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Diablo II Collector's Edition
Omicron writes, "Blizzard will be releasing a special collector's edition of Diablo II. It looks pretty cool -- a 24-minute DVD movie, the full game, and it's signed by the development team. I'm looking for a place to buy it already!" Note that the collector's edition will be available only during the launch, and that the price is expected to be USD60-70.
Diablo I was just about the game engine. The interface was simple and nicely designed. The one thing lacking in diablo was an actual story line and actual locations. It was really boring just going down 16 levels into a dungeon and having a town with a whole 5 people in it...
But the one thing I've seen from blizzard thus far is that they REALLY improve their games. Warcraft I sucked (compare it to dune 2 which came out before it) but warcraft II was way better. Starcraft (in my opinion) was much better than warcraft ii.
Besides, blizzard has announced that diablo 2 was going to be many many times bigger than diablo 1, it was going to have a good deal of npc's (including ones you can hire), and a huge array of places to go (so you're not stuck in one tiny town). And... they're actually going to have a story, I believe.
If blizzard delivers, the difference between this game and diablo 1, should be as great as warcraft 1 to warcraft 2.
>Which isn't TOTALLY your fault, you shouldn't have to buy a Windows version in the first place.
I know this may come as a shock, but there are people who read Slashdot who don't run Linux. Or who run Linux, but are willing to boot to Windows to run apps (or games) that aren't supported on Linux.
>If a company doesn't want to support my OS, why should I have to change to run their products?
What a strange question; it contains its own answer: "Why should you have to change? To run their products."
Choosing your programs based on your OS is somewhat cart-before-the horse. Do you have a computer to run an operating system? Or to do work (play)? I, myself, am much more interested in what I'm doing than in what OS is living underneath it. If you want Diablo II, barring some new announcement by Loki anytime soon, you will need to be able to run Windows. It's that simple.
Which isn't to say I wouldn't appreciate a Linux port of Diablo II; rebooting is annoying to be sure. But it's currently a fact of life, and sitting back and pouting about it won't make Diablo II magically appear for Linux. And I, for one, want to play the game and enjoy myself instead of being sullen about OS politics. Life's too short.
>So Blizzard, keep you pretty-ed up Windows version, we don't want it. We want a game that
>will run on our computers and on our OS. If you won't support us, we won't support you.
Please don't speak for me. Please don't speak for 'the community.' We don't all feel the way you do.
--
According to this page, the first Dairy Queen store opened in 1940. Dairy Queen's "Blizzard" was introduced in 1985.
Blizzard Entertainment was founded in 1990 according to their Company Profile, and they weren't even *called* Blizzard back then.
I say we call Dairy Queen, and let them know that Blizzard.com is causing "confusion of mark." Hell, I went to blizzard.com hoping to get some Ice Cream, but NOOOOOOOOOO....There's some damn Computer Game manufacturer there.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
Look at the praise this is getting. 3/4 of the slashdot community is drooling over a Windows game they want to pre-order. If they get your money with a Windows version, why bother with linux? Knowing damn well most of you would never buy a Linux version when you went out and got the
Windows version. Which isn't TOTALLY your fault, you shouldn't have to buy a Windows version in the first place.
If a company doesn't want to support my OS, why should I have to change to run their products? If they want my $50, they will have a linux port. I'm not going to install Win98 because I get some goofy soundtrack, a pretty box, and a "special edition" of a Windows version. It's just a little candy the big boys get to keep most of you would be linux version buyers happy with the Windows version. Same people that will by this, are the same people that don't mind their rights are being violated buy the MPAA, and buy DVDs because they look pretty. Yet they will bitch and moan about CSS until the cows come home, when it doesn't affect them because they already sold out to the MPAA.
So Blizzard, keep you pretty-ed up Windows version, we don't want it. We want a game that will run on our computers and on our OS. If you won't support us, we won't support you.
