Yet another D3 discussion

[Az3ar]

>War2 was the game that got me into Blizzard. Yet the War3 demo felt extremely uninspired, like a mediocre clone of their own past glory.<

FoxBat, your not alone, I feel the exact same way, WC2 and D1 were better than their newer counterparts when looking at storyline, feel, and passion.

D2/LOD, and WC3/X, are way too, how do I say it, ummm, they dont have the same spirit in them, the one earlier games had, its all about whos the best today.

In D2 people ar conserned whith items/strategies etc.... not bad at all, but the game loses its touch, the interface whith townsfolk is way decreased, and you dont care about what their attitude is, or what they have to say, and as foxbat said, it loses its gothic feel... the one you'd get when you first opened up D1 and watched the intro, then your first steps into town, thats what I'm talking about....

Same thing happened to WC3, its all about how to rush players and quick expansion strategies, again I myself incourage these things and love to learn to be a better, faster player, but in WC3, people dont care about the storyline enymore, and thats what starves the games today........

[NiteFox]

Aaargh. I hate Trolls, easy though they are.

Then again, Edwin has enough Fire/Acid spells to level a small continent. For Troll killing, you do get a lot of bang for your buck from Melf's Minute Meteorites.

[Occhidiangela]

Forces time to be an element in your approach. Turn based less so. Real time does not allow you to waste time, as it is a finite resource, just like gold or wood or food or whatever.

If you look at the doctrine of any number of armies in the world, you will find the following litte mnemonic device:

METT-T

Mission Enemy Troops Terrain and Time. These are the simple elements to consider when formulating a plan of action, or in an RTS, a build order and strategy for attacking and expanding versus your opponent.

If you let time vary, everything else will have changed.

Hence, no RTS can get completely away from the 'rush' syndrome, and IRL, a quick strike shortens a war and Reduces Casualties if it achieves victory.

Risk-reward decisions.

To complain about rushing in an RTS to complain about spells in Diablo. It is an element of the game.

[[wcip]Angel]

Hi.
There's currently 3 conversations going in this thread as far as I've seen:
1. Diablo
2. Buggering Gripe
3. Roleplaying in general. I will address them randomly and disorderly.

Roleplaying. I don't really have anything to say about this. I used to play ad&d with some friends, but gave up when my female priest (name "Marcia Cross", the actress who played Kimberly on Melrose Place) was turned to stone by a gigantic, evil ... dungeon master.

Buggering Gripe, abbreviated: BG. I really want to love this game. People tell me it's so great and "so much better than diablo, you stupid moron." I've tried on 3 different occasions. I've installed and uninstalled it 3 times, and I just can't bring myself to loving it; not even liking it. I guess it's the interface and the fact that they don't use voice-overs for all of the text spoken which are detering me from playing it.

Diablo: What I really wanted to talk about.
I play videogames for, more or less 1 reason: to enjoy a good story. I don't fancy sitting in a chair fiddling away with mario17, tetris or some motorcycle game. If the storyline doesn't move me profoundly, then I uninstall it. Games like Deus Ex, Silent hill, Final fantasy, Resident evil, Metal Gear solid are games which have really shaped me into who I am today, due to their involving plot and beautiful characters.

I already read the article you posted in your original thread, so I know the author said that the storyline in D2 was rather thin. I guess they could have made more of it, but I wouldn't call it 'thin'. It's not like they're telling us to go eat mushrooms and stars so we can run through monsters and collect coins. I enjoy the storyline and enjoyed the fact that it's a continuation of what happened in D1. (remember that the hero of d1 becomes the baddie of d2? How cool is that?) I know it's not the most involving plot out there, and it doesn't really let you shed any tears on behalf of any of the characters, (like I did in Starcraft when Praetor fenix died) but just because the storyline isn't emphatically strong, it still has -some- merit.

This is what I would wish Blizzard to incorporate into a third game of the Diablo-series. I can't see them changing the genre of the game. Diablo-football, real-time-strategy-diablo, parappa the rapper-style diablo, etc just doesn't seem to 'do' it for me. I suppose either a 1st person or a 3rd person (like in heretic2, tomb raider, splinter cell, etc) version of diablo wouldn't be all that bad. I've often entertained the idea of running down the blood moor in first person.

I agree with some of what has been mentioned already: It's not just enough to add some bells and whistles and call it a new game. The intelligent chap in the article put it well. He said something about keeping some stuff from the previous games to link the series together, but also to create something new.

Tomb raider was a great game with a fine storyline, great gameplay, and jaw-dropping graphics and locations. TR2 was fun to play, but you expected a little bit more. TR3 and 4 were tremendous let-downs. I'm not even going to buy #5. When all you do to a game is update its graphics to keep up with the trend, add a few moves, some bigger breasts and a new title, you really don't have a 'brand new game.'

To get specific:
Azmodan and Belial. I want them. Now!
Remember all the stories you used to read in the D1-manual during mathclass? No? Then you didn't read them often enough!

For those of you who don't remember, there were short stories about mythological characters in the diablo realm which was never actually mentioned in the game, but was used indirectly to describe those who -were- in the game.

We read about Mephisto in the tomes in the cathedral in diablo1. In the manual there was a nice story about him.

There was a vain angel (can't remember the name) who was very beautiful, and took pride and reveled in his own appearance. He was lured by Mephisto and trapped in a palace of mirros. Mephisto tore his skin, wings and eyelids of so that he would suffer his own miserable mirrage for all eternity.

Isn't that just tragic? Don't we just love tragedy? I want to see this as a quest.

Cain: "You must free angel "X" from the Palace of mirrors." (hello Geforce4!)..

(this was just one example. I'm sure i could think of others if I still had the manual.)

I want the -story- to be the most prevalent factor in D3. Sure, multiplayer could be included to summon the masses, but for me, a truly great game is a game you play alone which'll have you weeping either of joy or sorrow at 5 AM in the morning.

[winzip]Angel

[NiteFox]

Angel,Feb 27 2003, 12:38 AM] Buggering Gripe, abbreviated: BG. I really want to love this game. People tell me it's so great and "so much better than diablo, you stupid moron." I've tried on 3 different occasions. I've installed and uninstalled it 3 times, and I just can't bring myself to loving it; not even liking it. I guess it's the interface and the fact that they don't use voice-overs for all of the text spoken which are detering me from playing it.

Ah, something we had in common.

Yes, BG is a very hard game to love, but if you keep trying it might just happen.

Testimonial of NiteFox, who installed and uninstalled the game about six times before sticking with it long enough to get past Nashkell