diablo 3 first impressions
First Impressions – After a long play session Flux discusses if it was worth the wait
sign of release - be a part of it
Sign of Release – Don’t miss out on this opportunity to Be a Part of it!

Ancient Spear is a Clvl 21 Barbarian skill that enables the Barbarian to hurl a harpoon on a chain. Any enemy successfully skewered can be "Get over here!" style and yanked into melee range, where the Barbarian gets a couple of free hits upon the stunned victim.

Here Come the First Diablo 3 Reviews

Posted 16 May 2012 by Rushster at 18:20 GMT

Time to forget the user reviews for a while and get some reviews from the pros. Although I doubt they have played through the difficulties, there is no RMAH active just yet, and well I am not sure how good a review you can do after the game has been out for 48 only hours.

The IncGamers.com review will be coming soon and Tim McDonald will be reviewing this one. Being a massive fan of the game I felt it wasn’t right that I should review it, better to give it to someone who can look at the game objectively. Having talked to Tim last night though, he is rather liking it so far.


DiabloWiki Update

2
Posted 16 May 2012 by Rushster at 18:06 GMT

A quick update on the status of DiabloWiki this afternoon. You guys have been hammering it hard since launch and the hamsters in control of the server were slacking off. I have cracked the whip today and got the little buggers moving again and the wiki should now be fine.

Because the Wiki is a wealth of knowledge for both Diablo 3 and Diablo 2 spanning back years, a new mega-server is going in place within the next week so the community can get fast access to both add their entries and digest all the info.  For now though we are live and kicking once again.

Tagged As: | Categories: DiabloWiki | 2 Comments

Are you Hardcore? Apparently not.

Posted 16 May 2012 by Xanth at 17:18 GMT

With the game now in fullish swing I’ve been amazed at the amount of DiabloWikiHardcore games going on. Here is a sample stat from last night: Public softcore players in games-14400. Public Harcore players in games-198. That’s not a typo, the highest I’ve seen is 244, the lowest 98.

I’ve had a few technical hiccups (dead motherboard, server issues etc) that have prevented me from really diving into HC but I’m still going through HC just a hell of a lot slower (damn 15fps). At the moment I’m sticking to solo and I’m thinking many others are as well.

Looking at the auction house can give you a feel for where most hardcore players are. The highest DPS weapon I was able to find was a staggering 15 (this may have changed since the time of writing). That is just about the same as we saw in the beta! This then places the majority of Hardcore players in Act 1 or at least those who use the AH. I will say Act 1 seems more difficult than in the Beta, but I may just be rusty.

198 brave souls out there risking life and limb with strangers. What’s preventing you from jumping into the fray? More importantly what in your softcore experience would shy you from even attempting Hardcore? Those of you succeeding how far are you and what were your close calls?

It’s still early in the game cycle but I’m seeing a great challenge in Hardcore, a challenge I hope you accept, if not now soon!

If you have played and died then our newly-opened Hardcore Graveyard forum is where you make out your death certificate.


Diablo III Launch = Technical Disaster?

Posted 16 May 2012 by Flux at 08:35 GMT

Though I personally didn’t have too much trouble playing when the servers first went up yesterday, if you go by the gaming media’s coverage of Diablo III’s launch, it was a complete disaster. Dozens of articles on every sort of gaming and tech site stress the technical problems, the inability to log in or create characters, the disconnects, and the server outages.

Seriously, look at Google News for “Diablo 3 launch” and easily two-thirds of the articles make it sound like some sort of Titanic Hindenburg crashed into a sky iceberg. Some quotes and links to give you a sense of the amount of angry headlines:

  • PC Gamer — Server, Login Problems Plague ‘Diablo 3′ Launch Day
  • Yahoo Games — Error message mars release of ‘Diablo III’
  • Cnet News — Diablo III woes plague launch day players
  • Kotaku — Well, I’d Say This Stupid Error Message About Sums It Up, Diablo III-Wise
  • Kotaku — When It Comes to Diablo III, Error 3003 Is The New Error 37
  • Daily Mail Online — A 12-year wait for this? Thousands of video gamers furious as they are unable to play Diablo III after huge demand brings down servers
  • VG 24/7 — Diablo 3: you can’t log-in and you shouldn’t care
  • Summit Sun — ‘Ripped off’: fans rage as Diablo 3 debut spoiled by glitches
  • Aussie Gamer — Hell in the Depths of Hell: Diablo III Launch Problems Arise
  • Stuff NZ — When game launches go bad
  • PCR Online — Diablo III launch day server woes
  • Democratic Underground — Diablo 3 Launch Marred by Errors
  • Manolith — Diablo III Launch Marred by Technical Errors
  • AfterDawn — Diablo III Launches, Servers Struggle
  • Gaming Bolt — Diablo 3 fiasco: People have to take a stand against always-online DRM
  • From this I have to think the general fan’s opinion of D3′s launch is that it was a disaster. Was that how things went for you guys? As bad as these media stories make it sound?

