SC2Mapster

Hell it's about time

An hour ago, it was announced that Diablo III will be released May 15. The game is now available for download if you pre-purchased.

Great!

Now all we need is HOTS.

I just heard the news from a friend on Facebook... and I had pretty much the same reaction as Mozared!

Diablo III is really expensive though, especially in Europe (90€ for the collector edition, even though it contains a lot of cool stuff)... 60€ is a lot, even though it's quite common for AAA games I'd rather buy it in the US when I'll be there, it will cost me slightly less and I don't really care about multiplayer in that game (assuming it will use BNet 2.0 just like SC2 and you're limited to your continent).

I'm crossing my fingers now, hopefully HotS will be out at the same time or a month later...

@ZealNaga: Go

The game is global, so you should buy it from US if you can. There's also a reason its digital version is being withheld from Russia/Latin America for 3 weeks simply because regional price for those area are much cheaper.

Edit: http://us.battle.net/static/mediakey/d3-authenticationcode-enUS.txt

2 months for people to bruteforce and decrypt the file. Shouldn't take that much.

Eh, Diablo 3 looks gay compared to D1 and D2, I'll be playing Path of Exile instead ;o

Quote from zeldarules28: Go

I'm excited for it, and I'll buy it for sure. But I can't wait for HotS beta! I really hope we get some keys to share with you guys :P Looks like it's getting closer and closer, with the new lobby systems being implemented and all that good stuff.

Personally, I don't mind if the PvP mode isn't there. It's not something I would ever do. But I can certainly see why people are angry. But lets be honest, Diablo is about crushing monsters with your friends, and picking up tons of loot.

@JackRCDF: Go

I don't mind the graphics style. I don't even like the way path of exile looks- it's just a ugly color scheme to me. Diablo looks like a blizzard game, and I'm happy :P I'd be even more happy if my terrible graphics card can even run it well >_>

It's not just the art style, it's also the fact that it's become...casual-ed. In addition, character building is now unimportant, basically the only thing that matters is getting loot, and with the real life money auction you can just pay to win. No PVP is another disappointment. On the other hand, path of exile looks ( to my eyes) better, and the developers are making a game that their fans want them to make, rather than doing stuff that people don't like. And that's why they've garnered a large group of people who are playing or want to play their game and don't have big posts and protests against the changes they're making; because people like them and their changes.

@JackRCDF: Go

I do not like the real money auction house either, but imagine the game without. Constant PM's from third party gold sellers, and the ones who would of bought items in the auction house, would buy them from third party services instead. I prefer the auction house over that.

Well, while I don't agree with all of the changes, I can understand Blizzard's reasoning. Attributes in general were not a real customization option, there was a mathematically correct attribute distribution for most builts. If you wanted to "customize" that built by varying the attributes, you essentially just made it weaker.

About the same with skill points: D2s synergy system worked, but it only allowed to specialize on 1-2, maybe 3 main attacks, where you would dump all your points. For more than 50% of the spells it didn't make any sense to put more than 1 point into it.
Swapping skills at will is great to start with, you can easily test, how specific skills work out, without having to invest hours into a new character. If you still want to use a fixed skill built, well, noone forces you to swap skills, right? I will definitely start a character and try some working builds and then start new characters with specific builts from start to finish.

Same with RMAH, obviously players want it, and a huge amount of them would have traded items on 3rd party sites anyway. And you don't have to use it (I certainly won't; at least I won't invest any money; I will probably use the blizzard balance as an alternative to ingame gold, since that does not affect my personal finances in any way).
The only negative thing would be, that it attracts a few players, which would previously not use it, because hey would be afrait to violate ToS or something. But again, why does this affect you in particular? You don't have to use it. You can play at your own pace and use the stuff you find, or buy stuff with ingame gold. I doubt, it will even make a huge difference in PVP, since it is usually playstyle > gear there.

No PvP at start sucks, but hey, its coming back.

Don't mind the graphics, they look nice and fitting; even though I liked D2's darker, more "realistic" style a little more.

The things I dislike the most are the character limit of 10 and the small stash.

I played the beta, and I can say, that I will definitely have fun playing the game. The feeling is right, the skills are fun, the resource management works so much better than in D2; it balances itself with the resource generators, spenders, free spells and cooldown spells, you always end up using a variety of spells, but you never really feel like having to wait for your mana to regenerate.
And the rune system is quite nice so far; of course there will be some boring or seemingly useless spells/rune upgrades; you cannot avoid that for like 500+ possible rune upgrades, and thats all personal preference anyway. Someone else might love the spells you dismiss.

@Kueken531: Go

The shared stash isn't small, it's a couple time bigger than Diablo 2 one and I haven't been able to fill half of the first page it offers. (yes I'm in BETA since december 2011, hahha, take that Zeldarules28!!!)

And the character limit, that's grossely one slot for each character possibility. (male/female for each 5 class) So they will probably increase it whenever new character comes in :D (D3 Expension pack)

The auction house was added with the primary intent of preventing 3rd parties, and I pretty much like it. I don't see how anyone can complain about the artstyle, to me it seems like it follows the D2 one.

