D3 official release date announced

[rodos]

So I installed the beta client last night because WoW was down, then found that the D3 Beta login servers were down too. Ugh. Anyway, I got on this morning to poke around a little and.... LAG. Such horrible lag just about any time a fight was initiated that I'd be half dead before I could get an ability off.

Is that due to overloaded servers? If so, I didn't realise that D3 would be dependent on the server for just about everything the way WoW is, and it doesn't give me much hope that the game will be fun to play at launch.

Is it because I started the game while the download bar was still yellow, and those mobs had to be downloaded before I could fight them? If so I think the streaming download feature is pretty broken as it should completely pause the game rather than just freeze the screen while I die to an enemy I can't hit.

[Fivelives]

That happened to me, too. I'm pretty sure it's just because it's still downloading - mine even read "playable" when I started it, but I died twice to massive screen freeze. Then I exited out, waited for it to finish downloading, and it ran smooth as butter.

[rodos]

That happened to me, too. I'm pretty sure it's just because it's still downloading - mine even read "playable" when I started it, but I died twice to massive screen freeze. Then I exited out, waited for it to finish downloading, and it ran smooth as butter.

Ok. I'll give it another chance this weekend. I mean, I'll play it when it goes live anyway since I'm getting it for free with annual pass, but I want to know whether I should be excited by the launch or prepared for disappointment

[Flex]

The melee classes are extremely fun to play. Punching something so hard it skin disintegrates is awesome.

I was disappointed at how boring the Demon Hunter was to play for the beta level range. It just lacks all the neat ranged abilities that the Wizard and Witch Doctor have and doesn't have the oomph in its attacks that melee have.

[rodos]

The melee classes are extremely fun to play. Punching something so hard it skin disintegrates is awesome.

I agree. I've been messing around with a monk. Chose it because I liked the look of the female model. It certainly is a lot of fun tearing into a group of mobs and obliterating them hand-to-hand and foot-to-head style.

The game certainly has a nice action feel. The showers of gold and loot, and the "new record massacre - 25 enemies" and such are awesome.

[Skye1013]

The melee classes are extremely fun to play. Punching something so hard it skin disintegrates is awesome.

I was disappointed at how boring the Demon Hunter was to play for the beta level range. It just lacks all the neat ranged abilities that the Wizard and Witch Doctor have and doesn't have the oomph in its attacks that melee have.

Guess it's a good thing I started with the Demon Hunter (and haven't played any of the other classes.) So far my only complaint is they seem like a one-trick pony. "Let's see how many mobs I can kill before they get close enough to hit me!"

Idk, maybe I just enjoyed D2 more because I love summoning 40 skels out to kill things for me. I'll have to mess around with the other classes and see how I feel about it.

Also, in regards to everything being on the servers: one of my friends was considering getting the game until he found out you HAVE to be connected to the internet to play. At least D2 gave the option to play locally without internet (and even via a LAN iirc.) Sure your characters couldn't cross between the two, but that was never really an issue for me.

[Fivelives]

I don't get why companies are all doing this crap now.

"An internet connection is required to play this game in single player mode."

Screw that - that's why WRaZ.0.rZ^69.Diablo.III.cracked is going to be more popular than the actual retail game itself. If I want to play a single player game, I'll be damned if I should have to connect to the internet to play it!

Edit: naughty naughty language! My inner sailor slipped out. That sounded dirtier when I read it than it did in my head.

[Flex]

I don't get why companies are all doing this shit now.

"An internet connection is required to play this game in single player mode."

PRobably because of the real money auction house. They don't want someone that finds an exploit to be a ruiner.

[Skye1013]

I don't see where that is a problem for single player. Do like they did in D2 and have single player characters separate from multiplayer chars and require the connection for the latter (and achievements only proc if you're actually online, much like with SC2.)

[Dantriges]

Isn´t this "connect to net" thing the new copy protection?

[sahiel]

I don't see where that is a problem for single player. Do like they did in D2 and have single player characters separate from multiplayer chars and require the connection for the latter (and achievements only proc if you're actually online, much like with SC2.)

But then all those SP gamers wouldn't be able to buy stuff off the AH at all and thus Blizz earns less money, hence why the idea goes out the window.

[Levantine]

Hold up... You can play diablo as a single player game? People do that? The only way I have fun with it is when I'm dicking around with my friends seeing what kind of interesting shit we can do with ability combos. Each to their own I guess, but I know I've always seen diablo 2 as a game that you lay with other people because otherwise it'd be boring as shit.

[Skye1013]

I started out in single player, then moved up to LANs. Only ever did online play a couple of times (because it was basically like LFD/LFR is in WoW... different people every time I want to go through it.)

Granted, the game became more interesting to me after we figured out how to duplicate items during LAN play (and my friend found a single item-space rune that gave +7 to all skills, which got us up to 99 in all skills after only spending 1 point each...)

That obviously wouldn't fly in the online version, though I'm to understand that people "hacked" items to make their own. Then again, that might have just been for SP/LAN games.

[Skye1013]

a game that you lay with other people because otherwise it'd be boring as shit.

No wonder you prefer multiplayer...

[Levantine]

Fuck. Busted.

[Novariety]

I reinstalled D2 for a little nostalgia last night before D3 goes live, haven't played it since WoW, oh so long ago now.

Looking forward to D3 .

[lythac]

I failed in finding my copy of D2. Made me sad.

[Esilence]

I failed in finding my copy of D2. Made me sad.

You can get the downloaders etc from the Blizzard site. You would still need your cd key, but if you tied it into your battle.net account you can find that online also.

If you lost it before tying it in though, you are a bit screwed.

[tinalt]

After playing the beta one last time over the weekend, I'm in love with the wizard. It's way too satisfying using the arcane orb to destroy giant groups of enemies. the fact that one channel of frost ray was destryong elites was great too. I can't wait to see some of the later abilities in action.

[Flex]

Story Found that story via Kotaku about the 2D Physics engine used by Angry Birds and basically every other 2D physics game ever and see that he is now employeed by Blizzard. I hit up the box2d.org website and see he gave a presentation on ragdolls in Diablo 3. Pretty cool that some guy writing a free engine gets to expand on that work in a professional way.

[Arnock]

So I bought and started playing D2 and... I think I might be missing something. I found 2 available quests and after that, all I'm seeing in the game is walking around and 2 shotting random mobs.

[Treck]

I started playing D2 again a few weeks ago aswell.
And I can only agree xD
You know the story, so you dont always pay so close attention to it, you know where to go so theres little "exploring" to do.
And yeh you just go around facerolling random mobs that doesnt drop anything usefull, wishing you find those "rare elites" to kill here and there.
Playing other games for the past 10 years have changed me atleast
I used to just play some D2 just cuz it was fun, and you never knew what you were gonna get.
Now you feel gimped before lvl 30 cuz you dont have your ultimate spells, you skip most of the story, and you know how stuff works so its not really much of a challenge.
It gets nostalgia points obviously.
And the challenge, playing on Hardcore gives some excitement atleast, that or edit so the game think theres more players to increase stuffs damage and health (but you get more xp, so not truly fair i guess)

[Kelaan]

Borderlands is similar. Many quests, of course, but you pretty much faceroll most things, aside from the occasional fustercluck of badasses or grenade-carrying midgets. I'm not sure why it's fun, but I imagine that facerolling hordes of mooks is satisfying at a visceral level.

[Flex]

but I imagine that facerolling hordes of mooks is satisfying at a visceral level.

Doing 4 man groups with people from my WoW guild was pretty darn awesome during the beta period.

[Passionario]

Less than a day left until we can start counting down ten years to D4.