Cigol

Diablo III

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A lot of it would be explained by the story stuff being added comparatively late in development, when they had mapped out most of the game already.

I'll give it a shot!

Hero from Diablo 1 and wanderer in Diablo 2 has sex with Adria, who then has Leah who is then actually Diablo's offspring kind of and then there is a betrayal that no one saw coming and Leah's body gets posessed and turns into female shaped Diablo and then Tyreal is all like "Gee, humanity sure is the best" and everyone nods and agrees and then as you're killing Diablo, he/she starts threating you with terror and makes true this promise by sending you to the realm of terror where a terror diablo version of terror says that I'm stuck in the realm of terror and that I shall know a lot of it. I did not and Diablo exploded. Tyreal now thinks that perhaps it wasn't smart to raise all the dead and becomes Wisdom, but you know it's kind of douchey to decide that for yourself.

Agreed?

Fem-Diablo makes me feel all tingly

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Oh hey, Hell is hard. Who knew. Finally just started throwing together a tank set, was getting by without that in nightmare.

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In case some were unaware...

Blizzard has been hotfixing some character abilities on the server side. Great.

Which means some tooltips are now wrong until the next client side patch. Not Great.

So far only Demon Hunters, Monks, and the Wizzaaaaard are affected.

You can find the list of Hotfixes for May here -> http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/5825330/Diablo_III_Hotfixes_-_May_Updated_52312-5_23_2012#blog

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In case some were unaware...

Blizzard has been hotfixing some character abilities on the server side. Great.

Which means some tooltips are now wrong until the next client side patch. Not Great.

So far only Demon Hunters, Monks, and the Wizzaaaaard are affected.

You can find the list of Hotfixes for May here -> http://us.battle.net...-5_23_2012#blog

Huh, I was completely unaware. Cheers for the heads up!

Work and the real world has me stuck on a low-mid level monk, but still.

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I just listened to Idle Thumbs episode 2, wherein Nick describes the great fun he had playing the Diablo 3 beta – the episode is three and a half years old, so my question is: What changed? Polish, I guess, but it seems the game still has some un-shiny problems. I’m not trying to sound all internet-douche-like 'What did they do all those years?', I was rather just surprised to hear them talk about D3 that long ago and now I'm curious as to what took them so long. So, what did they do all those years?

(Btw, my PC is broken, so I can’t even play the game, which is probably good, because I have shit to do and the self-control of a person with low self-control.)

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So, what did they do all those years?

The level art probably took a while to put together. Some of the tile-sets are obnoxiously full of gratuitous detail for what is essentially non interactive window dressing. Though, I'd have to assume they sunk the last couple years into working, and re-working the character abilities for the PVP arena. They made it clear that they were aiming for e-sports, and if it is going to have any chance to catch on as an e-sport they need the class v class balance to be almost perfect.

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I'm very much looking forward to the PvP arena. Slogging through monsters is fun an all, but I'm expecting that sense of tension and split-second decision making (cast that spell, time the cooldowns perfectly, pursue different strategies to see what works best etc) will be much greater against human opponents.

Rodi, you're spot on about the story. Blizzard should have relegated it down to the minimal premise of a game like Left 4 Dead, since D3 is similarly all about the gameplay. But my guess is that they're getting some false positive feedback from the rabid WoW fanbase who actually think that inconsequential lore is worth a damn. It's really one of the worst video game stories in a AAA title I've seen in a long time, which is insane considering the talent their team exhibits in other aspects.

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I imagine the pvp will be similar to WoW's arena mode, though hopefully they'll pay attention balance a bit better

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Blizzard should have relegated it down to the minimal premise of a game like Left 4 Dead.

Exactly that. Great example.

Somebody give this man a prize.

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And every other Blizzard game. Although, at least the older games don't pretend they're something they aren't. I think Blizzard's biggest problem [in regards to the issue currently being discussed] is that they act like their stories are something special. At least, that's the impression I always get when they talk about it.

EDIT: In other, more important news, I'm about to fight NM Belial on my HC WD.

Initializations.

Anyway, I'm scared.

Yeah, I mean, that's why I specifically mentioned SC2 and not every other Blizzard game. Not only the story content but the specific way they're telling the stories have been a HUGE step down for me in SC2 and D3. It's really disappointing.

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After playing through some of Act 1 again on hardcore, I have to say Leah's scepticism is incredibly out of place.

I don't understand when that ever made sense. Could there ever have been a prologue where you weren't immediately surrounded by hell spawn?

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After playing through some of Act 1 again on hardcore, I have to say Leah's scepticism is incredibly out of place.

I don't understand when that ever made sense. Could there ever have been a prologue where you weren't immediately surrounded by hell spawn?

No, it's just standard bad supernatural fiction writing. "I never believed old wacky Uncle Deckard and his ke-razy theories!" Meanwhile, a fucked up hell-demon is doing a song and dance routine.

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Well, in my younger years, I loved Blizzard's stories. Starcraft and Warcraft alike. (Despite playing a ton of D2, I never actually followed the story, even once.) I was really into them, and, much to my shame, I even bought some of the novels. But then I went back and played SC1 shortly before SC2 came out. It's kind of... trash. I feel like if Blizzard had the resources back then that they have today... SC1 would've felt very much like SC2? Obviously, I can't say that for sure. But, basically, I think the reason their older games don't seem as bad is because they're a product of their time, and while Blizzard's storytelling resources may have increased exponentially, their storytelling methods have not evolved to really take advantage of the increased resources.

I DUNNO.

...

I deeeed it!

Belial almost killed me. D: My health sphere(?) was empty! But it didn't even trigger my passive (which prevents me from dying and gives me 10% of my health back every 90 seconds), so that's good?

