By Jim Rossignol on June 28th, 2008 at 12:40 pm.
Diablo III has been announced at the Blizzard World Wide Invitational in Paris. What we know so far, as well as some early screenshots and the gameplay trailer, can be seen below the cut.
Okay, that looks like fun. The exploding worm dude is nasty.
”Diablo III is first and foremost a co-operative game,” that’s the message from Blizzard. They’re not expecting you to play this on your own, so we’re looking at plenty of online options for slashing our way through those dungeons. The campaign is said to be of a similar length to that of Diablo II, with NPCs and story events taking place within the game world. The campaign will apparently feature a mixture of both randomly generated and hand-made static dungeons.
Diablo III is going to be delivered in a brand new, “real-physics” 3D engine developed by Blizzard. The game is so far confirmed for PC and Mac, and Blizzard have “no plans” at present to become console developers. It’s going to be supported by the revised version of Battlenet, which will go live with Starcraft II later this year.
PvP featured are “planned” but there’s no information on them so far, and the same goes for trading items.
Barbarian and Witchdoctor classes have been seen so far, so that’s fighter and summoner-wizard-shaman-type fantasy archetypes covered…
The release date is “when it’s done”, but it’s traditional for announcement-to-release to be just under a year for Blizzard games, so we’re looking at having it in time for Christmas 2009. The title has already been in development for four years, so that’s looking like a fairly realistic guess.
EDIT: The Diablo III website has just gone up with a load of stuff.
28/06/2008 at 12:45 Al3xand3r says:
Meh, still going by the blurry screens? Just link to the D3 site already, lotsa proper high res screens and the 2 vids… Maybe also merge or replace the different threads to keep the whole discussion focused in one place?
I’d like to note that while the gameplay video looked pretty damn great (if boring, but I’m sure the game’s more exciting than that) and very close to the D2 art style, if you actually look at the screenshots the WoW art style is evident throughout most every aspect, but especially the environments. It’s nice that it isn’t so apparentl when stuff are in motion because I’m sure some people won’t like that direction (I’m okay with it, looks great in the video).
28/06/2008 at 12:47 Jim Rossignol says:
Thanks for the advice, A! :I
28/06/2008 at 12:51 Al3xand3r says:
Lol, sorry, I can imagine it was hard to try and keep up with all possible places news could show up and end up missing it because it came up at the least expected place… The official Bliz/D3 websites :P
You should make this post more attractive with posting some links to higher res screenshots and stuffs or people might miss that also ;)
28/06/2008 at 12:51 Albides says:
I love how interactive the environment looks in the gameplay trailer. I’m almost ashamed to admit being impressed by the incorporation of the vertical, it being such a small but cool thing.
28/06/2008 at 13:07 Cedge says:
“…it’s traditional for announcement-to-release to be just under a year for Blizzard games…”
Is that sarcasm? Because the only times Blizzard has ever shipped anything within a year of announcing it, SNES games notwithstanding, were the expansions for D2 and WarCraft 3. Aside from that, though, StarCraft was two-and-a-half years, WarCraft 3 was nearly three years, WoW was over three years, and StarCraft II is 13 months and counting…
Yeah…that has to be sarcasm.
28/06/2008 at 13:10 mpk says:
The prospect of more Diablo II but with extra shiny excites and arouses me. I’m especially tickled by the thought of environmental interaction, and working out different ways to break walls down on bad guys heads.
Also: Wall of zombies.
28/06/2008 at 13:19 minipixel says:
*faints*
28/06/2008 at 13:27 Bananaphone says:
*click click click* *splat* *click click click* *splat* (repeat)
28/06/2008 at 13:31 CakeAddict says:
Blizzard ruines my life with their good games.
Am I to be happy or sad?
28/06/2008 at 13:33 BrokenSymmetry says:
Why is everyone so excited about Diablo 3 when everything points at it being exactly the same game as the previous two?
28/06/2008 at 13:34 Riotpoll says:
Skill hot bar = win :D
28/06/2008 at 13:41 RLacey says:
I’m staggered that they’ve managed to produce something that actually looks fresh.
Me wants.
28/06/2008 at 13:48 Crispy says:
Oh God this is going to be SO GOOD!
28/06/2008 at 13:52 James T says:
…What?
