Diablo 3 The Most Fantastic Game!!

[Huntn]

He reminds me of Sheldon from Big Bang Theory

Based on this article I purchased (his game) Braid for $3.99 at the App Store but was not really impressed with it. Some of you know it's a primative scroller. I'm still in the early stages of the game. Some of the puzzles are very difficult for me to figure out, as in how do I reach that puzzle piece??

 

[chrono1081]

Based on this article I purchased (his game) Braid for $3.99 at the App Store but was not really impressed with it. Some of you know it's a primative scroller. I'm still in the early stages of the game. Some of the puzzles are very difficult for me to figure out, as in how do I reach that puzzle piece??

I love Braid but its a VERY difficult game. There are a few puzzles I don't agree with as I think they break "fair" gameplay standards (the fickle friend or whatever its called is one of these, as is the first puzzle piece that can only be gotten by waiting for HOURS for a super slow moving cloud.)

The game though gets better the further in you go. The story line at the end is very interesting as well. The game actually has an underlying theme to it.

 

[malman89]

I Really love Diablo 3 but i was a huge fan of Diablo 2, but then i never got into world of warcraft either.

One thing i will say is that its quite laggy on my 2009 iMac which i recently updated to 16gb of RAM too, i think its down to the fact it uses a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor with shared memory, it seems to lag like heck in wide open areas but runs lightning fast in smaller areas (exploring caves, dungeons, crypts etc etc).

Either that or sky broadband is just plain crap!

It's your dated, gimpy GPU. Oh well - at least you can play it.

 

[chrono1081]

It's your dated, gimpy GPU. Oh well - at least you can play it.

No playing it because its down, again, and has been for awhile The auction house is completely off too.

This game has a ridiculous amount of bugs for being in development as long as it was.

 

[Huntn]

I love Braid but its a VERY difficult game. There are a few puzzles I don't agree with as I think they break "fair" gameplay standards (the fickle friend or whatever its called is one of these, as is the first puzzle piece that can only be gotten by waiting for HOURS for a super slow moving cloud.)

The game though gets better the further in you go. The story line at the end is very interesting as well. The game actually has an underlying theme to it.

Jumping on goombas for added height is a major game mechanic. I don't seem to have the patience to reset a level multiple times to figure just what I need to be doing with them. It's a repetitiveness I'm not enjoying.

 

[Consultant]

There are many reviews here:
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/diablo-iii

User score is horrible tho, 4/10 after 4500 votes.
I was planning on getting it, and was really looking forward to it, until i played the beta.
I have several friends that have gotten it, but they are mixed on how it is.
Some love it and some hate it.

Many low reviews of D3 are due to servers being down on first day (and other server downtimes).

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I played the demo and didn't like it. But I bought it anyway, because it's D3, and I couldn't not buy it after the countless 100's of hours I spent in D2.

having said that, I've logged 17 hours in 2 weeks, taking my good old time progressing through normal with a wizard. Do I think it's worth the $15 I paid for it (I had a gift card)? Absolutely. Would I have paid $60 for it? Probably not. 9 hours per week is terrible during the summer, while I have hours and hours of free time.

Here's my mini-review.

There's 3 main issues with the game, as I see it.

1
The auction house is a necessity, because the loot drops are so bad that you really need to spend gold to get a good weapon. But once you realize this, gridning for the best weapons that you'll never find becomes pointless. You just need to find weapons to sell, to make gold, to spend in the auction house.

2
The characters aren't dynamic. Once you have a level 60 wizard, there's no reason to roll another wizard, you can just re-spec your current one. Want to make a melee sorc? Simple: Just pop over to the auction house, buy what you need, switch some skills, and 10 minutes later you're done. There's no feeling of ownership of my character.

3
The story sucks. I wanted to play single-player, take my time, and enjoy myself. Some of the voice acting/dialogue is so bad, it reminds me that I'm not my character in the game, but just a person playing a bunch of 1's and 0's.

So lets sum this up: The game is about gold, not loot. There's no replayability in single player, and what little single player there is, sucks.