    For me, Diablo III’s launch wasn’t bad. Thanks to delays from ending our live launch show and getting my computer set up to livestream the playthrough, I wasn’t able to log onto the EU server until about an hour after it went live. When I finally did, it took a few minutes of trying, but I was able to get in, create a Wizard, and create a game fairly easily. It took Elly a good fifteen minutes to get logged on as well, but once she was in we played together in the same game for a good five hours straight. The game was actually more stable than our computers, as I had two hard crashes and she had one, while the same game remained online the entire time.

    I didn’t try to log onto the US servers at midnight, but the players I’ve talked to said logging in was impossible for half an hour or so, but after that things went pretty well. The Asian servers were online hours earlier and weren’t great, but mostly held up, from reports I’ve read.

    So why is the online news coverage so negative? Did a lot of journos try at 12:05, get realm unavailable messages, and /ragequit?


    Remember last year after the online-only “feature” was announced and got a lot of bad press, yet most of you guys were supportive of it and insisted (as did Blizzard) that everyone had a good internet connection by now, that Blizzard knew how to run game servers with at least 24/7 (or at least 23.8/7) uptime, that people who wanted single player mode were just pissed about losing out on piracy, etc. Anyone rethinking their opinion on that issue yet, or are you perfectly willing to suffer through a day or a week (or a month?) of repeated server inaccessibility for what you see as a greater good?


    Realms Down for HotFix to Demon Hunter Crash

    Posted 16 May 2012 by Flux at 05:17 GMT

    A crash bug was discovered involving the Demon Hunter and her Templar. Thanks to Gamespot UK for the tip. Quote from Blizzard’s known issues page:

    Error 3006
    While playing a Demon Hunter, if a shield is equipped to the Templar follower, you may be disconnected from Battle.net. You may be unable to login, receiving the message “Error 3006″. We are currently investigating this issue, and further updates can be found on the 1.0.1 Known Issues thread.
    http://us.battle.net/support/en/blog/5367451[/source.

    A hotfix is already being propagated to the realms, which all appear to be down for this patch.

    A hotfix is on the way for those players experiencing Error 3006. #D3Launch

    Now that was a worthy adversary!

    If you want more info about bugs, crashes, and other technical delights, check Bashiok’s twitter; it’s pretty much non-stop with those all day today.


    Update: Technical issues and the downtime continues on TA region Tuesday evening. Bashiok recommends using global play to start a new char on Asia or EU realm while waiting.

    Americas region service update. Service expected to return by 11:45 p.m. PDT as we work to resolve these issues.


    Update #2: @Diablo reports the realm was back up and trouble free by 11:21, well ahead of the 11:45 estimate. (Words we never once heard about Battle.net realms during the Diablo 3 Beta test.)

    Tagged As: | Categories: Blue Posts, Diablo III Bugs, Patches, Twitter | 21 Comments

    DiabloNut.com Diablo 3 Database Upgrades to Retail

    6
    Posted 16 May 2012 by Dorjan at 04:01 GMT

    DiabloNut.com

    Sorry for the delay but the amount of data needing to be imported overloaded the tiny old computer I own and it kept falling over. That’s all been fixed though so expect future updates much quicker!

    All the legendaries, crafted, debug, secret and more are all in the DiabloNut.com database now, so go hunting if you feel like it.  I have listed some of my favourite “secret items” after the break.

    Also, soon I’ll have another article about the way items work in Diablo 3 so you can understand the difference between a Legendary, Magical, Crafted, Set and Rare items so watch out for that. Until then here’s a quick list of known issues with the Hero Planner

    Known issues:

    • I don’t believe sets and legendaries will add their full effect to them but that won’t stop you trying :P  Needless to say we will have that updated shortly.
    • One or two affixes aren’t shown in the damage calucations for the weapon tooltips but I’m in the middle of re-designing the tooltips to not suck as much.

    Feedback about the way DiabloNut looks has also been heard, I will be making upgrades to the navigation over the coming days to make the experience on Nut the best it can be. This will include a better  search engine. More options for filtering (yes including on the planner) etc.

    Keep the feedback coming and remember, DiabloNut needs Diablo Nutters to make it the best community driven database, because we all know that all the beautiful people use it.

