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Realm of Gaming Preview - Diablo III

Diablo fans rejoice! The rumored third game has finally been announced. Blizzard recently made the announcement at its event in Paris.

The story is set 20 years after the likes of Diablo and Baal. It has been revealed that one of the well-known non-playing characters will return in Diablo III, Decard Cain. Cain returns to the remains of the Cathedral of Tristram, searching for ideas as to a new evil that seems to be approaching. Following that, a comet hit ground where Diablo once entered the world… Heroes of the world must now save humanity from the great evils that have arisen from the underworld.

Who will you choose to be?

Two classes of characters have been confirmed at this point in time. There will be female versions of each class, as well, and armor will be specific to each character class.

The barbarian is back and comes with fury and some other familiar characteristics. Other abilities have been added or revamped. A few of his known skills include the ground stomp, leap, whirlwind, seismic slam and cleave.

The witch doctor is one of the newly added character classes in this sequel. His tribe is the tribe of the Five Hills. These people were thought to be legend, but they do exist. The witch doctor has the power to summon undead creatures to literally tear apart his enemies. His (or her) skill set includes the firebomb, locust swarm, mass confusion, soul harvest and horrify.

More information on these character classes and others currently unannounced will inevitably be revealed in time. Keep watch on the official Diablo III website.

The Undead will again rise along with the following enemies that must be fought off: the Khazra, Gnarled Walkers and Dark Cultists. The Undead are skeletons that have risen up from various parts of other former living and breathing beings. They are easily summoned if pieces of skeletons lie around. They can be ‘organized and directed’, unlike other types of enemies. Also known as ‘goatmen’, the Khazra were originally human but sought only to prevail over other adversaries and now only partially resemble the semblance of a human being.

Various enhancements have been made to the game overall. A new dropped item is an orb of life, which is supposed to save you from having to click a potion to heal when in the heat of battle. This should make things interesting. The mana and vita bars are more animated and look cool. A hotbar to easily choose different skills is now available, making it much quicker. The mouse can be used to quickly switch between skills. The game seems to be more colorful than I remember Diablo 2 being. Case in point, the barbarian may be using an axe with lightning and it is lit up with blue and white flickering animation. The visuals that I’ve seen from the trailer (of cutscenes) are astounding, with the candle looking almost indistinguishable from the real thing. The glimmering reddish-orange light emanates from the wick while the wax slowly melts. The environmental aspects of the game will come more into play in Diablo III, such as massive walls being destroyed. Oh, and the game will be represented in 3D this time around!

From what we currently know and have seen so far, Diablo III looks to mark the sensational return of the classic franchise. With the success of World of Warcraft, I expect no less with Diablo III. Keep your eyes open for more information to be released!

Source: Realm of Gaming

Blizzard On ‘Diablo’ MMO Hopes, New Franchises And More

At the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Paris, it wasn’t all about “Diablo III.”

Amid the festivities, I sat down with Blizzard execs Paul Sams, Chief Operating Officer, and Frank Pearce, Executive Vice President of Product Development. The pair, in separate interviews at the event, gave me their insight about several topics, including:

• Why “Diablo III” isn’t an MMO
• Making another MMO to compete with “World of Warcraft“
• The player overlap between their games
• The time between their game releases
• Creating a new game franchise
• And more

Read on for the details…

On why “Diablo III” isn’t an MMO:

Sams: When we’re deciding what type of game we’re going to make, we look at what the gameplay experience is going to be. We talked to the team a lot and say, “What is it you want to play? What is it that you want to make?” And we really felt like “Diablo” is a franchise that is very cooperative in the manner in which you play it. We felt like the gameplay experience that we had delivered historically with being in a non-persistent world was the right way to do it for this particular product. I think a lot of people expected us to say that this is going to be an MMO — maybe an obvious choice in a lot of people’s minds. But really, the bottom line is we thought the right game to make was “Diablo III” in the way that we’ve announced it.

On making another MMO that would compete with “World of Warcraft”:

“If we wanted to make was another MMO, then we would do that. I don’t think we’re scared to do that.”

