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Diablo III

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Obviously been a lot of speculation that it was coming out but its been made official at this Blizzard conference in Paris. Here's a blurry screenshot, there should be a streaming video online at some point as well;

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Some comments lifted from RPS and their live blogging;

My quick notes based on the in-game stuff so far: wouldn’t mistake it for any other game

unbelievable amount of onscreen enemies

health orbs as well as potions

traps

darker, but still somewhat cartoonish

big focus on loot as decoration

quickbar for abilities

barbarian powerjumps across a broken crevasse

blimey- using scenery destruction to crush baddies

whirlwind barbarian spell is an impressive storm of destruction

friendlies in dungeon – story events

Deckard Cain returns

11.33 - A really colossal boss. Nothing looks especially novel but it unquestionably looks spectacular.

11.34 - New class: The Witch Doctor. Ancient tribal magic - control over disease, summon pets, control enemies’ minds.

11.35 - He’s got an ace voodoo mask, and is summoning a swarm of plague insects to kill bads and buff his pets.

11.36 - Though it’s 3D, there’s a real hand-painted feel to the scenery. It’s bridging that 2D/3D gap well.

11.38 - Haha - he can summon a literal wall of zombies.

11.40 - The bosses get even bigger. Rubble sprays everywhere as they walk. No-one’s ever gonna play Titan Quest again.

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Wall of zombies! I've been following the live blogging and stream of the Invitational in Paris and it was awesome. Fire-dancers on the town music of Tristram.

It looks undoubtedly gorgeous. I'm curious whether they've gone with premade levels this time around (it would appear so) or if there's still some element of random level design in it. Regardless, this is stellar stuff and will be huge fun. I feel vindicated that they've stuck with the isometric perspective, because I feared they would make it too much like World of Warcraft.

Also, I hope they'll have at least as good a storytelling framework as Diablo 2 had, with its unique and inventive framework of Marius in the sanitarium retelling events.

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PC gaming dead? Pah.

I have fond memories of playing both Starcraft and Diablo over Battlenet so I'm looking forward to the new releases, particularly as they seem to be focusing exclusively on the gameplay. Saying that, the art style has borrowed a little too much from World of Warcraft's in my opinion - I would have preferred something more gritty and grimy but it's no game breaker, I'll survive.

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Actually, my first reaction was that it looked like Silverfall on the PC.

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Is anyone else having trouble downloading the Gameplay Trailer from the site (using the download app, that is..)?

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I own Diablo II but I only played it for a couple of hours back then. Not quite sure why I was so disappointed. Based on the gameplay trailer this new one looks much more intriguing though and I actually like the direction they have taken with the art style.

Does anyone else think Blizzard's gameplay demonstrations are outstanding? I think they are the only ones I have seen I could watch purely for the entertainment value, whereas most of the other companies demonstrations can be unbearable to watch. They are also the only reason I'm now excited about both Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3.

BigJKO, couldn't get it (the mac version) to work either.

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Holy crap I was certain that splash page was Wrath of the Lich King related.

It does look bloody fantastic. The music is excellent too. Can't wait to see what the other classes are. Looks like the Witch Doctor has replaced Necromancer. So much cool stuff going on in the demonstration. I'll need to watch it again before talking more.

Nappi, the best way to play Diablo II is with a few friends over a LAN. To play it solo you have to be in the right "bubble-wrap-popping" mood.

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Does anyone else think Blizzard's gameplay demonstrations are outstanding? I think they are the only ones I have seen I could watch purely for the entertainment value, whereas most of the other companies demonstrations can be unbearable to watch. They are also the only reason I'm now excited about both Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3.

Yes, I was thinking the same thing. If the videos had just been gameplay clips cut together, I would've thought "It's just Diablo, in 3D."

Now I'm thinking, "It's Diablo, in 3D. Only it's even more awesome!"

Right.

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Diablo has always been good for me both single- and multiplayer. Only in singleplayer can I really take the time I need to ingest all the lore and the dialogues, when playing with friends there's always a bit of a hurry to get things done in towns.

One other thing I was really rooting for in Diablo 3 was that Blizzard would return to the horror roots of the series. Diablo 2, for all its excellence in gameplay, was visually too colourful for me and never got as scary as D1 was. So I hope this game will be terrifying again, as it should be.

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Yes, and in 1996 that was THE BOMB. That's King Leoric being assaulted there, by the way. As a sorceror, if you didn't have the Holy Bolt spell there, you were fucked.

Hey, but that screenshot looks a lot more colourful than Diablo 1 was in my memory. The way it's in my head is that it was almost monochrome black and white and very dark. I guess that's just the atmosphere I got from it. I think two particular things really helped in making the game so very frightening. One is that outside, in Tristram, it was always dark. You notice that in Diablo 2 there's a shifting cycle of night and day, and that caused the game to have a lot more (or too much) relief in terms of darkness.

The second thing was that in your descent into hell in Diablo 1, you're always going down, going deeper, deeper into the underground. That made it psychologically much more intense than dipping into shallow, 3-level dungeons in the second game and then breathing fresh air again.

