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

[Humanity has risen!]

This really isn't like Torchlight, especially since Torchlight was so cartoony and cel-shaded, and had things like unbelievable steampunk stuff everywhere. This is more like a combination of Torchlight and Titan Quest with a grimer style.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

This is an evil game. You get items that give you more items that you turn into yogurt that you turn into items that give more items...

Protip : buy gems cheap at the auction house, they aren't even level restricted. Radiant ruby for 1000? Yeah that's a bit better than one yogurt item. Square for 5000? What, really?

I found me a legendary armor, and it seems some people didn't get a single legendary even while they got to level 60. Better sell it at auction house for ridiculous money and buy more gems or something.

 

[Gregz]

I'm rather baffled by the reports on this thread. I need to see this pile of shit for myself, so can anyone PM me a guest key?

 

[Futile Rhetoric]

So people here actually bought this? Thanks for being part of the problem.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

You're welcome.

 

[shihonage]

You just rolled a 20 in your *summon Lyric Suite* spell, but i'm not in the mood to derail this thread, so i'll just say that you're a fucking moron and your shit is all retarded.

I read the novel. It was mind-blowing.

Then I watched Solaris from start to finish in its native Russian. It was a pretentious slog of extremely-drawn-out variety, the kind that raised the question - at which point does a "reintepretation" cross the line into being an insult to the source material?

The same question that comes to mind upon playing Diablo3...

Yeah man, I agree. But Event Horizon? Let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

It clearly used Solaris as base, and, unlike either of the Solaris films, it was entertaining in a sense that it captured at least one angle of Solaris novel - the fear.

It may have done it cheaply, but it still did it, which elevates it above both films actually named after the novel. Event Horizon is a rewatchable horror flick, because it fulfills the base requirement of a movie - to entertain.

"Rewatchable'" is not a term I could apply to either film actually bearing the novel's name.

 

[sea]

Mr esteemed game journalist, instant death has nothing to do with potion spam/health orbs mechanics. Instant death just means you are not ready stat wise for that fight. So you should probably put some defensive stats on your char, or in case you rushed go back a bit and level up.

I don't think so. I'm actually higher than average level considering where I am in the game and I have some pretty good gear too - there's basically zero challenge outside of those one-hit attacks that some bosses have, as well as lag spikes that see my character get teleported around etc. I also have high elemental resistance for my difficulty (around 35) and many of those attacks enemies have are of an elemental nature anyway. I'm just calling poor balance - if you're an HP sponge like a Barbarian I'm sure those pose little threat, but for someone squishy who depends upon cooldown skills to survive (again, Wizard in my case), being blindsided with little to no recourse is fairly common in those situations.

By the way, constant lag due to online-play ensures that I always have to activate potions etc. about 0.1-0.2 seconds before I ever really need them (even when the meter reads "green"). This is a serious problem for twitch-based gameplay and one that the design should have taken into account.

None of those are oneshot mechanics (in lower difficulties when you learn to avoid them) and killing players when they're careless or when sometimes they meet a new type of enemy with a surprising ability is fine. Die -> learn -> try again is a perfectly fine mechanic and they did a pretty good job with letting you get fast enough in the fight.
What's one of the fondest memories people have from D1, riight... fresh meat -> DEAD.

I don't have a problem with death. My problem is that those sorts of attacks are impossible to learn about *until* you die. Additionally, the death penalties are set up specifically to be annoying and time-wasting, and that this only applies in solo play, not multiplayer. I'd actually be totally be fine with a 5%-10% experience hit... but don't take me out of the game for 5 minutes, that's not fun.

Now you start assuming what Blizzard's goal is. You apparently don't even enjoy the type of games they produce yet you pretend to know how they design them? You can't even teleport in boss fights, other players need to resurect you (which has a certain amount of risk) or finish the fight without you.

They've spoken about this stuff dozens of times before in interviews. It's pretty common knowledge that many of the design choices in Diablo III were made specifically to address potion-chugging and the instant death combos (i.e. 100% reflect damage curse placed while whirlwinding = dead with no real defense).

