What's wrong with TL2? It doesn't quite have that "spark" for me, but I can't quite put my finger on it. It came a long way from TL1, so props.

I wrote a few mods for it: http://forums.runicgames.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=59564

Those were balance changes mostly made to rework the game away from Xtreme potion tanking and move it more toward mana and cooldown management.

I liked it better, but it still wasn't zomg awesome for me.

First of all : I was really disappointed with TL1 (I didn't feel any challenge in TL1 and the skill trees didn't felt that good) whereas I heard so many great things about it.
On the other I really like(d) TL2 (levels are amazing, progression and character development are nice ...) but in my opinion it didn't had that much improvements compared to D2.

PoE did better (than anyone else) and in a free to play manner. To get back on the lightbulb joke, I consider that Blizzard (and many other big developers) put a lot of resources/time in order to appeal/hook the gamers/press by doing something shiny/featured for pc/consoles ...... while other (the PoE guys for instance) just focus on the game, working on sound mechanics because they know that if people like, they will give their support (pay or recommend to their friends).

I think maybe TL2 needs to do something more interesting with the equipment? Like cool legendary unique effects or whatever. Aside from that, my mods address my main gripes with TL2. I agree that TL2 was more challenging and had more balance than TL1. For me, TL1 was like, "lol, my mom won't let me play Diablo 2". TL2 wasn't groundbreaking, but it was solid and covered its bases.

PoE looks good, but I'm not really digging the 5-acre game of Chinese Checkers so far, and I didn't like it in FF10. Item identification needs to die in a fire. This barter system with 12 different currency trinkets smacks of the worst case of different-for-the-sake-of-different I've seen in some time.

But the FF7 Materia system is cute and welcome in an ARPG, and I'm digging the reasonable limitations on potions so far. I've only played a couple hours, though. I agree with someone who posted upthread - there should be an offline version on Steam or something. Leave it separate from the online-only canonical universe of xhardcorex l33t gam3rz, and let microtransactions send your skins and emotes and pets and whatnot directly to your offline account.

That said, there may be a lot of work involved in porting an offline version that has internet and LAN play available. I wouldn't know directly.

Totally agree.
The currency system with its "asymetric" exchange rates is very interesting and I am really impressed they succeeded in getting rid of the zounds of golds every other hack n' slash character is carrying around : their economy system is way more robust than any gold based ever made. The identification system is interesting I think, because it is a bit like betting (closely tied to the currency). And finally to be honest, PoE is the only loot based game where I give even the tiniest bit of attention to every little thing dropping on the ground regardless of its colour (for the sockets obviously, and also for the quality ...).



Sidenote : this thread has gone ways, again.

Any Blizzard thread that doesn't start talking about alternatives is just an excuse for drinking.

LOL! +1