Hello...?

[LastDanceSaloon]

This game (III) isn't generating much... conversation.

I suppose this is a good sign, it means there aren't lots of threads about bugs and crashes (first day frustration excluded).

But I suppose it's a bad sign as well as it means there isn't really much to get over excited about.

I played Act IV of Normal over at a friends and it was certainly a fun game, if somewhat routine. We both agree it's like harking back to the days of Arcade Machines - play for a bit, die, insert another dollar, play for a bit more, die, insert another dollar, die, etc. In this respect it's a very enjoyable experience.

With 6 million copies sold it no longer really matters if the game gets good or bad press, the execs are happy and it wouldn't matter if sales ended tomorrow, so there's no harm to be done by being even irrationally negative about the game. And yet there isn't even the usual collection of irrational haters for this game on here having steaming debates with irrational fanboys.

I was always irrationally negative about the original Diablo series so I wasn't ever going to buy this anyway but from what I've played of the game I would recommend any purchaser to also go out and purchase a large arcade machine to play it on instead of a trying to use a PC, it would make everything feel right

[Crenshinibon]

Alternatively the lack of posts could mean that the people are too busy playing Diablo 3 as well.

While I feel that the story is less epic than that of the second game, everything that made Diablo 2 enjoyable is still there, though I have to admit that it's definitely much more difficult... once you hit Inferno that is.

[LastDanceSaloon]

I'm not so sure about that, the vast majority of threads I see come from players who are currently playing and require information or are bugged out the game or who want to peacock their builds and finds/discoveries.

Also Gamebanshee does generally attract the more experienced players rather than the fresh-to-RPGs type. People who aren't shy of controversy or walls of text.

Metacritic currently has the game at 8.8 for critics but only 4.0 for users. This suggests a vast amount of controversy is currently flying around the net about it's pros and cons and that the majority of cons are coming from experienced Diablo players rather than n00bs as the n00bs will not know enough about the game to say whether it's better or worse than previous editions and the game has no real bugs, aside from on-line connection issues.

I suppose it surprises me therefore that Gamebansee has so little discussion on this game considering even relatively small and old RPGs tend to get more than monthly interest here.

[Crenshinibon]

I'm not sure what you mean by "bugged out" so I'll assume you mean during maintenance. I always see the official Diablo III forums bustling with life, and personally, I happen to be lucky enough to live in the timezone where I get to sleep through the server downtime.

I wouldn't say that in regards to games like Diablo 3 at all. In general GameBanshee has older, more mature gamers that are more in tune with traditional RPGs rather than something like this.

Personally, I like the changes that were made to the game. I like the fact the that I'm no longer locked into a build, and if I want to skill my character differently, I no longer need to create a new character of the same class with different abilities.

I'm personally enjoying the game. Yes, the story was shallow and could have been longer, but at least the game still provides a significant challenge and gives you a reason to upgrade gear, unlike Diablo 2 where after killing Hell Baal, your one motivation to upgrade was PvP.

As said before, the main issues that I have with the game are: shallow story and short acts. Yes, it is significant, but despite that I can still enjoy it. I like that I can actually play my character through the first three difficulties and level him/her that way rather than doing runs. Having so many runes does give you a lot of room for experimentation - but skills aside, the main investment is gear which not only defines your character, but also defines your playstyle. I thought that despite its flaws, the game was surprisingly addictive.

[DaveO]

The low overall Metacritic score is based on the always-online DRM as well as launch issues. Not every place has a stable Internet connection, but it is the fault of the buyer if they expect the game to work well under unstable connections.

Scores for anything are the most meaningless measure of the value of an item. The shared stash and expanding it thru purchases have been done in previous action RPGs, so it is nice to have that option instead of muling. My main complaint would be the limited number of character slots versus unlimited for the previous two games.