the funny thing is, I'm the biggest diablo fan in the world, and have been aching for them to announce d3 for the past 8 fucking years, and have been posting in the diablo3.com forum for a bout a year, and have had more than one conversation with laith about the possibility of the next one coming out, and when they put up the teaser last week of ice, and then the ice started melting more and more each day and everyone was scared it was gonna be wotlk related, but in the end it wasn't, it was what we have all been waiting for DIABLO FUCKING 3. It seems surreal, it still hasn't hit me.
but the funny part is that derek made this thread and not me.
Th biggest looser I know is named Marlow, and he has been playing WOW for 15 hrs a day, everyday, for the last 4 yrs. He lives off his grandparents. He lost his long time girlfriend and all of his friends to that game.
I have done a google search for Diablo III a couple times a week for several years, waiting for it to be announced.
What I have seen of it is seriously amazing.
What are the 5 classes going to be?
Barbarian and Witch Doctor have been announced, and there has to be some sort of sorcerer/ess and paladin. But will there be an amazon? How would that work with male/female characters? Or will they depart a lot from d2?
Yeah I agree with the pally, the sorc is my favorite, hopefully one of the two will be included. I doubt they'll bring back the druid or necromancer, since the With Doctor is basically a fusion of those two. I put the Diablo III Tristram wallpaper on my desktop, it looks sooo sick.
derek make sure to watch both the videos on the site, they're pretty awesome. The witch doctor looks fun, but kinda hard to use. The barbarian looks the same, not a huge fan of barbs, they're boring.
I'm more geeked for The Force Unleashed--Yes I realize Lucasarts has been releasing the same game since Dark Forces II--I don't care. Diablo II was fun, but it was just another game to me.
anfernee, you're confusing me. if you don't like barbarians why do you play as one? everything that was blizzard is gone. will new people in a corporate environment be able to make a game that is both good and true to the other diablo games? all the history of art from the last 100 years says no. the previews of starcraft ii are also lank and lifeless. the only thing slightly inspired at blizzard these days is the april fools joke. you go you crazy pixar kids!
I watched the videos and they were awesome, but I still can't tell whether or not they will be able to do the random dungeon stuff like in the past. Or at least several variations.
Was Act V of D2 The same every time? I can't remember.
I feel like there would be much less replayability if all the areas are the same all the time.
Sunday, July 6, 2008 at 1:17 PM Edited Sunday, July 6, 2008 at 1:18 PM
Yes, D3 will still have randomized environments. And I also put the Tristram wallpaper on my desktop. I'm hoping the Paladin and Assassin will be in the game, although I doubt they'll bring the Assassin back as a playable class. At least not for the main game (in an expansion, maybe).
My one big gripe at this point is the art direction. A lot of it looks very colorful and un-creepy. Diablo 2 had this problem as well. It's not even just the art direction, now that I think about it, it's the overall presentation. The first Diablo was way creepier than the second, and the second was way action-ier than the first. I know the more action-oriented gameplay will be more popular than the slower gameplay from the first game, but I wish they'd at least make an effort to bring back that creepy, dark atmosphere from the first game. Diablo 2 just wasn't as interesting as the first.
Sunday, July 6, 2008 at 1:44 PM Edited Sunday, July 6, 2008 at 1:45 PM
iawtc^
Especially: My one big gripe at this point is the art direction. A lot of it looks very colorful and un-creepy.
But there are even petitions complaining to Blizzard, which is so stupid. Do you really think Blizzard's gonna crumple up the sheet of paper [in the proverbial sense] they've been working on for 8 years and chuck it in the wastebasket, just cause a couple thousand nerds don't like the color? Yeahhh.
Well, I'm just glad it's not WOW looking, that would anger a lot of people if it was, no cartoons in Diablo. I liked the way that huge fat beast in the long video looked, and that's just one of many to come in the final game.
Personally I'm more interested in the lore, I've read most of the books, and I never skip past the videos and I always listen to hear what Deckard has to say.
Sunday, July 6, 2008 at 1:59 PM Edited Sunday, July 6, 2008 at 2:02 PM
and I always listen to hear what Deckard has to say.
—anfernee
This is how I know you're a true fan of the game.
But yeah, I'm really hoping D3 will at least have more of those Horadrim tomes, or something. Or maybe bring back The Hidden. I don't think there were monsters that could turn invisible in D2, which is bizarre to me. The monsters in D1 required a lot more strategy to defeat, the D2 monsters were pretty much just a big mow-em-down-fest.
lol, he talks so fucking slow too, and the text scrolls by so slowly. What you said about the lack of strategy is so true, it's basically just a matter of "hmm, how am I going to demolish this horde? Lightning? Ice? Both?"
Dude, isn't the Tristram wallpaper badass? I've never had a desktop background this epic. The moon behind the tree looks soo cool, I could seriously just gaze at it all day.
Sunday, July 6, 2008 at 9:26 PM Edited Sunday, July 6, 2008 at 9:26 PM
I thought the ghouls climbing up the walls and the immense shadowed creature walking past right before exiting the dungeon in the demo video were extremely spooky.
I agree that the exterior places look colorful, but we don't know what location that was, so it could be a relatively unspooky place. I can imagine that tristram and environs will be spooky as hell.
I also agree that strategy-wise, d2 wasn't as great. But there was loads more in d2 for using strategy to design your character. There were thousands of different builds and methods of playing the game and the runes and slottable items made for some pretty intense equipment strategy.
