Auction House Online: The Game (Diablo 3) is a MASSIVE decline

[Menckenstein]

I'm fine with the game itself now but everytime I remember the always online shit I get annoyed and want to forget about it.

FFS Blizzard.

 

[fuzz]

Check this Diablo connoisseur defining the series as about choices.
http://www.toptiertactics.com/2012/04/diablo-3-beta-review/

>In Diablo 1, players had to carefully weigh the potential risks and benefits of using shrines
Clicking dem shrines or not?

>should the player increase a magic ability, even if it would then cost all his mana to use it?
Yeah, I'd totally leave that Fireball at level 1 to be spammable.

>players also had to make constant decisions about the loot that fell around them. Was it worth picking up? Was it worth identifying
Oh, wow.

 

[joeydohn]

>players also had to make constant decisions about the loot that fell around them. Was it worth picking up? Was it worth identifying
Oh, wow.

Diablo: The deep ARPG for mensans.

 

[sea]

In all seriousness, he does have some decent points. Loot was a bigger deal in Diablo and there were more trade-offs to be made. Even shrines had a lot of potential negative effects like permanent stat loss or losing your items, so you had to be careful. It wasn't as brutal as a typical roguelike but I think it's fair to say that there were more risk/reward questions that aren't really present in Diablo II and especially III.

He's also totally right about difficulty. The third game is a complete joke, and while Diablo II wasn't immensely challenging, there was also a risk of death if you did stupid things, even early on, and at least drinking health potions was necessary. In Diablo III you have so much life regeneration that death is almost nonexistent. I know health orbs exist to keep players in the fight rather than running back to town for potions, but they drop way too often and most enemies are so easy to kill that it's almost never risky to go after them unless you specifically avoided healing yourself for some reason. This is the sort of thing that might change a lot in the final game or just later on, but I'm still worried they've de-fanged the game significantly to play into the MMO ego fantasy.

Same also applies to writing and voice acting. Okay, it's Diablo so nobody really cares, but stuff like the blacksmith asking you to murder his infected wife and barely even emoting as you pummel her to death... the guy doesn't even introduce himself before you've slaughtered his soulmate for him! The past games were two-dimensional at best but at least they didn't have characters with nonsensical motivations, or that were literally moustache-twirling "I"m Evil Badguy, prepare to die!" cardboard cut-outs. It's pathetic how they've turned a somewhat tragic villain, King Leoric, into some sort of gigantic moron who says "bones" all the time (get it? he's a skeleton, do you get it yet?).

 

[Father Walker]

>In Diablo 1, players had to carefully weigh the potential risks and benefits of using shrines
Clicking dem shrines or not?

 

[pocahaunted]

He's also totally right about difficulty. The third game is a complete joke

There we go again...

Modern gamers judge games by how many pixels it can support, some of you are hellbent on claiming a game is easier based on a purposely easy demo, just for the sake of nostalgia.

 

[Brayko]

Nostalgiafags

 

[sea]

He's also totally right about difficulty. The third game is a complete joke

There we go again...

Modern gamers judge games by how many pixels it can support, some of you are hellbent on claiming a game is easier based on a purposely easy demo, just for the sake of nostalgia.

Did Blizzard actually say the demo was purposely made very easy, or is that just people trying to convince themselves the game will be a challenge? Closest I ever saw was them saying stuff like "it's the early game so of course it's easy."

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

He's also totally right about difficulty. The third game is a complete joke

There we go again...

Modern gamers judge games by how many pixels it can support, some of you are hellbent on claiming a game is easier based on a purposely easy demo, just for the sake of nostalgia.

Did Blizzard actually say the demo was purposely made very easy, or is that just people trying to convince themselves the game will be a challenge? Closest I ever saw was them saying stuff like "it's the early game so of course it's easy."

4 Difficulty Settings. First Part of Act I. Diablo II was just as easy at the beginning. Yadda yadda yadda (read the thread).

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Did Blizzard actually say the demo was purposely made very easy

Yes.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

they've turned a somewhat tragic villain, King Leoric, into some sort of gigantic moron who says "bones" all the time.

this is on par with the self-aware bomber AI in the movie Stealth that downloads heavy metal music when it turns evil

 

[Mangoose]

Did Blizzard actually say the demo was purposely made very easy

Yes.

