Here’s the top 5 differences!

1) More color, less darkness
According to lead producer, Keith Lee, Diablo 3 is going to feature more outdoor environments with a lot more colors. Instead of pleasing the core audience though, this move has so outraged gamers that they started an online petition. They want good, old darkness back and the colors out the door!

2) Less monsters, more varied killing
Jay Wilson, lead designer on Diablo 3, states that instead of hack-and-slash through throngs of monster, Diablo 3 players will have to focus on killing fewer but tougher monsters. Things like positioning, skills, and so on will have a greater effect than they did in Diablo 2.

For example, the Berserker monster has a charged up attack that deals massive damage. If you dodge the attack though, the Berserker is left vulnerable. Similar fate awaits the Skeletal Shieldbearers when they drop their shields.

3) Epic heroes, class quests
According to Jay, the new Diablo 3 characters will be more badass than ever before. Judging by the demo, it seems likely that there could be fewer characters but with a lot less overlap than say WoW. Class-specific quests, armor, etc are also in the works.

4) COOP play - large-scale, harder battles
Judging by the demo, it could take four or more characters to kill a boss in Diablo 3. I hope these bosses can be defeated by a single player too (same as Diablo 2 ubers). The coop play will be through Battle.net - it’s not 100% clear whether that will be free (same as Diablo 2).

5) No more potions, less downtime
In order to speed up the game, the designers have removed the massive belts full of potions. Instead, each monster has a chance to drop a red sphere that replenishes health. That means that you can go into combat even when wounded and get healed that way.

There’s more than five differences? Discuss below!

UPDATE: Diablo 3 is OFFICIAL! Live news from the event:

12:15 — Announcement…..!! Guy playing Diablo music on an acoustic guitar…

12:18 — Footage of large scale battles, comets streaking across the sky, demons, Diablo 3 officially announced.

12:20 — Jay Wilson, lead designer on Diablo 3 coming out. He’s going to demo the game.

12:20 — It’s apparently still an action RPG. Same interface — red
health and blue orbs. Skill bar at bottom. 3/4 overhead perspective.
Character with 2 axes hacking at demons in what appears to be a foggy
cathedral. Has a jumping attack where he smashes the two axes into the
ground.

(Watch Diablo 3 trailer here)

12:21 — The axe guy is the barbarian class. Says improvements have
been made, like the hotbar for skills. Using the mouse wheel and tab
key you can quickly switch between skills. Whoing inventory. Appears to
still have slot limits. Using enchanted axes with frost and lighting
,which stuns and freezes opponents.

12:25 — Each piece of gear is custom designed for each class. Barbarian puts on demonic sort of garb with giant devil horns. Barbarian can hop across gaps on the map. Barbarian dislodged a rock wall and dropped it on zombies, killing them. Demoing moving whirlwind attack.

12:33 — Witch doctor can cast out locus swarm, which spreads between targets and deals damage. Can summon mongrel things that he can cast locust swarm on, which buffs their damage. Outdoor environment now. Quite pretty in that vibrant, slightly cartoonish Blizzard graphical style. Like with StarCraft 2 and it’s similarities to the original, Diablo 3 looks and sounds, at least at a glance, quite similar to previous games. Witch doctor also has a mass fear type of ability.

12:36 — Multiplayer will work over battle.net. Heads into a final fight against some gigantic moving trees. Final boss here, called siegebreaker assault beast, is absolutely gigantic, maybe around six or seven times taller than the player characters.

12:37 — Demo ends. The crowd roars…

The Barbarian hacking through skeletons. Note the duel-wield.

The Witch Doctor and his mass-effect spells. I guess he’s the new Sorceress!

This is a close-up of the armor. Note the level of details. It looks proper 3D.

It’s the Witch Doctor again. Note the depth of the level. It looks pre-rendered but it’s certainly beautiful.

Enter the Boss! It looks five times bigger than the character!

You can download the high-quality gameplay footage here. Check out the Diablo 3 screenshots too.

You can download the high-quality version here.

