For a time, my main concern was getting the best gear (which really meant going shopping at the Auction House) and accumulating as much gold as possible. After Patch 2.0.1 it became more of the adventure again and less of the daily struggle to earn gold.
Aside from the improved system, the bosses were challenging again particularly this guy...
I've died several times and I just couldn't beat him.
Decided to level up first so off I went.
The 50% XP Bonus was particularly helpful. Maybe I'll stand a chance this time. I'll find out tomorrow.
In the meantime, check out what's new with Patch 2.0.1! Click here.
In anticipation of the impending closure of the Auction House this coming March 18, 2014 (read more about it here), I have begun stocking up on jewels whenever their going price is low and a LOT of Tome of Secrets anticipating that said items will be hard to come by then.
Yes, I have given in to panic buying.
I've also auctioned off most of my Legendary items (those that I weren't using) and given the last of my good stuff to Gerry (who's now a happy camper) and has begun reacquainting himself in anticipation of the coming expansion.
After reading up this post, I was pretty much bummed out. Because after hearing the news that Blizzard will finally be removing the Real Money Auction House from Diablo III on PC, I was hoping that they would finally include an offline version of the game like in the console version. But alas, it wasn't meant to be. That being said, I scouted online to find suitable offline alternatives to Diablo III for PC (as well as consoles and handhelds), and here's what I got:
PC:
Titan Quest (Windows)
Think Diablo, but using greek mythology as a backdrop, you get Titan Quest. With its dark atmosphere that brings me back to my Diablo II days. :D
Torchlight II (Windows)
From the same team who made Diablo I & II, it plays just like Diablo of old, and works wonderfully. If you are gonna play the game using Steam, may I suggest you get the "Torchlight II Essentials" mod, as it basically adds a new class, and tons of improvement from the vanilla game (respec, tons of new pets, items, etc)
Consoles:
Dungeon Siege III (PS3/Xbox 360)
Developed by the same team who made the PC version of Neverwinter Nights 2, its a decent enough hack-and-slash game for the console space. The fact that finding a brand new copy of this game nowadays is relatively cheap, I'd say why not?
Dungeon Hunter: Alliance (PS3/Xbox 360)
Do you like to play hack-and-slash games but you don't want to spend too much? You okay with digital downloads? Does $12.99 (roughly Php 600.00) sound good to you? Then get this hack-and-slash gem from Gameloft. It's a pretty barebones hack-and-slash game, but hey at least you got it cheap.
Diablo III (PS3/Xbox 360)
Do I really need to say any further? Critics have been calling it the best version of Diablo III, and rightfully so. Offline play, amazing loot, local co-op, and so much more, its definitely THE version of Diablo III to pick up. If you want to find out why the console version is considered by many to be the better version against the PC version, you might want to read this post I made comparing the 2 versions.
Handhelds:
Heroes of Ruin (Nintendo 3DS)
If you own a Nintendo 3DS, and you are craving for some on-the-go Diablo-style gameplay, then look no further and take Heroes of Ruin for a spin. It's basically a stripped down version of Diablo, but it still nails the simple and addicting hack-and-slash gameplay of Diablo perfectly, which is what's important. It's got local co-op as well as online co-op, with daily quests and other features that makes it a decent enough game for those looking for hack-and-slash gaming on their portable. Now that it just recently got a price drop, its definitely something to consider picking up.
Dungeon Hunter: Alliance (Playstation Vita)
Yes, its the same game for the PS3, but unlike its cheaper console counterpart, this one charges a full price for the experience. As much as I don't like recommending this game really for PS Vita owners (coz the price is just extortion), there's little hack-and-slash games out there that I can recommend (considering the once promising Ruin was cancelled) as of this writing so yeah...
So what do you guys think? Do you have any other suggested offline Diablo-like games to share? Sound off on the comments below! :)
Based on this news report, it seems Blizzard will not be implementing an offline mode for Diablo 3, even after they take down the Auction House.
Why? According to the news report:
“The game was built from the ground up to take full advantage of Battle.net, which provides a number of important benefits, including persistent server-side character saves, a seamless PC multiplayer experience, cheat prevention, and Real ID and BattleTag social features.”
Well, there you go.
Personally, I can live without an offline version. There is some kind of wisdom in being able to store my characters in Blizzard's servers, specially when I change computers every few years. There's security in the thought that my computer can get completely screwed up and years later I can go back to playing my D3 characters where I have left off. One of my favorite RPG games ever, Path of Exile is completely reliant on an Internet connection, so I'm kind of used to it.
