Diablo Watch

Blizzard is hard at work figuring out the inventory management. If you compare the screenshots from the initial announcement to the current version, you’ll see plenty of differences.

Yet, they aren’t happy with it. Blizzard states:

Inventory management and the systems that surround it are something we’re obviously interested in, but not something that can really be tuned until we have more of the item game fleshed out and tuned itself. It’s hard to know exactly the best way to handle inventory management when the items, types, pickup frequency, and removal frequency can’t really be measured with any real accuracy.

I hope this doesn’t mean we get to play item tetris – as it was in Diablo 2 with different items taking different number of slots.

At the same time, Blizzard obviously don’t want to copy WoW’s inventory system. Or, Warhammer Online’s system of different bags filtering different item types. They want to make us THINK about which items we put in the inventory.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the Diablo 3 beta test. However, I’m a fan of Starcraft 2 (except when it steals the spotlight from Diablo), so I’m pretty happy Blizzard announced an upcoming beta test.

You may wonder what that has to do with you. Well, as the Starcraft 2 beta is the first beta to be integrated with the new Battle.net, you’ll probably need to to follow the same steps to get into a Diablo 3 beta.

Here’s the instructions for getting your Battle.net beta settings straight:

1. Sign up for a battle.net account
2. If you have a Battle.net account, login here.
3. You’ll see a link “Beta Profile Settings
4. Download an app that will upload your system specs
5. You’re done

Hopefully, if Blizzard manage to launch Starcraft in 2009, there’s hope that Diablo 3 release date will be in 2010!

Information about Diablo 3 is a dime a dozen but GOOD information is often difficult to come by. Most guys simply recycle the same stories over and over. Check out this Diablo 3 site for detailed information on Diablo 3 Skill Trees. Hope more guys like this scour the internet for good Diablo 3 information.

According to BlizzPlanet, Blizzard has not stated officially that Battle.net 2.0 is going to be free.

However, Blizzard is known for its vague comments when it comes to monetization:

Are there any plans to monetize Battle.net 2.0 service? Mike Morhaime limited to answer: “I’m not ready to talk about that today”. Mike Morhaime confirmed that Battle.net 2.0 will be free to those who buy StarCraft 2 retail.

Of course, you need to remember that Starcraft 2 is coming out not in one but in THREE retails boxes (for a total of around $100). So even one measly box gets you into Battle.net 2.0 for life? I’ll take it.

It’s not just the fans anymore. Bill Roper is complaining that Diablo 3 isn’t Diablo enough.

Bill Roper is the producer of the original Diablo and Diablo II and he thinks that Diablo is a Gothic fantasy. He thinks the CLOWNs at Blizzard have took the game over and have repainted the graphics in their favorite cartoony colors.

I think that one of the things that we always tried to get across was that Diablo was Gothic fantasy and I think there was just a need that was put in there from the visuals that I didn’t necessarily get. I got it from the architecture and to a degree from the character design but not the feeling of the world. I can’t say that I dislike it. I didn’t look at it and go, oh my God that’s horrible. But I looked at it and went, it’s not really… to me as a player it just didn’t really ring with Diablo.

Admittedly, it could be that Bill Roper is bitter about the dismal failure of the Hellgate: London project. Frankly, though, I agree with him – we need MORE blood and guts and dark horrors, not LESS.