Blizzard Launches Free Open Beta Weekend for Diablo III

[Justinf79]

Well after playing for about a combined 7hrs of gameplay, I think I'm going to end up getting the game. I only played as the barb and wizard, though I wish I had more time to try them all.

Played on low settings(high sound though) with Low FX disabled and my MP with the GT120 got 20-30FPS. Not too bad, but I think I'm going to get a new vid card sometime next month. I doubt Apple will have anything new out by then, so I'm stuck with the now 2 gens behind $450 5870 (way too much to buy), or perhaps a PC version of the 6870 (and do with out the boot screen).

 

[manPrime]

I played as demon hunter mostly. i'm a sucker for dual wielding, and dual wielded crossbows is a no brainer. awesome!

Yeah the DH was pretty good, i just prefer to close enough to see the fear in my enemies eyes before i kill them .

The blue post at the end explains it very well. A shield is certainly useful for a caster as well.
http://www.diablowiki.net/Spells#Spell_Damage

Ahh thanks, i was confused about this too.

 

[the8thark]

Kinda looks like the same old crap, tbh.

But a decent Mac client is still good news.

You disappoint me. That's not like your usual good posting here. If the game is not for you so be it. But it's not just the same old crap.

 

[Shivetya]

It's a stress test. Everyone in the world was trying to log on at the same time (except Korea and a few random Asian countries). The only other time the servers should be that bombarded is launch day. Now there's a whole month to optimize or beef up the servers. It'll be fine come launch.

You miss my point, having to have any connection to play the game is wrong if I am merely playing at home. I travel and at times I do not have access to WiFi or WiFi I trust. Will this mean I cannot use the game then?

 

[Ubuntu]

Haven't been able to log in once, oh well. Now, where do I go to make my ignorant post whining about how a free beta doesn't perform perfectly?

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

You miss my point, having to have any connection to play the game is wrong if I am merely playing at home. I travel and at times I do not have access to WiFi or WiFi I trust. Will this mean I cannot use the game then?

I imagine the game's online requirements will be similar to those of StarCraft II. There will be a button you click to play in offline mode. It'll require you to connect to the internet once a month or so just to verify your key is still valid and your copy of the game is fully patched. (I suspect it's for DRM purposes... hasn't ever hampered my ability to play StarCraft II the once every few weeks that I have time to.)

 

[ncaissie]

I'm running a 2008 Mac Pro with the original ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT. Performance with the default settings was fine, but the resolution isn't ideal for the 23" display, and text was a little fuzzy. The default settings also had all of the effects off or at their lowest settings.

Burning question: how much better will the visuals be if I buy the ATI Radeon HD 5770 upgrade kit?

I believe the setting determines your PC/Mac capabilities and sets them accordingly.
When I went into the settings on my 2011 Macbook Pro the default was everything maxed out. Far Cry did that also.

 

[manPrime]

I imagine the game's online requirements will be similar to those of StarCraft II. There will be a button you click to play in offline mode. It'll require you to connect to the internet once a month or so just to verify your key is still valid and your copy of the game is fully patched. (I suspect it's for DRM purposes... hasn't ever hampered my ability to play StarCraft II the once every few weeks that I have time to.)

Nope you need to be connected to the internet at all times to play. It's because people can sell things via the the Auction house for real money. You can imagine that if people found a rare item thats worth a lot of actual money not just 'gold', the temptation will be for people to find ways to cheat and duplicate that item. If you have people always connected to blizzards servers then they have a much higher chance to spot people who are cheating.
I don't agree with having to always be online but it's seems to be the only way that the auction house won't be abused

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Nope you need to be connected to the internet at all times to play. It's because the Auction house can sell things for real money and to stop people from cheating and duplicating items D3 requires you to be connected the whole time.

Seems like the real solution would be to keep real money out of the game...

 

[kingtj]

re: keeping real money out of the game

The problem is, you can't keep real money away from these games. People simply auction off their characters and/or items on sites like eBay -- where scamming and cheating is more of an issue.

All things considered, Blizzard is probably wise to embrace the item sales concept and integrate it into the game. It does notch up the potential for addiction to the game to the next level though. Just like gambling, some people will surely play this game *constantly*, trying to find those rare items to resell to make a few bucks.....

Seems like the real solution would be to keep real money out of the game...

 

[SteveJobs2.0]

Question for you folks that played the game...

Is it possible to play the game in single player mode then transfer the character to multiplayer? I remember that in D2 this was not possible due to cheating, but I would prefer to beat the game once on my own for the story and consistent level progression, but would then like to import the character for multiplayer. I am hoping that the online connection might allow this.

Thanks

 

[Bear]

Question for you folks that played the game...

Is it possible to play the game in single player mode then transfer the character to multiplayer? I remember that in D2 this was not possible due to cheating, but I would prefer to beat the game once on my own for the story and consistent level progression, but would then like to import the character for multiplayer. I am hoping that the online connection might allow this.

Thanks

Yes you can play any character by itself and then later group up. Party size is limited to 4 players.

