It's a sad Labor Day here in 'Merika. This past weekend I had some relatives stay over for the holiday weekend. We needed something for all four of us to play. One of them mentions Diablo 3.
"Bah, You guys didn't bring your PC's" I say.
"No, I mean on the Xbox" replies the 15 year old.
"OK, sure" though I cringed at the thought of this point and click loot fest with gamepads on a single screen.
We fired it up, created characters, and began the journey through New Tristam just as I remember from over a year ago. It didn't dawn on me until I had already killed a few witches that "Hey, wait a minute, my Xbox isn't online." That single realization started a chain of discoveries that made me force the cheeseburger and beer flavored vomit back into my stomach.
No online requirement.
4 player LAN play fully supported.
4 player same screen Co-op.
Drop in, Drop out fully intact via LAN, Online, or same screen play.
NO auction house.
Elective mode fully intact.
Tweaked loot system.
Nephalem Glory (not Valor) globes that drop randomly from enemies.
Dodge maneuver.
About that tweaked loot system. "Drops aren't as abundant as on the PC version, but drop rarity has been tweaked so that you receive better loot." I read this somewhere after doing some research mainly due to the fact that my jaw dropped to the floor after finding a legendary crossbow roughly an hour into the first act. I also found out that the console version is running the same current PC v1.0.8. It didn't stop there. Six. We found SIX legendary items before finishing the first act. On PC last year (pre-1.0.4 because I simply stopped playing D3 because Blizzard nerfed my Witch Doctor to hell) I NEVER got a single legendary until reaching Hell mode. Nephalem Glory globes boost all stats for a short period and can stack.
Now don't get me wrong. I love my PC. The flaws that are inevitable with this type of game are definitely there. Inventory and skill management are cumbersome with a gamepad. Graphics are not great, though frame rates are smooth through the biggest mobs. When playing single screen Co-Op, each person must manage their inventory/skills one at a time. This causes loot purging and managing to eat up precious minutes that could be spent looting more corpses.
Even with these gripes, we really had fun playing this PC game on a console. Honestly, I don't think I EVER had this much fun playing Diablo 3 on PC last year. This brings me to my point: How did we let this happen? Why is it that console gamers get the superior experience?
Diablo III Lead Software Engineer, Norbert Szabo:
"A high percentage of consoles are not connected to the Internet, which is not the case with gaming PCs, so offline play is a necessity for the console version in order to ensure the game is accessible to a wide audience."
So, because we are better equipped, we get an inferior product. Sorry for my bitterness here. You can go on and on about how online is necessary because they wanted to create a secure economy, but we all know the real truth: DRM. Offline mode wouldn't be difficult at all to implement. The whole thing just makes me sick. I actually reinstalled D3 on PC yesterday and started playing... alone. My old friends list showed what I figured it would "D3Slayerguy offline for 273 days". I didn't even know any of those people anyway. I miss the good old days of LAN parties. All your real friends and family come over to play in the same room. That is what happened this weekend. It was the good old days of PC gaming, on a console.
I'm glad you had a good time and I plan on playing it too
But when loot 2.0 drops, and paragon 2.0, and Nephalem trials and loot runs, and a new act and a new class and adjusted and new skills for every class, plus all the stuff they haven't talked about yet, itl be back to pc > console
"Bah, You guys didn't bring your PC's" I say.
"No, I mean on the Xbox" replies the 15 year old.
"OK, sure" though I cringed at the thought of this point and click loot fest with gamepads on a single screen.
We fired it up, created characters, and began the journey through New Tristam just as I remember from over a year ago. It didn't dawn on me until I had already killed a few witches that "Hey, wait a minute, my Xbox isn't online." That single realization started a chain of discoveries that made me force the cheeseburger and beer flavored vomit back into my stomach.
Now don't get me wrong. I love my PC. The flaws that are inevitable with this type of game are definitely there. Inventory and skill management are cumbersome with a gamepad. Graphics are not great, though frame rates are smooth through the biggest mobs. When playing single screen Co-Op, each person must manage their inventory/skills one at a time. This causes loot purging and managing to eat up precious minutes that could be spent looting more corpses.
Even with these gripes, we really had fun playing this PC game on a console. Honestly, I don't think I EVER had this much fun playing Diablo 3 on PC last year. This brings me to my point: How did we let this happen? Why is it that console gamers get the superior experience?
Diablo III Lead Software Engineer, Norbert Szabo:
So, because we are better equipped, we get an inferior product. Sorry for my bitterness here. You can go on and on about how online is necessary because they wanted to create a secure economy, but we all know the real truth: DRM. Offline mode wouldn't be difficult at all to implement. The whole thing just makes me sick. I actually reinstalled D3 on PC yesterday and started playing... alone. My old friends list showed what I figured it would "D3Slayerguy offline for 273 days". I didn't even know any of those people anyway. I miss the good old days of LAN parties. All your real friends and family come over to play in the same room. That is what happened this weekend. It was the good old days of PC gaming, on a console.
TLDR: Jay Wilson sucks.
But when loot 2.0 drops, and paragon 2.0, and Nephalem trials and loot runs, and a new act and a new class and adjusted and new skills for every class, plus all the stuff they haven't talked about yet, itl be back to pc > console