back to article Diablo III

Back in 1997, I worked in a youth centre and some fool gave me the keys to the place. So I would sneak in every night to continue a degrading tryst with Diablo I, cutting down waves of monsters in anticipation of a loot splurge. It was a while before I worked out the portal system – I used to moan about the amount of walking – …

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  1. g7rp0
    Thumb Up

    Amazing game

    Shame they completely fucked up the lauch, many many posts complaining about the error 37 and 75 problems, Saying that once in and playing the game is awesome, sooo much fun.

    £50 is over the top, I paid 40 for it at Game and I was told by a friend he paid 35 from Tescos I think so if you wanna buy it then have a look around.

    1. Asiren
      Facepalm

      Re: Amazing game

      I pre-ordered in 2010 on Amazon, got it for £22. However, forgot I had already purchased it and tried to buy it again...

      Thankfully the second shipment was delayed due to lack of stock!

      D'oh.

      1. jai

        Re: Amazing game

        i did that too! luckily i checked my pre-order list before buying it again.

        then i went out and bought a 50quid mouse to use with the game and completely wiped out my savings. doh!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Amazing game

      £40 you was robbed - I had it on Amazon pre-order from ages ago for about £22.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Interesting your review starts with a nostalgic look back at the original. Given the always-on-internet-required DRMy goodness of D3 even for the single player mode just how do you think it's gonna pan out if you decide in 2025 you want to relive some of those D3 memories? Still, if people want to pay £50 to rent a game for as many years as Blizzard will deign to keep their servers alive, that's their choice...

    1. stranger
      Linux

      Re: always-on-internet-required DRM

      gamers should vote with their wallets when they see something they don't like, but alas, this game sold so well that the servers were overloaded!

      sorry mate, while I understand that many gamers are complaining about the game's DRM in many forums and blogs. The reality is: the game sold well. Which basically tells the developer that the gamers will still buy the game and those complaining about the DRM are an isolated few gamers.

      I intend to play the demo of Diablo III once it comes out next month and I have no intention of buying it due to the DRM. But I honestly doubt that Blizzard will notice that my money is missing from their wallets.

      a gamer: a person who will complain a lot about a product but still go ahead and buy it.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: always-on-internet-required DRM

        Or maybe it tells the developer that many decent gamers who object to this treatment have felt obliged to scour the Internet for a patch to play the game they already bought? But you are correct, if there were enough willing to forgo the game in order to send a message then the development company would have to stop treating the customer as unimportant/worthless.

    2. rcdicky

      Blizzard could patch the game to not require battle.net IF they were to ever shut it down

      It's also likely Blizz will still be around and battle.net alive and kicking of course

      1. Danny 14
        Go

        well

        Diablo 2 is still receiving patches and battle.net for D2 is still active. They have no plans to drop D2 support so I imagine (based on those stats) that D3 has quite a bit of legs to run.

        Ref error 37. 4 of us sat up on monday night for the EU launch. 11pm and it was error 37, after 15 mins of cut and paste one of us got in and played. I got in at 11:30 ish then hung on the creating character. Cancelled got in properly at 11:45 one of the other two gave up at midnight and the last lass got in at about 12:30. Played rock solid till 4AM.

        We tried relogging at 4AM and all 3 of us got back in immediately. Not had any issues with 37 since launch night, and we've been on every night from tea time ish.

        Perhaps it is just the US servers with the big issues? Euro ones seem OK.

        Personally I think it is too dumbed down. Leveling system is too simplistic and obviously geared more to loot rather than character customisation (funny that there is a paid-for auction house....)

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You have to move forward - the extra features of online play out-weigh the disadvantages - I prefer electric lighting to candles as well - but there could be a mains failure.

      If they decide to shut down the servers perhaps they would issue a final patch to allow play without the Internet.

      1. h4rm0ny

        "You have to move forward - the extra features of online play out-weigh the disadvantages - I prefer electric lighting to candles as well - but there could be a mains failure."

        But there the change is an advantage, here there change is a disadvantage. It is not sufficient to simply point at the fact that both are change and say they are therefore the same. If you want to see DRM done right look at something like the Zune music pass or movie downloads from e.g. BlinkBox. I have my music on multiple devices for as long as I want, I'm not bugged by sign-in issues when I play anything I've downloaded (if I want to play streaming, obviously I need to connect to the servers because my phone IS NOT MAGIC, but I can download locally any of the music I want to). But with Diablo III, it appears that you are constantly dependent on their servers and it's in your face.

