The fall release schedule has been pretty underwhelming so far. Most of the big titles have had their release date pushed back, though we will see Battlefield 3 tomorrow. Personally, I’m not much of an FPS fan these days, so I’m holding out for the RPG/ARTS games that are yet to come.
For now, Diablo 3 is my number one pick. I played the hell out of Diablo 2 back in high school and college and I’ve actually picked it back up to get in the mood for the next addition to the franchise. I’m surprised how much enjoyment I can still get out of a game that is nothing more than a gear grind. There’s still something fun about it, despite it’s gross imbalances, too. Why can Hammerdins kill everything in the game with such ease, even with a relatively easy-to-find kit? Why are high runes such a crapshoot? Why do immunities even exist in this kind of grinder?
I’m going to avoid answering those questions and instead offer some advice. If you’re thinking about going back and playing through Diablo 1 and 2, I’d highly recommend checking out the Reddit server, at least for your multiplayer Diablo 2 experiences. I played some Battle.net not too long ago and immediately ran up against the game’s big problems – bots and duping. High-level items are so common it’s silly. With Reddit’s private server, though, the economy is pretty balanced and, more importantly, the players are friendly. It’s been nice to go back through some of my favorite classes and specs, finding help along the way from generous players.
You can find out more about the Diablo 2 Reddit server at the server’s subreddit. I’m playing there under the account “thewuggler” if you happen to join.
Out of this fall’s games, what are you most looking forward to?
Posted in: Development, Diablo 3, Editorial
Tags: diablo 2, diablo 2 lod, diablo 3, diablo 3 beta, fall, fall release
Seeing this post reminded me that I put together a D2 mod …back in the day. Escape from the Afterlife! Hey, I enjoyed it. I still get random emails from people around the world who check it out.
I site necro of the original web pages is here. I’m not sure where the files are these days, but I’m sure they’re out on the net…somewhere.
That being said. REALLY looking forward to D3.
Very excited for Diablo 3 sometime in 2012.
The only game I’m looking forward to till then is Skyrim. It’ll be fun to wander around a Nordic wilderness fighting dragons.
GUILD WARS 2 will be my everything. At least I hope it will. PvP in the original game was excellent all the way up until they switched server provider. Then it was unplayable for me due to ping so I have no idea if balance continued to be addressed well.
Is the diablo 3 beta going on now a public beta or the friends and family beta?