sense and build on the game). Instead... Oooooh, DEATH, so scaaary and keewwwl! :magni: :badbone: < (Boo!)

Awful title too, I mean if you're going to be so generic just call it Angel of Death.

Joe Chip said:
I love D2 but i haven't really played D3 because of all the bad reviews it was getting. I really hope they turn it around. D2 became really exceptional when the expansion came out, i want to believe that something similar happens to this game.

Yeah, but D2 was already good, and Blizzard basically kept making it better right until Diablo III came out, which has experienced the opposite phenomenon as things seemingly just get worse. I'll still play the expansion... IF I can ever connect to the Blizzard servers again to download it and re-install D3, which is a new problem not exclusive to me (Blizzard? HELLO!?). Still, it's a fun game, it's just that it's inferior to D2 in almost every way but graphics (though this is arguable from style standpoint =) and fluidity of gameplay (both of which can be chalked up to basic modern advancements, not ingenuity on the developer's part). Anyway, you should still play it if you love D2, like I said it's still fun for what it is, and it's also kind of whipping boy online (even among those that have, say, spent 400 hours playing it, ahem). So, it's still a repetitively fun game, just with some fatal flaws and expectations it couldn't deliver on (or top D2 or its successors in the genre in just about any way, strangely).
 
I am wondering, what if someone doesn't buy the expansion, will he be able to login to the normal game ? Perhaps they will make the expansion set a requirement so that players have to buy it.
Griffith said:
Yeah, but D2 was already good, and Blizzard basically kept making it better right until Diablo III came out, which has experienced the opposite phenomenon as things seemingly just get worse. I'll still play the expansion... IF I can ever connect to the Blizzard servers again to download it and re-install D3, which is a new problem not exclusive to me (Blizzard? HELLO!?). Still, it's a fun game, it's just that it's inferior to D2 in almost every way but graphics (though this is arguable from style standpoint =) and fluidity of gameplay (both of which can be chalked up to basic modern advancements, not ingenuity on the developer's part). Anyway, you should still play it if you love D2, like I said it's still fun for what it is, and it's also kind of whipping boy online (even among those that have, say, spent 400 hours playing it, ahem). So, it's still a repetitively fun game, just with some fatal flaws and expectations it couldn't deliver on (or top D2 or its successors in the genre in just about any way, strangely).
I am going to play it, even for old time sakes because i had so much fun with it's predecessor. I was just waiting for a few patches/the expansion to come out first. I am hoping that they succeed into turning this game around. Unfortunately from what i have been seeing they don't really care about making the game better but instead they are focusing on how to make more money out of it. I don't really mind that, i mean they have to make money, but IMHO they are doing it all wrong.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Joe Chip said:
I am wondering, what if someone doesn't buy the expansion, will he be able to login to the normal game ?
Yes. Blizzard has more experience than just about anyone in the business in how to handle a customer base during an expansion. They've done so with every single game they've made since 1995.
 

Viral Harvest

Every Knee Bent Too Shall Break
I couldn't be any less excited for an expansion. My copy of D3 has made for a pretty expensive coaster though, I haven't booted the damn thing up in months. I can't imagine they're going to be able to undo all of the damage they've done with this game already, and yeah, I feel less fright and more cheese than anything.
 

Scorpio

Courtesy of Grail's doodling.
I'm starting to wonder if Blizzard should just cut their losses and become a CGI film company. They've always had great promos and cutscenes from a technical standpoint, though they used to back that up with top-notch games. With the former staying just as strong as ever and the latter kind of faltering, I think this would be a great compromise for everyone.
 
Scorpio said:
I'm starting to wonder if Blizzard should just cut their losses and become a CGI film company. They've always had great promos and cutscenes from a technical standpoint, though they used to back that up with top-notch games. With the former staying just as strong as ever and the latter kind of faltering, I think this would be a great compromise for everyone.

Their CGI movies definitely LOOK awesome, but it's all style and no substance. The same people who decided
to kill Deckard Cain in the game engine with the fucking butterfly lady
,
that it would be a shocker that the little boy was Belial after he sent armed guards turned serpents to kill you hours before
or in SC2 that
the zerg are actually not evil and now the races must once again reunite to destroy the TRULY evil race for realz this time
should not be anywhere near a writer's room.

Besides, Diablo 3 sold over 12 million copies; they don't seem to have a revenue problem.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Groovy Metal Fist said:
The same people who decided
to kill Deckard Cain in the game engine with the fucking butterfly lady
,
that it would be a shocker that the little boy was Belial after he sent armed guards turned serpents to kill you hours before
or in SC2 that
the zerg are actually not evil and now the races must once again reunite to destroy the TRULY evil race for realz this time
should not be anywhere near a writer's room.
Admittedly though, Blizzard games have always had cheesy, generic stories.
 
Walter said:
Admittedly though, Blizzard games have always had cheesy, generic stories.

I actually liked a lot of their old cinematics and story moments. Even though the twist in the first video was fairly obvious from the get go, and one of the accents in the second video seems to disappear and reappear at will, these were still genuinely enjoyable videos to watch.