28/06/2008 at 13:56 Jochen Scheisse says:
Why is everyone so excited about Diablo 3 when everything points at it being exactly the same game as the previous two?
Because the other two games were awesome, and it looks like they had just updated them with everything the new technology can provide.
28/06/2008 at 13:58 tackle says:
Anyone else actually managed to SEE any of the videos?
Trying with the blizzard downloaders now.. got 1 meg in 10 minutes, wheeha!
28/06/2008 at 14:00 Flint says:
Wantwantwant. And look at how pleasantly the little buggers fall off the bridge :D.
However,
”Diablo III is first and foremost a co-operative game,” that’s the message from Blizzard. They’re not expecting you to play this on your own, so we’re looking at plenty of online options for slashing our way through those dungeons.
They better not cheap out on the singleplayer gaming.
28/06/2008 at 14:06 K says:
I want to fight beautiful, angelic creatures for once. It always seemed like Tyrael was orchestrating the whole thing to me anyway. The trailer started off dull, got better, and now I think I’ll probably get it, even though I have no friends.
28/06/2008 at 14:10 antonymous says:
So this is effectively going to be the arcade/casual/evendumber version of WoW? Why not, the old 1980s dungeonhacks seem to be a solid earner for the industry. I’m just longing for some kind of innovation. D3 might also become the first Bliz title from the crust..
28/06/2008 at 14:10 Sax says:
@tackle
Watch it online on their site, that works.
http://eu.blizzard.com/diablo3/media/
28/06/2008 at 14:28 Al3xand3r says:
Antonymous, you [have a different opinion to me], why can’t you innovate with your posts a bit more? I mean, come on, WoW insults and talks of dumbed down games? I expect more, but oh well, fanboy style hate rants seem to have a solid following in the community.
Seriously, did you expect a game that is not a dungeon crawler from a Diablo sequel? And did you really expect so much innovation from a game with “3″ in its title?
Also, comparing this to WoW is apples and oranges… Yeah, both are fruit just as WoW shares some gameplay design similarities to Diablo but they’re still far different and can be enjoyed by different audience types, of which none is more casual or dumber than the other.
Just because we have MMOs like WOW doesn’t mean everyone is going after them and doesn’t care for smaller coop experiences like Diablo 2′s (which is still popular despite WOW’s release and its age) which offers a completely different pace and energentic fun. Also, if anything, combat looks majorly updated in this and not “just like Diablo 2″ at all, but far more engaging, reactive and fun.
I actually found Diablo 2 too boring and gave up after finishing it once with a couple friends but this looks exciting all the same if it can deliver on the premise of the video and the rest unveiled information. My main beef with D2 was variety so if this has more classes, some more ways for cooperation between players, and a significant portion of the campaign is randomly generated like Diablo 1 then it’s a buy. Modability would probably be good also since I’d like some proper RPG-ing with that engine and I have faith that if it was possible we’d see mods that weren’t mere area expansions to the same gameplay style and pace.
You don’t have to like it, obviously, but at least critique it for the correct reasons (ie, it ends up being a crap dungeon crawler), not just the opinion of “I don’t like dungeon crawlers” which means you’d never be happy with any Diablo sequel unless it was just in name, therefor not a real sequel. Again, it has a 3 in its title, it’s not some spin off like World of Diablo or something.
28/06/2008 at 14:36 mulayim says:
Told ya.
28/06/2008 at 14:58 SwiftRanger says:
Honestly, I’ve already seen more innovation in what they’ve shown of Diablo III than what is known about StarCraft II. It really looks a lot more exciting imo.
28/06/2008 at 15:00 Nick says:
Diablo 3 Rox Wow Sux!
Or something.
28/06/2008 at 15:00 sana says:
Looking at the high-def screenshots it DOES look too much like World of Warcraft. Diablo 2′s gritty, dark looks seems to be absent in Diablo 3 and instead replaced with the low-contrast, hand-painted backgrounds, un-orthogonal geometry and flashy effects we’ve already seen in World of Warcraft and StarCraft II.
And although the gameplay seems interesting, the way Blizzard’s new games all have the same friggin’ art style displeases me.
