Slashdot Mirror
Diablo 2 Finally Hits Shelves
Diablo 2 arrived at Babbages today. CowboyNeal picked up our copies this morning. I'm a level 10 Sorceress named CmdrTaco, so if you see me, give me cool amulets or something. They pre-ordered 1.5 million copies... 1.5 million sick days are expected to be called in tomorrow as 1.5 million users sit and home and swear that Blizzard's servers keep crashing. So far its been a lot of fun (excluding the stability problems: we were about to open the door to the boss that concludes act I when the servers melted down hard core). Update: 06/30 01:11 PM by CT : Pater & I are hanging out by the rogue encampment waypoint in a game named 'Slashdot' on USEast. We're just idling, but feel free to deposit tips at our feet so that we can be more 31337 ;) We beat Act I already: this is a damn addictive game.
Anyone how often will EB stores restock D2 orders? I was unable to get it from three local EB stores. :( Does Best Buys and CompUSA (too expensive) have them yet?
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Only 8 players per session as far as I know...
-Veldrane
Those are great games. But are there multiuser versions of some of them now? I think that's what makes Diablo and similar games so attractive (in addition to the graphics).
In case you haven't noticed, tons of people start big ambititous software products in Linux, but nobody follows through. I frequent linuxgames.com and happypenguin.com but I'm sick and tired of reading about this or that new project when 90% of them go unfinished. I just wish someone would do a -mildy- ambitious game and finish it, something along the lines of dragonwarrior 1 for the nes or something...
Frustrating? Definitely. Surprising? No.
I've been on the other side of the fence, involved in trying to produce a multi-scrolling beat-em-up as a collaboration over the web. And the one thing that kills off more projects than anything else is RealLife(TM). A lot of projects are started by students who have long summers to stir projects into life and get something going. And then they get jobs (in the case of my cohorts, that included jobs with Psygnosis) and any release of that software is suddenly off the cards. Sometimes that can be due to contractual obligations - most software companies require their employees to NOT work on projects similar to their actual employment. Some companies even go as far as 'Intellectual Carte Blanc' and say any software written by the employess is owned by the software company, regardless of the fact that it was written in the employee's weekends...
Contractual obligations aside, I see signs that projects which reach a critical momentum do not fall by the wayside. Good examples of open-source games which have reached fruition are Xpilot, Angband and it's many offspring and FreeCiv. There are many other 'small' games, such as the ones distributed with Gnome, and quite a lot of really pretty good card games.
So, if you are fed up of seeing games projects fall apart, the most useful thing you can do is locate a project which you think looks promising, and help it. This can be graphics, sound, music, suggestions, gameplay ideas, UI improvements. It's not just coding that makes a good game, so even if you don't want to offer programming skills, there is plenty that can be done in the way of support. To be honest, it's often a great help to the author to know that someone likes the project - feedback is often infrequent and patchy. If the author gets feedback, then the author usually feels that it is worth continuing. Maybe that is all that stands between some finished projects and the rest.
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 fuckin' luck... I'm moving and USWorst won't have my damn DSL moved until the 17th. Anyone know how successful a lawsuite for depriving me of Diablo 2 for two weeks would be? What would I sue for? Emotional damage?
sig this
Race out and buy Terminus. Not only does this badboy support Linux (*Ahem* after two patches, however), but it's darn fun. Graphics might not be on par with Freespace, but they're up there with Tachyon:TF (for any Bruce Campbell fans out there, this Windoze-only game is a must-have). The Newtonian Physics flight model is just too cool, I have to say. Haven't gotten too into the story mode just yet (a few routine patrol missions, mine-hunting, etc.) But it seems very promising.
You might want to rush out to whatever EB is handy; when I got mine, the clerk said they'd only gotten two copies in (now they have one! *grin*). She'd also never heard of the game and after taking one look at the box, said "Wow, this looks great! Why have I never heard of it?"
Oh, did I mention it supports Linux, 'doze and Mac out of the box?
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I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
Diablo was originally based on nethack, the designers have admitted this.
k /gnomehack.html
so here is a new linux version of that, Gnomehack:
http://www.xmission.com/~andersen/erik/gnomehac
If a game has no challange then it's NOT going to be played long by many people. It doens't have to be chessmaster to be challenging.
I found Diablo to get really boring really fast and now that i've learned that Diablo II is more of the same I'll skip it. Diablo II has huge advance sales I wonder how much it will get as reccomendations from players?
My question is why did something that's basicly an expansion pack take so long to release? And then release with a massive amount of crash bugs?
Actually, this is why I like Diablo/Diablo2. I love nethack, adom, etc. I play Rogue on my Palm. The thing that initially interested me about Diablo was the very nethack-ness of it. Combine the real-time and graphics with the multiplayer aspects, and you do have something that isn't just a re-packaging of the originals.
I agree. I think vampire has the opportunity (with all the java scripting) to be very cool. I've done a couple NPC re-skins so far, but I haven't had time (damn work) to get into changing game mechanics and disciplines.
:). I may pick it up off the cheap rack, but probably not, I didn't think Diablo 1 was all that great (and the beta didn't convince me otherwise about Diablo 2).
BTW, currently (6:50PM PST) the highest bid on a ebay collectors edition Diablo 2 is $99. Someone put one up for $250 but noone's buying. Personally, I think it's silly to spend an extra $50 on the "collector's edition". Sure, I bought the collector's Vampire: tM-R, but it was only like $8 more for the pre-order.
If you can't get it in the store, just wait, they'll make more
This is probably obvisous to most, but it took me a while to track down (mainly because blizzard sites has been sllloowww!
If your getting tired of battlenet crashes, "private" games can be set up on the net, if you have a NAT box you need to open/redirect PORT 4000 to the "host" computer. We played till 5am without a single crash! For hosting a game on battle.net you'll need to also open up 6112 through 6119 (both TCP/UDP). This info is from the FAQ on blizzards site.
Negative, is our characters don't show up on the ladder, but it was nice quality time with my brothers. . .
BTW, Necromancers rule. I love having a clay thug to beat up evil demons while I watch.