    I have selected a few of the best secret items which are either secret, or undroppable and you can find them after the break :

    read more


    Metacritic Trolling Begins

    Posted 15 May 2012 by Rushster at 19:12 GMT

    Most publishers use Metacritic as a benchmark of a game’s success. Scores on Metacritic are averaged out based on scores from professional online publications such as IncGamers.com. Along with scores from journalists, Metacritic also allows users to rate a game and the trolls have come out in force for Diablo 3. Some of the comments from posters are pretty funny and just highlights how useless user scores can be. Diablo 3 currently has a user score of 3.8/10 by “users”.

    Here’s a choice few quotes for a laugh:

    “the worst first person shooter I’ve ever played cant even log in, and i even stood in line for at least two hours to pay for this dont waste your money BLIZZARD IS FINISHED”

    “The D3 install too longer. also,the image is too bad, it waste my viewcard Nvidia GTX580SLI, no dx11. and the time of games is too short.I listen somebody end the game only 9 hours?”

    Some users have scored the game a “0″ due to launch night connection issues which is ridiculous for a game of this size, and the anti-online only crowd have also surfaced. Online only may not be to your liking but why buy it, then slam it, when you know it is online online? If you are hanging on to commit to the game, wait for some proper reviews written by the pros.

    Tagged As: | Categories: Diablo III Reviews | 97 Comments

    The First (?) to Complete Normal Difficulty?

    Posted 15 May 2012 by Flux at 18:52 GMT

    Rumors have been flying about various players on the Asian realm who supposedly beat the game the fastest, but the only concrete evidence I’ve seen yet, in the form of a screenshot (which could easily be ‘shopped) is seen below. It’s a Barbarian who supposedly beat normal in 12:29. Source.

    Has anyone done it more quickly? Pics or it didn’t happen.

    Tagged As: | Categories: Strategy News | 19 Comments

    Diablo 3 Launch Night Coverage Interviews

    3
    Posted 15 May 2012 by Rushster at 16:04 GMT

    Last night was pretty exciting waiting for the release, I know the team here had a lot of fun talking to everyone in the chat and taking part in the launch show. Loads of interviews have now been posted from numerous launch events including:

    Thanks Fmulder.

    Tagged As: | Categories: Interviews | 3 Comments

    Diablo 3 Retail First Impressions

    Posted 15 May 2012 by Flux at 15:22 GMT

    So, how are you guys liking the full release of Diablo III? Aside from some initial realm stability tech problems, it seemed like the launch went pretty well. Do you feel differently about the game now that you’ve put in 4 or 6 or 10 or 12 hours, beyond the limited Beta content?

    This article contains no spoilers. There aren’t any spoilers in terms of plot details or the like in the screenshots, but most of them show things that haven’t been seen thus far in Blizzard released media, so if you want to see every area for the first time with your own eyes, don’t click to view them bigger.

    Treasure Goblin trail.

    As I type this it’s been 22 hours since the Asian realm went online, 15 hours since the European one, and 6 hours since the US server. I started playing with Elly shortly after the EU server went up, and so far I’ve put in about 10 hours, all with a Wizard who is now level 22.

    I started playing in a two-person game with Elly on our live stream about 90 minutes after the EU servers went up, played about 5 hours straight then, put in another hour after Elly crashed, and then just did about 3 more after a break for dinner and decompressing. In total I’ve put in about 9 hours of non-rushing play time, and my Wizard is level 23 and most of the way through Act Two.

    This article contains a variety of quick observations and general pro/con comments (mostly pro), without going into any specifics that might be spoilery. You can read assured of not ruining your first play through.

    General Impressions

    I’m very impressed, on the whole. The game is much deeper and larger and more varied (there’s an amazing amount and variety of dungeon tile sets) and more difficult than I’d expected, and certainly more than the training wheels Beta content led me to believe. If Diablo 3 hadn’t been so long and widely-anticipated, I’d say that Blizzard choose poorly by only including early Act One in the beta (and the Guest Pass/demo), since that content is by far the least interesting material in the game.

    Elly and I went long enough in our first session that we were both getting a little worn down and exhausted from hunger, so it felt tiring and grindy at the end. But after I logged out and cleared my head, and starting making some dinner while sipping some champagne (if not on D3′s launch night, then when?), I found myself thinking about the game, about what I’d done, about the areas I’d seen, about how awesome the end of Act One and the start of Act Two looked, and I found found myself laughing — and not entirely from three quickly-sipped glasses of bubbly!

