The guys at Joystiq are going over their first Diablo 3 multiplayer experience during Blizzcon.
The quality of the video is way better that most I’ve seen. You need to wait a bit for the multiplayer gameplay to start (at 3:08). The party is complete with all three Diablo 3 characters: Wizard, Barbarian and Witch Doctor.
The only complaint was that the screen was a bit overwhelmed with all the special effects:
The only negative thing we could see was the messy screens you’d get when playing in a party. If you have a Witch Doctor in your group casting Locust Swarm, and a ton of enemies are massing around your group, you’ll start frantically clicking at any and everything on screen.
Check out the Skeleton King fight at the end! I’m still not sure if the Wizard managed to kill it… I guess not.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
In an interview for MTV, Jay Wilson said that Diablo 3 “will round out the story arc set up by the previous two games.”
“We also tried to focus a little more on bringing characters back, and not just from ‘Diablo II’ but from ‘Diablo I,’” he said. “We feel like a lot of the focus is on ‘Diablo II’ but ‘Diablo I’ started it all and has a lot of really good stuff on the gameplay side and on the character side. So people can expect to see characters from ‘Diablo I,’ more characters from ‘Diablo II,’ and characters from some of the books. We’re definitely going to bring a few of them in.”
The quote that really matters for me, however, is this one:
And while “Diablo III” ends the trilogy, fans needn’t worry — it’s not the final curtain for “Diablo.” “We’re not saying this is the end of the ‘Diablo’ universe, but we are trying to bring this storyline to a close,” Wilson said. “It’s not just ‘Diablo III’ — we’ve got plans beyond.”
Now, that’s finally an admission that no one at Blizzard is crazy enough to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Who knows… maybe we’ll see a Diablo movie soon?
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’s Worldwide Invitational 2008 starts in half an hour in Paris. If you can check the intro image – there’s a dark shape that is more and more visible.
UPDATE: Diablo 3 is OFFICIAL! Live news from the event:
12:15 — Announcement…..!! Guy playing Diablo music on an acoustic guitar…
12:18 — Footage of large scale battles, comets streaking across the sky, demons, Diablo 3 officially announced.
12:20 — Jay Wilson, lead designer on Diablo 3 coming out. He’s going to demo the game.
12:20 — It’s apparently still an action RPG. Same interface — red
health and blue orbs. Skill bar at bottom. 3/4 overhead perspective.
Character with 2 axes hacking at demons in what appears to be a foggy
cathedral. Has a jumping attack where he smashes the two axes into the
ground.
12:21 — The axe guy is the barbarian class. Says improvements have
been made, like the hotbar for skills. Using the mouse wheel and tab
key you can quickly switch between skills. Whoing inventory. Appears to
still have slot limits. Using enchanted axes with frost and lighting
,which stuns and freezes opponents.
12:25 — Each piece of gear is custom designed for each class. Barbarian puts on demonic sort of garb with giant devil horns. Barbarian can hop across gaps on the map. Barbarian dislodged a rock wall and dropped it on zombies, killing them. Demoing moving whirlwind attack.
12:33 — Witch doctor can cast out locus swarm, which spreads between targets and deals damage. Can summon mongrel things that he can cast locust swarm on, which buffs their damage. Outdoor environment now. Quite pretty in that vibrant, slightly cartoonish Blizzard graphical style. Like with StarCraft 2 and it’s similarities to the original, Diablo 3 looks and sounds, at least at a glance, quite similar to previous games. Witch doctor also has a mass fear type of ability.
12:36 — Multiplayer will work over battle.net. Heads into a final fight against some gigantic moving trees. Final boss here, called siegebreaker assault beast, is absolutely gigantic, maybe around six or seven times taller than the player characters.
12:37 — Demo ends. The crowd roars…
Update: Diablo 3 release date has been tentatively set to follow the launch of Starcraft 2 and Battle.net 2.0 some time in early 2009.
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!
You’d think that the combination of BILLIONS from WoW and the recently announced 