-MS2k
Ugh! Warcraft 1, and 2. Starcraft. Diablo. Now D2. When will Blizzard finally wake up and push for a simultaneous Mac/Windows release date? It used to be that they'd use the Mac version as a little extra profit boost after the fact, but now with the advent of the iMac and the crushingly fast G4, why can't Blizzard acknowledge the Mac as a legitimate gaming platform? Don't give me the FUD about Windows' user base, the Mac user base right now on June 29, 2000 is such that Blizzard could stand to make a nice profit given the obvious popularity of the windows stress test. if they had really wanted to win the hearts of all the gamers out there, they would have gotten in bed with Loki way back to get this thing out for Windows, Mac, and Linux all at once. I hereby pledge undying loyalty to any game company that can accomplish that.
It checked for 3dfx glide during install too.
A good portion of the stuff is done server side now, so it's much much much harder, if not impossible to use a trainer of any use,.
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Oh my god, Bear is driving! How can this be?
ADVENTURERS! - ANTIHERO FOR HIRE - CARDMASTER CONFLICT
I presume that was a troll, but I am replying anyway. I have always been of the opinion that it is much more fun to be a low level character and work your way up. Just like in D&D (roleplaying geek alert!), its actually more fun IMHO to play a low level character most of the time. (Thats the first time I've ever used IMHO! ACK!)
-Phredrick Dobbs
Emperor of the Universe
Grand and High Protector of Everything
-Phredrick Dobbs
Emperor of the Universe
Grand and High Protector of Everything
Diablo II is no more the same game than the might and magic games are all the same, or any other series games that actually keep a consistent game play style (unlike, say, final fantasy).
I for one am overjoyed that diablo II is sprite based. It seems like every game that comes out anymore is 3d, and personally i think sprites look Much better. They're pre-rendered so you don't have to worry about polygon counts, you can have way more frames of animation with less hardware usage, you can have more variety since sprites are nowhere near as big as 3d meshes, and i for one think the un-antialiased, low-poly, flat textured look of 3d games is just plain ugly.
And as for linear.. yeah, diablo and diablo II are linear.. so are pretty much all games to one extent or another. I like non-linear games as much as the next guy, but i like novels too.. and a well made, linear game can be just as involving as a linear novel.
But i digress. Different strokes for different folks and all. I like sprite-based graphics, i like diablo's gameplay, i like its multi-player (though i really prefer single player most of the time), and given the sales of the games apparently alot of people agree. That doesn't make me 'right', but don't slam the game for not being your cup of tea.
Dreamweaver
"If a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live" -- MLK, Jr.
As opposed to the game being no challenge at all?
The collectors edition comes with a DVD of the ingame cinematics and a copy of the AD&D Diablo rulebook (which you can buy seperately)
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Oh my god, Bear is driving! How can this be?
ADVENTURERS! - ANTIHERO FOR HIRE - CARDMASTER CONFLICT
Yes! Thank you!
Hey, is Blizzard HQ anywhere near Redmond? If so we can head over there after we're done with MS. Are you going to be joining us?
The "problem" you are encountering is probably a result of one of the popular anti-piracy CD hacks, which are incompatible with some drives. They put these in because most retail stores will order fewer (or no) copies of a game that doesn't have some kind of copy protection good enough to stop casual users.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
" I'm a level 10 Sorceress named CmdrTaco"
Now, we all know that some of the beta testers were supposed to get "CmdrTaco," "CmdrTac0," and all other variations on the spelling so that our good friend, Rob Malda, would have to register as George Washington an yet another online service.
Tsk!
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Apparently the patch is rather critical as it fixes several serious (i.e. they'll crash your box) bugs that must have somehow sneaked past the QA team. This is according to Computer Games Online. They have a short article on "first impressions" of the game in the "Quick Takes" section today.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
if it holds true to the multiplayer stress test, the max number of characters in a world at a time is 5 (i think. i'm not at home so i cant check).
anyway....this is not competing with UO, Everquest, AC, etc.
it's closer to competing with Neverwinter Nights and Vampire.
Darth --
Nil Mortifi, Sine Lucre
I was wondering by the office was so empty today...and now I know.
VMWARE, if you can deal with the speed decreases
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Insert Witty Sig Here
From Interplay and their studio, Black Isle, with an engine from Bioware, comes Icewind Dale, the latest AD&D RPG, a sort of follow up to Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast (the expansion pack).
If you want info on Diablo II mechanics, go visit www.diabloii.net. Enjoy "May the force be with you Luke!"
I'm sure they are, expansion release date #1 is set for 7/00 Postponed release #1 is set for 1/01 Postponed release #1 is set for 10/01 Postponed release #1 is set for 5/02 ... should see an expansion by the next presidential election.
I mean, what about quake, gameplay for it hasnt changed since quake 3 and all they did for that was take out the gameplay part.
Diablo II will be played for a long time, just like Diablo. The skill tree system makes for awesome char customizing. You can have all of your chars do something different. The game is great, even if the graphics look a bit dated. But then again, 2d probaly just dosent excite you.
Oh well, I'll play D2
-B
~...Don't trade our love for Tea and Sympathy~ - Jars of Clay
I'm all for linux games, but linux just is not ready for games yet. Until linux gets a stable API for gaming, it's not going to happen. Sure you can use DRI (which, is a wonderful step in the right direction) but hardware support is lacking, although nVidia's drivers work very well on Q3.
Stop complaining about not supportling linux games. Just face it, most games on linux suck ass. If i wanted to play Q3 at 15fps then I would use my P200.
-B
~...Don't trade our love for Tea and Sympathy~ - Jars of Clay
Oh good tao! They have to map the other buttons to the option and command keys! It might take a whole 5 minutes, if that! THANK you for showing WHY those companies always release Mac version so long after the PC versions.
I was a stress tester and let me tell you, the servers would go down every day, constantly. battle.net was NOT a haven...
:)
Of course, first thing ya notice is a new patch out already.
I saw CmdrTaco and said Hi... during the "Meltdown" he talks about. He went from level 10 to 8 for that crash he said. I did not seem to lose a darn thing. My wife did not either...
So anyone got quick ways of getting perfect gems?