28/06/2008 at 15:02 Al3xand3r says:
Yeah SwiftRanger, combat looks far more engaging and fun and reactive, that’s for sure. Not just holding down left click, hammering the potion hotkeys and the occasional right click for your assigned skill. When he starts using all the slams and jumpy attacks and wave blasts in a crowd of enemies it looks like a lot of fun, like some kind of console action title but in a good way. Certainly not like an outdated point & click controlled game at least, so they’ve done wonders with the interface and mechanics I guess.
Sana it appears so in screenshots but the gameplay trailer looks quite a bit darker and grittier than WoW (even its grittier areas) to me, and pretty close to Diablo 2 (the barbarian looked like he jumped right out of it before starting to use the cooler skills and the camera zoomed in). I’m sure it has its own share of bright areas but the tougher dungeons should be as gloomy and intimidating as ever.
28/06/2008 at 15:21 antonymous says:
Uh I like the dungeoncrawl but I would have liked to see something new like in Depths of Peril.
Diablo needs punters badly :)
28/06/2008 at 15:23 Arnulf says:
BrokenSymmetry says:
Because everyone is so excited about Diablo 3 where everything points at it having exactly the same game mechanic as the previous two.
Wiith better graphics and a polished interface.
That’s what Blizzard excels at: take something tried and true and only improve its usability and looks. Like buying the next Corvette or something I guess… and I don’t mean that in a bad way.
28/06/2008 at 15:24 Jamie says:
The game looks brilliant, but are the videos broken for anyone else? no sound and it stops playing every 20 seconds, on the official site it’s the same deal.
28/06/2008 at 15:30 sigma83 says:
Jamie: Welcome to the bandwidth we third worlders are used to bwahahaha
28/06/2008 at 15:47 Jamie says:
Yeah Kenya’s not all it’s cracked up to be
28/06/2008 at 15:50 Zyrusticae says:
Seems Blizzard’s suffering some bandwidth problems. Unsurprising, considering how many fans they have checking the site all across the planet…
Well, it sure sounds interesting, gameplay-wise. I do like the idea of the ‘adventure generator’, which might actually make replaying the game less, well, boring.
Graphics-wise, though… it’s so inferior to Starcraft 2, I’m just having a difficult time stomaching it. (People comparing it to WoW need to stop. The only analogues between the two is that they both lack current-gen graphical features like normal mapping and high-resolution textures.) I mean, if nothing else, they could have raised the texture resolution just a tad – as it is now, it’s graphically inferior to Titan Quest, and that was released a long while ago!
Oh, well. The Diablo games have never been particularly praised for their graphics (well, except maybe the first one)…
28/06/2008 at 16:01 Commando says:
Doesn’t look quite as good as Titan Quest but it looks more coherent theme wise. Suprised how bright it is, very colour for Diablo.
28/06/2008 at 16:10 Flint says:
I like the stylistic change in the graphics. The grittiness of Diablo 2 grew pretty boring and stale after a while, looks like this continue to be exciting for a longer time IMO.
28/06/2008 at 16:11 Turin Turambar says:
Well said, Diablo was always for me an addictive game, but not a really fun game, this one seems like better in that. Let’s hope its not an illusion.
28/06/2008 at 16:28 Ci2e says:
All I can say is, “Hell, it’s about time!”
Hell Yeeeeeeeeeeah!
28/06/2008 at 16:48 Erlam says:
“”Diablo III is first and foremost a co-operative game,” that’s the message from Blizzard. They’re not expecting you to play this on your own, so we’re looking at plenty of online options for slashing our way through those dungeons.
They better not cheap out on the singleplayer gaming.”
Are they actually going to manage to shoe-horn raiding into Diablo as well? Come on Chilton.
28/06/2008 at 16:58 LQB says:
The dungeon bit in the gameplay trailer was pretty cool, and I love how items till drop onto the ground, but when they walked out into the wilderness I felt extremely disappointed, it looks like Warcraft, not Diablo.
28/06/2008 at 17:07 runningwthszzors says:
Perhaps the skill system that both made it so amazingly fresh at the time and at the same time so limited when it came to branching out from a character build will be innovated on. The skill bar reminds me of the excellent game Nox, which copied the spell system from Diablo 1 but differentiated it as well.
I know more is better, but if you decrease the 5 classes to 3 (that might end up taking specialist classes), I can imagine the game having a lot more replayability. I mean, the Diablo formula is so “simple” yet it failed so many Diablo clones.
