The new game in the Diablo series allows players to choose the sex of their class. While previously only showing the male version of the monk, Blizzard's updated Diablo III site has concept art and the in-game model of the female monk. Though you can still only watch videos of the male monk fighting, casting spells, and grunting.
"Blizzard has two big releases slated for 2010, in the form of StarCraft II and the WoW expansion Cataclysm. Being a developer known to patiently hone and sharpen its titles long past projected release dates, having these two game come out in the same year is akin to the stars aligning. Keeping in mind this miracle, Blizzard executive Rob Pardo’s confirmation that Diablo 3 won’t being arriving in 2010 should come as no surprise."
Blizzard finally set it straight on when and what are going to be release next year for their line up. Battle.Net, Starcraft II, and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is set for their line up for next year, but what about Diablo III?
GamingShogun.com sat down and interviewed Jay Wilson while at BlizzCon today. For those of you who do not know, Jay Wilson is the game's director meaning if its happening in the game - chances are he knows about it. Diablo III has no set release date at this time but looks to bring the hack-n-slash gameplay of old into the modern world of gaming today.
The long awaited next character to be introduced in Diablo III has been released at BlizzCon '09 as the Monk. The monk has been said to be similar to monks in kung fu movies, and yields a staff as his weapon.
The Bender for this week is up, we touch on some serious topics that might affect the way games are made, including "The Path" which alludes to rape, Animal Crossing which leads to pedophilia (yeah right), and what developers can do to maximize the audience they offer their games to...plus all the gaming news of the week. Click go to source to listen.
"Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced plans for its fourth BlizzCon gaming convention, to be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on Friday, August 21st and Saturday, August 22nd. BlizzCon is a celebration of the global player communities surrounding Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo universes. In response to the festival's increasing popularity, this year's event has been expanded from three convention halls to four."
The folks over at Diii.net got a chance at a preview of the Wizard class's gameplay, and are willing to give us their thoughts, and they had a lot of them! An indepth look and quite a novel is awaiting anyone who is looking for information on the Wizard class, providing an amazingly detailed report!
In Flux's report, he will detail thoughts thoughts on items, skills, powers, gameplay aspects and a good deal of tidbits for fans of the series.
GameIndustry.biz got a chance to speak to Frank Pearce of Bllizzard Entertainment about a wide assortment of things, ranging from Warcraft and Warhammer, to the current MMO scene, to upcoming RTS and how they expect to build on past experiences with Diablo III. We also get a little bit of a look at the inside workings of the company. Worth a look for all interested in seeing where Blizzard Entertainment is going to be going next!
Blizzard considers Battle.net better than any DRM since people will need the original copy to play the game in multiplayer. Also the report explains that attribute points will be assigned automatically, just like they are in WoW.
For over a decade BattleNet (Blizzard's online network) has kept Starcraft, Diablo and Warcraft players nice and happy at no extra cost. It looks like this will be a thing of the past however, come BattleNet 2.0, which is to debut with Starcraft 2. Diablo 3 director Jay Wilson when questioned admitted Blizzard is looking to monetize the new BattleNet. What form this will take either through subscriptions, expansions or micro-transactions is yet to be seen.
While at this year's BlizzCon, the UGO Games Blog caught up with Rob Pardo, the EVP of game design for the latest game in the popular Diablo series: Diablo III. He goes over the big announcement, the custom 3D environments, and a lot more!
Kotaku recently got their hands on a demo of the upcoming Diablo III and any worries they previously had about the game soon vanished. For Diablo fans worried about the changes that seem to be present in the third installment, you can put you mind at ease. It still feels like Diablo.
Discuss in the Diablo III forum
Blizzard is arguably the strongest PC developer these days. They're also very good at sniffing out good sales opportunities, which is why it's not surprising that they're considering bringing Diablo 3 to consoles as well.
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Blizzard has revealed, via their playable Diablo III demo at Blizzcon, that their upcoming PC RPG will include the Wizard Class, joining the previously unveiled Barbarian and Witch Doctor classes.
Discuss in the Diablo III forum
In a move that will probably set off a protest amongst longtime fans of the Diablo series, it looks like Blizzard will include a new death mechanic in Diablo III. Say goodbye to your town portal scrolls, too.
