Blizzard "exploring a Diablo-related concept for consoles"

I like the idea of Diablo on consoles, the concept just suits the platform very well. Small parties so voice chat is not crowded, limited skills to control (in Diablo II you had 2! active skills) and fast paced gameplay that works in 20min snacks aswell as 2 hour sessions.
The fact that SCII is pirated that much had to be expected, it's just this big, well known and great game. What may have made it worse is the Battle.Net concept as it is now. I also believe that many of the pirates still went out and bought the game, as anyone who really gets into multiplayer hast to play on Bnet regardless. Personally I preloaded the game and then had many issues with installing, some friends of mine actually solved those problems by getting a ripped DVD via torrents and installing from that, so this might be a factor, too.

Posted:2 years ago

DO IT.

The PSOne version of Diablo was solid (muzzy graphics and that floor 7th mob "glitch" aside). Hell, it not as if there haven't been a "few" (little in joke) successful Diablo-style games on consoles previously... even BEFORE Diablo existed. Midway's Gauntlet series, the Dungeon Explorer games, and post-Diablo stuff such as the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance games, two Champions of Norrath games, the X-Men Legends and Ultimate Alliance series and so forth and so on. Blizzard HAS to see these as examples of that formula working in a quicker pick up and play format.

And hell, GO BEYOND a stripped-down Diablo, guys and dolls. Given that there are (and have been) keyboard/mouse peripherals on major home consoles in the US since what, the Sega Genesis and SNES days, it's about damn time that SOMEONE took on the roles of making console games that are as deep as their PC cousins.

As for SCII, there's NO legitimate excuse for pirating a game, period. Your game won't install? Bug the developer for a patch (mass complaining usually helps more than outright stealing). I heard one jerk in a game shop a few weeks back say "I'm sure Blizzard is making SO much money that they don't mind a "few" people doing what they need to do so they can play their games... piracy isn;t bad at all, man - it's good for business!"

Wanted to toss a shoe at his head and wish he worked at a bank that kept getting robbed electronically as well as in person instead of behind a sales counter (probably stealing games during his lunch break).

Posted:2 years ago

I was impressed enough by the PlayStation version of Diablo 1 to play through it all in co-op mode with a housemate, despite having already played it on PC. Knowing Blizzard, they'll either can it halfway through porting, or they'll do a damn good job and sell well. Let's just hope it's the latter.

Posted:2 years ago