@lokalan It plays like an iPad game. Playable with just a mouse, I wouldn't mind using just a finger. In fact, it has me looking forward to the graphically superior Infinity Blade Dungeons.
I went ahead and purchased it after finishing Lara Croft co-op. I have to say Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is the best game of it's type I've played so far, especially how they force you to play cooperatively. You can finish it with Lara by herself, but I felt the spear thing didn't quite make sense without the Guardian. Even after spending a day and a half with Diablo 3 I can't make a full judgement, but I can say even if I were to customize my characters I doubt I would care much about the stats. Unless they are necessary to improve a particular thing that I like to do. For instance, if I want to be a better sniper in Mass Effect, make sure I'm training towards that. Otherwise a skill tree is fine. The Runes are fine. I switched up abilities more than I thought to suit the enemy or situation I'm in. I'd put Lara Croft as a multiplayer experience a half to a whole point in front of Diablo 3, the graphics and combat as well. Even saying Lara Croft is a "better" game, except for maybe enemies deaths, for some reason Diablo 3 is satisfying. I don't know how to describe it. LCGL even has extremely similar character and enemy designs, like they purposefully tried to beat Diablo to the next Diablo game. Other games like Darksiders take heavy cues from Diablo as well, but for some reason Diablo 3 works very well. It's in the package, not one particular thing perhaps. Because while playing I kept feeling like Rage topped it as far as go here and kill/fetch this come back. My first thought is because it's super simple and uncomplex. Aside from some loose strategy and good equipment, there isn't anything that could stop you from playing this game while you're falling asleep after getting off work. I slump in my seat and often don't even have a hand on the keyboard. My side button on my mouse controls the zoom for when I feel safe enough to watch myself tear through a crowd of enemies. Like Rage, Gears of War, Dawn of War 2, etc. It does what it does well and does the "cool factor" very well. It's like playing a fantasy novel, not like something trying to pretend it's a movie. As a final judgement, I'd probably put on an even level to Space Marine, Rage, Gears of War, etc. As far as top down action games, it's not the best, it's been surpassed this gen, but I can put it above at least one clone as Dungeon Siege 3 although okay, has proved to be middle of the road for me (not bad, not great). I have to say I felt like it should have used controllers to take advantage of local/couch co-op. I was annoyed that I couldn't play with my son, apparently the digital version doesn't even have guess passes, and I don't want him to mess with my game achievements. Lan play should have been another option. I don't see myself rushing through levels with strangers online. Hopefully the game is update for local and Lan co-op with controllers and all the functions mapped to buttons instead of keys.
For Bastion, Dungeon Siege 3, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, among other titles I haven't played in this day and age, Diablo 3 should get no more than a 7.5. All the hype has me oddly wanting to play more than I played in the beta and I'll be likely as disappointed as when I first sunk into Borderlands. Meanwhile I'm having a blast playing local co-op in Guardian of Light. I don't see the difference in using two buttons on a keyboard vs several buttons on a controller aside from the fact you can't play local co-op with a keyboard and mouse...unless one person has a controller like in Dungeon Siege 3 and Lara Croft. I'm kind of annoyed no reviewer is making these comparisons having full access to Diablo 3 (I just played the Beta). What's the point of showering praise and light criticism? How would they compare the tone/theme/style of this vs. Dungeon Siege or Lara Croft? Compared to Lara Croft, how would they compare mouse controls to full contoller support and rumble? How does the story compare to much cheaper games? Considering many if not the majority of players won't play this game more than once? How does it compare to XBLA titles or a title like Dungeon Siege or Sacred 2 that are currently cheaper?
@onewithtoenail7 I'm getting tired of these falsehoods about keyboards and mouse control. Controllers have been used on PCs for ages. My first PC game back in 1997 or 1998 was Nocturne, we purchased it from Best Buy and it had controller support. Keyboard and mouse control for alot of games was just a default, but not always was a game designed or plays better with keyboard and mouse controls. Microsoft made gamepads and joysticks for games that best supported them. Max Payne does work with a keyboard and mouse, that's how I first played it, I hated the PS2's controls, but it's obvious with a xbox style dual stick and rumble, it's superior to kb/m. Period. I play Rage with a controller mainly because or rumble. I'd rather the additional immersion or accuracy if it ever matters. In fact, games like CoD where the auto-aim is so strong, I don't see why people preten kb/m is better. Might as well use a controller...and my PC cost less than $400 and there is hardly any game I can't max except the poorly optimized ones. I game on PC out of choice and versatility, not superiority. I knew aside from certain genres like MMOs and RTSes consoles lead and always have led. This gen was the first that devs considered making PC versions of console games widespread because the tech was powerful and cheap enough. Last gen there was some crossover, but not nearly as much as this gen. This gen, alot of people felt they could skip Xbox and just play the same games on PC.
Innovation doesn't come from perfect execution--that's wrong. Innovation comes out of necessity--an need to solve a problem. In other words, innovation is incompatible with "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Not to worry, if people continue to like these games, no need to innovate. When one flops, they'll know they have to innovate.
That chick seriously looks 3D modeled. I'm not kidding, she looked like a character from Mass Effect or something for a little bit. That's the problem with plastic surgery. The butt still looked nice though.
I just read something where they were talking about why they decided against a third person camera. Other games have sucessfully moved on to 3rd person like Zelda and even the Witcher, which had optional isometric or over-the-should views improved with it's sequel to something on par to Zelda. I wonder how many people, who aren't into multiplayer will compare this to Darksiders 2 or other combat heavy adventure/rpgs. They can pretend it's a different kind of game if they want to, but I think Blizzard was afraid to compete with the likes of more modern games. It's a shame too because I really fell in love with Diablo 3's flavor after the beta. They would have to claim that games like Devil May Cry don't sucessfully handle thing similar to teleporting or handling large volume of enemies. They tried to use Bethesda style combat as an argument a for some reason.
@Albaficas Yeah, the camera being locked into place in Diablo is going to be a problem and so is the fact that they refuse to leave older computers behind.
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