Gameplay footage of Diablo 3 running on the PlayStation 3

Just in case you missed the announcement, or choose not to acknowledge it, Diablo 3 is coming to PS4 and PS3. PC gamers are not too happy about the announcement since it doesn't include an online connection to play, while console players not familiar with the series are excited on how its going to turn out. Well, here's some gameplay footage showing how the console version in action.

If you noticed, the first bit of footage shows a Barbarian rolling, this is a new feature for the console version to give a bit more control when it gets messy. The video shows the new UI which doesn't seems right to me, especially how you switch gear.

The feature that will pretty much be a big selling point is the fact that the console version will not include an online connection to play. A simple feature stripped from PC players last year, owners of the console version will be allowed to play the game online or offline. You can also play the game locally without splitscreen. Playing locally with a player online is also possible.

Diablo 3 will be available for the PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 3. No release date was given yet.

Diablo 3's team deathmatch cancelled

The long-awaited PVP content, specifically the team deathmatch mode, has now been scrapped. Jay Wilson broke the news to their fans over at Diablo 3's official blog. Not all is lost, the ability to duel players is still a go though, which is in the 1.0.7 patch planned for release sometime this month.

Certainly, we've gotten a lot of benefits from the development of Team Deathmatch, especially in the areas of controls and combat model tuning, but at this point we don't believe it's the experience we feel it needs to be in order to ship, so we will be shelving it for now and exploring other options.

This is quite a disappointment since it's been nearly 8 months since the game went live and I'm sure a couple of players was sticking around, planning, patiently waiting for PVP to go live. But not all is lost. dueling will come with the 1.0.7 patch that's schedule sometime this month. It won't be what we expected even before the game was released, but at least we finally get to beat players up with gears found/bought after playing the game for thousands of hours.

With the current state of Diablo 3, it makes sense to why they are having such a hard time making PVP work. Balancing alone is mostly what's keeping most developers busy. It's hard to manage a system that randomly generates stats for weapons.

For us it comes to a few issues, one of which is depth.  Simply fighting each other with no other objectives or choices to make gets old relatively quickly.  We've brought a lot of people in to try out Team Deathmatch and, while some found it entertaining, most of our testers didn't feel like it was something they'd want to do beyond a few hours.

They are now working on a replacement. Don't hold your breathe though, I have a feeling this "replacement" won't see the light of day anytime soon, or even when the game turns 1 year old on May.

Curious on how it looks? Check out the video below.

[Source: Diablo 3 Blog]

Diablo 3 - My way to make the game interesting again

In Diablo 3, once you hit level 60 and kill Diablo on inferno difficulty, you are pretty much done with the game, and the endless grind to find better loot to simply kill monsters faster begins. I did the tedious grind and it eventually gets old. I also found myself on the auction house trying to sell my hard-earned loot for gold , or buy better gear for cheap. This was a method I see every time I log in Diablo 3. The Auction House crippled the replay value of this game in a way and I consider it a bad addition since the whole game revolves so much on it. Most of the time, you are simply hunting for any loot that has some value to sell. So I decided to completely remove that aspect from my playthrough that involves me having just one life. See how the game feels. 

Yes, I decided to play a hardcore character. A mode that I've always wanted to tackle, and to make it a bit more interesting, I won't be using the Auction house for any reason. for the people unfamiliar to Hardcore mode - Once you die, your character and the gear he/she is wearing will be gone forever. There is no way of getting him back. Initially, I was planning to replay the game in softcore with a monk class( Since I haven't played one) without using the Auction House at all, just to see how the game feels without it. But I find it hard to manage since all my character's gold, storage, and crafting are shared across all characters, so it didn't feel much of a fresh playthrough. Then I noticed a couple of my friends wanted to progress through hardcore, so I decided to do my 'no Auction House' playthrough on hardcore since it's completely separate from softcore.

I got the idea from Kripparrian, a Twitch streamer who got the Diablo 3 world first Diablo kill on hardcore inferno difficulty. Right now, he's attempting to finish inferno on hardcore again with just self found loot. His is a bit extreme since he's only using loot found on the ground and nothing else. For me, I simply want to eliminate the Auction House from the picture.

No purchase or selling from the auction house, that's pretty much the only rule I placed myself and it's turning out to be a lot of fun. It's not as punishing as you think too. The loot found in-game and crafted items I made were just enough to keep me alive until now. I've had a few close calls when we went through act 3 normal (Because we like pumping the Monster Power up every now and then) but it definitely made the game interesting again.

How I'm playing Diablo 3 right now is exactly how it should have been, minus the hardcore. When I first went through the game with friends, we literally had Auction House breaks every now and then to see if we can sell and score new loot. When we all return to progress further, we find ourselves steam rolling the content thanks to our new gear we got from the Auction House.  In the early levels, some players don't really care if its good or not and just want to earn more gold than the amount you get if you sell it in a merchant, so you usually find really good gear for your class at ridiculously low prices.

So far so good, Currently level 33 and doing this is getting me hooked again to Diablo 3. How I'll react when my Monk dies, we'll just have to see when I get there. But that lingering thought that I could die at any moments keeps it exciting, especially now since we are at Nightmare difficulty and lag in this game can definitely kill. It's definitely interesting and hopefully it stays that way all the way to the end. Hardcore inferno Diablo kill? Wishful thinking.

Diablo 3 patch 1.0.5 now live, new features add more challenge to the game

A huge patch for Diablo 3 just went live today. Aside from the usual class changes and bug fixes that come with patches, 1.0.5 will be adding two new features to the game that will hopefully satisfy those end game junkies. 

Monster Power

Not the most appealing name, but I guess it will do. Monster Power gives you the freedom to actually set how challenging one difficulty can be. You are given the option to how strong the enemy hits and how tough they are. The tougher and deadlier they are, the more experience, magic find/gold find, and loot you earn. A difficulty setting within each difficulty setting, not sure if that makes any sense. You can have a more detailed explanation over here.

Infernal Machine   

This one I can't wait to see. this is the improved version of those uber bosses you get to unlock on Diablo 2 back in the day online. The Infernal Machine, if used, activates a portal that lets you fight two uber bosses at the same time. These bosses are said to be a harder version of the original. Still not sure how hard but top that with the Monster Power 10 should be a decent challenge for the top geared characters.

On the first few weeks of Diablo 3, on Hell act 4 and Inferno, you are stuck with one viable build because everything else gets you killed. The skill changes in 1.0.5 are done to give more viable builds in the end game. Well, I'm sure that's what the devs at Blizzard are hoping when they did these changes. But there will be that superior build that just works no matter what.

You can check out the full patch notes here.

Diablo 3 gets a Paragon System, 1.0.4 class changes preview

Blizzard knows that there's an endgame issue. Once you hit level 60 and finished the game in Inferno difficulty, the only thing left to do is get better gear to kill monsters faster.  That's not enough incentive anymore, especially with the horrible drop rates. To fix this, Blizzard is introducing the Paragon System, a level system that kicks in when you hit level 60. Let the D2 grinding begin!

When you hit level 60, all experience you gained goes to your Paragon level. There are a total of 100 Paragon levels and as you level, your base stats increases just like a normal level up. You also gain 3% Magic Find and 3% Gold Find per Paragon level. Adding Magic Find and Gold Find to each Paragon level is their way of addressing the magic find issue. Swapping magic find gear before an elite dies is a very tedious strategy and not so fun to begin with. Magic Find and Gold Find will cap at 300%. Meaning, if you hit Paragon Level 100, there will be no need of wearing Magic Find gear.

To support the new system, Nephalem Valor stacks will now also provide 15% experience gained per stack. Also, After 10 levels of Paragon, your character's portrait changes to show other players at what Paragon level your character is in.

It seems like they are trying to provide the same long-term grind just like in Diablo 2, which is a good thing for those hardcore Diablo players. How long it will take to reach level 100 is still unknown but it definitely won't be easy.

Not only that, each class will be going through a lot of changes. Blizzard has made a preview post for each class explaining the changes coming to 1.0.4. Blizzard is hoping that the changes made will open more builds option for each class, because at the current state some skills and runes are not even close to being viable in end game.

Here are the links to each class preview:

Witch Doctor

Barbarian

Monk

Demon Hunter

Wizard

This 1.0.4 is a great start to get players interested again. It took awhile but it looks like Blizzard is on the right track with Diablo 3. Diablo 3 is a great game overall but finding better gear after beating inferno difficulty is not enough to keep playing. I stopped playing a month ago, but I'll definitely check out the game when the patch goes live.

[Source: Official Blizzard Blog]