Path: eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!border-4.nntp.ord.giganews.com!border-1.nntp.ord.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!Xl.tags.giganews.com!local-4.nntp.ord.giganews.com!news.giganews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2024 21:26:40 +0000 From: Spalls Hurgenson Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg Subject: Re: Diablo IV Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2024 17:26:39 -0400 Message-ID: <3c48ajdgdot9bjciqk50koo2p8plkjjjsj@4ax.com> References: X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 2.0/32.652 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 49 X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com X-Trace: sv3-tiWRcXM5NIlNpYdVJhfeALDHQ1+mhFdRjhD/l3pdA9qs+iVCBJSkKS8+UQvIzDRXbzrieawEg0yvdjl!cO6Of1OBu3ob/pQM5QDWZpRlFMylIKEO1XOMhzvU79nL2lQwQHpfxuDv3+LwFDpe2ipaP2f+ X-Complaints-To: abuse@giganews.com X-DMCA-Notifications: http://www.giganews.com/info/dmca.html X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 On Thu, 25 Jul 2024 14:57:33 -0700, Justisaur wrote: >On 7/21/2024 10:12 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote: >> Arguably I may have worsened the experience by playing >> it on a console (honestly, any game that demands I use a gamepad feels >> worse to me) but I don't think I'd have had more fun on a PC. > >Ugh. I can't imagine. The game seems really set up for point and click. > >On the other hand I enjoyed Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance and Bard's Tale >on the PS2 which are also ARPGs, so maybe I'm wrong. Yeah, I got a lot of "Dark Alliance" vibes while playing D3 on console. I don't know how well the gameplay on console compares to the PC version, but it was... adequate. My problems with the game had more to do with the game's design (shallow gameworlds, linear quests, too much combat, unrewarding loot) than the fact I had to use a gamepad. The same problems, I'm pretty sure, I'd have had if I'd played "Diablo 3" on PC. But I can't necessarily disagree that the gamepad might have made the game worse. I actually rather enjoyed the "Dark Alliance" games, although I think that was more because I was so surprised that the games were at all playable with a gamepad. I expected a totally horrific experience, and that... the "Dark Alliance" games weren't. They were simplistic, sure, but fun, in a mindless popcorn-movie way. [Yay for low expectations!] That said, I enjoyed "Diablo 3" a lot less than those older games. But, again, that's more because I just don't care for "Diablo's" design. Those games, it seems to me, are more focussed on their multplayer experience than the single-player, and this effects everything in the game: the equipment, the skills, the monster placement, the pacing. Everything is designed to be balanced in multiplayer. "Dark Alliance" is primarily a single-player experience, and this is reflected in how your character steadily becomes more and more powerful. It's just more rewarding gameplay as far as I'm concerned. But YMMV. A lot of people like the Diablo gameplay style. I'm not one of them, but I don't think it was the use of the gamepad that made the game less enjoyable for me.