As far as death penalties are concerned, 2-5 mins running back (which is GREATLY exagerated unless you take different routes) can be considered quite a mild one. It certainly was blamed of being dumbed down as opposed to the naked run in D2.

I don't think so. Okay, 5 minutes is at the extreme end (and I'm mostly referring to the long, tedious boss battles with that one, especially if you have to wait for your cooldowns to reset), but many of the levels are long, boring straight corridors with nothing to do once you've cleared out the monsters. Again, not a problem in multiplayer. In single-player, it takes me out of the game immediately and deters me from wanting to try again. The point is to (obviously) discourage dying, but there are ways you can punish the player without simply annoying him/her. As I said, I'd be more than happy with an XP pentalty or something. Just let me keep playing.

And that's the armchair game designer showing up. Starting from an erroneous assumption (instant-death mechanics are very few if any, I can't remember one at least) and ending up with the conclusion that every action game is a QTE. Why did you stop there, every game where you have to perform input in a finite amount of time is QTE too, damn them all to hell.
To follow up, your astute mind discovered the problem with the potions wasn't really in the "aesthetic" and you probably expected the game to fix that underlying cause. I mean we could just make enemies not do damage so we don't need to react to it by using abilities or potions.

Let me put it this way. As a mechanic, cooldowns are not usually very fun, and don't really have a lot of depth in most games. Diablo III implements them in such a way that they're there to balance ability spam, instead of actually requiring you to use abilities intelligently. When do I activate my Wizard's Archon ability? The answer is - as often as I can, because the only thing stopping me from a huge DPS bonus is the cooldown. Overall I feel that Diablo III's combat system is made more shallow by this, although that's not to say Diablo II didn't have its own issues either.

As for aesthetics, this might be more particular to the Wizard class that I've been playing, but abilities like Diamond Skin feel like potion substitutes to me. They have similar cooldown lengths and almost every battle for me basically boils down to managing timers between healing, using protection spells and stunning enemies. My issue isn't that enemies do damage or that abilities are there etc. - it's that the game seems very precisely balanced so as to make sure enemies have just enough damage output to require you to be always mashing buttons. The question posed isn't "which is best right now?" it's "I hope my cooldowns are ready so I won't die." That's sort of where the QTE parallel comes from. I have yet to play Nightmare mode, but on the default difficulty, I've never had to make a tactical consideration between which to use.

 

[attackfighter]

For a billion dollar company, why did they cheap out on the voice acting? Leah sounds like the female equivalent of "Bob from Accounting" which is ironic because she is a veteran voice actress, so it's probably the sound director's fault. They probably didn't give her much to work with in terms of setting up the mood/feel of the game, or only payed her enough money to "phone in" her performance. Gives the whole game an amateurish feel.

The voice director for StarCraft 2 (who was hired from hollywood) encouraged Kerrigan's VA to speak in a generic, plain voice. So maybe it's the same deal here - dumb hollywood hag who doesn't know what she's doing.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

et tu, sgc?

not playing it, I've been skipping the big codex games like skyrim and me3 lately

I'm curious but not queue up in singleplayer level/lose itamz due to lag curious

my desires to play path of exile(open beta is how close? dammit) or snag Fate: the cursed king are higher to be perfectly honest

 

[Beautiful Clown Painting]

Call me a stupid idiot as much as you want, I still like it and it doesn't stop me from enjoying great games of yonder

That's not the reason I call you a stupid idiot.
Even if you liked oblivion I would just shake my head in distaste but not necessarily called you a stupid idiot.

I call you a stupid idiot because your choice has consequences and the consequence of everyone bending over to Blizzard's DRM scheme will hit the entire industry, because this kind of DRM isn't genre specific.

In other words, you're breaking the line because you can't resist fapping to your clickfest H&S even if this mean you will add your part to a potential disaster.

In other words, you're breaking the line and, in good tradition of Codexian WH40k image spam:

Also, how the fuck can you like shoddybugger's Solaris?
It was a turd and an insult to the original.