Of course, this is all assuming that you can manage to play the game at all; For that, you need an internet connection, Blizz's servers to be up (not so much an issue anymore), and a bit of luck to not have high latancy/ping. The game (IMO) is an MMO, built around the auction house (and probably PvP), that doesn't do any justice to the first 2 Diablo games.

 

[chrono1081]

I played the demo and didn't like it. But I bought it anyway, because it's D3, and I couldn't not buy it after the countless 100's of hours I spent in D2.

having said that, I've logged 17 hours in 2 weeks, taking my good old time progressing through normal with a wizard. Do I think it's worth the $15 I paid for it (I had a gift card)? Absolutely. Would I have paid $60 for it? Probably not. 9 hours per week is terrible during the summer, while I have hours and hours of free time.

Here's my mini-review.

There's 3 main issues with the game, as I see it.

1
The auction house is a necessity, because the loot drops are so bad that you really need to spend gold to get a good weapon. But once you realize this, gridning for the best weapons that you'll never find becomes pointless. You just need to find weapons to sell, to make gold, to spend in the auction house.

2
The characters aren't dynamic. Once you have a level 60 wizard, there's no reason to roll another wizard, you can just re-spec your current one. Want to make a melee sorc? Simple: Just pop over to the auction house, buy what you need, switch some skills, and 10 minutes later you're done. There's no feeling of ownership of my character.

3
The story sucks. I wanted to play single-player, take my time, and enjoy myself. Some of the voice acting/dialogue is so bad, it reminds me that I'm not my character in the game, but just a person playing a bunch of 1's and 0's.

So lets sum this up: The game is about gold, not loot. There's no replayability in single player, and what little single player there is, sucks.

Of course, this is all assuming that you can manage to play the game at all; For that, you need an internet connection, Blizz's servers to be up (not so much an issue anymore), and a bit of luck to not have high latancy/ping. The game (IMO) is an MMO, built around the auction house (and probably PvP), that doesn't do any justice to the first 2 Diablo games.

Agree with the above 100%.

Thats cool you got a gift card. I don't think the game is worth $60 but I'd say $40.

 

[theBostonian]

I disagree, the game isn't that short, not if you want to accomplish as much as possible.

Most of the maps are randomly generated and so you can potentially miss out on a lot of things (for instance, in the Fields of Misery area there's a lost mine that randomly generates like one in 20 times).

The story is ok and some of the dialogue is hilarious, when you have Leah (Deckard Cain's niece) and the scoundrel in the party at the same time for example.

I got the collector's edition before it shot up to hundreds of dollars and was loath to open it but eventually I cracked and I've been pleasantly surprised.

 

[ezekielrage_99]

Simply put the D3 ain't bad, though it does feel very much like D2 in 3d and it really doesn't feel that Blizzard has put too much thought into developing the concept/story.

It feels like old game in a shiny new skin, nothing more. For the moment I can't see why the game can't function as offline while I think most player have been accustomed to the level of character customisation as in WoW and Dragon Age that isn't in place with D3 unfortunately.

The story feels hack'n'slash while the classes don't seem to differentiate, I know there's always going to be comparisons to WoW here.

Gamewise, the graphics are good, reasonable story, it works but I just can see it being a game I will be playing in 6 months time. Overall I've found many of the reviews out there either lovin' it of hate'n it where I think it's more of a 6/10 game.

 

[throAU]

If you liked D2 and have internet, buy it.

its more of the same, but better - the new skill system actually works better, easier to hook up with friends when they are available (just start an SP game and friends can join as they come online), graphics are good, plot is typical for the series, etc.


the low metacritic scores are due to the huge number of 0s from people who haven't/won't buy it due to the always online thing.


If you don't like the diablo series, D3 won't do anything for you.


edit:
On the auction house thing. I haven't used it at all and don't plan to. On Nightmare at the moment. it's there, but if you play with friends you don't need it.

 

[the8thark]

I played the demo and didn't like it. But I bought it anyway, because it's D3, and I couldn't not buy it after the countless 100's of hours I spent in D2.
Here's my mini-review.

I disagree with you 100%. But Diablo 3 is not for everyone. And maybe the game is not for you. At least you didn't have to pay full price for it.