        If DRM is invisible, people will live with that, particularly if they know it's a requirement for the seller to feel comfortable selling online in the first place. But if it gets in their way... they get upset. It has to work well.

    4. Kevin 6

      I'll play devils advocate

      There is NO single player mode period. Even when you are in "single player"mode people you know can jump in at ANY point unless you block all players, or have no friends at all.

      Diablo 2 was like this in a lot of ways if you wanted to play multilayer you had to have a separate characters which had absolute 0 interaction with each other. You couldn't just go level up in single player, and go HEY I WANNA GO ONLINE and take the same character online. If I remember right there was a lot of bitching at blizzard over that cause people leveled up offline and expected to be able to use it online like in the original diablo. In Diablo 2 I had to sit on battle.net in games alone leveling to catch my buddies (I started a month after them) so I could play with them so in honestly its the same thing.

      Now as to why you can't use a offline char online its simple. In the original diablo it was so friggin easy to hack your character it wasn't funny. Example I got bored of the game uninstalled it then my buddies started playing and got me to play with them I went installed it made a character quit, and hacked the save file to put me up where they were so I didn't have to replay it.

      then there were the people who royally hacked their chars into gods seriously this game was not fun when you would get someone jumping in your game and use the hack so they could kill you in town, and camp you. I'll be honest due to this alone I'm happy they went this route with this game.

      Only game I do not agree at all with requiring online all the time is Starcraft 2 that one I can see bitching that game was just a royal fuck up IMO. What I do in single player campain has absolutely 0 effect to what happens online why in the fuck am I forced to be on b.net is beyond my comprehension, and I will not be getting any of the "expansion packs" (I rank it with DLC seeing the game was unfinished compared to the 1st, and the exp)

  3. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Unhappy

    I tried the beta

    and bought the full game on the 16th - which I have been trying to install since.

    I get an error message "Data required to install this game could not be found" and there doesn't seem to be any solution.

    Oh well, at least I'm not bothered by Error 37.

    1. alphaxion

      Re: I tried the beta

      I'd suggest logging into your account on battle.net and try downloading the client installer - there was an issue with earlier installers where it didn't download a few files and generates that error for you.

    2. rcdicky

      Re: I tried the beta

      Have you tried both the disc and digital download?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I tried the beta

      I'm in the same boat I can't get the fecking thing to install, the launch has been a total utter shambles the whole installation procedure is a disaster area

      1. Danny 14

        Re: I tried the beta

        Have you uninstalled the beta and removed that beta battlenet installer? Same happened to one of our beta testers (closed beta not the open one).

        1. Asiren

          Re: I tried the beta

          Advice on the Battle.net forums and Diablo III's FAQ says to uninstall the beta completely before installing the full game again.

    4. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      I found the cause (and solution)

      It was a simple downloader mistake.

      What I mean is that, when Blizzard shows you Diablo III EN (US) on its download page, it doesn't mean the English version, it means the English version tied to the US region.

      I live in France, so the downloader couldn't find its data.

      The solution was to change the language of the downloader and choose the EN (GB) version, English tied to the Europe region.

      So okay, I get it, it was a region issue with my confusion over the downloader. My bad, apparently, but could someone tell me why Blizzard did not publish this error message on its support page ? And why Blizzard Support itself cannot tell me anything more than to go to its support pages ?

      I posted the solution in my support ticket, and added a suggestion that they change their support page to talk about this issue - we'll see how long it takes them to react.

      Meanwhile, my download finishes in 3 minutes - gotta go ! :)

  4. Jeebus

    May I suggest.

    http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-reasons-diablo-iii-represents-gamings-annoying-future/

    The article here outlines the severe problems with the surrounding areas of D3, as the game itself looks superb, what it brings to the table in terms of complete lockdown is far more worrying for consumers.

  5. ABee
    Unhappy

    Oh for the old days...

    ...where you could put a Floppy/CD/DVD into the drive and play the game.

    No decrypting, no "internet connection required", no login details, no "server too busy" etc etc.

    I appreciate some of the reasons for the changes: reduce piracy, stats gathering, trying to squeeze every last penny out of the gamer by offering in-game purchases etc but I really can't be arsed now with all the faff. It also feels like, for £50, you're renting the game for a period of time determined by the publisher (i.e. until such time they decide to turn off the servers). I still like playing the oldies occasionally but I doubt very much that I’d still be able to play Dungeon Keeper 2 had it required a “phone home” to Bullfrog to work…

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oh for the old days...

      Play the old game then. What's with all this 'when I were a lad...' crap??

