Diablo III

[[JiF]Sly Gambit]

*boooOOOooo*

That's my best ghost sound.

I bought Diablo III. First game I've bought the week it came out in almost three years. Of course I'd preordered it 18 months ago so that had something to do with it.

Anyway if anyone is playing or interested in playing let me know. User tag is Gambit#1909 and I'm able to get in a few hours here or there but not much more than that. I'm hoping to log some real time this weekend but for the most part it's an hour here/hour there.

Diablo II was probably my all time favorite game (BF42 comes in a little after). The free online play was awesome and spoiled me such that I never even bothered with WoW. But both games were great because I played with other people I knew (JiF in 42 and college friends in D2).

Anyway if there's anyone playing who's interested in leveling here or there look me up. I haven't ventured into the public game arena yet and probably won't if I can avoid it. Plus I still have no idea what kind of character builds are out there or what kind of item runs are possible so I'm just waltzing through the levels on bnet as a wizard. Seems like you're a little limited with character builds early compared to D2 so hopefully I haven't screwed anything up yet and can use this char for something in the future. But if not I get to reset and go at it again!

[[JiF]Mike]

I've been playing nightly. I only started on Sunday night after I got back from vacation. I too got it like a year ago!

My Battletag is Volt#1619, I sent you a friend request.

[[JiF]Sly Gambit]

I've been playing nightly. I only started on Sunday night after I got back from vacation. I too got it like a year ago!

My Battletag is Volt#1619, I sent you a friend request.

Cool. I think I'm going to be able to get in a 'marathon' tonight since I'm off tomorrow. Char is only lvl 10 and I just knocked off the skeleton king. Didn't even get a chance to ID the drop.

Marathon is in quotes because what used to be 6-10 hrs is now down to a few hours tops. Usually only get to squeeze in an hour of gaming here or there and kids tend to get up by 7 AM on the weekends so I get pretty punished if I'm up much later than midnight.

[[JiF][AARP]Tissueman]

Sly! Good to hear from you.

Tissue

[[JiF]Sly Gambit]

Sly! Good to hear from you.

Tissue

Oooo. An exclamation mark!

This is my first foray back into online games in almost 3 years so we'll see how it goes. Been sticking to single player PS3 games to satisfy the gaming bug. If this works out without upsetting the life/work/play balance I'm sure I'll be around more often. Definitely miss it. Can't wait until I retire in 60 years or so I can get back to serious gaming.

[[JiF]KellysHero]

Good hearing from you Sly! My gaming time has been cut quite a bit as well with a 20 month old. What exactly is the Diablo III game?

[[JiF]Sly Gambit]

Good hearing from you Sly! My gaming time has been cut quite a bit as well with a 20 month old. What exactly is the Diablo III game?

It's pretty much the epitome of a hack & slash game. Arguably D2 perfected it and it's not wrong to argue that no game since has managed to match D2 in the genre particularly when it comes to online coop. Games like Torchlight, Dungeon Siege, and Titan's Quest were modeled off of D2 but I have tried DS and TQ and they didn't pull it off. Never gave Torchlight a shot. If you've played God of War or Devil May Cry series they're similar in gameplay tho much more focused on single player and minimal character deviation.

D3 focuses on questing and item harvesting to build characters. You basically play through the game on normal, then play through it on nightmare, then hell, and then inferno with Inferno essentially built at a level of difficulty that makes it nearly impossible to win. Any character build can probably win on normal but it gets harder and harder to win and eventually will force people to rebuild more often or to play with more complimentary characters in coop games. The problem with coop is as more players join the monsters become more difficult.

With D2 I would build up a character specifically to do item harvesting and then use those items to equip different character classes built just to win the game. There are currently 4 character classes and each one is different enough from the first that the replay is great. And since you can use older chars to harvest for newer chars you end up being able to level up faster and get to the more challenging parts of the game in a reasonable amount of time. With the randomness of items it was possible that finding a single item would justify building an entire character class. We'll see if D3 gives the same sense of satisfaction as D2. I'd be a little surprised if they recaptured the effect but so far I'm happy with the gameplay.

Also I have a 2 1/2 yr old and a 10 mo old and both my wife and I work full time. So free time isn't exactly easy to come by and when push comes to shove sleep tends to win over late night gaming. C'est La Vie.

[[JiF]Mike]

I didn't read Slys response, just wanted to drop a trailer on ya.