 

[Mr.C]

I do hope people don't get caught up in the user Metacritic scores as most if not all of the low ones are people complaining either about the network issues or having to be online to play it in the first place and they are not justifiable in my opinion. The game itself is solid although it's more of an evolution based on the previous games rather then a revolution in gaming terms. Anyone who is interested in this genres of game should give it a chance as it definitely deserves it.

 

[SlickShoes]

I played the demo and didn't like it. But I bought it anyway, because it's D3, and I couldn't not buy it after the countless 100's of hours I spent in D2.

having said that, I've logged 17 hours in 2 weeks, taking my good old time progressing through normal with a wizard. Do I think it's worth the $15 I paid for it (I had a gift card)? Absolutely. Would I have paid $60 for it? Probably not. 9 hours per week is terrible during the summer, while I have hours and hours of free time.

Here's my mini-review.

There's 3 main issues with the game, as I see it.

1
The auction house is a necessity, because the loot drops are so bad that you really need to spend gold to get a good weapon. But once you realize this, gridning for the best weapons that you'll never find becomes pointless. You just need to find weapons to sell, to make gold, to spend in the auction house.

2
The characters aren't dynamic. Once you have a level 60 wizard, there's no reason to roll another wizard, you can just re-spec your current one. Want to make a melee sorc? Simple: Just pop over to the auction house, buy what you need, switch some skills, and 10 minutes later you're done. There's no feeling of ownership of my character.

3
The story sucks. I wanted to play single-player, take my time, and enjoy myself. Some of the voice acting/dialogue is so bad, it reminds me that I'm not my character in the game, but just a person playing a bunch of 1's and 0's.

So lets sum this up: The game is about gold, not loot. There's no replayability in single player, and what little single player there is, sucks.

Of course, this is all assuming that you can manage to play the game at all; For that, you need an internet connection, Blizz's servers to be up (not so much an issue anymore), and a bit of luck to not have high latancy/ping. The game (IMO) is an MMO, built around the auction house (and probably PvP), that doesn't do any justice to the first 2 Diablo games.

I agree completely with your 3 points, I really really enjoy diablo 3 but the loot system should just be renamed the gold system.

I could farm for days/weeks to find a weapon that is actually useful for myself. The loot system as you say is designed to get you to use the AH which they will hope will then push you towards using the real money AH.

Basically it is still an item farming game but rather than farming items for yourself you are farming items to sell, to then buy yourself the items you need, it is still a grind for items but if you were to ignore the AH and just farm for yourself whilst selling everything else to a vendor your character would hit a massive brick wall around HELL difficulty and you would be stuck farming nightmare mode for items for literally weeks unless you got some lucky drops with great stats.

 

[Huntn]

I played the demo and didn't like it. But I bought it anyway, because it's D3, and I couldn't not buy it after the countless 100's of hours I spent in D2.

having said that, I've logged 17 hours in 2 weeks, taking my good old time progressing through normal with a wizard. Do I think it's worth the $15 I paid for it (I had a gift card)? Absolutely. Would I have paid $60 for it? Probably not. 9 hours per week is terrible during the summer, while I have hours and hours of free time.

Here's my mini-review.

There's 3 main issues with the game, as I see it.

1
The auction house is a necessity, because the loot drops are so bad that you really need to spend gold to get a good weapon. But once you realize this, gridning for the best weapons that you'll never find becomes pointless. You just need to find weapons to sell, to make gold, to spend in the auction house.

2
The characters aren't dynamic. Once you have a level 60 wizard, there's no reason to roll another wizard, you can just re-spec your current one. Want to make a melee sorc? Simple: Just pop over to the auction house, buy what you need, switch some skills, and 10 minutes later you're done. There's no feeling of ownership of my character.

3
The story sucks. I wanted to play single-player, take my time, and enjoy myself. Some of the voice acting/dialogue is so bad, it reminds me that I'm not my character in the game, but just a person playing a bunch of 1's and 0's.

So lets sum this up: The game is about gold, not loot. There's no replayability in single player, and what little single player there is, sucks.