"Gearbox has modeled the adventuring and questing after the likes of Diablo and the shooting after Halo. So you can pretty much bet that a lot of questing in Borderlands will render loot-runs and adventuring much like Diablo III."
Several new screenshots have appeared for Diablo III that showcase the dark dungeon crawling atmosphere that we all have grown to know and love.
Check out the fire elemental in the 3rd one!
According to a source that remains anonymous and is close to Blizzard, they revealed to BattleForums that most of the StarCraft 2 development will be delayed until Diablo III is good and ready.
Blizzard has not confirmed or denied this yet.
"Improved Battle.net In-Game Functionality
Any quote from Blizzard clearly states that while they won't talk much about Battle.net 2.0, we will be blown away or be very impressed. It's a given that all current features for Battle.net will be included - and improved! Blizzard has said they have learned a lot from WoW on infrastructure, and features from WoW will definitely also be seen. So Battlenet 2.0 WILL feature:
* Excellent Ping
* Channels and Chat in-game
* Ladders and R..."
Jay Wilson, the lead designer of Diablo III, has told the MTV Multiplayer Blog that Diablo III has to "appease an extremely broad audience as well as hardcore fans." Wilson thinks Diablo II was so successful because the game was easy to approach. He wants to keep Diablo III just that.
Another concern is health. Since the character was so much faster than every other character in Diablo II, all they would do was keep using potions, seemingly giving you infinite health. In Diablo III, after ...
""Looks like after a barrage of folks whacking Blizzard servers, taking them offline several times, all the tickets for the upcoming BlizzCon expo have been sold. Blizzard is holding the event on October 10th and 11th at the Anaheim Convention Center (in Anaheim, CA). Tickets were $100 dollars a piece and there is no word on how many were sold.
What we do know for sure is that we have been offered two press passes for the event and will bring you the latest coverage from the expo as it unfo..."
Tracey John, over at MTV got a chance to go over some fan re-creations from the Diablo III trailer with lead designer, Jay Wilson. These re-creations were all touched up via Photoshop and it's noted even by Jay that these are not done via the game engine and to keep that in mind as some things done cannot be actually reproduced in game (ie: lighting).
Jay points out quite a few flaws with the fan images. Some major points include mundane and repetitive textures and lighting which makes eve...
"Eventually, our plans are for the Achievement system to become an account-based system, [lead World of Warcraft designer Jeff Kaplan] explained.
When the new Blizzard Accounts are active, a players WoW points can be added to an overall score dubbed an account holders Blizzard Level. Its basically a gamerscore, Kaplan said, when I made reference to Xbox Lives Achievement system. For now the points are just a WoW character score. As we graduate to that Blizz..."
"Some would argue that D3 takes place 20 years after the events of Diablo II - in a happy, joyful world where cute/cuddly bunnies hop around with butterflies in golden-green-meadows under rainbows of bliss. But honestly, this is Diablo: the very word means "devil" in Spanish. It HAS to have demonic creatures, hellish baddies, and dark, creepy themes. Blizzard certainly hasn't forgotten that. Sanctuary ain't no Azeroth, and D3 ain't no WoW 2!"
Contrary to what most of us have probably been given the impression of (if you don't pay attention to rumours anyway), Blizzard says Diablo III on consoles is "theoretically possible." During a Eurogamer interview previewing the game, chief designer Rob Pardo seems to think out loud on what such an endeavour would entail.
It's a really solid preview too, so check it out if you're interested.
Discuss in the Diablo III forum
We had our first taste of Diablo III and already 2600 people are complaining about the direction in which Blizzard has gone with their artistic style for the third installment.
The petition mainly claims that what was shown in the Diablo III videos is a lot brighter and colorful and not enough darkness and evil is present, comparing it to the likes of Word of Warcraft'ed style art.
Personally, as a Diablo fan, I found the style of Diablo II to be pretty impressive. You want darker? wear...
Rumour - There are two things that Blizzard want before Diablo 3 appears on a console - the gameplay to remain intact, and for PC gamers to be able to play with them.
Would this suggest that the 360 would be the only console to receive this gift from the gaming gods?
Discuss in the Diablo III forum
Some lovely wallpapers for Blizzard's Diablo III have popped up and are yours for the taking.
With any luck, Diablo III should be out by the 2009 holiday season, as the game's VP of design Rob Pardo has said they typically announce a game a year to a year and a half before it comes out, though this sometimes doesn't work out.