      If you buy it now (and I only paid £22 on a pre-order) you will certainly get your money worth before they turn the servers off and they may even 'add' a single user / LAN mode if that were to be the case. Most likely it will not be for many, many years and there may be a D4 by then.

    2. JDX Gold badge

      Re: Oh for the old days...

      Lets say they only support it for 2 short years, which is highly implausible. £50 for 2 years' gameplay is still very very cheap by any other standards of media.

      I don't approve with requiring online access for single-player for the record.

      1. TakeTheSkyRoad

        Re: Oh for the old days...

        "£50 for 2 years' gameplay is still very very cheap by any other standards of media."

        I dispute this on the basis that if I buy a blu ray for 20 quid I can watch it until the disc falls apart and I think a 30 year life span is reasonable for those discs.

        Of course if you're talking about games, say a mmorg then yes 50 quid for 2 years is good.... but this isn't.

        For a more realistic comparision try Balders Gate, single player & co-op but still playable over 10 years later since it's not dependant on any back end servers.

        1. JDX Gold badge

          Re: Oh for the old days...

          It's hours entertainment you actually get not what you could <theoretically get</i> I was referring to - you'd probably spend more hours on D3 in the first week than you would watching any individual movie over a decade.

        2. NumptyScrub

          Re: Oh for the old days...

          quote: "I dispute this on the basis that if I buy a blu ray for 20 quid I can watch it until the disc falls apart and I think a 30 year life span is reasonable for those discs."

          Absolutely, however bear in mind that for computer programs, you do not buy the data. You buy a license to use the program. You do not own the program, you never have owned the program. You own a (revocable) license, which is governed by the EULA that you agreed to when installing the program.

          I'm not saying I agree with this state of affairs, and I'm not saying that this state of affairs is "right". It is however how things have been set up by the industry, and you no longer have a choice in the matter. You cannot install software without having to click "I Accept" on a EULA, even if it is the GPL EULA.

          So for your more realistic comparison: if Bioware choose to revoke your license to use Baldur's Gate (which they most likely are within their rights to do after giving notice, read the EULA to check), you can still install and run the game, but you would be doing so "illegally". You would be a software pirate, for using a CD that you had previously purchased legally. Like it or not, for computer programs, physical possesion of the install media does not automatically grant you the right to use that media.

          So bearing that in mind: for Diablo 3, did the launch day server issues break Blizzard's obligations as defined in the EULA? If they turn the servers off in 2 years, will that break Blizzard's obligations as defined in the EULA?

          I suspect that, thanks to the terms of the EULA (I never read the buggers because I know they are deliberately far too long and complicated to easily understand), Blizzard have not in fact failed in any obligations that could be used to attempt redress. If that is not the case, and they have in fact broken their own EULA, feel free to start legal action against them for breach of contract (or tort, or whatever it is you need to do when one party fails to uphold their end of a formal agreement).

          In my opinion, someone whining that they can't play a game they "purchased" simply shows their lack of understanding of what it is they actually spent money on. It also tends to demonstrate that (like me) they didn't take the time to read and comprehend the EULA that they have already legally agreed to.

          1. Chris 244
            Thumb Down

            Re: Numpty and EULAs

            "Breaking" an EULA is not illegal, as an EULA is a contract. Breaking a law is illegal, breaking a contract is not.

            1. antwan
              FAIL

              Re: Numpty and EULAs

              So the purpose of court cases to decide remedies for breach of contract? Indeed to decide whether any such breach ocurred? No its not a criminal offence, but a breach of contract is still legally actionable.

              Numpty.

          2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

            An EULA is NOT a "contract"

            A contract is a legally binding agreement which none of the two parties can change without consent from the other party.

            EULA's today can be (and are) changed on the whim of the company selling you the product. Indeed, every update and upgrade has you "agreeing" to a new EULA (here is this vital upgrade to your product sir, without it you will not be able to benefit from the basic services we actually promised you the first time, but before installing this you will have to agree to give us your daughter). That, in effect, is called extortion. They already have your money, if you don't agree to the new "contract", you can kiss your money goodbye.

            All these shenanigans totally empty the EULA of any semblance of credibility in my view.

            1. antwan

              Re: An EULA is NOT a "contract"

              Contacts can however be modified or varied if consented to. In the case of an EULA, as you say you are asked whether you agree to this 'variation'. If not, then you may no longer enjoy the benefit of the product - there is most likely a clause in the EULA stipulating that the terms are subject to change etc etc. which you initially consented to, thus enabling the company to introduce such variations.

              An EULA is a contract and is legally binding, breach of an EULA can potentially render you liable for whatever the breach is.

