Diablo III

[Yeargdribble]

The Hype
So over 4 years ago, when Diablo 3 was announced, I care and was excited. About 2 years ago I started to not care and by the time we were anywhere near launch I just couldn't have cared less. Beyond that, I've been heavily fatigued by the incessant coverage from all of the various gaming sources I follow to the point that I almost wanted to try to set filters on my RSS feed to rid myself of anything Diablo related.

The one thing I did want from Diablo 3 was the ability to have a nice, small-scale game that I could play with my wife that allowed jumping in and out and a little mindless fun. After a long dearth of such games, suddenly this year we'll get Torchlight 2 and Borderlands 2 just to name some of the ones that are most on our radar.

Well, Diablo 3 got here first and while I didn't care at first, my wife got it free from a WoW promotion. She played a little and convinced me to pony up $65 for a copy.

My thoughts

The game is a bit of mindless fun for us. It's always fun for us to play together and a loot game works well for that. The game is almost laughably easy though. I suppose we could mess with difficulty settings later, but at default it's a joke. Yes, the characters can feel very powerful, but ultimately the combat is dull. People complain about the dullness of MMOs where you're just hammering a handful of macros over and over, but this takes it to the next level with only a handful of abilities effectively available to you at any given time. Needless to say, it gets dull fast.

Also, gear is cool, but it doesn't even make a noticeable difference. I mean, I can stay partied (harder monsters) and go solo... and it's still a joke. Am I going to notice if I get a marginally better weapon or armor? Not really, because I'm absolutely smoking everything as it is. It didn't take me long to realize that gear with marginal HP Regen was just laughable with health globes dropping everywhere and monsters barely scratching me. The gear seems like a panacea at best.

Perhaps as we get deeper in it will matter more. We have enjoyed some of the harder, longer boss fights that actually took some thought and strategy, though not much.

What happened?

I think the hype was borne out of Diablo II and D2 fell at a mostly pre-MMO time. It had amazing replay value and a group mechanism that was pretty fresh at the time. A loot game to play with your friends 12 years ago was fresh and exciting.

Now we're in a post MMO world. We're used to that and we've grown accustomed to deeper gameplay. Even in something like WoW you need a decent bit of strategy to succeed. There is satisfaction in overcoming a difficult obstacle. When you're a demi-god smashing everything it just starts not mattering.

I think Diablo III is just a bit late to the game and hasn't evolved as much as it might have. The game feels old.


On the positive side

I do like the skill system. It's in step with the direction I'm seeing a lot of games going these days by not confining the player; by not locking them in and making them be concerned about mistakes of misplaced skills or attributes. I enjoy that as I recall being paralyzed about decision making in games like D2. I would run around with unspent points because I wanted to make a good call. It really traps you into too much min-maxing and metagaming when you have to worry about those thing and end up looking up and researching builds online exhaustively. That's great at the highest tier of play, but shouldn't interrupt those who just want to casually enjoy a game without hamstringing themselves.


Final thoughts

I know I just shat all over the game, but it is a good game. It's an obviously well polished, Blizzard quality game. It kept what players loved, made a few needed updates while not pissing off too much of the base (which is one hell of a tight-rope as I'm sure everyone knows who has followed any of the development). I can't fault it for not making as much progress as I might like and I can't know that I'd like it more if it had.

I'm sure I'm going to enjoy it plenty with my wife, but I really don't foresee it having the legs that D2 had and don't even really see it being extremely notable. If anything it's a victim of it's own hype in that way.

[Peegee]

This is why I didn't buy the game - I saw it as a single/multiplayer RPG shooter (is it like Skyrim in the sense the perspective can be changed from first to third?) that I'll blitz through like Diablo 1 and 2

Perhaps this means RPGs are going down, or MMOs need a revamp?

[Bunny]

How far are you exactly? The first few acts of Normal are pretty easy, but during Act III and IV, things get a bit tougher. Nightmare and Hell are where the differences are made and where the deaths begin to happen.

[CimminyCricket]

UGH ALL THIS TALK IS MAKING ME MISS EoFF D2 NIGHTS WHERE IS TAVROBEL WHEN I NEED MY FIX

[Madame Adequate]

Diablo: Lord of Error.

[Tavrobel]

ur bad at dis gaem n u shud feel bad mang

[CimminyCricket]

I knew I could count on you to show up <3

I've decided. I'm buying it.

[Shlup]

I was wondering when one of you butts would make a D3 thread.

I agree that so far it's really, really easy. BJ and I are enjoying it because we like feeling like badasses. BJ's reaction when his monk takes out eight guys at a time is pretty adorable. Right now we have two games going, one where we both have level 9 monks, and one where he's a level 18 barbarian and I'm a level 19 witch doctor. I haven't decided which character I like better yet.

We're having a lot of fun jumping around to our friends' games. Yesterday our higher-level friends kept jumping into our game, shooting lasers everywhere, then jumping out again.

I'm looking forward to starting again in nightmare mode. Right now it's fun to just rush in and trash the place, but a game where we have to stop and think will be fun too.

[Tavrobel]

Everyone was too busy playing D3 to make one. I'm currently working my way through Hell, and I've been able to tank it so far with the right items. The only reason why I'm not 60 yet is because of the maintenance.

Serinde#1979

[Shlup]

I think we all know that we had plenty of time to make one while the servers were down.

[Tavrobel]

No, we were spamming our password for our account so that we could log on before everyone else.

[theundeadhero]

've only had time to finish act 1 because of other commitments but I'm enjoying the hell out of it. Sure, it's easy, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun. I love that they took out stamina and skill trees but added things to make it more enjoyable. I thought about making this thread Tuesday and Yesterday but I was surprised one hadn't been made yet and wanted to see how long it would take for someone to make it.

I wish I could have ported my Beta character over. It was better geared then my monk was at that point in the game :p

[Marshall Banana]

Bit#1766

[Necronopticous]

Pixelblip#1658

[Tavrobel]

8:36, beat Diablo in Hell, I'm level 59. Can't do Inferno because it requires level 60.

[Necronopticous]

Tavrobel: You are clearly playing the game a lot. What is your overall opinion of it?

[Tavrobel]

All in all, I'd have to say more of the same as Diablo II, except it has a graphics and skill update. And a different economy. Mostly these are improvements of mechanical fixes.

TL;DR: Plenty has changed but not enough for me most people to say, OHH WOW THAT'S NEW AND EXCITING. The formula is still there, you take a relatively overpowered hero, and slam into hordes and hordes of mooks, and expect them all to die. The very few who don't are an actual challenge, but you can't plan on it. They've cleaned up a lot of the champion mods, and each one presents a significant challenge. Some are worse than others, although I have found Health Link, Damage Reflected, and Extra Health to be relatively pleasant. Frozen/Mortar and Vampiric/Desecrated are easily the worst ones I have seen. I can only imagine it to be worse if it were Frozen/Mortar/Plagued or Vampiric/Desecrated/Waller. Arcane is dumb, but I'd take that over Fire Enchanted and Mana Burn all day. DIII is intended to be difficult. DII has mods that do 512 times more damage than intended.

