Another strike for Blizzard, DiabloIII!

[Aeni]

Re: Another strike for Blizzard, DiabloIII!

As someone who doesn't play Diablo, I have no clue what you mean by this.

I was being sarcastic about the whole thing and that people are whining about the inability to pause a game when for the most part you don't require it. The fact that you have auto-save features which allows you to not fall back on progress so much and that you can vendor items w/o a need to go back to town makes this far from the same game that I played.

As for durability issues, I feel that is a non-issue. It never stopped me from enjoying D2 so not sure why that and no pausing have anything to do with each other.

IMO a couple of sensational articles and very bored players have blown some of the changes way out of proportion and unfortunately, unless you've actually played with what is available (ie., beta) you're not likely to give any fair or impartial reasonings.

Edit: I don't want to minimize concerns of players to the point that there's no merit but this particular issue is NOT one of those concerns that people should be basing their purchase for this game on. If you buy or don't buy the game, base that on other merits, like you don't like the genre, you just don't like Blizzard period, or that you don't want to buy a PC to play it (i.e., you don't already own one or it's too old)

[Taskmage]

Re: Another strike for Blizzard, DiabloIII!

Cribbing a bit from the Diablo feed at incgamers: The Escapist has an article up about many of the design issues that have been brought up in this thread and some that haven't yet. I like the guy's take. Rather than raging about the changes as the OP article seems to or dismissing them based on the gameplay, he recognizes that each decision was a tradeoff and expresses doubt that overall what was gained was greater than what was lost. That's here: The Escapist : Experienced Points: Diablo III Has Single Player Online

Also the Torchlight 2 FAQ has amusingly been updated with some Diablo 3-related questions. I get the feeling a lot of people in this thread will be more comfortable with the philosophy on design that Runic's team has taken.

Diablo 3 Questions
Why don't they release it now before Diablo 3 is released and crushes their company?
Diablo 3 is going to be released in 2012. Torchlight 2 will be released in 2011. There is no overlap here.

They should release it now because everyone will forget about the game once Diablo 3 is out.
You may be surprised to hear about this, but Runic Games isn't worried about Diablo 3. The games don't particularly overlap. Diablo 3 is online-only, on secure servers, with absolutely no modding and will likely cost 50-60 dollars US. Torchlight 2 will be playable offline, over LAN, or over Runic's Peer-to-Peer online service, with or without mods, and will cost ONLY 20 dollars US.

Is this the team that made Diablo 1 and 2?
Ooooh, fancy question, let me give you a fancy answer. Max and Erich Schaefer, founders of Blizzard North and the heads of the Diablo 1 and 2 (including LOD expansion)'s development teams, are among the founding members of Runic Games, with Max being the CEO. Matt Uelmen did the music for the original Diablo games and is doing all the music and sounds for the Torchlight series, including using the same orchestra. Peter Hu was the man behind the Diablo 2 1.10 patch, but left Runic Games some time ago. However, the other 30 or so members of Runic Games hail from different places, so it would be inaccurate to say that Runic Games is the original Blizzard North development team. However, to my knowledge the other members of those original Diablo teams are no longer at Blizzard, and are not involved with Diablo 3. Extrapolating, neither team is Blizzard North, and thus each teams' work should be judged on its own merits, not their histories. (My personal opinion)

Considering its starting price and its likelihood of being included in Steam Christmas sales, I'm going to end up with a copy of Torchlight 2 no matter what.

[Malacite]

Re: Another strike for Blizzard, DiabloIII!

The only possible exploit I can think of is for a hardcore player who's gotten in over his head to pause and quit the game at the last second to avoid death.

You could never pause the game online, which is how most people played D1 and 2 anyway, but it was nice for offline. I've done that a number of times playing on HC mode.

It's not like I'd be playing offline too much anyway, but sometimes my internet conks out on me, or I just feel like screwing around offline to test stuff out at my leisure.

[Taskmage]

Re: Another strike for Blizzard, DiabloIII!

Yaya, that's been stated. I was just responding to this odd statement Aeni made:

Adding in a pause button means you can then be sloppy with game play and design and let players hit the pause button to resolve their issues.

Do please RTFT before making replies with no context.

[Aeni]

Re: Another strike for Blizzard, DiabloIII!

Yaya, that's been stated. I was just responding to this odd statement Aeni made:Do please RTFT before making replies with no context.

Sorry about that Taskmage. It's just that when I see people say, "OMG, no pausing, DEAL BREAKER!" it kinds of gets to me. Sure, everyone has their opinion, but that? To me, it's like me saying, OMG FFXIII does not feature Cloud Strife, DEAL BREAKER! Of all the things that they could focus on, it was that particular issue, when there are so many others, including the requirement to be online only to play and some other specific particulars that do affect gameplay/balance which would have a direct impact on the ability to enjoy the game they purchased.