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I agree, but I wouldn't call it a failure, sadly. It would probably have been better if it were, then Blizzard would have reassessed their decisions sooner rather than later.
Amidst the mists and coldest frosts he thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.
whembly wrote: The 2.01 patch (pre-expansion) is going online today.
Anyone creating a "Dakka" clan?
Was working on a Monk in Normal difficulty who was just trucking along...cruising to the point of it being very boring. One long download later and suddenly half my abilities operated differently. Ooookay.
Being able to change the difficulty level on the fly sounded like a godsend, so I moved it up a notch. And wow, suddenly I wasn't cruising anymore! I was in fact struggling a little. After a couple hours of playing, I had enough new gear that I was competing better again. But the game is still giving me a fight, and has renewed my interest in the Monk.
Lots of changes...overall I'm pretty positive on them so far.
This polearm was crafted by the finest ungulate smiths—its blade fired in the Hellforge, quenched in the rancid milk of the Cow King, and enchanted by that selfsame monarch. In addition to its significant martial benefits, the Bovine Bardiche may also summon forth a veritable army of cows to fight on its wielder's behalf.
How awesome is getting four cow ghosts with bardiches as followers? Even if they aren't very good in combat.
Although it may look good, i'm not sold on the thin story that blizzard is going with here and what just one more class?.
I might be starting to play D3 when blizzard actually adds something to it worth paying for and fixes the game, after all if you can remove the auction house then surely removing the always online shouldn't be that hard either.
I'm guessing that i'm just beeing picky here and all,but a new class and some new tin content is not enough for this player at least not for the price they are asking for the expansion.
From each according to his ability, to each according to his need
SneakyMek wrote: Although it may look good, i'm not sold on the thin story that blizzard is going with here and what just one more class?.
I might be starting to play D3 when blizzard actually adds something to it worth paying for and fixes the game, after all if you can remove the auction house then surely removing the always online shouldn't be that hard either.
I'm guessing that i'm just beeing picky here and all,but a new class and some new tin content is not enough for this player at least not for the price they are asking for the expansion.
The revamped the whole game... not just Act V + Crusader.
Loot 2.0 is fething great. I having a blast and almost to lvl 70 to unlock Adventure Mode!
If I may chime in - I don't believe Diablo is a game you play for the story. To me, it seems more like ... a guilty pleasure where you are supposed to derive your fun from jumping into hordes of enemies, brutally slaying them with the ever-growing power of your character, and farming ever more powerful gear. The secret is in actually making this grind enjoyable, which requires a good amount of attention to detail.
If you'd remove the 40k background from the Space Marine videogame, it'd remain enjoyable as well, even though its own plot is no less thin, and its action just as mindless.
Now, whether or not the new expansion is worth its price simply depends on how much you enjoyed the main game. Some people can sink hundreds of hours into this stuff, so to them, the added content and new mechanics in Reaper of Souls may well be a good investment. If you're looking for a complex story with deep characters ... ehh, there's other, more suitable games around. I'm not even sure whether or not you could call Diablo an RPG as it is really just an isometric version of Call of Duty*. With swords and magic. But what it is supposed to do, it seems to do well.
(*: chronologically flawed example but you get the idea)
One of my friends from work that played diablo 3's base game with me played this and enjoyed it a lot more. We had both gotten sick of diablo 3's farming for gear/money/treasure goblins and just quit after a while.
He says 'reaper of souls' is much better and they fixed a lot of the crap that was wrong with the base game. Now there's one game without 4 sets of difficulties and you can set your own difficulty which gives better gear for harder versions of the same enemies. Basically you can have a level 10 and a level 40 battling together against the same mobs and having just as much difficulty since the player can set the difficulty. Auction house is gone and it just sounds like a better game.
Now to be fair he's a blizzard fan and a WoW geek so I'm not sure what to think of this. I'd prefer to hear another couple reviews from people I know before taking the dive though I probably will play this anyway.
