Blizzard Sale

There is nothing bad about it, pure genius 10/10 - IGN

Was the best game...until patch 1.10d when they changed the way mechanics of Blood Golems and Iron Maiden worked killing off the best class of any game ever - The Zookeeper Necro!

Can you tell I am still bitter? lol

I love the Diablo series, it is hands down one of my top game series ever made. I would say that if you are going to get Diablo 3, you must get Reaper of Souls with it. The base game of Diablo 3 is a dead man's land. It's all about Greater Rift Leaderboards (D3's version of Ladders for you D2 players) and about Seasonal characters.

If you are an RTS fan Starcraft is a great series, even though I never got into it I have many friends who still play it religiously.

Undead Stygian Dolls.

That is all.

Steam doesn't need constant online presence, it needs one-time online activation, then you can play single-player games without any sort of internet connection whatsoever. In the new Blizzard games if your connection to the internet is cut even for a millisecond, the game throws you out to the main menu and won't let you back in to play. Even if you never want to play anything more than the SP campaign.

Also: if you enjoyed WC3, then yes, get SC2. The story is still good. Although I despise Blizzard's gameplay mechanics since they are nothing but APM, their stories and lore-building has always been one of the best among the Western developers.

Battle.net does need a pretty consistent connection, but it's not quite as dire as talgaby is making it out to be. As someone on a less-than-great connection, Diablo 3 handles occasional packet loss fine. Anything more than that will probably kick you, but it's not a matter of milliseconds or even 3-5 seconds.

Also, SC2 has a limited offline mode with some restrictions. D3 does not on PC, but does have offline play on consoles.

Yet the first advice anyone gives on StarCraft is "improve your apm"… :)

Path of Exile. Free to play, 0% pay-to-win. Great developers.
Playable via Steam.

Who in the world would mock another guy for having LAN parties? Are those who mock you the "cool kids"? Because I would have 0 regard for the opinion of those people.

Diablo games aren't known for their stories, or any sort of draw except one.
They're known exclusively for loot hoarding mechanics, a perpetual rush of swapping out gear for better gear and hunting really rare gear.
As far as story, plot, NPCs, character development, level up benefits [which isn't to say you don't get cool abilities to power up, but it's all very arcadey, not strategic], it's not what you'd typically label 'RPG'.
It's also a very, very repetitive, swarm-grinding game. With friends, this is sped up and infinitely more interesting and dynamic, hence why people tend to have FAR more fun in multiplayer on Diablo games.
Also, being able to go 'AH, BOSS!' and 'OOH, SHINY' and the like with things other than your chia pet and goldfish to hear it, definitely has benefits.

All that said, I did dump hundreds of hours of gameplay into the single player of Diablo 2 [and more into the multiplayer], so if you're new to the series, you likely'll enjoy yourself for at least the first playthrough.

Diablo 2 did not age well, and while there's no doubting it's an excellent game, most people gushing praise are speaking solely from nostalgia (as noted, we bled our time into that game).

So yes, Diablo 2 is great; however for a new player coming into it at this point in time, its dated mechanics (and even more dated graphics), which have been imitated and, in many senses, refined since then, may hinder your enjoyment. You're basically going to love it or hate it.

But, as noted, it's cheaply gained, so there's no harm in starting the series with it.

As far as Diablo 3 being a console port in any sense, that's nonsense. Likewise, while the game had SERIOUS issues at launch- mostly related to Blizzard's money-grubbing auction house and the game trying to tie too deeply into it- a lot of that has since been cleared up.

Is it a great game [compared to Diablo 2]? That's subjective, and hard for someone who has played the genre for years to say.
But, just like Diablo 2 isn't as awe-inspiring [at this point in time, definitely was at release, damn] as people make it out to be, Diablo 3 isn't as bad, either.

BUT.
Your best way into the genre?
Play Path of Exile. It's a refined, constantly updating and changing, love ode to Diablo.
And it's 100% free to play, the only thing you can spend real money on is cosmetics, period.

It has some balancing issues, but it's otherwise a vast improvement on Diablo 2 [Though it somehow manages to have less of a story than the Diablo games, which is impressive, in a sense], so unless you're trying to 'see what you missed', PoE is all you really need.

Then again, there are some things in Diablo 2 that'll stick with you. Not in any profound sense, but it'll definitely amp up your gaming geek cred.

So, tl;dr, I'd recommend staying away from Diablo 3 to start, since there are cheaper ways of determining if you're a fan of the genre.

noo noo. like the first 4-5 missions are free

"If you decide you like it, you can buy the full game."

Last expansion (Legacy of the Void) is planned for later this year. It'll include the Protoss campaign (hope it's better than HoS - that had some interesting ideas gameplay-wise but the story was a kinda blah attempt to make Kerrigan more "Queen Bitch of the Universe" while still staying a sort-of good-guy), as well as multi-player rules updates.

Biggest update for multiplayer will be new units, as well as increased number of workers right from the start. That last bit probably will shake up the multi-player balance and push it towards more aggressive early expansions.

Correct, the current chest is only Base + First Expansion. Second Expansion (currently final) is in the testing phase. Not sure when the release will be. If you buy the first two at $10 each now, probably can wait and get the third for $10 later as well. I like to collect boxes so I am just waiting for the complete all in one box for it. Likely will pay $30 or so for it so I won't be saving anything by waiting. I also would rather play the story all in one go rather than two bits now and the last bit a year or two from now.

Am I missing something??

Ok I'll double that to prove it. =s