[Game] First glance at Diablo 3

Although I've waited so long to hear this news, I didn't know it until 10 days after it is officially announced at Blizzard homepage. There were rumors before saying Blizzard has given up on Diablo series, while I believed that they wouldn't, since World of Warcraft and Starcraft II are, after all, of very different genres and attract different groups of people than those who play Diablo series. I for example, am immune to Starcraft, nonchalant to Warcraft III and do not dare to try WOW more than a few hours with the free demo. But having indulged in Diablo II for quite a few years with dozens of characters above lvl 90, Diablo III has been THE computer game I look forward to the most, yet fear its addictive factor also the most.

The first glance at this long waited, and to-be-longer-waited game is mostly satisfying, but not perfect. The graphics have certainly improved greatly, much like Baldur`s Gate or Titan Quest (THQ)---- since I have been playing Titan Quest: Immortal Throne till the beginning of this year, and it was developed by part of Diablo II crew members, let's do a comparison in between these two games. Diablo III design does remind me quite a bit of THQ. The quality of graphics matches, the male-female character choices of each class, the unique way of enemy's deaths, the witch doctor's resemblance to Spirit-Earth-Nature class and more-- I am glad Diablo 3 has taken in some great merits of THQ (and maybe some other games of ARPG). What are even better include more character designs (compared to only 1 male and 1 female in THQ), random maps (same as D2), interactive environment ( falling walls crashing enemies is VERY cool), tons of enemies ( limited in THQ so that you have to make personalized quests in order to lvl up after lvl75 ), and guaranteed better online play on battlenet (one ultimate problem of THQ...). And I am sure that Blizzard will not fail us to provide unlimited fun of finding loot, better than any other game out there. What's lacking for D3 at this moment though, is the feature to have the enemies fly high in the air upon a massive damage, which is a lot of fun in THQ. Also without the ability to choose from more than one class at one time, D3 is not going to have as many classes as THQ (7x7-7=42 different kinds). There are only 5 classes announced at this point, with 2 new classes. That makes you curious, doesn't it, --which are the two classes they eliminated from D2? My guess is necromancer's probably gone. Barb is definitely there, and I don't think any of the sorceress or amazon can be eliminated. Well, we'll see, they can always make a change, and there's always an expansion as a tradition ^ ^b

My biggest concerns are first, whether this time the online play of D3 will still be kept the same as D2, i.e. FREE. For a hardcore fan like me, even if it is not, I'll probably still play it; but if it is free, I can see myself addicted in it for another a few years ^ ^;;; My second biggest concern is everyone else's concern: WHEN will it come out? Unfortunately it's a question even Blizzard may not be able to answer at this point of development. My estimate is 3 years, and I find myself quite optimistic among friends _____orz But you know, it's Blizzard ^_^a Even so, I am still very, very happy about it. No matter how long, I'll wait for it. Waiting for something like that, knowing that it IS coming, is worth my patience, always :)))