Diablo 3 Open Beta Impressions - The Wait Just Got Harder

Last weekend we were given a treat by Blizzard. From April 20 - 22, Diablo 3's beta was open to the public. I of course did not hesitate and started downloading the client. When I finished downloading, I already knew what my plans were for the weekend. Does Diablo 3 deserve all the hype it's getting? Well let's just say after playing the Beta for one whole day, the wait for its release just got a lot harder. Here's what I thought of Blizzards crazy popular RPG lootfest.

I am a huge fan of the Diablo series. I rarely play a game more than two times after finishing it, but Diablo is one of those special  games that I play over and over again. Don't ask me why, I just love playing it. I've finished both Diablo games with each character multiple times and for some reason I see myself still coming back for more. It's definitely a game I've been waiting for, and the fact that I was able to give the game a try before it's release placed a huge smile in my face that lasted the whole weekend.

Short but Satisfying

After downloading the client and when servers started going live to the public, I started the game. All I felt was sheer joy as I saw Diablo 3's login screen. Just like all Blizzard games nowadays, you are required a battlenet account and internet connection in order to play. Since I've already had an account, no problem. I logged in and bam, I see myself in the character creation. Based on videos and trailers of Diablo 3, the Demon Hunter was the class that was the most appealing to me. I created my character(Only character customization was picking your gender) and off I go to click like a mad man.

The whole beta was just a small tease. Blizzard says it was around one-third of Act 1, and they weren't kidding. Even with me exploring each part of the map and listening/reading the story and lore, in around just an hour I finished the beta. I played how I would play the game. When I defeated the Skeleton King(last part of the Beta), I was level 8, and I did the whole playthrough alone. It was short but satisfying. The max level for each character was 13, but the beta was short and easy enough for even a lone level 7 to finish the content. But of course I did not stop there, the urge to play more was still around.

My whole Saturday was pretty much invested into the Diablo 3 beta. Even though it was around an hour-long, I took this chance to try everything the game will offer, so I played each character.

Diablo 3 goes deep in class customization

Let's talk about the gameplay for a bit - The gameplay is just what you'd expect from a Diablo game, and I felt right at home. While the core gameplay is still intact, how you manage your skills are now deeper than before. Just like in past games, you spam the hell out of the left or right-click in order to attack/use skills, only this time you now have keys 1, 2, 3, and  4 to use, this are called action bars. The catch is, skills are binded to specific bars. This is where it get's interesting.

For example - The Barbarian's Bash and Cleave are both placed on the left click. You can't bind those skills on other keys, so you'll have to decide which skills is more useful in your current situation. This also goes for the skills on the action bar, so you'll have to think what set of skills you need before engaging. That example alone gives you an idea that each class can be played differently depending on what skills you pick and you get more skills as you progress.

But if you feel that your being limited to the number of builds you can turn on elective mode which pretty much gives you the option to assign any skill to any slot. Elective mode on default is turned off, so you must head over to options to enable it. I Have no idea why Blizzard has this off in the first place. One advantage in turning off this mode is to challenge yourself. Think of it as a way to handicap yourself if you have the urge to make the game a bit harder for you. That's the only reason I can think off to why we have the option to turn it off or on.

You want deeper customization? Well each skill in each class have five runes you can unlock, and each rune applies a different effect to the skill. So you have a handful of choices on how you want play your character. So expect to see classes being played completely different each time. No more skill trees. And the beauty of this change is that you can change how your skills work and which skills you need anytime. If you want to start making class builds, blizzard already has a skill calculator to plan out how you want to set up your character.

With the beta having a level 13 cap, I was only able to unlock a few skills for my left and right-click and unlocked skills for action bars one and two. But it was enough to give me an idea on how each class work. With each class having different resources now instead of all classes having mana in past games, it was a welcome change since that alone makes each character feel different.

You can really tell the difference of each class. Making the game's huge replay value even bigger. But the class that stood out in the end was the Monk. It felt like this class can be set up to play a supportive role in Diablo 3, which is weird to see in a game like this. A class that could heal allies near him? Plus tons of push backs and buffs to strengthen your group? It's going to be interesting to see how Monk's will be played online. It might be a good addition since Blizzard prefers this game to be played in a group. Don't worry, with its quick drop-in drop-out feature, if you turn on your game into public, you will instantly get a full group in seconds. So I have a feeling a Monk will be in high demand when forming groups.

Connection

I live in the Philippines, and I was connected on an US server(Asian servers was not available during beta). I was concerned with latency issues, but it was a smooth experience most of the time. Lag spikes do happens from time to time, but it was minimal that it did not wreck the experience. Still, it's a bit unusual to get lag issues when playing the game by yourself. What's impressive though is that with a group, I'd expect lag to get worse, but it didn't. The quality was just like when I played the game alone.  A huge plus.

