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.
Updated (June 28): Blizzard announced Diablo 3 today and here’s the official cinematic trailer!
You can download the high-quality version from Blizzard’ssite.
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.
Update (June 28): Diablo 3 has been announced at the WWI in Paris. You can now review the Diablo 3 trailer, screenshots, as well as demo.
Although Blizzard still haven’t confirmed it officially, there’s a ton of RUMORS about an unveiling of the new Diablo at Blizzcon.
As a long-time Blizzard fan, I’ve decided to track all news (and rumors) about Diablo 3. Bookmark now. Subscribe to the RSS too!
Oh yeah, Dame Kraza was my first Diablo 2 character. You can download a save game of this ice sorceress.
Update (June 28): Diablo 3 has been announced at the WWI in Paris. You can now review the Diablo 3 trailer, screenshots, as well as demo.
The characters that appeared in the Diablo 3 announcement were the Barbarian and the Witch Doctor.
I just looked at the stats for my Diablo 2 site. The two most popular characters on the site are the sorceress and the barbarian. Popular in the sense people are looking for specific skill guides and even saves.
I’m wondering which characters will make it to Diablo 3? A pure spell caster should be available, i.e. a sorceror or sorceress of some kind. Then, we need the classic sword – call him barbarian, gladiator, whatever. Blizzard has shown a knack for good (and balanced) mixed breeds – like the Druid or the Paladin.
Looking at the World of Warcraft characters, if Blizzard wants to turn Diablo 3 into a MMORPG they should put a healer of some sort as well. There’s none in the Diablo 2 universe.