Diablo III

[xer0s]

So is the open beta over? I heard they might extend it...

[phantasmagoria]

pressing only 2 buttons and 4 hotskills is a far, far cry from twenty to thirty binds you'd have in say, WoW

Yep... this is what I have said for years. I just don't get what people are talking about when they rave about Diablo's "addictive gameplay." I understand the addictive quality of running a dungeon over and over and getting loot and hoping something rare and awesome drops, but let's be honest: the gameplay in Diablo is pure shit, is it not? Every time I post that and ask for someone to explain why they love it so much, I am met with silence. Any takers this time, now that the beta is open for anyone to try it out? Specifically interested in comments from long-time Diablo players/addicts.

play it with friends and voice comms.

[Mogul]

Not exactly hate, it's just easy for me to challenge the nearly universal claim that Diablo has "great gameplay." When I think of great gameplay, I think of the Quake games, Mario games, and in the RPG genre, games like WoW and SWTOR take the cake with their wonderfully visceral and complex combat systems. Diablo? ...click click click click.... Is that great gameplay? What is so great about Diablo?

I have mentioned the things I think are cool/good/addictive about Diablo. But I don't think they should be confused with gameplay. Is Diablo REALLY that fun to Diablo fans? I just want to know why.

Armchair game design is one of my things.

edit: in before H4H4 V1RGEN ALERT!!!!!!!

Quake: shoot things in front of you. Mario: jump.

Diablo is so good because despite the simplicity, the execution is pretty flawless on all counts. I think it is similar to Quake in that regard. Neither game is amazing in terms of complexity compared to the games we see today like Mass Effect, but the experience they provide is no less amazing because of it. Just like Quake, the best part of Diablo is playing with friends and when you throw in the random nature of the game it becomes endlessly replayable. There's just something really satisfying about building up a character with your friends that can lay waste to hordes on enemies with a few clicks of pretty spells.

Then there's the PvP aspect that requires some serious skill and intimate knowledge of the game.

Your appraisal of Quake's gameplay ignores quite a lot. Go watch virtually any tricking video from any of the games (particularly Q3 and CPMA). That said, I do appreciate the concept of "Diablo 3 may be simple, but it does what it does perfectly."

[xer0s]

Sorry Euros, it looks like I won't be able to sell or trade any of my gear with you. But at least we'll get to play together...

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/5203654 ... 22blank%22

BTW, I'm starting to get really pumped for this game!

[HomerJ]

I lost my diablo2 cd a long time ago, but you can get the digital download from the blizzard store for $9.99. I forgot how unforgiving the game is in regards to build. You can spend hours getting to level 20-30 only to realize you're better off starting over. Of course there are tons and tons of guides online, but that's no fun. After some frustration with the sorceress I'm going with Barbarian figuring it's harder to mess him up if I just focus on strength, vitality, dexterity and level up my primary weapon choice (I chose maces) and defense skills. I remember having a good time with the Necromancer, but that was like 7 years ago...haha I'm basically new to the game again. Looking forward to diablo 3, but I'm going to wait until the game is out for a little bit before I jump in.

edit: for those on consoles that won't have a chance to play Diablo 3, Sacred 2 kinda flew under the radar and is the best Diablo clone I've played on a console. Just be prepared for some frustration for the first few hours cause it's just as unforgiving until you figure the game out a little bit.

[U4EA]

The D2 system was a mess and I'm super psyched for D3 after the open beta. Can't wait, still a week to go HNNGNGNGNGN.

I found some fairly comprehensive articles which go into a lot of detail in describing just exactly why the D2 system was so bad. Here's one on the D3 forums which I skimmed last week:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/ ... 085?page=1

And one from Sirlin [the play-to-win guy], which I've only just found and started to read:

http://www.sirlin.net/blog/2012/5/3/dia ... ystem.html

edit: Sirlin is right on the money and I agree with him about everything aside from his minor complaint about Elective Mode. I think Elective Mode is a Good Thing, and having it switched off as the default option is a good way for new players to come to grips with the different types of abilities. More advanced players can switch it on and get the higher level of customization they need.