Quote from mnadeau1992: Go

The shared stash isn't small, it's a couple time bigger than Diablo 2 one and I haven't been able to fill half of the first page it offers. (yes I'm in BETA since december 2011, hahha, take that Zeldarules28!!!)

Well, it is way bigger than the stash in D2, that is correct. But in D2, you were not limited to one account. When I played on ladder, I usually had multiple mule accounts full of mule characters stuffed with items, each one with a chest. In singleplayer, there were mods for an unlimited shared stash, and well, I filled hundreds of pages with items ;)

I know, that I probably don't need 99% of that stuff, but I enjoy collecting it. I want to have the possibility to have every single unique and set in the game at some point :p

In D3 we have ONE shared stash, which is bigger, yes. But in D2, we had 8 stashes for one account. Also we cannot make additional accounts for free anymore, we cannot use characters as mules, because they are so limited etc.

Also, I just don't understand the limitation. Diablo 2 was released 2000. It stores all the items in ladder mode, non-ladder, all the tons of mule accounts of players still playing the game.

Now we have 2012. Maybe, the items are a little more complicated and use up a little more memory. Maybe some more players will play Diablo3. But in the last 12 years, memory space has evolved as well. I cannot wrap my head around their statement, that they lack memory space to save more items and characters (characters are even easier to save now, no need to save attribute or skillpoint distribution, just save selected skills, runes and passives)

Quote:

And the character limit, that's grossely one slot for each character possibility. (male/female for each 5 class) So they will probably increase it whenever new character comes in :D (D3 Expension pack)

I don't want just one character of each sort. in D2, I started new chars almost on a daily basis. There is hardcore, which is seperate as well, there are different builds you want your characters to have, there is pvp, where characters will be entirely different in terms of items and skills.

Of course, you can always delete a character to start a new one. Or just use other skills and items. But I don't want that ;) I want to start new characters, and still have my old, equipped characters, in case I want to play them again.

It's 5 days before my birthday... I'm excited.

I still haven't decided if I should buy it or not. It really seems like the kind of game that will just get me bored and won't replay it... But we'll see.

I have criticism on both games, D3 and path of exile with regards of the artistic style. I didn't get into D3 beta but the graphics for it are just "meh" but really, that's how blizzard games are so I don't see why people are complaining about this. POE's supposed to be "better" and have a better artistic direction but it doesn't really. Although I have really enjoyed the beta so far the graphics are too plastic EVERYWHERE. There's no single place where there's no reflection. I mean, look at real life man, rocks don't reflect light like that...

Both games seem to be really easy so far or "casual'd" like Jack said. The thing I've hated the most about PoE that D3 does offer is an actual real MMO "feel", For example in PoE you kill stuff in "instances" (which are the maps) and no one but you can join that instance so you're pretty much alone in every place other than cities. Thing that in D3 you can. So I'd bet it'd be easier to grow a community that relies entirely in the game and not in the forums or the "global" chat and for god's sake, sometimes I just want people to SHUT THE HELL UP in poe's global chat. Seriously wtf, every hour there's a D3 vs PoE discussion that NO ONE WANTS TO LISTEN TO. Also don't know if it's just because of it being a beta but PoE seems to have no storyline other than the one that you were exiled from a land and just randomly start doing quests, and not that randomly since they seem to take you on a very linear path.

Still wish I had gotten into the D3 beta and could've played it so I could judge D3 more fairly too.

@LongLivetheTalDarim: Go

7 days before mine :) he he he...

I am most probably buying it. I never finished D2, but it was fun, I just kept forgetting to continue to play xD And my friend is most likely getting it as well, and I highly prefer multiplayer over singleplayer games, so yeah...

@Kueken531: Go

The restriction is not because of "technology". The same argument has always been used like for example SC2 global region. There's always another reason they cannot blatantly tell. For Stash restriction, is to force user to trade and buy stuff, via both kind of auction house, force items regulating though the economy and ultimately raise profit for blizzard. (there's nothing wrong with this)

Character restriction is acceptable when every class can switch to a different build in a whim based on their design. However the only difference between builds is now the gear they wear. Then how I'm i supposed to switch build on a whim if I have a very limited stash ? (this is what's wrong with limiting both char and stash)

@zeldarules28: Go

Do you want my beta key? I hardly play the beta because I don't want to fail school until the actual game comes out.

I feel privileged. Was invited in SC2 and D3 betas (and D3 beta was actually my first Diablo game, lol). Then again, I preordered collector's editions for both, so eh. :)

For anyone who wants to know: D3 beta is very boring after playing through it like 20 times, but AWESOME. The $60 for the normal game would be good, and shelling out an extra $40 doesn't seem like much. (Then again, I had preorder on D3CE before I was even in the beta...lol.)

Diablo is pissed. His plans have been ruined.
We get a shot at him now.

@progammer: Go

Ask yourself this: Would you rather give your beta key to a bearded child than to a manatee? The answer is simple.