AS TO The linux vs windows thing. I hate MS, but I have win98 on 2 of my 4 network computers.. It is very simple... the games are not out for linux yet, and when they do, I buy them. But until then, I gotta get my Age of Empires 2, Homeworld, Age of Wonders, Diablo 2 FIX... I jones for good games..
I play HOMM3 on linux
I can program myself out of a Hello World Contest!!
No. What he is saying is that if he buys windows games, then the demographics say 'well, we sold enough windows ones that we dont need to do a linux port, they all play it slowly through wine.' Whereas if he buys linux games, then those demographics start showing the people do buy games for linux, and there is a market. If nobody buys linux games, there will never be more.
So can someone please explain to me what exactly the appeal of Diablo is? What was the one thing that it did so incredibly well? And don't get mad--I'm by no means trying to ridicule those that liked Diablo, this is just the first game I've encountered in whicyh I genuinely can't understand the popularity.
I really wonder if it would have been so popular if it hadn't been for the loyalty that fans had for Blizzard as a result of the huge success of Warcraft II.
Looking for political forums? Check out "The World Forum".
All of the characters hacn't been built up properly so it's no fun. It's like D1 when everyone was cheating!
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A mind is a terrible thing to taste.
"A mind is a terrible thing to taste."
...they've removed the ability to cheat like one could in Diablo I. Then I might just have to play this beast.
Glad to see that Slashdot has seen a decline in productivity that parallels my own. Since getting the game yesterday lunchtime I have been trying to not get caught playing in my office (fast connection) whilst building my array of characters.
BTW CmdrTaco's choice of playing a female is not that unreasonable. If you want to use magic then there is not male magic user so a woman you must become. Of course, this only adds to the net history of men assuming women's identities, but that is another story.
See you on Battle.net
Solaristrum: One who has spent way too long staring at the Sun
You don't say and there's no link.... we're not all psychic you know.
Note that us foreigners don't get a look in as Blizzard decided to do an exclusive deal with Electronics Boutique, so exclusive that its Australian branch could not get copies of the collected edition.
I had an order through Chips and Bits website but they did not receive any due to this exclusive deal.
I would have ordered from EB's site if they had a sensible shipping rate to Australia, $50US flat rate granted this is probably per shipment.
Yeesh. Guess I'll settle for the standard edition. Once again the rest of the world comes off second best to the US.
Rant over.
/* Andrew Fong - rogue programmer */
I think everyone rushed to a computer store when they saw this article. All I see are trolls replying.
Intelligent Design Theory is not Creationism
It's worth noting that the patch came out several days ago. I can't think of another time when the patch was actually released ahead of the project (in the games biz, anyhow). What does that say about game S/W development?
I always new you had that crossdressing side! When are we gonna hook up?
I could see you and hemos in sequined dresses at the next Linux Expo!
#include caffiene.c
www.mp3.com/Undocumented
...and I don't even like computer games, aside from maybe Tetris or Freecell or Dope Wars, but hey whatever you kids wanna buy, I'll sell it to ya! hahaha
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
Or, at least, it was there when I was picking up a few new hubs for the suits around lunch time. ;) They (they being the store I went to in Sunnyvale) had a fairly large display filled with the game, so if you get there soon enough after work closes this evening, you can prolly get lucky. Game *was* going fast, though, so unless you got lucky, it's prolly too late.
Not to knock the Prey team but I thought I heard once that the sequel to Prey was released before the original (which isn't out yet, is it?)
Could someone clarify that for me?
-Vel
How likely is it that people who didn't preorder will get a copy? Should I even bother to try yet, or should I wait for the next pressing or what ever of CD's?
My roommate ran over to CompUSA (Austin, TX) and picked up two copies earlier this afternoon. He said that they had plenty left. YMMV
sure - the house of evil -aka fry's- got the regular edition on the shelves mid day today
if you want one of the 70000 collectors editions, i beleive that they were all presold - picked mine up yesterday. i hear its going for $100+ over cost on ebay already.
anyway, you probably ought to pick up your phone book and call first, unless you are just looking for an excuse to go to the store anyway.
good luck
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, Act 4, Scene 2
How much you want to bet we wont see a Diablo III till 2010?
--- Tulsa T. Nawi, On Display @ Shattered.com
Yeah, I like spending $50 for a game and then constantly getting an "insert CD message" just because the assholes who make the game hate their customers so much that they use a subchannel protection scheme that screws over a significant portion of users.
And once I finally got a hacked version that didn't have this problem, I'm playing it for a few hours thinking "this is what they spent the last three years working on?"
They should have called it Diablo 1.5 and released it a year and a half ago. Then it would have been a good game. I'm returning my copy and checking out IWD.
TCP = bad for network play.
TCP always sends packets in order, and doesnt drop any packets. If a packet is lost, its resent, and you have to just sit there and wait.
UDP has no error control. If it gets through, it gets through, if not, its lost. The packets are in no guaranteed order. It might sound bad, but TCP is much worse for real time gaming.
To me, 3D just isn't believable in a fantasy setting. I've never seen a 3d fantasy game that looked convincing as a fantasy setting. 3d works in a scifi setting but for some reason a warlock/wizard/skeleon etc. looks better as a well drawn sprite.
And, D2, it's cool. I like it. Not the graphics really, though they are pretty good for sprite-based animations. it's more the atmosphere. The music is pretty good too, reminds me of my old Castlevania days.
I logged in a HeMightBeDave instead.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Besides the fact that the games you describe aren't multiplayer, they're just not that interesting to look at. And this is coming from a guy who just spent a month playing Moria from work at slow times. So it's not that I don't like the old games, but they're really not in the same league.
"Prejudice is wrong; you should hate everyone the same."
SDL's well worth the bother (not that I've ever had any bother with it). Trust me. Particularly if you're a developer. Even if you have to compile SDL from source yourself, it's not too hard (ain't autoconf grand?)
Indeed, given the trouble it sounds like you've been having, it's probably well worth installing from source. You can find it at www.libsdl.org, btw.
What improvements does Icewind Dale have over Baldur's Gate? I know it uses BG's engine, but I'm hoping some improvements were made to the engine as well. If enough were made, I may get Icewind Dale.
Refrag
I have a website. It's about Macs.
That seems pretty stupid, considering they already have the unique CD-Keys for copy-protection.
