Diablo 3 - Verdict (Poopy)

[DRE]

Yes and this micro-transactions are very successful for them.

So costume changes would probably be a micro-transaction?

 

[captainslater]

I don't know exactly for this particular game but if you want eg. fly with the classic enterprise in Star Trek Online you have to purchase it first.

 

[Jake Bunce]

Alright well how about this, would you get Marvel Superheros since the director of Diablo 1 and 2 is doing it? http://m.ign.com/articles/2012/05/22/marvel-heroes-is-a-diablo-style-mmo

Without knowing anything about the game, I would say yes. I am interested precisely because the director of the original Diablo games is involved. But I am also skeptical because he was one of the founders of Flagship Studios and they produced ****. Flagship was the same exact hype... omg buy their games cos they got former Blizzard people. Flagship was the first start-up to be created out of the Blizzard North breakup. It was founded by four ex-northers including David Brevik. Flagship and their games crashed hard.

I reminded of a post I made on my forum in 2008 when I was playing the Mythos beta which was produced by Flagship:

I am getting tired of Mythos lately. It needs more content and direction. The various developer posts and interviews have revealed a very unstructured development model, and it really shows the farther I get into the game. They don't even know who the final boss is going to be, but they say they will have one. It seems strange that such fundamental aspects of the game haven't been decided this far along in development.

To sum it up, we seem to have a "forest through the trees" situation where we have wonderful attention to detail but the big picture is almost completely lacking. Once the initial "oooh aaah" wears off the game seems empty.

Hellgate had similar but different problems, where there were fundamental aspects of the game that seemed not well thought out. The fantastic four represent a lot of talent, but without Blizzard they seem a bit unorganized. They remind me of me... I am a talented webmaster and I like games but I am not very good at managing a clan.

I started playing Diablo 2 again. I am enjoying it more than Mythos even though I have "beaten" it several times. It is purely a difference in content and direction.

 

[captainslater]

I really, really liked Hellgate London back in 2009.

 

[Shelley]

Uninstalled this game several months back and haven't looked back since. Best uninstall I made in 2012. Hurry Hurry Torchlight 2 still waiting for you but until then I'm getting my money worth out of L4D2.

 

[Jake Bunce]

I really, really liked Hellgate London back in 2009.

Here was my review of the hellgate beta:

Well hellgate is in stores now so I guess I can post more info.

I don't like the game myself. I didn't pickup my preorder. They basically made a bad clone of diablo 2. So much of the game is lifted from diablo 2...

Subtle references
You have NPC references throughout the game. Wirt is there and you have to find his leg.

Identical classes
The classes / talents are similar to diablo 2 in all but their names. My summoner was totally a necromancer rip off, with skelemancer-like talents and golemancer-like talents. I also dabbled with the blademaster class whose talents smacked of the barbarian (wirlwind, leep attack, shouts, etc). Those are the only 2 classes I tried out of 6... maybe the others are more unique.

Identical features
There are many features in the game that came straight from diablo 2 but were given different names. Hellgate has its own version of waypoints, the horadric cube, scrolls of identify / town portal, potions, the stash, etc. Many zones have hellgates in them which are red portals that go to hell zones just like in diablo 2.

Online game structure
The world is composed of small subway stations where everyone can interact, kind of like an interactive battle.net channel. From there you can enter instance portals to fight mobs. The game defaults to solo play within the instances. If you want to join a group then you turn on your group flag when entering an instance which then autogroups you with other flagged people in the same instance. But the content isn't hard enough to warrant grouping, so you have an online game where everyone solos.

Graphics and HUD
It's just personal opinion, but I hate it when games try to employ realistic 3d graphics. It never looks quite right. WoW has the right idea with the cartoony 3d graphics. And I personally don't like a 3d environment for this type of game.

The HUD is bulky, clumsy, and disorienting. The character portrait is just a bunch of inappropriately sized / positioned boxes with no backing. The item slots don't intuitively correspond to parts of your body. The items themselves appear to be fixed dimension images which are then scaled up or down (sup pixelation) to fit into the different sized boxes in the inventory and character screens... there is no standard-sized box unit for items like in diablo 2. The scales are different between the item itself, the inventory window, and the character window. And when you pickup an item to move it within your inventory, the "picked up" image increases in size and is larger than the inventory space that it will occupy when you set it down again. It is very disorienting.

Crappy implementation
Similar to diablo 2, the mobs in hellgate are loot bombs that explode with tons of items when you kill them. Unlike diablo 2, you can't pick up specific items on the ground and ignore the trash. You have a single button that you spam to pickup all nearby items, after which you can sort through them in your inventory. Unfortunately the inventory is no bigger than in diablo 2. I have been in situations where my inventory is full after clearing one room, and then I have to manually sort it all before I can proceed.

Oh, and there is a lot about the game that makes me think they are just trying to create a cash cow with minimal effort.