Economy should be much healthier. With the introduction of the auction house, DIII has taken a step in the right direction. If Blizzard really is concerned about the in-game economy more than what they cared in DII, then this is right on every level. In the last game, nothing could be done safely on realms or Hardcore without the supervision and organization of D2JSP, and even then, there's the risk of scamming. Some people just didn't care. With the impersonality of the auction house, it just makes everything easier, and manageable for Blizzard. It's like they took the black market and realized that it's only black because someone forgot to turn the light switch on in the room.

I'm mostly upset that the Auction House is not inside of the game, and is in the selection lobby. The code for the Mystic is still in the game, but just completely disabled. They could just replace it with an Auction House vendor (like how I.Eye and Nexon did with Dragon Nest). Some people are a little ridiculous in their demands, but that's the problem with people, not the system. I am a little upset that you can't take down items early, there's no postage fee, and that there is a posting limit. Also, when you search for "All Damage" it won't work, making it very difficult to isolate items like "+4-8 Damage" Rings.

The skill switching system is absolutely brilliant, but I miss the allocation system where you can choose which stats go where. This kind of makes it hard to do anything outside of the designated class role. Ultimately, the Wizard will always be magical DPS, the Demon Hunter will always be ranged physical DPS, the Witch Doctor is a Summoner/magic DPS, and the Barbarian is a Tank/physical DPS. The Monk can switch between area DPS and full support. I predict soon that people will just play a party with 3 Monks and a glass cannon, or even worse, 4 Monks. It's overpowered, like the Paladin class, but for slightly different reasons. This could potentially be problematic a few years down the road, but in DII, it took people years to find Life Tap working on Smite, and another few years to realize that it works with the runeword Grief, and Blessed Hammer didn't do anything until they added the damage synergy from Concentration and the runeword Enigma.

I'll have some more observations later. I've taken too much time to work on this.

EDIT: So, a major gripe I have with the game is the server instability. Blizzard knew that this game was going to be played, with the dedication that players had shown on the previous game. Why were they not prepared for this? Why did they not take down WoW servers and turn them into DIII servers? People shouldn't be playing WoW anyway. Every single hour I am plagued with problems with either the Auction House, connection in general, or playing the game. The game is really well made. Everything goes along so easily. There's thought but there isn't much that obstructs you or is intrusive.

Everything keeps you in the game, except for the stability issues. Right now, I'm sitting in a chat with other people, bitching about the auction house, because I am losing gold right now. I have 10 items, with prices that are low (I mean low) and should have been bought instant. They are all sitting there, and my friends can't even see my items. So they can't be bought.

Does anyone know how irritating that is? To have a capped economy? Blizzard is all like "well we only want people selling their best items." Not a single person there has read an economics book. The economy is consumer driven. There is a demand for items at every level right now, why am I marked? How often do people buy stuff from the supermarket? How often do people buy stuff from the Lamborghini people? Blizzard is saying "hey we only want you to sell Lamborghinis." But I don't need a Lamborghini. I need cash and food.

[Skyblade]

So, quick recap of my adventures thus far. I start out in a village beset by undead in a medieval landscape, battle my way through Tristram's cathedral, fight the evil Skeleton King, and eventually face off against a demon named the Butcher. Then I get teleported out of the medieval landscape to an arabian desert zone, starting at a luscious, rich city being plagued by demonic manipulations rather than all out conflict.


I thought I was paying for a new game.

[Tavrobel]

You're paying for act IV. You'll love Act III.

[Værn]

Just started Hell mode, tanking stuff with about 6.5~7k HP for the lulz. So far the only things that seem to be able to kill me are frozen arcane enchanted elite mobs, which seem way too common.

Also, Værnnond#1491. (Disregard my name filter. That's ae, not æ.)

[Shlup]

OMG. The cow level.

http://i.imgur.com/QBkPl.gif

[Dignified Pauper]

Whimsyshire is amazing.

dignifiedpal #1881

[Tavrobel]

This game is insanely irritating playing as a melee.

While it may not seem that way when you first start it, there's a very serious problem that exists between the ranged and melee classes. Melee classes tend to have to punch stuff in the rotting sores in order to do anything. This is really nice and fun in Normal, because nothing does anything to you, but once you get past that it is a severe reality check. With ranged classes, you learn to kite and stay away, or risk taking damage. Your itemization options are the following; the first, go full on glass cannon, hide/kite long enough for something to die, and rely on your large damage to live. Lifesteal optional. While you're kiting, you're just waiting for your potions to come up, and that's about it.

Your second option is to get whatever tanking stats you need along with a balance in damage. This allows you to play without having to waste as much time kiting, but ultimately you do damage, simply because you haven't died. Not optimal, but less irritating at times. Mechanics in this game involve champion and elite mob packs that full-heal if you even dare leave the screen or if you are dead for more than 10 seconds. It is a meaningful decision: your choice is to either do plenty of damage the whole time, or do lots of damage some of the time.

When it comes to itemization, this allows you to choose glass cannon, and to maximize only one stat, the ultimately cheaper and more readily available option on the marketplace. Your slightly tank build lets you slap on whatever vitality, armor rating, and resistances come your way. I have been playing with a Wizard who, before his respec, had 44000 HP, and opted for a two-handed weapon with 800 DPS. He acquired this at least 48 hours before I did.

This option does not exist for melee classes. I don't know how it works for the Barbarian, mechanically, but the concept overall is the same. In order to maximize the usefulness of the class, you must be able to tank and deal damage simultaneously. You can not trade one for the other: should you go pure offense, you will die before getting into range; should you go pure tank, you do no damage, and die anyway, as your options for escape are cut off by the unrelenting hordes of mobs that when you add their damage together, tends to be more than yours. Also, enemies try to aggro your squishies, too.

In the unfortunate (yes, unfortunate) event that you have teammates in your game, your ultimate contribution is outclassed by the bonuses that enemies receive for having multiple characters in the game.


Ramp Up Per Additional Player:
Description | Normal | NM | Hell | Inferno
Monster HP Increase Per Additional Player | 75% | 85% | 95% | 110%
Monster XP Increase Per Additional Player | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0
Monster DMG Increase Per Additional Player | 0 | 5% | 10% | 15%

In terms of itemization, you must (no, really) maximize all of the following: any stat that gives you increased armor, armor rating of equipment, Vitality, resistances, raw damage, attack speed, and life steal. The monk has it relatively easy off, for a Monk using two passive slots, the highest resistance in one category is now the resistance in all categories, and Dexterity is given the same armor bonus as Strength, which is 1:1. 5000 armor is only 60% damage reduction against mobs your own level. It takes 250 of resistances in each category to reach 45% damage reduction. You are not paying for what is advertised in Inferno. Ever. This is because the enemies are all levels 61, 62, 63, and 63.

