Being completely new to the franchise and also to this genre of gaming, I'm finding it really very good. Not sure how good the other games looked, but I think this is a beautiful looking game - perhaps people not running it on full details etc?
Love the little atmospheric bits of the game, the smoke drifting around, the chaos of the battle with sparks and fire etc flying everywhere, random bats, birds, rats etc - lots of nice touches and as I say, I think its a real nice looking game.
I believe the gameplay hasnt changed (cant comment on that) but from a very quick go of Torchlight, I see its most likely the same as all of these action RPGs. Lots of left and right clicking!! Good fun though and the looting, crafting etc keeps it all interesting.
I reckon a lot of the hate is both due to the day 1 probs and the constant online. I couldnt get on day 1, but I really dont know what people expect - ok yea, you *should* be able to get online, but its the same old story every major release, so not sure why people were so surprised. Was only a few hours too, its been fine since Wednesday.
The constant online thing? Why are people moaning? Its not like anyone switches their broadband off and I'll stick my neck out and presume 99.999999% of anyone playing this game are gonna be on broadband anyways? Wheres the problem? I like it - you've got instant access to MP games, friends dropping in and out and constant cloud saving.
As I said, maybe because the genre is fresh to me, but I'm liking this as one of games of the year so far... beats FPSs and sports games!