WTF is this? Are you totally delusional? It's not because Blizzard can pull such a trick that every developer can: they already have a humongous player base through WoW that no other developer has got. Blizzard is the Facebook of video games. If Piranha Bytes, Larian or CD Projekt tries such a thing (which I doubt a lot, they're not as stupid as that) they will bite the bullet. It's not a future model, it is the Blizzard model since they went crazy with WoW. Of course you'll have new companies which will try to emulate this model but they have next to no chance at all to pull it off. All of the "Diablo 3" data is server-side and to do that it requires a huge infrastructure that only them have (and even them struggle with it, see all their server crashes). If another publisher forces you to play online your solo game just crack it with the last scene EXE, I doubt that they'll have the resources to keep all the data server-side.

 

[Konjad]

if anyone got guest pass, i'd be thankful. I don't wanna purchase it blindly (and I guess it won't have a demo?)

 

[Grunker]

et tu, sgc?

not playing it

Wasn't what I meant. I meant if you're also among the "lol codex posers talk about turn-based shit but the topics that get a billion pages are d3 and skyrim lol so poser".

As for the rest, Path of Exile is on my list too, though I'm planning to play some D3 with some casual-bros before it comes out...

 

[Zed]

4 fucking players, FOUR, why so little

Because characters can do about 10 times more stuff in Diablo 3 than in Diablo 2. The resurrect mechanic would not work very well if you had more either. Not that I care, I play solo.

Feels much less "multiplayery" than D2 if you get what I mean.

Playing the Butcher with two others on Inferno felt very multiplayerish. People dying, the need to time your resurrects and take turns "tanking" etc. My experience is that D3 is a superior co-op game. By quite a margin. Co-op in Diablo 2 just meant zerging a badly scaled boss.

 

[joeydohn]

WTF is this? Are you totally delusional? It's not because Blizzard can pull such a trick that every developer can: they already have a humongous player base through WoW that no other developer has got. Blizzard is the Facebook of video games. If Piranha Bytes, Larian or CD Projekt tries such a thing (which I doubt a lot, they're not as stupid as that) they will bite the bullet. It's not a future model, it is the Blizzard model since they went crazy with WoW. Of course you'll have new companies which will try to emulate this model but they have next to no chance at all to pull it off. All of the "Diablo 3" data is server-side and to do that it requires a huge infrastructure that only them have (and even them struggle with it, see all their server crashes). If another publisher forces you to play online your solo game just crack it with the last scene EXE, I doubt that they'll have the resources to keep all the data server-side.

DropBox, OnLive, Google Docs, etc. are all about taking control out of your hands, cloud computing is what marketing wants you to believe is the way forward. When people see how successful Diablo 3 is they'll want to emulate it just like Diablo 2 and WoW, you can expect to see more games using such terrible DRM in the future. Didn't EA already try always online DRM with some games? That's just one step behind Diablo 3's DRM.

 

[damicore]

Call me a stupid idiot as much as you want, I still like it and it doesn't stop me from enjoying great games of yonder

That's not the reason I call you a stupid idiot.
Even if you liked oblivion I would just shake my head in distaste but not necessarily called you a stupid idiot.

I call you a stupid idiot because your choice has consequences and the consequence of everyone bending over to Blizzard's DRM scheme will hit the entire industry, because this kind of DRM isn't genre specific.

In other words, you're breaking the line because you can't resist fapping to your clickfest H&S even if this mean you will add your part to a potential disaster.

In other words, you're breaking the line and, in good tradition of Codexian WH40k image spam:

Also, how the fuck can you like shoddybugger's Solaris?
It was a turd and an insult to the original.

WTF is this? Are you totally delusional? It's not because Blizzard can pull such a trick that every developer can: they already have a humongous player base through WoW that no other developer has got. Blizzard is the Facebook of video games. If Piranha Bytes, Larian or CD Projekt tries such a thing (which I doubt a lot, they're not as stupid as that) they will bite the bullet. It's not a future model, it is the Blizzard model since they went crazy with WoW. Of course you'll have new companies which will try to emulate this model but they have next to no chance at all to pull it off. All of the "Diablo 3" data is server-side and to do that it requires a huge infrastructure that only them have (and even them struggle with it, see all their server crashes). If another publisher forces you to play online your solo game just crack it with the last scene EXE, I doubt that they'll have the resources to keep all the data server-side.

