Say something nice about Diablo 3

[BloatedGuppy]

Oooooow, you are sarcastic, sorry, didn't notice that. It happens when two sarcastic posts collide. It's like unstoppable force =/= immovable object.

You have won me over with humor, you charming rake. You may resume making fun of Diablo 3 unhindered by my snide remarks.

 

[Gennadios]

Well, I've had massive issues with a Guild Wars guildie for months now. There's no use in pretending that people still play it, numbers are critical and there's just nowhere to go, if you want to get shit done you have to take anyone with talent regardless of pompousity.

Anyway, this one guy is poison. There's nowhere to go in Guild Wars, we have to stick together, but in a fresh game like Guild Wars 2 with lots of options, this guy's gonna drive away more talent than he'll make up for with his own.

Anyway, so he picked up Diablo 3 and we hadn't seen him in either Guild Wars or the Guild Wars 2 beta events. Hopefully it'll stay that way.

TL/DR: This one pompous asshole from my Guild Wars guild quit to play Diablo 3. Thank you, Diablo 3!

 

[setting_son]

The fact I can't maintain a stable internet connection to Blizzard's servers or even log in means that I'm not losing hours of my life to that time sink. It's not like I enjoy fun or anything.

 

[babinro]

It's clearly better than Diablo 2 in terms of storytelling, graphics, and difficulty.

Autolooting gold is great. Shared stash is awesome. The classes all play differently and feel powerful. It potentially offers some of the best replay value you can get in a video game.

 

[The Human Torch]

Oooooow, you are sarcastic, sorry, didn't notice that. It happens when two sarcastic posts collide. It's like unstoppable force =/= immovable object.

You have won me over with humor, you charming rake. You may resume making fun of Diablo 3 unhindered by my snide remarks.

Don't worry, I am all tapped out. It's way too warm here for Diablo 3, both playing and making fun of.

 

[teebeeohh]

it's fun
and it seems to be the only place right now where people don't hate me for liking it. seriously, if you don't like the game fine but don't hate people because they do like it.

 

[Weaver]

It saved me $60 because I didn't buy it.

 

[Hides His Eyes]

Off-set by a) the fact that the player has literally no control over how they level up, ie. the exact opposite of what an RPG should be, .

Total aside, a lot of the greatest RPGs of all time have ordinary level ups, rather than allowing the player to choose stats. Looking at Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest (pre-skill selection), etc., etc.

And before ANYONE tries to argue that they aren't RPGs; you're wrong. Plain and simple. Good day.

Well, JRPGs may still be RPGs but I judge them by very different standards. For me, Final Fantasy and similar games are all about story and characters and setting, and freedom of character development is not such a big concern. I don't mind being given a pre-determined character to play if that character - like Cloud - rivals some of Shakespeare's major characters in depth and profundity. If I'm given a "blank slate" character - as is the case with most western RPGs including Diablo 3 - then I damn well want control over how that character's stats and skills develop.

Also, even Final Fantasy allowed you to at least pick who gets what materia, or which route to take around the sphere grid, or whatever. Not total control, but some.

 

[Hides His Eyes]

Very easy: Diablo 3 is a bloody fun game.

No it's not fun when you rush through all the levels only to knock at the highest difficulty and complain about how hard it is. No it's not fun when the servers are not working or you have a bad internet connection at home. No it's not fun if you can't get over the fact that it's a different game from Diablo 2 and nothing will change that. And you certainly won't have fun if you own a 3000$+ PC and are upset that not all games strive for the Crysis level of graphical fidelity.

But once you accept that, and just relax and take it in one step at a time, it's the most exhilarating monster-killing experience, and frankly the most fun I've had in years. There is a fleeting moment of excellence in the title, the attention to detail that's so overwhelming that it distinguishes it from other triple-A games. It's in the artistic choices for visual and sound design, it's in a way the monsters die and spells are animated and a lot of other things.

It doesn't have to have Bioware story or Skyrim's expansiveness, it's just pure, distilled fun-in-a-box.

Here are a few advices on how to enjoy the game:

- Lower your expectations. Nothing can live up to overblown expectations. Here are some facts: Diablo 3 is not a competitive game.
It will not melt your graphics card.
It will not invent a new genre.
It is not perfectly balanced (yet).
It will always require internet connection even for single-player.
Servers will have maintenance.

- Assure that you have a good internet connection. If you buy this game and your internet is choppy, then you've been warned plenty and your rage should be addressed only to thyself.
- Don't rush! Game balancing needs work and most importantly time. In a game like Diablo it's inevitable as you cannot test the myriad of build by internal testing (making a beta with all skills unlocked doesn't make any commercial sense either). Feedback from people who play higher difficulties and test the game's limits is invaluable. However no developer can make a balancing patch a week after a game release that would fix everything. See advice one.
- If it's too hard, relax and roll a new class, they play and feel very differently from each other. If it's too easy, why not go Hardcore?