Link?

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Did Blizzard actually say the demo was purposely made very easy

Yes.

Link?

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3229382912#16

 

[sea]

So easy game that teaches people to spam skills and click blindly again and again = preparing players for high difficulties. Easy to learn, difficult to master my ass. Just about the only thing in Diablo III's systems that would allow for any sort of "mastery" comes in item and skill selection, and I'm not sure what's so masterful about grinding for gear. What, do cooldowns, mana costs and so on increase as you go into the game? Does life regeneration gear become harder to find?

If there's a difficulty curve, with gear and skills becoming relatively less powerful against monsters, then doesn't that just fit the definition of HP bloat? Diablo is not a very complicated game and the most complicated parts of it always came from the character system, not loot drops - with that out the window, there's no involved Devil May Cry-style action to pick up the slack. I honestly do not see much potential for depth in a game with suck a simple and limited set of inputs, and I'd love to be wrong... but there's only so much you can do with a single character and the interplay between HP, blocking(?) and elemental resistances.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

I honestly do not see much potential for depth in a game with suck a simple and limited set of inputs.

man your review for gamebanshee or gamasutra is going to get so much hate mail from fanboys

 

[sea]

man your review for gamebanshee or gamasutra is going to get so much hate mail from fanboys

(To be anal) Gamasutra isn't game reviews, it's a games industry news site that also happens to post blogs they consider worthy by some arbitrary criteria. So no "reviews" there, but I do plan on talking about the game's mechanics and systems in more detail once I've been able to play the full version.

As I said, I'd love to be wrong, but the beta did not convince me. It's still fun, granted, but it's a different kind of stupid, carefree fun that comes mostly from the visuals, sound and feeling of hitting monsters, and not the sort of long-term satisfaction you get from an RPG.

 

[Mangoose]

What, do cooldowns, mana costs and so on increase as you go into the game? Does life regeneration gear become harder to find?

Maybe? Or maybe encounter difficulty increases?

I dunno. I'm not familiar with Blizzard's trends of claims as much as I know Bioware/EA will claim bullshit. Guess we'll see when release.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

So no "reviews" there, but I do plan on talking about the game's mechanics and systems in more detail

see, that's what I think of as a review

not the "reviews" from the sites which purportedly do them full-time and end up being entertainment news for gamers where games are the celebrities

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

there's no involved Devil May Cry-style action to pick up the slack

I wouldn't be so sure about that. The video's they've shown of higher difficulty levels seem to suggest that the pace of the action, the importance of dodging and proper skill use, and the deadliness of your enemies all shoot through the roof.

 

[Average Manatee]

there's no involved Devil May Cry-style action to pick up the slack

I wouldn't be so sure about that. The video's they've shown of higher difficulty levels seem to suggest that the pace of the action, the importance of dodging and proper skill use, and the deadliness of your enemies all shoot through the roof.

Blizzard pretending that they can challenge people with an IQ above 80. This has never happened before.

 

[Brayko]

Half the Codex will dig it for what it is, the other half will pick it apart. The third half won't even play it.

 

[Jaesun]

Who is this Codex you speak of?

 

[Damned Registrations]

Who is this Codex you speak of?

We are the Codex.
You will be trolled.
Discussion is futile.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I have successfully infiltrated Torchlight 2 beta, I'll make a thread with some impressions (And maybe screens?) and comparisons to D3 beta in a bit.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Bit will have to be tomorrow, too goddamn late now. Super fast impressions after looking at it for all of 15 minutes: feels like Torchlight, only way smoother. Animations are great, UI feels pretty good, Skyway will be pleased since there are stat points when you level up as well as skill points. Engineer class has a face with a monocle on it.

Heard the beta is something like 6 hours long supposedly, so it's quite a bit heftier than Diablo 3's beta if true.

 

[Malakal]

There is a nice link that has somehow resurrected my faith in D3. Talking about difficulty and viable builds.

If its true I could see where they are going with the game and added stuff. Casual stuff for casuals, hardcore for hardcores er codexers?

 

[joeydohn]

Haha, when they show the clip of Diablo 2.