28/06/2008 at 17:26 The_Mhor says:
I hope that the level in this is set up for the video, or is made from set piece in the game, and that the main areas maintain the randomness that gave the prior Diablo gamess so much replayability…
28/06/2008 at 17:28 yutt says:
I am amused at people projecting their WoW hate onto the visuals of Diablo 3.
They look nothing at all alike. If you believe they do, you apparently haven’t played WoW. I had to double-check the videos and images to try to figure out what you were talking about.
Oh well, your loss. :)
28/06/2008 at 17:28 cyrenic says:
Less reliance on potions is awesome. It was always a pain managing all those potions back in diablo 2. The physics and animations look superb.
28/06/2008 at 17:40 Alex says:
OH I HATE STAINING MY HANDS WITH THE BLOOD OF FOUL WITCHES.
28/06/2008 at 18:00 zima says:
And here I am, still totally hooked up to Diablo2…
I’m starting to hope they won’t realese D3 in “less than a year”, having to choose between them would make my heart bleed ;)
28/06/2008 at 18:05 Flint says:
Less reliance on potions is awesome. It was always a pain managing all those potions back in diablo 2
Speaking of potions, I wonder where the potion belt has disappeared from the HUD.
28/06/2008 at 18:08 robo says:
FUCK YEAAAAAAAR
28/06/2008 at 18:29 Sceptic says:
This doesn’t look good. The artistic direction is poor and doesn’t compare to the original diablos. (I’m not saying the visual artists at blizzard are bad, of course).
Ugh, the game looks pretty bad. I wonder if it is more because of the design choices or the engine (it looks like the warcraft 3 engine).
28/06/2008 at 18:38 Zed says:
It’s odd. I’ve been behind the elite new graphics curve for so long (read: always) that I could give a shit about graphics. I’m in the “can I run it?” crowd, not the “how does it look” crowd. I think it looks great, but I’ll probably skip it. I had a moment of metacognition while playing D2 and realized I coudn’t figure out why I was grinding away at it. Never went back.
I would be impressed if they finally allowed you to customize your character a bit, though. Voices, gender, etc. Doubt it, though.
28/06/2008 at 18:39 Butler` says:
Usually I hate being right all the time, but this is an exception.
FUCK YES.
28/06/2008 at 18:41 Calabi says:
The visuals do like kind of generic to me, but perhaps thats just the nature of 3D, Diablos mostly about the feel, and atmosphere anyway, though.
I’m excited/disappointed and can/cannot wait until its released.
28/06/2008 at 19:08 RLacey says:
@Zed: The gameplay trailer shows male and female versions of each class. Though that’s hardly impressive customisation :P.
28/06/2008 at 19:14 Brad Grenz says:
I really like the painterly quality of the environments. Still waiting on the video download, though, so I don’t know what it looks like in motion.
28/06/2008 at 19:41 Mataway says:
I don’t want to like it. I really don’t. I never even finished D2 with the expansion. My index finger still hurts from the hours of clicking.
But the shinies and the ‘splodey… DO WANT!
28/06/2008 at 19:49 Chainsaw Union says:
Guys, everyone is critiquing it but it’s still not even in the alpha. They’ve still got the beta to go through too. So any of your complaints I’m sure will be improved in the beta. But I guess all we can do at this point is critique/compliment it anyway. I personally think this game looks badass but the point made that it doesn’t look as dark and gritty as Diablo 2 is true. It’s a little disappointing. In D2 you always felt like you were in a dark, evil place. This dungeon just seems kinda dirty rather than dark and evil looking. Also the environment outside is all happy and naturey (aside from the fact that there are skeletons and demons everywhere). In D2 even when you were outside it was rainy or dark and cloudy. It just ALWAYS felt evil because that’s what the game was about, Diablo unleashing his demons upon the earth. I still can’t wait for Diablo 3′s release though. Based on this trailer I give it a 9/10.
28/06/2008 at 19:52 Al3xand3r says:
They can critique stuff like art style all they want. It’s not like they’ll ditch years of world building because some fans said they don’t like this direction. What you see here is how the game will look when it’s done more or less. Though, personally, I like what I see in the video. As for gameplay, they can’t critique it cos we haven’t seen enough of it. Again, personally, I like the direction they are taking the improvements, making it more energetic and reactive.
