Diablo III

[Strangelove]

Is this game at all enjoyable by yourself?

Im thinking of getting the PS4 version since a friend of mine wants to play together, which Im sure will be fun(since most games are fun if you add co-op to it). But Ill probably be playing single player more.

 

For reference, I haven't played Diablo since the PS1 port of the first one.

[staySICK]

since the game changing patch I've enjoyed myself, and almost always play solo.

ymmv

Edited August 10, 2014 by staySICK

[SomTervo]

Me and the other half just started getting into Diablo II. Been years since I played it. She's really liking it, though looking this far back it's a little one-dimensional.

 

Money permitting, I'm thinking of hitting up Diablo III on PS4 later this month.

 

Oh wise folks of PXoD: how does Diablo Game: The Third measure up to the seminal second installment? I couldn't get a straight answer out of anyone at DIablo 3's release, due to the technical horrors and server-side hatred and whatnot.

[Mister Jack]

Has anyone played as a crusader since the expansion came out?  I'm trying to figure out if the game calculates damage for the smite skill based on your weapon, your strength, your intelligence, or something else, but I can't seem to find a clear answer on this. 

 

Also, everyone gets their own loot, right?  I've been picking up pretty much everything I see but I want to be sure I'm not depriving other people by doing this.

[SomTervo]

So I'm finding the local co-op on PS4 really, really disappointing. 

 

It's great to play until you need to micromanage. A lot of Diablo is about micromanaging. Then when you do it, the player who isn't micromanaging their gear/ stats has to sit there and stare at the full screen display while the other person does theirs. 

 

So flawed. Basically means every 10-15 minutes of gameplay someone has to be insanely bored for a couple of minutes. It totally kills the flow. 

 

Unless I'm missing something? Is there a setting to fix this or some shit? Split screen for inventory management would make so much more sense.

Edited August 29, 2014 by kenshi_ryden

[Eleven]

To a certain degree, it's about the same as when you're playing with friends. I mean, yeah you could check your inventory for 10-15 minutes while your friend plays on their screen, but I find that kills the fun regardless, because you're not playing with each other anymore. I guess the difference is you won't be able to do inventory stuff at the same time. It's less of an issue when you're both have decent gear already.

 

So maybe set aside some time to gear up after certain quests or when you reach certain levels. That way one can setup his gear and the other can take a short break.

[deanb]

Yeah we had that issue with Diablo on PS3 too. I guess if it's still in the PS4 version it's an issue Blizzard haven't bothered to wrap head around. We just did a few quests then would go to town and do micro-managing there, while some went for loo. We haven't played it in a while now I think on it soI guess we mentally all decided it was a bit shit in that regard.

[SomTervo]

To a certain degree, it's about the same as when you're playing with friends. I mean, yeah you could check your inventory for 10-15 minutes while your friend plays on their screen, but I find that kills the fun regardless, because you're not playing with each other anymore.

 

That's a good way of looking at it.

 

We gave it another bash on Sunday, and as the game progresses it does become less of an issue.

 

Super-speed inventory managing almost becomes a second game, a meta-game behind all the Diablo action. A game where the two of you are trying to reduce inventory-screen time to as little as possible, to mentally keep track of everything you've picked up so that when there's a lull and someone wants to look at their gear, they can really quickly snap to the relevant slots and quickly swap in better gear. 

 

Yasmin (gf) really hated our first session, but we were getting pretty into it yesterday. It helped when she sat closer to the screen- the text size is too dang small to play from the sofa.

 

Another big issue is how easy it is. On Normal we've been breezing through the thing without a single problem. By this stage in D2 I'd died at least once and Yas had died 3 times. Is it worth bumping the difficulty for more fun?

[Mister Jack]

Honestly I bumped it up to expert and had minimal trouble except for a few bosses and the occasional Nemesis.  It probably doesn't get really challenging until you go to master or torment.  You get better bonuses for the higher difficulties anyway so you might as well.

[SomTervo]

I tried it myself last night on Hard- massively improved experience.

 

On normal frankly, it's a super dull game. You basically walk through all the combat. Gear micromanaging becomes meaningless when nothing's a challenge anyway. You can do the whole thing using the basic couple of abilities. 

 

On Hard, finding side areas and exploring extra dungeons is way more intense. Special enemies are all over the shop. You are forced to use all your abilities and use dodge a lot more.

 

Btw- are any of Diablo 3's environments randomised? Like my favourite aspect of Diablo 2 is that every time you load it the areas immediately outside of camp and all dungeons are random. Did they remove this in D3? It all seems the same bar minor variations.

[Strangelove]

I thought the nephelem rifts were supposed to be randomized, but ive done several and they all look like the stages i went through in the campaign. Though thats not saying much since they all look samey to me.

 

Anyways, normal is bad. Thats easy mode. Its a big mistake too because my friend was complaining about the game being dull and automatic on normal. He gave up on it. 

Diablo 3 is a really good game, on normal it's bland as hell. It actually makes the game worse.

I finished the campaign on normal then turned it up on hard for adventure mode and it was a lot more fun. Still too easy though.

I just started a wizard yesterday and went straight to expert. Now THIS feels right. Its fun in expert. I actually almost died a few times.

 

BTW the rifts is how I wish the entire game was. You immediately get surrounded by like 50 or so enemies all the time. Its fun just slaughtering everything. Its wonderful mayhem.

Edited September 2, 2014 by Strangelove

[Eleven]

I've stepped the difficulty up as I went through the first time, ended up switching to Master on the final chapter + reaper. I thought I was doing it easy when I was on Expert... I probably just had good gear.

 

On my 2nd character now, my wizard and I'm just staying on Expert. I can handle Master but enemies take too long to kill and hit for huge numbers. It's more fun playing on expert. If you get better gear, I recommend switching to Expert, when you're around lvl 30, maybe 35 to 40.

 

I also would like to say, that aside from the back touchpad acting as R2, this game is awesome on remote play!

 

EDIT: Didn't notice Strangelove mentioning Expert. Yeah, I agree. I think Expert has the right balance as you're leveling up and going through the story.

Edited September 2, 2014 by Eleven

[Eleven]

Those who have D3 on PS4, there's a gift system with your friends who also play D3. If anyone would like to receive gifts in the mail, we can exchange PS4 IDs.

 

staySICK already got 4 gifts from me. Where are my gifts staySICK? Are you hoarding them? Gimme my gifts!!!

 

Just kidding. Anyway, I thought of asking cause I got a legendary gift from one of my friends and it turned out to be a set piece, and a good one. More friends, more gifts, more legendaries!

 

My PSN IDs on the side over there.

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[SomTervo]

Hit me up, boay

[staySICK]

I should have some time to play this weekend/today, hopefully I'll find you some gifts.

 

 

 

so needy.