How can someone seriously say the graphics of Torch Light 2 are better than D3?

[ginfest]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/05/28/the-diablo-iii-that-never-was/

That article says it all. D3 is another victim of the WoW generation, indeed as so many recent MMOs are
Keep buying this stuff and sending them $$$ every month and they will continue to spew this crap at us.
Cue fervent Blizzard fanbois

 

[Nintendesert]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/05/28/the-diablo-iii-that-never-was/

That makes me want a new Titan Quest more than anymore Diablo to be honest. It looks pretty awesome compared to Diablo 3, and considering that is 2005, that's pretty sad.

 

[Geosurface]

I haven't looked at any screens of Torchlight 2 yet, but I've been playing a hefty amount of Diablo 3 lately and I think it looks fantastic. Especially on my new desktop. Really great graphics. This is coming from someone who did more than my fair share of bitching about Diablo 2's graphics when it came out. If you'll recall, it wasn't until later that 800x600 (still woefully inadequate even in 2001) was added, at first it was 640x480 only if I recall correctly.

Diablo 2 looked like shit, let's be honest. Even the day it came out. Eventually I sort of got used to it... and the cinematics and story and music and areas were all great, so I overlooked it. Diablo 1 will always be first in my heart. Diablo 3 looks fantastic, end of story.

I see no reason for any competition. I'll get Torchlight 2 as well I'm sure. I have played some Torchlight 1, not as much as I should, and I liked it a lot. I like the LAN play, I like the not requiring always online for single player... which really really pissed me off when Blizz did it but what can I say? I'm their bitch.

 

[Hallowed_Dragon]

That makes me want a new Titan Quest more than anymore Diablo to be honest. It looks pretty awesome compared to Diablo 3, and considering that is 2005, that's pretty sad.

Honestly to me it looks like crap. Its not dark in any way and reminds me more of some cartoon.
Diablo 3 its quite addicting, much more than Diablo 2 or 1. I really like the explosive spells, the physics, the armor, the look and feel in general. I have played every Blizzard major release to date and this did not disappoint.
And I really don't care about always online because apart from the maintenance I always manage to play without any lag whatsoever.

 

[Necrolezbeast]

I haven't gotten very far into Diablo 3 yet, only level 20, but so far I'm loving it. I live abroad and game on a 2 year old HP laptop with an i5 and 5650m and it runs alright (after I cleaned it out and reapplied some thermal paste due to extreme overheating issues). I don't think I'll be playing it too intensively as I prefer this type of game with my friends and the time difference doesn't really allow for that to happen much, but overall I'm impressed.

Actually it makes me miss living back in the states when my friends and I would game together all the time and have LAN's on a regular basis... I don't mind the always on thing, other than server maintenance times that happen to land on my day off during my day time... but really I should be doing something more constructive with my time anyway, so I won't bitch about it too much.

Anyway, I think people were expecting too much... as they always seemingly are these days! I'm tired of people crying about every new game because it doesn't live up to the last.... Nostalgia is a strange thing and we remember things being way more awesome than they really were... that and the developers haven't raised their prices because they want to, they raise them because they have to to keep the profit margins and pay for this sorta crap. Vote with your wallet if you really don't think it's worth it and support the smaller developers, like Runic... That's fine too... Torchlight was a great game... Torchlight 2 is likely to be great as well... that doesn't mean that Diablo 3 isn't great... Maybe some people don't feel the price or online requirement are worth it to them, that's fine... to the rest of us, it is fine...

Sorry for the long post!

 

[Baptismbyfire]

Diablo 3 its quite addicting, much more than Diablo 2 or 1.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but for real?!? Talk about being in the minority.

 

[Jules]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but for real?!? Talk about being in the minority.

Not at all.

 

[jsedlak]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but for real?!? Talk about being in the minority.

I'm enjoying it and am addicted.