Have you seen the tremendous amount of F2P MMO games that roam around you? I don't even.
What the fuck are you talking about?

I'm not purchasing this because of it's horrible DRM. Killed by lag in SP? Infuriating as fuck.

I'm afraid this is possibly setting the standards for the rest of the gaming industry which would pretty much finish off PC Gaming.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

lol so poser

come on babee you know I don't do the unspecified codex vehemence thing

 

[Jaedar]

if anyone got guest pass, i'd be thankful. I don't wanna purchase it blindly (and I guess it won't have a demo?)

The demo aka trial edition was said to be scheduled for release about a month after retail.

 

[Konjad]

if anyone got guest pass, i'd be thankful. I don't wanna purchase it blindly (and I guess it won't have a demo?)

The demo aka trial edition was said to be scheduled for release about a month after retail.

oh, ok then, i'll wait.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

You just rolled a 20 in your *summon Lyric Suite* spell, but i'm not in the mood to derail this thread, so i'll just say that you're a fucking moron and your shit is all retarded.

I read the novel. It was mind-blowing.

Then I watched Solaris from start to finish in its native Russian. It was a pretentious slog of extremely-drawn-out variety, the kind that raised the question - at which point does a "reintepretation" cross the line into being an insult to the source material?

The same question that comes to mind upon playing Diablo3...

Yeah man, I agree. But Event Horizon? Let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

It clearly used Solaris as base, and, unlike either of the Solaris films, it was entertaining in a sense that it captured at least one angle of Solaris novel - the fear.

It may have done it cheaply, but it still did it, which elevates it above both films actually named after the novel. Event Horizon is a rewatchable horror flick, because it fulfills the base requirement of a movie - to entertain.

"Rewatchable'" is not a term I could apply to either film actually bearing the novel's name.

How did it clearly use Solaris as a base? I don't mind you liking Event Horizon or disliking Tarkovsky (incidentally, his Stalker is also inferior to the novel), but I just don't see how they relate to one another. For one the central theme of Solaris is nowhere to be seen in EH, which is essentially about a demon from hell screwing with people on a spaceship for shits and giggles.

 

[Beautiful Clown Painting]

WTF is this? Are you totally delusional? It's not because Blizzard can pull such a trick that every developer can: they already have a humongous player base through WoW that no other developer has got. Blizzard is the Facebook of video games. If Piranha Bytes, Larian or CD Projekt tries such a thing (which I doubt a lot, they're not as stupid as that) they will bite the bullet. It's not a future model, it is the Blizzard model since they went crazy with WoW. Of course you'll have new companies which will try to emulate this model but they have next to no chance at all to pull it off. All of the "Diablo 3" data is server-side and to do that it requires a huge infrastructure that only them have (and even them struggle with it, see all their server crashes). If another publisher forces you to play online your solo game just crack it with the last scene EXE, I doubt that they'll have the resources to keep all the data server-side.

DropBox, OnLive, Google Docs, etc. are all about taking control out of your hands, cloud computing is what marketing wants you to believe is the way forward. When people see how successful Diablo 3 is they'll want to emulate it just like Diablo 2 and WoW, you can expect to see more games using such terrible DRM in the future. Didn't EA already try always online DRM with some games? That's just one step behind Diablo 3's DRM.

You're talking about huge corporations. Only Blizzard for the time being are able to follow this model. If it becomes the norm of all electronic activity so be it, but it can't reasonnably be backtraced to Blizzard, "Diablo 3" being a symptom not the disease in itself. And I believe that there will still be a huge niche of gamers willing to support "old school" games with no online functions of any sort just as "Wasteland 2" managed to rise 3 million bucks on the promise of a RPG with old-school mechanics.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

mah copy

I will personally ban from CDS anyone who admits to pre-purchasing Diablo 3

 

[Beautiful Clown Painting]

Have you seen the tremendous amount of F2P MMO games that roam around you? I don't even.
What the fuck are you talking about?

