FYI, I also tried to play Diablo 2 a few months back and it was just as boring. I think most people here are trying to ignore the fact that it's 2012, the isometric grind hasn't been popular since Dibalo 2 for a good reason. There is no real depth in the formula. Even if you would pick your own stats, you would just end up following some cookie cutter approaches that would completely screw you if you didn't.
Diablo 3 is probably the best at what it does in terms of combat and gameplay (the looting system is still completely borked), but it's the general gameplay of the isometric hack n' slash that bores me. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks that. I think a lot of people were expecting Diablo 3 to be something the game just couldn't be because they remember Diablo 2 being so epic, 10 years ago.
Wasdie
What isometric interface has to do? Seems that doesn't prevent League Of Legends from being the current most played -and a huge financial hit- game.
Diablo III killed the replayability disablig the spent of atribute points and skill points, and on top of that uses a loot system with no middle class gear. You can't farm low level runes to build mid level runes to build high level runes as was the case in the ladder of Lord Of Destruction. Once you cross the first act in Inferno, you can only get two kind of items: useless (99,99% of the drop) and uber-gear.
I'm not saying that you need uber gear to beat the game (is not the case: I almost finished act IV and my barb has only 22k dps, around 550 all res and 6.2k armor (both unbuffed) so you can beat the game without the need of dozen of millions in the currency, BUT: once you finish the game there's not incentives: no reasons to ride again the same class with different stats -you can rebuild it instantly- and the gear has no progression -i.e.: for a weapon either is great or is useless: there's no middle ground-.
There's another problem, also: in the Diablo II age popular games uses to last several years due how well were done and how well were the expansions and mods/extra content (UT, Q3A, counter Strike...). In the modern days most of games are released lacking in several areas, often with "buy on release DLC" aiming for milking players over the months and months... just to scrap it after the next iteration (COD and now BF). That was not how Daiblo II LOD was build, that was not how Starcraft was build. After the huge monetary success of World of Warcraf seems that Blizzard became addict to high earnings, so Starcraft II and Diablo III and Warcraft IV were delayed, focusing the development effeots in the WoW"money printing machine".
So when Blizzard started to create Starcrat II and Diablo III the "how I can geat as money as with WoW" became a important question. The way to maximize earnings with SC II was a plan release for 3 games in 3-4 years, and with Diablo III the way to get even more money was not only to refresh the game with at least one expansion but making the game to work around the auction houses (gold and real money ones). The problem is that LOD was fun in par due the sense of achievement: as log as you play you get white/grey socketed elite items and runes wich eventually combined can provide big enhanhcements to your characters, thing that is absent in Diablo III (either the item is really good or is useless).
So the curent state of the game isn't due "old gamers nostalgia", is because BAD DESIGN CHOICES were made in order to fulfill the greedy agenda of the corporation. And yes, I did use "greedy" due Diablo III could have been a massive success and last for a decade with much more earnings if Blizzard had stay closer to the old formula.
Edit: just for another example of how wrong was the design choices from the beguinig: in DII/LOD you have the Horadric Cube as main crafting device: you can use it to improve gems, to repair items, to create new and powerful ones and also to gamble random items. Is usefull, is cheap and is well integrated in the loot design. Meanwhile iIn Diablo III the Horadric Cube doesn't exist; instead you have the jeweler and the balcksmith. The jeweler is ok, I guess: very expensive but at least gives you predefined results from the money you spent even if the range of items you can create is really boring. On the other hand the blackmisth is so expensive and the results are so randomly bad that fits no function at all in the game: you need to spent millions crafting dozens of items in order to create one valuable item, which only can be achieved by a tiny fraction of the players. Craftsmanship just does't work in DIII, and that is pity due the drop system is broken and leaves the usual player without reason to keep playing once you reach level 60 and finish the game at Inferno.
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