That is what I see also.
Ran like butter for me. 2500k @ 4.5 ghz, 12 gb ram, GRTX 460 1gb, 1600x1200. No hiccups or pauses.
It boggles my mind how many people are complaining about the login issues over the weekend. It says clearly in the new on the right side of the login page what is going on. The whole point of this beta was to test their servers, so they were purposely changing things up. Why is this so hard to understand? This was not a GM demo or anything.
However, I too have some complaints about the game. Mostly just that I am annoyed that you can no longer "Build" your character. I miss choosing my stats, and what abilities to level up. Now things are just done and you simply choose what ability you want. Which means everybody will have identical abilities. Which SUCKS. I also dislike that I cant hot key all the abilities that I use. I found myself constantly going in and swapping back and forth between them depending on if I was attacking a group of enemies or a singular enemy.
I also dislike the new Town Portal setup and what happens when you die. In D1 and D2 you would drop a TP down before you got to a hard area, that way if you died you could start off right there. Now, you get sent back to the last checkpoint, which could have been a long ways before where you died. Which is REALLY annoying.
The mobs don't respawn though, so even if you did go back to the last checkpoint you don't have to clear everything else up to where you died. Even boss fights don't reset, so if you were killed when a boss was at 50%, you were resurrected at your checkpoint but you just have to go straight to the boss and fight him starting from 50%. Well at least this is my experience playing on normal only.
It ran fine for me on the highest settings with an E8400 at stock with a 9600GT.Honestly, I prefer it to Diablo 2's system where outside of a few limited cookie cutter builds anything else would permanently (until they allowed respecs within the last year or so) gimp your character. I even recall that many builds required you to save skill points for the longest time. What part of that was good game design?
Also, it's probably not fair to judge the difficulty based on the first part of the first act of the game. Did you ever feel any danger in the first act of normal in Diablo 2? Honestly, the game didn't even get remotely challenging until the third act and even then it wasn't hard. Really there wasn't a lot of danger until getting to hell difficulty.
The beta takes less than 30 minutes to clear if you know what you're doing. Judging the entire game based on that seems a little silly.
To your comment on D2 first act. First time I played the game? Yes actually, the last boss was a PITA for some classes, she'd crush any summoning type classes and for a first play through, not your 1000th time through the game it was noticably more difficult. Key word is first time through, if its already boringly easy to play on my first time through, I don't think it's magically going to get interestingly difficult later.
There were a lot of different builds one could play through D2 and could beat the game on hell difficulty, some might be harder, but you had the ability to customize your stats AND skills. By taking that away, I read that is, sorry you are too stupid to do it right or we are too lazy to think about it.
To your comment on D2 first act. First time I played the game? Yes actually, the last boss was a PITA for some classes, she'd crush any summoning type classes and for a first play through, not your 1000th time through the game it was noticably more difficult. Key word is first time through, if its already boringly easy to play on my first time through, I don't think it's magically going to get interestingly difficult later.
Again, in the latest patches you could easily respec. Saying there is more customization in this game by making it less is being a fan boy and blind to the obvious.The game's built in a different way. There's a lot more variety now that you don't build a character around spamming one or maybe two skills. Rather than picking, and being permanently stuck with some early bad decisions, there's now a system with 20-some usable skills and a lot of additional rune stone customization. There's much more customization in this new system and it doesn't punish you for trying something new or different.
The only real difference is now the customization is meaningful and it's no longer necessary to worry about accidentally screwing up a character and wasting hours of playtime. I don't even consider it lazy game design. It's just a realization that there's really only a few optimal builds by taking that approach and that it's more limiting than anything.
The Diablo 3 beta doesn't even reach the act boss. The Skeleton King is probably comparable to Blood Raven.
The game's built in a different way. There's a lot more variety now that you don't build a character around spamming one or maybe two skills. Rather than picking, and being permanently stuck with some early bad decisions, there's now a system with 20-some usable skills and a lot of additional rune stone customization. There's much more customization in this new system and it doesn't punish you for trying something new or different.
The only real difference is now the customization is meaningful and it's no longer necessary to worry about accidentally screwing up a character and wasting hours of playtime. I don't even consider it lazy game design. It's just a realization that there's really only a few optimal builds by taking that approach and that it's more limiting than anything.
Again, in the latest patches you could easily respec. Saying there is more customization in this game by making it less is being a fan boy and blind to the obvious.
The problem this presents is once you build a character, you will never ever need to build another one again. Because once you have one, you can switch between any skills at anytime. It also means everybody will have the exact same character. Gear is the only difference. And that frankly makes it more boring. There is no math involved, and a lot less fun of trying new specs out.
We're pleased to announce the Diablo III open beta weekend, which offers open access to all players with a valid Battle.net account! Beginning this Friday everyone is invited to log in and help us put the game and servers through their paces in this three day stress test as we march toward the game's release on May 15. You can begin downloading the Diablo III client right now!
From Friday, April 20 at 12:01 p.m. PDT (noon), until Monday, April 23 at 10:00 a.m. PDT you'll be able to log in, team up with friends, and play each of the five heroic classes to level 13 as you fight to save the world from the impending demonic invasion.
It boggles my mind how many people are complaining about the login issues over the weekend. It says clearly in the new on the right side of the login page what is going on. The whole point of this beta was to test their servers, so they were purposely changing things up. Why is this so hard to understand? This was not a GM demo or anything.
This. You can just make one character of each class then the game is done for you. After that you have every possible character combination possible. What do you do at this point? Restart with a fresh character for a new build? Nope! You already have that. Item farming and crafting seems to be the only thing left.. but at this point what's the point? Find new gear for your lvl 99 char that doesn't need it for anything because there is no new game to play?
A lot of D2 skills were things like add +2% lightning damage per attack or +5% crit chance. Yeah you had control but they didn't exactly add much but a trivial amount of damage. Blizzard said they wanted to get rid of that in D3. That every skill should have a meaningful and visible impact in the game.
As the saying goes, sometimes less is more. I'm plenty aware of dumbing down of games in general, but I think the simplification Blizzard has done with the skill system in D3 vs D2 makes sense.
VVVVV:: Jesus H Christ dude, they ANNOUNCED it. Stop being so dense.
You don't get the same variety, period. You won't see "Ranger" type druid or paldins, Singer barbs etc, there were a lot of different ways to play and BUILD characters in D2, not just by skill choices but by stats. (Also additional 5% to crit usually isn't trivial in any game.)A lot of D2 skills were things like add +2% lightning damage per attack or +5% crit chance. Yeah you had control but they didn't exactly add much but a trivial amount of damage. Blizzard said they wanted to get rid of that in D3. That every skill should have a meaningful and visible impact in the game.
Again, in the latest patches you could easily respec. Saying there is more customization in this game by making it less is being a fan boy and blind to the obvious.
You don't get the same variety, period. You won't see "Ranger" type druid or paldins, Singer barbs etc, there were a lot of different ways to play and BUILD characters in D2, not just by skill choices but by stats. (Also additional 5% to crit usually isn't trivial in any game.)
The problem this presents is once you build a character, you will never ever need to build another one again. Because once you have one, you can switch between any skills at anytime. It also means everybody will have the exact same character. Gear is the only difference. And that frankly makes it more boring. There is no math involved, and a lot less fun of trying new specs out.