28/06/2008 at 19:59 Bitkari says:
Goody :D
28/06/2008 at 20:10 Jon Kristinsson says:
I definately wouldn’t describe the outdoor environment as happy. And the “dungeon” was an abandoned cathedral. So it is pretty much just a dusty place. Inhabited by evil. It looked like the start of a game, that then becomes nasty, dark and evil as hell. I’d be much less scared of going into dark, nasty places if everything that preceded it was dark and nasty as well.
28/06/2008 at 20:43 Scott Parker says:
This looks amazing. I can’t wait to get my hands on it.
My only complaint about D2 was that the music really didn’t match the epic feel that was present elsewhere throughout the game. Unless you were in a city, you were treating with typically drum-heavy ambient music that never amazed, even when overwhelmed or fighting bosses.
Like I said though, the music that played any time you were “safe” in cities or elswhere really showcased what Matt Uelmen could do when allowed – I just hope we get more of that this time.
28/06/2008 at 21:03 asddasd says:
worst stream ever :/
28/06/2008 at 21:08 RichPowers says:
There’s only one downside to this announcement: what big reveal can we look forward to at the next Blizz Invitational? Dear god won’t anyone thing of the internet rumor-mongers!?!?
I rather like the art style, even though plenty of people around the interweb have critiqued it as “not dark enough.”
28/06/2008 at 21:23 obo says:
Any reason why the OSS community hasn’t slapped one of the dozen OSS 3D engines onto Rogue yet?
28/06/2008 at 21:38 Jonathan says:
I always saw Diablo’s art style as straddling the Warhammer 40K line. So dark and butch it’s come right out the other side as utterly hilarious self parody. So really the art style fits in my opinion.
That said I was never that big a fan of the grind gameplay. If they say they’ve put in a decent story and more emphasis on lore and place then I’ll be a happy chappy. Until they say so I’ll remain skeptical and wait the reviews. That said Blizzard are among the most notorious PC developer in terms of pushing deadlines back until they’re satisfied with the goods. But please tell me they’re working on Warcraft 4 or, dare I dream, a new IP.
Edit: Screw you Gamevideos.com, fuck you! I’ll use Youtube instead.
28/06/2008 at 21:39 The_Archetype says:
Any reason why the OSS community hasn’t slapped one of the dozen OSS 3D engines onto Rogue yet?
The communtiy around Rogue-likes tends to enjoy their ASCII graphics. They have a certain lo-fi charm.
Edit:The stuff in italics is a quote from obo’s post (just two above mine, so I doubt people missed it). There’s some way to actually quote someone, but whatever I’m doing it’s not right, so I’m just using italics.
28/06/2008 at 21:40 Will Tomas says:
Meh.
28/06/2008 at 21:50 Meat Circus says:
I’ve never played a Diablo. So answer me this:
Diablo is basically Blizz’s ace dungeon design, without the tedious MMO treadmill bullshit, right?
In which case, YAY.
Diablo 3 looks pretty.
28/06/2008 at 21:51 Meat Circus says:
@obo:
There seems to be an active community doing just that for Dwarf Fortress.
28/06/2008 at 21:53 obo says:
Bleh. And people wonder why nobody develops (edit: graphically-intensive) games for Linux.
I don’t want Dwarf Fortress. That’s too much. I just want to play a game of Rogue with a decent interface and Quake 2-level graphics. Diablo, basically, with Rogue’s randomness.
If Dwarf Fortress gets a 3D makeover before Rogue… I’ll have to complain some more. XD
28/06/2008 at 21:56 Jonathan says:
Reply to Meat Circus
Indeed. As much as it pains me to admit it, it does make the game much easier to understand and as such a lot more fun.
28/06/2008 at 22:34 obo says:
Speaking on the trailer: If I were that barbarian, I don’t think I would try so hard to smash that first stone bridge while I was standing on it. The environmental mutability looks awfully selective, but yeah, it’s just an alpha etc.
I see a lot of the PS2 Baldur’s Gate games in here, mostly in the pacing and art style, and those dropped orbs that refill health. I wouldn’t be surprised, even with the game not being built for consoles, if it’s much more gamepad-friendly than Diablo 1 or 2.