I find myself somewhat disappointed with blizzard's stories these days and it's really sad because there was a leaked alpha final cutscene in heart of the swarm for the mengsk vs Kerrigan fight and it was infinitely better than the full version. The writing was better and it made more sense. I just felt incredibly disgusted they actually made a better trailer with a non-romantic end that made sense and instead changed it to throw in the raynor/Kerrigan love story fan-fiction.
In fact i'll take a second to find the video to show it here so you guys can see what I mean.
-------------------
The alpha ending scene of 'heart of the swarm':
The final version ending:
Now granted the final version has better acting, voices and visuals for sure. My point is more that certain parts of this just felt kind of dumb. Kerrigan floats away at the end (yeah I know she's supposed to be like an angel but it feels kind of dumb), the whole 'letting the zerg free' thing is no longer there, the stupid 'made you into a monster' mengsk line exists in the final version (why would he say that?) and I felt weird about the xel naga artifact as if these things are just sitting under people's porches or something with how frequently they seem to be found and how often they make it into the game for plot purposes. The implant into Kerrigan that would kill her if she turned made mengsk seem way more evil while at the same time Kerrigan getting her vengeance felt good but bitter. At least mengsk seemed like a bad guy but with more legitimacy than the 'I turned you into a monster' line. If somebody considers themselves a hero in their opinion they aren't going to say something like that. The whole moustache twirling evil villain without a valid reason for his/her actions is just stupid. At least make him seem like he'll win at any cost (which is somewhat how he has always been). I dunno I felt mensk had more character than that. If nothing else considering how his family was assassinated by Kerrigan he actually had a legitimate reason for doing what he did. It also shows that maybe he merely turned into a bad guy over time with the right circumstances (not saying he was ever a good guy but maybe he became consumed by his anger like so many people have). This just sort of takes away any sort of validity this had.
Then again in starcraft 1 at the 2nd last terran campaign we have his whole speech how he will not be stopped by anyone and will rule the sector or see it burnt to ashes around him (or close enough to that).
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/03/29 09:24:58
flamingkillamajig wrote: He says 'reaper of souls' is much better and they fixed a lot of the crap that was wrong with the base game. Now there's one game without 4 sets of difficulties and you can set your own difficulty which gives better gear for harder versions of the same enemies. Basically you can have a level 10 and a level 40 battling together against the same mobs and having just as much difficulty since the player can set the difficulty. Auction house is gone and it just sounds like a better game.
Just wanted to pick on this for accuracy. Monster levels do still exist, and the game difficulty is set by the host - so your level 10 would join the level 40 game and immediately get smashed by the level 40 monsters. You can change the difficulty whenever you want (though you can't increase it while the game is in progress - but you can leave that game and raise the difficulty and continue from the same quest) but everyone in the same game will be on the same difficulty. What is really cool is difficulty isn't based on grinding through different difficulties anymore - you don't have to play through Easy and Normal to get to Hard, you just put it on Hard straight away if you want.
I have got Reaper of Souls so I will set out my opinion on it. I was highly critical of the original game due to its uninteresting gameplay, poor skill balance, unrewarding loot and horrendous story that was impossible to ignore. I found it failed on nearly all metrics, with the one shining star being that the art was well done. The updated Diablo 3 has addressed many of these issues quite well. Firstly, there's a nice option to skip the cinematics, and while there's no option to skip the dialogue, its horror can mostly be abated by hitting ESC as soon as you see the dialogue box appear, which will skip the whole sequence. The skills are much better balanced, with the different runes and so on being generally better-conceived and fun to use. Freed from the constraints of keeping loot interesting while still allowing for trading, the developers have allowed loot to actually drop at a reasonable rate, and what drops for you is generally tailored for your class, with the occasional cross-class item to keep things interesting for alts. As mentioned earlier, you can also set the difficulty to what you want instead of having to go through Normal to Nightmare to Hell to Inferno. The monsters will scale to whatever your level, so the challenge is always appropriate no matter how fast or slow you progress through the game. My gameplay experience was also improved greatly by the addition of an Australian server, so now we can play with ~35ms pings. There are also "Paragon" levels added after you hit the level cap, which are account-wide and provide little bonuses, so you can continue progressing after a fashion after you hit the level cap.