Any retailer dumb enough to not want to sell a TON of Diablo II copies because of a lack of Copy Protection is only short-changing themselves.
In the tiny town of Cedar Falls, Iowa, Software, Etc. had 175 copies pre-ordered. I can't imagine the volumes sold in many bigger markets. Of course, this pales in comparison with the pre-orders of some consoles and their titles.
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When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. --Robert A. Heinlein
You have to be level 9 or above to declare hostility, so newbies under level 9 can not be attacked by other players.
The one thing that has sucked about network gaming for years and years is the dogged persistence programmers seem to have in using UDP for transmitting information.
My school (among others, I'm sure) blocks UDP and so I can never, ever, EVER play a network game on the Internet through my BROADBAND connection which is MORE than capable of handling the excess traffic produced by TCP headers. Pisses me off. There should be an option not to use it.
+++ATH0
Only weapons, sheilds, and helmets are socketed for gems. Some can hold up to 3 gems.
There's also some new armor (sash, boots) slots in inventory (at least I don't remember them being in D1).
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A mind is a terrible thing to taste.
"A mind is a terrible thing to taste."
Diablo II is a boring, primitive and crude hack of an online game. There are hundreds of MUDs with more advanced gameplay 5 years ago then Diablo II/2 has after 4 years of development. I would rather be playing a text based MUD then diablo II (which is in 640x480). Atleast it would be challenging and stimulating.
These dumbed down types of games will continue to persist due to the majority of people never having the opportunity to play a challenging online RPG. Let's face it, Diablo II is nothing but a competition of collecting the best equip and most experience. And that is determined by how much time you spend mind numbingly attacking the same monsters over and over again.
Don't waste your time playing Diablo II/2.
Kevin Landstrop Senior Blizzard Marketing Director
Apparently the patch can, in some cases, ruin your single player save game. Patch early.
A note on the patch, it has been reported that it may delete your single-player characters when you apply it. GO HERE for the story on the patch. I've heard the problem is intermittent...and besides...who plays Diablo in SP anyway?
Karma: Non-existant. Due mostly to the fact that you smell funny and nobody likes you.
Aha! Now we know the real reason Slashdot has been so flaky the past day or so....
b7
All but God can prove this sentence true.
Huh? I had mine preordered for months (ebworld)
Oh no! You mean I have to wait until Q3 to get my copy? Everyone's going to be high-level by then. (Even worse, they might get tired of the game.)
Hopefully the insanity will have died down in time for the Macintosh release.
It would be nice if companies actually started releasing Mac and PC versions simultaneously. I guess that would be too much to ask though, right? Oh well, back to my Alpha Centauri.
I read somewhere on the battle.net support forums that the network code in Diablo 2 uses TCP, so maybe that's fixed. (I can't find the reference right now because their search page is broken...) I look forward to trying to play multiple machines over my cable modem, using my Netgear Gateway Router (RT311).
In Diablo, if you and a friend, running over the same connection (using a single IP address and NAT) joined the same game, you couldn't see each other. Other players (on other connections) could see both of you, but it was like you were playing in different games. Monsters I killed didn't die in her game, etc.
I hope this is fixed in Diablo 2. Note to game developers: Many of us run behind NAT! Use TCP or die!
--
My word processor was written by Stanford Professor Donald Knuth. Who wrote yours?
(Or maybe my perspective is a little warped because I rented Chasing Amy again last week...)
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
It is nice to see Rob and the Gang supporting the Linux version(s) of these popular games by going right out and contributing their $50 to the windows version sales, then promptly booting up That Other OS and helping to overload Blizzard's servers. Glad to see you've got integrity, guys.
I hadn't yet installed it when I wrote that (I had just gotten back from the mad dash to buy it). The engine seems almost identical. Some differences I've noticed: (1) Walking speed now 50% faster. Whew. That was the most annoying thing about BG. (2) Loading/Saving faster, but loading puts you into a "character maintenance" screen (to like, drop people from your party) instead of into the game directly, so loading isn't really faster. But saving is. Otherwise, things seem the same. Of course, there's more level/spells/etc. Oh, and they slowed down the rate of fire on missile weapons, probably a good idea since a whole party armed with slings and arrows could mow down anything before it got near them.
Oh Oh Oh, you think that's bad? ;)
Try having 2.6gigs of Baldur's Gate madness on your hard drive for the past few weeks/months. I can't wait for BG 2 personally, THAT will be a kickass RPG. The storyline and quests of BG were the best I've seen.
Dual
Boot
Almost all Linux users also use MICROS~1 boxes. Get over it and move on with your life.
I'm a freakin' Macintosh bigot, and I have two Windows systems (one of which is about to become a SCO UNIX box), a Linux PC, a G3 that boots into OS8.6 and LinuxPPC, and an old PowerBook Duo that I take everywhere and beat the hell out of.
Some of us have grown up a little from the days of Holy Wars and just want to use the best tool for the job. When the best tool is Linux, that is what I will use.
If M$ wants to charge me a C-Note for their OS, and I want to play a game that runs on their OS, I will buy it. You can scream all you want about how I'm not 31337 enough because I'm not a "pure" FSF freak, but I really don't give a crap.
Here endeth the rant.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Though I've yet to get a copy of Diablo 2 (sold out too damn quick :), I played around with Far Stone Tech's Virtual Drive 2000 Personal Edition and found that it worked great for the original Diablo, which also reads nearly everything from the CD. I'd assume it will work just as well for Diablo2. Price for a single computer license is about $35.
yes, there is a "hostile mode" now, and you get a warning when someone is approaching in hostile mode. You can only go hostile in town, and town portals disappear for them. also, you don't have the option to go hostile until you are at least level 9.
ryoma
http://dreaming.sempai.org
Unlike many MMORPG's, which offer each race/class in both sexes, Diablo's character classes specify whether you will be male or female. There is no 'sorceror' counterpart to the sorceress, so (assuming she was chosen for her spellcasting abilities) Taco probably just wanted to cast some kickass spells...
Why did Blizzard only release Diablo 2 on 3 CD's? DVD-ROM drives are probably on 95% of all new computers. I'm not so sure I want to get it on 3 CD's... swap, swap, swap. I'd rather just have a DVD.