Of course, this is all assuming that you can manage to play the game at all; For that, you need an internet connection, Blizz's servers to be up (not so much an issue anymore), and a bit of luck to not have high latancy/ping. The game (IMO) is an MMO, built around the auction house (and probably PvP), that doesn't do any justice to the first 2 Diablo games.

Thanks for this input! I'm not buying this game anytime soon. I figure I'll be distracted with Guild Wars... What I don't really have a handle on, is despite the tremendous number of sales, it could be the game is not as good as D2 and is a defacto let down for those who expected to have their socks knocked off...

I don't mind having to be online to play a MMORPG, but I resent having to do it for a "solo" RPG. I'm developing an impression that despite the official reason of preventing piracy, Blizzard seems to have set this game up as a steady loot income stream.

What's Blizzard's cut?

As with other online auction sites and real-world auction houses, our fee structure will vary by region. However, we plan to collect a nominal fixed transaction fee for each item listed in the auction house. This fee consists of a fixed charge to list the item, which is assessed whether or not the item is successfully sold, and an additional fixed charge that is assessed only if the item is sold. The listing portion of the fee, which helps encourage sensible listing prices and discourage the mass posting of items that are very low quality or would be of little interest to other players, will be waived for a limited number of transactions per account. For players who opt to have the proceeds of their auction house sales go to their third-party payment service account instead of to their Battle.net account, Blizzard will collect a separate "cash-out" fee. Specific details regarding these fees will be announced at a later date.

 

[SlickShoes]

I can't see guild wars coming out any time soon, probably october at the earliest going by the latest info.

If you have windows installed you could just get Torchlight2 sometime this summer, or Path Of Exile, both of which are pretty similar to diablo and don't cost $60

 

[Huntn]

I can't see guild wars coming out any time soon, probably october at the earliest going by the latest info.

If you have windows installed you could just get Torchlight2 sometime this summer, or Path Of Exile, both of which are pretty similar to diablo and don't cost $60

Thanks for the advice! I still have Torchlight to finish.

 

[Consultant]

mini-review <snip>

having said that, I've logged 17 hours in 2 weeks, taking my good old time progressing through normal with a wizard. <snip>

Thanks for this input! I'm not buying this game anytime soon. I figure I'll be distracted with Guild Wars... What I don't really have a handle on, is despite the tremendous number of sales, it could be the game is not as good as D2 and is a defacto let down for those who expected to have their socks knocked off...

I don't mind having to be online to play a MMORPG, but I resent having to do it for a "solo" RPG. I'm developing an impression that despite the official reason of preventing piracy, Blizzard seems to have set this game up as a steady loot income stream.

Not sure how anyone could have difficulty on Normal mode.

You DO NOT need auction house, especially on normal mode. Just equip your character with high magic find stats, and craft your own items from blacksmith.

The story is fine. Story telling is similar to D2.

 

[Liquorpuki]

2
The characters aren't dynamic. Once you have a level 60 wizard, there's no reason to roll another wizard, you can just re-spec your current one. Want to make a melee sorc? Simple: Just pop over to the auction house, buy what you need, switch some skills, and 10 minutes later you're done. There's no feeling of ownership of my character.

I like the instant respec because you can adjust skills on the fly to deal with whatever you're fighting. I've been in groups where we've gotten wiped on a boss. Then somebody says, sorry guys, used the wrong spec. We try again and it's suddenly easy. If I had to reroll just to respec, I'd probably kill myself. I just don't have the time

And the story sucks but the Diablo games were never about story. They're all about hack and slash. Story is on par with D2 and WOW in that they're all shallow, melodramatic and you get the urge to hit ESC so you can go back to killing stuff. AKA standard Blizzard storytelling

Waiting for the PVP right now. I want to use my Demon Hunter to caltrop the hell out of people and do that speed roll thing all over the place

----------

I don't mind having to be online to play a MMORPG, but I resent having to do it for a "solo" RPG. I'm developing an impression that despite the official reason of preventing piracy, Blizzard seems to have set this game up as a steady loot income stream.

I thought this WAS the official reason for always being online. The servers track every action your character makes so you can't item dupe.