Inferno is absurd because I'm a monk with gear for A3H, but I understand it isn't meant to be exactly approachable. So I'll be grinding A4H and A1I as long as I can to make the gold and gear necessary to handle the rest of inferno.

But I am not someone to let the nerfing and OP stuff get to me. Blizzard will change the game and I'll adapt, no big deal. The only thing I don't like is server downtime, but meh - it let's me catch up on sleep or ride my bike a little longer.

 

[Jules]

Ditto on the server downtime.

 

[Hallowed_Dragon]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but for real?!? Talk about being in the minority.

Actually I think you are in the minority because most people who play D3 don't really visit AnandTech's forums (any forums for that matter), or take the time to write a response to some internet anonymous defending their game. I'm not like most people, I do play D3 at least 3 hours a day and I got to Inferno difficulty and do enjoy the challenge.
I am also a developer and I fully understand the need for an always on connection especially with a Real Money AH. A game client that doesn't require always on connection can be hacked and item data can be extracted real easy.
Now imagine after hacking and getting the most powerful item in a game in your stash going online and post your item in the RMAH. Trying to figure out something like that from the server is extremly hard and not 100% precise. That is why Blizzard opted for the always online DRM. This way the character data is stored on the server in a secure location, administered by Blizzard and your progress, gear, char data is always safe.
This approach is quite good, its only downside is the possibility of "man in the middle" attacks, but those can be avoided with an authenticator (I call BS all the "reports" of people who got their account "hacked" even with an authenticator).

 

[VashHT]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but for real?!? Talk about being in the minority.

There are a ton of people addicted to D3, everyone I know who played D2 is crazy about D3 and are all having a lot of fun with it. As usual the vocal minority is on the internet bitching up a storm and making things look worse than they really are.

EDIT: Just to add I like D3 a lot too and I've played D1/2, Titan's Quest and Torchlight. I don't see why people need to champion one game above all others it's weird as hell. No one is stopping you from playing all of these games.

 

[fishsauce]

There are a ton of people addicted to D3, everyone I know who played D2 is crazy about D3 and are all having a lot of fun with it. As usual the vocal minority is on the internet bitching up a storm and making things look worse than they really are.

EDIT: Just to add I like D3 a lot too and I've played D1/2, Titan's Quest and Torchlight. I don't see why people need to champion one game above all others it's weird as hell. No one is stopping you from playing all of these games.

That's the best statement I've read on a forum about this game. I don't see why other forum posters don't see it this way either.

D3 is okay, but after getting disconnected in a middle of a single player game and losing my progress, I'm not going to go back to it. It would annoy me too much to have it happen to me again. But if you like it, good for you. It doesn't affect me one way or another.

 

[thespyder]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but for real?!? Talk about being in the minority.

I think the sales and the number of people playing on Blizzard servers would put your statement in doubt. There is always going to be a vocal minority. And generally it is the people who are disgruntled that are not playing and are posting. while the generally satisfied population doesn't bother because they are playing and having fun. Plus it is always a great way to get attention by posting negative comments. I put your assessment of the general state of D3 down to these.

I have my list of dislikes about D3, but on the whole find it extremely fun and addicting and have more than gotten my dollars worth out of the game. I'd bet the average D3 consumer would say the same.

 

[xSkyDrAx]

My question is, why couldn't Blizzard have created that sort of "shine" on the first playthrough? Why should I have to subject myself to hours and hours of grindy gameplay before strategy starts to take a larger roll? Shouldn't the first playthrough have been the most dynamic from a singleplayer gameplay aspect, with successive playthroughs the venue of advanced players and completionists?

This reminds me of Ghost'n Goblins where once you beat the game, you found out you had to play through the entire game again just to get to the "final" boss.

It makes me think that Blizzard, knowing how short the story game is, purposely held back early progression in order to convince people that multiple playthroughs are intended and that one playthrough is not nearly enough to see the content (gear, abilities, etc) they held back. I think Diablo 3 has become the "Call of Duty" of action RPGs, and people are eating it up. Considering D3 sales, I guess it all sort of makes sense.

