Disgustipated
Deity
Civ 5 was immediately disappointing, but has gotten better and now I'm getting a good amount of enjoyment out of G&K. The AI is still ultimately disappointing, but it doesn't completely ruin the game, it just stops it short of its ultimate potential. I find the DLC content to be overpriced and so haven't bought any.
D3, on the other hand, started out really strong (for me at least), but then trips you up at end-game, you smack into a brick wall, and then you get kicked while you're down. I got my money back and have very little inclination to ever play it again (for the record, my complaints are "hitbox issues, poor skill balancing at end-game, and excessive (un-fun) kiting req'd" - I had very little problem with the extreme difficulty, which obviously was going to be tweaked around a bit, and would also decrease drastically as item inflation set in). I find the monetization of the AH to be both intriguing and insidious. It just feels a bit like Bliz sold their soul, even if I can understand at least some of the rationale for it.
And I'm a NV guy - F3 was fine, but NV is my favorite RPG of recent years.
This. I pretty much agree with every point you make. I hated Civ5 at launch, but I'm playing it now, and find G&K pretty fun. I have yet to buy any dlc. Just not enough bang for the buck.
I haven't gotten into Diablo 3 end game yet. My brother hasn't been on, and I don't want to play without him. So I'm only at level 57 in Act 2 hell. I haven't seen the hit box issues you have talked about, but I don't play a melee character, so maybe that's why. Kiting and poor skill balancing on the higher levels I very much agree with. From what I read on the O-boards, kiting is just a thing witch doctors have to do in inferno (and my gear isn't top notch, so I have to do it when playing solo in hell too- only against certain rare monster trait combinations). I agree about the AH. I found it interesting that they did the real money AH, but it's also pretty slimy. Even though they had a decent reason, they still sold their soul. I agree.
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One point I wanted to make about FNV (which somehow got into the discussion of this thread), is I'm not the biggest fan of the DLC. Except for honest hearts (which is actually considered their worst dlc). Despite people not liking honest hearts, I like it. And play it in every FNV game. I like outdoor locations in general (because I like hiking outdoors most likely), and I think Joshua Graham is the most interesting character of all the dlc (I thought the other courier would be interesting, but he wasn't). It's just too bad Graham doesn't have more to say. I still prefer a real expansion over DLC. DLC is too short. I'd love to have seen honest hearts as a full expansion, and have more interaction with Graham. The DLC in general seems to interrupt the flow of the game, and seems too disconnected from the events of the vanilla game.