            2. antwan

              Re: An EULA is NOT a "contract"

              However I agree it is tantamount to extortion and is rather immoral, but otherwise...no software!

  6. That Steve Guy

    Only 85%

    Only 85%? The game itself deserves more imo and yes I agree the launch night was annoying but that has always happened when an online service sells beyond expectations.

    To anyone complaining about the DRM, just cast your memories back to how the lack of it destroyed D2. Item duping, trade scams where one player fakes the content of the trade window, item buying/scamming rampant online. Diablo 2 was one of those games that created the gold farming industry.

    Blizzard knew they had to come down as hard on cheating as any MMO and also bring buying and selling items in house to regulate it and stop the scams.

    1. Danny 14
      Flame

      Re: Only 85%

      I'd say 85% is fair. Not enough customisation. Runes are too simplistic compared to the D2 level trees - far too easy to respec for a boss then respec back. No ability to choose what to add to your stats on leveling is also a pain (i.e. only add dex and stay low health but high damage etc).

      Call my a cynic but im sure they want you to buy better loot to get uber stats...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Only 85%

        To be honest I didn't like D2's level trees, it was a balancing nightmare with the constant nerf and buff cycles, and the really silly overpowered builds centered around one move (hammerdins, bonemancers) really made it difficult. Plus if you made a mistake in your trees you couldn't respec, that was it!

        D3 has enough customisation for a game of its type you do not need that much really.

    2. Not That Andrew

      Re: Only 85%

      I'd say that 85% for a game he was unable to play some of the time is insanely generous. No matter how good it was while I could play it, it would not get more than 50% from me. But since I am boycotting it and all other Activision/Blizzard games (the lack of an offline mode in Diablo 3 is just the latest reason) I'll never know how good it is on the occasions you can play it.

      Yes, Diablo 2 has problems that spoiled the game for some people. They didn't affect me because I mostly played offline and only played online with RL friends. That doesn't those problems less real though. I Blizzard is trying to fix that issue in the wrong way, though.

      While I can understand Blizzard hosting the online game to reduce these issues, it will never eliminate them. The lack of a true offline mode makes me believe this is more about promoting their item marketplace than preventing duping and scamming. That is just a happy side effect.

      1. Tom 35

        Re: Only 85%

        Are they just going to replace getting killed by cheaters, with getting killed by people willing to spend extra money on fancy weapons?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Only 85%

      Duping was a mega problem - I had effectively unlimited mana and everyone had super equipment - actually ruined the game.

  7. jai

    On problems logging in now

    I've had no problems logging in to play the game lately. In fact, it was only on Tuesday that I had issues. The last two nights have been fine. And also in the mornings for half an hour before i leave for work.

    1. Jedit Silver badge

      "... it was only on Tuesday that I had issues"

      Exactly. The login issues only existed on Tuesday, as Lucy Orr would know had she not - as usual - written her review based on a single gameplay session. The fix was deployed within 24 hours of launch.

      1. Kevin 6

        Re: "... it was only on Tuesday that I had issues"

        Only error I got was 316921 which basically said I didn't have a valid character (went away when I let it sit 2 mins). I only remember the error cause my buddy was reading something where people were talking how error 3000 was high and they bet there was over 9000, and I said yup there are. I took a screen shot cause he didn't believe me ;)

        Outside that no problems

  8. Jerome 0
    WTF?

    Dialogue

    The review says the dialogue is "hammy and hilarious" yet also "immersive"? Are the graphics beautiful but ugly, and the gameplay enthralling yet tedious?

    1. lurker

      Re: Dialogue

      " Are the graphics beautiful but ugly, and the gameplay enthralling yet tedious?"

      Strangely, yes they are :).

  9. Kurgan
    FAIL

    Nice game, but...

    ... but I like to play Diablo 2 offline in coop mode with some friends, on a LAN with no internet connection (at a cottage with flaky cellular connection and no phone and dsl line). This "online only" mode, that is not actually required (except for DRM purposes) when playing solo or in a LAN environment will spoil our Diablo nights at the cottage.

    So I', not buying it, at least not until we find a way to play offline in our LAN, which may be possible by cracking the DRM, or may not be possible at all, if the game can only talk to its servers to setup a multiplayer coop game, instead of talking to the other local installations.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Nice game, but...

      So install D2 and forget D3 even exists or find some other ways for you to 'amuse' yourselves.

      Most people go into the middle of nowhere with their girlfriends and too much alcohol - try it.

    2. JDX Gold badge

      Re: Nice game, but...

      You go to a remote location to sit inside and play video games?