You can check a screenshot below:

Let’s hope and pray there’s a Diablo 3 announcement at the WWI.

Below is the main box image for Diablo 3!

So I’m very excited about the launch of Age of Conan tomorrow. The guys who have covered the beta have posted very positive reviews, so if you haven’t ordered yet, go ahead and get it from Amazon - Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

I know it’s an MMO (i.e. monthly fees) but I bet it’s worth it - even if you’re on for a few months. The graphics are awesome (especially on DirectX10) and the world of Conan is very mature …

Check out this keyboard too… I wish they made one for Diablo!

Update: Kotaku have posted a detailed report of the character creation and much more!

Blizzcon 2008 has just been announced. For those interested to attend, it will be on Oct 10 and 11th at the Anaheim Convention center in California. The price for a ticket is $100.

Part of the lure for going to BlizzCon 2008 is the beta keys that you get which can get you into Starcraft 2 or another future Blizzard release.

So should we expect Diablo 3? There’s a ton of people on different game sites that argue (with passion) that the time has come for a Diablo 3 announcement. They bring up the job postings on Blizzard’s site, they talk about the next-gen MMO that’s currently in the works.

Don’t get me wrong, my hopes are high as well. And there’s my skeptical side that says … just look at the way Blizzard listed the franchises in their press release:

BlizzCon is a celebration of the global player communities surrounding Blizzard Entertainment®’s Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® franchises.

Notice how Diablo has permanently moved to the back of queue. Hope this is all part of a plan to cover up what they’re doing, so they can surprise us!

The owner of Diablo3.com has “confessed” he has transferred the domain to Blizzard. Here’s the gist:

A few months ago we were contacted by Blizzard in regards to the Diablo3.com domain name. While they appreciate all the work that’s been put into running this big Diablo fan community over the years, they still want the domain name. Hmm, I wonder why?

I wonder why myself. It could be that Blizzard’s lawyers decided it’s high time they earn their keep. I mean apart from telling Uwe Boll to go blow when it comes to a WoW movie, they haven’t done anything.

Hmm, I wonder why Diablo2.com is still independent then. It has been out for YEARS and it’s a clear violation of the Diablo trademark. Blizzard can get it by just writing to ICANN. I think they care NOT about Diablo 2.

So although Blizzard do acquire domains (as they told the owner of Diablo3.com), I find their timely interest in Diablo 3 suspicious. Not in a bad way, though. I’d just love to hear more about Diablo 3!

You can forget about that… Diablo has become Blizzard’s bastard child. They’re probably going to deny they ever did it … which is close to the truth as Blizzard North did it and they have left the company a long time ago.

Check out Blizzard’s latest April Fool’s joke - the love child of their favorite franchises (WoW & SC2) - enter the Tauren Marine.

This Flash Diablo game seems to be a tribute to the original Diablo. There’s some resemblance but how the hell do I turn off the annoying sounds?

Anyone managed to save the Princess already?

Note: Game courtesy of Necromanthus.

That’s right! They have had the Diablo 3 domains registered for a while now but I guess they decided that a single sequel just won’t do. So they got diablo4.es , diablo4.it , diablo4.eu , diablo4.fr … you get the idea.

What’s more - Blizzard has also registered Diablo5.fr , Diablo6.fr and flipping Diablo7.fr in October 2007. I really hope they come up with something to post on these domains… as in a Diablo sequel!

Activision, Inc. and Vivendi have announced that they will combine Vivendi Games, Vivendi’s interactive entertainment business which includes Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft, with Activision, creating the world’s largest online and console game publisher, the total transaction being worth more than US$18.9 Billion.

Hmm, I wonder if this would change anything in terms of how Blizzard develops its games. I sincerely hope they don’t start licensing their game “worlds” to allow Activision to create second-rate games. I want Diablo 3 but I don’t want a broken game… (Vivendi already announced once that Diablo 3 is going to be an MMO).

The game comes from the team who did Diablo II so naturally the expectation are running high!

