Diablo III

Diablo 3 was probably one of the most anticipated games of the modern era, beyond the initial layer of hype is a game that permeates a "more of the same" vibe and caters more to the casual crowd over long-lasting fans of the game.

Starting out with the minor elements; the artwork is above average, the environments look good enough for the third-person perspective, the graphics look like they put enough effort in to environmental, character, and spell graphics. The areas are mostly randomized (with a few exceptions) so layouts and dungeon locations will rotate around. The art style of the dungeons does not vary much at all.

There isn't really much to be said about the sound, voice acting is done pretty well, along with the music and ambient sounds. Skills and spells sound like they have some meat to them, which is a good thing.

I'd like to say off the bat, that Diablo 3 does not have a single player mode. Yes, you can play by yourself, while it brings slightly less entertainment value over playing with friends, its possible. My point is, you have to have a constant internet connection to play this game, on top of that, all of your actions rely on Blizzard servers, so like an MMO, your ping matters. You are required to log in with your battle.net account to play the game.

Now, more on the catering to casuals comment; it has been simplified. Unlike Diablo 2, you are not able to choose new attribute points when you level. Scrolls of town portal and identify have been removed. There are no longer any skill trees, skills are automatically unlocked when you level up. Skills can be upgraded by choosing a rune to use with them, which are also unlocked while you level.

The game is also very very short, you can complete a play-though easily in a weekend. The game attempts to extend its longevity by unlocking a new difficulty level once you complete a play-through, which translates into better loot and an increasing difficulty, nothing else. After you've completed the highest difficulty, the game just becomes grinding and min-maxing.

PvP is restricted to arenas and is woefully unbalanced.

There is an auction house for in-game currency and real money. The in-game auction house is fine, but it often feels like its required to be used in order to progress unless you are really lucky with drops. The real-money auction house is basically a giant money making scheme for Blizzard as they take money from each transaction and take another chunk if you try to take that money out of the game.