Parmandur
Book-Friend
Well, that was nice and weasel-like...
The REAL news in Video games....Diablo IV announced
Well, that was nice and weasel-like...
jonesy
A Wicked Kendragon
As for Diablo 4, having watched the trailer, it feels very much like Grim Dawn aesthetically. Except sort of washed out. I don't know. Too early to say.
I only played D3 very recently for the first time (on the PS3) and that experience was marred mainly by UI issues and technical problems, which aren't obvious in any of the trailers.
I only played D3 very recently for the first time (on the PS3) and that experience was marred mainly by UI issues and technical problems, which aren't obvious in any of the trailers.
Celebrim
Legend
I bought D3 when it came out, which is a rarity for me, mostly out of peer pressure (everyone in my workplace was going to buy it). For a while there I was a top 500 most advanced character in my class, but the sameness just got to me. It was the same thing over and over again.
I really haven't enjoyed a Diablo title since D1, and that was only because D1 reminded me so much of Nethack. It had decent replayability because the levels were truly random, and the catacombs levels in particular were really varied and felt different with every play through.
Had they stayed with that focus on being a Roguelike with isometric graphics I might be counted as a fan, but of all notable RPG inspired video games Diablo probably had the weakest story of all time. I mean D1 the story was barely a framework and thinner even than Nethack. Yet, every edition seems to want to focus more on story and less on gameplay which destroys what I enjoyed about the gameplay. D3 in particular was massively linear and repetitive.
The real selling point that they have with Diablo now is the Skinner boxing, but that ceased to have appeal to me more than 20 years ago when I downloaded a Diablo trainer and gave a character the items I wanted the character to have and realized that I no longer had any desire to play. So my criteria in a game since then is always, if I had the equipment/stats I'm trying to get, would it still be worth playing?
I really haven't enjoyed a Diablo title since D1, and that was only because D1 reminded me so much of Nethack. It had decent replayability because the levels were truly random, and the catacombs levels in particular were really varied and felt different with every play through.
Had they stayed with that focus on being a Roguelike with isometric graphics I might be counted as a fan, but of all notable RPG inspired video games Diablo probably had the weakest story of all time. I mean D1 the story was barely a framework and thinner even than Nethack. Yet, every edition seems to want to focus more on story and less on gameplay which destroys what I enjoyed about the gameplay. D3 in particular was massively linear and repetitive.
The real selling point that they have with Diablo now is the Skinner boxing, but that ceased to have appeal to me more than 20 years ago when I downloaded a Diablo trainer and gave a character the items I wanted the character to have and realized that I no longer had any desire to play. So my criteria in a game since then is always, if I had the equipment/stats I'm trying to get, would it still be worth playing?
jonesy
A Wicked Kendragon
D2 did have random levels, but they were premade template random and after a while you learned all of them ("ah, this is the swamp version where the trail splits north and east, and the best loot dungeon is north-east").
This is a topic that I've always had a bit of a beef, especially in isometric rpgs. A lot of the time they have this whole game world setup to support the story they want to tell, but then they forget to support the gameplay as well. Having a random infinite dungeon system somewhere in the end-game areas should be easy to make, right? I'm looking at you Divine Divinity. I love you, you are one of my all-time favourite games, but man is your endgame weak. For shame. Planescape Torment at least had that loot dungeon you could farm for endgame items, but there the only randomness was the items.
Speaking of Grim Dawn and this topic, they had the Crucible expansion which performs the same function as Torments loot dungeon (Crucible thematically is kind of like an expanded idea on the arena from Fable).
But what I would really like to see in a modern diablo-esque game is a true random endgame dungeon. I don't even care if the dungeons might break or become uncompletable. Some of my favourite Minecraft seeds are levels that break the game engine in weird unpredictable ways.
Celebrim
Legend
@jonesy : I've actually been playing Nethack for the last couple weeks or so.
I think I'll give it up soon (again) just because the hardcore aspect of the game eventually gets more frustrating than fun because it requires perfection for so long. I've a Priest down past Vlad's Tower that I'm afraid to play because so much time has been invested to get that far and one lapse of attention could be YASD. But...
The feeling that every game could be different and every map will be different and the feeling of depth to the game is something that seems unreplicated even in this era where Rogue-likes are a fad.
If someone could give me Nethack but it's more like D&D (which Nethack is unabashedly inspired by) and infinite and less like Diablo II or Path of Exile (which I played a lot of, and enjoyed more than either D2 or D3), that would be the experience I actually wanted and was seeking out of the Diablo style game that I've never quite gotten from any Diablo inspired game. I don't need grimdark. I don't need skinner boxes. I don't need a crafting system so ridiculously deep that it is a minigame unto itself. Give me my unique megadungeon, and I'll be happy.
I think I'll give it up soon (again) just because the hardcore aspect of the game eventually gets more frustrating than fun because it requires perfection for so long. I've a Priest down past Vlad's Tower that I'm afraid to play because so much time has been invested to get that far and one lapse of attention could be YASD. But...
The feeling that every game could be different and every map will be different and the feeling of depth to the game is something that seems unreplicated even in this era where Rogue-likes are a fad.
If someone could give me Nethack but it's more like D&D (which Nethack is unabashedly inspired by) and infinite and less like Diablo II or Path of Exile (which I played a lot of, and enjoyed more than either D2 or D3), that would be the experience I actually wanted and was seeking out of the Diablo style game that I've never quite gotten from any Diablo inspired game. I don't need grimdark. I don't need skinner boxes. I don't need a crafting system so ridiculously deep that it is a minigame unto itself. Give me my unique megadungeon, and I'll be happy.
jonesy
A Wicked Kendragon
By the way, I was totally serious about that "Grim Dawn with washed out colours" comparison.
Compare these two trailers:
D4 Gameplay
Grim Dawn: Forgotten Gods
The gameplay animation is nearly identical, except D4 movement looks ever so slightly more angular. And despite the name of the game Grim Dawn has always had a really nice and varied colour palette.
(and yes, I do realize that Grim Dawn took a lot of its influences from D2, which explains many of the similarities, since D4 is supposedly going back to that same source)
Compare these two trailers:
D4 Gameplay
Grim Dawn: Forgotten Gods
The gameplay animation is nearly identical, except D4 movement looks ever so slightly more angular. And despite the name of the game Grim Dawn has always had a really nice and varied colour palette.
(and yes, I do realize that Grim Dawn took a lot of its influences from D2, which explains many of the similarities, since D4 is supposedly going back to that same source)
L
lowkey13
Guest
*Deleted by user*
Ralif Redhammer
Legend
I'm glad they released some gameplay in addition to the cinematic. Blizzard does lovely cutscenes and trailers, but that doesn't tell you what the game will look like so much.
Blizzard does have some work to do to make up for the Blitzchung incident. It's all well and good to make an apology, but they do need to take action going forward.
One thing I'd love to see is a port of D1 to the Switch. Seems like it'd be a perfect fit. But it's probably not worth their time and money to go through the effort.
Blizzard does have some work to do to make up for the Blitzchung incident. It's all well and good to make an apology, but they do need to take action going forward.
One thing I'd love to see is a port of D1 to the Switch. Seems like it'd be a perfect fit. But it's probably not worth their time and money to go through the effort.
Parmandur
Book-Friend
As usual, the clarification did not clarify, and was worse than the original statement.
Look, I get that this is a complicated issue from a business perspective. There's the old saw about freedom means nothing left to lose .... which is why you see usually see college students protesting, and not middle managers with mortgages.
That said, they have bungled this at every possible step.
I mean, they are making the NBA look good...