Gamespot haven’t reviewed it yet but here’s a few bits from other reviews:

Besides the simple fact that no map generation program is ever going to be as good as a human designer, the random maps introduce some other problems too…

That same room layout, that same pair of tunnels, repeated over and over in slightly different configurations… We don’t doubt that Underground tunnels really are quite monotonous, but there’s no need to inflict that on us in a videogame. It’s bad enough having to go through them in packed train carriages, frankly…

Each of the six classes is genuinely fun to play, which is rare enough in RPGs. Most players will probably settle on their preferred archetype pretty quickly, of course, but it’s definitely good to see a game where you can roll just about any class, and be fairly confident that you won’t be coming back to restart in disgust a few hours later.

That’s from Eurogamer giving it 7 out of 10. The user reviews are equally split, there’s some guys that couldn’t play for more than 15 minutes without restarting which naturally got frustrating pretty quickly.

Oh well, I’ll be playing the demo anyway. The question remains whether I want the game as well.

That said, some time just before launch (don’t have a specific time/date yet), we’ll actually be opening the Beta server back up for about a week. “This makes no sense, Kaiser!” Well, maybe not at first, but not everyone will be able to get the game on launch day for various reasons. This way, if you’re in the Beta and are still waiting for your game to arrive, you’ll still be able to play Hellgate. Also, the characters you create during this time will transfer over into your retail account. Once this happens, any caps/restrictions will be lifted. Yay! The characters will still have the Beta caps on them (such as level caps and such), but you can at least get started with your characters.

In essence, you wait and sign up for the beta server and start leveling your char. Once the game hits the shelves and you get a copy, you’ll be able to transfer your char and the beta cap will be removed.

Just to state the obvious: If you cap one char, start another!

GS: Does the overwhelming success of it mean that a hypothetical Starcraft MMOG would be pushed further out because you have this thriving community that you don’t want to cannibalize?

MM: Not necessarily. It’s actually more a question of us not wanting to cannibalize the resources that are going into supporting the game. We can’t just take the World of Warcraft team and have them work on another game. But what we can do is staff up the World of Warcraft team and gradually peel off some of our developers to start working on something new. But it will take time. And we’re at the stage right now where we’re starting to think about what we want to do next.

GS: When do you think you’ll want to talk about what you’re doing next?

MM: Probably not for a long time.

Now, I’m not sure what that means! Is he talking 2008? Is he talking ever?

When talking about the upcoming WOW movie, Mike is asked whether he feels that the Diablo world can support a Diablo movie. “Absolutely,” says he. So maybe we’ll see a movie before we see a game.

Here’s a few bits and pieces from the interview which I found … revealing:

• Diablo movie - when talking about WoW, The Movie, Paul said “we would LOVE to bring certain of the other franchise to the big screen”. So if the WoW movie comes out strong and Legendary Pictures live up to the challenge, I think we can have a Diablo movie (in our life time yeah!)
• Diablo 3 - “It is definitely a very important franchise to us,” said Paul. The bad news - they are so focused on WoW, they are probably not “returning” to it soon.

So don’t get your hopes high for now. Or rather, get your hopes high but patience will still be key!

Gamasutra has an interview with Frank Pearce, founding member and senior vice president of product development for Blizzard.

Here a bit from the interview:

“Our global headcount is 2,700,” said Pearce, “And most of that is customer service for World of Warcraft! In terms of development staff it’s probably around 350. World of Warcraft is about 135 people, 40 for Starcraft II, 40 for team 3, our cinematics team is about 85 guys. Then there’s sound and Q/A and that sort of thing.”

When pressed for details regarding the new project, Pearce was cagey. “Team 3 is working on something really awesome. I can’t give you any hints, but it’s totally awesome.”

All attempts to extract additional information were understandably met with looks of shock and horror from Blizzard’s director of global public relations, who also attended the meeting.

With Blizzcon just a few weeks away, I wonder if Blizzard are warming up to a formal announcement of this mysterious third project.

Some people thought it could be something related to Diablo 3 (I wish!). The mystery is over - courtesy of Kotaku:

Sigaty, Starcraft 2’s lead producer, told me that the original codename for Starcraft 2 was “alpha”, but when the game was nearing alpha they decided to change it.