[[JiF]Gib]

I got it last night, played to lvl7 so far. i really like it, probably for the voice acting and plot items. pluse theres secret doors(kindof) and secret caches. gameplay is smooth and dont have to worry about all the wow like combos and button mashing! Simple 4 skills to hit on keys 1-4, left and right mouse click for primary secondary attack and watch the giblets fly

[[JiF]Mike]

Someone pointed out to me online, if you turn on "Elective mode" is the settings you can assign any ability to any of the buttons instead of being restricted to one from each group. It makes a lot more sense this way! What's you battletag?

[[JiF][AARP]Grimp]

Nothing to do with the game. Just want to say Hi Sly.

[[JiF]Sly Gambit]

Nothing to do with the game. Just want to say Hi Sly.

Hi Grimp!

Mike it was good playing for a bit last night. I read something about the elective settings but didn't realize it was that versatile. Definitely be nice to use a few more skills and not use some of the craptastic ones. Really haven't spent much time figuring out the mechanics yet. Figured it doesn't get that important until you get past Normal anyway.

Also haven't ventured into the auction house but probably will soon. Heard it's pretty bad in that it's already made in game crafting/purchasing items obsolete. But I'll see for myself.

Gib what character did you start with? I'm playing with a Wizard for the moment and that's my only char. Mike was playing a Monk last night. He was only a level higher than me but seemed to be doing a nice job any time he was in the middle of a mob. I'm still a ways off from having a good wiz build and since I"m not spending any time doing item runs I'm not exactly sporting great gear. Exchanging gear with Mike helped a bit with that though so we'll see how I've improved next time I play.

[[JiF]Gib]

I think its just Sorcerer then some long number they assigned.

[[JiF]Uncle Stinky]

I picked up Diablo III on Friday and am hooked. I'm really impressed by how well they implemented everything. There's not a lot of new ground covered, but all they have done works beautifully - pacing, graphics, special effects, classes, interface. Plus, the new auction house seems to be working ok, and I've picked up some real steals with last-minute sniper bids.

I was playing a lot with Gib and Jimbo Fri-Sun -- I can't tell you how many one times of us unlocked a new skill, used it in a fight and someone else said, "Whoa! Who just did that? It was awesome!" Like the Monk skill that brings a huge, bronze bell crashing down on an enemy and then shoots a bolt of light through the bodies of nearby mobs.

I can't recall my Battlenet hash - I'll post it tonight.

I have characters now for all 5 classes, but the highest is only 21. After trying them all, I decided to make the Monk my main and will playing her most for the time being.

BTW - have you discovered the voice emotes? They are mapped to the numbers on the right side of your keyboard. #6 is a taunt/insult - "You are pathetic!"

PS - Sly, I think you are right about the aucton house making crafting obsolete. In fact, Gib said he now sells all his magic items instead of disenchanting them, and uses the money for the AH. When you can buy a rare yellow item for 150 gold, why bother crafting?

[[JiF]Sly Gambit]

PS - Sly, I think you are right about the aucton house making crafting obsolete. In fact, Gib said he now sells all his magic items instead of disenchanting them, and uses the money for the AH. When you can buy a rare yellow item for 150 gold, why bother crafting?

Yeah. I didn't get a lot of time in last week but in reading some of the forums the AH seems to be affecting a lot of the in-game fun. People are questioning why you would ever spend money upgrading the smith or jeweler when you can buy gems/blue magic items for a fraction of the cost. And the complaints from people trying to jump from Hell to Inferno are that it is impossible to mine Hell and get good enough items to survive Inferno which means you either use the auction house on big items to get you to Inferno or you just don't go that far. There are even bigger concerns with the system when the RMAH is opened for business.

I think some of the changes they made with game mechanics are a little disappointing. The cooldown affect on skills/potions. The health bubbles that pop up. The way they removed skills on weapons/shields and just focus on stat increases. And most of all the removal of stat management in developing a char. Kinda like they removed the heart of the RPG. I'm a little torn in the fact that I want those things to be hard to achieve and I loved mapping out skill/stat distribution ahead of time but I don't have the kind of time to be able to achieve those things so the 'simple' formula they've introduced does help me a bit. But I did buy this game for it's long-term playability and I'm not sure that's possible. Once you get all chars up to a certain level you won't need to build new chars. You can just play it a different way.

Still totally worth the $50.