Originally posted by Rednecksith

Someone hasn't discovered elective mode yet...

Someone has and stands by what he says. Good game but not nearly to the extent somehow profess it to be. Not by a long shot.

Not to say it isn't a good one. Just...wow...the level some take it to is unreal.

Originally posted by Wickedjelly

Originally posted by Rednecksith

Someone hasn't discovered elective mode yet...

Someone has and stands by what he says. Good game but not nearly to the extent somehow profess it to be. Not by a long shot.

Not to say it isn't a good one. Just...wow...the level some take it to is unreal.

 Agreed. It's a well designed workable system. It's not so head and shoulders above everything else it will be the standard everyone aspires to in the future. I expect to play Diablo 3 quite a bit. I'm not throwing all my other games in the trash and selling my television.

Originally posted by Lobotomist

Originally posted by RJCox

Originally posted by drakes821

To hit on the game length topic I'd like to point out that it took me 19 hours and 7 minutes to beat the game on normal. I explored every map and all dungeons but still played pretty fast and kept moving.

I also only died about 6 or so times. I'd say for the average person who doesn't just rush through the game it will take them 15-20 hours on normal solo.

This is about on par with my own experience, as mentioned above. I can imagine people blazing through it in 10-12 hours on normal if they're just trying to get through it and don't care about the story or side/bonus dungeons/encounters...

And still waiting for the OP go back and discuss being forced to play on Normal to unlock additional content, etc... ;)

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/5004932#5004932

By the way...i know its just workaround. But you can just join friend on higher difficulty and it becomes unlocked for you :S

 

Hmm... I think you missunderstood me. I don't mind playing a good game multiple times. I completely played through Borderlands (including all DLC on each one, except the arena crap) 8+ times. That's all fine and dandy. I also don't mind the harder modes being unlocked by playing through once. And I definitely feel there should be enough levels in the leveling system to take you through multiple playthroughs.

My problem with D3 is once you get to Nightmare, it becomes pretty blatantly obvious that it should be considered "Normal". What they call normal is actually stripped down, content reduced easy mode. All the way through Normal I may have died 3-4 times total, and every single one of those I can chalk up to my own inattention or such. Distracted watching TV, went AFK to get a drink thinking the area was clear, etc. There was no challenge at all, and on top of that, they stripped out content. There are no drops above rare. The pages you need to continue leveling up the crafters (and actually craft items) are stripped out, etc.

Don't restrict my access to content to 'force' me to play through the game multiple times. Just make a fun game and I'll do it all on my own.

Also, from my experience, people on your friends list who haven't unlocked a difficulty setting themselves can't be invited. I've tried. Every person on my BNet friends list ingame who hasn't unlocked Nightmare is greyed out, preventing me from inviting them to my game.

All three games are good but imo D3 is vastly superior game when it comes to the actual gameplay.

With these games it always boils down to combat and PoE feels slow and sluggish while Torchlight feels too fast and arcady with no real weight behind attacks. 

Originally posted by Lobotomist

There is two important things to note - Blizzard designed Diablo3 as online game , solo is just an afterthought.

Solo play being an "after thought" is your opinion with no source to back it up

Originally posted by RJCox

 

Hmm... I think you missunderstood me. I don't mind playing a good game multiple times. I completely played through Borderlands (including all DLC on each one, except the arena crap) 8+ times. That's all fine and dandy. I also don't mind the harder modes being unlocked by playing through once. And I definitely feel there should be enough levels in the leveling system to take you through multiple playthroughs.

My problem with D3 is once you get to Nightmare, it becomes pretty blatantly obvious that it should be considered "Normal". What they call normal is actually stripped down, content reduced easy mode. All the way through Normal I may have died 3-4 times total, and every single one of those I can chalk up to my own inattention or such. Distracted watching TV, went AFK to get a drink thinking the area was clear, etc. There was no challenge at all, and on top of that, they stripped out content. There are no drops above rare. The pages you need to continue leveling up the crafters (and actually craft items) are stripped out, etc.