Sams: Well, it’s certainly a conversation that we’ve had. The idea of doing games that could compete with “World of Warcraft” is something that I think a lot of people would say, “Geez you shouldn’t do that.” But I do believe that if the game that we wanted to make was another MMO, then we would do that. I don’t think we’re scared to do that. And I think that if our developers come up with the next great game that they want to make and it’s an MMO, then we’ll do that. We would go about trying to make the best MMO of all time, and to try to eclipse “World of Warcraft,” if we were ever to do such a thing. But it really all comes down to what type of game we want to make, and the people that we have working at the company.

Pearce: Whether or not it makes sense to have another subscription-based MMO competing against “World of Warcraft” within the Blizzard space is hard to say. At some point, some product’s going to come along and cannibalize the “World of Warcraft” player base, and if it’s going to happen, it’d be better for us to cannibalize our own player base compared to having another publisher do it. But our hope is that “Starcraft II” and “Diablo III” will be games that can be enjoyed by our fans simultaneously with “World of Warcraft.”

On the player overlap between their games:

“It’d be better for us to cannibalize our own player base compared to having another publisher do it.”

Pearce: I’m not sure exactly how much overlap there would between the “Diablo” player base and the “World of Warcraft” player base. We’ve found that there’s not a large overlap between the “Starcraft” player base and the “World of Warcraft” player base. But it’s really hard to say. Our hope is that we can build a big online community, like the Battle.net online service, that would give us the opportunity to introduce all our fans to all of our different franchises across all the different genres.

I’m sure our marketing group is ready to do some research about how many people would migrate from the “World of Warcraft” to “Diablo III,” but those aren’t necessarily the data points that we use for decision-making when it comes to the games that we want to make. What’s most important to us is that we’re servicing our community and our fans with great games and so if we come out with a new great game where some people playing on existing games will migrate to the new game, they’re still our fans, they’re still our players, and we’re still happy about it.

On the Activision merger helping with having three announced games all at once:

“As it relates to what games we’re going to make and how many we’re making, it really doesn’t have anything to do with the Activision-Blizzard merger.”

Sams: I think [the merger] certainly gives us access to more talent and experience in the industry. There’s a lot we can learn from them, and I think vice versa. So I think that’s an opportunity to gain strength in retail and gain strength in the manner in which we market out games and make our games available to customers. But as it relates to what games we’re going to make and how many we’re making, it really doesn’t have anything to do with the Activision-Blizzard merger. … Right now, we’ve been able to build up one of the best group of development teams in the industry, and we feel like we’re in a place right now where we have the necessary and requisite talent to be able to do a few games simultaneously.

On the time between game releases:

“I think that there will be a little bit less time [between Blizzard releases].”

Sams: I think that there will be a little bit less time, but we’ll continue to take our time to make sure that they’re right. I don’t see there being any differences in our thought processes as it relates to that. We’re going to make sure that we put the time and the energy and the money and the resources into making the best games in the world that we can. And do I think because we have multiple development teams that the release dates will go closer together for Blizzard releases? Probably a bit. But I don’t think our development cycles will shrink on any of the projects that are going on; it would just be that there’s more product flow.

On creating new mobile and web applications:

Sams: Those are areas that are very much booming — the phones, the iphones and the web apps. Certainly, it’s an area that we’ve looked at and that we’ve explored. I can see us looking at those further but I don’t know if that will be a core focus of ours. We’re really focused on doing the types of games that we do — the RPGs and RTSs and MMOs — and doing them on platforms that really allow us to spread our wings and do the best games we possibly can. There’s more limitations on some of those devices, so I don’t know if we’d be able to deliver the types of experiences that we would want to on those devices just yet. If that changes and we find that it’s the right platform for us to be on, then certainly we would look at it. We’ll see, but I think that it will probably be a bit of time.

