Well I did run out to a midnight opening tonight and grab diablo. Which was a mistake.

After a 40 minute line to buy it I get home to find out that this game must be connected to the internet at ALL times to play. Even for single player. And that they weren't going to turn on the servers until midnight pacific time, 3 am for me in eastern time zone. Lovely.

3 am rolls around and I and so many many others found out that, oops, servers are busy and I can't log in. So its 4:30 before I can get connected.

And now that I've had a chance to play it for a couple levels I got to say I'm disappointed so far. its not a bad game. Classic diablo play seems unchanged so far, but the graphics are a big let down for me. They are sort of cell shaded look that seems kind of cartoony. I really wanted sharp high res graphics. Really this game almost seems like a clone of fate or torchlight. And frankly unless the game gets much better I think those might be better games. They're 1/3 the price.

Its a good game but nothing to get excited over. Certianly not what I've been waiting years for.

Those were my impressions from beta. The connection issues are already meme-ing.

The whole 'Must Be Online' translated to 'Not Getting Diablo 3' for me.

Sorry Blizzard - not gonna happen. If I can't play it single player on my laptop when away from home then it just is not worth it.

The only thing to do about game companies pulling this malarkey is to not encourage them.

The Auld Grump, proud not owner of Mass Effect and Dragon Age for those same reasons.

And servers are Still down. Now taken off for emergency maintenance or something.

My total play time so far: 1 hr 5 min. Out of 9+ hrs trying to play. No worries though, its not like I have a job or anything. I can afford to just waste day after day waiting to play.

Seriously, way to make me care not at all about your piracy problems. Another case were the cure might be worse than the disease. Like companies whining about used game sales and then giving gamestop! exclusive levels and every other store a custom skin?



Edit: Well I finally got back in and played for about 20 minutes before they SHUT OFF the server again!!! Not a crash, that sent shut down notices 10 minutes ahead of time. Well done blizzard thats ALMOST a whole hour up after your emergency maintenance finished.

According to the forum it might have something to do with there being only 1 server for all North America!!!

I was reading yesterday that Korea and other Asian countries had very similar issues upon release. I have been on the fence about this game and it is actually part of what prompted me thinking about clearing out some of my backlog.

Any chance you have a guest pass that you aren't using? I would like to give the game a try once things die down and know that the guest pass allows for a decent chunk of early level play. If so, thanks. If not, sounds like I might not be too bad off with waiting longer anyway, lol.

Yup. Skipping this one for AT LEAST 6 months. In fact, I may just skip it entirely and wait for Torchlight 2. That looks to actually do something interesting.

I guess I'm the only one enjoying playing it. I like the graphics, it is a nice dark, artistic feel to it. I have unlimited broadband so I don't care about the online part, I don't agree with it and they should have an offline mode like Steam has in case their servers are down.

I will get Torchlight 2 as well but I love how they are continuing the story line!

I have just spent the past hour and a half playing this and I must say I am not like the lack a quality in the whole feel. To me it feels like Blizzard sold out to Disney....

Which is really annoying as I was quite pumped for this game. I am also finding that there is little challenge to it... No, that is not right - there is little care for my character, I don't feel that he/she is going to get eaten or bashed or killed... there is a totallack of impact upon the screen for me.

I am also thinking that Torchlight might have taken the "torch" and ran with it.

The rune system seems interesting adn could provide a nice solid bit of fun.

Oh the story - yea well... I didn't care for StarcraftII's story (the whole cowboy/western vibe was cool for Firefly but f**k off Blizzard) and this is turning out really poorly scripted. I guess after Ddragon Age, Mass Effects and other big names in recent years one kind of expects a blockbuster - not a buster.


Of course I am going to keep on playing it - but I feel visually that they missed turning on the partical layers - no mist/fog vapour, no thematic visuals nor uber sound effects.


This game is almost aimed at under 13 yrs - as I feel once a user gets past that age they see what is really presented to them over what they think is presented.


Lord Abaddon of wormwoods

Well the game does seem to be actually playable at will today.


The graphics might not bug everyone like they do me. But they really bug me a lot. It feels kiddy and not scary. the other diablos were really sharp looking and mature for their time.

