With the recent announcement of Diablo III and the excitement building for the game, an author on Blizzard Guru has written an article entitled "Diablo III and Hellgate: London - Same Genealogy?" to reflect upon another relatively recent game launch, the hype preceding it's launch and it's failure to gather the critical acclaim that so many eager Diablo fans wanted: Hellgate: London.
Titan Quest / Titan Quest: Immortal Throne vs Diablo 3 would be a way better comparison. The graphics in TQ:IT look just as good if not better than whats in the gameplay video as far as physics and graphics go. Iron Lore did a great job with the classes and multi classing, they all have their place, with very well done unique looking skill trees. Blizzard already mentoined a couple of things their doing in regards of Titan Quest such as the Multiplayer and Sets. But yeah, I've never enjoyed a Hack N Slash for so long, or beaten a game on so many occassions, after months of playing ( and sitll currently playing ) , 9/10 worth every penny. But yeah I've noticed more comparison with Diablo 3 and Titan Quest than Hellgate and Diablo 3, even though the settings are completely different so you wouldn't think so. Titan Quest has it's dark dunegons, and popping colors outdoors, with a nice night/day cycle. Actually, from the limitless sets, weapons, armor, to creatures, water, moving foliage as you brush past it, it's all eye catching, especially in the expansion TQ:Immortal Throne that brings in the land Hades, which has some very nice effects and details as you progress through it. TQ:IT is just like Diablo:LoD in terms of what it added as well.
I'd have to say that it was a good speculative article (even considering all the FSS vs. Blizzard "facts" were wrong, since comparing promises and 10 minutes of gameplay can hardly be even CONSIDERED as solid material), a nice read.
O ya totally. I completely agree. We haven't see any blood, gore, or decapitations at all yet. None. Zero. And it's so disappointing.... is this Diablo 3 or Hello Kitty Island Adventures? I honestly can't tell.
I mean all games that look "cartoony" or are have exaggerated graphics are never rated M, only E or T. It has never happened, ever! I mean, just look at this god awful game
I mean, that's such crap. Stupid and ulgy color scheme, it looks so "cartoony", and I bet it plays like a child's game too. I bet my little 6 year old cousin and his stupid friends play it, and that's it.
Games that show you exactly where you are and don't make it hard to play, aren't games worthwhile to play. What's the point in playing a game if you don't have to work for it? What kind of adult wants to play a game like that? None, only immature brats.
Seriously. If this game doesn't turn it's head and move in the opposite direction, it wont even beat a game that at this point is over 8 years older than it. Seriously...
I am a founder of HGL and trust me they had all the right ideas, just like everyone is saying.
But they fell short on their promises and put too much staff into a game mythos, that was a free to play game which was still in beta and got more attention and better reviews than HGL.
Why put so much man power into a game that isn't even going to make you money, and forget about the game you praised as THE A-RPG?
HGL's fault was mythos.
What we can take from the experience and game that was and coulda been HGL are:
- Everyone gets their own loot (HGL unique loot system)
-The linked stash area for easy muling ( a smaller area, not something huge people can take advantage of, aka... a 5x5?)
- Secret areas (cow level, uber boss levels ... yada yada, there was supposed to be a hidden level in HGL but it was pretty much a flub)
- achievements (there are threads on this and came exclusively from HGL)
- viable skill sets from each tree (balancing of sorts, making melle classes more noticeable in combat)
- balanced PVP (not everyone needs ranged and tele to survive in HC)
and so on, HGL had a few good ideas, some to most were never actually implemented, but I pass the buck to D3, honestly.
If you ask why I put so much faith in D3 to fix what HGL got wrong, I will put it simply, because we were told that HGL was "D3"
**
I thought of a few other things while doing labs....
- more monster classes, changing the color of early on weak enemies is repetative and unnecessary
- make the economy not biased through people using many bots to continuously run (meph runs)
- make it difficult, make me want to work to kill that guy! This is something that HGL did very well, noteably the only thing. They made end game bosses the hardest shit to do in the world that needed a party just to get the job done because you were an asshat if you thought you could do it alone.
- make certain items stackable, potions, runes... etc.
- make it quick and easy to transfer items to stash. (ctrl click?)
Still, a lot of people will be disapointed when the game ships, developers just can`t please everyone.
I have to disagree here.
I've havent heard of anyone disappointed by a GoW sequel, or a MGS sequel, or a FF sequel, or a RE sequel. and that's just to name a few.
anyways I highly doubt that Diablo III will be anything near disappointing.