The potential Linux audience is pretty small to begin with, and combined with the fact that it's already taking them forever and a day to get the product out, the extra hassle for little return doesn't sound like a great proposition. Maybe some of the folks at RedHat who became millionaires by selling other peoples' code could invest in well-financed Linux game-porting company. 'Til that or something similar happens, you'll have to keep paying Bill or Stevie J. for an OS on which you can play the top notch games.
Cheers,
ZicoKnows@hotmail.com
Anyone else see that? Took me by surprise because I figured that after all the both hype and bad press that this title (and John Romero) has received, I would've heard about it before then. I'm assuming it didn't really come out, because there would've been a lot of talk, whether good or bad, if it did come out. It actually doesn't look all that bad to me, although I definitely am not on top of the gaming world (heh, that's probably an understatement, as the last games I've bought were Diablo, Carmageddon, and the Ultima 1-8 combo pack.) Would be nice if it were judged on the gameplay instead of all the politics surrounding it, but after this long, that's probably doubtful. Hey, I might even pick it up.
Cheers,
ZicoKnows@hotmail.com
I had a hard time deciding between $50 in RAM or mayonnaise. I decided to go with mayonaise and for $50 it's an amazing performance gain. Who needs 1GHZ CPUs when you can just upgrade your current machine's mayonnaise. ;)
The Blizzard site says you can get it straight from them, though I don't think it shows up yet on their order page. timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
You know, Blizzard should probably spend more time actually getting the game ready to ship than worrying about "special collector's editions." There is STILL no actual release date listed on the website!
It's almost amusing how they can spare staff to produce 70 minute soundtrack CDs, 24 minute DVD titles, a f*cking DnD based paper RPG, and a manual signed by the development team when they can't even get product out the door. I think a better use of developer time would be finishing off the code, not signing autographs.
Blizzard has been claiming the game is coming "real soon now" for an even longer period than Origin did with that classic piece of vaporware, Strike Commander.
You know, I wonder if they'll still be comparing themselves to Baldur's Gate...
What part of "shall not be infringed" is so hard to understand?
Back in my day we didn't have fancy schmancy graphics! We had to use amber text! Sometimes we didn't even have text and to guess what the screen should have been displaying.
We had Moria and we LIKED IT! These youngins think a little demon is tough, BAH! I used to eat ancient multi-hued dragons for breadfast and they coulda kicked that pansy Diablo's ass. You ain't seen nothing until you've had Evil Iggy spit in your eye!
Unbreakable toys can be used to break other toys.
Don't hold your breath for Blizzard to release Diablo II before fall, let alone a collector's edition.....Computer Gaming World's latest "pipeline" says Q3 of 2000 :(
Pretty cool site, and I liked your review (I just learned last night that a burglar alarm would be a good idea and found that my guy being employed as a cop (well a rent-a-cop anyway) really doesn't help)... since I liked it, let me tear the place apart ;) It's all constructive criticism, take it in the spirit in which it is given...
;)
Anti-alias that logo. Makes your site look amateur and clashes with the more professional aspects of your site. Also, Anti-alias the "GP Reviews" logo (any others on your site where you can see the jaggies on the diagonal lines). I like your index of reviews. Conscise and helpful, don't change a thing. Spruce up your background though. Either go straight black in the background or get a new starfield, the one right now just looks like a dirty black background with dots every once in awhie... If you go all-black I'd recommend replacing your horizontal line (under the "Browse" and "Search" buttons) with a graphic that attaches to the left-hand side menu frame (I hope the meaning of that is clear).
When I like something, I like to try to improve it, just ignore me if you like it better the way it is
Esperandi
Diablo did well because it had a mere sprinkling of roguelike flavor. The roguelike genre (Rogue, Nethack, Angband, etc) is completely ignored by big game companies even though they are by far the most addictive and interesting games in existence (Personally I've been playing for over 10 years, never beat one, and I'm still not bored). They made it replayable like a roguelike with the randomly generated dungeons. For people who liked the game, they could keep starting over and it'd never get old. If they had added even more roguelike features (extremely complex keyboard interface that feels like playing a piano and is just as natural once you play for a couple hours, thousands of creatures, thousands of items, hundreds of spells, etc) the game would still be selling off the shelves.