On creating mobile applications connected to existing games, like being able to check “World of Warcraft” auctions [news that MTV Multiplayer broke at DICE in February]:

Sams: At this point we don’t have anything that we can share about that. I can say that’s certainly something that we’ve explored and are continuing to examine. And if we think we can do something that’s compelling and will be of value to those that play our games, then we certainly would look at that. Standalone type of apps, probably not so much, but the type of apps you’re referencing where they’re connected to other parts of the games — that’s possible. We’ll have to see though. We’re still exploring it.

On creating a new game franchise:

“We have a lot of developers that would be really enthusiastic about the idea of doing a new intellectual property.”

Pearce: We have a lot of developers that would be really enthusiastic about the idea of doing a new intellectual property. Everyone at the Blizzard offices loves the “Warcraft” franchise, loves the “Starcraft” franchise, loves the “Diablo” franchise but we’ve been doing a lot of that for a long time, and I know there’s a lot of guys that at some point would love to have the opportunity to do something new. When the current development teams roll off what they’re working on, we’ll involve them in the decision-making process for what game they’re going to make next. And we’ll be having those discussions when those teams are rolling off “Starcraft II” and “Diablo III,” but that’s a ways down the road.

Source: MTV Multiplayer 

Blizzard Discusses Controversial Diablo III Aspects

Blizzard poster Bashiok has commented on many of Diablo III’s more controversial new aspects ranging from its implementation of respecs and health globes to the game’s randomized loot mechanics.

Talents

There will almost definitely be some sort of system to respec; however, it isn’t likely to be as liberal as World of Warcraft. We don’t want to lock a player into a system that punishes them for mistakes, experimenting, or lack of knowledge early on in the game. We also don’t think a system that allows immediate, complete, and at-a-whim changes to a character spec matches the feel of Diablo. It’s likely to be somewhere in between.

That said we still feel like the desire to play the same class again that you may have played before is still a part of the game, and with some ability to respec could potentially require other incentives.

Health Globes

The health globes are actually, in my opinion, really cool. Playing the game and actually seeing what types of strategy they encourage, you can start to see what they add and how they make the combat more interesting.

I’ll set the scene. You’re a barbarian, you’re in the wilderness and after fighting wave after wave of ghouls, skeletons, demons, what have you, you’re low on health. You’re out of potions, and after using a strategic leap out of the fray you turn around and seismic slam the skeletons charging you. Two of them drop health globes, but the globes dropped behind the skeletons that are still advancing. If they reach you, you’re not going to survive. Are you able to leap safely to snag the globes before they can tear into you? Can you throw out another slam and try to remove the remaining enemies? How can you survive? You have a fraction of a second to decide.

The health globes help to create situations just like this, where you’re not just sitting there spamming potions, you’re using your abilities and strategy to stay alive. Possibly most importantly, you’re encouraged to keep fighting, and not just run away.

With random spawns, random drops, and of course the randomness of combat, the health globes add to creating situations that are just more… interesting, and in my opinion, fun.

On the side of potions, they still exist, but they’re likely to be on a cooldown of some type. They’ll also likely restore health based on a percentage that’s relative to your character. They may heal an instant amount, they may be the old over time type system. They’re probably going to be filling an emergency-heal role more than anything though.

Tank and Healer Classes

Fan Comment: They have literally said Diablo 3 will be “first and foremost a cooperative game”. Which leads me to believe it’s possible they add a talent tree for dedicated healers to one or several classes.

No. Not that classes won’t benefit from each other in various ways, Barbarian shouts being good party buffs, etc. but every class is essentially a demon-killing DPS class. We have no intentions to create a tank, or healer, etc. Every class will play their own way, and while some may take direct hits easier than others, it certainly wouldn’t define their role within a party. Everyone should be kicking in heads at the same time.

Diablo III having a strong emphasis on cooperative play is really building upon one of the best parts of Diablo II, and that’s charging through dungeons with other people. Our focus is on removing the frustrations that existed with grouping, and adding new features that encourage everyone to stick together and fight as a party.

Random Loot Mechanic

Currently - while in a party each player will see their own drops from each kill.

This could mean that after killing a zombie I see a sword drop, and you may see a shoulder slot item drop. Or I see nothing drop, while you got an axe.