(i hope)
"Idea: Customise the player character experience so players feel more ownership. FSS: Allow players to select and customise character appearance variables. Blizzard: Allow players to pick gender on all classes. Witness: FSS made the characters fully customisable in terms of appearance, but why? Many combinations just look like shit. Seriously. Try hitting random a few times and tell me how many you actually like? Wanna be a fat midget with a fucking purple mohawk? ahhh - doesn’t scream hero to the world. More like Attitude ridden biker lesbian - which is fine if that’s what you are, but then I’m guessing there aren’t a lot of gamers who dream of being an angsty lesbian biker."
Wanna be a fat midget with a fucking purple mohawk?
lmfao.
I always wondered why FSS divided the teams and split the focus amongst Hellgate and Mythos, when at the time, Hellgate should have had all of the attention, especially in the state it was in.
I always wondered why FSS divided the teams and split the focus amongst Hellgate and Mythos, when at the time, Hellgate should have had all of the attention, especially in the state it was in.
They didn't divide the teams genius. The developer site in seattle came along after production of Hellgate London started. It's a completely seperate studio led by Travis Baldree of "Fate" fame.
I would rather say that HG:L Art direction was the perfect theme for Diablo despite the modern twist of modern gothic.
Hellgate could have been a great game sadly for the poor background.
but no doubt Hellgate: london art direction should had been In Diablo 3 which what the Royal fans love about it mainly the Art theme of it.
Why I was amaze about HG:L because the theme & art direction which caught me playing it.
The author hates HG:L , n at some points i do agree when at times it became too draggy
On HG:L despite the weakness , ill give FULL credit on the the art direction a 5 Star flat out on that!
Diablo 3 hopefully n should be much better unless player can adjust their lighting & theme.:cool:.
Honestly I really didn't have super high hopes for Hgl, I've been playing it for several weeks and I can pretty much agree with the writer on every point. The dialogue makes me want to kill someone all the time, the levels are the same thing over and over, the monsters don't vary at all (Just recycle at higher levels) the screens for skills and what not are cumbersome and slow, the list goes on. I have very high hopes for Diablo III, and after playing hellgate london, I must say. . . . I really have great appreciation for the art direction blizzard has taken now (Color really is your friend after playing HGL for more than 2-3 hours).
There is no Hellgate vs Diablo, Hellgate:London tried to be Diablo and failed. What I'm saying is, they tried to make Hellgate as similar to Diablo as they could without getting copyright fines most likely, so really this is a Generic Diablo vs Diablo were talking about here. Hellgate:London is really just a badly done Generic Diablo. :confused:
I seem to remember hearing someone at Blizzard say something along the lines that they had started on Diablo 3 a long time back and decided they didn't like what they had and to start over again fresh. Maybe the rejected version is basically what became Hellgate London?
I seem to remember hearing someone at Blizzard say something along the lines that they had started on Diablo 3 a long time back and decided they didn't like what they had and to start over again fresh. Maybe the rejected version is basically what became Hellgate London?
If that's true, then they had good reason to fire each and every one of those who were in Blizzard North. I hear they all just left, though, so...
As a long-time fan and player of the Diablo series I bought and played Hellgate. It was a disappointment.
First, the game wasn't LAN capable but I've commented on that elsewhere...
The game simply wasn't 'dark' enough. Here we have a community of survivors lurking in the subways and fighting back against seemingly overwheming odds. The last stand of humanity. Should have been tremendous.
The NPC's just weren't believable. These should have been hard core survivors. The grim professionals who survived when those less dedicated died.
The whole atmosphere should have reflected this but instead we got childish NPC animations and dialogue that might have been suitable fot peaceful suburbia.
I'm not even saying a word about bugs and FSS's constant failure to communicate (note the restraint!).
Whatever may be said about DI, DII and the LOD expansion there was an overall air of menace which was well sustained. The NPCs although illustrated with a limited palette and few brushstrokes fitted far better into the overall 'feel' of the games than do the Hellgate NPC's
So what will DIII be like?? Well, as a historian I'm professionally concerned with medieval weapons and armour. Barely clad females and armour covered with spikes arouse in me the impulse to scream 'NO! NO!'
The thing to remember though is that the Diablo series are games. They are NOT a reflection of reality but having said that I would find it more easy to wilfully suspend disbelief in the case of a Blizzard product (based on past experience) than than I would in the case of Hellgate.