Ugh I never want to fight him again. Easily the most annoying of the bosses, just because there's so little space to move around. Although I'm worried about Diablo's trap-'n'-grab. That hurt a lot in Normal, and it was a little more difficult to avoid than I would've hoped.

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I think hellspawn doing a song and dance number would have immediately got me interested in the story.

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As good as Jennifer Hale was in Mass Effect, I can't stand hearing Leah's voice. Every time she starts to say something I just start mashing the space bar. To be fair the only person I actually really like is James Hong as Shen.

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As good as Jennifer Hale was in Mass Effect, I can't stand hearing Leah's voice. Every time she starts to say something I just start mashing the space bar. To be fair the only person I actually really like is James Hong as Shen.

That's the only person anyone likes, if they even like a person.

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Well, in my younger years, I loved Blizzard's stories. Starcraft and Warcraft alike. (Despite playing a ton of D2, I never actually followed the story, even once.) I was really into them, and, much to my shame, I even bought some of the novels. But then I went back and played SC1 shortly before SC2 came out. It's kind of... trash. I feel like if Blizzard had the resources back then that they have today... SC1 would've felt very much like SC2? Obviously, I can't say that for sure. But, basically, I think the reason their older games don't seem as bad is because they're a product of their time, and while Blizzard's storytelling resources may have increased exponentially, their storytelling methods have not evolved to really take advantage of the increased resources.

I DUNNO.

...

I deeeed it!

Belial almost killed me. D: My health sphere(?) was empty! But it didn't even trigger my passive (which prevents me from dying and gives me 10% of my health back every 90 seconds), so that's good?

Ugh I never want to fight him again. Easily the most annoying of the bosses, just because there's so little space to move around. Although I'm worried about Diablo's trap-'n'-grab. That hurt a lot in Normal, and it was a little more difficult to avoid than I would've hoped.

It's all nonsense, but the way it's told is WAY more restrained in the older games. Whether that was by design or a product of its time, it still makes it far more tolerable to me.

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Well, I agree! And I guess that's all I have to say about that.

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I'm not a James Hong fan per se, but Shen is just really loveable and funny. The correct way to display a rambling madman. When Bethesda do it with the mad god Sheogorath, it always makes me cringe because it's so artificial. The delivery is off there, he's just an actor pretending to be kerrrrazy. Shen, on the other, and probably also James Hong, are actually batshit insane.

Fun fact: when I saw the name Michael Gough in the voice acting credits, I thought they had hired Batman's butler Alfred from the first four movies. Turns out it's just a video game VO regular with the same name.

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Regarding SCII, I didn't like the overarching story either, but I don't think it's the pulpiness that's the problem because the fiction, or at least the terrans, are designed from ground up to be pulpy (they're space truckers that have Sweet Home Alabama on their jukebox). It fits with their setting. In fact, I would go so far to say that one of the reasons SCII's story didn't hit was that they tried to stretch too far outside of the tone that I had already defined.

I have yet only played the beta part of D3, but seems to me they lay down a much more serious fantasy tone than SCII, so if it's as pulpy/cheesy as you say, I can definitely see that not resonating.

From what people have said in this thread, it seems perhaps the Blizzard writers are suffering from "It's just a video game" syndrome?

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From what people have said in this thread, it seems perhaps the Blizzard writers are suffering from "It's just a video game" syndrome?

I think they're suffering from "Holy shit this is AWESOME" syndrome.

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Awwwww, I died. ) : Bye bye Twubby the Witch Doctor.

Up until Areal Crater (or whatever it's called) in Act 3, I'd had very little trouble except for Belial, and even that was just a goof on my part, and not him actually being that hard. But then I made it to the Tower of the damned. FUckaon

First: Horde, Fast Hulking Phasebeasts. OH GOD THEY'RE ALWAYS IN FRONT OF AND BEHIND ME. Built in teleport! Ahhhhh! At least I can spirit walk away if things get too hairy, 'cause even with fast and teleport, I can get far enough away that they can't see me anymore. Phew.

Second: Fast, Shielding Tongue Guys. Oh man, these guys are already naturally fast, and they hit hard, and they can pull themselves to me with their tongue and they're periodically invulnerable?! Thank god for that waypoint. WHAT. THEIR HEALTH RESETS?! But I did manage to get lucky with a long streak of no-shields on one of them. That made it easier to handle the damage from the remaining two. Phew.

Third: FUCK IF I KNOW. One second there's nobody there, next second, I'm against champion Big Fat Dudes With Two Maces, running away, FUCK WRONG DIRECTION I HAVEN'T EXPLORED THIS AREA YET OH GOD MORE DEMONS. I'm completely fucking surrounded and can't move. DEAD.*

C'est la vie.

Honestly, I'd start another hardcore character right now if I wasn't going to be forced to slog through the hours long tutorial that is Normal difficulty. It is so dreadfully boring. I think that fact will keep me from ever doing it again, which is a real shame, because aside from that, I really enjoyed this run.. ) :

*What really irritates me, though, is that spirit vessel (the "oh fuck saved-my-ass passive that witch doctors get) activated, but because Big Fat Guys were SO FUCKING HUGE I couldn't click on any ground to spirit walk through them to safety, and instead my character just fucking attacks like herp derpity derp. Context-sensitive left-click killed me. I'm not even exaggerating. I think I could've made it out otherwise. Is there a key I can hold down that will force my character to move instead of doing whatever he'd normally do?

Please say no there isn't.

I might cry if there is.

EDIT: Wait why is just a colon a crying face? :

Aw well, it's appropriate. : : :

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