Diablo III

[Uszi]

Is anyone following this at all?

Blizzard announced the third installment in the popular series at their World Wide Invitation 6/28 - 6/29. They held a bunch of panels, and diablo3.com directs you now to the official blizzard site.

These were all the panels they did:

Developer's Panel:
#1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HEGrnpqe4Q
#2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IODgVVRLiMk
#3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxoHm3XieQc

Denizen's Of Diablo, Character Panel:
#1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWxYlWitpUk
#2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXurH2JFunc
#3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6LhGxcdQpU
Q&A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1VVwg9YpzE

Design Fundamentals Panel:
#1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlcQotL3wjk
#2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PhVil3GdiY

Q&A... Parlez-vous français? ... Er, they translate if you don't.
#1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF2PFSwYLN8
#2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJis3LA1SOc
#3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnz2o4z-Itg

Lore & Art Panel:
http://www.gamespot.com/video/930659/6193147/diablo-iii-diablo-iii-world-lore-and-environment-art-panel-






The main site has a 20 minute long gameplay preview.

http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/


The new game looks like a big step away from the old games, but still very familiar. I'm pretty excited about it.

EDIT: I suppose as a better seed for discussion, take this as an invitation to comment on the way the new Diablo game looks. Or what you liked about or disliked about the old Diablo games. Or how Blizzard as a company refuses to tread new ground (Diablo III, Warcraft III, Star Craft II), and fanboys like yours truly will never begrudge them for it.

 

[GenHellspawn]

As long as duping/getting overpowered items at a lower level from players on BattleNet is still a part of the game, I'll be happy.

 

[Silver]

It looks awful! And it looks boring. And they change gameplay elements to become bad. They had it right in the first game, the second had it awfully wrong and this is yet another step in the wrong direction. Blesch!

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

It looks awful! And it looks boring. And they change gameplay elements to become bad. They had it right in the first game, the second had it awfully wrong and this is yet another step in the wrong direction. Blesch!

The first game was the boring one. A point and click loot grind where you would back up into hallways just to coral mobs into a line just to earn the honor to click a mouse button for 20 minutes. I guess if you were leet you probably made an auto kill/potion macro. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[Ultrajoe]

It looks awful! And it looks boring. And they change gameplay elements to become bad. They had it right in the first game, the second had it awfully wrong and this is yet another step in the wrong direction. Blesch!

if they have gone the same 'wrong' direction twice now...

perhaps is a little self centered to say the game, rather than your expectations are off target. Is the problem that the game has, to your ire, gone wrong... or that what you want has failed to fall from the sky coated in chocolate?

Just a thought.

 

[Kikosemmek]

It looks awful! And it looks boring. And they change gameplay elements to become bad. They had it right in the first game, the second had it awfully wrong and this is yet another step in the wrong direction. Blesch!

if they have gone the same 'wrong' direction twice now...

perhaps is a little self centered to say the game, rather than your expectations are off target. Is the problem that the game has, to your ire, gone wrong... or that what you want has failed to fall from the sky coated in chocolate?

Just a thought.

I'm actually of the opinion that the second game was more fun than the first, albeit the original had a more immersive, creepy atmosphere than its sequel.

However, you said something which caught my attention. It seems to me that it is Silvertounge's preference which determined that Diablo I was better than II and will be better than III. I do not think this subjective opinion is legitimately open to criticism, and while I believe that we all have the right to differ and to point out the contrast, there's no point in suggesting that what one prefers is so off-base that it might as well fall from the sky, coated in chocolate. It is merely a preference. In this case, it is, as stated, his, and not yours. There should not be much of a fuss about this.

The evolution of the gameplay throughout the Diablo series suggests that the creative minds at Blizzard differ from Silvertounge's, and while it is they that make the games and profit from their sales, it does not mean that their opinions are better, but that these are more widely accepted. Should we judge the merit of subjectivity by the number of its applicants, then we'd be soulless, mindless sheep; scorekeepers and counters whose only sense of identity would be following the masses.