Now, Diablo 2 isn't going to be adding any more roguelike flavor to it, sadly. They've still got the randomly generated dungeon but its nowhere near as expansive as a real roguelike...
Esperandi
Drop by rec.games.roguelike.angband or rec.games.roguelike.development and worship the random number generator with us.
Well, the announced release date originally was Xmas 99. Blizzard is always a minimum of 6 months late because they refuce to hire me as a project manager. So that means it'll prolly be out around June-July 00... The FAQ on their site seems quite pissed off (read: guilty) about people asking and says they'll try for first half of 2000, but they won't let it leave the office until it meets their rigorous standards.
People say they'd rather wait for a game and not have to get patches than get a slightly buggy version and have to download patches... I feel exactly opposite, but I understand the companies stance. Say they release Diablo 2 right now and in a week realize that theres a sword you can buy for 3 gold that kills most anything in one swipe. Players are buying it up by the bagful, but the patch obliterates the sword and refunds everyone the 3 gold. People are gonna hate that...
Esperandi
The community around a game is far more important than the game itself. Designing your game so that a community will form around it is the dumbest thing you can do. Think about it.
Note #1, go to Walmart and get your Sims, I did this past weekend, haven't done much else since ;)
Note #2, Blizzards FAQ says it'll try to get it out by the first half of 2000, which would put it right around June, whatever place gave him that estimate prolly just guessed based on that...
Esperandi
I'm sorry Johnny, Santa didn't bring you a new game because it didn't meet Blizzard's rigorous standards... please quit crying.
In their FAQ (which apparently no one has been able to find ;) it says they expect to release it within the first half of 2000. But, something has got me excited. First, this release of the Collectors Edition thing. What you say makes sense. Did you go to Blizzards page? Did you read the news item about the collectors edition? Okay, did you read the news item right underneath it? It read "*LAST* screenshot of the week".. emphasis mine.
Esperandi
Surely you didn't just suggest that Diablo is a roguelike game?
Now I'm not one of the freaky puritans that will cut my penis off if someone mentions that roguelikes might work with graphics or even in a 3D environment, but roguelikes gotta have certain things to be qualified as roguelikes.
At least 5 races and 5 classes producing 25 combinations. This is a BARE minimum, most roguelikes have over 25 races and over 25 classes alone. Diablo fails with its 3 wussy classes.
Randomly generated dungeons. Diablo has these.
The random number generator controls the game to an unprecedented degree (unprecedented in other genres I mean) determining what you find, what you run into, etc. Diablo fails. Unless I'm wrong here, you can't run into Diablo 8 levels out of depth.
Thousands of items. Diablo fails.
Thousands of weapons. Diablo fails.
Thousands of armor pieces. Diablo fails.
Extremely complex keyboard control. Diablo fails. Turn-based. Diablo fails. Single player only. Diablo fails. (Until there is a multiplayer turn-based roguelike, there are no multiplayer roguelikes. You go to realtime and you may not call your game roguelike.)
Etc, etc. Diablo simply is not immersive enough to be called a roguelike. When you play a roguelike you can feel the definition in your bones, that's why its so hard to define. yeah for the first hour or so all you do is die and die and die and forget what keys do what, but after a couple hours you're playing the keybaord like a master pianist at his grand piano, formulating strategies, etc.
Until i can be playing Diablo, get into a corner facing a Drolem and a Lesser Titan, and walk around my bedroom trying to think of what I've got on me that could possibly save me (teleport? What if I land in something worse? Heal staff? What if I fail? Recall? What if I don't get recalled in time?), Diablo is not a roguelike.
Esperandi
If Diablo is a roguelike because it has random dungeons then Quake 3 is an RPG because it has player stats (health and armor).
