Diablo 3: "Diablo 3 Beta"
Posted: Thursday September 22nd, 2011
by
I mentioned yesterday that I had installed Diablo 3 Beta, but had not played it. That changed last night. True to form I selected a barbarian and got to work. Even with graphics turned down (my computer isn't the race horse it used to be) the game is gorgeous. And -keeping in mind that I've never played the previous Diablo titles- the gameplay appealed to me.
After about 2.5 hours I'd finished up the first major quest line. The game then congratulated me for "completing the Diablo 3 Beta". Indeed that's all there currently is to the Beta: the first major quest line. I would imagine that this was done to focus beta testing efforts on a key section of the game to keep bug reports and the like manageable. I'll certainly be running through again with one of the other classes. I'll keep you guys up to date on how things are going.
There's currently no NDA. So I can share screenshots, videos, etc. If there's anything you guys want to see/know, just fire away. I'll do my best to get the screenshots/details to you.
There was one other thing that came up that made my face grumpy:
The always-on[line] requirement bit me early and gave weight to every grumble I've lobbed at it before now. About three levels in the server kicked me off complaining about my connection. When I logged back in I was still the same level with all of the same gear and cash, but all of the quest I'd done had reset themselves. So I had to run back through them to get back to where I was before the boot. Sure it was a lot easier being several levels higher and better equipped. But it was still annoying.
Before you say it, Yes I know it's beta. But my issue wasn't with the quests glitching and resetting. It was with the connection to the server being lost and thus rendering the game unplayable until I was back online. This is still, in my mind, completely ridiculous. And Blizzard should know better than to try to force an always-on DRM method.
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