Refrag
I have a website. It's about Macs.
That's just a fact of Net-life. Get used to it. It's called Diablo 2, not Utopia 2.
Refrag
I have a website. It's about Macs.
It's a shame that both Diablo II and Icewind Dale are being released at the same time. I think a lot of people that would otherwise find IWD incredibly entertaining will never see it. I for one will dedicate these next few weeks (months?) to building up all SIX of my IWD characters, and leave D2 for this fall (in that calm before Christmas).
IWD isn't as pure a hack-n-slash as Diablo, but any D&D fan should check it out!
http://www.interplay.com
Instead of supporting Blizzard and their franchise, you could check out some great opensource projects that Blizzard basically repackaged, made real-time, added fancier graphics, and sold to Joe Consumer.
Rogue is the grandaddy of everything. Including Diablo. See where it all began.
Angband is my favorite Rogue-like. It has incredible depth, hundreds of monsters, and hundreds of magical items. #angband on Othernet usually has at least one developer in it.
There are also a number of Angband variants such as Zangband and Pernband. Zangband even includes a multitude of quests, for those who like a little story-line to their dungeon crawls. These can all be found at the Angband link above. Graphical Tcl versions of Angband also exist, for the graphics-needy.
Others include Nethack (a light-hearted, often humorous Rogue-like), ADOM , and Moria
So, instead of marching to your local EB, why not download one of these (I heartily recommend Angband) free games and save the 40$ that Diablo 2 would cost you? You could even contribute to the project, play with the source, or add your own monsters, items, and spells. Have fun!
In case you haven't noticed, tons of people start big ambititous software products in Linux, but nobody follows through. I frequent linuxgames.com and happypenguin.com but I'm sick and tired of reading about this or that new project when 90% of them go unfinished. I just wish someone would do a -mildy- ambitious game and finish it, something along the lines of dragonwarrior 1 for the nes or something...
Sigs are awesome huh?
Actually, as one of the beta stress testers, I can tell you it IS a signifigantly different game. It's a MUCH larger world, it has 3 new character classes, and it actually has a plot, with a backstory and the whole nine yards.
All in all, Diablo II is a far superior game to the original, in graphics, sound, plot, playability, lack of cheats, and a whole slew of new abilities. I don't really remember alot of people complaining about Quake III because it was the same game as DOOM...
Grr! Stupid lameness filters.
--
--
The geeks shall inherit the earth.
I've wasted so much time and money helping out naked wood elves. I know they're all played by creepy middle-aged men, but... they're just so cute!
MSK
The reason he chose this character is for the spell casting abilities of the Sorceress over other characters. There is no male sorcerer to choose, unless you count the necromancer. You should really check out this guide for characters (anyone who is playing), but be forewarned, this is based around the beta, so it may have changed for the normal game:
Diablo2 Character Guide
According to this, I'd choose the Sorceress for her skills and for her ass. Whoops.
One thing I couldn't find on the web pages is if there's 3d support in Windows NT. Any comments?
If you look on the little yellow troubleshooting note that came with the game. It says "Some Kenwood drives may have problems, check out http://www.blizzard.com/support/ for the solution"
Guess who has one of those Kenwood drives? Guess who can't install the game? There's no info there pertaining to the problem, and an e-mail to their tech support 4 hours ago hasn't produced a response yet.
Meanwhile, I'm now installing the game from my CD-RW drive. It only writes at 2X, I'm hoping it reads faster than that, or that the full install doesn't use the CD much.
If all else fails, I'm going to have to yank my Kenwood 52X and put in a DVD-ROM drive I brought home from work. I was a closed beta tester for this game, and I had the same problem then. Why didn't Blizzard fix this? No other CD has problems with my drive.
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When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. --Robert A. Heinlein
I'm not getting Diablo 2 until they make it for my Palm III!
Ben Chadwick - Editor, Zero Future/Post-Collegiate Malaise
Does anybody remember Wasteland? You're probably all too young to remember what is STILL one of the best RPGs ever written (and also credited with the introduction of NPC's). Not exactly a linear story, but rudimentary sprite-based graphics... The point is, graphics ain't shite. Nethack is better than 99% of the crap they've been spewing the last few years.
Also, along the same lines, Britney Spears sucks. You might hear me go "wooo!" with my bare midriff shakin' at the Blood, Sweat & Tears concert though...
Oops... I seem to have talked at more length than I intended... this age-22 old-timer does tend to ramble on.
Ben Chadwick - Editor, Zero Future/Post-Collegiate Malaise
There is a pretty good majority that want Windows only games in their own catagory
First off, the tag line says, "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters". Diablo is a game very popular with "Nerds", hence the release of Diablo2 after so long a wait is definitely "News".
Second: I've been reading Slashdot pretty religiously for the past 3 months now, and this article, along with the one posted when Diablo2 went Gold, are the only articles I can remember that dealt with a Windows only games. There have probably been a couple more I missed, but they are very few and far between.
But most don't back up our words with our pocket books and rush out and buy games on the first day that will never see the light of day on anything else but Windows
Well, good point: if you really want to see a Linux port of a game that badly, you should be willing to live without the game. But to me, that's taking things a little too seriously. I mean, it's a game: it's supposed to be fun. Why should I let a hatred of Windows keep me from some Diablo2 gaming goodness. And it is gaming goodness, chock full of creamy nouget and rich caramel. I just got done with a nice little 8 hour romp, and I can already tell this game is going to eat every spare minute of my life.
jeez, that site asked me if i wanted to allow it to set a cookie like 20 times (literally!)... blah :/
eudas
Blessed is he who expects the worst, for he shall not be disappointed.
*chuckle*
A whole 3 months, eh? Welcome to the terrordome...
Most of the people who are complaining about separate categories are the people who want fine-grained control over censoring JonKatz or any other semi-controversial topic that might trouble them from their busy days of composing slashdot/Everything2 articles.
A side note to the complainers: Does anyone remember what the hell this place was like in 1998? Filtering? Are you kidding? It's supposed to be random-ass crap that someone may/may not think is interesting. If you don't like it, feel free to ignore it. It's not up to Rob to provide mechanisms for you to filter the "icky" stuff out of your daily reading. He did (and does) this because he thinks it's fun, and cool, nothing more, nothing less.
