Bhruic wrote on Oct 5, 2011, 01:02:

Calling it "dumbing down" just seems silly, as there was nothing "smart" about it before.

Yes, another option would have been to try and make the other attributes more useful to pick, but I don't see how they'd accomplish that easily.

Dapperdanman wrote on Oct 5, 2011, 07:50:
Excellent preview article. I would love to see more like this. I think it is time to dust off Diablo2 and see if I can stand the graphics for another run through.

Theo wrote on Oct 5, 2011, 03:03:

Blue wrote on Oct 4, 2011, 17:54:

Theo wrote on Oct 4, 2011, 17:51:
dont agree on a bunch of points...

Particularly since I don't do this kind of thing regularly, I'd be very interested in hearing your areas of disagreement if you care to elaborate.

will do tonight blue(when i get home from work), thats not to say i want to troll said points mate, nothing wrong with folks having opinions of there own.

Blue wrote on Oct 4, 2011, 17:54:

Theo wrote on Oct 4, 2011, 17:51:
dont agree on a bunch of points...

Particularly since I don't do this kind of thing regularly, I'd be very interested in hearing your areas of disagreement if you care to elaborate.

Bhruic wrote on Oct 4, 2011, 19:52:

The removal of Town Portals and lack of any real consequence for death is disconcerting

Wait, what? They still have Town Portals, they just aren't called "Town Portal" anymore, and they are activated by a stone, rather than scrolls. Functionally, they are pretty much identical (barring a cast timer).

AnointedSword wrote on Oct 5, 2011, 00:31:
I also would like to add to judge on this beta release is foolish to say the least. The beta has very little content(period)

Bhruic wrote on Oct 5, 2011, 01:02:
Just because something seemed like a bad call on an RPG doesn't mean it's going to be a bad call on an action game.

Yeah, to me that's called "Dumbing stuff down."
Because if they cared so much about everyone picking the same attribute, they could have also made the other attributes more interesting to pick, and keep the old system.

I like how when this happened in Mass Effect 2, everyone and their mom called it "Dumbing down", but when it happens in Diablo it "just makes sense!"

Yifes wrote on Oct 4, 2011, 22:30:

eunichron wrote on Oct 4, 2011, 19:32:
The removal of Town Portals and lack of any real consequence for death is disconcerting. Those were two staples of Diablo that really should be in any of the games.

The penalty for death will likely change as you go up in difficulty. It looks like they're making Normal really, really newbie friendly, and adding Infernal difficulty for even more end game challenge. Plus, there's always hardcore mode.

Bhruic wrote on Oct 4, 2011, 19:56:

such as that blizzard can't trust people to pick their own attributes. They've literally said so in interviews.

No they haven't. They said that attributes fell into one of two categories 99% of the time (enough str to wear gear, max vit, or enough str to wear gear, enough dex for max block, max vit). If 99% of the time everyone was going to do the same thing, there's no point in having variety, because no one is taking advantage of the variety.

eunichron wrote on Oct 4, 2011, 19:32:
The removal of Town Portals and lack of any real consequence for death is disconcerting. Those were two staples of Diablo that really should be in any of the games.

Sepharo wrote on Oct 4, 2011, 21:00:

Cram wrote on Oct 4, 2011, 20:11:
Attributes were fun for the first couple run throughs of the game when you were experiencing the content for the first time and no one had done the math on the best builds yet. They quickly became pointless, and something most people held on too. However, perhaps not so much in single player, a mode I have little/no experience with where you couldn't just go and find a game to get yourself rushed through difficult areas of the game in any mode while holding onto hundreds of attribute points. I have a feeling those who only played single player often didn't have the luxury of holding onto points to make the best mathematically built build. But single player is, unfortunately for some, gone and I believe it was a good idea taking attributes with it.

I only played single player, except for a few games with friends every now and then. The aspect of the game you just described is one I would NEVER want to experience.

If Diablo 3 isn't better than Titan Quest then I don't feel so bad skipping it.

Cram wrote on Oct 4, 2011, 20:11:
Attributes were fun for the first couple run throughs of the game when you were experiencing the content for the first time and no one had done the math on the best builds yet. They quickly became pointless, and something most people held on too. However, perhaps not so much in single player, a mode I have little/no experience with where you couldn't just go and find a game to get yourself rushed through difficult areas of the game in any mode while holding onto hundreds of attribute points. I have a feeling those who only played single player often didn't have the luxury of holding onto points to make the best mathematically built build. But single player is, unfortunately for some, gone and I believe it was a good idea taking attributes with it.

RogNog wrote on Oct 4, 2011, 18:16:
We are all talking about the lack of features for continued replayability. We seem to be missing the elephant in the room here namely activision. Their model life cycle for games now is 1 maybe 2 years top. They want you to get bored of it so you buy DLC throughout the year. Their recent form has been to sell a game for £49 quid and then release DLC through the year taking the price for the game to around £100, add to that the new market place and Ill bet you will get a lot of people spending £120 on this in a year. Maybe in 2 years along come D4 a slightly tweaked version of D3 adn it all starts again.

COD is the proof that this model works, and lets face it a fanboy and their money are soon parted.

The facts are that the bean counters would real in horror at the thought of longevity in a game. In fact I ahve a funny feeling that monthly subscription for Diablo 3 is not far away