Diablo 3

[HuManBing]

Arx Fatalis being a shining example, FYI, or, Deadly Premonition, which in my humble opinion is the single best horror game ever done.

I must try these out!

Edit: Deadly Premonition is XBox360 and PS3 only.

[Jester of the FoS]

Personally, no. I mean I love the previous Diablo games and xpacs, but this blurb I read about how you can buy--using real money--experience levels has me wondering.

I hadn't heard about that, but I know the Auction House will take in-world gold or real world cash.

Which I was totally aghast at until I stopped to think.
This is partly so those who have less time to grind can just buy good gear, if they have the spare money. And it totally deflates the foreign gold and item grinding markets, as you can give your money directly to Blizzard rather than some untrustworthy middle-man.
It does mean there'll be more and more people grinding for rare drops knowing you can get real money for it, but this also takes away from the gold farmers as a business model as anyone can do it, you don't need to set-up shop and invest in spambots and/or websites. It decentralizes the gold farming.

Throw in this promotion where, if you agree to maintain a subscription to WoW for a full year, you get automatic beta access to Mists of Pandaria, Diablo 3 free, and an in-game (WoW) mount called Tyrael's Charger and I have to ask what the mad grab for cash is about? Have they overextended themselves financially?

That's more reasonable. I think they know WoW has reached maximum saturation and they're on maintained. Plus they've grown aware of people hopping on and off, playing for 3 months then taking a break to play other games. And with a year before the next expansion, Blizzard was aware WoW: Cataclysm players had seen all the content and would be easily lured away.
I think Blizzard recognized early that Star Wars was going to devour their fan base, and Diablo would also split their fan base drawing away Warcraft players.
So they launched the promotion. Get Diablo 3 for free, but they have guaranteed numbers for Warcraft. I signed-up. At the cost of a new copy of Diablo deducted for Warcraft for a year meant if I played WoW for more than 6 months I'd be cutting even. If I pop on and off every month and a half I'm pretty much saving money.

If so, what does that mean for D3? Are they releasing it prematurely or have they taken the time to debug it as much as possible? I'll wait for the reviews to come out.

Blizzard has a solid reputation for testing and not releasing content until it is ready. They seldom announce release dates until the game is solid. We've known about Diablo for a couple years now and they didn't announce the release date until a few weeks back. They even delayed the first Warcraft expansion (Burning Crusade) by a couple months and missed the Christmas rush because the game wasn't ready. Them I have faith in.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I thought FF XIII was pretty good (better than XIII-2), and yeah. IX was damn fun.

IV (known to me at the time as II) will probably always be my favorite, so IX was a nice throwback. One of these days I need to actually finish it and move on to X, so I'm only 1 Plasystation system behind, not 2.

Also need to finally play Strahd's Possession and Stone Prophet. Got them a while ago as a collector of all things Ravenloft, but I've never even popped them into the computer. sigh... (I did actually play Iron & Blood, but the less said about that, the better. )

[High Priest Mikhal]

If so, what does that mean for D3? Are they releasing it prematurely or have they taken the time to debug it as much as possible? I'll wait for the reviews to come out.

Blizzard has a solid reputation for testing and not releasing content until it is ready. They seldom announce release dates until the game is solid. We've known about Diablo for a couple years now and they didn't announce the release date until a few weeks back. They even delayed the first Warcraft expansion (Burning Crusade) by a couple months and missed the Christmas rush because the game wasn't ready. Them I have faith in.

Apparently you didn't play Cataclysm when it was released. They didn't wait like they did with BC; they did rush it. Of course the same devs who did Classic and BC quit or were fired before Wrath came out and since then they've stopped focusing on making the game feel Warcraft-ian and instead put their effort into mass appeal. Patch 4.0 (pre-Cata prep) has been likened to SWG's NGE and I can see why. The difference between 3.3 and 4.0 is night and day; some of the changes were positive (the initial abilities from chosen spec and the glyph system, a few stat mergers to simplify play) but the game was irrevocably altered and alienated millions of players worldwide, some of whom haven't come back. MoP is changing everything around yet again. I'll reserve judgment until I play it, but so far the info is making it look like WoW will be completely alien to what even current players know.