This causes a bit of a problem. The likelihood that these mods can spawn on a weapon with limited mods is low. In any case, I can only ever have six at most. That kind of forces me to choose not what I want to make my character to be effective, it is what I need for my character to be effective. I can spare no space for things like "increased Spirit regeneration" if I lose 100 Vitality (3500 Life).

I have nowhere to begin in fixing this. If you increase the stats on mods, you're making it just as good for ranged. If you increase the number of mods allowed, this makes the decisions of a ranged character meaningless, by forcing them to also go with mixed damage and tank, without actually solving the problems that melee already has with being able to do both at the same time. Even worse, is that it will force the market to concentrate only on items that provide everything, inflating it worse than what it is now, and de-valuing anything that does not fit the exact specifications of a class that needs everything.

One could consider increasing the prevalence of class-only equipment, as it happened in Diablo II's expansion. But that is an expansion away. May I never see another HoZ again or a Druid helm with +3 Hurricane. Blizzard has already said: no content patches. qq wutdafuq dis sux

Fortunately, this is actually all a fix to the itemization problems of Diablo II. The incredible amount of trash mods, the over-poweredness of Runewords and pre-set items. I agree that the most powerful items in the game should be be Rare items, but there is a complete lack of any item that has guaranteed, preset mods. None before 60, for sure. Even the crafting system is basically a random drop generator.

/sigh

I suppose that this kind of goes back to Blizzard's philosophy to force classes into specific roles. DPS, DPS, DPS, Tank, Tank. Not exactly much room for imagination. Even League of Legends has better options than this... actually, no I lied. League is DPS, DPS, DPS, DPS, Support. In case you haven't noticed, I have a fundamental problem with itemization that improves what you can do without offering items that give you new ways to play. DotA is a good example of a game that has both (if only it weren't boring after having played thousands of games).

Let us go back to the damage increases that enemies do to players through the four modes. Here's a hint: You will die if you get hit. This is an acceptable compromise for ranged classes. This is not acceptable for melee, simply because we do less damage per swing/cast even when we have to spend the extra time to reposition for every enemy. It doesn't matter what enemy it is. Trash mob, minion, champion, elite, bosses. They'll all kill you.

[Skyblade]

You missed a major point (or rather, only touched briefly on it). I don't know how anyone noticed, but the crafter is simply the gamble mechanic from previous Diablo games redone.

Why is this important? Because it shows the truth about this game: It exists solely for the Auction House. There are so many trash mods, and poorly itemized ones, because Blizz doesn't think they matter. With a huge playerbase, good ones will pop up, and they want them to be highly sought after enough that they'll go on the Auction House and make Blizz more money. Someone crafting a legendary weapons with a good set of mods will be able to sell it for real world money, which Blizz gets a cut of. Why would Blizz care that most players get screwed over by this setup?

Did they care when all their changes to Diablo II basically made the game unplayable for the average character? No. And that didn't even make them money. This will. D3 is not a game for players.



Anyway, for the Monk, I intend on maximizing Dodge as much as possible. High Dexterity, Dual Wielding (with the Passive), the Dodge Mantra (still looks like the best one to me), and our various control abilities like Blinding Flash (which is awesome). Way of the Hundred Fists will take a back door to our piercing move with slight range (forgot the name). Wave of Light will be awesome for doing ranged damage. And I'm hoping my Mystic Ally can help keep things off me.

[Marshall Banana]

Finished the game for the first time last night. Meh.

[Tavrobel]

There isn't much to say about the crafting system, to be honest. It is a random drop generator, only for a certain amount of gold, you can choose the drop that you will get, with a predetermined amount of mods. In reality, if you were simply farming you could get many more mods, but no guarantee that item class would drop. Let's not even mention how difficult it is to obtain money in this game without resorting to using Inferno vendors and then selling those items for a profit on the market.

It would have been fine if the AH were only a market, but it happens to also have taken over the shadier part of the business model from D2JSP, and that is in the exchange of real money for power.

As far as the Monk goes, I have tried most of the strategies. There is a build that is gaining popularity, which relies on the Spirit generation from one of Fist of Thunder's runes that gives you 15 Spirit per critical hit, but this applies to all crits, not just those used during Fists of Thunder. The Spirit generation is then traded for Sweeping Wind (which can crit a lot) and spamming Cyclone Strike. This mass expenditure of Spirit means mass healing with the Transcendence passive. A similar crit rune for 10 Spirit exists for Deadly Reach, as well.

Ultimately, it still had the same problem as my personal build, that you must somehow get into range. Note the relative lack of range damage. It's also fairly expensive, because crit chance is difficult to find on armors.

There's a couple ways of stacking hard damage reduction, as well. This comes from Conviction/Intimidation rune, Resolve (damage reduction on striking for 2.5 seconds), and Crippling Wave/Concussion rune, reducing damage some more. 10, 25, 20, respectively. This build lacks a good means of healing, as you have to switch between auras, so you lose a lot of regeneration. My Inner Sanctuary/Circle of Protection is also some 35%.

I have found dual wielding near suicidal past Hell mode, but it could work if you find two good equal damage weapons with high amounts of every stat. Dexterity and strength mean armor for our Monk. For bonus effort, this lets our Monk also have up to 6% Lifesteal if it comes from 3% on each weapon. In any case, I still think there is a severe lack of healing potential. If your dodge chance is anything less than 80%, you'll find that the survivability trade off is still not worth it in terms of keeping you alive.

You'll have to let me know how it goes. Thus far, I can not avoid the very reality of melee: you will get hit, and if you get hit, you die. I personally find that the Mystic Ally dies too quickly (it is definitely nothing compared to the Assassin's Shadow Master or Shadow Warrior). Also, Way of Hundred Fists/Windforce Flurry has greater range and damage every third hit compared to any stage of Deadly Reach. Of course it's really only worth it if you have at
least 2.0 attack speed.

There's also some Dodge available on Cyclone Strike and Fists of Thunder.

[Yeargdribble]

Despite my initially really disliking a lot, I'm warming up to it. Some of the most fun my wife and I had was when we accidentally joined a game with one of our alts before we knew you could reselect previous sections. So we were trying to finish Act I with level 8 characters and it was a lot more strategic and difficult.

I do like how easy it is to share gear around between characters and I like getting some crazy rare and awesome drop to pass down to other characters that I plan to play with later.

