I think EU was down yesterday? I certainly was getting Thirty-sevened.
@RTM: I've mainly been having problems with massive lag spikes. Often long enough for just about anything to kill me.
As for the patch thing, that was a small window between the US and EU patches. During that time, US clients would download the patch, but the EU servers didn't recognize the new version. This would either crash the game or send it into a restart loop.
I looked for that too, but found no way to do that. Very poor design, imo.Originally Posted by Kyrandia
TLDR: It doesn't seem like a "Diablo" game to me.
Wall-o-text:
The graphics are pretty but in an un-focused way. Everything which is scenery seems beautiful (EG waterfalls) and there are some clever touches (bridges disintigrating as you walk over them), but everything close up seems a bit bland. I know the graphics were beaten to death during the beta but I have to say pretty but not in keeping with the setting.
Atmosphere isn't remotely frightening. This is Diablo. You're supposed to be going up against the Lesser/Prime Evils. "Is that it" should not be the response to killing an Act boss. Considering I'm a fairly lousy player and this was a new game, I'd expect to die a lot more than I did. (Twice I think.) I remember D2 Duriel being more trouble than these guys.
The pacing is inconsistant. Act I seems to be half the game. The other Acts seem to be much shorter. I'd go as far to say that if two characters and another Act the length of Acts 2-4 is the Expansion then I'm inclined to think ... that's it? Better be free. The checkpoints and waypoints seem very far apart. This makes me not want to start playing because I think "Well, I will HAVE to get so far." Bit counter-productive.
I really don't see this game having the legs of Diablo 2. I'm getting a feel of hack and slash. I am probably missing a load of stuff (hope I am) but I don't see the build variety that is in D2. Many of the runes seem a bit useless. Unless you go for a theme like the Rainman WD. It'll be interesting to see how this runs if/when Tournies kick off in earnest.
That will also show how playable this game is untwinked. Personally I'm wondering if there will come a point where I won't be able to progress untwinked (even using the blacksmith). There are some great players in the SPF and I'm looking forward to some Mat/Pat/Guardian threads. Whether they be clearing Hell or Inferno. The RMAH leaves a bit of a sour taste. I understand the attraction for Blizzard to get on-going income from it, but making it a MMO with a sub would have also achieved that. I am concerned that you either use the AH or you can't progress past a certain point.
Artisans were a nice touch. It's a shame that they don't seem worthwhile right now. Everyone I've spoken to says "AH is cheaper". I'm using the blacksmith because I like the idea but it is expensive. Having different salvage in Normal, NM and Hell doesn't help that. I'm seriously hoping that the costs of artisans are reduced in the near future. Unless it was made deliberately expensive to encourage AH use.
The items are ok but they don't seem to have the trade off required in D2. Take x or y but do you sacrifice a or b? Brother Laz made a great post about items here. I can't comment on Legendary items because I still haven't seen one! It seems very much Barb pump str, wiz pump int etc.
I'll gloss over all of the online only issues because that horse died, went to a glue factory and is now being used by the guys in other forums to hold up their certificates for 'inability to use English'. I will say that being offline a fair bit was surprising to me because it's Blizzard for crying out loud. These guys should have half a clue about server load/stability. Judging by the past few days - note I say that because I was too busy to play for the first week or so - the server seems to be run off someone's 486. You weren't expecting traffic?! Or your answer is to turn the servers off or prevent people from logging on?! There is no facepalm pic big enough for this.
The different mercs seem to be more balanced (IE it's not just "the aura guy is best") but I want to shut them up. Or buy them all one big hotel room. Either works. It's disappointing that they don't get any new skills later on. Four skills is ok and yes you can re-train them but it would have been nice if they progressed more. Their damage is laughable. I tend to use them for slows/stuns. I can't count the number of times a D2 merc has gone and retrieved a body with the player naked and hiding, while the merc killed. Here I just don't see them as damage dealers.
The dialogue of the mercs and NPCs in general is great. Someone spent a lot of time on those things. I would like to be able to turn off the merc chat though. I afk a lot, deal with it. If you feel you're standing around too much; go kill stuff yourself. Oh wait, I forgot. You don't deal enough damage.
One thing which I thought was a nice idea was the achievements. I have a badging character in another game and when I don't want to play, I can badge. Not quite able to do that here but it does give an extra bit of depth to the game; which I feel it does need because there's a lot of random button mashing sometimes.
It's very early days but I admit that I don't get the urge to do 16 hour play sessions in D3 the way I have in other games. Maybe it will grow on me; I've been playing an MMO for four years which I spent months avoiding starting.
I'm just astonished that this product took this long to arrive and has been delivered as it is. Ok it's polished but I wouldn't say it's anywhere near as good/has as much depth as D2. Not even close. Even the notifications haven't been thought through by someone who has been in a battle!
It'll be interesting to see how Torchlight 2 stands up to it because TL1 had some nice ideas to it.
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