OTOH, it is nice that they're finally introducing the long-promised monk class and they'll be penalizing folks who PvE in PvP gear (a persistent complaint by myself and countless others) by having PvP gear count as only half their effective item level for the purposes of getting into random groups. PvP in PvE gear is innately penalized, so the changes will help force folks who just know PvP to put in their dues learning PvE and earning Points like the rest of us before they can tackle the higher-end stuff. PvP is also getting overhauled with PvP Attack and Defense replacing Resilience (at last!). Resilience, and TOR's Expertise, are a cheap cop-out on PvP balance.

I thought FF XIII was pretty good (better than XIII-2), and yeah. IX was damn fun.

IV (known to me at the time as II) will probably always be my favorite, so IX was a nice throwback. One of these days I need to actually finish it and move on to X, so I'm only 1 Plasystation system behind, not 2.

Also need to finally play Strahd's Possession and Stone Prophet. Got them a while ago as a collector of all things Ravenloft, but I've never even popped them into the computer. sigh... (I did actually play Iron & Blood, but the less said about that, the better. )

Yeah, FF IV ranks up there; Cecil going from a Dark Knight to a Paladin is my favorite part. Of course my all-time favorite is FF VII; I spent months working my game, breeding chocobos to get the gold chocobo and Knights of the Round materia, working to beat the Emerald and Ruby Weapons, finding the Ultimate Weapons for each character, unlocking their ultimate Limit Attacks. It was quickly overshadowed by games like Wild Arms, Parasite Eve, Koudelka, Castlevania: SotN, and others I can't even remember but are sitting in my closet. I kind of went nuts buying PS1 and 2 games if they were anime'. It was the time when anime' was becoming easier to get but not yet hyped and commercialized by pop culture. ...I miss those days.

In Strahd's Possession, I'd recommend at least one of your own characters be a cleric and maybe the other a paladin. That game really overdoes the level drain thing and you'll want as many negative plane protection spells available as you can get.

[Zilfer]

^WoW talk. Love hearing people talk it, but i've no idea beyond the "general" meaning, what they are talking about.

[Jester of the FoS]

If so, what does that mean for D3? Are they releasing it prematurely or have they taken the time to debug it as much as possible? I'll wait for the reviews to come out.

Blizzard has a solid reputation for testing and not releasing content until it is ready. They seldom announce release dates until the game is solid. We've known about Diablo for a couple years now and they didn't announce the release date until a few weeks back. They even delayed the first Warcraft expansion (Burning Crusade) by a couple months and missed the Christmas rush because the game wasn't ready. Them I have faith in.

Apparently you didn't play Cataclysm when it was released. They didn't wait like they did with BC; they did rush it. Of course the same devs who did Classic and BC quit or were fired before Wrath came out and since then they've stopped focusing on making the game feel Warcraft-ian and instead put their effort into mass appeal. Patch 4.0 (pre-Cata prep) has been likened to SWG's NGE and I can see why. The difference between 3.3 and 4.0 is night and day; some of the changes were positive (the initial abilities from chosen spec and the glyph system, a few stat mergers to simplify play) but the game was irrevocably altered and alienated millions of players worldwide, some of whom haven't come back.

Actually I was. I'd been playing for a couple years prior and probably haven't un-subscribed since for more than three or four months. Cataclysm changed everything, but considering how many quests, classes, zones, and the like changed (i.e. everything pre-Burning Crusade) it went off rather smoothly. I've played other MMOs and had big updates break the game.
And my main is a paladin, which was one of the most changed classes (next to hunter and warlock).

