Diablo IIIFollow

It's official, you can buy it on May 15th.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/122/1220853p1.html

That said, it looks like it's going to be incomplete on release. They plan on patching PvP and other things into the game at a later date. Hopefully those patches don't turn into DLC.

Who plans to pick it up? I personally won't be buying it until it's complete. If the patches turn into DLC then I may just skip the game altogether.

I'll definitely be getting it. I'm too big of a fan of the genre not to. Fortunately I dont particularly care about PvP so the fact it wont be in the release doesn't bother me.

I will say, though, I've kept my head in the sand these past few years and have no idea what they are doing with this game. Will make it more fun and exciting I hope.

I'll be buying it. There's a lot that of complaints about the game play I have, but it's going to be a very good game to play with friends.

I'm really, really conflicted about this game. I was super excited when it was announced--I spent a lot of time playing D2 (nearly all of it online). But some of these changes... Blizzard used to be one of my favorite game studios, and this is coming from someone who sucks horribly at, and generally does not like, RTS games. But I'm having some difficulties with them ever since Activision's hand began putting its fingers in my pie.

There were two things you used to be able to assume about Blizz's games.
1. That they wouldn't launch until they were perfect.
2. That they wouldn't cut content to accelerate this process (content cut was usually more about the overall game and less about development time).

But recently... I dunno. Cataclysm came out a good 3-5 months before it should have. And it was clear for anyone playing the beta that it was not ready for launch, which was the exact sentiment on the forums too. Bugs everywhere, nothing even remotely akin to balance between classes (to the point where some were struggling to fight basic non-elite mobs, where others could rip through quests that included elites). And we aren't just talking simple number issues--they were changing class mechanics for a good year after its release. And they switched gears so much during development that it completely lacked the cohesion other Blizz games had.

Then we have SC2. Thankfully, we didn't have the same balance issues (because pvp balance and MP bugs was pretty much all the beta was released for). But it was just too much like SC version 2, rather than a sequel. No changes or real revamps like what you find when moving from one WC or Diablo game to the next. But besides some new units/structures (with the removal of others), it's pretty much just Starcraft. I will grant that the campaign seems significantly improved, but enough to justify such a long wait? I'm also more than a bit irked about the campaign segregation. SC is about the conflict between three species--the campaign shouldn't just be about one side of the story. I'm willing to grant that the size of the content is about equal to the previous installment, but the scope is drastically reduced. I'm much more interested in the Zerg and Protoss stories. I shouldn't have to buy the core game, plus two expansions, just to experience their side of things. The original SC was a fully fledged story for each species, with the expansion building on those events to create a new story. The expansion wasn't required to give the original value--it was a complete narrative.

If they had priced the game differently, and packaged the games as 3 separate titles that linked together, this might not have been an issue for me.

Diablo was looking promising. I liked most of what I saw until I stopped following the news. Which just so happens to be when they announced that store-auction nonsense, which has greatly reduced my interest in the game. And now they are cutting more content to make release? That's just so contrary to what I used to respect about Blizzard.

Honestly, as of right now I won't be buying the game. Maybe later, when it goes on sale and everything has been patched in. But I'm really unhappy with Activision-Blizzard's new direction, and there has definitely been a decline in their production quality over the last few years. I used to be a big fan, now I'm struggling to retain interest in their projects...

Here's to hoping that, besides the partial release thing, the rest of D3 is awesome, so it can restore some of my faith in the studio. The RMT stuff is still going to bother me, but I can get over that if they don't cut corners elsewhere.

Given the incredibly difficult task of pleasing you, I'm sure Blizzard will feel okay with the result.

Released the last day of my finals, of which I have a 5:15-7:45ish final exam. I'm very thankful that it's not being released earlier. Definitely going to buy ahead of time if I can scrap together the cash.