Torchlight II

Tek7

Tek7

CGA President, Tribe of Judah Founder & President
Staff member
...will have LAN support.
Second, the game's multiplayer will support something we haven't seen developers talk about in a while: Local Area Network, or LAN, play.

Wait a minute. LAN support? As in offline, play-with-your-friends, Fritos and Mountain Dew-fueled late night LAN party support? Runic Games CEO Max Schafer knows you don't actually have to do that for games any more, right? Like dedicated servers, LAN support is something of a lost art in this modern age of console gaming. "But people asked for it," Schafer told us, so yes, Torchlight 2 will be playable on a LAN.
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Source: Torchlight 2 preview: Embers only

Sold.

In fact, if the price point is low enough (or if there's a great sale) and my wife decides she'd like to try it also, there's two copies sold.

Well played, Runic Games.
 
I'm gona wait a while and see if the multiplayer part is promising. It needs to be really good to pry me off WoW. Story-wise, I think the torchlight universe is lacking.
 
silverleaf said:
I'm gona wait a while and see if the multiplayer part is promising. It needs to be really good to pry me off WoW. Story-wise, I think the torchlight universe is lacking.
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Apples and avocados. Hack slash <> MMO
 
I saw "Embers only" and was thinking for a second it was a reference to Ember = Tek's Wife XD :p .

The lack of packaged co-op kept me from getting any interest in the first game but if there are going to be Toj playing the sequel hmmmmmm. I'll need to warm up my Leeroy Jenkins shout :p .
 
Torchlight 2 has some pretty awesome additions over the original:

- Multiplayer co-op
- Customizeable characters (male/female + features)
- 4 new classes
- Player Map Mod editor for sharing custom maps
- More towns than just Torchlight + open world
- Retirement (once toons are maxed out, you can pass along benefits and perks to new alts.

YUM!
 
SKLURB said:
Torchlight 2 has some pretty awesome additions over the original:

- Multiplayer co-op
- Customizeable characters (male/female + features)
- 4 new classes
- Player Map Mod editor for sharing custom maps
- More towns than just Torchlight + open world
- Retirement (once toons are maxed out, you can pass along benefits and perks to new alts.

YUM!
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Nice!!
 
I don't like the 'retirement' feature cos I don't like games where people with alts have a significant advantage.
 
I loved the first torchlight... up until I figured out how to spec my character so she 1-shot everything with her boomy arrows.

Then I stopped playing.

I don't see the point in getting all excited over a game that supports LAN. Sure, support for LAN was important at some point in time, but I think that games have come along way since SC, CS, (insert other big lan party games here), etc, and now LAN support is irrelevant. Look at SC2 - no LAN support, but people play it at lan parties all the time.

When you go to a LAN party, the location almost always has high-speed internet, and that is almost always wireless (when I think of LAN, I think of miles of ethernet cable...).

I think lan support is more sentimental than it is useful.
 
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With the first one not having any multiplayer at all to having LAN and mutliplayer...

It brings a smile to my face. I loved the first one. Possibly one of my favorite hack and slashers of all time, but after running through the game to get my barbs gear and the achievements for steam it kinda petered out.

With multiplayer the fun never ends.
 
Odale said:
I don't see the point in getting all excited over a game that supports LAN.
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LAN support isn't only about LAN parties.

It's about being able to play a game you legitimately own across a home network and not introducing a dependency on an external server or an Internet connection. If that server goes down or your Internet connection goes, your LAN connection--and gaming experience--is still unbroken.

It's about zero ping. Half-Life 1 Deathmatch feels differently on a LAN than on an online server (and remains one of the most fun LAN games ever).

It's a matter of simplicity: Why do I need to route my traffic to a game server and back to my home when the person I'm playing with is sitting 5 feet away from me?

It is also about LAN parties. Most, but not all, LAN parties are equipped with an Internet connection, but smaller LAN parties use only a residential connection with limited bandwidth.

If another user on the network decides to upload a picture to Facebook or starts downloading a large game patch or watches a movie on Netflix, my ping is going to take a hit. With a LAN connection, 2 or more players can enjoy a game with single-digit ping without others' use of a home connection disrupting the experience.

Yes, LAN parties are less common today than they were a decade ago, but they still take place. And anyone who has attended a LAN party will testify that you want to remove as many variables from the equation as possible when it comes to arranging LAN games. There are already enough obstacles and challenges to coordinating the event without having to worry whether Battle.net is going to go down (or, more likely, be wonky and provide an unstable connection to other players) or whether Ubisoft's always-on DRM servers are going to get hit with another DDoS attack.

I'm seriously thinking of planning a local LAN party in the near future. If I do so, I'll have to do it on a shoestring budget (if any budget at all). I may not be able to secure a venue with a readily available Internet connection. It's far less likely that I'll be able to get access to a connection that will support 10-15 or more simultaneous users at a reasonable latency.

So just because LAN support is now a niche feature instead of assumed doesn't mean it's "sentimental" or irrelevant.
 
LAN is only one of the multiplayer features. You will also be able to play with friends in online co-op as well.
 
It's about being able to play a game you legitimately own across a home network and not introducing a dependency on an external server or an Internet connection.
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I don't see the point when you can just play online. Unless you can't afford a copy for everyone in your party.
 
Tek7 said:
It's about being able to play a game you legitimately own across a home network and not introducing a dependency on an external server or an Internet connection.
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I think its ironic that you like it for its LAN support but you can only buy it online from Steam.

From from my LAN party days, I remember massive amounts of fun, but also massive amounts of time being spent on ensuring that everyone's computer was setup properly and that they would all communicate with each other. Online play eradicated all of that.
 
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silverleaf said:
I don't see the point when you can just play online.
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Then please go back and read the rest of my post. :)

Odale said:
I think its ironic that you like it for its LAN support but you can only buy it online from Steam.
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Steam has an offline mode.

And just because you have an Internet connection long enough to buy the game doesn't mean you'll have a working and stable Internet connection 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Odale said:
From from my LAN party days, I remember massive amounts of fun, but also massive amounts of time being spent on ensuring that everyone's computer was setup properly and that they would all communicate with each other.
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True, but the more coordinated the event organizers and attendees, the less time is spent on configuring and fixing network settings.

Odale said:
Online play eradicated all of that.
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Apparently you've never played on Battle.net. Or managed a Left 4 Dead 2 server. Or played League of Legends. Or played Castle Crashers on PSN. Or--Well, you get the point.
 
Tek7 said:
... And just because you have an Internet connection long enough to buy the game doesn't mean you'll have a working and stable Internet connection 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

True, but the more coordinated the event organizers and attendees, the less time is spent on configuring and fixing network settings.
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All of my lan party experiences have been at friends houses, all of which had fast internet (one of my first lans I went to we played DAoC the whole night).

Most of the time it didn't matter how prepared we were, Colbi's HP would never cooperate.
 
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