[High Priest Mikhal]

Actually I was. I'd been playing for a couple years prior and probably haven't un-subscribed since for more than three or four months. Cataclysm changed everything, but considering how many quests, classes, zones, and the like changed (i.e. everything pre-Burning Crusade) it went off rather smoothly. I've played other MMOs and had big updates break the game.
And my main is a paladin, which was one of the most changed classes (next to hunter and warlock).

DKs, specifically Blood DKs, got the royal shaft. They used to be a DPS spec, but no! Blizz had to do something logical and make them self-healing tanks. A lot of us prefer the old Blood DPS/Frost tank configuration of Wrath. Not that I've quit playing my DK or haven't adapted; I just really miss being able to heal myself constantly in battle. And it kind of ruined my RP story. But the real gripe is the homogenized class abilities; remember when Blessing of Kings and Mark of the Wild did different things? Or when only shamans had a Heroism/Bloodlust ability? Or worse, taking away the world dragons! I never got the chance to kill them. And when they say they "want folks to hunt down world bosses," all I can ask is, "What world bosses?!?!" The Whale Shark, yes. Others...maybe the rare uber-tough creatures found in the Molten Front that are neutral, not agressive? I don't know. I haven't seen any "world bosses" around as I understand the term aside from said Whale Shark.

If you did play it at launch, surely you remember the Vashj'ir sub glitch and countless others that couldn't possibly have been missed in beta. Yet they released the xpac and it took months for them to get around to fixing them with the game live when they could have debugged the game faster had they just waited a month or two. And since Blizzard is their own publisher, they made the decision to come out on Dec. 7, 2010, themselves.

[Jester of the FoS]

Actually I was. I'd been playing for a couple years prior and probably haven't un-subscribed since for more than three or four months. Cataclysm changed everything, but considering how many quests, classes, zones, and the like changed (i.e. everything pre-Burning Crusade) it went off rather smoothly. I've played other MMOs and had big updates break the game.
And my main is a paladin, which was one of the most changed classes (next to hunter and warlock).

DKs, specifically Blood DKs, got the royal shaft. They used to be a DPS spec, but no! Blizz had to do something logical and make them self-healing tanks. A lot of us prefer the old Blood DPS/Frost tank configuration of Wrath. Not that I've quit playing my DK or haven't adapted; I just really miss being able to heal myself constantly in battle. And it kind of ruined my RP story.

Never played a DK beyond the origin story, so I can't comment. Sucks but many classes got hit with a tonne of changes. I group with a hunter who had to adjust to being energy based rather than mana, which was huge and had a steep learning curve for a level 80.

But the real gripe is the homogenized class abilities; remember when Blessing of Kings and Mark of the Wild did different things? Or when only shamans had a Heroism/Bloodlust ability?

I remember sitting about for a couple minutes at the beginning of raids while we coordinated buffs, and I had to know who to kings, who to might, and such. Then keep track of recharging with multiple deaths changing countdowns.

Or worse, taking away the world dragons! I never got the chance to kill them. And when they say they "want folks to hunt down world bosses," all I can ask is, "What world bosses?!?!" The Whale Shark, yes. Others...maybe the rare uber-tough creatures found in the Molten Front that are neutral, not agressive? I don't know. I haven't seen any "world bosses" around as I understand the term aside from said Whale Shark.

That might be a victim of levelling. They were meant to be special but suddenly you could solo them. And making them world raid fights meant only a minority of people would see the content that was very visible.
You didn't have a chance to kill them and likely never would have, and that's the same for almost no one else. 12 million players, and if content is only appealing for 1 or even 2 million it should be rethought.

If you did play it at launch, surely you remember the Vashj'ir sub glitch and countless others that couldn't possibly have been missed in beta. Yet they released the xpac and it took months for them to get around to fixing them with the game live when they could have debugged the game faster had they just waited a month or two. And since Blizzard is their own publisher, they made the decision to come out on Dec. 7, 2010, themselves.