Had any other developer told people that they needed to play through their game 2-3 times before getting to the good stuff, there would be an uproar.

Anyways, this is just an opinion. I'm not trying to disuade people from enjoying it.

The thing about diablo games is that there's MAJOR incentives to play through all the difficulty levels. It's not like most games where difficulty is based on 'the experience of the player'. It's better to think of running through all the difficulties as an entire play through rather than just beating it once on normal mode. While that may be fine for you and you feel like you've been ripped off because you don't want to play through more modes then you've obviously never played a diablo game.

And no there wouldn't be an 'uproar' if people knew you had to play through it multiple times because a large portion of the player base has played the first and second games and they have come to expect this. There WOULD be an uproar if they made the other difficulty level's more 'optional' and capped a large portion of the game at normal difficulty.

 

[railven]

That's the best statement I've read on a forum about this game. I don't see why other forum posters don't see it this way either.

D3 is okay, but after getting disconnected in a middle of a single player game and losing my progress, I'm not going to go back to it. It would annoy me too much to have it happen to me again. But if you like it, good for you. It doesn't affect me one way or another.

Mostly curious on this since I got D/C'ed last night for the first time. I had basically already explored the whole map and done all the random dungeons that spawned, all I had to do was get to the next check point to progress the chapter. In the process of getting there I got D/C'ed.

I relogged on and while th Map I had just explored was now no longer fully explored, all the previous events I had done (and gear collected) remained intact.

So is this progress just the map/zone being explored? Instead of re-exploring the map and dungeons I just continued to the next check point and lost perhaps 30 seconds of actual progress (the time it took to D/C and reconnect.)

Sure, the map respawned and I got to kill a few more monsters from point A to point B (netting me 2 more rares ) but just curious if people are losing items they collected through these D/Cs.

 

[thespyder]

Your character is saved and any checkpoints (events) are saved. The rest of the world isn't.

 

[Arsinek]

(I didn't know whether to put this in the D3 thread or Torch light thread, really)


I am just AMAZED how people continue to complain about how awful the D3 graphics supposedly are (which, of course, is entirely not true, i think the D3 graphics, spells, animations etc. are excellent).

Then they say "Pre-order Torchlight 2 instead, it's so much better than D3"

Have you ever looked at screens from TL2? This game looks...AWFUL...it looks so awful and dated...when i look at TL2 images i see very ugly/lack of textures...and a very, very low polygon count, it even makes WoW look better in comparison.

Bingo.

Too many video game hipsters these days. Its the cool thing to hate D3.

But ya Ive noticed TL2 fanboys trying to say TL2 graphics are better than D3's, then I looked at screen caps of both and laughed my a$$ off.

TL2 might have good game play but graphically it looks like Mario 64.

 

[Lonyo]

Not hard to say graphics of a different game are better than D3 graphics when most people who own D3 can't see the D3 graphics because they can't play the game.

 

[Arsinek]

Not hard to say graphics of a different game are better than D3 graphics when most people who own D3 can't see the D3 graphics because they can't play the game.

They seem to be playing it just fine.

 

[railven]

Not hard to say graphics of a different game are better than D3 graphics when most people who own D3 can't see the D3 graphics because they can't play the game.

I think there was only one instance when I really wanted to play D3 and I couldn't, and it was this Tuesday when it was down for maintenance. I had no idea it would follow the WoW server schedule - guess I should have figured.

Even when it launched I was able to get in and play a solid 2 hours before bed time without issue. I've also only been D/C'ed once. Guess I'm one of the lucky few.

 

[zinfamous]

Then they say "Pre-order Torchlight 2 instead, it's so much better than D3"

Have you ever looked at screens from TL2? This game looks...AWFUL...it looks so awful and dated...when i look at TL2 images i see very ugly/lack of textures...and a very, very low polygon count, it even makes WoW look better in comparison.