The trailer notes the online co-op emphasis, but will we be able to have or control multiple party members in single-player? I didn’t see that on the Web site.
28/06/2008 at 23:53 zima says:
There is something 3D for roguelikes apparently… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noegnud
But personally I’d just opt for better isometric gfx: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulture%27s ;P
29/06/2008 at 00:27 Martin K says:
If you check the website, I think you’ll find that there’s still a fair bit o’ grit there, spread out over all the sections and media, m’hearties. Oh, sure, that’s hardly conclusive, but, as stated, we ain’t see but Jack and shit so far, and they ain’t tellin’ a whole lot more than we’ve already seen. Still, I reckon the whole thing looks just fine. Pretty and atmospheric as hell, and if they’ve tuned the D2 gameplay to match the comparatively huge jump in prettiness and associated polish, I’ll be as happy as Larry (however happy he is).
Also, WoW comparisons? [insert crude joke about visual impairment here] Myself, I’m enthralled with the two character class designs so far uploaded. That Barbarian is absolutely up to spec, as far as grizzled killing machines are concerned.
29/06/2008 at 01:56 Mil says:
obo says:
There’s a dire lack of decent graphic artists in the OSS community. That’s why game types that need a significant amount of graphic art to provide a good game experience are quite rare in OSS development.
I’m sure there must be lots of good graphic artists out there, but for some reason the OSS community hasn’t managed to attract them.
29/06/2008 at 02:15 Zed says:
@RLacey: Danke. I posted before I was halfway through watching or the vid finished downloading. Which, of course, reset my download. Never finished it.
29/06/2008 at 02:46 zima says:
btw @RPS staff, how long can you manage to not post new stories? ;) It’s perfect as it is now – best (well…only) gaming site I check regurarly, last 3 posts about D3, “The Device Has Been Modified” by Victims of Science (GLaDOS remix) playing in the background and on top of that I’m pleasently drunk.
Let this moment last ;P
29/06/2008 at 05:11 Zed says:
Just watched it, finally. The end baddie biting the male barb in half? That, I have to admit, was sweet.
29/06/2008 at 05:18 Vollgassen says:
why does it have to have the exact same art style as WoW
29/06/2008 at 05:29 Radiant says:
Spare a thought for someone who has never played Diablo [1 nor 2] and could give less of a shit.
Although don’t hunt me and down and kill me! Just give me a reason to be interested; I really am curious.
29/06/2008 at 06:02 Ian says:
How about you watch the videos.
I was less than impressed by both of the previous Diablos, but *this* looks amazing…
And the art style *does not look like WoW,* you people just want something to bitch about.
29/06/2008 at 07:16 sluz says:
well, it kinda does look like WoW w/o the ghey colors :P
the textures have that softness of a charcoal drawing.
i dont know tho. the artwork is there for the environment but after playing lots of God of War you kind of look for more dynamic camera angles and outlandish kill styles in a kill things game. straight isometric is a bit bland and the barbarians moves just arent cutting it save for the amount of guts that spurt out when he jumps on things.
29/06/2008 at 07:43 DigitalSignalX says:
Told a long time friend of mine (who I met playing D2) that in-game footage of D3 was online. First thing he asked was “Is it a MMO or the same?” He meant, is it WoW with Diablo’s IP slapped on it. After watching the vid, we’re both *very* happy that it’s not. That blizzard took what works, and just continued to polish polish polish.
29/06/2008 at 09:01 UncleLou says:
i dont know tho. the artwork is there for the environment but after playing lots of God of War you kind of look for more dynamic camera angles and outlandish kill styles in a kill things game. straight isometric is a bit bland
There is no better pespective to keep an overview what’s going on all the time than the isometric one. And no other perspective gives you that “it’s like playing with my Playmobil as a kid”. :)
I bloody hate it that it as good as died in the recent years, and Diablo 3 keeping it that way (and it not being an MMO) are the two best news in the announcement.
Artistically it’s too close to WoW for my liking, I hope it gets a bit more of its own style in the remaining development time.
29/06/2008 at 09:12 sigma83 says:
WoW…. and diablo… aren’t even in the same fucking ballpark. WoW is MUCH too nice. Are you people looking at the same game as me?