[end of love-it-or-leave-it rant]
And they will never port to other platforms if there is no demand. If Linux users start installing windows on an extra hd just to play Diablo II then that reduces the damand for a Linux port. Why spend money and resources porting to a platform if the users of that platform are willing to switch over to the currently supported platform to play it???
blah.. who cares... boo.. what is so great about this silly game? g
The whole random dungeon layout thing really bothers me. While it technically adds 'infinite' variations for gameplay, I prefer to hack and slash in a dungeon or realm which has some semblance of coherency, history and intention behind it. Diablo is good at simulating this, but sometimes it's too damn easy to see the 'randomness' at work.
**>>BELCH
Simple. I suck at games that require 20 keys combinations to do anything. I grew up with Space Invaders, Donkey Kong and Gallager. One stick, one buton (Defender was to complex for me ;) ).
Diablo is simple, Slash 'n Dash fun. No *real* skill required. I even managed to finish it.
Anyway I have just started playing Baulders Gate. I will send an update in a couple of years once I finish...
b
[Please type your sig here.]
Yeah, I saw the 3 disk sets of Diablo II here in St. Petersburg for 160-180 rubles (approx. $6). Gonna give it a try.
Why, yes. There is a multiplayer version of Angband, the Tolkein-themed Roguelike variant. On the web at mangband.org
-- The Theorem Theorem: "If if, then then."
[No sarcasm below, even if implied by posting style and mimicry of previous poster] ... the C compiler. Most standard C code should successfully compile (ha!) and run in the game.
I dunno if it's just me, but after a while these attempts to make RPG type games look "modern" just get boring for me. I think I'll just stick to NetHack 3.3.0 (tho I do hope they release the 'next version' in which everything is 'fixed' soon). Games are much more fun with an RNG running things and controlling the appearance of the whole bloody game universe. That and NH is much more flexible when it comes to game mods (assuming you don't mind trudging through a huge wad of K&R C). There are dungeon and level compilers out (part of the source build actually)...
The C programming language is a derivative of BCPL, another programming language, with a number of special evil memory allocation calls that allow interaction with
Zahlman Q. Namlhaz, esq. {:> "Zahl Incorporated - the Last Word in Everything(TM)"
Two points I want to make.
1) There is a pretty good majority that want Windows only games in their own catagory. Windows only games are something that's mentioned alot and there should be it's own icon. Picture of a Sidewinder maybe, or that "pc cd-rom" symbol that is on Windows game packaging. Quake has it's own section, other specialized things have their own. The same should hold true for Windows only games such as Diablo 2.
2) Nice to hear the vast majority of the Slashdot crowd supporting Windows only games. What better way to show that you want Linux ports of games then ot rush out and get Windows games the day they come out.
I respect that people run Windows and they buy games for their platform. But most of us run linux, FreeBSD, etc. and want games for OUR os. But most don't back up our words with our pocket books and rush out and buy games on the first day that will never see the light of day on anything else but Windows.
Do I have "sour grapes" over what games are avaliable for Linux over Windows? No. I'm happy with Sim City 3k Unlimted, Solider of Fortune, Quake 3, Unreal Tourney, and the load of other fine games that will apear on shelves for linux this year. These are the games that will get my gaming dollars.
All those that support Windows gaming will get a reward. It will be more Windows games. My reward for supporting Linux games is that there will be many ohter Linux games to purchase. Most of the slashdot readership WANTS more linux ports of games. Show that support by not buying Windows only games, and spend it on a game for your platform.
There seems to be some indications that it's just for those with lingering beta files lying about, and not those doing fresh installs.
Voting Moo Anyway!
Diablo 2 hits the shelves...and the FTPs and Warez Sites! I knew a friend was downloading the game from an FTP before I knew it was available for purchase. (Okay I really didn't care when it came out, but I still plan to play for hours on end).
Very popular, long awaited game. I think its going to be one of the more slower downloads, as everyone is going to want it.
"Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality." -Jules de Gautier
Never underestimate the power of a pointy rock.
and if you play games like this, you'll end up LIVING IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER!
I find it doubtful that this will become the best selling PC game in history.
When the first diablo and doom came out there really wasn't a whole lot of other games like them before. So if new people wanted to play a game *like* the aforementioned well they didn't have a choice.
The market is a lot bigger and varied now and people have more choices in the genre of RPGs. One such example is the recently released Ice Wind Dale which is sure to attract all the people who bought Buldar's Gate(sp?) which sold incredibly well.
The game will sell well, this was guranteed by the blizzard brand name alone, but best selling game in history? doubtful, but only time will tell.
Damn it. My DSL won't be ready for anotehr four weeks, at least. And the network at the office blocks UDP. God damn, I feel left out!
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seumas.com
well its massive in that a lot of people will be playing it at any given moment. but each game is limited to 8 players at a time. Your online characters are saved server side so each time you come back to the game you can still build up your character(s). Things such as saved items and completed quests also carry over. One thing that ruined the original for me was the over abundance of cheating, server side character storage should help. So they will avoid the common pitfalls of MMORPGS by simply not being one but still having so many of characteristics that make them fun.
Well considering that Blizzard already has sold 1.5 million copies just with the pre-order and my estimate that at least another million will get bought in the first month, thats more then halfway to the 4 million mark, and theres still 3 months to go till september.
Remember, though, that Hellfire wasn't made by Blizzard but by Sierra.
Is there a conversion table somewhere? Or a dictionary of common "WeirdNumberReplacingLetters" words?
try to make ends meet, you're a slave to money, then you die
Since they weren't in the story...
http://www.blizzard.com/
http://www.blizzard.com/diablo2/
And there's already even a patch 1.01: .com/support/diablo2/information/patch.shtml
http://www.blizzard
--
"Those who would sacrifice essential liberty for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Diablo II is very late - and nothing new. The game is the same, the play is near the same - and unless they have unveiled a SUBSTANTIALLY larger world - pointless.
The game employs features that have been around for ages, is sprite based, and has a very linear gameplay. BORING.
Now pool of radiance seems to be the better fit for yall ex nethacks... Remember when RPG/Fantasy games actually enthralled you with a story.