Are you just paraphrasing here? because this general statement from these "troglodytes" says nothing about visuals. It simply says the game is better.


Graphics = 2% of what makes a game "better."

 

[Arsinek]

Are you just paraphrasing here? because this general statement from these "troglodytes" says nothing about visuals. It simply says the game is better.


Graphics = 2% of what makes a game "better."

The main one I remember was on Massively and he literally said the graphics in Torchlight were better.

Im not buying the hype about Torchlight, Ive seen nothing from it that would make it better then D3. I wont say for sure its an inferior game because I havent played it but so far I havent seen or heard anything about it that makes it better then D3.

 

[thespyder]

The main one I remember was on Massively and he literally said the graphics in Torchlight were better.

Im not buying the hype about Torchlight, Ive seen nothing from it that would make it better then D3. I wont say for sure its an inferior game because I havent played it but so far I havent seen or heard anything about it that makes it better then D3.

I bought into the whole hype when Torchlight 1 came out. I played it, and admit that it was a step up from Diablo 2 in size and in graphics. But I never felt it had quite the addiction that the Diablo series had for me. Where Diablo is dark and gothic, The Torchlight series just feels more like Disney Halloween. If anything, I think that Titan Quest was better looking than Torchlight 1.

I took a look at the images posted online of Torchlight 2 and simply don't see them being superior to Diablo 3. Of course, I am comparing a hand full of static images to a full game, so maybe that is why? Certainly, the cut scenes in Diablo 3 blow away anything that Torchlight has published thus far (IMHO).

I still say that "Better Graphics" is a subjective term. If you like the Cell shaded look, and are more in for a fun and light game play experience, perhaps Torchlight is better. personally, I like the more gothic, crisper and generally more grown up look of Diablo. But that is me.

And at the end of the day, graphics is only a very small part of what makes a game. Baldur's Gate is graphically in the dinosaur age in comparison to some games that are out now, yet it is hand and fist far above those same games. DA2 was 'Graphically' superior to DA:O (better resolution etc...) but it was a hideous let down of a game in comparison. So, as the old saying goes "Don't judge a book by it's cover" (for those of you who don't know, a Book is an old fashion device where people printed actual words on tree bark. they require no batteries and do not require an always online authentication to run).

 

[sour07]

(for those of you who don't know, a Book is an old fashion device where people printed actual words on tree bark. they require no batteries and do not require an always online authentication to run).

This is exactly what I hate. Why are you guys complaining about requiring an internet connection, its 2012, you are always connected to the internet anyways so what is the big fn deal?

If you dont like it dont play, and if the internet or their servers go down, turn your computer off and go do something else.

 

[thespyder]

This is exactly what I hate. Why are you guys complaining about requiring an internet connection, its 2012, you are always connected to the internet anyways so what is the big fn deal?

If you dont like it dont play, and if the internet or their servers go down, turn your computer off and go do something else.

Because we are not always online. Not everyone has a steady, reliable online connection all the time, even in 2012. If you travel at all, out goes the always online. If you don't live in a metropolitan or suburban area, you might not get always online. If you live in a lower income area, you might not get a good always online connection. Seeing a pattern here?

What I hate (since you felt like sharing what YOU hate) are people who are so narrow minded that "If it doesn't impact me, anyone that it DOES impact must be unimportant or a whiner". who then get all huffy and high and mighty about people who are seeing the wider picture.

And even if we all do have consistent reliable online, if I want to play off line in single player mode, I shouldn't have to deal with 'Server down all day for maintenance' or 'You got Lagged. Now you are dead.' on a game that is designed (at least in part) to be playable in single player mode.

Not to mention, any game that from launch within the first two weeks has has more than two MAJOR outages where no one could play has a significant problem.

And PS. I was being ironic, not about the game, but about how some younger players seem to forget about books. It's an old age joke pointed mainly at myself.