29/06/2008 at 15:40 Ben Sones says:
It really doesn’t look like WoW, and I think people making that comparison need to actually, you know, make that comparison. WoW is a game of bright, cartoon-y colors and stylized, exaggerated forms. Diablo III is more somber and more realistic–not photorealistic, mind you. It seems like they are going for more of the look of an oil painting.
That “painted” look is actually the one similarity the visuals have with WoW. They aren’t painted in anything near the same style, but both games are similar in that they aren’t even trying to look photorealistic. I think one reason for that approach is that Blizzard has discovered that this sort of game art tends to age much more gracefully than most. It also allows them to rely less heavily on hardware-intensive technologies (most of which are focused on delivering photoreal graphics) to make their games look good, which in turn allows them to set system requirements that a broad range of player can meet. I think that Blizzard are some of the smarter game developers in the business in this respect.
29/06/2008 at 18:50 ZenArcade says:
If you expected an intellectually stimulating, deep, complex journey into RPG land from Diablo 3 and are dissapointed by the footage, then please throw yourself off a huge bridge. Diablo was, and always has been, about having fun.
You really cannot go wrong with the good old Diablo formula though, can you?
29/06/2008 at 20:50 Crash says:
Thousand Pounder – fatty guy from abandoned cathedral have sub-title “Gluttony Incarnate”. I wonder if it’s part of the D3 plot: find and kill all seven deadly sins’ incarnates.
29/06/2008 at 22:00 spd from Russia says:
beautifull! Im not a big fano of D2 (too repetetive and not much rpg) but this looks super-sweet. Cant wait.
29/06/2008 at 22:50 Frans Coehoorn says:
I definately want this.
29/06/2008 at 23:31 UncleLou says:
It really doesn’t look like WoW, and I think people making that comparison need to actually, you know, make that comparison
Nah – it looks so much like WoW that you have to wonder if they’re actually using placeholdes from WoW at the moment for much of the stuff. It’s almost exactly the same artstyle, especially the character design, but also the general stylisation of textures etc.
I find it almost unbelievable that some people don’t see that.
30/06/2008 at 03:21 Martin K says:
Lou? What? What?! How…and he…and you…but then…what?! My head just exploded. I think you need these glasses more than I do.
30/06/2008 at 06:59 Ci2e says:
It is nice to see Blizzard finally reveal Diablo III…
::The good::
Blizzard kept the isometric view instead of making it full 3D like World of Warcraft.
Lets hope Diablo doesn’t turn into an MMO and free online play sticks around.
::The Bad::
The Witchdoctor is a class from Warcraft and it looks like it has replaced the Necromancer.
The map design looks to be much narrower and smaller than Diablo II.
That’s all I can think of at the moment, as more footage is released I’m sure we’ll see it shape into the Diablo III the majority wants to play. If not you either adapt to the change or skip it all together and I think Blizzard is one of the companies that listens to its fans…
30/06/2008 at 07:59 Alarik says:
Ci2e: Yup, we NEED Necro :-/
Heh, who am I kidding – we NEED Amazon!
/dances around uncontrollably
30/06/2008 at 08:40 Jochen Scheisse says:
I think what people mean to say is that the color scheme is that of WoW, which is kind of correct.
30/06/2008 at 09:43 Sucram says:
Well the game certainly is Diablo. All the changes seem good to me so far. The generated quests seem good, making the random dungeons a bit more interesting.
30/06/2008 at 11:28 Ci2e says:
A part of me is excited I can actually see official Diablo III content released officially from Blizzard and then the other part of me (impatient part) hates the fact that companies announce these things when they are more than 6 months away from release…
I would actually pay Blizzard a monthly fee to alpha and beta test their newly developed content. Hell it would probably speed up the development process a whole bunch. The only bad thing about this would be the fact that everyone would be whining about this or that – once they collect feedback and change something one half is happy and the other half is whining again…
Hell it’s still an awesome idea!
30/06/2008 at 12:44 luphisto says:
My cousin got me into the whole wonderfull world of pc gaming with this game. I have been waiting and praying to all or any gods that will listen, benevolent or otherwise for a sequal that rings true to my deep streak of fanboyish love, and here it is.
