Hell has frozen over (Diablo 3 is coming)

[Shinova]

Evidence:


http://www.sc2pod.com/news/Countdown_to_Diablo_3/


Rejoice my brothers. Sanctuary awaits our return.

[Stark]

Didn't most of the old Blizzard staff who worked on the old Diablo games leave? What evidence is there that Diablo 3 will be any good, or anything like the old games?

[Ohma]

Yeah, didn't a lot of them form that studio that made Hellgate?

[Ford Prefect]

Even so, I fucking knew it. Months ago.

[Hawkwings]

I called it. Like MANY YEARS AGO. Sheesh.

[Zor]

Did not they wrap up all the loose ends in Diablo 2 and it's expansion pack?

Zor

[Spyder]

No, the end of the expansion pack had the destruction of the..thingie that sparks a cosmic reset when you destroy it.

[weemadando]

I demand that it still be sprite based.

And have the sweetest of hi-res sprites that the world has ever known.

Well, not actually, but I would find that kind of awesome.

[wautd]

I demand that it still be sprite based.

And have the sweetest of hi-res sprites that the world has ever known.

Well, not actually, but I would find that kind of awesome.

Hear hear!

Lets hope it'll not be Wow 1.5
I'll despise it if it has the same pinko-purple style

[Zixinus]

I would be more excited if Diablo 2 wasn't a boring grindfest. I haven't done the first chapter or so without getting too bored to play.

[Resinence]

Unfortunately, it probably will, if you mean the "no shaders or lighting and cartoon-like textures from the mid-90s" graphics. Since that is basically blizzards shtick now, and allows them to corner the market of people who buy dells with onboard graphics. Honestly sprites would be great, at least then there is a CHANCE the graphical style will be dark like diablo/2. I am told repeatedly that the "blizzard style" is beautiful and much better looking than other games, but it just looks like low-polygon models with zero smoothing and bad textures to me. I must be such a graphics whore, I mean expecting to get lighting and character models that aren't un-smoothed box-models in 2008, clearly all I care about is how it looks

[Twoyboy]

No, the end of the expansion pack had the destruction of the..thingie that sparks a cosmic reset when you destroy it.

Sigh! Worldstone.

I would be more excited if Diablo 2 wasn't a boring grindfest. I haven't done the first chapter or so without getting too bored to play.

I actually enjoy these sorts of games. I'm sure it won't be though as that was the major criticism when the game came out. But given it's success, I'm sure they'll keep roughly the same formula and just branch out with some optional quests.

[Vympel]

If the game looks like fucking WoW I'll throw up.

[White Haven]

For an MMO, the too-easy-it-hurts engine was a perfect choice, due to the strains of hih-pop areas on low-end systems. If D3 is MMO, then they may go for a higher-requirement style, due to the fact that they still have Warcraft. Given that they're still expanding WoW, I highly doubt it will be, and as a single/small scale multi game, there's much less incentive to use low-end graphics.

[Resinence]

The problem is that I'm not optimistic that blizzards current devs even are capable of better art, most of the CURRENT dev's are from EQ and Warcraft. All of the diablo ones have pretty much left. And what I see of SC2 (cartoony) definitely does not bring my hopes up.

[Maxentius]

If the game looks like fucking WoW I'll throw up.

Your Barbarian can enjoy having leather shoulder pads the size of a small Buick.

[Brain_Caster]

Pfff, I'm not interested in Hack&Slay games, but if I were I'd just buy Sacred 2. Sacred was a lot better than Diablo 2. Though in the end, neither was especially good.

There was exactly one, and only one, game of that type that was actually fun, and that was Nox.

[Vendetta]

I'll be interested if they've got a control system that isn't a point and click RSI-fest, because that really isn't very much fun to play with.

If Diablo II had a better control system, I'd still be playing it today. (I still like the Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath games, as limited as they are compared to Diablo in terms of content variety, they have usable controls which are fun to play with.)

[Jaevric]

I'll be interested if they've got a control system that isn't a point and click RSI-fest, because that really isn't very much fun to play with.

That's why I loved the Assassin. Still nothing great, but at least you had more to do than pick one skill, put all your points into it, and spam it until everything on the screen was dead.

Actually, the Necromancer was pretty good in that way as well, if you really made an effort to use tactics with him. I never got into the "zookeeper" build.

[Lancer]

Tactics? With the Necromancer?

Usually you would just run around with a huge army of revived and spam corpse/poision explosion, topping off your army as needed.

