But.. Can it live up to the hype?

[z00t]

I hype myself up for stuff I'm really into all the time....but they are few and far between :P.

Last time I was really excited for something was Korra's premiere :3. But before that...maybe SC2? There aren't many games whose development I follow from start to finish, but D3 is one of them.

[Urzuxo]

Interview with Jay Wilson:

"The real game starts at nightmare difficulty?"
"Yes."

[z00t]

Some people are really excited about rushing to the later difficulties.

But for me, I'm looking extremely forward to just taking my time and enjoying Normal on my first playthrough. I'm really into the lore and the universe, and the buildup to D3's story is one of the exciting things for me. On Normal difficulty, I can focus on the story and 'feeling' like a really powerful hero. I feel like in many ways, Normal is the 'true' experience.

In the later difficulties, I'll need to be 'gaming the game' a lot more in order to survive, if you know what I mean :P. The immersion isn't quite the same. Sorta like how you have to lure away those Minions of Destruction in Act V of D2 away one by one because you can't take them all at once. It kinda breaks the immersion for me :P.

[Apocalypse]

It depends on what hype you are buying into. Some people are saying this game will last them 10 years. That’s crazy to me, I figure I will get a good year out of it before taking a break. If I stop playing after 4 months then it did not live up to my hype but was still a good game. not living up to the hype does not mean it was bad, it just means you expected far too much from a 60 dollar product

[z00t]

Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, as excited as I am for D3, I don't think it's going to last me 10 years....D2 certainly did not :P.

That doesn't mean I can't be incredibly excited for what it is, though . If I play for even a year, that's money well spent. Odds are, I'll be playing for longer, though. Especially once the inevitable expansion rolls in.

Heck, I like to think of that first, slow singleplayer playthrough as a real experience. When you consider the price of a movie ticket, even a 20+ hour-long playthrough of Normal (and maybe a couple more to relive some story elements) is worth the price, in its own way.

[Supernova]

Yeah I'm going to be playing the same way as you zoot, more than likely. I will be taking my first trip through Normal pretty slow, looking at the sites, and most likely zooming in *a lot*. I love the Diablo lore, and I've read all the books. I'm curious to the function of the Black Soulstone, and I can't wait see how it plays out.

[z00t]

Book of Cain spoilers:

Spoiler

Zoltun Kulle created the Black Soulstone to harvest the essences of Angels and Demons. It was Kulle who suggested that a human could be used as a surrogate soulstone. The man had a really good understanding of how soulstones worked, which allowed him to create the Black Soulstone.

The original soulstones were created by Tyrael, using pieces of the Worldstone. Now that the Worldstone is gone, Leah probably figures that acquiring the Black Soulstone is the only way she can kill Azmodan and Belial.

[Eeryck]

In many ways I think D3 has had quite a bit of anti-hype. It has suffered quite a bit of abuse by all the nay-sayers. In light of this question, I now think that is a good thing. Due to the vast quantity of "This is not D2.5 by others" my expectations are quite low.

So I think that D3 will be nothing short of amazing for me.

[Apocalypse]

worth the price and worth the hype are 2 very different things. worth the price? easily. worth the hype? i feel it will. the hype i put on it is, this will be the best ARPG to date. if it does that (i am sure it will) then the hype challenge was met

[z00t]

Ah true - the two are indeed different. I do, however, also believe that D3 will definitely meet the hype challenge :P. Naysayers be darned!