...
That and the fear I will need a connection to FUNCTIONING servers just to play the game solo at home.

Yes, you will need an internet connection to play. Even solo play.

 

[SteveJobs2.0]

Yes you can play any character by itself and then later group up. Party size is limited to 4 players.

Yes, you will need an internet connection to play. Even solo play.

Thanks. Strange that they made it only 4 players since there are 5 characters lol. It would be fun to get a team going with one of each of the 5 classes. They could even have an achievement for it lol.

 

[theanimaster]

I just wanted to clear this statement up for you (not in a mean way, just general information).

OpenGL and Direct X are not equal. OpenGL is a graphics API, where as DirectX is a bunch of different API's rolled into one. (API = Application Programming Interface, its how you program stuff to talk to hardware).

OpenGL can be compared more directly to Direct3D which is the graphics component of DirectX. Also OpenGL has a newer release than DirectX (unless you count DirectX 11.1 but thats only in Windows 8 beta as far as I know).

Now, as far as graphics capabilities, both are about equal, sometimes one comes out with something the other doesn't have and vice versa. For most applications you'll never see a difference.

OpenGL is used by almost all applications out there. High end 3D packages like Maya and Houdini use OpenGL. OpenGL is prominent on Linux, Mac OSX, and Windows.

DirectX is Microsoft specific and is used mostly for games. I am familiar with programming for both OpenGL and DirectX and I personally like OpenGL better (from both a programming standpoint and a performance standpoint) but DirectX has its merits too. Sometimes graphics card companies have specific DirectX drivers that help improve performance but its usually negligible.

As for Diablo 3 they looked and played identical for me on both OS's. You may have a different color profile on your monitor on one OS vs the other which is why you'd be seeing a difference.

I'm most grateful for that clarification!

 

[soloer]

Thanks. Strange that they made it only 4 players since there are 5 characters lol. It would be fun to get a team going with one of each of the 5 classes. They could even have an achievement for it lol.

That would be kind of fun. I suspect they only have 4 since there is already some overlap between melee and ranged. I'd actually love to see 4 WD's playing together... just think of how many spiders you could see at once!

 

[gotluck]

The problem is, you can't keep real money away from these games. People simply auction off their characters and/or items on sites like eBay -- where scamming and cheating is more of an issue.

All things considered, Blizzard is probably wise to embrace the item sales concept and integrate it into the game. It does notch up the potential for addiction to the game to the next level though. Just like gambling, some people will surely play this game *constantly*, trying to find those rare items to resell to make a few bucks.....

Yep, this is the real reason the game requires an internet connection - to prevent hacks/ cheats in both the auction house and the game itself.

 

[CptnJustc]

Thanks. Strange that they made it only 4 players since there are 5 characters lol. It would be fun to get a team going with one of each of the 5 classes. They could even have an achievement for it lol.

True, though I'm guessing that expansion(s?) will push up that class number eventually.

I think the classes are a little odd for this sort of setting. And really, I can see the characters not having world-beating gear when they begin fighting the hordes of Hell, but... they don't even start with pants on?

 

[malman89]

You miss my point, having to have any connection to play the game is wrong if I am merely playing at home. I travel and at times I do not have access to WiFi or WiFi I trust. Will this mean I cannot use the game then?

You were whining about functional servers, so I did not miss your point. The fact that you have to be connected to the internet to play was not your intended point, but as it has been stated over and over here and on any D3 site since the announcement, one must have an internet connection to play D3. Tough cookies.

 

[chrono1081]

I'm most grateful for that clarification!

No problem

 

[edenwaith]

I know the question has been asked many times now but the only computer I have at the moment is my 2011 i5 MacBook air.

I've read a number of people's experiences with the diablo 3 beta on these machines and the opinions vary (I guess based on what some people find is acceptable to play on and I guess the fact that it is a beta comes into it).

I guess my main question is, would it be worth a shot? I know it is going to sound like a jet taking off in the room with the fans going but should I be able to achieve reasonable fps on low settings or am I just wasting my time?

My wife's Vaio has an Intel (R) HD graphics, and the D3 Beta was very slow on her computer, even though the computer is less than 2 years old. When I researched being able to play D3 with Intel HD graphics, most of the questions came from MacBook Air users.

After I reduced the graphics settings, the game became somewhat playable on the Vaio, but it was still slow. I did finally manage to update the drivers, so I'll see next month if this helped with the performance.

Otherwise, on my 5-year old MacBook Pro, the D3 beta played fairly well with lower graphics settings.

 

[Shivetya]

You were whining about functional servers, so I did not miss your point. The fact that you have to be connected to the internet to play was not your intended point, but as it has been stated over and over here and on any D3 site since the announcement, one must have an internet connection to play D3. Tough cookies.

The server functionality highlighted the issue I had. I was not aware that you have to have a connection at all times. That will be a deal killer for me

 

[N0k14 D14B10]

Whew!

gta go and get me some dis acti0n !!!