And something I've notice after leveling a couple times, the leveling system sucks. Its ALL auto assigned. The points the spells everything! And I haven't found a single items I have to level up to use. Thats one of the things I loved about the original game. Finding items and spells and having to figure out which I wanted to use and then manage the points to use them.

I've also heard that there are NO unique class items at all, nor any item sets. But I've not played very far so I don't know. But the end bosses I fought didn't drop anything but normal magic items.

And the sell value of things seems very weird. A pair of 2 armor boots is worth 2 gold, but so is a pair of 18 armor boots? Just seems very odd.

More and more this game just feels like its supposed to be for the ipad. It would probably be really nice as a $20 download. But a huge let down for a $60 triple A title.

Honestly I'd much rather they did an anniversary addition of diablo 1 like they did for halo, where they just do modern graphics. Of course they'd probably just apply these kiddy graphics.

I think this may well be my last blizzard purchase.

Wow am I glad I sat this one out. The game sounds like a real step back from Diablo II.
That's sad because I had a lot of mindless fun with the last one.

Personally I am glad I got it - as I have bugger all to play but I do feel like I am gaming with Gumby.

A small plus is that I only paid $50 - it was a UK copy.


Oh another smaller niggle - the voice acting is very so so.

So I do wonder if this is a turning point for the great Blizzard or is it a turning point for me? Is it a poor game or did I have too much expectation? I do feel it's a tad me but then I stop look back at my gaming in the past two years and think - Man there have been some great times, great memories.... Diablo will not be in that fading vault.



Lord Abaddon of Wormwood

I seem to find very few people being in the middle on this game. Some LOVE it and others HATE it. I guess that is what happens with any huge title that is released after a long time..and that goes for any genre: Duke Nukem game, Star Wars movies, RPG editions, etc.

My wife is very intrigued by the ads for Diablo III... her only computer gaming experience is World of Warcraft; how does D3 compare to WoW?

I tried the game out tonight and liked it. I am not immensely impressed and the voice acting is a joke (I literally laughed at the first couple of old lady/old guy book readings).

On the other hand, I miss the point and click fun of this kind of game. I personally don't mind the art style and the leveling system could be better, but it could also be much worse (although I only made it to level 8 or 9 before calling it a night).

LD nailed it. Other games are doing the same or better with less than one tenth the budget and a third of the cost.

I'm sticking with Lord of the Rings Online for now*. Who hoo hobbit Tank for the win!

*Until Guild Wars 2 comes out...

Two of my players (husband and wife) have already played through it.

Their verdict: freaking short!

They seem to think that it is about half the size of Diablo II, though whether they are comparing to DII or DII + Expansion, I do not know.

Also, they really did not like the voice acting.

They are thinking about sending it back to Amazon, finishing the game that quickly really bothered them. (These are people that played Diablo I, they were really looking forward to it, even after the beta tester disappointment leaked out.)

They did not like the idea of a real cash auction house for a single player game. (I don't blame them there.)

The Auld Grump, stay awhile, and listen....

Auction house is set by the seller so it can be either real world cash, in game gold or I believe they can set it for either/or.

I've been playing the game for a few days and I'm still only on Act II. I tend to explore every tiny bit and if I had fun doing it I will exit out then do it again.

It amazes me how fast some people burn through games like these. I played through the starter pass (to beating the skeleton king or level 11) in 3 1/2 hours and I didn't feel mile I was dragging my feet. I was enjoying exploring. Many people are beating the same guy in under and hour.

The voice acting does not feel like an A title. That is for sure. At the same time, I will be picking this up soon.

Torchlight II is looking good... and they sell a four pack of the game for the same price as a single user for Diablo 3. And has the same design team as Diablo I and II.

Forbes was not kind to Blizzard in their business review of the game - advising gamers to 'stay angry'. That because of the online DRM gamers are not buying the game they are leasing it.

Ah well, I have not been happy with much by way of computer games from major publishers this year. Skyrim is beautiful, but I preferred Oblivion, I avoided the ME series completely, and will not buy Diablo 3 unless they pull that online DRM.

Minecraft on the other hand.... I have gotten much more than my $15 worth.

The Auld Grump

$15 for minecraft? It was $26 when I was looking to get the pc version.