Diablo III Free Open Beta

G

GameMasterNick

Coastermaker
Been a while since I stopped in here, but I wanted to let you guys know that DIII will be free to play during Open Beta from noon today through Monday. You'll need to log into your Battle.net account and set up your free BattleTag for play (located in the account section). Then download the game from: https://us.battle.net/account/download/index.xml

You can do it with a free Battle.net account if you've somehow managed to avoid WoW, Starcraft or any of the other major Blizzard titles.
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Wow, it's been a while! Hope things are good!

I am going to pass on DIII, but about half of everyone I know will be playing it this weekend ;-)
 
Kayden

Kayden

Tech Monkey
I got a chance to play it and here are my thoughts on it.

The best way to put is, Diablo 3 doesn't feel like a Diablo game. I agree the core elements are there, but what made Diablo 1 & 2 great was 1: music, 2: a definitive art style, 3: cut scenes and 4: random dungeons and out side of town. None of these criteria were met in a satisfactory manor, and here is my opinion as to why it fails (on the points mentioned before):

1: The music was mainly background and didn't engrose me into the game. There was NOTHING that made the games music stand out what so ever.

2: The art is just WoW 2.0. If you don't agree then you're not paying attention to what the previous games were and you're love for WoW is clouding your judgement. Also, it's nice to see the armor change but when I put on fucking plate-mail it should be plate-mail, not something different. This was right in the other games, why is it lacking now?!?

3: There were ZERO cutscenes, everything was done in game, much like diablo 1 & 2 I'll grant you, but NOTHING?!? This is what made Diablo 2 feel so damn epic, why is it GONE?!?

4: To be fair, I only got to play the first area which might just be prefab with some shallow random placements of where you can go for an encounter, but why is anything static?!? Honestly, this was a DEFINING feature in Diablo 1 & 2 even from the start area, what the hell is wrong with Blizzard?!?

The art also brings up another problem I for-see, if the game changes the art based on tiered gear, this hints at the fact the game will not have gear that looks different. I am not saying this is the case, but since I know of no one who has played past the first chapter, I am raising the "whoa wait a minute flag".

This is not the Diablo game fans were expecting and for Blizzard to do what they have almost borders on the cruel, they sold out, to make the game easy for every one and think we all need to have simple experience. This is for those who whine about Super Mario Bro's being too tough, well do me a favor ass holes, SUCK IT UP! Not everything is going to be easy and the fact game dev's are giving you this shit on a platter, pisses me off because it's ruining the game franchise's I use to love!
 
Doomsday

Doomsday

Tech Junkie
^ Sorry to hear that man! :(

Seems most franchises are going down the crapper! (Mass Effect 3 anyone?!?)
 
Kayden

Kayden

Tech Monkey
Doomsday said:
Help?!? :eek:
Click to expand...

My bro, who is running practically an identical system as mine, is having a problem with installing, saying he needs a new ver of WinX. Another person I know is experiencing the same issue as my bro but with a way different system spec, I think it must be something with the launcher and how it's detecting windows.

This is all I could find on the official forums with any regard to download issues.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4496511126

Another thing you might want to try is turning off peer-to-peer downloading, on the launcher got to "Options > Downloader Preferences > *uncheck* Enable peer-to-peer transfer". That might help I dunno, but I can't find anything on this with a direct response from Blizzard, so darn frustrating.

EDIT: Here is something more specific, it's helped some ppl not all sadly.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4254460618

Also check the other pages, they have links to other solutions that might be fruitful if the primary one is a busy. /c:
 
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marfig

marfig

No ROM battery
I've been debating with myself at large whether I would purchase and play Diablo III for all these months since the Always Online feature was announced. I've eventually argued with myself and at some points I think I got angry and told myself I wouldn't speak with me ever again.

Recently I decided I was committed to the game and would indeed buy it. But this Free Diablo III Weekend came up and I actually didn't care. Wait, what?

You see, Diablo isn't just any game for me. Diablo II is perhaps my favorite game of all times. I've been consistently playing this game for the past 12 years. With some hiatus in between, sure. But it's rare when 12 months pass when I don't come back to it. The game is still pretty much alive on mine and many gamers lives. While I never even once cared for the multiplayer experience (Battle.Net players are perhaps one of the worst gaming communities out there, comprised mostly of acne riddled idiots and disturbed adults), I've joined a sizeable single-player community on the net and have been since playing the game to collect and trade. Diablo II is very appealing to those of us who have a collectors bone. But it is also still today a fun game.

So the fact I actually didn't care about this free weekend and that subconsciously I ended up reverting my decision to buy the game, made me realize how strong an impact the Always Online feature had on me. It's definitely a fun killer for me. And it is definitely something I cannot in good conscious support in any way with my wallet. I'm religiously against it and I will go to extended lengths to advocate my hate for it and how it damages players, even those that think they won't be affected because they enjoy stable and reliable connections to the internet. We all have to lose with this if it becomes mainstream.

