Out of Pod Experience

In the garbage pile with all of the other stupid ideas. Even if you could magically make it run on an average gaming PC (you can't), having an absurd number of units just ruins gameplay. Even if you only had hundreds of units, that's way more than you can actually think about/issue commands to/etc (at least without slowing down the game to the point that you die of boredom). Population caps might not be about hardware limits anymore, but there are still very good reasons to have them.



So what? Map randomization was highly overrated, since it never actually gave you anything new to explore (all the "random" areas were identical to each other anyway). The only difference it made was that the few people who weren't using maphack for their boss runs had to spend an extra minute or two teleporting around to find the exit to the boss level.

Diablo 3, on the other hand, solves the problem the sensible way: design a good level, and then put the waypoints far enough from the quest objective that you have to fight your way through and can't do a 30 second boss run even if you know exactly where to go.



TBH, I don't think it was all that short, especially since it was the "tutorial" section on the lowest difficulty. Act 1 normal in Diablo 2 wasn't all that long either, and that game certainly consumed enough hours of playing time.

lol randomization was overrated... even though it was what kept Diablo replayable for pretty much anyone that played the game.... Merin... youre not even pretending to be objective here. EVERY time someone has a criticism you jump all over it and the logic in those denials is getting so thin only a die hard fantype would see it at this point. Id expect this type of fanaticism from a Blizzard site not EVE-O

Hardly. The fun gameplay was what kept Diablo 2 replayable, the fact that the maps were randomized had very little to do with it (especially when most people were using maphack anyway). After all, it's not like you'd actually find something new in the game because of the randomization, we're talking about having a corridor turn left instead of right occasionally. The gameplay experience was exactly the same, and unless you saved a screenshot of the map every time you made a new game you'd never even notice that the map was different.



That's not true. I'm objecting to stupid criticism that is based on ignorance of either how the game actually works or of game design principles in general. There are plenty of reasons to dislike Diablo 3, but "dumbed down skill system" is not one of them.

Yes but Sins of a solar empire suffers horribly graphics wise on its units... Unless they changed it massive battles in tat game are just icon on icon violence
At least in Supreme Commander (AKA Total Annihilation 2 lol) you can see the units AND the fight at the same time

Beat the boss on all classes, only maxed barbarian but the rest to about lvl10.
I enjoyed the Monk and Barbarian the most. plenty of movement options in and out of groups of mobs almost from the start. Easily controlled directional multi target attacks.

Hunter and Mage took a little longer to get into stride. Very liner attacks though the hunters tracking bolt has some unpredictable long range reactions in who it will decide to attack so a bit annoying. Yet they can stand on their own.

Witchdoctor. Wow, I could not get into this class at all. Tons of pets and mass debuffing, yet very slow to crawl though a dungeon. It will likely be far past lvl13 for me to get enough options to enjoy it. And I normally enjoy pet classes.

The question of random maps I think has been balanced well enough. The important dungeon crawling parts are randomized in direction and the upper roads, towns, locations which are story driven are more carefully planned out. (so you don't have to always hunt down the damn cursed staircase for that Templar to shatter and continue the damn event)

The classic isometric view is nostalgic and while full 3d would have been nice idea, it keeps problems such as overhead transparency over bridges or builds nonexistent and consistent click control. And has the classic gory artwork direction such as mutilated guards staked to a wall and tons of gibby bits flying all over.

Some of the events you could stumble across like jar of souls, chest trap and spawn towers, the disturbed ghost quest gives me hope for some interesting random encounters.

I've been playing the beta for a around a month now and the first couple of minutes had me sold and I pre-ordered from Amazon for £35 including guaranteed delivery on release day.

I think it's superb and unlike diablo 2 it doesn't have a lot of pointless skills and abilities, way too many rose tinted glasses for diablo 2 if you ask me.

Changing skills on the fly and experimenting with diff builds looks good to me, and yes "IT'S A BETA", I know some of you here are saying people use that as a de facto response in the argument over the game but it's true, that is exactly what it is.

So wait till the final release, and lets be honest diablo 2 was a cake walk until you hit duriel on normal difficulty and even then he was still beatable he just came as a shock after the effortless walk through on the previous levels.

There's also a dev interview where they were laughing about people complaining about how easy the beta is and they were saying "wait and see" they'd been playing it on the harder levels and made no secret of how much of a challenge it was.

It will be enjoyed for its single player but it will live or die by it's multi-player.

You don't like it? don't buy it.

Rocket science it isn't, bloody good fun it is.

I too have to mention I like how they streamlined abilities and got rid of filler you would just skip over for one of few viable cookie cutter builds.
Even though by lvl13 i only unlocked 3 primary moves and 2 secondary i believe. I already had a set-up of abilities i preferred in dungeon crawling, and another pair of movies for boss or elite groups. Some times it was the same ability with just a different rune effect, which is awesome I think. Do hope they have class weapons and armor that modify runes or abilities them self as the low lvl stuff to too generic to tell.

I did totally forgot to check if they still had a primary and secondary weapon group swap like D2. I don't remember seeing the option on the outfit screen. As I remember I wanted to keep a rare shield and mace but use a glaive for mass groups. I may have just missed it I hope.

Didnt like it at all and it looks poor. Dumbed down skill system is boring and rigid and it just feels odd. Going to keep playing Titan Quest/Sacred 2 untill Grim Dawn comes out.
If D3 had a price of Torchlight then it would of been ok.

Having played Diablo 3 together with Dray and while he can barely hide his enthusiasm, I have instead a hard time to be enthusiastic about it and the main reason for that is how the game seems more aimed toward the instant gratification-generation, something that shows through and through.

The game just doesn't leave me with any impression that it is going to be a good game, more like really mediocre.

It just seems dumbed down because it doesn't have the amount of skills you were offered in Diablo 2, which if we're honest most were ignored in favour cookie cutter setups, Necro's with skeletons and blood golems, groups of Paladins doing boss runs with healing auras etc.

D III is offering a less cumbersome and actually more interesting choose on the fly system which I think is going to work very well, of course it's all subjective but I've been playing the beta for a few weeks now and I'm still playing D2, I like it and that's why I've jumped in and pre-ordered.

As for you Alpheis you were told repeatedly how crap SWTOR was going to be but you still bought and played it, before finally realizing what we'd all told you.

YOU CANNOT HAZ OPINION. ;P