[Tavrobel]

I have been finding myself having significantly more success after changing some of my items around. I decided to opt for higher Dexterity and lower Vitality items that bore All Res with high stats in another res category (Physical in my case) to use with the equal resistances passive. This, combined with every single damage reduction skill, has allowed me to stay alive just long enough to kill things as late as early Act III (I glitched myself forward). I can not however, kill Inferno Belial.

My biggest problem right now is farming gold, really, to upgrade my armor a little more.

Also, the Spirit proc on critting has been fixed for Fists of Thunder and Deadly Reach. The one for Crippling Wave was never glitched to work with all crits.


us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5271780011

We're in the process of removing the on-use benefits of the Mantra of Healing rune, Boon of Protection. The hotfix change is:

Amount of damage absorbed is now capped at the amount of healing provided by Mantra of Healing in the first 3 seconds after activation

We recommend discontinuing its use until the rune is replaced with a new rune and mechanic in a future patch.

The Boon of Protection rune was approximately ten times over its budget on the benefits it provided, and it was quite simply a mistake on our part to let the rune ship as it was. We don't intend to take these quick and drastic measures often, but considering the severity of the issue, we felt it important to correct it swiftly.

We're shooting to post a full list of recent hotfixes tomorrow, and will be looking to answer questions once that's live.


fml support monk got nerfed

[Skyblade]

The more I play this game, the less happy I am with it, and most of it boils down to the loot. Maybe I'm just spoiled, but I am too used to games like SWTOR and even WOW by now, which have far, far better loot systems, as they actually have some semblance of order to item acquisition and itemization. The fact is, the loot system in D3 is just horribly, horribly broken.

You find a single good piece of gear, and use it for about 15 levels because the complete and utter randomness of the RNG ensures that you aren't going to find anything nearly as good for your character in that time.

Ninety percent of the mods are completely useless, and serve only to decrease the rate at which valid, usable gear spawns. White and grey items are completely frelling useless and honestly shouldn't even be in the game, as they don't even serve as vendor trash, selling for 6 gold a pop is not a worthwhile return on investment.

And the worst part is, they clearly are doing all of this on purpose. Look at their legendary setup. You get some set stats, and some random. A legendary fist weapon will have decent itemization for a monk, while still having a great deal of random changes availible on the item, which would make loot for the entire game a lot better.

The fact is, and it is becoming more and more obvious, that D3 exists for the auction house, and the auction house is going to be the only reliable means of getting gear. Blizzard may like things that way, but it sucks for the players.

[Loony BoB]

My question is coming from the perspective of someone who doesn't play these games often but does enjoy them when he plays them (although I've always felt they spend too much time on dungeon crawling and not enough on involving storyline, but that's just me growing up on Final Fantasy for you). Anyway, my question: Is Diablo III the best of it's kind? Or should I look at something else?

[Tavrobel]

The perspective from a hardcore gamer, someone who has been expecting this game for ten years (actually more like seven, because that's when 1.10 came out), as someone who has played the game intensely enough to realize that when you enter the Halls of Vaught, you toggle Walk back on to not have your armor rating reduced to zero, as someone who played mods extensively to increase the longevity of the game because of the playstyle, this game is a massive let down.

The formula in Diablo III is the same as Diablo II's: and that's pouring enemy water into a player sink and seeing what goes down the drain. For most this game is enough to enjoy it. It poses enough of a challenge to not be pointless drivel. The randomness of elite packs and items is also psychologically addicting. Casuals don't care about the mechanics of skills or how they apply, or the finer details of itemization versus skill selection.

In honesty, for casuals, the game ends at Hell Diablo. If you are okay with not playing through Inferno and the irritation it brings, if you don't have a completionist complex like I do, you should be fine, and it is a relatively enjoyable experience. It is not the best among MMOs, but that sixty you're paying now means access to the game for a very long time. Blizzard, at least, is very good about patches, which is one of the only things that keeps games like this relevant for years on end.

There is no story. If you have played Starcraft, you have actually played Diablo III. Frankly, I'm surprised at how much Metzen managed to screw up the world that other authors have managed to create with the novels. It's all predictable, but fortunately, I don't care about the plot.

The server issues have calmed down immensely since release. That is a plus.

However, the nature of the items forces you to engage in the use of the auction house. Which is down half of the time. Normally this would be perfectly fine for an MMO, but only if all five classes are not competing for the same exact items. I hope you have someone to twink you items, because I'm broke.

On a side note, Diablo III really reminds me of Nexon's Dragon Nest, as far as its item system goes. The nice thing about DN is that it's free. but also lol nexon

[Loony BoB]

Are there any of these games that can be played single player and have a decent story to them? Bonus points if it can be played across a LAN on two PCs, but I'm not hugely picky. I basically want an interesting game but in this kind of style. I don't care much about having to use special strategies for special fights or whatever - I'm more looking for a fun but still interesting time waster. Preferrably with half-decent graphics... but if I have to go and play Castle of the Winds I guess I'll do that. ;)

[Shlup]

You have to have an internet connection. Which pissed a lot of people off, but I've enjoyed it. It's really easy to jump around into other peoples' games.

[Tavrobel]

Are there any of these games that can be played single player and have a decent story to them? Bonus points if it can be played across a LAN on two PCs, but I'm not hugely picky. I basically want an interesting game but in this kind of style. I don't care much about having to use special strategies for special fights or whatever - I'm more looking for a fun but still interesting time waster. Preferrably with half-decent graphics... but if I have to go and play Castle of the Winds I guess I'll do that. ;)

Possibly Torchlight. It doesn't have any multiplayer aspect. Torchlight II is supposed to come out very soon, as well. It's very Diablo-esque. Steam.

Dragon Nest was a bit of mindless fun, and it's free. The lore doesn't get in the way, but it does exist. Internet connection required, but very easy to play with other people.

Kingdom Hearts, but I haven't seen anyone play that with a keyboard and mouse before. It's also not an MMO, but it is closer to the kind of RPG that Diablo III should be.

Diablo III will take a while before it gets its "1.10" patch or anything with an expansion, which is what everyone remembers about Diablo II. Since you didn't play during the first week, there's no point in getting it any time soon. Again, if you have no interest in playing through Inferno, then Diablo III is playable and enjoyable.

[Bolivar]

I like it. I have a friend who's a little upset he spent $60 for it, and I can sympathize, but I'm happy. I knew what I was getting and I probably align more closely to Tavrobel's casual category, so it's a fine purchase, especially since I just got a new laptop. I like the new skill system not only for accessibility, but it allows you to do everything without having to worry about wasting skill points (I'm assuming, I'm only a few hours in). The game definitely has that Blizzard magic. And maybe I've spent a little too much time with the superficial current gen of consoles, but I really like the visual style of this game.