I am absolutley amazed at how Diablo II can even sell. It is obvious that ppl are getting it just because they liked Diablo (which was goodfor its time - um... 1995!!!)
rant rant rant
5 years WAY too late. I mean, UO had better gameplay/everything and it was released in 97....
At the local Fry's (the Silicon Valley Geek supermarket), they were selling Diablo II for the astounding price of $59.99
Not sure if this is Fry's trying to rip me off or Blizzard.
But if it's Blizzard, let's consider some eerie resemblance between Diablo II and any Win XX release ... Both are priced much higher than competitors (I believe most PC games sell for under $39.99) Both are released much later than their original release date Both have serious bugs that require patches that must be downloaded from the Net Both require a huge amount of Hard Drive space (I think Diablo II requires anywhere from 600 MB to 1.5 GB !!!) Both are hyped beyond belief and will no doubt fail to meet expectations Both are not much of an improvement over the previous version ... just bigger with some more 'features' Both will result in the loss of much office productivity (although in the case of Diablo II, it's "voluntary" and comes with less frustrations)
Maybe there are more similarities?
I thought I totally made up "Vishak" as well and that it was totally original.Turns out it's a very common Indian name. Go figure.
Intelligent Design Theory is not Creationism
I have a pint of beer that says Diablo 2 becomes the best selling PC game in history, by end of September. I'm obviously biased by the stress test, but any takers on a bet?
Kudos to Blizzard for finishing the game (finally) even if they lost several of the core guys to startups. Lookin' good, too.
Tidbit of semi-useless information; in Japan it's apparently illegal to publish role playing games on weekdays as the number of sickdays become a big issue in the promised land of the otaku.
Jouni
--
Jouni Mannonen : 3D Evangelist @ SurRender3D.com
Jouni Mannonen | Game Designer, Consultant
oops - forgot pool of radiance link:
http://www.poolofradiance.com
-- $SIGNATURE
There's no game there, but there's two isometric tile engines for WorldForge, namely uclient and anvil as well as a couple 3d clients too. Free for anyone to use for their own games (they have no game-specific code in them, WF is more of a toolbox for RPGs, with a med/fan world as its flagship implementation). And the art is better than anything else I've seen in an open-source game.
<plug>WF could always use artists, writers, graphics and AI coders, etc. Go on over there and check it out.</plug>
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
True, true. There are always games like Ultima Ascension, Planescape Torment, Baldur's Gate, etc. There are always quality games out there, they just don't sell that well. The one bonus of that is that all the deep, enthralling, quality games usually end up in the bargain bin. Curse of Monkey Island anyone?
I tried Diablo a while back, and the most annoying thing (apart from the erternal servercrashes) was those bastard Gee-I'm-So-Cool-And-Dangerous-That-I-Can-Kill-Newb ie-Players Morons.
So after 2 days I stopped playing, it just wasn't fun..
Has anything been done to address this issue?
Bjarne
I think it all depends on how close you are to the distribution center. I got my copy yesterday (the 28th) from Babbage's in the S.F. area (close to Blizzard North) They only had copies of the C.E. for preorders though, and it was only $10 more for it. I thought it was worth it to get the soundtrack cd and dvd of the cinematics...
I wouldn't be reading /. if any of the diablo 2 realms would stay up consistently. Even Rob only took time out for a quick post.
Honestly, if i were blizzard, and i had sold 1.5 million copies, i would be damn sure that i had enough servers to handle 1.5 million concurrent connections. It really damages the initial user experience when you can't play your brand new character on your brand new game (which you are required to do for 2 hours in the first 2 days or it's deleted). I hope the server down time only represents a momentary lapse and will not be come a characteristic of the game.
Bryan Klingner, MCSE, MCP+I
I kept procrastinating on the pre-order, and me and three other guys drove to a city an hour away to get our copies. There was Diablo 2 promo stuff everywhere, and that's all anyone was talking about. I've been playing for about two hours...in utter bliss. =) Just wanted to say I love the game.
Try www.babbages.com - I only JUST ordered mine - $64.99 with 2nd Day FedEx for $2.95
--
Rogue(n): 1. One who is playfully mischievous;
I dunno I thought Vampire got a little old .. maybe it was the interface that bugged me. There were too many ways to mis click and drain your teamates blood while getting wacked in a big fight.
I have to agree though the Storytelling stuff is cool, but I think I'll wait for the freedoms that a game like Neverwinter Nights should offer. Until then Diablo2 has gotten me much more addicted than Vampire did.
-Bort
Since the majority of users out there are windows users, a linux community boycott of Diablo 2 would not send a clear message to Blizzard. Even if they did notice that sales were below the expected amount, they would attribute it to inadequate advertising, inherent flaws in gameplay, or something else. They would point to their windows-only offering after they had exhausted all other possibilities.
I think the real solution is for everyone to buy linux games. Once big companies see that sales are decent for linux, they will allow Loki to port (or port themselves).
Blizzard can get on with its legions of fans spending countless dollars on its incredible games. 1.5 million were preordered. 1.5 million .
They will eventually port it to Linux (via their extraordinary and friendly staff, or thrgouh another channel, like Loki), as I have read, and can afford to. If you don't want to play an extremely high quality game, fine, don't buy or warez it. But Blizzard won't be crying about not satisfying the Open Source OS crowd immediately when they have already presold 1.5 million copies. They'll be smiling. On giant piles of money.
By the way, I've heard Warcraft 3 will be released on all OSes at once (Linux, Mac, Windows). This is just a rumor, however.
As to quote or paraphrase another poster's insight "It says news for nerds." not "News for Linux/BSD/Unix Zealots who have nothing better to do than make fun of Microsoft and Windows".
And finally, here's the Diablo II Character Guide for those who didnt catch my Anonymous Coward post above.
I have two computers currently setup at home.
(1) 600MHz P3 w/ 128MB RAM & GeForce 256
(2) 233MHz P2 w/ 96MB RAM & Voodoo 3 2000 PCI
Diablo 2 doesn't f'ing work on #1!!! I run through the two logos and the opening movie, and get 'static' instead of the main menu.
It runs fine on #2. Damn, WTF?!? Anyone else have this problem?
