Comments on: Diablo III: Imp’s Good To Be Back

By: Z

Sat, 30 May 2009 10:07:47 +0000

Awesome game!
We travelled together. east… always to the east!!!

god, I loved the video scenes so much.

By: elan

elan — Fri, 29 May 2009 20:29:01 +0000

i like the classics why ruin a good thing i hope they bring back the cow mobs from cow lvl and some other classics. the big thing for me is that the specs can have very broad trees that all work well i hate when all the mages will be fire since time will be weak i want a good balance and broadined tree field with good options :)

By: Gorgeras

Gorgeras — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:23:19 +0000

Again to draw attention back to the whole point which is that there is now a running theme in their games centred on the art: ‘WoW gayness’.

Just think, fifteen years from now ‘WoW gayness’ could become the new thing in architecture if Blizzard keeps playing this same tune long enough. Our corridors and hallways will be lit by purple-green lights, with plasterboards painted luminous stone-colour. Instancing will make them bigger on the inside. Buildings will be made wider at the top to make them look taller when viewed from above, at an isometric angle.

By: Scarves

Scarves — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:54:23 +0000

The real point is that Diablo 3 could look like a plateful of vomit in a cave and it would still sell a million billion copies and people would play it for years and years.

The main thing Blizzard has as a running theme in their games is not the look or the play style.

The secret ingredient is that they are all stinkingly addictive.

By: DK

DK — Wed, 27 May 2009 23:02:17 +0000

@jalf, actually, the point is the opposite. L4D uses the lighting techniques of the old Diablos.

By: jalf

jalf — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:15:52 +0000

OMG, L4D is WOW GAYNESS!

By: Gorgeras

Gorgeras — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:12:36 +0000

May I also point out that Left 4 Dead makes extensive use of an artificial artistic light radius and ’stylised darkness’ to achieve the effect Diablo 2 had: the feeling of a horror scenario.

By: DK

DK — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:45:20 +0000

“Despite what people claim, that “oh these people just want shades of brown and grey”, the edited pictures were very colourful.”
Infact, many of the touched up recolours only changed some RBG values. More red and blue mostly, less of the rest.
There’s two blizzard defending reactions I’ve heard the most:
“It’s not like Diablo2 had so little colour! (spelleffects, monsters, etc.)” – To that I reply, Then what’s your issue with staying with the old art direction.

“You just want brown and grey/pitch black!” – to that I say, look at the retouched screenshots. They are colourful – it’s simply a more moody colour palette. And the old style had a distinct, atmosphere building gameplay element – light radius.

By: Tei

Tei — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:49:19 +0000

It will not be the wow people want, but It will be a good wow. OOOPSS!!!.. Diablo!… I DID SAY WOW!?? FORGET THAT, IS DIABLOE, DIOABLO!!!.. DIAOBLE!!!!! curse u, my tongue, you are a liar, bad liar.

By: Gorgeras

Gorgeras — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:21:43 +0000

I support what DK says and raise him one clear comparison: when the ‘WoW gayness’ broke out, those touched-up versions were produced showing visuals more in tone with Diablo were circulated. Despite what people claim, that “oh these people just want shades of brown and grey”, the edited pictures were very colourful. If anything they had considerably more depth and use of colour than Blizzard’s WoW-ised art direction.

Yes, the way it is being done IS bland, it is WoW-like and it’s a distraction. The 80s called: they want their shoulder-pads back.

By: TailsHb

TailsHb — Wed, 27 May 2009 13:23:08 +0000

This looks like a cool game and I may want to try it. When does this game come out and how much does it cost?

By: Taill4f4r

Taill4f4r — Wed, 27 May 2009 13:12:41 +0000

In game, Diablo does a bad job of conveying the true horror of what’s happening and I don’t think I’d blame the art alone. When you see the concept art, watch the cut scenes, read the lore, all these terrible acts and things seem detached from the actual game.

For example, the palace in the desert in Diablo 2. The prince casually explains how they had to lock the palace down because it’s overrun. That’s all these helpless women being trapped in the dark as demons overrun the harem and tear them to pieces or eat them alive. And there’s just no sense of this horror, nothing to immerse you in the events. Nothing really subtle or clever to what they do. Death is represented by yet another big pile of bodies, the occult is represented by yet another candle-lit pentagram drawn in blood. These things may as well be furniture for the amount of impact they have.

It doesn’t affect the actual fun and addictiveness, of course. But the whole presentation, from graphics to sound (apart from the music) doesn’t do much for the game.

(Opinion away!)