I think these two aspects really made the game feel as dark and gritty as it did. Of course, Blizzard can't make an epic, multi-continent game with only one vertical dungeon, so it's safe to say they'll pursue the second in the series. Here's just hoping they'll make it as scary as they can.*

(*Though I pooped my pants in D2 when you confront Duriel. My computer almost crashed entirely because he was too graphically heavy.)

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I think the brightness may have been fiddled with personally, that or it's just a particularly bright section, it's not how I remember it looking anyway :erm:

Hey, but that screenshot looks a lot more colourful than Diablo 1 was in my memory. The way it's in my head is that it was almost monochrome black and white and very dark. I guess that's just the atmosphere I got from it. I think two particular things really helped in making the game so very frightening. One is that outside, in Tristram, it was always dark. You notice that in Diablo 2 there's a shifting cycle of night and day, and that caused the game to have a lot more (or too much) relief in terms of darkness.

The second thing was that in your descent into hell in Diablo 1, you're always going down, going deeper, deeper into the underground. That made it psychologically much more intense than dipping into shallow, 3-level dungeons in the second game and then breathing fresh air again.

Brilliantly summed up the original for me :tup:

What I personally found funny about Diablo’s release was that it was my dad who first introduced me to it. He just came into the room talking to me about a game, enthusiastically, it was weird, and surreal, and I still can’t get over it to this day! Initially I was like; ‘wtf!?’, and totally expected it to be a piece of shit - but here was this game both me and my dad enjoyed and were able to play.

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What I personally found funny about Diablo’s release was that it was my dad who first introduced me to it. He just came into the room talking to me about a game, enthusiastically, it was weird, and surreal, and I still can’t get over it to this day! Initially I was like; ‘wtf!?’, and totally expected it to be a piece of shit - but here was this game both me and my dad enjoyed and were able to play.

Deja vu from RPS comments.. :o

Now I feel like a stalker.

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Anyone else thinking the art style looks a bit too Warcraft-y? Warcraft does cartoonish fantasy well, but Diablo never struck me as a particularly happy place. I can't tell if it's the move to 3D or a slightly altered art direction, but the video and those screens sure seem a lot less scary than I remember Diablo being...

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It does seem to have inherited a lot of the Warcraft look. I actually thought that first high-resolution screenshot above was a WoW screenshot, posted for comparison or whatever. It doesn't seem to be, though. :eek:

Still looks cool though, and as someone who never really got into Diablo I'll embrace it for what it is. ;

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Especially the Barbarian's pauldrons seem a bit 'Orcish', if you know what I mean. The outside areas shown seem a bit Warcrafty, but I think you'll notice the difference when playing. Diablo's colour palette has always been more washed-out and darker than Warcraft's saturated tones.

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I've never played WoW, but after hearing everyone comparing the two, I went and looked at some screenshots. Seriously? I couldn't find anything even remotely alike.

I mean, sure, they've both got stylish graphics. Diablo doesn't look gritty or realistic. But they're two completely different styles.

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Deja vu from RPS comments.. :o

Now I feel like a stalker.

The hunter becomes the hunted but yes I plagiarized myself :)

Anyone else thinking the art style looks a bit too Warcraft-y?
It's the same with Starcraft II but I've made a concious decision to embrace it. It's possible, as I think was the case with Starcraft II (?), that Blizzard might slightly tweak the games visuals in response to fan reaction - but I say we just accept they want to style all their games this way.

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!!!!MY EYES!!!!

I'm curious whether they've gone with premade levels this time around (it would appear so) or if there's still some element of random level design in it.
I was sceptical but I've just read this on Kotaku; "Even more so when you consider that maps aren’t all static, some are random meaning the exit and entrance to an area might not be in the same place each time." Not sure how that's going to work exactly, but at least it signifies they know (ahem) randomosity is something fans want to see in some form or another.

From IGN; "Also, Diablo III builds on the random environments of the previous Diablo games by introducing a host of new ways to create random scripted events throughout the game. This creates a dense and exciting world alive with quests, NPCs, dynamic encounters, and viciously challenging new monsters and bosses. Diablo III's environments add a great deal of interactivity to the game, including destructible elements and environmental obstacles that can be turned against your enemies."

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I wouldn't say they're two different styles, BigJKO. Diablo 3 pretty much has graphics that are how World of Warcraft 2 would look if it were released today, whereas Diablo 1 and 2 were very detached visually (as you can see in the shot above). It's even more obvious if you look at WoW concept art, and many indoor WoW areas are very reminiscent of that first high-resolution Diablo 3 screenshot above.

I do like that Blizzard have their own signature style, though. You can always recognise them a mile off, and have been able to since Warcraft 3.

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Yes, you're right. Especially between that WoW concept art and the first screenshot in this thread (even though that's the worst screenshot of the bunch, IMO)

But people aren't comparing Diablo 3 with an imaginary WoW sequel, but the very cartoony, over-proportioned current WoW. :P

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The D3 faq says the game will still have randomly generated maps. And thankfully, it seems to create some more interesting things and diversity than D2 did (no matter how randomly you create a square grassland level, it's still a square level). I'm especially tickled by the proposition that they'll have random interactive events in levels, so now the areas will actually have a degree of interactivity. Hopefully they'll make it organic and not too gimmicky. I'm excited.

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