Rob Fahey writes, "Expensive in-game cosmetic items are a contentious issue that many developers tiptoe around – but this is the most balanced and palatable option for a modern business model.
For Diablo IV, the reviews are positive, the community is mostly happy – there’s just one fly in the ointment, it seems. That’s the existence of a single tab in the game’s menus, 'Shop', wherein you’ll find a set of cosmetic items (armour, mounts, and the likes) that the game is happy to sell you for between $10 and $20 a pop. There’s some lovely, well-designed stuff in there, but without forking over the cash, you can look but you can’t touch – dressing your character up in those fancy duds demands a surcharge over the full-price game you just bought.
Nobody seems terribly happy about this."
Diablo 4's Helltides have undergone one of the best glow-ups in the game in the span of a single season thanks to some balance adjustments.
The High Heavens is an important location to the Diablo franchise, but whether Diablo 4 should return to the location in the future is controversial.
Is Diablo IV worth it for the Single-Player experience today? I understand it has got many patches and improvements.
I honestly don't know what they could have changed/patched to make the game enjoyable since last summer. I played the campaign a bit past act 1 with a friend and it just becomes incredibly boring and repetitive. I uninstalled shortly after and haven't looked back. However, with me it may just be a case of that it's not my kind of game. I just didn't enjoy the endless cycle of going into a dungeon, collect loot, teleport to town, sell/dismantle, teleport back to dungeon, collect loot, teleport to town, sell/dismantle... rinse and repeat. That cycle was about 80% of the game back then, completely drowning out the story for me. If there is a demo, or you have a chance to test a friends copy then I'd recommend that before spending any money on it.
I loved D3 and would play a season for weeks.
D4 came out I reached level 60 ish and grew bored, I tried again in S1 and got to the same level and quit. I heard about the loot revamp, and briefly tried season 3 before jumping into the new season.
The game is better because it's easier to feel this progression smoothly increase, without hitting such a large road block, but I am level 61 and in Torment 4, and again I just don't feel the urge to continue.
I found a lack of direction of what to do, the thing that puts me off is the bland world, hell-tides are rather boring. Kill a non stop spawn of demons and summon a boss...
If you can get it for cheap, give it a try, or do a Gamepass trial and play it there.
Diablo IV is now available to play via PlayStation Cloud Gaming! Still not available to Play on Xbox Cloud Gaming.
We ran our script again and found 15 other PS5 games (a lot of popular ones!) that got PS5 Cloud Gaming support within the last month as well.
I hate that I have to keep calling this out, but your physical disks mean nothing if the game code attempts to connect to a server prior to playing.
And that happens when? I'm playing completely offline here, stellar Blade to be more precise.
I'm sorry but I've never run into that imaginary problem you're talking about, I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but it has never happened to me.
You not running into the problem yet has no bearing on my argument. You’re acting like the medium is the shield for you being able to always play your games when it effectively is not. The game code itself can try to connect to a server or the console you’re playing on may receive an update that requires that game to connect to a server. Just because you haven’t ran into it doesn’t mean anything lol you don’t own your games no matter how you try.
So I have never run into the problem you're talking about and your answer is an hypothetical? Look I can play any game of my library offline right now without issue.
That issue is in your mouth and alone.
Actually...there's an easy way...don't connect. If it doesn't require a connection and you don't connect...the code can't update...obviously....confused why you don't get what he's saying.
Hold on..lets say i dnt have an online connection, can i atleast play the game offline though. Was thinking of getting this
None of you use your brains.
OK, let’s explore this playing offline. not talking about Diablo specifically just gaming in general.
Are you going to buy two PlayStations? One offline one online? If not, moment you want to play something that requires a connection you’re cooked.
Does game experience you love so much stay the same offline?
Is the game even playable offline?
The whole point of my argument is that we don’t hold the keys anymore. The gatekeepers are the developers and console makers regardless of whether it’s digital or physical. You altering your play style for a lesser experience is not a workaround, it doesn’t solve the overall problem.
None of this matters since the move to the cloud is inevitable.
So you have to buy the game and can only stream to the PS5 devices using PS plus premium? What is the point of that. Much more useful when you can stream to other devices.
That's streaming off your PS5, not from the cloud. This is specifically referring to cloud gaming.
Sony doesn't yet have a web or app-based solution to stream games off their cloud service, the closest you may be able to get would be Remote Play if they allow cloud streaming during a Remote session.
And yes this applies to the Portal too.
Tacoboto
Please stop talking about PlayStation Streaming, you don't know what you're talking about.
I just explained this to you the other day where you were telling people that remote play was their only cloud solution, because apparently you didn't understand how PlayStation Premium works even though PS Now was a thing since shortly after the launch PS4..
You can stream to PC and Mac, and they had mobile clients for it in the past but probably for the same reason Microsoft is fighting Apple and Google PS Now wasn't allowed on App stores. Which is why it's not on iPhone and Android still.
And to be honest, I am glad they are trying to keep it on the console, all their moves away from the console seem like a step in the wrong direction, which isn't working so great for Microsoft...
Blizzard is shoving this game everywhere. Diablo 4 is going to take an even bigger hit soon. Path of exile 2 is coming out and it looks insane.
I completed it on gamepass. Thanks God I dint pay it full price. It plays like a lazy mobile game. I am not a pro diablo gamer (Diablo 1 was the only one I completed) but D4 has no atmosphere, no creepy feeling and soundtrack like the first one and its so easy, I managed to not buy any weapon and had 4 Million Credits on level 55. I always used the same 4 attacks from the beginning and died maybe 10-15 times. It's so easy, wtf. I remember D1 to be pretty hard.
WTF happened? Is Diablo 3 also that bad?
Considering that the PS cloud steaming is garbage compared to XCloud and is limited to certain devices this isn't something to brag about. Wake me up when Diablo is on PS plus
I mean, its better than loot boxes, But that isnt saying a lot. Personally i just dont buy games with any sort of monetization outside of traditional game expansions. Cosmetics are still an important aspect of enjoying a game. I guess this is the best monetization model theyve come up with but it still doesnt fly with me when its packaged in a full price game.
There is no defense.
"the most balanced and palatable option for a modern business model" what the hell are you talking about, it’s a minimum $70 game.
Used to be roar-worthy when they also had MTs beside the admission price, the bar got so low that now Macro transactions on top of that & people just mention it in passing.
How the hell anyone is ok with that is beyond me. Any streamer or reviewer worth their salt should be calling this out non-stop & boycott, yes even boycott, or this is going to set a messy precedent for any future good/great game from any studio.
I’m not happy I didn’t buy it, because I actually felt like playing it, but I won’t condone greedy art-gutting practices.
I don't think that the problem is that they are there...It's their price point! The game is 70$...Includes the music score, the art, all the monster and heroes designs, all the weapons and armor, the gameplay mechanics, the UI, etc... For 3 measly outfits they ask the same price of the full game?!?!?! Charge a dollar or 2 for a freakin' skin, not 20$!!!! I wish there were no mtx, but IF they have to be there, make them reasonable!!
When a game has seasons or leagues there is going to be some form of monenetization whether you take part in them or not. As long as there are service games with new maps, content changes, etc, the company will need to have a constant money stream. However, it does suck when a company does not include an in-game currency to grind for those cosmetics. Some games are just better at balancing the MTs than others. The only No-Nos are pay2win MTs like Diablo Immortal where they screwed over the whales and the defaults at the same time.
is there a justification other than "we want more money"? It cheapens the experience seeing in-game purchases, even offered in a tab you don't have to click on. I'll gladly pay $100 for a top-tier AAA game published by any of the most egregious offenders if it's a matter of covering development costs.