Path Of Exile

Nefaro · January 23, 2013, 08:18:53 PM

So.. is anyone else playing this now that it's in Open Beta as of today(and no more character wipes!)?

http://www.pathofexile.com/

Certainly has a Diablo feel to it. Although the Skill Gem and barter system is quite different. :)

Yes, precious. It's free-to-play (and supposedly has no pay to win). Thanks to whomever reminded us that this was opening to the public, over at WG'er (Destraex?).

Tpek · January 24, 2013, 10:03:25 AM

I've played the closed beta (after pre-ordering).

It looks interesting.
Though it's hard to say yet if it's going to have any real lasting appeal.

Huw the Poo · January 24, 2013, 04:04:44 PM

I'm definitely curious enough to give it a try. Thanks for the heads-up, Nefypoos!

son_of_montfort · January 24, 2013, 08:09:02 PM

I've been contemplating jumping in. With all you guys there, I might go ahead.

Nefaro · January 24, 2013, 10:34:28 PM

I can see the facets of an interesting game, and it's certainly quite playable right now. The monster variety is rather lacking thus far, however, so I'd say it's still wanting in the Content Department. More content sounds to be their goal right now, even if it's only in adding further 'Acts' every month (IIRC, their stated goal). This one also feels even more AOE-centric than many other ARPGs.

I wouldn't be surprised if they already have more playtime in it than Diablo 3, however. It wouldn't take much to get past the whopping 12 hours of gameplay in Diablo 3's campaign. ::) It's also nice to actually have the item drops be appropriate for you level; that low-balling crap (in order to get you to put stuff up on the AH I suppose) drives me nuts when I'm levelling in D3.

I still think Torchlight 2 probably has the best experience all-around right now. But the grim graphical style, and the skill gem-slotting/looting could be interesting in this one. It's also nice to see an actual Skill Tree (more like a Skill Web here) for customization in PoE.

Huw the Poo · January 25, 2013, 01:37:28 AM

Quote from: son_of_montfort on January 24, 2013, 08:09:02 PM
With all you guys there, I might go ahead.

With the download speed I'm getting from their server, I'm unlikely to be playing in the first half of 2013!

Tpek · January 25, 2013, 06:36:29 AM

Quote from: Nefaro on January 24, 2013, 10:34:28 PM
I can see the facets of an interesting game, and it's certainly quite playable right now. The monster variety is rather lacking thus far, however, so I'd say it's still wanting in the Content Department. More content sounds to be their goal right now, even if it's only in adding further 'Acts' every month (IIRC, their stated goal). This one also feels even more AOE-centric than many other ARPGs.

I wouldn't be surprised if they already have more playtime in it than Diablo 3, however. It wouldn't take much to get past the whopping 12 hours of gameplay in Diablo 3's campaign. ::) It's also nice to actually have the item drops be appropriate for you level; that low-balling crap (in order to get you to put stuff up on the AH I suppose) drives me nuts when I'm levelling in D3.

I still think Torchlight 2 probably has the best experience all-around right now. But the grim graphical style, and the skill gem-slotting/looting could be interesting in this one. It's also nice to see an actual Skill Tree (more like a Skill Web here) for customization in PoE.

Finishing the campaign once in D3 isn't what the game is about.
It's about doing it again and again and again each time in a higher difficulty setting.
IMHO I don't like it, but some people certainly do.

Nefaro · January 25, 2013, 10:24:03 AM

Quote from: Tpek on January 25, 2013, 06:36:29 AM
Quote from: Nefaro on January 24, 2013, 10:34:28 PM
I can see the facets of an interesting game, and it's certainly quite playable right now. The monster variety is rather lacking thus far, however, so I'd say it's still wanting in the Content Department. More content sounds to be their goal right now, even if it's only in adding further 'Acts' every month (IIRC, their stated goal). This one also feels even more AOE-centric than many other ARPGs.

I wouldn't be surprised if they already have more playtime in it than Diablo 3, however. It wouldn't take much to get past the whopping 12 hours of gameplay in Diablo 3's campaign. ::) It's also nice to actually have the item drops be appropriate for you level; that low-balling crap (in order to get you to put stuff up on the AH I suppose) drives me nuts when I'm levelling in D3.

I still think Torchlight 2 probably has the best experience all-around right now. But the grim graphical style, and the skill gem-slotting/looting could be interesting in this one. It's also nice to see an actual Skill Tree (more like a Skill Web here) for customization in PoE.

Finishing the campaign once in D3 isn't what the game is about.
It's about doing it again and again and again each time in a higher difficulty setting.
IMHO I don't like it, but some people certainly do.

It's a nice feature to have.. if your premium-priced game has enough content. Unfortunately the ~12 hours it took me to play through the first time was just terribly short, and I tend to be a completionist when it comes to exploring levels. That's just not what I consider a proper amount of content for a $60 game - nowhere near it. >:(

On a crappier note - the Path of Exile launcher has completely flipped on me. It automatically starts (I don't have to hit the "play" button) after updating and then proceeds to almost completely freeze my computer when it hits the main login menu. Even after shutting it down through task manager, I have to reboot because of it (and that doesn't fix it). I guess I'll go dig around and see if others just started getting this.