Obviously while in a group you’re killing faster, and this could translate to an exponentially increasing number of drops with each additional player in your party. However, it’s balanced in such a way that the drop % is pulled back a bit with each additional player (I’m simplifying it, but that’s what it boils down to). This keeps it from being almost detrimental to not play with a full party, while still giving a nice increase to the amount of drops if you do.

From this system it seems quite a few people got the impression that you’ll never see items drop that you can’t use. For instance, a Barbarian will never see a dagger that only a Witch Doctor can use. This isn’t true. There is no effect, or at least no currently intended effect, to restrict which items which classes can or can’t see for their respective drops. It’s still intended that you could see an item that your class can’t use. It’s easy enough to drop the item, ask if anyone can use it, or just sell it off of course.

Source: DiabloFans and Blizzardguru

Gamers Universe: Diablo 3 Preview

Call me a reactionary, cantankerous old diehard if you will, but I’m not ashamed to admit that when Diablo 3 was announced, tears welled up in these ageing eyes. Tears of sheer, nostalgic happiness. Diablo has been out of the picture for a decade, and the absence has been a painful one.A stroll through sunless catacombs

But I soon scrubbed my tears away when Blizzard promised to walk us through one of the levels. I needed crystal clear vision to take in all the details.

True to the spirit of dungeon crawling, the Diablo 3 presentation kicked off with the arrival of a large muscle-bound man sporting more weapons than the average South American dictatorship. He stood in the bowels of the earth, amidst the dust of what might have been a mausoleum or a complex series of catacombs. The grey stone around and overhead looked as though it would crumble at the slightest sound. The torches hanging over the path before him failed to penetrate the darkness of the pit which yawned beneath.

(Excuse us for getting a little theatrical. We obviously missed our vocation.)

The barbarian had but a few seconds to take in his surroundings before he was assailed by a horde of zombies. He held his ground, dexterously avoiding their frenzied assaults and delivering crushing counterattacks. Moments later the ground was littered with bodies and the barbarian stood triumphant.  He considered reaching for an elixir, but decided instead to heal the few scratches he’d sustained with a red orb, one of Diablo 3’s new pick-ups.

A second, more formidable creature awaited him at the end of the corridor. The barbarian leapt forward and struck it with terrible force, but the creature began to shudder ominously. Acting on instinct, the warrior dived backwards- and not a moment too soon, for the creature exploded. Hideous serpents fountained from its smoking corpse, but our hero soon stamped them flat or beheaded them.

A familiar faceBeware of the dogTwo’s company, three’s a crowd

As if he knew what would follow, the barbarian swapped his mundane battleaxe for a pair of magical blades. They shone pale blue in the subterranean gloom. The next chamber contained a surprise- Deckard Cain, the village elder from the original Diablo. This wise old soul began to recount an ancient tale, but the barbarian caught his arm and requested more practical aid. Cain was more than obliging: at the elder’s command, two archers sprung from the shadows and took up a station to the rear.

The newly-formed party proceeded carefully. After a few paces the barbarian caught sight of a group of monsters loitering ahead. Rather than charge in amongst them, he halted and cunningly used his weapons to demolish the wall nearby, bringing tons of rubble down on his oblivious foes. The few monsters that escaped the shower of stones were easy prey for the archers, and the barbarian sealed the deal with a devastating Whirlwind attack.

After dispatching countless opponents, the barbarian and his companions entered a high vaulted room with a single doorway. Daylight glinted on the threshold. But as soon as the party set foot inside the room, the air changed and four eerie flames erupted on an elevated square slab at the centre. The fires roared furiously and a huge, misshapen creature appeared in their midst: a zombie hound, tendons and bones plainly visible beneath its rotting hide.

The hound was a canny adversary, focusing its attacks on the archers while the barbarian approached. Despite its unearthly fury, however, our hero was able to deliver some telling blows and eventually the creature lay dead in a pool of its own vile gore. The death of this mighty guardian presented Cain and his companions with an opportunity to escape the dungeon. The barbarian followed- but not before he’d helped himself to the treasures he’d discovered within a nearby chest, sturdy magical armor and enough gold to pave a palace.

