Diablo® III

Good game but no where near as good as it could've been, which kind of depresses me more than anything. As far as I'm concerned this is a Diablo game, and therefore it should've modelled itself off of the previous games. To say that D3 is pretty much the same as those games just because of the viewing angle and plot themes is a very shallow stance to take. It's very different. I played and loved D1 and D2 and this game is not as good as D2 in many aspects.

My story:

The first couple of days are heaven and many hours get clocked. After the initial dramas with the heavy server loads directly upon launch, good connections are consistent and the game was great fun in co-op. Then the story unfolded and it was lame. The dialogue was terrible and the plot lines obvious. The characters seem really cold and unattached from other characters in the game. Cain was killed off quickly and in a laughable manner and then I found myself killing a super-sized butcher and skeleton king again... wth? The story and dialogue never really improves.

Combat in D3 is epic. Looks great, sounds great. When your in a co-op game and really rolling through the minions... it's bliss. Then you get to inferno after some trouble initially with hell and things go pear-shaped. So you farm for countless hours to get gold because you never find any rares worth a f*** so you need to hit the AH. Then you realise that you haven't even found 1 legendary or set item and you've played 100 hours. Then you actually find one with some useful pre-determined stats but you get a rubbish roll on the randoms with strength instead of dex or something like that and the world seems to suck again.

And all the while this is going on you think to yourself... does this game have any other songs besides the main theme in the menu? It does... if you wanna call them songs. The soundtrack is a collection of soundscapes with a great title theme and an interesting rendition of the Tristram theme. That's it. Where is Matt Uelman when you need him?? Oh wait that's right... he's composing music for the Torchlight series with music that leaves this games soundtrack for dead.

It's Tuesday and you've been at work all day. 'I could fancy some D3 tonight with the guys over skype' you think to yourself. So you log on at 7:30 after having some dinner and then receive a message in the chat window telling you the server is going down for maintenance in 15 minutes. You snap and hit the forums. Then you find out it's weekly. Yeah that's right, the game your being forced to play online all the time isn't available for you to play every Tuesday night... a weeknight... every week... during your local winter.

It's Wednesday... the game is back up! You've been looking forward to this game for years so your investing lots of time into it even though there's this overwhelming feeling of lacking. Lacking... lacking... what could it be lacking? You ask yourself. Well Jay Wilson has been telling me that I really wanted and would enjoy the challenge of inferno, so you've got 2 level 60 chars by this time and decide its really time to try and push past act 2 inferno. Maybe that will satisfy my hollow feeling; the feeling of accomplishment!

But no... constant death, invulnerable minions and the fact that this mega company won't provide my global region with a SERVER makes it pretty difficult to beat the already ridiculous inferno mode. Try kiting glass cannons with a 400+ ping... it's totes awesome.

So I love and hate this game but as ever I'm the eternal optimist. Complaints are critiques are what fuel the fixes within the patches, so let's hope they do a good job. But for the love of god... Aus/Kiwi servers MUST BE PUT IN PLACE. It's just ridiculous for a company of this magnitude to not take the step forward and implement it. It really is not that expensive and people would trade a larger player base for a more consistently solid connection ANY DAY of the week.... even Tuesdays ;)

Positive feedback from ANZ players?

Ok, fine. I'll play. The basic core gameplay of diablo 3 is pretty good, I have some issues with the mechanics but I had fun. I see it as Diablo 2+, as diablo 2 was diablo+ (so D3 = D++ rofl), you've taken the formula, kept the basic gameplay and improved on it. Some game companies would be tempted to turn a sequel after so long into a 3rd person shooter or some rubbish but Blizzard is nothing if not consistant in a game series... if it's called Diablo, it's a hack and slash monster bashing dungeon crawler.

It's a bit short and I wonder if the mechanics (read: character choices and builds) are a bit too simple, too scripted... ie you will get THIS SKILL at THIS TIME and THIS RUNE at THIS TIME! It just seems silly... But at the same time the simplification of skills allows you to completely retool a character from fight to fight (if you want) and allows for easy experimentation. There's a lot of fun to be had with that.

However, if I just gave you my positives you'd only get half the story... I'll try to keep it simple and the bile to a minimum. Here's a list:

1- Always online DRM: This was the nail in the coffin, I won't deal with this anymore, no offline mode for single player will mean no sale.

2- Poor launch: I expected rough seas, but this was orders of magnitude worse, no more needs to said.

3- Constant lag issues: I have American friends that complain of lag, and it's definitely worse for me. I will note that it has been better of late but it just infuriates me when I lag die in single player... (see #1)

4- Auction House deserves a mention, man was that a gamble to use at times (see #2)

5- Game pacing was painful... easy mode chapter 1 lasts too long and gets boring, chapter 4 still a bit too easy and stupidly short? Elites are way harder than major bosses as difficulty increases? Bosses become boring? What?