Tpek · January 25, 2013, 12:34:31 PM

The launcher-updater indeed automatically starts the game after the update, which is kinda weird and non-standard.
As for the freezing issue, I haven't played in a while so I wouldn't know.

Nefaro · January 25, 2013, 02:39:48 PM

I fixed it by using their manual file checker exe and restarting. Must've got some corrupted game files or something.

Huw the Poo · January 25, 2013, 04:44:46 PM

I tried it for about thirty minutes but then Windows kept complaining I was low on RAM even though I was only using 75...? Eventually the game crashed altogether with multiple exception dialogues appearing citing low memory errors, despite me never going below 25% free RAM.

Oh well, it is beta after all. I quite liked what I've seen so far though; it's suitably dark and creepy, the skill tree is amazing and the voice acting is great - especially the voice of the witch character and Nessa in the first town.

Nefaro · January 25, 2013, 08:08:21 PM

I saw a few people reporting such memory leaks. I started getting some stutter after playing for an hour or two the other night, and figured it was such, although I didn't get the out of memory warning . I don't see it because I have a lot of virtual memory committed on the hard drive so I can avoid hitting the wall for a longer period, at the expense of such texture loading slow-downs, when mem leaks hit like this. The other tell-tale sign is the long amount of time my hard drive runs after exiting the game, when it is clearing out all the hard drive space used up by such leaks.

I didn't get the freezing menu screen problem, when loading the game, until I experienced noticeable hitching in some places after a relatively long play period, so it may also have screwed up my client in some way when left to run for a long time. I'm sure they realize there are memory leaks by now, just hope they squash 'em in fair time.

The combat isn't all that compelling, but the character customization mixed with the skill gem thing is an interesting combo. Not sure if I'm hooked on it, but it's.. something.

Edit: Like Huw, I've revisited Guild Wars 2 since I was finally able to transfer to my old guild's server (3 days before the cutoff date to do so!). So I can wait for them to smooth out these issues in their open beta. At least there are no more character wipes in Path of Exile, so if we do jump in - we keep our progress.

Tpek · January 25, 2013, 09:04:03 PM

Quote from: Nefaro on January 25, 2013, 08:08:21 PM
I saw a few people reporting such memory leaks. I started getting some stutter after playing for an hour or two the other night, and figured it was such, although I didn't get the out of memory warning . I don't see it because I have a lot of virtual memory committed on the hard drive so I can avoid hitting the wall for a longer period, at the expense of such texture loading slow-downs, when mem leaks hit like this. The other tell-tale sign is the long amount of time my hard drive runs after exiting the game, when it is clearing out all the hard drive space used up by such leaks.

I didn't get the freezing menu screen problem, when loading the game, until I experienced noticeable hitching in some places after a relatively long play period, so it may also have screwed up my client in some way when left to run for a long time. I'm sure they realize there are memory leaks by now, just hope they squash 'em in fair time.

The combat isn't all that compelling, but the character customization mixed with the skill gem thing is an interesting combo. Not sure if I'm hooked on it, but it's.. something.

Edit: Like Huw, I've revisited Guild Wars 2 since I was finally able to transfer to my old guild's server (3 days before the cutoff date to do so!). So I can wait for them to smooth out these issues in their open beta. At least there are no more character wipes in Path of Exile, so if we do jump in - we keep our progress.

So I'm guessing I'm going to be alone, the only Grogheads member on my current server? :(

Nefaro · January 25, 2013, 11:50:09 PM

Quote from: Tpek on January 25, 2013, 09:04:03 PM

So I'm guessing I'm going to be alone, the only Grogheads member on my current server? :(

Did everyone else move out, too?

I had originally planned on joining Sea of Sorrows server, due to my old guildies being there, but the damn thing filled up with Aussies & Kiwis at launch because it was (evidentally) designated an 'unofficial' Oceania server. And I've been locked out of transferring to it since launch - until today. Feel free to join me on Sea of Sorrows if you want, Tpek. ;)

The news list for GW2 mentions something about a "Guesting" feature where you can still physically join groups on a different server for doing stuff coming up at the end of the months, so it may not be as big an issue. It should've been that way from the beginning, IMO.

Huw the Poo · January 26, 2013, 03:31:56 AM

Quote from: Nefaro on January 25, 2013, 11:50:09 PM
The news list for GW2 mentions something about a "Guesting" feature where you can still physically join groups on a different server for doing stuff coming up at the end of the months, so it may not be as big an issue. It should've been that way from the beginning, IMO.

It was always supposed to be that way, unless I'm misremembering. I thought that really the only difference your "home" server makes is in WvW.

Anyway, with regard to Path of Exile, during the short time I played it it was very smooth even on my ancient rig. No slowdowns, lag, rubberbanding, texture tearing (I even had vsync on which didn't impact performance one bit). If they can just fix the memory leaks it'll be great. I'm actually quite excited to play it again this evening. Perhaps I'll enable virtual memory for the time being.