Diablo III Hands-On Impressions

sounds great,

I also don't like carrying 20 health potions in my belt and inventory and having them take up all that room
but I've got to think that having them in your belt and pressing 1, 2, 3, 4 to heal is much easier than running around in the middle of a heated fight and trying to get to the health orbs

I've also heard that they're getting rid of town portals because they don't want you warping out to safety and to heal in the middle of a battle
but to me, the whole point of town portals is to have a quick way to get back to a merchant and be able to sell all the items I've just picked up or to put them in my stash

so did you have town portals in the demo you played, and if not, how did it effect you? Wasn't it frustrating having all these good items drop but no way to get them back to town?

sounds awesome about the runes affecting spells and having different effects for different users

There were not town portals in the demo we played and I did fill up my bags quickly and leave a lot of loot on the ground. But I also wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to the loot. I was mostly interested in seeing the game levels, monsters, spells and getting to the boss encounter with multiple classes. I hate leaving loot on the ground so that my be a problem area but since it's still early in the development nothing is absolutely locked out as of now.

All three classes felt extremely polished and unique to me, though my favorite was the Witch Doctor. I also thought the classes were extremely balanced. As Travis stated in the article, the Wizard has some crazy powerful range weapons but can't take much damage. Similarly, the Barbarian can throw down in close quarters but is vulnerable to range attacks. But all the classes are versatile -- the Wizard has a solid melee attack, for example, so you don't have to use spells all the time.

BTW, co-op is awesome. Travis and I played it (he rolled with the Wizard, and I played the Witch Doctor), and it was more fun for me than playing alone, simply because you can kill more bad guys in even more ways.

My favorite class was the Witch Doctor as well. He just wrecks stuff. I was doing Plague of Toads to get some poison down on the floor, throw down the spider spell that drops a big vase full of spiders in the middle of the monsters, put up Wall of Zombies to thin the pack then finish off any stragglers with Skull of Flame. All the while my two zombie dog pets (which are also either on fire or full of poison) go to town on all enemies in the area.

Yeah, the Plague of Toads was great. And it was more than just a flashy spell with splendid visuals. It comes in handy when you're facing enemies with shields that can deflect range attacks; you just unleash the toadies and they go hopping right underneath the shields and then SPLAT!!!! So sweet....

ok, I'm clueless
what is this co-op stuff ?
is that just the same as what they have now is D2 with multi player and battle.net ?
how is it different?