Diablo 3 - What's New in the Beta? @ IGN

I also think that it's pretty sad that Blizzard is making such a big show out of what is effectively going to become a rather mediocre rehash of a pretty boring game that they made about a decade ago.

I think I'd understand if they had a game on their hands that would look like a genre revolution. A game with really meaningful choices and consequences, with an all new kind of dynamic campaign where you could literally shape the world you play in and influence what happens and why it happens and when it happens, a game where they would be using the capabilities of modern PCs to the max (physics stuff etc.), where they would have dynamically changing weather and seasons and day/night cycles, and where the game would generally be featuring an all new level of "world sim" features with realistic NPC schedules and all new levels of AI with hundreds of NPCs in the world...

If there is one developer in the world who could make a game like that possible it is Blizzard. Instead they are making the same game they made over a decade ago with slightly updated tech and features. All the while they have the nerve to pretend as if they were working on the second coming. It's almost a little disgusting...
 
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@Moriendor - careful now, or you'll be called a 'hater' by the Valiant Defenders of all things Blizzard ;)

I enjoyed Diablo when I first played it - because it was the first loot'n'slash game I had played. At that point it was all new and shiny. Looking back, it was actually not that good - unless you played with others - and then it was mindless mayhem. The story, such as it was, was laughably bad. Now, N years on, my tastes have moved on and I can't stand such pointless, shallow games. They killed any residual interest I may have had by removing true independent LAN play. Of course, there will be a new generation now who will be WoWed by how 'innovative' and 'pretty' it is and they will make a gazillion dollars. The problem is that when a game like this succeeds hugely, it means other publishers will see $'s any lot's more likely we'll get more of the same coming out…..:(
 
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Um, sorry but I have to post a big roll eyes at all the doomsayers on this one.

No doubt that the game will have less depth and complexity than some of the old school or hardcore RPG, that much is true. Diablo has never been about anything other than quick and dirty action and a constant stream of little rewards. But to trumpet those facets as prognosticators of some failure is at best misinformed and at worst disingenuous.

Diablo 3 will sell like gang busters.

Worst case scenario is the game breaks even - and to do that it would have to totally fall flat. Heck, even if the game is crap and trades only on pre-sales and reputation it will still have sales numbers that will make most other franchises green with envy.

Diablo and Diablo 2 had legs like no other game before them (or since, frankly). And despite the fact that they are to action-y to appeal to some of the hard-core RPG purists Blizzard is well established as having their finger on the pulse of the mainstream consumer.

Or to put it another way, angst all you want, Blizzard will be laughing all the way to the bank.
 
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Worst case scenario is the game breaks even - and to do that it would have to totally fall flat. Heck, even if the game is crap and trades only on pre-sales and reputation it will still have sales numbers that will make most other franchises green with envy.

Other franchices doesnt have a development cycle of 10+ years though.. I'm not sure how many DNF copies were sold, but i doubt it made anyone green with envy..
 
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DNF was announced in 1996 and released in 2011. Diablo 3 was announced in 2008 and is anticipated to be released in 2012 (a similar timeline to every Blizzard game). I don't think that the two of them are comparible.

And yeah I can't say how good D3 will be, but I can say that anyone who doesn't think that it will be a financial success is delusional.

Other franchices doesnt have a development cycle of 10+ years though.. I'm not sure how many DNF copies were sold, but i doubt it made anyone green with envy..
 
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Blizzard has in ALL PC games selling shops I know of a part of the shelves for their own !
 
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Yeah 2001 was just when D3 started to appear on the radar, there was nothing official and we didn't know to what extent any real work was being done on it. Certainly Blizzard had no shortage of other major projects to focus on between 2001 and 2008 when official development started.

Diablo 3 has been in development since 2001, but yes the announcement of its existence was made in 2008 and Blizz admitted that they didnt really work full-time with it 2001-2008..
 
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Do you know how worthwhile and informative and constructive it is for people who don't like Diablo-style gameplay to post their take on a new Diablo game? It's about as worthwhile and informative and constructive as it is for someone who doesn't like CRPGs to come here to the Watch and comment on how each CRPG release is not actually that good/going to suck because he doesn't like those kind of games. Seriously, that's the level you're at. Thanks for sharing.

To the more useful critiques of the way Blizzard is handling their Diablo 3 trouble (and clearly they seem to be having some troubles), I would ask what more you want from them? Yes, it's a little crazy that they're making all these changes so late in the cycle, and of course we'd all prefer if they'd gotten it right from the beginning. But having discovered that they need to address issues and make changes, isn't delaying the game to get it right exactly what we want devs to do? As opposed to releasing a less fun game and patching it? As opposed to releasing an inferior game and just collecting all the money they're more or less GUARANTEED to make no matter what they release?

This is Blizzard. This is Diablo. This is a game that requires online play if you want your gameplay to mean anything, so the copy protection is perfect (as perfect as WoW's, at least) and the vast, vast majority of people who want to play will have to buy. And a LOT of people want to play. Millions. Blizz is going to make a mint, a fortune, whether they release the game in a fully realized state or whether they slap whatever build they have right this second onto a DVD and shove it out the door. But still, they're delaying and making changes and trying to fix a game that's already quite fun.

And it is fun. Of course playing the same 45 minutes of game for two or three months with no advancement has become a chore, for god's sake. But trust me, if you like playing Diablo games, you were having fun the first few times. They could have released what they had 5 months ago when I got into beta and it would have been more fun and more polished than 80% of games out there selling for money right now, but to their credit they did not. Isn't that what we WANT from a game company?

I have concerns, don't get me wrong. I think the game might end a little lousy and some decisions might end up killing replayability and I have concerns about the rewards of multiplayer and the lack of real builds. I have concerns piled on top of concerns. I'm not praising or burying the game til it comes out and I can see the rest of it. BUT I am going to praise Blizzard now for doing the right thing and holding back their game and making changes when they really could have gotten away with releasing it 5 months ago. And in the end, nobody would really even remember, as long as they kept patching and polishing. Like Diablo II, who really judges it by the state it was in at release? Despite playing for so, so many hours at that time, I can barely even remember what it was like pre-LoD.

And yet in this situation, Blizzard holds back, polishes, fixes, changes, and does not release. You're going to boo them for that?
 
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