If you do have the original game and didn't like it, I really suggest checking it out again, making sure to tick the disable cinematics option. It's very much worth another try. If you find you still dislike the game even with disable cinematics on, I would recommend not getting the expansion. The experience is very representative. Consider making a new character, as well.
The expansion pack has a few neat features. Firstly, it has a new Act. It's quite cool and varied and has some nice settings. What I liked the most about it, though, is the story. The Saturday morning cartoon vibe of Diablo 3's original story is mostly gone, replaced with something much more reminiscent of the prior games (though there are still some voice lines on the bosses, but nothing on the level of the awful original Diablo 3 evils). Without the need to have the villain of the moment telling you how the prior three plans that couldn't possibly fail may have failed but this next plan will surely stop you, the setting is allowed to breathe, and we get to see little subplots going on in the world that make it feel more alive. The main story is relatively unobtrusive and carries the game forwards without getting in the way, as it should.
On top of that, there's a gameplay mode called Adventure Mode. Basically, once you've beaten the story on one character you unlock Adventure Mode, which is a mode where the entire game world is unlocked and you can move between any waypoint in any act at will. The story is no longer there, though the game is laid out the same way as it is in story mode, and the bosses of story mode are still present. The deal in Adventure Mode is that you get Bounties. The gist is five waypoints in each Act will have some kind of mission at them to go somewhere and kill something or complete an event. When you do that, you get a gold and experience prize! In two specially-marked acts, chosen randomly each day, there's also a special treasure box you get for completing all five bounties in the act.
By completing the bounties you get these dealies called... nephalim rift fragments? Or something. I don't know. Whatever they're called, you can take five of them to this new fellow in town and he'll open a Nephalem Rift for you, which is basically a randomly-generated multi-level dungeon where each level has random themes and critters and so on. You romp through the dungeon killing stuff and once you've killed enough stuff a big angry special boss ("Rift Guardian") will appear, and beating them up results in lots of stuff dropping. Playing in groups you can get quite a lot of rift fragments from adventure mode, so there is no shortage of ability to do rifts. They are pretty fun to do, though you should not expect any grand revelation in gameplay from the story mode - it will all be very familiar. It's just a nice way of playing the game and progressing without having to go through the story over and over.
There is also a new crafting person who can change the appearance of items and can reroll one stat on an item, either to a different stat or a different roll of the same stat, depending. She can help improve items that already have good stats, or help make an item that nearly has the stats you want better. Oh, and there is a new class that is a paladin kinda thing that is quite neat.
In short, if you have the original game, I really suggest giving it a try. The expansion pack is more of the same, so if you enjoy the revamped original then you will almost certainly enjoy what the expansion has to offer. If you don't have the original game... maybe you'd like it? The story is horrid but you can mostly avoid it with the skip cinematics button.
Hopefully this novel has helped or interested someone.
At least on my server that little special treasure box you get in any and all the acts. So five treasure boxes each run. They have a chance to drop legendaries too, have gotten three from there already. The expansion is well worth it.
The Crusader is a lot of fun and can be one mean tank. After lvl 10 you get a passive that lets you use any two-handed weapon one handed with a sheild. He also has another passive at max lvl that gives you extra strenght for every gem you have equiped in your gear. I'm pulling about 400000 damage now.
Plus the adventure mode gives you a new currency called bloodshardes, these can be used at a new vender. This is almost like Greed from Diablo 2, its just gambling. With the new modes you can go highest with Torment 1-6, on lvl 6 you get like a 2000% extra magic find and xp bonus. Playing most the night with a friend when it first came out and we found about 6-7 legendary each as opposed to the 1 we used to find.
Max lvl is now 70 allowing you to upgrade your blacksmith ect. to lvl 12 now and can craft lvl 70 items. Plus Marquise gems drop everywhere so you can upgrade your old gems almost instantly.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/04/05 10:09:12
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts."
Well, since this is the main (only) Diablo thread...just got the Staff of Herding, it's fully leveled, and I'm trolling Whimsyshire. So far in three runs, I've technically picked up 10 legendaries. 7 came from a set though, I found the Hallowed Set gear. Also found Mad King Leoric's mace, a legendary axe and a smaller legendary mace that does tons of holy damage. Very happy with the 'Shire.