I just don't see Diablo 2 as a collector's item. I mean... give me a break. This is only a sequel. It's not like this game has a history. Sure, the original game was a top-seller, but that doesn't make me want to rush out and buy a copy of the sequel to place on my shelf and never remove from its plastic.
;)
Take Ultima Ascension, on the other hand. It was the last game in a LONG running series of games which spanned many computer platforms. (Yes it was rushed out too early, but that's another issue). But as far as marketing... yeah - this game made sense to release a special edition for collectors.
I think some marketing goober at Blizzard saw this, and thought... hmm I wonder how many extra copies I can sell for an extra $10 apiece. And the poor developers are probably the ones grumbling about carpal tunnel syndrome now, after signing their names a bazillion times
Best regards,
SEAL
Have you ever actually played Diablo?? If you have then obviously you would know that you can shoot in far more than the four cardinal directions.
:)...
Also, if you've played any real amount then you would know that there is a fair amount of strategy to the game as long as you don't play below your skill level. I won't go into it here, but obviously you haven't played the game much.
If you don't like the game then say so, sure it isn't the classic RPG, but it does have RPG elements. It allows those who don't want to have to think about how much Charisma their player should have to gain entry to the genre. Sometimes RPGs get so embedded in themselves that they become impossible/unfun to play (read FFVIII). I love RPGs, and I have no problem with Diablo calling itself one. Now if Quake were to do the same
The "Top 10" Reasons to procrastinate:
The "Top 10" Reasons to procrastinate:
10.
First, let me preface this with the fact that I do not work for Blizzard (unless they want to hire me :))
It's almost amusing how they can spare staff to produce 70 minute soundtrack CDs, 24 minute DVD titles, a f*cking DnD based paper RPG, and a manual signed by the development team when they can't even get product out the door. I think a better use of developer time would be finishing off the code, not signing autographs.
This has got to be one of the most bone-headed comments I have heard in quite some time. Don't you realize that all this stuff (with the exception of the paper RPG, but I believe this was not developed by Blizzard anyway) had to all be made anyway?? How long does it take to compile the audio from 4 CDs and dump it onto one for everyone's listening pleasure. Do you want a game shipped without a manual (and how long does it take someone to sign their name)?? Do you think that the DVD movie is much different than the cut scenes from the game (probably including some that didn't make it into the game)??
It's comments like this that make the software industry what it is today. If more companies spent the time and energy to create excellent, nearly bug-free games (which Blizzard has an excellent history ot doing) the world would be a much better place. I am perfectly willing to wait for a game that works out-of-box, without having to download a patch before I can play the thing.
@!$$%#!, I hate this mentality, but I'll stop now.
The "Top 10" Reasons to procrastinate:
The "Top 10" Reasons to procrastinate:
10.
Hey! I play ZAngband, so I still eat ancient multi-hued dragons for breakfast. Or was that just a capital 'D' that kept changing colors?
Paah! Multi-hued dragons are for wimps! I eat the Serpent of Chaos for breakfast! Muahahah!
Diablo (and all its graphical predecessors) took the mindless dungeon crawl out of the Alphabits era and into eyecandyland. Here's hoping the sequel is worth the wait and has more depth to the story.
This is one area where I'm still not convinced that the graphical RPG has surpassed the older character-graphic Rogue-like games. In terms of longevity and replayability, I still rate games like Angband and it's many variants (Sangband, Zangband, Omega and others) more highly than a lot of the modern 3D/isometric eye-candy experiences. Hey - I even turned off the 16x16 graphic tiles and went back to the colour font displays because they are clearer and easier to analyse quickly. Maybe DungeonSiege will finally provide the immersive fantasy world with enough depth to keep the 'one more try to slay the X of Y' replayability but for the moment I'll stick with Zangband.
Cheers,
Toby Haynes
Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
What we really want is versions of Blizard's games for Linux, of course =)
Unfortunately Blizard is a very profit driven company and they said it was unlikely any games would be ported unless it becomes more commercially viable. But to be commercially viable for games, you need to have many of the most popular ones, so it's a bit of a cycle =/
Thankfully there's companys out there now that care more about building Linux as a gaming platform for possible long-term profits, rather than making a quick buck by selling only windows products.
