Opinions on Diablo III

Blizzard's latest hit game Diablo III is quite interesting. The first act gives many nods to the original Diablo, from the events of the Fall of Tristram, to the characters involved - King Leoric and the Archbishop Lazarus - even to some of the monsters, such as the Butcher, which could be found in the original Diablo on labyrinth level 2. One of the earliest quests in the game has you saving Deckard Cain, yet again, from demons, in the catacombs underneath the Tristram Cathedral. No, he doesn't reprise his role as your item identifier, as the only items requiring identification are those of rare quality or higher, and you can identify items yourself for free, so long as you perform identification someplace where you won't be disturbed for five seconds. Town portals are the same. 

There's a new lineup of classes, of course, with the only one held over from Diablo II being the Barbarian. There's also the Monk from the original; all classes can be played as either male or female. Your stash, as opposed to being per-character, is now global (transferring items between characters is as simple as putting it in the stash, and then switching over.) So far, I've a Barbarian and a Demon Hunter (roughly equivalent to the Amazon in Diablo II.) Only one class (the Witch Doctor) has Mana; the other classes have class-specific energy reserves which are replenished or charged up in similar ways. At that, there's also no longer Mana Potions. 

Health potions have a cooldown rate - after using one, you're locked from using another for some 30 seconds or so. That's not always a problem, as many monsters drop health orbs, which instantly give you and your mercenary health as they are picked up. Also, health orbs and gold need not be clicked - simply run over either, and your character picks it up. (Imagine how useful that would have been in Diablo II, say, in the Forgotten Tower?) 

There's a few things to be disliked. One, you must register your CD-Key with you Battle.net account, making it pretty much impossible to give the game away afterwards. Two, there is NO offline mode. You must be constantly connected to the Internet to play at all. Adding friends is a two-way process, like on Facebook, and friends can hop into your games at any time - if you want to go solo, they can interrupt and there's not anything you can do about it, aside from leaving the game. The lack of an offline mode is real simple: It's meant to protect the Real Money Auction House, where in-game items can be bought and sold with *gasp*, you guessed it, real money!

The chat system is carried over from World of Warcraft, which isn't all that bad, aside from the help command for chat showing you some chat commands that only work in World of Warcraft. StarCraft II also uses the same chat system, but not as much of it (Diablo III literally has the same floating chatbox, scroll buttons, behaviours, and font as World of Warcraft. Brand identity, I guess.) You can add friends who play StarCraft II or World of Warcraft, and chat with them in-game from Diablo III.

That pretty much summarizes my thoughts. So here's some screenshots of the game, some of which were intended to be used to report bugs to Blizzard. Enjoy!

Note: Click on a screenshot to see it in larger detail.

Paul Christoforo's Public Relations FAIL

I have to hand it to this guy. I've not seen someone FAIL so spectacularly in quite a while. Paul Christoforo, president of Ocean Marketing has basically FAILed his way into Internet infamy with a scathing response to a customer of one of the companies Ocean Marketing was hired to provide PR services for.

I'm just going to take one of the nasty e-mails that Paul wrote, and dissect it for the sake of providing humor to all, and "free PR" to Paul. My commentary will be inserted, in italics. - Note: Some mobile web browsers do not support italicized text.

Here's the e-mail I'm dissecting (via Penny Arcade): 