I'm not purchasing this because of it's horrible DRM. Killed by lag in SP? Infuriating as fuck.

I'm afraid this is possibly setting the standards for the rest of the gaming industry which would pretty much finish off PC Gaming.

That's just first month stress. I repeat it to you: "Diablo 3" is an hybrid: it wears the clothes of a single player game but is as heart much more close to a MMORPG, the AH being central to its gameplay. I doubt that you can solo the bosses in Inferno mode. I can understand that you hate that (I'm not sure of liking it neither) but it's the way it was designed.

 

[Beautiful Clown Painting]

I'm pretty sure that the PVE side of Diablo 3 that we are experiencing now is also a huge beta, allowing Blizzard to gather data for the real deal to come: the PVP side and the ladder. They'll keep developing the PVE side through patches just like they do for WoW, allowing players to gather resources and trading them through the AH. Diablo 3 will be to the first 2 Diablos what Quake 3 was to the first 2 Quakes. Except that you have to find gear through a PVE co-op based game or through the AH. It's a new kind of game entirely.

 

[damicore]

Have you seen the tremendous amount of F2P MMO games that roam around you? I don't even.
What the fuck are you talking about?

I'm not purchasing this because of it's horrible DRM. Killed by lag in SP? Infuriating as fuck.

I'm afraid this is possibly setting the standards for the rest of the gaming industry which would pretty much finish off PC Gaming.

That's just first month stress. I repeat it to you: "Diablo 3" is an hybrid: it wears the clothes of a single player game but is as heart much more close to a MMORPG, the AH being central to its gameplay. I doubt that you can solo the bosses in Inferno mode. I can understand that you hate that (I'm not sure of liking it neither) but it's the way it was designed.

I'm in Argentina, the closest server is 10.000km away: 200ms will be the least I'll be getting.
I'm ranging between fucking 400 and 500 ms right now FFS (on guestpass) which renders the game unplayable still blizzdrones over here say you can enjoy the SP with 400-500ms of ping barely noticing it. This is really infuriating.
Also I should ban everyone else from downloading or streaming videos in any other comp in my house and I can't download nor stream anything myself while playing Diablo.

Waiting for scene crack.

Oh and by the way this doesn't look nor feel like a D2 sequel at all which makes the game further shittier.
Also pay to win.
Also mmo-like rarity in drops.

 

[Telengard]

Blizzard isn't the only one who has switched to online only. Ubisoft did it awhile ago. The counter rage nearly killed them off, but apparently their sacrifice has made it more acceptable for other companies to do it, since this isn't the first time Blizzard has done it, and EA's busy expanding their use of the practice too.

Always online DRM isn't the future. It's the now.

As are incidental user-fees to use a portion of your game, such as user-fees to use the auction house. (Or user-fee purchases of DLC to complete your game, for that matter.)

Every purchase of Diablo III merely makes all that a more desirable practice for other companies to leap onto the already building trend.

 

[Beautiful Clown Painting]

You won't get a scene crack: the solo campaign is just make-up. It has nothing to do with what the game will develop into. It's not a diablo-clone at all, it's another thing. And I repeat it: it's not a RPG at all, not even an action one.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

I'm pretty sure that the PVE side of Diablo 3 that we are experiencing now is also a huge beta, allowing Blizzard to gather data for the real deal to come: the PVP side and the ladder. They'll keep developing the PVE side through patches just like they do for WoW, allowing players to gather resources and trading them through the AH. Diablo 3 will be to the first 2 Diablos what Quake 3 was to the first 2 Quakes. Except that you have to find gear through a PVE co-op based game or through the AH. It's a new kind of game entirely.

Considering how WoW PvP turned out, you might be in for a rude awakening bro. Also, Blizzard keeps saying it's not supposed to be competitive, which I interpret as pre-emptive damage control for when it turns out to be retardedly imbalanced.