Hands On: Diablo III

Test Drive

TEST BENCH RIG:

  • OS: Windows 7 64 Bit, SP1
  • CPU: Intel Core i7-920
  • Cooling: Noctua NH-U12P
  • Motherboard: Gigabyte UD3R-SLI
  • Memory: 12GB DDR3 Kingston (Triple Channel)
  • Hard Drive: 2x Seagate ST33250318AS 500GB 7200RPM in RAID0
  • GPU: Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB Windforce
  • Screen Resolution: 1920×1200
  • Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-FI Xtreme
  • Mouse: Logitech G3
  • Keyboard: Logitech G510
  • Benchmark Software: FRAPS

 

PROCESS USED:

I started the game and progressed to the first quest (which was to defend the town gate from the Dead.) After which was getting acquainted with New Tristram and the NPCs within then onto ACT II.

Typical HID’s used: Mouse and Keyboard.

REVIEW PLAY TIME:

Approximately 5-6 hours in total.

[Edit]: Normal mode took under 20 hours to complete.

 

 

INITIAL EXPECTATIONS:

There are a lot of comments and forum posts by players who tried to install the game it hangs on Updating Setup Files. I experienced no issues during setup and configuration – my assumption was to those people that the servers where busy at the time and couldn’t serve up the files. In typical Blizzard style, the installer contains storyboards which include the back story of Diablo and Diablo II and where Diablo III fits in. 

updatingsetup

My expectation for D3 is very high – considering Blizzard spent a few weeks in Beta testing so in my opinion the final game should be pretty close to perfect.

 

PERSISTENT DRM:

Where I think Blizzard have rolled its customers is the persistent online DRM copy protection. Players must always be connected to the internet to even play single-player. Yes, that’s right boys and girls – if you’re net connection dies, so does your ability to play. I was stung by this where my account couldn’t be authenticated – but by switching to another region I was quickly back to looting . My opinion is if I buy the game, I should be able to play offline and without authentication each time.

Many of the players of Diablo 3 will be aging Diablo I and II fans who where used to the traditional offline game play where an internet connection was only required for battle.net games might be put off by this fact.

 

OBSERVATIONS:

The retail box was purchased from EB Games – unfortunately the box was a little damaged on the corners but the contents remained pristine. The manual is thick and rich with quality art but who reads manuals, right? There is also a dicky notepad that I’ll never use.

The graphics configuration is simple and with limited options – its either Low, Medium, High – so I select High for everything and chose 1920×1200 with V-Sync and move on – I like it, not too many options to waste my time. You can remap keys but the default keys I felt are very workable and natural.

Visually, D3 is spectacular – game developers have plenty of opportunity for detail – and there is detail and then some. In later levels, the stone statues have definition and presence, but what I’m impressed by most is the polish. I can see Blizzard have spent a lot of time perfecting the audio (high definition with up to 128 channels of sound!) and the visuals to match the genre and the expected ambience. I did have a small expectation on the game being “cartoon” like (similar to Warcraft III) – and its borderline with some enemies but overall the graphics are fitting.

 

Note: I did turn v-sync off during my test and found my frames shot up well over 120 but the tearing and clipping were very noticeable and quickly turned it back on.

 

Also, I didn’t have to load new nvidia drivers or go with any Beta versions to get game support from day one! The benefits of Beta testing I suppose ….

Having to continually log in to Battle.net on start is a little annoying (like in SCII) but at least you can keep multiple characters and flick between them.

During gameplay, Blizzard will send server messages to your game-client while you play – for example I was playing a couple of nights ago around 9:30pm and received a “server unavailable” warning and I’m guessing my game would end if I didn’t stop playing; I’m not a risk taker so I saved up and quit.

Latency is also a concern – my ping to Asian servers is around 225ms (similar to US servers as well) – this is fine for game play and caused no lag (yup, because being connected to Blizzard constantly will affect your game play if your connection sucks), but the moment I kick off a download my ping goes up and I experience “rubberbanding.”

I deliberately stayed away from the Beta. I didn’t want the feelings of two-bob experience with Diablo III – on the same token I’m pleased Blizzard do release to Beta testers as the final release is very polished because of it. And the result, I believe of the Beta? A stable, polished, visually engaging game.

Overall, the first 15 minutes, nay the four hours (as it turned into) was quite addictive.

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