LOL Thanks for the Free PR (Wait, why is "Thanks" or "Free" capitalized? Looks like I'll be playing the Grammar Nazi card, considering this guy is supposedly the president of this PR firm, and claims to be a professional) I know the Editor N Chief of Kotaku , (Space-comma-space, you also FAIL at English, Paul.) IGN , (Where's the "and"?) Engadget (Not to mention all three basically told Paul to fuck off for being an unprofessional douchebag. See the IGN reply here) I’ll be meeting them at CES .The noise complaint was for people high up on the food chain in a corporate world of real estate you have no clue about. (What the hell does real estate have to do with game controllers?) Thanks for the Rice Rocket Compliment too love me some motorcycle . (Me so speedy, me rev you long time.) Send that over to Engadget you look like a complete moron swearing and sending your customer service complaints to a magazine as if they will post it or even pay attention (Ironically, it did get posted, but by Penny Arcade. Engadget wouldn't even want to tarnish their good name by even giving you the time of day, Paul.) do you think you’re the first or the last what are they going to do demand us to tell you were your shipment is or ask for a refund on your behalf … Really ... Welcome to the Internet ? (Welcome to the Internet, Paul, you've gotten lots of "Free PR", and not the kind you wanted.) Son Im 38 I wwebsite as on the internet  when you were a sperm in your daddys balls and before it was the internet (Son, I'm 21. I also managed to pass my high school English course. I wwebsite as on the Internet when you were spilling your sperm on the carpet while watching crappy VHSes starring Ron Jeremy.), thanks for the welcome to message wurd up.  Grow up you look like a complete child bro. (Grow up, you write like a complete child, bro.) I Don’t have my controller so im gonna cry to the world … Really ?? Hey take that free time and do something more productive. (He did. He wrote to the email address N-Control set up for customer inquiries, asking as to where the product he paid for with his money is.) All you had to do was check the like everyone else , people have inquired but you’re the douchiest of them all J (Actually, it seems that you are the doucheist of them all, Paul.) 

To all our pre-order customers looking for information on the status of their orders after a busy couple of months The PS3 Avengers are on their way from our Manufacturing plant overseas. We are aware that everyone is anticipating having their Avengers under their Christmas Tree and were doing our best to get these orders shipped out as fast as possible. We appreciate you as loyal customers and for supporting our company. Customers will start receiving their products this week before Christmas and After Christmas and into the New Year. As a token of our appreciation we are offering all our pre-order customers and new customers 10$ off your next order with us just enter Avenger1001 at Checkout. Thank you and Happy Holidays! (Why did you even bother adding this boilerplate message to an e-mail sent to a single person, unless you were well aware the whole thing was going to get massive public attention?) 

Oh and FYI When a street date gets pushed by a publisher on a video game you pre ordered do you cry to them too ? (No, because I usually don't pay the full price in advance for a pre-order. In the event that I did, then yes, I do complain. If you paid me today for a blowjob tonight, and I didn't suck your dick for a whole month, and did what I pleased with your money in the meantime, wouldn't you get upset?) 

You just got told bitch … welcome to the real internet (You just got told, douche, welcome to the real Internet. We do not forgive, we do not forget.) check kotaku in 2 weeks when they are reviewing free PS3 Avengers we send them as well as G4 (You mean the G4 whose employee Kevin Kelly wrote this?) and all the other majors hell yeah , don’t forget to check Amazon, gamestop.com, play n trade , Myers , Frys and a ton of other local stores coming your way you think you speak for billions son your just a kid you speak for yourself no one cares (You speak for yourself Paul, no one cares anymore.) what you think that’s why were growing and moving 20-50 thousand controllers a month. We do value our customers but sometimes we get children like you we just have to put you in the corner with your im stupid hat on. (We do value our PR firms, but sometimes we get children like Ocean Marketing that we just have to put in the corner with their "I'm a douche" hat on.) See you at CES , E3 , Pax East ….? (The PAX East that you've been banned from?) Oh wait you have to ask mom and pa dukes your not an industry professional and you have no money on snap you just got told. (If he had no money, how did he order any of these controllers? Or is that a stereotype of the gaming industry's consumer? If it is, then why are you bothering, aside from making money?)

Well, there you have it. Douchebag Paul Christoforo has managed to successfully take his career Titanic, where it shall lie at the bottom of the great digital ocean of the Internet for all eternity, as a cautious reminder to all: Don't be a dick.
Oh, and here's a screencap of a Twitter message that Ocean Marketing posted and then deleted: 

Some Diablo II Screenshots

Someone showed me some items on Diablo II that made me shit myself... here's the screenies (click image to enlarge):

Oh, and here's one where Wine buggered up (and you now see that I play Diablo II in Wine, on Linux, Ubuntu 11.04 to be exact):