I do remember some oddities with the sub, but I don't recall it breaking my enjoyment of the game or making the quest chain unable to advance. I just moved on. Again, with thousands of reworked and altered quests, a few bugs are such a minor percentage of the game it's almost forgettable.

[High Priest Mikhal]

Some of the initial changes (like the short-lived rule where Elemental Oath was a proc, not a passive buff) drove me off of several classes and it took me a while to adjust back to using greens and blues where getting purples was so easy in Wrath. I adapted and like the game as it is. Things are easier to manage, the glyph system is so much better, but I'll always pine for some of the older aspects (Blood DKs as DPS, class buffs being different, the World Dragons, etc.). An idea I suggested, that players have the option of using the Bronze Dragonflight to go back and play the Classic zones pre-Cataclysm as well as post-Cataclysm, was rejected as impractical but some of the devs liked it and suggested it might make it into one of the last xpacs. I think they're just humoring the crazy man.

Currently I'm grinding for whatever will allow me to buy leather heirlooms for the monk class (Justice Points, Darkmoon Faire tickets, and Champion's Seals from the Argent Tournament). I forgot how low a drop rate Essence of Air has, necessary for Enchant Weapon - Agility, since Agi is what DPS (Windwalker) monks use. Yes, I can blow the air elementals in Silithus away with one lightning bolt or howling blast, but that just makes it more irritating when I kill nearly fifty elementals and get only one or two Essences. I didn't grind rep with the Thorium Brotherhood and Timbermaw Hold only to just buy the best heirloom enchants from someone else and get gouged on the price.

[Jester of the FoS]

The open beta weekend is wrapping up. Anyone else get a chance to play?

[alhoon]

Diablo 3? Maybe in 3-4 months. Little time, and as far as grinding go, I can always play other similar games... or Diablo 1-2.
Although I found diablo 2 a bit too... extended. I didn't want to travel all that route. I liked it though. A pity I deleted my saves.

Or I may borrow the DVD of forced Unleashed. My friends tell me it's good and since they've finished the game years ago, there are several copies gathering dust among my aquintances and they wouldn't mind giving them over for 1-2 weeks.
That's a good thing about having physical copies of the game instead of having it on steam. I could lend people my Diablo II copy, or my BGate copies etc. I can't do that with Neverwinter Platinum.

[Jester of the FoS]

And it's out.

I was in the beta and it played pretty darn smooth. No major bugs or problems that weren't on my end.

[steveflam]

I have it on the ole pc now, I'll be spending my Victoria Day weekend at the pc.

[High Priest Mikhal]

The few minutes I was on WoW today I heard some pretty mixed reactions to D3 in Trade. Some like it, some hate it, others can't play it because their machines are too underpowered, etc. I'm waiting on this until I learn if this is an online-via-Battle.Net-only game or if it can be played offline. If I want to deal with other people and their pettiness in real time, I'll stick with WoW. I love the first two games because they're mostly single player and I don't have to deal with others trying to give me advice or proclaiming how much I suck just because I don't do things their way.

[Jester of the FoS]

The few minutes I was on WoW today I heard some pretty mixed reactions to D3 in Trade. Some like it, some hate it, others can't play it because their machines are too underpowered, etc. I'm waiting on this until I learn if this is an online-via-Battle.Net-only game or if it can be played offline. If I want to deal with other people and their pettiness in real time, I'll stick with WoW. I love the first two games because they're mostly single player and I don't have to deal with others trying to give me advice or proclaiming how much I suck just because I don't do things their way.

It's online via battle.net, so you need an internet connection and battle.net account (check and check, since you play WoW).
HOWEVER, when you make a game it's single player but at any time you can open it to the public (and let anyone in) or invite friends.

So you're playing single player, getting smacked around by the Skeleton King, so without logging off or restarting you can invite people in to help. Or if you're running solo and a good friend pops on you can just fire off an invite and bring him into your game.
Or you could ignore that feature and play solo.