No offence but this is the most nauseatingly apologetic nonsense I've ever seen. A company charges £44 for a game that requires an internet connection even to play it single player, as well as stripping away half the gameplay depth of its predecessor - and your advice is to "lower your expectations"? Why not advise lowering your expectations of watching paint dry. At least paint doesn't have servers that go down.

Ok, I'm being overly harsh. As I said, the game is not all bad. You are certainly right that it's damn good fun, and it has other things going for it too. But the online-all-the-time thing is something gamers should be criticising very harshly, not making excuses for.

Also: What myriad of builds? That's my point about the leveling system. There are exactly five builds, one per class. If two characters are the same class and the same level then they are exactly the same character, barring equipment.

 

[eventhorizon525]

snip

No offence but this is the most nauseatingly apologetic nonsense I've ever seen. A company charges £44 for a game that requires an internet connection even to play it single player, as well as stripping away half the gameplay depth of its predecessor - and your advice is to "lower your expectations"? Why not advise lowering your expectations of watching paint dry. At least paint doesn't have servers that go down.

Ok, I'm being overly harsh. As I said, the game is not all bad. You are certainly right that it's damn good fun, and it has other things going for it too. But the online-all-the-time thing is something gamers should be criticising very harshly, not making excuses for.

Also: What myriad of builds? That's my point about the leveling system. There are exactly five builds, one per class. If two characters are the same class and the same level then they are exactly the same character, barring equipment.

Unless people are already claiming there is one single build for each class that is the only thing worth play ever, then you are going to see variation. Yes you technically can equip any skills, but doing that in the middle of combat is effectively committing suicide (or taking a fair while waiting). I've changed my monk around a ton already, I still can't decide what 6 skill + runes I want to have as my mainstay. There are a whole heck lot more moves (let alone runes of those skills) to the point where I never feel like I'm using the only few out of the bunch worth ever noticing. Quite the opposite in fact.

If you played Guild Wars, think how they did the skills. Yeah everyone had the exact same skills at the end of the day, but it came down to the choice of which of the multitude to bring, forcing you to make choices about how focused you wanted to be toward a given scenario.


Not arguing the online stuff; I haven't had major issues, but it does linger in my mind while I play.

 

[Skratt]

It feels like D2 but with pretty graphics. Except for the whole skill tree thing, I'm still on the fence with that part.

 

[sobaka770]

Very easy: Diablo 3 is a bloody fun game.

No it's not fun when you rush through all the levels only to knock at the highest difficulty and complain about how hard it is. No it's not fun when the servers are not working or you have a bad internet connection at home. No it's not fun if you can't get over the fact that it's a different game from Diablo 2 and nothing will change that. And you certainly won't have fun if you own a 3000$+ PC and are upset that not all games strive for the Crysis level of graphical fidelity.

But once you accept that, and just relax and take it in one step at a time, it's the most exhilarating monster-killing experience, and frankly the most fun I've had in years. There is a fleeting moment of excellence in the title, the attention to detail that's so overwhelming that it distinguishes it from other triple-A games. It's in the artistic choices for visual and sound design, it's in a way the monsters die and spells are animated and a lot of other things.

It doesn't have to have Bioware story or Skyrim's expansiveness, it's just pure, distilled fun-in-a-box.

Here are a few advices on how to enjoy the game:

- Lower your expectations. Nothing can live up to overblown expectations. Here are some facts: Diablo 3 is not a competitive game.
It will not melt your graphics card.
It will not invent a new genre.
It is not perfectly balanced (yet).
It will always require internet connection even for single-player.
Servers will have maintenance.

- Assure that you have a good internet connection. If you buy this game and your internet is choppy, then you've been warned plenty and your rage should be addressed only to thyself.
- Don't rush! Game balancing needs work and most importantly time. In a game like Diablo it's inevitable as you cannot test the myriad of build by internal testing (making a beta with all skills unlocked doesn't make any commercial sense either). Feedback from people who play higher difficulties and test the game's limits is invaluable. However no developer can make a balancing patch a week after a game release that would fix everything. See advice one.
- If it's too hard, relax and roll a new class, they play and feel very differently from each other. If it's too easy, why not go Hardcore?

No offence but this is the most nauseatingly apologetic nonsense I've ever seen. A company charges £44 for a game that requires an internet connection even to play it single player, as well as stripping away half the gameplay depth of its predecessor - and your advice is to "lower your expectations"? Why not advise lowering your expectations of watching paint dry. At least paint doesn't have servers that go down.

Ok, I'm being overly harsh. As I said, the game is not all bad. You are certainly right that it's damn good fun, and it has other things going for it too. But the online-all-the-time thing is something gamers should be criticising very harshly, not making excuses for.

Also: What myriad of builds? That's my point about the leveling system. There are exactly five builds, one per class. If two characters are the same class and the same level then they are exactly the same character, barring equipment.

Whoa whoa whoa, relax. I'm not defending Blizzard when they run maintenance on their servers and you have lag. It's a problem, but it needs time. WoW servers and Diablo servers are completely separate and different entities. I personally don't experience lag but a lot of people do and that's unfortunate. I have yet to see an online game with a smooth launch though.