      Some new variant on cottaging?

      1. Kurgan

        Re: Nice game, but...

        Not only to play Diablo, but we also play Diablo. We eat, chat, drink, then someone goes to sleep and someone pulls a Diablo all-nighter.

  10. Gordan

    But is it...

    ... 5 years better than Titan Quest which was released in 2007? Are the visuals better? When TQ came out it was the game that Diablo 1 and 2 could only have dreamed of being. So naturally, it became the game that D3 would have to beat to make it's mark.

    So the question is simple - has D3 managed to beat the technical bar that TQ has set 5 years ago?

    1. lurker

      Re: But is it...

      TQ is good. But it's not all about technical quality - I found that TQ lacked the character and atmosphere, personally. That said, I will probably be giving Torchlight 2 a try in a month or two when it's released.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    They still need to sort their servers

    Still suffering from disconnects which is extremely annoying when you haven't reached a checkpoint and need to do all of that big map and it's beasts again. I got my copy as I'm a WoW subscriber so will go back to WoW and let D3 gather some dust until they sort out the bugs, shame really as D3 has brought back a lot of memories of the good old D2:LoD days at Uni and they have provided some good improvements to the game. Could just do without the server reliance though.

  12. Pretz1

    Fantastic game, apart from this online single player nonsense. I already submitted my support ticket to Blizzard:

    http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4211002285#1

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You just want to dupe items / install hacks / cheats. Very few people do not have Internet access these days.

      1. HP Cynic

        I've never done any of those things but you've just proved you want to be an idiot and a "fanboi".

        It's a single player game for most and thus it should not suffer the issues of an online game: sure "most" people have the internet but on launch day that did little good against the Error 37s.

        My internet is not 100% stable, I don't trust Blizzard's servers to be up all the time and I don't want to have ANY risk of lag for any reason.

        There's not a single good reason for DRM bullshit when they could have just split SP and MP characters.

        1. Asiren

          Travel is my problem

          I'd like to play the game when on a lay-over between flights or even on the flight itself. Online-only stops me from being able to play the games when-and-where I want.

  13. Parax
    Facepalm

    Free online play

    Yes, its true! Play Diablo III for Free online here...

  14. Richard Wharram

    DRM

    I can't believe anyone who played D2 would complain about this. I always played on Battle.net so had to be online anyway and that was 10 years ago. Add to that the terrible problems with item duping and suddenly always-on protection for this game seems a good idea.

    Obviously it would be annoying if devs adopt the same model for purely single-player games but that's another issue. This is D3 not another game.

    Got mine from amazon pre-order for £22. Unfortunately I haven't had a working gaming PC for months. Bah :(

    Back to Baal runs with my Hammerdin on the netbook for nostalgia then...

    Icon is Diablo obviously.

    1. Richard Wharram

      Re: DRM

      Icon is vanished obviously :/

      1. Richard Wharram
        Devil

        Re: DRM

        Hey downvoters !

        This is nothing to do with piracy. Pirates will have a SP-only version for free on torrent already no doubt. Good luck to 'em. Diablo just IS an online game though for most people. Sheesh.

        *take cover*

    2. Kevin 6
      Thumb Up

      Re: DRM

      Personally I'm more shocked people are going this bat shit insane over it seeing it was made to be a multiplayer game, and nothing else.

      Unlike when SC2 had always on battle.net even for its true single player mode(this really pissed me off)... SC2 if you do anything all you can do is affect a online statistic it has 0 recourse on other players. Diablo 3 you can really ruin the game for others.

      The people whining about Diablo 3 online only are probably the same ones that cried to blizzard due to all the cheating in Diablo 1 and 2 due to the offline single player mode.

      For the record I'm no fanboy honestly I see MANY problems with blizzard (specially since activision got them), and I wil not be buying StarCraft 2's "expansions" which are exactly the same as DLC seeing it had an unfinished campaign mode (as compared to every other RTS blizz has done in the past) that they are trying to pass off as an expansion.

      Also I got it free for playing wow for a year. I do regret signing up for the year pass though this at least makes the pain a little less.

      1. Not That Andrew
        FAIL

        Re: DRM

        No, I am moaning about the always on connection because I mostly played Diablo 1 and 2 singleplayer offline and see no compelling reason why I would need to be online were I to play singleplayer in Diablo 3. But I won't be playing Diablo 3.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So, your saying yet another PC game where the purchaser is manipulated into being on the Net and having to register before they can play what they have already bought: and, no doubt, the old tired excuse of piracy being dragged out in an effort to justify it? I think my PC game playing days must be nearing an end. I don't ask how high because a seller demands I jump. I'll leave that to those who don't care what hoops they must go through, or who fail to understand the reasonable objection.

