Diablo III --Impressions start on page 36 --

[Knightshade Dragon]

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/diablo-iii/?fromint=1

They built the game record...somehow I don't think its an April Fools joke.

[wankerjr]

Interesting.

How many years has it been since Diablo 2 now? I remember all the fun I had with that game running on my old P1 233 over 56K connection.

[Jack Burton]

/Waits with baited breath

...

/extremely skeptical

...

/still waits with baited breath

Didn't the entire Diablo team start their own company to do Hellgate: London?

[Dafones]

Ha ha ha ho ho ho.

I think it would be funny for a company to actually release some sort of ground breaking news on April Fools, just to see what people would do.

[CeeKay]

a little bit on the skill trees.  looks like they are trying to open up the skill trees a bit so you're not stuck into one particular path, but then everyone will have the same build of the week eventually.

[Malificent]

a little bit on the skill trees.  looks like they are trying to open up the skill trees a bit so you're not stuck into one particular path, but then everyone will have the same build of the week eventually.

Well, something I read a few months ago from one of the Blizzard designers suggested that they were playing down stats and skill points somewhat and a true "build" would be more dependent on what kind of items you had in combo with those skills - runes, stat/skill modifying armor and weapons, etc etc. Basically putting items on a higher priority.

[Sparhawk]

god god god god god god god god god god god god

please let this come out this year!

[Malificent]

god god god god god god god god god god god god

please let this come out this year!

Yeah, good luck with that. I'm optimistically hoping for Xmas 2010, but 2011 would not surprise me.

[CeeKay]

god god god god god god god god god god god god

please let this come out this year!

Yeah, good luck with that. I'm optimistically hoping for Xmas 2010, but 2011 would not surprise me.

In 2010 they'll release the barbarian version, and then a version for each other class every 18 months after 

[ROTC1983]

god god god god god god god god god god god god

please let this come out this year!

Yeah, good luck with that. I'm optimistically hoping for Xmas 2010, but 2011 would not surprise me.

In 2010 they'll release the barbarian version, and then a version for each other class every 18 months after 

Good one Ceekay

[Big Jake]

This is highly unlikely for 2010, but I hope that a miracle occurs and it happens.   2009?  Not a chance in Hell. 
Most interesting to me, though, is will they try to port this to X360 and PS3?  Huge market there, and now that Sacred is trying it, who knows?

[rittchard]

god god god god god god god god god god god god

please let this come out this year!

Yeah, good luck with that. I'm optimistically hoping for Xmas 2010, but 2011 would not surprise me.

In 2010 they'll release the barbarian version, and then a version for each other class every 18 months after 

Good one Ceekay

The sad part is I know I would pay $50 for each new release.

[TheAtomicKid]

1$ per level up in micro-transactions... per character.

You have to earn the experience and go through the motions.. then at the end, it 'enables' you to level up... with a requisite 1$ fee each time.

The scary scary evil thing is, people would go for it, simply because 'it's just a buck'...

Those of us with alt-itis would be doomed to poverty... I can't even remember how many different characters I fired up for D2, and leveled a bit just to see how it would feel with a particular build.

Atomic

PS: Sometimes my capacity for envisioning evil makes even me nervous :/

PS2: And yeah, I really think people would go for it, because the Diablo ip is already established. All they have to do is make the graphics fancy enough, with our high powered new 3d graphics cards, and make the gameplay fun enough. They'd make a fortune.

Heck, they could even give the game away for free at those rates...

[Blackadar]

This is highly unlikely for 2010, but I hope that a miracle occurs and it happens.   2009?  Not a chance in Hell. 
Most interesting to me, though, is will they try to port this to X360 and PS3?  Huge market there, and now that Sacred is trying it, who knows?

From what I understood, Blizz waited until much later in the development cycle to reveal anything about D3 so there wasn't that 2-3 year wait from announcement to release.  I don't think it'll make it out this year, but you have to remember it's now a division of Activision.  Therefore, they will be subjected to pressure if Activision needs to make its balance sheet look good for the year.  I think we'll see it in 2010.

[RLMullen]

I don't think it'll make it out this year, but you have to remember it's now a division of Activision.  Therefore, they will be subjected to pressure if Activision needs to make its balance sheet look good for the year.  I think we'll see it in 2010.

Blizzard has been a "division of someone" since the early-mid 90's.  They are apparently masters at telling their overlords to piss off.  You also have to remember that overlords who kill cash cows quickly become unemployed overlords.  There *IS* a cow level... it is Blizzard itself.