In some ways I can't blame Blizzard because making the game reliant on an Internet connection would prevent some parties from using pirated copies of the game, at least in theory.
It's never been a problem for me because I've always bought my Diablo games legally.
I will still purchase the expansion when it comes out. I'm very interested in starting from scratch with a completely new character to take full benefit of all the changes and additions.
After my first post here, some people asked me alot of questions regarding the console version of Diablo III. One of the biggest was, how was it different from the PC version. Well here's a breakdown of the key differences between the 2 versions. WARNING: Long post ahead.
No Real Money/Gold Auction House
One of the most controversial features of the PC version; the Real Money Auction House (RMAH), is not present on the console version of Diablo III. For most old-school Diablo fans (like myself), this brings back the core Diablo experience of finding awesome loot in-game, NOT in auction houses. Another positive thing about the lack of RMAH is...
You can play Completely Offline
Yes you read that right. You can play the game OFFLINE. A side-effect of removing the Auction House, was removal of any need for any online verification to play the game. Thus Blizzard was able to make the most requested feature of alot of Diablo fans a reality. No more logins. No more "Error 37". No more need for Internet connection to be able to play the game... ever! Just pop in the disc, and you can start slaying the denizens of hell to your heart's content.
Yes, Blizzard fine tuned the loot, and made it awesome again. The picture above just show how amazing loots are now in the console version. It actually reminds me of Diablo II (particularly patch 1.10-onwards) where the loot is so rewarding (and addicting) that it keeps you hooked in finding more evil things to slay. It captures the very core of the Diablo experience. The best news is, loots are now custom tailored to drop a higher percentage of items that are suited to whatever class you're playing as. In my personal experience, I have actually gotten my fair share of awesome Legendary items. Here's some of what my Demon Hunter found in-game, when I was just starting out at Normal Mode.
If this is but a taste of what "Loot 2.0" will be for the PC version, I'm all for it!
Reworked Boss Fights
Some of the Boss fights in the console version of Diablo III, has been retweaked. They are either given new abilities, new attack patterns, new dialogue, and even new view angles (as seen on top with the Belial boss fight, which looks more epic than ever before) which gives the game a fresh new look and feel, even if you've played the game before on your PC.
A completely new way of playing... using a Gamepad
Mouse + keyboard controls are NOT supported on the console version of Diablo III. Instead, the game is controlled using a gamepad. And after spending much time playing it this way, I actually prefer this method than the mouse + keyboard config. Now, before you raise your pitchforks and claim "sacrilege", I suggest you give it a try first. It feels as if you have a much more direct control over your character than using mouse + keyboard. Yes you will lose the precision of directly targeting specific enemies from afar using this setup, BUT with the game's smart auto-targeting system and Target lock, you won't feel too frustrated dishing out punishment to the denizens of hell. Which brings me to...
The new "Evade" Button Mechanic
As I mentioned in my previous post, exclusive to the console version of Diablo III, is the new "Evade" mechanic. It is an indispensible ability that ALL CLASSES have, which can save you from very hectic situations. It has no cooldown, no cost to use, ensures you don't get hit by monsters/incoming projectiles if timed correctly and is totally very useful throughout your adventure. You can see it in action by watching the clip above (being spoofed by Team Coco at the 1:05 mark).
Completely reworked Inventory System
This is how the Inventory system looked on the PC version:
It's got the usual, familiar look as in the previous Diablo games. Item management in your inventory is pretty much a mini-game of its own, where you try to fit in as much loot that you can, using Tetris-like skills to make everything fit. On the console version, it looks like this:
It may be a stark change from the usual, since the console version of the game doesn't support mouse + keyboards. As clunky as this may look, it actually has some benefits:
All items are now organized by its item-type, making it easier to sort thru items.
If you noticed below, there's an "Inventory" limit (which says 22/60). This means you can loot as many as 60 items at a time, regardless of its size, as each item is treated as a value of 1. This means lesser trips back to town and time spent making every item fit in your bag.
It's easier to compare detailed stats between 2 items as they are placed side by side. Here's how it looks like:
There's is now a quick stat guide for those who are not into reading tons of stat effect text. This is great for new players, so that can quickly and easily see whether or not an item is better than the one they are currently holding by just looking at the quick stat guide.
Mutliple ways of Playing Multiplayer
First off, there is no cross-platform multiplayer for the console version of Diablo III. What this means is, PC gamers cannot play with PS3/Xbox360 gamers, just as PS3 gamers cannot play with Xbox 360 gamers. That being said, there is alot of different options for console gamers to play multiplayer with friends:
Offline local co-op - one of the highlights of the console version of Diablo III, is this mode. Playing with friends on a single console in the same room, is an experience that is hard to beat. No internet required (but pizza and chips are recommended).