While Cain was quick to make his exit, he lingered long enough to summon some further assistance. The stairs up from the underground arena gave out onto a dense jungle, out of which stepped a masked shaman swathed in jade green feathers. The shaman was well-versed in the dangers of the tropical environment, and when enemies appeared from the undergrowth he eviscerated them with a swarm of bees.

As yet more opponents appeared the shaman conjured a group of horrid demons into being. A dire threat in themselves, these creatures became even more lethal when the shaman cast another spell on them, enabling them to call upon their own swarms of bees. While the demons ripped and tore a path, their creator mopped up any strays with awe-inspiring lightning magic.

The barbarian was left speechless by the power of his newfound ally. He’d encountered many species of magic in his life, but nothing could compare to the shaman’s eerie enchantments, which caused a wall of zombies to rise from the earth.

The two heroes made short work of any monsters they encountered, and before long they reached a glade. The shaman detected the advance of a mighty foe, and disintegrated his demon servants with a wave of one hand to leave room for two further heroes- a dauntless female warrior and fearsome witch. The four readied themselves for their greatest challenge yet- a monster so massive it crushed stones underfoot. But even a creature of such bulk was no match for the barbarian’s blades and the shaman’s charms, and after a few minutes of intense battle it dropped like a felled oak, leaving the party free to continue their adventure…

Diablo 3 has been announced for PC and Mac, with a release date still to be confirmed.

Source: Gamers Universe

The Internet Hates Diablo III

When Blizzard unveiled Diablo III earlier this week, it didn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone. Well, there was one guy who thought Starcraft 3 was being developed alongside Starcraft 2 with a projected release date of one week prior to the release of the game it was following, but no one has taken Cliffy B. seriously since he predicted that Mario would never appear in another video game after Super Mario Sunshine.

Sure, it didn’t blow any minds, but the announcement came as welcome news. Diablo II is still the first thing I install on my computer after a trojan-laden lolita incest hentai comic forces me to reformat. It’s hard to believe that in the last eight years no one has been able to step in and create a better action-rpg. It’s even harder to believe that a ten year old girl can lubricate her entire body with egg yolks then squirm into the urethra of her mother’s penis and follow it until she returns to the womb, but I saw the drawings. It can happen, people.

After watching the Diablo III gameplay footage, I was really excited. The visuals were fantastic, a lot of small improvements had been added without seeming to get in the way of what makes the series great, and by the end of the video I found myself moving my mouse around the screen as if I was playing. That’s sad, but what’s even sadder is that I’m not a big-time game journalist so I can’t come up with a term like “gamesturbation” to describe the lonely and desparate act while making myself cool and quotable.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that my positive impressions were irrational and baseless, while most of the internet saw the game for what it truly was: A personal insult to them and a serious threat to all they hold dear. If you find that you’ve mistakenly become mildly optimistic about the game, read on to find out where I went wrong so you can adjust accordingly.

My Initial (Wrong) Opinion: Wow, it’s the world from Diablo in 3D, rendered like a painting to retain the 2D flavor of the previous games. The dark and ominous themes are still there, only now we don’t have to use our imaginations to fill in the details suggested by blocky sprites.

The Internet’s (Correct) Opinion: Wow, it’s a shitty cartoon! This is NOT the same world that Diablo I and II took place in. No way.

Do I see a rainbow? I’m sorry, but rainbows don’t exist in the Diablo universe. I have read all the lore, and there is not a single mention of rainbows in there. Big surprise that Blizzard retconned rainbows into Diablo. Vapid morons. Who do they think they are? I’ve been playing this series they created for years, and they fuck everything up like they own it.

Here’s the dark and gritty Diablo II, which Diablo III should look like:

Here’s a cartoon:

Or is that Diablo III? I honestly can’t tell.