Furthermore, this next week I'm going to move. For reasons not to be discussed here, I'm moving again from Portugal to Africa where a job contract awaits me at a local bank. Internet connection is something that, while available, will indeed not be guaranteed to be stable or reliable. It's a sad irony that I'll be affected by this Blizzard decision when fighting against it. I'd rather wish I wasn't, since I couldn't be accused of only doing it because it had an effect on me. You see, I hate it when people defend something or are against something solely based on how they experience it. Like, "I don't care about Always Online because my internet connection is good", or "I care about it because my internet connection is crap". It's cowardice, and part of the problem of mankind, this inability of so many people to distance themselves from their own experiences and evaluate something on its true meaning and impact.

...

Diablo III marks the beginning of the end of my relationship with Blizzard. A company that once I loved above all others and that held high the banner for consumer rights and good quality games that put players ahead. The merger with Activision, owned by Vivendi, was always said to give Blizzard all the independence it had in the past. I say bullshit! Double bullshit.

The company is today just another triple-A studio under the close direction of a large publisher whose business practices place in second place my gamer-self. Diablo III isn't only about Always Online. It's also about a whole multiplayer experience that is tailored for company advertisement and money making. Like Diablo II post expansion pacthes revealed to us, Diablo III will also be primarily about the multiplayer game and all single-players will be getting the middle-finger from Blizzard.

Well, up yours too, Blizzard.
 
Doomsday

Doomsday

Tech Junkie
Kayden said:
Any of that helps Dooms?
Click to expand...
Thanx for the help mate! :D

Suddenly things have come up and i'm not getting the time to play, lol! Will get to it tonight!

As to what marfig said: Corporations man, bloody fucking corporations! :mad:
The mass majority of battle.net players are always online in WoW, hence the always online crapp in Diablo 3! Blizzard would care less about us single player loving guys anymore! :(
 
Kayden

Kayden

Tech Monkey
I might grab Diablo III at some point myself. It's not like Star Craft II where it can be ignored by anyone who isn't in South Korea. I do plan to get Torchlight II though, whose with me?!?
 
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Tharic-Nar

Tharic-Nar

Senior Editor
Staff member
Moderator
Yup yup, Torchlight 2 here for me as well. Played the original and loved it, though the lack of co-op made the game rather lonely. Thankfully, that's now fixed. Pre-order on Steam as well. Gotta have the right mindset with hack'n'slash titles, and multiplayer is imperative, so I'm glad Torchlight 2 will be delivering.
 
Kayden

Kayden

Tech Monkey
Tharic-Nar said:
Yup yup, Torchlight 2 here for me as well. Played the original and loved it, though the lack of co-op made the game rather lonely. Thankfully, that's now fixed. Pre-order on Steam as well. Gotta have the right mindset with hack'n'slash titles, and multiplayer is imperative, so I'm glad Torchlight 2 will be delivering.
Click to expand...

Indeed. I am thinking about grabbing the 4 pack and getting others involved with it.
 
marfig

marfig

No ROM battery
You offering me one of the keys of the 4 pack is probably the only way you guys are going to see me playing Torchlight. :p

Seriously though, with my decision to turn my back on Diablo II, Torchlight 2 suddenly becomes more appealing. I didn't like the first game. I felt the art too infantile for my personal taste and the item generation routines too random. I preferred Diablo II approach of setting up categories for item randomness as well as the whole Treasure Chest schema, which contributed to a balanced feel of randomness and provided an excellent incentive for item collectors like myself.

I know very little about how Runic wants to take Torchlight II. I hope they do a game that tries to take itself a bit more seriously and implement an item generation engine that covers my concerns. I'm also hoping for a game that introduces the concept of mob/boss runs and farming.

However, with Blizzard being out of the picture (me having decided to boycott them), I might just do without any of these things. Won't pre-order (hell, I don't pre-order. Period). But might just grab the game when it comes out whether I like it or not. I'm eager for some action rpg diablo-like.
 
Kayden

Kayden

Tech Monkey
w00t! I am going to be on the west coast server with a few other ppl from WSGF. We should get together and play Dooms!
 
Doomsday

Doomsday

Tech Junkie
Kayden said:
w00t! I am going to be on the west coast server with a few other ppl from WSGF. We should get together and play Dooms!
Click to expand...
Me in Europe! Hmm, havent started though, just entered the city, lol! I'll log in there. My character is: Bilal. Though it appears Doomsday on the General chat!
U'll have to guide me here on how i can join u guys there! :D
I hope i get good pings though! Hehe! :)
 
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