Torchlight 2 | Console Edition (PS4/XB1/NSW) - September 3, 2019

[Qalbert]

to be fair, I'm sure there's a few people like myself who just aren't impressed with a lot of things D3 is doing

[Guyverarmor]

Surprised so many don't know these are ex Blizzard-employees. Some of the guys that made D & D2 (and you know the old Diablo team is no longer working at Blizz, look up Blizzard North exodus).

You think they don't know what they're up against? You think these guys don't know what it means to polish a game? lol..

When Hyan made that statement, made me chuckle... I'm pretty sure these guys know what the hell they are doing.. I mean, majority of this team( I think the main devs actually ) were the makers for Diablo I and II. They will put out a game that can contend with Diablo 3, no doubt about it.

[Guitarman]

Surprised so many don't know these are ex Blizzard-employees. Some of the guys that made D & D2 (and you know the old Diablo team is no longer working at Blizz, look up Blizzard North exodus).

You think they don't know what they're up against? You think these guys don't know what it means to polish a game? lol..

I'm well aware. My comment was more directed at the "it's done when it's done" attitude. Yeah it's a good attitude to have, but they kind of take it to an extreme.

[Vimes]

@Guitarman: Ok, point taken.

They made TL1 from scratch in 11 months. Makes us wonder what they're trying to do now with more time and more people.

[Insanecyclone]

Well with MP, able to play online with mods too, and a bunch of other things. I can't wait.

[Krandor]

to be fair, I'm sure there's a few people like myself who just aren't impressed with a lot of things D3 is doing

I'm infinitely more interested in T3 compared to D3 based solely on being able to play offline, which is a concern for me when I'm out at sea half the year without internet on my laptop.

[avelle]

I thought Torchlight was a good game that did a lot of things right, but it just never held my interest like D1/D2 did. Still looking forward to D3 far more than this, but I'll be picking this up regardless. Need more solid ARPGs out there imo.

[Charismatic]

to be fair, I'm sure there's a few people like myself who just aren't impressed with a lot of things D3 is doing

Yep.
Definitely feelin' T2 more than D3 so far based on what little I know about the two games.

[Vimes]

Liking what I'm reading here. A lot:

http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/com...ands-on-report

Now I really want to play D2 again.

[Minions]

Yep.
Definitely feelin' T2 more than D3 so far based on what little I know about the two games.

Got in D3 beta. Seems they are catering to the WoW crowd. Everything is on easymode/stream lined. They pretty much removed any and all customization to characters. (No skill trees anymore really.... no stat allocations), pretty much everyone is the same w/ the only customization being the abilities you equip/gear you wear.

The way the interview with one of the devs sounded was they just didn't like people pumping lots of stats (maxing out) a few skills, or the fact people wanted to reset skills later on in the game. I can see his point of view of the benefits the changes they made have (easier to balance, everyone can use any/all skills) but seriously one of his main reasons was like "Because we don't like that people have to use the internet to play our game. Everything should be in the game and need no research" This really turned me off. It seems like every game these days is going for max audience appeal (see make the most money) while completely making horrible games imo.

Not saying D3 is horrible or will suck, just pointing out that the game will never reach anywhere close to the greatness it could have achieved. I guess I was hoping for a bit too much, or perhaps I didn't think Blizzards acquisition would completely change the dynamics of every game they produced in the future. Honestly when I started playing D3 I sat there for a good 30 minutes thinking, there has got to be more to this game than this.

[Guitarman]

Got in D3 beta. Seems they are catering to the WoW crowd. Everything is on easymode/stream lined

So you played an hour of the easiest mode of the training level and proclaim it's "easymode" lolk. I still almost got my shit kicked a few times. Trust me, Hell will be brutal. Yeah no stat allocation sucks balls and feels constrained, but you really can't judge a game's difficulty on a training level.

[Minions]

So you played an hour of the easiest mode of the training level and proclaim it's "easymode" lolk. I still almost got my shit kicked a few times. Trust me, Hell will be brutal. Yeah no stat allocation sucks balls and feels constrained, but you really can't judge a game's difficulty on a training level.

Really? Look at blizzards recent track record. The Nintendo strategy of cater to the masses to rake in the most money. If I'm wrong I will be happy about it. However I don't think I will be.

I actually played for a few hours. I've pretty much beaten the beta on all the available classes. I didn't die once. Some of the changes are cool I guess (the delay to use potions multiple times etc) I think it can also be a pain in the ass when playing solo, but it seems they are pushing much harder for the multiplayer aspect in D3. Game just rubbed me the wrong way currently, I'll pick the game up but these are just my first impressions.

[Maaglin]

lol @ judging this game with an hour and change worth of beta play available.

it's fucking beta. seriously who gives a fuck?

fucknuts.