Diablo 2 End (spoilers): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46YHIIu9D8Q
Brood War Opening: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GMOTrIjVao

Blizzard may have never written fiction defining masterpieces, but these latest games have had a huge drop in storytelling quality. They could have at least refrained from retcons that make the previous stories worse and overly obvious foreshadowing of every single major twist.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Scorpio said:
I'm starting to wonder if Blizzard should just cut their losses and become a CGI film company. They've always had great promos and cutscenes from a technical standpoint, though they used to back that up with top-notch games. With the former staying just as strong as ever and the latter kind of faltering, I think this would be a great compromise for everyone.
Groovy Metal Fist said:
Besides, Diablo 3 sold over 12 million copies; they don't seem to have a revenue problem.

Yeah, they better cut their losses and try a new line of business, clearly this isn't working out for them. :ganishka: Of course, I wouldn't bet on D4 duplicating this success, as Diablo III's is owed more to the legacy of Diablo II than anything the current developers at Blizzard did. That trick only works once.

Walter said:
Admittedly though, Blizzard games have always had cheesy, generic stories.

Though, but they were also admirably simple, effective, and to the point. Whereas Diablo III's doomed attempt at some sort of grandiose storytelling, at the expense of even gameplay, only made it grandiosely stupid. Oh btw, I got the launcher working and am reinstalling right now. =)

Groovy Metal Fist said:
I actually liked a lot of their old cinematics and story moments. Even though the twist in the first video was fairly obvious from the get go

I love the end of Diablo, and the whole storytelling structure of Diablo II; it reminds me of the style at the time in film, some nonlinear storytelling and of course a BIG TWIST! :magni: :ganishka: Plus, the game's overall style brings to mind Robert E. Howard rather than WoW or the modern foofoo fantasy Diablo III too much resembles. I'll give it credit for one thing in that department though, something it does just as well as D2 if not better, and that's the act break cinematics, which are memorably gorgeous, rousingly scored, and perfectly structured little vignettes; the Reaper of Souls trailer/opening being no exception.
From Tyrael ripping off his own wings, to Azmodan declaring war on earth, to Diablo forcing his way into Heaven,
they're pure fan serving goodness of the best sort. Even the cheesy writing and dialogue is better and more fun than anywhere else in the game, "I AM JUSTICE ITSELF!" It's too bad the in-game and drawn style scenes weren't nearly so effective. Between the act cuts they should have just focused on the kind of character building people actually bought the game for, if they'd done that maybe people would look on it as fondly as D2 (...Nah).
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Griffith said:
Though, but they were also admirably simple, effective, and to the point. Whereas Diablo III's doomed attempt at some sort of grandiose storytelling, at the expense of even gameplay, only made it grandiosely stupid.
I guess the big difference for me between now and then is that before, the story didn't get in the way of me enjoying their games...

Oh btw, I got the launcher working and am reinstalling right now. =)
gutsbarf.gif
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Walter said:
I guess the big difference for me between now and then is that before, the story didn't get in the way of me enjoying their games...

Yeah, well my solution to that is basically skip everything. Of course, that's not much different from what I do in D2, but I actually like the style of that game, it's just I've heard it all a million times (my D2 HC barb is up to level 31, Baal here I come =)

Walter said:

Yep, got my new D3 HC barb to level 11, and since I can't skip the NPC helper dialogue, rather than dismiss them I'm taking the scoundrel along since I never have and I find him the most tolerable.
 

Begemot

STOP UNDRESSING ME WITH YOUR EYES!
I've picked up the PS3 version, and it seems better than the PC to me. There's no Auction House, and I can play offline. Also, I know this may sound blasphemous, but I like using a controller for it.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Woland said:
I've picked up the PS3 version, and it seems better than the PC to me. There's no Auction House, and I can play offline. Also, I know this may sound blasphemous, but I like using a controller for it.

In the ads it looks like there's some rotating camera work (specifically against Belial), and possibly controls, or am I mistaken?

Anyway, my new D3 HC barb is lvl 32, but I'm kind of caught between wanting to have him be found items only and getting back to where I was ASAP and with as little risk as possible... As for my D2 HC barb, I did beat it in normal hardcore, which means a lot more than in D3. I'm sure everyone is fascinated by this missives from the edge of sanity. =)
 

Begemot

STOP UNDRESSING ME WITH YOUR EYES!
No rotating camera in game. Or maybe I'm just too thickheaded to figure it out. I'll admit, when I opened it up, I was disappointed that there was no big beautiful manual, even if I've no idea how they'd fit it in a PS3 case.

There were a couple of cinematics where it shifted IIRC.

You do start getting a pretty high magic item drop rate though.
 
The real test of this game's worth will come months afterwards. The number one complaint about Diablo 3 was the ebay browsing style of the end game. Diablo 3 advertised itself as a game meant to be played for months and months, but these game review sites saw fit to fire off their reviews over the course of a few days. Somehow a 200+ hour continuously patched semi-mmo gets the same evaluation procedure as a 12 hour game centered on story telling.
 

Begemot

STOP UNDRESSING ME WITH YOUR EYES!
Groovy Metal Fist said:
The number one complaint about Diablo 3 was the ebay browsing style of the end game.

Luckily, there is no auction house in the console version. They apparently upped the drop rate to compensate.
 
Woland said:
Luckily, there is no auction house in the console version. They apparently upped the drop rate to compensate.

That's welcome news. However, it will still take far more than a couple of days to see how the end game turns out.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/10974978/
We're working out the details of how the auction house system will be shut down
:isidro: BOOMSHAKALAKA :isidro:

"... finding those epic items ... the auction house just made that whole experience too convenient."
Finally coming to the super obvious conclusion everyone saw years ago.
 
Top Bottom