Warcraft 3 Remastered?

[sandwich_bird]

So, Blizz tells us that WC3 is getting a big patch that includes widescreen among other things. Then, they announce an invitational tournament. Who wants to bet we're getting a remastered announcement tomorrow or the day after?

[TheEconomist]

Hmmm, smart choice. Remastering Diablo II before WarCraft III would've killed what tiny bit is left of Diablo III.

I won't even consider WarCraft IV or another entry at the moment.

[sandwich_bird]

There was an interview on IGN ~last week with one of the forner Diablo 2 dev. Apparently it's going to be a nightmare to remaster because the AI and other important stuff are made to work in squared resolution. He was basically saying it's impossible to remaster it without rewriting most of the code. I'm sure it's gonna happen at some point because everyone wants it(just like WoW classic) but it might take a while.

Speaking of Diablo 3, I replayed the campaign with one of my friend last month. He never played it so he wanted to try.. Man, Blizzard butchered whatever's left of this game. The game wasn't hard when it released but now... it's ridiculously easy. The stat balance is completely broken until you get 70 and start adventure mode. I get that people think the end game is the "real" game but I don't know why you'd screw over all those other hours of content.

[TheEconomist]

Hmmm, didn't know that. Oh well, plenty of other ARPGs to play. Just not Diablo III.

Every time I play Diablo III, I realize a little more just how much it failed.

[Visions of Khas]

Hmmm, didn't know that. Oh well, plenty of other ARPGs to play. Just not Diablo III.

What others would you suggest? I've heard of Blackguard and it looks a little interesting.

Speaking of failed games, I picked up Dawn of War III about two weeks ago at about 75% off. The gameplay is drastically different from previous iterations, and it's basically a MOBA with mediocre story and excellent visual budget -- like everything else these days.

But hey, at least they're not charging for save slots.

[Turalyon]

Speaking of Diablo 3, I replayed the campaign with one of my friend last month. He never played it so he wanted to try.. Man, Blizzard butchered whatever's left of this game. The game wasn't hard when it released but now... it's ridiculously easy. The stat balance is completely broken until you get 70 and start adventure mode. I get that people think the end game is the "real" game but I don't know why you'd screw over all those other hours of content.

They realised that any appeal the game might have is through farming/grinding for loot. In other words, it's a glorified Skinner Box - like most games these days.

[TheEconomist]

They realised that any appeal the game might have is through farming/grinding for loot.

If they had succeeded at that then it would've been at least an okay game. The problem is that I can't think of a single time where I actually had 'fun' playing Diablo III, despite Diablo II being my second or third favorite game of all time with thousands of hours in it.

[sandwich_bird]

What others would you suggest? I've heard of Blackguard and it looks a little interesting.

Blackguard isn't an ARPG. It's a tactical rpg. It's not bad though. I got it in a steam sale a while back.

For recent D2-like arpg, you can try Grim Dawn and Path of Exile. They're alright though there's something I can't quite name that bugs me about the pace/fluidity/animation. It's not blizzard's polish I guess.. If you're up for something older, try Titan Quest. It's been remastered recently.

Speaking of failed games, I picked up Dawn of War III about two weeks ago at about 75% off. The gameplay is drastically different from previous iterations, and it's basically a MOBA with mediocre story and excellent visual budget -- like everything else these days.

All I want is DoW1 gameplay with better graphics honestly. I don't know why they don't just do that.

They realised that any appeal the game might have is through farming/grinding for loot. In other words, it's a glorified Skinner Box - like most games these days.

Ugh I hate obvious Skinner box games. At least D3 has a decent onboarding(the campaign) if anything. If I look at the typical mobile game(like clash of clans), it's hard for me to comprehend that someone can be so easily duped in.

Regarding the perceived lack of good games, I'd say that, apart from a few exception years (1998 for example), the number of good games coming out each year hasn't varied much in 20 years. It's just that now there's way more games coming out and most of it is garbage so it appears worse than it is. Of course, the "game as a service" mentality and microtransactions had an impact on good games but then again, the advancements in gameplay/technology compensate for it imo.

[Turalyon]

If they had succeeded at that then it would've been at least an okay game.

Ugh I hate obvious Skinner box games. At least D3 has a decent onboarding(the campaign) if anything.

Thing is, the Skinner Box element is what kept D2 going for so long. I remember my little brother doing endless Baal runs (or some other easily farmable run) and was aghast that he'd spend hours and days doing the same thing over and again.

The D3 expansion and patches added back those elements of the loot grind that the initial game severely gimped with low quality/poor drop rates and too much reliance on the Auction house to get gear. The campaign of D3 is actually a weakpoint because of its heavily scripted nature restricting its scope. It got in the way of the gameplay, was cringe-worthy to sit through every single time dis-incentivising anyone from running through it again. The original D3 felt way more linear/smaller than D2 ever was because the D3 maps were designed to fit the story they were telling rather than just being a gigantic area to kill stuff and get loot like D2 was. The Adventure mode in D3 removed those restrictions so you could go anywhere you want and the maps were a little bit more varied.

Regarding the perceived lack of good games, I'd say that, apart from a few exception years (1998 for example), the number of good games coming out each year hasn't varied much in 20 years. It's just that now there's way more games coming out and most of it is garbage so it appears worse than it is. Of course, the "game as a service" mentality and microtransactions had an impact on good games but then again, the advancements in gameplay/technology compensate for it imo.

They've certainly refined mechanics and pure gameplay aspects in most "big" modern games these days, which is good since that's what games are at the end of the day but I feel they've certainly also lost a great deal of creativity/inspiration by equal measure. Eh, maybe I'm getting too old for this shit.

[sandwich_bird]

Thing is, the Skinner Box element is what kept D2 going for so long. I remember my little brother doing endless Baal runs (or some other easily farmable run) and was aghast that he'd spend hours and days doing the same thing over and again.

The D3 expansion and patches added back those elements of the loot grind that the initial game severely gimped with low quality/poor drop rates and too much reliance on the Auction house to get gear. The campaign of D3 is actually a weakpoint because of its heavily scripted nature restricting its scope. It got in the way of the gameplay, was cringe-worthy to sit through every single time dis-incentivising anyone from running through it again. The original D3 felt way more linear/smaller than D2 ever was because the D3 maps were designed to fit the story they were telling rather than just being a gigantic area to kill stuff and get loot like D2 was. The Adventure mode in D3 removed those restrictions so you could go anywhere you want and the maps were a little bit more varied.

Baal runs or adventure mode were pretty much equally boring to me. I never liked Diablo 1-2 for the loot grind; I just liked playing the campaign. To me it was just a cool dark RPG. The first time I played, I remember being scared while playing alone and disgusted in other instances(that bug cave in d2 act 2 made me gag, no joke). I was fairly young and never played anything else liked it before so.. That kind of atmosphere is what I mainly liked about it. I didn't mind the perceived linearity of D3. What killed it for me was how the universe was butchered. The shitty drop rates and lack of customization didn't help either.. But it was mostly the universe. Alas, I understand that I am in the minority.

They've certainly refined mechanics and pure gameplay aspects in most "big" modern games these days, which is good since that's what games are at the end of the day but I feel they've certainly also lost a great deal of creativity/inspiration by equal measure. Eh, maybe I'm getting too old for this shit.

We had this long argument with Nissa a while back. It's debatable if creativity went down considering things like the rise of indies. Though you're right that being old will negatively affect your outlook. We went through the birth/early childhood of a new medium so of course everything was new. The low hanging fruits are long gone so devs today have to be extra creative.




Looks like I was wrong about the remastered! Really don't know why they'd do this invitational. Maybe marketing is playing the long game?