6- Class Balance: Ok, time for a tiny bit of bile, I loled 6 or so months when my friends were excited for PvP in D3, my response was "Yeah, they balanced WoW PvP SO GOOOD! I'm sure D3 arena will be great" /sarcasm... but it seems even basic issues of balance for single player haven't been addressed well. My friends, who unlike me really wanted PvP, have stopped playing at all in part because their class of choice was nerfed... TO TEH GROUND!! The reactionary nerfs that appear to be in response to the groups exploiting aspects of certain classes to finish the game first hit those classes hard. And only slowed down these exploiters. Good work.

Special mention goes to the attempt to gouge Australians (and I assume NZ too) by charging $80 AUD for the digital edition of your game. Yeah, no... I didn't pay it. I got it for $60 AUD, and it was in a box with a manual. A local retailer took advantage of the resentment I felt, though you should thank them... I probably wouldn't have bought it at all otherwise.

I could keep going, but I've spent long enough on this, I hope the effort I put into suppressing my nerdrage will mean you'll actually take what I say into account. I won't hold my breath.

tl:dr edition
...the core game of diablo 3 is fine, not great, not bad, just fine or good. But the BS surrounding it? Yeah no, I play a game to have fun and dealing with it all is not so fun.

You simplified the game mechanics and complicated the authentication and connection side. The mechanics changes can be debated, the connection side is just WRONG. It's not fair to your customers.

Big fan of D1 & D2. Some good feedback for D3?

When I started playing it on release day, the first drop.....YOU GUYS USED THE OLD SOUND!!!

it was nostalgia at its best, I literally stopped for a minute when I heard it, especially thinking about D1 and how much fun I had playing it as a kid! Such a small thing made the game that much more enjoyable.

Positives from patch 1.03: Easier to find high ilvl and attack speed nerf.

Negatives: everything else

I play a WD with decent gear until the patch. now i get lolz because i play a broken class i dont see whats wrong with it i still kill stuff just takes me a year or two but i get it done.

I get 200-300 latency, and I find the game is perfectly playable with a stable ping (I'm with iiNet in Western Australia and my ping is nice and stable).

I'm liking the game, I'm a bit paranoid with the latency, so I have passives that give me a little bit of survivability when my HP start dropping low quickly, and I also tend to watch for situations when that happens and grind, or purchase gear to compensate, rather that relying on me being able to push an ability button quickly.

Started with Wizard, softcore, but quickly switched to hardcore. Lost my highest level (51 barbarian) to the double Izual bug (which is now fixed with 1.0.3 excellent!), but I'm enjoying it. I'm also liking the little challenge of trying to sell things on the AH, weighing up the stats, etc.

The story isn't brilliant, but as has been mentioned by Blizzard people, it's supposed to be a pulpy heroes vs demons story. The animated movies are excellent quality, and I still like to watch the opening Act IV movie occasionally.

Technically, I really like the graphics. The detail is very nice, it doesn't rely on having the latest wizbang effects, it actually looks to be "simple", however how it goes together, and the detail on things like rivers, etc. Impressed.

I've put over a hundred hours into the game (I really should be more productive), so $83 was worth it, most of my PS3 games cost that much or more and I don't get the hours out of them.

All and all, I'm happy with the game.

There are negatives of course. No option of an offline mode, however that would mean I miss out on the AH, so either way. It's really not much of a priority for me. I play the game to pass the time and avoid work, I don't see it as something that is overly important in my life to worry about too much.

Posted by Arcagnion
On a side note the Witch doctor is still one of my favourite classes - Shootin n scootin with the Direbats skill never gets old!

Well I'm sure a Blizz employee can get to pick the best gear for their characters, you know, for testing?
How's that full Zunimassa set going??

No way, we grind out gear like everyone else- and I like it that way! It would be way too boring playing with the best gear if you didn't earn it.

So, you're against the RMAH then? Well, any AH for that matter but at least you have to farm gold.

things i like
positive feedback game is good until you hit..... inferno and game becomes pay to win !!!

Things I do not like about D3:-

2 Server lag - Lack of meaningful character customisation beyond skills/runes and dyes-
3 Only a handful of viable skills and runes-
1 Inferno beyond Act 1

Love the game. Now known as "obsessed with Diablo 3" by my wife and mates, and I haven't even played that much (when compared to the Inferno crazies out there). To be honest, a lot of my initial frustration came from misunderstandings, or not realizing how to build characters. My first WD was just painful to play with because he's a much different playing style when compared to other ranged characters. It was easier for me to use the monk or DH just because I was used to the play style.

AH & RMAH seem to be a lot more stable now for me and responsive. Items/money get to my completed tab in a timely fashion.

Constructive criticism - Keeping in line with the positive thread, no negatives.
1) Keep the skills calculator up to date with the skill changes in patches. on that note, keep the game info updated online.
2) I'm going to mention latency. :) Recently, I'd say 90% of the time, I sit between 200-290ms latency, which, for me, is definitely playable (only up to HELL atm). The random, unstable latency issues seem to have decreased a lot for me, which is a plus. Weekends will see higher latency, though USUALLy stable after a while and not spiking. I'd love to know what under 200ms latency feels like, though. :)

To summarise, I love the damn game and wish I had more time to play it.