But issues still occur, this was the beta after all. The public do get access to the beta, but the real purpose for this Open Beta was to do a stress test on the game's servers. To Blizzard's surprise, the servers actual did crash. Leaving some players unable to connect for a couple of hours. Blizzard eventually did adjustments and the servers went back up. Hopefully Blizzard now knows what needs to be done. They want a smooth day one release, and so do we.

The game needs you to be online in order to play

That is currently my biggest gripe about the game - The fact that you need to be online at all times in order to run the game. There is no offline feature whatsoever. So if your ISP conks out on you, or you simply don't have internet connect, Diablo 3 is unplayable . It's a real shame, but this is what Blizzard is going for now with they're big three. All they're games require internet connect and are connected together. Blizzard is hiding the excuse that Diablo 3 will be better played with friends etc. thus the having no offline mode, but I really think it's because of the added Auction House, which gives you the ability to sell/buy items with in-game money or real money. Yes, actual money. I sense controversy in Blizzard's future.

Well, what can you do, at least they are finally releasing the game.

Loot will still be as crazy as before

Just like the old days, each monster you kill has a chance of dropping lots of loot, and you'll see yourself once again going back to town every now and then to get all those loot sold and sorted out. For Diablo 3, Blizzard made the looting system a bit more interesting now with crafting. During the beta, you get to try out the crafting system in the game. Diablo 3 will have two kinds: The Blacksmith and The Jeweler but for the beta we only had access to The blacksmith.

With the Blacksmith, you may create gear using certain materials. In order to get these materials, you need to salvage your magic or rare quality loot. In order to get more recipes to create different weapons and armor, you will need to spend gold to give The Blacksmith experience in order to level. Each time you spend gold to give experience, you are rewarded with new recipes for your blacksmith. In the beta, it was said that you can only level up the Blacksmith up to level 4. I was only able to bring it up to level 2, but at level 2 I was given recipes to create blue items for characters past the beta level cap. The crafting looks like a lot of fun and I have a feeling grinding will be needed to gather the necessary materials in higher levels. Let's not forget The jeweler, which will obviously give us the ability to create our own gems to customize our gear. This game's customization is going to be crazy.

All in all - I can't wait to get my hands on the full version. I'm quite satisfied with what I saw in the beta and the wait for the official release just got a lot harder. Even though the beta provided only 40 minutes to an hour of Diablo 3 content, playing each class and the fact that loot, certain dungeons, and maps are randomized(Just like past games) was enough to kept me invested. What more with the full game plus the added difficulty available after finish the game for the first time. A social killer? Definitely. Just like Diablo 2, it feels like this game will be around for years to come.

Diablo 3 is out on May 15, 2012 for the PC.

More Crysis 3 - Gameplay Trailer now out

EA finally released that teased gameplay trailer a few days ago. It's all gameplay footage, and from what I see the sequel doesn't look all that different from the second game graphic-wise. It's not a bad thing at all since Crysis 2 is one of the best looking game's to date. Check the trailer below.

After seeing this trailer, I wonder what changes Crytek have in store for the sequel. So far I don't see much, aside from Prophet now wielding a bow. Setting is the same, enemies will be the same, so what's new to set it apart from the second game? It comes out next year so Crytek has a lot of time to hype up this game with the changes.

Crysis 3 is set for a 2013 launch for Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.

Batman Arkham City: Game of the Year Edition includes all DLC plus a new one

If you haven't got a chance to play Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham City, I suggest you wait until the end of May. They just announced the Game of the Year Edition that includes all downloadable content already out for Arkham City plus the latest one that was also just announced, Harley Quinn's Revenge story mission.

Batman Arkham City: Game of the Year Edition will include:

• Catwoman DLC
• Nightwing and Robin DLC
• Arkham City skins and challenge map pack
• Download voucher for the animated feature Batman: Year One
• Harley Quinn's Revenge DLC

Arkham City is one of the best games to come out in 2011. If you want to play this game so bad, just be patient. You can grab the full Batman Arkham City experience when the Game of the Year Edition hits shelves on May 29 for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

You can check my full review of Rocksteady's finest here.

I was hustled, man! The PSP Analog Stick Story

 Aside from all the things in my latest Recent Buys post., I did have to pay for something else and I swear this one is videogame related.