Add me, I'm Bolivar#1918.




Possibly Torchlight. It doesn't have any multiplayer aspect. Torchlight II is supposed to come out very soon, as well. It's very Diablo-esque. Steam.


Also, Torchlight II will have multiplayer. I found the colorful cartooniness to be a nice contrast to Diablo.

[Shlup]

I beat the campaign on normal today and immediately started again in nightmare. I've already gotten so many goodies! Makes me wish I didn't have to bother with normal. The ending was very unsatisfying. My banner is adooooorable.

[Tavrobel]

Got hacked. 0 gold no items. Waiting on a ticket. I got some really nice items last night for cheap from the auction house, and I think they're going to be gone. Rollbacks go pretty far.

[Necronopticous]

Sorry to hear, man. It seems like this is happening extremely frequently. Did you have a secure password, and were you using authentication?

[Tavrobel]

Did not use an authenticator specifically for this sort of event. I did not want to give Blizzard my number unless it was necessary. The likelihood that I would be compromised by visiting a shady website is lower than the chance that Blizzard is compromised successfully or the chance that someone randomly guessed my password. In this case, my password is unique, but not strong enough.

I was sitting online and someone tried to log into my account, and my authenticator didn't notify me. Session ended and I got kicked off.

Rothinzil#1166

[Skyblade]

Making it online-only was such a good decision. It really had a positive impact on the players, didn't it?

Probably not going to be playing this much past the end of Normal Mode. There are just too many problems and annoyances.

[Tavrobel]

I'm not really upset because it's something that happened that is completely out of my power to control. This is on Blizzard. I'm mostly upset because now it's impossible to play, and I was very close to achieving a breakthrough on my Monk.

... back to DII mods.

[Skyblade]

I'm not really upset because it's something that happened that is completely out of my power to control. This is on Blizzard. I'm mostly upset because now it's impossible to play, and I was very close to achieving a breakthrough on my Monk.

... back to DII mods.

See, I would be far more upset because it is completely out of my control.

If I'm running a Nightmare character, and I die, that's my fault, and my choice. Yeah, I'd be pissed, but it was my own doing.

This is Blizzard deliberately screwing its customers over, and they aren't even being subtle about it. Everything about this game seems tuned to give Blizzard as big of a potential profit margin as possible, regardless of what is done to the gameplay experience.

[Tavrobel]

This is Blizzard deliberately screwing its customers over, and they aren't even being subtle about it. Everything about this game seems tuned to give Blizzard as big of a potential profit margin as possible, regardless of what is done to the gameplay experience.

I don't think it's deliberate, I see it as them being incompetent. There's no reason that Blizzard would profit from having legitimate players lose equipment to random hackers. That just drives customers of the Auction House away. There's also no incentive to have an auction house that doesn't work 50% of the time. They just suck at their job.

It's not going to help being upset anyway. But in any case, I don't expect a ticket response for at least a day. At least the prices on the market will go down and affordable gear will be available.

[Skyblade]

This is Blizzard deliberately screwing its customers over, and they aren't even being subtle about it. Everything about this game seems tuned to give Blizzard as big of a potential profit margin as possible, regardless of what is done to the gameplay experience.

I don't think it's deliberate, I see it as them being incompetent. There's no reason that Blizzard would profit from having legitimate players lose equipment to random hackers. That just drives customers of the Auction House away. There's also no incentive to have an auction house that doesn't work 50% of the time. They just suck at their job.

It's not going to help being upset anyway. But in any case, I don't expect a ticket response for at least a day. At least the prices on the market will go down and affordable gear will be available.

The only reason to force the online-only aspect is to drive players to the AH, which benefits Blizzard. The fact that this screws over a lot of customers, by reducing security and availibility of the game, doesn't matter to them.

[Tavrobel]

The only reason to force the online-only aspect is to drive players to the AH, which benefits Blizzard. The fact that this screws over a lot of customers, by reducing security and availibility of the game, doesn't matter to them.

In honesty, I think that even if they considered availability, the auction house may have been the only viable option for this kind of game. The first problem was with a completely uncontrolled economy. Blizzard ran full Ruststorms only twice in between ladder seasons, during season 4, and it happened twice. And even if they had ran them more often, it was too easy to continue duping and inflating the economy. Everything ran through D2JSP, and forum gold was the commodity for which trades were conducted. This wouldn't be a problem if you couldn't buy forum gold with real money, and if the owner weren't a completely heartless thief (both of coding software and of money).

Diablo II had serious cheating problems aside from account thieves. One out of many is really an improvement. Botting, gold (item) vendoring, realm exploits (see Duriel Waypoint from the previous Brother/Sisterhood thread), and item generation (08 Valks) was way too easy to accomplish. I would say something about maphacks too, but I used those out of utility rather than malice.

Now if Blizzard had no real money component, it would be a lot easier to feel sorry for incompetent Blizzard. But then, the real economy would be outside of Blizzard's control. So what's better for people? A third party controlling the economy or Blizzard controlling it? It's lose-lose no matter what. I would go with the lesser of two evils, and that is to keep the control out of third parties.

I don't understand why it doesn't have a single player component. Open Battle.net was a great idea, but now how they have explicitly forbidden game modding.

I don't understand why the auction house was released in such a state. It's down half the time, and there's no form of moderation. You can't take items down, the time out on bids is two days, half of the item modifiers can not be searched. You can't search for specific stats on legendary items, which is strange because half of their components are randomly generated.

There are so many problems that I can't actually believe they're doing this intentionally. They're just incompetent. I would say "start firing people" but we saw how that worked with Blizzard North. Ditch them, get this.

In any case, what would be the alternative to not having an auction house as a means of organizing the economy? The new Battle.net infrastructure doesn't support large channels/chat rooms, and that was a problem since before Starcraft II, so it's not a Diablo III unique problem.

/sigh

dis game mang

[Skyblade]

The solution is obvious: Don't remake Diablo II.

Seriously, the only thing they put any effort into at all was the skill setup (and the FMVs). And, granted, the result is awesome, and a much more enjoyable way to play.

Had they put that sort of effort into making the rest of the game evolve similarly, we wouldn't be in this mess.

And, frankly, I don't care about the game economy at all. I would prefer to be able to play the way I want, independent of market fluctuations or number of players (and, seriously, try getting anything off the AH once the initial rush dies down). I think the reliance on the economy simply hurts the gameplay in the long run, and, frankly, I think this was obvious even taking a cursory look at Diablo II, and I don't think Blizz has done anything to fix it. The AH certainly isn't a way. It doesn't put any limitations or controls on the economy, it just makes sure that Blizz gets a cut of all the transactions.