LAN Play - if you don't want to share the screen with buddies, then you can hook up 2 PS3 via LAN cable and play multiplayer with your respective screens all to yourself (just like in the PC version).
Invite Only - if you want to play online, but you don't like random people popping in your game, then you can invite friends over to join in your game.
Friends Only - similar to "Invite Only", but in this mode, you don't need to invite friends to come play. If you set your game to this mode, you simply put up a game room online where only your friends on your friends list can see and join in at anytime while you're playing.
Open to Public - similar to "Friends Only", but in this mode you put up a game room online where everyone online can see and join in your game at anytime while you're playing.
Quick Match - in this mode, you can search for hosted online games and automatically joins you in the said game. You can set the search based its on its Difficulty level, Mode, Quest, etc.
Adjustable Difficulty modes
As I mentioned in my previous post, the console version of Diablo III allows players to adjust the difficulty to suit their tastes. Unlike the Game mode (Normal, Nightmare, Hell, Inferno), Difficulty simply adjusts a monster's health, damage and number of monsters that appear on the screen.
This is perfect for players with varying experiences with the series. If you're just new to the series (or you're a PC player who isn't used to playing using a gamepad), set it to easy. If you're a Diablo vet and you're comfortable playing with a gamepad, then set it to either Medium or Hard. All 3 difficulty modes (Easy, Medium, Hard) has no differences in terms of item drop rate and experience points bonuses, thus you can switch between difficulties with no problems.
However, if you are up to the challenge, you can set the difficulty to Master I or higher. Setting up the difficulty in this level gives bonuses similar to "Monster Power" mechanic found on the PC version, but works differently for the console version. Here's a quick guide:
Master I = +60% Magic Find, +60% Gold Find, +120% XP Bonus
Master II = +70% Magic Find, +70% Gold Find, +140% XP Bonus
Master III = +80% Magic Find, +80% Gold Find, +160% XP Bonus
Master IV = +90% Magic Find, +90% Gold Find, +180% XP Bonus
Master V = +100% Magic Find, +100% Gold Find, +200% XP Bonus
Other Notable Differences
Aside from the ones I posted above, here are some notable differences from between the console version & the PC version of Diablo III:
Paragon Levels are included in the console version. However, what's different is, Paragon Level bonuses are account wide. This means all characters under your account will receive the bonuses unlocked by a SINGLE Paragon leveled character in your account. So even new characters you create will get those bonuses as well.
Nephalem Glory globes are added in the game. These are similar to Healing globes, but they give characters a boost in stats and skills when picked up.
Stash space is much more larger than in the PC version when fully upgraded.
Crafting gems & gear now have different costs, due to the removal of the RMAH. All ingredients can be easily found in-game.
Players are now given a choice how they should be resurrected (go back to town, revive on your last checkpoint, revive on spot).
Vendors now actually sell better (useful) gear. Most of which are actually powerful rare items.
So what do you guys think? Sound off your comments below! :)
The highly controversial "Auction Houses" will soon be removed from the PC version of Diablo III. In a surprising move by Blizzard, they have announced just now that they will be removing the said feature in order to ensure players that killing monsters in-game will be the most compelling and rewarding way to get better gear. Here's the announcement video:
If you're one of those people who are not fond of the Auction House feature, this may sound as good news. But the kicker? It will be implemented NEXT YEAR, on March 18th, 2014. My guess is that it will be launched along side the expansion pack release.
Despite the said announcement of the Auction House being shut down, there's still no word as to whether or not the PC version will finally have a completely offline mode of play, something that console gamers of Diablo III are currently enjoying.
So what do you think? Are you alright with the sudden decision by Blizzard to shut down Auction Houses? Or do you think its a mistake? Sound off your comments below. :)
I finally defeated Diablo at Inferno Difficulty, Monster Power 2! It was no walk in the park, lemme tell you.
In the past, backed up by overwhelming power (before Monster Power), battling the head honcho usually involved standing your ground and hacking away with the occasional gulp of a health potion when your vitality dwindled down too low for comfort.
Not this time, however.
I had to employ hit and run tactics. Even with my regenerative capabilities, I was sure to lose my head if I just stood there and dealt damage.
I am now back in Act 1, taking on demons and monsters at Inferno Difficulty, Monster Power 3 and I am struggling. Looks like I'm going to need to farm, get more gold, and shop at the Auction House pretty soon again.
