Diablo 3

[Lucifer]

Would you mind posting your computer specs for reference, Scotty?

[Scotty]

I don't have the specifics on hand at work, but I know it has 6GB Memory, 4 CPUs (don't recall the speeds), and a Nvidia 9800 GT.  I bought it back at the tail end of 2008, so it's starting to show its age, but as far as performance I've never had many complaints.

[Lucifer]

This computer has 8GB DDR3 Memory, 4 2.6GHz CPUs, and a new 1GB Nvidia GTX 560. From what I can see this far exceeds the minimum requirements, yet I have the same fps issues running the game at the lowest possible video settings as I do the highest. This reminds me of my recent attempts to use a Nintendo DS Emulator, whilst Chaos's older system could run the emulator near flawlessly, for me it was unplayable.

I feel as if there is some underlying problem with my computer and I'm just not tech-savvy enough to recognize it..

[Scotty]

This computer has 8GB DDR3 Memory, 4 2.6GHz CPUs, and a new 1GB Nvidia GTX 560. From what I can see this far exceeds the minimum requirements, yet I have the same fps issues running the game at the lowest possible video settings as I do the highest. This reminds me of my recent attempts to use a Nintendo DS Emulator, whilst Chaos's older system could run the emulator near flawlessly, for me it was unplayable.

I feel as if there is some underlying problem with my computer and I'm just not tech-savvy enough to recognize it..

Out of curiosity, what's the operating system you're running on, and when's the last time you gave it a refresh?  I'm finding it a near annual occurrence for me to go and re-install my operating system to keep things fresh.

[Lingus]

Haven't been able to play the full release yet. My friend is supposed to be getting me a copy since he works for Activision.

Luc, I have to say, I am much more optimistic than you. I have read a bit about people complaining about the new skill system. I really don't agree. In all honesty, the one thing I have always hated about Diablo 2, and any RPG for that matter, is the templated archetype classes. Yea, sure, you sould set your stats and skills any way you wanted to in Diablo 2. But when it came down to it, unless you were following one of the small list of builds out there, you really weren't making the most of your points.

The other thing is that I think that for the most part, people are going to be settling in on a certain build for there character. I think it'll be an interesting process actually. Rather than having a build from the outset of creating your character, spending the points exactly where you are supposed to spend them so that your end-game build is perfect, I see a much more natural evolution of each person's build. There is going to be a lot of experimentation with different skill/rune combinations. Each person is going to be able to test out how they want to play and what they want to do. Ultimately, I see people having in mind from the beginning what sort of character they want to play with (the specific type of Barbarian or Monk that they want to be) and they will spend their time tweaking the skills and runes until they get to that point. They will still be a specialized class, and archetypes will certainly emerge from this process. And most definitely you will have people completely respecing and going in a completely different direction than they originally started with. But overall I certainly don't think everyone is going to be running around using any and every combination of skill and rune whenever they feel like it.

[Seifer]

This computer has 8GB DDR3 Memory, 4 2.6GHz CPUs, and a new 1GB Nvidia GTX 560. From what I can see this far exceeds the minimum requirements, yet I have the same fps issues running the game at the lowest possible video settings as I do the highest. This reminds me of my recent attempts to use a Nintendo DS Emulator, whilst Chaos's older system could run the emulator near flawlessly, for me it was unplayable.

I feel as if there is some underlying problem with my computer and I'm just not tech-savvy enough to recognize it..

Out of curiosity, what's the operating system you're running on, and when's the last time you gave it a refresh?  I'm finding it a near annual occurrence for me to go and re-install my operating system to keep things fresh.

I second this. While it may seem like a large task at first, once you start doing it every year, it gets far easier. Just plan ahead. I'm sure scotty is at the same point as me. I keep only my operating system on one drive, as well as any installed games and so on on yet another. I have a seperate drive for all of my media(music, shows etc) on another drive as well as my important information. I also have a folder which has the install files to all the programs I regularly use.

This allows me to format and re-install, as well as get to the point my computer is usually at within hours. 

[ARTgames]

I second this. While it may seem like a large task at first, once you start doing it every year, it gets far easier. Just plan ahead. I'm sure scotty is at the same point as me. I keep only my operating system on one drive, as well as any installed games and so on on yet another. I have a seperate drive for all of my media(music, shows etc) on another drive as well as my important information. I also have a folder which has the install files to all the programs I regularly use.

This allows me to format and re-install, as well as get to the point my computer is usually at within hours. 

This and there are ways to download windows updates before reinstalling. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/bb332157.aspx Installing windows does not take much time as installing all the updates does.

[Lucifer]

I think I just fixed my game, by.. increasing the settings? I was attempting various different settings to see if I could get any kind of fps increase and I happened to notice that my default settings set the shadow quality at medium, so I raised that to high for no real reason. Immediately after doing so my lag all but disappeared, save for the occasional split-second drop during more graphically intensive animations like leveling up. I lowered my settings back to the previous setup and it still works just fine, so I don't even.. whatever. ;_;

Hit me up on MSN if you ever want to play!