Now to the points that I strongly disagree with.

By lowering expectations I simply mean that people should not expect the game to be absolutely perfect. Even if it cost 44 pounds. Most of the new AAA games cost 60$ nowadays. Skyrim cost 60, Max Payne and CoD as well, Portal 2.

Actually let's look at Skyrim, which at launch was kind of a buggy mess. But once you paid the 60$ you still have the ongoing updates to textures, horse-fighting and other cool stuff. If you buy and patch Skyrim now, you'll have a completely different and better experience. But it was not perfect at launch.
Portal 2 is not a long game, and it's replay-ability is only determined by the new levels invented by Valve. Also 60$. Diablo 3 has been out for a week and it's only major bugs are server-related. Just to say, I loved both Portal 2 and Skyrim.

Gameplay depth is in the eye of the beholder. A different system is not necessarily a worse system. I have played enough Diablo 2 to know that stripping away ability points is certainly not such a big issue as people paint it. Actually I'm glad it's gone.

I don't get the myriad of builds comment. There ARE myriads of builds. That's the whole point of a new system. I have joined games with my wizard and we all had different spells and runes.

I'm sorry but you will need to clarify your one build per class statement because in the way I understand it, it's not true.

 

[The_Lost_King]

I'm sorry but you will need to clarify your one build per class statement because in the way I understand it, it's not true.

I thinks he means everyone can use the same skills. I agree with you though while everyone can use the same skills that doesn't mean they do.

 

[BLAHwhatever]

It's a hell of a blast when you play the game with friends

 

[unstabLized]

Its simple fun. I really like it. It's approachable and easy to understand. Definitely a good starter to a type of game like its own. Cinematics are nicely done, story is eh, but I don't care much for it. I don't think its necessarily worth $60,but it's blizzard..

 

[Hides His Eyes]

Whoa whoa whoa, relax. I'm not defending Blizzard when they run maintenance on their servers and you have lag. It's a problem, but it needs time. WoW servers and Diablo servers are completely separate and different entities. I personally don't experience lag but a lot of people do and that's unfortunate. I have yet to see an online game with a smooth launch though.

Now to the points that I strongly disagree with.

By lowering expectations I simply mean that people should not expect the game to be absolutely perfect. Even if it cost 44 pounds. Most of the new AAA games cost 60$ nowadays. Skyrim cost 60, Max Payne and CoD as well, Portal 2.

Actually let's look at Skyrim, which at launch was kind of a buggy mess. But once you paid the 60$ you still have the ongoing updates to textures, horse-fighting and other cool stuff. If you buy and patch Skyrim now, you'll have a completely different and better experience. But it was not perfect at launch.
Portal 2 is not a long game, and it's replay-ability is only determined by the new levels invented by Valve. Also 60$. Diablo 3 has been out for a week and it's only major bugs are server-related. Just to say, I loved both Portal 2 and Skyrim.

Gameplay depth is in the eye of the beholder. A different system is not necessarily a worse system. I have played enough Diablo 2 to know that stripping away ability points is certainly not such a big issue as people paint it. Actually I'm glad it's gone.

I don't get the myriad of builds comment. There ARE myriads of builds. That's the whole point of a new system. I have joined games with my wizard and we all had different spells and runes.

I'm sorry but you will need to clarify your one build per class statement because in the way I understand it, it's not true.

"I have yet to see an online game with a smooth launch though."

But Diablo 3 is not an online game. Like its predecessor, it has a single player option and a multiplayer option. But in D3 the single player option depends on an internet connection too. You're right in saying that server problems and so on are an unavoidable downside to MULTIPLAYER gaming, but it's a downside that needn't be present in the single player option.

You're also right that a different system is not necessarily a worse system, but in this case it really, really is. Ok, once you're a high enough level to have built up a library of skills, yes you can pick which ones you want to use and this sort of constitutes different builds. And I can see how it's attractive to be able to change your build if you feel like it. But - for me - it still takes away the feeling of having built the character myself. It's more a decision on how to use the character. To many this will sound like splitting hairs, but for me this is the single most important aspect of an RPG. When I level up I want to make choices. That is integral to the experience.

One thing to think about: in Diablo 2 I once made a necromancer who used summoning magic and a gigantic two-handed sword. Necromancers aren't supposed to use big swords, they're not supposed to be strong enough because they're supposed to put all their points on Mana instead of Strength so they can cast lots of spells. But in Diablo 2 you didn't have to play a class the way it's supposed to be played. You could experiment. In D3, whatever combination of skills you have selected at any one time, it's always gonna be someone else's idea of what that class ought to be. And I, personally, don't like that.

As for pricing, I think all games are insanely over-priced these days.

Ok, it's obviously a very subjective matter, as always. I'm not trying to tell you your opinion is wrong, just trying to express mine. Diablo 3 has taken away the thing that made me really, really love Diablo 2. And this seems to be a growing trend in modern RPGs, which I find worrying.