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).
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.
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.
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.
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!
---
--
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
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).
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!!
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".
For example, if you click on an item in your inventory, there's a noticeable delay as (presumably) their server is contacted to verify the action. Then there's another delay when you drop the item in its new location.
In addition, you can only play online with special 'secure' characters, every facet of which is also controlled by the server. With all items and characters being controlled centrally like this, I'd say it will be very difficult to fabricate your own mega-magic items or characters, since none of this information is actually authoritatively stored on your own PC.
It's a tossup for me: do I wait to see if the expoits continue in the sequel, or do I rush out and buy it so I can play before the cheats come out?
Oh what, Windows only, you say? Cough. I don't pay money to reboot.
A kick ass multiplayer video game, the sucessor to Diablo.. Basically you run around in a dungeon trying to kill "Diablo"s current incarnation.. The graphics were (are?) a bit cheesy, reminding me of Fallout2. But the orig rocked my ass off, and this one will too! Get yerself a copy and enjoy calling in sick fer the next three days!!
.sig: Now legally binding!
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
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
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.
Seriously, if you want to see more Linux games, then you had better hope that Linux market share goes way up, because the game companies will always run with the herd.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
I logged in a HeMightBeDave instead.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
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.
---
When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. --Robert A. Heinlein
Apparently the patch can, in some cases, ruin your single player save game. Patch early.
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.
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.
(Or maybe my perspective is a little warped because I rented Chasing Amy again last week...)
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
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.
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!
There's a bit of a political issue. I'm only interested in supporting games that run under Linux with my hard earned dollar. This way, I can play Linux games in the future. This is common sense and logical in theory, but in reality, it takes some actual willpower.
I will warez and borrow Windows-only games, and purchase them when they become available under Linux.
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
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.
---
When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. --Robert A. Heinlein
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
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.
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.
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!
---
seumas.com
I'm assuming you're a techie.
You would love it!! The pay is substandard, the hours are longish, but when was the last time you got to play video games on a half million dollar machine?? Or take a $90,000 Compaq home for the week to make sure it was 'up to snuff'?? Or do things to a powered S80 that would make hardened IBM engineers blush? Or juggle $150,000 processor plates from an IBM 370 mainframe?
Nuff said.
.sig: Now legally binding!
The only political issue would be the purchase of Windows to run the game; The game companies could care what platform they wrote the game for, as long as they could sell it.
Using Wine to keep cash out of the pockets of Gates & Company is not poiltical. It's the right thing to do.. Pirating Win32 games does nothing to improve the situation, it's just wrong.
.sig: Now legally binding!
Well, there were about 100,000 testers in the stress test, and as far as I know none of them figured out how to cheat... I'd say this game is fairly cheat-proof if you ask me. All your character info is stored server-side rather than client-side, so it's not a matter of "decode the file format then hack your char to your heart's content" like in Diablo 1.
-colin
-Colin
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....
WINE
Seriously.. I'd betcha WINE runs it..
CmdrTaco?!?
Cowboy Neil?!?!
Someone cycle their dual-Xeon back into Linux and check for us!
.sig: Now legally binding!
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
-- $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.
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.
It doesn't even start for me - I don't think the copy protection likes the add on ATA-66 controller my dvd drive is hooked up to.
--
Email address is real.
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. "
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
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?
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?