Refrag
I have a website. It's about Macs.
Diablo II seems to be high on the list of games that Linux users want to see ported, and that Loki wants to port. I'd certainly buy this game if it were ported to Linux. Heck, I'm still trying (off and on) to get the original Diablo to run under WINE. Anybody heard any juicy rumors about possible ports?
Save us, Lokisoft!
Joe Sixpack is dead!
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
I suppose that doesn't mean you can't still gnash your teeth and shake your fists at them though.
How likely is it that people who didn't preorder will get a copy? Should I even bother to try yet, or should I wait for the next pressing or what ever of CD's?
Fawking Trolls!
"Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion." - Jed Babbin
Single player works quite well... I'm playing both a multi-player game and a single player to see the differences. The big deals are:
- Can't switch characters from multi-player to single-player and vice-versa. BUT, you can play a TCP/IP game (LAN or whatever) with a single-player character.
- Single-player is immune to the whims and crashes of Battle.Net.
- You can save your character in multi-player and quit the game, but when you come back, the dungeons are all different (randomly generated of course)
Multi-player is really for people who want to play together online and trade weapons and fight against Player Killers.
-- Creativity knows no medium
I dunno if it's just me, but after a while the gameplay in Diablo/Diablo II just gets boring for me. I think I'll just stick to Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption and it's wonderful Storytellers mode. Games are much more fun with a ST/DM type running things and controlling NPCs. That and VtMR is much more flexible when it comes to game mods. There's a SDK out that allows you to make new levels, templates, even a scripting language that lets you change almost anything in the game or add your own code.
The Codex scripting language is a derivative of Java, a programming language, with a number of special native function calls that allow interaction with the game engine. Most standard Java code should successfully compile and run in the game.
This post sponsored by Ninja Burger. "
From what I understand, they've removed the ability to cheat if you're a "Realm" character..
"Realm" characters are stored on Diablo's servers, so you can't edit them... For the people who want their characters stored on their own computers, there is nothing stopping you from cheating this way.
One thing to note, the two character types are not allowed to adventure together (ever), so you don't have to worry about someone hacking their non-realm character to get Godly Plate of the Whale, then giving that to a realm char.
All in all, looks like a nice tradeoff to me..
In my experience -- If it's an AC, it's meant to be a troll; If they're logged in, it's meant to be funny.
How embarassing for Blizzard - For the last two weeks of the Stress Test, there were routinely 35-45,000 persons online playing with very few crashes, and lag was negligable. Now, the game servers take a snooze with 1.5 million paid customers and a weekend looming ahead? Ouch! Someone's beeper is going off!
THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.
Everyone who skipped work to play Diablo 2 has been fired. The firings will continue until office morale improves. If you skipped work today, don't bother going in tomorrow!!
Homer: Woohoo! Four day weekend!
Ben Chadwick - Editor, Zero Future/Post-Collegiate Malaise
"way more frames of animation" == WAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY more memory for sprites.
Each frame is a rendering of the sprite, multiplied by (bits of color / 8) bytes. Suppose you have 500 frames of animation for a 32x32x16 character. That's one megabyte of memory, roughly, for a _tiny_ character. You want 1000 frames of animation? 2 megs of memory. And so on.
All of a sudden, 3D meshes don't look so bad after all.
Wherever there's a will, there's a motorway.
Angband actually makes my 486 laptop useful =)
To whom are you referring when you talk about _us_? I think it quite arrogant to think you can speak for the whole of the /. reading community.
Personally, I love linux and I do pay extra respect to software companies that develop for multiple platforms, but I don't hate companies that choose not to do so. And I don't feel that I need to be branded a traitor to the linux movement because I don't boycott Diablo 2 on principle. I am not that petty.
The reality is that Blizzard is one of the largest game companies out there, and sorry to say it but the fact that Blizzard is a BUSINESS means that judgement calls are made regarding what platforms to support and when. I am sure that everyone, including many people within Blizzard itself, would love for every new game released to be on windows,linux,mac,be, etc., but unless they can convince the people at the top whose primary concern is the bottom line, we are booting into windows to play Diablo II. And I hate to break it to you but most of the people at the top are not programmers and could give two shits how many platforms are supported as long as the profit margin is maximized.
Life sucks, get a f**king helmet.
-Dennis Leary
But on the plus side, Norrath could be quite quiet over the weekend, with blow-out sales to follow during the Sunday markets. Mmmm. Quiet...
--sugarman--
Yes and no.
:P
My point was really that Diablo II is a failure already. They should have called it: Diablo: millenium edition. It is the same game - but they spent all their time taking out all the cheats (good)
But that is why they lost so many ppl - who wants to work on the SAME GAME for 7 years....
For the amount of time they put into this and what you get, it shows that all the best game devs work somewhere else
So I guess CmdrTaco is one of the 50% of guys that like to play as females in games. Or maybe he just likes to dress up in women's clothes and act powerful? By the way, is this a MMORPG? I didn't play the original Diablo but heard it was a lot of fun. Just wondering how they plan to avoid the common pitfalls of MMORPGs if it is...
God Fucking Damnit
Some time ago, there was a story on Slashdot that dealt with Men Playing as Women, as I see CmdrTaco is now doing. Here's a quick list of some possible reasons why the commander is playing a female...
Now, given that request for amulets, I'd have to say he's playing a sorceress for that last reason there. So all you guys out there playing male characters -- might I suggest you make Taco work for those items by forcing him to flirt outrageously with your characters before you give him anything?
Yup - played it, played the beta stress tests etc...
its an ok game. but I was just expecting more out of it. So - guess I cant complain too much - I mean, its not their fault that they were too little too late.
looks like most buy it for the fact that it is D2 - not cuz it is the latest and greatest.
I'd suppose they are already working on expansion packs for diablo 2 .... like Hellfire for Diablo 1..... does anyone know anything aboit it??
I wonder why we haven't seen a isometric graphical roguelike for Linux yet. I don't reckon it'd be all that hard to code one. UO was OK except they dropped Linux support and we were basically paying to beta test for them anyway. Worldforge seems to be making good progress, but I'm not entirely certain how to classify them yet (Are they a roguelike?) and it looks like they'll be in development for a while yet.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?