The monsters were blah, but it looks like they are at least trying to work on that in d3, with more large boss-type monsters that are not just high hitpoint, enchanted regular dudes. That move where the beast thing picked up the character and exploded his guts everywhere was extremely cool.
I may be showing my programming illiteracy here but is there any new reason for random dungeons to be difficult? It really doesn't matter how sophisticated or processor-consuming the graphics and sound etc may now be; the dungeon layout is just a blueprint. It's a bit like a building. It doesn't matter if the walls are chipboard or carved marble, drawing up the floor plans takes the same amount of time. Is that totally wrong?
Monday, July 7, 2008 at 6:28 PM Edited Monday, July 7, 2008 at 6:29 PM
Overall, no, that's not wrong. There isn't necessarily anything about the transition to 3D that makes it impossible, or even more difficult, to have randomized environments. (It might be more work than in 2D, depending on how you went about it, but there's no reason to think it wouldn't be possible. In fact, in some respects I imagine it would be easier.)
That move where the beast thing picked up the character and exploded his guts everywhere was extremely cool.
—derekho
Yes, that part was indeed quite cool. Although I think he was actually getting his head bitten off rather than being exploded. But I wasn't watching too closely so I could be wrong.
I was more thinking about the scripted events/locations and the well placed destroyable environments that crushed the enemies right at the right moment, and the collapsed bridge that the barbarian jumped over.
Stuff like that. Unless there was some sort of toolbox of a bunch of areas for each dungeon which were simply combined in different ways and in different ratios.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008 at 6:30 PM Edited Tuesday, July 8, 2008 at 6:32 PM
I was more thinking about the scripted events/locations and the well placed destroyable environments that crushed the enemies right at the right moment, and the collapsed bridge that the barbarian jumped over.
Stuff like that. Unless there was some sort of toolbox of a bunch of areas for each dungeon which were simply combined in different ways and in different ratios.
—derekho
Well, both 1 and 2 had certain special, usually event/quest-related areas that weren't randomized, so I imagine the third game will be the same in that respect.
I suppose I can see your concern about the destroyable environment elements that can be used to crush enemies, but I suspect that feature will be more of a "hey, cool, I can kill them this way too" rather than a "you need to destroy wall x to kill the gargantuan hordes of y and z in order to pass". That would mean any such elements would just be an incidental part of the environment, and wouldn't need to be placed too meticulously, which thus wouldn't hamper environment randomization. (As for the destroyed bridge, well, I dunno how that'll work out. I don't even know how that will work for each class, unless every class has a teleport ability, which seems kinda lame, or unless there's a different way around, which makes the whole point of the bridge collapsing seem like less of a big deal.)
i'm a bit disappointed with the lack of dynamic movement; a lot of the movements, the barbarian's attacks especially, looked very rehearsed.
—jizzgrenade
On the one hand, I'm inclined to point out that there isn't really "dynamic" character body movement in any games right now, at least not to my knowledge, because animations for games like this are "baked in", so to speak. So if they wanted to have different animations for, say, that shockwave move, they'd have to make a bunch of slightly different ones that all looked good and have one of them picked randomly when the spell is cast.
On the other hand... I think you're right, I do get a little tired of seeing the same character animation for the same spell. Maybe they should make a series of animations for each spell and have the game pick one randomly when the spell is cast. That would be pretty cool.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008 at 8:36 PM Edited Tuesday, July 8, 2008 at 9:00 PM
not sure about on the pc, but on next gen systems they now do have dynamic movement engines in a decent number of games, no more scripted movements in a some of the new sports games, especially football i think. also GTA IV, and Pain, this $10 downloadable game for the ps3. it's really fuckin insane to watch, actually. every fall is different, and explosions are incredible. there's probably just not enough processing power or ram on most computers to run a game like that
there's this great progam you can download to edit/create scenes with dynamic movement using bodies and objects, it's the same engine they used with the most recent grand theft auto.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 6:31 PM Edited Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 6:37 PM
yea, your totally right, the emphasis was always more the rpg aspect. i've been spoiled by technology, really, that's it...
Pain's entertaining(great quote); not a big area to mess around in, but i do enjoy it, if your not short on money and your pretty easily amused it's worth it. it's also a good game if you only have a few minute to kill, or if your on the phone with a relative or something.
mindless fun... i like it, though.
i also enjoy skipping rocks, a good breeze, holding my breath, and picking at scabs....
Ohh, right. I actually knew about Naturalmotion, I'm surprised I forgot about that. Maybe because it's a relatively new thing and I haven't played any games that use it yet. But yeah, you're right, I guess they have started developing dynamic character movement.
Also, I remembered another gripe I have with D3: the health globes. Having monsters drop little powerups that heal you instantly just from walking over them seems way too arcade-y for a Diablo game. They'd better have the best damn lore-based explanation for those being there, or else it's going to feel weird and gimmicky.
Seriously, I mean it may be more convenient than having your fingers on the 1 2 3 and 4 keys ready to furiously push them if your health globe depletes to near death, but still that was one of the things I liked about Diablo, how death could be around any corner, and you better know how to use those potions, unless you LIKE losing experience. You can always tell the n00bs, cause they'll die then say something like "LOL, pressed the Windows key". Uh-huh.
The health orbs feel way too Hunter: The Reckoning to me. You every played that game Laith? If not I think you'd enjoy it, consider picking it up for a couple bucks for the Gamecube in a bargain bin at Gamestop.
