Is it as bad as its reported, considering purchasing it if I can find anywhere to buy it.

Diablo 2 was fun but a bit complicated with all the runes n stuff, and the tiny storage space.

Diablo 2 requires a lot of reading to get the best out of it and not make silly mistakes. A lot of the character build guides need to be read very carfully as some rely on gear that is almost impossible to obtain and may require lots of magic find runs to be able to complete hell mode. It also takes a long time to complete depending on the character and you knowledge of the game. Fun and frustrating.

Let me know if you start playing and i'll send you a list of mistakes not to make

Diablo 3 on order (aparently theres a really good returns policy) 

I'm enjoying it so far, only just finished normal and starting knightmare.

Character are much easier as is the weapon system and you can re-arrange your stats.

Only major problem is the always on internet connection can lag the game at peak times (when you want to play it). But thats to do with the terrible UK internet service providers and their special use of the word "UPTO".

Update:

lvl 60 Barbarian and heading into inferno.
Died many many times in Hell as I'm not using the auction house and my dps was very low but rose dramaticaly towards the end. 2k - 8k

Still running without the auction house and have completed inferno act 2, I died a lot and skipped very few packs (only the insane ones) 18k dps and 30k health 800-900 allres buffed. Can't progress in act 3 at all but can farm act 2 with 13k dps and 45k health quite comfortably after putting the right gear with no Magic find.

Had the option to get this really cheap and did. Characters lvl is at 27 now, working on black smith and jewel crafter, can't find some books in order to create higher end black smithing items. Was told I have to up the difficulty of the game in order to do so. I have a couple of questions. One is the idea to get to lvl 60 to just turn around and do the whole thing again at the next difficulty? Are there different maps for each difficulty or is it really just doing the same thing over and over again? I'm wondering because I have been going over each map, clearing out each spot and just taking my time but this is not something that I want to do 4, 5 or 6 different times.

How exactly are you guys playing this? I did not play Diablo 2, just played the first one all the way thru.

Hmm nope, don't think I've ran into key wardens before. What are they and what do they do?

Thanks Ultima, I'll look further into it but this did give me a good idea, thanks again.

Started playing this again after all of the changes Blizzard put into it. They removed the real money AH, which was a bad idea from the beginning in my opinion, changed all the drops to more player specific, redid the prof's and talents and I think this is more what they wanted to do from the beginning. I'm a lot happier playing this now than I was when it first came out. I can't specifically pinpoint why, but it just has an over all "cleaner" feel to it. I don't know but I'm getting into it now where as before it just didn't hold my attention, what so ever.