Diablo 4 - Official Gameplay Trailer

coop that can be played by solo masochist junk.

Originally Posted by kazga
Always online? Thanks but no thanks.

I'd agree. But is it? Source?

At a first look it seem better than Diablo 3 at least.
But the imo failure of D3 was not even the lack of Diablo soul but the boring and non thought out end game, and that is a skillset that I doubt they still have employed at blizzard.
As I have deleted my b.net account I for sure won't be trying this game out if it follows the path of D3.

Originally Posted by Moorkh
I'd agree. But is it? Source?

https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-offline-mode/

We asked lead designer Joe Shely if it was possible to play Diablo 4 offline. "There's a large, seamless, connected, and shared space in the world, going down into dungeons, being able to group with your friends, trading and PvP. We feel that the best way to experience that is in a world that is online," Shely responded.

For me a good reason to skip their "experience".

Originally Posted by Archangel
That sorc that clears screen with that skill is like 1% of ways you can do that in PoE lol. In PoE not only that you clear your screen, you often clear screens outside your vision with many skills.

D3 does have decent feeling combat but everything else is casual tier and not worth playing for.

PoE is more like Diablo 2 but then goes crazy and in its own way as you near and enter endgame.

Combat is literally what this genre is all about…killing huge number of enemies on the screen in as much spectacular, satisfying fashion. Loot and character builds are there to incetivize player to keep on grinding. PoE or any other "competitors" don't come anywhere near D3 when it comes to visual and sound effects, animations, etc…they simply do not have the same technical "polish" ( that comes with a large "AAA" budget).
Plus Diablo series imply has a far more interesting setting/lore.

Originally Posted by Bobo
Combat is literally what this genre is all about…killing huge number of enemies on the screen in as much spectacular, satisfying fashion. Loot and character builds are there to incetivize player to keep on grinding. PoE or any other "competitors" don't come anywhere near D3 when it comes to visual and sound effects, animations, etc…they simply do not have the same technical "polish" ( that comes with a large "AAA" budget).
Plus Diablo series imply has a far more interesting setting/lore.

That is just not true for real fans of H&S games. Neither Diablo 1 or 2 had these crazy animation and shit and both were good games. Diablo 3 is probably first one that put more effort into it and it is also considered worst Diablo by most of people that played older Diablo games.
Only casuals care about graphics and animations more than gameplay systems.

Originally Posted by kazga
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-offline-mode/

We asked lead designer Joe Shely if it was possible to play Diablo 4 offline. "There's a large, seamless, connected, and shared space in the world, going down into dungeons, being able to group with your friends, trading and PvP. We feel that the best way to experience that is in a world that is online," Shely responded.

For me a good reason to skip their "experience".

Thanks. Shame, really. Not that I wouldn't always be online, anyway, but the only REAL reason for them to force this is to get people to spend extra while playing.
Aside from this irritating me enough in games to just stop playing them, I also don't trust those publishers to keep their servers running a single day longer than they absolutely have to. Not acceptable unless it's an MMO.

YES finally. 3-4 years until release seems too far out. Couldn't 'blizzard soon' just be within 2 years?

I don't particularly care one way or another if a game requires an always online connection. I haven't paid Compuserve by the hour for my connection in many a year.

Originally Posted by Drithius
I don't particularly care one way or another if a game requires an always online connection. I haven't paid Compuserve by the hour for my connection in many a year.

Sure, the connection is not really an issue for most people. But the question is: what happens when they shut down the server?

Blizzard is not too bad in that regard, but it's still something I'd consider.

As long as they keep the terrible combat and require me to play the same exact game 6 times before it becomes even a small challenge I’ll be out on anything diablo.

Originally Posted by Cacheperl
But the question is: what happens when they shut down the server?

When Blizzard Battle.Net gets shelved in 20 years for its VR upgrade, I'll either:
a) have arthritis in my wrists & hands and be unable to play click-heavy games
b) not have a Windows 7-11 PC in addition to my main Windows XXV system.
c) have far newer games to play in my 10k+ Steam backlog.

The argument against an always online connection is pretty silly unless it's from an Indie game studio… but I know of no Indie games with such a requirement / server investment.

This is not to say that I'll likely buy Diablo 4 - Path of Exile has never failed to scratch my A-RPG itch whenever I decide to dive back in.

Is that a dwarven druid with a pair of horns on his head? lol ripped right out of R.A. Salvatore

Here's a 2 hour video of someone streaming the demo from Blizcon.

Around the 8 minute mark he crawls out of the ground to an impressive vista showing off the open world.

It makes me wonder if the old Diablo isometric view will be frustrating for an open world with such nice views?

I've abandoned D3 years ago, but this looks fantastic, another 1000 hours out of the window, just what I needed.

@Drithius

Yes, I would not see a large risk for Blizzard here. But there are plenty of examples of non-indie games whose servers got scrapped. (And only very very few who bothered to remove the online requirement when that happened, or allowing people to run their own servers)

The first two games were interesting enough, in a back-to-basics hollow grind-fest kind of way, but Blizzard lost me after Diablo 2, first with the way that game played out (waypoints? Sets and gems and runes and nowhere to store them while hoping for just one more to make any of it valid? That's either incredibly poor design or deliberate frustration implemented as a "feature". I have little tolerance for either) and then with the Real-Money-Auction-House nonsense in the D3 launch.

That alone wouldn't have been enough to flat out prevent me from buying this game -- I've toyed with the idea of buying Diablo 3 recently, after all -- but as a company they've proven themselves to be so anti-consumer that these days I look on them as nothing more than poison. My money and time are better spent on other things, even within the gaming sphere.

Still… pretty trailer, I suppose, and I'm still vaguely interested in seeing where they take the story, but I can get that from Youtube. Hard pass.

Originally Posted by Mithter Thibbs
Sets and gems and runes and nowhere to store them while hoping for just one more to make any of it valid? That's either incredibly poor design or deliberate frustration implemented as a "feature".

Or the third option is you don't know what you're talking about…?

The armour set bonus' kick in at 2 parts.

Gems/runes? I assume you're talking about how you can swap the flavour of your spells with a rune while out of combat but this is not a physical item that needs storage.They're unlocked on level-up. Are you thinking of Path of Exile?

Nowhere to store your set items? Try the stash!?

Originally Posted by Mithter Thibbs
That alone wouldn't have been enough to flat out prevent me from buying this game -- I've toyed with the idea of buying Diablo 3 recently, after all -- but as a company they've proven themselves to be so anti-consumer that these days I look on them as nothing more than poison.

Ahh, so you have toyed with the idea of buying Diablo3. You've not actually played it? That explains why it sounds like you don't know what you're talking about!

How are they anti consumer? It looks like they just support their old titles with refurbishing projects like Warcraft3 Reforged.

Sure, I haven't been excited about many of Blizzard recent projects. I'm not really into the art style of Overwatch, for eg. But I like horror and gore. Diablo4 looks like one they're making just for me.

Yes, they were unhappy someone used their tournament for political protest about Hong Kong but that's not anti-consumer. The guy was wearing a gas mask and goggles and knew he was doing something wrong when he made his 5 second long video.

I am not huge fan of Diablo style of games loot grinders. They are fun to play couple of times and I am done. However, the Diablo world and lore always sucks me in as I love these Gothic horror settings. They feels like post apocalypse done in fantasy setting. So I will be playing this at least once.

This may not be popular opinion here, I just wish they went full 3D like 3rd/first person with it

Micro transactions at this point is given but I hope they don't get too greedy and go overboard.

Blizzard, next year this time: