[Liberator]

I don't know how much I can say, other than I am in the beta.  However, I can tell you unequivocly, if you like nothing else, blizz has popped for the best VAs in the business(One of the main NPCs(so far) is The Shepherd and Lord Balmung is slinging magic around).

[TrashMan]

Does it have paladins?

[MatthTheGeek]

There isn't, or if there is, it hasn't been revealed.

[TrashMan]

So..
you got a witch Doctor (which  is a copy/paste of hte troll shaman from warcraft)
you got the demon hunter (copy/paste of a night elf)
Barbarian (the only class from D2 to return)
Wizard (yay)

Am I missing something?

   I want my pally. I loved my pally.

[MatthTheGeek]

There's also the Monk. Not sure what he's like.

[Patriot]

what, no necromancer? no assassin, no amazon, no anything besides the barbarian from D2?

[General Battuta]

what, no necromancer? no assassin, no amazon, no anything besides the barbarian from D2?

Most of the classes have spiritual successors. They didn't want to bring the Necromancer back because they felt it was too perfectly optimized.

[MatthTheGeek]

Many elements from D2's classes have been separated and mixed into the new classes. The Demon Hunter, for example, is more or less a mix of the Assassin and the Amazon.

[NGTM-1R]

After everything they've done to their other franchises, my opinion can be summed up as

[Dark RevenantX]

I actually like what they've done with Diablo 3.  I think it's the only series Blizzard hasn't ****ed up yet.

Yes, the gameplay has been "simplified" but it's more like it's been streamlined.  You don't get to pick your stats or your skill progression, but considering that you had little choice in stats in D2 (i.e. there is definitively a RIGHT and a WRONG build) and the skill progression in D2 forced you to be stuck with the same group of skills for a long time, the change to a variety of interchangeable abilities is actually rather fresh.  Even the shift to weapon-damage-determines-skill-damage makes a lot of sense from a balancing standpoint.  All-in-all, the improvements outweigh the increase in simplicity.

The graphics, while "simple", are crisp and run well on any modern machine.  The texture work is, as always, top-notch and the art direction is perfect.  Yeah, it looks "cartoonish" from a certain point of view, but only if the cartoon is a grimdark gritfest wherein everybody dies by being ripped apart from the inside by parasitic worms.

[SpardaSon21]

When I last played the beta (several months ago), caster classes like the Wizard and Witch Doctor facerolled everything with superior high-damage crowd control spells and nobody ever got close enough to my Wizard to cause any damage at all.  My Barbarian and Demon Hunter were a lot less awesome, although my Monk did some great damage for a melee guy.

[Liberator]

It's a little different now, the barbarian particularly is bordering on ludicrous on the "softer" monsters, literally hitting them so hard that they fly apart in little chunks.

Something to remember about the difficulty settings, Blizz has said that they INTEND for normal mode to be a less challenging play mode.  It compensates for the other three being progressively more insane than the last.  I saw video from Blizzcon last year with one of the internal QA guys saying it would be virtual suicide to attempt even hard mode alone, nevermind Hell or Inferno mode.

[Dark RevenantX]

Yeah, the beta from when it started to where it's at now is a remarkable difference.  Blizzard really pulled their act together this time.

[Fury]

I'm surprised there has been no comments on this topic considering Diablo 3 beta ran last weekend. Did anybody play it? I didn't but I'm curious how it was.

[TrashMan]

Looking at the old Diablo III screenies, I find the art direction there better. Blizzard North, ye shall be missed.

This seemed way cool:



(from http://www.diablowiki.net/Diablo_III:_Blizzard_North_version)

[Gloriano]

Tried the weekend beta, i think the game is quite fun trough i hate that you have to be logged in battlenet to able to play the singleplayer mode but then again the game is designed towards more to Co-Op and seems like the when ever there is maintance you can't play the game.

made a Demon hunter and Barbarian, both are quite good DH is quite powerful ranged damage dealer and barbarian is awesome close combat damage dealer

[Scotty]

Tried the weekend beta, i think the game is quite fun trough i hate that you have to be logged in battlenet to able to play the singleplayer mode but then again the game is designed towards more to Co-Op and seems like the when ever there is maintance you can't play the game.

made a Demon hunter and Barbarian, both are quite good DH is quite powerful ranged damage dealer and barbarian is awesome close combat damage dealer

I think this has more to do with it being a beta than it does with it being required for single player on release.

[MatthTheGeek]

I'm pretty sure it was confirmed long ago that you'll need to be logged on even to play SP.

[Liberator]

Nope, blizz has stated that an internet connection will be required to play as even the single player games will be played on battle.net, with Rob Pardo even going to far as to answer a question about being able to play on a plane with the response, "I want to play Diablo 3 on my laptop in a plane, but, well, there are other games to play for times like that."

I think that is the most galling and arrogant things I've ever heard a developer saw in response to a player's concern about some aspect of a game they are working on.  It's insulting to the players and shows an awful disconnect from your customers that I'm afraid is becoming more and more prevalent at Blizz.

[Gloriano]

Nope, blizz has stated that an internet connection will be required to play as even the single player games will be played on battle.net, with Rob Pardo even going to far as to answer a question about being able to play on a plane with the response, "I want to play Diablo 3 on my laptop in a plane, but, well, there are other games to play for times like that."

I think that is the most galling and arrogant things I've ever heard a developer saw in response to a player's concern about some aspect of a game they are working on.  It's insulting to the players and shows an awful disconnect from your customers that I'm afraid is becoming more and more prevalent at Blizz.

It's all about their Battlenet, they want to have it everywhere even when you play the single player, so you can stay connected with friends and being social etc..