Diablo III

[Deathshroud]

I am sure it will run, as you say. But on my reasonably powerful machine, there is a lot more choppiness than I anticipated.

On Monday I am upgrading to an i5 (from core2 quad) and 8 gigs of ram (from 4). My video card stays (GTX 570). I expect it will run nearly flawlessly at that point.

Just trying to give you guys a decent ballpark idea of how your machines might run this game.

You may want to consider buying an aftermarket heatsink and fan. My first gen i5's stock HSF was tiny, and would hit temps of 90+ celsius with all 4 cores pegged. Now it max's out around 65 celsius.

[Mogul]

Good tip, thanks.

[U4EA]

Slashdot has a great video review about the current state of the beta:

http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/04/0 ... lashdot%29

[xer0s]

What do you think about the core stats being given automatically? I think I'll like it. No more indecisiveness about what I should level up, and more focus on item upgrades.

I was a little disappointed he didn't cover the Monk class, as this will be a class I'd likely play.

Will your single player characters be separate from your multiplayer characters? Or will you be able to play them online?

[mrd]

From the sounds of it, D3 seems to have taken a turn for the worse. Auto-leveling stats? WTF? Half the fun of D2 was building characters and hashing through stuff like this... Also it seems like the skill tree is quite different as well. I probably wasn't going to play D3 anyway but after reading/seeing all the stuff coming out in the last few months, fuckit. Seems like the artwork blows shit too, at least in relation to D1/D2 and indeed, a theme of hell, fire, blood, demons, eternal suffering, darkness, etc.

Is it just me or do so many games nowadays take any and all thinking and planning out of the players hands and just give them X on a plate of gold and call it a game? Part of the fun of a game is figuring it out, making mistakes, going "fuck me, this doesn't work worth a fuck," then going back and trying again. Gee, much like real life, where you learn from your mistakes. I remember the days when Blizzard would release solid games, every single damn time, now it seems like they are slipping. Maybe they got greedy with WoW.

[Mat Linnett]

If they're auto-levelling stats, why do they have them?
They may as well hide them completely.

[vesp]

Are they following WoW's stat handling - base stats are automatically increased while levelling, with stats on gear being the difference between similarly levelled character classes?

[Transient]

Will your single player characters be separate from your multiplayer characters? Or will you be able to play them online?

You need to be online to play SP, and characters can go back and forth between SP and MP. The only exception being HC characters, of course.

If they're auto-levelling stats, why do they have them?
They may as well hide them completely.

Showing your stats allows you to see how they change with different gear equipped.

[xer0s]

Sorry Trans.....HC characters?

[Transient]

Hardcore. Once hardcore, you never go back. Diablo noob!

[xer0s]

Oh yeah, you die, you're done. Brutal...

[Mat Linnett]

Showing your stats allows you to see how they change with different gear equipped.

But even then, why not just replace those stats with one "Class" stat, where equipped gear affects that sole stat? After all, surely that's what it's doing anyway?
Barbarian gear will make barbarians better, and given Blizzard's uniformity of stats, you're probably not going to see innappropriate stat buffs on a given class' gear; ie, no Dexterity for a Barbarian, just Strength, no Intelligence for a Demon Hunter, just Dexterity, etc. And if that's really so, you may as well reduce gear to core stats, ending up with Barbarian Armor +1, etc. Dressing it up the way they do at the moment is just an attempt to distract the audience from exactly how simplified the stat system has become.

[mrd]

Dressing it up the way they do at the moment is just an attempt to distract the audience from exactly how simplified the stat system has become.

This

[bitWISE]

Showing your stats allows you to see how they change with different gear equipped.

given Blizzard's uniformity of stats, you're probably not going to see innappropriate stat buffs on a given class' gear;

You must not have inspected many players' gear in WoW. Most people who play these games are fucking morons and have no clue which stats to stack.

As far as stats go, I did like the hardcore nature of D2 where you horded stats while being rushed to create uber builds. But at the same time that kind of takes away from the game experience and makes people go into asian grind mode. They are clearing trying to avoid this with many of the changes they have made. The stat system WoW used worked out very well and there was still constant theorycrafting being done in Matlab to calculate which states gave you the best dps/tps/hps and what list of gear best filled those stats. Then you've got balances to maintain between hit ratings, crit ratings, and stat synergies. If they balance the gear like they did in WoW, there is almost never a single best-in-slot item because it all depends on which stat would benefit you the most at your current point. For example, stacking crit until 30% then focusing on strength due to diminishing returns.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this system still lets the hardcore players bicker over how flawless their builds are while making it more approachable for casuals and discouraging gimp ass moochers for stat hording their way through speed runs. And like the video said, most people just permanently fucked up their character.

[U4EA]

What bitWISE said. Also, the cost of making a serious mistake in stat or talent selection in D2 was way too steep: starting a new character from scratch.

[fKd]

im looking forward to this, have been waiting for fucking years. personally i welcome changes, not just the same old. looking forward to seeing what blizzard have done this time. have avoided most media around this so its gonna be fresh for me.

[Mat Linnett]

I don't know why more of these games don't take a leaf from Guild Wars' book if immutable stats make it too easy to screw up your character then. Keep the stats, but allow the player to completely redesign their build whenever they want, for free.
The way it currently is, you may as well not even have stats, as build will solely come down to gear.
But of course, that's what Blizzard/Activision have wanted all along anyway. What better way to get people hooked on the Real Money Auction House than making the top builds depend on rare items that the average player will only have a chance of acquiring through the Auction House?

[Transient]

Dressing it up the way they do at the moment is just an attempt to distract the audience from exactly how simplified the stat system has become.

The way it currently is, you may as well not even have stats, as build will solely come down to gear.

Actually, I think they're dressing it down a bit. There's no "Stats" page, it's a menu within a menu now. And since you can't allocate stats yourself, it deemphasizes its importance. It's there for those who care, but not in your face. Ultimately it's a moot point, because like you said, the game really just boils down to gear and skill/rune selection.

I don't know why more of these games don't take a leaf from Guild Wars' book if immutable stats make it too easy to screw up your character then. Keep the stats, but allow the player to completely redesign their build whenever they want, for free.

Now that stats can't be chosen by the player, Diablo III is redesignable. You can change which skills you use pretty much on-the-fly, and you can swap out gear whenever you want. From the time I've spent in the Beta so far, it seems to me that there will be no reason to have more than one character from each class. Just keep a separate set of gear in your stash and when you want to take on a different role, swap it out in town and rearrange your skills.

But of course, that's what Blizzard/Activision have wanted all along anyway. What better way to get people hooked on the Real Money Auction House than making the top builds depend on rare items that the average player will only have a chance of acquiring through the Auction House?

Then don't make a top build? Stick to the difficulty levels that don't require uber gear. Or just spend more time in the game until you get a decent amount of lucky drops (unrealistic, I know). Or force the drops by doing magic find runs. It was easy to take a fresh character and acquire enough MF gear to start farming, then trade the good drops for shit you want. I did that on several occasions, and while I didn't have the top uber gear, I was decked out enough to hold my own in the hardest areas of the game. All I needed was determination and a free weekend. Ah, the joys of high school...

[U4EA]

Open beta / stress test this weekend.

[fKd]

fuck yeah! downloaded. hurry up time.

[Transient]

I'm enjoying it so far.

[Ryoki]

One of these days you're going to have to fully explain your fierce hatred towards pointy clicky controls

[Transient]

Hold Shift.

[Don Carlos]

^This could be amusing

[xer0s]

Open beta / stress test this weekend.

Link?