The Diablo books

[Cheomesh]

I'm a big fan of the Diablo PC games (though 3 isn't looking too great), and I was wondering if anyone here would reccomend the books written in their universe?  I'm struggling through a really poorly written Dragonlance book (Stonetellers book 1) at the moment, and am considering picking up the Diablo books instead.

M.

[Steerpike]

I haven't read the Diablo books, but if you're looking for good dark fantasy I'd recommend any of the Elric stories for grim but rollicking adventure, some of which were recently released in a new paperback format, Scar Night which has some really gothic elements, and of course any of the Bas-Lag books by China Mieville (the first being Perdido Street Station), which I simply cannot recommend enough.

[Biohazard]

Tried to pick up the Diablo series but failed miserably because my local bookstore never seems to have any of them in stock. I would definitely suggest reading the manual for the original Diablo, at least, if you have them... some pretty great setting fiction there. Keep me posted on the quality of the books if you do pick them up.

[Llum]

The playstation version of D1 had a ton of good reading.

I've heard both good and bad about the books, but Richard K Knaak is a good author.

D3 looks awesome IMO, except for 1 thing. They made frost white and lightning blue, that looks stupid. Blizz should switch it back to what it was like in D2

[Cheomesh]

Also time magic :|

And our characters are *specific* individuals, including a 60 some year old Barbarian who is inexplicably a level 1 character with a completely and utterly different skill set; he's the same barbarian from 2 that killed Diablo.  Also the color pallette, removal of great classes for the sake of "different", and utterly cliche voodoo guys.

If anyone's read the books, do post -- they've got them on Amazon.

M.

[Llum]

:derails thread:

Time Magic? The wizard bubble thing? True that it is kinda lame, but I like how it works, interesting in PvP and cool in PvE.

D1 and D2 characters were specific individuals... I'm sorry you never caught on to that. Diablo in D2 is the Warrior from D1 etc...

Old barb doesn't make a ton of sense ether, but from what I remember from WWI info that a bunch of barbarians survived Arreat exploding.

I like the color, but thats more of a personal thing tbh.

Now for the classes, not too sure why they changed a lot of stuff. Wizard seems to be an "asian" sorc, that's about it. Witch Doctor... I wouldn't call voodoo cliche but it fails compared Necro or Druid.

[Cheomesh]

Llum, sorry my last post was kind of cryptic; by "specific" I meant in terms of world events.  

I know that Diablo is the warrior from D1 (Actually one of the Knights of that nation, specifically), Blood Raven is the Rogue from D1, and the Summoner the sorcerer from D1.  I *loved* how that wrapped up.

But in D3, *all* male Barbarians are the same barbarian from D2 (Just level 1 and 60 years old), the individual who slew Diablo in the depths of Hell.  All female "Wizards" are the one girl who tore apart the study of the Varenji on that island.  And yes, the Witch Doctor is pretty failhard.

I was hoping to see the Sorcerer make a reappearance...I mean come on, with larger disk space to work on and faster processors, I was really looking forward to seeing that non elemental deamon magic the Sorceresses distained so much as corrupting.

M.

[Kindling]

I think D3 looks pretty sweet. I also think the Witch Doctor looks pretty sweet. When the game comes out, I'm most likely gonna get it. I really don't see what you guys are complaining about apart from "they changed a bunch of stuff from the way it was in the previous games"

I also think the older barbarian is pretty awesome idea. I've always liked that kind of image of the grizzled and aged-yet-still-strong warrior. Kinda like David Gemmel's Druss, I guess.

[Cheomesh]

At level 1?  With no memories of the wtfpwn abilities he gained fighting Diablo?  With a completely different doctrine?  Bah.

So nobody's read the books?

M.

[Kindling]

Maybe he's out of practice... besides, game balance must also be considered...

[Llum]

From what I've read and heard, there are actually a bunch of Barbarians that survived Arreat, so not all of them are the barb from D2.

As for the Witch Doctor Kindling... he just doesn't look cool in my opinion. Hes basically the bastard child of the druid and the necro, in terms of flavour and abilities...

[Cheomesh]

I know many survived, but the one you play is the same old guy -- they all look the same and fill the same story position.

And agreed on the WD.  Suddenly there are no necro's or druids?

M.

[Steerpike]

If the game is anything like it was presented in the gameplay trailer its going to be exponentially more awesome than D2 with regards to things like boss monsters, destructible environments, and general use of the environment (ghouls climbing up pillars, for example).

I'm not sold on the Witch Doctor, but I like the old barbarian.  He does look very Druss.

[Cheomesh]

So nobody read them?

M.