Torchlight II vs. Diablo III
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Mods, LAN, and Single-player: Blizzard recently raised the ire of the Internet's pitchfork-and-torch brigade in a big way. See, Diablo III's going online-only, so local area network play is out of the question... and game mods are "expressly prohibited." Granted, that pretty much gives cheaters the rare epic +10 boot, but for some players, the trade-off is still too steep. Enter Torchlight II. Mods, LAN support, and a true single-player mode -- it's got all three. According to developer Runic Games, the plan is to separate server browsers into mod and non-mod categories.
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Art Direction: Initially, Diablo III got beaten black-and-blue for allegedly being "too cartoony," but -- based on the game's earlier bits -- you won't be seeing any smiling rainbows or wisecracking wascally wabbits. Instead, Diablo III's general atmosphere strikes a nice balance between gothic spookiness and ethereal wonderment. Torchlight, on the other hand, embraces zaniness instead of telling it to go stand outside in the rain. During the demo I played, I spelunked everything from an Egyptian-themed crypt to a gear-heavy steampunk lava cavern. Tonally consistent? Not really. But look! Lights and sparkles and a tank-sized, self-operating terror pistol! The game's level and character designs have an airresistible sense of whimsy to them, which also helps to mitigate some of the deja vu that tends to go hand-in-hand with randomly generated areas.