As you know, I got my PSP-3000 2nd hand. It's a bit scuffed up at the side but other than that the console is in great condition plus the price I got it for was a steal. However something wasn't quite perfect, the analog stick was a bit wonky. Not wonky enough to the point of games being unplayable but imperfections in inputs would bug me from time to time so I took it to one of the many shops in Greenhills VMall 3rd floor to have the darn thing replaced. My first choice of console repairs would have to be EYO but I was feeling cheap at the time and there were a lot of people waiting in line as it was the weekend of course. So I strolled around a bit and went to a shop where I remember my cousin had his fat DS d-pad and battery replaced. Asked how much a PSP-3000 analog stick replacement would cost and the guy said 600php, my face froze. After the guy saw my silent reaction he said he'd do it for 400php. After what seemed to be about a month the analog stick was fine, however a new problem arose. My d-pad would stick when I would hold either left, right, or up for a certain amount of time. I first noticed it when I playing Mega Man Maverick Hunter X. X just ran down the edge of a cliff one time even after I let go of the direction. Other times he'd run straight into an enemy and take damage. I thought that maybe they just closed up the system the wrong way and misaligned the pad rubber or something. Finally the frustration of having to fight my d-pad took over and I brought it to EYO to have it looked at. I was told that problems like that usually meant that the d-pad membrane itself was busted and that replacing it would cost 800php. I painfully agreed. After an hour passed I returned to the shop and I was told that the problem wasn't due to a fault d-pad membrane but one of the connectors of the analog stick had snapped and was messing with the d-pad. I was also told that the analog stick used wasn't original. They wondered why what looked to be a new part broke so easily. To be fair, I didn't even do any crazy analog stick motions after I got it replaced the first time. The analog stick that EYO replaced was supposed to cost 1200 but since the false information was given by the clerk, she said that she'd accept 850php instead and pay for the remaining expense so that she won't take the beef from her boss.

Lesson learned, the next time something from my consoles gives out to always bring it to EYO. When my DS Lite got waterlogged, they fixed it. When my fat PSP was on the fritz, they fixed it. If the problem is price, I just have to man up and pay for it cause at least I'm assured about the quality of their service.

Recent Buys: Episode 6 - The not-so-Final Maverick Hunting Fantasy

Yet again I am left with no cash. Why do you do this to me, videogames? Why? There is actually only one real videogame purchase in this post but the other items are videogame related, one more than the other.

First up let's talk about the videogame itself. Finaly Fantasy XIII is the game in question. I played the demo of Final Fantasy XIII-2 some time last and I was totally digging the battle system. From what I hear, aside from the joint paradigm shifting and the new "Pokemon" system, almost everything else in terms of combat is the same as XIII. Plus me not knowing what the hell is going on was another reason for me to play the first game. I heard about all the complaints regarding XIII, how it's just running through a straight hall and then the occasional unavoidable battles for the first 20 hours but if the game is fun then the game is fun. Who knows, I might get sick of mashing Auto-Battle for the next 20 hours but I need to actually try the game before giving proper judgement. Even if I end up not liking the game very much I will still push through to at least beat the main story so that I can grab a copy of XIII-2 afterwards.

On to the non-videogames but still related to videogames portion of the post. This one was a long time coming but due it's semi-ridiculous price range, I held off buying it for a while. That would be the D-Arts Rockman X figure from Bandai. Ever since the 8-bit days, I have been longing for a good Rockman/Mega Man figure.  Sure the early Bandai kits of Rockman 8 and the Rockman X3-6 were pretty good but there weren't very playable. The American toys that came out for Mega Man X8 and Mega Man & Bass (I think) looked absolutely horrible. Bandai finally listened to us and released 3 Rockman X figures from the first Rockman X game, those being X in his normal form, Zero without the blocky shoulders and lacking the Z-saber, and finally the X1 armor version of X. I do plan to get Zero and the X1 armor soon, also the soon to be released Zero with the Z-saber as Rockman is still one of my favorite franchises to date. I just hope Bandai makes a good figure of Rockman.EXE soon.

Finally, the not-so-videogame related item. Since I started playing SD Gundam G Generation World again, waiting for the enemy to finish their turn in a tactics game can get a bit boring. I was hankering for a possible stand for my PSP-3000 after seeing how PSP were displayed in shop windows around Greenhills. I think they were using stands normally used for displayer cellphones. Sadly they weren't selling said stands and the lady I talked too had no idea where they even got it. While looking around National Bookstore, there were a few similar stands but I couldn't just find the perfect one. I then came across this rather odd looking stand called the Sucker Stand. It's a little plunger that sticks to flat surfaces like a sucktion cup and uses the wooden end to prop up devices. Mainly advertised for iPhones and other smartphones that are known for widescreen video playback, this looked to be just the bizarre yet functional little trinket that I was looking for. For the most part it works. Since the PSP-2000, PSPs have had smooth and glossy backs as opposed to the rounded and flat/rough finish that the fat PSP had and since the PSP-3000 is rather light compared to older iterations, the little plunger seems to hold up rather nicely. Simple, quirky, but effective.