[Lingus]

I'll be getting my copy from my friend on Monday.

[Yankyal]

I already quit because I lag on singleplayer due to the DRM Always Online.

[JoEL]

Played Diablo 3 for a few weeks after release. The economy in the game is broken due to gold sellers/botters. I think I'll wait till it's fixed.
Good game though, but to get top tier gear you need access to the Auction House. Every item in the auction house (in most cases) are unbelievably over priced.

[Lingus]

I find it interesting how little these things will affect my opinion of the game now. I really am more concerned about the single-player and co-op (with friends) and the plot of the actual game. I really couldn't care about item hunting, buying, mfing, class builds, or anything else that I obsessed about when I played Diablo 2. I know they're important for this game and all, I just don't care. The game itself can be entertaining without a lot of those things.

[Scotty]

I find it interesting how little these things will affect my opinion of the game now. I really am more concerned about the single-player and co-op (with friends) and the plot of the actual game. I really couldn't care about item hunting, buying, mfing, class builds, or anything else that I obsessed about when I played Diablo 2. I know they're important for this game and all, I just don't care. The game itself can be entertaining without a lot of those things.

I quite enjoy the item hunting, but that is also accounting for the fact that I made the mistake of playing online primarily with people who had no interest in anything related to the storyline, and it wasn't hard for them to skip ahead of the conversation on my behalf (probably one of my biggest complaints), as well as the fact that I enjoyed taking my time to find items, while they're all rushing ahead to get through to the next part, picking up whatever they can, and rarely sharing anything of value.  I grew a little too frustrated with all of that and just went to go play single player.

Regardless, it is definitely a fun game, just make sure if you play multi-player that everyone is on the same page.  Otherwise it'll get too frustrating for you.

[Lingus]

I find it interesting how little these things will affect my opinion of the game now. I really am more concerned about the single-player and co-op (with friends) and the plot of the actual game. I really couldn't care about item hunting, buying, mfing, class builds, or anything else that I obsessed about when I played Diablo 2. I know they're important for this game and all, I just don't care. The game itself can be entertaining without a lot of those things.

I quite enjoy the item hunting, but that is also accounting for the fact that I made the mistake of playing online primarily with people who had no interest in anything related to the storyline, and it wasn't hard for them to skip ahead of the conversation on my behalf (probably one of my biggest complaints), as well as the fact that I enjoyed taking my time to find items, while they're all rushing ahead to get through to the next part, picking up whatever they can, and rarely sharing anything of value.  I grew a little too frustrated with all of that and just went to go play single player.

Regardless, it is definitely a fun game, just make sure if you play multi-player that everyone is on the same page.  Otherwise it'll get too frustrating for you.

That's why I always like playing through the first run by myself and then playing co-op with friends who don't get too pissed if you take the time to watch the cinematic or read/listen to the NPCs in all the zones, and that sort of thing. It's definitely a different experience. For what it's worth, I love running the different zones as well. Just plowing through grabbing loot grinding exp, and then closing the game and starting from the beginning again. It's one of the staples of Diablo. The cow level was basically the extreme limit of that, and I spent countless hours of fun with that level.

I am a bit sad that the cow level went away, and from what I hear the new "cow level" equivilant is extremely difficult to get to (although, I can see why they did that. The cow level was horribly exploited in Diablo2.) But other than that, I can't see the auction house (either gold or real money) affecting gameplay for people who just want to play the game, kill monsters, and search for loot. If your goal of playing the game is to trade or sell the loot, then you're not playing a game, you're working a job. My only response to that is, get a real job. If your concern is that you won't have as cool of loot as the next person, then you just need to pay up. You had the same option in Diablo 2 with illegitimate item sellers, so I don't see a big difference.

Of course, the whole online only/single player/lagging issue, all I can really say is, I never used single player mode in Diablo 2. I never found a need to. I always wanted the ability to play on battle.net if I wanted to, and if there was an issue with lag I dealt with it. I see diablo as being similar to MMOs (not exactly the same obviously). I have accepted the fact that it is an online game, and I play with that understanding. It doesn't make me like the game any less.

[JoEL]

The game itself can be entertaining without a lot of those things.

True, the game was very entertaining for a few weeks. But after a few more weeks of grinding for gear, I found out that it's impossible to "complete" the game without those things, at least in a life time.

@Scotty
I noticed that people skipped through the game too (I was one of them) because after the first few days everyone had complete at least one difficulty...after that the same story is shown many times over and over as you go through each difficulty. I know this is how diablo is as I played diablo 2. I reckon I've played through each act maybe 20 times already and if someone doesn't skip, I need to. So I'd suggest if you care about the story, play solo.

It's not that people don't care about the story (many people do) it's just they've played through it so many times.