It's annoying but if there's gonna be a real money economy based on in-game items, it makes sense the supply should be controlled.

D3 is one of the first games to acknowledge that virtual items have real world value and the first to use an auction house to monetize them. They get a cut but so do players, which is a good thing. Because right now, the only people making money off virtual goods are guys in China who have no problem breaking EULA's

 

[foiden]

This is a game that I thought I would like. Then I got it and I liked it. However, the strangest thing is that I enjoyed it even more as I played it more. Things just got better AFTER I beat the normal game. Then when they started dropping all sorts of new things, including tickets, in Nightmare, it was ON. That's when I felt they put the successful carrot on the stick, and the addiction took even more hold.

 

[definitive]

I do hope people don't get caught up in the user Metacritic scores as most if not all of the low ones are people complaining either about the network issues or having to be online to play it in the first place and they are not justifiable in my opinion. The game itself is solid although it's more of an evolution based on the previous games rather then a revolution in gaming terms. Anyone who is interested in this genres of game should give it a chance as it definitely deserves it.

The negative reviews are way past that now. Everyone on the official diablo3.com forums is complaining about the poorly balanced late-game, items, auction house, system lag bugs and account hacking. The game is pretty much not what many of the people expected.

 

[foiden]

Even with that, I consider this normal for the count. Diablo is a game that continuously improves after launch. The bigger issue is that people expect D3, right out of the box, to be as perfect a current game as D2 was a past game (after 6 years of patches and rebalances). To a degree, it seems they have less to fix at launch than D2.

I'm confident the late game stuff will improve and continue to get better years down the line. That is also what I paid for. The issue is, nobody gets a Diablo game as nice through to the end game perfect at launch. The games balance and other things (which also deal with luck factors) always take so long to get right, and even then, it's usually after the general public gets their hands on it, does it work out the kinks.

A big reason why so little of these usually make it to consoles, and when they do, they are usually played for the short-term game. The true end game stuff usually comes way earlier than Diablo does and people are done with it. That's part of the good reason why D2 is still held in such high regard after so many Diablo-like games came out. They weren't in it for the long haul, nor were they going to continue to improve their game years after release. As good as Torchlight was, it was a game more designed for the short haul and had its major share of late-game loot issues. What it did well was some solid play mechanics which Diablo 2 and 3 have in spades.

The bigger complaints are going to come from those new to the series (for which there are a lot of them), who don't expect this game to get the D2 treatment, nor knows what that means.

 

[chrono1081]

The negative reviews are way past that now. Everyone on the official diablo3.com forums is complaining about the poorly balanced late-game, items, auction house, system lag bugs and account hacking. The game is pretty much not what many of the people expected.

I have to agree about the poorly balanced late game items. Its so hard to get stuff for my witchdoctor. I basically have to go to the AH for anything I want because the items to keep me in the fight just do not drop. I probably get one witch doctor item for every 1000 pieces of armor I pick up. Most of its stuff for the Wizard or Demon Hunter class :/

Not to mention I found out that training the Black Smith and Jeweler is a giant waste of money.

 

[Mr.C]

The negative reviews are way past that now. Everyone on the official diablo3.com forums is complaining about the poorly balanced late-game, items, auction house, system lag bugs and account hacking. The game is pretty much not what many of the people expected.

You're missing my point. The fact that so many of the low user scores have been for the launch based network issues, the fact that you always have to be online and the auction house that the overall user score is heavily skewed in a negative way. As for the issues you mentioned those are par for the course wen it comes to games as ambitious as Diablo III. They are working on patching these issues. In my opinion people are way over reacting and just need to be patient. The game will improve, it just takes some time. I didn't actually start playing the game until a couple of days ago because I wanted to give them time to iron out the launch issues. Even then I got as far as the Cathedral and stopped for the time being.

 

[antonis]

Class balance and itemization will be ironed out eventually, since now the rare items are way better than most legendaries (and by far pricier on auction house).

What people gets upset most with, though, are the server stability problems and the more-than-acceptable unavailability of a game that is supposed to be "single player" and sold online in order to be played immediately.