Watch me die THRICE, see the explosions, see the no lag, see the ability to add skill points, see the ability to dodge enemy attacks!
Dare I say it: Torchlight 2 beta > Diablo 3 beta. This is not to say that these are not great games– they are both amazing, but judging from the beta, TL2 was just a better experience. Here’s why:
1) It’s a better game. It’s more fun to play, especially if you’ve played a lot of Diablo 2.
2) It’s more respectful of your time. There’s very little B.S. story stuff. It gets right to the kill, loot, item manage, kill cycle that is the core of the game.
3) No lag for no good reason -sure other players will lag but that’s a normal reason for lag. If you’re playing against someone in the BFE of the internet, BFE lag is what you’re going to get. What you won’t get is client side prediction coupled with an overburdened server.
4) Hit lag – when a monster attacks and you are nowhere near that monster you do not get hit. In Diablo, the client side prediction means you will get hit anyway. This takes a huge amount of the tactical play from the game.
5) You can play at the highest difficulty right out of the gate without slogging through the game. This is the main reason why the TL2 beta is better.
This isn’t to compare the final versions of each game–I haven’t played either. Diablo 3 was a beta I felt I +had+ to play, but TL2 I cannot WAIT to play every time I get the chance to.
As I’ve said before, Diablo 3 will be great to run through once on normal and dabble in Nightmare a bit, probably a full month of play and you will get your money out of it. For the long haul, the game you will be playing in a year is going to be Torchlight 2.