    Once I had some time to reflect, and wasn’t pressing grimly onwards at the end of a too-long play session, I could remember and evaluate the depth and variety of the play experience, and think about what it promised for the rest of the game. (Which I’d hardly scratched the surface of.) And that made me happy. (Only for a moment, though, I swear. I got right over it.)

    The happy was mixed with relief; relief that this game I’ve spent so many years working to support, and building a community for, and writing about… doesn’t suck. Not only that, but it looks like it’ll be really good. Obviously it’s too soon to speak of the end game balance, item slot machine function, build variety, etc, but the actual quality of the content and presentation and structure is excellent.

    The attention to detail everywhere is great, the amount of lore and tomes and little side quests and events is awesome, the writing and variety of character types and dialogues is good (for a video game), the monster types and varieties and assortments and abilities, and level designs change constantly and are nicely-varied and interspersed. The world feels fairly real as well, and big — you don’t (entirely) get that sense that’s common to games and bad movies that your character is the only *real* person in the whole world, and that everyone else exists solely to provide you with an obstacle or a tool on your mission.

    The difficulty and speed of action is really well done. Even in the early going Elly and I noticed that things were a lot hairier than in the beta; we had about 33% more monsters than we expected in the early areas, especially the Weeping Hollow and the Crypts, and while it wasn’t exactly “hard” up to that point, it certainly got real once we reached the Field of Misery just past the Skeleton King, and the next levels after that were challenging. We even managed to die, largely through carelessness, on the last surface area of Act One to a boss pack of Beasts. Their charge attacks hit for a good 40% of a character’s health at that point in the game, and when four of them charge at once… well let’s just say you need to not offer a stationary target for more than a second when such enemies have you in visual range.

    The difficulty increased considerably at the start of Act Two; the monsters dealt a lot more damage, they had new types of attacks, sneakier movement styles, and they had a lot more hit points so they weren’t dying as easily.

    Click through for more on items and the economy, monsters, and a few other quick hits, and it remains spoiler free. (Everyone hurry up and get through the game so we can talk about all the monsters and skills and strategy and stuff w/o spoiling things!)

    read more

    Tagged As: | Categories: Diablo: IncGamers Articles | 95 Comments

    Global Play is Live

    3
    Posted 15 May 2012 by Rushster at 09:09 GMT

    With all regions now enjoying the game Blizzard pointed out that Global Play is now live for everyone making it easier to hook up with international buddies.

    Global Play is now available! To access other game regions via Global Play:

    • At the Diablo III login screen, click on “Options”
    • Select the “Account” tab
    • From the drop-down, choose which region you want to play in and click “Accept”

    You will be able to choose from the following regions:

    • The Americas (North America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia)
    • Europe (European Union, Eastern Europe, Russia, Africa, and Middle Eastern countries such as Israel and the United Arab Emirates)
    • Asia (South Korea and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau)

    Please note that characters, items, and friends lists do not transfer across regions. Playing on a different region’s servers means you’ll be creating characters and friends lists specifically for that region, and you’ll be accessing the gold-based auction house for that region.

    To learn more about Global Play in Diablo III, see the FAQ.

    If you receive an error the first time logging into a different region, log out out of Diablo III, exit the client, and then log back in. This should resolve any login errors related to Global Play.

    Tagged As: | Categories: Blue Posts | 3 Comments

    Blizzard Steps in for Aus/NZ GAME Diablo 3 Customers – Get Playing!

    Posted 15 May 2012 by Rushster at 04:59 GMT

    It’s not a been a great time for GAME over the past few months, it may be saved in the UK but it’s not fared so well down under. As you know from earlier, if you pre-ordered through GAME you thought you were going to be pretty much shafted, but as with most companies that go under, a solution usually appears. It looks like you will all be OK, this just in from Blizzard.

    We’re aware that some Australian GAME customers have been left out in the cold on what should be the hottest night of the year — the launch of Diablo III. To help with this situation and get these players into the game as soon as possible, we’ve put the following process in place.

    Australian GAME customers with a valid preorder/prepurchase receipt dated before May 15, 2012 can do the following:

    1. Purchase the digital version of Diablo III from

    http://www.diablo3.com

    now or anytime before May 21, 2012.

    2. Download and start playing when the servers go live!

    3. Submit your GAME Australia preorder/prepurchase receipt to us before June 30, 2012.

    4. Receive a credit from Blizzard, for the amount you paid in advance to GAME Australia for Diablo III. This credit will be applied to the payment method used for the digital purchase.
    We’ll post further details here on how to submit your GAME Australia receipt to our customer service team as soon as possible. Stay tuned, and we look forward to seeing you in the Burning Hells!

    Thanks Azzure.

    Tagged As: , | Categories: Merchandise | 37 Comments