A recent article at Gameriot has made a top 10 list of Diablo 3 environments.
The environments that they like are: deserts and wastelands, forests, ancient ruins, and corrupted regions. They didn’t like Hell (Act IV) and think it was done in a hurry with only two waypoints.
I tend to agree - Act IV seems a bit dull compared to the others. However, my list of worst environments is easily topped by the jungles of Kurast! The pygmies were a NIGHTMARE for my Ice Sorceress!
You’d think that the combination of BILLIONS from WoW and the recently announced $100 for Starcraft 2 will make Blizzard sit comfortably on its huge pile of cash.
Think again. They are now thinking of “monetizing” the new version of Battle.net.
Initially, I thought “oh, we had banner ads in battle.net before, no problem”. Here’s from the horse’s mouth (Rob Pardo interview):
So Julian Wilson told us that you guys are looking monetize Battle.Net in some way. Is that right?
Wow, that’s an evil way of putting it. Julian’s turning into a business guy on me. Here’s the way I would put it. We’re definitely not looking at turning Diablo into a subscription based game…
With Battle.Net we’re definitely looking at possible different features that we might be able to do for additional money… I think World of Warcraft is a great example to look at. We charge people if they want to switch servers or if they want name changes, things that aren’t core to the game experience, they’re really just optional things that some people want.
OK, that’s a relief: Diablo 3 isn’t a subscription game; changing your name to GobbleCoque is going to cost $29.
However, I still get a bit suspicious of Blizzard’s “innovation” when it comes to pricing. After Starcraft 2 is split into three separate games we need to purchase separately, I wonder if Diablo 3 is going to be the same way.
Purchase Acts I and II for $49 and then shell more money for Acts III, IV and V which are entirely optional. Optional in the sense you option OUT of all the end-game bosses, equipment, etc.
Blizzard have just revealed the third (out of five) Diablo III character – the Wizard. It looks like a copy&paste of the good old Sorceress!
The Wizard skills revealed thus far are:
You can watch the Wizard in action at Blizzard’s site here.
Wow, this rumor puts the Diablo 3 release date on 09-09-09!
A recent rumor that Diablo III will be released BEFORE Starcraft 2 actually prompted Blizzard to officially address the issue of the release date.
Here’s the summary in short: Battle.net 2.0 will be released simultaneously with the release of Starcraft 2. The best guess for that is early 2009, with a Starcraft 2 beta coming out late in 2008.
So Diablo 3 will come out AFTER that … possibly by the end of 2009. An encouraging news will be if Blizzard have a playable “demo” at Blizzcon.
Update: Here’s the quote from Rob Pardo (Wired blog):
A lot of the way we develop is: We wanna make sure the game is really fun and the visual fidelity we want … we wanna make sure we have a small area that feels really done so we know what to build. So even though it looks really complete a lot of the content is just not there. We have a long ways to go to build each of the different acts in the game and put in all the quests and all the different monsters. We have a lot of development ahead of us before it will be something … It will definitely be out after StarCraft II.”
I hope this answers the last comment!
Diablo 2 is enjoying a Renaissance of sorts on the back of the Diablo 3 announcement. The classic game is back in the sales chart at number 6!
I gave my copy of Diablo II to my cousin a few years ago, so now I’m beating my head against the wall. If you’re like me and would like to replay Diablo 2 with friends on Battle.net, I suggest you find yourself $5.
Why $5? Because that’s how much a Diablo 2 CD key costs. That’s an original key (not some keygen thing) and it works like a charm. You download Diablo II, you enter the key and you’re ready to roll.
Here, I just saved you $55 (the Diablo Battlechest retails for 59.99).
Update: Here’s a direct link to one site offering it at $5 – link.
This news just came in from Gamasutra . Brian Morrisroe, art director on Diablo 3, is leaving Blizzard.
In light of the whole argument about the new COLOR in Diablo 3 screenshots, you’d expect someone to lose their job. Not so this time, Brian is leaving on his own accord. What’s more, Blizzard said that Brian’s art direction is nothing short of amazing!
Part of Morrisroe’s legacy will likely be the somewhat controversial art design for Diablo III, which fans lambasted vocally in online petitions for what they thought was a lapse in its predecessor’s traditionally bleak, Gothic look.
“This change won’t impact the game,” continued the statement. “We’re really pleased with the look and feel that Brian helped create for Diablo III, and the new person we bring onboard will work with the other artists on the team to maintain the art style moving forward.”
If you ask me, that’s like making a pink Harley Davidson and then say it’s just like we always wanted.
In an attempt to steer Blizzard into a darker world for Diablo 3, gamers have done some Photoshoping on Diablo 3 screenshots. The new screenshots are darker, the colors are less saturated.
I must say I’m impressed with the result (see below). Not Blizzard though. Jay Wilson, designer for Diablo 3 speaks out:
Now in terms of the actual texturing, this texturing, where they grayed out everything and it’s very flat and the monsters are all kind of a similar tone — that does not play well. It’s very boring to run through more than a couple of times, and it’s very difficult to tell creatures apart and pop them out of the environment. So those things don’t really work for us. A lot of the lighting stuff I think is very cool, but it’s also not very doable for us.
Let me know what you think. I understand these shadows can be tough to do in a 3D engine but let’s not forget Diablo 3 is supposed to be gothic horror, not cartoon-like fantasy like WoW!
Blizzard has opened poured a flood of screenshots and other media from Diablo 3! A few dozen screenshots have been released thus far and here’s the ones that I found most interesting. Be sure to check the official Diablo 3 announcement too.
The Barbarian hacking through skeletons. Note the duel-wield.
The Witch Doctor and his mass-effect spells. I guess he’s the new Sorceress!
This is a close-up of the armor. Note the level of details. It looks proper 3D.
It’s the Witch Doctor again. Note the depth of the level. It looks pre-rendered but it’s certainly beautiful.
Enter the Boss! It looks five times bigger than the character!
This is the demo gameplay that was given during the Diablo 3 announcement in Paris. The video is a bit short but … anything short of the game itself, seem short to me!
You can download the high-quality gameplay footage here. Check out the Diablo 3 screenshots too.
Town portals and corpse runs are two of the things that made Diablo and Diablo 2 quite unique. Now, they’re being “revisited” by the game design team.
Town portals will be removed in Diablo 3. Instead players will be using waypoints for quick transportation. I.e. if you’re close to a waypoint, you can go back to town.
Dying will similarly be based on the waypoints system. When you die, you don’t go back to town with all your equipment lying in some dungeon. You simply get teleported to the closest waypoint with minimal health (10%?). It’s your choice if you want to go back to town or you want to gulp a potion and continue hacking.
Here’s the “official” Blizz post at the Battle.net forums:
We want to separate being in town and being out on a quest/adventure/dungeon as much as possible. Leaving the safety of a town should not be a decision you take lightly. We don’t want to remove the sense of suspense and danger by making town something you’re always going back to pretty much whenever you like. The intent is to create a greater separation from being in town, and not, and to make your time away from town a lot more tense.
On that same note we also don’t want to remove the player from the action. Throwing them back to town for every death really breaks up the action, and not in a fun, interesting, or necessary way.
So, with these things in mind we’ve found that a check point system works really well. Throughout your adventures, and generally at the ends of each “floor” of a dungeon your character is saved to a checkpoint. When you die you’re dropped back at the last checkpoint with a small amount of health, and the rest regenerates slowly. It’s obviously a very forgiving system as it is. It’s just too early to put a ton of thought in to what penalties there should be, if any, added on top of it.
Regardless, potential penalties aside, this is the death mechanic we’re currently using and it’s working really well so far.