[Mogul]

http://www.sirlin.net/blog/2012/5/3/dia ... ystem.html

OK now I am significantly more excited about this game.

[Transient]

The Nephalem Valor system kicks in at the max level (60). So before that, meaning your first run through the game, you really can respec all you want for free with no drawback at all. Go for it! Once you reach 60, you can get a buff called Nephalem Valor that can stack a few times, maybe up to 5. Each buff increases your gold find / magic find stats. Also, if you kill a boss with that buff on, the boss will drop extra loot. You get the buff by killing rare or champion monsters.

The genius part is actually how you lose the buff though. I think it lasts about 15 minutes, so you have to keep progressing to stay buffed. But you also lose it if you *leave the game* or if you *change your abilities or runes at all*. Ok think about that. If you plan to farm the same 3 minute segment of the game over and over and over, you can do that. But you'll be doing it without the buff so it won't be optimal to get rare items that way. Also, if you want to respec before every single encounter, you can. It's just that you won't have the buff so it won't be the optimal way to get items either. The optimal way to get items happens to line up with the fun way to play: to go an entire big run where you stick to one spec. This is a very clever way to solve the problem for the new player and the expert without really sacrificing anything.

That's brilliant! I'm loving this game more and more...

[HomerJ]

Thanks for the links U4EA, I'm definitely more interested in Diablo 3 now. Haha, although it's a double-edged sword, reading this just totally killed any motivation to keep replaying Diablo 2

"You usually take as much strength as you need to get the armor that you're targeting, and that's usually around 120 or 220, depending on what type of armor. You take 75 dexterity because that's the amount you generally need for good block percentages. You take NO energy at all unless…there's like one type of build you can make on a sorceress that uses energy shield. And then you put everything else in vitality. That's a shitty customization system. That's just not a good system." --Jay Wilson, Diablo 3 Game Director on Diablo 2

I'm not used to seeing so much honesty from a game director, but damn, he basically summed up what I wasn't wanting to admit when I was talking about build earlier.

[U4EA]

Launch Day Preparation Guide

Haha, although it's a double-edged sword, reading this just totally killed any motivation to keep replaying Diablo 2

Good

[SoM]

Inferno monster stats

[Transient]

Inferno monster stats

Pfft, easy.

[bitWISE]

My realid is resric via gmail

[bitWISE]

Would make a pretty cool short-run anime series

[mrd]

Stay awhile and glisten?

[diablolic]

Diablo 3 Walkthroguh

I played in the Open Beta and did the first few quests, up to the Skeleton King

I think this game is pretty awesome

cant wait for release

[Transient]

That's a really, really elaborate guide. Just following the blip on your radar makes that thing redundant.

[Mogul]

Holy shit that is a fucking useful walkthrough. Thanks for going through all that trouble, man. You're a credit to Blizzard's small, yet friendly community.

[U4EA]

Diablo 3 - The Basics



Neat summary if you haven't been keeping track of the game.

[Mogul]

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Diablo-III-PC ... escription

edit: they changed it Here is a pic of walmart.com's official description of Diablo 3 as of last night, before their edit.

https://twitter.com/#!/Bashiok/status/2 ... to/1/large

[phantasmagoria]

mine came in the post today \o/

[xer0s]

I'm getting anxious.

Any Americans want to group up next week? I guess we could play with the Euros, but we'd have to build new characters for that region. And you can't take any of your gear with you to a different region...

[xer0s]

Nobody wants to play with me.

Can't wait for midnight...

[Transient]

I'll be playing with clanmates the first day. I'm not even getting on right at launch time, it's 3am for me. I'll smoke a bowl and go to sleep early, then wake up at 4-5am and play all day since I have the day off.

What's your battletag? Mine's Trichom#1556.

[SoM]

just saw some inferno gameplay, looks totally badass non stop action