Category: cRPG

I’m in the D3 beta.  It’s great.  My fears about how the game plays have been completely allayed.  The monster hit lag is unfortunate, but not a ruiner.  The real money auction house is delaying the game’s release, but that’s OK too.  It should have no effect on players that choose not to use it and you can probably play through the game without even noticing the crafting parts and just pick up any items dropped on the ground FTW, let alone actually using the auction house.  The character models aren’t that great, but the monsters look awesome (monsters don’t have a billion combinations of armor and weapons so it follows that there’s a lot more leeway with their design).  However, the Witch doctor’s inclusion has me befuddled.

I liked the other black characters in Diablo 1 and 2.  The magic user in the first game fit really well when he could have been just some generic pointy-hatted gandalf clone with a stupid beard, or some naked woman that said stupid stuff all the time.  The paladin in D2 was another non-northern european character that was believable and fit in well.  That said, I just don’t know where Blizzard is coming from with the Witch doctor.  Essentially, the Witch doctor replaces the Necromancer from D2– he has many of the same powers and is the core choice for a person that wants to use a summoning character–so system wise, he’s important, but as fluff and the character model itself  he is WAY out of place. Here are my issues in order of magnitude:

3) Aesthetically, the witchdoctor is a hunched over, quivering creature with some sort of strange shaking fit that happens to one of his arms. He himself looks like one of the creatures you will be fighting more than any of the other characters.

2) The setting for the Beta is in a very northern european looking region (Tristram); all the voices are some odd mix of  welsh, scottish, irish and english thrown together in some sort of midlands pond scum. Given that you are in a remote village that had been plagued by demons and undead before, it’s difficult to imagine some creature looking as odd as the witchdoctor (almost naked as he is starting out) would be killed outright– let alone being let INSIDE the village

1) Given that said village is under attack at the outset of the game by waves of zombies and the witchdoctor himself raises zombies as one of his first powers in the  game, it’s equally strange that a person like him, wearing a demon mask and raising zombies, would be allowed anywhere near the INSIDE of the village and almost certainly would simply be killed outright.  Of course, since the dialog options are all the same for each character, the NPC’s accept the witchdoctor the same as if he were the barbarian or demon hunter, which makes the doctor’s instant acceptance after killing just a handful of zombies feel like a giant shoehorn sticking out of Diablo’s bright red arse.

I originally thought the Monk would stick out like a sore thumb in the game, just like he did in the (non-Blizzard) expansion to Diablo 1 back in the day, but the witchdoctor is a big carbuncle right on the face in comparison.  I realize not all of D3 will happen in fantasy Northern Europe land and the witch doctor won’t look quite as ridiculous but as it stands, it’s a very strange choice for a character.

Someday, Torchlight 2 will come out and there will be the big dust up between Diablo 3 and Torchlight 2, during which we will all likely find that the mod-friendly, played-on-your-actual-computer Torchlight 2 will be a better experience long term, despite some of Diablo 3’s absolute awesomeness sprinkled around, but for now all we got is a new TL2 website.   However, there is new art all over the place for the classes on the TL2 site, so check it out.

Now, I’ve spanned two nights in the Diablo 3 beta finishing the hour and a half of gameplay twice, once with the Monk and once with the Demon Hunter (both Co-op with baurice!mastard).  While there is the hit lag still noted by maurice!bastard a month or so ago on youtube, and the lag is absolutely awful at times–lagging when you NEED IT NOT TO LAG MOST, much of the game itself is just great and a few set pieces in the beta areas are flat out awesome.  The swarming undead at a couple points is the game I most want to play, that and have some decent item management fun with crafting.  Aesthetically: D3 is top notch.

Here is an hour and thirty minutes of play from my first night into the fray with the mastard:

Runic announced the price for Torchlight 2 and clearly they are trying to make people to believe they are not making an A-class title (it’s an A-class title).  They also additionally mentioned that this is ALL you will have to spend.    That’s 5$ more than one month of WOW for probably 50 hours of play even before you delve into mods (and there will be mega mods).   And the last class was announced which looks like a more standard mage-esque type chick.   Looking forward to uhhh… October?

I’d love to say Torchlight 2 is right around the corner, but it probably isn’t.  That said, most of us will not get into the diablo 3 beta, so when Torchlight 2 comes out, we are planning on running Torchlight 2 the first time multiplayer hardcore WITHOUT having played the game before.

The Rules! (this is really on the honor system)

1) No one can have played the game before.

2) If you play, you cannot play at any other time until your hardcore character bites it (i.e.: no peeking ahead).

3) If your character dies, you are free to join again with a hardcore character. (rules 1 and 2 still apply) or quit this absolutely absurd waste of time once and for all.

4) We’ll make up many more rules as we go along if things don’t seem in the spirit of playing newb hardcore!

Of course, as much of this will be documented and posted to the tubes of you as emotionally possible.

Oh and they announced the newest TL2 class; The BERZERKER.