  16. Pete Spicer

    Haven't played, but I'm given to understand the always-online aspect is not merely because of the item marketplace, but also because your friends can jump in and out of games virtually at will which does sort of require always-online.

  17. John70

    I got my Diablo III for "free". I signed up to the Annual Pass for World of Warcraft. My reason for it was since I'll be playing Mists of Pandaria when it comes out might as well have a free game.

    Like others said Launch Day was a shambles until Blizzard employees woke up and a message appeared on the US forums about 10:30am PST (about 18:30 BST) about the login problem. I noticed it was working about 21:30 BST. So nearly 24 hours in Europe with the problem.

    Mind you when has anything on launch day goes smoothly for online/mmo games?

    We'll probably have the same thing again with Mists of Pandaria.

    However now that I can play the game, I'm having fun with my Witch Doctor, firey bats AoE and rune enabled blowdarts firing 3 at a time. Only level 10 at the moment.

    and killed the Skeleton King.

  18. Cyberspice
    FAIL

    Whine whine whine DRM whine whine whine...

    Since I play Blizzard's other bottomless pot of gold, World of Warcraft, I'm used to have to be connected to servers to play games anyway. That you need it for D3 for DRM or so your mates can play co-op I don't care. D3 is beautiful on my 27in iMac. And when my broadband dropped out the other day? No problem. I switched the mac to wifi, fired up the hotspot on my android, and carried on playing...

    1. Not That Andrew

      Re: Whine whine whine DRM whine whine whine...

      However, Diablo is not an MMO.

  19. stucs201

    Monster Immunity

    Does it have monsters that are immune to certain types of damage? I was really happy when (unlike D1) they didn't have that in D2. Meant my favourite class (sorceress) could effectively be 3 (fire, cold and lightning specialists). Then they brought out the expansion, added immunity back in and all three had to become very similar generalists:(

    1. Richard Wharram

      Re: Monster Immunity

      Immunities were a bugger in LoD for certain classes. Why do you think everyone needed a hammerdin :/

      1. Panix
        Devil

        Re: Monster Immunity

        Or a good merc.

  20. Eradicate all BB entrants

    Yes the game is good but .......

    ....... only in the way that D1 and D2 were good. I got it free with the annual pass but seem to be the only person on the planet that is gutted by the apparent lack of effort of moving it on from Diablo 2.

    The game itself is good, but the graphics, they just suck. It seems in all that time they have added a few extra polygons/sprites and a bit of glitter. Archaic interface, can't customise character. The stupid battle tag rubbish. And after years of being spoilt by WoW fmv on the expansions an extremely damp, dull and totally uninspiring start to the game. People, church, rock then hole. Awesome.

    I don't think it was intended as a game, more intended as an exercise of how a once good software house could do the least amount of work, charge a premium and have fool reviewers still give it a good score instead of the serious kicking that is much needed.

    Sod Diablo 3, bring on Torchlight 2

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Yes the game is good but .......

      This is why I've been worried about D3. The older Diablos were Blizzard North games. After the Activision fiasco, Blizzard North walked and got shut down. So this team is completely different. They just don't have the same passion.

    2. Kevin 6

      Re: Yes the game is good but .......

      battle tag rubbish?

      I prefer it over the real ID crap they had so we could talk to ppl cross game, and think this is what should have been put in initially.

      I'll be honest I did feel the game was kind of short, and lacking in challenge in the normal mode. When I played Diablo 2 it took me well over a week of almost nonstop playing to beat the game. This I flipped in under 3 days moderate playing. Also the itemization is extremely SHITTY. Seriously last boss in the game dropped fuckin level 20 gear... where some random mob I killed in act 3 dropped gear better than him.

      Now nightmare the difficulty is ludicrous. Seriously generic rare mobs are harder than the bosses are in normal.

  21. SpaMster
    Unhappy

    Was really looking forward to playing this, unfortunatly it wont run on a gaming pc i bought two years ago, which i dont understand at all. The graphics arnt that great so why does it need a monster machine to run properly?

    1. G Mac

      My machine is circa July 2009 and has most settings on high, so a two year old gaming machine should be fine.

      What kind of rig do you have? Video drivers are the most important - it won't be happy unless they are updated.

  22. jason 7
    FAIL

    Geez..easily pleased or what?

    "But it's the cut scenes that take my breath away. Ah, so now I see where the money went."

    That is NOT a good thing.