1) The game isn't that good, but it is receiving a lot of hype because it was made by the fantastic four.

2) A subscription fee for a diablo-sized online game? This isn't a MMO... come on guys. To be fair, they have free play too:

http://www.hellgateguru.com/2007/05/elite-subscriptions-995-a-month-and-other-details/

...but all of the good features are pay only.

3) A $150 lifetime subscription available for the first month only? Quick, buy it before you have a chance the realize how crappy the game is.

4) 4 different preorder kits from 4 different retailers? And they are selling the kits without preordering the game. People are eating them up just so they can get the 4 different dye kits that they represent. The kits serve no other purpose after the first one.

5) Collector's edition? Why call it a collector's edition when supplies are plentiful? They are just selling the hype that comes with the "collector's" label.

6) The game itself has in-game advertisements on the sewer walls and stuff. Ads in a subscription-based game?

 

[captainslater]

While many of your points are valid Jake, I still enjoyed playing the game - maybe because it was a Diablo 2 rip-off.

 

[DRE]

Without knowing anything about the game, I would say yes. I am interested precisely because the director of the original Diablo games is involved. But I am also skeptical because he was one of the founders of Flagship Studios and they produced ****. Flagship was the same exact hype... omg buy their games cos they got former Blizzard people. Flagship was the first start-up to be created out of the Blizzard North breakup. It was founded by four ex-northers including David Brevik. Flagship and their games crashed hard.

I reminded of a post I made on my forum in 2008 when I was playing the Mythos beta which was produced by Flagship:

lmao @ it really being that bad. Well maybe he will be forced to make sure this game is dope since he is working for Marvel. Even some of the character models seem a lil based on the Avengers movie.

 

[Jake Bunce]

Wolverine was always my favorite hero, but in a role playing game I would be more inclined to match my personality which is definitely not wolverine. Xavier is the only male hero that comes to mind. I don't care for masculine males which eliminates the vast majority of that gender when it comes to comic heroes. And I don't like role playing females.

 

[Sador]

Here was my review of the hellgate beta:

What I personally liked about the game, was that the different roles actually felt different. I was utterly surprised by the fact that playing the shooter character suddenly actually felt like playing a shooter, rather than the same RPG with a long ranged attack instead. It's something I actually never encountered before.

That being said, I never managed to get through the game, so it wasn't that spectacular and a lot of quests were just the same old fetch quests. Although it did have a twist occasionally.

 

[Edrondol]

Anyone played since the latest patch? Or did everyone quit like I have?

 

[Luke F]

Anyone played since the latest patch? Or did everyone quit like I have?

Got bored ages ago, a wee bit into the second difficulty level

 

[zappaDPJ]

I stopped playing the game a while ago but I do still play the gold auction house as I quite enjoy playing around with virtual economies. The game was all but dead but the patch seems to have brought a few players back, the gold AH is certainly moving again. I guess it says a lot that it's more fun playing the gold AH than it ever was playing the actual game

 

[SchmitzIT]

I'm still playing, though I haven't figurted out yet how to use the RM auction house.

@zappaDPJ, if you like virtual economies, you should have a look at Entropia Universe some day. Though beware of how much you put in. They might market it as free-to-play, but it's simply the most expensive computer game ever.

 

[Carlos]

I really, really liked Hellgate London back in 2009.

Try playing the game as it was supposed to be designed. An FPS mixed with RPG elements. I liked it, I loved it. I played it at E32006.

I got pissed when they changed the formula. I was like "WTF!"

I loved Diablo, but my computer couldn't run it flawlessly without hitches such as slowdown, framerate drops, and yes, crashes. Diablo 2 came out, I bought it, the problems notwithstanding... It got worse with D2. I only wish that D2 was released for consoles.

I love the Diablo series, no matter what people think of the "formula." I would buy Diablo 3 in a heartbeat if I had a stronger hardware. I would even do it in even more heartbeat if it was released on consoles. I love the series that much, no matter the gameplay style. I say "don't fix what ain't broke."

Wolverine was always my favorite hero, but in a role playing game I would be more inclined to match my personality which is definitely not wolverine. Xavier is the only male hero that comes to mind. I don't care for masculine males which eliminates the vast majority of that gender when it comes to comic heroes. And I don't like role playing females.

I remember a character in a Third Person perspective such as Diablo, where I was a character using a claw to wade through the hordes of enemies. I honestly thought that Wolverine would work in Diablo's world.

Wolverine's my favorite. too.

 

[zappaDPJ]

I'm still playing, though I haven't figurted out yet how to use the RM auction house.

@zappaDPJ, if you like virtual economies, you should have a look at Entropia Universe some day. Though beware of how much you put in. They might market it as free-to-play, but it's simply the most expensive computer game ever.

Thanks for the tip, I took a look and it sounds very interesting

The only thing I really know about the D3 RMAH is that you need an authenticator to use it and I think you set it up via your battle.net page. I've not used it myself though.