Re:My beta impressions, as a major fanboy... (Score 1)

Blizzard, Valve and all of the bigger game developers used to have an self imposed mantra of releasing games "when it's done". It seems to me that fewer and fewer of the Triple A developers are actually adhering to it. Id software graced us last year with Rage, what must have been one of the most pathetic first person tech demos I've ever seen, and now Blizzard is suggesting that a game is finished when they've removed a substantial number of features out to make it "ready" for release. Triple A studios, perhaps with the exception of Valve, seem to have simply become the extension of their overly greedy publishers.

I bought Diablo, Hellfire, Diablo II, Lord of Destruction, and played all of them, to the point of physical exhaustion. I would wake up, play Diablo 2 before class, and then start playing Diablo 2 as soon as I got home again. I slept (if you can call it that) hearing the noises of fallen ones and goatmen dying, needless to say I was beyond hooked on those games, as were all of my friends. I can still remember drop % from some of the best runs for some items that I was looking for. . .

I've actually reinstalled Diablo I(Why not Diablo II? It makes me physically ill!) on a few computers I own, and have been playing over LAN with a few of my friends (using The Hell Mod, very recommended difficulty goes way up), simply because I haven't been invited to the Diablo III Beta (yet?). If I close my eyes I can almost pretend it's Diablo III.

And actually, I've got an action figure of Diablo staring at me from on top of my bookshelf. He's hanging out with a Marine and a Hydralisk.

I fucking LOVE Diablo. But I'm really struggling with if I want to buy the game when it's still admittedly incomplete at release. The precedent for removing features until a game is gold- rather than polishing and fixing - is a disturbing one.