Diablo 3

[drunkninja24]

Played through Act I, loving it so far. Witch Doctor class is far more amazing than I thought it'd be, if only for the fact I get jars of spiders as a ranged weapon. Admittedly I never got into the real nitty gritty of D2, but playing through this, it sure as hell feels like Diablo to me.

[iconoclast]

Just finished Normal, took around 14 hours with breaks and AFKs and such. Acts 3 and 4 are by far the best. The Monk gets hilariously overpowered by the end too, you don't really have to do anything but hold in the right mouse button and press 3 to pull enemies to you.

Here's a pic of my character (she's level 30): http://i.imgur.com/WM2HG.jpg
It would have been nice if there was a bit more variety for the armor's visuals; I only came across a few different models for each part.

[njiska]

Finally got my copy. Added the key to my Battle.net account, logged into my PC at home and started the download no problem. Tried to install off disc on my Mac laptop at work and found that an internet connection is required to install. WTF? I get the need for online for the main game, but why the installer? I checked and the game data is definitely on the disc.

[drunkninja24]

There's some weird update or something for the installer, I dunno.

[Khan]

Yea that shit surprised me too, it takes forever to download whatever it is just to install the game, I managed to play for a couple more hours today and got to level 16 couple of my friends are near level 40 already i tried playing with them and got my ass owned a fair few times im currently a wizard but on my next play through i'm going to try the Monk since hes so uberly powerful. I disconnected and went downstairs to have dinner got back and decided to resume my game but there was no free servers...im trying to play singleplayer and its determined by if theres a server free also be wary of who joins your game if its public since you get the idiots who decide to rush ahead all the time and kill everything

[Despatche]

this armor is hilarious and i'm glad they put it in there

[DragonInstall]

Why does this game seem so damn stream-lined? It's like this game was designed to be a MMO. No stat redistribution, auction houses, having to be online all the time. Man this game seems so boring the more I read up on it.

[drauch]

Why does this game seem so damn stream-lined? It's like this game was designed to be a MMO. No stat redistribution, auction houses, having to be online all the time. Man this game seems so boring the more I read up on it.

Yeah, it's a really simplified action/RPG. It's pretty cartoony and goofy, and was obviously inspired by their baby WoW. It's fun, but it can't hold a candle to the original games. It feels like a completely different series, kinda like Dungeon Siege or Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance.

Voice acting is dreadful. I turned it off and it's significantly better. I don't know what happened to Blizzard's writers. The dialogue is embarrassingly bad and the NPCs/your character never shut up and just spout nonsense/"humorous" things.

[Despatche]

good lord, now i'm starting to feel uncomfortable. only thing i'm going to say on it: diablo ii didn't have stat redistribution for a very long time, because blizzard doesn't care for it.

[Khan]

servers are down for maintenance i guess, i was just about to complete a quest too screw you blizzard!

[drunkninja24]

Huh...I'm actually finding the VA to be pretty good myself. And I haven't noticed my character talking much outside of normal scripted events unless it's like a short quib after getting a huge enemy kill, and even then, it's pretty drowned out by the sound of everything dying around me

And the game still seems pretty dark to me. I mean, shit, one of the first quests you go on involves you helping a dude kill his wife while she basically vomits zombies and shit.

btw anyone who wants to add me to their friend list, just add the battletag "drunkninja#1671"

[Blackbird]

Diablo 3 Gameplay:

Diablo 3 Grimdark

Dunno why everyone complains that Diablo 3 is too bright and colorful. It looks nothing like WoW.






[This post was sarcasm]

[Ruldra]

Diablo 3 Gameplay:

Diablo 3 Grimdark

Dunno why everyone complains that Diablo 3 is too bright and colorful. It looks nothing like WoW.

[Blackbird]

Yo Ruldra, you got that in 1080p? I think I just found a new desktop...

One upside of this is that we have another solution for the people that want to rip ponies.

[Despatche]

the secret level was way too funny for its own good, i think

edit: stretch to appropriate size versus scale and fill the rest with that light blue

[Ruldra]

Yo Ruldra, you got that in 1080p? I think I just found a new desktop...

All I did was stretching the pic to 1080p. Not sure if it's good enough.

http://imgur.com/EPQmV.jpg

[Blackbird]

I'll tinker with the original image; I think I can make it scale better by extending the sky blue background to either side for the right aspect ratio.

[drauch]

I liked Diablo because your characters hardly talked, unless it was necessary. Kinda like Doom guy. In Diablo 1/2 there was always a really serious sense of impending doom. In this one I kill stuff and spout off nonsense and help civilians escape cages and talk to shopkeepers about funny stuff. I'll stop complaining. Fine. But I'm still pissed and will always be pissed.

Game doesn't get really good until Act III. Enemies finally get pretty evil looking (no more fuckin' witch ladies floating around by luna moth/dragon flies, silly fat guys, loot goblins from Golden Axe). Difficulty get bumped up significantly and the amount of enemies increases. It's almost like a constant barrage of enemies swarming you. It's a new change, and I kinda like it. It's pretty intense and doesn't let up. I commend Diablo III for that, at least.

Blizzard has always been a step ahead in cinematics. It still looks really good--but wow, the story is awful. I just beat normal mode and laughed out loud at the last line. The whole game is a pretty pathetic attempt at being "epic" like silly LoTR high fantasy. Tyrael went from being a memorable, neat looking character, to possibly one of the lamest video game characters I've ever seen.

