Diablo III: Saving the End Game

It happened just after the sixty hour mark. After felling Diablo for a second time the charm of the creeping hordes and sprawling dungeons dwindled. The treasure chests, once blossoms bursting with a near-endless wealth of weaponry, lost their allure. When a hero of the High Heavens finds the best gear around, what's left for them to do?

A Blizzard community manager recently admitted that the item hunt "is just not enough for a long-term sustainable end-game." Players need something more in order to stay engaged and keep slaying. No matter how many patches and hotfixes roll through to tinker with the little things, beating Diablo III four times in a row leaves precious little fun left to enjoy. But, like Tyrael taking up his sword in Act I, not all hope is lost. Descend below for a list of additions that could save Diablo III's end game.

My Kingdom for a Sword

Start simple, Blizzard. More item affixes could help. Think devious hexes, armor brands, and other neato buffs. While the current set has plenty of delightful side effects just made for exploiting, a few extra never hurt. Unless they throw Diablo III's balance right out the window, which is always a looming threat when adding to a complex equation.

Speaking of affixes, some of those found in Diablo II never made the jump to Diablo III. We need only look to those for plenty of options that have yet to be explored in the latest adventure.

Race Ya to the Finish

Much like moving from Normal to Nightmare, this next suggestion starts to get crazy. With so much of Diablo III's design hinged on the purpose of encouraging multiple runs through the story, why not implement a ranked time trial?

Imagine a simple prompt at the beginning of the campaign that disables all cutscenes and sends you hurdling towards Diablo with a time counter on the top of the display. After clearing the story, or perhaps just an act, your time appears on a global leaderboard for all to see. This would exist outside of the time-based achievements, by the way. Those do their own thing.

Of course, time trials present their own set of problems, like how to handle players that log in and out mid-play. But jockeying for the fastest time gives Diablo extremists an additional way to compete and compare skills.

Modes! Modes! Modes!

One of the best ways to keep the party going is to develop more modes on top of the norm. It's worked well for years because developers can deliver the same play experience but in a different package. In the case of Diablo III, some recognizable formats seem like a perfect fit for this dungeon crawler.

First! A tower mode. Or endless dungeon mode. Whatever brooding title fits, really. Completely randomize a series of never-ending floors and challenge players to go as deep as they can on a single run. No deaths allowed, and some restrictions on returning to town. This would not only open up a limitless dungeon-crawling option but would also force explorers to think twice before picking up everything on the floor.

Second! Look to almost any modern shooter to find a delightfully replayable horde mode. Implementing this into Diablo III would require some serious effort on Blizzard's behalf as it requires appropriate maps and the like, but what wonders it could work on the end game! A cooperative battle against waves and waves of enemies. Saving your gold or spending it on temporary defenses and walls. I tremble at the thought.

Third! Arcade mode! Play for points!

At the End of the Game/Day

We all know that PVP mode beckons us from just up the road, and inevitable expansions all but guarantee new classes and quests. But until then, Diablo III needs more.

Finding the perfect set of loot can only keep the adventuring masses entertained for so long. And with plenty of folks already clearing the story on Inferno, Blizzard needs to consider other ways to keep everyone playing, or else Evil will prevail.

Ryan Clements writers for IGN and, despite what you might think, loves Diablo III. Really. He took a day off of work to play it at launch. Follow him on Twitter, and share in his love of The Last Airbender, which he just finished for the first time.

Source : ign[dot]com

Dungeons and Dragons Online: Menace of the Underdark – Destiny Awaits

Dungeons and Dragons Online is now over six years old, but that hasn’t stopped developer Turbine from crafting new content for loyal fans. While the base game takes place in Eberron, a new world created for Dungeons and Dragons Third Edition, the game’s first-ever retail expansion, Menace of the Underdark, finally brings players back to The Forgotten Realms.

The Forgotten Realms is something fans have been asking Turbine to add in for years now. This is the same setting as the numerous R.A. Salvatore novels, the Baldur’s Gate games, the beloved Neverwinter Nights series and many, many more pieces of fiction. Fans of Dungeons and Dragons, even just people who like high fantasy, have been connecting and delving into this world in droves since it was first introduced in 1987.

Having journeyed into The Realms and played as the new Druid class that comes with Menace of the Underdark, I think hardcore fans have plenty look forward to – especially when it comes to character progression. For starters the level cap has risen from 20 to 25. Level 20 was sort of a hard stop for Turbine’s MMO partially because it corresponded to the max level in D&D, but the team’s trying to do more with how you tailor your character to your playstyle, and felt their new leveling system would help them do that best.

Turbine’s solution to furthering character customization comes from a new series of Epic levels, where progression between level 21-25 nets you points to spend on Epic Destinies. Epic Destinies allow you to specialize, and start from a set of four groups: Martial, Arcane, Primal and Divine. Once you select a group, you then pick a starting point for your Destiny, earning experience that nets you additional points to spend in an elaborate tree. With enough time and effort you can level up a Destiny to the point where you have a chance to bridge it with a neighboring group. This means that you can combine chunks of Destines together, creating unique builds that suit your particular needs.

To give long-term players plenty of reasons to keep on grinding, Turbine’s made it so you can level up all Epic Destinies if you’re determined. You can shelf your progress in a particular Destiny if you choose, working and earning experience towards a new one. If you decide you don’t like the abilities or build you’ve been working on, you can change back to your old Destiny build, picking up right where you left off. You can also keep your progress even if you decide to use DDO's True Reincarnation feature where you reset your level back to one. You can’t earn experience towards your Destinies as you go back through the content, but at least you won’t lose the countless hours you spend as a high level character.

You can play Dungeons and Dragons Online for free, but the Menace of the Underdark is a paid expansion with multiple different versions. This is pretty standard for MMOs, but what’s different here is that how much you spend determines what content you get. If you by the “base” version of the expansion you get access to the new zones and dungeons, as well as the Destinies, but you don’t get the new Druid class. If you purchase the “Standard” or “Collector’s Editions” you get everything, along with some special goodies you can check out on the official site. VIP subscribers, who pay a monthly fee, get access to the Druid class regardless of whether or not they buy the expansion.

Long-term subscribers and new players alike can check out the expansion for themselves when it releases Monday, June 25th. Just be warned: new players won't be able to effectively access the Underdark content until they're at least level 16.



Source : ign[dot]com