Personally, I favored the Druid, though pretty much only the shapeshifting skill tree scaled well enough to do anything in endgame. Fury + lifestealing meant that I could run up to any non-physical immume mob, build up a charge, then fight and hold a ton of mobs without having to use potions to maintain my HP.

[Jaevric]

Necromancer depended on playstyle. I liked to (mostly) skip the revived corpses and rely on a golem, direct damage from corpse explosion & bone spear, and using curses to boost the other players.

[Covenant]

Sacred looks kinda messy--too much Doom-style plasticwrap bump mapping for my tastes. Titan Quest, I feel, is the best of the dumb hack-and-slash games out there. It has top-notch production values, I feel, just that right amount of good graphics without taking away from your situational awareness. It's also got the most variation of any that I've seen, what with your "choose two different masteries" style of class-selection. All combined there are 50+ class combinations, and that's a big step up. If you're going to have mindless slaughter topped off with chests full of magical items, being able to do it in any way you want certainly helps alleviate some of the grindyness of it.

If Diablo 3 comes out and doesn't solve the "choose this skill, max it out, spam until dead" mechanics then it's going to be building a game on a big disappointment. Diablo was fun even if it was about being spammy, but it could never hold my interest for all that long. I'd call myself a fan of the Diablo series, since I did quite enjoy the time I spent playing it, but I never beat D2 or got anywhere close, and I never got the XPac, so I think that describes the level of interest I could maintain after those first few fun hours.

[Jaevric]

Maybe I need to give Titan's Quest another try. I just could not get into that game for some reason, which is a shame because the "Ancient Mythological Greece" setting is a great one for a hack and slash game.

[Covenant]

Maybe I need to give Titan's Quest another try. I just could not get into that game for some reason, which is a shame because the "Ancient Mythological Greece" setting is a great one for a hack and slash game.

Well, your mileage may vary, as for any game. I was just saying that as far as "mash something in the face until it dies" games go, I felt TQ was one of the best ones to hunt for, if you can find a copy. Pretty graphics, ragdoll physics, suprisingly good voice acting and lots of it in a lot of interesting non-random environments (interesting in the sense that they vary the terrain) add up to a good diablo clone, in my book, especially when paired with the masteries system instead of a "choose your one of three classes" type. I also like the small touches, like how an enemy drops the equipment he was using against you, so if you see someone with a glowing blue sword you know you'll get it if you kill him, or the really convient town portal system, or the built-in "item transfer between characters" system in the expansion that removes the need to drop-and-swap between two boxes just to give your items to a different one of your characters.

Like with any Diablo-like game (or a roguelike in general) it's possible that you'll find it boring or shitty if something about it doesn't grab you early on. Let's say you chose, like, the Warfare mastery since you thought you'd be an ultra badass right out of the gate, it could be disappointing. I'd say that's one of the game's major downsides. The early game does go quickly, but unless you know what you're doing, you could pick a combination of skills that is really, really dull and not know why, or somehow manage to gimp your character and get frustrated with "I'm always running out of mana!" stuff.

I usually like to take something flashy first, so even if I suck it's fun, and all you're doing is sucking through the easy beginning of the game anyway, so it's no huge loss. TQ's other major flaw is that it's easy, which is a failing common to the breed, and when you do die it's usually quickly and without much warning from dashing in and not noticing that extremely large and unusually well armed monster was in fact a heroic version of that monster breed, and he just caved your skull in. Or from a barrage of arrows, 300 style, which can crush you pretty fast late in the game. Being a good Diablo clone doesn't make you a very inspired game, so I wouldn't consider it some lofty achievement, but if you're a fan of that kind of repetitive slaughter of hordes of enemies, and taking their stuff when you're done, then I'd say it's one of the better ones made so far.

But if you try it and hate it, it doesn't make you a bad person.

[Alferd Packer]

Maybe I need to give Titan's Quest another try. I just could not get into that game for some reason, which is a shame because the "Ancient Mythological Greece" setting is a great one for a hack and slash game.

I think one of the problems of TQ (and I love the game, BTW) is that the first act is too long. I understand that the game is based on Greek mythology, but you blow through Egypt in about half the time of Greece (unless you're a sadist and try to beat the Manticore), and you manage to get from Parthia to China in about a half hour. A change of scenery a little earlier on could've definitely helped the game.

I will say, though, that unlike Diablo, you can get some pretty amazing shit just playing a single-player game. You can even get unique items as early as level 8, and by the time you hit Egypt, you're probably going to have at least one blue. And, if you make it through normal and Epic difficulty, you will get Legendary items that make your character a freakin' juggernaut. I have a Hunter whose normal DPS is around 2500, and around 4000 when Adrenaline Rush procs.