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The trailer is here!

The trailer is here! Edit: It's come to my attention that everyone is freaking out about the end of the trailer. No Rick hasn't been in a coma and all of it isn't a dream. As a comic reader, I know what it is, I just can't tell you.

Because its the trailer and they don't want to give it away I guess... Sometimes that irritates me... because you want to see it, but people that never watched Death Note, which will be a good portion of the audience, need the surprise. This same thing is going to irritate me about the new Godzilla movie trailers. They wont show Ghidorah outside of maybe a wing or his feet, even though we all know he's a 3 headed monster. I rather have an ugly as hell actor that does it right, than someone that looks the part and sucks. My main concern is L. He's way too emotional in the trailer... I mean its silly his face is covered the whole time, so instead of looking like a crazy genius when he sits in a chair on his feet, he just looks like a wannabe ninja. I get that its to portray to the audience hes keeping his identity a secret from light... but still. I don't like how they are doing it. It's one of those things where the producers think westerners are too stupid to understand.

Amongst my friends we all joked it was the dog dreaming.... he'd just wake up, scratch his ear and walk off.

Initial thoughts, meh. I pretty much got what I was expecting from this, a lot of what we've already seen gameplay wise with minor tweaks to enemy A.I., weapons, and class adjustments. Don't get me wrong the opening story mission is pretty epic in its own way and can be challenging at certain points but the Cabal felt like the Cabal from D1, I noticed no real difficulty change. New Cabal types did throw me off a bit until I learned how they fought but overall it felt like I was fighting the same Cabal I tangled with on Mars. I do like how enemies will charge at you with a melee weapon now when you're in close proximity, made going for those melee kills a little more risky (as a Hunter anyways, I still need to try Warlock (I won't be trying Titan as I have no interest in the class)). Overall its a nice change to actually see a story at play here and knowing what this faction of Cabal's aim was, instead of fighting enemies that have no real drive only to be set pieces for a strike or fodder for daily bounty grinding. I did try out the strike but sadly I was placed in at the end against the final boss so I didn't actually get to experience the full thing but as DX points out he's an HP sponge and the weapons they give you barely do any damage so it's tedious (fun, I like some of the mechanics but tedious none-the-less). I plan on running it again tomorrow to, hopefully, get the full experience so I can give my thoughts on it. I have no want to play Crucible since they went 4v4 so you won't be getting any thoughts on that. As for Hunters, the class as a whole hasn't changed any since D1 (Gunslinger wise, I don't know about Arcstrider). Outside of loosing some of our options in the gunslinger sub-class menu and gaining some new/tweaked ones it pretty much felt the same and I felt completely at home while playing (though I had to brush off the initial rust form not playing in over a year). I'm not entirely happy about the Golden Gun changes, while six shots is nice and it will one shot normal enemies I don't like how it feels weaker against stronger foes (not like 3 shots was any better) where in some cases it'll take 2-3 shots to kill them (the harpies on the final boss battle in the strike are 2 shots, which sucks since clearing out trash is kind of key to winning that fight). I like the dodge reload option, comes in handy when you're in a pinch and need more ammo (especially when you're using a Hand Cannon). Grenade options are still your standard fair and tripmines are still the way to go (imo, I didn't actually try out the other grenade types but they're exactly the same from D1). Overall Gunslinger Hunters will feel right at home with the class, it's the same from D1 with some minor tweaks (some good, some bad). It'd be nice to get a chance to use those bottom options in the third section of abilities so I could give a more complete review but for now this is what I got. Oh yea, Sunshot is a fucking beast of an exotic and I see it getting a nerf come release. That Hand Cannon is way to powerful for what it is. Overall I'm not really impressed with D2 as it stands now. Granted this is a beta (and compared to D1's alpha and beta a pretty poor one) and an extremely short one at that I still don't see myself buying this. Is it fun? Yes but so was D1 up until you got to max level and had to start endlessly grinding for better loot you weren't always guaranteed to get. Unless there is some fundamental change to how endgame works in D2 I see this game suffering from the same problems D1 suffered from. Though I doubt my I'll change my mind I will be playing again tomorrow to actually do the full strike and try out Warlock and the Arcstrider sub-class so I'll most likely have more to say then.