[CeeKay]

The Fallen Ones.  the fat one with a knife looks comical 

[CeeKay]

the Warrior Monk.

[rittchard]

Oh Diablo 3 how I love thee!!!  I guess I have something to live for, I must play this game before I die!!!!!   

So what do you think?  Last class has to be a ranger/rogue type?  Maybe ranger/shapechanger?

[TiLT]

The last class should be a space marine! (I'm almost serious too)

[Harkonis]

I want to play as a Tyran....er, Zergling!

[KC]

After Torchlight, Diablo 3 better be a huge step forward in gameplay.  The pure hack and loot grind is long past its prime.

[Harkonis]

HAving a blast with Din's Curse and might be having me spoiled before D3 even comes out

[skystride]

After Torchlight, Diablo 3 better be a huge step forward in gameplay.  The pure hack and loot grind is long past its prime.

Blizzard is going to make a huge leap forward in gameplay?  Don't hold your breath 

I'll be very happy with MOTS D2.

[Harkonis]

I'd probably be fine with a graphics update and anything else is gravy.

[leo8877]

I'd probably be fine with a graphics update and anything else is gravy.

+1

Whatever they do I'm sure I'll love it.

[Autistic Angel]

I don't know: I continue to have fun experimenting with different character builds in Titan's Quest.  The ability to mix and match two different masteries to create dozens of different "classes", plus all the viable skill choices within those masteries, creates an awesome amount of replayability.

I bet I'm going to enjoy Diablo 3 a great deal, but there are certainly innovations from other games that I'd have liked to see included....

(By contrast, StarCraft 2 just looks drearily outdated.  It's like they're pretending the last ten years of RTS games don't exist, and in the wake of games ranging from Supreme Commander to Dawn of War II, I'm having a lot of trouble screwing up any enthusiasm for a straight graphical update of game mechanics from 1999.)

-Autistic Angel

[skystride]

I don't think the number of classes is going to affect the replayability.  Five classes and their various specializations should be more than enough.  Most people play D2 for the loot and Nightmare/Hell difficulties.  Who is going to have time to do all that with 20 different classes?

Starcraft is a different animal.  I don't remember replaying SC1, might have done it once.  Diablo 2 on the other hand has been reinstalled on my harddrive many times.

What I hope they add in D3 is a better integrated online service.  I really hope they add support for guilds.  It doesn't have to be too fancy, something along the lines of Guild Wars would be very nice.

[Fuzzballx]

HAving a blast with Din's Curse and might be having me spoiled before D3 even comes out

Din's Curse?

first i heard of it...googled it and there's a pre-order for 19.99 that gets you access to the beta builds...

How good is this game? It looks very much like original D2 graphics to me....which is the only thing keeping me from going back to D2..

I'd be very happy with D2 in true 3d with sharp modern graphics and high res textures.

[Farscry]

HAving a blast with Din's Curse and might be having me spoiled before D3 even comes out

How good is this game? It looks very much like original D2 graphics to me....which is the only thing keeping me from going back to D2..

Crap graphics but the gameplay is so far a lot of fun.

[edit]Ok, to elaborate; the graphics aren't actually crap but they're very low-fi. It's the same graphical style used in Depths of Peril and Kivi's Underworld, but the focus of Soldak's games is not the graphics, it's the randomization and gameplay. The graphics are definitely serviceable, and most importantly they run smoothly and with low system requirements.

[Aganazer]

HAving a blast with Din's Curse and might be having me spoiled before D3 even comes out

How good is this game? It looks very much like original D2 graphics to me....which is the only thing keeping me from going back to D2..

Crap graphics but the gameplay is so far a lot of fun.

That about sums it up. I've been playing every day for a week now and love it. I've already gotten about double the play time out of it than I did Torchlight. The character diversity and development is great. The real kicker for me is multiplayer coop. I've been playing it with my wife and its worked really well.

If anyone is even remotely interested in action RPG multiplayer coop then its worth checking out. Hell, even the single player is great. Despite the graphics its a much better game than Torchlight IMO. So much more diversity, so much more going on, so much more to do.

[Torfish]

I'd probably be fine with a graphics update and anything else is gravy.

I absolutely agree with this statement.  Better graphics and please don't F-around with the gameplay too much.

[Farscry]

I'd probably be fine with a graphics update and anything else is gravy.