Not all of us are drones. I'm certainly not calling you one, but I am imploring you to think twice before you fire.

---

That said, the gameplay trailer on the site looks extremely promising, and the graphics are delicious.

However, I'm afraid that we won't be seeing the Necromancer anymore, as the Witch Doctor has been given all of the Necroid skills- minions, curses, diseases.

 

[ReepNeep]

Its a rogue-like. You chop monsters for loot. Said loot lets you chop bigger monsters for bigger loot. Its also a Blizzard game, which means it will be fun, well balanced, reasonably pleasant to look at and run on a 386.

I still miss the more gothic, creepy atmosphere from the first, as well as hate the item tables and ugly pre-rendered graphics in the second. I'm sure I'll play the hell out of this one just like I did the others.

It's a Diablo game. There really isn't much else you can say about the thing.

 

[jezz8me]

I do not realy like the shaping and character models as they look like something this generation of blizzard (WoW, WC3, SC2) and i still actually like the graphics of Diablo II in 640x480. Hopefully they will boost the grittiness with some form of filter and later levels will have more skewered virgins and the like.

The gameplay looks like a good step ahead and the witch doctor is a great innovation on the necromancer/druid type classes. I also love how they take the piss in the trailer when cain is about to say "stay a while and listen."

One thing i do hope is that although they are aiming for a good multiplayer people who prefer single player like me can still have an experience that is lacking no more that another character on the screen.

Also it needs a cow level. And did anyone see the guy claiming he had played the game?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOqnrhaeXIA

 

[Uszi]

And did anyone see the guy claiming he had played the game?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOqnrhaeXIA

Yeah, I didn't know the make a wish foundation granted wishes to guys who were 31. Unless this is a different video; I didn't click it out of fear of wasting another second on it.


A lot of people lament the loss of the creepy atmosphere in Diablo I. It just generally felt scarier than Diablo II. But going back and replaying both games in preparation for the third, I had a revelation: As creepy as D1 was, it is nearly unplayable by today's standards, and if a company released a game just like it in July 2008, it would receive universally poor reviews.


Diablo II went more "epic" than creepy: it went from mostly one on one combat with a handful of demons in a single setting, to hero cutting a swath through dozens of baddies, and traversing enormous landscapes all over the globe.

Diablo III looks like it will go even further in that direction. Just the scene with the ghouls, where the barbarian downs like 30 of em, lets me know how the game will be.



... All that said though, I suppose it is Diablo III, and not "Diablo II: The Next expansion." I think I would be just as concerned if it wasn't an entirely new game with an improved interface. Maybe game developers can never win with Fan Boys.

 

[jezz8me]

simply fixed the problem with it now all the improvements can come right along and make this epic.

sign if you agree i guess

http://www.petitiononline.com/d3art/petition.html

 

[The Irrelevant Gamer]

That petition is hilarious. I'm looking forward to Diablo game that won't cause eye strain.

 

[Kemmler0]

What i would like to know is HOW LONG DO I HAVE TO WAIT FOR DIABLO3.

4 years?
6
10

Judging by Blizzards previous release schedules, my last guess is probably the most accurate.
We are still waiting for Starcraft two!

I'm afraid that by the time this comes out i will have lost interest.

 

[Alcari]

What's wrong with a little color? I though the monochrome 'color' scheme in D1 was pretty annoying in the dungeon levels, and it wasn't much better when they switching brown for grey in the cave levels.

I prefer games that don't make my eyes hurt when I play them. Doesn't have to be WoW-cartoony or Teletubby bright, but a little color will be very welcome.