“We couldn’t say that alpha was hitting alpha, so we needed another name,” he said. They settled on Medusa.

This isn’t another Diablo 3 rumor. It’s just setting the record straight!

I’ve heard many arguments that it’s not REALLY new content as Blizzard have just taken a few bosses and made their uber versions. For example, they’ve used Andariel’s model to create Lilith who shares very similar spells and effects.

Diablo has become uber Diablo, gaining a a few extra hitpoints. Same goes for the other bosses (Mephisto and Baal) as well as the lieutenants (Duriel and Izual).

That is one way to look at it. However, lets turn to the year(s) preceding World of Warcraft’s launch. Blizzard created a special “custom” campaign (The Founding of Durotar) for Warcraft III that used the game engine BUT simulated WoW in terms of gameplay. The quest structure, the items (epic, legendary, etc), even the levelling.

Come to think of it, I might have enjoyed the campaign MORE than I have enjoyed WoW. You could control three heroes plus summoned creatures and henchmen, the quests made sense (i.e. not repetitive), and the items were pretty powerful.

That’s not my point though. My point is that what Blizzard has done with patch 1.11 is test the realms for the style of gameplay that their next-gen MMO (lets call it Diablo III: Heaven and Hell) will feature.

This looks a long shot now but come back in a year and we’ll see. I definitely think Blizzard’s next-gen MMO should feature top SOLO content in addition to raid content.

I do expect to kill Diablo even as a casual SOLO player. Surviving the fight might be a 10% chance and loot might be just a few greens but I’d like to see Diablo go down. Amen.

Here’s the proof below. As always, the Devil is in the details (pun intended).

Kotaku posted a shorter version of the same video, so you don’t see the Diablo logo. This one is much better.

My reaction? As one Youtuber put it: “Put Diablo 2 on PSP and I’ll buy not one PSP, but several - so we can go in as a party with my friends.” Ditto!

Well, to be totally honest with you - it was confirmed and then the confirmation was removed from the site. So where does that leave us? I guess it’s the usual secrecy surrounding any Blizz project.

Here’s the LONG story:

The guys from Legendary Pictures (yep, the guys behind 300) have posted on their site that a Diablo movie is in the making. Diablo was listed in the “In Development” section.

Once the news about the movie leaked to fan sites, Diablo was promptly removed. My guess is it was a phone call from Blizzard that got them going.

Besides these facts, we have the following:

1. Legendary Pictures are already working on a WoW-based movie, so they look like an obvious choice for a Blizzard project.
2. Vin Diesel’s movie - A Man Apart - was originally named El Diablo which resulted in a lawsuit from Blizzard “claiming they trademarked Diablo and intended to make a movie based on their game”

I’m hoping and praying a Diablo movie is in the making. I loved the Diablo 2 cinematics and making the next logical step - the big screen - will be an amazing experience.

Update: Ha! Look at this. I just checked who the owner of this domain is!

Domain Name: DIABLOMOVIE.COM

Administrative Contact:
Universal City Studios - UPG Domains
100 Universal City Plaza
2160/8H
Universal City, CA 91608
US

There’s less than half of the tickets remaining. While you’re at it, you might want to stockpile - keep in mind that up to 5 tickets per billing address are allowed.

Will Diablo 3 be announced at Blizzcon? There have been plenty of rumors lately but no one knows for certain. This is the official announcement from Blizzard:

BlizzCon is a celebration of the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises and the players who have helped make them so popular around the world. Gamers from all over the world come together to enjoy many fun activities and to learn more about Blizzard’s products. Don’t miss out on this amazing event!

One of the reasons a ticket could be worth it, is that it will allow you to take part in a beta of a Blizzard game. There’s little doubt that’s going to be the Starcraft 2 beta which is rumored to start before the end of 2007.

UPDATE: All Blizzcon tickets have been SOLD. I hope you’ve managed to get one. If not, stay strong, we’ll be covering the event!