Blizzard should give the game a dark atmosphere by literally making the game too dark to see anything and then maybe add some film grain on top of everything. If the technology is available, the black silhouette of a thumb could get in the way of the player’s view to obscure the game from time to time and add to the game’s overall darkness.

My Initial (Wrong) Opinion: In addition to gold and loot, monsters will occasionally drop globes that heal your character when picked up. You’ll be able to focus more on the gameworld instead of micromanaging a potion inventory. This frees up the hotbar for your character’s abilities.

The Internet’s (Correct) Opinion: Globes of health. That float. Riiiight.

It made so much more sense when glass bottles full of healing syrup fell out of monsters onto rocky dungeon floors without breaking. You know, when your character had thirty bottles strapped onto his belt and no one thought twice about chugging something that had been stuffed into a poisonous mummy for the last thousand years. This magical orb shit is going to ruin my sense of immersion big time.

My Initial (Wrong) Opinion: The Witch Doctor looks like a variation of the Necromancer that focuses on infectious diseases and fire instead of death and the art of looking like J. Mascis. Being able to cast your offensive spells on pets so their attacks are buffed with those spells’ abilities seems like it could be a lot of fun. I can imagine buffing one pet with a spell that slows enemies, another pet with some form of Weaken, and a third with a damage-dealing plague to mop up.

The Internet’s (Correct) Opinion: WHERE DID THE NECROMANCER GO??? I’m not buying this game. Even if all of the unannounced classes are Necromancers, it’s too late. Blizzard has abandoned its true fans.

My Initial (Wrong) Opinion: Did that thing just flatten one player under its foot, then pick up a barbarian and bite his head off? Okay, that’s awesome. Hardcore mode just got hilarious.

The Internet’s (Correct) Opinion: So the player characters only come up to this thing’s ankles? That’s stretching it way too far.

I’m sorry, but this terribly designed throwaway boss does not fit into the compendium of realistic monsters that we’ve all become accustomed to such as skeletons that hide in barrels, pygmies that stand on each other’s shoulders to create larger pygmies, and enormous Satanic grubs.

Source

Diablo III - Witchdoctor (Gameplay video)

The Witchdoctor is a gnarly spiritualist, like those crusties you see hanging around in the park, summoning demons of incredible annoyance via the medium of cider and drum circles.

Eurogamer Preview: Diablo III

It’s easy to figure out where Blizzard is going with Diablo III. Or so it seems. Throughout the weekend of press conferences, panels and interviews that followed the game’s memorable unveiling in Paris last weekend, the developers’ speech was peppered with phrases like this:

“Be an awesome action game.” “If you can click a mouse, you can play Diablo.” “It’s frickin’ cool to break stuff.” “I don’t think we’ve broken a hundred monsters on screen at a time, but we’ve flirted with it.” “It starts an awesomeness arms race.” “Monsters do two things: show up and die.” “We wanted to make that really loud.” “The only thing better than a zombie dog is an exploding zombie dog.”

Diablo III is more. More action, more death, more skills, more colour, more story, more beauty, more top-down, click-hungry, loot-happy, fast-paced, over-the-top, randomly-generated, fantasy-horror slaughter. Eight years after the last instalment in Blizzard’s classic action-RPG series - probably ten, by the time it comes out - Diablo III is more of the same. Beneath the waves of excitement generated by its return - in the form of twenty stunning minutes of game footage - there is the slightest undertow of anti-climax. Is ‘more of the same’ really all there is to it?

Blizzard’s chief design guru, Rob Pardo - formerly lead designer on World of Warcraft - argues that traditionalism can’t really be a sin when no-one else is upholding the tradition. “If there were a ton of games out in the market that are the isometric action-RPG model, then we probably would have more seriously done a different approach,” he says, pointing out that two Blizzard “splinter groups” - Flagship and ArenaNet - have already chosen to take “Diabloesque” gameplay in new directions with Hellgate: London and Guild Wars. “But it just always amazes me, with a game series that’s as successful as Diablo’s been, that I don’t feel like there’s a lot of great competing games in that same genre.”

The backdrops have a gorgeous, painterly look.

