Diablo III

[Forge]

[Forge]

I must say I'm not exactly impressed with those graphics, but I don't think they are running with anti-aliasing or on full graphics.

Also...aside from eye candy (hopefully) this doesn't appear any different than Diablo II...or I for that matter.

General consensus says that perhaps waiting for Torchlight II may in fact, be worth waiting for more.

Diablo III: No mods, real money marketplace, microtransactions, dlc, requires constant net connection to play.

Torchlight 2: full mod support, lan, one time price, no dlc, no requirement to be online, no money marketplaces, no microtransactions, matt uelman, real old diablo devs.

[SalmonMax]

Wait wait...you're right about no mods and requiring online connection. The connection part is particularly unpleasant.

However, the real cash marketplace is not for microtransactions. It is a place where two players can arrange a deal to exchange in-game items for real world money, with Blizzard getting a little fee for providing the secure service. You don't buy in-game items from Blizzard, and anything sold there is something that someone found, or crafted, inside the game.

It's not like the whole, "If you want anything decent, you have to pay real money for it" deal that some games have.

[Mr Fox]

I like the sound of that Max and it makes a whole lot of sense. In Diablo II people bought and sold stuff on Ebay, at least this way it's Blizzard getting the transaction fee instead of Ebay.

Sounds cool to me.

[SalmonMax]

Not to mention, Blizzard guarantees the transaction...so you can't be screwed over by someone who doesn't care about their eBay rating.

And there's another auction house for in-game money too...

[jameson (ST)]

D2 came out in 98 if memory serves. This looks like it should have come out in '01. I say meh.

[Mr Fox]

Yeah, having watched that, I'm kinda unimpressed with the graphics. I can only hope the video is of someone not running with the graphics turned up.

[platonicideal]

Since Torchlight 2 was mentioned, check it out here http://www.torchlight2game.com/. there are tons of videos up on Youtube also.

[Forge]

[jameson (ST)]

not sure how I missed this but that was pretty funny

[Heritage]

Okay, that video was hilarious! That being said, D3 looks kinda cool to me; yes, I know in many ways the tiny little people is a drag, but it still looks like fun to me, at least for single-player play.

[SalmonMax]

It is fun.

I dunno though, it's not grabbing me like D2 did. Maybe my tastes in games have just changed.

I miss the Horadric Cube. And the really cool items...the artifacts, legendaries and set items...drop WAY less often than in D2...so once you've reached decent gear, the risk-reward game style starts to break down a bit, IMO.

But it is fun. The higher level abilities are appropriately devastating.

[jameson (ST)]

Some people are claiming that the increased rarity combined with real-world pay for loot options is going to kill the game prematurely. I haven't played, and will not (I refuse to log into battlenet for single player, and don't play multi), but it seems like greed is getting in the way of good game design.

[SalmonMax]

I don't really care about the pay for loot thing, since I'm not touching it, and I only play with people I know.

That said, I suspect a connection between the real world auction house and the item rarity. After all, if items are more common, there's less incentive to spend real money on good ones, right? And that means less 'commissions' for Blizzard.

Of course, the strategy may backfire if enough people just get bored with the game in general and stop playing at all.

[jameson (ST)]

That's more or less what I was getting at Max. The greed to make money off real world item selling may have been behind Blizzard "raring it up" which in turn may turn off anybody who isn't dumb enough willing to pay real world money for the kewl loot that is what made D2 so fun.

[Mr Fox]

Yep, one week of playing and I'm pretty much bored with it. One of the big draws of D2 was the search for items and doing those diablo runs over and over until you completed your ultimate gear set. Unfortunately, I think you are dead on the money here, I have no intention of playing D3 just to put money in Bliz's pockets via their real money auction house. If they are going to make the good stuff so rare that you are practically forced to buy them then I'm going to put my game playing time to better purposes, or to other games.

[jameson (ST)]

You could argue that a sufficiently well designed game that is fun enough that you never need to find that super item to really enjoy the experience is really the goal, but the truth is that if that were the case they couldn't make money selling the kewl loot. In this case I think that they decided that there was pie, and so goddamnit they were going to get a slice. Unfortunately the customers suffer.

[SalmonMax]

I don't know if it's fair to say I 'suffered.' Lets keep things in perspective. Diablo 3 gave me a fun time. I got through the normal difficulty with my wizard and had a blast tearing the place up. I have good gear. I may even keep going.

But it totally lacks that obsessive, addictive quality that D2 had. largely because the 'reward' portion of the gambling loop is lacking.

That doesn't make it a painful, horrible experience I suffer through. In fact, it may be GOOD because it means I can play it and put it down and not be on that weird psychic treadmill.

[jameson (ST)]

you take my use of suffer far too literally Max

[Justin OOC]

hell I've crafted most of my "Good" gear, and thanks to a budy who shall remain nameless, have been gifted some really impressive stuff for later levels.

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

Here's a video blog that makes some keen points about Diablo III:

[Mr Fox]

I absolutely 100% agree with that video so much so that I'm going to go right now and post it on facebook, because that is what one does in this crazy age.

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

Nice. Yeah, I quite like the Jimquisition.

[SalmonMax]

you take my use of suffer far too literally Max

Now YOU make me suffer!

[jameson (ST)]