Although im a little frightened the witch doctor will replace my beloved necromancer(he summons shit and does disease damage 1+1=no necro) I am willing to accept changes as long as the core of the game still feels similar to DII (IE fun) and not like a diablo in name only.
art style wise, i have no idea what people are talking about too me it looks great. why care that its more colourful? moer colour is good, i cant be the only one to get bored with the 100000th “black stone dungeon of doom” with black blue or red enemies. Also it doesnt look like wow, its WAY less cartoony which is what turned me off war3 and wow. those making these comparisons need to be sent for “re-education” preferably the .45 calibre type.
I may be using false information for my opinions and have as such tried not to make sweeping comdemnation or praise. i believe i have kept my rabid inner fanboy subdued to write a mostly objective opinon. now i need to vent this pent up excitement somehow… please excuse me.
30/06/2008 at 16:29 Dave says:
The Witchdoctor is a class from Warcraft
No, the Warlock is a class from Warcraft. (And a mighty fun one, but I don’t see it working well in a game where you’re fighting dozens of nasties simultaneously.) This looks like the Necromancer rebranded a bit.
Anyway, the Diablo III announcement encouraged me to pick up Titan Quest Gold this weekend and I’ve been having a blast with it. It lacks a certain Diabloesque something or other, but it competently scratches the itch and is cheap on Steam. It’s just a bit weird to see popups about friends playing TF2 or Portal while I’m in slaughtering Greek myths though.
30/06/2008 at 16:38 alphaxion says:
I saw what looked like a necro in a concept art blast during the denizens of diablo panel discussion.
apparently the textures are all painted – they use diffuse maps everywhere.
I’m gonna have to resurrect my old necro only clan if they really are still in the game.
My GF was just watching some of the vids of the denizens panel on youtube and he was bouncing in her chair as she pointed to where we were in the camera (we were right next to where the questions were being asked).
I asked some of the diablo team how they felt mythos might affect the release of diablo3 – they’re not worried by mythos one bit and feel that there is plenty of space in the market for both of them. Mind you, they would have said that anyway ;)
30/06/2008 at 18:49 max says:
to BrokenSymmetry: Because the same game play is what people want
30/06/2008 at 20:43 Fede says:
As others mentioned roguelikes and 3d… Andrew Doull talked in his blog about an in-development 3d roguelike; link to the blog here.
01/07/2008 at 04:09 polar says:
Blizzard games seem to share a common motif.
1. The game insignia design is similar for all Blizzard games. They put the sequel number behind the title in the insignia. (WC III, SC II and now Diablo III)
2. They announced Starcraft II much the same as Diablo III, with a world premiere involving a short cinematic trailer and and a 20 minute long gameplay trailer showing just enough to leave you tantalized.
3. The outdoor art in Diablo III- the grassland and the rocks, are almost identical to the Starcraft terrain. Don’t know about WoW.
In line with the Starcraft publicity, this announcement will probably be followed up by a month or two of silence, then a few gameplay trailers detailing other classes.
01/07/2008 at 08:42 luphisto says:
@ polar
I fail to see your point… The fact that blizzard use a standardised marketing and publicity campaign seems completely logical to me. and the fact that the outdoor section shown being “identical” to SC II is also a rather pointless observation, its like comparing half life 2 and portal because they use some of the same textures.
cant wait for more infomations
02/07/2008 at 05:00 Cruzer says:
Diablo 3, bad or good, I don’t care. I’ll play it..
06/07/2008 at 09:41 Noname says:
I remember this monsters… Ive seen these creatures: undead and monsters, from God of war: chain of olympus… ^_^ Haha. I hope new “not easy to kill Big Bosses” will be added…
26/07/2010 at 17:22 Dave says:
The only blind people are the idiots who can’t see the similarities between WoW and Diablo 3.
Just look at the models. Over-exaggerated cartoons. Just like WoW.
And, guess what? The WoW team made Diablo 3, after scrapping what the original Diablo team had made before leaving Blizzard.
Sorry, the WoW team are a bunch of one trick ponies. “Oh, Diablo 3… what shall we do? I know, make it look just like our other games, and break continuity with the original series.” “Brilliant.”
Oh, and they scrapped Starcraft 2′s crappy art and made it better after fan complaints. But for Diablo 3 all the real fans (I’ve been playing Diablo 1 since it came out, and I still play it) get a big “screw you” from Blizzrd.
Oh well, money talks. Won’t be buying this cartoonified piece of trash.