    Cut scenes get watched once if they are lucky and never seen again. It's not what I pay for.

    Amazed Game firms always piss so much cash and effort up the wall on them.

    1. Figgus

      Re: Geez..easily pleased or what?

      They do it because it makes the reviewers go gaga over them, apparently.

  23. Ilsa Loving

    Looking forward to Torchlight 2 instead

    I was curious about the game, but after reading about how they're forcing an always online connection even in single player mode, that interest almost instantly reversed. I had hoped that Starcraft 2 was an isolated incident, but it appears all their games are going this way. Well, that just means my money will go elsewhere.

    Torchlight 2 sounds very promising. Not only no DRM but they even permit local LAN co-op play! I'm glad *someone* still remembers how to do that.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    DRM infestation for casual muppets

    I have to say I was disapointed with this game.

    DRM mess was to be expected, but...

    Dumbing things down to so casual it almost hurts.. Yuck. Now pretty much all people have same character builds. There's no any difference except by how much you waste money buying some equipment, or farming for it yourself... There's no choices and there's no consequences from those choices. It's meant for adhd-generation of kiddies and brain-dead muppets who wants it all without sacrifices.

    Casualization goes so deep it's rather clear this game was designed so it can be ported for consoles and it's just matter of time.

    I don't see me playing this game nowhere near as much as I played Diablo 2 + LoD. Played through it with barbarian on normal and nightmare and testing other characters but this just don't "feel diablo" anymore because of the lack of choices. It's like some average generic hack'n'slash what would not even pop out from the masses without name Diablo and Blizzard.

    So, in all, I'd give this game maybe 7/10. It's playable but after run it through all the interest is gone because all will have just same build except equipment, meh.

    Visuals are ok, audio was bit of a letdown though.

    I'm hoping Torchlight 2 will cover up disappointment on this. And maybe in the future Grim Dawn. If I'd want super casual game I'd play bejeweled.

    All in all, playable but there's zero interest to bother with this game after playing with all characters once.

    Should have waited opinions from people before wasted 50€ for this, would rather have bought few cases of beer with that money and be entertained longer.

    1. G Mac

      Re: DRM infestation for casual muppets

      I agree with the DRM for single player games, but I suspect it will be more of that in the future. Not being able to play it offline (plane flight say) sucks - it would be nice if you could grab an offline token every now and again. Time will tell if it will be successful.

      But, ah, the old 'no consequences' line because you can now change builds without re-rolling.

      *You* could make a choice not to change builds, but simply take new stuff as it becomes available - like it did in D2 and trees. And make sure you tell folks you didn't 're-spec' because that's important.

      As for same builds, I doubt it. In the old days you had to do research into builds because a mistake could screw you down the track - so all builds for folks in the know was the same, and the 'muppets' were left wondering why there character sucked when they had 'different' builds.

      I suspect this need to have 'consequences' last for your entire character falls in line with flagellantism. It should be right up their ally to restrain themselves from the sin of 're-spec' by simply ignoring new skills as they open up and sticking with what they choose once they do.

      On the other hand, some folks might play it for 'fun' (a mortal sin say some) - and with D3 having more choices than D2 (check the comparison on the web) that is a good thing, at least for me.

      1. Figgus

        Re: DRM infestation for casual muppets

        "But, ah, the old 'no consequences' line because you can now change builds without re-rolling."

        I think he meant "no consequences" because the choices you make really do not matter. There are just a couple choices per key, and not hundreds of combos like there were in D2. WoW is doing the same thing, going from complex and vibrant talent trees to 6 choices of 3 selections each. Woo for variety!!?

        I think the trend of dumbing down games to keep the mouthbreathers playing is a sad one, because I remember when gaming took some thought and dare I say "skill".

        1. G Mac

          Re: DRM infestation for casual muppets

          "I think he meant "no consequences" because the choices you make really do not matter. There are just a couple choices per key, and not hundreds of combos like there were in D2."

          I think you are conflating consequences with choices - they are not the same. I am also not sure how you come to the conclusion there are few choices - each skill can have 6 runes, unlocking as you get to 60. The combinations are pretty plentiful - check this for Barbarian @ 30:

          http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/930659-/62632005

          Of course, there may be only a couple of 'good' choices per skill, but same can be said of the D2 tree. Whether or not you believe they matter, they do to me - I skip some skills and skill/rune combos (@ 21 so far), so they are not all the same. YMMV.

          And I am having fun trying stuff I would never in D2 because I know I can try it out and not regret it 5 levels later. And there *were* some poor choices and combos in D2 - hence builds for serious folks converged.