[Tavrobel]

I hate this game. I need a 60 Barbarian, a lot of money, for the auction house to work, and an upped Shaftstop.

BUT IT'S NOT IN THE GAME SCREW YOU STRING OF EARS

[Skyblade]

Patch 1.0.3 Blog (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6262208/Patch_103_Design_Preview-6_6_2012#blog)

I'd just like to share my favorite part of this:


Bridging the Inferno Item Gap
The ilvl (item level) of an item determines the statistical budget for its power. The way the game is currently set up in Inferno, Act I drops ilvl 61 gear and below, Act II drops ilvl 62 gear and below, and Act III and IV drop ilvl 63 and below.
Unfortunately this has caused two main issues. The first is players who find an Act too difficult feel compelled to use the auction house in order to progress. The second is that certain classes, skills, and play styles are less gear dependent than others, so although great items are making their way into the game economy, people feel pigeonholed into a handful of viable strategies. For a lot of people they would rather do something frustrating or boring in Inferno Act IV (such as having Tyrael fight for them or breaking vases) for a chance at a "top-tier" upgrade, rather than fight hordes of monsters in Inferno Act I.

I find this absolutely hilarious, both because it is something I predicted back when we first heard about the Auction House, and because the "only a handful of viable strategies" problem was something painfully obvious to anyone who looked at Diablo II, and Blizzard only seems to just now realize that it presents a problem.

Not that I think Blizzard actually cares. If Diablo II shows us anything, it is that the people who are going to keep playing the game don't really care about balance or decent progression rates, and why should Blizz work to cater to people who actually just want to play the game as a game, rather than a second job?


And, while I'm at it, I'd like to point out that nerfing Attack Speed is going to make one of the few viable melee builds (Attack Speed + Life on Hit) go bye bye, so again, good luck to all the melee players out there.

Fortunately, I've already gotten over this game, and, frankly, I think I'm now completely over Blizzard. I probably should have been clued in by Cataclysm and Starcraft II, but it is clear that there is no innovation in their company. They remake a game, make it prettier, but don't bother evolving it or fixing any of the big problems.

[Tavrobel]

While I saw this earlier and am pretty pleased, but it's only marginally useful and already too late to save us from the scourge of people farming Act IV Inferno, getting rich on items that no melee class could realistically have access to without the use of a Wizard. It's pretty obvious that even 1% of people can ruin it for everyone else.

I am finding more and more that I hate Blizzard's design philosophy. There was a Reddit AMA in which they answered most of the questions that people asked. The most significant one was in determining how they came up with the pricing gold sinks, and they priced blacksmithing and gem costs based on the idea that this theoretical playthrough would not use the auction house. Ever. And this made me (again) seriously question the competency of Blizzard designers, who appear to have no care for their own economy, especially when the game is online only. If this game were single player, I would save-state scum, not care, and cheat my weasly little guts out.

But you see, now I have to care.

It's very questionable that Blizzard would play through the game and not consider their gold sink balance based on one of the most important aspects of their game, the auction house. Of course people are going to use it. If they don't it's because they haven't looked very hard at their own game; I myself have had to tell a bunch of friends how to use the auction house, and every single time, I give them a fresh set of weapons they're telling me "omg now I actually move on with this game." Such a statement is shocking, because that means that they are not finding items slightly above their own level in the areas that they are farming, which makes solo progression impossible and meaningless. It is not possible to go through this game solo untwinked, but the game is pointlessly more difficult in a group, and in fact, there are a number of mechanics that actively discourage it: increased damage on mobs per player, shared magic find, shared gold find

I'm also quite shocked that Blizzard has done very little in terms of fixing exploits. Nerfing Force Armor was a start, not the major crux of the operation. Wizards are still running around, and Monks have gear that is at least 10 times more expensive, and depreciates faster than Wizard gear. I am literally wearing millions in gold on my Monk, and it's still not enough to do Act II comfortably, and by comfortably, I mean without raising the revive timer to 30 seconds whenever I am breathed on by a champion pack. I die more to malaria than actually getting in a fight where blows are traded, and it's not even in the game.

They said that they wanted to encourage unconventional gameplay, but their items do not encourage or even provide an option for alternative gameplay. 1.2% chance to stun on hit, exciting! +1 to Battle Orders, totally boring, we can ditch that. Serves no gameplay purpose. Buffing legendaries by giving them bigger numbers will never be enough, unless they are the best items in the game, and suddenly, it's Diablo II all over again.

Despite what Blizzard has done right, they have managed to screw things up so badly during the design process, that whatever they had no idea what to do, they just lifted the mechanics straight from World of Warcraft. I don't play World of Warcraft, but I can tell you where most of the gameplay comes from. I'm not telling people not to enjoy the game, it's a decent game, but it's not up to my standards of what I should expect from Blizzard.

[CimminyCricket]

Tavrobel is handling this way better than he would have if this happened to his D2 account. xD

[Tavrobel]

Handling what? I already got my restore from Blizzard for my Monk. In fact, they were even able to restore it to a point from before I made some pretty poor auction house purchases, so they effectively gave me 600000 gold.

In the meantime, I have made a Demon Hunter, and the game up to Inferno was pathetically easy. I even cleared Act I Inferno in about 2 hours on my Demon Hunter, with the exception of the Butcher. I would've been able to kill the Butcher on my own, but I got fed up with accidentally double-Vaulting and position rubber-banding (thanks, servers). Melee just simply isn't viable, even after getting a ton of Life on Hit. I don't see how anyone can play through Inferno Act II, III, or IV as melee and actually manage to have fun if they have anything less than 40 million gold worth in equipment, this gold all coming from Wizard friends getting access to Act IV Inferno with an exploit, and managing to farm it enough to get items to sustain themselves in Act IV without this exploit.

Maybe one day, I could sit down and organize my thoughts on this game. Blizzard has managed to do some things right, but they have also managed to steal ideas from WoW, and they have also managed to fail spectacularly in areas of the game design in which they had no business in failing.

[Madame Adequate]

If I go full Chinese could I reasonably expect to make dosh from this electronic entertainment game?

[VeloZer0]

Seeing as you are competing against a labor pool with a much, much lower acceptable minimum wage I seriously doubt it. I remember when I first heard about gold farming in WoW and I ran the numbers to see if you could actually make money playing a game, worked out to a maximum of about $1/hr.

[Tavrobel]

If I go full Chinese could I reasonably expect to make dosh from this electronic entertainment game?

No-lifing, not more than a salaried wage; full-Chinese, and you could be richer than a South Korean Starcraft player. If the idea of having to sell items on third party resources because the $250 dollar limit on the Auction House is not enough intrigues you, then it could be worth investigating.