Reality is a nice place to visit, but I'd hate to live there.
Manchu wrote:I'm a Catholic. We eat our God.
Due to work, I can usually only ship any sales or trades out on Saturday morning. Please trade/purchase with this in mind.
timetowaste85 wrote: Well, since this is the main (only) Diablo thread...just got the Staff of Herding, it's fully leveled, and I'm trolling Whimsyshire. So far in three runs, I've technically picked up 10 legendaries. 7 came from a set though, I found the Hallowed Set gear. Also found Mad King Leoric's mace, a legendary axe and a smaller legendary mace that does tons of holy damage. Very happy with the 'Shire.
That actually hacked me off so bad I quit the game. I was grinding through that, found one of the rarest swords that people would murder you for if they could, and when I went and identified its magical properties, I could go back to the start of the game, starting new, and pick up a random drop enchanted sword that was better in every way than that legendary. At L100, finding a piece of worthless that nobody in the game would buy or trade off of me.... after having spent a lot of time farming for a legendary, I got mighty pissed off and dumped the game. There's chance, but that was pure bs.
15 successful trades as a buyer;
16 successful trades as a seller;
To glimpse the future, you must look to the past and understand it. Names may change, but human behavior repeats itself. Prophetic insight is nothing more than profound hindsight.
It doesn't matter how bloody far the apple falls from the tree. If the apple fell off of a Granny Smith, that apple is going to grow into a Granny bloody Smith. The only difference is whether that apple grows in the shade of the tree it fell from.
So, it turns out that when I looked the axe up that I found, it's the #1 chosen two-handed weapon. Skorne, is it? Scourge? Whatever. I looked late last night. The one that has a 95% chance to do 6000-10000 bleed damage for some amount of seconds.
Reality is a nice place to visit, but I'd hate to live there.
Manchu wrote:I'm a Catholic. We eat our God.
Due to work, I can usually only ship any sales or trades out on Saturday morning. Please trade/purchase with this in mind.
Guess I'll have to try it out sometime, though I don't have the pack yet.
The people in the past who convinced themselves to do unspeakable things were no less human than you or I. They made their decisions; the only thing that prevents history from repeating itself is making different ones.
-- Adam Serwer
My blog
whembly wrote: FYI... Loot version 2.1 is now live and Season (aka Ladder) has just started.
This game is light years better than it's initial iteration.
Bear in mind that this is (as far as I know) only on PC. Console patches should be rolling out in the next week or so after the DDoS attacks that Blizzard suffered over the past week.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/09/04 22:44:54
whembly wrote: FYI... Loot version 2.1 is now live and Season (aka Ladder) has just started.
This game is light years better than it's initial iteration.
Bear in mind that this is (as far as I know) only on PC. Console patches should be rolling out in the next week or so after the DDoS attacks that Blizzard suffered over the past week.
Yup...
BTW... I only have this on PC.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/09/05 03:31:20
whembly wrote: FYI... Loot version 2.1 is now live and Season (aka Ladder) has just started.
This game is light years better than it's initial iteration.
Bear in mind that this is (as far as I know) only on PC. Console patches should be rolling out in the next week or so after the DDoS attacks that Blizzard suffered over the past week.
Console versions were shipped with loot 2.0.
I'm having a blast with patch 2.1, lots of upgrades and the overall feel of the game seems to have been improved. I highly recommend that if you're not playing it, get the game and give it a shot.
Shadowkeepers (4000 points)
3rd Company (3000 points)
whembly wrote: FYI... Loot version 2.1 is now live and Season (aka Ladder) has just started.
This game is light years better than it's initial iteration.
Bear in mind that this is (as far as I know) only on PC. Console patches should be rolling out in the next week or so after the DDoS attacks that Blizzard suffered over the past week.
40k Orks 12000 points and growing
Ultramarines 2500
Necrons 4000
Shadowkeepers (4000 points)
3rd Company (3000 points) 