          Again, "no consequences" to me means "you must be punished if you choose poorly, grasshopper".

          The comparison to the upcoming WoW changes are amusing. For any serious player there were only one (maybe two) valid builds (with a few left over points sprinkled here and there) per spec, and sometimes class. The only real difference was PvE or PvP play. Woe betide any casual player that deviated from those if they were in a random Heroic - they would usually be picked apart pretty quickly. So in the end, for all the choice you had, it was a false choice where realistically there was little. Folks believe however that having 10 choices, where 8 of them suck, is better than just two non-suck choices. Maybe its some sort of gaming version of laissez faire, where the last thing you need to take into account is fun.

          The need for servers sucks big time though. No argument there.

        2. Andy 75

          Re: DRM infestation for casual muppets

          6 choices of 3 selections each you say?

          Too lazy to look at the options and find that you can bind (almost) any of the skills to any of the keys? I'm using two of my primary spells, one on the left mouse button for long range, one on the number 1 key for large waves.

          I would like a fast way to remap key setups like they had in D2 but I can live with it as it stands, I just remind myself that I'm playing this as light hack and slash entertainment.

    2. h4rm0ny

      Re: DRM infestation for casual muppets

      It sounds like the way things are going. I'm a *very* occasional game player. The last game I played with Dragon Age and that itself was the first computer game I'd played in several years. It was a good game. Lots of story and a top-down tactical view. Then they did a sequel. It was pretty bad. They'd ripped out the top down camera angles I am told because it didn't work well for consoles, and they turned it into a super-fast short-attention span action movie. I played the demo. Did not want. Maybe I'll play another game in a couple of years and it will be back to being something that actually uses my PC's abilities and trusts me to keep playing if it doesn't feel like it's directed by Michael Bay. But that doesn't seem to be the way things are going.

  25. Maxson

    Not sure how writing a review with "everything is great/amazing except a server problem that will soon be fixed" makes it an 85%?

    I'm enjoying it a lot, it's a touch repetative though!

  26. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: mat.fletcher@gmail.com

      You're clearly not target market. Losing the fraction of players who buy a game to play casually when it is not a casual game is probably not something they worry about. Same with playing on the plane - the % of people who would not buy it for this reason has to be minescule and therefore they see it as an overall win.

  27. Dropper
    FAIL

    Crappy Blizzard GFX

    Blizzard have done something weird with their code recently. Those having issues with Diablo III should know that something happened around Christmas that causes machines (especially gaming laptops) to overheat and shut off.

    WoW isn't exactly graphics intensive, and a machine that can play Crysis on close to max settings with only a few stutters should not have issues with cartoon graphics. But settings above fair cause my own laptop to die after 5 minutes and Diablo won't last that long on any settings so far.

    These issues started just after the final content was released for Cataclysm, until then WoW didn't have anything that could cause my laptop to fall under 60 fps.

    Crisis and the latest Call of Duty run fine, I can push those settings as high as I like for as long as I like and temps don't break quite reach 80 degrees.

    1. Talic

      Re: Crappy Blizzard GFX

      The extra graphics power required would be due to the engine they use in the game.

      If you want to reduce your laptop overheating, lower the framerate limit in the game's video options. - this works well for me even in Minecraft.

      The default limit is something like 150fps, and your graphics card will just max out to try and meet that.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Has anything changed ?

    I remember playing D2. Now details are vague due to my advancing age, I DO however vividly remember standing in a doorway, a big-ass axe in one hand, and revitalisation potion (of which I had many) in the other, a pile of around 250 baddy bodies in front of me and Ithey kept coming ( hack hack hack hack - gloop...rince and repeat).

    I'll pass on this one. I just bought Assasins Creed for about 3$ on Steam (oh well). Now that is money well spent !

    1. That Steve Guy

      Re: Has anything changed ?

      "I DO however vividly remember standing in a doorway, a big-ass axe in one hand, and revitalisation potion (of which I had many) in the other, a pile of around 250 baddy bodies in front of me and Ithey kept coming ( hack hack hack hack - gloop...rince and repeat)."

      its like that again but less potion chugging and the big melee warrior dies within 2 hits on difficulty levels above normal. Right now Demon Hunters and Wizards own the game above normal due to kiting and every other class is crying for a nerf to enemy damage and to be buffed themselves.

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thank for the imput guys.

    I will not be getting D3. I bought Skyrim through Steam. Once the game was installed, I can disconnect from Steam. Now I can play Skyrim on my laptop wherever I go without the worry of having an internet connection. If I want to play an always online game I'll play a mmorpg.

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