I'm currently on Act 2 Inferno Difficulty, Monster Power 2 with my Barbarian on Paragon Level 34.
I'm still managing to hold my own but the demons and monsters are getting tougher and tougher to beat. Aside from the higher vitality of these infernal creatures (not to mention the bigger DPS), the darn things are traveling in bigger packs.
With the odds stacked against me, I am forced to fight smarter AND harder.
Even that's not going to be enough after a while though. I can feel it in my bones. I'm currently merging my gems together (I've got quite a few socketed items). The improved jewels will hopefully bolster my stats so I can progress further to earn a bit of gold (merging gems are expensive) and chance upon better gear.
The last resort is the Auction House of course but things are so frikkin' expensive.
There's more of everything here, monsters and loot (especially the gold). My current stats and gear are coping well but it is just Act 1 after all. I'm probably going to need some major upgrades by Act 2 which will mean another shopping spree at the Auction House. With the gold flowing the way it is now, I'm probably going to be able to afford the more pricier items.
For now, I'm just going to continue merging gems together and ramping up my stats that way.
I've been farming like crazy the past few months to pass the time while waiting for Reaper of Souls (click here for more details), mainly collecting items (mostly the legendary stuff) and gold.
Most of my gold however have been spent buying stuff on the Auction House to upgrade my gear to survive on Monster Power mode (I'm currently at Monster Power 1) and creating better jewels (which takes a lot of patience especially if you're not "buying" gold and relying mostly on farming to accumulate the required amount of money and Tome of Secrets).
The better quality gems I've got, I've already embedded on my socketed gear (which can be viewed here). Below are the other sparklies waiting in my inventory.
I've started collecting strictly Legendary Items ever since they become, well...legendary.
There was a time when a Legendary Item was really no different from other stuff you found, oftentimes inferior which was a big let down to say the least since they are supposed to be awesome as the name suggests.
Those crap quickly found themselves sold in the Auction House, lemme tell you.
Thankfully, these days at least, most Legendary Items are pretty awesome though you still get the occasional lousy stuff but not quite as often as before.
Most of my character's major attributes is attributed more to my shopping prowess at the Auction House rather than useful drops though, to be fair, things have been better as of late.
You can check out my character and gear details here.
I've been playing Diablo on and off for the past few weeks just waiting for Patch 1.0.4. I've written quite a lot about the things I didn't like about the game but was hopeful that they could be fixed. Original Diablo creator David Brevik went online to express the same dissatisfaction with the game. Diablo 3 lead designer Jay Wilson responded with "fuck that loser" which I found insulting, not only to David Brevik, but to everyone playing the game who felt changes were needed...including me.
Yes, I too felt personally insulted by it and I swore on Twitter that I've finally had it and I would give up this game for good. It didn't matter that Patch 1.0.4 sounded awesome.
So, even when the patch went live, I didn't play it. And almost as miraculous as a truly legendary item dropping with truly legendary stats, Jay Wilson gave a public apology days later, not only to David Brevik, but to the players as well.
Great! I revved up Diablo 3 once again and here I am playing the game post patch. Inferno is still difficult, but not ridiculously so. The "Paragon Levels" certainly gives that added incentive to continue playing. It gives the players something to play for, especially when they get drops that are disappointing.
I have noticed a change in drops that I've gotten most noticeably with the 2 hander weapons. In the few hours I've played, at least two Level 63 2-hander weapons with more than 1K DPS stat have dropped. I thought wow...but I couldn't use them as my Barbarian is a one hander.
One Legendary item has dropped for me so far...a Bracer but it had crap stats very much like a pre-1.0.4 Legendary. I put it up on the auction house and what the hell...someone bought it for 120K gold. Amazing.
Right now I'm actually on ACT 3, currently lighting fires at Bastion's Keep.
In spite of what I wrote in my last post, I did continue playing Diablo 3 on and off (10 minutes there, 20 minutes here). And in a couple of weeks I seemed to have farmed enough to get better gear at the Auction House to be able to play Act 1 of Inferno without much difficulty.
Used to be the wall of difficulty was Act 1 and I couldn't progress because I was getting killed all the time. But finding better gear was able to push this wall further back to Act 2.
And now I can't even step into the first area of Act 2 without the first Elite pack literally pulverizing me to submission. It's crazy. The difference between the level of difficulty between Act 1 and Act 2 of Inferno is just crazy.