As for my releasedate guess: I'm putting my money on 18 months.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

If you're going to have a petition be taken seriously, proofreading would be the first step... I find it hilarious that people actually *want* "muddy and stale" environments >_<

 

[jeo suprima]

i am a little worried about D3.
the trailer is good, the official site is cool, but i am afraid they will remove the class of necromancer, why?
if you look at that new class: the witch dokter (sounds neat) can cast poision, can sumon, can do a bunch look-a-like curses, and i have seen some zombie wall.
all verry necro-like if you ask me,
so there are 2 options blizzard can make:
1) there are no necro's in D3 (and that will be more than a shame)
or 2) the necro will be super kick ass with hordes of zombies and undead and rotting corpses and all that kinda stuff.
i will go for option 2, if i was blizzard

 

[hamster mk 4]

I trust in Blizzard to make a fun well balanced game, but for the sake of my sanity I refused to get caught up in hype this early in development. After the game has been out for a month or so I may get it. Until then Diablo 2 still satisfies me.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

That petition is hilarious. I'm looking forward to Diablo game that won't cause eye strain.

lol

i love how they went out of their way to photoshop their idealized version of the game. from the looks of it they just need to turn up the contrast and turn down the brightness on their monitors and they'll be happy.

 

[Silver]

Yes, I'm ranting, yes this is just my opinion. I'm aware that some people might not agree with me, I'm also aware that Blizzard may be right and that maybe I'm just a weird person stuck in days gone by. I'm not saying this is the ultimate truth, I'm just stating my opinion, which as Kikosemmek says (thank you) isn't really something you can call wrong. I find Mona Lisa very boring as well, I don't see the charm at all, people still seem to like it.

It looks awful! And it looks boring. And they change gameplay elements to become bad. They had it right in the first game, the second had it awfully wrong and this is yet another step in the wrong direction. Blesch!

The first game was the boring one. A point and click loot grind where you would back up into hallways just to coral mobs into a line just to earn the honor to click a mouse button for 20 minutes. I guess if you were leet you probably made an auto kill/potion macro. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

That exactly how I'd describe the second one actually.

What I liked about the first game was the immersion, I really cared about the people of Tristram, I really wanted to save them, and they really felt like people. It was also gritty and in some places genuinly scary. In the first one the focus (for me) wasn't hacking monsters to pieces. It was following the great story, it was finding out more about the curse of Tristram, and it was avenging the death of that guy lying outside of the monastery when I got there. When it proved deeper than that, and I moved down into hell itself it now that was an epic story. It was scary, it really looked like hell.

In the second one it was never scary. Hundreds of enemies run towards you and you hack at them for a while and they're all gone. You always ran after that annoying guy, and you always knew he'd get away just in the last second, again, and again, and again. It was boring. The characters were never anyone you cared about, they were just there for supplies. You couldn't bloody die so there was no risk involved, it killed the immersion completely. The monsters respawned all the time. If everyone respawns when they die, then what's the problem? Just send any bloody farmer to save the village. I never cared about what happened in the second game. I never cared about the people, except when I was back in tristram, and that was only temporary.

The classes too, in the first game you found spell books. You could always learn spells, it only mattered how well you did them. The classes were well balanced, and worked with their own focus. In the second all classes just had fancy spells of their own, all scrolls and books about magic had mysteriously disappeared, and everything was cool and with shiny effects. It just looks ridiculous. If you're in a fight you won't start glowing, and it won't start flying sparks from your sword. Fights looked good in the first game, the casting animations were really awesome, you just felt powerful. In the second game there was fire flying all over, sorceresses cast magic with no effort, paladins and amazons were glowing and barbarians flew around. Technically the graphics may have been better, but it lost all of it's style and feeling. That goes for gameplay as well. Sure, today some people would think it was outdated. Today many people need to be able to hit their enemies in 300 different ways to be able to kill them. The architechture looked much worse as well. Sure, it was fancy and all, but it was ugly and it didn't have any nice coherrent, or logical feeling to it.


This game takes it even further it seems. You kill a monster and it drops an orb of healing? What the hell is that about? It looks even worse than the second one, all focus is on making it look technically good, and nothing on style. The architecture in the first room with that ridiculous bridge and stuff belongs in Neverwinter nights, not Diablo. It just looks wrong, and ugly.

 

[monodiabloloco]

I loved Diablo I and II. I am sure I will love Diablo III. It's great monster bashing loot grabbing fun.