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The Soapbox: Diablo III's endgame is fundamentally flawed
Diablo III was arguably the biggest online game release of the year, but its predecessor's decade of consistent popularity left some pretty big shoes to fill. Despite being the most pre-ordered PC game in history and selling more than 6.3 million units in its first week, Diablo III has started to seriously wane in popularity. I've seen over a dozen friends stop playing completely in the last few months, and Xfire's usage stats for D3 have dropped by around 90% since June. Guild Wars 2's timely release accounts for some of the drop, but there's a lot more going on than just competition. The Diablo III beta showed only the first few levels and part of the game's highly polished first act, and soon after release it became obvious that parts of the game weren't exactly finished. PvP was cut from release, the Auction House was a mess, and Inferno difficulty was a poor excuse for an endgame. Poor itemisation made the carrot on the end of the stick taste sour, and the runaway inflation on top-end items is crying out for some kind of ladder reset mechanic. But there is hope for improvement, with new legendary items, the Paragon level system, and the upcoming Uber boss mechanic taking a few steps in the right direction. In this opinion piece, I look at some of the fundamental flaws in Diablo III's endgame and suggest a few improvements that would make a world of difference.
New WotLK Screenshots from Leipzig
In conjunction with the opening of the Leipzig Game Conference in Germany, Blizzard has released new screenshots from their upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Of the ten new screens, some are new shots of areas we've seen before such as the outdoor Howling Fjord zone and the 5-man dungeon Utgarde Keep. Others are of areas we have yet to see: a ramshackle collection of buildings called Skorn, an Alliance looking town named Westguard Keep and a not so hospitable hamlet dubbed Wyrmskull Village.Check out the new shots in the gallery below. They have been added to the screenshots we posted for Blizzcon 2007.%Gallery-5525%