Sure, a special collector's edition would be nice, but it would also be great to acctually see a release date on the game. Does anybody know when the most anticipated title of '98, '99 and '00 is expected to actually hit the shelves?
If you haven't read it yet, read the Top Ten Features That Have Delayed Diablo II.
Axiom
But how many games are actually just copies of Rogue.
Features that Diablo had that Rogue didn't: (besides pretty graphics)
- Multiuser
- Shops (well sort of)
- Classes
- Big mean last guy
- a tiny bit more plot
Feature that Rogue had that Diablo didn't:
- Multiplatformed (really, it workes on just about anything!)
- Blindness (arg)
- Secret doors
- 26 monsters! ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
- Fastplay mode
- AND MUCH MUCH MORE
Sure it was ascii based, but it had heart!
LONG LIVE ROGUE!
Axiom
It's the value of shared experience.
It's the rush of being in control.
It's the reflexes and timing and response time.
It's chatting with other people, and sharing goods.
A bunch of other things I can't describe right now.
Playing the game with N other people, trying to keep everyone alive despite hoards of monsters and such. Sorta like Gauntlet. Remember that game? Blizzard just tapped into that play style and architecture, and made it prettier and multiplayer.
Tetris was a big hit, and not fundamentally difficult. Line up blocks!
Gauntlet was a big hit. Run around, grabbing power ups, and shooting every single thing that moved.
Super Mario brothers! All about timing and reflexes and surviving.
What else do you want out of a game? For a lot of people, Diablo was perfect! Not that I played it, but I can see the appeal. If you want something else from a game, find something else!
-AS
-AS
*Pikachu*
I saw Diablo in the store and it seemed fun, a nice 'entry' level CRPG, and most importantly it was available at a time when there really weren't many CRPGs out there. I picked it up and it was nice (although it still has one of my favorite "Murphy's Rules": You cant wear a piece of armor because your not strong enough, but you can lug it around in your backpack
Then Baldurs Gate apeared on the scene and Diablo was quickly forgotten. Baldur's Gate had a few problems, and only supported the AD&D system through about 6th level. Then they released Tales of the Sword Coast as an expansion pack. This included all 3rd and 4th level spells, still not complete but nicely implimented. Now they are getting ready to relase Baldur's Gate 2 which includes even more features, should be mindblowing graphically (the original came on 5 CDs and the Expansion was a 6th, mostly packed with hand painted backgrounds and beautifully animated monsters), and is projected to hit the stores in the later half of this year (not counting the other projects underway from Interplay's RPG division Black Isle). I think Diablo II might have been phenominal if it had come out when intended. Now I have a feeling it might seem lackluster next to its 'competition'.
Does this mean I won't buy it? Probably not, there are still too few serious CRPGs out there
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
I draw your attention to this article, posted previously on /.
Blizzard set their attorney onto the owner of 'blizzard.net', demanding that they hand over the domain, or face the consequences.
I offer this as information - not criticism. It's your call where you spend your money.
Stephen Hawking has written another book. It's about time as well.
I'm not trolling, I'm seriously looking for a reason to like Diablo and to be excited about its sequel's release.
The first Diablo was inane, an insult to the name "Role Playing Game." What role? You were one of three guys with either a big stick, a big sword, or a big bow (with infinite arrows for realism). You jump right down into hell and proceed to click the mouse button like a monkey on speed until everything's dead. Oooh, gee. Does this strike you as an even less intellectual game than QUAKE? At least in Quake you can shoot in more than four cardinal directions.
It's no more entertaining than that screen saver where you swat flies, people. And you get the same amount of exercise doing it. Do yourselves a favor and spend your $50 on something more worthwhile, like RAM or mayonnaise or something.
--==Tandem the Spoony rides on!==--