Diablo 3 release date confirmed - 15th May

[kalniel]

I've never played Diablo but i understand Torchlight is fairly similar.

Should i be interested in this game?

In Diablo 3?

If you enjoyed Torchlight then Diablo 3 is I expect close to the pinnacle of that kind of game. Torchlight is a good enough game that (graphics aside) you're not suddenly going to think Diablo's a 5x better game, but I expect it's going to be so polished and well tuned that Torchlight will feel clumsy afterwards.

Of course, if you want to play with friends then you need either Diablo 3 or wait for Torchlight 2.

[shackahn]

Hi all,

I don’t post very often as I prefer to sit back and read the often witty and insightful comments posted by the regular members.

I was lucky enough to get a Diablo 3 beta key from Eurogamer on Friday I have managed a few hours of game play but mainly chose to spend my time in the sun as I am sure most of you did. I thought it might be nice to share a few impressions with you. A few things to take into consideration, I have not played Diablo 1 or 2, I am a big fan of the genre (Titan Quest I am looking at you) and lastly the beta is really short and only give a glimpse of the game.

The first character I rolled was a Demon Hunter, I am typically drawn to barbarian style classes but thought I would go for something a bit different. I loaded the game up and the first thing that struck me was just how laggy it was, I expected that the always on DRM would be a regular check rather than actually playing on a server. I understand that the beta servers are on the US east coast but essentially this was spoiling my single player game. I followed some helpful tips on the forums and moved the game to my SSD which made a massive difference. Still this idea of lagging whilst playing alone somewhat irks me. It even caused me to die at one point, can you imagine lagging whilst playing a hardcore character?

Anyway I played for around 2.5 hours and this got me all the way to the skeleton king and the completion of the beta. The skills are really interesting from a tactical point of view and pleasing on the eye. The same can be said of the armour, its nice to see your character wearing the items you have equipped even if the player models are slightly low res. Enemies are interesting (if not at all challenging in the beta) beyond the basic mobs especially the champions/champion packs. The level design seems nice, especially the randomised dungeons. I particularly like the ability to kills enemies with the scenery (collapsing walls, dropping chandeliers etc.)

The quests are well done and often only involve listening to a conversation for 30 seconds or so before being sent on your way, there are various lore books along the way which nicely fill in any blanks and you don’t have to find these in any particular order. A small but nice thing is the lore book just plays a voice recording and this isn’t interrupted when you move areas, its the little things that count (so the wife tells me.) There was talk of a lore book accessible in game where you could read more about enemies, character, places etc but I am not sure if this is being included. The official forums has mixed responses.

Its all about the loot, and there is that drive to carry on and try and find the next big thing. A decision I found a bit strange is when you find an unidentified item you merely have to right click it to reveal its properties. I am not sure why it isn’t just revealed to start with or at least require some kind of scroll? Maybe this is something from previous games? Magical items can be salvaged into components which allow you to craft weapons and armour with random magical properties. The crafting is rewarding as often the items seem to be better than a lot of the loot you find especially the magical benefits.

I was given 50 Beta Cash to test the real money auction house as well, I have listed a few items which have sold but obviously people are more willing to buy and sell with free pretend money. I was reading the FAQ’s and a couple of things came to light for me which I was not aware of

• You will be charged to list the item regardless of whether it sells. You will then be charged an additional fee if it does sell. You will then be charged an additional fee to withdraw the money via a third party or its free to place the finds in your battle.net account

Its interesting as well that you can sell any item that you have previously equipped (provided its fully repaired.) I expected a “bound” MMO style system but as of yet this isn’t the case.

Overall I was impressed with the beta, its got real potential. That’s all it is at the moment though. I expected it to grab me more that it has, but a big part of the problem for me is the ease of the beta. I expect the difficulty will ramp up considerably as the game progresses. I am sure you have all seen the videos and read the news etc but I just though I would give my opinion. If there is anything specific you want me to test or any questions you want answered let me know and I will do my best

[scaryjim]

... Should i be interested in this game?

Do you have Torchlight already? If so, and you enjoy it, then you're likely to enjoy the Diablo series (although personally I wouldn't bother with the original, it was great at the time but it's pretty clunky). You can probably still grab DII and its expansion, Lords of Darkness, for next to nothing, and it's a great way to kill time. Torchlight's very similar to DII but with enhanced 3D graphics and a few gameplay tweaks. DIII looks - from what I've seen in previews etc. - to be very graphically polished, and will probably keep a lot of the feel of DII (no reason to change it!), but for me the requirement of a permanent internet connection to play - even single player - is a real deal breaker.

... if you want to play with friends then ... wait for Torchlight 2.

This is what I'm doing - multiplayer was arguably the biggest missing link in Torchlight, and with T2 introducing co-op multiplayer it's the one game release this year that I'm definitely buying (of course, whether I buy it this year, or in 12 months when the price drops, is another matter ). If you can cope with the internet connection required for DIII, then you'll probably get a lot out of it. Of course, you could always buy them both

[MSIC]

Still this idea of lagging whilst playing alone somewhat irks me. It even caused me to die at one point, can you imagine lagging whilst playing a hardcore character?

That's my biggest worry right there - that for no good reason other than as a piracy check, Blizzard are going to spoil the playability of the game for everyone who doesnt have a 100% perfect net connection 100% of the time.
I know its only a beta, but that is bad news for me.

[kalniel]

That's my biggest worry right there - that for no good reason other than as a piracy check, Blizzard are going to spoil the playability of the game for everyone who doesnt have a 100% perfect net connection 100% of the time.
I know its only a beta, but that is bad news for me.

If moving the game to an SSD helped, as he claimed, then this lag wasn't anything to do with the internet stuff.