I absolutely agree with this statement.  Better graphics and please don't F-around with the gameplay too much.

Yup. To be honest, what I really want would probably be best described as Diablo 2.5 Same core gameplay, but new classes/abilities/items/enemies/maps. That would basically be perfect.

[Harkonis]

HAving a blast with Din's Curse and might be having me spoiled before D3 even comes out

Din's Curse?

first i heard of it...googled it and there's a pre-order for 19.99 that gets you access to the beta builds...

How good is this game? It looks very much like original D2 graphics to me....which is the only thing keeping me from going back to D2..

I'd be very happy with D2 in true 3d with sharp modern graphics and high res textures.

while the graphics for Din's Curse aren't that great, they are a far cry from D2's graphics.  I can play it at 1920x1080 just fine.  The dynamic 'living' world is the real key along with the fact that it's all randomly generated.

I'd be fine with D3 have few classes if the worlds were randomly generated, but I'm sure though the maps may be that the story will be fully scripted since it's Blizzard.  It's pretty amazing how fun it can be as the story is put together on the fly.  Sure it's not the 'I'm playing a movie' feel of D2, but it's fun and goes along with the hack and slash nature of the genre at any rate.

Even with a static storyline and non-random maps multiple classes has me still playing TQ and experiencing new stuff.  The mods that I play also liven it up.  There are two big ones, one has all new classes (actually the old ones 'rebalanced' and level cap raised along with one new one) and the other has an all new campaign.  They can be used together.  I think you need either the random stuff and/or the large number of classes to get the replayability for me.  I just couldn't play D2 much more than once even with random maps and a few classes.  I know I'm not the majority, but D2 never clicked with me.

[Warfran]

HAving a blast with Din's Curse and might be having me spoiled before D3 even comes out

Din's Curse?

first i heard of it...googled it and there's a pre-order for 19.99 that gets you access to the beta builds...

Yeah it's the first I've heard of it also, so I went to the site and checked it out and it looked excellent.
On top of what you folks said here about the game I had to pre-order it...downloading now.

If it's going to be at least as good as Torchlight I will be really happy, if it's indeed better wow!

[Aganazer]

If it's going to be at least as good as Torchlight I will be really happy, if it's indeed better wow!

Its really a matter of what you're looking for in a game like this. Torchlight's lack of coop made it short lived for me. Din's also gave me a bad case of alt-itis that has me making new characters all the time. Graphically, Din's is a big step down from Torchlight which is more important to some people than others.

[JayDee]

My computer is almost 5 years old and I don't intend on updating any time soon because I no longer play PC games on it. I want to play D3 but not so much that I want to spend hundreds in upgrades.

So I hope that they either:

a) port it over to the consoles (oh please oh please oh please)
b) make it so my aging machine can run it by letting me turn off graphical features

[Gratch]

My computer is almost 5 years old and I don't intend on updating any time soon because I no longer play PC games on it. I want to play D3 but not so much that I want to spend hundreds in upgrades.

So I hope that they either:

a) port it over to the consoles (oh please oh please oh please)
b) make it so my aging machine can run it by letting me turn off graphical features

Same here, although I've been kicking around the idea of finally doing an upgrade when D3 comes out.  Maybe I'll actually have enough money to do so by then.

[skystride]

I doubt D3 will be hardware intensive.  And it's pretty cheap nowadays to buy a gaming rig that will run every game that's out right now ($400-500).  You might even be able to get away with just a video card upgrade for less than $50.

[Farscry]

while the graphics for Din's Curse aren't that great, they are a far cry from D2's graphics.  I can play it at 1920x1080 just fine.  The dynamic 'living' world is the real key along with the fact that it's all randomly generated.

This is why Depths of Peril is actually my favorite Diablo-like game. Even more than Din's Curse, it really feels like a living world, what with the rival factions adventuring and competing for quests, loot, and potential party members. I'm still hoping for a DoP2 including competitive multiplayer. That would be an incredible game.

Din's Curse is a blast too, particularly with the far better character customization than what DoP has (four static classes in DoP, though lots of skill choices within those classes) and the higher random insanity.

[Blackjack]

With our 55-75"+ blizzards this past week in the DC Metro area, people keep joking with me here that "hell has frozen over." And I say, "No, if Blizzard ever actually releases Diablo III, THAT will be the 'blizzard' that indicates Hell Has Frozen Over."