Don't restrict my access to content to 'force' me to play through the game multiple times. Just make a fun game and I'll do it all on my own.

Also, from my experience, people on your friends list who haven't unlocked a difficulty setting themselves can't be invited. I've tried. Every person on my BNet friends list ingame who hasn't unlocked Nightmare is greyed out, preventing me from inviting them to my game.

Bad gameplay decision. As simple as that.

This is one of major complaints I have with D3.

And I simply can not see no benefit in it. Not for Blizzard nor Players.

As for difficulty setting not matching expectations.

Its a though cookie. I remember that Torchlight 1 had huge problem. Even the highest difficulty was just normal even for casual player. So they had to rebalance it in patches.

Originally posted by Nadia

Originally posted by Lobotomist

There is two important things to note - Blizzard designed Diablo3 as online game , solo is just an afterthought.

Solo play being an "after thought" is your opinion with no source to back it up

Its my oppinion, yes.

But Blizzard mentioned many many times that D3 is online game first and foremost.

Originally posted by Lobotomist

Originally posted by RJCox

 

Hmm... I think you missunderstood me. I don't mind playing a good game multiple times. I completely played through Borderlands (including all DLC on each one, except the arena crap) 8+ times. That's all fine and dandy. I also don't mind the harder modes being unlocked by playing through once. And I definitely feel there should be enough levels in the leveling system to take you through multiple playthroughs.

My problem with D3 is once you get to Nightmare, it becomes pretty blatantly obvious that it should be considered "Normal". What they call normal is actually stripped down, content reduced easy mode. All the way through Normal I may have died 3-4 times total, and every single one of those I can chalk up to my own inattention or such. Distracted watching TV, went AFK to get a drink thinking the area was clear, etc. There was no challenge at all, and on top of that, they stripped out content. There are no drops above rare. The pages you need to continue leveling up the crafters (and actually craft items) are stripped out, etc.

Don't restrict my access to content to 'force' me to play through the game multiple times. Just make a fun game and I'll do it all on my own.

Also, from my experience, people on your friends list who haven't unlocked a difficulty setting themselves can't be invited. I've tried. Every person on my BNet friends list ingame who hasn't unlocked Nightmare is greyed out, preventing me from inviting them to my game.

Bad gameplay decision. As simple as that.

This is one of major complaints I have with D3.

And I simply can not see no benefit in it. Not for Blizzard nor Players.

 

As for difficulty setting not matching expectations.

Its a though cookie. I remember that Torchlight 1 had huge problem. Even the highest difficulty was just normal even for casual player. So they had to rebalance it in patches.

I'm twofaced on this. On one hand Blizzard did the same as Square-Enix did with Final Fantasy XIII, namely letting the player play through what's essentially a tutorial for around 20-30 hours. At the end of normal, players are likely to be level 30 and at that point, have access to all their active skills and their three passive skillslots. Players also had enough time to practice and play with different setups, while not instantly being punished for it. Lastly, it enables players to enjoy the story, without being frustrated by impossible gameplay.

That said, normal mode for felt pretty damn easy, though I died a few times on my wizard (took a fireball from Azmodean in my face and was spamming the wrong key by Diablo, then he eat my face). Nightmare mode didn't let me do it, when I first encountered a pack of rabid elite fast, walling zombies. It quickly showed me my flaws with my current skill setup and forced me to rethink my strategy (aka, not charging in blindly anymore, but more kiting).

That said, the game on normal is accessible to a lot of people, even ones new to gaming in general. In that it succeeds brilliantly. Act 1 is pretty easy though, in any difficulty I guess. Most mobs are soooooooooo slow. Kiting is not really all that hard there, from the perspective of a ranged class of course. Act 2 is where the fun begins. I and a lot of others apparantly, were pretty suprised by the amount of damage you get from the opening mobs in Act 2, namely the cat people and the rifle wasps