Awesome post of the day.
A pity nobody else 'got' it.
But they fell short on their promises and put too much staff into a game mythos, that was a free to play game which was still in beta and got more attention and better reviews than HGL.
Why put so much man power into a game that isn't even going to make you money, and forget about the game you praised as THE A-RPG?
HGL's fault was mythos.
What we can take from the experience and game that was and coulda been HGL are:
- Everyone gets their own loot (HGL unique loot system)
-The linked stash area for easy muling ( a smaller area, not something huge people can take advantage of, aka... a 5x5?)
- Secret areas (cow level, uber boss levels ... yada yada, there was supposed to be a hidden level in HGL but it was pretty much a flub)
- achievements (there are threads on this and came exclusively from HGL)
- viable skill sets from each tree (balancing of sorts, making melle classes more noticeable in combat)
- balanced PVP (not everyone needs ranged and tele to survive in HC)
and so on, HGL had a few good ideas, some to most were never actually implemented, but I pass the buck to D3, honestly.
If you ask why I put so much faith in D3 to fix what HGL got wrong, I will put it simply, because we were told that HGL was "D3"
**
I thought of a few other things while doing labs....
- more monster classes, changing the color of early on weak enemies is repetative and unnecessary
- make the economy not biased through people using many bots to continuously run (meph runs)
- make it difficult, make me want to work to kill that guy! This is something that HGL did very well, noteably the only thing. They made end game bosses the hardest shit to do in the world that needed a party just to get the job done because you were an asshat if you thought you could do it alone.
- make certain items stackable, potions, runes... etc.
- make it quick and easy to transfer items to stash. (ctrl click?)
I've havent heard of anyone disappointed by a GoW sequel, or a MGS sequel, or a FF sequel, or a RE sequel. and that's just to name a few.
anyways I highly doubt that Diablo III will be anything near disappointing.
(i hope)
FSS: Allow players to select and customise character appearance variables.
Blizzard: Allow players to pick gender on all classes.
Witness:
FSS made the characters fully customisable in terms of appearance, but why? Many combinations just look like shit. Seriously. Try hitting random a few times and tell me how many you actually like? Wanna be a fat midget with a fucking purple mohawk? ahhh - doesn’t scream hero to the world. More like Attitude ridden biker lesbian - which is fine if that’s what you are, but then I’m guessing there aren’t a lot of gamers who dream of being an angsty lesbian biker."
Wanna be a fat midget with a fucking purple mohawk?
lmfao.
They didn't divide the teams genius. The developer site in seattle came along after production of Hellgate London started. It's a completely seperate studio led by Travis Baldree of "Fate" fame.
Hellgate could have been a great game sadly for the poor background.
but no doubt Hellgate: london art direction should had been In Diablo 3 which what the Royal fans love about it mainly the Art theme of it.
Why I was amaze about HG:L because the theme & art direction which caught me playing it.
The author hates HG:L , n at some points i do agree when at times it became too draggy
On HG:L despite the weakness , ill give FULL credit on the the art direction a 5 Star flat out on that!
Diablo 3 hopefully n should be much better unless player can adjust their lighting & theme.:cool:.
If that's true, then they had good reason to fire each and every one of those who were in Blizzard North. I hear they all just left, though, so...
First, the game wasn't LAN capable but I've commented on that elsewhere...
The game simply wasn't 'dark' enough. Here we have a community of survivors lurking in the subways and fighting back against seemingly overwheming odds. The last stand of humanity. Should have been tremendous.
The NPC's just weren't believable. These should have been hard core survivors. The grim professionals who survived when those less dedicated died.
The whole atmosphere should have reflected this but instead we got childish NPC animations and dialogue that might have been suitable fot peaceful suburbia.
I'm not even saying a word about bugs and FSS's constant failure to communicate (note the restraint!).
Whatever may be said about DI, DII and the LOD expansion there was an overall air of menace which was well sustained. The NPCs although illustrated with a limited palette and few brushstrokes fitted far better into the overall 'feel' of the games than do the Hellgate NPC's
So what will DIII be like?? Well, as a historian I'm professionally concerned with medieval weapons and armour. Barely clad females and armour covered with spikes arouse in me the impulse to scream 'NO! NO!'
The thing to remember though is that the Diablo series are games. They are NOT a reflection of reality but having said that I would find it more easy to wilfully suspend disbelief in the case of a Blizzard product (based on past experience) than than I would in the case of Hellgate.