So for the past couple of weeks or so all I have been doing is farming Act 1 to get better gear. A nice spear did drop for me while farming, which is quite of a rare thing. In all my months of playing, this was the first time I ever got a really nice weapon that I could actually use. Did the designers really intend on getting good items this hard or this rare? Or does the existence of the Auction house affect the quality of drops for both AH users and non AH users?
Whatever the case, it makes farming for items tedious, laborious and not fun.
And I do find myself playing the game even less than before.
This does not mean to say that the game is bad. In fact, I thought it was pretty great the first couple of months I played it as I leveled up my characters. Now I have two classes at Level 60. A Monk and a Barbarian.
It seems that as soon as I reach level 60, the fun just well....stops. From here on in, it's just all about finding GEAR. The designers thought that item hunt would be fun...but it's only fun if you do find good items every so often. I hardly get any really cool items at all. Sure a lot of rares drop, but much of it is just worthless, really. I've had a few Legendaries drop, but as I previously mentioned, there's nothing legendary about them at all. And I've yet to see a single "set" or green item drop. In all my months of playing....not a single green item.
When I get bored with the game I go to the official Blizzard forums because sometimes reading posts there is even more fun than playing the game.
But lately, even the forum is starting to bore me.
I've been playing the game since May 16, 2012, and in the last 2 months I think only two Legendary items have dropped for me while playing.
Legendary items in Diablo III is a curious thing in that they're not that Legendary. I think they developers have explained why these items can be such crap, compared to the more common Rare items, but their reasons, to be honest, are just idiotic.
Legendary items are supposed to be LEGENDARY. Meaning, when you get them, you freak out, gurgle a bit, convulse for a minute or so, then run round and round the room like a crazy person, just like winning the lottery.
Legendary items that are crap=NOT fun.
Legendary items that are awesome=FUN.
I think that's the only bottom line for any game of this sort. It's a game. You're supposed to have FUN. Never mind all the other reasons and statistics and probabilities and all that crap. Always always the bottom line: IT SHOULD BE FUN.
At any rate, the developers have said that they will be upgrading Legendary drops in a future patch. I certainly hope so! Because imagine my thrill upon seeing this Legendary item drop, only to find out that I couldn't use it because it was just too weak.
And look at that...I'm at Level 33, and this is a Level 26 item. I mean come on! The weapon I have at this time already has something like 70+DPS. And you give me this...41.8 DPS?
Madness.
I tried selling this thing at the Gold Auction house for cheap and nobody's buying. Figures! Who'd want this crap?
I reserved a copy at Data Blitz weeks before Diablo III came out, I waited patiently in line for my turn to get my grubby little hands on a copy of the game on D-Day, installed it and the next thing you know I was back in Tristram!
I
battled as a Barbarian (but of course) and, though the new skill system
with all these runes and shit took a bit of getting used to, I managed
to muddle my way through.
Some observations:
1. It wasn't as awesome as I thought it would be (though that could probably be attributed to my high expectations).
2. Needing a stable internet connection to play kinda sucks sometimes (lag death, server maintenance, etc).
3. The Auction House is awesome but the price tags on some of the items are just outrageous!
Click on thumbnail for a larger image.
There's lot of things to do however...like color
coordinating my armor via dyes care of the local merchants. I used white
dye on all of my items to make me look more like one of the
archangels...and also because it was the cheapest they had.
I'm saving up on gold to try and purchase better armor and equipment.
I'm
almost at Level 60 (currently at Level 59 as of this writing) and it
kinda makes me sad because of the level cap at 60. After that you're
going to have to rely on jewels, magical armor, and weapons with unique
qualities to better your character's stats.
That being said, Diablo III is still a delight to play and I will be playing it for quite some time.
After
I'm through running my Barbarian character through all the difficulty
levels, I'm a-gonna take all the other characters for a spin.
I'm currently on the
search for Zoltan Khule in Act 2 and it's going good so far.
I must admit, I almost died a couple of times. One time was against those huge Elite Bull Creatures and that huge mace weilding monster guarding the gate to Alcarnus. I thought I was a goner that last time but I managed to pull through.
I've been going very slowly making sure to search every part of the map, opening chests, and breaking pots. I do this so that I would level up more before progressing further. This makes my character stronger and more durable.
Whatever gold I make, I buy the best armor and weapons I can find at the Auction House. Low level items generally costs dirt cheap on the AH, as compared to Level 60+ items that range in the millions.
My hardcore character would most likely be dead long before then so I'm not really worried about spending that much.
I figure this character will die when he goes up against Belial, the boss of Act 2. I died there plenty of times with softcore characters before but since I've been really buffing this character up level wise and gear wise, who knows?