You may be competing against a large number of potential sellers, but there's more buyers than sellers, and each buyer is either buying a major-massive upgrade on one slot, or could be buying a lot of little upgrades. Either way you get the best of a consumer market: not only could you potentially provide big ticket items, but you can also market everyday commodities. And trust me, there is a very big market.

[Madame Adequate]

Thanks for the answers guys, but it turned out to be irrelevant because I was playing a guest pass when suddenly I couldn't log in to my single-player game that I wanted to play by myself in single-player all alone because the servers were down for maint.

The gameplay very nearly had me about to buy it, but instead I uninstalled on the spot.

[Tavrobel]

Uninstalled, game is ridiculously smurfing bad, and with the way that Blizzard has been handling the game, only makes me think that the game will get worse before it gets better. It will be years before it's worth playing, if it can even get there slowly. I think the hype was what was keeping me here for a month. This isn't the whole "I'm sick of it" like in Diablo II, this is a straight up "this game is a poor product and I would not recommend it for anyone at any price."

[Necronopticous]

I must agree.

[Bolivar]

Damn.

[Skyblade]

It's very questionable that Blizzard would play through the game and not consider their gold sink balance based on one of the most important aspects of their game, the auction house. Of course people are going to use it. If they don't it's because they haven't looked very hard at their own game; I myself have had to tell a bunch of friends how to use the auction house, and every single time, I give them a fresh set of weapons they're telling me "omg now I actually move on with this game." Such a statement is shocking, because that means that they are not finding items slightly above their own level in the areas that they are farming, which makes solo progression impossible and meaningless. It is not possible to go through this game solo untwinked, but the game is pointlessly more difficult in a group, and in fact, there are a number of mechanics that actively discourage it: increased damage on mobs per player, shared magic find, shared gold find

This statement is the crux of the entire gear issue.

90% of the gear drops in the game should not exist, period. Grey items just should not be there. They add nothing, and their sell price is so low they honestly aren't even worth that.

Of the other items, 50%, at least, will be sub-par, statwise, to your level.

And of the remainder of those, 95% of them will be either so poorly itemized as to be useless to everyone, or itemized for a different class.

Oh, and 50% of those good items will have inferior stats on them, such as a blue item two armor tiers above what you are wearing, but which has less Dexterity etcetera.

So, yeah, solo progression is impossible. The items don't, and with Diablo's gear setup, never will, no matter how much tweaking they do, drop reasonably.



If they wanted to make this game playable, they'd scratch the entire gear system and start over from scratch. All forged items would either use set stats, or allow you to pick which stats you wanted them to have. Random items would, rather than being completely RNG based, have set stat itemization and probably even have drop rates tied to the class you're playing. And they would get rid of greys completely.




But, yeah, horrible game, don't care about it anymore. Moving on.

[Madame Adequate]

Sounds like I've not missed much.

MEANWHILE, IN TORCHLIGHT

[Tavrobel]

Sounds like I've not missed much.

You missed the minimum wage. Meanwhile, in America Republicanland...

I suppose there has been a lot of negativity in this thread, so I should go on about the positive aspects of this game, or at least offer a means of solution for what could be fixed by Blizzard in order to make a game that has lasting power. If there's at least one thing about the Diablo series that people like, it is the addictive and simple gameplay, and its ability to remain a powerhouse game that is built into the gaming framework of millions of people for more than a decade. Even people who would not ordinarily play games a lot, would have played either Diablo I or Diablo II. People always come back to it, whether they played at release, with Lord of Destruction, the 1.09 patch, the 1.10 patch, or mods after that.

I would have to say that, conceptually, they did the skill system right. The inclusion of a auction house was the correct way to control the economy. The fundamental formula of addictive gameplay exists, but can't be brought out without its supporting elements. Also, the game has really good sound.

Skills/Rune system

The skill system in Diablo III works like this: you unlock all major skills within the first 30 levels of the game, which means that if you are a regular player (and not some psycho exploit grinder like I would be), you should finish Normal mode somewhere between levels 30 and 35. Fortunately, Normal mode is also fairly gear-independent. With each skill, you unlock modifications for each skill, called "Runes," not to be confused with a different idea of the same name in Diablo II. Each skill rune alters the skill in some way: some reduce the cost, some reduce the cooldown, some completely change the functionality. These are unlocked at certain levels after you get the skill. This allows for skills earned at early levels to be useful with a modification, even at later levels.

For example, Haunt, a Witch Doctor skill, allows you to shoot a spirit at an enemy, that will attach itself like a sticky grenade, and damage the enemy for a pre-determined amounts of damage for 12 seconds. One of the runes modifies the skill to damage and slow for the full 12 second duration. Another allows you to shorten duration to 2 seconds, making the spirit deal more damage per second, but less damage overall. One rune lets the spirit remain in the world for an additional 10 seconds before it dissipated the attack.

Normally, this skill would be something you shot at a large enemy, and leave it alone while you killed something else; alternatively, you could aim it at a very weak enemy, at which point, the spirit would start targeting another enemy. By using the slow rune, you would have significantly more leeway in ignoring the large enemy that you shot the Haunt at. By using the time-reduction rune, you could use the skill as a main form of damage, because 2 seconds isn't a lot to wait for, but the damage done total was large. By using the rune that let the spirit remain if there was no target to jump to would allow you to not have to worry about casting the spell multiple times, which would give you room to use more effective spells.

In theory, runes could completely change how you play, and could result in some very overpowered combinations that worked if it fit your playstyle. With regards to Diablo II, the Diablo III skill system was intended as a solution to the idea in Diablo II that early level skills were not useful compared to skills acquired at higher levels. This led to people saving skill points and dumping them into the highest level skills, which were, of course, the highest damage skills, as well.

Back in Diablo II...

Example, Barbarian Whirlwind (the second most nerfed skill in all of Diablo II history), and far superior to Bash, Double Swing and the like. Paladin Fanaticism outclassed Might, Blessed Aim, Concentration by providing all of these bonuses at once (with the exception of the bonus to Blessed Hammers from Concentration). Sorceress Frozen Orb did more damage to enemies than a 20 point Blizzard, and was easier to control and predict. The Diablo II solution was synergies, to make dumping points into older skills useful for using newer skills. However, that did not change how people saw the game: you still got the level 30 skill and used it, but now it was more skill-point demanding to use them effectively. You could no longer do something like an Orb/Lightning Sorc (60 point investment). Either you went pure Lightning (all 110 points), or you would not progress through Hell mode.

With the inclusion of runes, you now had a reason to start re-using old skills, because a new rune made life more interesting for skills acquired before level 6. Examples: most Monks use Fists of Thunder, which is a starting skills. the catch? Thunderclap-rune modifies the attack to add a short teleport, and adds a minor amount of area of effect. For a melee class that is dependent on positioning, this rune does half of the work for you.