[Crab_Cake]

Got in D3 beta. Seems they are catering to the WoW crowd. Everything is on easymode/stream lined. They pretty much removed any and all customization to characters. (No skill trees anymore really.... no stat allocations), pretty much everyone is the same w/ the only customization being the abilities you equip/gear you wear.

The way the interview with one of the devs sounded was they just didn't like people pumping lots of stats (maxing out) a few skills, or the fact people wanted to reset skills later on in the game. I can see his point of view of the benefits the changes they made have (easier to balance, everyone can use any/all skills) but seriously one of his main reasons was like "Because we don't like that people have to use the internet to play our game. Everything should be in the game and need no research" This really turned me off. It seems like every game these days is going for max audience appeal (see make the most money) while completely making horrible games imo.

Runes (for skills) will allow a lot of customization. Five different runes (I think?) for each active skill which can change the skill significantly.

As for the stats - They say it's mostly because of the problem of this - put stats to strength/dex until you can wear armor, then put all the rest to vitality. Of course they could make said stats more useful and find ways around the problem (they being a bit lazy with balancing on this regard).

What I am disappointed the most about Diablo III is no "oskills" (or original skills I think?).

In Diablo II (if anyone played patch 1.10) everyone knows the good old Enigma which granted teleport to any class (yeah that's OP. It's like if an equipment in FFXI allowed you to have two subjobs)...

Except how about those assassin claws that granted whirlwind (from barbarian)? Assassin doing whirl wind with claws rocked.

Or the swords that granted Zeal (from Paladin)? You could play a melee fire sorceress with Zeal (the ability that allows you to hit multiple times at once).

I'll be really disappointed if they aren't in D3. (Also Flux, the main writer of Diabloincgamers, also misses the good old weapon switch button).

Yes Engima was silly but things like the Whirlwind claws or the Zeal sword were really fun. It allowed a bit of mixing and matching like FFXI's job system.

Though on the bright side the Wizard still has the ability to enchant their weapon (Magic Sword) like the Sorceress in Diablo II.

Now about Torchlight II and competing against Diablo III - If you take into account the pricing difference (Torchlight II only costing a third of Diablo III) and the fact that it'll probably be on Steam (huge advertisement there) I think the game can do decently even if it were released after Diablo III.

Though I don't deny that Torchlight II will sell loads more if it came out before Diablo III.

I do wonder if they picked the right strategy and I'm curious what they are working on. If they are working on mods, I say they should just release it now and work on mods later as a patch. If not they'll risk Diablo III being released before them (heck after they announce a release date for Diablo III, they're in risk of losing potential buyers).

[Vimes]

No need to burn him at the stake just because that is his first impression.

I agree we can't judge a game by a very limited beta. And I'll probably end up buying D3 anyway. I mean, it's Diablo.

If you read the article I posted though, you'll see that based on what we've seen of both games (almost nothing), TL2 seems to do less hand-holding in the starter levels, no doubt making an experienced ARPG player feel more at home.

As I mentioned above, very early into Torchlight 2 you are seeing very fast and fun action, with lots of enemy targets on all sides. This isn’t exactly dangerous, since their AI isn’t good enough to swarm you, but it certainly looks and feels more intense than anything in early Diablo III. Very soon after that, in the early (huge!) surface area, you find numerous pockets of monster packs that will put you to the test, and numerous dungeons that have challenges well beyond anything in the extended tutorial that is the Diablo III beta.

[...]

Obviously not everyone finds that type of play fun; the Diablo III team has certainly never acknowledged the possibility of it, unless you think we might see something of that nature in Inferno, but even then you’d be using a Clvl 60 character with all of your skills and equipment available to you. There’s no way to find that sort of challenge in the early game of Diablo III; even playing naked you’d have less difficulty, and I’ve never much enjoyed intentionally gimping my chars to find some difficulty; what I like is when I’m playing as well as I can, and a game is *still* hard.

[Hyan]

I'm surprised at the comments here, but the brand value will carry the game far and crush torchlight anyway.

If they can manage to get this game out before D3, good, but how can you be so sure of it? Isn't D3 slated for early 2012 release too?

[Qalbert]

"Because we don't like that people have to use the internet to play our game.

hilarious given that it requires an always-on internet connection
(and yes I know that's not what he was talking about, but still)

[Charismatic]

And even then, given what he DOES mean... it's silly to say that anyway. You only needed the internet to play Diablo 2 if you were speccing for PvP... and that's going to be the same with any game.

[Minions]

Here is the video about why they removed all of the customization.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVTVMqtmxPU

[Insanecyclone]

Alright. Move the D3 bitching and trolling to that thread. Or I could just do that myself instead.