I've probably played too much Devil May Cry, but if the Demon Hunter doesn't carry a giant two-handed sword around, he isn't a real demon hunter.

^I'm sure you can get them after paying $60 for the Palidan Storyline DCL which they'll announce.

andsince it will be the best hack and slash game ever (I dunno, but hopefully)

Diablo 3 Rippoff 1: The Quest for Blizzard's Sucssess

Diablo 3 Rippoff 2: The Search for More Money

Diablo 3 Rippoff 3: The last 7 failed but this format still works!

Blizzard doesn't innovate, it refines and polishes. Starcraft was hugely successful, why would they make Starcraft 2 into something else? It plays like Starcraft, and has enough new stuff to make it new. And hey, it's hugely successful. Diablo 3 will also play like Diablo 2, but have enough new stuff to make it new, and will also be hugely successful. How much innovation can there be in Hack & Slash RPGs? Titan Quest has the same features D2 had, and it came out years after D2.

I also don't get the whole "holding back content" thing.. every game has expansions. Do you accuse IC of holding back content on Sins just so they could release the micro-expansions? Or SD on Gal Civ and Elemental? Or any other company? To date there hasn't been a Blizzard expansion that hasn't been hugely successful (see the pattern here?) and did not make substantial changes.

I'm not much of a Blizzard fanboy, but these kinds of comments are just ridiculous.

The most successful franchises refine rather than reinvent. If you create a hugely popular game, why would you risk changing too much? Instead you refine, polish, and implement the better ideas to come out of your employees, fans, and the industry as a whole.

There have certainly been enough changes and innovations to the RTS formula between the release of SC1 and SC2 that the latter feels like more than a mere graphical overhaul. Heck, Starcraft didn't even have an "attack-move" order! I tried giving the game another go 2-3 years ago and just couldn't get past the lack of modern conventions.

Yup, same as now, just issue an attack order on empty map and your units will attack anything they come across along the way.

I was a big fan of Diablo 1. But thats understandable it was unique and one of a kind back in its day. Picked up Diablo 2 and thought WOW just like that Diablo 1 i played many many years which has gotten stale since you just click and click mindlessly. So no sir your simply wrong. Its the same stuff over and over. Diablo 3 looks no different.

And SC 2 into 3 parts.... your telling me one of the biggest production studios in video gaming spent millions of dollars and 10 years could only develop 1/3 of a game that plays exactly like SC 1? Thats like saying it takes 2 days to make a bed is reasonable.

*grumble grumble*

Now I have to find that disk and figure out how far my mind has slipped.

You know what is interesting here is that I didn't really care for Starcraft original, so I only had a marginal interest in Starcraft II which makes me hardly biased towards Blizzard. Hell, the only series they've put out that I do like has been the Diablo series, and I liked that A LOT. I only say this because I did not find Zehdon's statement to be bitter, and I don't think I have a strong enough opinion to be biased for or against Blizzard at this point. It's a sad state of affairs that any critcism lodged at a company somehow makes the poster bitter? I think there are some Steam fanatics you could hookup with. They run around these forums slapping labels on the foreheads of people that don't like favorite company too. It's just completely unnecessary. I am actually surprised Annatar because you don't normally take this approach from talking to people, at least not from what I have seen.

By the way, his opinion is not exactly his alone. I am concerned with what Blizzard might do with D3 at this point too. I have not passed judgment because the game is not actually out, but there are some Blizzy things I am not real keen on too. Twenty five dollar ponies, RealID, forced battle.net, splitting up games... there is plenty to make someone pause there.

My understanding is that to experienced players, SC2 plays very differently then SC1, there is much more focus on micromanaging your units and much less focus on micromanaging your economy and productions buildings. I don't understand what exactly causes this but apparently the difference is dramatic.

Being a less experienced player the differences are less obvious to me. Although I can say that as someone who is horrible and managing individual peons and economy, I play much better in SC 2 then SC1. So it does suggest there are some key differences at work there. But on the surface it does all seem pretty similar.

I actually liked the SC2 single player experience. My only criticism is that it should have been longer, and had more then one race. And well that is a pretty significant criticism. But what there is I thought was really good. I have no problem with the story either, but really how much you like a story in a game is very subjective.

Overall though I'm not a huge RTS fan, so Starcraft was more of an interesting diversion for me then a significant game. I have plenty of of RTS obsessed friends though who absolutely love it.

I played D2.  I got very bummed where you had to group with people to get the best drops from the boss or the cow level and it was 'their' boss or 'their' drop or 'their' cow.  I spent a lot of time trying to figure out names of games where people were grouped with limited #'s of the same people, and once they figured you were there they all split, re-loged under new names.  Stupid-weird.  Like only played by gold farmers.  And then there were the hackers that droped 10,000 piles of 1 gold and tried to duplicate stuff under lag, and all sorts of really odd exploits like in pvp you txt spammed the person and it'd lag them so you could kill them.  And if you die you lose all your life's work like in EvE.  Super lame pvp nonsense.

They'd have to add alot to this game to make me want to play it again.  I think there was a game after this Sacred?  or something?  It had more questing and content than D2, and I forgot to buy that too.   I want to like D3.   I really want to like D3.  It's like a chick with a mole that has 2 boyfriends already.  idk man...

What are you going on about?