Enough bitching from a grumpy guy who's been playing these games since 1996. It's still fun, at least.

[Leader Bee]

Not played any of it yet. I spent 8 hours downloading this using blizzards shitty downloader and when it finally completed (yes I even waited for the bit where it looks like it's completed but has frozen) it wouldnt install. I ran the installer and it comes up with some crap about updates, then IP helper stops working and it just doesn't get any further... hell I couldn't even get to the bit about fire raining fromt he sky and it not being relased yet.

What should I do? Oh Noes!?

[Ruldra]

Some Gaffer makes it to lv 43 on hardcore mode. He logs in, server hiccups for a short while, now he's dead. Lolz.

[Blackbird]

Some Gaffer makes it to lv 43 on hardcore mode. He logs in, server hiccups for a short while, now he's dead. Lolz.

I think the idea of hardcore mode is good in theory, but I don't know why anyone would play this mode when the game is online only and a few seconds of lag at a critical time can destroy hours or days of progress. There's nothing you can do to predict or prevent it. It would be unbelievably frustrating.

[BryanM]

What should I do? Oh Noes!?

1. Check your directory where the installer downloaded to. Make sure that there aren't any files with .part on them, to make sure it really, really surely downloaded.

2. Make sure you have service pack 3 if on XP. Right clicking My Computer->properties is the fastest way to check. I think 7 and Vista are up to a SP2 or something.

3. Restart your computer. Mash the fuck out of the F8 button when it's starting up.

4. Run your computer in Safe Mode with Networking.

5. Try to install again!

6. If it fails, watch my little ponie to cope with the darkness and rage you feel.

7. By the way, if you got the installer from a early Europe downloader, it might be borked to begin with.

8. I spent all of yesterday trying to make the game work, so I picked up the entirety of their tech service support by osmosis.

[iconoclast]

I'm almost done with Act 2 on Nightmare mode; the game's a lot more fun now because there are way more elite enemies, and they can put up a decent fight. You just have to play a bit smarter in general, which is pretty nice.

Right now, I only have two major problems with the game: For one, most of the boss fights are very boring and uncreative, which is a shame because I thought Blizzard knew how to make some amazing boss fights after WoW. And the other problem is that Act 2 pretty much sucks. There's way too much running around enormous deserts, barely any boss fights, and it's just boring for the most part. The rest of the game is pretty fun tho.

[Leader Bee]

What should I do? Oh Noes!?

5. Try to install again!

Finally got into the launcher, it's played some nice music and it took ages to install. It's now doing some updating or something but hopefully all will be good when it has. I'm expecting it to hang when I actually press the "play" button though.

Battle.net updater or whatever it's called seems to randomly crash too, though it doesn't seem to be affecting the update in any way.

[drunkninja24]

btw, anyone who hasn't already, I'd highly recommend going into the game options and turning on Elective Mode and Advanced Tooltips. That way you can actually have more than one offensive/defensive skill mapped to 1-4 and can more directly compare stats on gear and what it does.

[iconoclast]

I finished Nightmare mode. It's way more fun than Normal, that's for sure. Hopefully Hell is even better.

[Age of Kings]

Starting tonight with a barbarian. Are the servers better yet?

[iconoclast]

My friends and I have never had any problems with the servers to be honest, aside from the first hour and a half after the game launched when it was impossible to log in. YMMV, I guess.

[blackoak]

My girlfriend has been at this all week. I'm letting her do the heavy lifting to see if its worth it, though the fact that Hardcore mode doesn't sound feasible really is disappointing.

[BryanM]

Got my $50 budget card in the mail today, started in on the starter edition. After being enraged at various UI things cluttering up my sky, I was finally able to suck it up and plow ahead.

The homogeneity of items that people have been bringing up is a huge concern for the long tail of the game - how the best weapon is just the best weapon for everyone and that's that.

Those esoteric mathy things you needed to know in D2... things like how the Blade Fury skill now adds its +damage to the base weapon damage that's then multiplied, so she's a physical attacker that gets a LOT out of +skills and offweapon enhanced damage... or how the Druid's wereforms basically don't give a shit about offweapon IAS, so speediness mods on gloves are useless to them... I have found the analogy to best describe their effect:

You know that story, Flatland? Where the little polygon is introduced to lovecraftian horrors beyond his ken of understanding: the point and the three dimensional universe? Esoteric builds were like ripping up a polygon's intestines by poking it with your finger, leaving his skin unbroken.

I dunno. It looks like they've eviscerated Poison: are there any skills that deal damage over 10+ seconds anymore? To hell with the concepts of building up a character, or even of building your own skill tree; if you can't poke someone with the deadly poke of poison and then run like a sissy while quoting passages out of the book Venom Cock and the poison eats the monster, what's the point?

For as much as they said they don't want to support PvP to the detriment of the PvE game, they've already normalized everything pretty well looks like.

On the upside

They obviously spent a lot of time and money on the presentation. It's great, but not something you care about after your first play through. The game was definitely biased toward the one-and-doners.

The rail-roading most likely gets old really fast; they should have just done Diablo: The MMO at this point.

The "jump into the quest" system might be better for multiplay; in D2 everyone just wanted to get into the damn dungeon and crush it. Screw that combing the desert shiz; how many times do I need to be reminded of Space Balls?