Gamespot’s coverage of Starcraft 2 has been spot on. At the same time, IGN has got it wrong before when it comes to Diablo 3, so I take these articles with a grain of salt.

In essence, Rob Pardo talks how Starcraft 2 is one of the smaller projects currently in Blizzard:

Pardo also dropped a hint at the scale of Blizzard’s future plans, saying that the 40 developers working on Starcraft II are “one of the smaller teams.” Job listings on the Blizzard site have indicated it is working on a “next-gen MMO”–which the company said will not be another World of Warcraft. Also, rumors persist that Diablo III is in development.

Now, Paul Sams also said something similar - that Blizzard is working on three projects.

Here’s how I interpret it - Diablo 3 and the next-gen MMO are probably the same thing. After all, what’s better than a MMO in the Diablo universe? You got Heaven and Hell as factions… you got an Epic conflict that’s going to dwarf everything that WoW has. Frankly, who cares about Illidan when the can go after Diablo.

Thinking about it more, however, the cold, hard facts remain the same.

Let me go through them for my (and your) well being:

1) Blizzard has been recruiting heavily lately: not only art directors but all kinds of artists. Judging by the StraCraft 2 trailer, their work at SC2 seems almost complete, so they are not hiring them for that.

2) Knaak commented about the Diablo storyline and basically confirmed Diablo’s world is not dead, it’s a world with dead.

3) Paul Sams interview where he says they have three product announcements. So far we’ve got a WoW expansion and StarCraft 2. I don’t know about you but I only count two so far…

4) Diablo 3 trademark and domain activity. Blizz have secured rights to all things Diablo 3 and since they aren’t making a movie, my guess is they plan a game.

5) Diablo 2 still has tens of THOUSANDS of active players. I bet more people play Diablo 2 than StarCraft (maybe not in Korea but worldwide).

Here’s another bet I’m willing to place right now: Most Diablo players are critical of WoW. I know I am. For example, I hate the fact I can’t access probably 50% of the end-game content.

Why? Because I don’t have the time to RAID. With Diablo, I can log in and solo Diablo or Baal whenever I feel like it. There’s no waiting for a healer or a tank. You go in, you kill. It’s that simple.

As a die-hard Diablo fan, I’m disappointed. Yet, die-hard Diablo fans are just that - die hards. I’m not giving up hope that Diablo 3 is going to be next when Blizzard announces a major product (and not another WoW expansion).

Starcraft 2 is as good as a consolation as any! It will make the wait for Diablo 3 less painful - if not downright enjoyable.

Update: Blizzard have released a Starcraft 2 trailer and I managed to find some gameplay videos from the WWI. The game doesn’t look much different in terms of gameplay but the graphics definitely ROCK!

I’ll be tracking Starcraft 2’s progress over at my Starcraft 2 blog.

The only information that has leaked so far is that they’re going to do a “Medusa demo”. Is this a new game engine? There’s a Medusa item in Diablo 2… but I’m not too optimistic about the new product being Diablo 3. Why?

For starters, Blizzard are making the announcement in Korea. Korea is the Starcraft heaven. If Blizzard announce anything but Starcraft, they might get shot at!

Second, Diablo (1996) has got its Diablo 2 sequel (2000) and the LoD expansion (2001). Starcraft has been sequel-less since 1998.

Last but not least, it seems that ALL of Blizzard’s executives have mentioned Starcraft 2 in one way or another.

So my bets are as follows:

A Starcraft game - 90%
A Diablo game - 9%
Anything else - 1%

My eyes are sore from all the reloading and staring at Blizzard’s new front page!

I’m attaching a snapshot below (click to zoom) in case they decide to remove it.

I’m really hoping Blizzard will announce Diablo 3 on the 18th. It was only a few days ago that everyone was convinced they were going to announce Starcraft 2 in Korea.

Update: How cruel of Blizzard! I’ve asked several people to check the site, they were all seeing Diablo. Now, I go to a wow site and they’re claiming it’s all about warcraft. And they have this image to prove it.

I guess Blizzard is rotating the image every hour or doing some other voodoo just to ensure everyone gets they want!