88 MPH forward to Diablo III

In my opinion, Skills and Runes were correct. It makes me want to start using old skills again. It is a system that does not punish me for investing into the wrong skill.

Two problems.

Blizzard didn't get creative enough. They didn't go far enough. Blizzard designers went on and on about customization and alternate gameplay, but it still does not exist. The problem is that people playing through Inferno mode, and there are only a few skills and runes that allow you to do anything. It is as though classes were stuffed in a box and left to die in that role. If you didn't use Fists of Thunder/Thunderclap, you were using Deadly Reach/Keen Eye. Both of these are area of effect spells, and they both increase your ability to live: one repositions you, and one just raises your defense rating. Big whoop. Exciting.

Ohh, also, half of the runes suck. It's not just because they don't provide alternate means of gameplay, but it is a compounded effect of having other skills that do the exact same thing, but are better. Demon Hunter: even after the Nether Tentacles nerf, I still find it completely outlcasses any other Hatred spender in the game. It does damage in an area, goes in a straight line, and is slow, which allows you to instantly burst down an enemy when you time your regular attack. To what manner can anything like Rapid Fire compete, with its less damage and greater Hatred consumption per damage tick? How does Cluster Arrow compete, when the area of effect is harder to aim, and costs five times as much Hatred? How does Strafe compete, when firing arrows in every direction means that I'm surrounded and dead? How does Spike Traps compete when I have to wait for Spike Traps to be useful? How does Ball Lightning compete as an alternate rune to Elemental Arrow, when Nether Tentacles does more damage to a single target anyway?

Solution?

Blizzard has gotten half of it right, as the promised a weak skills buff in the next major patch, 1.04. But that does not fix the rather weak conceptualization of many of the other skills and their corresponding runes. If Blizzard does not want people following the cookie-cutter builds, they have to allow for skills that actually provide alternate gameplay in a way that is effective enough for people to progress with gear that they found.

Sound

Shockingly, I should mention this, despite the fact that for the most part, I play the game with the sounds off (I'd really rather listen to TSM's TheOddOne bitch about how Amumu can't start at level 18, or how American Ezreal is worse than any other Ezreal). The sound effects in this game really match up to the game and its atmosphere. The music is non-intrusive and depicts the environment really well. Unfortunately, it is ruined by...

The Plot (and the settings, if I want to be complete)

So, back in 1997, when I played Starcraft for the first time, I actually was really drawn into the plot. Meanwhile, in 2012, I find myself not caring about the woman who is turned to evil against her will and becomes the sworn enemy of everyone important (Leah/Kerrigan). I find myself non at all being shocked when I find out that my ally has been working against me the whole time (Mengsk/Adria). Spoilers for anyone who hasn't played Starcraft yet. I apologize. I have more comparisons, but you get the idea.

There no plot twist or turn that would have fooled even a eight year old. Even if I pretended to be fooled, I found myself not caring or connecting with the main characters at all.

But I did like the side characters

... your name is Covetous Shen? Are you also a Panda's Kung Fu master? Are you hinting at me that you might be a non-affiliated supernatural being in a world where I am drawn into a war between two races of supernatural beings bent on destroying me, eating me, turning me into one of them, or making me fight their dirty work for them? Have you acquired a Tom Bombadil complex where you tell me about a stone that you're seeking, which might be the whole point of the game's plot, and you're too concerned about losing the stone if you found it?

... so you tell me that you're a blonde girl who woke up with no personality (shocking) and suddenly acquired what appears to be the onset of severe depression caused by the potential murder of your sisters after being ported forward into time to find me, the adventurer? You're also not my lesbian love interest? Also, you're the most useful mercenary in the game for every class? Do I have to pay you? Wait, the other mercenaries don't suck? But which Holy Freeze aura mercenary can be forced into using now? You mean the Scoundrel and the Templar have equally compelling subplots and useful functionalities?

Solution?

Fire Metzen. Never let him write any story ever again. I don't care if your game got positive reviews. It is terrible writing that came out of some horrible Harry Potter slashfiction. Some random dude within three days of the game release created an entirely improved plot that would have made me care and been convinced at the titles of Lord Belial and Lord Azmodan. Guess what? Belial sucks at lying, Azmodan isn't much of a sinner (or a commander for that matter), and Tyrael is a stereotypical dumb movie black person. They could only have made him worse by constantly asking me why I was asking all them questions (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwUX4cSwrRk).

So, what did happen to Malthael?

It's like they didn't bother with any of the previous crafted lore that was made for them. Trashed. The books? Ignored, mostly.

Meanwhile, I'm playing through Diablo II's Act II and Act III again while playing through Diablo III's Act II. I played around in a desert city about three miles away from Lut Gholein instead of wandering the streets of Xiansai? What, Asian looking people are immune to lying?

Meanwhile, I'm playing through Diablo II's Act IV and Act V again while playing through Diablo III's Act III. So, instead of visiting some nuclear Chernobyl site that would approximated what Tyrael did to the Worldstone, I get to fight in a castle in the middle of winter? For all of this "best battle commander" thing Azmodan had got going on, I didn't get to visit Westmarch, the only military power in the known Diablo world?

Meanwhile, I'm walking along a very large system of connected bridges somewhere on Aiur. I think they used the same shade of blue for the vases in Act IV as they did for Protoss Pylons. I guess Diablo didn't have enough Psi to support his troops, but a group of heroes only cost five food each?

I'm taking a break now. A discussion on itemization is really involved.

[Skyblade]

The Plot (and the settings, if I want to be complete)

So, back in 1997, when I played Starcraft for the first time, I actually was really drawn into the plot. Meanwhile, in 2012, I find myself not caring about (SPOILER) I find myself non at all being shocked when I find out that (SPOILER) Spoilers for anyone who hasn't played Starcraft yet. I apologize. I have more comparisons, but you get the idea.

There no plot twist or turn that would have fooled even a eight year old. Even if I pretended to be fooled, I found myself not caring or connecting with the main characters at all.


Solution?

Fire Metzen. Never let him write any story ever again. I don't care if your game got positive reviews. It is terrible writing that came out of some horrible Harry Potter slashfiction. Some random dude within three days of the game release created an entirely improved plot that would have made me care and been convinced at the titles of Lord Belial and Lord Azmodan. Guess what? Belial sucks at lying, Azmodan isn't much of a sinner (or a commander for that matter), and Tyrael is a stereotypical dumb movie black person. They could only have made him worse by constantly asking me why I was asking all them questions (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwUX4cSwrRk).

Oddly enough, I've already ranted a hundred times how the plot of Warcraft III was identical to the plot of Starcraft (which it is, just use a basic word substitution).

It seems the guy is incapable of actually doing any decent writing or doing anything original.

So he's a perfect fit for Blizzard.