[shackahn]

If moving the game to an SSD helped, as he claimed, then this lag wasn't anything to do with the internet stuff.

It definitely was internet lag my ping was something like 700ms at the point where I died. It happened when there was a lot going on. Other than that first play though it has been relatively lag free.

They took the servers down not long after to do something, possibly related to the lag?

When I went on the forums someone suggested that as you enter each area it contacts the server to say where you are or something similar and that after you have been to each area for the first time you wont experience much lag

[Hicks12]

Thankyou Shackahn for that very insightful post! Its nice to see it is shaping out to be a good game (regardless of this DRM idiocy)

I must say it would be interesting to see how a diablo veteran would respond to d3, i know d2 was epic for me due to pure interest of finding items and doing dungeon runs and the masses of mobs to kill and the mass clicking! Sorceress was the best personally, loved using blizzard to destroy everything, 100% of games ive played have failed to have something like this and its one of the reasons i hate them, it also needs a cow level!.

I did love torchlight but i stopped playing fairly quickly, diablo 2 i didnt play alone, it was me and a friend (when we were like 14 i think) we would play online together and it was a brilliant coop experience , with torchlight missing multiplayer/coop i found it lost my interest quickly. Alot of my friends wont pick up d2 due to the outdated graphics, torchlight sorted that but again missed out on the crucial bit .

Torchlight 2 is on my watch list and diablo 3 was preordered 2 or 3 years ago from amazon for £23 .

[MSIC]

Sorceress was the best personally, loved using blizzard to destroy everything,

What?? Everyone knows that the Druid was best... pah!

[kalniel]

When I went on the forums someone suggested that as you enter each area it contacts the server to say where you are or something similar and that after you have been to each area for the first time you wont experience much lag

Yep they track a lot of stats, especially in the beta. The DRM might involve an authentication on each new area load or similar. But in either case an SSD won't really affect it.

[Hicks12]

What?? Everyone knows that the Druid was best... pah!

Lies! But i guess that was the beauty of D2, any class had a good use and enjoyment, personally i just enjoyed sorc much more than the rest but necro and druids were fun also

[Barrichello]

I did love torchlight but i stopped playing fairly quickly, diablo 2 i didnt play alone, it was me and a friend (when we were like 14 i think) we would play online together and it was a brilliant coop experience ,

Out of interest how did the co-op work in D2? and do we know if it will play the same way in D3?

I only ever played Diablo 1 (which i loved) but i never got round to playing Diablo2 - and wanted to ask how it plays? Mrs B also wants to get D3 to play co-op and im trying to get my head around how multiplayer will play/work. Will it be possible to just start/play a co-op "campaign" type game of our own locally? or is hosted as multiplayer on their servers? Can other friends drop in/drop out into the same "instance" campaign we are playing.

I have checked the FAQ here http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/faq/#1_1 but doesnt really answer my questions.

[shackahn]

Hey,

I did a full play through with a friend last night and we were both connected to a battle.net server the entire time, I had a ping on 175ms and my friends was over 200 and he was complaining of lag. I am not sure if it sets up some kind of P2P hosting service with a constant connection to the Bnet servers of if I am literally playing on a server somewhere.

I will try again tonight by joining his game and see if I get lag, I will hopefully be able to answer your question better then.

As for the drop in drop out, you can do that with no issues at all. You can choose which part of the game you want to start from (assuming you have already completed that part.) It can be at the beginning of a quest chain, half way through, the end its entirely up to you. Anyone from you friends list can then drop in or out, you can also set in the options to have them invite only. If you feel like experiencing the wrath of keyboard warriors, you can open your game up to the public.

Another nice touch is if your friend does decide to join and you have been walking through a field for the last 15 minutes he can simply click on your banner which is placed in the local town and port to your location. Intrestingly loot is not shared, if you loot a chest for example different loot will appear on each screen.

[[GSV]Trig]

Guess the persistant net connection is an easy way to beat lazy hackers, be a shame if the game suffers because of it, this game has had so much hype and people have been waiting ages for it, would be a shame for it to be ruined by something thats not the actual fault of the game itself..

[Zadock]

The need for a persistent connection is a little worrying... will their servers be able to handle all of the logins on release day? Then there is the annoyance of not being able to play when servers are down from time to time.

Still, I've preordered it. Played Diablo at school, Diablo 2 at college and uni been waiting for a long time for this.

[Hicks12]

Out of interest how did the co-op work in D2? and do we know if it will play the same way in D3?

I only ever played Diablo 1 (which i loved) but i never got round to playing Diablo2 - and wanted to ask how it plays? Mrs B also wants to get D3 to play co-op and im trying to get my head around how multiplayer will play/work. Will it be possible to just start/play a co-op "campaign" type game of our own locally? or is hosted as multiplayer on their servers? Can other friends drop in/drop out into the same "instance" campaign we are playing.

I have checked the FAQ here http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/faq/#1_1 but doesnt really answer my questions.

D2 multiplayer worked really simply, it was the same game but online and if you were in a party you would all work on the quest that the party leader was on, really basic but worked 99% of the time for me . Drop in drop out but obviously if they hadnt got to the same point as you then they couldnt progress with you, theyd have to catch up first (they be party leader instead).

[MSIC]

Also regarding D2 multiplayer, you could choose to play either on Blizzard's servers or what I did (and I think many chose) which is (for example) me to host a game, and 1, 2 or 3 of my friends would connect to me, effecting creating our own LAN.
Back in the very early days of 2001 we used to have to get in the same room to do this effectively (dial-up 56k just was too annoying) but once even 500 kbit broadband became available then D2 was absolutely fine.