So the road well-travelled it was, laid out under the eagle eye of the camera; although Diablo III is fully 3D, its top-down camera perspective apes the isometric 2D bitmaps of the previous games in the series. Art director Bryan Morrisroe isn’t equivocal: “Isometric was the best decision we could have made,” he says. Blizzard is rock-solid in this conviction, and it’s right to be for a host of reasons: the quintessential Diablo point-and-click control scheme, the need for spatial awareness of hordes of monsters attacking from all sides, and the randomised modular maps, to name but three.

Oddly, “random” wasn’t a word you heard much during the game’s initial presentation at the Worldwide Invitational, but it’s a cornerstone of the Diablo franchise - randomly-generated maps and monster spawns making the games as frighteningly replayable as they are addictive. Lead designer Jay Wilson - who previously worked at Relic on Dawn of War and Company of Heroes - later explained that dungeons would still be heavily randomsied, but the overworld much less so in Diablo III.

“We decided we’re going to make that a more static geography, because we wanted to also start building a world,” Pardo explains. “We want you to learn these places, learn where towns and villages are. But we’re still going to randomise the monsters on top of it, and that’s where the idea for random adventures came from.”

Female models don’t have different stats. Take note, Age of Conan.

Random adventures are the most intriguing concept in Diablo III at present, although Blizzard is quite vague about them, because it’s still deciding exactly how they should be implemented. The idea is that, along with layouts and enemy spawns, actual events - some scripted, some AI-driven - can be dropped into play at random, whether in dungeons or on the set overworld maps. The example in the demo footage is a wall collapsing and blocking a path, but others might take the form of moments of NPC drama, or complex, multi-layered enemy encounters.

We’ll have to wait - patiently, as followers of Blizzard always have to wait - to find out more about these. But the implications of random adventures are arresting, to say the least. They promise to grant Diablo III the cinematic impact of a heavily scripted, linear action game in a free-form scenario that never plays the same twice, that’s always ready to surprise. Suddenly, Diablo III is starting to look a little less traditional.

It’s always this way with Blizzard: conservative, sometimes even derivative on the surface, you have to dig deep into the games’ designs to find the modest-sounding innovations that subtly but fundamentally rewrite the rules of whatever genre they’re working in. The other example in Diablo III - that we currently know about, again - is health globes.

Source and Full Preview

‘Diablo III’ YouTube Footage Fake!

Youtube user T2Darlantan recently posted a series of videos in which he claims he’s playing a beta of Diablo III’. While initially blinded by our excitement for the game, upon further investigation we noticed that the actual game he was playing bore a striking resemblance to the gameplay footage that Blizzard uploaded to their website in the wake of this year’s Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational. So we did what every self-respecting news outlet would do and reached out to our inside man at Blizzard for comment.  Here’s what he had to say:

“I took a quick glance at the video and it’s very apparent to me that he’s doing some kind of trick with the gameplay video we released, ” The Blizzard Spokesperson said. ”There is no ‘beta’ of the game yet. He doesn’t truly know any ’secrets’ about the game as he claims… We wouldn’t choose a random guy on youtube recording from his living room as a vehicle of information for our games.”

Source

Blizzard Comments On Classes In Diablo 3

Blizzard poster Bashiok has commented on the game’s five classes, emphasizing on their diversity and uniqueness as characters , unlike the overlapping and relatively bland classes in Age of Conan.

Yeah, I think you guys hit the nail.

We’re setting out to create unique, interesting, and diverse classes that each have their own style and flavor. Most importantly this isn’t just a basic look at each individual class, but how they compare to each other and overlap (or hopefully, don’t).

When you up the number of classes more and more you’re eventually going to begin down the route of homogenization, they start to bleed into each other’s core abilities and styles which really just detracts from each individual class’ recognizability and distinction within the game.

In addition, by limiting the number - and I say limiting not because it’s a low number, it’s the number of classes in Diablo II and a good one at that, but because we’re not going crazy with it - we can focus on making each class really impressive, both visually and through the way they each feel and play.

Source: Battle.net Forums | Blizzardguru